Our Mini Country Mansion

Mudroom/Storage!

January 30, 2012 By ourmini2480 1 Comment

It was a busy busy weekend but I finished a large project! Our new closet and mudroom.

Before:

After:

Lots of sketching and different designs but this was the winner.

I wanted to make sure in this house we had storage for our brooms and cleaning supplies. It’s not 100% finished as it still needs trim and I can’t quite decide if I like the bench but it will get there. Handy Hubby has about 4 times as many coats as I do so I wanted to keep some of the extra’s hidden. The doors in the back slide!! $12 track from Lowes and I made the doors from MDF.

The side door has shelves to put all the cleaning supplies in.

Here are some more photos:

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Our version of Board and Batten Walls

January 28, 2012 By ourmini2480 8 Comments

I have a ton of updates!! I’m going to show only finished projects first though. We’ve been busily working on the walls in the dining room and living room. I wanted all of the rooms to flow between each other but still have their own style.

The major problems I had was Pinterest! Greatest thing in the world but I had trouble staying with one idea.

This is my inspiration for the dining room.

*I don’t know where this came from so if someone know let me know to give credit*

I bought a couple of different types of wallpaper. One was a gray linenish but it was to shiny and just not as nice. The other was a leaf pattern but the colors where very off from the online photo. Bummer So I decided paint it was! Here is the finished product.

I couldn’t be happier with how this turning out. We still need to do crown moulding but that will be a finishing step all over the house.

And the for the living room I didn’t want to have to much gray as we have dark furniture and I didn’t want it all to close the room it. I loved the idea of an accent wall with simple white, but shows of the ceiling height. I also like having the one wall all white to set off the larger entertainment center we have. We also have a beam in the middle of the room and I wanted to make sure your eyes are not attracted to that. And here you go…

This photo was taken when I was peaking in at the finished floors. So excuse the odd view.

Other half…

So how did we do it? A lot off tears Hehe. This was for sure a new adventure to try. I wanted to make it as cheap as possible so we went with furring strips for most of it. We spent under $200 for the entire project and I think we bought over 100 piece of wood. This is thicker than some would use with mdf and it was hard to get everything straight as these boards are well… not straight. It was a learning process but over all happy with the way it turning out. Not perfect but looks good in photos

We spend about 4 days putting all the wood up then I spend another 4 days painting. Lots of details but I couldn’t be happier. My favorite part is the door mouldings. I want to attack all the window and doors with this moulding now! Simple but huge impact.

Filed Under: Dining Room, DIY, Living Room

Bathroom Window Screen

October 12, 2011 By ourmini2480 8 Comments

I really wanted something cute for the bathroom window. Not traditional but country but not curtains…. so after looking at thousands of pins on pinterest this popped out at me. Martha Stewart bathroom. I love how the light can still come in at all times but still has privacy.

So here is how I created mine!

First we used frosted window film to cover up so the we couldn’t see out on to the neighbors garden.

Then I bought this decorative vinyl lattice from Home Depot. It was only $40 for 4×4 sheet. This stuff if awesome. It doesn’t feel flimsy at all. I love it and want to use it everywhere now. I will definitely keep it in mind for other projects. After having it cut down to size, I simply made a frame out of 1 in. x .5 in wood to make a frame. I did try using liquid nails but unfortunately it did not adhere to the vinyl so I did have to put a few brad nails in there.

From there it was a simple as a couple of coats of white paint. A few hinges and done!

I love it so much! It is a bit snug but I can still open it so we can always get to and open the window if necessary. And for under $60!

Linked To:

Filed Under: Bathroom, DIY

Barn Light Electric Contest

October 10, 2011 By ourmini2480 Leave a Comment

I love this site!!!

I have now bought 4 lights from this site. Only one is up on our front porch so far and it lights up our yard for sure!

We bought this light in the larger size as a center piece for the dinning room in the green color.

I bought these for over the vanities in the master bathroom.

These are great for our porch. I am also going to hang one of these over the laundry area.

Enter Here:

We’re launching our biggest giveaway yet!

Beginning Wednesday, September 21, 2011 we’re giving YOU the chance to win (1) $1,000.00 or (1) $500.00 Barn Light Electric Gift Certificate!

If you win, you can shop ’til you drop online, picking out lighting and everything you need to finish up your home renovation, weekend project or heck, it’s never too early to start getting the house ready for the holidays, right?

So start looking around now and show everyone what you love! Follow the rules below to enter yourself, and then share it all on your blog and Facebook for fans and followers to enter. Be sure to email contest@barnlightelectric.com with your artice link once your blog post is up (that’s how we keep track of our entries).

