Lara's New Hobby ....Airbrushing!

Lara decided that she wanted to learn to airbrush....originally I was not sure why since my primary memory of airbrushing consists of "Spring Break - PCB" (That's Pensacola Beach for those of you not from the South) from about 10 years ago. With no need for tacky t-shirts or painted tags, the purpose for needing to airbrush missed me, but alas Lara found something to do with the skill! This is a guitar pedal that she painted for a friend of ours..... I must say, I am very impressed!

New Light

This isn't really "sustainable" or an illustration of our "craftiness" - but I'm posting it anyway! The new light fixture in our Dining Room.

Tee Box

Our house overlooks a small man made lake and what used to be a fairway at Chace Lake Golf Club. I don't know why, but from pretty much day one I've been hitting golf balls from my back yard into and over that lake. The best part about this is that everytime it rains old golf balls (from the golf club) rise to the surface...this makes for an unlimited supply of "range balls".

To take this to the next level, we decided to build a small tee box at the back of the property! Once the grass grows in and roots, then we'll have a perfect flat service for launching golf balls into the lake! Now all that is left is to design a custom "marker"! PS: Don't worry, we never hit golf balls when folks are in the park!

From Buffet to Wine Bar

Here is a reclamation project that has been a long time coming. When my mom bought her house in Roebuck about 9 years ago, the previous homeowner left behind an old buffet.

It needed work at the time, but it wasn't until the recent move that we got our hands on it. We had the idea of turning this into a wine buffet/station by taking out some of the drawers and replacing with a wine bottle rack. This thing sat in storage for several months and then in our garage for a few more, we finally got serious about refinishing it about 2 months ago. The VERY slow process began of stripping years of varnish and stain and sanding all of the detail spots. Underneath was some pretty wood, we think possibly cherry. We don't have much cherry stained furniture so we went with a dark stain. For the wine rack we found some unique curved wood pieces from World Market and the size of 3 of them next together is a perfect fit for the place where the old drawers were. We also decided to add some tile and underlights to modernize the cabinet. The only thing left to do is find some 3.5 inch cabinet pulls (MUCH harder than you would think) to finish the whole thing off.

We are so glad to have the piece out of the garage and into the house. What do you think?

Nightstand

I bought new bedroom furniture back in the Winter. Though I liked the nightstand that was a part of the set, I chose not to buy it because it was expensive and a little too large for my taste. In addition, I wanted something with a little more personality so that all the furniture in the bedroom wasn't matchy matchy.

I found a nightstand at I.O.METRO that I really liked so we took a stab at re-creating it in our own unique way for this weekend's project.

Here is the inspiration:

http://www.io-metro.com/ic280frm.asp?prodno=671SA1092

Now....here is ours!

We made it out of re-claimed wood from a trash pile. We've actually had this wood for about 3 months. It was very warped, but overall has come out pretty balanced. We painted the first coat brown and the top coat a guacamole green. Lara sanded it on the edges to give it a distressed look. Total cost was $10 for the paint.

In these pictures the original wood and the final product.

An outdoor "entertainment center"

Since moving in I've wanted to build this outdoor entertainment center. At the Calera house, we had the fridge in our media room and the radio in the kitchen and they've been in the garage since moving to Chace Lake. The idea was to create a cabinet where both could live permanently, but that could be used outside. We also wanted to be sure it fit in with the architecture of the house so that it doesn't look like we stuck 2x4 furniture on our porch.

The frame is made of re purposed 2x4s that we got from Daniel and Chris' house. They originally used the wood for another project and we were able to scavenge the left overs. The wainscoting is trash pieces from another project. We used slate tile for the top and added casters (wheels) so it could be moved around easily since a full fridge gets heavy.

Now if I could just find the key to lock this thing...!

An old table... a new desk

The house has a room that we call "the study". It is beautiful, but we were missing one important item....a desk! We did, however, have a huge granite kitchen table that we were no longer using. We decided to take apart the table and re-use the skirt and legs for our desk. We purchased a bamboo counter top for the desk surface. My favorite thing about this item is that it has plenty of room for both of us AND I think the color turned out just beautiful!

Pictures include the "blue print", the materials just prior to starting, and the finished product.

