Country Style Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

bathroom, Building a Home, Country Style, new home

Home Tours and Trends

July 26, 2023July 26, 2023 Karen

Our area is growing! In fact the adjacent county is currently one of the fastest growing in the nation.

We live on the western side of that small county I’m pointing at in the Texas triangle.

Land that was formerly ranch land is turning into neighborhoods and the families moving to this area seem to be used to paying significantly more for their homes and property than I am and it seems that they aren’t shocked at paying eighty thousand an acre for unimproved land on a paved road with connections to electricity, water and sewer. The lots in the neighborhood The Social Planner and I visited are one to three acres each.

I blew up a section so you could see the lots. Every one one, two or three acres. The top section are 3/4 acre lots.

Recently they put up signs that they had model homes open so of course we had to check them out. There are six homes to view but only five were open. They were all built by different home builders approved by the neighborhood and all of them were beautiful. It was a treat to visit them.

I loved the opportunity to see them side by side and it gave me a chance to see what trends they had in common and some unique rooms. Every home was over three thousand square feet so there is room for all the bells and whistles.

Here are some common trends:

1. Four of the homes had some sort of guest house, efficiency apartment, or mother in law suite. One of the realtors there said that is something that she is asked about a lot. We are seeing more of a multi generational homes due to kids living at home longer and elderly parents moving in with their kids.

I didn’t get lots of shots of the extra spaces because most of them were where the office for the builders were located but did get a few shots. My favorite is the totally separate guest house that was about a thousand square feet.

2. Less of an open concept home is on the rise.

There were more separate rooms in the homes. I have to wonder if all togetherness during the pandemic and more working from home is changing the wide-open, see-everything/all the stuff from the front door trend or if it’s that we have different generations living together and everyone needs a place to escape. There were separate smaller rooms in every home, craft rooms, offices, old fashioned parlors, media rooms, and a bar. When we moved into our house we actually added a wall so I could have a mudroom to stop the clutter. We use it so much we added another bench outside for the really dirty stuff.

3. Pets are starting to be considered in home design more.

Two homes had a whole room just for pets. Another home added pet space to the laundry room.

4. Kitchens open are still a thing but “back kitchens or butler’s pantry’s are solving the clutter problem.

Every home had open kitchens connected to the main room and open but they all had hidden spaces. Those air fryers, crock pots, blenders, charcuterie boards, mixers etc. need a place to hang out that’s out of site.

The kitchens were beautiful but wide open.

5. Master bathrooms are fancy. Really fancy!

It seems like master bathrooms are becoming more and more a retreat. Huge showers, stand alone tubs, lots of cabinets and luxury.

What are you noticing about new homes? It is fun to see what is new and different even if it isn’t always something I would personally want. I loved having the opportunity to to see inside these beautiful places.

Thanks for coming along with us on our trip.

Blessings,

Karen

Christmas, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Decorating, Dining Table, painting, Texas

Using Dollar Tree Peel and Stick Tiles to Make Christmas Trees

December 10, 2022 Karen

I saw on Pinterest lots of examples of making trees out of wood and Dollar Tree faux tin tiles and thought I would give it a try.

I plan on my trees going on our deck table so they are sturdier than a lot I saw. The need to hold up with wind and rain. The triangles are cut out of leftover pieces of wood from our stash. I made sure they would fit the tile.

After the wood was cut, I traced the shapes off on the tiles and cut them out with scissors. Several sites talked about using hot glue but my things get stored in a super hot space. Hot glue doesn’t hold up so contact cement was the best choice.

Everything got a coat of Kilz Gripper Primer. It is made to stick to slick surfaces.

I used the same paint I used on my mural to paint the trees then dry brushed the high spots with black and white paint. Literally you dip just the tips into the paint then take off most of the paint before lightly dragging it across the surface.

I cut some small blocks for the tree trunks and Mr. Math cut the bases. He then screwed them on. If you are doing something like this for indoor E6000 glue would work fine. We always overdo.

I really like how they turned out.

It is really warm here now and we are spending a lot of time outside so we get to enjoy the trees.

I hope your weekend is great.

Blessings,

Karen

Building a Home, Coldspring, collecting, Country living, Country Style, vintage style

Using Pinterest and Google Inspiration Boards

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 Karen

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!

Thank you for following along on our journey.

