Just to remind you of what the house looked like when we bought it, here is a before picture from the listing with plastic shutters, hunter green everything and the dirtiest roof ever...
Cheers!
M J
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As promised, we got the shutters built and hung on the house! And can I just say, I am soooo relieved this project is done... :-) We simply used all 1 X 4 cedar boards cut to the dimension of each window around the house - all eleven of them. That makes 22 shutters all together... Hi Raven! ;-) Just to remind you of what the house looked like when we bought it, here is a before picture from the listing with plastic shutters, hunter green everything and the dirtiest roof ever... Lovely, right? After having the roof and house professionally cleaned, the new entry, new paint on the foundation and stairs, new shutters and lots of gardening, here is what the front of the house looks like now: It's a huge improvement. There is still work to be done, but we are calling it good for now... I hope you all have a relaxing weekend! We'll be kicking back with friends enjoying the fruits of our labor! Keep cool Ya'll!
Cheers! M J
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Remember last time I said I was looking forward to some downtime this past weekend?? LOL! HAHAHA!! LOL!!! ;-) If only... We spent the better part of the extremely hot and humid weekend working on outside projects. AGAIN. I know we both lost at least a few pounds of water weight... Anywho! We are in the process of building new cedar shutters and replacing the old plastic ones which I will show you later this week. Today I just wanted to show you our updated front entry... To give you an idea of just how horrible this looked before - here ya go... Cute, huh? Blah... Hunter green everything! The storm door, the front door, the steps and green over-spray all around them. Don't you just love when realtors hire the cheapest contractors to do the ole' lipstick on a pig thing?? Idiots. The storm door even opened the WRONG way! It would have been better left as it was, I am sure, and less work for us in the end. But we do what we gotta do, right? Hubby replaced the storm door with a nice, shiny new one, we prepped and painted the concrete steps, and scrubbed as much over-spray off as we could. I painted the old steel front door a few weeks ago and made a new wreath for the spring/summer. We will be replacing the front door at some point, but I just could not stand that green door any longer! Hubby got home that day and walked into the house smiling. He had no idea I was gonna paint the door that day, but neither did I! :-) I got a little antsy another day and built this house number sign. Sometimes you just can't wait for the Hubby to get home to cut, sand and screw some wood together, am I right Ladies?? Besides, I can use a chop saw and drill just as well as he can! Wiring up the new light fixtures, however, definitely waited for him... ;-) We still have some touching up to do with some white paint, but our new greeter is hangin' out on the other side of the door... Isn't he darling? Lucky little ceramic gecko. He is from an artisan shop in town and I couldn't pass him up! He matches the front door color way too well. :-) Support Local! Here is a little glimpse of the new paint on the foundation and concrete steps along with our front garden. I also picked up a cute new flag with our beloved Chesapeake blue crab, of course! After we manage to dodge thunderstorms and get the rest of the newly built cedar shutters up on the front of the house, I am hoping to take a break! We'll see...
I will show you the new shutters later this week! Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J Well, hello there! I hope you have all been enjoying your summer so far! We have been enjoying it somewhat, but we have also been enjoying the rewards of some hard work on the back yard. When we bought this house last August, the yard had been allowed to completely run wild. We even had to hire a landscaper to tame the wilderness that had become our back yard. Being the consummate DIYers, that was a hard pill to swallow, but with all that this house needed on the inside, we just couldn't handle it! Off of the screened porch, there was a sort of "fenced-in garden". If that's what you would call a garden... See what I mean? A weed infested mess. And this is after the landscapers had cleaned up the yard. And that shed. OY. We stuck that iron piece on an old nail and said good enough for a while, but we just couldn't stand looking at this anymore: Seriously, the shed looked like it had been in a dog fight with an F-16 there are so many holes in the siding! The plastic shutters look super cheap and faded. And those lights. Just. Urgh. While tearing up the landscaping ties from the yard, I thought, Hey! Wouldn't these make a really cool, rustic potting bench against that awful shed? So this is what we came up with... Hubby nailed the ties together and then attached the whole bench to the side of the shed. It is very chunky and worn, just what I was hoping for! Hubby also banged out some quick cedar shutters and we wired up some new, inexpensive lights from Lowes. A MUCH better view from the house and porch, I can tell you. Next we tackled the "garden" and walkway between the shed and the porch. Hubby dug up the weed infested area, then we worked with the existing plants, adding