Project: White House Black Shutters and Red Door!

I have mentioned before that Jeff and I have been in our house for almost 6 years.... (we moved in on Halloween day of 2007, lol, my favorite holiday!!) and while we have been slowly getting the inside to reflect our personalities, the outside is still the same sad color of mustard yellow with red shutters. Since day one I have wanted to paint it!! For a while I was leaning towards a very modern gray color but I just wasn't sure, something was holding me back. Well, since taking Caiden back and forth to work through a very beautiful neighborhood daily, I saw the color scheme that I absolutely love..... white house, black shutters and a red door.... a totally classic color for a vintage loving gal, it now totally makes sense to me.

 

Jeff surprised me with this house on our wedding day, we had been living in an apartment for years. To say I was surprised is an understatement. It was the sweetest thing the man had ever done, and how he kept it a secret is beyond me. It is 6 blocks away from my ex husbands house, so my son could ride his bike back and forth to each house and be around his friends. We are in a great community and excellent school district! It's really been a wonderful place to raise Caiden and give him memories and family traditions that he can pass on to his own family someday.

 

 

Here are the only pictures I have of the outside of our house (I'm not sure why that is???). Sorry for the terrible photos. They are scanned copies of the print out Jeff gave me when he surprised me at the church! (Pictures taken by the previous homeowner.) We have changed some of the landscaping a bit. The development we live in was started in the 1970's and our home was built in 1978. It is a raised ranch style house and totally devoid of character, not the style of house I would have picked out, but it is not our forever home either, and the fact that Jeff totally surprised me with it alone make me love it!! I am enjoying myself with the decorating and DIYing that comes along with home ownership. :)

 

 

 



 

We are a corner house with a large side yard and front yard.

 

 

 





 

Large backyard with pool, 4 season room, 2 story deck and patio. We didn't want the hot tub so the previous homeowners took it with them.

 

 

 



 

Close up of deck area, we want to strip the paint (that is now sun damaged) and stain the deck and possibly replace the railings, but we are not sure on that one.

 

 

 

So here are some examples of homes I found on Pinterest with the colors I am dreaming of now!! It just screams classic, traditional, americana.... all things I love!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All beautiful houses.

 

 

 

 This picture gives me a glimpse of what it would look like painted white. I will add character to this house if it kills me!!

 

 

I think we will start painting in the spring, once some of our flower beds have gone to sleep and a tree on our side yard loses it's leaves. I am very excited to get started on the BIG project of painting, but at least there are a few little projects to do now that will add to the beautiful exterior I imagined! :)

 

I will keep you updated along the way!



 

 

Randoms- May 13th

Morning all, I should be getting ready for work but my mind is racing a million miles a minute. Just thought I'd jot down what's on my mind at the moment.


Jeff and I saw "The Great Gatsby" in 3D Saturday night and I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it!! So much so that I am going to scour my friend pool and see who else wants to go watch it! I have read all over the Internet about some of the history snobs that have already written off this movie... how it will never properly represent the book, no one can replace Robert Redford and how the rap music and quasi 1920's/1930's mish mash isn't historically correct. Yes, I get that, 100%. BUT if you just go into this movie with an open mind and a thrill of seeing characters brought to life with a 2013 CGI flare, it is amazing. The opulence and excess that Fitzgerald writes about absolutely comes to life. It is beautiful to behold. I think Leonardo's Jay Gatsby is played wonderfully. You can see his sadness, his almost crazed grasp of trying to hold onto something that can not be replayed. Carey's Daisy is beautiful and shallow. Even if it isn't historically correct, I think the costumes are quite beautiful, the scenic backdrops grand and I can only imagine the great feeling of wealth that was going on in our nation for some people... before the great slap in the face of the crash of 1929 and our plunge into the Depression.

When the heck did Leo get swoon worthy?? Seriously! One minute he's a cutie in Titanic then BAM holy hot manlyness!



Busy week ahead.....

Friday night Jeff informed me that we have to have the house appraised again!! We are refinancing and I guess the old appraisal we did in the fall has expired. Ugh, so I have to really get my bum into gear and get the house ship shape, but my mind is in dress making mode.... not housekeeping mode. Booo. Hisss.



This Saturday night is Caiden's Jr. Prom. Very exciting! We pick up his tux on Thursday. For some reason I got in my head that I can make his and Haley's boutonniere and corsage.....uh huh...  sooooo, we shall see how that turns out,  on this very busy week......let's just add one more project to the mix shall we??! Mmkay. I will post about my flower arranging skills next week. Wish me luck with that one!

       1960's prom vieillemarde.com

I have many sewing projects that I am in the middle of and it doesn't look like I will have a chance to touch them this week. Ack, talk about depression!

Kitchen redo!

We have been in our house for 5 years. Slowly but surely we have tried to get each room to reflect "us" and our personality.

Our house was built in 1978 and is the typical raised ranch style you find in older developments throughout Upstate New York. Our kitchen was remodeled in 1993 by the previous homeowners which had oak cabinets and ivory/bone colored appliances. It just felt dreary and sad. Nobody likes a sad and dreary cook! We I lived with it for 3 1/2 years...and then I just couldn't take it anymore!! After major hunting for ideas all over the blogesphere, ahem....Pinterest, I decided that white painted cabinets were just what the doctor ordered.

The previous owners kitchen

First I painted the walls a dark gray called Creek Bend by Behr. We purchased new stainless steel appliances and Jeff installed a dishwasher as the kitchen didn't have one before....best.thing.ever.

I decided I wanted open cabinets on one side of the kitchen, the other side near the fridge would keep their doors. I just love the look of open cabinets! So I took almost everything out of each cabinet and then all the doors off.





The white standing cabinet in this pic housed my colletion of Lu-Ray Pastel dinnerware. I got rid of the cabinet and those dishes now live in the open shelves.

Where the wine lives ;)

The paint I chose for the cabinets was Powdered Snow also by Behr (with the primer included) BUT the freak that I am also used primer by Zinsser first. It was a long process but totally worth it!

Cabinets before trimwork

Ahhh, my beautiful Lu-Rays!

Next came the trim I added to the tops of all the cabinets, I really like how they turned out.

So we lived with that for almost a year then I FINALLY finished the shelves I had wanted to put up inbetween the cabinets above the sink! That will be where my everyday dishes (Fiestaware) will be stored. I purchased four shelf brackets, two wood boards and trim for the front of each shelf from Home Depot.

Shelves being installed, new sink, faucet and door hardware.

New fridge and pantry

The keeper of all things important!



My new beautiful bright cheery kitchen. I love you. I love you. I love you!!

We kept the tile floor because it was in great shape and I am living with the countertops we had before. New countertops not really in the budget for now and I would really like to tackle the master bedroom next, so tag this baby DONE!!

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