Monday, May 20, 2013

NEW WINDOWS

Life has been very busy at the Parsonage. Even though you haven't heard from me in a week, I've gotten a lot of things accomplished.  I finished my nursing continue ed course, attended a lot of graduations, done more painting and varnishing.

The best project to have completed is the windows.  Back at the end of February and first of April the construction began on the Parsonage.  The siding and windows were removed and replaced with new.  Since then this is how our windows have looked, no casing or trim.





Every evening we hung table clothes, sheets and drop cloths over the windows for privacy.


The carpenter finished making the casing and trim for the windows and dropped them off at the house.  Now the work was up to me to keep this project moving.  The first job was to stain all the wood to match the rest of the woodwork and trim in the house.  Followed by two layers of varnish with a light sanding after each coat.


As soon as I had it all finished I called the carpenter to let him know it was ready for installation.  It only took a few days for him to come and hang everything.

This is how they look all finished.



It's such an improvement over the old windows.

Now comes the fun part - picking out new window treatments.  My plans are to buy some blinds but also make a few coverings as well. 

I've been getting inspirations on Pinterest. 

I love the stenciled curtains made by Rita @ Harbour Breeze Home






These damask stenciled curtains are lovely too from Gardener 2 Bergers.

I also love these Roman Blinds that Simply Mrs. Edwards made.



I know it may seem like not much is getting done at The Parsonage, since you have not seen many finished projects.  I'm hoping to be able to show you some of the rooms in The Parsonage soon, now that the windows are in and finished.  I can move on to finishing rooms!

Have a great day!

                                       Joy











Thursday, May 9, 2013

DO YOU USE GOOGLE READER?

The announcement came back in March that Google Reader will retire as of  July 1, 2013.

 I personally am sad to see it going away. It seems like when you've learned how to use something in blogshere, they take it away or change it.  I've been doing a little research since the announcement and found this article about some options to use in place of  Google Reader.

I have decided I'll be following my favorite blogs using Bloglovin, since I've followed a few fellow bloggers there already, and I'm already a little familiar with the site.  I just went to this page and did an import from my Google Reader account to Bloglovin.

If you currently follow Thrifty Parsonage Living 


via Google reader.

I hope you'll still follow along via Bloglovin or
 you can also follow me using Linky or another feed source. 


You can find my buttons over on the right side of this page, 

 listed under

 Subscribe 

and 

Follow Me.

 Have you found another way to follow along?  I'd love to hear from you. 

Have a great day!


                           Joy


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

PAINTING, PAINTING AND MORE PAINTING

Have you been wondering what I've been up to this past week?   I've told you that almost every room in the Parsonage is getting a makeover with paint.  This past week, I've been painting in one of the basement bedrooms.

Here's a little reminder of what the room looked like before we started priming all the walls.


A bright sun and clouds on the ceiling.



 My loving husband primed and painted the ceiling for me since I deal with an old neck injury.



While he painted the ceiling, I primed and started to paint the walls.


Once the walls and ceiling were painted in the room, I moved on to priming and painting the trim and baseboard in the room.  I was horrified, however, when I went to remove the painters tape from the wood work!  This is what happened.  The former painter must not have done the correct prep work of sanding and priming the wood before painting. My mistake was to assume it had been done properly the first time, so I primed over the paint and this was the result. 


 The trim had varnished edges exposed and this is what the door looked like.  Yikes!!!


What a mess I had to deal with.  We don't own this home so what is one to do?  My best solution was to sand the spots down on the trim and completely sand the doors down creating a rough surface for the primer to adhere to.


Then they were ready to add primer.



I decided to let the primer dry thoroughly, so I moved on to yet another painting project, the kitchen ceiling.

I was so thankful that a  friend from church (thanks Kristi)  came to help me with this never ending ceiling painting.

The ceiling runs down the hallway, into the dining room, kitchen, and finally the back hallway and entrance to the garage.
 





I now have painting projects going on in the hallway and downstairs bedroom.  In the midst of all my painting, I'm also working on my continuing ed for my nursing license.  It needs to be done by May 15th.  I'm hoping to get my continuing ed done this week, and share a finished project/room with you soon.

Have a great day!

Monday, April 22, 2013

LIVING ROOM REVEAL

I know you've waited a long time to see what I've been up to in our new parsonage.  In my last post, I gave you a little peak into the living room when I showed you my diy bookcase makeover.  Today you get to see the whole room.  It's the only room in the whole house that I can say is finally finished. The room had a long list of to do projects, but thanks to the helping hands of church friends the room is finished.  While we were still in Washington I received a call from a member of the church.  She told me they would paint my husband's office and living room for us, and asked what colors we'd like the rooms to be.  She also told me they were installing all new lights in the parsonage (including pot lights in the living room), and updating the electrical outlets.  I remembered from living in the house 16 years ago, that the living room could be very dark because there were no lights in the ceiling.
 
After a lot of labor pealing off a wall paper boarder that had been painted over, the new paint color is on the walls and it looks wonderful!  It is a soft gray, (Portand by Valspar); and the ceiling is a bright white ceiling paint.  I love how it brightens up the room!



We took down the old curtains and put up new blinds.  The color of the blinds is Storm Whisper ordered them from blinds.com.  They are the perfect soft gray blending well with the walls.  I put up my diy curtain rods that I had in our living room in Washington, but decided not to put up the dark brown curtains.


They would make the room look too dark, and I wanted the room to be light, bright, and cheery.  I decided to put up the curtains from our previous family room instead.  They're a blue green, but this photo makes them look more blue.

When moving to a new home, there are always costs for new items.  Using what you have helps to keep these costs down.  I love reincorporating things and seeing how different they can look in a new space.


 The new pot lights really help to brighten up the room.


The view of the living room as you come in the front door.


I placed a new mirror (Christmas gift) on the wall next to the coat closet.  I find myself using it often before I leave the house.

 
I struggled where to put my husband's black recliner chair.  It had been in our family room in Washington.  My sisters helped me; and we decided to put it angled  across from my grandmothers black cedar chest.  This helped to balance the black pieces of furniture in the room.

To add a touch of black on the other side of the room, I hung the light house photos we took while vacationing in Oregon.  The longer lighthouse print was a gift from a dear friend who died from cancer a few years ago.  I love the verse on it - The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?   Psalm 27:1 


We received the large photo above the sofa as a going away gift from friends in Washington.  It is such a lovely reminder of living on the coast in the Pacific North West. 


The accents in the room include beach decor.  On the coffee table I was able to use some of my garage sale finds along with shells from our beach vacations.






On the wall next to my DIY bookcase makeover, I hung two new frames with our daughter's and son-in- law's wedding photos.  Our son and daughter-in-law's photo will be added after their wedding in June.

I did a high/low project on the top of my desk, setting up a photo arrangement.  I used my new 99 cent thrift store frames to frame our cute little granddaughter's photos.


I found  very similar frames at Pottery Barn.  The Pottery Barn 4 X 6 cost $34 and the 5 X7 cost $44. That would have been $154, while mine came to a grand total of $4.



Source: potterybarn.com via Joy on Pinterest




To add a bit of nature and texture to the room.  I placed a basket with blankets under the window,


a faux plant on the side table and grass on the cedar chest,




and drift wood with a few shells on the curio cabinet.


It feels great to finally have a room complete.



What do you think of the makeover?

Joy 

I'm linking this post to -
Best DIY Projects of April at Beneath My Heart



Friday, April 19, 2013

DIY BOOKCASE MAKEOVER

I know you haven't heard from me lately, but life in our new parsonage has been very busy.  Not only did we have to unpack all our household items, but we've had so many projects going on.  Almost every room in the house is getting repainted. The living room is finally coming together; and I'll be sharing the room reveal soon!


 Here's a to do list for the room.


Did you happen to notice the bookshelf on the right side of the picture?  For several weeks after moving in, I wondered how to transform that space making a focal point in the room.  An idea came to me suddenly one day when a friend said she would use the recessed bookcase as a display area. I thought this was a great idea and added it my to do list.

DIY BOOKSHELF MAKEOVER


The first thing I did was remove the shelves from the bookcase.


I then added three battery operated lights to the top of the bookshelf.


If I owned this home I would have painted the inside of the space, but since we don't own the home.  I had to come up with another option.  I decided to buy quarter inch mdf board, and had my husband cut it to the measurements of the back of the book shelves.


Then I gave the board a good coat of primer, followed by paint.


I chose the same color as the walls in our master bedroom in the Washington Parsonage - Seascape by Valspar.  A piece of duct tape was added to the bottom of the board (making it easier to remove the board from the space).  I trimmed the tape shorter than you see in the photo.  This tape will be tucked neatly under a mirror so that it's not visible when looking at the display.

After the board had two coats of paint and was completely dry, it was ready to insert into the back of the bookcase.  My husband used his pin-nailer to tack the board to the back of the bookcase.  The holes from these pins won't even be visible when the board is removed and the shelving put back in.

Then came the fun of adding the decor.  I bought a mirror, vase and flowers using discount coupons.  The mirror was placed under the vase to add reflection of the vase.



 Here's the full view of the bookcase turned into a decorative display area.



 The lights at night add ambiances to the room, even though my photo doesn't show it very well.


This was a thrifty low cost makeover with a big impact.

Total cost of  $20!


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