"I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told." -Mark Twain









11.16.2011

JOHNny - come - lately!

As promised...............


The bathroom reveal......

To appreciate this modest bathroom, you have to first absorb the "before " pictures.
Secondly, you have to know that we spent less than $400.00 on the entire remodel.
Thirdly, you have to know that it is the "boys" bathroom at our house!
For any of you that have a house full of males, you KNOW how nice it is to have a "boys" bathroom.


Yes. I hear you gasping. This was the before. Truly. And I gave the "pinkish/pukish/purplish" bathroom to the boys! ha!  This is how the bathroom looked when we were looking at the house.  See that sign on the back of the tub?  That is the government agency that is over foreclosures assuring prospective buyers that the house had been "winterized" (There were many of these signs throughout the house)...................WHEN in fact, it had not.  The plumbing lines all froze during the winter and when we turned on the water during inspection
we had water coming through the walls and ceiling the room next to this.  Weirdly enough, those "We have winterized" signs "disappeared" by our next visit!!!!....Hmmmmm.
Really. Have you ever seen an uglier bathroom?

Wait. That's not all. Look at this!

Not only did the bathroom sport the
not-so-groovy-aqua-paint,
it had TWO of these wires sticking out of the wall.
On each side of the invisible mirror!
AND the wires were live. In a bathroom. Beside water!


We bought two of these nickle and frosted glass sconces
at Lowe's on clearance. They were $12 each. My hubby put them up before there were any accidents!

Wait! There is more.

 
This was the groovy floor that went with the groovy
walls and groovalicious tub and sink.
It is now.....

Ahh. SO much better. We (my Hubby and youngest son) put in a laminate floor.  They first filled in all those grooves between the (not-so-groovy-tile). They let that dry over night, then they laid the laminate right over the top. It has worked out great and it cleans up very easy. The rug is a runner from JCP that I had bought considering it for the stairs. I decided it matched the bathroom exactly and put it in there.
Somehow, in the midst of all the beauty of the "before" bathroom, I did not get a picture of the ceiling. It was painted black. Who knows why....And there was a single lightbulb coming out of the black ceiling. Now it looks like..

We painted the ceiling the same color as the walls. Because it was over the black, the blue looks a shade lighter, which looks like we planned it! I got the silver and frosted glass pendant light at Lowe's for $32. It was not on sale, but I thought it was a great price.


We got the vanity, the vanity top, the sink and the mirror on sale for $179.00....It was a package deal. We walked in to Home Depot one day looking for shades and I saw this as soon as I walked in. I knew it was what I wanted. The vanity is a dark chocolate like we are using throughout the house. It just so happened that Home Depot was out of them (of course they were at that price!!)  I asked if we could by the floor model and they reluctantly agreed. Then I kindly asked if we got a discount since it was a floor model and they gave me 10% off. They ended giving us 15% off of $179.00, so our final bill was $152.00. It reminded me somewhat of this one...
Except, this one, while the same size, has an open shelf on the bottom. Plus....a tiny other difference.....Pottery Barn is charging $1899.00. Plus the faucet is $300-$400 (depending on which one you pick out). Our faucet was $79.00 from Lowe's. It was also very Pottery Barnesque and....on sale! Oh, and Pottery Barn's mirror is bought separately for the low, low price of $299.00.

Did you notice the bathtub in the pics?  Well, if we got rid of the pinkish/pukish/purplish sink, we were not going to keep the tub that color!

Actually, the paint for the tub was the only item we bought that was not on sale or a good deal. It was about $40 for a quart size can. BUT it is the only paint on the market that covers ugly-colored-bathroom-fixtures. So we consider it worth it. Beware though if you are going to try this. The smell is VERY strong and it is a four-day-no-use process. It covered well (4 coats later) and is holding up well. One would never know the real color of the tub if I did not show you the before pics! Eventually we want to tear the whole tub wall out and put in a  walk-in glass shower with glass tile. That is down the road though.
The wall paint is an "OOPS" color. I got a gallon of it for $5.00 at Lowes. I love the color. Wish I knew what it was!!



The saddle soap was mine for my horses when I was little. The boot was my Hubby's when he was little,
and he kept pennies in it in his room.


This was the poster celebrating Oklahoma's 100th birthday. It depicts scenes from across Oklahoma.

