Fabric and paintbrushes lead to....

Working my fingers to the bones, painting and decorating, in the cool morning breeze or late afternoon shade.

I had a brilliant idea to make some outdoor curtains to help shield the unwanted sun at certain times of the day. What sort of relaxation can you get if the porch is not climate controlled?
I used a set of king size sheets and they are just perfect for what I needed.
Not sure why I haven't done this a long time ago.
I can't wait til late evening, swinging in the porch swing with a citronella candle burning to keep the mosquitos away....


The ceiling over the porch is going to be painted a sky blue for obvious reasons. Do I need to explain to you? I had to explain it to Danny back last fall when we got started painting all the white. He remembered all this time later! HA!! Funny since he couldn't understand at the time, again he thought me super crazy!





Love this view, but it will be better when the painting is all finished.
Wait til you see my tree porch swing!
If Terri can have the most beautiful chicken coop with a porch, I can have the coolest hair studio with a porch!

I think I would be content to wait in line for a haircut in a nice peaceful garden with the sound of the songbirds and moving water, would you?

BTW, songbirds LOVE country music, it makes them sing louder and louder!!

2001-2011.....

That's the time frame for our home remodel.

A whole decade!

It just hit me tonight that we are all but finished on the structural remodel of this place.

Now the only thing left to do is to finish the painting inside!!

Such as the kitchen cabinets.

I sure do like them!

He does too!

It was like pulling his teeth to get him to agree to doing anything inside the house.

He wore himself out on the exterior I guess, Thank goodness we didn't have a lot of inside work to do.

Still a ton of cabinets to finish, the stairwell
laundry room and big bathroom will get a new coat of paint.

The bar sink in the kitchen needs to be hooked up....he told me today that he "thought" about that the other day and that I should give him credit for that one!!

We need a new storm door for our bedroom door that leads out on the deck and a couple light fixtures need to be replaced......

Then we will be FINISHED!!!!!

This has been a long 10 years too!

No wonder my hair is so grey and his is falling out!!

I think I will plan a big "Thank Goodness The Remodel Is Over Party" for around May 1st, the day we moved in in 2001!

Thank You Lord for letting us live thru this one without killing each other!

Now we have a barn to build.........OH NO!

This is where I have been....

Besides working fulltime in the Dr's office, which is about 40 hours more a week than what I want to do. I have been trying to get a few things accomplished around the house.

Such as a makeover for my kitchen!

I finally convinced Danny to let me paint the cabinets white!

He even hung my new light that I have had for a long time.

I had an oak board that stretched out between the upper cabinets over the window, a valance I think they are called. I wanted that board removed for almost 10 years now, so it would no longer block the light. It took him about 12 seconds to get it down!

Now you can even see the new light and it really opens up the space!

I still have several more to paint but we are getting there.

We have also been sick, Danny with the flu, I with a stomach bug and then a sinus infection that has been going on for over 2 weeks.

I think we have done pretty good for ourselves.

What you think?

Better before or after?



We have also been getting in lots of coon hound puppy loving!
See they are already treeing!




Little Willie will not be going to Wisconsin afterall
BoooooooHoooooooo!!
Actually Terri asked us to find him another home because her son is not enjoying the training of a coon dog pup. You have to be 100% into that or there is no need in trying.....from what I've heard anyway. Danny and Colton are 150% into coon hunting!
Of course we had a waiting list a mile long for these pups, so there was no trouble finding him a home. Danny says he thinks he is the smartest of the litter, definately the most unusual coloring for a red tick! Most folks think he's a lemon beagle!






So with the gas prices over $3 a gallon now it would have been a very costly trip to deliver Willie to Trent, a 1200 mile trip one way in the gas guzzling truck, but it would have been worth it to get to see Terri, her family and her farm! Maybe some other time.
Danny has promised me a beach trip instead!

hahahaha this one is so funny!!

So that's what I've doing!

Whew!!

My dream is coming true.....

this is just a sneak preview!

I have a lot of staging to do and I'll be back!

It's a start.....

I finally made it to The Fairy's Rest! Monday was a cleaning day, Tuesday was the dreaded day at the accountants office.......I did however, go shoe shopping afterwards!!!

Mama has new Easter shoes!

Then I finally got this dreaded job started today.

Do you notice the sunshine?

It was beautiful and 70 degrees, a perfect day for painting and cleaning.

The picture above is the living room before.

What a mess?? I had everything pulled to the center of the room and started to paint before I remembered to get a before picture.
The walls were a very drab beige and I had one more window to get cleaned and the inside of the window painted. The window to the left of the picture.

Wallaaaaaa!!! White walls sure make me happy!

Yes the blue recliner will be tossed asap.

It has been a lifesaver to use while working down there tho!

Clean freshly painted windows make me very happy!!

I still have to paint the shelves that you see here.



