Lake Livingston Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

Country living, family, Fun with friends, Lake Livingston, San Jacinto county, Star Hill, The City House, The Garagemahal

Star Hill Send Off

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 Karen

This past Saturday we gave Star Hill a proper send off. There won’t be tons of pictures because I was pretty busy with our guests but we had a crowd. There was corn hole to play, horse shoes to throw, catfish to fry, stories to tell, and time to remember.

It just seemed natural that we should throw one last party for friends to enjoy this place we have loved and where have welcomed family, friends and adventure.

The weather was too windy to get the boat out, but the rain held off. We had friends that visited for the first time, those who have visited many times, old friends, new friends, and even the soon to be owner. Yep. The guy who is buying our home showed up, hung out, brought his dog, daughter, and girlfriend. True story. He is going to love the place and has plans for what Star Hill is going to look like when he is through with her.

We are blessed. The sale of our lake house has been quick, if not eventful, up to this point. We had someone drive up today who wanted to make an offer on the home if you can believe it. He insisted we take his number in case the sale falls through.

It is our prayer that our new, unnamed place is a destination for family, friends, and others who need a place to rest, relax, laugh, and unplug. We are getting excited about the opportunity to share our home and are purposefully trying to figure out a way for more company to stay overnight. There is a guest house, potentially we are going to have two bunk rooms, and my dream is to convert the barn into a gathering place.

Today we got busy packing. Four truck loads of stuff was taken to storage.

By the way, the secret to Mr. Math’s amazing catfish… Yellow mustard in the batter.

I hope your weekend was restful. Come see us if you are in the area.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Country Style, Lake Livingston, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, Repurposed Furniture, rescuing damaged furniture

A Bench From Bits and Parts

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 Karen

Well operation trash to treasure went well this weekend. A year ago I bought four sets of headboards/ footboards for $12.00. One of them ended up on my front porch. One ended up as a gift for a friend.

The one that ended up being mine is partially assembled here. The others are in the background.

The last two have been hanging around the garage ever since. The double bed one was a mid century teak veneer headboard that had a broken leg and the twin set was mostly that not real wood, you know the stuff…sawdust and glue with contact paper on top covering it all, except the four bedposts which were cannon ball style solid wood spindles. It was the grossest piece of junk in the garage. Mold was even growing on the swollen wood like substance. Mr. Math has seriously asked to get rid of that particular set more than any other piece in the garage. I just kept thinking inspiration would strike.

Finally, it came to me…marry the best of both sets to make one bench.

The bench is going on our lake house front porch . It is going to be a functional seat to put on or take off shoes. No bells, no whistles, no arms… Just painted wood with stained slats for seats.

I came up with the idea of using the bed posts in the moldy set upside down as the legs of the mid century set. The curvy legs add to the straight lines and cutting the footboard in half horizontally allowed more of them to show.

I decided to do slats for two reasons; I like the way the stained slats look and leaving little gaps between them will allow for rain and dirt to fall through. Here they are all cut, sanded and ready for stain. Minwax Jacobean stain is my go-to stain for a dark color.

After staining this collection of mismatched boards from the scrap pile looks more uniform.

If you know me, then you know the steps to getting paint on a piece. Sand the flat places, use liquid deglosser on the curves and gooves, prime it all with Zinser primer.

I feel like I say this a lot lately but seriously, the weather is just not my friend right now. Here are photos of the 90% completed bench. I SOOOO very much wanted it to be out on the porch when the realtor showed up, but alas, no luck with the weather allowing me to finish.

Here are the photos of the bench all put together. There are two boards that need painting and it needs a good coat of Poly before going on the porch. This bench out of bits and parts will probably end up being one the most used benches we own. I am going to make rolling crated to go under it for shoes.

I would love hearing from you.

Have a great day,

Karen

Coldspring, Country Style, DIY, Lake Livingston

Corner Shelves that Hide Wiring

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 Karen

Do you hate to see electric cords, cables, and other assorted wiring as much as I do? When we reorganized our tiny family room at the lake we moved the television, cable box, dvd, and karaoke machine…yep karaoke machine, to the corner of the room.

The problem with the move meant that all the cords, cables, wires… were hanging out for everyone to see. Not cool.

To solve the problem, Hubby plugged in a power strip with a surge protector to the outlet and used wiring tacks to attach it to the wall and at the top of the baseboard. We painted it to match the wall. He then mounted the power strip to the wall in the corner above this amazing reclaimed wood corner cabinet we bought at a garage sale for $15.00 and built these cool shelves to match out of our favorite wood, reclaimed cedar fencing.

