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.
They are plentiful on ebay and Etsy.
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.
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. http://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.
This project has been a long time in the works. A year ago, before I even considered moving to the burbs, I literally picked up these legs out of the trash at a garage sale. (I did ask first.) They once were legs for a side table and were solid wood.
I did not have a plan for them but they were too nice to be trashed.
When we moved into our new house I knew I would want a bench at the end of our bed. The room is big and I love having a place to sit and put on shoes in the bedroom. I stalled on completing this project because I am trying to keep the cost down in decorating our room. I am way over budget in the den and guest room. (Like double my $100.00 per room budget in both rooms.) Before starting the bench I had spent about $80.00 on the master bedroom and I still have a few things to do. The holdup was upholstery foam. It is expensive. Crazy expensive. The foam for the mudroom bench tufted cushion was $32.00. A friend of my daughter told me she bought foam on Amazon, but it was still going to be $20.00 with shipping.
A trip to Ikea solved the problem. Have you ever been in the “As is” section of an Ikea? It is a great place to find what you didn’t even know you were looking for. Table legs, cabinet doors, scratch and dent furnishings, hardware…the place is fun to look around in for the unexpected. I found a huge cushion for a couch or chair marked $5.00. Plenty big enough for my bench.
I sliced the thickness of the foam in half using an electric knife then used spray adhesive to attach it to a scrap of plywood pulled from the hoard and cut to fit, added a layer of batting then wrapped an old sheet around the foam and attached it to the plywood with my staple gun. This step keeps the foam in place and smooth while the upholstery is being attached. It has been so long on this project that I could not find a photo of the cushion or the big slice job. I will keep looking.
In order above: sheet on bottom, then a layer of batting, then foam, then plywood
Hubby built a frame for the bench base and attached the legs with thumb screws. The frame and legs got painted a couple coats of Behr Revival Mahogany.
This is a cool tool. It holds the wood at a 90 degree angle so you can attach the parts.
Here it was while we were fitting the bench top on the base. It looks like we did not have it on evenly.
The upholstery brings a little color into the room. it was $15.00 for two yards. Well it looks like I am going to go over on this room also, but not by much. The bench ended up costing $22.00. Not bad.
I love how this looks.
I really want to paint the wall behind our bed a darker color. I believe it is going to be Garden Wall by Behr.
Here she is in all her beauty. Hubby wanted some color in the room. I think this fills the bill.
We have started creating an oasis on the back porch. I totally blame Sweet Amanda for the porch color scheme and Baby Boy for the name- the Skittle porch. He says that is what all the colors look like. A bag of skittles.
Here is the inspiration cushion.
The turquoise chairs moved in the first day, along with the beverage station. The plants were brought over a couple of weeks ago. The new owners of our city house babysat them for us until we were able to pick them up. This weekend a project I have been very excited about made the trip from the Garagemahal to the Skittle porch.
Remember this roadside find? It was a tip from a friend that led us out in the rain to collect this table.
This drop leaf beauty was warped and sitting in the rain, but solid wood.
Remember the last roadside find from the City House? I got the coral legged end tables and also the cloven hoof coffee table. The glass was in tact and solid. I have plans for the brass feet too!
Hubby came up with a great plan to marry the two roadside finds for a table on our back porch. I am loving it. He even used left over pickets from the lake house porch makeover to make the crazy spider like legs you see under the glass. I love that the only new purchase we had to make for this entire project was the bolts that connect the top to the base. The paint is red tomato by Behr. We had this left over from the bookcase makeover at Star Hill. Here is the finished project. I love the look. It is bright but the glass makes it seem lighter and more airy.
I love the bright colors and how the pieces fit together. The lantern is a clearance find from Marshalls.
The brightly colored serving dish is one of three I got at Goodwill for $1.99 each. I will be using them a lot on the back porch.
Before this very LOOOONNNGGG post begins ( sorry about that, I have missed you!), I have to show you my anniversary card from Hubby.
Here is the front of the card:
and here is the inside.
I thought it was the PERFECT anniversary card from a dude who had moved my stuff around for two weeks now while I try to settle in.
