Top 5 Projects 2008

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting a top 10 before and after projects of 2008! I just love a party, but I've only had this blog since July, so I decided to share my top 5 instead.

Hope you enjoy!


Project #5
My toile barn star. Read more here.


Project #4
My boys' room. See it here.


Project #3



My closet-turned-mini-mudroom! Read more about it here.


Project #2

Our kitchen remodel. See the BEFORE here. See the AFTER here.

Project #1
Our laundry-room/half-bath remodel...a year and 1/2 in the making. Read the whole story here.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm so grateful for all of my readers and the wonderful/positive comments you give me! I just love this little corner of the blogosphere that has connected me with such a wonderful group of creative people! Can't wait to share a bunch of new projects and fun with you all in 2009!

Friendly Homes Friday~

For today's Friendly Homes Friday we're visiting the lovely home of my darling sister-in-law Betsey! Betsey is married to the Hubby's older brother. They live in a wonderful old farmhouse in Northern Maine! It has so much charm and character that you fall in love with it immediately when you drive up the 1/2 mile dirt road through the woods into the clearing where it sits! And once you come inside, you're tempted never to leave. Betsey is a wonderful hostess who rivals Martha with her creativity! Her home is warm, inviting, and creative...just like Betsey. Enjoy the tour...

This is the sun room...the Hubby remodelled this room for his brother and Betsey about two years ago. It used to be a 70's "greenhouse" addition, and now it is a beautiful room that fits the vintage of the home! My favorite place in the house!
Here's a wider view. You can see that the sunroom sits right off the family room separated by an old weathered beam. So charming!

This chair-and-a-half is so comfy you can sleep in it! Trust me...I have on many occasions!

I'm always looking for great storage ideas...and I just love these boxes! And the baskets? Longaberger. Love them too! Betsey used to be a Longaberger rep so she has many of these lovely baskets throughout her home.

My other favorite room in Betsey's house is the guest room. This wall pocket is found there. I just love the colors and textures in this little floral arrangement...so pretty!

This charming old desk serves as a bedside table.

And here's the bed...love the pineapple finials! Just makes me want to curl up for a nap!

Betsey is the queen of signs...they are everywhere in her house! I am drawn to this little vignette with the dried floral wreath and the sweet vintage-inspired sign.

Another view of the mirror over the bedside table/desk. I'm a fan of using ribbons to hang mirrors.

This pretty stained glass window lights up the room.

This cute chandelier sits over the kitchen table...yes those are flying pigs! How fun is that??

Oops! This one is out of order. Here's another photo of the sunroom...you can see the beadboard detail on the ceiling. I LOVE BEADBOARD!

A bench welcomes visitors just inside the front door. Love the wreath over the mirror (and, of course, the beadboard!)

Another chair-and-a-half in the living room. I love the red and white ticking!

I love this lamp full of sea glass. It sits in the beach-themed bathroom on the main floor. Betsey collected all of this sea glass herself!

Hope you enjoyed your tour!

I have some fun things planned for next week, so please join me here on Monday!!

Have a wonderful weekend~

Laundry/Half Bath Reveal...Finally!

Today is the long-awaited, much anticipated (by me at least) reveal of our laundry room/half bath! I believe in giving credit where credit is due, so I want to start out by saying that this whole design was really a collaborative effort between me and the Hubby. He has a great eye for design, and we really planned this thing together right from the start. Besides that, he did all the hard stuff in here (anything construction related) I painted and did the decorating. So, ya know, he deserves a little pat on the back.


And now for those of you who care at all why it has taken so long for us to finish, I have a little story about the reason (I promise to be brief). Some very good friends of ours had a "minor" catastrophe with their house. What started out as simply having a french door to their deck replaced ended up being a major remodel of one side of their house. The contractor who was putting in the door discovered a problem with their subfloor which was rotting. (Hey the house is over 200 years old, so what do you expect?) The rotting floor discovery led to a cracked beam discovery which led to a structural engineer telling them that they had to brace up the second floor...yada yada yada. So since the Hubby is a home improvement contractor, he helped them put the whole thing back together. And since this project was in addition to his other job commitments, he spent his spare time there working on their house instead of at our house. And you know what? That's okay with me. We love our friends. Their house is now fine. And our laundry room/bathroom is now finished. Sooooo after that super long explanation....here's the laundry/bath...



