Helping our son finish his remodel

Our son called in February and asked if I could come out and 

help them finish their house so it would be ready to put 

on the market.  

It was on the 15th that I arrived and I spent two and a half

weeks there helping paint, spackle, caulk, pack boxes, 

and whatever else needed to be done.  Plus the bonus was, I got to see the

kids and the grand kids.  I arrived on Braxton's birthday, and

left the day before Weston's birthday, so we had some

 really fund times together.  

And did I mention caulk?  Oh, we went through a lot of tubes

of caulk!  I learned from the painters we hired 3 years ago that

one of the keys to a great paint job is caulking first, and getting every

crack between the floor boards, and casings, and anything

else filled before you paint.  

So we caulked! and caulked and caulked!

I am just sharing a few rooms of the house in this post.

It really turned out great, and the house was under contract in

10 days!  So it was worth all the work.

                                                                                                                                                                      Here is the living room/Kitchen.

Several years ago we helped Jer remodel the kitchen,

all the cupboards are original to the house, however, they

are not all in the original space, where the island now is - was a 

wall with cupboards on it.  So they got moved to the other side making

the kitchen bigger and on the bottom of the island,

and giving the house an open concept living room/ kitchen.

                            

Here is another view of the kitchen

This view shows some of the living area too.

The false fireplace is a fun feature that Jer added to the room.

This is a unusable wall, basically a walk way.

The mantel was given to me as a gift from the contractor we

hired, and came out of a very, old house that was falling apart.

I loved it, and used it in every house we sold 

when I was staging.  Jer has put it here permanently.

This is the bathroom that needed an entire new floor, which 

Jer did before I came, he put a new countertop and sink in the 

bathroom before I came too.  I only had to paint and 

lots of caulking, he also put in a crown molding which you

cannot see, but made the room!

This bedroom was only sheet rocked when I arrived, 

so there was a lot of work to this room.

The walls were quite wavy too, so many days of 

spackling and drying before any painting could be done.

This is my bedroom when we come to stay. This time I came

by myself, but usually it is both Dana and I when we come to visit.

Isn't this laundry room a dream!

Long story as to how it came to look like this, but it is 

one of the greatest features of the house.   Jer made the counter

tops for the room from scratch!  So love this room.

It is pure joy when you have to fold clothes.  

Well, as "pure joy" as folding clothes can be!

Master bathroom.

All the bathrooms and bedrooms were painted in 

Agreeable Grey from Sherwin Williams.

There are 4 different grey paints in the house.

The Family room.

 My adventure to the kids for a few weeks was a job for sure.

But it was worth it, we knew the house would not last long on the

market.  One great feature of the house, is the guest bedroom is on 

the opposite side of the house as the master and kitchen,

So when we come we have privacy, which is nice sometimes with

4 grand children running around!

So happy for the kids that the house sold so fast.

It was a fun few weeks, and I must say, I am getting older,

cause there were days I was in pure exhaustion.

What do you think?

Robin

Valentine's Day Brunch Tablescape

Valentine's Day brunch or dinner

will take place in this room in a few days.

This is our sun room, newly added to our home.

I thought it would be a great place to take our dinner or possibly

our brunch.

I love all the window in this fabulous room!

Even in the winter, snow has encased the ground, and it is below double

digits in the weather, there is not a single room in the house that draws us

in like this one.  Is it because we can see the outside, but yet are warm 

inside as we enjoy the beauty of the snow?

So with this love of enjoying the outside while we are inside, 

we will have lobster for dinner by candlelight in this room.  I love

to bring romance to our lives like this.

 The red tablecloth brings brightness to the room.  I decided to use grey with

the red.  Silver chargers, and grey dinner dishes.  A Pink bowl and cream plate from

Gracious Goods bring the valentines look to the tablescape.

Silver accents on the table bring such elegance, I have collected quite a stash of

silver.  Should I share that with you?  One of these day I will.

Silver with white dishes are my favs!

To bring height to the table, I added my cupcake  display towers.

