God Bless Our Home

I had some extra time here and there this week so I decided to make a new sign. I want to put this in our new home and wanted it to be ready for move in day....whenever that may be.

I used plain wood pieces that I bought at Home Depot that do not need to be cut. I just needed to give it a light sanding. I used one of these boards for my Welcome sign that I made for a friend.

This is my finished sign.



These are the steps I took to make it:

1. Sand board and paint it with base coat. Both my boys helped me with this! I used a Benjamin Moore sample size can in Edgecomb Grey.

2. Print out words, I used Microsoft Word in a font that I liked. Then I used the transfer method to get it to the board. First I held it up to a car window (while the boys were playing in the driveway) and traced on the back side with a pencil. Then I turned it over and - after lining up all words to make sure everything fit - I rubbed over the words with the side of the pencil. You do this over the printed side of the paper. Click here to see more details with photos on my transfer method. When you are done, this is what your board will look like.



3. Paint with small brushes in the pencil lines. I used Black Iron, another BM color that I used on my black door. I have at least 2 sample cans of this. I used 2 different sized brushes for these letters. I am left handed so I always paint right to left so I don't smudge the wet paint as I go! I did 2 coats of black.

4. I wanted to paint a black edge around the entire sign. I used blue tape for this. I also painted all the edges. The next photo shows what happens when you are careless about pressing down the edges.



Here is the difference of how edges look with tape that is pressed down, and tape that is not.



I had to go back with the grey paint to fix all the edges..... a lot of fixing for what would have taken me 20 seconds to do before painting....



5. After everything was dry, I waxed it with MMS Antiquing Wax, but ended up rubbing most off because it made it look too dirty for me. Then I used my regular MinWax over it and buffed the whole sign.

I really love how it turned out and can't wait to find the perfect spot for it in our new home.







Thank you for reading and have a Blessed Day!



Sharing with these blogs today:
Miss Mustard Seed
The Pin Junkie, Thrifty Decor Chick

When building a new home (not custom) what do you choose to upgrade on? Part 2

Happy Happy Weekend!

The last time we left off I had talked about why Mr. Thrifty (he, he: always makes me giggle because that is sarcasm to call my hubby that) and I chose what we did during the building part of our new home. Read Part 1 here.

To recap, keep in mind that we chose what we did based on the fact that I like love to build, make, decorate etc... Everyone in my family knows that I will drive them craaaazzy if I don't have a project, or two, or three....... to keep me busy! So, the choices we made and why, may not be for everyone, but that is thought process behind what we did choose. Oh - and staying on budget helped us to make some decisions too!

Our trip to the design center was a difficult and frustrating trip. I had been there (you have to make an appointment) for 1 hour to check out what the choices were so that the day of our 'real' appointment we could be better informed. The day of our appointment, my husband and I were there for 4 1/2 hours, and could have been there much, much longer. Our consultant was wonderful with helping to assist us. The limitations with this kind of building is that you only have options that they have to offer. Even if they have three, four or five levels of upgrades; if they don't have what you love, you can't get it. That realization also steered our decision making in some areas. For example, the kitchen hardware was bland and boring. So we chose what came with our upgraded cabinets but I have no intention of using it for long (if at all).


What we chose at the design center (and why):

FLOORING: I love wood floors because it is nice to your back and joints (not like tile) and it makes everything look better! We do not like wide planks (5") or the hand scraped look. That is just our personal preference. We are more traditional with our wood flooring preference, which was perfect because that was not an upgrade within the wood choices. The other looks must be more popular because they were more money!!! We chose to do most the first floor in wood. The entry, dining room, 1/2 bath, butlers pantry, kitchen and eating area in kitchen will all be wood. The front room (will be an office/reading area) and the family room will remain carpet. By keeping these two areas carpet we saved $5,000. Our plan is to eventually change the carpet for wood in these two spaces.

Our new floors are similar to our old ones in width and color, but they have more wood grain. Sorry, this was all I could find for a floor shot from our last home...



CABINETS: I went to the design center with every intention of getting basic wooden cabinets and painting them, adding personality and crown myself (like I did in our last home)........we ended up with Level 5 cabinets! What I did not realize and was educated on, was the construction of the cabinets is completely different from Level 1 to Level 6. This is probably not a surprise to most, but it was to me. I thought the doors and trim etc. made it more expensive, and never thought about the construction. Anyways, I wanted white cabinets. If we were going to upgrade to get better construction (dove tail joints, full extension drawers where you can't see the glides) I was NOT going to paint them. So that is what helped to narrow it down. We ended up choosing a white for the kitchen upper and lowers, and a brown color for the island base. I was amazed at all the other add-on's available. We swapped doors for drawers on the island base. We had the fridge area built up and out (so it will look like a built in). I HATE microwaves over the stove, but there were not many options that I liked that did not blow our budget, so it will be there for now. We did vent to the outside, so I can change to a real vent in the future. What we did NOT do was add crown molding. I plan to add that, taking a drawer with me to the paint store so they can color match it. I can't remember actual numbers, but after adding all the other things, I thought the price was ridiculous. Hopefully I made the right choice. I will let everyone know when we attempt to add the crown ourselves! The nice thing is since we upgraded to Level 5 cabinets, we have that level in the kitchen, butler's pantry and both bathrooms, but you can change what type of Level 5 cabinet you want. These photos shows the color choice for the cabinets.