Everything in the bathroom has to do with Oklahoma. We already had all of it and I think the bright colors work great for the male bathroom!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our "John"ny-come-lately. I am not use to letting people 'tour' the loo! Well we've got about ten (at least) projects to finish before Thanksgiving when we are hosting both sides of our families. We need to get rocking!

I am linking with Wow Us Wednesday's and Open House Thursdays. Also linked with Farmhouse Friday and Metamorphosis Monday. Come by and visit (the blogs not the bathroom!!)


11.14.2011

Putting Lipstick on a Pig!

My name is Lori and I have an ugly kitchen. Admitting it is the first step in conquering it right?

Do not let this picture mislead you. My kitchen is ugly. There is no getting around it.

This is the kitchen when we bought it. Notice the big gaping hole where a dishwasher is supposed to go?
That (small and ugly) sink is the only "appliance" that came with the kitchen.

As you can see, it is a huge room. A huge empty room. A huge empty room with huge windows! If you are a regular reader then you know we went the entire summer and into fall without a stove or oven. We used a small fridge that we had previously kept in our garage. We have since bought all new appliances. Just having a stove and nice appliances has been wonderful. We still have to get a new sink.....and cabinets.

In the meantime, I just keep "putting lipstick on the pig" .....so to speak. I took the (ugly) cabinet doors off of a set of the upper cabinets and (tried) to arrange our everyday dishes kindacutesy. This is the summer version.  So now that it is fall, I put a new shade of lipstick on the darned pig.

The funny thing was, when we first looked at the house, I came away saying, "Well we will have to put in a brand new kitchen before we even move in."  Then the more I looked at the house and (bare) kitchen with all its big windows and doorways I thought maybe I needed to "live" with the kitchen a while so I would know how I "really" wanted it.

I still think that was a pretty wise move, for several reasons: First, when we do our house projects, we always 'pay as we go'. So we are going to have to save up for any decent kind of kitchen. Those new appliances were a chunk of change, so we are back to square one.


Secondly, I keep changing my mind!  I must have figured out the 'perfect kitchen' at least a dozen times!


At then end of summer we bought a neat old cabinet that we were going to make into a big island. We have lived with that for a couple of months now and changed our mind on its purpose and color ......uhm....I'd say at least four dozen times.


Then tonight I bought a different island. The "new" one is all buff and industrial, made out of pipe and stainless and thick butcher block.

This is so unlike me. Usually I know what I want and I set a path a-blazin' till I get it! Not know..... In the meantime, I just keep adding (oh-so-lovely) kitchen pictures to my Pinterest. (Go by and check it out.........and give me some advice!!)

I bought a new (old big and tin) sign for my kitchen tonight too. I am hoping it will help me make some final decisions! (Don't you just love Craigslist?  And Pinterest?) ........ In the meantime, this pig is squealing! Piggy wants to know what the deal is with all this lipstick!!!


And until I decide, there will be more lipstick. (I can already tell you there will be red 'lipstick' in this cabinet in just two weeks.) A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do to make her spaces liveable!

I will take some pictures and show you Island 1 and Island 2....and of course the new appliances. I haven't forgotten about the bathroom pics I promised as well. It's a-coming! Does anyone else have an ugly pig that you just keep putting lipstick on?  ....Or am I the only one?

I am linking up to Metamorphosis Monday and Wow Us Wednesday's (hmmmm...is there really anything here worth 'wow'ing about?)

11.13.2011

Weekends at Lori's

It is the little things about the weekend that make them so darn nice. 
 I love college football. I am one of those people that find it relaxing to go to the games or just sit home and watch them on TV.
 I spend my weekends playing 'catch up' on all those things that did not get done during the week. It feels good to get them done.
Then, there is the simplest pleasure in just 'being home'. I leave every morning for work no later than 7 a.m. It is dark when I leave and almost dark when I get home now. I love weekends because I get to enjoy my house with sunlight.

But most of all I love weekends because I can relax and spend them with (shaggy) pups and my family... Always good food and good company!

Hopefully tonight I will get some pictures posted of one of the bathrooms we redid. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

11.10.2011

Fowls and Owls

It occurred to me the other day that this fall I have quite a little flock in my house.  I intended to take pictures of all the 'birds' but with this time change it is dark when I leave in the morning and dark when I get home. (I hate that!) So, we'll just go with the pictures I had in my camera. Do you have a number of feathered friends roosting at your home right now?
Whether you are hootin' or gobblin'
enjoy your weekend.
Only two weeks till the big day.
I can't wait!

