Lovely Living Areas

I was browsing through the website House to Home and came across some great inspiration pictures, some of which I posted below. There are so many gorgeous rooms on this site, definitely something for everyone.

I think we may be able to finish our bedroom floor after all. We have some more of the salvaged floor boards and I went through most of it today and found some decent pieces. Hopefully we will be able to find enough to do the rest of the floor. Keep your fingers crossed for me!








Have a good day everyone & a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Eva

New Family Room Project

I am sad to say that the wood floor in our bedroom didn't work out after all. After getting about 3/4 of the room finished, we found the remaining wood to be extremely warped and/or rotted. It was not in usable condition. I thought about finishing the rest of the floor with new oak planks but I was afraid it would look too "new", even after refinishing all of the floor. I didn't want the new part to stick out like a sore thumb. I finally decided to scrap that project and move on. I have been too disgusted with the floors and myself to even blog about it! But I am now ready to dive into another project!

We decided to do the family room because it is a room we use every day and it would maybe serve as inspiration for what we will do with the rest of the house. We decided to panel (yes panel!) the entire room in cedar tongue-in-groove planks. I never thought I would like something like that, but hubs finally talked me into it. We put some up earlier and will do more later.

The planks are about 8 ft. long. The wall in the picture is 12 ft. high. We decided to put up the 8 ft. pieces and then put 4 ft. pieces on the bottom, and we will then put up chair rail where the ends will butt up against one another. Since the ends of our planks aren't tongue-in-groove I didn't see any other alternative that would have looked o.k.


The planks are unfinished and, since I like the color and patina of the wood, I am thinking a matte, non-yellowing poly would be good to finish it with. I will be looking for some inspiration pictures to give you an idea of the direction I am going in with this room.

Wishing everyone a good weekend!

Eva

Out Sick

We have either a cold or flu virus going around in our household. Last week I had it, my daughter and youngest son have it, and hubby came home early from work not feeling well. Check back with me next week for pics of the floor. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Eva

Remember Me?

It has been quite a while since I last posted! For the past couple of days I have been reading and catching up with lots of other blogs that I enjoy. I have been working on the master bedroom floor by myself here and there when I get the time, and have almost gotten it finished. I will have pictures of it to post this weekend. I have found some odds and ends for the room in my junking expeditions, which I will show you this weekend as well. It is coming along slowly but surely.
Hope everyone is doing well!

Eva

My Virtual Master Bedroom

Since we have started putting the oak hardwood floor in our room, I have been thinking about how I ultimately want the room to look when all the remodeling is finished. I went "shopping" online tonight and found some examples of what I would like to do in this room.

First I decided on bedding. I would love white bedding in my room. I'm not sure how practical this will be since we do have children and they like to romp around on our bed. But I do suppose that is what bleach is for.

I would like an iron bed like the one below, except I would prefer it to be weathered, with some rust here and there.

Then I started thinking about wall color. Since I would like to have a serene feeling in the room and nothing too jarring, I decided a warm antique white might be the color I will use.

I have a china cabinet that my mom gave me about a year ago. It was in my living room, cluttered with books, magazines, dusty knick-knacks, and the various odds and ends my kids would throw in it. I am reading "Straight Talk on Decorating" by Lynette Jennings and in it she talks about re-purposing furniture to use in ways other then originally intended. So, I got the idea that I would remove my old, laminated, worn, and ugly dresser and chest of drawers from my room and use the china cabinet for storage instead. I had taken the glass from the doors of the cabinet a while back and was going to replace it with chicken wire. Now I plan to put some bead board panels in and use it for an armoire. I found a color I like at Lowe's last weekend called Crocodile Tears that is a mossy green like the color swatch shown below. I think that is the color I will paint the china cabinet a.k.a. armoire.

I want simple window treatments that will let in lots of light, but still allow privacy when needed. I already have cafe shutters in my bathroom and LOVE them! I would like to use them in my bedroom as well.

I saw these window treatments on walmart.com and love them. Simple and pretty.

It will be interesting to see if this room will turn out exactly as I envision it. Good night all!

Eva

Andrew Wyeth

I was searching some art sites today and came across these Andrew Wyeth prints. I was immediately attracted to the earth-toned palette and the rural settings he depicted in his paintings. At the same time, I noted a sort of somber, lonely quality about them.
I do really like the prints though. What do you all think about them ?

"Christina's World" is the first print. Christina was Wyeth's neighbor and was afflicted with polio.

The second print is titled "Master Bedroom" and basically depicts a dog's bond with its owner.

The third print is called "Ides of March", the fourth, "Big Room", and the fifth, "Around the Corner".

The sixth print is called "Ground Hog Day". Notice the lone place setting?
I get a melancholy feeling from most of these. Maybe it's just me. Click here to learn more about Andrew Wyeth.