***how long before you think I paint that island?***



COUNTERTOPS: Our kitchen came with granite. Of course the base had only 3 options and they were all hideous. I am not a huge fan of granite and did not want to spend a ton on upgrades if I might not love it, so we went with one level up with the granite you see in the picture above. Seeing this photo now I am worried it is too yellow. Hopefully that is only how it is showing up in the camera's light...

I think granite is very pretty, but I worry about the hardness of it. I am sure that many plates and glasses will get broken or cracked just by setting them down too hard -- remember I have two young boys, and one older boy!

We had granite in our last bathroom and I loved it, but that is different and gets different use than in the kitchen.

Again, I hope I made the right choice.



BACKSPLASH: surprise, surprise we did NOT do this. They had NO selection and I want to get my choice and do it myself. So there....

I actually have a bunch of left over subway tile from our master bath redo in our last house (you can see tile in picture below) and I plan to use this as a backsplash in the laundry room. I am so excited that I found the tile when we were moving.

This is a picture of our old shower. I also have some of that stone tile left. Not sure what to do with that.....



HARDWARE/ FIXTURES:
This was so overwhelming to us because it includes so many options. So I will break it down.

Lighting:
We did not upgrade much for lighting. The lighting offered is all so generic looking and soooo builders grade. I will most likely sell it at a yard sale, or on craigslist, and get something more to our taste. Switching our lighting is no biggie to us, we have done it many times.

Door Hardware:
We upgraded all door hardware to Oil Rubbed Bronze because it was not much cost considering how many doors we have, and that it also includes all the hinges (four hinges on the tall downstairs doors) and kick plates and of course doorknobs themselves. With the cost of doorknobs, even if I got a deal, changing out over 12 doors of all those things would not be worth it.

Bathroom Hardware: Master bath hardware was a lot of money for oil rubbed bronze. We have changed many sets of faucets and I did not care for all their choices anyways, so we did not upgrade those in the master or in the guest bath.

WALL PAINT:
Thankfully they use a good quality Sherwin Williams paint. The negative is that if you upgrade and choose your paint color, you get ONE choice. Yes, so you choose ONE upgraded color for the entire home. Hmmmm? That is completely crazy. We chose a neutral from the base colors and that will be our base coat. We will get our own paint and paint our own rooms, all different colors! The boys room will not be the same color as my craft room, for example. Good thing I like to paint.

HOUSE COLOR:
We were, of course, limited by our choices. The thing I really, really disliked was that the colors were in a package. The choices were inclusive of main body, accent color, trim, shutters, front door, garage door, stone, and shingles. So if I liked a color for the main body I got what else came with it for all the above. We chose a red color after driving about an hour away to another community to see the red on a home. None of the homes in our neighborhood were red, which is part of the reason we liked it. I really do not love the garage door color but I can always submit to the ARC if I want to change it. Maybe it will grow on me...... Here is a picture of the color choice and of the red on another home.



For our home.
1. House Color of all hardi board (horizontal siding)
2. Accent house color of all shingles
3. Front door and garage door
4. Trim color
Not Shown on board - stone color and roof color

This photo is a more accurate representation of the shingle color. It is definitely more tan and not gold like in the photo above.



There were many, many more small details, but I feel like these are the big details and choices that we hopefully made correctly! When we move in to our new home, I will update and post on many of these and on the areas I need to work on (like DIYing a backsplash), so check back. Or use the subscribe area on the right sidebar to become an email subscriber.

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Enjoy your weekend and Go Patriots!!!!

When building a new home (not custom) what do you choose to upgrade on? Part 1

How do you pick and choose which upgrades to do when you build and which upgrades to deal with later?

And stay within budget?

The choices we made were based on the fact that I like to (obviously if you have ever read this blog before or seen posts from my old house) build and make things and decorate. Check out the Our Home tab and use links from that if you are curious. So, that was what drove our decision making on a lot of the upgrades we chose, or passed on. Basically, if it would be a total pain to redo and involved ripping out of things, it was being done during building. If it involved construction and we would never do it later, it was chosen as an upgrade. However, if it was cosmetic we would do it ourselves. If it was a ridiculous amount of money (like cabinets in the laundry room for $500 base?) we would do it ourselves. The downfall of not building with a custom home builder, if I didn't like any of their options, even the full upgrades, we chose the basic so I can chuck it out and get our own. (For example their selection of hardware was horrible - not at all to my liking for kitchens - so I chose the ones that came with our upgraded cabinets, but I won't let them install them because I don't want to have holes I need to change when I find some I like).

