Finding Stuff on the Cheap

There is nothing like the word free... even when it looks like this...  We found a chair that was on its way to being thrown away, and though I usually would let it go on its merry way, I have been interested in attempting re-upholstering, and this chair is particularly amazing.  At least it will be one day...  For now, I am thankful that we have tons of storage.

 

We also acquired this next beauty for a grand total of $30.  Though in probably a decent amount of $ in fabric to recover, it will be perfect when finished.

 

At least, unlike the other one, we can keep this one indoors!

Always time for cake!

A lot of good stuff has been going on with the house, but life goes on around us.  I made this robot cake recently for one of my friend's birthdays.  I love anybody in their 30s who still wants a robot cake for their birthday!!!

For the color, I mixed in 2-3 drops of blue liquid food coloring and 1 drop red in a large batch of frosting, which made a nice light purple that looked more gray than purple.  I arranged the cupcakes, and I used donut holes on top of the head and on the sides of the head. Then, I piped the cupcakes and took some edible silver spray and sprayed the whole thing down.  This did less than I expected to the color.  (The body has the spray, but around the eyes do not, so you judge for yourself.) 

Once the piping was done, I iced 2 more donut holes with white frosting and popped those on for eyes, piping around them to hold them in place, and give the robot eyelids.  (That is the part I was talking about that doesn't have silver spray.)  I used airheads, candy dots, and m&ms for the decorations, and whala!  Robot cupcake cake!

Fixed Pillars and New Roof

Here they are, the new pretty pillars.  It is amazing how much of a difference they make as far as the look of the whole house!

This is the before.

And this next one is the after, with the new roof too:

Updates, get 'em while they are fresh!

I guess it is a good thing that we have been so busy I keep forgetting to blog... I will post more detailed pictures of each of these things soon, but here is a quick update on how the house is coming along. 

One of the biggest problems we had was that the columns on the outside of the house were rotting, so we had to replace them.

Yucky rotting wood...

And here was our contraption to fix it!  We used a short board and a car jack next to the bad beams so they would be easy to pull down.

Another thing that needed to be replaced was some smashed tile downstairs.  When we dug it up, we realized it was real marble, so we knew we would NEVER find marble that would match the original for goodness knows how many years ago.  We went to a local salvage store, and low and behold, actually found some that was pretty darn close!  It looks just fine against the old marble, and as soon as we seal it and shine the old pieces, we are pretty sure you won't be able to tell a difference unless you are looking for it.

Smashed tile...

New tile sitting next to old tile.  This is before we laid the tile, because apparently 12x12 doesn't always mean 12x12, because the old tiles were closer to 11 3/4 inches, so we had to shave a little off of the new tile.  Finished pics will happen as soon as I get the chance to take some.

 

Onward to our pain in the neck project, removing the texture from the kitchen.  This is one of those projects we thought we would knock out in no time and be done with it, but man, did it take forever.  Here is proof, though, that we got it done.  Finished pics to follow.

I love the paint color... :)

Follow up to smoothing out the kitchen walls, we decided to go ahead and do the walls in the upstairs bathroom because the texture looked like what you would put on a popcorn ceiling.  It is almost finished, thank goodness, but here is a during shot:

Ahhhh... plaster...

And the thing I am probably the most excited about now, the floor under the carpet is gorgeous!  We have gotten as far as pulling up the old carpet and padding, and are working on pulling up carpet tacks and tack strips.  Not a fun job, but the floor is totally going to be worth it.

The floors are gorgeous!  To top it off, they are in really good shape, so it won't be as big of a nightmare to fix them as I thought it might have been...  We actually have this room painted now, but I might wait for the big reveal for when the floors are finished.

And icing on the cake...
We have two laundry rooms, a walk in laundry room in the main house that will hold our full sized units, and space for a stack-able unit in the walk in closet in the guest house.  I found a unit on craigslist for $175, which is awesome, that is in really good condition, so it is set up now, which is making it easier to transition to the new house.  We now have 90% of our clothes moved to the new house and can keep them clean there!  :)

Three cheers for clean laundry at the new house!!!

Lastly, we were worried about having a drainage problem because of the way the front of the house is set up, because all the water from the front of the house would gather and set in-between the carport and the guesthouse.  But lookie what we found!  When cleaning out leaves and around the grounds, we unearthed a drain in the very spot the water would sit, so now we know our drainage problem won't be an issue.

