Guest Bedroom #1

If you've been following along, you know that we've re-designed the first room "Guest Bedroom #2" in our new home. This is the after photo.

This is what Guest Bedroom #2 looked like before.

The next makeover is Guest Bedroom #1. This is the before photo. The twin beds were painted and put in GB #2.

Mi Miguel and I took some time off this past week to relax and enjoy life. I got together with my reading group. We met at my "under construction" house.

We read the book The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake. The discussion was amazing.

So was the cake. I had to make it twice because if you know me, you know that I have to bake everything twice to get it right.

I'm so grateful for this sweet lady for starting this group. I feel so blessed to be a part of this circle of great women.

The salty air and ocean water is just what we both needed. At the end of the work week Mi Miguel and I were worn out. We dropped everything Friday evening to go have fun snorkeling. 

After two hours of swimming and viewing creatures underwater, we were refreshed and revived.

A heavy cloud rolled in on us. I'm not sure if that's a bird or a UFO in the photo.

This beach is our favorite. We keep returning to the same spot even though there are so many choices. Hardly anyone goes to this beach and there is always something exciting to see.

It's definitely a romantic spot with a beautiful sunset and lots of roaming and strolling space.

The cloud formation, the umbrellas, the boardwalk and the sea oats made for an amazing photo opportunity. 

The beach closes each day at dusk. 

We gathered our things and headed home.

I think this is a sea grape tree growing along the boardwalk. I'm not sure though. I'm still learning all the nature names.

We were suppose to go to the Hippie Festival on Saturday but after a long day of working around the house to put together bags of Goodwill donations, and putting up drywall, it poured. It rained so much that the Hippie Festival was a wash out for us.

Mi Miguel and I got up Sunday morning and headed to the Wagon Wheel. I still needed a perfect lamp for GB #2. We were also looking for a light fixture for GB #1. No luck at the flea market though.

Scroll back up to the first picture.  See the tiny red beaded lamp on the nightstand? It was just temporary until something more fitting could be found. After strolling in the heat for hours at the flea market, I finally found a great seaside cottage lamp in the air conditioned Lightstyle of Tampa Bay. And after a trip to a home improvement store...

we found this cute mini chandelier. Of course it will be painted to match our GB #1 garden cottage colors.

I have my inspiration and my paint. Let the makeover begin. Don't the colors look fresh yet vintage?

Before and After Guest Bedroom#2

A few years ago we couldn't decide whether to move to Indiana or Florida. We were thinking that remaining in the Midwest would be ideal. It would be like the twenty-eight years that we lived in the St. Louis area. Geographically, we were smack dab in the middle of the United States. Even though we felt close to every state, Indiana proved to be a really long commute to work. Not to mention the really harsh winters. The cold became a really big contributing factor to my Scleroderma (CREST) worsening in just two short years. Here we are now in the Sunshine State with an exceptionally short commute to work, no more harsh winters and due to the salty air and soothing ocean the symptoms of CREST are under control once again.  

We are still amazed at how this sweet little fixer upper sort of fell into our hands. After staying in the house for a week or so I started visualizing the amazing things that could be done with this well thought out floor plan.

When we bought the house guest bedroom #2 looked like this as I cleared closets into this room.

We got the room down to the concrete and bare walls. And now the room looks like this...

with comfortable beds, new flooring, fresh paint and relaxing decor. 
Total Cost:$616.14 (Beds,Linens,Flooring plus installation supplies,Pillows,Window Coverings,Paint plus painting supplies,Lighting,Wall decor and popcorn ceiling removal supplies)

Now with the completion of guest bedroom #2 we are ready to move on to the hallway. So far, we've torn out the original linen closet doorway, dry walled that all up and made a new doorway into the linen closet through the guest bathroom. All the carpet has been pulled up and the popcorn ceiling is now smooth. 

We can now see through the guest bathroom into the hallway and into guest bedroom #1. Mi Miguel has already got the old doorway opening dry walled.

