Category Archives: My Home

Room by room pictures of my home

Before and After Home Office Reorganization

First of all, thank you to those who viewed RiverCliff Cottage in January. My little blog had 1300 views for the month according to Google Analytics. Do you know how good you have made me feel? I am no one, but you took the time to look me up. I am so thankful. Basically, you’re like a piece of chocolate! Yum! You are delicious!

On Saturday it snowed, and then it continued to snow until the early afternoon on Sunday — a day to stay at home. I know I’m repeating myself, but let me say it again…I love snow. We did not have church. My worship experience occurred outside this morning with the camera following a breath of clean mountain air. Thank you Lord for showing us this once again!!!

Midday, I went upstairs and surveyed the office reorganization mess. I orginally talked about our home office reorganization here. Determined not to continue talking about it yet not doing anything, I decided to get the “Office” part of the home office at least 90% complete today.

I think I’m at 90%. Here’s what it looks like as I write this post…

Here’s the before of Michael’s side of the room…

Here is the after of his side of the room…

I’m happy with the results. Most of it was pretty straight forward — cleaning, sorting, discarding and organizing what was left. The printer and old desktop computer and monitor have gone to Office Depot. When we made the purchase of the scanner (here), Office Depot accepted them for recycling. Mike is a “keeper” and he had about 100 woodworking magazines which I happily discarded! It freed up space for notebooks on our house maintenance, health care, etc. to be put out of sight.

Now that I’ve cleaned and organized the area, you can see the nice desk as our shared workspace. I love this desk!

Mike made the desk for the two of us. I have my side and my drawers, and he has his side and his drawers. (Whoops…that all just sounds risque, doesn’t it?) It’s made of walnut, white oak, red oak and sassafras. We don’t really share it well as he encroaches on my side of the desk. Still, there is the thought!

I used a full can of black spray paint on this redo. Don’t those chairs look better black? I have no problem mixing woods but this room has so much wood…floors, desk, file cabinets, bookshelves…even the blinds are wooden! By spraying the chairs black, it gave them an opportunity to show off.

I took a look at the picture frames around the room and gave them a bit of spray, too. I didn’t want them all to be one color, but if they were brassy, they got a new life in red, black or silver. Here’s a couple that were brassy gold…now they are more cohesive with this busy room!

This one went from gold to bright red…

I even spray painted the cardboard boxes where loose pictures or CDs are kept! This box had been a hideous mauve and green…I had it hidden in the bottom unit of the bookshelf. If you look down in the “before” picture of my side of the room, you’ll see it. Ugly! Now, it’s back living the good life on the upper shelves.

The world is a better place with a full can of Krylon or Rustoleum (or chalkboard spray paint).

Here’s my side of the room before…I took this picture right when I started cleaning out the bookcase so I have the trashbag in the floor! Basically, this looks like a wreck.

And here’s the after…ahhh…I feel better just looking at this! This is a place I can work!

Here’s the whole office area again…

There are blocks in the top of the window…they’ll say “Organize” when I get the letters on them. That’s all part of my plan!

But now…it’s time for a….

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage. Do you like the office redo? I bought the pillows, the lampshades, one decorative box and spraypaint to give this room new life. Beyond that…it was just elbow grease. I’m just wondering why I let it go so long?

Pop of Red and Other Stuff

This is a Seinfield post. It’s all over the place. First, let’s start with the home office reorganization/redo. Do you like that red pillow with the black chair?

I like it.

I got that pillow from Target this morning. By 11:40 am, I had made two trips to Bristol from Mendota! Mike and I went to town in the truck early to avoid the crowds since it was predicted to snow. He dropped me off at Walmart at 7:15 am while he went to Lowe’s. We were home by 9 am. However, as we were returning home, headed down Nordyke Road into the valley, I knew I was going in the wrong direction. I should have went to town alone as I wanted to go to TJ Maxx and Target to look for a few things for our home office reorganization/redo.

So…I got home, unloaded the groceries, tidied up the house, saw Patsy at the Mendota Post Office and headed back to town. I wanted to get there before the snow started.

Can you see where I’m headed with this room. It’s a working space, and it’s primarily khaki, white, red and black. However, since it is a working space, I’ve changed the couch slipcover to be denim. Danette, who will be doing the slipcovering, will be coming over this week provided (1) the creeks are not out; (2) the river is not in the road; and (3) it is not snowing. All three of those conditions have to be met in North Carolina where she lives and in Mendota where I live.

Introducing the denim which will be on the couch….

Add the burlap pillow I’ve had for years. I’ll probably use this on the couch and I may stencil a “B” on it. The lanpshade on the floor is also going to be used, and this picture does not do it justice. I love it. Whimsical.

