Another makeover……

We are finally getting to the end of our long kitchen/dining room/hallway partial makeover!! Here are some before and after photos….

The kitchen floor before….I’m embarrassed to say we were hiding the tears in the the old 1983 linoleum with area rugs.

The new floor is a grayish ceramic tile in the kitchen and hallway as seen here.

And here is the old stencil above my cupboards I painted eons ago and the original color “bone” that was in my kitchen. Here is the new color in the kitchen….it’s called Cream Yellow…after the priming of course!

                         Before                                                                       Primed                                                                 Cream Yellow                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Then we began working on the dining room right next to the kitchen. The floor looked like this…..          and now this ……       What a huge difference! It’s gorgeous now!! We painted the ceiling in there tooSee the difference already?  And we repainted the walls. They were already painted a light yellow called Filtered Sunlight but they needed updating. That stairway that you see in this photo, will be updated as well. In January, the carpet on those stairs will be replaced with birch treads. The mantle and railings and side boards will be painted. Here’s the dining room painted out…..ceiling and walls….with my curtains down…. That was before the floor was done. That monitor heater had to come out by our monitor guy the first day of the floor sanding. We used a small electric heater for 3 days.This is the pump behind it and the exhaust and the brackets it goes on. We love that heater. It’s the best way to heat a home….very inexpensive and efficient. See the beam Bobbie and David built? That needs painting still. See the transition board between the kitchen and dining room? Those are oak and our carpenter guy made them for us and the floor guy sanded them down and put poly on them for us. Here’s the new beam tricked out but not painted on one of the top sides. Here’s our guy sanding the floors….            Hard work that lasted three days. Once  it was sanded, the wood began to show these gorgeous dark and light boards. We always thought the floor was just birch. Our guy showed us birch AND Maple too in the floor! What a surprise that was!! Here is a shot without the sealer on it…. See the dark and light boards? Lovely. Now here it is with the sealer and three coats of poly, after three days of coating and sanding and buffing….      It looks like glass! We absolutely LOVE it!! And here he is tipping his hat and saying goodbye….. a job well done!! Thanks Matt!!

What are we doing now? My curtains are still not back up so in the morning I see this still in my dining room….   and this…. That sun is very, very bright without my curtains, while sipping my morning coffee!!  In the last picture you can see there is no baseboard molding or ceiling molding. We just purchased that yesterday from Lowe’s. It’s primed but needs painting. That will go up hopefully next week. Then….my curtains can go back up and I won’t feel like I’m living in a fish bowl at night!! Meanwhile, I have to find a dry cleaner to clean my curtains…..I keep putting that off! Geez….I wonder why? I don’t have enough going on here do I? So….that old country beam that was twisted and cracked that I once loved and still kind of miss, that looked like this… is gone. And now we have a much more contemporary beam that was designed by my husband and our loyal carpenter David that looks like this….   and this…….unpainted. They did good didn’t they? In fairness to my Bobbie (my husband), he painted the entire dining room ceiling and walls himself!! I am so grateful for that. He has a much steadier hand than I do cutting things out….Nice Job Honey!! Whooohooo!! We also have to fill all of those nail holes with puddy on all of the molding…etc….before we paint….like this…. When you are building something like this from scratch, it’s not always perfect, so there are cracks that need to be filled before painting. We talked about tricking out the beams a bit more, by painting a couple of colors on them. I thought about it for a few minutes and then said…. “nope!”…..they are going to be white….period! I am ready to wind down and just enjoy my house now and get ready for Christmas hopefully….my favorite holiday of the year. Although, that is changing too. I’m getting older now and more tired easily I guess. What I could do 5 years ago I can’t seem to now. Maybe it was the heart attack last year. Speaking of the heart attack….it will be one year ago that I had it….the day after Christmas!! I can hardly believe it. Do you know what else was a year ago???? The day I quit smoking cigarettes! What a flipping miracle that is!! Me?? Without a cigarette?? OMG I never would have believed it if someone told me I would quit! So it’s been a long year of being on medication. Before that, I only took an occasional aspirin….now I take one of those daily, along with three other pills….Simvastatin…..Plavix….and one other….along with some vitamins. Thank God for those pills….they saved my life. I had a stent put in and that saved my life too. Next Wednesday, I see my cardiologist and we will discuss my coming off the plavix….it’s been a year….they said to stay on for one year.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did. Lots of good food and family and as always, my mother in law Alice made my day. She makes me laugh and enjoy the day! She is more than a mother in law….she’s my best friend. I didn’t get many pictures but I did get one of my turkey I cooked the day before so we could have turkey sandwiches…..  it came out nice. I didn’t stuff it because I knew I was going to have some of Alice’s famous Pork/Peach stuffing!! I did get a picture of my father in law Woody with my brother in law Joe’s new dog Jennabell….. She’s a good girl. And here’s Alice and Woody…. And of course the boys like to play xbox while waiting for dinner to be ready…. We had a very informal dinner and it was nice. The food was fabulous. Woody made mashed white and sweet potatoes and a huge Woody special Cole Slaw with shrimp added….Alice made her wonderful stuffing…..I made a pumpkin and apple pie and butternut squash and brought pickles, olives, cranberry, rolls, and salsa and chips. Joe had some nice eggnog and a wonderful veggie dish and two turkeys with dry rub on them that he deep fried. My son and his girlfriend brought a chocolate and a banana cream pie. So….we had plenty of good food!! I guess I have written long enough! Sorry about that. You will have to come back several days to read all this huh??!! See you all soon…..