The little cabinet holds a ton of messy stuff and I don’t fuss when people dig through the cabinet looking for a nerf gun or movie, or Frisbee. I have to choose my battles.

The shelves were totally free! I call them Superman shelves because they sort of are shaped like the Superman logo with the bottom point cut off.

This is the cut off corner of the shelves. A lot of work went into getting the shelves built to match the little cabinet exactly.

We used only reclaimed cedar in the build.

Just so you know, photographing with a dog around who believes she is the cutest, prettiest, specialist critter on the planet is a challenge. I wonder how she got so spoiled?

The magic of these shelves is in the space at the back for the wires to pass through and hide.

The dimensions of the shelves is 22 inches along both sides and the front with the short sections being 11 inches each. The short pieces are attached at a 45 degree angle. (Yay for being married to a talented math teacher!)

What a great way to build shelves to hold electrical equipment above a corner television.

Don’t they look great on our new corrugated tin wall?

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you have a great day.

Blessings,

Karen

cedar lumber, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, DIY, DIY Projects, Lake Livingston, master bedroom, Redecorating, San Jacinto county, Style

Adding a Corrugated Tin Wall

January 5, 2015January 5, 2015 Karen

We got a good start on the want to finish projects before putting our beloved Star Hill on the market over the holiday break.

This is what the wall in our main room has looked like since we moved in.

We recently got a new-ish wood burning stove off Craig’s List for our near the lake house, Star Hill. ($200 for a stove used one season. It is still for sale at Tractor Supply for over $600. That was a score.) It has a glass door and an electric blower, the two things that the old stove in the house did not have. We can now heat the whole house with it when we want and get to see the flames. We are already enjoying it. We knew that we would want a metal wall behind the stove and had planned for it to be put in for the seven years we have owned the place. Stuff always gets in the way of projects. Stuff like rescuing roadside furniture.

A cold, wet, weekend after Christmas was the perfect time to knock this particular project out. Hubby figured out how much tin to buy. It comes to about fifty cents a square foot. You can buy it in up to 12 foot lengths.

How nice of Home Depot to provide gloves.

First we cleared the wall and found the studs. I love projects where we will cover the wall because we get to write directly on the wall.

Next, attach this wooden support stuff to the studs.

The tricky part here was making sure curves lined up vertically. Hubby chopped off the ends to make sure they all started out the same way then made sure they lined up with each other at the start of the wall. Our roofing nailer attached the wood to the wall.

Our wall slopes up so that adds a level of difficulty to the project that we wouldn’t have had to deal with on a plain flat ceiling.

Using the very scary grinder, Hubby (AKA Mr. Math) cut the angles on the tin along with the vent cover and electrical outlet using rise over run math.

If you plan on doing this project you will need these special screws, gloves (or a box of Band Aids- that tin is sharp), something to cut the tin (if a grinder is too scary for you too, they make a metal cutting blade for a jigsaw) a level, a stud finder, tin, and wooden corrugated strips.

Plan on this project taking a whole day. Cutting around vents and outlets slows the process. Full disclosure here; it took us two days and a trip to three hardware stores. If we planned better and didn’t have to drive all over creation looking for supplies we forgot to bring, we could have finished in one day.

We decided to use some of our natural edge cedar for a shelf on the wall. The brackets were garage sale finds that we used for years with a funky swirl on the bottom. The grinder took care of the swirl. I love the industrial, rustic feel that the wall gives the cabin.

The wall looks great. It is exactly what I hoped. We have it set up with our free or almost free furniture, but I also wanted you to see it with more modern furniture and fabric. It would be a great wall for a modern wall. I really like the look.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope it inspires you to tackle your own projects.

Christmas, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Decorating, family, Lake Livingston, Style, Tablescape, vintage style

San Jacinto County Christmas Home Tour Part 3

December 10, 2014December 11, 2014 Karen

I will bet a few of you are ready for the home tour to be done. I’m known as a bit of an over-sharer so, my apologies. I just love our little Weekend country community and I am always amazed at the homes tucked into the woods an hour from Houston. Come visit!

Today you get to see the last four homes. I am not slighting them, I promise. One of the houses was the inspiration for the green color we painted our lake house. I literally knocked on their door and asked them what color their house was painted. They were gracious, and didn’t act like they thought I was insane. By the way, the color of their house was baked on the Hardee plank, so I had to guess on our color.