in new plants here and there to fill in. Our generous neighbor wanted to get rid of a few sedum plants and asked us to dig them up if we wanted them! Score! After laying down bag after bag of pea gravel and river rock, here is what we have now: My succulents and portulaca are really enjoying this area. It floods when we have heavy rain, but dries out pretty quickly and gets lots of hot mid-day sun. This little pea gravel patio reminds me of Tuscany, the little seating areas in the gardens. With our umbrellas up, it is a great spot to enjoy some iced tea and get out of the sun. We also added a cedar screen to hide the HVAC unit and added a temporary walkway around to the side of the house. We will be taking up all the walkways and deck boards at some point and laying new walkways around the entire yard. We just don't have it in us this year, it will have to wait. But this looks just fine for now... Last weekend, we got around to painting the foundation and the back steps. Here are some more horrid before pictures, gird your loins... First of all, what the hell is with the useless little deck sitting on the concrete steps? Second, why is the deck painted red when the concrete steps and foundation are that wonderful 90's hunter green?? Honestly people, I don't know how I've lived with this situation for the few months I have. It HURT just to look at it! LOL! Hubby tore out that little deck then we got to work prepping and painting the foundation and back steps. We also created a small vignette in the corner with an old post, old pavers and bricks... And more gifted flowers from our neighbor! Now to do something with that door... :-) Of course, all of this is temporary for now. We need to tear out some rotting wood on the screened porch and rebuild the whole thing. We will most likely close the porch in with large sliding doors and windows and add a wraparound deck with steps to cover that concrete eyesore. Last but not least, I got to get a little crafty for the grilling area! I made use of my Silhouette cutting machine and adhesive vinyl to create a little sign to cover a nice grouping of holes in the siding by the grill. SOOOOO many holes... Sigh... We cannot WAIT to get new siding put on this house! What back yard is complete without some Grillin' n Chillin'? While I had fun creating the graphics for the little grill and martini glass, getting my Silhouette machine to sync up with my new laptop tried my already thin patience yesterday. In the end, I prevailed and I get to show you all of our hard work today. I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation of this little corner of our yard! Lots more to do and show you, but I am hoping for some downtime this weekend! Hope springs eternal... Happy Grillin' n Chillin' ya'll!
Cheers! M J Hello there, Friends! I hope you are enjoying the start to your summer! After the tragedy of yesterday, I am feeling in dire need of a little distraction from bad news... Hence this light and happy post! Hubby and I have been working on the outside a lot lately, but I have also been making some small updates here and there to the inside of the house... First up, the dining room! I added a new table centerpiece, an inexpensive blanket to the bench seat that goes perfectly with my Uncle's painting and some cute pom-poms to the wine pillow from my good friend! Pom-poms make everything better... The faux succulents, cacti and silks were on sale at Ben Franklin and, since I have a bad habit of killing real plants inside the house, these were a no-brainer! ;-) See??? Aren't they cute? They just make me smile. #pompoms4life... :-) Below, you can see the little, old shoe cabinet in the dining room also got a little update... With the addition of some old faux florals I had in the attic and an antique brick mold I scored in my little town, it is looking pretty cute too! Now, turning around to check out the kitchen, I was forced to accessorize the top of the refrigerator due to our acrobatic, senior, feline roommate that has an apparent addiction to ponytail palms... My Friend and I raided the basket stash at Home Goods and picked out three that complimented each other. I just added a turquoise tassel to the medium one and popped the ponytail palm into the small one. The big basket blocks Raven's jumping area! HA! And when the kitchen doors are finally painted (coming soon!), they will add nice height and visual interest to the kitchen... Speaking of the kitchen doors... Hubby actually got the drawers painted! It is so nice to finally have drawers again in the kitchen! I love how well the knobs go with the stainless steel appliances. And I really don't hate the little routed detail in the original doors and drawers. They do add a little interest to an otherwise boring door. My big, decorative jar also got a little makeover! I took one of my antique, wire bail, Ball jars and added a few more faux items. HHMMMM, there seems to be a faux theme going on here! LOL! Last, but not least, I picked up some beautiful hand soap, lotion and dish soap for a steal at Tuesday Morning! And you thought I was going to show you everything but the kitchen sink! HA! ;-) I keep all of my sink items in a cheap candle dish from Ikea. It catches soap and spills before they get to the butcher block counter tops and keeps everything contained & neat, but ready for their constant use! Bonus: I can refill these pretty containers with my bulk items later!
