Monday, December 26, 2016

Projects Of 2016

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebration yesterday with your family and friends!

The last week of the year is a good time to reflect on all the blessings that you've enjoyed and how far you've come.
When I look back at all we've accomplished this year, it amazing to me and it's only by the grace of God that we've accomplished it all. 

The first half of the year was spent getting our (previous) house in near perfect condition, staged and ready to sell. In 2015, we  anticipated putting the house on the market in May, so we had already started with lightening up the paint in the basement, master bedroom, laundry room and  office. In January of this year, things went into high gear and I worked nearly every day until May sanding and painting nearly all of the trim in the house, repainting the deck and just making everything look brand new. Mr. DIY  bought supplies on the way home from work and there was something to do every night. Getting a big house ready to sell is hard work. 

One big project Mr. DIY worked on was the Master Bath shower tile surround and repainting the Master Bathroom. I love how the frameless shower turned out and it was so easy to clean. 

We didn't neglect the outside of the house. I painted the front door and sidelights, as well as the shutters on the house and Mr. DIY painted the front porch posts. 
The front porch was staged with flowering plants, pillows a new front door mat, and a newly painted basket on the front door. 



When the professional photographer arrived in May, we were exhausted! Nearly every surface was touched up to look fresh, clean and updated. All our work paid off when we received multiple offers after two days of showings.
Brian Stogner

One of the most stressful projects of the year was packing up and moving. The stress of not knowing what would fit in our new downsized house and getting and moving out of a house you've lived in for 16 years and only having 45 days was overwhelming.

I wrote about our crazy, stressful move and gave you a peek at our new house.


Finding a house in just a couple of weeks that fit all of our needs and in the budget wasn't easy. We had put in an offer the previous day on another house when we viewed our current house and quickly rescinded that offer. I'm so glad because that house was a huge fixer and this one was only 2 years old. We were starting off with a clean slate, still a lot to do, but  it is mainly cosmetic, painting and organizing the closets.


The painting in our daughter's room started the day we took posession of our house and before our furniture arrived the next day. Mr. DIY installed cabinets in the laundry room the day the first week after we moved in. I haven't done a blog post on her room yet or the laundry room,  but thought they should be included.

Mr. DIY got busy right away transforming closets. There were plenty of closets, but all of them, including the pantry, only had 4 shelves in them. Mr. DIY started with the linen closet in the Master Bathroom. Lucky for us, it was about the same size as our last house, so all of our things fit right in once the adjustable shelves were added.

After the linen closet in the Master Bath, Mr. DIY added some extra shelving in the hall linen closet.


After that, Mr. DIY added shelves to the pantry in the kitchen and transformed a 2nd coat closet into more pantry space.

The organizing continued in the Garage... Since we were downsizing from a large, 3 car garage, to a small 2 car, Mr. DIY added a whole wall of cabinets.


The wire closet in our daughter's room was replaced with a custom closet that I designed and Mr. DIY installed. Our daughter loved it. 

Our new yard is really small compared to our last house and taking care of it has been so easy! Still, I had to plant an herb garden in our front yard. There will definitely be more landscaping projects for our backyard this Spring.

This brings us up to October.

 Phew!

 It's been one project after another!

In October, we hired a company to encapsulate our crawl space, which is tall enough for us to stand up in. Once encapsulated, would be a huge space to store all of our things that we previously stored in our basement. No blog post and no pics yet. Mr. DIY is finishing up the flooring and we still have to organize the containers on the shelving he built in the space. 

Since cold weather was coming up, Mr. DIY built our cat Buddy a cat cave for the Screened Porch because he spends most of his days out there. 

A fun little project I made for the screened porch was the Lighted Grapevine Orb.

Although, we didn't get a chance the first half of the year to do projects at the Mountain Cottage, we were able to do a few projects the 2 weeks we lived there in between house closings and we've been able to spend a few weekends there this Fall. We're looking forward to doing more projects there in the coming months.  We've finished the countertops and installed all of the subway tile. Mr. DIY still has to build open shelves, install crown molding, build a custom wood hood, custom banquette and a custom chandelier. After all of that, we'll be finished in the kitchen.

This brings us up to December, which is all Christmas decorating. We've still been organizing the crawl space and moving things from the garage to the new storage area. We had our 5th and final trailer/pod with all of our storage in it delivered at the end of September and all of that was stored in the garage. We only have a few more things to move and then we'll be able to park 2 cars in the garage! That is something we never had at our last house, even with a big 3 car garage!

I'm looking forward to 2017 with great anticipation.

May your home and family be filled with many blessings!

Pam

Here are all the links to the above projects...































Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas In The Breakfast Room 2016

Mad about plaid continues in the Breakfast Room this year.


I couldn't help myself

I'm just in love with a good Tartan plaid...just about every single one.



I found the Tartan plaid placemats at where else? HomeGoods! Everything else (except the ribbon) on the table was pulled from around the house. I purchased the plaid ribbon on the little tree at an obscure website I came upon. I'll list sources at the end of the post. 



We gave the salad plates to Mr. DIY's mom one year for Christmas, and she gave them back to us when she was downsizing to assisted living several years ago. I'm glad I have them to remember her by.