We went for a cottage-y farmhouse feel...
I really wish I had some before pictures, but the Hubby had torn out everything before we even moved in. I'm not exaggerating. There was no floor, no vanity, not even a toilet. He had to put a toilet in the first day we lived in the house. True story.

I love this mirror. Picked it up forever ago. It's followed us from house to house, but it looks perfect here. (I'll have to take it with us if we ever move though!)

One of my favorite things about this bathroom...the little vanity and the faucet! We had to have storage, but didn't want to take up too much room so we found this little darlin' at Home Depot. I love the fact that it looks cottagy like an old farm sink. And I *heart* that faucet!


Here is one of the locker baskets I had tucked away, it was too wide for the shelves I'll show you in a minute, but it looks great on the floor with extra towels tucked inside!

Uh, so yeah, what do I say about this...it's the toilet. Ahem. But what I really wanted to show is the beadboard wainscotting....it's 4 feet high with a great ledge on it. The wall behind the washer and dryer has beadboard all the way up to the ceiling...a focal wall if you will! And on the window...a little mistreatment. Just used remnant fabric from my mudbench and upholstery tacks.

This is the shelf on the other wall above the washer and dryer. I adore how it turned out! My cute feather lamp found a home there. And I love the idea of the old farm wire basket holding extra TP. Hey, at least my guests will know where it is if they should run out ;-) The sign reminds me that I should make things easy on myself (even though I do at least 10-12 loads of laundry of week.)

A great idea for holding those pesky drier sheets. (And q-tips - never know when you might need 'em.)

The shelf with the washer/dryer...see the little green light on the washer...yeah, it's running...pretty much always! :)

A little side note for those of you with design-oriented minds. We decided to go ahead and mix metals here...all of the fixtures are a brushed nickel, and the accents are an oil rubbed bronze (or a painted black...it all looks the same to me) but we figured, if we're aiming to look cottage, then we can mix and match finishes because it gives it an acquired-over-time feel. Besides I like the way it all looks together - which is what really matters.



Oh, and these pumpkins? Not in the bathroom...in the kitchen....just here to remind me to say Happy Halloween!

Have a lovely weekend~

Too Optimistic

I hate to let y'all down, but the Hubby worked like a dog on Saturday and still couldn't get all of the bathroom finished. He told me perhaps I was a little too optimistic about having the bathroom finished today. It is really close though. He only has to reinstall the baseboards. Then we - and by we, I mean I - have to paint. (Sounds like kind of a big job, but it really isn't too bad.) Sooooooo....I should be able to post the BIG REVEAL in a couple of days. But, just so I don't leave you hangin' too badly, I want to post some "in progress" photos - we really don't have any before photos. The Hubby had the old linoleum and vanity torn out before we even moved in and I didn't have presence of mind enough to take pictures of the empty room before he started redoing it - what with moving in to a new house and all. So, the bathroom has been a work in progress for over a year now. But I was "optimistic" it would be done this weekend. This week for sure though! If I have to be something, I guess being an optimist isn't too bad!


Yes, I did actually let a picture with a basket full of dirty laundry get posted on my blog...but remember it is a before photo. I never have dirty laundry in my laundry room anymore (ha ha ha ha ha!!!) Okay, and both of these photos are of the 1/2 bath side of the room... that's because the Hubby was working on the other half this weekend, and I couldn't get in to take any photos!
See....in this photo the room's not even done yet and NO dirty laundry ;-)


The rest of the week should be more exciting! I have some other "before and after" projects to share. And tomorrow... an exciting announcement!


Oh, and before I forget, Darlene at Darlene's Days tagged me.
I'm supposed to list 6 unspectacular things about myself.

1. I have freckles - and a love/hate relationship with them ;-)

2. My favorite author is Jane Austen.

3. My favorite color is pink.

4. I am the 4th of 5 children. Two sisters and two brothers.

5. I love to do Pilates although I have been hard pressed to find any work out time since having my youngest!

6. I am an aspiring children's book writer. and photographer. etc. etc.

I'm not sure who to tag, so if anyone wants to play along, go ahead and then leave me a comment so I can see what "unspectacular" things you had to say!

See you tomorrow!