Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

I thought I'd check in & say hello to everyone. I am currently going through "spray paint withdrawal"  and missing all of you! This is the last full week of school for my girls. They have a half day of finals on Tuesday and my oldest is graduating from High School on Friday. We are also meeting with the painter, having the house & grounds pressure washed & windows cleaned. That reminds me ... I still have to call someone in to clean the carpets!

So with all of this going on this doesn't leave any time to do some fun projects :( Hopefully things will be getting back to normal in a week or so!

My husband and I have been searching the internet and driving by some houses that are for sale in our area that meet our criteria. Of course we will only buy a house after our house sells, but it helps us to know what is out there.

Here are a few houses that we like that our up for sale.

We definitely love this one and it is only a few miles from our current home, so my daily routine wouldn't change..same grocery stores, Target, etc. Definitely move in ready.

Only one floor :) ... a big plus! ... and lots of wonderful trees.

.

Love the porch & the Craftsman style, but the yard is a little small.

We like this one because all the bedrooms are on the first floor with a bonus room upstairs. We like that the lot is almost an acre with lots of trees! Hmmm... what I could do with that backyard...

These past few months seem to have flown by. It's hard to believe it will be June in just a few days. I don't know about you, but I wish we had a few more weeks. Are you all ready for summer? Any fun things planned? 
 I hope all of you will be spending some time with your family and friends this Memorial Day weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pam

Sprucing up the Front Porch

Most of you know that we are getting our house ready to put on the market. And, how many times have your heard that the front  of the house has to have curb appeal and the front door has to look great. Knowing this, I have been working on the front porch. Here is what it looked like last summer.

Don't look too close or you will see my fall wreath! It is my favorite & I still have to either find or make a more seasonal appropriate one. I added some red begonias in the large pot and spray painted a small pot red & planted more begonias. They are easy plants to grow and can take the afternoon sun. I also found the tall green pot & the lantern at my favorite store (HomeGoods) I put some river rocks & a candle in the lantern. The mat is new, but I can't remember if I found it at Ross or HG.

Here's another view.

I really love this bench. Last year I refinished with some bronze spray paint. Good as new!

Hope you had a terrific weekend! We participated in our neighborhood garage sale & sold over half of our stuff! It feels good that our "garage sale room" is now empty! Hope you had a productive or fun weekend too!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pam

Daughter's Bedroom Reveal

My daughter's room is ready for a reveal! I still want to add some things to it, such as bookcases, a small chair & some small additions of blue to the room, but if I wait til the room is 100 %, you'll never see it. Besides, rooms always change over time anyway!

Before I show you my daughter's bedroom, let me show you what it looked like before. At least a little bit of it. I wasn't blogging before we painted the room & the only photos of the entire room that I have were taken with a camera that had film! It was a cute room for a little girl. I designed &  made the bed with my husband's help for an interior design class when we lived in California. I made my oldest daughter one as well, & made them so they could be used as bunk beds because I knew that we would probably be living in an apartment for awhile when we moved here & the girls would be sharing a room. I painted butterflies & flowers above the bed & on the wall at the entrance like the ones  on her comforter. My daughter didn't want to repaint the room for many years because I had painted those butterflies & flowers on the wall & even asked me to cut out the sheetrock & save them. Awww, she is so sweet. She was finally ready to paint over them after she turned 16. Mr. Fanatic had a difficult time painting over them and felt like he was painting over her childhood...tear :. (

... drumroll please ..... here's what you see as you walk in...

Remember that bookcase is going & a taller one will be built on either side of the windows. I also want to raise the bed & the headboard up a few inches Here you can see the lamp that I made a slipcover for and the nightstand I made over. You can click on the links to read more about these projects.

I love the white dresser I found on Craigslist,

Mr. Fanatic still has to hang the shutters, which is a mirror inside. I found the shutters, lamp & clock at  HomeGoods. The coral is from a recent trip to Seal Beach, California & the glass bottles are from Hobby Lobby.

The headboard is a Craigslist find. The pillow is also from HomeGoods

We were going to make something with shells & burlap for the walls, but we found this at where else? HomeGoods.

I love these little metal containers. I saw them at Marshall's and thought they were cute, but didn't buy them. I went back later that evening when I figured out I could use them in my daughter's room. Wouldn't these look good in bookcases that were backed with some really colorful wallpaper? ......Always thinking.....

and here's the Coastal Lantern, some coral & a cute distressed box....all from guess where.

So, there you have it! I'm glad my daughter likes her new room. I think she had fun helping with the design and now understands the process of putting a room together.

This was my first Shabby Chic Coastal Cottage theme for a bedroom and it was a lot of fun & not too much money to do. I hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by:

Pam

The paint colors for this room are: Trim: Valspar Kitchen and Bath Enamel, Semi-Gloss in Ultra White, Ceiling: Valspar Eggshell in Summer Grey and the walls are a custom color ...here are the numbers:

101-1 Y19.50  107-0Y20.00   109-0Y6.00 

Update:

The bookcases are finished and look gorgeous! You can see them HERE.

