It has been forever since I've written. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't matter, here I am and I'm excited to show you what I've done to our "new" house. We moved to the Sonoran Desert, it will be two years on February, 2013. We moved from our "dream home" in Overland Park, Ks, a suburb of Kansas City, where we lived for almost twenty years. At our previous home, we knocked out walls and basically customized the whole house to our liking. And lo and behold, our kids moved out west. Our daughter moved here, and our son moved to L.A. We had nothing left in KC. So, here we are.
I think themain reason for this is to tell you that you can do sooo much on a very small budget. Most of the 'stuff' that I did was all inexpensive and yet quality. Excuse the pics for being a bit out of order, but I'll try to get across what I want to communicate for each one......
Enjoy
Below is our living room as of today. I tried color on one wall and it was not what I felt comfortable with. So I stuck with off white and a sort of what color. The clock is obviously the focal point. It was a Pier I find. I went back three times and just stared at it. It finally went on sale and I grabbed it. I LOVE it. It's all wood and just what I felt fit perfectly in my decor and with my tast. The mirror was a garage sale find for $5. The silk, tubular lamp shades are a Goodwill find for $3 each. I love it. The coffee table however, is Pottery Barn, and worth every penny.
I missed the archetctural detail of a fireplace mantel..so for my b'day, my son gave me a fire place mantel, go figure...I have the best son who knows my taste. He used to go to flea markets and antique shops with me.
If you'll notice the scrolly type shelves on each side of the arched mirror, they are a gift from my son. They're antique music stand thingys. They are made of a rusty metal. I love them.
Polka dots are my fave, thus the black and white polka dot plate on the mantel, along with a black metal "d". I always say the "d" stand for "domestic".
I have wanted the black, wood, stand up mirror forever. Finally, I went to Ikea and bought it. So glad I did.
When we bought this home, the cabinets were an orange oak. I wasn't too thrilled and found a great, dark, mission oak stain with built in gloss polyurethene. So redoing the cabinets, along with new handles from Ikea was less than $100. We got rid of the white micro-wave and added a stainless steel one. My husband is a former electrician so the lights were easy to install. Obviously we removed the HORRIBLE fluorescent light fixture. I love my vintage metal number sign with my green wood gingerbread on the walls.
The other side of our kitchen is a breakfast area. We put a stainless steel table and paired it with our vintage stainless chairs. They're the real deal with the dates on the back (the '50's) I got them free from the church I used to work in. My wonderful china cabinet fits great.
I made the white board from a beautiful, hand carved wood frame I found at Goodwill for $5. I did, however, change up the orange-y gold paint and stained it a silvery black. I used Marth Stewart paing and loved it.
The red, glass pendant lights were found at Mad Maxx's Vintage shop in Phoenix. Great place.
Below, another view of my living room.
The master bedroom was pretty bland. It had dirty white carpet..(I really dislike carpet). We put down a dark hardwood and painted the room a cheery blue. The red wicker chair was in our neighbor's garbage (we painted it red and added a cushion) and the rug is from Pier I....A fantastic buy because it was reduced by about 75%
When we were redoing our master I ran out to Goodwill and found the faux painting above our bed. It was just the right thing to add more brightness.
Vintage luggage from Craigslist..all thre $25....great deal!!!
Below is another pic of the whiteboard.
The two back bedrooms of the main house were pretty horrible with dirty carpet. We finally were able to tile with similar tile that was throughout. The pic below is the back bedroom that we use mainly for an office/guest room. The little house was a gift from a friend years ago. He made it out of old barn wood. It's been a fave of mine since I got it.
The rug is a black and white wool rug..that's right...thick, wool rug, I bought at, yes, you got it...Goodwill. $14
The tufted, blue leather desk chair is another Goodwill find.
The front bedroom is furnished with a brown leather futon that serves well as a couch. I LOVE it. It sells at Costco right now for $400. We got it off craigslist for $200. The red painted wood shutters we bought in Long Beach, Cali at a garage sale. $10 for two. I LOVE them.
The dog? My baby, my love, was a rescue from Phoenix Animal Shelter...LOVE HER...we named her TAsha, she's part Pug, part Australian Shephard.
The red and white rug, Ikea $20
This is my laundry room. I LOVE my LG washer and drier. Craigslist, $800 for both, PLUS they have the drawers at the bottom.
This is the master bath's 'water closet'. Toilet.
Another view of the living room.
Below is the front courtyard.
This is our little casita (guest house). It's about the size of a master bedroom and has a large, walk in closet with a little fridge, microwave, and basket of goodies for all guests. The casita has everything you will need; iron, ironing board, sewing kit, hair dryer, flat iron, meds, toothpaste, toothbrush, lotion, shampoo, conditioner etc.
It also has a fan, flat screen tv...and more.
This is travertine tile we found at, yep, Goodwill. A whole box for $5. It looks like rich marble.
Casita walk in closet.
This is wrought iron we found on craigslist. We bought four black pieces and three larger white pieces. Eventually we'll make gates out of them for our front courtyard. But for now we put a couple to use. There's one behind my husband's outside cooking table...(which we pulled out of the garbage..it's wood and we stained the bottom red and stained the top the dark mission oak. I added a basket we already had so he could have a place for his utensils.
We love our back yard. It's really private and has a great stucco wall all round.
The tera cotta bowl and ball is a fountain. We bought it at a flea market. I love it. I think we're going to put the bowl in the ground.
We worked hard in our yard today.
Below is a pic of my wicker rockers. I brought one with me from KC and I found the other at the Goodwill half price sale. So it only cost me $7.
This is my dining room. You tell me, is the table too big It's dear to us as it's a 100 year old library table from the church in KC we used to go to. It weighs 350 pounds. Our plan was to enlarge the dining room after we bought this house..so far, hasn't happened.
Be
I love my new home and wanted to share it with you. We plan on doing a lot more...but for now, those are the updates.
Have a good Sunday.....
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