UPDATE: House for sale

A few months ago I mentioned that we were getting our house ready to go on the market.

We finally finished our to do list and it is officially for sale! So far we haven't had any viewings but we did list it just a few days before the government shut down. In a city like Huntsville, government problems really takes a toll on the economy.

Check out our progress! If you want to check out what it looked like before these updates. check out our home tour.

Outback: 

Some awesome guys from church came over and had a pressure washing party and really whipped the place into shape. It's amazing what a difference pressure washing can make

Family Room

Our Family Room was a bright yellow so we painted it a nice neutral. The pictures look two different colors, but in person it looks more like the first.  I do hate that our walls are so bare now but we didn't want to make new nail holes after it was freshly painted.

Dining Room

The Dining Room is definitely my favorite room. I love how it's come together. With the homemade curtains and the DIY trim, this room is really great.

Craft Room and Guest Bedroom:

The Craft Room and Guest Bedroom both were straightened up and made to look "livable". Nothing special here but considering they were both used for storage, they really do look much better.

Master Bedroom:

We updated the bedding and curtains in our Master Bedroom a few months ago to make it feel lighter and airy but no major changes in this room either.

We have loved our first home and really put a lot of hard work and made a lot of memories here but it is time to move on.  I can't wait for this one to sell so that I can start over with new projects in a new home!

Thanks for stopping by today.

DIY Faux Board and Batten and Update

Good morning! Whew has it been a week. Since I last posted, I have quit my day job and accepted a new position that I am scheduled to start on Monday. This is an exciting opportunity for me to grow a career that is actually in line with my communications degree.

In the mean time, I have had a week vacation that is wrapping up. You know I couldn't sit home for a week with out a project so I decided to install Faux Board and Batten in our dining room.

[caption id="attachment_728" align="aligncenter" width="346"] BEFORE[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_827" align="aligncenter" width="345"] AFTER[/caption]

Since we already had a substantial chair rail and good baseboards, I wanted to add to the existing trim, not completely replace it. (And I didn't want to drop hundreds of dollars on this project) After wandering around Lowes and Home Depot for longer than I'm willing to admit, I decided to use 1.5 inch lattice strips.

I gave the wall a good coat of primer and then measured  each wall to determine my spacing. Then I measured again. Then I messed up and had to measure yet again. I stress measuring because I ended up making 3 trips to Home Depot for lattice and several trips to the in-laws to re-cut boards that were not the correct length. It was easiest for me to make a drawing of the room with the measurements and then label each piece with the letter of the corresponding wall on my drawing. You think you will remember which board goes where, but they start running together very quickly. I used my nail gun to attach the boards adding a top and bottom piece as well as a vertical piece every 2 feet. 

Then I caulked around the edges and painted the wall and all of the trip in a gloss white. I took a step back, looked at the wall...... and HATED it. Yep, it looked like I had glued yardsticks to my wall. See how rough it looks in the pic above?

What to do.... What.... to.... do?

I searched the internet and found where others have tried this project using MDF boards. Perfect. Except when I went to buy said MDF boards, I couldn't find 1.5 inch anywhere except online and that just wouldn't do.

The next morning, I got really friendly with my sander and spent a good amount of time sanding the crap-ola (yes, that is my technical term)  out of the boards until they were smooth.

 Then I re-primered and painted and now they look much better.

I can't wait to finish the room and do a results post! Now that my week off is over, I'm having a hard time finishing it up.

I hope you have enjoyed it!

Getting ready to sell....

Hubby and I bought our first home with the intention of it being a starter home. We planned for 3-5 years in this house and this is year 2. While we are not planning on selling any time soon (probably a few years), we have decided to focus our "projects" on things that will make the house easier to sell/raise the value. As the housing market begins to make a slow recovery, we want to put a little extra thought into the things we decide to spend our time and money on to ensure that we will get back what we put in to the house.

After searching blogland for ideas on where to start, here is the beginning of our list:

To Do:

1. Paint the kitchen.  This is the only main room that didn't get a paint job when we moved in and the walls are pretty dirty.

2. Paint the trim through out the house. I actually started on this one tonight. First I had to clean all the trim with a magic eraser, but my next step is to paint.

3. Add board and batten to the dining room (and maybe living room)

4. Paint living room and dining room a neutral color (not everyone loves bright yellow, even though they should!)

5. Paint the front door. Nothing says welcome home like a freshly painted entryway!

6. Finish landscaping the front flowerbeds and entryway. (We started this summer but never finished)

7. Organize spare rooms and closets. This needs to be done anyway, but no one wants to check out the size of the closets in a house to find we have randomly thrown everything we didn't have a place for in there!

