Finally, Junking Weather

It has been a long winter here in the midwest.

People are desperate for some junking --

yard sales, auctions, flea markets.

This was the first good yard sale weekend,

the nicer days have seem to elude weekends up until now.

So my husband and I spent Saturday morning at a small

town city=wide sale. I am a sucker for old bottles,

and we found a sale that had plenty of them.

I got these four concrete beauties.

They are really the genre I am supposed to be looking for.

Outdoor stuff.

But I get sidetracked so easily!

This was my best purchase.

I got three of these oak drafting stools for $20.

They need a little cleaning,

but they are my rain makers.

And as my husband says:

"You have to make some money!"

(Later sold set for $400 on Facebook Marketplace!)

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 34

 We are getting there.

My husband worked on the wall around the washer and dryer

last weekend.

That only leaves a couple more areas that need plastering.

And some areas need baseboard...

Then the above areas will need to be painted...

And have somebody hang the lights ...

This weekend we officially got all of the curtains up.

(These were knotted because I painted the windowsills with oil paint today.)

And we got our Magnolia Homes rug laid out in the dining room.  Woohoo!

Today was gorgeous, so I mostly "piddled" outside.

This is the view from the back porch,

which looks so much better since my brother dropped off the mower.

And the bird sounds are out of this world.

Free No-Sew Curtains For The Ozark House Day 33

 I keep whining about the amount of money we are spending.

An inexpensive curtain rod runs about $25,

each inexpensive curtain panel costs about the same.  Ouch.

I found some old fashioned cheapo metal roads in the "attic" and an

idea formed for the upstairs curtains.

When I owned an antique store I used these vintage sheers for the windows.

They have a tiny little pattern, and when they have the sun shining thru

them and are blowing in the wind....

well, there is nothing more romantic.

So I kept them for 15 years waiting for such a time as this.

 I used some shorter ones in the bathroom.

First I wrapped the ugly curtain rod with a longer sheer.

 Then I draped the sheer sections over the rod and tied the ends together.

It took 9 of them + the one wrapped over the rod. 

I wasn't about to hand hem all of those to length.

I kind of love the casual,

irregular look of them.

(And just image those blowing in the breeze!)

Working On Little House In The Ozarks Day 32

 The day started with my sister-in-law and I going to

a Spring Open House at a local antique store.  

She picked up something to put a few plants in,

and I purchased this great 

(and extremely heavy)

vintage birdbath.

 Then a quick visit to our local Lowe's,

to pick up some snacks for nocturnal visitors.

I also did some impulse buying while there.

These were only $1 per pot,

because they had been nipped by frost.

I hope to nurse them back to health.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 31

 Besides bringing his ornery self,

my brother also dropped off a JD mower for us.

He also mowed an acre or two and sprayed weeds for us.

My son had fun taking it for a spin when he arrived.

 He and his girlfriend stopped by for supper tonight,

and everyone was blessed by a great meal cooked by sister-in-law.

Love living close enough to family for them to drop in for meals!

Here are the happy campers 

after consuming the entire chicken potpie.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 30

 I feel like we turned some kind of a king-sized corner today.

And the delivery of the king-sized Serta bed was just part of that.

It gave me a sense of permanency, a feeling like home.

 After tons of searching on-line,

we ordered this Laura Ashley quilt that I really love.

 And another part of that big corner is actually

kicking back, instead of packing as much work into a day as possible.

My brother and his wife are here for a couple of days,

so we made use of the fire pit for some hotdogs and smores.

My son and his wife also joined us for the evening.

It was a gorgeous night, and so fun.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 29

 This is the little bathroom off of the upstairs master bedroom.

It really only has one thing going for it (well, two if

you count running water) and that is good light.

 But with the huge bedroom pure white, 

I thought this needed some color.

So for about 6 hours today,

that is what I did.

(Lots of cutting-in).

 Other than giving it a good cleaning,

this is about all that can be done for it.

And, voila.

Suddenly the bathroom is done!

 Eventually we will re-enamel the tub,

but for now it has kind of a sand paper finish.  Eww.

Same day I will do a post on that bush,

it is quite a story.

 

The color is "Icy Teal" from Glidden.

