Some Curb Appeal

I don't really have any new projects that are completed, although I did manage to clean out and organize my tool shed today. However, it is not worthy of taking a photo to plaster all over this blog. No, I decided to leave you with some nicer photos.

The beautiful plants and flowers that are growing in my front yard. This rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) was originally in the back yard, on the east side where it doesn't get much sun. Yes, I know, a poor choice. It didn't grow hardly at all last summer. I wisely dug it up an transplanted it two months ago, and I am so happy that I did.

Some of my Canna Lilies have begun to bloom. The canna lilies in the back of the house have yet to bloom, but I am delighted with these, as I just transplanted a few there this year. I have tried them throughout the yard and the canna lilies seem to prefer the east side of my house, or here along the North side of the front yard. They do not like the west or south. It is way too hot for them and their leaves seemed to burn. I ended up having to move a few to a new location.

 This is what it is like in the summer, if you walk up to my front door... yes, my newly painted front door, and the newly painted light fixture tucked up there by the brick.   Someday, the exterior of my house will be another color besides that shade of pink!  With the exception of the barberry bush, everything else, I have planted in the past two years since we have lived here.

 This area a long the short fence is a favorite for the neighborhood boys to run around, jump over, play pretend warfare and make me just plain angry. On the other side of the fence, which you cannot see,  I planted some kinnikinnik, which is native to this area. It is not doing so well, so I am going to dig it up and move it this fall... and plant some barberry bushes there instead. Yes, something nice and prickly that will discourage neighbor boys and girls from jumping over that little fence.

I love how this corner has come alive. The aster is just barely starting to bloom and there are a few tiny purple flowers on it.

 Hope you enjoyed seeing parts of my yard.

Digging In The Dirt.

I've been trying to play catch up this week. So many projects, so little time. Sleep got a bit behind, so I got caught up on that last night. Right now I have about 7 loads of laundry that are staring at me waiting for me to fold and put them away.

In the meantime, I have been outside digging in the dirt. The few vegetable plants that I do have are huge! It's fun to see how big they are getting.

Just a quick glimpse into what I have been working on. It involves this:

This:

And This!

I have had two pallets of retaining wall stone sitting on the cement pad on the side of my house for 2 years now, left over from the other retaining wall that I did. When I initially ordered the stones, I had thought about putting a raised bed around the base of the apple tree. I have since changed my mind on that one. Then I thought I would put in a retaining wall/raised bed where the current raised cedar bed is, against the fence. However, the fence really needs to be replaced first, which is why we put in the cedar bed instead. I would hate to put in all of that work and then have to undo it in a year or two when we put a new fence in.

So then I decided that I would put a retaining wall around my existing flower bed that wraps around the side and back of the house.  The sod is now all dug up and I have been working on laying the first course. It takes some time to make sure that the ground is level and that the stone block is level with the one next to it. I use a lot of pea gravel underneath, a rubber mallet and a level to accomplish this.

Once the bottom course is all laid out, the rest should go quite quickly.  When I am done, I hope to have a mini tutorial in order so I can show you how to do something similar.

Oh Look What I Found!

Ah Craigslist. It's like visiting a giant garage sale from  the comfort of my own home.

Guess what I found on Craigslist a few days ago?

Why a dining room table... a heavy duty 20 year old dining room table with two leaves and 6 chairs.

 Just look at that beautiful curvy shape of the table and legs.

 
 The ornamentation on the side of the table I thought was rather pretty as well.

The table without the leaves is 62" long and 43" wide. Each of the leaves are 18" wide.

The good:

1. The entire thing was only $60.00!!!

Yes, you read that right. A table and 6 cane back chairs were only $60.00.

2. I was able to fit 4 table legs, big table, two leaves and all 6 chairs in my Toyota Sienna (a.k.a. The Harpmobile). Impressive, I know. I have loaded harps in and out of it so many times, I am pretty good at packing everything in and utilizing space. I took out the back seats and slid the table down the center between the two captain chairs.

