My Niece Skyler Davis Played with Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum

I am incredibly proud of my niece Skyler. She is a budding and beautiful musician who is extremely talented. The first time I heard her sing was a few years ago in my parents basement during our Christmas get together. Shy and unsure of herself she sang beautifully. Here she is just a few short years later belting out confidently in various places and on stage with a man who is well known all over the world. Check out her facebook page and see the video of her performance with Dave.

Skyler Davis performs with Dave Pirner


Way to go kid. We love you and are very proud of you!!

A Weekend Full of Redo

This weekend was very productive. I finished 2 furniture pieces. The first is a chair that we found at an Estate Sale on Friday for 3.00. My grandson Bryson aided in painting this piece. He was so cute just a painting away. I keep forgetting to take before pictures so this is slightly painted.

I love this chair. The woman had painted it white and recovered the seat. First I painted it a blue chalk paint that I mixed up with 2 colors. After 2 coats you could still see the white which is what I wanted. Then I used a chalk paint in White Chocolate and made a wash out of it. Just mixing 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Then brushed it on and wiped it off. Using a palm sander I distressed it. Then finished with MinWax finishing paste. And I love this little chair even more now.

Here it is in the sunroom in it's rightful place.

My son had this little table and didn't want it any more. I didn't realize the detail this table had until I started cleaning it up.

Once again I forgot to take a before picture before I started painting. I used White Chocolate chalk paint mix on this. After 2 coats I mixed up some Valspar in Pine with water to do a wash coat. Then sanded again with the palm sander and finished with paste wax. This little table turned out so cute.

A few weeks ago we found these brass knobs with back plates at the ReStore for .49 a piece. They are gorgeous.

I bought Rustoleum Hammered spray paint in Dark Brown and look at these babies now.

They are going to go beautifully in our kitchen. I also did a wash coat on the cupboards over the stove with the Valspar paint in Pine. I have too many projects going right now. So this weekend really helped in wrapping a few of them up.

Oh The Joys of Yard Work

Wow we have been so busy I did not realize how long it has been since I have written anything on my blog. The title to this post is an understatement to say the least. I have never really enjoyed yard work but I am building a slow dislike to it now. Earlier I said someone partially filled the backyard around the fountain in. We have dug enough dirt I believe we would have made it halfway to Texas by now. But is it ever coming together. Remember this picture.

Well here is where we are now.

Big difference so far. We have uncovered the left side of the wall. We have a sneaky suspicion that the rest of the wall is gone. I wish it were still there because it is pretty cool.

We have uncovered an amazing amount of rock, cement, broken and complete cinder blocks. Here is a pile of cement and blocks. 

And another pile.

And we are still digging. The side yard had around 50 large size garden rocks. We had no use for them so I put them on a message board at Facebook and a very nice couple came and picked them up. We were very  grateful to them with us both being disabled there is no way we could have picked them up and moved them. They were very grateful to have them and get them for free. It was a win win situation for everyone. 

Last night we dug out more around the fountain. We have also found an amazing amount of sandstone. This is the area around the fountain. It's pretty cool also.

We have been trying to go slow because we just do not know what we are going to run into. Here is Dave playing....LOL....he is amazed at the amount of cement and rock we have uncovered. 

We are not sure at all what the landscaping was back here and it may have been really pretty in it's day. But oh what a HOT MESS it is now. But we have been having a really good time as a family doing this. The kids have even been helping. Sophie keeps asking if we found any treasure today. We have dug up everything from a sole to a shoe to balls for the kids to play fetch with Bella. 

We have beautiful trees and bushes out there. The tree just behind the sunroom is a red maple. The other big tree is an apple blossom. We put rock gardens around both.

We have also been doing the kitchen slowly. A few weekends ago we put the beadboard and shelf over the stove area. We started the wooden countertop on that side too. I painted the cupboards green and I absolutely love the color. I antiqued and distressed the shelf over the stove and it is so cute. The cupboard door have been antiqued but I am not sure I am going to leave them that way. We may leave the kitchen for the fall and winter. It is starting to get hot here and I can't do anything in the heat. The basement has become a priority so I can stay out of the heat and we will not have the cost of cooling the whole house.

Rainy Day Project...Antiquing A Table

I found this little table a few years back at a garage sale for 3.00. Dave always looks at me with this are you serious look. I said oh don't worry I am going to redo it.

I sanded the top down with our hand sander using 80 grit. Someone had used an 8 penny nail to reattach the front leg. We removed that and countersunk a screw. Then Dave used his nail sets and reset the small nails into the other legs. I filled all of the holes and cracks with wood filler and sanded the top once again after the filler dried for 24 hours. Then I used Minwax  stain in Early American on the top. I had some of the White Chocolate chalk paint left from the tv stand so I dry brushed some of that onto the bottom leaving some of the wood to show through. Then I let it dry once again for 24 hours. I finished it with the Minwax finishing paste and here is the end result.

I am pretty happy with it. I just need to figure out the perfect place for it.

April Showers Bring Me Surprises

It has been cold and rainy this last week off and on so we have not been able to go outside. I took a few days off and just chilled. Well during those days I poked around the house. First this last Saturday we took the living room ceiling down. It had started to sag and crack. Someone had put the texture on it and it was yellowing in the cracks. A BIG thank you to my son J and to Dave. They both got hit with this with no warning which is typical around here, and we had a great time together doing this. Here is a picture of my son working hard.

