Welcome to our home - A tour of our entryway

This post has been a long time coming - wow! We started our garage addition project well over a year and a half ago. Our entry way was part of that addition.  Originally we were just going to create a breezeway between the house and garage but decided to go for a full entryway instead.  We are SO thankful we did because we added more storage and more space - two things you  need when you live in an old farmhouse.

Before I get to the after pictures here are a couple of "in progress pictures.

The old entryway started where the tile started. It was pretty teeny-tiny!

We put a heated floor in our garage. That heated floor continued into our entryway - bonus!

Now... here is the entryway as it is today!

The view out of our patio doors is our south pasture. This guy keeps a close watch. :)

Where did I get my stuff you ask... here is your answer.

Custom area rug -  The Perfect Rug

Hunter Boots Print - Bright Bold & Beautiful

Mirror & Bench - Target

Deer head pillow - Regan's Brain

Iowa map canvas - DIY

Living Life Print - Wedding Gift

Color- Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams SW7029

There are still a few minor things we are already going to update like changing out the door to the garage and re-painting the outside doors to a darker color.  We can seem to use the door handles to shut the door so we always have handprints on the white doors.  Stay tuned for the updates!

Outdoor House Cleaning

As most of you know I live on a farm in rural Iowa and I love it!  Ok well, there is one thing that I don't like... flys and they have attacked the front of our house!  I guess they come with the territory so I'm going to have to live with it.  I couldn't stand how our house looked anymore so I decided to clean it - which hasn't been done at least since Adam has lived there (4 years) so it was pretty bad!  

Be prepared the next few pictures are absolutely disgusting!

Yep - that's four years (at least) of fly poop on our house.  I told you it was disgusting!

Here's is what I used to clean the outside our house.

The dish soap and water didn't really work but it was probably good to scrub the house with it anyhow.  The magic formula was the scrubbing bubbles - I swear by this stuff!  I sprayed it on the house and used the car washing brush to scrub it. Then I took the garden hose and rinsed off the house.  If your house is as bad as ours, don't be surprised if you have to go through the spraying and scrubbing process twice! I also cleaned all of the windows with Windex... a lot of Windex! 

It only took 2 hours but the result was so worth the time spent!

Can you believe the transformation?!  I am totally ready to host a little porch party now!

Sunday Spruce-Up

We had another really awesome weekend here in Iowa so most of it was spent outside either reading on the porch, taking the dog for a walk or working on a few outdoor projects.  Yesterday, I took the liberty to spruce up this start that hangs on the front of our house.

This star has seen it's better days!  It has made it through two re-locations and is at it's third home.  I felt it deserved a little facelift! :)

Re-painting is definitely the fun part in any project, but first you might want to remove the old paint that is flaking off.  The best way to do this is using a wire brush or if you don't have a wire brush, a grill brush works great too! 

I needed to make sure my new paint would stick and go on evenly so I used Valspar spray paint primer in white.  I let that dry for about 30 minutes.

I changed the color of my start completely!   Instead of going back to red, I used Valspar spray paint in Tropical Oasis.  This took two coats of spray paint.

Between coats of spray paint, I got a little distracted.  "Bam," our dog, decided to go tease our heifers.  See him on his back?  He had something that they were interested in...

Ok, back to the project!

Here is the new and improved star!

I think my next Sunday Spruce-Up might have to be washing the house!

Have a great week!

Weekend Projects

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break!  I can't believe it's been a whole week since my last post.  To those of you who are dedicated readers of my blog, sorry for the delay... I figured everyone would be traveling, decorating, shopping or all three!
Logically my post today should be about the house projects I accomplished over the weekend, the great deals I found on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and a few snap shots of the fabulous Christmas decorations I put up.

 None of those things happened.

Instead, Adam put me to work finishing up a few projects that needed to be done before the snow arrives. Our "to do" list included putting up 100 feet of snow fence, building a ladder to get up into our hayloft and this...

....finishing the windbreak for the cows.

(Yes, I helped with the whole project... setting poles, hanging boards and hanging the tin!)

Fortunately, in return for my help around the farm, Adam helped me with my little project which was cleaning out the basement.  I am getting the basement painted this week so I can finally have my own design and office space!  Wooohoooo!!

It definietly looks like a dungeon right now but once the walls are painted and I do a little decorating I am going to have an awesome space!  You will definitley see more on this basement transformation project!

Even though I didn't take part in the traditional holiday happenings beyond Thanksgiving dinner I had a pretty fulfilling weekend.  There is something so rewarding about hard work, seeing what you accomplished in a day and working side by side with someone you love and admire.

Have a great week!

BETH 

Blank Canvas

I just moved into a beautiful farm house in Iowa with my boyfriend, Adam.  Over the past couple of years Adam has perfected this farm site that he invited me to share with him.  I feel so fortunate - especially since he said "Sweetheart, the house is yours!"  That was music to my ears because I love to decorate and re-decorate. 

The night before the movers were coming with all of my stuff, we donated Adam's furniture to a good friend of his who livesdown the road, a bachelor in need of an upgrade.  Here is a picture of what we were left with on a Friday night.

I love this picture for two reasons.  First, the main subject of this picture is my extremely handsome boyfriend who had no idea I took this picture.  Second, it is a picture-perfect blank canvas, a fresh start, and a decorator's dream space!  If you ever get the urge (or the ambition), move everything out of a room in your house to create a blank canvas.  It's fun, refreshing and rewarding to give your space a new look!

More pictures to come as the decorating continues....