The Green House

This house is located right by the Aggie House. It was one of the first built on the cemetery circle. I love the craftsman style of the home. I could not believe I didn’t get a picture of the outside of the house. I will go take one and add it next week.

The green house has a nautical vibe. Did you know that Lake Livingston has sailboats? It is the second largest lake in Texas.

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I really liked the bedrooms. The colors were very soothing. I think someone was naughty getting the house ready to show.

The Brown House

This house is right next door to the green house. The owners are friends and they have even put in a walkway between the two homes. The brown house could not be any more different from they Green House though. The brown house has a more formal look on the inside. The owner is a quilter with her own room.

The Mediterranean Home

This house is in a neighborhood that is around the corner from ours. The neighborhood has a marina and an RV park along with a very active neighborhood group. They have a pot luck every Thursday night.

The Last Home… Woopsie.

I honestly have no idea what happened to the rest of the last house pictures. I will keep looking.

I loved the back covered porch and the feeling of this home.

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas tour. All the funds for this tour go to scholarships for the kids of San Jacinto County. What a great cause.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Blessings,

Karen

Curbside rescue, glazing, Lake Livingston, reclaimed wood, Repurposed Furniture

1970’s End Table Makeover

June 15, 2014June 15, 2014 Karen

A coworker picked up this end table on the side of the road. When she offered it to me, of course I took it but I didn’t need it for our home.

A couple of times a year I offer up free stuff to my Facebook friends. When I posted this, Vicky,who is married into the same crazy family as I am, said she wanted it.

Then she threw me a curve ball. She wanted it for her son’s room that is decorated in camouflage.

I took hubby shopping for paint. Because this table is made of questionable materials, I wanted to spray paint it with a paint and primer. He picked this color for the camo room.

After deglossing with liquid sand, I sprayed it quickly with the spray paint. Hubby helped me cut reclaimed cedar planks for the top. I thought that might toughen up the look of the ornate end table.
I tried not to bug him too much this weekend but he volunteered. He also used the router to round over the edges. It makes the transition between the reclaimed wood and the table not seem so abrupt.

I distressed it a little and glazed it a tea stain color to make it look older.
And put 6 coats of poly on the top. Poly, dry, steel wool repeat.
Here it is ready for action. I like the single knob better than the fussy pull on the faux drawer.

What do you think about it?

Behr Paint with Primer, Blogging, Building a Home, Chalkboard DIY, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Curbside rescue, Decorating, Dining Table, DIY Painting and Glazing Furniture, DIY Projects, Dresser, French Provincial, Lake Livingston, resale finds, reusing an old frame, Roadside Finds, Thrifty Art, wedding, Weddings

10 of My Favorite Posts and a Big Thank You!

January 7, 2014February 7, 2014 Karen

If things go as they have been for the last week, by the time I wake up tomorrow I will have had 50,000 page views on my little teeny tiny minnow of a blog. I will also be celebrating two years of blogging. There are blogs out there that get 50,000 page views a day and it has taken me two years. I never said I was fast. first and foremost, I want to say thank you, friends, for reading, thank you for commenting, and thank you for causing me to improve what I produce. I still have no idea what I am doing most of the time. By that I mean my husband and I are making it up as we go on our projects, and sometimes failing miserably. I am about the most technology challenged blogger out there. There have been many times when I did something on the blog but had no idea what I did, how to fix it, or if it was good, how to repeat that good thing. Between the time I started this blog and now both our children have married, my husband and I changed jobs, we sold a home, went a while “between homes”, bought a home and moved to a new city, my son and daughter in law have moved in part-time, I started a new blog called My Burb Home, and I have taken up photography as a hobby. Not bad for two folks in their 50’s.

This next year we plan to travel to two places on our bucket list, work on both our weekend home and our suburban home, build a raised garden, put in a fire pit,and continue to work on found furniture. Life is good for this weekend loving couple.

I wanted to share with you some projects from the last two years. As I looked back, there were others that could have or should have made the cut but I plan on rewriting several of them now that I don’t stink like when I started. Not many of you were around when I first logged in, set up an account and started rambling so some of the projects below may be new to you. Just click on the hyperlink and it will take you to the original blog. I hope you enjoy.