11.08.2011

Doing the Turkey Trot.........

One day this past (very hot) summer, I was visiting my parents in my hometown. It is about 1 1/2 hours from where I live now. My mom and I stopped downtown on an errand for her.
As we were backing out, I noticed a couple of turkeys about two doors down at a little shop. The shop was new in town, a little second-hand shop. I drove as slowly as I could trying to crane my neck to get a glimpse at the turkeys. The shop was not open, but my mom suggested we go around the block and go look at the turkeys close up. Well it was about a million degrees that day, so I just told her she could check on them later. (This was the end of July after all, I knew I had plenty of time.)
A few days later my mom does go back to the second-hand shop, but it is still not open. My mother has a hard time getting around because of a medical debacle, but she was able to see the price tag on the turkeys. They were $35. As far as I was concerned, they were "sold"....to me!


I just knew that 'ole Tom Turkey would look absolutely smashing in the middle of my dining room table for our big Thanksgiving get-together. I knew that the pair of turkeys had a very primitive paint job and I could not have been happier.

Then I began to worry that someone else would see the beauty in the Tom's in the middle of their own dining room table and scoop them up before I could get back to my hometown. So, I called my brother who runs the family newspaper business just down the street. I explain to him how absolutely smashing one of the Tom's would look in the middle of the table with the other Tom on the buffet. This was the brother who did the Lucy tablescape, so he understood just what I wanted.  Not too long after I begged him to pick up the Tom's for me, he called me back.

My brother wanted to know if I realized the turkeys were made of pure concrete. Like old school concrete. Like the kind that ways a kajillion pounds. I gasped. For whatever reason, I thought they were made of some type of plastic. Like old school plastic. Like the kind that would weigh maybe ten pounds! ha! Imagine how excited I was about "the deal" I got, if I was willing to pay $35 for a plastic turkey when in fact I was getting a concrete turkey!!

My brother went on to say that he had to go back to his office and get a two-wheel-dolly to get my Tom back to the newspaper office. Once there, Tom had to sit outside the front door of the newspaper because my brother said he was too heavy to carry another step. He told me I needed to get two or three of my big-strong-sons to come over to pick Tom up. Oh my!!  I felt so bad then that I didn't dare ask him to go back and get the other Tom.
Well as is my habit....to make a long story longer, I never could convince two or three of my big-strong sons the importance of heading 1 1/2 hours east to go pick up Tom.
And to make matters (even funnier) my mom decided that SHE wanted the other Tom for her house, and she made my brother go up there (this time he knew to take the two-wheeled dolly) to get the turkey for her. So the two turkeys sat outside the newspaper office for several weeks. My brother said he got constant comments on them. (I am sure they were all wonderful!!!!)
And, being the great brother that he is, he finally got tired
decided to just deliver the Toms. He had a friend come help him load them both into the back of his pickup. He then had the friend help him take one Tom to my mom's house. Then when he came to my house, he had no one to help him unload (we were all at work or school). So he had to somehow wrangle it out of the pickup by himself. He left Tom on the curb. And I mean literally.
So my husband and I pushed/pulled/scooted/grunted/gave-it-our-all to move Tom to the sidewalk beside one of the urns. Have I mentioned that Tom weighs well over 200 pounds???? Yes, he would look smashing in the middle of my dining room table, alright!  He would smash through the table and the floor I believe! I have no idea how we will move Tom into the garage after Thanksgiving is over! He might just have to be decorated with some Christmas lights, Valentine hearts, bunny ears, shamrocks.....etc!!

I called my brother up to thank him for wrangling Tom from the store-to his office-from his office-to my house-then to my curb. He said his back was still feeling it. So I ever-so-sweetly said to him, "Uhmmm when you were delivering these turkeys, you did make sure I got the best one, right?"
Thus is the story of Tom and our Turkey Trot!

P.S. We live in a neighborhood where SO many walk by. I have had lots of people compliment me on cute Tom!

I am linking this with WoW Us Wednesdays and Open House Thursday. Also check out Farmhouse Fridays. Hope you enjoy them!

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