Four Sides + The Bean Team =

One good-lookin' house!  Yes, we are FINALLY done!  It took us roughly a month and half of working weekends and dodging rain storms to paint the entire exterior of our house!  What did we learn from this experience?  Well, we learned that it's really not as daunting as a task as it seems to paint the exterior of a home.  Anthony learned that being afraid of heights is for sissies and I learned that I'm actually ambidextrous when it comes to painting!  We developed quite a simple "DIO" (Doing-It-Ourselves) way of painting so if you're interested in painting your house, send me a line and I'll share all! 

Last but not least, here's some good 'ole befores and afters to document one of our biggest projects yet!  Enjoy!

Before

(I forgot to take a before picture before I painted the trim but you can still see the faded, ugly green.)

After

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After

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(Ten points if you can find St. Anthony)

Before

After

Next project?  Some much needed landscaping is in order and since Anthony used to be a landscape designer, it should be a fun time.  :)  Come back and see our house become surrounded by lushness!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We've spent every waking moment today, with the exception of an hour break for lunch, painting the last side.  We would be sitting here right now lounging with the entire side done if it weren't for the darn storms passing through!  But, I thought it'd be fun to post an "In Progress" photo just for kicks.

The feedlot light is gone and our last side is over halfway done!  Yippee! 

Last Side!

So our hope is that this weekend we can finish painting the last side of our house!  

It's arguably the worst side since it gets the most sun and has faded so much.  We're tackling the trim today and tomorrow the siding...weather permitting.  We also want to take off that horrid light above the side door.  It reminds me of the lights I grew up with over the feedlot pens...it's way out of place.  I loved growing up on the farm but I don't need a souvenir.  (I have you Gramps!)  Our, at least my motivation, has waned since we finished the front of the house.  I still really want to finish it but the rush to get it all done has subsided a little since we have the part that everyone sees done.

So, cheer me on as I paint the door and window trim! 

(I already painted the bottom trim with excess paint awhile ago.  Can you see the difference?)

Stay tuned for after pictures too!

What a Little Paint Can Do!

The title of this post should actually read "What a Little Paint and a LOT of Patience Can Do!", but it's a little long.  So, a friend kindly gave us a beautiful hutch in exchange for a twin mattress set we had that we weren't using. 

We placed it in our living room at the time to create a focal point on an otherwise "blank" wall.  At the time, the green, country look of it complimented the colors in our living room and even though I had dreams to paint it one day, I just didn't have the time.

So, we moved it with us down to Alabama and put it in the living room down here as well.  Except, it just didn't jive as well since we had bought a new couch and introduced ourselves to a different color scheme in the room.

Yes, I know.  The red rug and green hutch do nothing for our new aqua colored couch.  So what did I do?  I sold the rug on craigslist.com and painted the hutch a cream color.  

Before:

After:

So the reason I said I needed a lot of patience to do this job was because I had to take off each door, each hinge, and each little thingy that was holding the glass in in order to take out the glass just so that I'd only get paint on the wood.  I'm going to post this process on my "Beauty on a Budget" page soon in case anyone wants some 'DIY' tips/ideas on painting a piece of furniture like this.  The patience and hard work paid off and my living room certainly "jives" now.  :) 

It's A-door-able!

I've been searching for months for nice fabric I can get for cheap to adorn the french doors in our living room.  I thought that by flanking them with curtains that would still allow them to be opened, it would make our living room more "homey".

  Well, as God's providence would have it, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted her white sheers since she wouldn't be using them anymore.  Of course I jumped at the opportunity to get free curtains and knew they would be great for my lonely doors.

Look more "homey"?  I saw a show awhile ago on HGTV where the designer used towel rods over each end of the doors to create this look but I looked forever and couldn't find cheap enough towel rods (I only wanted to spend around $10).  Then one day I found a really nice, long, Target curtain rod in a pile of other curtain rods at a store here that sells all the stuff stores haven't sold.  When I hung the curtains I hung them so that the ends were about a foot from the edge of the molding around the door to make the doors appear larger and to cover more wall space.  Anyone else have french doors they've dressed up somehow?  More ideas are always welcome!