So…that is where the room is headed. There will be some red and black checks here and there, too. The lampshade is a bit feminine,so you may be wondering how my husband feels about that. The answer is that he probably will not notice it! So long as I’m happy with the room, he doesn’t care. He’s got his shop and he likes that more than anything.

Speaking of the shop, Jenna, Ashley and Mike are all down there today. They’ve been working on a few projects such as…

My entertainment center. Here’s the wormy chestnut top to the entertainment center.

After working on this, it’s important to have a major hit of sugar and peach tea. Check out Ashley after her first drink…I pride myself on introducing them to Pal’s peachy tea. They’re liking it more and more. Soon, no trip to Bristol will be complete without a swing through Pal’s!!

They are also working on some shelves for Helene…here’s what this looks like thus far…I love these young women! They are going to help me when Mike has his knee replacement surgery.

More later. Time for a nap with Gracie.

After Christmas!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I love Christmas…but the day after, I am thinking about one thing–putting the decorations away! If you drove by my house this morning, you would have seen me down at the gate (in shorts of all things) taking down the greenery. I left the wreaths up for a while longer, but the garland was turning brown and driving me crazy. The wreaths are still holding their own. And the pretty garland on my porch from this picture taken in early December?

Gone! It had turned brown, too. I took care in removing my bows…I’ll use them again next year. I wired them to a coathanger and they’ll hang in the attic.

I’m not suggesting that Christmas be put away…it should remain inside of us all year long. However, for me…it’s time to replace decorations with something else. Snow!

Mendota did not have a Christmas snow required to build a really pretty snowman…so I had to improvise. Do you like him?

He’s not too tall. He’s rather plain. He could be Amish, but no…the red scarf is too sassy for that! He’s just an ordinary Mendota snowman made of three grapevine wreaths and a fleece scarf I made last year with doggy paw prints.

And do you think I’m organized since I’m putting the decorations away early? If you do, you might want to join us at our dining room table for dinner. Nice, isn’t it?

Somewhere in that messy picture above, there are Christmas cards I addressed but did not mail. I meant to mail them but Patsy was out of Christmas stamps. I could not mail these cards without Christmas stamps, and I would never, ever buy a stamp at any other place than the Mendota Post Office.

Nope…I’m not organizing or cleaning. I’m reading. I went by the Mendota Library last week with just this day in mind. I’m reading “The Giving Quilt” by Jennifer Chiaverini, and it has not let me down. I highly recommend this author. She writes about strong, imperfect women and their lasting friendships. She writes the Elm Creek Quilt series. They are set in Waterford, Pennsylvania, and there is a “red thread” which ties the books together. After reading all of her books, I feel that I know the characters very well. They are like friends!

Are you reading anything good?

Wreaths Going Up and…Oh No…Mod Podge!

It’s me. You know the one…the loser who had a wreath party and left one of her wreaths lying in the garage floor. The wreath party was over ten days ago. Maybe longer.

But today, that all changed.

I know it’s not a fancy wreath. It’s like me…a little askew here and there. It used to look like this…

Every time I see this picture and look at those two little pumpkins, I think Victoria’s Secret, Playtex and Vanity Fair.

It’s nice to use what you have. That’s what happened here…just stuff from the yard and some ribbon.

And lest you think that I’ve moved on from Mod Podge, I offer you this…

And one in the planning stages..

If I come across an easy craft that I can do, I work it to death!

So Long to My Gooseneck Gourd

One of the first things I grew when we built our house back in 1999 was gooseneck gourds. I still have one of those gourds.

Until today.

It fell. It almost hit me in the head.

I kept some of the seeds. We’ll plant next year and see if they are still good!

The Incredible Gold Pumpkin

There are so many things wrongs with me…

Need to lose 20 pounds….ok…maybe more.

And I just looked at my nails. I bite my nails…chipped polish. Yuck.

And I could use bra for my butt 🙂 You get the picture!

So when I come up with a good idea…I’m just so proud of myself! The head swells. The nail biting stops. I diet. I become more focused…briefly. I think my butt even perks up a little.

Because of that, we must return to painting my fall items with lovely gold metallic spray paint. I do love that stuff. I’ve now included pumpkins in the mix.

As an example…here is a pumpkin which I call “Turk’s Turban” because it looks like…well a Turk’s Turban. I’ll be saving and sharing seeds from this guy. He’s been a beauty all season.

He’s now entering his “golden age.”

Here it is recycled (turned upside down in the bowl) and reused as part of the 2012 Christmas decorations at the real RiverCliff Cottage. (That RiverCliff Cottage is dirtier than I show in the pictures.)

So many things to spray…so little time.