Inside right now I have flowers, but during dinner there will be, cupcakes.

and chocolate for the valentines holiday.

The table is one of my favorites of late.

Hopefully you will find some inspiration in it too.

Happy Valentine's Day

Robin

Valentine's Sun Room

Oh how I love Valentine's Day.

My mother always made each of the holidays quite special.

Valentine's Day was certainly on the top of the list of days she

worked so hard at making fabulous for us.

As I married and had children, I too made holidays special.

Breakfast was the first thing that was different.

Pink pancakes!  

Mom always did this for us, and so I too cooked pink pancakes

for my children.  It was always a favorite.

We have recently added on a sun room to the back of our house.

It really has become the favorite room.  Even in the winter

you can sit on the couch and look out over the yard, in the warmth

of the house and enjoy the winter, and of course in the

summer, spring, and fall it is quite our favorite room as well.

I decided to decorate the sun room for Valentine's Day this year.

The rest of the house still has winter snowflakes, polar bears 

and white everything, and I wanted to have it stay this way

for the winter.  White on white.

But the sun room can bring me smiles of joy and love.

Valentine's day.

When we added the sun room, we just added right on to the outside of our

house, so in this room, there are windows and the outside of the

main house as 2 of the walls.  The other 2 outside walls are panels

of glass that give the view of the back yard with french doors 

that open up to the back yard.  

We added furniture, some of the furniture is from my garden

like the lounge chairs.  They have red floral pillows (Ralph Lauren)

and black and white pillows, with a grey stripe throw over the top of the 

padding.  Then a pink tablecloth is thrown across the top for the

pink Valentines look.

The table is covered in a red and pink, two separate table cloths, on top of

the other, and then my fun Valentines items on top.

Our walls in this room are very distressed, and for the most part I will leave

them that way, I may fix a few spots.  

I have a darling silver tea set on the table! 

Remember, I love silver!

On the shudder I added a piece of wood Dana found for me in the forest one 

day with a heart in it.  I have saved it for many, many years, and still to this day

love it.  I will probably keep it here all year now.  It has been in the laundry

room, and just now graduated to the sun room.

Sometimes when we buy things we wonder what will we ever do with it.

That is the cute winter lady on the shelf.  She just represents 

Valentine's day for me.  She wears a coat with hat and gloves, which

for me, this is February!  This year most mornings are at 4-6 degrees Fahrenheit

and just 2 days ago 0!

I still to this day don't remember where I got these cherubs,

but I really love them.

I made this cute heart with Robin's Nest products and dew drops.

I just pack it away and bring it out every year.  So Fun!

I made this banner this year for all my grandchildren's pictures.

I'm still missing a few kids, but I love having it up,

they are my valentines.

I also made this Love banner years ago with Robin's Nest

products.  I still love it! 

And used it on the window this year.

One day I will post our couch and what it looked like when we started.

Such a good find, and such a beautiful couch!

The box in front of the table was mine in high school.  It just recently became

mine again after mom and dad passed away.  

I sure fits the decor of this room.  Casual elegance.

Well there you have it! 

The sun room at a glance with Valentines all over.

There is a table set for a quaint brunch on the other side of the room.

I will post that in a few days.

Happy decorating!

Robin

Winter Whites on the Mantle

It is winter here where we live.

I love the winter, sometimes I complain about the temperature.

This morning when I left the house it was 4 degrees!

Woah, that is seriously cold.  But none the less I still love my home,

and where I live.  Here is my happy place.

I recently grey washed the rock on my fireplace.

It has made all the difference in the world for me.

There were lots of hours working on my husband to let me lighten the

fireplace, even now as I work with it, add the winter whites

to the mantle, I realize, it was really the perfect update for

my living room.  It is so cozy, and feels so much bigger.

Love the new look for sure.

The white against the light grey, Yes! 

Just what I wanted!

I decorate the house in winter whites during the winter.

It is refreshing especially after all the bold reds and greens

of Christmas.  I love the change.

Aren't these polar bears the cutest!

When I owned my store years ago I fell in love with them.

They came just before we sold the store and closed.

