A New Chapter in Our Lives

I CAN’T BELIEVE WE ACTUALLY DID IT!!

After bouncing around the idea for several years, Randy and I sold our house that our kids spent half their lives in.  We were tired of having rooms that we never used, not to mention the maintenance and heating/cooing expenses of a larger home.  Crying, tears, and  lots of emotions.  But we are bouncing back.

We purchased a 2300 square foot brick rancher built in 1966 that is in great need of W O R K…  But it has great bones and needs someone to love it again.  And I’m that sucker.

After 3-1/2 weeks living in the Homewood Suites, we moved in three days ago. Hello air mattresses. Phase I will be completed soon (just to make it habitable) and then Phase II will kick in.

Here’s a peek.  It’s my new fix.it.up project.  I’ll just pretend it’s like working on a piece of furniture…a very large piece of furniture.  

I’ll post interior shots soon.  I’ve made a point of taking lots of “before” pictures so I can remember what it used to look like. 

Patchwork Painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been sitting on two pieces of furniture for almost a year now, waiting for divine inspiration.

During my daily visit to Pinterest I came across this blog.  Bingo!  That’s all I needed. 

This patchwork technique works great with pieces that are built using “planks” rather than large pieces of wood, or built with lots of “bits and pieces”, as my plant stand was. 

I’m sorry to say I can’t find a before photo of this desk. It was just a little, unfinished pine desk with no drawers.

But here’s my plant stand that I just L O V E!

It’s hard to photograph since it’s so tall and skinny.  I’ll give you a full length shot, but you can appreciate it more by seeing it in sections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And luckily, I had the foresight to take a few shots of it before I went to work on it…

You’ve got to give this technique a try.  It’s impossible to goof it up!

Flip Flop

I just found these pictures and I thought I would share.

My daughter called me one day and told me she found a large pile of discarded furniture sitting on the curb.  In a situation like this, timing is critical. 

I grabbed my husband (he’s the  muscles in the family) and we drove both SUV’s to maximize cubic space.

Woo baby.  We ended up loading both cars to the gills!  We even had to move the front seat to the full upright position and loaded it up too.

This dining set was our best catch of the day.  So my daughter and I decided to split all expenses (scratch remover and new fabric for seats)and then we would split the profits.

Needless to say, it sold in one day!

Vintage Dresser Done!

I’ve been painting like a mad woman all weekend.  Finally, I’m back at my day job on Monday so that I can get some rest (did I say that?).

I finished this chest of drawers over the weekend and the companion dresser should be done in a day or two after I get around to giving it a coat of poly.

I can’t get enough of retro hardware…a lot of thought and imagination was put into creating all those cool circular, ameba, and boomerang shapes!  I gave these tarnished brass pulls a fresh coat of brushed nickel.  

Here’s a before shot of the chest.  Check back later to see my plans for repurposing the matching full size headboard.  (It won’t be a headboard for much longer!)

Furniture Update…

I recently finished three more pieces of furniture that I want to share.  The dresser has already found its new home so I only have two on the market at the moment.

 

 

 

I don’t have a “before” shot of this coffee table, but it was just a plain, brown color, in fairly good shape…

I’ve held onto this little dresser for quite a while and finally got the calling to work on it.  This wasn’t quite the look I was going for.  I should have just dry brushed the white topcoat rather that painting it a solid white and then removing the paint by sanding.  It turned out a little too spotty for my taste…but hey…it sold right away.  So what do I know?

And finally, here’s a little bed table/cabinet that I picked up at a 50%off sidewalk sale at a thrift store.  That means in set me back $5 plus tax.  My only investment was the oversized, square chrome pull from IKEA.  But the hardware is always the eye candy and my favorite part of the project.   Well worth it!

It’s funny how I just hated that tacky Mediterranean look from the 60’s and 70’s, and now I get so excited if I find a piece out there.  It’s amazing what a little paint can do…

Sweat Equity

Well, she’s just about done. We’ve spent our last three weekends giving our little Go-Tag-A-Long a much needed paint job. We started first thing each morning and worked until sundown.  I haven’t been this tired in years. 

Finally the fruits of our labor are starting to show!

Here’s a brief list of the changes we’ve made to the exterior (excluding electrical, plumbing, etc.):

• new white spoke wheels and new tires
• removed broken awning, antenna & related hardware
• plugged all empty “holes” with stainless screws
• changed out all unpainted screws with stainless
• had spare tire mounted on rear bumper
• scraped, primed and painted rusty tongue
• new LP canisters, new battery
• new jack and safety chains
• painted body, side stripes
• added new pin striping to trailer and LP’s
• blended in all doors/vents to match body
• replace dented fridge vent on roof (in progress)
• resurface roof (in progress)

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to show off a few of her better angles.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Our first weekend was spent taking much of the hardware off, getting 31 years of blobs and gunk off of the skin (hence, the bare aluminum polka dots) and giving her a good washing.  Then we covered and taped everything that didn’t need to get painted.  I proceeded to spray paint the  entire trailer with CANS of Rustoleum spray paint.

At first glance we thought the coverage looked great.  But if you looked at the trailer at just the right angle, in just the right light… that dreaded splotchy look was apparent!