Ok, did I distract you from the bad news for just a bit?? I hope so! Wishing Everyone peace and love during these uncertain, painful times. Cheers! M J Howdy! It has been a while, hasn't it? Over a month and boy was it a doozy! I had another try at the surgery that was botched in November to no avail. Still no relief, but I will soldier on... Our non-profit had its annual international conference in Miami so we had to prepare for that and then we were away for 10 days running said conference. I am just now getting back into the home-grove of things and starting to map out some projects! First up - the linen closet that resides within the hall bathroom that we remodeled! Here is one of the before & after pictures for reference: The linen closet is to the right of the toilet nook and behind the hall door. Hubby primed and painted the paneling inside the closet, then we installed the flooring, trim and shelving. We also purchased all new door hardware to replace all of the old, brass hardware... Our vacuums, folding foot stool, foot spa and the unfortunate but necessary plunger all reside nicely on the floor while the bulk supply of paper products live on the first shelf... I purchased some matching baskets that were on sale from JoAnn Fabrics with a coupon and free shipping to store and organize smaller items... I used the same downloaded pattern that I used for the bathroom wall art to create some labels on my computer, printed them out on card stock and tied them to the baskets with some twine... Now we have a nicely organized linen closet that is pleasing to the eye! Best part? Virtually ZERO questions on where to find stuff! Yay for labels! ;-)
I hope you are having a wonderful May and that your Memorial Day Weekend is fabulous! Cheers! M J Wow, has it been an extremely disappointing week. I had so many plans this week, so many projects to complete, so much sun to soak up out in the yard, but unfortunately, my body had other plans. It decided to mount a revolt on any and all plans with some kind of awful cold/flu/stomach bug. FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK. Just freakin' wonderful... So, here I am, an entire week of beautiful weather wasted, to show you my last two DIY's from the hall bathroom... At least I can sit at a computer and move my arms. :-) As a reminder, here are the two other pieces I DIY'd for the hall bathroom: I had a sweater that I loved, but never liked the fit. I threw it in my project bin and hoped that I would come up with a use for it some day. It just so happened to work perfectly with the hall bathroom decor! Score! I believe I showed you my crafting mess last time, but I'll just show you a few steps I took to create these pieces. Here is the lowly camp stool and the sweater I started with... Now, I would usually break out the trusty sewing machine, but I just didn't have the time for all of the ironing and pinning. Besides, these items aren't for heavy usage, so I just broke out the good ole' glue gun. I cut the back of the sweater into the shape I wanted with seam allowance to glue down around the sides and a rod pocket at the top. Then I used my large needle to create a yarn fringe along the bottom edges... Then I added a few embellishments with some gray yarn and bright pom poms I had in my craft stash. I also found a few wooden pieces for the ends of the rod and a piece of driftwood to create a "hook" on the wall. I simply used a 3M picture hanging strip to adhere the driftwood piece to the wall, and Voila! A simple wall hanging... Covering the stool was also pretty simple. I used the front of the sweater and centered the pattern on the stool seat to cut it to size. After gluing down the edges, I flipped the stool over and laced the cover onto it with some black yarn... I was going to do some sort of treatment on the wood, but I actually liked it just the way it was, dirt and all! Many good memories from around the campfire are evoked with this little stool... After I finished lacing up the little cover, I knew it needed just a little pizzazz. I glued two little pom poms onto the ends of the yarn and called it done! There you have it, the last DIY's from the hall bathroom. When I'm feeling back to my usual self, I'll show you some of the changes we've been making to the yard lately!
Have a wonderful weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Monday when I posted the Hall Bathroom Reveal here, I told you I would show you a few of the DIY's I completed for that room. Today I just wanted to give you a little info on the little art frame I made out of a Nate Berkus for Target letter tray... The letter tray was only $10.99, which is a great deal compared to many frames I searched. I also raided my jewelry making supplies and found some cool pieces from a necklace I deconstructed a while back. With my low-temp hot glue gun, I attached some magnets to the letter tray and to the backs of the jewelry pieces. They hold the piece of artwork nice and snug! I also used some brass screws to attach a decorative piece over the finger slot to make it look less like a letter tray and more like an intentional part of the design. Bad blogger confession: I got so into crafting, I completely neglected to take pictures of this DIY step-by-step. :-( However, I will give you a horrifying peek into what it looks like when I'm crafting on my kitchen peninsula... Lovely, huh?? LOL! At least I was done with my three DIY's in the same day and could clear up all the clutter. And just because I think it's so pretty, here are a couple more pics of this artwork: Well, there's one of the DIY's from the bathroom! I will show you the others next week.
Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Well, I promised you last week that I would unveil the new hall bathroom and I am keeping my word! After much tag-teaming by the Hubster and I, we finally kicked this room's butt! :-) Sorry, I may be feeling a bit triumphant at the moment... I digress, let's get to the pics... It was a pretty gross bathroom. The vanity was toddler height & rotten, the mirror was corroded, BEIGE everything and that awful, glaring light fixture... Yuck! Now we have an adult-height vanity, gorgeous mirror, sleek sconces and new floors that are NOT beige... I created some artwork for the vanity wall out of a Nate Berkus for Target letter tray of all things! I could not find a wood frame the right shade for the free download pattern I had printed, but I stumbled across this letter tray and made it work. More on that DIY later! Let's talk about that vanity and countertop, shall we? It is a sad story of disappointed hopes and crushed dreams... Well, not really, it was just frustrating as hell! LOL! The vanity we ended up with is my ORIGINAL choice. Hubby thought we could do better so the aggravating, fruitless search began for a reasonably priced, black, 36 inch wide vanity that would fit our plumbing issues and our sit-upon sink from Ikea. HA!! Good freakin' luck people! Sooooo, guess who (after almost 2 months of searching) said to me, "Which vanity was it you originally wanted from Lowe's??" :-) I'm not always right, but when it comes to planning a room and decorating, my odds are pretty damn good... Now, the countertop was a joint aggravation for me and the Hubs. Solid surface materials are NOT cheap and you need the right tools to work with them. We even bit the bullet, went to a showroom and asked for a quote for this tiny little piece of countertop. Over $700??? Hell to the NO. The internet was our friend and we found a Samsung composite remnant (Pebble Frost) for a decent price. AND Hubby could cut, drill, sand and install it himself. SOLD! Sounds great, right?? Here is how it was delivered... Well, F**K me... ;-) That UPS guy couldn't jump in his crap-brown truck fast enough... Luckily, there was enough left unbroken for Hubby to work with and here is a close up of the translucent, aggregate material and some gratuitous pics of pretty tchotchkes... Honestly, once Hubby got the painting completed (Valspar Filtered Shade) and we installed the new flooring, the rest went pretty quickly. However, if I had video of us trying to install the new toilet together, I would be winning some serious cash money Ya'll... First, why the hell is there a mirror OVER the toilet?? One of the strangest things I've ever seen, but maybe the last owner liked to watch himself go number one?? Just weird... The new art above the toilet is by me, Flamboyant Rainstorm One and Two. I took the colors from the shower curtain and just went with the flow of the paint. The wall hanging is another DIY that I'll show you later! The little tray, fake succulent and brass piece are all cheap and clearance finds from Target... The fiberglass tub and surround are original to the house and were not in horrible shape. Except for those horrid butterfly anti-slip stickers that have left an indelible mark on this poor tub. I scrubbed & scrubbed & scrubbed some more to no avail. I'm afraid the ghosts of sticky butterflies-past will eternally haunt that tub... :-D The entire house was winter-proofed for quite a while, so we weren't too surprised that the plumbing with this tub did not work. Hubster got it working and installed new brushed nickel hardware - almost as good as new! (BTW, my first bath in here was super relaxing! Hehe...) One of the best features we installed was the new towel warming rack by Warmrails: Nothing better than a warm, dry towel after a shower! The little stool used to be Hubby's campfire seat, but I confiscated it for another DIY... Well, that's about it for the bathroom reveal! I still haven't shown you the linen closet that resides inside this bathroom, but this post is already ridiculously long! (Plus, I haven't had time to organize that damn closet yet! LOL!)
