Harvesting Acorns

Hello out there.

A few years ago, our grand daughters were playing in our 

yard and brought me a handful of acorns.

I said,  "What!  Where did you get these?"

I think they thought they were in trouble, but I told them 

I always wanted some, and where did they find them.

They brought me to the front of our yard, where a scrub oak was

growing, and there on the ground they found acorns!

We checked all the scrub oak in our yard that year, but only the one

tree had acorns.  

This year as we came home from Georgia in September, as I 

was walking down the dirt road on our property, I saw more acorns,

this time on a different tree.

I certainly wasn't going to miss such a treasure,

and I spent a few minutes with a plastic bag in one

hand picking the acorns on the scrub oaks in our yard.

I was able to fill 3 silver bowls with this new found

treasure of mine,

Some had already changed to the beautiful brown color,

most are still in the green stage.

I knew if I waited longer they would drop to the 

ground and I would not be able to find them.

Remember in one of my last posts, I shared that I am on a 

silver hunt, finding silver pieces wherever we go.

Here is a tray and a candle holder I recently found.

Here are some fake glittered acorns,

that I have had in an arrangement in my bedroom for years,

so yes, I really do love acorns.

Such a fun fall find!

And I am able to use some of my silver treasures

along with these fun acorns.

Have a great fall day!

I so love the fall, it is my favorite season of all!

Pull out those sweaters, make a cup of hot chocolate,

and find a book to read, and watch the

fall leaves fall to the ground.

Happy Fall!

Ciao,

Robin

Second House Flipped

Hello!

Finally back with the living in Utah again!

We have been in Georgia again working on houses.

We went back the middle of July and just got home a week ago.

Yes, flipping houses, you guessed it.

Our second house turned out so amazing.

So here are some photos of the house.

For some reason I cannot find the before pictures of this house.
We literally had to gut this kitchen.  It had never been updated from
the time it was originally built.  So all the cupboards,
which were not that many, were horrible.

The stove is in the same place, but to the left of the stove was the HVAC
so we moved it to the hall closet so the kitchen could have
a larger area for cupboard.
I chose cupboards to the ceiling so that there could be
as much storage space as you could possibly get.


We also opened the doorway to make it an open concept house.
There originally was only a regular door opening,
and the french doors, well sort of french doors,
really just a converted sliding glass door, we replaced with
these beautiful french doors to go out on the deck.
We added granite counter tops, and glass back splash.



I love the look of the floors, and how they flow from
the living space to the kitchen space,
This really makes the house look bigger by doing this.
Of course new appliances, as the old weren't even in the house.
And all new lighting fixtures throughout the house.



The living area, was small, and the garage had been converted into a room,
but both rooms were odd.  Dana and Jeremiah brought up the floor from
the garage to match the living room, and then
took out the wall between them, making this beautiful large
living space. and next to the kitchen a wonderful laundry room space,
which simply did not exist in the house.



We updated the bathrooms, new vanities and sinks,
and right here where the shower is, used to be a closet.  Just the
right size to make into a shower.

Love how this all turned out!

Just waiting for a sale of this house now.

We painted this house in Sherwin Williams Azure Grey.

What do you think?

Robin

Flipping Houses

There are certainly different seasons in our lives when

 we decide to do something different.

Right now this is what I have been doing.

Since August last year we have been discussing 

new plans with our son Jeremiah, of working on buying and selling 

houses.  So I started looking for cheap houses in our area to

purchase and flip.  It is a very difficult market where we live,

we even had several homes we put offers in on,

But things just were not working out for us in our home state.

Jeremiah started looking for houses in other areas of the U.S., 

and alas, our partnership formulated and we started buying 

Houses together.

Jer found 3 houses, that we all put money in on
in the south and our adventure began.

It took a little time to get there, trying to get our schedules together,
and April began the trek to our newly purchased houses.
As we were planning this, Jer was sent to Germany for 6 months with
his job, and thus we were able to work together for a week,
and then Dana and I were on our own to finish the houses.

The first day we were introduced to a contractor, whom we now
really like, and we have been working as a team to finish the 3 houses
we purchased.
It took about a month to finish this house, we will name as
the Woodsman house, and get it on the market.

We have finished our first house, put it on the market, 

And 2 weeks later accepted an offer and we are up and ready 

to finish our first flip, and let the new owner take over.

It has been a challenge but at the same time very enjoyable.

I love to decorate, but I also love to work.

Some days we work so hard I get back to the house and crash

Not even thinking there could be anything else to do but stop!

But as a whole we are enjoying this new chapter in our lives.

Here are picture of our first house.

This house originally had green shudders and pink pillars!

We also added the arch over the front window.

The living area didn't have the arch window or the open doorways,

even though there were doorways there, they were much smaller,

the floors were vinyl, and the kitchen and living area

had 2 separate types of vinyl.

This room turned out awesome, love the floors, and we also had

a contractor come in and scrape the popcorn ceilings and paint for us.
Where the 2 hanging lights over the island now are, there was a
shop light, and none of the lights in the house had boxes in the
wall or ceiling to attach the fixtures to,
so Dana needed to install these for code.

This kitchen looks so awesome now!  It originally was completely wallpapered

in floral/fruit wall paper, as were both bathrooms, laundry room, and closets wallpapered too, but in

different wallpapers.  I spent 3 days just stripping wallpaper!

We used mindful grey from Sherwin Williams to paint the walls in the house,

We also had all new cupboard doors made for the kitchen and 

new drawer pulls and knobs for the entire kitchen.

New granite countertops, and a subway tile backsplash were added

to the kitchen as well.

The house flows really well with the laminate flooring that flows

from the front door through the living room to the kitchen and

all the way to the back door.

We also added the island to the kitchen with granite.

Both bathrooms got new vanity tops and fixtures.

I love how the house turned out.

I will see if I can find some original photos of the inside of the house.

Our first house is a great success!

Here are the before pictures of the house.

Enjoy!

Robin