When you have been planning a project for 8 years you tend to collect a lot of stuff and ideas.
I have had a Guest Shed Pinterest board going a long time (7 years) and if you look at it, you will see that my ideas for the house changed dramatically over time. I love Pinterest. In 2017 I wrote a blog post with my plans for the cottage. A lot has changed because reality set in. At first I thought we would go with a total mid century vibe when I thought the roofline of the building would stay the same, the bathroom would be at the back, and the wood burning stove would stay. It felt low slung and sort of 50’s mid century modern look.
After deciding that we would raise the roof (it was less than 8 feet in about a third of the house so wouldn’t count as square footage on an appraisal) I really took a look at what I wanted, what I gravitate towards, and what items are special to me. When you have years you can finally come to he point where you really are honest with yourself. My husband did an awesome job designing the new roof joist structure so that the electrical for the can lights and ceiling fan run through the collar ties connecting the beams at the top of the ceiling. He had a total vision for what it would look like. I did not.
I realized as I looked though my stash of things collected that I had a lot of sentimental vintage items, antique furniture, and more of a time worn vintage look. Most of my collected things have a story.
I returned to my Pinterest board, and started collecting pictures from pins on Google Sheets. Google Sheets work a lot like PowerPoint but it is free to anyone who has a Google account and they are so easy to share with people who can work on them with you in real time.
The results were that even though our house doesn’t look exactly like the inspiration pages, it has the same feel. I did not link the photos or give credit to the creators but the original information is probably on my Pinterest page if you are interested in something you see.
I added notes to remind myself what I was shooting for but I shared this one with a friend so there is more detail.I still love my sweet little kitchenette.I really had to look to see the beauty in this tub but it turned out great!The vanity turned out better than I hoped. The vintage sink I thought I wanted would have been too small to be useful. This is the paint I chose and the wall where the kitchen and front door are located in glorious v groove wood salvaged from a home remodel and given to us. I love the look.I did end up painting the cabinet red and did not use the sewing cabinet in the cottage.
As I look back at my notes I see that even though there were changes as we moved forward with the build from these inspiration boards the cottage still has the look I was going for. It feels like going back to my great grandma’s house but with air conditioning!
Over the holidays we got a little done on the craft/ guest room. We aren’t finished with the room, but I am excited with how it is turning out. I love that this room really will have two functions.
The Guest Room
It is a guest room when the Murphy Bed is down and the Expando-Matic is closed.
See my zinc mirror? It found a great home after I changed offices and lost space at work.
I am planning an accent wall inside the Murphy Bed.
The quilt 0n top was made by my great grandmother. I just picked up the turquoise suitcase for fifty cents at a resale shop. I had to show it off.
The shelves that hold my globes collected over the years are made from left over plywood from the Murphy Bed build and brackets from Lowe’s. The yellow clock has a story. My dad was getting rid of the clock frame so I snagged it. The shutter was out of my stash. It got a coat of paint and will be my idea board.
The Craft Room
When the Murphy Bed is up and the Expando-Matic is pulled out I have six glorious feet of craft space. The most unfinished function of the room is the craft part. I need the leaves for the epansion built, some things installed, and the closet redesigned.
It is going to be awesome.
I am a lucky girl.
Here are some closer shots of the walls. The Texas map was rescued from the trash. Someone used permanent marker on it, the frame was broken and the bottom was messed up. It was perfect for me. I got the market off with hairspray in case you didn’t know that trick.
The room is coming together.
Thanks for following our journey to make our ranch into our forever home.
I love the look of reclaimed wood and I have been smitten with reclaimed wood signs for a while. This week it was my turn to do the craft project for our ladies craft night so of course I planned a reclaimed wood sign project. We picked up a ton of cedar fence pickets off the side of the road a while back and have been putting them to good use. We have used them to cover my office wall, our bedroom wall at the lake, and I covered the top and drawers of a dresser with the wood.
This week we cut the wood to length for 8 signs and I glued and nailed two thin strips of scrap to the back of each set in order to make a canvas for our signs.
I used the vinyl cutter to cut out some sayings, brought a set of stencils, paints, painter’s tape, brushes, sanding block, sander, and anything else I thought we might use.
Each lady chose a canvas and set off on their project.
First, several of us whitewashed our boards.
The steps are easy. Remove the letters from the vinyl and keep the part that you removed the letters from. Lay the vinyl on the wood, make sure to press it all down really well.