I’m off today cleaning house and getting rested for our big December 7 sales event at About Face on Friday. Friday evening it’s the community dinner. Saturday it’s wreath making.

Yikes…so much to do!

The Calm Before the Storm

Here’s something funny…I barely proof my posts, and I had titled this “The Clam Before the Storm.” Ha! You might have thought it was about having seafood for Thanksgiving. Not me…it was just a typo which I fixed.

Speaking of Thanksgiving…are you ready? Are you still going back and getting the last bit of this or that from the grocery store? I went to Walmart last night, and I think I have everything. We have about 25 coming. It should be fun.

Did you know it’s hard to find ground cloves this time of year? Whole cloves…yes! Ground cloves…not so much.

In just a few hours, our house will be bursting with a teen, two tweens, and their parents. Normally, the parents stay at our guesthouse but we have a friend staying there this week, so everyone is in the “main” house. Our house is not huge, but it’s bigger than it needs to be for two people. However, during weekends like this, I’m glad we have a bit of extra space. The three bedrooms will all be used, the sofa bed will be used, and the loft will be used. Lots of places to sleep.

Right now..it’s the calm time. (Not the clam time!)

Everything is done. The house is clean. Ahhh…look at this clean room! I like this room. Every room in my house is clean for the next couple of hours. Do you realize this is a big deal? This almost never happens!

Our bedroom really doesn’t look clean…we have an old rug and a bunch of doggy beds on the floor. Gracie cannot walk on hardwood which means we have scatter-rug “runways” here and there. She’s worth it…isn’t she a sweet looking doggie!

So…the house is all clean, and I have some potato soup in the crockpot with just a few more hours to go.

This is the best potato soup…or I think it is. I’ll share the recipe in the next post. I changed it up a little bit and I want to make sure it’s still good!

Life is good! I am thinking of all I have to be thankful for.

My Saturday…or Working My Tail Off!

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Annie Sloan Paint Project Day 3

Woo hoo! I am getting very close to having this project done! I’ve been working on it a few days and talking about it in a past post.

My end table began the week looking like this…

Tonight, getting close to the finish line, it looks like this.

It’s not done. I need to find an antique glass knob, and all of the antique stores I’ve visited tell me about the ones they USED to have!! Also, this needs a final coat of clear wax with another good buffing. Maybe a new lamp, too?

Tonight when I went down to the shop, the table was sitting there completely dry with two coats of Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Duck Egg that I applied over the past few days. “Duck Egg” describes a green/blue/gray color. My friend, Sue, tells me it’s green, and I tell her it’s blue.

So following the two coats of chalk paint, this piece was ready for the waxing process. I’d read online tutorials on the waxing process following the chalk paint application, so I knew that the next step was to apply a clear wax. Annie Sloan makes a full line of products, but I had only the paint. I used a different brand of clear wax and it worked fine. With any project, there are a dozen ways to get to the end result. Sometimes just starting is the hardest part.

So, back to the waxing. The clear wax has the consistency of a heavy lotion so I brushed it on. I used a paint brush we had on hand.

Once this clear wax is applied, it needs to dry a set time. For the brand I used, which was Miss Mustard Seed’s clear wax product, the time was 3-5 minutes. I had this wax because it was included in a milk paint kit I won last week at the Southern Bloggers Conference. Use what you have.

After 3-5 minutes, I wiped the wax with a soft lint-free cloth. It was actually a pair of Mike’s old underwear. The next step was to follow with the glaze. It was called wax but it has the consistency of glaze in a pot.

So…Sue and I brushed this all over the end table and let it dry for about 3-5 minutes and wiped it off.

And another view…

The “antiquing” step is the place where your preference weighs in on how you apply the wax. If you want a piece of furniture that looks like you found it in a coal bin, then lay it on thick! If you want something that looks slightly aged, take a lighter approach.

I’ll be showing you the big reveal for this piece when I find the knob. I’m going to cheat on the hunt and look on Ebay tonight. Is the internet great or what?

I’ve had fun doing this project. When we bought this end table, we lived in Acton, Massachusetts, and it was ” hurry, hurry…make a house a home.” I did not make the wisest purchases, but with this new look, I think I can enjoy this table for a long while!

Annie Sloan Paint Project Day Two

Let’s do something together…let’s watch paint dry…

Specifically, let’s watch “Duck Egg” Chalkpaint by Annie Sloan.

My husband almost laid a duck egg when he figured out I was carrying around a piece of “perfectly good” furniture with intent to paint it…not just shifting furniture around.

What does he know? Quack!

Tomorrow is waxing day. I don’t actually have the right wax so I’m using Miss Mustard Seed’s wax as a substitute. I have no expertise in this so I’m just winging it.

If I fail, I can always redo it. I’ll be embarassed, though.