Drop Cloth Curtains

I feel like I totally cheated on these curtains for my youngest daughter's room. 

1. THEY WERE CHEAP... 

I purchased one-4ft x 15ft drop cloth at Lowe's for $9.97. Home Depot has a drop cloth that is 6ft x 9ft which would have been ok, as well, but I would have had to buy 2 of them. Remember, we are putting our house on the market in 2 weeks, so I want the house to look good, but I am watchin' the money.

Back to why I feel I cheated on these curtains ... 

REASON 2: THEY WERE SO EASY TO MAKE

I just folded the canvas dropcloth in half

cut it in half so that each piece was 7 1/2 ft long,

folded over the edge to the desired length, ironed the edge & clipped on the rings. No sewing! The two side edges are the selvege and the bottom is hemmed. I could have sewed them at the top, but if I have to wash them, they are probably going to shrink up, to I could hem them at that time, if I wanted to.

I couldn't find white rings with nickel clips, so I settled on the wood with nickel clips. Since this is a Shabby Chic room, things aren't supposed to match, right?

Reason #3 ...they were up in 30 minutes!

It took me 2 years to sew the simple curtains for my Master Bedroom ...& I already had the fabric! Even the curtains in my oldest daughter's room that I purchased at Target took me longer because I had to sew the rings on!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pam

Nightstand Paint Makeover

I'm finally finished with the nightstand for my youngest daughters room. We purchased some furniture from Craigslist for my oldest daughter's room which was sold as a set of 2 nightstands and and an armoire. We used one of the nightstands, but since they both had a black distressed finish, I had to refinish one for my other daughter's room. This is what it looked like before. Sorry for the bad photos ...

First I had to sand the paint down. I sanded  the corners down to the wood because my daughter wanted a distressed look with some of the wood showing. I used a vibrating sander for this part. I so wanted to fill all of the dents & dings, but my daughter wanted a distressed look.

Next, I primed the nightstand with a white spray primer. Then I spray painted it with Krylon Ivory paint. I think next time I will use a foam roller. After I put on a perfect finish (why, I don't know) I sanded the corners, edges & the drawer front. This was very difficult for me...why ruin a perfect finish!

After sanding I rubbed on a stain/sealer that I had in my paint cabinet. This was the most difficult part. I used a rag to apply the stain & wiped it off with a clean rag. If a section was too dark, I used a rag with some mineral spirits on it to rub it off until I liked how it looked.  I added a knob that I found at Home Depot. The best thing about this project is that my daughter likes it.

Close up of the drawer front & knob

               Before                                                                   After

The final step is a coat of Poly so that the sheen is even.

My next & I guess final project for this room is to make some curtain panels. I was going to do this tonight, but I am pooped after all the rubbing from the distressed finish. Did I ever tell you I am in my 8th month of having a frozen shoulder. My last one lasted well over a year. All of you who have had this know what I'm talking about .... this is my second one. Thank goodness you don't get them again in the same arm! ... What were we talking about? Oh yeah, my next project... looks like it's going to be tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend! We went and drove by some neighborhoods & looked at houses that were for sale. I am afraid I won't find one I like ... so this helped a little.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pam

Craigslist Finds

I have sold quite a few things on Craigslist, but I have only purchased a few things off of it... I don't seem to find the bargains like some people do such as finding a gorgeous queen headboard for $25 or a dresser for $10. Currently I don't have much time to totally refinish something right now(and many of you know why), so I tend to purchase something in good working condition & ready to be put in our house, therefore the cost is higher... but I still saved money because it would have been a lot more if I had purchased it at a furniture store or even at a place like HomeGoods or TJ Maxx.

Two recent items I have purchased are for my youngest daughters room. The first is a white dresser supposedly from 1959. I totally love it's funky design. The hardware is original, but I plan to eventually paint them brushed nickel. This dresser was sold with a matching taller chest of drawers, but I'm not sure if I will sell it or use it somewhere else.

I'm not sure how old this headboard is, but i love the shape & the shell detail. I plan to paint the shell and the gold painted groove silver.

I am currently working on painting and distressing a headboard for this room. I found it on Craigslist also and it came with a set that my oldest daughter is using in her room.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a terrific weekend.

Pam

House For Sale Soon ...

Sorry to have not posted since Sunday this week. It has been very hectic around here with one daughter graduating soon from high school and getting our house ready to get a market evaluation.