Lightly apply paint to the spaces.
Allow the paint to set for a little bit the gently peel off the vinyl. You will end up with a picture or saying.
One of our friends decided to paint a picture on her canvas. Wow!
It was a fun, rainy night. You will see my “Kiss me” picture in our new place. It still needs some work to be done,
Saturday, before I found out that The sale of our near the lake house fell through, I took off in search of treasures for the home we hope to purchase. (It is funny how attached I am to that place. If it doesn’t work out I expect sympathy cards 😊) My buddy, the social planner, and I took off in search of treasures mainly for the Guest Shed and the outdoor kitchen.
Our first spot was my honey hole. A church thrift store where a ton of my treasures came from.
At the honey hole I spotted these two mid century pieces.
An iconic pink swan planter. I picked up this one in perfect condition for 50 cents. A succulent is going in it out in the guest shed. What a fun piece.
A vintage bamboo planter. Shawnee Pottery is very popular. I like the subtle color of green. I especially liked it for 25 cents. I am planning to put some sort of succulent in it, too.
My final purchase at this stop was a small white pitcher. I collect them. I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to pass them up. It was 50 cents.
Our next stop was new to me but I loved it and will be going back.
Two etched glass mirrors. The rectangular one will be going in the guest shed bathroom and one will be part of a mirror wall going in the guest bathroom in the main house. ( I have a mirror problem.) I hope it looks something like this photo I found on Pinterest.
The link to the picture is broken or I would provide the source.
I picked these two beauties up for 3 dollars each. I know what you are thinking. I absolutely take the worst photos of mirrors.
The social planner spotted this cream and sugar set in the most amazing teal color for me. I got them for another 3 bucks.
The social planner found stuff at the first stop too, then found a teapot to match her dishes and a salt glaze cow pitcher. Her stuff was a little pricey but was a steal for what she was getting. At check out she found out it was a cash only spot. We pooled resources to get her treasures. After she checked out she spied an awesome walnut mid century side table for me. It was marked 20 dollars but the owner offered it to me for 15. We reminded her that we didn’t have another 15 dollars between us. She asked if we could scrape up 10 and we were able to cobble it together. I love having a buddy who enjoys shopping at the same places I do. I also love that she and I are good enough friends that we are able to share resources.
By the time I got pictures of her treasures she already had them working.
The clean lines on the table will be perfect in the guest shed just as it is with a little waxing. I am getting excited about the treasures I am collecting for this space.
Our next stop was a church garage sale. We picked up 4 gallon sized glass jars for 50 cents each. They are going to be squirrle feeders. Our hubbies are going to make the four of them. One for each of our houses and one eac for gifts. I am thinking my grand dog needs one so she can have squirrels to chase in her yard.
Finally, we stopped at a church bazaar where we literally had to collect coins in order to buy two old colanders for an upcoming craft night.
All in all it was a great time shopping.
On the way home the social planner got busy looking up what we purchased. Here is what we would have paid online for the items:
I guess if this whole selling the house thing falls through, I can start selling my treasures!
I hope you all have a wonderful week.
If you are new to my site, welcome. I hope you enjoy the ride.
I am HATING and I do mean HATING having the Garagemahal shut down while the near the lake house is on the market. It has been an unusually cold, wet winter in southeast Texas and I have been at loose ends. It is too cold and or dark in the evenings when I come in to work on projects at home during the week and it is all about decluttering, cleaning, and moving stuff to storage on the weekends. Oh how I hope this is all over soon.
One of the things that I can do right now is plan and dream. After my big winfall at the clean out the barn sale, I am really thinking about the Guest Shed. According to the tax rolls it is a little over 400 square feet.
I know you are probably not impressed with it, but it is cool. It has a wood burning stove, hardwood floors reclaimed from a high school gym and already has plumbing. Currently it is a wood shop but it wouldn’t work for me. The enclosed space wouldn’t accommodate moving furniture in and out. There is a better space on the property already.
If you have a room you are thinking about redoing it is a great way to envision the space. I have super cool mid century chairs instead of the ones pictured, we will be building a Murphy bed that will look like a cabinet. The space will have a bathroom with a shower, a kitchenette with my farmhouse sink find in it a and cabinets already in the space.
