Almost time for a face lift!

Its almost that time of the year, where we drag out the pressure washer and clean the sidewalks, bring out the lawn mower for the first trim of the year, update the flower beds and trim the bushes and trees, and most importantly, the paint brushes!!!!  My paint itch was temporarily relieved with painting the bookcase, but let's be honest, I can't stay away from the stuff!!!  My list of items to paint grows on a daily basis!  Unfortunately, a lack of pesos keeps me from tackling a whole lot of projects right now.  So, high on the priority list is to update the front of the house.  Why is it a high priority, you ask?  Well, Mike wants to change the lock on the front door.  With all the choices of lock colors and design, who can pick a new lock without nailing a new front door color first???  So let's re-visit the front of the house and the front door, shall we.....

We have a country blue look going on here.  We went down to Cheapo Depot and came home with more paint samples and held them up outside to get a feel for what color family we wanted to go with.  Low and behold, we decided to stay with the blue family! (Shocking, I know....). 

Let's look at some inspiration.....

pinterest

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The two colors we are looking at are Deepest Aqua (the top, lightest color on door) and Peacock Blue, both by Glidden.  The existing door knobs, locks and porch light is a tarnished brass type color.   

Deepest Aqua

Peacock Blue

 

Both photos via home depot

Here's another view of the samples taped to the front of the house in the sunlight.....

Whatever color is chosen, we want it to go with the existing paint on the house, which is a cream color, so we don't have to change it.  The brick is a reddish brown with streaks of green.  Next question, for our door hardware,  oil rubbed bronze? satin nickle?? distressed pewter????

 door knob pics via homedepot.com

So please, leave a comment and tell us which color you think looks better.  This project will be under way once the icy weather is gone and we warm up some!

I feel blue, oh so blue!

The itch to paint has hit me hard this past week.  My requests to painting the living room has been declined, so I looked around for smaller projects that doesn't require scaffolding or a 16 ft ladder.  I'm not crazy about the pinky beige color the house is painted in and debated on what small area I could paint that would have a large impact.  Insert light bulb here..... I decided on painting the back of the huge built ins located in the living room. 

My inspiration for color came from some fabric I've been saving for awhile that I got at an unbelievable clearance sale Kauffman Brissac Sapphire and a floral painting that I bought for myself as my birthday and Christmas present, and my love for all things blue!  Out came the paint fan and several shades of blue debated on until I went into Lowe's and just pointed to what my gut decided on.   Zach was off of school that day, so we tackled the project together.  I taped and painted the edges and corners, he rolled the paint on.  He had enough of painting after the first coat. 

The color I selected is Benjamin Moore Patriot Blue.  Its the same color Cam's bedroom was in NOLA.  After the painting was done, Mike and I had a moment of painters' remorse.  Is this too bright and bold?  Are we going to be sick of this tomorrow?

 

We had our doubts, but once the books and knick knacks were added to the shelves, it knocked the intensity of the color down to something we can live and fall in love with.  I feel like I need to start collecting some objects to put on top of the bookcase....maybe some antique globes?  or ceramic jars???

Now, the question is, do we do the same color for the other built in next to the fireplace?  Or should we use a fabric or mirror backing???  Decisions, decisions..... (excuse Mike's shadow in the pic). 

A walk down memory lane.......

At 3 weeks since moving, the kids are finally back in school, and I'm finally unpacking the 12-3ft tall boxes, packed to the gills with breakables, knick knacks and "what nots", many of which has been packed since our move from Denham Springs 8 years ago and have totally forgotten we owned until I uncovered them!  Look at how cute those baby pictures are!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to move all my of my loved and missed items around the house, finding the perfect spot to display them!  I think I may need to claim my Desert Rose china to display soon.....Road trip!!!

How we miss king cake......

Manny Randazzo king cake
Earlier last week, the boys and I were wanting a king cake, to celebrate the twelfth night (actually 13th night when we realized we missed the 12th).  I am a pinterest addict, and the other night, found a recipe for a king cake using crescent rolls, cream cheese, cinnamon and brown sugar, and a homemade icing.  It was made by Holly Clegg, who does a lot of cooking and cookbook writing in Baton Rouge, so I thought "it can't be that bad, Holly made it".......

