Backyard Oasis

For some reason, I am not a big fan of yellow. I think it started with the yellow kitchen at the Shelburn House. I am still working with a lot of yellow here (the front of the house, garage doors, and sun room) but I can only take it one project at a time.

Below is a before. Yellow walls, red-brown patio, and exposed brick - what could I do?

That is Missy at the door, wanting no part of what I am about to do.

It's just so...blah.




The BEST part = after pics





I find the answer to many decorating dilemmas is paint. I painted the walls two brownish-grey colors from Lowe's called Stone Gray and Clam Shell. I painted the patio and woodwork a color called Bark. I found these awsome mosquito net-like curtains at Walmart (a necessary evil) and made curtain rods out of pvc pipe the previous owners left behind from sprinkler system repairs.



Not a real snake. I knew you were going to ask. I have it out there all the time. It is to get rid of the 1 million birds that lived in the Cypress trees. Yes. 1 million.



A view from under the porch. Do you feel relaxed yet?

I could sit here all day.


Another view from under the porch

Here is the sitting area. I later added a deck box that is not pictured.

The grill. Where the grilling magic happens. Because people, we are in Texas now, we take meat seriously. I also bought a smoker that is not pictured here and was also part of the weekend Josh put all my stuff together

A night view of the patio. I just love it! It turned out so well!

New House, New Bathroom

Okay, so it's really an old house (1983). How 1990 is this? Because that is probably the last time it had been updated. The lovely blue and purple flowered wallpaper is accentuated by gold tone shower doors and fixtures. Not in this picture is the gold metal strip vanity light with those big globe light bulbs, a penant light hanging from a chain, and the heater. And don't even get me started about the popcorn ceiling that I had to scrape. I mean, really? popcorn accoustic in a bathroom???

This is the type of heater that was above the shower/tub

The flushmount light is actually a heater (with a remote!) and the penant light was replaced with a monospot. The wall color was a mistint paint from Lowe's that I am describing as Hot Chocolate ($5!)

I took out the shower doors. I really didn't want to take them out. There was nothing wrong with the doors, other than being gold. In the end the gold proved to be too much and out they came. This is still the old tile, that is a project for later

I installed a new light fixture and framed out the existing mirror. All of the wood was painted a color called Muslin. New faucet for the sink.

Now I would like to talk board and batten. If you have never heard of this, well, now you have. It's similar to beadboard only way easier to do. Some 1x4's and 1x2s is all it took (above the toilet)

I am loving this board and batten treatment on the walls. So easy.

It's so hard to take good bathroom pictures. Here is another picture of the board and batten treatment

What to do with broken China

What do you do when you open a box of antique china to find that there are a ton of broken pieces? Turn it into your next craft project. I decided to use the broken china for mosaic.

First I broke the broken pieces into smaller broken pieces

This is an antique table that I decided to mosaic. See how it screams for help?

It really does need a little attention doesn't it?


I did the mosaic on the top and stained the table in a color called Kona

I also made some mosaic serving trays

and a jewelry box

Matt's New Old Coffee Table

My neighbors were throwing out this old coffee table. When I saw it on the curb, I knew I could work magic on it! I present to you - Matt's new old coffee table (for his gameroom)

The original plan was to just sand the old thing and repaint it (better). When I started to sand the table I was happy to see that underneath the shoddy spray paint job there was real pine! I bought some paint stripper and went to work. I then sanded. And sanded. And sanded some more.

In the end I decided to leave the top natural and keep the bottom black with a little distressing.


and here it is today. I love how it turned out. The rustic/distressed pine top with the distressed black bottom just sets it off.

Grandma's spiffy new shower

Here is the back story of Grandma's missing shower: Back in '03 Val Verde County forced my Grandmother from her home of 35+yrs by declaring imminent domain for the Hospital. She moved into a new house that was in horrible condition (I need to dig up this old pics because "horrible condition" does not do this thing justice). Some things got fixed right away, some things were put on the back burner. One of these things was her master bathroom shower. In 2003 the fiberglass shower was removed completely, leaving only the joists and concrete slab in its place. My Aunt and Uncle had gone back at some point and put in insulation, tar paper, and tile board. This year I decided to give Grandma the best present EVAR, a shower in the master bath. Some believed I couldn't do it (uh, do you know who you are talking to? I can do anything!). For all of those nay-sayers out there I now give you - GRANDMA'S SPIFFY NEW SHOWER

What does a dirt-filled hole have to do with this project? This is the first problem I encountered. Where was the plumbing? It was buried under 8" of dirt. I spent a whole day digging it out and then cleaning out the drain pipe I eventually found .

The second problem I had was having to build the back wall out 3 inches. 2x4's and plywood did the trick.

The wall is built up. The tile board is in place. The shower pan is in (sorry I didn't take pics of that process).

THE REVEAL

We used 16" tiles and mosaic style border from Home Depot. A shower door will be installed later.




A closer look at the tile. I also gave Grandma a rainfall shower head.

Another view of the tiles

Here is one with the fiberglass shower pan visible.

Dresser. Take two.

Ok. Here's the deal. I had this old dresser that I bought from Prater's in J'ville for $28. I am using it as an entertainment center, but it didn't really work that well because I couldn't fit my cable box, DVD, and TV on top.

After: I took out the top two drawers and their "tracks". I painted the inside of those and the rest of the dresser in Krylon black satin. I hated it at first because it is pretty thin and had to do like 3 coats, but it has the most beautiful finish now! I reused the hardware by spray painting them all silver

Remodeling pics, now with more kitchen!!!

By request here are a couple more pictures of the kitchen.

Below is the area leading to the pantry/dining room/ hallway

I rearranged the kitchen moving the little desk (which I repainted green with a black top, too

cute). A perfect area for storage and microwaving!

THE REST OF THE HOUSE

Before: The dining room was ....very brown.



Retro little table and chairs



After: Painted walls and doors, new artwork

New ceiling fan, new curtains and blinds, table painted and new chair added

Before: Living room of death. I like red, really I do. But here not so much

After: Paint, cute new mirror, painted the a/c unit, and rearranged things a bit

Does this even look like the same room? I think not!

Bedroom 2 Before: What can I say? It was drab

After: Pretty as a picture

Master Bedroom Before: Blah.

Aluminum blinds that seriously needed to GO!

Water damage to the corner

After: Painted. Mirror from Kirkland's.

Another view

I found these super cute curtains at Ross for like $6.00/panel.