Enjoying Life

Hubby has been busy sprucing up our back porch.

We went flower shopping and were finally able

to put out our deck furniture.

Today we hit a high of 78°.

We are so LOVING this retired life.

It's hard to believe that it's been 7 weeks since

we retired. Life has kept us very busy lately.

It's nice to be able to enjoy a nice glass of Lambrusco,

or a beer, and sit and discuss what we have

planned for tomorrow.

A slower pace life with no stress.

Ya gotta love it!

Not only are we enjoying a more relaxed life,

our bunnies are too.

That's it for today.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Mixing Rustic with Refined

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there!
I've been busy today doing what I love
to do. Designing, styling and painting.
Enjoy your day today because
a mother's work is never done.😄

I'm one of those people who likes the look of many

different styles in my home. 

I tend to lean towards a timeless, classic

look with a little bit of glam, elegance and beach

thrown in just to keep things interesting.

Add in a little casual modern farmhouse
and we have my perfect style

for home decor.

As I add, or change, pieces in our dining room I
will tease you with glimpses of the room in progress.
Once the room is complete I'll be sure to share the final reveal.

I don't want our home to look too feminine or too masculine.

I want Hubby to feel just as comfortable as
myself in our home so I try to mix my tastes
and his together.

So how do I mix our tastes together?

For our dining room I chose a rustic farmhouse table,
which my father-in-law built for us.

To add a little bit of a refined look to our farmhouse table
I chose these chairs from Pier 1.
They give me my upscale look, yet still appeal to
Hubby with the nail head trim.

Combine the table and chairs together and you
get a rustic refined look.

When I told Hubby that I was mixing a rustic table

with high end chairs he thought I was crazy.

 He just couldn't see it happening.

He was afraid that I was going to make it look too feminine.

After seeing the two together he commented that,

"You have good vision."

I think he was pleased with the look.😍

Check back next week for another change and glimpse into our dining room.

That's it for this week.
Until Next Time,
Veronica

A Touch of Rustic

If you follow along with us you may remember

that we gave our dining room table and hutch

to our Son and DIL.

At the time we didn't use our dining room that much.

Now that we are retired I miss having a dining room table.

When family comes over for dinners the only place to

sit is at our kitchen island which only sits 3.

Time for a new dining room table and new look

for the dining room.

I'm a HUGE fan of Pottery Barn and love browsing
through their catalogs.
The minute my eyes spotted this table it was
love at first sight.

Source: Pottery Barn

It's made from reclaimed pine.

A view of the base of the table.

Source: Pottery Barn 

The only problem with it was the price tag, $2,199.

We are on a fixed income now.

As much as I loved that table there was

no way I was willing to pay that much for just a table.

So what did I do?

Naturally I turned to my Father-in-law.

I found a free plan to build a very similar DIY Pottery Barn inspired
farmhouse table for $100.00 from Shanty2chic.

I asked my father-in-law if he would be able to build it and I would stain it.
He didn't seem to think it would be a problem.

We live 600 miles apart so we brought this table back home in pieces

in the back of our pickup truck.

I wanted to do a couple test pieces with different stain colors
first before I made my final decision.

I ended up choosing Minwax Special Walnut stain.

I applied 2 coats of stain and 2 coats of
Polycrylic on the base of the table.

After I stained all the pieces and applied a Poylcrylic to seal and protect it,

Hubby and I then started assembling it.

The top of the table top received 2 coats of stain
followed by 4 coats of Polycrylic, I wanted a nice hard finish.

Here is our new dining room table that my Father-in-law built

for us from construction lumber.

Yes, I said construction lumber.
It measures 84"L x 40"W x 30"H.

We love all of the variations in color and imperfections.

To say that I am beyond thrilled with my new table

is an understatement! I couldn't be happier.

Hubby and I LOVE THIS TABLE!

My father-in-law did a FANTASTIC job building it!

I got my look-a-like Pottery Barn farmhouse table for 

WAY LESS than the name brand, plus I was able

to choose the color I wanted it to be.

Check back next week and I will share the seating I chose

to go with this farmhouse table.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Dumpster Diving

Hubby was busy doing other tasks around the
house when it was garbage day

around here so I took our garbage

to our local drop off site.
It's never a good idea for me to take the garbage
because once in a while I come home with someone else's trash.

I can explain, really.
I had been looking for a while for another
nightstand to go in our guest bedroom.

Well lo and behold wouldn't you know.

