Before & After: Ginger's Uptown

Before:

After:



Aside from the obvious crop and conversion to b&w, I used the clone tool on the top of the tent and the extra support wires for the sign.

My Craft Room

Part of the wonderfulness of our home, and part of the attraction I had to it when we were looking to buy a home, was this secret little room.
(The previous owner used it as an office.)



To get to it, you must go through the master bedroom, through the master bath, and through the walk-in closet.

And there, hidden in the closet, is the secret door to my special craft room.


It sat rather cluttered for...oh...8 months.
Yikes!
...and no, Rowan wasn't in there the whole time.



Today I have reclaimed it!!!


While it's not 100% organized, it is organized enough for me to finish one of the handful of in-process projects I have going at the moment.



I hope to share something crafty with you soon.
;)

Before & After: Dining Room to Office

When we moved in, we knew there were just a few things that had to go. Such as the wallpaper...especially in the formal dining room! It took us much longer than planned to strip the wallpaper and repaint, but Seth's parents came to visit one weekend about a month or more ago and basically striped it all for us!


Seth's Office Before

(or more commonly known as the Formal Dining Room)



Seth's Office After
(please excuse the mess!)

I plan to buy/make a dark brown & white striped valance, but who knows when that'll happen! And yes, that's a large Jessica Simpson cardboard cutout in the corner. Kevin Harvick's in another corner.

Chair Rehab

Here's the chair that will eventually match the computer desk!
I bought it at a garage sale several years ago and painted it, which was a bad idea, since it did have somewhat nice wood. But that's history, and it's not nice enough to refinish, so I'm painting it again!

Here it is all painted, but something's missing...
(aside from the seat.)

that's better!

A while ago, I went to Hobby Lobby to get some fabric and foam to make a nice seat. But the foam was going to cost a minimum of $15 for the thickness I wanted...this chair is not worth $15.
So, I improvised and used a very old and yucky looking pillow for the cushion.

Then I waited a long time for someone who owns a staple gun to visit us, as I was forbidden to buy one only for this project. And this past weekend, Seth's parents brought me theirs to use!

When I was ready to upholster my seat, I realized that the cut of fabric I bought was a little too short. So, I had to go buy more.

But, I finally bought some that mostly matches in the right size and finished it today!

Ta-Da!!

Table Rehab

Seth's parents let us have this old table to use for the kids' computer.

It sat in the barn for I don't know how many decades and I really wish I'd have gotten a picture of it before Gale cleaned it off!
(thank you for doing that by the way!)
But, to give you an idea, add half an inch of dust and some bird poo and you've got a pretty good visual.


The first thing I did was to sand it down.


It didn't dawn on me until I was already half done that I was most likely sanding lead based paint.

...good thing lead based paint never hurt anyone...
umm, wait.
(that's complete sarcasm, in case you were wondering ;) )

After sanding was done, I secured the top to the legs a little better with a couple screws, repaired a leg that was a wee bit shorter than the rest and hammered in some nails that were poking out.


oh, and Rowan helped!



Then came the fun part!
Paint!
I used the paint we had - mainly what came with the house.

Once it was dry (obviously) I hauled it upstairs to it's intended spot.
It's actually quite sturdy!



...once I had it in place, it dawned on me that the chair which goes with it, that I also need to repair and paint is at the old house. (yes, it really took that long before thinking that Breck might like to have a chair to sit on while at the computer!) So, until we are able to haul it home, Breck will have to use a folding chair.

Paint by Numbers?

Our house numbers were looking a little worn, so instead of spending $2.50 per number ($10 total), I bought some gold spray paint for $2.97 and fixed them! And I'm going to use the same gold to spruce up the hardware on our bathroom cabinets.




...you can't really see them from the road very well, so I may go back and buy a darker color.

Restoring Order: Kitchen Cabinets, Counters and Laundry Cabinet

This week my focus started with the kitchen counters - mainly removing all the things that we don't need to be out. My goal was to have only the coffee maker, spice rack, utensil basket and over-the-sink plant stand remaining. I had to find a new home for everything else - which was a HUGE challenge, since we are so limited on space. (or perhaps it's that we I have so much junk that I just can't seem to let go of!)

But, in order to clear the counter, I needed to rearrange the contents of the cabinets (and a drawer), so everything would fit! Here are the before and afters of the cabinets:

(I know these aren't very impressive, but we had our tupperware in two different places and now it's all in one, the blender was a pain to get in and out of the cabinet and now it's not, and now all of our rarely used small appliances are in a separate cabinet (not shown) instead of sitting on top of the cabinets.)





Then I was able to finish clearing the counter of random clutter:



I think the cleaning bug bit me pretty hard, because I also cleaned and organized the laundry cabinet:



For next week, I'm hoping we get the kitchen and living room completely painted, I want to organize under the kitchen sink and the space around the microwave needs an intervention!

~~~

This week Rebecca is hosting the Restoring Order meme. Visit her to see everyone else's decluttering problems solved!

Restoring Order: Phone Area

I just found a fun little meme today and thought I'd jump in at the last minute! It's called Restoring Order - basically decluttering areas of your home. (and I certainly need some motivation in that department!) Monica & Rebecca are the masterminds behind this wonderful thing and I encourage you to visit their sites to see how they've decluttered!

Since I just started today, I only got one area done, but I'm pretty happy with that! I chose to tackle our phone area.

With the possiblity of moving soon, we've started looking at our home in a new way - from a buyer's perspective. Which is great even if we end up staying put! We've begun to let go of things much easier and have started making mental lists of areas that need some serious help!

So, without further ado, here are my before and after pictures: