Oh So Pretty!

The house is painted...WAHOO! We have a few areas of touch-up still to do, but really, I'm done. I don't know if I could see another paintbrush for quite some time. Say, spring? Or three years from now maybe? I am just thankful it's done and looks a whole lot better than it did. Here are the pictures that pretty much tell the story.

I have been wanting to take pictures of the house for a few days, but the leaves were everywhere in the front yard and I didn't want a picture with nasty leaves all over the ground. Silly, I know. E and I went out with the rake this morning and cleaned what we could. I only cleaned about half the front yard, and this is the pile we made. There are about this many more still out there. Anyone up to raking leaves? I'll even let you jump in them!


This is our front entry. It looks very bland right now because I'm just not sure what I want to do with it. I am tossing around a few ideas and will post an updated look when it's done, probably next spring or summer. :)


We put the new mailbox in a few months ago, but I haven't included pictures. The old one was a black box on a pole that was falling over towards the street. It was not cemented in and could be yanked right out of the ground. Pathetic, I know. We love this and it matches the color of the door!


These next few are just different angles of the house. The bonsai looking trees will be gone in the spring. We are going to redo the flower beds all along the front of the house, but winter is setting in (and life is just plain ol' hectic!) so not much will get done before spring now.


This picture doesn't look so green as the others, but it is a pale green color. To be specific, it is olive grey. (See the leaves that still need raking?!)


A side view with the chimney. We are looking forward to using our two fireplaces this winter!


Full view from the other side of the yard. If you want to see before pictures, click HERE! Again, bonsai looking trees will be GONE in spring. ICK! What were they thinking?! We live in Missouri, people! This is the side that we raked this morning. Looks so much nicer without all those leaves!

Lighting that just looks better!

While you patiently wait (HA!) for pictures of our painted house, I thought I'd share a little (ok, not as little as we originally anticipated, but smaller than the painting of the house. That counts, right?) project that Ryan and I conquered last week. He was off for Veteran's Day, so I took advantage. :) If you have been to our house, you may have noticed the not-so-pretty (and we found out, not so lightweight either...UGH!) chandelier that lit our dining room. We have replaced about a gazillion light bulbs in this thing since we moved in (and if you remember this, we've only been here about 5 months!). The owners said it was antique. If you know me, you know I LOVE antiques, but this one has not been in my realm of like since the day we moved in.


What I would REALLY love is something like this chandelier from Pottery Barn, but that pricetag would NEVER fit our budget, not even if he was a doctor. A light fixture is NOT worth that much! So, I've been on the hunt for something...anything, really. I just didn't want this thing up any longer!

Here comes the story of my $10 light fixture! While out yardsaling a couple months ago there was a light in a box marked FREE! My favorite price. I figured if I couldn't use it that I could give it away for free to someone else. It was worth the grab! This is what I found:


Yep, it's a contractor grade light fixture with absolutely NO character. Nothing that a little bit of paint and rewiring can't fix! This is what we did to it:

My wanna-be electrician. He's gonna be a pro when I'm done with him! :) I think the tongue trick helped.

All the bits and pieces. We only had one little nut left when we were done. Have NO idea where it goes, but who cares! The thing works and looks great!


My funny little guy! He had to try the light on too. Too bad he doesn't have the tongue out like Daddy.


The finished product! What do you think?!

We are painting ... forever painting ...

Before we bought the house, we decided that one of the first things we would do is give the outside a new coat of paint. We asked the owners when they last painted it and were informed it was "just last year so you shouldn't need to paint for a while." HA --- If your house was this color ALL OVER, what would you do??? Peach just doesn't seem like the "in" color ... something just tells me we're past the peach days (although in Brigham City they still have Peach Days, don't they? Maybe this house color belongs THERE!) ...




So, paint it is! We bought the paint back in September when it was on sale at M. We knew at the time that we didn't want to be outside painting because it was so hot, but we wanted to get a good deal and save a little on the overall cost. We knew the weather would be changing soon, so we waited. Who knew buying almost 10 gallons of paint could be so burdensome on ones mind?!

We I were stressing that it wouldn't get done, but about two weeks ago we could see the weather was going to be beautiful for the weekend, so out came the paint and paint brushes. Thinking this would be a weekend project, out we went. WOW ----- what a chore!!! Having never painted a house before, we had NO idea how much work it would be. Painting a room is one thing, but painting the outside of a house is something totally different!