Good night all!

Eva

Cleaning and Organizing

I have been cleaning out our closets and decluttering for the past week now and I am still not finished! For whatever reason, I have the urge to purge so that's what I have been doing. Hubby has been busy with work, and our partially-done bedroom floor has been neglected, but still I feel productive getting things organized.The floor really needs to be finished and I hope to get it done this week.

I have a few things in mind for our room after we get the floor finished. I'll post some of my ideas and things I have collected thus far. Happy Sunday everyone!

Eva

Renovation Style

I have been obsessed lately with older houses which have been renovated and retain much of their original architecture. I found all of these rooms on the website of "This Old House".

The renovated bathroom in a 1925 Oregon bungalow. Small space, but looks very efficient.

This is the master bath in a 1963 ranch home. Small, but very pretty.

The owners took out a wall to enlarge the kitchen and painted over the existing fir floor. Notice the 10 ft. high ceiling!

This kitchen, as well as the rest of the home, has 11 ft. ceilings! I love the light, open feeling of this kitchen~the cozy chair would be perfect for a cup of tea and a good book.

There must be something going on with me and high ceilings today. This is a renovated kitchen in a 150-year-old farmhouse in Louisiana. Perfect right down to the cute dog sleeping on the rug!

Eva

Thank You Rechelle!

I was surprised and honored to find that Rechelle at Walnuthaven Cottage had given me an award for my blog. I appreciate the gesture and have to commend Rechelle for her blog-I love it!

In turn for receiving this award, I am to choose seven others to give the award to. My choices (in no particular order) are as follows:

1. Kim at One Woman's Cottage Life. Her blog was the first I had ever read and I was hooked from the start!

2. Tina at Cherry Hill Cottage. Her home is beautiful!

3.Mari at Guldkant Pa Livet. This blog has wonderful pictures and is so inspirational!

4.Mia at Mias Landliv. Wonderful blog with beautiful pics!

5.Rhoda at Southern Hospitality. Such a beautiful home!

6.Donna at An Enchanted Cottage. Another of my favorites!

7. Niki at Nostalgia at the Stone House. Just found this one and I love it!

Ladies, feel free to choose seven others to give to~or not. Just know that your blogs are wonderful!

Pictures of Floor Progress

Sorry it has taken me so long to post pictures of the floor. Both Al and I have been busy with college enrollment, financial aid forms, and numerous other things. But we worked for a few hours today on the floor, and we are about half way finished! We like how it's turning out and hope to get it done within the next few days. It sure is hard on the back and knees though~but well worth it!

Come back in a couple of days for more pictures!

Eva

Started the Master Bedroom Floor Today!

We started putting down the wood flooring down in our room today. It took a lot of prep work to get the planks ready to go down. Al removed all of the old rusty nails from the planks and we scrubbed down all of the planks then waited for them to dry out. We are doing the floors the old-fashioned way-hammers and nails-since we don't have the type of nailer used for flooring. But we are enjoying the process and envisioning the finished product. It's very satisfying to get a major project going since it has been a while since we have done anything to our house.



This is what we have done so far and still have much more to put down. It will be so worth it when it's all down, sanded, and finished!

Eva

Thrift Finds for Jenna's Room

My Mom and I went to Goodwill on Monday and I found some cute things for Jenna's room.

I found this cute mirror.

And this picture frame.

My favorite find was this Ralph Lauren twin-sized bed skirt. I LOVE the colors! I chose a soft pink called Pink Sunrise for the walls.

Our cat, Lily, has to be in the middle of everything I'm doing!

One of my favorite parts of summer is when the chicory blooms between July and September. I love the color of these flowers-exactly like the color of cornflowers!

Eva

Salvaged Wood for our Bedroom

Al finally got all of the wood planks up and our 2 oldest sons, Zach and Austin, stacked it on our back porch. We still have to pull out all of the old nails before we can put it down in our bedroom. After we get it down we will sand it then finish it.

I got the notion to get a plank and sand the old varnish off half of it (see pic below.)

Here is the sanded half again....

I had some Minwax Oak Provencial stain from an old project and decided to stain the sanded portion to see how it would look.

I let the stain set for about 15 minutes and wiped it off.

I will probably try a darker stain as well to see how that will look.

All in all I think the floor is going to turn out beautifully. Can't wait to get started on it!

Eva

Wildflowers

My hubby, kids, and I went for a walk yesterday and I picked a bunch of pretty wildflowers. Just wanted to share some photos of them with you.









The cornflowers and tigerlillys are starting to bloom here. I hope to get some nice pictures of them this weekend. Speaking of weekend, hope you all have a great one!

Eva