Unpacking is 99% complete and decorating has begun in earnest. Because I am way more savvy than my last move about bargain shopping I decided to challenge myself for decorating our new home:
Use as many of the things I currently own to decorate my new house as possible. If I loved them enough to lug them across south-east Texas, the least I can do is find a spot for them!
Incorporate elements from the color scheme I have chosen in the main rooms. Bedrooms will have their own personality.
Keep the decorating budget to $200 per room. I love a challenge.
When we started this adventure of moving into a new home, it was our plan to downsize. That did not happen. We found a great home, on a cul de sac, near our jobs that was 60 square feet bigger than our City House. Because we planned on downsizing I cleaned house. I sold, gifted and donated a ton. If I did not love it or need it- out it went. I must tell you folks, it was a little liberating. What we kept for in the house fit in a 16 foot Pods Container and a 16 foot storage unit.
For the first time in my life we have empty drawers in the kitchen, and space in the closet. We are still working through a lack of storage in the bathrooms but I have a plan for that. Additional cabinets are in our future.
Before we moved in I worked feverishly on getting some unique furniture pieces ready and we will continue to add. If you click on the links it will take you to the projects we have been working on. We got a French Provincial dresser and headboard ready, and coral colored end tables
recovered dining room chairs, and found some awesome yellow chairs at a garage sale. My favorite pieces have made the move. My mudroom bench is in, although it is a little worse for the wear- it will need some touch up paint.
My farmhouse table made the trip too. In the near future there will be a bench at the foot of our bed, a back porch that my son says is going to look like the inside of a bag of Skittles, a unique kitchen island using this beauty below,
a home office and a media center for the TV. (wait until you see the dresser Hubby found for me on Craig’s List!
All that being said… I am WAAY short on accessories. I just don’t have enough unique items to make the home feel lived in. I have focused so much on the furniture that I just didn’t think about the little things that make a home unique. I have not been buying those items. A visit from my friend Shahana confirmed that we just don’t have enough “stuff”. She came over to help me decorate the top of the pie safe and cabinets but we were just stumped.
Right now it looks so…generic. new. mass produced. NOT ME AT ALL
The best option for me to decorate is also earth friendly. Resale, re-purpose and create. Oh, and clearance/sale shopping. Yes there are going to be some new things too.
This painting is in our family room.
A quick trip with Shahana to Goodwill and $69.00 later I got everything below including this awesome huge basket,
this jug (It had a light kit in it, but they had not damaged the jug- I think it is old for real, which I love),
these matching lamps that are going to be worked over ( Hubby is being a little resistant to my painting the glass- so I think the shades are getting painted along with all the metal on them…for now…in the spirit of world home peace),
this ornate frame with a print in it that is going to be an art project ( think herringbone and check out one of my pages on Pinterest- New Home Pinterest Page),
a chicken plate to hang, ( I have a shelf project in store for above the buffet that will incorporate the chicken plate.) these three platters that will look awesome on the Skittle porch,
this woven greenish tray,
and this huge metal can of some sort. I love the can but am just not sure what it was for. Right now it has a barn painted on it but that is only temporary. It is going to get stripped, a paint job, a big sanding and hopefully it will look it’s rustic aged self again.
Here is the running total for the bedrooms: (I will have previews of the kitchen, breakfast room and den on Sunday)
Master Bedroom
$20.00 for two new lamps and shades
$10.00 for I Love You More Pillow–Yay Kirkland’s one day deal sales- get on their email list if you have one near by. They send out alerts when they put items on sale for 24 hours only.
$92.00 for Burlap Curtains- I found these 96″ curtains on sale for $23.00 a panel at Hancock Fabrics- lined natural burlap, so they had to come to our house. I am making curtains for the den/dining/family room but they will not be lined.
More to come. The bench needs nail head trim so there will be an additional cost and we desperately need artwork. i think there is a project in my future.
Green Bedroom
The dresser and headboard were purchased for $80.00 and painted for $15.00.
The curtains were $30.00.
A $20.00 World Market shade and a 12.00 accent pillow.
Front Bedroom
Wow this room is going to be a beauty! No hints on this one because I am so excited for you to see the before and after of this room. The only thing I am showing you that is finished for the room is this awesome lamp.
