Character Outbuilding - Part 3

Who wouldn't love an old weathered little gate up against old weathered wood? The gate will soon serve a purpose as well. Hurry up sunshine, I need you here!

This long box was not originally a planter box. It was a means of shipping firetruck parts into our country. Really. I stripe and letter firetrucks for a living so when I saw this shipping box in their burn pile, (after screaming and stamping my feet in total glee!) I got someone to help me shove it in the back of my truck. FAST like. And I put it right to work. I'm such a garbagemaniac.




It's been waaaay too long since I've done some real work on my character outbuilding. I'm still on the lookout to collect wood I need to complete it. However, I painted out the trim to match up to this planter box. It adds just the right amount of brightness to the little building, yet still has rustic appeal. And that is Jenna, my ever present shadow in the form of a dog. Where I go, she goes. Easy to please, ohhhhh yeah.

And this is what I want the gate to do one day. Hold up some gorgeous sweet pea flowers in full force bloom! I have sun on order. Hopefully before they get flooded out...

I just love this little bent up weathered gate! I scooped it from the dump while a guy was throwing it onto the pile. It went from his trailer right into the back of my truck. Gotta be quick while the going's good!

My intent for a garden around the character building has morphed. I had big intentions of cutting out a nice curvy bed to hug the building and add a ton of full bloom full grown perennials of course. (right..) But as luck would have it, my back and bank account spoke to me and requested to stick with the free planter box and free soil from the garden idea for this year. Ok, ok...

Some good news! I reclaimed some old shake shingles! I can either tinker with them on the building, or... I have a bazillion different ideas for them. Hopefully this summer (soon) I'll get busy and share what I do with them.

Have you used anything unusual for planter boxes? When I went to pick up these flowers, the nursery had old toilets sprouting full blooms. Hilarious...

FYI...

Character building - Part 1

Character building - Part 2

I'm gettin' there!!

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Check out Kimm's Reinvented Trash to Treasure Tuesday, July 7 2009 edition to see what others are making out of those 'special finds'!

The front entry - Part 2 - Horse gate for coats

I wanted to finish my entry with a slightly unusual twist. I knew I needed coat hooks and a bench at the very least. So I waited until I found just the right 'stuff.' The room simply developed around what I found.

Part One is here. Welcome to Part Two! But I'll do abit of recap anyway with the finds.



So, I scooped up an old horse gate for free from someone's burn pile. Complete with authentic horse bites.


And then found this ugly $15 bench that was prefabbed to go inside a truck.


Put together, this little area creates a unique and productive front entry! Loads of hooks for coats and even more room to stash those shoes.


The hooks you see above are new, but they have an old wrought iron look to them. I fell in love with them instantly but had to buy boards they were already attached to. But no worries, buying hooks that way was unbelievably cheaper than purchasing them separate. Hooks were found at Rona in Canada. Home Depot carried them separately but were out of stock.


The galvanized buckets are ready for quick drop offs or pick ups to and from the vehicle. The cute white pillow is from a local thrift just yesterday.



Another dumping ground for bigger stuff. Right now this little box holds my cordless drill, bank misc., a hockey ball, a bag of screws... just general clutter that gathers at the front door in my house. The LADY tag is an old original cow sign from my parent's farm.


Neglected little $5 dresser that was once used in a barn...


... recieved a fresh coat of white paint...


... along with a little distressing. However it didn't stay like this for long.

Update: Oct 2009 - this is how the dresser looks now. :) A thin coat of glaze and some jewellry (random house numbers) morph a plain dresser into a room feature!

The layered platters make a wonderful key drop area.


How about a little art in the room? This wreath wrapped in ivy is being held onto a door with a plate hanger.

I smile when I look at these. My buddy Vic yanked these window frames off an old barn and knew I'd figure out something to do with them. He was so right! I adore the outcome. Inside the frames are CNC routered samples I've painted up.

Before.

After.

Part 3 - tile floor HERE.

The room is now light and airy, and ultra productive!

A few more finishing touches are in the works like the (eeep!) tile floor I need to finish, some new lighting and possibly some sheers to cover the two little windows on either side of the door, because one of the windows is cracked. I'll no doubt eventually find something that will work perfectly one day.

What do you have at your front entry? Are you a closet gal or are you a hook fanatic like me?
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~ this post is shared with ~

Pretty Organized Palace is having a 'dresser party!' You must go check this out! They make my dresser look like a big yawnfest. :)

Join Kimm at Reinvented for her Trash to Treasure Tuesday June 16 2009 edition. Check out what beauty others are creating out of... I can't say the T word. No way.

Kimba at A Soft Place To Land is having a DIY July 22 party! With a fabulous postage stamp pillow prize! I LOVE that pillow! Oh please oh please oh please...

Unique patio table

Welcome to my patio! (as is... surely more morphing to come as always)

I use to have a standard schmandard patio glass topped table with metal chairs with big thick sumptuous padding. I sold the works at my garage sale a few weeks back. The set was less than a year old. Why did I do this you ask? Because I didn't like looking at it.

You're forced to look at a patio table nearly 24/7 because it's generally right outside your kitchen windows. So I put my need for all things rustic into action and salvaged this old workbench from someone's garage, into my new fun thing to look at.

Last night the table top was still a deeper shade of mocha with black distressed accents from where I had it sitting last. (I've had this thing for awhile!) Today, the top got a fresh coat of white.

