Sneak Peak Into Our Construction Projects

Here's a sneak peak for you. The pictures are of our new mud room and our laundry room redo this morning before Wayne and I started painting. The tile looks beautiful. I decided to keep my laundry room the beautiful yellow honey butter color (same as my kitchen also) that it's been, we just freshened it up with a new coat. Two of the mud room walls are painted a light tan to blend in with all the different types of wood trim, bench, cypress wall, etc. The two back doors will probably get painted tomorrow, we chose an olive green for those.

Wayne made all of the Cedar trim work.  

Below:  The light oak cabinets in our laundry room are the same ones we have in our farmhouse kitchen.  I really wish we had the same Corian countertops in here, but when we installed these a few years ago we saved money by using laminate in the laundry room. See my new metal ironing board holder?  I've ordered Heather Bailey Nicey Jane fabric in Picnic Bouquet Sky to recover my ironing board, so you know it'll have to be on display!

Below:  Check out the Beech Wood boot bench (what a mouthful) that my sweet hubby made. It's not finished yet. Thick and so heavy! 

More pictures to come real soon I hope! Have a blessed evening and upcoming weekend.

Just Enjoying April

I was driving into the city yesterday, listening to some good music on my favorite radio station, http://www.jsm.org/index.php.  That's right, I'm a huge Jimmy Swaggart fan!  I feel so blessed to be able to pick it up once I'm out of the thick wooded areas and out on the highway.  My two favorite guys are die hard Bluegrass fans, including of course a lot of Bluegrass Gospel so when I'm alone in my truck I can really enjoy my Southern Gospel.  When I'm not alone, usually there's a Bluegrass Gospel CD playing or nothing at all so we can talk.  I love having alone time to sing along with the music, listen to the preaching and teaching, and pray.  So yesterday was one of those days.  Even when I got to town and was in and out from store to store, I caught some great music and preaching.  On the way home, Donnie Swaggart preached on restoration.  God is a mighty God and He can and will restore what the devil has took from you.  He's bigger than your biggest problem and He's bigger than America's biggest problem.

The building projects here on Lillie Mae Acres are coming right along.  The tile is down in both rooms and looks beautiful.  Wayne has made all the cedar trim work and I'm pretty sure that's the next step.  I had been planning to decorate the laundry room with red gingham touches to blend in with the kitchen, but no more!  I happened upon this blog http://whimsy-lane.blogspot.com/2010/07/laundry-closet-makeover-part-5.html and changed my mind.  I've already ordered this fabric from Heather Bailey, her Nicey Jane collection.  Take a look at this blog, I think you'll enjoy it. I'm now following her.

My sister and mom both sew, they are going to make my ironing board cover and I will have enough fabric left to recover my lampshade and line a few baskets.  I can hardly wait and you know Lillie Mae will break out that camera and do a whole new post when it's done!
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Matthew has been pretty busy picking, of course it's that time of year. April and October are both Bluegrass Festival months throughout America every year.  Wayne and Matthew try to catch anything within driving distance in April.    

 My sweet hubby loves Rhonda Vincent and I'm so glad he took some time off to go enjoy her and her band  over the weekend.  

Rhonda's PINK guitar case. 

Matthew is also a huge Rhonda Vincent fan.  She signed Matt's banjo for him.   

Deepsouth Bluegrass (Matt's band) actually played on the same stage over the weekend also.

MUD ROOM update!

Sneak peak into what will soon be finished!  What will soon be the new entrance, the doorway that I'll open and say "hey there, come on in", entering into the new mud room and laundry room redo.  Here's a couple of pictures.

The door will be painted a beautiful olive green color!  We hung the iron cow "doorbell" this afternoon.  It just needs a rope.  The cypress will turn and be the same color as the chimney and rest of the house in a short while.  Hmmm, something has to be done about the Direct TV cable I see hanging.  

Very old solid brass wall sconce that is now oxidized. We love it! Wayne hung it this afternoon.  It'll be kind of like a dim nightlight effect instead of always using the overhead in the mudroom.    

The other back door, leading out to the porch and pool area. It will also be painted the olive green color.  And of course the walls are not finished yet, just primed and caulked.  

Textured ceramic tile, we also have a darker color going down in the center of the room.  It's all sitting around in boxes, just waiting to be put down.  The tile man a.k.a. friend (former friend, LOL) never called back!  It seems like he'd like to make some extra money, but I guess he doesn't need it. 

