Home Sweet Home - Part 3

As promised, today's post is the family room redo and, as with the other rooms, this one is still a work in process. I am getting ready to paint the built-ins in this room

(when Handsome heads out for turkey hunting next month...that is when I get all my projects done without having naysayers around - LOL)!

I am still trying to decide on a color - so if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment! I am thinking black, distressed, with maybe a green or soft turquoise on the

back of the bookshelves.

So let's talk about the "before" shall we? Stunning huh? See that HUGE piece of furniture? They had their tv and stuff on there...and there was a lot of STUFF. It took up nearly the whole room! Handsome wanted to throw it out...uh, no thank you! I'll show you in a minute what I did with it. It was, however, very heavy and difficult to move -

took a couple of strapping men to move it for me.

This room is done in the ever popular "paneling." Was this ever really a good decorating idea? It is worse, to me, than wallpaper. At least with wallpaper you KNOW there is a wall behind it...paneling, you never know. Fortunately, they had primed it for us, so all we did was paint it and, truth be told, you can't even really tell that there is paneling there.

And here's the after (please excuse that my St. Patty's Day decor is up...

and there's Handsome watching tv)

Please excuse that the decor is a little different in each photo - ha! It seems like I am CONSTANTLY decorating and re-decorating my home. I am trying to bring more turquoise into this room, hence the different decor above vs below...

And...here is what I did with that huge piece of furniture - I don't even know what to call it...although now I call it my craft bench. In our garage, we have this low hanging shelf, so we put this baby right in under there (yes, I can stand up under it).

It houses a plethora of "crap" as Handsome refers to it. I have scrapbooking stuff, gift wrap stuff, my candles, my gift closet, cards, stationary, paper, bows, ribbon, stamps, school supplies...you name it, I probably have it in there.

Hope you all (all 4 of you that subscribe - ha) are having a terrific Monday!

~alicia

Home Sweet Home - Part 2

Today, I promised pictures of the kitchen, eating area and I'll throw in the laundry room - since they are all within the same proximity. I think right now, the kitchen is my favorite room...it is where we gather as a family to study, cook, eat, play games, craft, laugh, talk -

and even sometimes dance.

When we bought this house, I thought I loved the kitchen. Remember now, I was coming from a home that was 50+ years old, so this "before" kitchen seemed so modern....

Well it wasn't!

Let me just say...these people did me NO favors with the white tile countertops...I have OCD, so I spent several hours every Saturday - me and a bleach pen - cleaning grout. Ugh.

Thoughts of it almost give me hives!

Needless to say, the wallpaper had to go - along with that 'darling' white curtain thing. To make this area livable, I stripped the wallpaper and, because the walls are not textured (and I am too lazy to do that project), I thought I'd use the Ralph Lauren paint with sand in it (aka suede). Well, let me just say - DOES NOT work well in a kitchen...you can't clean it. Looked beautiful, but can't wipe it down. So, I had to paint over it with the identical color of semi-gloss.

This kitchen project has taken us about 3 years to complete...and we still need to do the floor. We started with paint, lights above the sink, window coverings. Upgraded to granite countertops, new appliances and new hardware on cupboards...

I still need to do floor and I need, um, I mean "want" to paint the cabinets (see my earlier post this month). But I LOVE my kitchen, which is good because I spend A LOT of time in there.

Now on to the laundry room...this was purely a "I'm bored and want to paint something" project (do you ever have those?). I recently added the vinyl from

Wonderfully Wordy and Shelley from thehouseofsmiths.com.

Since this is the first room I see when I come in from the garage, I wanted it to look nice...but I am still not motivated to do laundry in there!

I just used leftover paint from the kitchen and lightened each section with white once I had the bottom (darkest) layer done. I love the way it turned out.

Well, that's it for today. What do you think so far?

I think looking at these pictures and reminiscing about what we've done, how we have made this house a home, it making me fall in love with my home all over again!

Have a great weekend! Monday we'll move on to the family room.

~alicia

Home Sweet Home - Part 1

Boy how time flies!