Mr. DIY moved the artwork from the Dining Room. I hope it will go with the shade of blue/grey that we choose to paint the walls sometime next year.  


Aren't there certain decorations you love getting out every year? For some reason, those snowmen salt and pepper shakers always make me smile. 




I hope you are enjoying this last week before Christmas!
I can't wait to make our traditional Breakfast Casserole on Christmas Eve! It's super easy to make the night before, so that all you do is pop it in the oven before you open presents. By the time you're finished opening presents on Christmas morning, it's ready! You can find it HERE.

Pam
Sources:
Tablecloth, placemats, white pitcher: HomeGoods
Dinner Plates: Mikasa Italian Countryside
Salad Plates: from Restoration Hardware many years ago
Plaid ribbon: gandgwebstore.com
Pillow Covers: Amazon.comhttp://amzn.to/2i6XJog... (affiliate link)

Joining: AStroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday
              Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday

Monday, December 19, 2016

'Twas A Week Before Christmas And All Through The House...

Only 6 more days until Christmas! 

Last Saturday Mr. DIY took a whole lot of boxes to the Post Office to be shipped, Christmas cards are finished and addressed and will be sent tomorrow.
Now that all of that is done, we'll be wrapping the last of the gifts, making buckeyes and homemade ravioli for Christmas dinner. 
What gets done now, gets done...and I'm not going to worry about anything else.



The halls have been decked for awhile now and nothing else has been added- I think my pillow obsession is under control- for now

The dining room is much bigger than at our last house and when we have guests, it's large enough to add 20" leaf to it's length. The room is so large, it makes our table look small.


More plaid in the dining room.. Here, I used a plaid throw as a runner for the buffet.





This is my favorite Christmas decoration...My mom used to say it's all you need to celebrate Christmas.
free banner download at http://hymnsandverses.com/2013/12/diy-silhouette-nativity.html






Kitty loves the soft plaid throw on the living room chair. 

The piano in the living room








Our wide hallway came in handy when we had the newly married group we lead over for a Christmas get together last week. Next to the Christmas tree was the perfect place to set up a dessert table and cocoa bar.











Next year we'll add more lights and lighted wreaths in each window. I'm thinking big colored lights hung across the gables and the eaves off the porch. 


I hope your Christmas preparations are going well!
Thanks for stopping by 

Pam

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Bows, Boughs and Berries In The Master

I don't always decorate our Master Bedroom, but decided to this year since I had a few supplies left over after decorating the rest of the house. 
After all, how long does it take to add a few bows, boughs, berries? 


I added some to Mr. DIY's nightstand. Since his "real" stocking that his mom gave him was just sitting in our office, I hung it, as well. 



The white clock was previously painted black, and before that, it was gold. This is it's 3rd life.


On my nightstand, I added an angel, a little Christmas tree cloche ornament and a special stocking that my grandmother made me when I was little. 


On our dresser, I added mini lights, berries and pinecones under a large cloche.




The centerpiece on the dresser has more bows, boughs, berries, pine cones and a few red ornaments added for good measure.


Of course Kitty had to photo bomb while I was taking pics. Anyone have a fur baby that always does that? 

I told you about my pillow obsession in my post last week. Here's another Christmas I couldn't resist! 


Here's how the whole bedroom looks...

You might mistake it for our last bedroom, which was set up in a similar manner.  If you'd like to see our previous Master Bedroom, you can find it HERE.

The next 12 days before Christmas are going to be a mad dash. I tell myself every year, I'm going to start earlier. This year we moved and are still getting settled, but next year, 
NO EXCUSES. 
lol. It's always something!

What needs to get done, does, so 
It's all good!
What's important is that we all enjoy our family and friends this Christmas. 

Pam


Thursday, December 8, 2016

Mad About Plaid Christmas Mantel & Decor

Before we get to the mantel, I have to confess I've had a problem with pillows and plaid this Christmas. I ordered some Tartan Plaid fabric from a seller on Ebay because other online sources were out of stock, so plaid is pretty popular this year. I quickly made some pillow covers after the fabric arrived. I couldn't  pass up the Plaid stocking pillow I found online. The back of the pillow is plaid too!
 


I found another cute Christmas pillow and Kitty seems to approve.

Back to the Mantel... It took me 3 weeks to decorate the house this year. Since this is our first Christmas here, I wanted everything to look special and I had to order extra supplies several times in those 3 weeks.
Here's the view from the front door.


We opted for a live tree this year, but I really would love a beautiful artificial tree from Balsam Hill. That would allow for decorating a few weeks earlier.








Much of what I decorated with this year was from years past. My main purchases were lots of plaid ribbon, the plaid stockings, some battery powered mini lights and of course some pillows.














There's still so much to do! Still lots of presents to buy, wrap and ship. Mr. DIY always does some baking and of course he makes homemade ravioli for Christmas. 
Yum! I can't wait.

Thanks for stopping by today!
I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.

Pam


sources:
Stocking pillow: TJmaxx.com
Flannel fabric pillow cover: Ebay
pillow with Christmas tree on a car: Boscovs.com
Ribbon: HomeGoods and Amazon.com
Christmas stockings and mini lights: Amazon.com
affiliate link