10. French provincial furniture makeover. I love that we were able to take a couple of homely particle board pieces of furniture and make them beautiful. I am seriously considering selling this set because I want to redo the room like now I recently saw on a home tour but I love the color combination and how much I learned on this project.

9. Western Dresser. We found a homely little Goodwill dresser and made it something fun for the lake house guest room we call the bunk room.

8. Table and Banquette seating out of reclaimed wood. Wow! This is one of my oldest posts and my dinky little camera did not do this beauty any justice. I will be re-photographing this set. This was a collaboration between Hubby and me to come up with a solution to a tiny space using reclaimed siding from our house. It is one of the most functional spaces in our home now.

7. Farmhouse Table. I love the look of a rustic table but man, they are expensive. Our $90.00 solution to this problem turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of furniture. It moved with us and was where we gathered for our first Thanksgiving meal in the new home.

6. Wedding Chalkboard. I did tell you my kids got married, right? I was fortunate enough that both my daughter and daughter in law wanted me to make personal items for their wedding. I loved that they wanted things that I worked on as a part of their special day. The link above is one of those items, an ornate frame my daughter in law, Sweet Amanda, found at a resale shop that I redid for the wedding and added a chalkboard. I chose this one because it was the first wedding project. I love all four of my precious kids.

5. Map Chair. Another piece of furniture that needs to be re-photographed. This little chair would be easy to recreate for a friend moving to a new city or a college student who needs to remember where home is. I seem to have a thing for chairs.

4. Painted Suitcases. I have made a total of seven of these painted suitcases now The link is to four of them I did at one time. I love finding cheap old hard sided suitcases, priming, painting, distressing, glazing then adding a chalkboard to one side. It makes a great entry into a home when guests are coming over or to announce an event. If I ever started a business, I would sell these because I enjoy mine so much.

3. Junk Fairy End Table. The last three are easy. They are my favorite, favorite projects. They speak to my love of color, family and friends. The junk fairy ( AKA The Social Planner) dropped off this homely table while we were gone one day. I did not need it, so posted a photo of it on Facebook and offered to redo it for a friend. Robin snagged it. I am happy that she chose green as the color for the table. I really like how the stained top turned out. I enjoyed it so much that I painted a table in my own home close to the same colors.

2. Beverage Station. I am now working on number three of these babies. What a great re-purpose project for an old stainless sink and a sewing machine cabinet. I love the look and they make entertaining in a back yard or porch more inviting. My favorite blue color, Behr sailboat blue, got used here. My long-suffering husband gets major credit for the stainless sink idea here.

1. Mudroom Bench. When we moved this year I literally looked for homes that my mudroom bench would fit in. It is by far my most favorite project to date. I look forward to the day that someone sends me a photo of their version of the project.&nbsphttp://theweekendcountrygirl.com/2013/01/28/toilet-paper-roll-art/; A found dresser, waiting for heavy trash pickup, and a resale shop mirror turned into this beauty.

I hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. Thank you for taking the time to look back on my last two years. Thank you for allowing me to share what we do.

Christmas, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Decorating, Dining Table, home decorating, Lake Livingston, mantle, master bedroom

San Jacinto County Christmas Open House

December 15, 2013December 16, 2013 Karen

For the fifth year my buddy, the social planner, and I got to go on our annual ~~snoop~~ visit of beautiful homes located in San Jacinto county. The home tour is a scholarship fundraiser for students in San Jacinto county.

Three years ago, our Farkle group started going with us. Each year is a different group of homes, usually geographically grouped. San Jacinto county is the smallest county in the great state of Texas so the location is never more than 30 minutes from our home, Star Hill. The first unofficial stop this year was a trip to the social planner’s house. We met up, toured her home and loaded up for the tour after yummy chili and chicken noodle soup.

We have such a tiny speck of a home in San Jacinto County that I tend to forget there are million dollar homes around us. I really enjoyed the tour this year. All the homes were in Cape Royale, a gated neighborhood about four miles from our near the lake house.

Stop number one- I was so excited to get started I did not get a photo of the outside. This is the only one I missed.

There were four trees in this house. I have pictures of two of them. I liked this one because it was so different.

I really liked how they used the cabinet doors in the laundry room for Christmas card display.

Even the dog got into the act.

The home owners are weekenders, like us… well not exactly like us… their home is huge. The owner has her own scrapbooking room at the house. She had some of her scrapbooks out for us to see.

I liked how they took all the dishes out of the china cabinet and put in a village.