As I was leaving the drop off site I noticed

this nightstand sitting off to the side.
I know what you're thinking.
It's trash girl, you should have left it.

I asked if anyone had dibs on it.

Nope.

It was mine for the taking.

I'm sure that most people wouldn't even give it

a second glance being that it was left to be thrown out.
 I can totally understand that.

It was looking a little neglected.

Before carting it off I made sure I thoroughly

checked it over. Sure it was a little rough

looking but it was a solidly built piece.

I knew that my paint brush and I

 could do wonders with this nightstand.

Once I got it home I vacuumed off the dust

and cobwebs. Upon further inspection I noticed

that someone had tried to spray paint this stand black

and did a poor attempt at it. They left the handle on

while they spray painted it. What!

I'm assuming that it wasn't sealed in any way either.

This is what the top looked like. The paint was worn

off in various places and there were a few small dings in places

which didn't concern me. Those were an easy fix.

I found this marking inside the drawer.

Time to make this nightstand new again.

The first thing I did was remove the handle

and lightly sanded down the entire piece.

Next, I filled in the dings with wood filler.

Once the wood filler was dry I sanded the

areas until I had a smooth finish.

Using a foam brush I roughly applied the primer

covering the entire nightstand.

Time to paint.

I gave it 2 coats of my DIY Farmhouse White

chalk paint, lightly sanding between coats. 

Here is a look at the sides of the stand.

I love all the curves this stand has.

The Farmhouse white paint really shows off those curves.

I let the paint dry overnight and then

applied a layer of Annie Sloan Clear wax

to seal it.

I added a new handle that was in my

stash of handles to the drawer

and this nightstand was done.

It fits perfectly in it's new spot.

A beautiful new nightstand that costs me $0.

I guess it pays to take out the garbage.

It's true what they say,

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Or should I say woman's?

That's it for this week.
Until Next Time,
Veronica

Why we left after 30 years

Well, it's official.

We're RETIRED!

Hubby and I decided to retire at the same time.

Although we are considered young for retirement,

I'm 56 and Hubby is 58, it was time.

We have been preparing for this moment for 30 years.

We have made a lot of sacrifices over the years with the

intent that we would be able to retire at an early age.

For 25 years I worked 3rd shift and I'm not even 

a nighttime person, but I persevered because it was

the best shift for our family.

I remember many nights going to work with just 2 hours

of sleep just so I could spend time with my family.

There was also a lot of overtime worked to help put our

Son through college without dipping into our retirement fund.

So here we are 30 years later just like we planned.

Our timing couldn't have worked out any better.

I don't have any regrets about the sacrifices we made

because it brought us to this point in life.

Spending precious time with our Grandson

and future grand children on the way,

twins,

a boy and girl.

(No, we did not coordinate our shirts for this picture.)

It's nice that we are young enough to get down on the floor and play.

Not only do we get to enjoy our Grandson,

Great Grandpa can come and visit and be entertained too.

We are very fortunate to have 4 generations together and

will cherish these moments for as long as we can.

This was the #1 reason why we left after 30 years.

How can you not want to spend time with this?

Another reason why we left after 30 years.

Knowing that we don't have to drive to work in this!

Apparently, Mother Nature didn't get the memo that it's Spring.

Here we are April 15th with a blizzard and ice storm going on.

It's SO GOOD to be RETIRED!

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Painting Queen Anne

We've had this Queen Anne sofa table for

close to 20 years.

About 3 years ago our Son was using it at his house.

They no longer needed or wanted it so back it came

home to us. I was going to donate it to our local

Goodwill but decided to keep it instead.

It sat in our basement for over a year before I

finally got around to doing something with it.

Somehow along the way 2 of the handles went MIA.

All four corners had to be repaired due to cats chewing on them.

Other than that this sofa table was in great shape.

Here she is all ready to make her grand entrance.

I removed the remaining handle and filled in the holes with wood putty.

Hubby drilled new holes for the beautiful new knobs that I bought

from Hobby Lobby.

I sanded down the top and stained it Dark Walnut by Minwax.

The body got painted with my DIY Farmhouse White chalk paint.

I intended for this sofa table to go in our family room downstairs,

but after placing it by our front door and styling

the top to take pictures of it, I decided I wanted to keep it here.

This area in front of our stairs always looked bare to me.

It was like something was missing.

We can't say that anymore.

Our newly painted Queen Anne sofa table fills in

the area and blends in so well with my mirror wall.

She is here to stay...for now.

Here is the side by side comparison shot.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica