Austin's Diamond in the Rough

Today we got Austin a car...

he's only 14...and it's a good thing...

cause it's gonna need a little help!

For a while now, Austin has been talking to Scott about getting a 

classic car and the two of them fixing it up.

And a wonderful one popped up.

A '66 Mustang...

Today we had it hauled to the house.

Hauled because that is the only way we could get it here!

The guy from the wrecker service made it look 

easy peasy....

And just like that it was loaded up and ready to go.

And then it was home.

They have a lot of work ahead of them, but,

I think it is going to be a great project for the two of them.

And Austin can't wait to see how their project

turns out.

The only problem with this new little project is that we have 

now run out of garage space!  Scott's truck moved upstairs and the 

Mustang now lives downstairs with the 'Vette.

Someone had to move outside.

And with winter coming,  Scott was gracious and let me

stay in the garage.

We may have another project pop up before this is all said and done.

It will be in the form of another garage out in the back yard!

We'll keep you up to date with their progress.

Hopefully they will have it running and ready to go

by the time he turns 16!

Bustin' Up Around Here

When you own a house, you always have a 

"To-Do" list a mile long.  It seems the older our house

gets, the longer that list grows...

We decided it was time to tackle one of our BIG

projects on our list...

The Front Porch Steps

As you can see, our sidewalk has settled away from the garage wall

and in turn was making our steps fall forward and away from the house.

It's a little hard to see in this photo,

(I was trying to get a few 'before' shots

before Scott got a little Jackhammer happy!)

but there was a gap in the top step that was 

big enough for me to put my hand in.

You can see on this photo that the steps had moved down 

almost an entire brick row...

Scott thought about trying to break out each brick,

one by one, and save them for a future project...

Then he pulled out the Jackhammer to see 

how hard it would be to tackle the sidewalk.

Did I mention that he decided to try all of this one night

about 9:30  PM...I'm sure my neighbors loved him!

He quickly discovered that this was going to be one tough

job...

He then thought he would see how the Jackhammer would

work on the brick steps...and quickly decided that trying to 

save the bricks was for the birds!

Bright, but not too early the next morning he was at it!

Uncle Rick came over to lend a hand and Austin and his 

friend Andrew went to work as well...

By lunch they had the steps almost done.

Many, many buckets of broken up bricks were

taken one by one to the trailer and then hauled off

to a spot down the road and unloaded.

After they finished the steps, they called it a day...

And they were right back at it the next morning...

Scott quickly discovered what should have been a 3-4 inch sidewalk

had been poured anywhere from 5-10 inches thick...

No wonder our concrete bill was so high when we built!

Jackson decided he would get in on the action

and went with the guys to unload a trailer full

of busted up concrete.

They were almost done with the sidewalk,

but after hanging on to a Jackhammer for two

days straight, Scott decided he was done for the day.

The barn-swallows we also ready for him to be done.

They were quite upset that he was so close to one of their nests! 

Finally, they finished up Sunday afternoon and

were ready for the brick mason to come and do his work.

Bright and early last Tuesday morning they came to 

pour a new sidewalk.

A few hours later I had a new front sidewalk.

Now we had to wait a couple of days for it to dry so they could come

and add the steps.

Friday they came and started working on adding my steps back on.

I snuck out while they were on a lunch break to take a quick picture

of their progress...it's one thing for me to stand over Scott's shoulder and 

take photos of every little step he takes,

but I was not sure how total strangers would feel about

me snapping a shot every 5 minutes...

And here they are...all finished...and not falling off

the house!! Whoo Hoo!!!

So happy to have this project DONE!

Scott and I both agreed that after walking up the new steps

we realized just how bad the old steps had gotten...

Now to clean up a little bit of the mess they made...

the concrete guys splattered concrete on my

front porch planters and the 

barn-swallows have made a mess

on my porch...

Like I said...a "To Do" list with a house...

never seems to get done!

New Year...New Projects...

Scott and I are jumping on some house projects

now that we have made it through the holidays!

First on my list was to paint the 

Powder Bath Room.

This room was the original color that we had

it painted when we moved in ten years ago.

There was no crown molding and 

it was pretty plain.