Our builder is building in several communities in our general area. For our community we had 7 floorplans to choose from. We went with 2 stories because that is what I wanted and I wanted all bedrooms on the upper floor. That narrowed down what floorplans we could pick from.

Here is a photo of the model home (our floor plan and elevation, not color). It had over $100,000 in upgrades. How ridiculous is that? Of course I loved them all.....but could not have them all....



Our house will have the garage on the right side, will not have trees planted in front of the house, will have a different side roof elevation due to a corner lot, and will not have strange spotlights in the fascia. Oh - it will be RED!!!!

Here is a list of my other must haves when looking for houses:
* 2 stories
* master bedroom on 2nd floor
* COVERED patio in the back
* dining room AND eat in kitchen
* guest room space
* craft / sewing room space
* NOT open concept - I like my spaces

Once we chose our floor plan we got to choose the upgrades to the floor plan - not to be confused with the upgrades you do at the design center...

We were amazed at how long this process took and all the options that are available. And that every choice involved a cash register making "cha - ching" sounds in my head!


What we decided to upgrade in structure and why:

* LARGER COVERED PATIO in back yard - we loved our large screen room in our old house and knew we would want a large patio in a new house. This upgrade is not at big as the screened patio, but it is close. We knew we would never rip a small patio roof off and add a new larger one, so the time to do that was now. We did not pay to have it screened in, as that was a rip off. Instead we will have it done ourselves (that is not something that I can DIY) by a professional.

* ADDED WINDOWS in the side of the house to the front room and the master bedroom. I love natural light and we have the windows open a lot in the cooler weather. You can't get cross breezes if you don't have any windows and I get S.A.D. (totally self diagnosed) if I don't get enough light.



* Got BIGGER BASEBOARD in entire house. This is a no brainer to me. Sure I could rip out baseboard molding and put in new larger molding myself. But for the ENTIRE house. No way!

* BIGGER DOOR MOLDING. Again, total no brainer... the same reason as for the baseboard. If you pay attention, the model homes all have the bigger molding on baseboards and door frames. Don't forget to ask about the door frames! Here is a picture of the thicker door frames.



* RAISED THE CEILING HEIGHT from 8 feet to 9 feet on the second floor. To me this makes a dramatic difference in every room upstairs and we would never be able to alter that in the future.

* All interior doors (except metal one from garage) increased to SEVEN FOOT DOORS. It was one cost and included one set of french doors (also upgrade), one set of french pantry doors, and one other door. However, we only chose to do this on the first floor saving at least $500 by not doing it upstairs.

* WHOLE HOUSE WATER SORTENER added - very reasonable compared with adding after the fact and after living for 10 years without one I had to have it.

* Moving A/C Pads from the back of the house to the side of the house. We are outdoor people, I don't want to see my AC unit in my backyard. Why did I even have to pay for that?

* ADDED A SECOND SINK in the second bath upstairs which will be for both boys. It will also be for guests when we have them.

* ADDED SOME OUTLETS, specifically a GFI one in the garage so now I will have TWO for all my power tools! You think I kid?

* ADDED A WALL between dining and living room - this was a charge due to construction costs - but remember I like my spaces and don't like large open concept houses.

* ADDED WATER HOOK UP up for a laundry sink. I talked Mr. Thrifty out of paying several hundred for the laundry sink, when I know for a fact I can get the sink, AND counter, AND cabinets custom fit by me, for that price (or maybe even less).

* ADDED FRENCH DOORS to an upstairs bedroom that will be my craft room and it opens up to the upstairs loft.

* We are on a corner lot so the builder puts WINDOWS WITH GRIDS (like the front windows in the picture of the model) on the side of the house facing the road. So the front and one side will have windows with grids. We decided to pay to upgrade all the other windows in the house with grids.


I think that is all. I'm sure I forgot some things though......

What we decided on in the design center is next! That was a fun but frustrating trip.

See you next time!!!!

Update: Click here to read Part 2

Thrifty Finds Friday #3

Well, maybe that title is a stretch. Both of my "finds" were at regular stores (vs. thrift stores or yard sales). However, both were on sale and discounted and I think I got a good deal. Does that work?!