Wish list:

1. Granite counter tops. We currently have old school white laminate counter tops. Granite will definitely increase the value of our kitchen but it comes with a hefty price tag. For this reason, this is on our wish list and not our definite list.

2. Update hardware. While we did change out all our cabinet hardware and most of our lighting, our door knobs are still brass and our faucets are still chrome. I would love to change everything to oil rubbed bronze but there are so many doors!! I'm thinking about following one of the tutorials out there to spray paint my current ones, we will see!

3. Add a patio area. We currently have a small covered patio area, but I would really like to extend it out behind our dining room window and add an area for a table and chairs.

Do you have any suggestions about improvements that makes a house sell faster/for a higher price? We would love to hear from you!

Mirrored Tray: Shabby Chic Makeover

I think I have a new addiction... Facebook yard sales. Yep, bye bye craigslist, Facebook yard sale sites are SO much better. If you haven't discovered these yet, just do a quick search on facebook for "(your town) yard sale" I'm ashamed to admit I follow 4 yard sale groups in the Huntsville area. It's better than craigslist because you can actually see real people posting what you want to buy.

This week, I bought this mirrored tray off of one of the Huntsville area yard sales for $8.



 

 

I took some left over chalk paint from my cabinet door chalkboard project and painted the frame (Destin Gulf by CeCe Caldwell) turquoise. Then I finished it by applying Amber wax and buffing it to bring out a light shine.

It took a few coats to cover up the gold and I still buffed off a little to let the gold peek through on some of the accents.

Check out the details on the roses!

It makes a perfect home for these little birds.

Thanks for stopping by! If you haven't entered the Kitchen Aid Giveaway, there is still time! It closes the end of May.

 

DIY Chalkboard from Cabinet Door

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. It is spring break here, but it is snowing! Crazy!

I took advantage of the cold weekend to finish up a project I started a while back but never completed. I'm embarrassed to admit how many of those I have lying around.

For this project, I used a $2 cabinet door from Habitat ReStore and a little paint to create an adorable chalkboard for my craft room. This project is super easy and doesn't take long at all. I was actually finished with this project in about an hour but then it sat in my floor for a month waiting for me to attach a picture hanger and actually hang it up.

This beautiful turquoise is Destin Gulf Gray Chalk Paint by CeCe Caldwell. This was my first time to use chalk paint and it is a little different than I expected. The good thing is you don't have to do much prep to your surface. Just clean it and paint! No sanding or stripping required! Be sure to use very thin coats. It will look a little streaky at first but the second coat will go a long way.

The trim is painted with Dove White (also CeCe Caldwell). Once your paint is dried, you will need to apply a soft wax to seal your project. I actually used a Madison Blanch wax but most lines of chalk paint also sell a wax product. You can get different finishes, I used an amber wax. If you are going to distress your chalk paint, sand it before you wax.

As you can see, the wax changes the color a good bit, don't freak out! (I definitely did) If you are using the amber color, it will dry lighter than it appears. Also, your distressing will look a little heavier once you apply the wax but this will correct itself once it is dried too.

For the actual chalk board area,  I used a chalkboard acrylic paint. Just apply two coats and DO NOT WAX this area.

Once the wax has dried, take a lint free rag and buff over your piece until it is no longer sticky. You will begin to see a shine.

To hang my chalkboard, I attached two eye hooks and picture hanging wire to the back.

    

And here it is hanging over my desk! If you would like to see the tutorial on how I refinished this desk, you can check it out here.

Linking up:

 

Handmade Wednesday #3 {Promote Yourself!}

Thanks for joining again this week! I really enjoy seeing all your handmade products. Here are a few of my favorites from last week!

 



I adore this banner from LucysArtEmporium. How cute would this look strung across a fireplace??



This tool belt from GingerlyMadeCrafts is precious! If I had a little boy, he would HAVE to have this.



I LOVE these hand knotted swarovski pearl necklace from Lucky Clover Boutique. It's on sale right now so head on over before it's gone!!

 

<div align="center"><a href="http://cupcakesandcorndogs.com" title="Cupcakes and Corndogs" target="_blank"><img src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h84/mandafaye04/handmadewednesday125_zps13267cd4.jpg" alt="Cupcakes and Corndogs" style="border:none;" /></a></div>