We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country Style, Decorating, DIY Furniture, guest house, Painted Furniture, painting

Paint Changes Things

August 15, 2021August 15, 2021 Karen

I bought this piece of Ethan Allen cabinetry at a resale shop years ago. It would have been part of an entertainment center. It hung out in storage then had legs added and moved into my principal office as a printer cabinet after it was painted a vivid turquoise. It served me well until I moved to another position where I couldn’t bring my furniture.

It was moved with us and ironically ended up stored in almost the same spot where it now is in the guest house for years.

When we got all the furniture out I thought it would work with the color scheme but the two 1950’s chair cushions were too much for the space.

Of course the solution was to change the color. The only color I could see it as was red. I also wanted some of the turquoise to come through because even though it is bright, I like it. Believe it or not there is a bit of a paint shortage in our area. Apparently it is the time of the year that students paint their parking space and red was hard to find. It took three stores. I would have loved that… back in the day’

I brushed a few areas with paint thinner, painted the cabinet classic red, then sanded over places to let it look a little distressed.

It is amazing how it changed the look. Of the piece.

Not sure the folks at Ethan Allen would approve but we like it. We have installed a television so the cabinet is going to hold dvds etc.

The paint thinner made the wrinkles you see in the corner.

Still plugging along on the exterior but soon there will be paint.

We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, vintage style

Installing a Vintage Kitchen Cabinet

August 4, 2021August 5, 2021 Karen

Five years ago I bought a complete 1930’s upper kitchen cabinet set on Craigslist. It was solid, but filthy. The cabinet sat in storage at our house from the day we brought it home but I always knew where it would go when we finally got the guest house started.

It had all the original Bakelite hardware still on it but was in too bad of shape to save.

We literally figured out how big the front window could be, the location of the window, and the door based on this cabinet set. There was math involved and a little fussing at each other over getting everything just right.

When we started the building the cabinets were moved to the outdoor kitchen so I could work on it.

I took all the cabinet doors, hardware, and all the nails from when it was removed from the wall off then sanded everything down. It took several days.

Apparently at some point the cabinets were in a shop or garage and some knucklehead stored oil in there. It too a bit of sanding and strong primer to get the oil stains covered.

The cabinet doors had to be stripped and all the holes filled. The outdoor kitchen is only partially under cover and we have had the rainiest summer I can remember. Most days it was under a tarp.

The cabinets were painted with Behr cabinet paint in bright white. I picked chrome hardware to play on the vintage feel. Hardware is expensive people. For four knobs, two handles, hinges, and fasteners it was over $50.00 but it is so pretty!

That hardware! The Fiesta plate is a gift from my friend The Social Planner. Her father in law made it for them years ago.

The cabinets sat so long outside that when the were installed they needed another cleaning and a coat of paint. The biggest challenge was to get cabinets that were taken out of an old house, then put in a storage unit, then moved, then again in storage, then outside then moved again installed so that they were level and square on the wall.

The first try didn’t go so well.

Look at the cabinets compared to the wall and the horizontal planks. I literally laughed out loud.

The wall isn’t square, the floor isn’t level, but with some adjustments and more fussing, it looks better. Adding vintage kitchen ware on top helped too.

A folding table is standing in for the kitchenette until we get it built. That vintage sink under the window will be so beautiful.

We have a beautiful butcher block counter, vintage sink, refrigerator, microwave, and storage going in after the exterior gets painted. I am making myself wait but it is hard.

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to work off my drawings?

We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Camp house, Country Style, Nature, Redneck Retreat, Roadside Finds

Finds From Our Week in the Woods

April 20, 2020 Karen

We just spent a week at the Redneck Retreat. The weather was beautiful and we spent the week getting some projects done and spring cleaning. It is the perfect place to walk and enjoy nature. There are trails, creeks, a pond, flowers, and animals a plenty.

While on one of my walks I discovered an interesting dump site. The dump site was virtually all old dumped alcohol bottles. The bottles are tossed in the woods along what at one time was the main road past the land the Redneck is located on when the land was part of the Weir Long Leaf Lumber Company. The article below is from Galveston in 1922. I find it unbelievable that the town, company, railroad, swimming pool etc. was built with the expectation that it would only be there 18 years or until all the virgin timber was gone.