However, on the way home - it was a long 5 mile drive - I got hungry, so I reached back and grabbed a chair and started gnawing on it.

Or perhaps someone let their puppy dog chew on it. Sad day..

I am going to have to find someone who is handy with a lathe. Oh dad - are you there? I have a project for you. ;-)

The cane on a few of the chairs is ripping away from the edge and is coming apart.

 Question here for my readers:  Do I replace the cane or just ditch it all together and do an upholstered back on the seats?

The table is going to be the easy part, as well as reupholstering the seat cushions.

The bad about this whole project?  Well, it will naturally be  time consuming, I may pull some hair out in the process and there may be some swearing involved.

After loading up the garage with even more furniture, last night

hubby finally said, "  NO MORE FURNITURE UNTIL YOU FINISH THE PROJECTS YOU HAVE IN THE GARAGE ALREADY!"

What a killjoy.... LOL

True, I still have a dresser, a hutch and a twin head and foot board that I didn't previously show you.

I also have a storage shed out back that he rarely goes into. If I come across any more great finds, they may have to camp out there for awhile.

I don't know that I will get started on the dining room set right away, but I was excited about this find and am going to research options on rehabbing the chairs before I get started.

But man - for $60???

The lady that sold it to me, initially told me that she only had 4 chairs. I saw two other chairs there that obviously matched. I inquired about them. She decided that they  were in such bad shape that she didn't advertise them. Not wanting to separate the two from the pack, I had to take them.... They were both captain chairs that the arms had been removed from.  I will just use wood filler to fill in the spots where the arms used to be.

I have a vision for this set. A very French Provincial vision.  Here are some pictures that serve as inspiration.

This card table from Pierre Deux. I like the dark stain on top with the cream colored legs.

And this dining set as well.

Source:Mad Dogs and Englishmen 

So there you go. I am excited about my find and had to share it with you.

Come on in!

I'm done! I'm done! I'm done!

Yes, the door! The only thing left to do is clean up a few dried on paint drips that landed in places that they shouldn't have.

So, just to refresh your memory...

Here is how the front door looked 2 weeks ago.

Ugly, ugly, ugly. Inviting? Uh NO!

Fast forward to 2 weeks later, lots of sanding, lots of priming, more sanding, caulking, cursing, sanding... more cursing... painting... and more cursing.

Here it is!

It no longer makes you want to run and hide! The kick plate I primed and  spray painted with metallic spray paint.

That is water on my front porch... Power washing is next on my list - the concrete that is, and not the front door. ;-)  I am so happy to be done with this project, I can't even tell you!

Here is the other side of the door - interior.

The interior side was painted with Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo, that I already had on hand and that matched the paint on the trim and molding around the door. I used a Purdy 2 1/2" paint brush to get in the beveled edges and grooves, and then used a foam roller to roll the paint on the larger sections.

The exterior was primed with Sherwin Williams oil based for wood.

Then I painted it with Benjamin Moore's - MoorGlo® 100% Acrylic House & Trim Paint .

I only needed a small pint of paint. It was a nice paint to work with. In general, I am a big fan of Benjamin Moore paints. They are some of the better paints that I have worked with.

If you get up close, there are naturally lots of flaws and lots of mistakes. It is not perfect, far from it, but this is a huge improvement.
Linking to:

 

Light Revival

I love those projects that can be completed in a day. It's even better if it involves  spray paint!  It's instant gratification. Kind of like vacuuming. Vacuuming the carpets always makes the room look instantly better. Vacuuming and mowing the lawn are my two favorite chores. I like the lines in the carpet, the lines in the grass. That fresh cut look, or that freshly cleaned look.

Having said that, after working on the front door, and seeing how much better it was looking, my eye naturally gravitated upwards.

Yes, up to this eyesore.

An outdated, brassy coach lantern style light, mounted on the exterior of our house. And dirty at that! We have four of them. One is located next to the front entry, two on either side of the garage doors, and one on the back patio.