Purchased for $2.00 at a resale shop, I spray painted the nasty amber glass and metal ($4.00 for a can of spray paint- new avacado). The shade was $1.00 at a church garage sale. Love it. Love it more that the whole lamp cost $7.00. I am planning a DIY on lamps soon. They are not hard to take apart and re-do.
I have also purchased some fabric for pillow shams- $6.00
Art work $29.00
Oops paint for the furniture I will be painting- $2.00
Not too bad huh? I made a haul! I am working feverishly on getting the items settled in to their new homes.
I will be updating the rooms and will be adding pictures to the cul de sac page on the blog. The fun is beginning.
The Southern Belle is scheduled to arrive this evening! We are so very excited to have her come visit and I have all the items required for a burlap pillow project lined up. She requested it, I promise!
Our very last night in Baytown, our former home, Hubby showed me how much he loves me… he spotted some side tables sitting by the road and pulled over then turned around to pick them up without even asking. Sigh. I do love that guy. We were moving the next day and that was something else to load into the storage building but they will always have a special meaning to me.
Here are the beauties getting unloaded by Hubby and Sweet Amanda.
The tables turned out to be solid wood and in great shape structurally. The only problem I had with them was a water ring that was revealed when the tops were sanded down to bare wood.
This leads me to the not everything you read on Pinterest is true part. A visit to Pinterest led me to believe that allowing bleach to soak into the stain would help. Not so. Here is the stain before bleach and after. More sanding and washing. Did not help.
The ring wins. The tables are going in the sage green bedroom where shades of white and coral. I love colors across the color wheel and it just so happens that sage and coral compliment each other! It took a few coats of stain, a few costs of paint and two costs of poly to get this done.
Look at this creepy spider that was hiding in the crevice of one of the legs!
Won’t they look good with the dresser set? They will be so cute in the room.
I will have to show you my project with the other part of the roadside fond later. Don’t you love the hooves on the end table?
I loved the vibrant colors and earth tones mixed. A few weeks ago I was on a Sunday afternoon drive when I spotted a garage sale. Who has a garage sale on a Sunday afternoon? The nice lady said she was moving out of town and wanted to get rid of things that she would not be taking. I got a set of four fun chairs painted a soft yellow ($30.00 for all four chairs!)and immediately thought of the fabric.
When I got home I decided then and there that the fabric would be my jumping off point. My mudroom bench is already the minty green color in the fabric
I recently purchased an armoire that will be going in the family room to serve as a phone charging, bill paying station once Hubby works his magic on it. I want it to be the dark teal color.
This is my inspiration for the color:
I am ready to get this started! I better get busy on the social planner’s furniture so that there is room in the Garagemahal!
The best time to go trolling for curbside finds is Saturday afternoon just before dark. The very best time to go hunting is the weekend of the huge neighborhood garage sale near our current city house. The garage sale occurs every spring and the finds over the year have helped furnish our lake house and have provided materials for projects in our city house. People tend to throw out items that do not sell. I love items that do not sell.
The most recent garage sale weekend we collected a dresser totally junk but the drawer fronts were solid wood and will be reused along with brass hardware, a pink chair- it now has a home with a teenaged young lady who loves thrift shopping, and this wooden twin headboard that wonder of all wonders- Hubby wanted to make into a project! Of course I let him run with it! He decided to make a chalkboard out of it. Wow. I know. I must be rubbing off on him after 32 years.
This was tricky. He cut the spindles so that they followed the curve of the wood, cut out a piece of hard board for the chalkboard and turned it over to me to paint. I painted the chalkboard four times, then painted the frame with a jar of 25 cent green paint from he Lowe’s clearance section.
Hubby connected the chalkboard to the frame with construction adhesive he. Had on hand and clamped it in place.
In our clean out to move I found 6 hooks that were wrapped in a sack. I hold on to hardware when I find it. I never pay more than a few cents for hardware and save it in a cabinet at the lake so I really have no idea where this came from or what project I bought it for. Whatever the circumstance, Hubby put three of the hooks, painted dark brown onto the bottom of the frame. This is going in his garage by the door so he and hang hats and write notes when he is trying to remember measurements.
