A beautiful back yard

Over the last couple of months, as we got The House of Goodwill in order on the inside, we got some of the outside projects finished too.  As I mentioned, the shoreline is currently a mess.  But the area around the house is so lovely!

Here are some views of the house looking up the hill from the lake.

I love the beautiful stone wall on the left.

We fenced in the other sides for our dogs, and for the dogs of guests, as well as small children.

The upper roofed deck is my favorite room in the house!

Here is the back patio.

Here is the front of the house.  The yard is almost two acres.

It's a great croquet lawn!

This house gives off Brady Bunch vibes in all the best ways, in my opinion.

I LOVE old houses, and period architecture, from any decade (as long as it's not new).

While working on this house and collecting decade-appropriate items for it, I found myself developing a major infatuation with all things 1970's.  Since this was my decade of birth, that might have had something to do with it.  Happy associations, I guess!

Back to the back patio again.

The concrete table and benches, that came with the house, are awfully practical, if not the most comfortable.

They are a great place to dry life jackets in the sun...🙂

Looking down to the lake.

I always love tree stumps because they make great platforms for plant pots, or just great planters for flowers!

Our cat likes to sit between the flowers on this stump and patrol for mice.

When the shoreline area is completed, this yard will be amazing.  The shoreline is Step 1.  Future hoped-for projects include adding a covered boat dock, finishing the beach house (with a little kitchen and apartment) and adding a pool and a pickleball court.

It's fun to have things to look forward to!  In the mean time, so grateful to have gotten where we are!

Back yard on a budget

Now that The House of Goodwill is just about ready to rent, I'll be posting some finished pics of the house for a while.

Today, a few of the patio area in the back patio area:

This little area is below the upper deck; not pictured (but to the right) is the outdoor grill.

I bought the two lounge chairs at an estate sale for $95 each.

They were in great shape, just dirty, so I took the covers off the cushions and threw them in the washing machine.  Now the lounge chairs are like brand new.

My guess?  That they would have been over $500 (or more) to buy new; instead of $190 for both.

The "grilling chair" on the right (where my husband likes to sit and drink beer while he's grilling) is my $19 paint-over project from a previous post.

The outdoor rug was about $50 from Wal-Mart.

Here is the patio to the left of the lounge chairs.

I can't remember how much I paid for these lightweight aluminum chairs (no more than $100 at most for both), but they're convenient to move around (near the firepit or wherever).

I collected the kids toys for free when I had my foster kids; I decided to leave them at the house for guests with small children.

Here's the grill; I meant to do a whole post on this but never did.

Our neighbors had this out on the street, they were throwing it away because someone had given it to them and it didn't work.

My husband saw it and was so excited to fix it up!

He ordered some parts online for just over $100.  (Ignitors?  Something like that...)

He took the grill apart, cleaned it, put in the new parts and voila!  A great grill for just over $100.

(The cover for it probably cost half the price of the grill...)

And finally, the firepit, another free neighbor cast off.

I was sitting at the computer one day, searching craigslist for items I needed for the house, when I saw my neighbor post this firepit as a "curb alert" on the next door app.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran to her house to pick it up.

It is still in good shape, it just had some rust.  (She was upgrading to a bigger, fancier firepit and giving this one away.)

I had my son sand it and paint it with paint for high temperatures.

Now it looks shiny, new and it's just perfect.

We even had time to enjoy it in the back yard a couple of times before we left.

This post reminds me of how and why I love thrifting and purchasing things secondhand.  For one thing, I try to live by the mantra of "reduce, reuse, recycle" and make as little waste as possible.  I never fail to be astonished at what people throw out in the garbage that is still totally usable.  I try to avoid being wasteful.

This whole patio area was put together for less than $400.  It could easily have cost upward of $2000 (on the lower end), had I just bought a bunch of new stuff.

The other reason?  It's just fun trying to create something beautiful out of trash and people's castoffs.  How can I get what I want and pay as little as possible to get it?  That's always the game!  It's a fun challenge to figure out how to do it.  And really, that is what I love the most.  

(That is, aside from the leftover money I've saved that I can use for something else I want to do.)

Looking at all these pics makes me want to start a new project.  I wonder what it will be?

Ready or not...rent!

Well, there's good news and bad news.  Make that - several pieces of good news, one piece of bad news, and one piece of terrible news.  But let's start with the good!

Good news #1:  The House of Goodwill is officially ready to rent.  It is 99.5% complete.  