This project has brought a few challenges but nothing we can't handle. HA! I have to laugh at that last statement because about a week and a half ago I really didn't think I could handle the stress that was happening. To put it simply (because you don't want to the extended version ... it's one of my long winded stories!) the company (or M ... as I so lovingly call it!) we originally bought the paint from (who so nicely told us we'd only need one coat -- yeah, more like THREE!) could NOT match their own paint color that they so nicely mixed for us on September 9th along with all the other paint we are using. It brought on some extreme stress at the time, but S-W came to save the day. They did an amazing job matching our paint and sending me on my way!

Here are some before and progress pictures, in case you are interested! Ryan is taking Thursday and Friday off of work to hopefully finish this monster project. I'll post complete pictures then, but for now... ENJOY!

Entry Before


Side Yard Before


Ryan with his little helper making sure all the dirt is gone!


Some of you asked about the fence, so here it is! We love it (as do the dogs)!


PROGRESS!

More PROGRESS!

In these pictures you can see the new main and trim color, as well as the old peach and brick. I think it looks pretty good. What do you think?

I'm entering a contest!

So, some of you know that I started this blog to keep tabs on my projects around the new (to us) house. Sadly...I haven't updated it very well. :( I have been pretty good about taking pictures, so I'll try to update it soon with what we have done so far. Then maybe you’ll have something to read! You should see my project notebook. It's massive! Most are minor projects, but they will make this house ours. Sadly, my dreams are bigger than the time I have to do them, but that's why we plan to live here FOREVER and a day!

On to the reason for this post. I have been a follower of a website called Knock-Off Wood (now known as Ana-White.com). Her facebook page is still Knock-Off Wood (go check it out and like it...you'll be addicted, I promise!). She is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, let me tell you! Not just her plans, but as a person. I think you’ll understand as you follow her posts.

I've decided to enter her weekly contest called "Homemaker of the Week" and I need YOUR SUPPORT! Go to this LINK and click on the heart next to my lemonade stand. And if you feel so inclined, invite your friends to vote for me too! I have to get the most people to click on the heart next to my project, so help me out!

Just a little background about this cute lemonade stand. I have had this project on my wishlist for a while, but when we priced the wood to make it we learned that it would cost over $100 to build with good wood! EEEK! That was NOT in our budget at all. Hence the reason we were having a yard sale... The kids wanted to sell all of their belongings to make a little money to help our tight budget. Unfortunately, they don't have a lot to get rid of. We did a good sweep of their bedrooms when we moved to this house as not to bring it all with us. Two days before the yard sale as I was contemplating how I could get the kids involved, I saw the stack of pallets in our garage that we picked up (or rather, my friend picked up...thanks Erin!) to reuse for another project. My mind started going and I had a vision. Thankfully I have a cute husband who just goes along with my "visions" and helps me try to accomplish them. This is what we came up with, and I love it! Everything for this project was repurposed, so it was FREE! If you want to get technical, we did pay for the nails we used to put it together (although we had them in our stash) and I had to get some rope to hang the chalkboard sign.

Below are the pictures. Enjoy!

Just after we finished the project. I don't have a picture, but there are little shelves on the backside, just like this plan that we used to make it. The kids stored cups and hot chocolate mix back there. It was perfect!


I painted the board with chalkboard paint so we can change it for whatever the kids want. This will be a fun little stand for them to use for years. They have already enjoyed playing store and other games with it.

The proof that it was orange (or peach or light salmon or anything else besides pretty!)

This is a picture of the house. It was taken by the seller's realtor when the trees were all dead. They are in bloom now and you can hardly see the house. This is the easiest one to see the entire thing without obstruction. It's a beauty, isn't it?! ;)


Some may snicker, some may say mean things, but it's mine and I love it! This is what is in our budget, and we are trying really hard to live within our means. It's so tempting to go after something we can't afford, but we're excited about this one! The color is ugly. It's orange, I know!!! But there is so much potential. I can't wait to get my hands on it. We drove by today, and they have begun work to put a new roof on this week. Can't wait to see it with the new darker gray roof. I'll be taking pictures along the way of all the changes, so stay tuned!

A new adventure.

This is all so new to me! If you've seen my family blog, you'll know that I haven't kept up very well. For many reasons, but mainly because I just don't know what to say. I asked my family and friends on facebook if I should blog about our new home and the resounding answer was YES! I am not a great writer, so please bare (or is it bear?...see, not starting off so well, am i?) with me.

We will use this blog to document this home buying, DIY, changing it all adventure we're about to embark on. We close in 11 days! Fun times ahead!!! So, if you're interested, follow along. If not, go away. Won't hurt my feelings! Thanks for stopping in and enjoy!