weekend update

Rather than do anything terribly constructive on Friday (Brandon's official last weekday off this summer before going back to work), we headed down to Fayetteville to check out a couple of estate sales. The first stop was a little sale here in East Point, and we got several goodies there.

A lawn chair frame for $10:

A magazine rack for $3:

A painting for $5. I have dubbed it "Naked Accountant" because he seems to be doing paperwork and he also seems to have on yellow underpants and no actual pants. Maybe they are tennis shorts? We are accepting title suggestions.

We also found a print for $5, a silver water pitcher for $10 (not the best deal of the day) and a little shelf box thing that hangs on the wall for $2.

Then we stopped at Big Lots and found the rocking chairs, as well as an umbrella for the back yard. Also shown in this picture are the Adirondack footstools that Brandon found for $2.02 each at the thrift store! We also found white wood (and some faux wood) 2" blinds for a reasonable price, and we found enough for our bedroom. We also got one in a red oak color for the living room, and hope to find more at another store.

Saturday morning we headed over to Unity Park to clean up for the Block Party. Which isn't exactly a block party per se, since it's in a park and not on the block. We painted over the graffiti on the picnic table and swept away some mud and dirt. The party started around 5pm Saturday night, and managed to hang on despite a brief thunderstorm and a little rain. We didn't have a huge turnout--a lot of kids but no parents, and several adults with no kids--but we raised a little money for the neighborhood association, which was good. And I got a tour of a firetruck, so a day well spent ;) We also won the drawing for a gift certificate to a local pub, but have decided to share it with the rest of the block party planning team, and they totally deserve it.

Today we put up the blinds and cleaned a bit, then headed over to Westview to check it out (having finally just last week actually making it to West End and discovering that I live within minutes of a Krispy Kreme--life is complete now). We drove by Westview Bungalow, with me exclaiming, "That's it! That's Westview Bungalow!" like I had just seen a celebrity. Too funny. Cute house, guys! We've been kind of afraid to drive over there since we only heard about Westview after buying our house--and you can buy a gorgeous Craftsman there for a steal. We were happy to discover that while we liked the neighborhood, we were still perfectly happy with our little house in East Point. Westview is still a little edgier than EP, I think. Although our visitors probably think we are pretty edgy already. ;)

the end of an era

We will no longer be known as "the house with the church pew" on the front porch. We have given in to comfort (which church pews are not notoriously known for) and replaced the pew with two rocking chairs.

After searching online for reasonably priced wood rockers in a simple style ala Craftsman, we gave up when we found these two at Big Lots--and on sale for $42.50 each! They seem pretty solid, and the design is simple. If the weather holds out today, we'll be painting them a nice sage green to match the window trim. We may also paint the little table you see (again, Big Lots, and only $6!) the same rust color as the other trim.

i never promised you a...

really big rose garden? We took last week off to visit with my sister in Florida. Photos of the Ringling Museum and beach here.

you're my blue sky, you're my sunny day...

As much as I like high ceilings, after painting our porch ceiling,

I am somewhat relieved that ours are not. Here's before:

During (notice truck in background):

And after:


Brandon removed a piece of trim on the ceiling and was surprised to find that that we had come close to matching the old ceiling color! We had no idea that it used to be blue. Next major project here would be to remove the paneling on the ceiling and restore it to the original beadboard...but no time soon.

endless summer (of trim painting...)

Brandon's been busy painting the trim for the last few weeks. Here's the front window on the porch, before and after:


See more pics here!