These were one of my fun saves.  I wanted to

have them for Christmas, but over the years I have changed

how I decorate the house for Christmas.

Now they are packed in my January box.

They are perfect for the winter, I love bringing in these

cute polar bears and white snowmen.

and white snowflake dishes during the winter cold season.

The cool thing about winter whites is you can use just about

any white item to decorate with making the home feel so bright.

I love the bright feel especially in the middle of winter.

You don't get the dol drums of the winter when the house

feels so light and white.

The white trees are also packed away for January.

This year our January is quite white.

The last few years we haven't had very much snow,

so with white on the ground, I wanted to give the house

a white feel as well.  Bright and cheery!

Here are just simple items in my house that I have brought to

the mantle and living area for the January winter feel.

White old windows, white bowl full of old books with

the covers torn off.

My angels that represent my 2 angels in heaven, and books covered in 

brown paper, with the backs to the rock.

The twists of thread that look like white trees are thread that is used

in Ethiopia to make dresses and gabi's.  We lived in Ethiopia for 2 years

on a humanitarian mission.  Behind the thread is my piece of redwood

that we purchased in California this year on our Coastal

vacation.  It is made into a bowl.  

Tell me what you think of this winter white mantle.

Books, platters, greenery, that is all it takes to create this fun

mantle.  You can do this too.

Happy New Year!  2019

Celebrate the winter with decorating with white!

Robin

New Years Eve Tablescape

Such a fun time New Years Eve!

Just home from visiting our daughter in California.

My first project is this tablescape.

I wanted to share this idea with you.

I so love to create table settings.  Do we have an opportunity

to use them all.  Not always, but for sure this is one

I have wanted to do for myself for many years.

Last year we had a New Years party, but not elegant like this would

require.  We played games - minute to win it games.

visited, and ate great food.

This year I want to do a more elegant evening.

A special dinner and a night of visiting.

Do you think I should ask people to dress up for this occasion?

It certainly would be much more fitting for this celebration.

My dinning room from afar.

This room is doesn't have any windows, just the window from the

room next to it, the door is the window, and from the kitchen.

It is a little hard to get beautiful bright pictures with out windows.

but I continue to work on brighter pictures of the tablescapes

when I am taking pictures in this room.

I love these dishes!  Gold and silver with white.

How can anything be more elegant?

I just found these silver goblets at a  resale store.

It always makes me a bit sad when someone sells something

so fabulous.  Was it their mother's, their grandmother's?

Or maybe it was their mother-in-laws. 

I am so blessed that they came my way, and I was able

to find this treasure!

Simple.

White tablecloth, gold and silver plaid place mat, gold napkins.

Gold plated stainless.

Silver charger, 

gold rimmed china dinner plate

from Mary Carol,

Silver rimmed salad plate,

gold rimmed roll plate

from Mary Carol,

Gold rimmed dessert bowl with handles

from Mary Carol.

The centerpiece is all sorts of little silver and candles that I had.  I'll show

you how these were put together.  Very easy to accomplish

with things you may have around the house.

I should have put little mini lights around the center of the

table, and I may still do this.  It would really look nice if I add this

and brighten the center of the table.

This is the serving side table in my kitchen.

I just recently painted it from black to grey, and distressed

the legs to look rust and grey.

I forgot that I made this teapot years ago with a clock on it.

I used an old silver teapot and added jewels and jewelry to the

outside of the pot.  It is one of my favorite creations.

It is quite perfect for the table setting for New Years.

I added small mini led lights to this table.

To create the parts of the table centerpiece, here is what I 

put together.  Just one on top of the other to create the 

look of high centerpiece if you don't have this 

high of pieces, you can create your own!

A vase, a small silver dish, and a candle.

The centerpiece with lights.

A cupcake stand and a candle.

Simple.

The table all put together.

Lights, stacked items to create the centerpiece.

This will be a great dinner, and a beautiful way to serve 

dinner.  I have not yet decided what we are having

for dinner.  Do you have any suggestions?

I could use some!

Happy New Year!

Robin