Post #397

I started blogging 3 years ago in Sept, and the other day I noticed I was at 396 posts.  I thought it would be fun to finish out the year with a total of 400.  I don't think I'm going to make it after all--We've had too much going on here to have the time to blog all the things I have to blog about which would finish out my total for the year!

Pathetic, huh!

I've been looking for fabric to make some curtains for the porch windows.  I haven't had any luck finding just the right thing, but on Christmas eve when I got an urge to shop, I found some valances at (SHHH) WALMART of all places.
Here it is a week later, and things have quieted, calmed & emptied out enough that I got them put up this afternoon!

Here is my post where the before pictures are; 
http://lmand12js.blogspot.com/2010/06/part-3-of-house-tour.html


Before

 After

 I'm very happy with them.

And in the sleeping chamber

I'll add one more room to my house tour for now.  I still have the other 2 bedrooms to add later--and my scrapbook nook, but those will have to wait.

Like some of the rest of the rooms, this one still has some unfinished things that need done.  If I waited on everything that needs done then, well there probably would be no pictures of the house!  Some things I (can) do, some things I can't, (or won't) ha!

One of those things is painting, which I'm perfectly capable of doing.  However my husband is a pro at it, and what would take him 2 hours would take me 8.  Why would I want to waste that kind of time?

Besides, I like to make him feel useful and needed.

On the other hand sometimes a bug bites and I do crazy things that I really should probably wait for him to help on.  For instance the day that I decided I was tired of the way the furniture was arranged in our bedroom, and so I managed to move the big heavy dresser and bed around in our small room all by myself.  I'd never put the wallpaper boarder up, and If I was going to move furniture I knew I might as well get that done at  the same time.

I know he dosen't understand why I can move the furniture around by myself and yet I would prefer that he get the gas in the vehicles for me.

Don't ask me, I have no explanation for that weird quirk.

 Left side of room

Right side of room

 Looking towards doorway from the right.

There you have it.  Yes, it's quite a contrast to our other house where our room was at least 2x this size.  We used the same colors when we re-painted this room as what we had in our house in town.  We really hadn't had them all that long, we chose the colors to match our spread and we weren't tired of them.  Not only that, I had bought the boarder to match and had never put it up in the other house.

Coming up next--
Our family "Thanksgiving" day and a surprise.

Upstairs-Downstairs-

In My Ladies chamber.

That will be tomorrow.

Yesterday I created a sewing room in my upstairs bathroom.

Today I sorted, de-cluttered and cleaned my downstairs bathroom/laundry room.

Our house is 100 years old.  When it was built I'm pretty sure there were no bathrooms inside.  Sometime later these rooms were re-modeled into bathrooms.  We're guessing that the upstairs one was probably originally a bedroom, and the downstairs one was either a sitting room of some sort, or a bedroom.  I'm pretty sure this is why these bathrooms are both so large. There was a door from
the living room into the bathroom, in addition to the door by the kitchen and stairway.

From the doorway--
The large white cupboard was originally in the kitchen. The door into the living room was in the area of the sink.  These were both changed after my sister bought the house.

And yes, this room also holds my huge collection of photo albums. (Just photos) not my scrapbooks.  At least for the time being.

What??  You don't store your picture albums in your bathroom????  Hmmm.  Do you have a better idea where I should keep them?

From  the other side of the room facing the doorway.

 I moved this dresser down from the upstairs bathroom & changed places with the sewing stand.
Plenty of paint projects still need to be done...the wall--the dresser--

I LOVE this saying.  Such a good reminder.  We can be so thankful for "normal" days!

It's a bath...no it's a sewing...

No, lets just call it a multi-purpose room!!

It's been quite a while since I posted some pictures of rooms and I've been really busy lately trying to get some more cleaning out and organizing done.  Unfortunately I seem to make a huge mess in the process, and it causes more dis-organization & work needing to be done in another room.  Sometimes a room that I've already got pretty much gone thru.  Seems to be the story of my life tho.  After all, I'm *only* a stay at home mom, what else would I do, right?  RIGHT.

One of the biggest problems joys in my life is that I love creating and have way too many hobbies and things I want to do. (When I hear people say they are bored, I just grit my teeth & roll my eyes.  smile politely and wonder what they do with their time.)  There is just not enough time in my life to do all the things I want to do, and NO time to be bored!  Oh yeah, blogging comes under creating in case you were wondering!

Back to my house.  Remember-- we moved last spring.  Remember-- we moved FROM a huge house, TO a small house. Remember-- I have stuff.  Alot of stuff.  I don't mind going thru my stuff, but I hate getting rid of my stuff.  So I keep it, store it--but sooner or later something has to be done with it, or....

