White and Neutral Fall Tablescape

Hello Fall,

Oh how I love fall!

And more than that, I love to share tablescapes.

Today I am sharing a tablescape that I created in just a few hours 

in my dining room.  I decided to take the candles from my bedroom

and use them in this tablescape.  I also love old silver.

Silver, Fall, Dishes!!!!

I just love these all together.

Here is that fun tablescape, with whites and neutrals.

The dishes were my grandmothers, who lived in Munich, Germany.

My mother and father brought home from a visit to Germany

sets of animal dishes, enough to put dishes around the top of the kitchen

wall, with matching platters.  Fish and animals, I also have a set of

fish dishes that I use in our camp trailer.  Ha, ha, who can 

go camping without china!

My dinning area is small, but we can sit 6 comfortably.

I chose to only set the table for 4 today.

Old candles that I cannot part with in gold, browns and creams.

My hand blown pumpkin.

And a pumpkin wrapped in book pages.

My mothers salt and pepper shakers, and the butter dish.

I use the butter dish everyday, it sits on the kitchen counter, and love to

uncover the butter and think of mom.  What did make me sad was, she

used a plastic dollar butter dish all the years she was alive, and this butter dish was

only used for special occasions.  I think of life in a different way.  Use these

beautiful items in your everyday life!!!!

You only live once.

This is my favorite plate, the fox plate.

I didn't realize I had a fox plate until I took these out again

in September.  What!!! I know, so funny, but how lucky am I to

have him.

This is the quail plate, I was lucky enough to get a set of mom's Michelangelo 

flat ware.  These look gorgeous even if they aren't silver.  I also used  silver chargers, 

and a brown set of gorgeous plates under these animal, bird dishes.

I can't even remember when I bought this face, he has hung on my wall for years

in the family room.  When I repainted it this summer, my hubby said, 

hey lets change whats on the walls, it is so busy, and scale down a bit.

MMMM, So smiley didn't get back up on the wall, but he sure looks good here.

The boar plate has such a funny story to it.  As kids we would set the table

on Sunday or special occasions with these dishes, as mom did use the 

dishes often in our lives.  Us kids did not like the boar plate, and we would always

put it on someone else's place setting when we set the table.

Alas, my dad always got the boar plate!  He wasn't there to set the table!

On Sunday after church, he came in, dinner was ready, and

sat down to the table, exclaimed, Why do I always get the boar plate!!!!!

Needless to say, we repented after that, Dad got a better variety of

plates to eat off of, and the boar plate stayed in the cupboard more often.

I still love to use him, if not only for great memories!

I love to intertwine silver with all my things around the house.

My house is on the cozy side, not much extravagance here,

but over the last 3 years I have been collecting silver,  you know it can

be obsessive!  But here is one of the platters I have found, with feet

and the white and cream flowers in a white pitcher fit perfect here,

with candles, pumpkins, and acorns with leaves and stems.  

I have used these colors for years, and each time I pull them 

out I just feel so comfy! 

The gold goblets are a favorite of mine, and just this year

we found these water glasses in Cabo San Lucas while we

were shopping.

Sliver Chargers!!

I just added these orange napkins to the linens.

I'm so excited about them, Target.

The last plate on the table is the pheasants.

These plates have just a touch of green in them.

I love the combination of browns with just a touch of green.

Well, that completes the table.

The China cabinet was added last year to the dinning room.

It was my mothers too.

It was wood, and I grey washed it.

I will post the before and after soon.

It has been a fun addition to the dinning room,

even though it is pretty large.

My buffet is small, and really looks small with this huge

silver coffee tea set.  

I love pictures of Europe, and as we have traveled

the world we add a few more pictures to the house.

The tablecloth my grandmother embroidered.

An just last year I was able to bring home my mother's silver

server set.

I found the silver candlesticks in Georgia on one of

our trips to the mountains.

This completes the kitchen/dinning area in my home.

I always wanted a serving area, with covered silver serving dishes.

