Updating the Outside - The "To do" List

Hi all.  I hope everyone had an amazing weekend.  It was beautiful here.  Spring is around the corner and I can not wait.

Look what I came across this weekend!  I wish I had a place for it in my home, but I don't so it is available for custom finish.  Let me know if you are interested.  It had a 1920 stamped underneath.  I love that!  Its a great piece with tons of character.  It just needs a good home.

A few weeks ago, Blittle and I were planning on getting away for 4-5 days in April to Key West or something else in south Florida.  Usually I have no problem committing to a vacation.  The hope and excitement of travel is one of the reasons I get up in the morning.  When we were planning our trip, we couldn't decide or commit to a destination.  I took it as a sign.  After some discussion, we decided to take some of the travel money and Blittle is going to take some vacation time in April and we are going to start updating the outside of our house.  We are going to keep saving for Europe and hopefully our next big trip will be to Cirque Terre, Venice and Rome in the next 12 months!


Our plan for the exterior.

I haven't posted many exterior pictures of the house.  The only updates we have done are building the fence which we built right after we moved in and laying sod because we killed so much grass building the fence.  Read about it here.  Over the weekend our neighbors across the canal had an open house so we thought it would be a great time to take pictures of the back of our house from their boathouse deck.  Not weird, right?  Here are the shots we got.

Yes, my house is 1990 country blue and it drives me nuts.  Yes, we have a sad little dock that is in desperate need of help.  Yes, both my neighbors have super cute yards and houses which makes our's look worse than it is.  We have a lot of work to do to catch up.

This list is mainly for me, but just so y'all can hold me accountable I am sharing it with you.  :)

Here is our to do list...for now:

• Dock
• Build new dock
• Furniture
• Lighting 
• Fish cleaning station
• Boat lift
• Fishing light
• Need electricity and water ran to dock

• Under stairs
• Pour concrete
• Close in under stairs to create storage

• Railing
• Replace all railing with new, up to code railing to match fence

• General Exterior updates
• Stain the fence and dock
• More exterior lighting (upstairs and down)
• New light fixtures
• Container landscaping (large containers for fruit trees, small decorative containers)
• Furniture (more seating, new outdoor dining)
• Flagstone walk to gate/dock
• Paint entire exterior
• New house numbers
• Rain barrel
• Run gas line to grill/outdoor kitchen area
• Plan and build outdoor kitchen area

This list is obviously going to take a while and probably won't get finished this year, but we are going to make as many updates as we can this spring and summer.  The new dock and boat lift are first up.  This is what we are going to build when Blittle takes his vacation days.  Building a new dock to enjoy this summer or go on vacation?  It really was a tough choice.

We decided to do a large dock/deck instead of a boathouse.  I will tell y'all more on that decision later.  We have already priced pilings and our plans are drawn up, ready for approval.

I can't wait.  We sat out on our sad deck this weekend, enjoying the weather and sun.  It is going to be so great to have a living space over the water soon!  

Next up will be under the stairs.  We have this weird empty space where the concrete doesn't attach our side porch to our back porch.  There is a strange block of concrete that creates a ugly transition and there is tons of wasted space.  We are going to pour a slab to fill in the entire space.  This will also create a better walkway to the back yard and back porch.  Then, we will close in under the stairs to create storage for our lawn mower, weed eater and other yard stuff.

I am always on the look out for more furniture.  We desperately need more seating outside and with 3 seating areas (back deck, back porch, dock) it requires a lot of furniture to fill the spaces.   I have already saved some DIY outdoor furniture plans on Pinterest and I am headed to Garden Ridge and Homegoods today to see if I can get some good deals.

Of course, we are going to DIY as much as we can.  Pilings and some of the electrical work we have to hire out but everything else will be us and anyone we can talk into helping us.  :)   I plan to do as many as tutorials as I can so be sure to check back and keep an eye out for outdoor posts.

Elevator Makeover

I have another makeover to show you today!  A while back I mentioned I was wanting to give our in-home elevator a makeover.  I was trying to come up with something brilliant but nothing great came to mind.  I didn't want to add any weight, take away any room, or do anything expensive.  My main goal was to make it cute and make it feel less like a coffin.  Here are the before pictures.

When it was really cold last week, I was tired of not being productive so I primed the elevator with no clue on how I was going to paint it.  It was a project I could do inside and stay warm so I went for it.

I sanded the floor down to the bare wood, stained it walnut and used my leftover Waterlox to seal it.

For the walls, I decided to do huge stripes.  I had some Frog Tape Shape Tape in wave on hand from another project I never did so I used it instead of straight edge tape.  Just a small detail to give it a different look.  :)

Also, a small but drastic change, I put a bright white light bulb in it.  They are the way to go people.  Get rid of that yucky yellow lighting.


Everything used for this project was stuff I already had.  Left over wall paint.  Left over furniture paint.  Left over stains and sealers.  Tape I never used.  So it was free...kind of.  I didn't have to purchase new products.


The final product is pretty and it no longer feels like a coffin.

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Put A Bird On It, Making Home Base,  Life in Velvet, The Dedicated House, Minesttes Maze

Duncan Phyfe Style Buffet

Hello, all!  I know its been a while.  Sorry.  Things have been busy but I didn't finish a project to post last week therefore I had nothing to blog about.  And if I am being totally honest, the freakishly cold weather got the best of me and I have been hibernating a little.

This week, I have several things to show you!  First, some housekeeping stuff.  If you follow me on Facebook you saw me post this picture.

There was a house fire in my neighborhood and it made me think about how unprepared our home is.  I went out and bought fire alarms for every living area and sleeping area plus some fire extinguishers.  In the neighborhood fire, it started in the garage (1st floor) so the smoke and heat took a while to seep to the main living and bedroom areas (2nd floor).  Within days of the fire, I ordered wireless communicating fire alarms.

I plan to get more but for now I ordered a pair of them.  One is in the garage and the other at the entrance of our hallway upstairs.  If a fire starts in the garage and sets off the alarm downstairs, it will communicate to the alarm upstairs and it will go off as well.  Many of you live in two story homes, homes with basements, or homes like mine with the entire living space on the second level over the garage.  Communicating fire alarms are a must for fast alerts!

Next on the housekeeping list, updating the blog.  With the magazine feature only a few months away, I am planning to update the blog/website.  If you visit and can't see certain items or things are messed up, please be patient.  It will take a while for me to get things updated and sometimes I struggle with technology.  :)  I promise the final product will be better.

On to today's makeover!

I have a client I have been working with for a while.  She wanted a Duncan Phyfe style buffet for her kitchen.  DP pieces are around but you have to have the patients to find one which I thought would take us a few months.  Well, I did find one within a week but the price was ridiculous!  There were a few other finds but nothing came through for either of us.  Finally, 4 months later she found one and was able to make the deal happen.  We were both so excited.  She brought the buffet and two end tables she already had to be updated.  Here are the before pictures.

I am in love with this huge drawer.

Look at all the details.

Her request was to have stained tops with off white bodies and glazing.  For the glazing, she wanted it really dark around the details but the flat areas clean looking.  This is the final look.

So pretty!  This is the first time I used this color paint and glaze.  I love it.  The super dark contrast it gorgeous.






Sharing at:

The Blissful Bee, The Dedicated House, Put A Bird On It

Making Home Base,  Life in Velvet

Minesttes Maze