Laundry Room Dreams

I have been very busy with the laundry room.  We got a 8' solid wood sliding glass door for FREE and I have been ripping out walls, moving supporting beams, rebuilding the walls around it, installing insulation, drywall, plywood, etc.  It's almost finished... but it's RAINY today! Ick! 

When we bought it

Here it is a week ago

So, here I dream...  

I will be building a seat and hook rack, like the above, on the wall that you can't see in the picture (well, you can see the outside of it). But I  think I'll do a mirror on the top!

And I just love these shelves

And of course Home and Harmony's Laundry, so country. Love it!

My local salvage yard, Second Use, had a washboard just like the one below for $20 and stupid me, didn't snag it.  Gosh... I've been having a lot of UNbuyers remorse... ERG

Loving the wood counter tops and vintage sign

And I just have to have that rooster, vintage from a weather vain

Salvaged window

I love to salvage... especially from my own remodels.

This weekend, we ripped out the back door and windows to install an new (but free to me) 96" wood sliding glass door. Those 2 windows are 44" x 44" single pane and I love them.

So out they go...

And here we go.

Ok, I still need some pretty vases, glass containers to display cotton balls, q-tips, and hooks at the top for necklaces (possibly put a mirror behind it)..
But I am so happy with the result.

The other one is going in the living room...

BUT the question is: Should I give it a fresh coat of white or keep the shabby look?

And the laundry room / sliding glass door remodel should be done next weekend.

Covered Wagon... well almost

Can you imagine what this 26 year old, mother of 3, wife to a technology guru has been drolling over all week?

 

What else but a 1965 Ford Country Squire 

Seats 10 (3 in the front, 3 in the middle, 4 in the way back)

And the best part, it fits a 4x8 sheet of plywood FLAT

Now that's how to sell THIS momma on a car.

I've been hunting all over and can't find one in decent shape for less then $8k, and I don't want to spend more than $3k.  So, I'm praying one shows up on craigslist. 

Can't wait to say goodbye (that was a bad buy) to our 2001 Audi 2.7 turbo.

Dreams change - Castle to Homestead

Less than one year ago, this was my dream house. I wanted nothing more than this house.

At 10,000 sq ft, the floor plan was a dream. 8 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms. My parents could spend the summer in the downstairs 'master'. GG could be in the apt above the garage.

The kids could have their own rooms and their own bathrooms.

I wanted this house more than anything. I have an entire binder full of pictures of what each room will look like, the site plan, where the pool would go, etc.

TIMES CHANGE - DREAMS CHANGE

A year ago, we hit a rough spot and had to move our family of 4.5 into the in  laws upstairs master suite.  Bless their hearts, it was such a blessing.  It was hard, don't get me wrong, but living in 400 sq ft with 5 people, you either learn to really love each other or well... divorce.  Stephen and I grew so much closer, such a great thing for our marriage. Now, we own our own home, all 920 sq ft of it and LOVE IT!  Well, the whole house is 1340 but I don't count the attic bedrooms because it's storage and Stephen's office.

ENTER NEW DREAM - (in 5 years)

2600 sq ft. Farmhouse 3 bedrooms, 1 office for redneck to continue to program from home.  I would love to fit in 1500 sq ft but then we couldn't host holiday parties.

I still want it sitting on 40 acres but now instead of perfectly manicured lawns, I want 4 angus cows, 1-2 dairy cows, 12 laying hens, 12 chickens, 2-4 pigs, 1 full acre devoted to my veggies.

Bottom line, we love living small, keeps us close.  And it's only going to get harder as the children get older to keep 'cool'  with them. I don't want them to be able to just hide in their room, texting, vegging on the tv, so they will have to share rooms.  I want a small house with a tiny mortgage (if any), so we can spend our time with our family, not at work trying to pay for a huge house. We can go on vacations, wherever we want, whenever we want. The beauty of the Redneck owning his own business and the children homeschooling. We see a lot of Hawaiian surfing, Costa Rican zip lining, African safaris, Australian rock climbing, Mt, Whistler snow boarding, Grand Canyon donkey rides, etc.