After over two years of mostly living there, my family has vacated the premises in order to rent it.  From now on, we will be occasional visitors.  In order to get out in time, we worked feverishly setting up the final details: security system, installing interior doors with locks (for housekeeping and owner's closets, as well as blocking access to garage), labeling light switches, creating a guest book, replacing steps on outdoor stairs, etc., as well as deep cleaning and moving ourselves out.  It was an intense last week!

I say it is 99.5% complete because there are few small things we didn't get done: mostly hanging pictures on walls, etc.  Things that can wait a few months till our return.

Good news #2:  The House of Goodwill is expecting it's first guests July 4th weekend!

The bad news?  Well, we don't live there anymore, and the longer we were there, the more we loved being there.  As we got to know neighbors, and spent more time on the water, we got really used to it.  It is such a peaceful place, and so beautiful.  So leaving was hard.  I'm already looking forward to returning.

And finally, the terrible news: while the house is ready to rent (good!) the property is not!  If you recall, we began a massive shoreline project at the end of April.  The plan was to create a shoreline made from PVC material, with an area for a sandy beach, and a carved out portion for a future covered floating boat dock.  The project was supposed to be complete by Memorial Day.

The problem: after the PVC-walled shoreline was almost completely finished, there was a landslide, and the just-completed shoreline was breached and broken.  The reason?  Apparently, the backyard slope is full of underground springs (an unknown x-factor) that cause water to constantly flow upward and push the earth downhill.  Combined with two long days of constant rain, the pressure of earth moving downward breached the wall.

At Memorial Day, when the project was supposed to be completed, the waterfront was a disaster.

So it was back to the drawing board for our contractor to come up with Plan B.  That took a while, but when we finally heard back from him, his new plan was to dig massive ditches at the bottom of the hill to fill with rocks for drainage, add drainage pipes, and add a long steel beam underground along the shoreline, which will connect to three cement pilons to hold it in place.

It is June 25th, and our contractor has been onsite two days since Memorial Day.  We know he's managing another project, and he said he had to order some supplies he's waiting on.  But once he pours the cement pilons (which has not happened yet), he has to wait two weeks for them to dry before we can attach the steel beam.  Translation: this will not be rectified quickly.

When my husband last spoke with him, he said he plans on having the project done by the end of July.

Fingers crossed!

So, not only has the cost of the shoreline skyrocketed (I honestly can't think about it), but it has also cost us weeks of prime rental time.

The one good thing that came out from this?  The first renters (I prefer to say guests) are the family members of one of our neighbors at the house.  They sound like wonderful people.  Also, importantly, they do not need lakefront access, since as family of our neighbor, they can just cross the street to her house and access the water there.  I can't imagine anyone else could rent at this time, because access to the water is completely blocked on our property, not to mention the huge mess that is the bottom of the hill.

So after this first group, there will be no more guests until the shoreline is complete and water access has returned, which, God willing, will be at the beginning of August.  I had begun to post the house online, but I paused until it's completely ready.  I really can't rent a lakefront property with no lake front.  Even if the bottom of the hill is still mostly a dirty or muddy mess at the end of the project, the sand beach will be there to access the water for boating.

Whew, that was a long update!  So that's where we're at.  So you can see for yourself the current state of the shoreline, here are some pics:

Here is a view of the shoreline from the top of the hill.

That's a pile of rocks that will go underground to help with water drainage.

The boathouse on the left (and the edge of a roof of one on the right) belong to neighbors.

The A-frame "beach house" is on our property.

Another view of our beach house, and the boat house of of our neighbor.

The shoreline is currently a big slope of dirt!

Here is the carved out area that will be the sandy beach at the end.

We have two massive piles of pristine white sand in our side yard.

I look forward to coming back in the fall and sitting down here with my coffee under an umbrella.

My husband wants to move the firepit down here.

Here is the current shoreline after the collapse.

This sea wall used to be a straight line!

The rocks have been added since the breach, they are to add drainage for all the water in the hillside.

Here is the beach house, looking from the water.

It's a neat building; there is a door on the back that opens to a small room that has already been plumbed.  There is a shower and toilet in there still in the boxes; apparently they were never installed.

So the little room could easily be a bathroom for the beach area, and a bed could be put in too.

The front part is screened-in and had an old, rotted-out kitchen.

Here are my husband and son inside the beach house with the old, rotten wood kitchen, before they demo-d it.

Here is the current state of the beach house with the old kitchen gone.

We had planned to leave it clean and pressure-washed with seating when we left.

