So since I've been back home I've really been in this redo/reorganize/redecorate mode. It's been awesome! I remember when Andy and I first moved back to Troy and we were pretty broke and then some so I got creative with yard sale finds. I loved to paint them and Andy would often come home to a living room covered in drop cloths and my latest find drying while I waited impatiently to put another coat of paint on or add the finishing touches. I loved it. Well, I've kinda rediscovered my love for those things.
We have been busy this week rearranging the girls' rooms since they decided to trade again. Since Izzy already chose the colors for her room last year and we painted it, I decided to concentrate on her room right now. So I've been playing with some of her old stuff to make it new and exciting again. Oh yeah, and to match her room of course. Here's where we started...with the first house remodel...
Then we painted for 3 days and waited and waited...
So on top of the barbie house remodel (which I think turned out so stinkin' cute if I do say so myself!), we've also been working on some other projects...here's a glimpse...
This was simply cutting wrapping paper to fit the top and covering it with plexi-glass and then wrapping the drawers in the same wrapping paper. A little spritz of silver to spruce up the drawer pulls and she is thrilled...which thrills me, of course!
I picked this up at a yard sale for $.10...thought it had potential...
and it did! YEAH! BTW...I am loving these flowers for Izzy's hair...so stinkin' ca-yute!
I picked this ugly gold flecked dish up for a quarter at a yard sale and thought the shape was unusual and fun so I turned it into this...
which looks great on top of her bookshelf and under her mirror along with this starbucks jar that I also picked up for just $.10 at another yard sale. (Can you believe someone originally paid $34.95 for this (of course I painted it pink to match her room, but still)?) CRAZY!
She stashes her beloved make-up in this jar because it has a lid and then "no little kids can get into it." Love this kid and her common sense ways! LOL! So it all goes together along with this mirror I picked up at a thrift shop a couple of years ago for $3.00 in what I refer to as "The Diva Spot" in her room.
Now isn't that cute? She loves it and that's all that matters!
So in other rooms around the house and outside we've been up to a few other things as well...
We have pulled these off the cabinets and have applied a base coat to them. We've lived in this house for 7 years and I never painted the kitchen cupboards because I wasn't really sure how I wanted the kitchen to look. Well, now I know (kinda) so it's time to get started on them. I can't wait to have them finished and up on the cabinets....the doors are going to be so nice after looking at this for 7 years! LOL!
This was our ugly sidewalk before I decided to put Andy to work one day.
This is the right after (maybe I should take another shot now that things have settled in a little better..hmmm) and I think it's got so much more character which make me smile. Andy and I whipped this out in one day. It took us two truck loads of sand and 3 loads of rocks and if you don't count the gas money, it only cost us $12.00 in edging...you can't beat that! Now it's 2 feet wider and a lot more fun!
I had Andy help me pull this fire board down and painted it (although there won't be an after shot because I'm not sure I love it yet) and Andy also painted the wood stove so it's nice and beautiful black again. I'll post some after pics once I really decide how I'm going to finish this area...it's just not right yet.
This is our beautiful dining room window. When we first bought our house, this window was wrapped in a beautiful stained trim. I told Andy we were not going to paint it, that I just wanted the wood to remain because it was so pretty. Well, a while later, I was out of the room and Andy was going to town with his spray gun and white paint. I walked back into the room just as he had started to paint this window. I lost it and yelled at him for painting the window. So he dropped his spray gun and said he was done painting. Well, for 7 years, that window remained half painted and half stained because being the mature people that we are, neither one of us was willing to finish the job. Every time I looked at that window I would get pissed off and I would keep holding this stupid grudge. Andy did the same. Well, last week while Andy was picking up a load of sand, I decided to let it all go and paint that dang window. So I went to the basement and pulled out a can of white glossy paint and took it next door and asked them to shake it up for me (We live next to a hardware store in case that sounded weird. LOL!) and came back and started painting the window. Well, Andy came home and just grinned. Then for the next two days, he helped me scrape all the old paint off the window panes and now we have this amazingly beautiful window that just brightens the entire room. I love it and I wish I hadn't been stubborn for 7 years! LOL!
And finally, to prepare for the girls to switch rooms and because I simply couldn't even walk upstairs anymore...we started clearing out the kids' toys. We did it Clean Sweep style and laid out sheets on the yard and started just dumping by category. Once on the sheets we went through everything and threw away all of the broken things. Then we went through and decided what was going back into their rooms and what was going to the yard sale pile. I was honestly amazed at the amount of toys they had and the amount they willingly added to the yard sale pile! It was awesome. To give you an example, they went from 172 barbies down to about 20. That alone was awesome. They all decided they were too big to play with baby dolls anymore (except their American Girl dolls of course) so all of the babies and baby stuff got to go too! There were tons of books and preschool toys and costumes that were sent to the pile as well. I am so excited!
Of course that also means I need to get it all together and ready for a yard sale! LOL! The work never ends! But it sure has felt good to get so much finished or started these past couple of weeks.
PS. See that toddler bed in the last photo? Well, I was trying to think of some cool way to reuse it and then it hit me. I turned it on it's side and the girls now have a bike rack of their own! It's been so nice to not have bikes laying all over the yard!
Later Gators!