After the mill moved along the land was left in rough shape and the area suffered. It did have one benefit though, until Jasper county changed their laws in 2017, Newton County was a wet county while adjacent Jasper County was dry. Basically you could buy alcohol in Newton country and not Jasper. Our property is just over the county line. The landmark we use to tell people that they need to turn is County Line Liquor.

I can’t imagine why this particular road (trail really) was party central in the 1960’s ( after a little checking most of the bottles and the few cans I saw were from that time) but my guess is that it was a quick trip for more supplies if needed.

The phots of the site are terrible. I was wearing shorts and no gloves so me tromping off into the brush wasn’t going to happen. Snakes, spiders, chiggers, poison ivy… but I will be gowing back fully armed in the future.

I did pull a few bottles off the top and brought them back to clean up.

I loved the green ones so I searched them online. I now know that they were Mickey’s Widemouth Bottles and that they switched from snap on lids to screw on in 1980 but were made starting in the 1950’s.

The ones I found will be holding the wildflowers I love to pick when we are up there.

We have lots to still explore on the property and look forward to making memories there for years to come.

We are so blessed to have a place to get away to and share with our family and friends.

We love hearing from you all.

Blessings,

Karen

Country Style, Decorating, family, Fun with friends, ship lap, Style, Texas, traveling

A Trip to Waco Part 1

December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 Karen

Y’all, I had the best weekend last week. I got to spend the weekend in the season 1, episode 1 Fixer Upper home. While that was an awesome experience, sleeping for two nights with all of my kids and my sweet granddaughter under one roof along with our dear friends was the BEST part of the weekend.

I hope you don’t mind, but I am going to share my weekend with you along with a few tips in case you head to Waco yourselves.

First of all,

This my friends is the house we stayed in.

It is a beautiful home.

Come on in, I will show you around.

The three stories of stairs are so pretty. They were quite a challenge for our 18 month old granddaughter to navigate. She could not get enough of them.

The first shiplap room on HGTV. Joanna made her mark convincing Charmaine to leave the walls open to reveal the shiplap that traditionally was covered with a “finished” wall in this one small room.

There are the requisite French doors. I just loved this little space.

The kitchen is my favorite room in the home.

I loved the beams, the tile, the vent hood, the lighting, and he countertops. That island, made by Clint Harp from reclaimed shiplap made me swoon.

Something I wasn’t prepared for was the industrial elements. The paper towel dispensers, the exit lights, the pump hand sanitizers on the wall. Charmaine said that at one point she planned a child care center here.

Oh, and Joanna would never approve of the shelves that are in the corners.

The family room was very comfortable.

The front porch was amazing.

You just have to be comfortable sharing it with all the Fixer Upper fans who drive by, stop by, jump out of their cars for pictures, even coming up on the porch, and even the one extremely brave man who asked if he could come in… in case you are wondering the answer was no. I enjoyed it and waved like a fool at all of them until they drove off… except that one.

Also, the neighborhood is rough. It is definitely the best house in the worst neighborhood now.

The house sleeps more than 12, has four full and one half baths. It is close to Magnolia Market, and the homeowner is the same person who was on the show. She checked in on us, brought a Keureg when he one there didn’t work, and was a pleasure to work with.

The home can be rented HERE, if you are interested.

The quality of the construction was apparent, the home was beautiful, and it was a great weekend for us.

This week I am going to show you you our visit to Magnolia Market.

Thanks for following along on our journey,

Blessings,

Karen

Camp house, Country Style, fireplace, Fun with friends, Texas

Plans for the Cabin

March 27, 2017March 29, 2017 Karen

This weekend The Social Planner ( TSP), her hubby Larry, Mr. Math, and I spent the better part of a day cleaning up and making plans for the cabin we are getting.

There were so many more happy surprises on the first “walk through” of this project after the tenants moved out than we did on our Huntsville rental property. The electrical was done properly. There is an ingenious system for water in the house even though there is no well or city water. The house is well insulated. The appliances work. They did a good job of moving out without destroying. Winner, winner chicken dinner.

(We have a lot of stuff to move along.)

The problems with the interior of the cabin are mainly unfinished projects or space planning issues.

The kitchen cabinets are unfinished at the bottom.
I would like some that look like this:

Cabinets

But I wan them washed in barn red.

The top cabinets are warped, laminate-over-particle board office cabinets. I hate them, but for now we need to make them work. I will keep an eagle eye out for someone who is getting rid of real kitchen cabinets and will haunt the ReStore for upper cabinets that will work. I can be patient.