Yes, something needed to be done and I knew I could accomplish it with a can of Rustoleum black spray paint.

Hubby removed the fixtures, and I got to work pulling them apart and cleaning them. Some were worse than others...

as was the case of this nasty dirty fixture that was on the front of the garage. Hope you are still with me and today's breakfast or lunch didn't just come up.

Hardware was removed, light was taken apart and cleaned. I even took some compressed air and sprayed out the dead bug guts from the areas that I couldn't  reach.

Everything got a good coat of spray paint, including the little bits of hardware, and then the lights were remounted.

Ta Da!

Much better! Cost of this project? Approximately $9.00 which included spray paint and a can of compressed air for 4 light fixtures. The cost to replace this exact type of light fixture? Approximately $15.00 per light  X 4 light fixtures = $60.00.

That's $51.00 still in my pocket.

Fixtures were updated, I saved some money on NOT buying new and they were saved from being sent to Goodwill.

Linking to:

Shabby Nest Frugal Friday

 

The End is Almost in Sight.

Getting very close to finishing the door. I had a mere 4 hours of sleep last night, then had to get up and get my youngest out the door for summer school. I also knew that it was going to be hot, hot, HOT today, so I needed to get some painting done on the front door.

I hopped in the car at 8:00 a.m. and drove to the home improvement store, picked up a can of Benjamin Moore exterior paint, made a quick detour into the garden section to buy a few more plants, and then home!

Eyes were heavy, but I guzzled a couple of cans of Diet Pepsi and just dug in and got to work.

Tired yes.

Done?

No.

But getting close. I am thinking of doing one more coat of paint tomorrow, and then calling that good.

Needless to say, I was a bit crabby and grouchy today, due to the heat and lack of sleep.

Here is just a teaser photo of the interior side of the front door.

Primer and all. It was in MUCH better shape than the other side of the door. I have a few touch up spots to finish, and then it will be done. The only obstacle that I ran into on this side, is that some of the crevices were filled in with clear silicone caulk.

That stuff does NOT like to be painted over.

Grr..

More sanding and more priming and I remedied the issue.

I primed the kick plate yesterday, and now I just need to spray paint it a metallic silver color. The brass was dated.

I also have plan to spray paint the exterior light fixtures and rid them of their brassy color.

Keeping My Cool

It's a hot one out there. Low 90's for our part of the world. A bit too hot to finish the exterior of the door... too hot for this gal and too hot for the paint. I am thinking I am going to have to wait until early Monday morning to get the final coat of paint on. In the meantime, I will sit inside the air conditioned house and update the blog.

This morning I slept in, and then the girls and I went blueberry picking. We only picked 4lbs. before everyone was too hot to go much further. I am thinking that an apple blueberry pie is in order this weekend! Thankfully, blueberry season will go for a few more weeks at least. We hope to get out and pick quite a few more pounds. Last year we picked 14 pounds, froze most of it, and it still only lasted us 4 months!

My 9 year old pops blueberries into her mouth like they are candy. I can always count on finding her with her hand in the freezer and pulling a few berries out of a Ziploc bag. Needless to say, blueberries are her favorite fruit.

I drug the girls to only 2 garage sales today. They were being a bit non-compliant. I spent a whopping $.50 on a simple peg board/coat rack and $2.00 on this serving tray.

I was drawn to the detail in the wood. I have grand plans for it. They of course involve a can of Kilz primer, some paint, fabric, and decoupage. It is always nice to have a small project like this that can be completed in a day. Instant gratification.

Off topic...

I am the second oldest of 6 children. I have two sisters and three brothers. My youngest sister, Tiffany, is 10 years younger than I am. Tiffany has a product review site called "Babes and Kids."  You may have noticed the button on my sidebar. Occasionally Tiffany shoots me an email and asks if I would be interested in reviewing a product for her website. Today I am guest blogging over at Babes and Kids.  You can check out my latest review of Fibers.com,  at Babes and Kids Review , here.