Some Work and Some Fun

On Saturday I started removing the laminate flooring from the back stairs. If you remember, the back stairs lead out of the laundry room up into my studio. I was initially excited to see actual wood stair treads on the steps under the laminate. I thought I would be able to strip the paint and stain them, or sand and paint them. But, when I reach the landing I found that the landing had chip board not hard wood. So we will carpet the stairs one I remove all of the laminate. I have two more stairs to go.


Our new house is located about 15 minutes from the Biltmore Estate. After working on the house most of the day, we cleaned up and headed to the Biltmore. Once a year they create a "Flower Carpet".

Isn't it pretty? Click on the picture to enlarge. You will also be able to see the beautiful mountains in the background.



And finally at the end of the day, we had dinner with friends at one of Biltmore's restaurants, called The Bistro. It was my husband's birthday. Happy Birthday Honey!
Welcome Home,
Penny

It's Ours!

You might have seen some of the mosaic house number plaques I have made for different customers on my Lavender Hill Studio Blog, here.

See the one I am starting on below? It is for a VERY SPECIAL CUSTOMER....ME!! We closed on our house today!

So in the next month you can follow along as I sort, have a yard sale, pack.....paint, install, clean...and close one house and move into my new home. Want to come help?

Oh and during all of this, we have company coming Sunday for the night from out of town and company coming Labor Day weekend for a couple of nights.

I'm loving life!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Falling In Love

I have been falling in love with old vintage marble and alabaster lamps. There is just something so Country French about them to me. Usually the ones I see when out antiquing are out of my price range. But I found this one recently in a local antique mall. (You can click on the picture to enlarge for detail).

The price was right, so it came home with me. I know I will find the perfect place for it in my new home.

Welcome Home,

Penny

Wicker White....

The wicker is all white and new looking again! Here is how we did it. We have a commercial grade paint sprayer and that is what we used. The paint was Olympic Fast Hide Exterior Latex, Commercial Grade paint that we purchased at Lowe's. We used a Semi-Gloss finish.


First we made sure to brush off all of the flaking paint with a soft wire brush. With a commercial paint sprayer the paint goes on thinly, but evenly. We (Mr Comforts of Home) applied 3 layers, starting with the underside first.


I am glad we had the commercial sprayer....we had a lot of wicker to paint!



Here is a close up of one of the finished pieces. You can click on any picture to enlarge for detail, but please excuse our messy garage.

We are letting them dry for a week before we actually use them. When we have closed on the house we will move them over to the front porch and I will show you a picture of them there.

Things are going along great and we are still scheduled to close on Friday.

Welcome Home,

Penny

Wicker

The wicker transformation has begun. I have taken them all down from the barn loft and have brushed all of the paint flakes off them.


They are sturdy....they just need a new coat of paint.


If the rain stays away, we will paint them today....


What are you doing this week? Any great plans? I would love to hear about them.
Welcome Home,
Penny

Back to Some Dreaming....

After the reality of packing in the last post, I thought we could spend the weekend dreaming again, OK?

This is the family room in the new house. I have always wanted a center fireplace with built in bookcases on either side and this house has that! However the "TV" area above the fireplace is too small to fit our TV. And we would really rather have a picture above the fireplace and a mantel to set decorations on. Since the TV part is too small, we are going to have to take the whole built in area, book cases included down and reconfigure the whole area, to suit us.


This is one option below. Not use built ins but free standing pieces. One could be an entertainment center, the other a book case.


Or recreate the built-ins like the next two pictures below, only built a place for a TV on one side or the other.

The picture below is from the current issue of Southern Living magazine. It is almost perfect! So, I think we might be doing something like this down the road but without the arches.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Sweet Dreams!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Dreaming vs Reality

In the past view posts, I have been showing you pictures of my dream rooms for the new house we hope to buy. Now for the reality portion of this move.

Not only do I have to pack up a regular house full of furniture and dishes, but I have to pack up all of Lavender Hill Studio's furniture and dishes! You can get an idea of what I am in for in the pictures below.

First, these are the dishes in my studio. Not a lot you say?


Below are the dishes in the garage.....


Below are boxes of finished mosaics, waiting to be sold and shipped....



Here are some pictures of the barn that is filled with items waiting for me to paint and mosaic.

More items waiting for mosaics...

And some more below...OH! See here is some of the wicker I am going to be using on my new front porch...after it is scraped down and repainted.

Yep...I have my hands full. But I am loving every minute of it! Like Mr. Comforts of Home likes to say, "I'm loving life!".

Welcome Home,

Penny

Wicker

What to do with the front porch on the new house? How about white wicker? I have in storage about 6 white wicker chairs, a love seat, a coffee table and a planter. They all need some wire brushing and fresh white paint.

I love both of these looks below. The best thing is you can change the look with new cushions and plants.




As soon as I know the house is ours, I am hauling those wickers pieces out of storage and giving them a makeover. And of course I will bring you all along with me!!
Welcome Home,
Penny

Powder Rooms....

In the house we are trying to buy there is a small powder room on the first floor. I have never had a powder room before. I love it because it is small and I think you can go a little more dramatic with such a small space. Here are some of the ideas I am thinking of.

The harlequin patterned powder room below is my favorite. I love the little chandelier and the black and white color scheme. If I decide on this one, I would probably put wainscoting on the bottom half of the room and the harlequin patterned wall paper on the top half.


The one below is great too. Now I know this is a full bath...but I am just looking at the ideas here. Love the toile wallpaper. The black and white color scheme with the pops of red and yellow. The silhouette bird print is great too.