The wood burning stove sticks out too far from the wall, the cement backer board behind the stove is unfinished, and the stove needs to be painted with high heat black paint.
The dudes are going to move the stove back about six inches and fix the stove-pipe. We ( The Social Planner and me) are going to paint the stove and I am going to attempt to install plank tile that looks like whitewashed wood vertically over the backer board. Mr. Math will be my backup in case of disaster.

(The picture above is of the place with the tenants. It is cleaned out now, but I did not get a picture that shows the space between the wall and the stove.

Tile

The cabin is not too far from the Alabama Coushatta Reservation, and the area has a strong western cowboy history. We are going to try our best to honor the area through our decor but with more of a deer camp feel. We both have quite a bit of western stuff that will be coming in. Our bedding for the six beds will be a mix of plaids, solids, and even couple of native inspired. The inspiration from the cabin colors will come from these pictures.

I actually found some bedding really cheap on Amazon.

A lot of what is going into the house is coming right out of my old lake house “bunk room” and The Social Planner’s stash. These vintage canisters came from the stash.

The flowered couch is getting a chocolate-colored slipcover that will make it work for us. The bonus is that it is washable. The love seat is going and a vintage vinyl western couch is coming in to join the brown couch.

I plan on doing a piece for the wall sort of like this one.

I found this letschipit.com color scheme based on a female cardinal. It is exactly the colors I see us using.

It is going to be fun making this small space functional and FUN.

The journey continues,

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, family, ship lap, shopping, Style

A Fixer Upper Trip

April 12, 2016 Karen

Hello guys. Have you missed me as much as I have missed you, and sleep, and a clean house? We are almost moved out of the burbs and into our forever home. Just a few more trips I hope. Monday night I sat on the porch and cried because my long-suffering husband asked me what to do with a box of spray paint. I am so over it when it comes to moving that I am not even rational any longer. In the near future I am going to tell about our experience downsizing, but not tonight because I couldn’t be a lady about it right now.

On this night, oh my gosh, do I have news for you all. I promised you a while back I would fill you in on our trip to the Waco area and things to do when you visit and I am going to fill you in, BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER AT THE END.

First of all, the map below shows you where Waco is in relation to Austin, Belton, Salado, and Round Top (east of Austin).

Austin, the undisputed hippest city in in Texas, is an hour and a half away from Waco. I am not going to fill you in on Austin tonight, but if you are making a visit to Magnolia Market part of a vacation, make sure to include Austin in your trip.

On my last post I shared with you that we recently visited Magnolia Market (The Silos) and Waco. One question I got asked over and over again was: was it worth the drive. As a huge fan of JoAnna’s style, I loved the market, but the drive for us from Coldspring was over three hours there and the same back. I enjoyed shopping in the market and had a great day, but in order to make the trip really worth while, our next trip will be a weekend adventure. (We will drive up Thursday night, then spend Friday and Saturday exploring and head home Sunday.) wait for it friends, it is going to be good at the end. ( Skip to the end here if you want my super cool news first.)

Here is what I thought our future trip was going to include:

Thursday I thought we would be staying at a bed and breakfast- There are two I was interested in:

Friday

Breakfast at the B and B then off to
Magnolia Market which opens at 10:00 but we will try to get there about 9:30. We should finish at Magnolia Market by 11:30- just in time for lunch at one of the food trucks conveniently located.
Harp Design Co because I want to see the shop where all those amazing tables and benches come out of and hopefully I will find something I can’t live without. The Harps have a whole list of Waco favorites. The two that caught my eye are Lula Jane’s if you are driving in for breakfast and Club Sandwich if you are looking for a fun food truck lunch.
The Findery. How did I miss this one the first time? It is for sure going on my list next visit.

Junque in the Trunk Waco- I could only find a Facebook page, but with 70K follwers, they must be doing pretty well.

I have a feeling the guys would rather hang out at one of the restaurants or diners on LaSalle while we shop.

Head on to McGregor, Texas. The Magnolia House and the Carraige house just on the show is there and it is worth a visit.

I also want to visit the Cedar Chest Antique Mall that has been featured on several episodes of Fixer Upper.

Another fun place to visit is Megregor General Store.

I got this cool sign there.