Finally the water has somewhere to go!

And, that is all for now.  There are more pictures of some of the things above that are finished now, but all in good time...

A Seussical Baby shower!

I am about to be an aunt to a little girl, so we took time off from the house to put together a baby shower.  Here are some pictures of the, "Oh, the Places You'll Go" Dr. Seuss baby shower, including lots of appearances from the Lorax. 

 

"Oh, the Places You'll Go" colored cake.  This is a classic petal cake, which there are tons of tutorials for online if you want to make one. The stand is made from an old chandelier, and around the cake are multi-colored homemade butter mints.

This is the Mommy seat, so she could be comfortable while opening gifts.  Yes, I made the hat.  :)

Amy behind her gift table wearing her fancy new hat.

Drink and plate table.

Here are all the food tables.

Here is a close up of the balloons that we hung from the ceiling.  They were made from construction paper, ribbons, and the baskets were mini cupcake liners.  Also, yes, those are multi-colored table cloths from the Dollar Tree.

Picture corner with Mom-to-be.

And a lovely young lady showing off the Lorax mustaches.

Here was the invitation.

My orange and white library!

A few of our rooms are coming together nicely.  We finished painting the library (thank you all my helpers) and I have my curtains all picked out.  I wanted an orange and white library, and it is incredibly hard to find orange and white curtains, but I lucked across exactly what I was looking for at the fabric store and bought enough yards for two windows and some throw pillows.  Here is what it looks like so far:

Here is the fabric that started it all.  It is a bright mandarin orange color on a linen type white fabric.

The color looks great in person, I promise.  I am not usually a fan of extremely neutral walls, but the plan is to paint all the trim work bright white (it is a light beige now), add the bright curtains, change out the light fixture for something more contemporary, bright white book shelves, sitting chairs, and lots of map art.

Coming soon, pictures of the process of changing out the columns in the front of the house.  Hopefully, they will be finished by the end of this weekend!  Wish us luck!

Playing Outside

We have been really excited to watch as things have started to blossom so we can learn what we have growing in our yard.  Here are a few of our discoveries:

Small Azalea Bushes in front of the front porch.

Pink Dogwoods as you enter the drive way.

3 Fig trees...

...that are starting to have tiny figs on them.

And last but not least, apparently this is a fruit baring olive tree.  I can try my hand at canning olives and even make my own olive oil!

On to other things, there are a few spots of rotten wood outside of our house, so that has been a priority project.   Since my husband works a lot but I don't feel 100% comfortable up a ladder and such, so it is coming along slowly but surely.  Here are a few pictures of the rotten wood on the side of the house and the progress we have made on replacing it:

Rotting under eave of carport.

David pulling it down.  In parts it just fell apart when he grabbed it.

He is a good sport.

Here it is when he has a large section torn down.  Luckily, it looks worse than it was.  From here, he replaced what he could of the 2x6s, pulled out any of the rotten wood, and put a new facing up.

Almost finished!!!  Before and after pics will come when it is complete.

Fixing the walls!

The people who lived here before us must have been the most picture hangin'est people that ever lived, because there were those little holes everywhere.  We dusted the walls, used that wonderful putty that starts pink and dries white, sanded like crazy people, and have started to paint the walls with primer.  This is when things start to get exciting because I can start picking wall colors!

In the living room looking into the library.

One of the walls in the living room...

In the library looking out into the living room. (Shelves to come later).

Looking into the library.  Most walls are flat, but one little wall is textured.  I kinda like it... :)

Coating the library with primer.

Back in the living room, looking at the outside wall of the library and the entrance way to the right.

Our house, in the middle of our street.

So, here is our little fixer upper!  I use the word little very lightly, because the house is huge.  It was born in 1946 and has been dubbed "Murder House," by our friend Brittnie because of the multiple huge closets that twist and turn and crazy big hidden rooms, like the walk in laundry room with the large sink in it and the big work shop with a drain in the floor.  It is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside, which is crazy because it looks big on the outside.  This is going to be a big change for me, coming from apartment or townhouse living over the last decade, but I am looking forward to the challenge, and the closet space!

Anyhoo... Here is the highlights tour!  Plenty of pictures will follow, but here is a good start. First, the picture taken from the real estate listing, taken when the yard is green and nice:

And here is when we went to look at it, in the dead of winter...

Mother in law suite

 

Livingroom

Kitchen

Den

And, of course, the sink in the laundry room.