Well, it wasn't bad, if you like crescent rolls with powdered sugar icing.  That is exactly how it tasted.  No sweet, cinnamon dough, high calorie filling, oodles of good icing and sugar.  It just made us miss king cake and home even more, and realize, there is no substitute to a real king cake!


Obviously, it wasn't terrible either as we ate a good bit of it.

Excuse my dirty skillet in the picture!  :)

 

Plumbing so easy, a 12 year old can do it!

So, 2 days before we close on the house, I wake up, go wash my hands and brush my teeth. In my sleepy state, I feel water on my feet. As I wake up some more, I notice some faucet pieces sitting on the counter top. I somehow failed to get the notice not to use the sink because the stopper thingy (for lack of the technical term) in the sink came out and water was leaking under the sink. This past weekend, we made a stop to the local Cheapo-Depot to figure out if we would repair it or buy a new faucet. Unfortunately, being new to the area, we were getting very frustrated trying to get the lay of the land in our local home repair stores. Our excursions have been lasting up to 2 hours of walking up and down the aisles trying to find the needle in the haystack we are looking for at that moment. We were unable to find the part needed to fix the stopper thingy, but could find the new faucets. Its a Pfister faucet (I threw out the box before I could write down the model). As the evening progressed, Mike found out quickly that he can not fit under the sink to do the plumbing work. Thankfully, we had a willing participate to crawl under the sink and do the dirty work!  Its one of the rare times his tiny size comes in handy!

 

 

 

It only took about 90 minutes for Zach to be walked thru the plumbing process by daddy!  He was so proud of himself afterwards!

He comes into the bathroom daily to admire his handy work!  Thankfully, we have another bathroom faucet that is in need of replacing!  He will be able to put his new found skill to use again!

Peter Cottontail, aka Bunny BunBun!

Photo courtesy of Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
When we moved into our house, we inherited a critter with it!   Meet Peter Cottontail (Bunny BunBun if you ask the kids).  We weren't sure what we were seeing, as it would hop across the yard so quickly, it was a blur.  After repeated glimpses of it, we were able to locate via google what rabbits are native to Louisiana and figure out the breed.  Unfortunately, the kids dug up a portion of its burrow and Cam shot a lot of firecrackers on New Year's Eve, so we haven't seen him since.  I'm sure he is hopping around here somewhere!

Our new maison!!! Oui, Oui!!!

So, here is our new maison in our new corner of the state!  We officially closed on Friday, after going thru a small succession with the previous owners' family!  That was actually the best Christmas present we received, opening the email on Christmas morning from our realtor, like it was a real present to be unwrapped under the tree, and seeing that the succession was complete and we can close in one week!  We have many plans to change things around, mainly lipstick and rouge items......painting walls, changing faucets, new flooring.  No more knocking down walls and such.  We left that behind in NOLA!   I apologize that the pics are not in order, still working the kinks out! Some of these photos are from the real estate agent as some my pictures did not come out well..

Without further adieu.......

The dining room, off the foyer/main entrance.  This may not stay as a formal dining room, but more of a lounge/reading area.

 The kitchen, with an entrance to the dining room and living room.  It has a window that overlooks into the living room, so I don't miss any TV while washing dishes!

 The living room.  That is a functional gas fireplace. 

 The back doors and windows. 

 The built ins in the living room.

 The laundry room.  That is a freezer on the back wall (did not come with the house).

 Master bedroom #1 (or my room).

 Master bedroom #2 (the guest room) or the West Wing!

 The front bedroom (Cameron's room).  We have yet to name the boys wing of the house.  We debated on "the Swamp" and "Soggy bottom boys".

 The middle bedroom (Zach's room).

 The boys bathroom (I'm so jealous!  Love their  bathroom!)

 Love their shower!!!!

 The back patio and pergola.  Can't wait to get some climbing vine to climb up the posts!

 The front of the house.

 The foyer.

 The dining nook off the kitchen, overlooking the back patio.

So my punch list for the house includes repainting the living room a cream color, painting the kitchen and dining nook an aqua color, painting horizontal stripes in the foyer, new paint on the front door and shutters, wood floors as white carpet has proven difficult to maintain with lots of boys and dogs, framing some collected art prints I have stashed away over the years and window treatments.  I've promised Mike to keep the work to a minimum for awhile and just live with the house as is and not make any drastic changes.  So, I will have to keep my itchy fingers busy with smaller projects around the house.  C'est la vie!