The chairs are a rescue from a used furniture store. I scooped them up for $80 a pop which I thought was alot at the time, but I knew I LOVED them. A lady stopped me in my tracks on my way out and asked me if I knew what I had. I told her simply, pretty chairs. She then proceeded to tell me how they were made, where they were made and they were worth $1500 each. WHAT?!? Giddy, I took them home and have used them here and there over the years. They are comfy as is with no padding to boot. Strange but true. I love the lines. And they were already black.

Oh. By the way, I reside in China in an unmarked area not even on the map. Way too far to come and steal my chairs so don't bother.

This little doodad sits on the table. The flowers are fake and always in perfect bloom!

Here's the view of my little character building coming to life, from the patio. So I indeed have encouragement to keep going on that thing because I look at it. Alot. I know. I have too much stuff on the go. Like you don't... (snicker)

And there's that ever present honkin' big bbq. It is what it is. What I LOVE about this table and chairs out here is they now match that big honkin' big bbq. The last set of chairs was really a beautiful rustic deep brown, but it always bugged me that I didn't chose black. Well, I didn't have the bbq then and the bbq didn't come in a beautiful rustic deep brown. Whatever. It now matches and I can breathe much better, thank-you!

Here's what I did last night when I needed to escape from my messy house (due to too many projects and downtime). It was a lovely quiet evening with me 'n the dog.

I also strung up some white Christmas lights along the front of the patio for a nice night glow effect. It was wonderful! To kill the brightness, I unscrewed most of the bulbs to achieve the ambiance I was after. Easy fix if you wish for more brightness. Worked great!

A patio table does not have to be what Walmart carries. You can create your own! And I'll be honest. I LOVE looking at this stuff. When something makes you smile, you know you're on the right track. Buh bye to thick padded cushions with palm fronds.. hello to my little quaint world of all things distressed!

My mom will never figure me out.

Projects vs. housecleaning ~ the choice is now clear over here!

I slept in today. I hadn't planned on it but that's what happened! So I jump into blog world (hey, blog world was in a spell check! haha and yeah, I got it wrong) over my coffee to get inspired. That it did. Still in pj's, I sprung into action and painted the table top of my patio table.

I happily entered back into the house and gasped.

For about 2 weeks, I chose to close my eyes to all that was going on inside the house. Every single surface had too much busy-ness going on. Floors proudly displayed pet fur. This one was gonna hurt.

Last night I had already alerted myself to the riffraff of the interior. It stressed me to the point of going to my patio, lighting the propane fire pit and just chill. I even hung up white Christmas lights for a nice glow! Hence me painting the table today. (yes, one thing does lead to another, I admit it!)

So, I started to clean. Nests were picked up, piles made in more appropriate places. I scrubbed the toilets and sinks and dragged out the vacuum, all the while dreaming of what I'd much rather be painting.

I wasn't having fun, but I was getting great satisfaction out of watching my house become my home again. I actually worked up a real sweat with this cleaning stuff!

And then I found it. And nearly died in the process. In a BAD way.

Warning.. not for the faint of heart where tiny bugs are concerned. Read on if you dare.

All around my vacuum cleaner head swarmed ANTS. What?!? Ants do NOT reside in this here house! They are outdoor varmints that have no place where cozy country and coastal touches rank first and foremost!

My stomach knotted and without thinking, I sucked up every one of those critters pronto! Not daring to turn off the vacuum, I stood on ant watch alert. Another, zap! ZAP ZAP ZAP! YUK!

In panic mode, I had to chill. Ok woman, think! WHERE are they coming from? No use having them disappear if you can't stop them. Stop, breathe, and watch. So I did. Vacuum cleaner still screaming in the background.

Slowly they reappeared, one by one. They were coming from outside under a doorway. Whew! At least I didn't have an anthill popping up inside the house! So while the silly vacuum kept roaring ( I didn't want them to crawl back out you know!) I dashed for any silicone gun and gunk I could find. FAST.

I'm so proud of me. I had the gun fully loaded so I pressed with all my might (no time to wire it open people!) ... POP, and out oozed the white gold that was going to SAVE MY LIFE.

I slathered it on everywhere I could find a small crack. Gobs of toilet paper later (to clean up the silicone mess), ant watch again. I wait and wait and wait. Nothing. Hopeful, I continue to vacuum the rest of the house. I go back moments to find a few more. NO!!!! Then think, maybe the captured ones are trying to get back home. Nope, I missed a small spot. Silicone, got it. Wait, nothing. Go back to clean. Come back to look, nothing. No way. This worked?!?

So what IS the moral of my story here? How long those ants were down there I'm not certain, but I'm thinking it only happened overnight because it's at the main entry and I would have seen what I did today. But no matter. Point being, if you regularly clean, you spot these things before they get outa hand here.

As for the house, reason it got so bad was simply was because, LAST weekend I chose to paint and left the housework thinking I'd do it during the week. Sometimes you just have to if you want a project done, ya know? But I didn't do the housework. And this weekend Cody was with me more. So instead of cleaning, we went to a local lake for a lovely evening, then took in local festivities in town. It was a play weekend. Until today.

So, what comes first in your home? You KNOW you want to do that project, but your house is a wreck in motion. Do you fight past the urge to clean and play anyway? Or do the right thing and clean first to earn your playtime?

Now, excuse me while I go on ant watch again AND retrieve Cody's backpack and my lawn chair from the front lawn. I think they're allowed back inside now.

{{{{{ shiver }}}}}