Getting This Done!

You know how getting a friend to workout with you makes you go to the gym all the time? We have that...but they are our "house-remodeling-partners". Every Wednesday, our neighbors Jeff and Keri come over to our house and we work all day on a project. Saturdays, we end up at Jeff and Keri's rental helping them with a project. It is really awesome!

So far, our list of accomplishments include: a full roof of shingles cleaned up, a bathroom ceiling taken down (including insulation), all the old molding taken out of both houses, our front porch pried off, old nasty pink carpets hauled away, and last but not least our whole second floor has the carpet and sub floor removed and is almost ready for some remodeling! Ready for the pics? Remember the bathroom before?

And here is is now...taken down to the old flooring and siding.

Gone is the acoustic tile drop ceiling. We will raise the ceiling back to 9" and add a bathroom fan/vent. If you look closely, you can see some of the smoke damage from the fire that occurred in the 1940's.

Also gone is that faux wood wall paneling! I think I have every right to say that I HATE THAT STUFF.

The master bedroom! No more pink carpet!!! This room is going to be so cool after we refinish the floors. The sun pours through the windows during the winter months and the trees block the sun during the summer months. Now we just have to strip through the layers of wallpaper...no fun.

The Future So Bright We Have to Wear Random Shades That We Found In the Shed

Maybe not that bright but we have been enjoying our new patio! Here is a little look at what we have been up to for the last three weekends.

Before: The back gate that was taken over by lilacs.

After: Now, a sweet new path so our gas meter reader does not have to wallow in the mud anymore!

Before: Two random herbs beds that were overgrown with catmint.

After: Even more herbs than before and tons of perennials that I got out of LJ's grandma's yard.


Before: I was so apprehensive about removing the deck.


After: But I love this space now! Jack has so much to play with and I don't have to worry about him falling off deck. Now if I could only curb his enthusiasm for rock eating, life would be great.

We still have a bar to build (the cement pillar-looking things in the distance), chairs to stain, a bench that will go against the outside of the house (any ideas on a design?), and basically the rest of the yard to work on since it looks like this:

But for now we are happy with our little retreat. More pics to come as I get all the flowers out (these shots were taken in between thunderstorms). By the way, coleus are no bueno in heavy rains. Mine now look like a very hungry caterpillar got to them.

Flea Market Weekend

I know I am supposed to be posting pics of the new and improved backyard BUT we had the Sumpter Community Flea Market this last weekend and it was full of fun little finds. Case in point, this cute little plastic table that my in-laws had out in their yard. Hurray for free!

Some pretty magenta spray paint......pair it with an old glass light shade...also free.


A sweet outdoor table!

Just A Preview

We started here with one rotten deck...

...and we took it apart...

...then we dug and dug and dug......and maybe tried a little of the dirt too......and now it is all coming together! We still have another load of gravel to put down, a bar to build and our plants to grow in but I think it is coming along nicely. We won't be ready for the big reveal yet but here is a taste. What do you guys think?

Our Big Backyard...

LJ and I have been telling all our friends that we were going to tear the two decks in our backyard out. We were met with mixed results of "are you crazy?" to "oh, uh, that will be nice."

We have a vision though...and we started on it today.

Dear God what were we thinking.

Here is our backyard before...this is upon moving in so please don't judge us by the random animal parts hanging around.Same deck sans the large amount of snow...

And here is the after...

Yep rotten to the core and a breeding ground for every bug in the neighborhood.
That is spiderwebs. Big nasty icky spiderwebs. And underneath it all..is the original staircase!
So you want to know the big plan? Well here it is!
Stay tuned for more inspiration and ideas that I will be looking at this week.

My Nicotine Lamp Makeover

For the past month, I have been on the lookout for a pair of lamps at our local Salvation Army. Actually, it has been WAYYY longer than that so when these two lamps popped up I grabbed them off the shelf without thinking twice. Turns out I should have thought twice due to the fact that they were covered in a nice thick layer of nicotine. Yum. I had to scrub them both in the sink and then let them dry for a day. Just in case you wanted to know, you can scrub a lamp with soap and water.

