The picture is a little older. I actually pulled out this layout and started working on it thinking I was going to use a picture of my mom. But I found a picture of my niece to use instead.
My Dad
I was going through pictures of the befores on my house and came across this picture. I couldn’t pass it up. My dad had his heart attack about 6 months before this picture but it only slowed him down for maybe 2 months. (The goggles are my son’s.)
My Sweetie Pie
I just downloaded this layout from Amber LaBau Designs and knew right away I wanted to use Geni in it. I had an awesome picture of her that just wouldn’t fit in the screen though. I think this worked out just as well. She sure wanted the ice cream cone.
Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch
It’s been so long since I have actually gone out and taken pictures that I had to share a few of what I took today. I took my niece and nephew to the local pumpkin patch and it grew. But we missed the llama not being there.
My nephew is like an animal whisperer. I hope he realizes he could be a vet or something because he is so calm with them, they all just eat out of his hand.
Someone is a very talented hay painter.
The goats were so over fed that I had to capture one actually eating from this girl.
Sharing with Sundays in my City
Renovating 407: The Laundry Closet
The washer and dryer fit in a nook in the hallway. The other side of the nook is the master bathroom. This closet even had plastic accordion doors (and came with the washer and dryer).
The washer and dryer came out (and sold). Leaky water line everywhere. Which included a fun story about having to turn off the main waterline to the whole house and stopped us being able to work on the tiling that day. I got really lucky that the plumber that came for the leaky hot water heater (for the shotty work done after the inspection) put a new valve on here for me. A valve that was supposedly changed after the inspection, but it was stripped.
Once this fiasco was fixed and cleaned up, the shelves came down, the doors and slider for it came down and everything was patched. Then the linoleum was scraped up and vacuumed and I then painted the walls in there the same color from the bathrooms. Then my parents tiled in there, making tile baseboards as well.
My brother came over and hung up the upper cabinets he had scored for me from his work. Aren’t those baseboards lovely?
All that was left to do was put in my LG washer and dryer. (We left the outlet and the light switch in this space alone because I thought they wouldn’t be seen.)
I love this light so much. Here is what the hallway and laundry closet look like today. I like to put frames over eyesores so that they look more stylish.
I also decided to do something with all the empty frames I had gotten from Michael’s years ago for some project I was going to make in bulk and sale. I stained the frames. Printed out some pictures on cardstock and glued them inside.
I think I need a shelf over the washer and maybe a rod in the space between the wall and the cabinet. I really want to put barn doors over the opening but they would have to both slide to the left and not sure that is even enough room. (See picture of light above, that is how big the space is for them to slide.)
The before and after side by side. Much more modern.
Before
After
Sharing at the Snickerdoodle Link Party and at Sundays at Home
Re-imagining a Piece of Fence into a Spooky Gate
A mostly DIY Halloween exterior.
When my parents built a fence to have a garden area where the dogs couldn’t get in, my mom left a section aside to hide the fireplace vent on the outside of the house. She then let my 2-year-old son paint the fencing. One day they were out of town. And I had this hideous, gothic candelabra like light fixture I had picked up at a thrift store after seeing some other project I wanted to try and duplicate. Or something. I took the thing apart and got a lightbulb in my brain. The ants go marking type of thing. A creative mind never sleeps.
I painted the fencing black. Then painted the candelabra pieces a dark purple. I strategically screwed the pieces onto the fence. Added some of the chain from the light fixture. And made a ‘beware’ sign I then attached. I decided it also needed a spider and back then made one out of a Styrofoam ball and pipe cleaners. But it had to be replaced a few years ago. It’s got an orange bat now. I actually thought I did a post on this when I was still over at Blogger but I guess it didn’t make the transfer over to WordPress.
I turn those lights on on Halloween night. I also added a nose to the black cat last year and can’t decide if she needs paws or not.
Yesterday I also threw together a witch with black mesh and a tomato cage. I think I will attach the mesh better later but for now she works. And lights up. (The rug is losing it’s paint so I was thinking of painting it black for Halloween.)
Sharing at the Talk of the Town Party and Waste Not Wednesday
Renovating 407: The Creative
I was thinking yesterday I should have called it The Updating of 407. Because that is what most of it has been. My dad had to put tar on the dryer vent on the roof the other day, it was raining into my torn up shower. When they put up the new roof, right before I bought the house, they missed that whole spot. Good thing I still had the shower torn up. More on that later.
In this renovation/updating of my house, there are many things I have done that I never thought I would be able to do. My dad and I found a rhythm and what worked best on this ceiling to scrape off the popcorn from 3 bedrooms, a hallway and the living area, in the least amount of time. Still was a neck breaking job but well worth it when you look at it. And we only painted over what was left, thinking the imperfections from the scraping look quite cool.
My dad and I tried to redo all the electric and light outlets ourselves but ran into an issue in the master bedroom when one outlet wouldn’t work. It all worked out in the end having to call an electrician because he also put in light/fan boxes in 4 rooms for us. We then installed the fans ourselves. And my dad also removed a florescent light from the den and we installed a fan in there. He did a great job patching that ceiling to match what was already there too.
After I (and whoever helped me) removed all the carpet, padding and nail strips, my parents then tiled 2 bathrooms, the hallway, the laundry closet, the living area, the kitchen and the den. I love them so much. I ended up having to go back and fill in the nail strip holes in the 3 bedrooms with a self leveler because Home Depot was going to charge like $200 to do that. The cement stuff was like $20. I wanted to tile the whole house so that is why I had removed all the old nail strips. My son wanted carpet in the bedrooms.
