Finally - a project years in the making!

Many years ago, in town far, far away (at least 10 years and Clairmont, Wyoming is a long way) I acquired a church pew. The old church needed new pews. We hauled new to them pews up in a trailer. The youth and workers cleaned and stained the pews and put them in the church. There were a few old pews from the church there. Parts to make two pews went home with us to Longview. It was one of those projects we planned to do, but never did. We hauled the pieces to El Paso. Again, it sat in the garage. We hauled it to Round Rock. I figured it would stay in the garage here. I was wrong!

I like foyers, welcoming foyers, that it is. This house doesn't have one. It has an area at the front door, but no real separation. A few weeks ago, Dean hung up the crosses and the Greenwood church memorabilia. Dean grew up in the Greenwood church. Before Joy Anna was born, he had the honor of designing their new (at the time) building.  We have a painting of the original building, a print we bought in Baton Rouge of the new building and a couple of commemorative plates. There are a few other things that are special to us in there, too. There is my prayer square from the Nicaragua mission trip, a Jesus Loves Me print a friend made me when Joy Anna was a baby and a scripture plate one of my Sunday School girls made me several years ago. The crosses in there all have meaning, too. Not just the obvious one - mission trips and gifts from special friends. When he was hanging them, he left room for a church pew under the crosses on one wall.  Because it had sat so long, I didn't really have a lot of hope to have it completed.

This morning, he suggested we work on the pews! Woohoo! I was so excited. We pulled all the pieces out, and I took a few 'before' pics.

 When I was working on the buffet, Dean had taken the ends out and cleaned them up.

 This is the back and the bottom. They look really, really bad.

This is spider's nest. It was one of several in the pew rack. I thought it was pretty cool.

So, have I mentioned I am married to a perfectionist? This pic below shows him figuring out how to get the exact measurements while figuring out the best places in the wood to get those exact measurements.

 Now, don't get me wrong, I know the measurements needed to be exact to make it fit right. So, finally he got all the pieces cut exactly like they needed to be.

Remember last week we had to buy a new sander for the buffet? He really likes that thing. He decided he would sand all the pieces and then we would stain them. This is where the perfectionism comes in. He likes old things, but he would rather them look a lot newer. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to seeing them with wonderful patina. I wanted to see the scratches and bruises. There is even a name carved in one of them! I can just imagine all the people sitting there, singing hymns, listening to the preacher, praying. Mamas and Daddies making those wiggling youngsters sit still. Yeah, patina seemed like a good thing to me.

I saw a link on Pinterest for making wood look great without refinishing. I was all for that. The link is: http://missmustardseed.com/2010/06/oil-vinegar-not-just-for-salads/ I thought this might be the perfect thing.
He wasn't crazy about the idea. He very grudgingly said to go ahead and if we need to refinish later, we can. I think we won't have to!

The 'recipe' calls for 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar. Any kind. I had some on hand, so I just used vegetable oil and apple cider vinegar. Best smelling furniture cleaner ever!



Here is what I learned. Only make one batch at a time (3/4 c oil to 1/4 cup vinegar) I had a lot of wood, so made double the first time. Not a good idea because as my rag got dirty, so did the mixture. A little goes a very long way. I went through 1/2 of the double batch and a single batch. I needed a little more, so I made another single batch just to get through. I knew I could use it to touch up if we needed it as we were putting the pieces together. I went through 4 cleaning rags. They were filthy! Just dip in and rub over the wood. If you make sure you get into the scratches and dents, it has a really nice depth to it.

Another thing - keep the dogs away for a bit. Mine were fascinated by the smell. We caught both of them sniffing it and trying to lick it. After it was dry, they lost the fascination. Dean kept mumbling we were going to have bugs. I read several more articles online during a break, and this seems to be tried and true method. I think if it was going to attract bugs, someone would have mentioned that.

I am not complaining about Dean! I love the fact that he is jumping right in and helping me on all these projects. I do get frustrated that my way is never the right way. If it is really important to me, I stand my ground - like black for the buffet. We really have had fun doing the projects.

Here is what the wood looked like before:

The wood was very thirsty. It soaked it up. I had figured I would need to wipe it on and then rub it off. Nope. Wipe it on, and it drinks it right in. I covered everything twice to make sure. There was minimal excess.

After I had all the pieces cleaned and refreshed. we got the fun job of putting them back together. This was a challenge. It took us a little bit of muscle, but we finally got all the pieces put back together.

We ran out of time on putting pew #2 together. We needed showers before the ball game. I don't know how hot it got today, but it was a real scorcher. Showers were necessary. Tomorrow, we will put pew #2 together and find a place to put it. We did them both the same length, so if we move where we can have them together, they will match.

The pew finished! Doesn't the wood look great? This is the one where there is a name carved - they tried but it is not very deep, so it is hard to read. I didn't see it all in the dry wood. It showed up after I added the oil. You can see where legs rubbed against the seat where it is raised slightly. The arm rests are worn more. Lots of hands rested there.

And my foyer finished!

Thinking I need a rug there. Maybe move the the green pot? I have a few more hymnals I need to stack on the pew.  I think it is very welcoming. I like looking at the different pieces in there and thinking about the memories and friends and family they bring to mind.

A Buffet Redo

When we moved from the house in Longview, we packed up our china and serving dishes. When we got to El Paso, we never had a place to unpack them to. Because of that, they stayed packed in boxes for 4 years! Yep. Very unlike us, we didn't entertain much over that 4 year period. When we moved here, we wanted to get them out and actually use them. That was a good thought, but we didn't have a place to put them here, either. That put us on the search for the perfect piece.

