Spiffing things up

I think I am just going to turn this into a picture blog…hahaha.  I have lots of pictures to share, but nothing cute to say.  The last three months we have spiffed up a few rooms including updating Alex’s room. Taking him from toddler to little boy room. I also brought down an iron bed we had in the attic for Lillian. For some unknown reason, she has always hated her little twin size platform bed.  I got it because it was low to the ground and she could get in and out of it easily. Anyway, she loves her new full size “big girl bed”.

I updated the front porch by putting new plants in the boxes and making spring wreaths. I am not a pastel gal, so I used turquoise and brown/burlap (Thanks Steven for the suggestion!). I also made a wreath for the back porch.

Back Porch

I bought some gerbera daisies and impatiens a couple weeks back, but I didn’t pay attention to the weather and the late frost got them, so I had to toss them out and buy more.  I went to Fads and Frames and bought some gorgeous ferns! Fads and Frames, hands down, has the best plants in town. I also bought more daisies.  In the next few weeks, when it warms up enough, I am going to landscape the rest of the front yard. I can’t wait!

I went to Ikea a week or two back and bought a tall skinny cabinet for the bathroom. I have had trouble with storage in that tiny bathroom. This cabinet worked out great! It looks so clean and streamlined in there now.

I also bought 3 sets of curtains for my gables.  Sometimes I like to leave the lights on upstairs. At night, you can see into our messy attic. So, we put the curtains up last week. I think they make the window look a little more “finished”.

And…….that’s it!  I have called several paint contractors. Only one showed up to quote me. I got tired of scraping and painting, so I was going to hire someone to finish painting the last two back walls of the house. After receiving estimates between $15 and $20k, I decided that I am not that desperate. So, I put an airless paint sprayer in my cart at Home Depot and am going to put some scaffolding on reserve at the local tool rental place and get to work painting again.

The absolute LAST two things we have to do on the house are: Paint the back walls and fix some of the bricks crumbling in a few areas around the skirt of the house. After calling 8 brick contractors over the past month, I actually had someone show up this morning!!!!  I was excited. Now, let’s see if he comes back with a bid. That is always the hardest part. Getting someone interested in your project.  So, I will be back to report whether or not that happens.  You can see the bricks in the above picture around the electrical box that I have stacked up to keep the cats out. I have about 5 places like this that need to be repaired. The man I talked to today is going to give me two quotes. 1) to fix the 5 brick holes; 2) to re-point ALL of the bricks around the entire perimeter of the house.

So, there is your little update on progress of the house.

Andrea

Back Porch Finished

Remember this??????

It now looks like this!!!!!!!! TA DA!!!!!!!!!

AFTER:

The porch rail was built by Steven out of leftovers from the front porch boards that we cut down last year.  We have a pile of them!  I really like the pattern. The 4×4 posts were leftover from our fence project from almost 2 years ago.  We only bought the post anchors, the solar caps (which are really neat by the way) and the pocket hole jig to mount it.  Our back rail cost a grand total of….drumroll….$40!  Woot woot! The rail we took down was not the original rail and it was rotted in many places. Instead of trying to match the back porch to the front porch, we decided to update it and give it a more modern deck look.  I love it!

To see the evolution of the back porch, you can click here, after that it looked like this: click here

A few little projects

Today, I was able to finally finish putting poly on the back part of the hall. I did not take any pics. It looks just like the ones a couple posts down. When it is all dry and I move my furniture back in, I will take pics of the final project. I want to install my pew and picture rail first.

Any-who…in between drying times, I caulked the front hall wainscot to ready it for paint. I also pulled out quite a few misc. boards for holiday and other projects. Here is my line up:

A couple of them I’m turning in to holiday decor for the porch. I distress painted them and I’m going to put JOY and NOEL in red letters on them. I will lean them on the front porch.

One of the other smoother boards I am going to make into an oversized chalkboard. Kinda like this one I saw, but much larger.