First up...a Workbench

First things first.... we needed a workbench to aid in all future projects! Other than the casters (wheels) this was created completely from scrap lumber we found in a trash pile at a construction site. My favorite thing about it is that it's the same height as the saw horses so we can extend workspace out if needed.

Pictures include the "blue print" and the final product.

wildlife

The biggest surprise so far has been all the wildlife. We expected the loud annoying "Riverchase Geese" (aka..Canadian Geese), but didn't anticipate all of the frogs and turtles. Here is a picture of a turtle we've found in the yard twice now....I've named him Clyde.

Finally Settled In......

Well, we made it!  I know it's taken a bit longer than expected for the "Big Reveal", but we've been busy.  House is really starting to come together. We've put up a fence, hung pictures, built a desk for the office, planted trees and bushes, and are even getting neighbors.  I hope you can all stop by for a visit soon....you know we aren't that formal so if you drive by and the garage door is up, stop by and say hi.  

Tomorrow is Closing!

Well tomorrow is the big day! We'll post completed pictures as soon as we get the keys! Thanks for all the well wishes......

Cole met a new friend in the neighborhood!

It's Electric!!

OK.... now they are going so fast that we can hardly keep up... and some of the changes are too small to really be able to take a picture of it, but here's the last of the pics that we'll post prior to closing, which as we found out today will be March 27!! We'll probably officially move in a couple of weeks later though because Becky's work schedule is just disastrous for normal planning purposes. We'll work on getting everything ready to move in prior to then, like painting the garage floor, putting up a fence, closet system and all kinds of other goodie goodie things. Until then, we'll just post some verbal updates and then have a big "reveal" of the finished place. Just wanna build the suspense a little, ya know? 

Here's a couple of pics though of the lighting that went in this week!

Concrete and Countertops!

The countertops in the kitchen and baths were installed this week. WOW! Lara says that she knows something like this shouldn't make her so happy, but it does! The countertops show her true "princess" moment with the choices in the house... she just HAD to have quartz.... my my my.

The driveway and sidewalk were poured this week as well. It's really coming together. We predict that we are about 30-40 days away from closing. We aren't looking forward to the "living in a construction zone" but we can't wait to move in...

Cabinets and Paint

This past weekend they began painting the exterior of the house and this week they started interior painting. We were a little confused today when we went to take pictures of the inside b/c when we arrived they were re-plastering the ceiling (after it had been painted). We think that maybe this is to further smooth out the wallboard?  We'll see. Finally, they installed the cabinets yesterday. We think they are beautiful!

Paint and ready for paint

They have painted the outside of the house. It's darker than we originally thought it would be, but it's turning out very nicely!

They're also ready to start painting on the inside... all the trim and doors are up! 

This is a great shot looking in through the house. You can see the trim to the right.

Mantle!

She's a brick... house!! (kinda)

Ok, so the brick is only around the bottom of the house and around the front porch, but don't it look mighty fine? We think it looks awesome.

Holy Sheetrock!!

Lots of progress this week! The entire house has been sheetrocked, so we are really getting a feel for how the rooms will be in the finished house. It is looking so much better than we ever imagined. Our only concern at this point is how we're going to decorate all these new wonderful spaces that we've never had before in our previous houses. This is a picture of the living room from the dining room looking toward the front door. Photo credit goes to Carol Lange at Signature. Thanks Carol!

Movin' on to the next milestone

Today was a milestone known to Signature as "Frame Review". We walked around the house with the builder making sure that everything was where it should be. Of course since we had been there so much, we already knew that all was well! All the windows and doors are in. They were putting up the insulation while we were there and making progress towards finishing the shingles on the roof. By the end of the day, the sheet rock had been delivered and I'm sure this will be a very different looking place by the end of the week!

This pic cracks me up. I believe these are the guys who wired the house. Now, that's accountability!!

Workin' sun-up to sun-down!

We don't get out to "the Chace" very often during daylight hours, but we caught the tail end of a picturesque clear but cold day this week. I just love the silhouette of the guy on the roof in this one! If I kind of squint a little bit, I can just imagine us on the back porch having that glass of wine after work and enjoying the park. 

Update~ Making Progress.

The Front

Looking to the Kitchen from the Living Room

The future media room...we love the picture size window!

Going Up?

Bonus Nook

Living Room - Fireplace