So, down came the mirror and small little

shelves that were hanging above the toilet.

I chose to paint the walls

Labradorite by Sherwin-Williams.

After a couple of coats it was all blue.

And I love it!

Next I asked Scott to add a little crown molding...

seemed simple enough of a request...

except they did a horrible job with the corners of the sheet rock

and there is a funny little angled wall.

But my sweet, loving husband figured it all out

and with the help of this little dude...

The crown was up and Scott had not decided to leave me!

I think he did an awesome job!

All painted, crowned, caulked and DONE...

except for the decorating...

Time to go and find some pretty little accessories

and some new hand towels...

Next up...the Dining Room!

Total Before and After

Several months ago,

we began turning Jackson's nursery into a

Big Boy Room!

I have shown you progress along the way,

but thought I would put together a post

and show you how it has changed with a complete

BEFORE and AFTER...



Here it is before Jackson arrived...

This was the brightest yellow paint known to man!

I remember Scott telling me...
after the 4 coats of yellow paint...
that he would be happy to repaint it
if I didn't like it...
cause he hated it...
but we left it on the walls knowing that it would be gone
in a couple of years.

The fact that his room gets all of the afternoon sunlight didn't help
with the blinding color~

But finally it was time for Jackson to move out of his baby bed
and into a big boy bed!

I started looking around for ideas
and found what I was looking for
at the Thrifty Decor Chick!

I had my inspiration and I was on a mission
to create a cute room for Jackson
and shamelessly copy her idea!

Sarah (the Thrifty Decor Chick) is always adding
beautiful molding and trim to her house
and making things look totally fabulous,
so I decided that some trim was in order for Jackson's new room.

So...instead of being all handy like Sarah,
I looked and Scott and said
"You can do this, Right?"
to which he cut his eyes at me
grumbled a little...
and then replied
"yes"

Oh yeah...it's on!
So the project began!

We started by painting the walls
Bye Bye Yellow!!!

Then Scott started adding the

Board and Batten Treatment to the walls...

It was looking great!!

We also had the carpet replaced...

needless to say,

raising two boys in this room had left

a few carpet stains!

Scott repainted Austin's old furniture

to match the Navy Blue paint above Jackson's

Board and Batten...

Things were starting to come together...

It was time to add some accent colors and

brighten things up a bit...

I found a cute little pillow sham

with navy stitching around the outside...

I took it to my local embroidery shop and

added his monogram and

I was so excited with how

it turned out.

I found some curtains at K-Mart...

which is where the cute airplane sheets came from

that set the tone for the entire room...

you know...

from my idea I stole from

the Thrifty Decor Chick!

So pops of red were added

to spread around the room...

I found these Airplane prints on Etsy

from this seller

I took them to Hobby Lobby and had

some mats cut to match

and then found these simple silver

frames (on sale for Half Price!)

They still need to actually be hung on the wall...

but they are mounted, framed and ready to go!

I also found this cute propeller clock

at Hobby Lobby...

and yep, you guessed it

Half Price!

I still have not decided if I am going to paint it to brighten

it up a bit or not...still thinking about that one!

I have a few more accessories that I am

painting to match and need to

either paint his lamps

or find new ones...

But there we have it...

Our little boy has moved on up

to a big boy room...

sniff sniff.

He is growing up so fast...

I thought I would put this little post together

(OK...so it was not so little)

and link up to

Sarah's

Before and After Party

I'm also going to link up

to Toni at

A Bowl Full of Lemons

I have gotten so many great decorating ideas

from her blog and so many ideas on how to

make my house what I want it to be

without breaking the bank!

We are loving Jackson's new room.

He's sleeping like a champ in his own bed,

and is loving his "E-Plane" room.

So, I'm off to check out the other before and afters

that have joined in the party...

you know,

to get more inspiration

and shamelessly copy some great ideas!

If you want to go back and see the progress along the way...

you can see where we started painting...

and then the board and batten progress...

and the carpet Before and After

and finally moving in the furniture

and adding the final touches.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at our

little project and thanks to all of you in blogland

that take your time to

give us wonderful inspiration

on how to make our house a home...

I think Jackson is loving his new spot in our home,

just as much as we are loving him our lives.