The second home on the tour was huge. We were greeted by a gigantic flagpole turned into a light tree. Oh, and four bronze life-sized horses.

Here is the front of the house.

I really liked the burlap wreaths in all the windows. I have the pictures from inside too.

I wasn’t the only one taking photos.

What a great idea to wrap burlap around the bottom of vase.

I love the dining room here.

There is a saying up at the lake that if you are lucky enough to live by the lake, you are lucky enough. I agree.

My Christmas cactus is blooming too. I love how they decorated around their cactus.

House Three
On our way to house three we spotted these deer.

The front of house three.

I really liked this house.

The front door was beautiful.

The owners are not even weekenders. They come when the kids and grandkids can hang out. They traveled all over the world with Exxon before retiring. The owner was a CPA with the oil company. I had no idea a CPA could make this kind of money.

The owners have a view of Pine Island out their back. One day I will have to take you all there.

This JOY sign is the perfect mix of rustic and modern.

Above the kitchen vent.

I would love to have this kitchen sink. In my real-life, every day home.

I love the pool looking out on the lake.

This was the sink in the workout room bath. wow.

This fire pit looks like fun. I hope it gets used.

House Four

This was my favorite home.

Here is our group. The owner took our photo.

What a peaceful room.

I loved this vintage bedspread.

I liked the dining room.
House five

You finally made it to house five. Almost done.

I really liked this home owner. They are getting ready to retire here, but still weekenders.

What a pretty table setting.

This wagon was her father’s. He used it to take the grandkids on rides. What a special way to honor him.

This is a real vintage aluminum tree. Did you grow up with this type tree?

This house is designed to hold a ton of folks.

The owner even made a gingerbread house.

Thanks for coming on the tour with us. The houses were beautiful.

burlap, Christmas, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Decorating, family, Lake Livingston, Tablescape, Texas, The Rockin' F, wreath

Open House at the Rockin’ F Ranchito

December 5, 2013December 11, 2013 Karen

My buddy, The Social Planner, went all out for Christmas. She has an amazingly talented niece who made all the decorations. Follow along as I take you on a tour of her beautiful home. This past weekend this was the first stop on our home tour. I am crazy about her beautiful home this holiday season, an am so proud of her for all the hard work creating her forever home.

The Front Porch-
Out on the Rockin’ F the front porch looks out on horses, a red dirt-dead end road, and the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. I love that the porch looks as good as the scenery around it. What a welcoming front porch. The photos below are of the social planner and her sweet niece in law who created the decorations. I caught Claudia putting the wreath up she brought with her Sunday. In the future I am going to interview her. She has been creating Christmas décor for 10 years and decorated 30 + homes this season. She still has a few homes to touch up for holiday parties but is really almost finished. She has a lot to teach me.

Yes, that view is for real off the social planner’s front porch. I love looking at the pond and the horses. The tree line is beautiful.

The Family Room-
Wow! An amazing tree, decorated with Texas themed items. There are stars, boots, rope, and burlap on this tree.

The mantle is beautiful.

There is a Santa collection. The cowboy Santa was added this year.

The buffet is so sweet.

I really like the dining table and decorated chandelier. The dishes have pine cones on them.

My buddy has the best kitchen on the planet.

The Back Porch
This is without a doubt my favorite place on The Rockin F. The back porch is beautiful, peaceful and is a great place to get away from the world. For Christmas, the social planner purchased a stocking for all the grown ups in the family and had them embroidered locally. They are a thick tweed plaid and have a burlap top. The outdoor fireplace looks so beautiful with the mantle decorated.

If you are ever in Coldspring stop by the social planner’s house. She loves company.

http://wp.me/p3Su5W-3dv

Coldspring, Lake Livingston, Photography, Star Hill

Star Hill Images

October 24, 2013 Karen

It seems that I spend all my time in the Garagemahal when we are at Star Hill. Not true! Here are some shots I have taken recently but haven’t shared.

I love how beautiful and green everything is now that the drought is lifting in our area. The rain gauge showed 4 inches when we pulled up this week. We are blessed to have such a beautiful place to retreat to from our busy lives.

No words here. Just enjoy what we get to see every time we go to Coldspring, Texas. We are blessed.

This past weekend we had our first fire in the wood burning stove and got to sit on the porch wrapped in blankets while we watched the birds go to the feeder. There is a quiet in the woods that sinks into your bones when you spend time there,