Busy As A Bee

I was busy as a little bee today working on a bunch of different projects. I started my day off at 6:00 working on cleaning out my in-laws house. The construction crew has started work which was fun to see! After that I came home and worked on fixing my living room.

Any Better??




Then I started re-doing my bathroom countertop (see previous posts).

That's my before. Its white with gold flecks.

I sanded it down and taped up the edges....

Then I primed it.....

Then I painted it with a "stone- touch" spray paint

It needs a second coat which I'll do tomorrow.

Now, I read on the DIY website that many people start to freak out at this stage because its not quite how they expected it to look. Fortunately I knew this before I started the project so I'm not too worried. After I give a second coat of paint tomorrow I'll add the top "shine" coat on Monday which will give it a solid shiny surface.

I'm pleased so far, but stay tuned for the final product!

It was a very beautiful day in the Harbor. The sun was out and some of the snow melted!

Even though there is still snow on the ground,

I've tried to bring a bit of springtime into my home

I hope you're having a sunny, enjoyable weekend; I'm off to bake a pie!

Re-Arrange!

Did I mention that I'm getting antsy for my wood flooring?? I am. But I am trying to be very patient! I took some of my aggression, I mean...energy... out on my living room instead by re-arranging it. Change is always good. I'm not sure how I feel about it though. To start, our television is way too big (probably never heard that one before). Its an awesome TV and it was a gift so I really am not complaining, but when your house is as small as mine,

it becomes a challenge.

These are some before pictures. I really don't mind the stripped couch, its practically new and I picked out the pattern myself, but the slipcover gives me the ability to change it up when ever I feel like it. I have been planning everything around my floors so while my curtains may not match right now, i think they will look very different with the flooring in place.

Alright so here are my after pictures. I think that it looks more spacious but I'm worried that it looks empty! I do need to decide what pictures are going where still and I have a nice large one that I might hang where the TV used to be. We are getting our heater moved so that will free up some space. I'm also hoping that my birthday wish of another matching chair will be granted so I can get rid of the wicker one.

I saw some cute square boxes that I thought might make a cute coffee table if placed side by side. What do you think? Is that what the room is missing?

I want to de-clutter & simplify (especially given my square footage) but its hard to do that and not end of on other end of the spectrum with a sparse & empty feeling. Know what I mean?

What are your thoughts??

More Power Outage Fun!

After our first power outage this winter we called every home depot, lowes, etc within driving distance to see if we could get a kerosene heater for our house and we found one! We are so glad we spent the money on this little bugger! It keeps are little house so toasty warm in a power outage, and it also provides quite a bit of light!

Mr. Murdoch curls right up beside it to keep warm! Meanwhile the house feels likes its 90 degrees and Hubby and I are down to our skives~ Hes a strange little dog!

Its like a tropical heat wave when its running which I don't mind a bit!

As an early birthday present my mum got me a slipcover for my couch

so that it will match my new chair.

I'm not quite sure about the pillow combo there but I put them on in the dark!

Thank goodness for flash!

Check out the beautiful sunrise this morning:

I'm hoping that dear husband will want to start working on the flooring in our house soon, our carpeting has taken a beating and I'm ready for easy to clean flooring~

I hope you're all having a great day! Thanks for stopping by.

Snow Storm

I got a lot less done this past weekend then I planned on. We got a huge snow storm and it knocked out our power. Its Wednesday and I still don't have power! :-( My house is very cold!

But, I got some cool pictures!

The above picture was taken during the storm

My Yard

That would be driveway.....

Its been a bad winter in Maine this year. We've lost power 4 times now, each time lasting longer then 2 days. We've had one big storm after another. While I was hoping this might be the last storm of the season, my birthday is next Tuesday and I always have a birthday snow storm arriving during that week. I just hope it won't be as bad as this one!

Good Morning Sunshine?!!

Oh.....winter...its still you.

Ugly Countertop Rescue!

When you have a tight renovation budget, sometimes you need to get creative. The rental house has a long list of projects & updates that need to be done, but we just can't afford to do them all at once. One of the things that did not make the list is an ugly bathroom vanity in the upstairs bath. It's strait out of the 70's with a yellow countertop. I'm going to have to take a picture so you can see what I'm talking about.

My first thought was the most practical, paint the cabinet doors and put new knobs on it to give it an updated feel. Easy enough. So I started searching the web for tips on painting cabinets. That's when I happened across an article on HGTV.com that said you could paint your countertops too! WHAT! That can't look very good, I thought Well, even though it seemed like a ridiculous idea, I googled it anyway and came up with this site.

That message board is filled with tips & techniques for modernizing your countertops. At first I was very hesitant because it all seemed very complicated. But I read through the page over and over and I've finally gotten up the courage it give it a try!

Take a look at these amazing before & after pictures:

Here are a few other examples of painted countertops done with this technique:

I can't start this project until the rental house is opened up and the power is turned back on which won't be for another two weeks, but I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by!

Great Find!

If you don't already use Craigslist, you need to start! I can find some of the best deals around there! I got a brand new mattress set for $200.00! We needed new mattresses for the rental house, so this was perfect solution and a real money saver. If you think that's a good deal, get this. She threw in this vanity, FOR FREE!

You read that right.......FREE! My heart is all a flutter! Since this will never fit in my current house, I'm going to put it in the rental house until my little Maine cottage is enlarged. (I've always wanted one) It will go perfect with the beds we picked out for that room.

If I'm not too busy this weekend, I'm going to try re-finishing an old bed set. I've been doing my research and I think I'm ready to tackle the project.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Bedding

I've spent a fast past weekend in Chaska Minnesota with my Husband's parents. We hit all of the sales and I can't believe I'm saying this....but I'm shopped out! We picked out all of the bedding this weekend after cashing in our coupons. What do you think?

For the Yellow Bedroom

For the Apple Green Bedroom

For the First Floor Bedroom ( color tbd)

For the Blue Bedroom

Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day :-) XOXOXOX