It has been 6 years since we moved into our house...now a home that we love...and there have been a lot of changes made possible by a lot of hard work of Handsome, the four dwarfs...and Me (of course)

So, I thought in honor of this momentous event, I would post some before and after pictures of the transformation. There is still a lot of work to be done...most of the initial changes we made were paint and flooring and now I would like to start adding some architectural details (board and batten, new doors, new fixtures/finishes, etc.). But I am a "project junkie" so the work will never be done...

We bought this house because it has great "bones" and had newer windows, roof, air conditioning unit (which in the 505 is a big bonus), etc. Plus the kitchen had been remodeled in 2000, so it was *newer*and they had done the bulk of the expensive stuff (or so we thought - ha).

The previous owners painted EVERYTHING white (except for the multiple rooms of wallpaper)...and Handsome was amazed that I wanted this house - because I don't really like white - or wallpaper. Little did he know that it looked like a blank canvas to me.

For a painting junkie, it had all been primed and

was waiting to be "colored" up.

In order not to overwhelm you - and to keep you coming back - we will start with the entry way, the living room (now trophy room) and the formal dining room.

So this shot is the corner - bad photo I KNOW - of the trophy room looking into the entry way, the kitchen and kind of the dining room. I didn't take a lot of before pictures - if only I had known then what I know now...

(see that lovely brass fixture - oh, how I hated it - but you'll see it again)

Here is the finished entry way - although that CD thing is no longer in there...my house is constantly changing so taking pictures is kind of silly. Anyway, there was a parquet floor in here and carpet down the hall...we tore it all out and put tile.

And here's the hallway that you walk down to get to all the bedrooms...

(still need to do something about that awful chandelier at the end of the hall)

And now, here is the living room - which we turned into a trophy room. Handsome is a big hunter...now he is a 'big game' hunter (ha ha). He went to South Africa the month after we moved into this house - the house was my "throw a dog a bone so she'll not complain" prize. Whoever said marriage isn't tit for tat was wrong...you just gotta know how to work it!

(ha, just kidding kind of)

If you are against dead animals and such...you will not want to view these pictures. I have tried very hard to make the room tasteful and beautiful...and non-offensive,

but some are offended either way.

(yes, that is a real zebra on the wall)

And here is our dining room...I am trying to find a narrow console to use as a buffet, one that has storage. In the end, we will probably end up pushing this back wall out some to give us more room in these two rooms...one day I'd like to get a bigger table.

Here is the before...check out that hideous chandelier in there - ugh...it was disgusting!

And the after...recognize that *new* light fixture? I took it from the dining room and freshened it up with some spray paint and then faux-ed it.

Thanks for stopping by on my walk down memory lane...tomorrow, I'll show you the kitchen...

~alicia

Found...Not Only My Words, But My Voice

As you know, from my previous post, I was struggling mightily with what to say at the Drug Awareness Seminar, which was last night.

Good News! I found my words...and my voice to speak them. The seminar went really well, we had an excellent turn out and, I hope, opened a few eyes to the truth of drug addiction and heroin use among teens. My son read his friend's speech that was supposed to be delivered at this meeting a month ago, but was cancelled due to weather; his friend was found dead from an overdose 2 days later. My son also spoke about his own story, which is heartbreaking, as a mother, to hear.

So, what did I say? Well here is my speech:

I have struggled all week with what to say to you tonight - and anyone who knows me, knows that this a rare occurrence because I ALWAYS have something to say.

Nothing in life prepares you for your child being a drug addict and how to cope with that. It is difficult, as a parent, to admit your child is an addict, and so much easier to look the other way; ignore the signs. While I knew that my son was using "something," I had no idea what that something was, or the extent of his using...least of all, the lifestyle he had involved himself in. Heroin never entered my mind. All I knew, in my gut, was that he was in serious trouble and we had to do something to help him.