I just can't even describe and the pictures do not depict how much better this day of painting this one room makes the entire house look. So much more finished and elegant.

Of course it's not finished and it's certainly not elegant .......yet!!

The big piece of dark wood furniture is an armiore sp? lol! that I found at a garage sale last fall and took it straight here but I have decided that I will probably use it at my house instead, painted white of course!






Folks may need to wear their sunglasses when they visit here!!






Check out this loooooooooooong white hallway!! So bright!!

How about the lavender room?

Do you think I should paint it white too?

It will be the last project so I should have my mind made up by then.



I was very happy with the progress today.

I had to prep/patch the walls and clean the window and paint it plus the walls

and this is the biggest room there, with no help!!!!

So I am patting myself on the back!!



I will go back tomorrow and maybe tackle the big bathroom.

The ceiling, walls and cabinets have to be painted in there.

One big bedroom and the laundry area of the hallway yet to paint.

A little trim work here and there and the painting will be finished.

We are going to replace both of the outside doors and they may need to be painted too.

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!!!!!!

I am sad that we have missed another deadline tho, the Nascar race at the Martinsville Speedway is this weekend and we probably could have had it rented out for the race.
Bummer!!

enough white already....

outside and in. I still love an all white interior decor but

I am so sick of an all white outside decor!!

I can't seem to be able to change the outside

but I can change the inside up a little.

I just needed a little more color in my life!!

I loved the foyer white back in the summer and fall.

This picture was taken back in the fall when I had my

sewing room in there ;-)))

(Terri, here's that drop leaf table and one of it's many uses.)

I had to dig out some Easter goodies today.

This quilt bunny was made by Danny's cousin.

She purchased some of Danny's Mother's old quilts from the estate sale

and then made up little stuffed animals out of them.

She gave them back to the children and grandchildren at baby and wedding showers

until most all of them had one.

Cause she was very smart that way ;-))

She also painted the carrots all over that egg!

They sure make me smile!

Over the years I have lost the little sign that the rabbit was holding

that said "Think Spring"

Well it makes me think about Spring!

My poor ole innocent husband came home from work early today.

He made the mistake of telling me that he was coming in around noon.

I had a lot of little odd jobs literally waiting by the door for him!!

I have had this yardsale door up for several years now and I have had the kickplate sitting by the door for as long. I made him get to that today before he even set his lunchbox down!!

Color!




I know this is a (dirty4 letter word here...."SNOW" figurine) but it has a Springy attitude with the Cardinal at the birdbath. I think the Garden Cloche
makes it look springy too.





A little greenery.

Garden Central!

I told you this table has many jobs throughout the year.

Right now it holds the heat mat and some very struggling seedlings.

They are trying.

I had these valances in the kitchen but in my quest to gain some color I thought they may do here for now.

The shutters were just sitting in my closet for a couple years now trying to figure out where they wanted to live.

See all that white outside? Yuck!!!

Night time shot and you can still see the snow.

The black lamp is supposed to be at The Fairy's Rest but I thought it may play in here for the time being. I think I like the look with the black valances.

This dresser houses all our DVD's

my silver flatware, tablecloths and napkins.

I sanded it a tad to try and shabby it up a little today.

I think it needs a little more.

A few crooked pictures. I have a lot more to hang back up in there.

When we first moved I had all the walls in the foyer lined with pictures

in all sorts of frames. I took them down to paint one time and didn't hang them back up,

but I think I want to now.
It is just a hodgepodge of colors right now,

but it's a start.

When I can move the plants out of there it will look better.

Needs a lot of tweaking but

it is making me smile already and that's

all that matters!!
Here's wishing you some color in your life!

Just me and my MP3....

Got 'er done!!

Finally!!

I have kept my MP3 in my ears for several days now and it sure has helped me to get a big job done while the times just ticked on by!

~

FYI~ If you want to find a way to get supper out for two nights running, just paint your kitchen floors! Or just take the stove out of the kitchen and put it in your living room! Hey don't laugh it works!! He bought Italian take out last night and when he came in this evening and saw the turmoil he asked if I could get to some more clothes so we could go to our local cafe/grill for supper..........well of course I could get to some more clothes cause I surely wouldn't be caught dead in public in these paint clothes!!!!

Then when we got home he was upset that he had to help me get the stove back in the kitchen.......I said "Fine, supper out three nights in a row? No problem here."

He grabbed his side of the stove quickly!!! I guess I'll be cooking in my new white kitchen tomorrow!!! Oh Goody!!!!

~

Actually, It's not 100% finished. I ran out of my $46 a gallon sealer and I have to make a Lowes trip tomorrow morning. Bummer! I need two more coats on the center of the room. I also have a big crack that I am filling with wood putty where the floors join. It's a crack that is way too big to "add character" .....it adds the....."What the heck happened here look"!!!!!!

