In The News || Atomic Ranch Winter 2016/2017

A huge thank you to Sarah Jane Stone, the editor at Atomic Ranch magazine, for reaching out to me about our Malm Fireplace and including it in this article. You can see more about our Malm fireplace right here on the blog. 

In The News | Atomic Ranch The Renovation Guide

Last year, Elise Portale from Atomic Ranch reached out to me about our exterior refresh. While our home was in the Summer 2015 edition, she specifically was looking for quick tips on how to do a Saturday Spruce Up and I happily helped with some ideas.

Thankfully, we didn't need to make any HUGE changes to the exterior of our home, but we did shine things up a bit. It's amazing what some house numbers, porch light, full planters, and a graphic welcome mat will do to a place! Of course, the new front door doesn't hurt, but sadly Crestview Doors is no longer in business. 

 

In The News | Midwest Living magazine

Last summer, Tara Okerstrom-Bauer from Midwest Living magazine reached out via email about our house project we completed in 2012/2013. I would be lying if I said I said it wasn't a big deal to me - this was huge!

She had discovered this blog with our before/during/after images of our house and wanted to share it with their readers. Of course, I was on board with the idea from the get-go, and couldn't wait for them to join me at home in September to capture our house.

Their team arrived at 8am, and didn't depart until after 8pm - it was at least 12 hours of photo shooting fun, and it was an honor to be a part of their May/June 2016 issue. It was crazy fun for me to watch them produce this article. Each photo (and they took MANY more, which I don't have, sadly...) took at least an hour for them to set up, shoot, edit the items in the shot, and adjust. It was wild to see what goes into each shot of a magazine.

A HUGE thank you to Tara (producer) & Greg (photographer), plus to John for writing the copy. I LOVED being a part of your magazine.

Fun side story - since the story has been out, I've received two calls from Midwest Living subscribers. One reader shares my first name (Aletha) and wanted to tell me how fun it was to see in print. And another was looking for where we purchased our bar stools from (Modernica) because she thought her son would really like them at his house. I loved making both of those brief connections!

If you can't get your hands on a copy, here's the link to the online version of the article.

In The News | Lovable Livable Home

Just shy of two years ago, in January of 2014, I sent an email to Sherry & John of the now defunct blog, Young House Love. They used to do a series called House Crashing, and I thought our renovation would be fun to share to their huge reach of home lovers.

I didn’t hear anything, but didn’t think twice about the crickets. I assume they used to get numerous submissions a day, and heck, our house wasn’t your typical home renovation. We didn’t have a gleaming white kitchen, or any crafty projects to share. Heck, I swore off IKEA furniture for vintage finds when we left the old house.

Five months went by quickly while living and enjoy our new home, and in June of 2014, I received an enthusiastic email from Sherry asking if we’d be interested in sharing images of our home in their next book.

BOOK? Um…of course! Who would say no to that?!

The images were slotted to run in Atomic Ranch magazine summer 2015, but Sherry didn’t mind, as they would be highlighting the rooms & their functions instead of the entire house and our personal renovation story.

I ran the request by Kristen of K. Holly Photography, who captured all the images of our home throughout the process, and she was 100% on board with this project. It was a done deal.

Almost a year and a half after the initial email, their book, Lovable Livable Home, hit shelves September 22nd. Eames & I ran to the bookstore to pick up our copy that morning, and I still cannot believe our home is in the mix of all the other gorgeous family homes they share – it’s so darn fun to see!

They shared our living room (page 36), kitchen (pages 104-105), entryway & Greg’s custom railing(!!) (pages 248-249), and Eames’ bedroom (pages 312-313). And both Eames and I made a small appearance - there’s an action shot of me in the kitchen, and Eames is looking through a book in the photo of his bedroom toy area.

Of course, the house has evolved since Kristen took those photos in December of 2013 and fresh photos are on their way for another project we just took part in a couple of weeks ago, which I cannot wait to share here next summer!

And in case you didn't pick up your copy yet, here's what it looks like...

In The News | Atomic Ranch Magazine, Summer 2015

I've been waiting over a year for our home to be in Atomic Ranch, and if I'm being honest, I've really been waiting for years, probably since I laid eyes on my first copy. I honestly cannot believe our home is featured this quarter.

From the very beginning of our house project, my friend Kristen of K. Holly (now located in the San Francisco Bay area) was on board with documenting our restoration. Actually, it was all her idea, which sounded fun to me, but I obviously had no idea how long it would take. Kristen was patient with the entire process, and what she captured for us is lovely. I am especially fond of the DURING images because there are a few of Eames, just over two years old in the photos. I cannot believe how long ago that seems to me these days!

Kristen came out the day after we closed on the house in November 2012 to capture the BEFORE images. About six months later, she showed up to take the DURING images. And then in December, over a year after we started, she was in town to capture the official AFTER images, but then came back when the grass greened up to grab some EXTERIOR shots of the house. And then was back one final time last August to grab some images of us inside our home for a very exciting book feature that I can share more about in the fall!!! Eeeeek!

Last summer, I saw a call for house submissions on the Atomic Ranch Facebook page. I reached out with a bit about our home & the word we did, plus a few images that Kristen had captured for us. Within a few days, I had heard from editor Michelle that our home was being considered for an issue in 2015. I was comfortable writing the copy, and Kristen was happy to have her hard work published as well. It was really a win-win for both of us.

Without further ado, here is the article about our home...

In The News | Dwell Special Issue

Holy MOLY - I am so excited for this photo (circled!) to show up in Dwell's Special Issue, which you can scroll thru for free RIGHT HERE.

Dwell asked their Instagram followers to tag images of their own homes, and I tagged this photo, which was taken by Hetler Photography when we listed our adorable Alger Heights home for sale in 2013.

It's a photo of our former kitchen, but this home was my first personal design project, and I absolutely LOVED this little midcentury modest kitchen. We kept the original kitchen layout & cabinets, but had them refaced & replaced the hardware to update it. It was such an itty bitty kitchen, that it made sense to keep everything white and bright in there. I added a bit of color with plants, and a spalsh of aqua inside that glass front cabinet.

Here's the larger image taken by Kellie of Hetler Photography.

I will always love this house, and I know the new homeowners are enjoying it too - they are actually having dinner at our new house in a couple of weeks - I cannot wait to host them!

In The News | midcentury mod magazine

A few months ago, Victoria at Engaged Enthusiast Media contacted me about our kitchen design for a one-time issue magazine, midcentury mod. I happily answered a couple of questions about the design of our kitchen, and just last night grabbed a copy at my local Meijer store to see it in person.

Besides spelling my last named incorrectly (they spelled it VanderMass; it's actually VanderMaas - easy to confuse!), it looks absolutely fabulous. It is SO fun to see True Home Restorations in print - a HUGE THANK YOU goes to Kristen at K. Holly Studios for capturing our kitchen for this!

Go out a grab a copy today - not a single advertisement means there are 130 full pages of midcentury modern goodness to enjoy!