The one room guest house is going to have bright white walls, a whitewashed turquoise wall, bright curtains. (I am thinking orange print for the curtains.) I love the site Spoonflower for fabrics. Right now these are my favorites:
I am leaning toward the wood grain as a nod to the woods surrounding the shed.
I plan on getting a modern vinyl fouton that can double as an added bed. I think the artwork is going to be mid century-ish fish as another reminder of the lake nearby. ( I also think they are really cool.)
I found these cool images on Etsy.
This Good Housekeeping 1959 photo is my inspiration with a more modern twist.
I collected some colors while out yesterday and I found the cushions for the lounge chair at Lowes. They are a green print.
Now if only our lake house would sell quickly. Fingers crossed.
As we are getting ready to sell our sweet little near the lake house, I think I am getting sentimental.
I dug out our scrap book from the first few years of our journey and was pleasantly surprised at all we have done on the home. I also thought back to all we did not know or have when we bought Star Hill eight years ago.
If you are anything like us, buying a second home is a stretch financially and a little scary. Buying a second home means there is suddenly a new house payment, electrical bill, home owner association dues, water, taxes, upkeep… the list is long.
First of all, buy only what you can afford comfortably, be aware in advance what to expect like how much to plan for utilities. I was such a nervous nelly that I insisted we make “payments” for two months into our savings account before we actually bought the house. That money we deposited was our contingency fund. Hubby was so desperate to convince me that we could afford it he packed his lunch for work.
What we didn’t have a great plan for was furniture. We bought a three bedroom home with very little furniture that would work in the small spaces.
I set a goal of getting the house move in ready for $1000 and we got it done. Move in ready does not mean perfect. It means we could spend the night, have guests, and have the basics.
There were a few things I learned from the experience that I think applies to any time you set up a new home. We followed the same strategy when setting up both of our kids in their first apartment.
1. Walk through your own home to see what can go to the weekend house . We were able to come up with linens, lamps, utensils, a chair, a cedar cabinet, and our first couch. You can see the ugly couch in the trailer packed for our trip to move into the lake house. It looked much better with a slip cover.
2. Let folks know what you need. Tell people what you are looking for. Cast the net and let people know specifically what you have on your list. We ended up getting to borrow a great table and chairs for several years until we built the set we now have. A friend gave me this ginger jar lamp and mom gave us a bedside table. Don’t turn things down because it is the wrong style, shape or color. Paint covers a lot of ugly, changing out parts makes things like lamps look better. Hardware can make something look totally different.
3. Roadside rescue. Look every day you can on Craig’s list free stuff. Ask friends to call with curb alerts. Every home I have furnished has at least a few curbside rescues. Star Hill is chock full of rescues. The biggest- you really won’t believe me, but it is true, is our master bedroom dresser, chest, and a night stand we use in the guest room. We also have this cast iron typewriter table that was left at our city house when the previous owners moved off.
4. Get up early and hit garage sales. Go with a list of items you need. Wooden chairs, storage items, lawn chairs, beach towels, life jackets, and cooking items, and decorative items were picked up at garage sales for pennies on the dollar. Ask when you go to a garage sale if they have specific items. I asked about sewing cabinet at a garage sale a year ago and the man holding the garage sale took me to the back yard to see two old treadle machines. The wooden parts were dry rotted, but the bases are now my master bedroom side tables. I got this chair and bookcase for $2.00 each. Glue, paint and fabric helped them.
5. Go to resale and thrift stores. Yes, they sometimes smell funny. Get past it and check out their furniture. Look for solid wood. Remember paint cures a lot. This coffee table was a Goodwill find. Blue paint updated the look and covered the scratched top.
6. Shop the clearance sections of target, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Kirkland’s, and Marshall’s. We picked red, white, and blue for our home colors. When looking for dishes, pillows, accessories I mixed and matched. A lot of our red stuff came from after Christmas sales. I have mixed and matched dishes that are all solid colors.
7. Shop Craig’s List. Be safe and never go alone but we find a lot there. My most recent CL find was this wood stove. This twin over double
8. Auctions are another source to furnish your home. One cold, wet January we got this brand new leather sleeper sofa ( our second sofa in the home) for $150.00. No one was bidding so we snagged it. It is great.
9. If you just can’t find what you need, make it yourself. Check out Pinterest, Ana White’s blog, or just Google what you need instructions to make. I am lucky enough to be married to a woodworker so I can just draw it and get what I want. This buffet, these benches, and this table are all examples of his hard work.