I will soon be finished, I hope. Of course there are a lot of touch ups to be done where white paint got on black under the cabinets........makes me sooooo mad when that happens!

Then I have lots and lots and lots of decorating to do!!!!! hehehehe

I promise no more pictures of my white floors til I am finished and there is actually something to see! This just keeps me focused!

Terri, did you notice the enamelware on top of the cabinets? I thought you did!

~

For the record my windows are NOT as dirty as they appear in this picture!! They aren't spotless but they look horrible here. OMG!!! Add cleaning windows to my list of to do's!!

It only took 33 years....

to get my dearest husband to take his muddy boots off at the door! This could have gotten started the other day when he walked across my freshly painted white floor in his bedroom slippers that he had worn out to the mailbox. I screamed at him because the sealer was still wet and his feet were muddy, well icy and dirty, too cold for mud. I almost cried!

Yep that could've been the turning point.

It could be that he is so happy with the way the floors are looking.

He is also VERY HAPPY that I am doing all the work myself!

Yep that's it, he doesn't want to put any more work on me!!!!!!!! hahahahahaa!!!!

This is what the main kitchen floor looked like prior to paint. Not bad huh? Good camera is all I have to say about that! I like a beautiful wood floor as good as the next....hence my beautiful Cherry wood floors in my master bedroom......but this was not a good wood and not in good shape. It also ran into the adjoining floors with boards running in no particular order. It needed help!! Shown above is my kitchen island before I found my enamel table topper for it. It was a dresser of mine since I was a little girl. OLD!!
This is what the 2 rooms look like now. I have to do the kitchen floor in steps due to big appliances and the fact that it is smack in the center of the house and the bathrooms are both on one side of the kitchen. Today I painted myself out to where I had to go thru my bedroom and outside across the back deck and in the back door just to get a bathroom break!!
I had to move that huge fridge and paint under it....actually painted the walls too....and some trim...etc etc etc........ I hope to have the other half done tomorrow. Most of the prep work has already been done.....my old body is feeling it too. Turned upside down with a sander for many hours today. Poor old shoulders!


Now I am wondering if it will take me 33 years to get him to hook up this prep sink in the pantry??????? It has only been sitting there in it's hole for about 5 years now!!! Can you drop a little bug in his ear that I am now ready for my kitchen and pantry to be finished? Please!!!!!
I promise I will put all the stuff away if he will finish the sink...and the under cabinet lights.....and the receptacles!

Because I can, that's why!

Yes that is the reason behind me painting this wonderful little cabinet......because I can...I bought it with my own very hard earned money and it is mine. So there....now please don't go tell the nice lady at the consignment shoppe where it was purchased that I ignored her wishes and painted it anyway. Please!!
On second thought maybe she does need to know!!!

This was my "hot weather" project of the day. (5 degrees outside)
I knew that it would eventually get painted and I of course knew that it would be white......well look again sista......it is Goose Gray!!!! I had a gallon of this paint that was purchased for another project that ended up being a project that just had to be white instead, so I had this new gallon and needed to use it. So with the wild hairs that I get I thought I would just see.........after all I do have white paint to cover it if it looks bad right?

Turns out I like it! I really like the chalkboard contrast and I LOVE my white stoneware in it! I am not sure if I posted about these last summer....well hahaha I am sure that I did....but anyway this set was an e-bay find. I got the 65 piece set for $65 or 56 piece set for $65 or something like that....you count them I am too tired!!!!!

Look at those cutesy itty bitty butter pats......Oh Morgan has begged and begged me for them....she loves anything little...little dishes, little toys, little violins, little old men, .......she asked for a little old man for Christmas and I told she already had Papa Danny........Oh stop it Becky!!! Back to the butter pats....I found those at an antique store for cheap. Have you priced butter pats? They cost as much as an antique dinner plate!!

The ironstone is Johnson Brothers Regency. Danny's mother had a set just like these.

As you can see I have kept basically the same decor on top of the cabinet as before. I call this my little dairy display. The churn was a Christmas gift from Robin, the Holstein cow was one that I paid dearly for about 23 years ago when I was collecting cows for my kitchen, the butter printer-antique store find, the little pint milk bottle...oh so cute and little is full of buttons that just happened to be red, white and goose gray already......was that an omen?? The antique milk bottle lid came from ebay. Now I am in hot pursuit of a white ironstone cow or goat creamer. I have seen them before but just didn't buy one but I think I need one to top this display off just so!!!!!

There you have it folks I was forbidden to paint my oak cabinets ....however I bought those myself too.........hum?.........so I had to paint something that was wood today as a rebellious act!!! Not really, the before picture made it look a whole lot better than it really was so no harm was done. I actually did it a big favor!!!!!
Emma will be over soon to finish decorating it for me.....with chalk!!!!!