This fabric was tucked away in one of the closets. I love the vintage garden cottage feel that it holds. I'm not sure what year this remnant is from but it is my new inspiration for Guest Bedroom #1. While Mi Miguel gets the hallway ready for me to paint, I'll be pulling together my thoughts and gathering the goods for our next big room.

Changes in Valances

If you've been following along with the transformation of our sweet little fixer-upper, then you know that we are about ready to reveal our first completed room. We were set to post the final before and after photos of Guest Bedroom #2 today. 

But,over the weekend I decided not to do the fabric valance. 

The fabric isn't a good choice for the beach cottage theme. I think the green is too "grass" green. No worries though, the fabric will still be used for the valance and will now go in Guest Bedroom #1.

 If you think I backed out of the valance to go with something much easier.

Well, you'd be wrong. True to form I took on a much more labor intense project. Why wouldn't I, right? Here's what happened.

Friday evening, I dragged Mi Miguel to Home Depot. I had looked everywhere for a long big piece of foam core board. While waiting for Michael to get his drywall. I saw a long cardboard sleeve that was over a heavy box on a freight cart. The worker slid it off the box and gave it to us. I was set to draw the template for the asymmetrical valance.

That's when I suddenly realized, the valance and the green fabric just isn't beachy enough. I didn't say anything. Because Mi Miguel is always, always so very good to me. He'd get me the moon if I asked him for it. When we collapsed into bed Friday night, I'm sure Mi Miguel thought of absolutely nothing and simply slept. He is that exhausted. Me on the other hand, my mind whirred around thinking of that valance and how to make it beachy.

Saturday morning I was still pondering the valance situation. I got busy removing the unsightly vertical blinds hoping it would come to me on what to do about a valance.  

The exposed window looked so much better. But, I quickly learned why so many people prefer the vertical blinds. They do a great job of blocking the intense sun.

I found that out upon removing the second set where the sun was at full peak directly into that window. Wow! BRIGHTNESS!

Once the blinds were down, I still didn't have any inspiration on the valance. So I sanded and painted these two tables.

I want each twin bed to have it's own nightstand rather than the shared one I painted a few weeks ago. In the photo above I deepened the green paint to give it more color. It too now has a grass green. Not beachy at all.

It's okay though, I have a new use for this table now. It will go in GB #1 with the grass green fabric.

I loved the way the replacement nightstands turned out. The other one was nice but there was room for two, so why not use two, right?

While I'm yanking down blinds and painting tables, Mi Miguel is busy removing the doorway to the hall closet and knocking out a hole in the bathroom wall for a new doorway to that same closet.

Sunday morning we got up to make a Lowe's run for a tool of some sort for Mi Miguel's project. I saw the Lumber sign and thought about all the cornice and valance photos I had seen online. Bam! It hit me. I knew just exactly what to do for a valance. I asked Mi Miguel if he would get me a big piece of wood. He said, "Sure!" The nice worker cut the four pieces out that I would need.

I painted the pieces to prime the wood so it wouldn't soak up so much paint. 

I painted over the primer with a light color that I had on hand so it wouldn't take so much of my actual paint to cover the black. 

I remembered a birthdy gift that my daughter got years ago for her sixth birthday party. One of the mothers and her daughter (Jeri and Katie) had drawn overlapping circles on the paper and then colored them in. It made beautiful paper. That inspired me to do an overlapping fish body shape on the wood.

I painted over the pencil markings so that the lead wouldn't show through.

The word pieces are really long. It took a while to get all the shapes drawn.

I went back over the shapes again to really bring out the color. They aren't finished yet. 

While the boards were drying I painted these five letters that I picked up at a craft store. They too will go in GB #2. I forget what it feels like to be able to relax. It's just not in the cards for us right now though. We also cleared out the garage this past weekend and I finished pulling the rest of the previous owner's belongings from the house. Last night before winding down we put tinted film over the GB#2 windows.  

This morning I woke up bright and early and got Mi Miguel off to work. I savored every drop of my percolated coffee and then made a set of curtains and finished painting the valances. If everything goes as planned we'll have the valances installed. Thursday I'm hoping to post the before and after photos of this bedroom.