Over the years we have added, replaced, and upgraded. That is the fun of having a place. Because we don’t have tons invested in the furnishings I have given myself permission to experiment.
Ever since I started blogging, I have stopped 25 thousand page views to look over what happened since we started. I just hit 100,000 page views. I had not been paying much attention to the stats so this one was a bit of a surprise. It used to take a long time to reach 25 thousand page views. I mean a really long time. This time took 5 months. I was worried that in the last five months I wouldn’t have much to show you guys. It felt to me like we were sort of stuck and not getting a lot done. The kids moved out of the country, the garage is full of unfinished projects, school got started, life happened.
When I actually looked back over the last five months , I was pleasantly surprised. We got a little more done than I remembered.
My favorites from the last five months are below. If you click on the link below each picture it will take you to that actual blog, complete with DIY and pictures.
Our biggest project was updating our suburban bathroom and figuring out how to get that restoration hardware weathered wood look on a dresser. Board and batten, cool shelf, zinc finished towel rack and chandelier made to look like wood beads.
I worked off and on for a while on a funky dresser that is now 99% complete. I love the look of this piece that is going to be an entertainment center.
Not too bad for a “slow” few months. Being a weekend country girl is a great life. I am blessed to have the opportunities that I have.
Thank you all so much for joining my husband and me on this empty-nest, third quarter adventure. Repurposing furniture and blogging has helped me to stay active and has enlarged my circle of friends.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and travel with us on this adventure. We have a lot in store and look forward to the future.
This weekend we cut up some double bed foot boards and turned them into arms for benches. That meant that parts of the foot boards had to be removed.
Some people would have thrown the cut off parts away.
Let’s face it, some people would have thrown the double beds away. Since I was able to pick up all five of these beds for a total of $77.00, they are not very valuable these days, but I digress.
Back to the stuff I don’t throw away. I keep all the solid wood pieces cut off and try to reuse them. Here is a sample of the things I had laying around the Garagemahal this weekend:
I never, ever, throw away a chair or table leg.
I have even been known to rescue legs out of trash cans. At garage sales.
I don’t throw away solid wood boards. I keep it and it always seems to find a purpose. These old fence boards became my reclaimed wood wall. This was cedar wood taken down and headed for the landfill.
I don’t throw away drawers or even drawer fronts if the drawer is shot because I have used them for a lot of projects. Here is my sweet daughter in law’s Christmas gift to her buddies last year:
I do not throw away hardware. Hinges, knobs, handles, and even screws get saved. It may not work on the current project, but it has been my experience that I will need something as soon as I get rid of it. I even buy odd hardware at garage sales and thrift stores.
I also don’t throw away cut off sections of anything that was solid wood. This section of a door we cut off to make a headboard became a coat rack in my office.
I am not sure what I will be doing with the sections of headboard I saved… Do you have any suggestions?
I also save wood. Because we save every usable scrap, even scrap from building sites and out at heavy trash pick up, we don’t have to buy as much new wood. I love reclaimed wood and will keep every scrap until it is too small to save.
Paint gets used down to the last drop. I love buying oops paint when I can, but I am pretty picky about my paint (Behr paint with primer), so I do buy a lot full price and it is expensive. It gets treated like it is, too. I make sure the lids are sealed and try not to waste. When I am trying out a color, I always buy the sample first to make sure I love it.
I am not alone in the saving. When I visited Jeff at Facelift Furniture, he had this whole storage unit full of bits and parts. I have a feeling that most furniture repurposes are savers of spare parts.
I guess I am a hoarder. My husband accused me of being one this weekend when I was digging the spindles we removed from the trash can. I prefer to think I am doing my part to save the environment. That is my story and I am sticking to it.
Having me give advice on organization is humorous at its best, but after spending the better part of a weekend organizing I feel like I can at least tell you what I did and brag on my Husband. When we moved into the new suburban house everything that we were not sure we wanted or had a place for, ended up in the garage. Sound familiar?
It was GROSS. I literally had to climb over stuff to move through the garage if I wanted to go from the front to the laundry room.
Sooo If you are in the same boat as we were above, here is my advice:
Take it all out of the garage. We move the cars and drug it all out on the driveway. IT WAS EMBARRASSING FOR OUR NEIGHBORS TO SEE OUR MESS but it was the only way to sort it all out. We needed to be able to see everything.
Sort before moving it back in. Open every box, pull it all out and make sure you want to keep it. We had our trash can full before we got anything put back in the garage. We had three sorting piles once we decided it was not trash; garage, tool shed, and inside the house. We moved stuff to the right piles then took it to the correct location before we started on the garage stuff.
Go vertical. See this awesome cabinet?
My Hubby made it using a pattern from Home Handyman magazine.
The whole one day thing did not work for us, mainly because tools are scattered between the two garages.
It is great to store stuff on the wall. It has a dry erase board on the front. I love that it holds drills, caulk guns, safety gear, and levels all at eye level.
See how much like the magazine it looks?
We also installed a small pegboard for me to keep paint brushes, screwdrivers, and spray paint cans.
The blower and extension cord now have their own hooks, the lawn chairs have another set of hooks, and the toolbox is a rolling vertical chest. Probably the best use of vertical space is storing my wreaths. See where I have them? They are up out of the way not getting crushed.
Zone it. We now have a paint zone, a car stuff zone, a tool zone, and a nasty chemical zone. No photos of the finished product because we need another cabinet. It will be done soon. Here is the start of our garage cabinets:
Get rolling storage. See this rough looking chest? It was built by my husband out of scrap tongue and groove pine 30 years ago. It weighs a ton but it holds our chop saw, our circular saw, and grinder along with other assorted electricity requiring power tools. It rolls in and out of where we need it to be.
Like I already said I am no expert on organization, but this worked for us. In the future we plan on adding some more wall cabinets along the side wall but some stuff still needs to come out. The Coke machine is getting a makeover soon and will be moved to the Garagemahal and the table and chairs are sold as soon as I get them redone. If it ever stops raining, sleeting, and in general being winter here in south east Texas.
It is my plan to add a narrow work bench to the space. I have been eyeing this one on Pinterest because it stores wood and has two levels.
Even though we were both tired and sore when we finished, we were also pretty proud of our efforts.
Well this week will be a week of milestones for us here in the burbs.
It is my first “Back to School Week” in the new school district we have moved to.
I love it here. I am over the moon about my staff. They are awesome. But there are times I feel a little lost.
My textbooks and technology arrived! Yay! I was beginning to think we were going to start school with a stick of chalk and slab of wood!
My husband started his first week in his new job too. He is going to have a great year. He is an amazing teacher. I think he is feeling the same as I do.
There are also a few milestones in the blogging world too.
I started blogging two years ago. I blog because I enjoy sharing what I was already doing with others. I would never in a million years try to sell my work. it is my hobby, not my job. I never have gone outside of my friends on Facebook to tell people I was blogging because frankly I didn’t know what I was doing (I still don’t most of the time.) I switched my blog from Blogger to WordPress, and survived…barely.
I didn’t know how to “link up” or even what that meant six months ago. (I still mess this up from time to time.)
I didn’t know that I could create a Facebook page or even why I would want to create one.
Heck. I was a blogging train wreck!
Roadkill Rescue featured my mudroom bench this past spring. Wow! I had 1042 views on one day. My highest view day before that event. Did any of you find me there?
About a month ago I was contacted by Remodelaholic and asked to do a feature. A blog that gets 100,000,000 (yes, 1 million) views a month found my little, itty, bitty blog and liked my husband and my work. This past Saturday the feature was published. Thank you to the folks at Remodelaholic.
Did you find me there?
The feature leads me to the blogging milestones:
This week I have had almost 100 new folks like my Facebook page. Wow. Before this week, I had 37 whole people who liked my page. I have found that I enjoy the page because I can post sneak peeks of projects I am working on, Craig’s List finds, and quick updates.
Welcome to this little glimpse of my world.
It looks like I will hit 30,000 page views on my blog today. It took 18 months to hit the 20,000 mark. Thank you all for taking the time to read my rambling thoughts and for looking at our work.
We have a lot planned as we continue to work on our homes. We have a few gifts to get done before Thanksgiving that I hope the recipients, and you, enjoy.
I discovered Pinterest…it changed my life:)
and… I have sort of learned to tweet.
We are also setting personal goals for ourselves.
We are also going to work on finding balance. Hubby has taken up golf again. I’m feeling the itch to paint…I mean really paint, again. I plan to take more photography classes.