Now we wanted to work with the wood and make the planked ceiling but as my title stated April showers have brought me surprises instead of flowers. During the rain the other night there was a small leak over the television. Dad stopped by yesterday to pick up that awful cement like ceiling and take it to the dump. With the nailers still bowing the way they are and the leak, as a precaution we have to take all of it down and check to make sure it is all still stable. So plans once again change. As they often do with an old house. 

During one of my poking around trips I noticed this in the stairway to the basement.

When the previous owners remodeled the kitchen they put in a new wall. This is the back of it. Well looking at the wall and the top of the stairwell I thought huh I wonder what is in that space above the stairway. Dave got the familiar Oh Boy Here We Go Look. 

So yesterday I pulled the lazy suzan out and using the crowbar and hammer I popped a hole into the wall so that if there was nothing behind there we could just put the lazy suzan back and noone would be the wiser.

Well we shined a flashlight into the hole and this is what we have after a whole days work.

The start to a Pantry! I have not a clue why who ever it is did this. They could have made their work so much easier had they used the existing wall. Instead they put the new wall about 6 inches out and covered the pantry. So we have moved the refrigerator out to the sun room area just behind the snack bar and are moving cupboards yet again. Dave is so good about this stuff. Once again he gets hit with this with little warning. And not one word of complaint. Maybe a few eye rolls here and there but all in all he takes it very well. He has never done electrical work so that was intimidating for him. Now me I had to learn a lot of handy things being a single disabled mom on a low income. But I am losing my sight so I have to pass the torch so to speak. The wire for the lights and an outlet needed to be moved. So I walked him through how to find which wire it is downstairs, how to disconnect and put it all back together. He did a fantastic job. 

I am so excited. It just gave me so much more storage in the kitchen and freed up alot of cupboard space. I  moved the lazy suzan there and will keep it turned like it is. I know they aren't supposed to be like that but I plan on doing a built in look and all of the food will be in the same area. 

Slow But Sure Progress...Unveiling the Fountain

We have been working on the backyard for the last 3 days. There is the retaining wall and the fountain. Someone partially filled all of it in with dirt.We have been digging slowly because we are not sure what is under the dirt. The fountain is almost all the way out...we think. Oh my what a mess. Remember this....

Well just look at this now!

See the retaining wall peeking out in the back of that picture.

There appears to be a whole rock garden theme going on and it could be tied in with the wall. Dave is going to rebuild the fountain and get it working again. 

He also built me raised flower beds the other day. Using treated landscaping timbers he screwed some small deck wood on the inside and used the same deck wood for the ends. Then I put some dirt from around the wall and fountain in them. The total cost for this was 30.00 which is great. I am loving them. We have the old garage foundation out there. We put them over the one side to cover the edges and the small poles sticking out of the ground. He is going to do another set on the other side.

The patio will be in the middle of them. 

The neighbors have a retaining wall also. They have vines from hell growing on them. The vines have grown over and gone up the side of our house. You can see the vines trailing through the yard to the house. OH MY! It took us 2 hours and 8 trash bags yesterday to get these things off of our house. And we are not even finished with it. Those things are horrible. They were literally growing into the walls of the house. I pulled some vines that were 3 feet long out of the inside of the outer walls. The guy from next door said he burnt them off the wall to make them stronger, but it would have been nice had he trimmed them and kept them contained to his yard. Insert a strong want to choke my first living being here again LOL.

I hope everyone realizes I am just kidding...kinda. The progress is slow but sure. 

I have this bad habit of starting one thing and then something else comes that has to be done. The yard is our priority right now. The rot's are still coming down here. Animal control is only on duty Monday through Friday until 5 and they can't do anything after the fact. The police can't write tickets or anything unless they see the dogs out. Well I am not willing to take the chance that the dogs get a hold of my dogs or anyone else in the family. So we are doing that to hopefully put a stop to the dogs coming down here because their owner isn't willing to do anything himself. Which is a whole other rant I better not get into. We were going to do the countertop and wooden floors this weekend but I am pretty spent from the yard so I will be taking it easy. Otherwise we are taking the truck load of yard waste to my parents house in the country to be burnt today and chilling. Everyone have a great weekend!

Spring Is Peeking

Since it is Spring Break here I have the grandkids during the day. Yesterday was not incredibly warm, but warm enough for us to go outside. I decided we would take the time and start on the backyard. What a hot mess. It seems like this whole house is a hot mess. The kids really like helping and love digging in the dirt so they had a blast. This is what we are working with.

It isn't a big yard but just the right size for us. But oh man do we have our work cut out. We met the neighbors and they seem to be very nice people. The woman  has lived there since 1961 so she knows a lot of the history of our house. There is a retaining wall back there that some of the former owners just gave up on taking care of. The people behind us brought dirt into their yard and made it start falling down. So someone just basically filled portions of it in and left it at that. She said it is a pretty stone. Her wall has tons of ivy growing on it and that has grown all into our yard and even up the side of our house. We definately need to get that taken care of. It is starting to come through that basement walls. But it would be nice to get it under control, it is very pretty. I would love to have it going up our side of the wall too. It has been quite a few years since someone has lived here and taken care of this house. But we kind of figured that one out on our own. There is also a fountain. It looks like it used to be beautiful. 

So let the digging begin. We are going to try to get the retaining wall exposed. Hopefully that will discourage the rot's from coming over here. See that house in the background, that is where they live.