I used it in our bathroom at our other house,

so I knew I liked it.  Not too dark,

not too blue, just right.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 28

 Besides doing some white on white painting,

I worked on the fire pit area today.

It is one of those secret gems that made us fall for the house.

I bought the fire box thingie at a garage sale last weekend for $10,

and that spurred me on.  Yesterday I cleaned out the inside

of the circle and leveled it.  Then my son carried 5 bags

of pea pebbles for me. Which I spread out today,

and it barely covered half.

 The stone circle is the old foundation of a silo.

It has such a cool "been there forever" look.

 Next door to the fire pit is this great old stone foundation

of a barn.  It will take a ton of work, but we are going

to turn it into an awesome outdoor seating area.

Bonus of being outside is taking in some of the wildlife.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 27

 Let me introduce you to our upstairs.

Which consists of the master bedroom.

Without this space, we would never have bought the house.

 I have avoided working on it up until now.

Our new bed might be delivered this week,

and these four windows will be the "headboard".

Facing north.

 Rotating 90 degrees.

This is facing east.

Husband will be removing the chimney post thing.

And then it will be a great seating area.

 Rotating 90 degrees.

This is facing south.

Tiny "full" bath behind white door.

And if you jumped over tiny wall,

you'd be cascading down the stairs.

Rotating 90 degrees.

Facing west.

Weird addition attic past the window.

I'm hoping to eventually turn some part of this area

into a closet.

More white on white painting,

getting this huge space ready for the bed.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 26

 So I am back working on the Ozark house for awhile.

My husband was here this weekend, and got the vintage ceiling

light hung in the living room. I bought it for around $25 at an antique store,

and spraypainted it the color I wanted. It looks awesome.

(He wasn't smiling quite so brightly while installing it.)

 This is the mud room.

We are going to love it,

but for now it has ISSUES.

A big one is a huge limestone bar in the middle of it.

 I would like to thank our neighbor and his son

for removing the humongous piece of limestone

from the top today.

 Being well trained men,

they said they would wait until the woman of the house

told them what she wanted done with it.

We will still need to remove the stone base.

I love all of the fossils embedded in stones used in our house,

and lying around our house.

This is part of the remaining stone base.

Urban Snake Party

Warning: The photos below may be disturbing for those 

suffering from ophidiophobia.  You know who you are.

 I was standing very still watching honeybees on the

naturalized little blue flowers in my yard.

(First year in three that I have seen any honey bees!)

Then I noticed a little snake....

then another one....

and another one....

There were at least six having a little fun in the sun.

We are moving to a rural area,

but this is a good reminder that there is plenty

of wildlife right here in the city.

Easy Upgrade To $10 Walmart Curtain Rods

 We continue to hemorrhage money for the new house.

Yesterday I spent....well, alot.... for a new bed.

So when I was looking at purchasing four curtain rods today,

I definitely felt poor.  After checking Lowe's,

Home Depot, Target, Kohl's and Bed Bath & Beyond I dreaded the thought

that I might have to shell out between $22-$45 per curtain rod.  

Then I went to Walmart.  $10 per curtain rod.

But look closely at the above photo and you can see why.

Plastic finials. Sigh.

So I purchased my $7  go-to Rustoleum Metallic Spraypaint,,

this time in Flat Burnished Amber.  Love this stuff.

After a couple hours the cheesy plastic finials

looked like a million bucks

(or at least like $22 bucks).

#easyupgrade

Staging The Book Case

 The large bookcase in our dining room is staying with the house

when we move.  It fits the space perfectly,

and I am afraid we would break those lovely,

wavy glass doors if we tried to move it.

 It has a great history.

We got it from our town's original library building.

It eventually became a high school library,

and then a middle school library.

Then there were bids taken on what was left 

before the building was torn down.

 We had measured, and knew it would fit the wall space

perfectly in our dining room.

 We got the book case for a song,

but the dining room remodel that it ignited

made up for any savings.

 We also "won" several sets of books from that library,

which have been perfectly displayed in the bookcase.

 We also displayed our china doll head collection,

coffee collection, white pottery collection,

and Ozark roadside pottery collection.

The last collection as already moved to the new house,

so we had to do some rearranging to the bookcase.

Like so many things,

I am going to miss it!