Another powder room with toile wallpaper. Love the pedestal sink and the pop of raspberry...



We are still working on getting the house. More inspections, title searches, paperwork....keep your fingers crossed....

p.s. thanks for all of your wonderful input on the master bedroom post! You have given me alot to think about.
Welcome Home,
Penny

So Many Choices

I am day dreaming about creating a bedroom in the new house, we hope to close on soon.... Here is my current bedroom below. I really love it. But I am think about moving all of the toile into the guest room and starting over in the master.


If I do decide to keep the red toile in the master bedroom, I am going to bump it up a notch and try to create something more like the picture below...



The following pictures show master bedrooms I am contemplating trying to recreate. They all have different looks.

I like the one below because of the reds and blue used. I am trying to incorporate some more French Bleu into my decorating.



This all cream room below, just looks so elegant and relaxing. And shouldn't the master bedroom be relaxing?

Here is another cream toned room. I love the iron tole chandelier...

The room below is beautiful! Way to grand for me I think. But I love the vintage mirror, the crystal chandelier and the blue grey walls...

Which one do you like the best?

Welcome Home,

Penny

Road Trip

A couple of weekends ago, in between trying to buy our new home we took a break...a road trip. We drove to the Raleigh area of NC to visit one of our sons and grandchildren. It is a 5 hour drive and we left on Saturday morning and came home Sunday night.

The weather was beautiful Saturday. The fog was lifting and the sun was shining on the mountains as we headed out.

After arriving we went to lunch and then headed to a great local park. This park has a vintage carousel, a pond with paddle boats, a train to ride and a lot more. I convinced my two grandsons to paddle their grandma around the pond. It was hard work....

But the views were just beautiful.

After the boat ride, we needed refreshments. And what else do you get on a 95 degree summer day, than BLUE RASPBERRY SNOW CONES? Not in those silly paper cones, but in a CUP...yummy! Have you had one lately? It will bring you right back to your childhood.

We did a few more things....then sadly it was the next day and we headed home. In the rain.

It was a wonderful weekend and we are looking forward to going back again soon. What have you done for fun this summer? Have you had a SNOW CONE? Gone camping? Fishing? Beaching? I would love to know what your summer fun is!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Thanks and a Festival

Thank you all for saying such nice things about the house I am hoping to buy! Things are moving along. We have filled out and signed a ton of paperwork. We are waiting for the title search to be completed and some repairs that the bank who is holding the foreclosure to be made. At this point things are on schedule.


In the meantime, one of my sisters is here visiting and we went to an arts and craft festival in Black Mountain this weekend. Here are some of the pictures I took while there.

These gourds are really colorful! You can click on any picture to enlarge.



This bottle tree was sparkling in the brilliant sunshine.


Underneath the table below is some wonderful pots of herbs.



The picture below shows what appears to be a statue. But it was truly a live man. He stood absolutely still, until someone dropped some money in his bucket. Then he played his guitar for a minute.

My sister is still here, so I haven't had time to visit everyone. I promise I will drop by very soon!

Welcome Home,

Penny

The Backyard

This is the last of my new home (hopefully) tour, until we close and move in. Here is a shot of the back of the house. The porch is really nice for some chairs and end tables. But is really too narrow to place a dining table on. We love to dine outdoors, so we have some plans I will show you at the end of this post. You can see that there is LOTS of room for improvement in the landscaping.

Standing on the back porch looking out into the yard. At the back of the property is a hill. Beyond that is farmland that you can see from the upstairs windows. I am not sure if we own the bank or not. If we do, I will have fun landscaping that...maybe a waterfall into a pond?

There is a little willow tree straight ahead in the photo below. Can't you picture that all grown up, creating shade and a couple of wicker chairs under it?

More of the back yard...you can see some small mountains in the distance. Click on any picture to enlarge.

NOW!! This is what I would like to do in the back yard eventually. A pergola and a fireplace.

With some flowering vines growing up it....

So that's it for the home tour. We have company visiting right now, so I will be back in a few days. I am going to have to start packing soon. Plus I think I am going to have that yard sale. Once we close on the house I am going to start cleaning and painting it. The plans are to stay in this house for a month or so, while we are working on the other. Of course, the plans are always subject to change.

This is going to be quite a ride. Are you all hanging on tight?

Welcome Home,

Penny

New Home Part Three

On to the second story of the home. Remember you can click on any photo to enlarge. Here is the main staircase leading upstairs.



The view from the mezzanine down into the family room. If you click to enlarge you can see crayons the kids of the previous owner must have tossed onto the top of the built in cabinets.



Standing on the mezzanine looking towards the stairs. You can see two doors down at the end on either side. Those are two bedrooms. Closer on the left is the door way that leads to my studio.


This is the view looking out one of the guest rooms windows. You can see some mountains in the distance, as well as some neighbors homes.




Below is one of the guest rooms. They both have walk in closets and their own full baths.

Here is part of one of the baths.

The tub/shower in the guest room bath.

This is the second guest room.

Below...the door on the left is a closet. The door on the right is another bath, this one also opens into the hall that connects my studio.

And here is my studio. It is really large. But only has one small window. We are looking into some great track lighting or maybe some skylights to brighten it up. There are some great built ins in the studio.

Below is the back stairway that leads into the laundry room I showed you yesterday. That makes it really convenient to bring finished mosaic pieces in and out.

This pink room below will be Mr. Comforts of Home's office. For some reason he wants to paint it a different color - lol.

So...there you have it. Upstairs and downstairs of my new home (hopefully). Next post, I will show a couple of pictures of the back yard and tell you the ideas I have for it.