And this beautiful wood! It's the future boot bench and is going to look great! That white plastic outlet cover is driving me nuts. I've got to find a wooden one this week!  And I have to try to find an overhead light or ceiling fan. And we have to discuss door knobs.  HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

That's it for now folks.  Hopefully once the tile is down, the rest of the room will come together a lot faster than it seems like it's been going.  I do love that hard working hubby of mine and we are so blessed that God has given him so many talents in woodworking, building, and that we both love the same things. 

On another note, last year I found what I thought I wanted for an outdoor chandelier.  It's a small one that is non electric and holds about six citronella candles.  I'm not happy!  I want a real outdoor chandelier, something larger and electrical. So I guess I'll have to try to find one of those too.  The reason I've changed my mind is that the citronella votive candles don't keep bugs away and they are hard to light.  Just letting you know so you won't make the same mistake I did.    

Have a blessed evening and week! 

Mud Room update

Good beautiful morning. I just thought I'd update you on our mud room addition here on Lillie Mae Acres.  It's not finished yet, but slowly getting there.  The weather has been so beautiful and spring brings extra chores like getting the garden ready and repairing outbuildings.  This year my two favorite guys had to build a new chicken pen. The old one was beyond repair after seventeen years of redoing.

 We've picked out the paint colors for the two exit doors, and last night we picked out the tile. We're fixing to lay tile, how exciting. I'm having a hard time choosing light fixtures now so I've decided to stop looking and get a fresh start next week. There's just too many to look at online and in the stores.  I'm still looking for outlet covers.  

That sweet talented hubby of mine has already built the long boot bench. He loves working with wood and was like a kid last weekend when he brought the huge slab up here to give me an idea what he had planned. He built the cedar coat rack and cedar hat tree several years back and we've actually been using those. He still needs to build a table top for the Singer trundle (I think that's what it is) and re finish my grandmother's window, changing it to a mirror. This much dreamed about and needed mud room is not going to be a cookie cutter mud room. Come to think of it, nothing in our little farmhouse home is cookie cutter.

I've been picking up some pretty items here and there for the room. I finally chose a lamp shade for an antique lamp that we'll be using. I found the perfect sign to hang above my laundry room, the perfect welcome sign for the door and just yesterday the perfect key holder/hook to hang. I still have to sand down my grandmother's RCA cabinet and paint it olive green, then distress it and change the cabinet knobs. I also still need to clean up and refinish two antique looking hunting dog pictures my sweet sister gave me years ago.  These pictures may really be old, I haven't been able to find out anything about them.  We love them anyway.

Do you get the idea?  The picture?  This new mud room is going to become the main entrance for friends and family, so it has to be welcoming.  It has to have our "signature" on it.  Decorated with cherished antiques, family heirlooms, and the furnishings made by Wayne's own hands.

Just wait, you'll love it!  Pictures soon!

New Addition to the Family

Good beautiful spring morning to all of you!  I'm looking forward to a wonderful day and week.  We had a very good weekend, beautiful weather, and we got so much done around here.

We have a new addition to the family.  No, it's not a dog, cat, chicken, horse, or pig.  It's certainly not a baby!  We've got our "baby" grown and that's that about that subject! It's a big shiny black 4x4 truck!  Not for me or Wayne, this is Matt's.  

Wayne and I are so excited for him.  He finally found the truck he wanted, a beautiful black Ford F-150.  I finally have my Armada back 100%!  Now this mama is thinking that sharing wasn't so bad.  After all, I did get to see Matthew a lot that way.  He really deserves this!  He's worked real hard his whole life and is a great young man.  We are so proud of him.

   

He originally had his heart set on a really nice white one but the Carfax came back pretty bad. He has a good head on his shoulders, and we had prayed for God to stop any bad deals from going through. I was so proud of him for walking away from that with a mature attitude, knowing God would continue to guide him towards the right truck. He called me later to tell me he found another one and him and his dad were very happy with it. The Carfax was clean it was a one owner. Great! I called our insurance agent and didn't receive too bad of an increase estimate, so that was that.

I really don't pay attention to vehicles and who drives what, so I had no idea that these F-150s are so hard to find in great condition with a clean Carfax report.  We found out they are very popular in the construction industry so most of them take a beating.  Never underestimate God folks.  He'll find you just what you need and what He knows is right for you.  

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to be able to report a finished mud room soon.  Poor Wayne has been a little under the weather with allergies so that has slowed him down a little.  Hopefully all of this spring pollen is on it's way out of here!  We've had a little rain that helped wash some of it away.