Looking at my son today, it is probably difficult for any of you to really understand what he was like in the height of his addiction; it was heartbreaking. Once the drugs are gone, the addict looks like their 'old self' and the first instinct is to believe the addict is cured...they are not. It is easier to focus on the addict, they are, after all, the one with the problem. But the truth is that addiction affects the whole family - it is a family disease - and each member has to learn to deal with the reality of what has happened and the aftermath. And that is why, as a parent, recovery is so difficult - it is where the hard work is at, where you deal with the emotions associated with addiction; the anger, betrayal, sadness, grief and fear. Because understanding that you did not cause your child's drug use is easy to say, but beleiving it in your heart proves much more difficult. It is a process, and it doesn't happen overnight.

When my son went into detox, he asked me not to tell anyone what was going on; he was concerned that others would see him differently. I hope today that people do see him differently. I hope they see him for the remarkable young man he is - that he has fallen and gotten back up - that he is a face of courage, of survival and of hope for others struggling with addiction.

He is my son, and he is an addict.

~alicia

Can't Find the Words

Anyone who knows me, knows I always have A LOT to say...

until now.

I have to speak, a short speech, at a drug awareness seminar on Monday...you see, my son is a heroin addict currently in recovery (90 days!) and I am hoping to educate other parents, grandparents, etc. in our community.

BUT...

I can't find the words to say what I want to say...

~alicia

Kitchen Cabinets

I am STILL obsessing over my kitchen cabinets...we have been in this house nearly 6 years and I had hoped that changing out countertops, appliances, paint, etc...would help lessen my *dislike* of my 80's oak cabinets...but that has not happened.

I mentioned, last weekend when our friends were over, that I wanted to paint the cabinets. Everyone, including Handsome, freaked!

"You can't paint wood!"

Uh...wanna watch me? LOL

I guess that means they won't be helping me with this project?

Today, I stumbled across a blog...big surprise, since I am addicted to all these blogs. Anyway, I digress...I {heart} the way this kitchen turned out, and while I won't be doing white cabinets, it just goes to show it CAN be done and look even better than the 80's oak!

These pictures are from It's a Wannabe Decorator's Life

( http://erinmccall.blogspot.com/2010/10/before-and-after-kitchen.html)

SWOON!

I love her use of light and dark - her kitchen is so fresh looking. I am sure when Handsome reads this post, it will be accompanied by an eye roll and the thought, "Great, here she goes!"

I just need help picking out a color...any ideas?

~alicia

Diary of a Clean Freak...

Last year, Handsome sold his extra truck, his first love, and we went from this:

(can you say U-G-L-Y?)

(Wow...what a difference, really!)

To this:

While these beautiful double ovens are "self-cleaning" - I don't really trust that feature of my ovens, and we had put off cleaning them long enough.

Several months ago I received my box of Shaklee products in the mail. Now I am sure my parents are having a little giggle and an "I told you so" right now, because when I was growing up, the only products we used were Shaklee products. I will admit that I never appreciated them, until I received that box.

These products are AH-MA-Zing! And the best part is they are non-toxic! Who wants to clean their oven, where they cook food, with some toxic, smelly spray? NOT ME!

Handsome suggested this morning that *we* need to get these ovens cleaned up to keep them looking new. So I pulled out my Shaklee Scour Off...and here are the results...

You can see this breaking down the grime, grease and burn...see that nasty brownness? That means it is WORKING! You literally put this stuff on, let it sit 5-10 minutes and wipe off...it is that EASY (easier than Easy Off and NO SMELL)...

And here is the end result... look how shiny! And it only took me 30 minutes total...

Good As New!!!

And what did Handsome do? Did he help? Uh, no...this is where he was....

(he is sick and not feeling well)

On another note, you may have noticed my perfectly polished nail in that picture before...what kind of crazy person gets a manicure and then cleans their oven?

THIS crazy girl here did!

I rarely get a manicure with color - I paint them myself - because they chip the very next day and that totally annoys me!

My new love...gel manicure. They *bake* the color onto your nail and it does not chip! Proof...here is a shot of my nails AFTER I finished cleaning my oven.

Gel manicure = clean freak's best friend!

(don't mind my pinky...it is hiding - I broke it this summer and it now naturally curls under my other fingers...gross!)

Now I wanna know...who's cooking?

(not me!)