But our contractor is storing his tools inside (see below) and it's going to get dirty again when he begins work anew.  So we left it like this; our property manager will pressure wash it for us (and put cushions on the seats) once he's finished and done with the project.

A future project is to rebuild this small kitchen in stainless steel, so it will only need to be cleaned, but it won't be able to get destroyed by the elements (like the former wooden kitchen).

We'll keep seating in there, and we have a deck box we'll build to hold life jackets for future guests.

(I pick them up cheap whenever I find them at estate sales.)

In our heads, we imagine a really great waterside entertaining area in the future, with a big, covered boat dock (with swing chairs), a sandy beach, and a table for eating outside and in.  Also a little apartment in the beach house with a bed and bathroom.

It would be so great to get some rental income coming in to help cover the cost!

It's been a slow but steady journey from the beginning.  When I consider all we've done, and all the progress we've made in the two years and three months that we've owned the house, I'm amazed.

God willing, we'll get there yet!

A little lighter, a little brighter

This is the story of a cabinet.  A really cool, really antique, really DARK china cabinet.

I am a person with a need for a china cabinet (or two, or three) wherever I am.  Why?  Because I LOVE vintage glass, old dishes and anything I can stick plants or candles in.  Really, I just love beautiful glassware, and I've accumulated quite a collection.  (Which was all collected inexpensively, but all my pieces are precious to me.)

The House of Goodwill may be a rental property (or a guest house, as I like to think of it), but it still required a china cabinet for me to keep some vases in.  I love having fresh flowers around.

So anyway, when I was in the beginning stage of collecting furniture for the house, I went somewhere to buy a bed when the couple selling it offered us a whole bunch of furniture they were getting rid of either extremely cheaply or for free.  (It was a newlywed couple who had both been divorced and were combining households, therefore they had all kinds of stuff between them they no longer needed or wanted at their new home.)

We ended up talking lots of free stuff from their leftovers, including a really cool antique china cabinet they let us have for $30.  What's so cool about it?  Well, for one thing, it's old enough that it was built without nails.  That's cool!

What I really wanted at The House of Goodwill was a china cabinet that was only table height.  The only place there was really room to put one was in the hallway entrance, and I wanted to hang a mirror over it.

But I wasn't sure if I'd find what I was looking for, this was an amazing antique, and I figured at $30 I could afford to buy it and switch it out later for what I hoped to find at no great loss.

I never did find the table height cabinet (still keeping my eyes out though), so the antique cabinet it is.

The only problem (aside from it's height)?  It's dark!  My whole goal working on the house was to try to add light with everything: the wall paint, the molding color, the linens, the furniture, etc.  Eliminating dark wood was the plan.  And this cabinet is dark.

I've painted and refinished tons of furniture.  But I'm one of the old school antique lovers who can never bring themselves to paint an antique.  My reason?  Well, aside from lowering the value, as a history lover, I understand that once something is gone, it's gone.  The house that's torn down - or modernized - the antique that's painted...these things can never be brought back again, and doing these things slowly erases history.  I figure if you don't like a beautiful antique the way it is, sell it to someone who appreciates it and buy a new one.  Why not?

It kills me to see really beautiful antiques updated to something trendy that the person who changed it is going to be sick of it again ten years down the road.

I do have exceptions.  Sometimes antiques or vintage pieces are so far gone the value has already been stripped, or they're extremely common and inexpensive, or they've been damaged and need to be redone.  Everything I've ever redone has fallen into one of these categories.

And to be fair, I did just spend two years painting a 1970's house full of dark walnut stained molding white.  (Well, the molding is now white.)  The dark molding was definitely a 1970's style.  And I wanted to keep the style of the house to it's time period...but I just couldn't handle the dark.

So back to the cabinet.  Not only is the $30 cool cabinet very dark, but the glass doors have a lattice trim, blocking the view of the cabinet's contents.  So not only do my glass pieces get swallowed up by the dark wood, they are also covered by the trim.  And to really appreciate a beautiful piece of glass, it needs to be seen in the light.

This is a cabinet that would be perfect if it could be located right near a window, with a lot of natural light.  But there was no such spot at The House of Goodwill.  And I just couldn't bring myself to paint it.  So...after my son and I successfully wallpapered the dark oak bookcase in his room with peel-and-stick wallpaper from Wal-Mart, I thought about trying it on the china cabinet.  Supposedly, this paper can be peeled off at any time with altering or damaging the the wood if desired.  It seemed like the only option.

This was hard!

When we wallpapered the oak bookcase in my son's room (which was also hard to do!), at least the back of the bookcase was a flat surface.  But this antique cabinet's back was made up of individual boards, with tiny cracks between them.  Also, these shelves were built in and not removable, unlike the oak bookcase.  So it was a bit more challenging.  Still, we got it done in two hours or so.

You know I always forget to take my before pics (!) but here is a pic after we got one section done, to give you an idea of how it looked at first:

Not a HUGE difference, but the light-colored wallpaper did help lighten the cabinet up a bit.

These gorgeous duck vases deserved a spotlight!

And here is the cabinet, after we got it done:

There it is!

I did love how it came out.

I'm sold on the peel-and-stick wallpaper now for cabinet and shelf backs!

It was about $25 for the roll.

So the total paid for this cabinet was $55.

I'd love to add a light in the future and put it on a timer.  The problem is (as I mentioned) the shelves are built in.  They also extend all the way to the door, so if I were to add a light at the top, it would illuminate the top shelf only.  Still thinking on how I might be able to do that...

And, unlike the last wallpaper project (that the husband NEVER NOTICED)...this time the husband was present when the wallpaper was installed.  He therefore not only appreciated the effort that went into it, he also knew it did not come that way.  He even took pictures of the process, adding to his husband scorecard and not deleting from his current high score.  (For now anyway.)  It was a peaceful evening and The House of Goodwill was able to live up to it's moniker.

So much for the quick post I was going to scribble off...but it WAS a great story about an antique cabinet, was it not?

Everything's a planter!

Certain things always surprise me with how expensive they are.  Almost anything made for the outdoors seems to fall in that category: patio furniture, patio furniture cushions, planters, etc.  Aside from the fact that they're expensive to begin with, all of these things wear out quickly and need replacement often.  So I always get excited when I can find a great deal on something that goes outside.

For example: I bought two new ceramic planters a couple of years ago at Lowe's.  The two medium-size planters were originally $35 each; on sale they were each five dollars off.  (The sales are never much of a discount for outdoor stuff either.)

But my plant collection had grown.  I needed more planters.  So I bought them.  And they were really pretty.

Fast forward two weeks.  I was sitting in my backyard reading, when my dogs started playing, and chasing each other really fast around the yard.  One of my dogs decided to take a shortcut to the patio and ran between the planters.  My other dog, who was chasing behind, grazed the planter with his body as he ran by, knocking it over.

My beautiful new planter had a gigantic crack in it.  Just two weeks old.  And this is why I hate buying expensive ceramic planters.  (Or even regular flower pots.)  I've had so many break, either by getting knocked over (sometimes even by the wind) or cracked by frost, etc.

I just hate paying a lot for something with such a potentially short life.

So I started getting creative with planters.

It slowly dawned on me that almost any container can be turned into a planter.  Obviously, some hold up to the elements better than others.  Plastic is tough, but it often quickly discolors in a sunny location.  Wood is great, but it won't last forever.  Galvanized containers, while not super pretty (at least in my opinion), work really well because they are both tough (if knocked over), frost proof and rust proof.

I find all kinds of potential plant pots at thrift stores.  The most important element?  The price.  They have to be inexpensive since their lifespan will have a limit.  Here are a few of the ones I'm using now:

This is one of my favorite tricks, the garbage can-as-planter.

This stainless steel (?) can was $5 at Goodwill.  I just had my husband drill a few drainage holes in the bottom and voila, a pretty planter for my begonias!

I even love the form of some of these trashcan/planters.

Go ahead dogs, knock this one over!  You can't hurt it!

I'm not sure what the original purpose of this smaller stainless steel container (filled with Caramel Huechera) was.

(Was it meant to be a planter?  It has velvet on the bottom, so whatever it was it was meant to sit on a table.)

Again, it was a few dollars at Goodwill.

I didn't drill holes in the bottom of this one, because I keep it under the porch roof so I can control the amount of water I put in.

This big, shallow, pretty stone bowl was $5 at a flea market store.

I had four small herb plants (in plastic pot)s that I wanted to contain together in something prettier.

This was perfect, it fit them all.

This planter (and the one below) with my Calla Lilies was obviously meant to be a planter.

Each one was $2 or less at an estate sale.

I just have to throw in a couple of close-ups of my purple Callas.

The colors are just so beautiful!

When I saw this beautiful porcelain basket at a thrift store for $7, I knew I didn't need it...I also knew I had to have it!

I just knew it would be SO pretty with some pink flowers inside, like these double impatiens from Wal-Mart.  This elegant basket really elevates the beautiful flowers.

I love this!

And finally, I found these cute little unicorn planters for $1 each at a thrift store.

I put succulents from Wal-mart in them...so cute!

The unicorns also feel kind of groovy and vintage to me; perfect for my 1970's house!

Goodwill always has a great supply of small planters and containers of all kinds.  Just add your own holes!

Since I'm ALWAYS doing something with plants, and adding to my collection, I pick up planters all the time when I find something great and cheap.  I've got a shed full.

And finally, the last thing I've learned about planting in planters?  With a few exceptions, I almost always put plants in plastic pots, then put the plastic pots in the planters.  (As opposed to filling the planters with dirt and planting in them directly.)  If the pot is a little taller than the planter, and it bothers me, I'll just trim the top of the plastic planter an inch or two so it's shorter than the pretty outside container.

I do this because it makes taking the plants out when they're done blooming really easy.  With perennials, after they've bloomed, I can pull the plastic pot out, move it behind my shed (till next year), and put something else in the pretty planter.  

For the planters I don't drill holes in the bottom of, I can simply pull the plant in the plastic pot out of them and check to see if I've overwatered.  If there's an inch of water in the bottom, I can just pour it out and let the plant dry out.  If you plant directly in a planter with no drainage holes, it's really easy to overwater the plant and kill it.  But if you've put the plant in a plastic pot that sits inside another planter, it's simple to avoid an overwatering situation.

Messing around with plants, moving them from place to place, making arrangements in pots with perennials and annuals, this is just fun!  And it's even more fun with creative container-ing. 🙂🌹

Another whitewashed winner

So here's one more whitewash paint-over project: when I sanded the cabinet (from a previous post) to try my first whitewash experiment, I sanded a magazine rack as well.

I've always loved vintage wooden magazine racks; I see them a lot at flea markets and estate sales.  As someone who's always reading (and surrounded by piles of reading material - like books, magazines and catalogs), I need somewhere to put everything.

The only thing I usually don't like about the vintage wooden magazine racks?  The colors.

They must have been really popular in the 1970's, because I find lots of really dark stained ones.

I found and bought three over the last couple of years for this house, so far I have only refinished one.  And, as usual, I forgot to take a "before" photo of the one I sanded and painted.  But all three had nearly the same finish when I found them, so here's a pic of one of the ones I haven't refinished yet.  (I'll use it as the "before" pic I don't have):

This one has a sweet cut-out tulip design on the side. It'll be a nice little future afternoon project.
This is stained brown, it's not too bad looking, but not anything memorable either.

The other two magazine racks were painted brown.
 It baffles me why someone would ever paint something like this brown...to mimic stain, maybe?
It seems like the most boring color in the world...but I guess brown was a look in the '70's.

Anyway, here is the finished, whitewashed product:

It actually took a long time to sand and whitewash this.

That's why I've only done one of three so far.

It also took a lot of coats of whitewash to get it looking right, but I love how it came out.

It's definitely brighter!

I whitewashed this on my day of whitewash experimentation.  But it took so long, I'll probably just paint the other two.

I think I paid $4 or $5 for these - definitely worth it, I love having magazines or cookbooks around for when I have a few minutes to take a break and read.  Another one of those things people get rid of that always surprises me, since they're so handy for organization.  I'm guessing in the digital age people are just reading less the old school way...not a problem of mine!

A couple more thrift store paint projects

I thought I'd share a few more thrift store paint projects recently completed.  I don't spray paint much, because I always seem to end up with dried drips here and there at the end.  For that reason, I never spray paint anything I'm going to use indoors, that I want to look "perfect" when finished.  But I love spray painting outdoor things, that are going to eventually weather anyway.  I don't care as much if they show minor imperfections.

So I may not spray paint much...but it's so fun to do when I get the chance!  For one thing, the results are almost instantaneous, so the payoff is quick. 🙂

And I've spray painted A LOT of outdoor furniture!

One of the harder items to find secondhand is patio furniture.  Most people don't let patio furniture go unless it's wearing out (when I may not want it either), or they're moving.

Sometimes though, people just decide to upgrade or change out what they have, and all the old furniture needs is a little bit of sanding off of rust and spray paint.

All the patio furniture I've ever owned in my life I've bought secondhand.

As I've found patio chair sets and single chairs (at flea markets, estate sales or craigslist), I've been picking them up for the house.  At a house built for entertaining like this, it's hard to have too many chairs.

So anyway, last year I found this single metal chair at an antique shop.  I wanted to put a chair by the grill so my husband has a place to sit and drink the grilling beer. 🍺

This chair was barely rusty at all.

I try to stick to all metal furniture, as the patio chairs that are webbed or have straps seem to fall apart quicker.

This chair was $17.

Meanwhile, while I was debating what color to paint the chair, I found two full cans of this light blue color spray paint at an estate sale for $1 each.

That makes this a REAL secondhand paint project!

I love this color!

It was enough for 2 paint projects, SO....

I threw in this side table as well.

(Which I'm using in the living room, I guess I do spray paint indoor things after all....)

Anyway, as usual, I forgot to take a "before" pic of this table.

It had black legs, which looked fine, but I wanted to give it a little more style.

And I thought the color was perfect for this table too!

Here is the "after" pic of the grilling chair.

I found four of these barely-used coral-colored outdoor cushions at Goodwill for $2 each.

(I've been scoring LOTS of outdoor cushions and pillows at Goodwill lately; they are one of the most expensive things to buy new, and they age quickly, so I love when I find good ones secondhand.)

So the chair, cushion and paint brought the project total to $20.

Not bad!

Here is the "after" pic of my favorite side table.

(I love my marble-topped tables!)

I had my husband cut a piece of wood to make a shelf on the bottom (if you look at the former pic, there were metal supports on the bottom of the table, but no shelf).

I took all my books off for this pic, but I wanted the shelf because the side table to my reading chair is always covered in books in magazines.

I ran out of spray paint before we cut the wooden shelf, so I just used a can of blue latex paint I had left over from something else to paint the wood...the color is so close you almost can't tell I used a different paint!

I believe I paid $60 for this table at a flea market-type store.

So the table, paint and wood together probably cost about $65. 

I love this table!

It's the perfect height, perfect size and I don't need a coaster for my drinks.

And I thought the color came out perfectly.

After the weeks and months spent painting walls, molding and cabinets, it sure is fun to do some quick projects that are completable in a day or two!

Whitewash for the win!

A few months ago, while searching for bedside tables for The House of Goodwill, I found a small, old, oak chest for $60.  It was one of the last pieces of furniture available from two old ladies in a nearby neighborhood who were unloading their life's possessions.  It looked awful.  I'm not sure how old it is, but the drawer was put together without nails, as a clue.

It was dirty, water-marked, and had paint splatters and mold all over it.  It was the right dimensions, though, and I thought I could probably sand and paint it into presentability.  And of course, the price was right.

I always forget to take before pictures, and I really regret it with this one, because there's no photo to prove how awful it looked in the beginning.  I gave it a good sanding, and here is how it looked after that:

I love furniture re-do projects, but boy do I hate sanding.

This was a much more golden color oak before I sanded it; I had to sand it really deeply to get all the water marks, mold and paint splatters off.  But when I was done sanding, the wood grain was so pretty I really hated the thought of just painting over it.  

I thought about re-staining it oak, which would have been beautiful.

But then I considered whitewashing it, something I've never tried before.

I've been trying to lighten the house up, and when imagining this piece whitewashed, I thought it might look really nice.

Here is an up close view of the color change.

At first, honestly, I hated it and thought I was making a mistake.  So I added another coat of whitewash to make it less translucent.  After two to three coats (it took a long time to do!), I decided it was done.

(Isn't the photo bombing dog adorable? 💕  He ALWAYS has to be in the mix!)

I LOVED how it looked when finished!

It came out just how I imagined it.

I am generally hesitant about painting antiques, but this was in such bad shape it was absolutely necessary.  Now it looks like a really nice piece of furniture, instead of an old, junky chest.

Isn't this wood grain beautiful?

I found a bunch of this AMAZING 1970's-era vintage circus shelf liner for a few bucks at an estate sale, and I was waiting for somewhere I could use it in the house.

(I try and insert 1970's details anywhere I can in this groovy 1974-built house.)

My brother had curtains just like this in his bedroom as a child in the 70's.

My husband commented on how much he loved this vintage catch-all dish that I put on the nightstand for his loose stuff.

As we were touring people through the house Memorial Day weekend, I know people just saw furniture and saw furniture.  I, of course, look at every little detail of everything in the house and see the hours of work it took to get it that way.  This bedside table is an example.

But I love the end result!  For $60 and half a tiny can of white paint, (not to mention hours of work!), I got exactly what I wanted.

We were putting some of the finishing touches on the house last week.  "This place has you written all over it," my husband said.  "I love it."

Well, if that's not a compliment, I don't know what is!