Outdoor Project

Still seems to be small projects that require attention to finish up the house. Ashley stained the thresholds with white stain. They'll be sealed and will look good going into the bathroom tile area.

There are two other small bathrooms that need to have the carpet pulled up and the floors refinished. We thought we'd have to tile this small half bath off the kitchen, but once the carpet came up there were hardwoods underneath.

We sealed Mike inside the bathroom while he was sanding so the dust didn't spread throughout the house. The floor will be stained to match the rest of the floors and we've already painted the peach walls blue. Once I can get in there to take pictures I'll share with you what it looks like now. (For some reason I didn't get good before pictures. I'll be sure to get before pics from the upstairs bath.)

Last Saturday the guys moved to the outside deck area. Miss Janice wants a step up from the yard onto the deck, a new ceiling fan was ordered and she has a light pole and lamp she wants hung up to give more light.

Here are the start of the new steps. The wooden piece to the right is going to be another place to place plants without taking up space on the deck.

Mike began placing the stones to create a path to the potting shed.

They guys got the lamp post installed and electrified.

The lamp post also had a handrail attached, so it was placed next to the new stairs.

Here is before of the deck area...the ceiling fan had to be replaced.

Another before....

Here is an after...I finally finished all the cushions for the back deck area!

The antique baby bed has it's new coat of paint (as does all the furniture.)

Several pillows were created from an old quilt.

There is a lot of seating for guest now.

The new tin roof over the one end of the deck creates shade (as do the pecan trees) for a late afternoon nap.

I also made cushions for the extra bench seating along the one side of the deck.

The bench also creates extra seating along one side of the table.

This is the large lantern Miss Janice bought at a garage sale...it's hanging on the side of the potting shed.

Of course, now that the back deck is complete...time to start on making new cushions for the front porch seating area. We found these cushions on sale last weekend. That fabric won't last long...

In fact...I've already started recovering these cushions!

We're all working now for the big open house in October...much to do to be ready.

Till next time,

debi

BIG Project - Completion

I thought today I'd look back over the BIG PROJECT and reminiscence about how it all began...and show some of the before and after pictures of the completed project.

This was the beginning of the Bathroom/Bedroom project. It all started with a "pinky-peach" color that had been painted throughout the downstairs of Miss Janice's house....long before she bought the house in 2000. This color was everywhere!

Miss Janice originally utilized her "pink" items to work with the color, but with the purchase of new bedding for the bedroom - she decided to head a whole new direction...brown and blue.

Before Bathroom

After painting blue.

Before flooring (actually carpet covered this floor in the bathroom.)

After we laid new tiles in the bathroom.

This is the before 0f the sink area (sorry I didn't take a picture of the mirror over the sink...but you can see it later over the mantel in the bedroom.)

After...What a difference! We found the new vanity at a warehouse sale and Miss Janice purchase the new fixtures - oil rubbed bronze. The two mirrors were bought when a local antique mall went out of business, and the new light fixture was a floor model at Home Depot (Miss Janice talked the guy into selling it for less!)

This is the before area of the tub and toilet area. She had a screen covering part of the area, since there is a window is directly across the room.

This is after. We purchased a new curtain rod that curves out to give the tub more room.

When deciding on the the floor molding we also measured to including enclosing the tub, making it look more finished. We used 3 different pieces of molding to build it up and make it look more expensive than it was!

In a prior picture you can see the chandelier that hung in the middle of the room - we swapped it out for a fan (taken from upstairs) and the chandelier went into the corner near this nook.

This nook was originally a "catch all" closet, but was turned into Miss Janice's vanity area.

Miss Janice originally had a white vanity in front of the window, but we opened the space up by moving this into the closet area and hanging shelves to accommodate all her things. We also used two old shutters hinged together to give more privacy to the window area, rather than trying to enclose the toilet area. She hangs her vintage handkerchiefs on the shutters to show off her collection.

Next came the bedroom.

This floor was also covered with carpet, but there was still an old pine floor hiding underneath...not pretty, but a little love....

and hard work can make anything new.

This floor was also finished dark (Jacobean) like the rest of the floors throughout the house.)

I decorated the corners of the room and the entrances with stenciling and sealed it when I sealed the floor.

Originally the bedroom was done in pink and white. There were lace curtains on the windows and pink toppers (created by her sister, Jennifer.)

This shot shows the bed area when she first bought her new comforter. There was still a lot of pink in the room (although I had already sewn new toppers and a new closet drape.) This is just a reminder of what the area looked like before the make over.

Here is that same area and window. Miss Janice found this mantle at a garage sale and we wanted to incorporate a mantle in the plan...loved this one better than her old headboard mantle. (The mirror over the mantle is the one that used to be in the bathroom. The pink lampshade will go...as soon as I can find a new one!)

This window now looks like this....

I made the toppers, but we found the curtains at Target. Here is a close up of the details. I think they are wonderful in the scheme of the room.

Here is the closet area before...

Here is the after of the closet!

Big Difference!

Close up of closet details.

The bedroom is pretty well complete. The boxes in this picture are to be filled with "stuff" that will go in the top of the closet. There are a few boxes to unpack, but the major work is done.

This BIG Project really all began last fall. We originally started tearing up Miss Janice's place last October. Our first "re-do" began with pulling up the carpet in her living room/dining room. Originally Miss Janice's front room was her living room. It was a small, cramped room...while her dining room was large and open.

The living room area had carpeting, which we knew we wanted to tear out.

Who knew when we began ripping out this carpet and moving things around that this would become a year long process of continual disruptions for Miss Janice.


There was a wonderful pine floor under the carpet and after refinishing the floors and painting the walls...

We began our work in earnest on the floors.

My vision for this floor was a diamond design stained in the dark Jacobean and the light areas stained pecan.

I thought it turned out beautiful.

Originally we placed the table and chairs in a traditional manner, but ended up settling on a diagonal configuration.

Currently, the room has a couple of boxes left from all the moves that still need to be emptied, but it feels pretty well back to normal.

During this last re-do of the bedroom everything spilled out of closets and drawers into the living room and dining room.

I know Miss Janice felt things would NEVER be normal again. But, sometimes it takes a little disaster to bring back beauty (HA! I just made that up!)

This was the original dining room, which is now the living room. This room originally had refinished hardwoods, so we only had to paint this room to update it all.

The living room as of today...normal once again!

By last Christmas we had finished the living room/dining room project...but Miss Janice is a glutton for punishment - so very soon after the new year we began the library project.

The library is across the hall from the new dining room through those double french doors.


When Miss Janice bought the house this room was the previous owners media room.

She envisioned it more a library/cowgirl room.

Of course, this room had carpeting that had to be pulled up...unfortunately there was no nice, old pine floor hiding underneath...only particle board. The first order of business was to lay a "new" old pine floor and refinish it to match the rest of the house.

Since this was new flooring, it didn't take the stain as deeply as the other floors which were original to the house...but I think they turned out all right.

Next we updated the curtains and then...added details to the window shades.

This was accomplished with paint and iron on ribbon.

Currently this room is finished, but there are boxes (if you look closely inside the doors) that Miss Janice will put away very shortly, and life will return to normal....

But wait...there are still rooms to finish upstairs........................another day, another project! I think Miss Janice is hoping for a little less dust and a little order...if only for a little while!

Till next time,

debi