50 Years!

I was bored tonight and found that my county assessor puts property cards online in PDF format.. I found mine, and discovered (FINALLY!) that my home was built in 1957!

So that makes my home officially FIFTY years old this year!! How exciting! It's finally getting a facelift on its 50th year...

What Things Cost in 1957:
Car: $2,100
Gasoline: 31 cents/gal
House: $18,000
Bread: 19 cents/loaf
Milk: $1.00/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 436
Average Annual Salary: $5,500
Minimum Wage: $1.00 per hour

"Let there be [attractive] light!"

And so it was.

It took me a little over two hours to replace the old (ancient) (antiques) (maybe I should put them on e-bay!) light fixtures from the exterior. Yes, I still have one up on the side of the house at one of the two service doors, but that can just wait.

First, the entire mounting bracket and screws were completely rusty. After nearly ruining the entire first set, I used a drill at the right torque to remove the rest, and they came out easy as pie.

Second, the screws that came with the fixtures were too big for the electrical box holes. I had to improvise. The first set I tried to make work (I honestly thought I was screwing them into mortar... yes, I have my moments.. they miss the mortar/brick completely) and ended up breaking one in half! Fortunately, my handy pliers were able to remove the rest of it and start over. After I got the first one done, the rest were much easier.

I'm getting really excited now about seeing the matching iron columns... I need to get back out there and paint!

And.. yes.. that cop sits out there every day that I do a project... to, uh, "clock traffic".

Drum Roll, Please

Ok, well, I did it. I started off with these top things.. I'm sure they have name. I took them down (which was a bitch, excuse my language) a long time ago when I planned on ripping this stupid column in front of the door out. I really like them in just shocking silver. The comment about them being someone else's treasure really hit home when I realized how beautiful these things are in something other than flat white.


So when I got down to the distressing them like my furniture is, I started to wonder if I needed to already spray the silver back on. Looking at my furniture- I'm almost wondering if I need to cover more of the silver with black.

First, I tried thinning the Black Rust-Oleum with Mineral Spirits, but quickly learned that it wiped the silver off right along with it. So then I dipped the paper towel directly into the can of paint and went with that. It spreads fine, if you rub it immediately.

I did about half of the post and then got bored with it and decided I would wait and see how it looked in different lighting. I think once it's complete it will blend into the front door, for the most part, in pictures. I'm just not sure if I accomplished anything, however. I almost feel like I made the iron porch posts look brand new and then made them look old and crappy again... But really, as I admire it from a distance (in the spot between my two trees, as usual) it looks very nice. And I think when I get the light fixtures up and maybe two potted shrubby things on either side of the front door with some kind of gardeny thing painted to match, it will all look spectacular..... And maybe I'll just have the Real Estate photos taken from off-center, so you don't realize from those that it IS directly in front of the stinkin' door.


By the way, isn't my landscaping the hottest thing you've ever seen? Unfortunately, I cannot seem to turn my only outside water spout at ALL. And I am TERRIFIED of breaking it and having this gushing waterfall. It is old, and says "Patented No Freeze" or something to that effect on it. Hmmm....

(Top half has not been "distressed")

Tools of Course

I just visited one of my local Home Depot's (living in a big town gives me many options, it's so neat!) just to pick up paint. $389 later, I left with a nice 12-month-no-interest-you-sucker charge on my Home Depot Consumer credit card.

My most exciting purchase is this spiffy 10" table saw. This is my first table saw, and I can't wait to use it! On what, I don't know, but now I have it!

Since y'all nixed my column boxing in, I won't need it for that, but I still have a ton of trim to do and a vanity to build... and I really want to make a headboard/maybe frame for my bed.... et cetera. Plus, I've always wanted one. So there.

What I've decided to do with my iron porch columns is a nice painting technique that mimics the wrought iron furniture in my house. I bought six cans of Rust-Oleum Stops Rust metallic Silver spray paint (handy that it was buy 2 get 1 free today), which I will put on the posts and then wipe down somewhat with the diluted black Rust-Oleum. I think this will look nice, but what do I know...

To further augment my charges, I finally decided on exterior light fixtures (well, decided while they are still in the box, at least). I went with Progress Lighting's Golden Baroque Tiffany Collection which I think will match or come close to matching my paint work, and mimic the iron scroll work. It looks very silver in this picture but it has more muted brown tones in person so I think it will great with my Warwick Lodge paint color. My concern now is removing the existing fixtures (and sometimes I wonder why I'm not just painting them and calling it good) which hang up from the mount... I hope these will still look right hanging down from the mount.