Met with a Realtor today. After the meeting I became a little nostalgic and of course started second guessing myself. Putting our house on the market has been on my mind for over a year now... for a lot of reasons. For one, Mr. Fanatic and I are not getting any younger. Not that we are THAT old and ready for a nursing home ...but since we are die hard control freaks DIYers, this house has always felt BIG and the yard is very large. We came from a 1,500 square foot home in California where the entire lot it sat on would fit in my FRONT yard to a 3,200 square foot home with a 2,000 square foot unfinished basement and almost an acre lot. Many people in our neighborhood hire people to do what we do ourselves. We mow the lawn ourselves, paint the deck, landscape the yard, build patios, paint rooms, install molding, do electrical and plumbing, ... oh, and this little thing we do every week called cleaning 3 floors of our house. I guess we are just control freaks because we do everything ourselves -we aren't going to change. We are getting older and we don't have as much energy and we are getting to the point where we want to spend our time elsewhere. That was only reason one!

Reason two is: many nights and weekends we are home alone ... our girls are our either working or out with friends. Makes the house seem really BIG. (Let me just say here that it's a good thing we still like to spend time with each other after 24 years of marriage...loving each other is a given)

Reason three is: paying the heating and cooling bill in the winter and summer when there are only two people living here.

Reason four: If we downsize to a (please don't hate me to all of you living in this size or smaller home) 2700 to a 2800 square foot home on a little less than a half an acre we can get rid of the mortgage, our taxes and insurance will be less, the utility bills will be smaller & I'm estimating that we will be spending about $1,500 less a month! Oh, and don't forget I have a kid going to college next year and another one the year after!

Reason five: the house has three floors which means always going up and down stairs for something ... and did I mention we are not getting any  younger! I would rather conserve my energy for other things!

Ok. So why am I getting a little sad about selling our house? That I can show you in photos. My favorite spot:

Oh how I love walking up and down this path.

... and sitting on this patio and looking out onto the path that goes to the creek behind our property.

I love how spacious my Master Bedroom is.

and let's not forget my newly tiled Master Bath.

Not to mention all the fun times we had with sleepovers and birthday parties, etc. And to top it all off we have great neighbors! 
I feel incredibly blessed to have lived in our  house for ten years and for my kids to have spent most of their childhood here. So, even with the reasons above for wanting to sell, there is still a little sadness with that decision because it's been a wonderful place to live.
Again, I apologize for not posting this week and for not visiting your blogs much and  definitely for not saying hello if I did get a chance to visit your wonderful blog!

This weekend we will be finishing up painting and organizing the garage. The gray paint sure is pretty. It looks a lot better, but we still have a lot of stuff!

We will also be doing a lot of small fix it type stuff that needs to be done before we put the house up. Maybe if I get a chance I can update you on my youngest daughter's room. It's looking pretty good (although not finished). Both my daughter's rooms are looking good because, they actually cleaned their rooms pretty well with the Realtor coming, but it was only under the threat of putting anything that was on the floor in the trash! Gotta love teenagers!

 I will try to get to everyone's blog this weekend to say hello! Hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Pam

Coastal Lantern 2

Having some fun with accessories in my youngest daughter's room. I found some really great accessories at HomeGoods this week. They really should pay me to endorse them! I'm going to save those finds for another time, but I did want to show you a cute little change up we did for the Shabby Coastal Cottage Lantern that I had previously decorated. My daughter and I both happened to get on Pottery Barn's Website and found a photo of lanterns filled with sea shells and starfish. We both love it & my daughter wanted to change out the decoration to sand, pebbles & shells.

Here's what it looked like after I decorated it with some moss harvested from our woods, some lavender I grew in my yard in California and a bird nest I retrieved from my garage sale room pile.

Here are some of the items we used to change up the lantern: The candle was purchased at HomeGoods for $4.99. I had to purchase a whole bag of pebbles at Lowe's, but will use them elsewhere, as well. The starfish and sand dollars were purchased at the " shell shop"  on our trip to California a month ago.

We put some sand from a California beach in the bottom, placed the candle on the sand, then put the pebbles down around it. The starfish and sand dollars were placed in front of the candle on the pebbles.

Even though the lavender and the birds nest were cute in the lantern, I think it fits her room much better now.  I think I am going to use the bird nest, the moss and the lavender in my oldest daughter's room in the birdcage on top of her armoire.

My youngest daughter's bedroom is coming along nicely and everything looks and feels like we had planned. We moved the dresser up to her room & her project this weekend was to transfer all of her things from the old dresser to the new one. I still have to paint the nightstand I have in the basement for her. Hopefully I will have time in the next few days. 

Pam

l

Sneak Peak

Just wanted to wish all the mothers out there in blogland a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope you do something fun on your special day!

I also wanted to give you a sneak peak on a little something I changed up in my youngest daughter's room; which I am not even finished with yet! I am so pleased this room is finally coming together! It probably won't be finished anytime soon, but I can tell we are going to like it :)

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Pam