Working on KITCHENS!

What we are UP TO!
We are working on my daughter's kitchen. She bought a house with NO kitchen literally.  So, we set out to make one for her!

The posts are starting here:
Florida House Blog Amy's Kitchen 1

Florida House Blog Amy's Kitchen 2

Florida House Blog Amy's Kitchen 3

Florida House Blog Amy's Kitchen 4

I have the floor plans and elevations posted.  I can't find my drawing program so I had to use Microsoft Paint!  Those of you who have tried it know it is NO fun!  I will update as we have photos to share.

When my daughter's kitchen is done, then we move onto my son's kitchen, then OUR kitchen remodel!

Christmas cone trees

 From Christmas past from Virginia house:
Cone tree on stand is styrofoam cone with silver garland wrapped around it.  Others faux mercury glass look.

 Below, Winter in a box, dollar store cone trees put inside wooden lantern and faux snow dropped in. 

 Below: Faux Mercury Glass cone trees (TJMaxx) and bead tree and styrofoam cone tree with red bead garland glued on.  Shell tree with lights made by my friend Liz from Naples Fl.

 Below: Oyster shell cone tree, mussel shell cone tree added to rest of collection (tassels hung on a couple)

 Dollar store small cone brush trees with battery spot light (silver pearl beads around tray)

 Below: silver faux mercury glass cone tree (TJMaxx)

 Below: Imported German paper houses with Dollar store cone trees, faux snow and battery spot lights.  These are in a Mahogany china cabinet used as a bookcase.

Christmas past, remembering my Oyster cone tree

 This was the sketch I made while viewing the Oyster tree a friend of mine made for Christmas when I lived in Virginia.  Below are the photos of one I made

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

http://ourflhouse.blogspot.com/

I have a few new posts on this Florida Blog that I started.  You won't find the same type house I used to have in Virginia but I did a different type house.  This is a ranch style slab one story house.  This is our retirement house. And we are redoing it on a budget and enjoying the journey while we make our little nest here in Florida.
The sweat equity we put in this house is all for us, we are doing the things we want to do.  I wanted to do as much as we could when we moved in so that we can get on with the adventures of the land around us and get my DH to go fishing!  I want more time for Hobbies, photography, crafts and spoiling my grand kids!
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

I have started another Blog

We bought a house in Florida. We have moved to the Space Coast area of Florida (mid FL) on the East Coast.

We bought our smaller, more humble and soon to be more intimate retirement home. I started a blog to record that house transformation.

http://ourflhouse.blogspot.com/
if you want to reach me personally there is a spot on this blog that says 'EMAIL ME'. I am getting the Our Florida House one set up so there will be a link to email me on that one too. The blog is brand new and will take some time to get content on there.

I will be posting all my before pictures! They will be awful because they are of a forclosure house. I looked around and found one! We were very lucky because our Realtor, Randy Brown with Century 21 in Palm Bay was so helpful and he rooted for us for the paperwork to go through fast! It was pretty well set up before we found the house, the bank had been on target for selling it. Closing should be within a month from now. I wanted to get this Blog set up so there would be a place to document and show progressive photographs.

I have some inspirational photos that are taken from magazines and the internet to show how I arrived at the way I want the house to feel and look. We are on a tight budget (who isn't) so I will be price shopping and making the most of the materials I find.

My goal is to have a house that ends up feeling like I got a piece of Paradise on my postage stamp lot. I want a tropical feel with a Caribbean flair. COLOR, yes color is going to come into my life more than before! My Virginia house was all about Black, Brown, and Whites. Now I am looking at turquoise, yellows, blues and corals.

My first decision was to pick the flooring. We are tearing out all the old carpet so I wanted the flooring to be tile. I think light color tiles will not be where I want to take this 'old world' kind of look. I want the house to feel like it has been around for a while, some sense of history. I like a house to have 'roots'!

Thanks for coming on the journey with me.

I had an accident, a bad fall about 3 years ago now in July. Blogging has been a great way to keep my creativity going and keep in touch with other souls out there with like-minds. I have had a few surgeries to fix my issues with that fall and am expecting a couple more in the near future, this Blog will (again) help to keep my mind occupied and thinking about something I love to do instead of on my physical self. Thanks for listening! Looking forward to Blogging again!

I am checking in August 2010

I have spent a lot of time on Facebook these days. Getting around and finding a lot of family and friends. The games have been fun too, getting my fill and loved being on 'vacation'.
I will have more to post soon.

I did get a new printer today because the one I bought last Fall was not handy to use and I thought printed awful copies. I went back to HP and can't wait to install it! That means back to scanning, downloading from my camera and having fun with pictures again.

For those of you who still follow my Blog, great to see you back here. I will be starting a new one when we get our next house. I will document my projects and post pictures. There will be a link to that Blog from this one, so it will be easy to find.

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Hello, Spring is here!

I just love the Spring here in Melbourne, FL! We are so happy we moved from Virginia to here! It is like we are on vacation here in our apartment. We have been house hunting, but taking our time. The 'one' just has not come along. We need a certain type of yard, house and area. I am sure when we see it, we will jump on it! We have a few that come close that we have seen!

We are taking care of ourselves and learning the lay of the land around us. We have seen more family than ever that is such a plus!
We visit our kids who live North and South of us. Our days are filled with wonderful times spent. We walk on the beach in the morning a few times a week and get all that freash ocean breeze. The pace here is slower so we don't feel like we are dragging behind, lol we are keeping up just fine.

Time off from this Blog and decorating has been refreshing. I had to erace the Virginia home from my head, and have been researching and looking forward to a new lifestyle and decor once I find the right house. I have purchased a few books and done some research on Island living. I do not like the very earthy tropical with lots of textured materials, tends to get musty over time. I wanted to develop something just for us whether it is trendy or not is of no concern this time around.

Thanks for checking in with me and I hope to get things going again with a new blog that will be referenced to this one to cover my next home. It is always a challenge and adventure to take the 'box' out of the house. So many one level houses that are cement block squares here. The nooks and crannies of an older well-established home already done are cost prohibitive for us, we must create it! What a challenge on a budget! Wish us luck!