I also took some of the old 100 year old wall boards (that were taken down in order to add our bathroom) and made a low hanging coat/book sack rack for the kids. The top piece is a leftover piece of baseboard painted with chalkboard spray paint from Lowes. I will probably write on it too. The knobs were some ugly brass ones I took off of my night stands when I painted them many moons back. I painted them with spray paint leftover from some project or other. The coat hooks are from Target and the chalkboards are from Hobby Lobby.

Steven painstakingly primed the new back porch rail he built. It took him allll day just to prime them….ick. I also pulled up all the horrifically ugly floor registers and cleaned, rust primed and painted them.

Overall, it was a very productive day and I’m pleased with what we accomplished.

Thanks for stopping by…or sticking with us! It’s been a long road, hasn’t it?

Back dormer?

Here are pictures inside the attic. Someone left a comment that there was a back dormer at one point. None of my records reflect that, and the carpentry does not reflect it either.

The first picture is of another dormer in the front of the house. It is really big, and leaves a really big footprint. When you go to the back of the house, in the attic, none of the carpentry in that area of the roof has ever been changed. It is all original to the house, has never been refitted. There is no discoloration of the wood where you would expect to see newer wood (newer than 100 years old) grated into the old.  The supports and cross wood that make up the roof, are all the same color and thickness as the rest of the 100 year old roof.  There are a couple places in other areas where you can see work was done.  But, this entire back portion of the house is intact as it was built 100 years ago.  Also when viewing the floor, underneath the piece of plywood there is no dormer footprint.

I really enjoy when people tell me stories about my house. Of course, since I’m investigative, I always check them out. Thank you Mr. Smith for commenting, but I really do not think this house ever had a back dormer.

Patio table facelift

Sometime back in May, I bought a patio table and 4 chairs from a friend who was looking into buying something newer. I knew that our back porch would need to be outfitted after all the work was completed. The chairs were sans cushions, so I had to find some that would fit. Also, the top of the table had warped linoleum tiles. I took off the linoleum tiles and discovered that the top was concrete board. So, my daughter and I decided to adhere mosaic and other misc. leftover tiles from our various projects onto the top and use some leftover grout (from her bathroom remodel) onto the top. I wish had a before picture, but I guess I didn’t give it much thought. Here is a picture after we adhered the tiles and the second one is after it was grouted and installed on the porch. Ta-da!

And, as you saw previously, here are the chairs with their new cushions.

Mesh Wreath

Now that my back porch has been completely redone, I am chomping at the bit to decorate. Spring has passed and Summer is about to be gone, so I set to working on Fall decor. Yesterday, I tried my hand at a mesh wreath. It was super easy to make. In fact, I was so pleased, I installed it on the back porch. Soon, I will finish the front porch ones and put them out and make all my neighbors think I’m crazy for decorating for Fall so early! They haven’t seen my pumpkin flag yet…hehe

Here is a tutorial if you are interested in making one. How to make a mesh wreath

***Update: I finished my other two as well.

Back Porch, just needs a rail

We still need to build and install a rail, but I was able to stain and finish most of the porch work.

More back porch progress

A few more progress pics for the back porch. Over the last three days I have scraped old paint, sanded, puttied, primed and painted the porch columns and siding. I have a little bit of touch up to do and the inside of the windows and screen door, but here is our progress so far:

Back porch deck down

I am so happy with the progress on the back porch today! Here is what has been completed today. Steven has a pattern for a rail he would like to build, so he will be working on and building the rail in the upcoming weeks. Plus, after our carpenter is finished Thursday, I will pressure wash and start painting the ceilings, columns and siding under the porch. In about 3 weeks, after the boards have cured, I’m going to stain the deck. Super excited!!!!

I’m going to see if I can talk my hubby into building me one more planter for the back and, while he is at it, turning the 100+ year old cypress boards they took up, into a long bench. One can always hope, right! .

Coming soon: new back porch!

My back porch is being worked on by a wonderful, wonderful carpenter! If anyone needs any precise work done, I have a number for you!

Yesterday the column and brick wall that was sagging was mortared and restored. Today, they are taking off the porch boards, putting down traditional deck boards and repairing a column. After they are all finished, I will take another picture. Then I’m off to pressure wash, stain, prime and paint for the final ta-da picture!!!!!