A Girl Named Timi

Why I Should Stick To Junkin

And

Not Take On Home Improvement Projects!

This last weekend ended up being a busy weekend here at The House of B's. I went to a few garage sales and of course I had to go to Annie's Antiques in Snohomish for the last days of her shop on 2nd street being open. I didn't need anything but I just wanted to stop and see how she was doing with the store closing. Offer my support and friendship. I'm sad for her closing that store but yet excited because her store on 1st street is lovely. I'm sure I'll get as much shopping enjoyment at the new store. Because you know.............It's all about me!

In order to make myself and Annie feel better about her store closing I bought a couple things. Yeah, I know! The Hubs already explained to me on the ride home how that logic made No F*&*ing sense. Whatever!

I have been admiring these lamps since she got them in and contemplated buying them several times. Well I bought them! I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but I love them! I'll find a spot for them to live and be fabulous. I also picked up this very cute old vanity tray. Love it! I'm going to put my vintage perfume bottles on it in my extra bedroom that I'm still in the process of cleaning and organizing.

Picture of the lamp up close. LOVE IT!

I found this at an estate sale this weekend. A vintage plastic cake plate and cover. It's in perfect condition. LOVE IT!

I have a small love affair going on with cake plates, cookbooks, linens, small pitchers. .... Well actually I have a love affair going on with junkin and all the fun things one finds while doing that.

As you all know I love to cook so when I found these I was giddy with excitement. They were both published in the 50's and in great condition. The Coastal Carolina Cooking is from The Women's Auxiliary to the Ocean View Memorial Hospital in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. It's all hand written and hand illustrated. Love it! I'm going to be posting some recipes that I make out of this one. The other cookbook doesn't have a date on it but looks like it's from the 50's as well. Fisher's was a local flour mill here in the Pacific Northwest that still makes NUMMY NUMMY scones. You can buy the mixes but it's more fun to have them at the county fairs through out the summer. I can't wait to make some of the items out of this cookbook too.

How freakin fabulous is this??? The silver champagne bucket and silver pedestal cake stand. WSU Laura has a 40th birthday coming up. I'm going to have to make a fabulous cake and serve it on this silver cake plate for her. The champagne bucket???? I don't know what I'm going to do with it but I love it.

NOW FOR WHAT I THINK

WAS THE FIND OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to this yard sale that was put on by Karen who sells at Faded Elegance in Snohomish. Cottage Charm I think is what the name of her little antique space. I also found this blog Retreat that has a great write up and information on Faded Elegance. Check them out. Anyway........Karen had some wonderful things. I thought (you know all us junkers are hoarders) I would ask her if by chance she had any bark cloth drapes she might want to unload. I was thinking that maybe bark cloth drapes in my new white clean bedroom would be exactly what I was looking for. She said "oh no I don't have any bark cloth but I have some other drapes if you like the color green" I'm thinking to myself "well green isn't exactly what I had in mind but I'll look" As we were walking in to her little storage area she said "there is a lot of these drapes they might be too big for you, but take a look"

OH MY GOD! LOVE THEM! I'll take them! They are white, beautiful greens, long, and lots of them. They should be enough to cover that entire wall on either side of the window in my bedroom. Talk about a punch of color! This may just be what I was looking for. Now I'm on a mission for the perfect 8 foot rod and clips! Shoot another day of shopping! How do I do it??????

After all my wonderful garage sale finds I was inspired to get home and get back to my cleaning and organizing so I could move on with some other new projects. Hanging drapes!

Well staying focused doesn't last long for me.
Remember my front door? I have shown it in other posts. It's nothing fancy, very ordinary. On top of ordinary the door doesn't close right, the seals are broken, the glass in the door had dropped down and .........someones damn cat is peeing on it. It also has a horrible stain job on it that has big stains all over it. The Hubs and I have been talking about doing something with it for almost 3 years now. We have shopped for new doors, we have looked at paint samples, we have talked about it over tea and coffee while watching HGTV on the weekends. We were standing in the yard looking at it again and talking about it AGAIN and well...................this is where it gets crazy!

Front door as shown in other posts.

I got a bug up my butt and went out there and started sanding on it with the idea I would paint it. They do it on HGTV all the time and it only takes 20 minutes right?
Now some of you don't know this about me and some of you do. I moved from an 800 square foot apartment (with maintenance men) to a 2500 square foot house. I KNEW NOTHING about home improvements, or being a home owner. The last 3 years has been a HUGE learning experience for me. On more levels then I can even explain to you before you would be bored to death.

I started sanding and then The Hubs got involved. Which meant the glass needed to come out, the hardware off, and well...............done right I guess is what he was after. I'm known for my half ass projects. When we took the glass out of the middle, the frame piece that went around the glass broke in 4 pieces, and the glass just fell out. THANK GOD it didn't break but secretly I was hoping it would so I would have to get new glass for it. We ended up Saturday driving from store to store over 5 hours looking for that piece for the door. NO LUCK! So we came home and decided to continue with our project and figure out what to do as we went.
Totally off the project subject but............Charlie goes nuts for water out of the hose, we also found out this weekend he goes nuts for air out of the air compressor. He likes to fight it.
Charlie trying to get the air out of the bottom of the compressor when it was draining. Goofy Damn Dog!

Charlie helping (actually making it harder) The Hubs blow off all the dust from sanding the door.
So I sanded and sanded then painted with primer. Now mind you I have never done anything like this before. When I got the primer on the door it looked like SHIT! I wanted to sit on the step and cry. I wanted my mother!
It looks like crap!


I want my mother!

Thank you Trudy for calling me. She just called to chat while I was in the middle of my "oh what have I done melt down" and soon talked me off the edge. She told me it's OK that the primer looks like crap. It's all about the top coat and how that looks. I felt better after talking to her. THANKS TRUDY!
So Sunday morning I got up early and started painting. Now remember I started this on Friday afternoon and it was only going to take me a couple hours tops!

I had done such a shitty job on the primer that The Hubs was now nervous, scared, worried, whatever you want to call it. He was afraid the whole door would look like shit if I was left to do it alone. So he jumped in to help paint. Not because he felt sorry for me but because he was scared he was going to have to buy a new door.

So here it is painted. I think I'm going to like it! Still trying to figure out how to get the glass back in the door with broken pieces. ???????????

Here it is finished with the new hardware and the glass back in. Yes The Hubs was able to fix that piece that broke. It took him all night and lots of gluing, sanding, wood filler, and patients but he did it. HE ROCKS!
I love the new front door so much and with my estate flag hanging out front I might go out and kiss that front door every morning! I might even give it a little tongue!
Best of all................it closes right, it locks right and...............after almost 3 years of living in this house.........I have a house key!

Now I'm going to have to do the French Doors upstairs and maybe some shutters.

Looking kind of ordinary up there by it's self!

Now that I'm a home improvement pro I might just start on the bathrooms too! How hard can it be? They do it in an hour on TV!