The Work Has Begun...

The work has begun to make this...

Look *something* like this... (which I rendered in photoshop)

We found someone to help us do the work for a very good price so things are moving much quicker than if we were doing a straight DIY.

First, the scraping & sanding...(which took about a week)

Looking rough, huh?

Then, Chris and Charles the Painter spent a Saturday putting up some additional trim work...

(don't worry, we'll add that last little piece up top after we fix the gable)

...While Bei and I worked on the shutters...

Then, Charles the Painter pressure washed the house...

and accidentally discovered that we have really pretty flagstone walkways and patio in the back (under a bunch of dirt)!  Who knew!?

Anyway, back to the house...

Next, Charles the Painter primed (most of) the house...

And then...

drumroll, please...

Charles the Painter went on vacation.  

But never fear, the improvements continued...

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend...Chris and his dad (and I) were hard at work.  

They removed the wraught iron...

(can I get an amen!?!)

...replaced rotten wood, and started building new columns, which meant that our house was temporarily suspended by 2x4s...scary.  

Huge improvement, right?

But the gable needed replacing...

I kept myself busy by adding more color to our front door, painting & rigging our porch swing, staining & building our shutters, and priming wood boards.  

At the end of the weekend, I think we accomplished a lot!  

This week, we'll work on getting up the new wood railings, and then awaiting Charles the Painter's return for our spiffy new paint job!

Wahoo!  

So remember, we started out with this...

Spruced it up to this...

But it currently looks like this...

And now, we're going for something like this...

Check back in for more updates!

Kitchy Curtains

Rule # 1...When making curtains, resist the temptation to hang your unfinished curtains just to "see how they look".  If you give in to this temptation they WILL hang unfinished for weeks, months maybe.

I made this mistake with these curtains, but finally got up the motivation to finish sewing them!
Nonetheless...now they're up!  Yay!

Before curtains...

 After curtains...

Better, right?

(I'm going to order this little plaid rug in a bigger version, to cover up our awful linoleum floor!)

The secret study...

I've never really blogged about our study, because it's such a hodge-podge.
Lately, I've put a little more effort into it and it's shaping up a little bit, but definitely not my favorite room.
I guess it's time I take this room out of hiding and show it on the blog...

I'd like a smaller desk with drawers (without the tower) that could later move into the guest room as a bedside table/desk combo.

This desk creates a real storage problem!  And, it's so traditional, for my taste...although I did pick it out once upon a time.  

I painted the legs on the desk chair, just to spice it up a little.

I had fun painting this elephant lamp this peachy-pink color.  It used to be black.  I think it has a lot more personality now! 

I need a different color shade for it, but I haven't found the right one yet.

I'm glad to get this hand-me-down kilim rug from my mom- by way of my sister, Emily, who no longer had a spot for it.  

Even though, per this post, I know some of you voted for my to put my cowhide in this room.  Which, I agree, looked great.  But this is my leftover room...the other rooms in my house get priority for all things fabulous.  So the cow ended up in the living room.  

I recommend color coordinating your books...it made a big difference in this bookshelf.

This is my favorite vignette in the room!

I bought the shelves unfinished and stained them myself.  

My sister found the two little egg shaped lamps at a garage sale.  I need different shades for these as well.    (You can't tell from the pic, but the bases are cream and the shades are stark white)

I coiled some rope up in this wooden charger for a little interest.  

The chest was a hand-me-down from my Mom's friend.  I love it!  The drawers need some work though!

I'm embarassed to show, this "vignette" looked like this for months...

It's aweful, I know.  I couldn't look when I walked by.  I was waiting around for new lamps, and thinking I would either bribe my sister to paint me something big or try to do it myself.  

I was glad when I thought to put shelves here, because it saved money on artwork, and I didn't have to buy two big lamps.  

Now, erase that from your memory and go back to this...

Ahhh, much better right?

Thanks for checkin' in.