#1 it will get filthy from barn dirt,
#2 it will get broken or torn, or messed up from people digging around looking for other STUFF
#3 it will get wet
#5 it will get ruined by mice, dogs or cats.
#6 if nothing else, it's likely to get thrown away if my husband or kids get too tired of having it in their way.
#7 And help us all if my daughter comes home at Christmas time and decides SHE needs to help me go thru it!

I worked lately on my scrapbooking nook & supplies and got them the space under control, but didn't get around to taking a picture of it.  Now I've messed it up a bit because....  (there's always SOME excuse ya know)

Anyway I've been sewing again lately!  I use to sew.  Loved it and made lots of clothes and other things over the years.  For many years I had a quilting machine and did custom quilting.  I've made a lot of friendship quilts for friends, but for the last 10 years there's been very little sewing.  Now the bug has hit again, and I had no space to work except my dining room, and that's a bit inconvenient a lot of the time.

After racking my brain on where I could make myself a sewing spot.  After crossing off the barn (too cold, dirty & unfinished) and the basement ,(too damp and dark) I came up with basically 2 choices.  My downstairs bathroom, or my upstairs bathroom.

Now I know that probably sounds really strange, but
#1. I'm desperate here.
#2.  I have 2 really big bathrooms
#3.  I believe in utilizing space
#4.  If you don't have something and you want something, figure it out, and make it work!

(I'm really in to #4.  I grew up this way--blame it on my mother. Or being poor.  Or something.)

I didn't take before photos, not much was changed except a dresser where the sewing machine now is.
And, I still have a couple boxes on the shelf of non-sewing STUFF that has to be gone thru.  But, I have my space and I'm quite happy.

We didn't do anything to this room when we moved in except put the two white cabinets on the wall for storage. The colors matched my bathroom decor anyway, so we left it the way it was for now.

 The sewing room from the doorway

 Sewing room from the bathroom

 The bathroom/tub

 The bathroom sink/stool

Looking out the door to the hallway.

There you go.  Mission accomplished.
Oh, you wondered why I didn't put it in my downstairs bathroom?
My Laundry room is in there.  :)

Part 3 of the house tour

I seem to go in spurts--very jumpy spurts on the blogging.  Either I'm inspired, or I'm bogged down by too many things on my mind and on my lists to do.

I didn't get the graduation post done I started.
I didn't get the grandkids post done I wanted to do.

I didn't get finished with my house tour posts, because well....I just didn't, and I'm not done with my house either, although that probably won't happen for quite awhile.  I'll probably (hopefully) let you tour the rest anyway.

For right now--Here's the kitchen.  My favorite room in the house.

My sister left her sign above the porch windows.  I love it!

The walls, trim & Ceiling still have to be re-painted after they were damaged/replaced.  Haven't gotten that far yet.  You can't see it in these pictures, but the ceiling is bead-board (new) like the porch.

I wish you could see what this kitchen looked like when my sister bought the house.  I don't think I can describe it well enough to do it justice--  Maybe that will be a post for another time--especially if I can find some pictures to go with it!  I will say that it looked vastly different, and  I think my dismay was rather evident.

I'll give you a  really small outline.  a wall, a door, a window.  Two sisters with sledgehammers.  One metal wall cabinet.  One metal-white porcelain sink unit.--uh-huh!, I think that pretty much covers it!

You do remember I said the kitchen was my favorite room of the house now- right? :)

Part 2 of the house tour

The dining room--

Some of the wood had to be repaired on the cupboard there & we haven't got it re-painted yet.




On thru the french doors into the living room. Yes, I painted these rooms the same color as I did my rooms in the other house last year. I loved the color, and wasn't ready to be done with it! (and I just realized that it's about exactly the color of my blog background!!)



The view thru the windows to the "front" porch is inviting. The windows are old. The glass is wavy. The tops of the windows are diamond panes, and really cool. Yes, my sister says they are very "cool" in the winter too!! :D


Back from the living room thru the dining room...


That's all for today--now would you like to join me for lunch with homemade strawberry pie? Yes, the whipping cream is "real" too!!



I love my dishes. I received a set of four of the cups and bowls for Mothers day to match the plates I'd gotten last year. Longaberger is one of my favorite things in life!

Welcome to our country home --part 1

Would you like a tour? We'll start with the main entry, which is technically the "back" of the house.


Entry--from the inside


What do we call this "room"? I don't really know! It's formerly the porch, now open to the kitchen. The floor is new -- I love it. I think it looks great, & it's low maintenance. Perfect.

We haven't had time to do the painting yet in these rooms. I'm thinking the colors will be pretty close to this tho, it just "feels right".


Here's my view from the inside looking out :)


Monday morning baking--I'll share if you come over!

To be continued.