Poll: To paint or not to paint?

Some of you may have heard of this product called Chalk Paint. There are several brands out on the market these days. The original brand is called Annie Sloan – she started making this paint more than 20 years ago when she was looking for an easy way to paint furniture. The look of the paint is a ultra-matte finish and is super-duper easy to use.

When we moved into this house, there were lots of leftover dressers, side tables, book shelves, etc that started tapping me on the shoulder, just asking to be painted. This was the perfect opportunity to try chalk paint!

Here’s a before picture of a small stool/doll bench (not sure what it is really…) that I used as my guinea pig item.

The beauty of this paint is you don’t have to prep the piece – you do have to clean it but no sanding or stripping. After watching 3,604,187 Youtube videos (okay, maybe not quite that many but close) I decided to just jump in. The paint went on really smooth and I’m very pleased with the end result! What do you think?

I painted the whole thing with Provence (blue) then painted over the top with French Linen (light tan/gray) color. Distressed (too much in some areas) then waxed it to seal the paint.

So, my question to you – I know there are strong opinions on whether you should paint old furniture or not. *Please know that I would NEVER paint antique furniture that was in mint condition and worth a lot of money.* What are your opinions on whether old furniture should be repainted or not?  My opinion is, if it’s not a super-valuable piece and you can bring new life to it with a little work and some paint, I think it’s a great option!

In other news, we’ve been keeping really busy around here but I’m happy to say that things are calming down just a little bit – to the point that things are more manageable for us. I hope to be able to post more often than I have been but can’t make any promises 🙂

Well, until next time – have a happy day!

 

Belly full of fresh pears and lots of hard work

A few of you have asked what’s been going on, what we’ve been up to so I wanted to stop by and post an update – maybe more like a list of things we’ve been working on and other random thoughts 🙂

We took out the old, bent up, rusty mailbox that wouldn’t stay closed and put up our new one. I love it and so does the mailman. I don’t have a picture of the “before” because Justin was too quick to throw it in the dumpster.

New mailbox – I did the numbers (of course)

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on weeding the inside of this stone wall. I’m not sure if you can tell from the pictures but it looks a ton better. Going to finish by cleaning up a few more plants that I wasn’t sure about then it’ll be all clear – and ready for some preen! We also took out a couple small trees and a couple old stumps in the garden this weekend. There really is no end to the landscaping that can/needs to be done around here!

Justin and I both are (thoroughly) enjoying the fresh pears off of our tree in the garden. This might explain why I had an upset stomach the other day… after spending a lot of time in the garden.

We have a peach tree that produced the most delicious peaches I’ve ever had last year. This year…not so much. I think I only see one peach on the whole tree right now.

The grapes, on the other hand, need a lot of work. One taste was enough to decide I won’t be going near those things again any time soon!

We’re trying to chip away at things inside but still have a ton of full boxes. The weather has been gorgeous so it’s tough to spend a lot of time inside, especially when there’s so much work to be done outside! For all of my friends in the South and Midwest dealing with the late summer heat and humidity – you might not like to hear that our weather has been darn near perfect – high 70’s with low humidity. It’s supposed to be a little warmer the first part of the week but with lows in the upper-50’s at night, it cools things off pretty well.

Work continues on the siding/window and barn projects. We’re getting pretty close on the siding and windows.

We’re finalizing a few things that could potentially result in big changes around here…. I should know sometime this week and can share more information at that time.

We have a few more updates that have happened in the past week or so, I will share more when I have more time.

Until next time…

Pianos are HEAVY!!

Upon arrival at our new home last week, we were greeted by a LOT of old furniture and other stuff left over from Justin’s grandparents (and even the people who lived here before them!). So, as we sort everything out, we categorize things in three piles: keep, yard sale or dumpster. 

Among some of the items to go in the dumpster was a HEAVY, OLD player piano. Wowza was that thing heavy – entirely too heavy to be moved by Justin and me! So, the only choice we had was to take it apart. Screw. By. Screw – Board. By. Board.

Here’s a picture of the piano not too long after we started… 

Now this is the really cool part I wanted to share with all of you. We found these notes for what we believe to be the dates the piano was tuned. Holy smokes, this thing was OLD!! Dating back to 1913. 

We did end up getting the whole thing out of the house – most of it went to the dumpster, some of it will go to the scrap metal guys and some of it *might* be posted on eBay (ivory keys). 

Until next time…

We’re moving!

Our new home.

In just a few short days from now (4 days to be exact) Justin and I will be leaving what I’ve called my home state for more than 25 years to start the next exciting chapter in my life to make this beautiful farm house (with 125 acres) my home in Connecticut.

We found out we would be starting a new life in Connecticut just 16 days ago so it’s been a whirlwind of packing, planning and emotionally preparing myself to move about 850 miles away from my family and friends. In talking to my friends about the exciting adventure, the suggestion was mentioned that I should start a blog to document our moving, renovation/remodeling and decorating adventures. So… that’s what you’ll find here! I hope to use this page to share the adventure with my friends from afar.

Some of you have already seen these but just sharing a couple other pictures I took in May this year. This will give you an idea of what my new home looks like – the outside anyway. I hope to share a lot more pictures!!

Hay barn (before new siding!)

Another shot of the barn

Garden and side of the house.

As you can see, the home and property are beautiful but certainly need a little (or a lot) of TLC. Justin and I have a list of projects about three miles long already. So if you’re interested in keeping up with some of our projects and the progress we’re making, I hope you’ll follow me in this adventure.

Until next time….