My mudroom bench started life as a dresser. I found it on the side of the road waiting for heavy trash pick up. It was a mess! The top was in pieces and two drawers were broken. In spite of the shape that the dresser was in, it was solid wood and had dove tailed drawers. It was late at night and we were headed home from visiting friends. I had to beg Hubby to stop, back up and get out to look at the dresser. He was less than impressed with this one.
Here it is with one of the working drawers out. The top has a split all the way down the length.
After staring at it a few weeks, I decided to turn it into a piece for our entryway that could serve as a sort of mudroom. A place to take off shoes, hang jackets and hats and hide junk…I mean Hubby’s treasures.
First, We removed the top two rows of drawers from the dresser and created a bench by adding a plywood top.
Next, we created a separate top piece from the two remaining solid drawer fronts. Because of the height, we had them open on hinges. We could not have used it if it were drawers. A sheet of beadboard paneling, 2X4’s, and a plywood box.
The mirror was a thrift store find. Hubby chopped the top off the mirror frame and routed the 2X4’s so that they matched the mirror. We reused the top in a later piece.
Then, Hubby created a board and batten over bead board back to connect the piece visually. The bead board and top are connected together, but they float over the bench. Sneaky huh? This allows easy installation and access to electrical without cutting holes in the wood. You never know where it will live next! All the hooks were installed last because I wasn’t sure what I wanted. In the end I went with plain hooks because they worked for the piece.
Finally, we painted, added crystal knobs and made a tufted cushion. I love the soft green color!
This is by far the most unique piece of furniture in our home and is a great conversation piece.
Here it what it looked like the morning that I wrote this blog. I did not do anything so that you can see how we really live.
This is the best shot I have taken of the bench. Now I wish I had removed Hubby’s hat, camera, and jacket!
I have wanted to write this blog for a while. I go to craft shows, shops and our local trade days where I sometimes hear shoppers commenting on the cost. “I could do that.” is frequently heard as well as comments about prices. Now you know that I am always looking for a deal! And by deal I mean a steal. I love to find furniture, cheap or preferably free, then repurpose the piece into something unique. It is my hobby, and I am not trying to live off selling my goods. We would STARVE! I always try to let you know the cost, which is usually less than a brand new piece would be, but I think that there is a misconception from time to time about the real cost of repurposing the furniture.
Right now I am redoing a piece of furniture I literally picked up on the side of the road. The cost for the furniture – ZERO DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS.
In order to get the piece repurposed I decided to buy everything new for this project. I needed to replenish supplies anyway and sometimes even I forget that this is a hobby and the supplies are expensive because I only buy things as I run out.
The costs are rounded- because I am lazy!
Purdy paintbrush- the best and worth the cost- 12.00
Behr Revival Mahogany paint with primer- one quart- I could have probably gotten by with two samples @ $3.00 each, but I knew I would need the left over for the faux fireplace I am doing- $16.00
Behr Innocence- one quart- the giant dresser used almost a whole quart- the leftover paint was used to paint Baby Boy’s bookcase. $16.00
Zinzer Primer- one quart- $10.00
Glazing medium- one quart Behr Faux Finish glazing medium. I use this all the time and it lasts forever but it was time for a new container- $15.00
Sandpaper for hand sanding and the palm sander $5.00
Rustoleum Poly- one quart- $15.00
Hours spent on the project- 1 hour checking it out, calling Hubby, getting the beast into the vehicle, out of the vehicle and home. 3 hours sanding. 4 hours priming, re sanding, then priming again. 4 hours painting the creamy white color. 1 hour painting handles. 1 hour painting the top. 1 hour glazing. 3 hours polyurethaning the whole thing. Oh! This does not include dry time, moving time and reassembly.
So all in all we have close to $80.00 in supplies and the equivalent of one hard weekend’s worth of time invested. In a free piece of furniture! The next time you see someone’s work online, in a shop, or at a vendor’s booth and you say to yourself… ” I could do that WAAAY cheaper, the truth is provided you find the right piece, you might could save a little money doing it yourself but it won’t be as cheap or easy as you may initially believe and your time is worth something.
If you are in a shop when you see this piece also figure in overhead costs.
It is a lot of work to re-purpose furniture, but it is ever so worth the effort! I love the satisfaction of doing a good job and bringing something back to life.