On to the fun part! After long hours of debating what color to paint the lamps, I finally decided on purple. However, I wanted it to be the right shade. Too light and you get this:
I know. Way too Barney the Purple Dinosaur for me. Also, don't ever, EVER, EVER use Krylon paint. I had the worst experience with the can of Rich Plum that I bought. It clogged up and took a lot of coats to cover the lamp...and no Rustoleum is not giving me any money to say that! But look!
Oh my trusty can of RustOleum in Purple! I will never stray again. I followed up the 4 coats of purple with two coats of a spray-on acrylic glaze to make things even shinier...
...and voila! I am pretty sure that I need a longer lamp shade but this was all they had at our local store. What do you guys think? Are you feeling the purple or not? I paired it with the light beige shade to tone it down a little. The white shade was a little too Totally 80's for me. Not to bad for $5 each.

For those of you wondering, the paint sample from the other wall climbed over to this wall and down onto the faux wainscoting. I really like that white *sigh*.

No the Clampetts Don't Live There...

But K. Mack was here again this weekend. This is now our front lawn.
Do you remember to which room this lovely contraption goes to? I will give you a hint...we hit our heads on it ALL THE TIME.

If you guessed the kitchen then you are 100% right...if you said bathroom then you must have been looking at the half of toilet next to the magneficent hood. We will get to that later. The hood looked like this in the kitchen...
And now...

Hmm one step closer to a bright and sunny kitchen!

I am also trying to figure out what to do with the dining room. LJ came home to a very large paint sample that I got carried away with...I didn't like it at first but I am warming up to the "atrium white" color that I used. It is much warmer in person.
I thought about using a beige on the top half of the wainscoting with the white on the bottom but we will eventually pull it all out. I really do like the white in here...stops it from being so cave-like. What do you guys think about a full wall of white?

Before and After: Consigment Store Chic

I love furniture shopping. However, I don't like shopping in furniture stores (I will make the exception for Clark and Company in Baker City Oregon!! Shout out to my boys!) and I hate matching furniture sets. So where is a girl to turn? Consignment stores. The one here in Baker has a pretty good flow of furniture and I have been watching it for about a year now...waiting...patiently waiting for something good. I finally found it!


I know it doesn't look like much but I got it at a great price and it cleaned up really nicely. For those of you that don't remember, here was our dining room upon moving in...

Next stage was a light fixture upgrade (we still have two more to put in over the table), a free table from my in-laws, and a big white sewing center that I was using as a credenza. I know! Not the prettiest but furnishing your home with pre-used furniture takes time! Sometime you have to make do with what you get until you find the perfect piece!


And I found it! It is a little office-ish right now but imagine it with new knobs and maybe, sometime in the future, stained a dark brown with white milk paint doors. For now, I like how it how it is.

One day, I will repaint the pretty red walls a nice white color and we will tear up the carpet. We have to leave it for now because we have NO IDEA what flooring is under it. Fun times.


Loran and I are having a debate on our gold dollar store chicken which I love. He hates. Check out the metal fruit bowl that I found for $2!

What We Have Been Up To...

I have been on task trying to spruce up our house after taking out the lovely wall-to-wall magenta carpet. Here is a before pic of our entryway (please excuse the boxes):
Stairs leading up to the second floor...which is also covered in glorious magenta!


And here is after!
I just ordered that great wool rug from Pottery Barn last week and realized after I got it that this entryway is really BIG. There are also four holes next to the door where the old radiators were located. Luckily, someone nailed down lids from old cans to cover two of the holes. I am sorry, I don't think I laid the sarcasm on thick enough with that "lucky"part. We will eventually repair the holes and redo the floors but that is WAY in the future. Also, we propped an old door up to block off the stairway because we are not using upstairs right now.

Anyways, I had two old bamboo mats from our last house that I threw down to cover all the holes and lids and I have to say that I kind of like the look of it. I don't know if I am crazy and just reaching here so I need to know what you all think. Too much?

(Holes in the floor a.k.a. Jack's new piggy bank. )

On to the second line of duty, I am in desperate need of a new light for the entryway. I really, really, really dislike this one. Not only is it ugly, but it hangs down almost a foot and a half from the ceiling and I constant smack my head on it. It needs to go so I am on the prowl for something new. I have no idea if I am supposed to tie it in with the dining room lighting or what...HELP!

And last but not least, I found more dining room chairs! Yes they need to be worked over a bit BUT I got six of the for $100. The thing is, they almost match the two that I found from the Salvation Army to a T. That makes the grand total $105.90 for 8 really sturdy chairs. Nice. Now I have to figure out how I am going to re-finish them (and no it won't be to match the pretty calico indoor/outdoor carpet seen here).