I have finally found enough to fill this small cabinet top.

I love the combination of these together, and hope that I will be able

to find more of these covered dishes.

I added the mallard duck plate to this serving area.

Do you love the light bulbs?

Just a fun twist with the silver/glass look to them

The tiny little picture is handpainted of poppies.

One of my moms favorites.

On the extra chairs in the dinning room I added

some pillows.  At the corner of this pillow

are three broaches.  They are from my moms and mother-in-laws

jewelry collections.  

I love just the little touch of bling.

Both pillows are new for this year,

I made the quail pillow from some leftover

fabric I had, and a the so blessed was a gift.

So glad you could stop by and share my dinning area with me.

Hope you had a fun browse!

Ciao,

Robin

8 Beautiful Summer Tablescapes

Hello!

Summer is here and I am wondering what should

I do for beautiful tablescapes?

There are so many different ideas from

beach, to outdoor, to just bright and summery.

I spent some time looking for fun summer tablescapes

to inspire everyone,

and of course for me especially!

This was found on Heyday!

I so love Tiffany blue!

Here this table setting is shared with Tiffany blue and white.

What colors could be more inspirational?

Found on rosemary-thyme.blogspot.com

I used to think I wasn't a yellow fan,

What!!!!

My wedding colors were yellow and white,

my house is painted an ocher yellow,

and the walls in my kitchen and formal living room

are also an ocher yellow.

Mmmm, there you have it, I do love yellow.

This is such a fun and inspirational tablescape, with 

a fun bright, bright yellow,

Found on thelittleroundtable.com

Here are 2 great yellows pared with red.

Love this tablescape.

Found on MagnoliaRouge.com

Blue and white is simply a classic of pared colors.

It doesn't matter if those colors are pared in clothing

or in the home, it simply is elegant!

Pink is such a summer color, that I had to include

this setting, but not sure where the picture

is from.

Check is such a classic also with the white and pink squares.

From KristaMason.com

Why not tropical?

This is so elegant with a splash of green to make

this tropical place setting one to use

even in a non tropical place.  

From Stonegableblog.com

What isn't fabulous about this green and white color combo?

Stone Gable has some of the most wonderful

dishes ever,  I want them all,

but for now I have to suffice by sharing this

great picture and idea with you.

From TheFrugalHomemaker.com

Here it is, beach right in your home.

You can feel like you have spent the week at the

beach, eating seafood, and sitting at such

a beautiful tablescape.

There you have it,

8 Beautiful TableScapes!

I'm so inspired,

and I hope you are too!

Ciao,

Robin

Flipping Kevin House

I am back in the saddle again,
sharing with you our Kevin flip.

We name our flips after the street they are located on.
It has been an interesting and very busy year, but
now that we are 5 houses under the belt,
and summering back home instead of working on
flips in the hot humid Georgia weather,
I have some time to share with you our experiences
of flipping houses, and working flipping
houses in our retirement.

I will continue again to bring decorating ideas along
the way with these fun flip stories.

The Kevin flip was I think one of the biggest

challenges we have had.

It took 3 months to flip, from start to finish, and it had so 

 much work to do in it and in the end our profit
really wasn't worth all that effort,
Except for a learning experience. 

Here are some pictures, but the story is one to read 

about, so you can learn from our lessons.

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. The house was
built in the 70's,  So all the cupboards,
which were not that many, were horrible.
The house filthy, as several dogs were here, and some
very stinky rooms, also an old man lived by himself
after his wife died, and not much cleaning went on.


Front Door



Living Room/Great Room

We also opened the doorway to make it an open concept house.
There originally was only a regular door opening from the kitchen
to the living room, and a very small dining area, not really even
large enough to but a table with 4 chairs.
 The french doors out to the back yard, well sort of french doors,
really just a converted sliding glass door, broken and patched we replaced with
these beautiful french doors to go out on the deck.
We added granite counter tops, and glass back splash.