My first find is from Tuesday Mornings. I have not been in this store for at least a year, but there is one close to where we are temporarily living and it happens to be near the Dollar Store, which I love. So I went to the dollar store for bubble wrap and then walked to Tuesday Mornings (and had to pass the Fresh Market to get there, how cruel is that? But so proud of myself that I was not sucked in the doors!). I found two items at TM. This awesome jute rug (see photo below). It was so awesome that I just carried it around until I got a carriage, even though I was not sure if I was going to get it or not. Then another shopper looked at it, commented how cool it was, and asked where I found it. I did not tell her that it was the only one that I saw! Yikes.... maybe they had some more in the back....... Anyways, it is 3 ft x 5 ft and is perfect. It may go in front of the slider to the patio, or the front door. Not sure yet.

I am just sure that at $29 I LOVE IT!!!!!






I also found this adorable little spoon rest at TM for $2.99. I can't pass up anything lobstery or new englandly, (those are words by the way) because it is in my blood.



My next TF was from JC Penney . They were having a sale on curtains and I had a 20% off coupon! I am planning on using these in our Master Bedroom, and using a Pottery Barn comforter. I bought three and they were $28 per panel. Of course, I can not (and have never) bought curtains and hung them without fiddling with, or changing them some. These are no exception. I bought ONE curtain panel from PB that matches the duvet cover I bought (also from PB) and I will cut it up - Yes, I said CUT it up! I want the fabric to use to add to my JCP curtains. And use on the small windows where I will most likely use both fabrics to make roman shades. And will have some left over for pillows.........I miss my sewing machine.....guess where it is? Yup, in a POD.

**Update: Click here to see a photo of the master bedroom in the model home to see a side view of the window (you can just see the drapes hanging on the left) and the two small windows I will make a roman shade for with a mix of my two fabrics



Here to can see the print of the PB fabric better. It is so pretty. I love that is had red and rust in it because I have a lot of items with that color, but overall it is light. It also has yellow/gold, blue and green. Love, love, love it. I have big plans for new items in our Master Bedroom.



Thank you for reading and make sure to come back. Someday you will see how these look in our new house!

Monogrammed Napkins

Wow! It has been way too long. I have been busy with our new routine, which will be changed again as soon as our new home is built and ready to move in to. I have also been training hard for another Triathlon. Nothing to big, just a sprint, but the training tires me out and gives me little energy for anything else. My race was last weekend so I am now getting all caught up!

So, I am finally back today to share a project that I have been working on for a while. Monogrammed hotel napkins using fabric paint. In the spirit of full disclosure, this was not my original idea. It was my sister's idea and she gave us some napkins a while back with our initial monogrammed on them using fabric paint. That girl is queen of fabric paint and uses it on everything, and it all looks great! The napkins she made for us have been used many times, and washed many times, and still look great. She got the inspiration from - where else - Pottery Barn!

Here is Pottery Barns Version:


Here is my version:


I bought 12 white napkins at Home Goods, brought them home and washed them. About 2 days later I ironed them. About 4 days later I bought fabric paint and finally painted them........about 2 days later! A project that could have taken and afternoon took me over 1 week to complete. *sigh*

Do you want to see how I did this? Keep Reading!

This is from the package of napkins



After washing and ironing them all I printed out a letter using MS Word. I chose the font Big Caslon and the size 150 pt.

I gathered my supplies including:



Next I put my freezer paper over my printed out letter and traced it onto the freezer paper - making sure the shiny side was facing down. I removed the paper from underneath and cut out the freezer paper letter with an exacto knife. Tip: I had 12 napkins but actually cut out about 8 letters. When the paint was dry, I removed the freezer paper letter so I could reuse it on another napkin. I just used a piece of wax paper between the iron and the freezer paper because it now had paint dried on it.



Next I ironed the freezer paper (shiny side DOWN) onto the napkins. Use an iron with steam on, moving slightly so you don't burn fabric, and apply pressure. Usually about 30 seconds will do it. I check after about 10 - 15 seconds. Just make certain all the edges of the freezer paper are secured to the fabric.



The next part is the fun part. Adding the paint. Any brush will do, and I usually paint from the outer edge in to the center so as to not get any bleeding around the edge. You really don't need to do that if the freezer paper is ironed down good, I just don't like to re-do anything! I also pounce the brush a little, like you do with stenciling. The hard part is next. Waiting until the paint is dry before peeling the freezer paper off. That involves patience - NOT my virtue!



I placed the letter in the same place on every napkin, using the tag to keep it all the same. I had pre-folded them to make sure the monogram was going where it would look the best folded and with the tag at the bottom.



Voila! You are done! Twelve napkins in not too much time (once you omit all my little "breaks")!
Look how pretty these turned out. I just love this metallic paint. I think it adds a nice little sparkle. Won't it look pretty around a holiday table with lights bouncing off it?







I would love to hear about or see any fabric paint projects you have done recently!

Thanks for visiting!!!!


I am linking up today with:
Obsessive and Creative, The Pin Junkie, Be Different....Act Normal, Thrifty Decor Chick, Between Naps on the Porch,