I'll post some of my DIY's from this bathroom project coming up soon! Have a great week Everyone! Cheers! M J Hi Ya'll! I hope your week was enjoyable and productive, I know mine was mostly enjoyable and a bit too productive! I'm beat... What with this new metabolic dysfunction diet, all of the exercise, work, taxes and all of the house projects, Hubby and I have been stretched a bit thin. Well, not thin enough for me, but I am down 8 pounds! Yay! ;-) The hall bathroom is almost complete, just a few touches left and I can show you guys! Anywho... With the new diet, I realized my old recipe binder was just not cutting it. My Mom gave it to me probably over a decade ago and it tends to get very unorganized very quickly. I came across a little white wooden box in the Target Dollar section and snapped it up to create a new recipe box. Here is the Before and After... I have very fond memories of baking with my Momma as a kid. Going to fetch her recipe box and fishing out the cookie recipes that were all stained and taped and loved to pieces was one of my favorite parts of our baking sessions. Those little pieces of paper meant a lot to me and I wanted to have my own little box of memories! Here is what I started with: Above is the cheapo box I picked up and lots of recipes from magazines and other places that I have been hoarding for ages. I also stripped that ole' binder and tossed all the recipes that I had never touched. After lots of organizing, scanning and printing recipes to actual cards, I used some pretty scrapbook paper to jazz up the inside of the box and the dividers: I love that quote from Julia Child, "People who love to eat are always the best people." As you see, I also used my Silhouette machine to cut some gold adhesive vinyl for the front. Here is a better view of the inside: The pretty scrapbook paper makes me smile every time I open this little gem! Now, this recipe box has a proud position with all of our cookbooks... And, no, we STILL do not have cabinet doors yet! LOL! :-) This was a fun little project that has made our new eating lifestyle a bit more manageable. I have cooked at least 5 meals out of that box in just the last week alone. Making organizational methods pretty and enjoyable will increase your chance of sticking to that method and staying organized...
Well, that's it for this week! I promise, I will do my darndest to show you the hall bathroom makeover next week. Stay tuned... Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Along with the new spring pillows for the living room, I felt the intense need to fix up our little screened-in porch! I found a little, modern conversation set on Target.com for a steal and hit that ADD TO CART button way too fast! (After checking with the Hubs first, of course!) His comment: "Wow, buy that quick before it's sold out!" :-) Frugal minds think alike... Anywho, here is the porch now, complete with our photo-bombing kitty-cat: I continued the frugal theme with the chair cushions. I purchased the grey and white outdoor fabric from Fabric.com for a great price, covered two ugly old seat cushions we already had for the loveseat and made two pillow covers for the chairs. I also combined multiple Kohl's coupons to purchase the aqua seat cushions for next to nothing. The little outdoor rug was a purchase from Five Below for, yup, you guessed it, five bucks! Now that we actually HAVE a back yard, it is nice to sit out here and enjoy the breeze and the birds singing - WITHOUT the bugs... To create an inexpensive side table, we purchased a flowerpot and Hubby will cut that leftover piece of butcher block into a circle for a top at some point. Right now, the hall bathroom is taking up a lot of his time! For now, it is a convenient place to sit a cold glass of iced green tea... Looking back toward the house, you can see the wall hanging I created out of some scrap fabric and part of a dress I bought in Key West on my 30th birthday. I have held onto that surf board dress for so long and this was the perfect place to re-purpose it! This was just a matter of laying out some pieces of fabric, sewing them together, hand sewing on the "Relax" and hanging it on a rod... Oh, and it also does a respectable job of covering up the myriad of holes that the previous owners left in the vinyl siding... On the other side of the sliding glass doors, we have placed our little wine rack and some DIY art that I whipped up... (And Hubs finally got the new light up last night!) :-) These were a couple of art pieces that were headed to the thrift shop, but then I decided to re-purpose them into some cute wall art for the porch. I'll show you this DIY later, but it's amazing what some paint and some adhesive vinyl can create! Sorry about the lighting, it is sooooo overcast today and a flash would have totally blown this out... Here is the last view of the porch, the door to the yard - with another kitty-cat photo bomb... The little lights around the ceiling were a clearance buy from Target and they give the most wonderful glow to the space at night. Clearly there is much to be done on this porch. Besides the rotting wood that needs replacing, the beadboard is not in great shape and that door will need to be replaced at some point. That masking tape covering the cat door? Yeah, Hubby has already put his foot through it once! LOL! Since Raven is strictly an indoor cat, it needs to go. Of course, this porch is Raven's new favorite spot! He will sit at the sliding glass doors and meow for us to let him out there... Since this good ole' boy turned 18 this month, he gets a bit spoiled.
Tummy rubs abound lately... I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of our frugally decorated porch! Once we get the hundred or so other projects done on this house, we will give it a complete overhaul, but it is just not a top priority at the moment. For now, it is just nice to relax and enjoy Raven's new favorite spot! ;-) Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J |
AuthorHi There! I'm MJ, a 40-something professional woman with a love for art, crafting and decorating. Here I hope to share my experiments and inspire others as they have inspired me... Archives
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