We are on a pretty tight budget. We lucked out on the piece we bought the first week that is in the living room. I am going to remake it into an office space. The price on that was unbelievable, so I was hoping that I would find a piece for the dining room at a bargain price. That didn't happen.

After several weeks of shopping, checking garage sales and craigslist, we finally found a real bargain on craigslist. We bought the piece for $50! So what if it is from the 70s. It is a sturdy piece. I was thinking a coat of paint would make a big difference. I researched and checked Pinterest. I had a plan!

Notice the beautiful insets and hardware? I was going to make it work anyway.

I took off the doors and all the hardware. I then taped and papered off the inside. I Wanted to leave the wood inside. I confess part of the reason was less to paint. While I was taking the doors off, Dean suggested we put the doors back on inside out. That way, we don't have all that attractive inset, carving and hardware. I thought it was a great idea.

I bought Cover Stain by Zinsser. It was 18.00 at Home Depot. I had several small rollers. I was set.
 

 Remember I am married to Dean - a perfectionist. Sometimes I wonder why he picked me. I am so far from perfect. I don't mind a more casual look. Maybe some shabby chic. Maybe some antiquing. Dean, not so much. Since I am asking for some help, I am trying to make this as much like he would like it to be as possible. Compromise is interesting some of the time. I digress. I was going to explain that I put two coats of primer on to get a perfect cover. Notice the perfect theme? That comes back to bite me a few days later as we tried to put the doors back on.

Because the doors meet and don't have any dividing boards, they had to meet just right. Two layers of primer and two layers of paint really add on the thickness. Oops. We didn't plan for that. this is when things slowed down. We had to do some sanding and painting. Just the sanding blocks was not cutting it, so we invested in a new palm sander. I know we have one, but Dean hasn't gone through all the tools. I will be glad when it is cooler and he can do that. It surely will make some of our projects a lot easier to have the right tools. We probably needed one anyway. Ours was really old. It was an old hand me down when we got it.

Finally, after about 10 days, we had it completed! It is a really heavy piece. We moved it in last night, and I filled it up.

 Here is the final product! Looks great, doesn't it?  Don't the raised panel doors look so much better than the heavy carvings?  I am not sure how I am going accessorize the top quite yet. I don't want a lot, so we can use it to serve from when we have parties.

And here is the dining room. I need to get some artwork for the walls. The house is shaping up!

More projects coming soon!

The Powder Room & A Table Redo

We have a pretty little powder room in the new house. It is right off the living room, so it gets a lot of use. I had an old table I got from my grandmother. I knew it needed a mini makeover.

 

It was already painted. It looked like spray paint. We decided just to paint it like it was. I really liked the color we bought for the bedroom pieces I posted about last week. I bought a gallon of it - for $11.00 for the gallon, I couldn't see paying that much for a quart. I think it goes well with the wall color, and since everything in this house is painted that same color, I figure I can use it in several places. If you follow me here, you're going to be seeing it a few more times. In fact, I have a project going in the garage right now.

 

There you have it - the finished product. Below is what it looks like in the powder room. I need to find something to do with the kleenex box - I will have to check Pinterest for that! :) 

Bedroom makeover part 1

Dean and I have not had a headboard for our bed since at least 1983. After we got rid of the bed that had real springs and ticking mattress, we didn't have a headboard. Anyway, we have debated options for years and years. We wanted something different - out of the ordinary. We talked about fireplace mantles. We considered doors. We looked at covering something with fabric. Dean designed a great one that was supposed to be part of the remodel, but since we moved before the remodel was finished. Well, a lot was left undone on the personalizing. We have come up with lots of great ideas, we just never did anything.

We were determined to do something when we go here. We had to - the bedroom is off the living room. It is sort of visible. Yes, that means I have to make my bed everyday. Sort of cut down on napping.  Below is what you did see when you walk in -tall walls and lots and lots of that color - everything in the house is that color including the ceiling.

We started looking at ideas again. Not long after we moved to the house in Longview, we took the screen doors off. The one in the back had a duck on it. We didn't hang on to that one. The one in the front had great swirls. I had thought of painting it to put on the front porch. When we moved, I hauled it with us to El Paso. Again, I thought about painting to mount outside. Never did.

One day, after we got here, Dean suggested making a frame for it and using it for a headboard. Great idea. Until we dug it out of the garage and took it to the bedroom. No need for a frame - it was perfect like it was! Great news as sometimes Dean turns simple projects into big deals. Yeah, he did it with this without a a frame. I can't imagine what it would be like if had to build a frame. The frame had separated, and of course that would never work. So, we had to start on a 3 day journey to repair it.

On the left, is the broken part of the piece. On the right is Dean's solution. Clamps, bungies, and a yard stick. After day 3 of JB Weld not working, I suggested tie wraps. Yep. They worked great!

Also in that room was a little wicker and table. It was a freebie. And an awful color. I wanted a certain color, and I couldn't find it in spray paint. We did it the hard way and brushed it on.

The wicker was falling apart, so we just clipped it out. We left it in the rocker, but the table just had to be cleaned up.

I had purchased some great pillow covers in India. I had not bought pillows to go in them, because they are so expensive. I decided to go to Ikea. They were even 6.99 there. They did have some .99 pillows. They were standard size, but not very fluffy. I just stuffed them in the covers - it worked great! It was time for Dean and I to have new pillows, so we bought 2 pillows. I went through all of the extra pillow cases and found a couple that went with the decorative pillows.

I am not finished in there. I still want to get a rug for the wide open space in the floor. I also want to do some work on the dresser and bedside table. I purchased it for 65.00 at a thrift store in El Paso. A great find, but it needs a little cosmetic help. I will be working on that in a week or two.

For now, it is looking so much better.

As I get more done in here. More to come . . .

And my pic of the day for the 3rd is below