~MORE OF OUR ROMANTIC WHITE COTTAGE~

 Today I'm showing you a little more of my La Chaumière de Briarwood now that we have some of our remodeling work completed!

We've finally finished a big chunk of our home makeover and now that the wall we opened up has been trimmed out and painted I thought you might like to see it all together instead of bits and pieces!  Before the wall (on the right) was removed there was nothing to see except a big over-sized TV cabinet and a lot of closed-in space!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wall opened up and so glad we actually thought about it and planned it out before installing the wood flooring!  Since it was load bearing it took a little bit more time to finish, but well worth the effort.  We now get the north and south sun streaming directly through the windows and so the entire house is lighter and brighter!

One thing you MIGHT find interesting is this...

Almost everything in our home was purchased USED.  

It's true!

Almost everything!

Oh there are new things like ceramic white dishes, candles, lampshades, freshly made pillows, linens, etc., but nearly all the furniture, lamps and complements were purchased second-hand or were pre-owned like in CARS!  In the downstairs area of our home, with the exception of our formal dining table set and the occasional chairs in my den, nearly everything you see was purchased either at tag sales, estate sales, garage sales, auctions or Craig's List.

When my Mr. AGPMan installed the vintage French Doors directly off our entry a couple of years ago I never dreamed one day they'd be visible from the family room.  When the wall was closed up it made for some pretty decorating on the dining room side, but it was very crowded when all my family was over!  Now with the wall removed we have lots of room to move about on both sides!

I took some new shots of the downstairs CAREFULLY omitting our ripped out kitchen (you'd faint if you saw it!).  You can't tell it in the photo above, but I'm standing just outside of our torn-out kitchen.  It's functional, barely tho!  My stove is in place and so is the sink and fridge...but nearly everything else looks like, well...kinda like a war-zone!!!  Even the ceiling is out and the original studs are showing!  It's making me crazy, but we have to live with it like that for now.  Still lots to tear out and when you are do-it-yourselfers you work when you can and then leave the rest until another day.

Lots of another days lately!

Lots more coming, too!  We hope by next year at this time we'll be done!

For Friday, May 11th, I'm linking up with Kerryanne at
Shabby Art Boutique 
for the very first
Shabbilicious Friday!!!
Hop on over there to get some great ideas!  We are sure to be totally inspired!

Hope your day is fab!  I'm off to work!

Love to you...

~ALL JACK-HAMMERED UP~

~PIPES TO BE MOVED~

We had a pretty exciting, but stressful, weekend around my La Chaumière de Briarwood!  Between the birthday celebration of our son, the two wrecked vehicles and the ripping up of our concrete my Mr. AGPMan are just about spent.  Our new wood floors are being installed on February twentieth so there is much to be done between now and then.  Three sets of pipes must be moved and new concrete poured so it's hours and hours of work for my hubby...

~DUST CATCHER~

To keep the concrete dust down to a minimum my guy and one of his friends built a movable contraption that vents the dust outside.  Is this ingenious or what?  Even though all our furniture was covered the dust flying in the air during the tile removal was unbelievable!  I'm still wiping things down and it's been over a month now.  

~BASHED IN TRUCK~

Here's a daytime picture of our aging truck that was hit Friday nite.  Still no word on the driver that was taken to the hospital.  On Wednesday I'll be going down to the police department to pick up the report that was taken.  Then we'll contact his insurance company and go from there.  The truck once belonged to my Mr. AGPMan's father...he owned it for years and it was in perfect condition.  My guy's momma gave it to him last summer when his dad went into nursing home care so he's especially sad it's so heavily damaged.  Still thankful no one was hurt in the back to back car wrecks tho...

 ~SWEET TAG SALE FINDS~

While all the banging and jackhammering was going on I escaped to some estate and tag sales.  I found an enormous lot of vintage laces and a vintage needlepoint piece that matched one I bought about a year ago.  Couldn't believe it!

~OLD NEEDLEPOINT~

Today my Mr. AGPMan is off work and our SIL is coming over to help him remove the carpeting from downstairs.  Little by little things are coming together and before long our new floors will be in!

I'm in my studio working today and I'm excited about showing you some of the new things for my A Gathering Place website.  It's still up I'm afraid...with all that's been going on around here my guy hasn't had a chance to put it on hiatus!

More soon!  Hope your Monday Monday is fabulous!

Love to you...

~~~~SWEET TAG SALE FINDS~~~~

SWEET FRENCH CHAIRS~

Linen Chair Cover/Great Tag Sale Find - $2

If you've followed my blog for any time at all then you've probably noticed I have painted almost all (well actually it is ALL!) the furniture in my home white.  Cottage White from Behr (Home Depot) to be exact!  If the truth be known I'm loving painted furniture more than ever.  Every once in a while someone will say to me "I can't believe you painted that!"  My response is always the same "I love to paint things for my home and I will never stop doing it!"  It's my personal belief that white is very easy to take care of and if something truly terrible happens to something I love then I just get my paint out and touch the 'damage' up with a quick swipe of my paint brush!

 ~A GREAT PATTERN FOR MAKING MORE~

(humm...needs a bit of pressing!)

This morning I was able to step back a bit and really savor the hard work my guy has put in over the past twenty four to thirty six months inside our La Chaumière de Briarwood.  We've wanted wood flooring for so long now, but so much had to be done before they could even be dreamed about...  Even our kitchen remodel was put on hold as we planned in advance the changes that first needed to take place.  When you do most of the work yourself one can't just snap their fingers and have it done.  Our kitchen is truly outdated and more than a tad bit dysfunctional.  Typical galley-style kitchen of the 1970's one could say...

~So FRENCH CHARMING~

Changes take time when you do nearly all the work yourself!

And they take money!  Lots of money!

 ~HOW IT'S MADE - A BETTER VIEW~

Over the weekend my guy and I took some time off from our home-projects and did a little bit of junking!  My two favorite finds of the day were a stack of four vintage Victoria Magazines (I had all but one) for $3 and a Victoria Coffee Table Book for $2.

Next came the linen chair cover you see above for $2.  I've made covers before for my formal dining room and love how they came out.  But...they were a lot more detailed and so I'm going to use this one for a pattern for the chairs in our breakfast room (the French ones you see above).  The cover wasn't custom-made but came from China...  The original tag was on it, too!  ($79...yeah...that's what I said!)  Tomorrow or Friday I'm going to hunt down some linen and set about making covers for all the chairs...such fun!

 ~GREAT ANTIQUE LIGHTING~

Now...sometime back I snagged this great pair of antique wall lights/sconces for $5 (for both)! I never had my guy hang them because they needed to be hard-wired and I couldn't decide where I wanted them to go!

~PERFECT SPACE FOR LIGHTING~

Well...now that the wall is out I finally have a place for them!  Once the door opening is framed out they will look perfectly lovely up near the accent molding you see above...  Maybe over a vintage mirror or picture???  Yummm!

 FROM VICTORIA MAGAZINE BOOK

Isn't this a sweet cabinet?  Loving the whites!

~ALSO FROM VICTORIA~

Here's another shot in the book I just love...

Hope your day is wonderful!  I'm off to look around blogland for a bit and then will be back in my

A Gathering Place Studio

to 

CREATE!

(SWOON)

Love to you...

~~~MORE EXCITING HOME REMODELING~~~ Gone Gone! The Wall is Gone

~DINING ROOM SIDE~

On Saturday my Mr. AGPMan continued working on the removal of the common wall that separated our den from our dining room.  By evening's end he had it torn down to the studs!  Watching the wall come tumbling down after living in our La Chaumière de Briarwood for nearly twenty years felt a bit strange.  I can already feel the difference in our home...  Opening up the wall gives our home a warmer more inviting look and feel.  Less confined I suppose!  And, for the first time we can enjoy the north sun in our family room!

 ~HALF WAY OFF~

(Dining Room Side As Well)

Once the sheet-rock was removed on the dining room side temporary supports were installed and the Studs taken out!

~FAMILY ROOM SIDE~

More tedious to me than it looks I guess.  The biggest mess was taking the sheet-rock off on the other side!

 ~ALL OPENED UP~

Here's a view of both rooms after all the sheet-rock was removed!

~CEILING SUPPORTS~

Here's a shot of the wall supports...

~DOORWAY VIEW~

This is what I'll be living with for a few days!!!  It's not too big a mess, but I must admit I'll be very happy when the support studs are removed and the doorway is framed out.  We aren't sure about hanging French Doors yet...  Even if we do decide to include them they won't go in until after the new wood floors are down!

~A LITTLE BIG SNAG~

Do you see what the arrow is pointing to?  It was HIDING IN THE WALL!  And now it's in the way!

Can you figure out what it is?

Huh?  Huh?  Huh?

~WATER PIPES TO NOWHERE~

Here's a better shot!  My guy has no idea WHY this capped off trio of water pipes was in the wall.  He even called my brother who owns his own plumbing company in California and asked him about it!  The consensus is something was mis-plumbed when the house was built.  The concrete will have to be cut out around the pipes and the pipes cut off and capped below the floor.  

It's always something, isn't it?

And there you have it!  Another big job ALMOST DONE!

Now...something entirely different!

~YOUR CRAFT BOOK GIVEAWAY~

One of my dearest longtime blogger and eBay friends is having an amazing giveaway!!!  Miss M is offering one of her Spun Cotton Paper Doll Tutorials from her Etsy Shop,YOUR CRAFT BOOK.  Incredibly talented and gifted her work beats all I've ever seen!  I hope you'll mosey on over to her brand new place and check out what she's up to!!!  Your going to LOVE what you see!

Click onto the picture above or on the link below: 

http://yourcraftbook.blogspot.com/2012/01/fantastic-blog-give-way.html

Hope your Monday is awesome!  I'll be sharing with you later this week what I found while out junkin' with my hubster!

Love to you...

~HE DID IT! CRASH BOOM BAH!~

~MEASURE TWICE - CUT ONCE~

My Mr. AGPMan and I originally had plans to go to a movie last night (I've been wanting to see War Horse!) but when he got home he said this:

"Baber...do you want to go to the movies or do you want me to start taking out that wall!?"

(you can read about it HERE!)

 ~SMALLER SAWS MAKE LESS MESS~

I'm silently thinking 

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

And then I said:

"The wall man!  THE WALL!"

 

 ~A CUTTING WE WILL GO - A CUTTING WE WILL GO~

And so with that I went back upstairs to finish working on a new little pink pillow for my website.  I assumed (don't you just hate that word!?) he went about doing what he does best (his wifey honey-do projects)!!!

 ~1970 ORIGINAL PANELING COMES DOWN~

I was upstairs for about ten minutes when all of a sudden I heard a big, loud, booming CRASH!!

I said:

"Baber!?  What was THAT?  Are you OK?

(silence!)

"BABER!!!!  WHAT WAS THAT?"

 

~SHEETROCK COMES OFF NEXT~

This time I heard only a little mumbling.  It sounded more like a desperate cry of repentance than one of actual injury so I asked the question again!  

 

~HALF WAY DONE~

"WHAT WAS THAT!????"

Once again I only heard only the faint sound of my hubby's voice so I ran down the stairs to find out

WHAT had HAPPENED!!!!

~UH-OH!~

I walked into our den and just stood there!!!

Yes!  This is our TV crashed onto the floor.

Only this is AFTER my guy put the front back onto it.

APPARENTLY....my "Mr. He-Can-Do-Anything-Man" was MOVING our TV armoire on sliders and forgot the TV was very front-heavy.  One quick shove from the back and the old and decrepit thing spilled out right onto the floor....

~WHOA!  BIG CHANGES ARE COMING!~

Now...as crazy as this sounds I started laughing sooo hard I couldn't stop.