So that was my glorious trip to the HD. I was very unimpressed with the help I got from all of my sales associates except for my cashier and the hardware guy today... the rest acted like it was a Sunday and they didn't want to be there.... but I guess I can't blame them.

Oh, and their garden center is starting to go on sale! I'll need to watch it closely to make sure I can buy the things I need before they're gone. I bought a ton of stuff last fall (it was COLD) at 75% off and ALL of it lived so I'm going to attempt to do that again this year. I need some trees and tons of perennials for the front..... I feel broke already.

Full Bathroom

Sadly, I do not have the REAL before pictures. When I first stepped inside this house, the bathroom had been repainted the Antique White. The floor had been partially pulled up. Eventually they put the Luann (?) sub floor down for me. The PO had that nasty vinyl trim stuff up, so when I trim it I will have to put very wide stuff down.

So, I ended up painting it "Merlot" and "Sweet Anne".... This is a decision I've been second-guessing from day one. I was going to do a nautical theme (how original, right?) but then found this paint combination after a candlelit bath one night and thought a nice romantic bathroom was more what I wanted...

Well, it's been anything but romantic because all I do is sit there and wonder if I like it.

The countertop I picked out is the High Definition stuff in a very nice deep slate kind of color, with lots of blues and grays and browns. I ended up putting peal-and-stick vinyl floor down in a dark wood plank. I really love that, although sometimes I wish I'd chosen the lighter color. It has a nice texture which makes it safer for wet feet. It was my first ever floor, and I think I did pretty good.

My bathroom has a lot of vertical line patterns, from the built-in to the tub, so I ended up buying a "bead board" toilet seat and after literally prying the old rusted one off, the toilet looks brand new (picture is of old toilet seat....).

I have found I'm really good at accessorizing a room and have been very delighted at the artwork I've found to pull the blue, black (my accent color), red, and green together. The green is actually more yellow in real life... sadly.

I found a glass vessel sink and waterfall faucet on ebay for less than $100 shipped. My only complaint so far is that somehow the drain was scratched.. very sad to me that it would scratch so easily. The faucet also is not very sturdy but I think that the install required plumber's putty and it wasn't used so maybe if I do that it will remedy the problem. I ended up off-setting the faucet and now kind of wish I'd put it in the center. I always thought I'd somehow paint the exterior of the bowl to make it more exciting. The green of the glass is a very cool color and looks bad against the Sweet Anne.

I also have to build a vanity-- or not-- I haven't decided on a good way to handle this. The seller thought it would be fine to just leave it open due to the large built-in, but I'm a woman and I wear make up and I hate having all of my stuff on the counter and I'm not going to pull it in and out of a cabinet every day. I've been looking online and am considering maybe building a few drawers some how and then just some towel shelves to conceal the plumbing.

So.... I have several decision to make. I was thinking the other day that I would like my bathroom colors to be a navy, yellow, bright white, and bright red... The bright red in pictures and towels. The theme would be beachy/nautical/Hawaiin. But, I thought I wanted the navy on the lower third of the wall, but then I couldn't decide on whether the other 2/3rds should be white or yellow. I wanted white but I want white distressed picture frames and they wouldn't show up. So I considered a light khaki or gray. Painting is one of my favorite things to do- and obviously I'm not happy until it's done RIGHT. So that is just another decision that knocks on my door all the time.

The other problems are lighting. There is an exhaust fan over the toilet that I plan to replace with a lighted one, but I can't decide on which one and I'm worried about it being a complicated project. There are two fluorescent lights over the sink, which I hate, but now there is this open hole for the second one (the sellers did this) and I'm not sure what I would do with that.... Then the whole lot is on a dimmer switch (in the bathroom??) which gets old. But I know bathrooms are supposed to be as light as possible... Sigh.

Future Exterior....

What it would look like with the iron posts just boxed in...

What it would look like with the iron posts boxed in and porch railing built...

Which do you like better?

The Kitchen- Then and Now

I've had a Wine theme for my kitchen from day one. Yes, I considered apples and chickens and the light and airy and finally settled on a Wine-inspired theme, hopefully incorporating some wine-y antiques in the future.

Here are shots of the kitchen and fireplace pretty much before (yes I had one wall painted):

And now...

I painted the kitchen ceiling Olive, the inside of the soffit Wine, one wall Blue, one wall light Green, the bottom of the soffit Oak/Yellow, and the wall above the fireplace a combination of the Blue and Wine to make a variated Purple. Mmmm... nice!

I also, after much hesitation, hung my first light fixtures. Both are halogen and I thought provided the most light. I really didn't want any ugly fluorescent fixture.... It isn't very good for task lighting and I create shadows in most areas. I'm not sure how to remedy this....