Living Room/Great Room


Kitchen

The stove is in the same place in the kitchen,
 but to the left of the stove was the HVAC, which
took a large corner out of the kitchen area,
so we moved it to the hall closet so the kitchen could have
more cabinet space.
I chose cupboards to the ceiling so that there could be
as much storage space as you could possibly get in this small kitchen.
I also chose white cabinets so the space would feel larger.


Kitchen

I really love how this kitchen turned out.
New granite looks awesome, and all the greys
feel so calm and cool here.


Kitchen

We lived in this house for 3 months while we were working
on another flip, and it was such a comfy house to live in.


Kitchen

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.
I went with an industrial look in black.



Dining Area

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

The original garage conversion outside wall was not secure,
so we also replaced that opening, put in a new vinyl window, and then
added crown molding through out the living/kitchen spaces.


Living/Great Room


Hall


Master Bedroom


Master Bath shower area




Master Bath


Master Bath shower

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, and make the bathroom a
full bath instead of a half bath.


Hall bath

Here we replaced the shower/tub and the vanity.
Updated the mirror, and lighting.

We painted the inside of  this house in Sherwin Williams Azure Grey.


Back porch


Back Porch

This back porch was original to the house,
but it had blue criss cross open slats around it, We pulled
all of that off, trimmed the bushes, and painted the porch.
The color of the porch came from a bucket of paint that came with
the house.

Laundry Room

This room is a wonderful size, with enough space to put a folding

table and storage shelves.   We installed 2 cupboards above the

washer and dryer area to match the kitchen.

Front of House

The outside of the house was painted to match the vinyl siding that
was installed to replace the original garage enclosure.




Our finished Kevin flip

Now the real story!!!

Jer purchased this house at $24,000.
When we arrived and started working on the house,
so much work needed to be done.

These are the things we discovered.
HVAC needed to be replaced and moved, new vents to the area
where the garage existed and the new laundry room.
We were new to the area, so we found a person on line to replace the
HVAC.  He did a terrible job, and we had him come back 3 times
to work on the system.  He never put the filter in correctly,
and we had to hire a different person to pull out the HVAC
and put it in the closet correctly with a accessible filter.
The problem existed that the HVAC became filled with dirt,
because of no filter, then the HVAC started draining water all
over the newly laid laminate floors
 (this happened 3 months into the project just as we were ready to
 put the house on the market), getting them wet
and buckling them.  We had to replace all the laminate in the hall
area.  It was a pain!!!, and a lot of extra work and money.  Thus
instead of only paying $4500 for the system it cost us another
$700 and 2 days of work on replacing the flooring.

Also when we started working on the house, there didn't seem
to be any electricity working, lights but not outlets, except for one outlet
that was in the orignial garage area.
After going under the house and investigating, we discovered that
the all the wires had been stripped from under the house,
so all the electrical had to be replaced under the house, thus,
every electrical outlet and box had to come out and be replaced!!!
Ouch! and lots of extra work, about 2 weeks.
This is the kind of thing that doesn't show in a walk through of
the house, and since it was purchased on Auction.com
you purchase the home as is.

The master bath was just a 1/2 bath, so we
added a shower to the space.  We also replaced the bathtub and
vanity in the hall bathroom, making the master bath a full
bath instead of a half bath.

We started working with a real estate agent who was really
more experienced with rentals than with selling houses.
We had this house listed with him for 6 months and it never sold.
We probably had about 5 showing that entire time.
He only posted 5 pictures on the MLS,
so there wasn't much for a buyer to see and attract them to want
to visit the house.

After that 6 months we changed agents to a very sharp agent,
who sold this house in 5 weeks.

Yeah!!! Another house sold.
We did make money on this house,
only about $7,000.
For the amount of time and energy spent, it was
a great learning lesson.

Beware of the area you are buying in, and
make sure you have a great agent!

Here is the virtual tour from our new real estate agent.

http://view.paradym.com/3754078/prt/10003

It's a flip!

Robin