 

THAT JUST WON’T DO!

Plan “B” (thank goodness for Utube!)

After hours of desperate research, I decided to use the “Roll and Tip” method.  Basically, roll a small area about 3 square feet keeping a wet edge at all times.  Then quickly go behind and lightly brush the wet area.  The paint is self leveling, so brush marks disappear as the paint dries.  Then move on to the next 3 square feet.  You have to work fast and no bathroom breaks allowed! 

I was very pleased to discover that Rustoleum makes the same exact color in canned paint that they make in spray paint.  So I had a perfect match for my sprayed “base coat”.

I did one coat each day (oil based takes 24 hours to dry).  Two coats covered well since I already had a matching base coat. Long story short, it exceeded my expectations. I had no drips, and just a few spots where some brush strokes are visible.  But I’m probably the only one that would notice them, since I know every square inch on this trailer way too well.

Painting the stripes was next.  I just taped them off and brushed them since that surface has a lovely “wood grain” texture. 

Weekend #3 was spent on my orange “Brady Bunch” pin stripe!

We actually took her out camping for one night in her original rough condition to find out everything that was wrong with her.  We got a lot of stares pulling into the park.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies! You can’t judge a book from it’s cover…we knew her potential.  Here we are on that first trip last October…beaming with pride.

 

Enough of that.  A picture is worth a thousand words:

 

The shot on the left shows what we were towing down the highway  for 120 miles.  I don’t know if that’s funny or scarry. 

 

  Refrigerator vent and trim was painted to match body.  The fenders were primed and painted to match also.
I spot sprayed all of the screws with rust primer.

This shot shows the scratches on the white body.  Also, utilities were rusted and tired. New stain-less steel spray paint for those!

 

 

You know you’re in trouble when your “bracket” has to be tied in a knot!

 

 

 

A few more…

 

 

 

Our final touch is to apply the name decal on the rear, right above the spare tire.  It should be here tomorrow.  We’ve decided to name her after our sweet Brittany Spaniel, Belle, who we lost after 14 years.  We figured the name fit well, since Belle had issues with separation anxiety.  She followed us around, room by room, hardly every letting us out of her sight.  I guess that would qualify her as a little “Tag-A-Long”!

Details of our neighborhood christening celebration for our “Miss Belle” coming up soon!

Camper Update!

We’ve been working our buns off on our little 18’ Go-Tag-A-Long Travel Trailer.  The interior is becoming very comfortable and livable. It’s starting to feel like home.  Randy is a great sport about how I choose to decorate the camper.  His only two requests were that I DO NOT paint the paneling (I guess it adds to the 70’s ambience?) And also, he wanted it gender neutral…not ruffles or gingham.  Here’s a little of what we’ve done.

This view shows the new curtain on the large front window.  (More on curtains later.)  Also, this great orange laminate was discovered on the table underneath a filthy layer of “granite” contact paper. Earth tone cushions were embraced for their “70ish style”…cleaned and left original. Original sconces got a good scrubbing.  Also, new carpet tiles.

The contact paper
shown on table above
before the exciting
discovery underneath.

My kitchen is still a work in progress.  I ripped off the old wall covering and replaced it with “hammered copper” squares from Home Depot.  Randy made the wood grid for my sink topper.  It practically doubles my counter space…ha ha.  I accessorized with fun IKEA stuff!

Note in the before shot, the counter top was also covered with the “granite” contact paper.

I was horrified at the cost of having to purchase four quilt sets for our bunks.  Then I realized that I could purchase two full/double size quilt sets at a significant savings.  Each came with two pillow shams.  I split the quilts down the middle and finished off the cut edge.  Then I put the cut edge up against the wall side of the bunk.
  

All the cabinet and closet doors were removed and taken down to my workshop.  Each door was wiped clean.  Then I used liquid scratch remover on the entire surface. It’s amazing how the scratches and gouges just disappeared.  Then I repainted all of the edges of drawers and doors a medium brown.  The old hardware was removed and replaced by knobs and pulls that have a slight southwestern feel and are edged in copper.  I’m attempting to use the copper accents throughout the entire camper.

Note the lovely blue carpet in the before shot above.  The after picture gives a glimpse of the mocha colored carpet tiles.  I’ve kept most of the permanent fixtures neutral colors, and I’m accessorizing with the fun, bright colors since they can be changed out at little cost and effort.

Neither of the shots above are a very good quality, but I just wanted to illustrate the location of my new microwave.  You will notice a cabinet directly below the fridge.  I took the door off and had to cut the opening slightly larger. An electrical receptacle was installed inside the cabinet when we had the wiring updated after purchasing the trailer.  So then I was able to slip the microwave into the new opening and secure with wood strips.  Then I framed out the opening and reframed the fridge to blend the two together.  They were painted the same brown as the cabinet door edges. 

Next on my list is installing a “portable” air conditioner that will sit below the microwave. I will take out both the old furnace and the cabinet below the furnace.  This will allow enough room for the air conditioner to roll into place.  It vents through a five inch hose similar to that of a clothes dryer.  That hose will attach to the existing furnace vent opening that goes to the outside.

A bathroom update is on the horizon also.  More on that later!