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!! Enjoy this wonderful day with family and friends.

See you after this holiday!! Have fun and take a moment to be grateful!!…

                                                                          

A Few Of My Favorite Things

There is a website that I keep in my favorites folder.  It is mainly a place I go to, when I get a chance to dream. They have wonderful artwork like this…. . This place is called Cottage Chic and you will see things like this…. and this…..Got your attention yet? If it has, check out their website here…..Cottage Chic  You will adore it if you love French Country and The cottage look like I do. I just wish I could afford their items……oh well….someday maybe.

Years ago, I ended up at a lady’s home here in my town. She was showing me around her cottage style home. As we got to the bathroom, I was pulled in by this wonderful aroma massaging my nostrils. Oh my Lord, what is that amazing smell? She had a beautiful old claw foot tub like this…. and there were candles and bath salts all around….but that wasn’t it. It was coming from the area behind the toilet. On the back of the toilet tank, she has an antique dish filled with these unusual soaps. That’s where it was coming from!! “WHAT is that?” ….I asked her??? “Oh those are Zumbars”….she said. Zum what? Long story short, I had just found the soap and the perfume that I would use and wear for the rest of my life. It’s an odd looking soap. It looks like this…. well here’s a closer look….It’s called Frankincense & Myrrh and it is made by a company called Indigo Wild. They make all natural products. Their soaps are made with goats milk. This is their all time bestseller and I can’t live without it. It has been a part of my life for over 10 years. I don’t always have the soap but I DO always have the perfume…..either this….body spray or this….roll on perfume called Eau de Zum. I get compliments all the time. People want to know what it is. I hear things like “who is it that smells so nice?” I usually don’t say anything and they end up narrowing it down to me. That’s kind of nice because I forget I have it on….I wear it every day. They have many other natural scents and products….check them out….Indigo Wild .  Egads! I am starting to sound like Oprah…..doing My Favorite Things!! Oh well….I do like sharing! Let’s see…what else do I like….Ok….here’s a link I have saved for years. It is Chapman’s Cottage….Love looking at this one….here….take a lookie……Chapman Cottage Now wasn’t that cool? Another place I like to go and dream is a place where they sell lovely material for sewing. It is Hancocks Of Paducah  I am sure you have all seen this site? Oh my goodness the material they have is beautiful!

And last but not least is a blog that I go and visit for inspiration from time to time. I keep thinking that someday I will be able to go there and download some of her wonderfully gifted and generous tutorials. Feathered Nest is a beautiful blog. A couple others I frequent occasionally are The Kitschy home of Deanne Zweig and this photo that I can’t seem to delete. I found it somewhere in  my travels online>>>and have kept in my files forever….There’s something about this room that draws me in. It’s grandma meets cottage design with a twist….isn’t it cute?

Another site I have in my favorites, is a video library of embroidery stitches.   What a wonderful website this one is. It has been hugely helpful to me in the past. I sometimes forget I have it in my favorites. Check it out….Needle N Thread . There is also a great place to go for crochet called My Picot. I think it is wonderful when people offer free patterns for things….don’t you?

Here’s one I have gazed at for some time called Victorian Sewing Accessories . Free patterns for things like this…. and ………..

this….. Search around the site to find many other helpful hints. And last but not least….A friend of mine makes these night light shades… with safety pins and beads. Each one is different…and they come in many colors……    She asked me to find a place where she could get beads and supplies like this to make them. I found a great place online and it was less expensive than many others. It’s called Craft King . Here you can get just about any craft item you can think of! So….there you have it….you have taken a walk through my favorites folder with me! I hope you found something you have to have like I did!! Enjoy…….