I cut 4 pieces of conduit (3 of which came out of the closets, they were the poles) to use for curtain rods. In 2 of the bedrooms, I even used pipe pieces to make the brackets. Cheapest and sturdiest curtain rods I have ever had. I just can’t figure out the best way to hold a drawer knob in the end of them without having to buy a dowel big enough to fit inside.
In the kitchen, I decided to use napkins as curtain. Napkins that I already had. (I love my farmhouse lights so much.)
I think my most creative endeavor, was the big vent under the furnace closet. A new vent cover is not a pretty price, but it also had to become DIY after we put in the new baseboards because a vent wouldn’t fit. So after a lot of playing around, a little cheap molding and some decorative metal from Michael’s later…
My den was once a garage. It was built as a 2 car garage house and the previous owners converted half into another room. Thank goodness they had that done professionally. The room was more like a lanai and it had this particle board closet that I think was kind of like their pantry. It came down really easy, with no damage to the wall at all. It left the electrical box exposed though. And it did have patches of duct tape on it that made it look really old and gross for being in such a used room inside the house. So we built a frame around the whole unit and hinged this cabinet door (free from my brother) to the frame (nothing is touching the electric box itself). And viola. (It doesn’t shut tight either so it doesn’t get hot in there.)
And isn’t that poster the coolest? My mom had gone to that restaurant and they were giving away the posters. I like the tractor in a watercolor effect.
That’s all for today folks. Hopefully tomorrow I have a new project to share.
Sharing the vent cover at The Creative Corner Link Party
Renovating 407: A Pantry was Born
You may wonder what building a pantry has to do with redoing, recycling, upcycling. And really it doesn’t other than it has to do with the renovating of the house. My mom had the bright idea that I needed a pantry (I really did) in the corner where the previous owners used to have a hutch. There really was no closet that could be turned into a pantry.
This is what the space looked like after I had moved in. As soon as the carpet was put in the bedrooms, my son and I decided it was livable and the rest of the work could be done while living there. We had torn down the wall, removed the carpet and lining and hadn’t gotten to the lights or anything yet. But my parents had gotten their new fridge, so the plumber had been here to replace my old one with this beauty and install the water line to it.
For the pantry, we had to work around 2 light switches (and left an electrical outlet inside the pantry) but the size is perfect.
My parents had the cabinet part complete with sections and shelves built within a week or so. It even has room for my vacuum.
It took us a little longer to decide on what to do about doors. We finally decided on sliding barn doors and my mom came up with this double closet door track idea.
My parents helped me with the beginning of the doors, making sure we got them the right size. We started off with a thin piece of plywood and then used the tongue and groove wood on top of the plywood. From there, I measured, cut and glued 1x4s to frame around the front of the doors and make a design. Considering my fear of power towels that can harm me, I think I was pretty vigilant in this work. I also filled in all cracks and whatnot with wood filler and sanded everything down.
After getting the doors installed, complete with those large handles I found at Lowe’s for under $10 each, my brother and I framed in the cabinet. (I started painting it and didn’t like the color or sheen, so it sat like this for upwards of 6 months and I might have wished I had stained it at times).
I finally decided I wanted to try navy blue out. I had seen the back of an island and loved the navy blue on it. And really just went with a color I liked at Home Depot. This time making sure I got semi-gloss.
I am thinking the handles need to be gold to really pop off of the blue. And eventually we will be taking that slider out and filling in the wall so the baseboard will be finished then. I even got a light installed up there but think maybe it needs to go the other direction to be parallel with the pantry.
Sharing at the Handmade Hangout Party and at the Snickerdoodle Link Party
Renovating 407: The Kitchen Island
I opened up the kitchen by taking out that wall as you may recall.
I really didn’t want such a closed in kitchen and I though a sit at island would look awesome. I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to take that wall down and how I was going to create the island until my brother had brought me some free cabinets.
He set them once we had them exactly where I wanted them. They are on the tile, so if the next owner doesn’t like them, they can remove them (after cutting away at the glue). We got a piece of butcher block from Lumber Liquidators and we cut it to size. After I smoothed it up (a lot), I then treated it with Waterlox because I wanted to be able to use it with food if I needed to. The boys set it on top of the cabinets with some glue that is made for countertops.
Then we covered the back up with that locking shiplap wood (for the life of me I can’t remember what it is called). (Tongue and groove, it came to me.)
I then stained the wood panels, and grey washed them (I have yet to seal it and keep thinking I might paint it the same navy blue as the pantry). My dad then added the metal corners and brackets he spray painted with flat black. This was to give it a more finished/industrial look. I added the black drawer pulls and door knobs after. I LOVE my kitchen island. And it is the only cabinets in the kitchen that open and slide correctly. Some day all those other cabinets will be gone. But for now they will do.
Refreshing a Little Wood Stool
It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful a little paint can be. Such a cheap way to refresh a room, a piece of furniture, a thrift store find.
About a year ago, I found this little wooden Eddie Bauer stool at a thrift store across town. One of my favorite places to go but it isn’t really that close to me.
Some months back, I won a contest and got a little can of Mountain Haze chalk paint from Fat Paint Co. That stuff is awesome. Goes on so smooth. Perfect consistency. I had tried painting it before with a different chalk paint and it didn’t go on so well at all.
I gave the little stool a refresh (with two stripes of grey). (I never took a before picture.)
Of course I had to throw on some fall decor. The flower bundle is from Michael’s summer collection, but to me they scream fall with that cabbage bunch.
Sharing at the Show and Tell Link Party
lilisview.com 