A Little Uplift to the Front of our Little Cottage

  

Once again, it has been awhile, hasn't it? Everyday, I think about something I want to blog about and somehow the day goes by and I haven't. Well, today I was taking pictures of our front entry and decided it was time to sit down and journal the changes on my blog. I've put some things on Facebook about it, but this is a little more detailed.

This is the only before picture of our cottage I could find. As you can see the front door is not centered under the portico. I have wanted it moved since the first time we looked at the house. When Mr. SS decided to move it, I suggested that we add sidelights as long as we were changing things. Well, things went kinda crazy from there. That is typical of us. We are fixer uppers at heart and knew from day one, that the front of this house was going to change. You can't see them, but there are 4"x4" in posts at the front of the portico.

From the inside after door was removed.

The out side. The top of the portico had a ceiling right above the door. Mr. SS removed it and started designing.

He cut out the opening for door and side lights. Wow, it really opened up our entry. Loving it already.

From the outside.

Framing it all in.

Sidelights are in!

Door back in and all trimmed out on the inside.

We did not change the size of the portico at all, just subtracted and added to make it look so much more prominent.  He removed a paneling to expose that area under the roof line. The center brace and beam were already there, but he added the two pieces of wood.

From the inside.

Now bead board and two columns have been added to the wall surrounding the door. The 4x4 posts have been wrapped and trimmed. Every thing already looks so much bigger.

Bead board  and a center beam was added to the roof of the portico and it is primered.

Painting done

Look at those columns.

The ceiling with bead board and our new little chandelier. It only has 3 lights and lots of little crystals. At night the crystals sparkle on the all that shiny white paint. It is so pretty.

We still have to paint  front door and are leaning towards red. Our last house had a red one, and I never tired of it.

Okay, done for today. Some sewing next time and then the new window makeovers.

As always,  I am feeling blessed

because...

                                               

Technically challenged...

I think I have become a weekly poster. I have a good excuse this week.  All my pictures were in the memory of my camera because I left the card in the computer. I could not figure out how to get them on the computer.

Well, I am feeling so proud of myself this morning. I went on the Kodak website and found out how to get them from the camera memory to my card so I could get them to the computer...Duh! I know some of you would have no trouble with that, but as my title says...

Some of what I did last week,

starting with watching this guy catch a bunny and devour it (oh my!) and then run through MY space twice before disappearing.

Click on picture to see him better. I was as close as I was about to get, inside my motorhome through the windshield.

I made some bar stool pads for a client to match the three shades I made for her kitchen a month ago.

A cute little bubble dress for a model for Strawberry Patches.

And another cute little dress for a model.

Then while home for the weekend, we worked on our little trailer that we are redoing.

This corner is where the table goes. It used to be a bankette (?) table ( table with benches on either side)as  most all trailers have, but we took it out and will replace it. I'll show you what we are replacing it with soon.

A close up shows a blue and mauve mottled paneling.

I put up wallpaper. Yes, this is textured wallpaper that looks exactly like beadboard. Even Mr. SS (carpenter, everything has to be wood, man) loves it. I still have to paint (yes, you paint it) and it will really look just like wood. Can you tell...I love this too.  The greatest part, it was so easy to work with. I have put up a lot of wallpaper and this was a wallpaperer's dream.

Before we packed up and left to come back to Riverside, Jack had his 5th birthday party. I finally got to see him with his new Cowboy shirt on. He likes it almost as much as I did making it?

Mr. SS got to spend some Pappaw time with our youngest family member, Emmy Lou.

She doesn't sit still for anyone, but he bribed her with her drink cup.

We are back in Riverside now, and I have had another busy week. I'll share with you another time.

It is gloomy outside and I have a crockpot simmering with Chili and am doing what I love to do.

 I am so blessed.

What are you doing that you love?

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

Just the Way I Wanted it After All

Once again, I am linking to http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for

When we bought our 1968 Ranch Style house 6 yrs. ago, the first rooms we did were the laundry room and powder room off the garage.  The laundry room had room for a pantry, so my husband built it and said he would make the doors later.  When my son built my kitchen, entertainment center and china hutch, I asked him to make door for my pantry.  "Oh sure Mom, no problem". I'm not complaining, mind you. I feel very blessed that my hubby and my sons have worked so hard to make this house a home.

But until the week before Easter, my pantry still looked like this:

and the area where I keep laundry and cleaning supplies looked like this:

One day while in Michaels, I found these two cute baskets and took them home to try them in the area at the bottom of the pantry that was "supposed" to be two big drawers.

They just fit here:

Perfect fit!!

So from there, I just decided I was going to pretend I never wanted doors on my pantry and I could "cute up" the rest of the cupboard.

This is what it looks like now.

I used the wallpaper from the laundry room and the bathroom to line and make an edging for the shelves.

(You'll get a tour of both in a minute)

Here you can see the little scallops I cut out of the striped paper.

I had a couple of more pictures, but loaded them upside down. I think you get the "picture".

I was so proud of myself for using something I had and not bugging my hubby or son to make my doors. Also, the wood had been primed, but never painted, so I painted it first. Even painted the door below the cleaning supplies which is my hamper.

So you see....I never really wanted doors. This is so much cuter.

Now for a little tour of the rest of the Laundry Room

Going around the room left to right from the pantry.

                                         

                                     

I love this light fixture. I think it has a vintage look even though it was new at the time.

Over the French Door leading to the Kitchen.

That was pictures of the top of the room starting at the pantry and moving right all the way around the room.

Here's the lower wall with my ironing board cabinet

This next one is a lamp on top of my washer, which was inspired by a post my friend, Suzanne of  http://patches.typepad.com/notes_from_the_patch/

I love these open cupboard (I planned these to be open from the start) and the pole for hanging clothes as they come out of the dryer (sometimes they stay there until we wear them)

                                      

                                              

Next we are on to the Powder room right off the laundry room. Probably the most used room in the house.

Starting with the floor. It is the same in the laundry room and in the other bathrooms. I love the wavy grout lines and it isn't completely flat. It is a light gray. Gray was my neutral in this house.

A pedestal sink which I have always wanted, but where do you store the TP and extral towels. The little step stool for my grandkids does double duty.

This mirror, I found years before we bought this house and after painting it black, it was perfect for this room.

On the wall to the right of the sink is this little towel rack I found at a street fair.  It is small, but the perfect size for this tiny room.

 Next to the towel rack is the window. The curtain I made from a piece of fabric I found in an antique store being used for a display. I had to have it and it was almost closing time. I begged the lady to call the owner and see if she would sell it.  I think they both new how badly I wanted it because she said I could have it for $45.00. I never buy anything without trying to bargain....but for this I just said "Sold".

It was worth it. After seeing it, nothing else would have done for me.

To the right again is the wall the toilet is on. This is another piece, I searched for, not giving up until I found the right thing. It was marked 1/2 off at a little store going out of business in Morro Bay. So I made up for the expensive curtain fabric.

Just to the right again (this is a small room, you can barely turn around in).

Now the door and the wall to the right of it.

That's it. The part of the post for Met Monday is just the pantry but since I was featuring that, I thought I would show you the rest of the room it was in and the powder room because I used the wallpaper from both rooms for shelf paper.

It is a lot of pictures, but as you all know taking pictures in small rooms is not easy.

I had a hard time posting pictures and even though they look lined up when I wrote this, they post uneven.  Also could not get the links to work right. It's probably just me.