 Then I went and grabbed my camera. 

Looks like we will be replacing the ugly black thing with a newer, bigger and UGLIER flat-screen version a bit sooner than we had planned!

KA-CHING!

Yeah...I know what you're all thinking...

You only THOUGHT he was perfect!  NOT!

Anyway...

One side of our wall is down!  I'm HOPING today he'll be able to remove the sheet-rock on the other side!  Then the new support braces will go up (two-story house!) and the opening will be re-framed and trim added.

THEN...wood flooring!

I'm too excited to speak!

(I'm so happy it was my guy who caused the TV crash onto the floor and NOT ME!)

Love to you...

~AND THE WALL COMES TUMBLING DOWN~

~VICTORIA...AT HOME with WHITE~

A Wonderland of White

It seems whenever I get stumped on a decorating idea or I fail to be moved by what I've found while out shopping (aka: junkin') I turn to the pages of my vintage Victoria Magazines and Books.

~FRESH and CLEAN~

Beautiful Bed

They never fail to inspire me and even today after owning many of them for over twenty years I'm amazed at how spot-on the editors were with their creative layouts and timeless designs.

~MORE FROM VICTORIA'S PAGES~

 Lovely Old Linens

My Mr. AGPMan has been out of town since Monday morning and won't return until this evening.  I've continued to clean things up since our tile removal over the first of the year and of course that means sprucing things up while moving stuff around.  Nothing like freshening up a home while the husby's away!

 ~OUR VINTAGE BUFFET~

He's accustomed to the constant changing of the decor in our La Chaumière de Briarwood and I can assure you he rarely says a word.  I honestly think he's just happy he's not the one who cleans it.  I suppose it's enough for him to be the one responsible for the big stuff...like the removing of old widow seats, doors and walls...

~SWEET OLD CAKE STAND~

One of the big changes coming to our home this year will be the opening up of a wall in our formal dining room.  This room (below) was once our formal living room, but because it was seldom used we opted to turn it into a place where we could gather for family dining.  Our old formal dining room became my Mr. AGPMan's office (no longer large enough for us all) and our existing breakfast room was also too small to seat our growing family...

~OPEN SESAME~

Wall To Be Opened Up

Before our new wood flooring can be installed the opening of this wall must be done first.  It's the last big job my guy must do before we can proceed with our makeover.  Honestly...I'm totally nervous about doing this.  My daughter (whose opinion I trust) isn't for the change, but then I have to remember this is her childhood home and I'm sure seeing things evolve is probably difficult for her.

 ~LEFT WALL to be OPENED UP~

Taken Christmas 2010

The reason we are opening the wall up is because we need a better flow for the 'traffic' in our home.  When we have people over we are forced through our tiny entryway and it gets more than crowded.  My guy is considering the option of installing pocket doors (maybe even another set of French Doors) in the new opening (where the large Armoire is above) but because the wall is weight-bearing he's not sure he's up to the hassle of it all (and neither am I!).  It takes the job to an entirely new level. Anyway, the doorway must be opened up before the flooring is installed or we will have patched-up wood floors to deal with.  Once the wall is opened up and framed out we can decide at a later date if we want to add doors...

Our family room shown above isn't small by any means.  Since the new flooring will be hand-scraped wood there will be no room defining spaces to deal with(i.e. tile, carpeting, etc.).  This will make the den to the dining room flow much smoother and even appear larger.  The Armoire will be removed (gosh...I've had it for 15 years) and our old TV is going BYE BYE! :)  

~PRETTY PINK ROSES~

We will be taking the plunge before long and eventually purchase a new LED flat screen TV.  But...until my husby has time to build a cabinet that can hide the UGLY BLACK THING we will use the TV in his office (where he has two fabulous comfy chairs!).

The roses you see above we left on my desk and I found them early Monday morning after my Mr. AGPMan left for his business trip.  I love how they look in the sun...

Hope your day is proving to be wonderful.  I'm back in my studio working on new product.  My playtime is done for the day!  

Love to you...