House Update #2

Project #3: Refinishing a Farmhouse Table

Brian in the garage sanding down the table.
The original table was very worn with a strange
gunk all over it and glitter embedded in the wood.

After sanding it down we applied two coats of stain. Colonial Pine.
Jack helped do this. As you can see, the legs needed a bit of fresh paint.

After about a million-gazillion coats of polyurethane,
here is the finished project.
We really like the knots and character in the wood.

Another Craigslist score! Antique chairs-$50 for 4+ cushions!

Project #4: Painting Upstairs Bedrooms 1&2
Bedroom 1-Office
(before--icky brownish tan)

Office-After (looking into the same corner)Calming grey/blue.
This was a mistint we found at Lowes for $5/gallon. It went on the walls
very light grey and dried this darker bluegrey color. The pictures don't show the true color.

Bedroom 1-Towards the Closet & Door
I think that abstract will go well with this greyish/blue color and the white trim really pops against the new color. Notice the awful dark blue carpet? Once these rooms are finished we're getting a neutral carpet installed throughout the upstairs!

Bedroom 2-Guest Room (before-another icky tan)

The previous owners only put one coat of this tan on the walls so you could see the odd reddish (or was it blue?) color from the previous paint color underneath. We wanted something lighter, fresher and happier and went with Valspar-Belle Grove Bluff. It is what Sally has in a couple of her bedrooms which we'd helped pick out. It's so nice we're planning on painting the kitchen and den this color in the near future!

Guest Room-Toward the Window

Sally edgeing with no drop cloth or tape!
The carpet really is just a drop cloth for now since we're planning on replacing it.
Guest Room-After
After the color went all over the walls I noticed how the trim and doors really blended into
the walls. I decided to paint the trim, doors and window white. I think it will really
make it stand out against the creamy yellow. Obviously, the doors are not yet painted!

Project #5: Painting Upstairs Bathroom
Here's the next project upon which I embark tomorrow.
I was looking for a green to match the shower curtain in the hall bath upstairs.
Can you believe the bottom color is considered a green?! Well, next to a blue it does
come across fairly green, but next to a green it looks aqua!

Look for more updates to come about shelving and a finished closet!

Joy!

Andrews' Lake House

June 20th was GMHD's birthday. His wife invited several of us up to her family's lake house on Gaston. The Andrews are excellent hosts and entertained the group with a really nice boat and 2 brand spankin' new jet skis! We couldn't haved asked for better weather. It was a scorcher of a weekend, so what better way to beat the heat than tubing and playing in the lake?

B and me at the marina enjoying lunch......................Raleigh & Sadie testing the waters

Weathervane atop the boat house........................... All the beautiful homes along the shore.


Ladder from the jumping-off point....................Boats in a row. ("ours" was the 4th one down)


G & Jay.......................................................................................................Mary & B

The whole crew (minus me) on the pier at the marina.

House Update #1

To those that have been waiting so patiently--some pictures of our house and some of the projects upon which we've embarked. Yikes?!

The Nest: 111

Unfortunately it doesn't show the garage b/c my ugly car was in the way. A two car garage off to the right, if you can imagine. The pretty geranium comes complements of my coworker, Cathy. Thanks Cathy!

What good project embarker can do so without a trusty Shop-Vac?! Love it. Brian(andJack) convinced me that a 12 gallon vac was better than the smaller 6 gallon one. I admit, I like the bigger one better.

Project # 1: Power Washing the Deck
Mom and Dad came up for Memorial Day weekend and Dad lovingly power washed our awesome deck! Thanks Dad!

Project #2: Painting the Ugly Closets
All the closets were either an ugly off-white with horrendous gouges and scuff marks or bright PINK. ACK! They all had these crazy wire shelves in them, too. When we took them down they left these monstrous holes in the wall. So, we spackled, sanded and painted all of them a pristine, lovely, clean white. Let's all breathe a sigh of satisfaction together now...aaaaahh :).

Look at all that spackling!


Ahem, Rebecca "helping" me paint!

Here's Brian (re)installing the plethora of shelves in our pantry.

Well, that's it for now. More pictures coming soon with updates on the pretty(ier) closets and we've even painted a bedroom upstairs! Sally (the M.i.L) has graciously volunteered to edge all of our upstairs bedrooms so all we have to do is roll them! She's an amazing edger--i.e. doesn't use tape or a drop cloth! In my world that's just another way of spelling D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.

Here are some other photos for your viewing pleasure:

Our lawn is the size of a postage stamp. Not our lot. Our lawn. We have grass just in the front-yard which happens to not be that large since we sit on a pie. The backyard is full of hardwoods & pines so there is no grass! So, Brian being all "green" and stuff, invested in this sweet, retro motor-less mower. It takes him all of 10 minutes max to push this guy around the yard. Way to go sweetie! It's great too, when friends come over it's such a novelty they all want to try it out... so we basically get our yard cut for us! ~Score!~

Looking into the living room from the stairs.

This is the view from the landing into the formal living room. No, we are not the happy new owners of an antique baby grand piano. It is just staying with us for the summer while some sweet friends are building a house! Michael, Brian's brother graced us with his rendition of the Peanut's theme song. Brian snagged those two couches from cragislist and the coffee table from ebay! We're thinking of painting the coffee table b/c the honey yellow and beige don't go so well together. Also, that pink wall is going to painted the same blue that's on the wall with the windows. What can I say? It's a work in progress.

It's coming together slowly. I'll get more pictures up sometime. Thanks for your patience as I work on the layout of the blog and get new posts rolling!


Rewind: Packing up the Apartment

Wow, who would have thought you could cram so much stuff into an apartment?! As you can see, I was beat!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

To all who follow my unupdated blog...if there are any of you left. As you can probably tell I am in the process of revamping it. I'm getting tired of all the silly colors & designs and just wanted something simple. So it will be under construction for a bit until I figure out what I like best.

Anyway...so what's new? Well since February--a LOT.

1. February 25th Brian and I put an offer on a house. It was immediately accepted the next day!

2. We closed on our new home on April 30th and went to work getting it ready for move in. That entailed getting the popcorn ceiling removed and getting several walls painted.

3. Next we moved most of the stuff into the downstairs and put our bed upstairs. We're planning on changing out some of the carpet upstairs (pictures of the current carpet coming sometime). They are currently dark blue in the smaller bedrooms, and maroon, yes maroon, in the master bedroom...*sigh*. We'll putting in new neutral carpet once we tackle painting the hideous walls (pictures to come).

4. Brian bought a very cool antique farm table and has been in the process of sanding and re-staining it. We'll also be repainting the base and we have the small task of finding some new chairs to go with it. It has turned out so well!

5. Sally (my MIL) helped me plant the mailbox bed! It was the first time I'd ever planted anything. They're doing OK...but not thriving. I'm hoping the little plants just need to continue developing their root systems and will look nice and full as the years go by.

6. Brian's begun hosting a men's bible study at our house on Monday nights. They're studying the 13 Letters of Paul. I hope God will use him to encourage and challenge the guys participating as well as grow him up in Christ!

That's all my brain can remember now. We currently do not have Internet access at home so uploading pictures is iffy...minus the inconvenience of a dead camera battery. And the camera charger is lost somewhere among the unpacked boxes still piled in the garage. One thing at a time Debbie, one thing at a time.

I promise to try to be better at updating, for those of you interested--but I can't guarantee how frequently it will be with not having Internet and a lost charger. Here's hoping!