Friday evening will be up for grabs. Lake Waco looks beautiful.

Saturday

We will head out to Salado, Texas. I love this place so much that we visit every chance we get. Here is a blog post I wrote about that cool little town a few years ago.

Sunday we will head home slowly. Eating Kolaches, stopping at fun shops, and enjoying central Texas.

Okay. Here is the big news. (It is big news to me anyway!) After I already started this post and was all set on going back, I saw on Country Living that two houses that were on Fixer Upper are now rentals in addition to Magnolia Home. One of them was my absolute favorite from season 1. The Gorman Story. On a whim I decided to look it up just to see if we could rent it and guess what? They had an opening in October Friday and Saturday night. I am so excited to get to check it out, spend time with my sweet family in the home, and visit Waco again in the fall. Woo Hoo.

We are going to get to take Lucy, Sweet Amanda, Baby Boy, The Southern Belle, Big Cat, and our buddies The Social Planner and Larry on the trip with us. It will be fun. I have a feeling the guys will find something other than shopping to do all day Saturday, but we are going to enjoy our trip.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my posts. I love hearing from you,

Blessings,

Karen

Building a Home, cedar lumber, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, mudroom, Ranch House Overhaul

Creating a Mudroom

March 18, 2016March 19, 2016 Karen

Well, after 6 months, we have 99% completed our mudroom.

We started with one large room that at one time was a two car garage. The room was great, but in a home that is on a dirt road, in the country on 15 acres, in an area that gets a lot of rain, with muddy shoes, and a large dog (get the picture?) I needed a place for messy stuff to stop before making it all the way into our main living area.

The photo above shows the room without the wall and the previous owner’s stuff inside.

Before we even started, we installed vinyl plank flooring. I still love it and do not regret the decision. We also added recessed lighting and a cute little schoolhouse light above the door.

The first step was adding a wall to define the space. I am crazy about our tounge and groove pine walls that are whitewashed.

The next step was to add a bench. We hit the jackpot when my dad gave us a 2 inch slab of live edge cedar that is almost 18 inches wide and 90 inches long. It was the perfect bench seat. It is installed into the studs with cleats underneath. I cannot stop staring at it every time I walk in.

We need storage in this home. Desperately. So instead of cute open storage that I could fill with accessories, it was closed 30 inch stock cabinets painted white that are filled with bbq equipment, marshmallow roasting devices, tools, light bulbs and other not cute items. Our thought was that we would put things we keep inside but use outside in the space. The knobs are plain Jane and functional, but I like them.

We also added board and batten walls with a tall ledger board for coat hooks. I bought a multipack of hooks at Lowe’s for the space. I like how rounded they are in case one of the giant men who come in our house should connect their head with a hook.

Because there was a large open wall space and I hadn’t come up with a plan for a mirror or umbrella storage, we moved a very narrow hall tree that was a gift from my buddy, The Social Planner. It has a place for umbrellas at the bottom, a cool round mirror and additional hooks that will hold caps.

I painted all but the wood detail with chalkboard paint. I wanted the piece to go along with the large chalkboard on the other side of the door and the oak table. Don’t hate me for painting wood. I like a mix of wood and color. It was in rough shape at the bottom after years of mopping around it, and the metal umbrella holder needed to have the dents fixed. It will proudly serve us well for years to come.
The other side of the mudroom connects with our laundry room. We plan on adding a broom closet in the corner that currently holds all the dog toys. ( Just keeping it real, folks.) It will have a cool screen door when it is my closet!
We are also planning to add a pocket door to the laundry room so that the current 36 inch door is out of the way.

As soon as the suburban home sells I will be moving the galvanized tubs from the laundry room under the bench. I did bring one so I could make sure it will work. It does. I will be adding felt bumpers to the bottom of the tubs to protect the floors.

We have not been able to find the right ceiling white to touch up the ceiling. I really do not want to paint the entire ceiling right now so we will keep searching and the patch from the lighting will stay unpainted. We may have to take out a section of ceiling to color match if we can’t find it soon. (I have done that before, because I hate to paint ceilings.)

I am calling this room done enough that it doesn’t bug me and can move on to other projects once the ceiling is done. Our next step is to get the barn door in between the mudroom and dining area and enlarge our master closet. Slow and steady progress.

Thank you all for following along on our journey.

Blessings,

Karen