How to Enter:

Look around online at Barn Light Electric and pick lights you’d love to own
Feature your lighting picks on your personal blog, and link to the lights if you can!
Copy/Paste these rules at the bottom of your blog article so others can enter
Once your personal article is up, you must email your blog link to: contest@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win. The contest ends Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Don’t have a blog? Find out how you can enter by reading the Official Rules

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Garage Weekend

October 9, 2011 By ourmini2480 2 Comments

Garage sales and finished garages completed our weekend.

Our garage officially have sides! I’m sure Brandon will have it full sooner than later!

My dad is also an official Do It Yourself-er! My new kitchen light that will be over the sink. I bought a light kit Amazon and bought the colander from Target. And Ta-Da! A wonderful kitchen light. It love the way it shines on the ceiling at night.

And on to the garage sales… I’m glad a have class all weekend next week. Not sure if my pocket book can handle another weekend of shopping. At least they were all great deals.

The most amazing chairs ever! I do want to paint the frame black but I still love them as is. I got these at the Bay City Antiques. I saw them last week and couldn’t get them off my mind so I just had to go back this weekend and buy them $45 for 4 chairs!

I found this great table and 4 chair(not pictured) at a garage sale. I will paint it and spruce it up a bit, but the detailing is very nice.

Love this record player. It’s not old but it looks vintage and works great!

Now on to my favorite items! The big camera is my Etsy.com buy but I can’t stop staring at it. LOVE it so much great addition to my collection.

They typewriter I purchased at a garage sale for $25. It will be a awesome display piece for the desk.

I hope every one had a great weekend! We still need to get a ton done on the house but we did do some insulation. That was quite an new experience. Blown-in insulation is not hard it is just messy as can be! Work and school Thurs-Sun next week so I will be busy busy!

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Busy Weekend

October 2, 2011 By ourmini2480 Leave a Comment

Brandon and I had a busy weekend.

It started off with going out to the Bay City Antique store. It was nice to go on a non-busy night. You had room to look at all the goodies.
We didn’t pick up to much this time which is surprising. But the stuff we did get is super cute!

Saturday morning started off with Uncle Jim and cousin Michael coming over at starting on Brandon’s grand garage.
I have to say this was quite interesting and went up very quick. Still work to do but it’s finally progress!

Brandon and Taylor got all of the walls torn out that needs to be taken out for insulation so we can get the upstairs insulated and drywalled.

We also got my new kitchen window in!! Very excited about this because now we can start finishing off the kitchen. Our new furnace will be going in this week to. Heat!!

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Current State

September 28, 2011 By ourmini2480 Leave a Comment

Our current living situation is a bit crazy. Basically we eat, sleep, watch tv and do homework at the bed. Not so much fun. Here are some photos of where we are at.

Kitchen:

Bedroom/Living Room:

Martini and Kitty have found there spots tho!

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One “finished” Room!

September 27, 2011 By ourmini2480 Leave a Comment

Well we may have actually accomplished one room. Even though we still have minor things in the room such as crown moulding (worst thing to learn to do!) it is done enough to use. We are sooo happy to have a shower at our house again!

Remember before…?

After!!!!

This was a complete gut down to the studs. New insulation, new plumbing, new electrical, new walls and window. Once we were able to get the walls up this was our first attempt at muding and taping the walls. Not perfect especially since nothing is straight in this house but it turned out a lot better than I expected.

The tile floors were actually a lot easier than I expected. I LOVE my penny round tile I bought from Home Depot this was the one splurge in the room. See martini showing it off!

We bought our clawfoot tub off of craigslist and I painted the outside blue to match the floors and the feet metallic silver as we do not prefer the gold. We ordered the shower unit from vintagetub.com. Not super high end but until we are able to get our master bathroom up and running it will work good for us. We have been traveling to my parents everyday for almost 4 weeks to take showers and as much as we appreciate it! it is the little things you miss.

Everything else in the bathroom is off the shelf from Home Depot and Lowes. We also put in the beadboard for that farmhouse feel. I love the way it looks with the 5 1/4 inch base moulding.

A couple of DIY projects. I made the window covering from this vinyl lattice. I was so impressed with the quality of the lattice when I received it. I want to use it everywhere! Cut it down to side and made a frame with simple wood, glue and some paint. I did add hinges so that it opens in case we ever need to open the window.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our bathroom! Lots more to go but it’s a good start for a do it yourself house! And thanks to both of our parents for all the help we have gotten so far!

Monday links: Between Naps on the Porch

Filed Under: Bathroom

Antique Festival

September 26, 2011 By ourmini2480 Leave a Comment

I got some great finds at the Michigan Antique Festival over the weekend. Not completely sure where everything will go yet but I know I will find the perfect spots in our house!