I can just see my kids at the kitchen table, doing their schooling, helping each other, getting ready for a couple weeks of vacation. I want them to be best friends. I do not want a big house. I want to start a legacy.

Ariel View

What is now. We have 7,200 sq ft. Yes, it is small.

We don't have a front driveway. We have to drive up our neighbors driveway and turn into our pile of gravel.  So we are turning our whole front into GRASS, nice and easy. We have back alley access so we are redoing (next summer) to be a covered carport that will double as an outdoor living room.

This nasty shed will be gone... once I build a new one. PUKE

Replacing this ugliness will be a great carport that doubles as an outdoor living in the summer, with a fireplace and kitchenette.

And along the back property line, will be Stephen's 8x16 office that overlooks the backyard. He can work and watch his kids play in the backyard. What a dream life. But the roof over the left and right will stretch a little further. On the right, it will be 16' and will be a storage shed.  And on the right, it will be 16' but just be an open roof, where he can just sit outside and work. Like a front porch, but to his office.

Stephen's office will have a gambrel roof and be HUGE. I can't wait. (Imagine Grass and kids playing instead of the pool). That's a mother's dream.

Ripped out the Front Porch

On Saturday I got a wild idea (ok, not so wild). But while the kids were sleeping, I decided I would rip the railings off the front porch.  Literally, I could just hang on them from the ground and they would wiggle right off. But my neighbor saw me doing that and brought over a sledge hammer.  I love my neighbors.  So, off went the railings!

The kids continued to sleep through all the banging right outside their playroom window. I thought I would just alter the deck a little, make it smaller, move the stairs, paint it... but...

.....then we peeked under the deck and realized the deck was rotten. And it was Stephen's idea to just 'off' the whole porch. The decking literally just came right up, the rot was so bad.

So, we are without our front porch... til next weekend at least. We now just have the stairs right to the front door.  Can we say "muddy". But  I'm excited to get it built.

And of course some "Dream Time"

I won't be building the room yet, just the porch because it was definitely not a "planned expense". But I think I can get a 7' x 10' deck finished for $500... or so I'm hoping. I'll keep you updated!

My Painting in Sweet Savannah land

One of my favorite bloggers, Melaine at My Sweet Savannah just redid her daughters bedroom and had me paint a crest on canvas for her.

It is her daughters initial and her birthday at the bottom. 

All images courtesy of her site. You really need to go check out this room. 

Then go to my Etsy shop and buy your own Crest on canvas! http://www.etsy.com/shop/MommaRhyne

Doilie Drop Cloth Curtains DIY

In our old 1916 house, we have high ceilings. Ok, they aren't that high but that extra 6" does make them seem higher at 8'-6".  I wanted floor to ceiling curtains.  The fabric I want runs for $40 / yard. 

(that's NOT it but pretty close to the pattern and color)

I would need 6 yards ($240) plus the black out lining $5 / yard ($30) which will grand total my dream curtains for $300 with tax and everything.

So I bought a 6' x 9' drop cloth from the paint section at Walmart for $10. 

Ordered some paper doilies 4" and 12" ($10)

I cut out the numbers from the 12" then I did a practice run with white spray paint ($8). LOVE the WHITE

Figured out my layout.

But the drop cloth is about 2 shades lighter than the pizza box, and the white wasn't showing up, so I had to go with black. (wasted the $8 for white) and went back to the store and bought 4 cans of the BLACK bbq and stove paint (super durable and DARK) $20

 Still cool.

Love the numbers

1916 (year the house was built)

I like it.  Then I cut it in half and sealed the edges with some polyurethane.

And since a free sewing machine hasn't showed up on my beloved craigslist yet, I duct taped the back for the curtain. And cut curtain slips with my Cutco Super Shears!

$50

And there you have it.