When I recently shared about my new door, I took this interior photo:

The antique sewing machine serves as our little entryway piece.  It does not really have any purpose other than decoration (and holding a surround sound speaker).

This antique is something my mom passed down to me.  I’m not sure where she picked it up, but she used it as her primary sewing machine when I was little.  Eventually she upgraded, but I have memories of her making Christmas dresses on this machine. I remember one particular Christmas where she made my sister and I matching velvet dresses.  The material was so heavy, she had a heck of a time and had to pull this old Sears & Roebuck into service to help sew through the thick fabric.

It’s been in my house for at least 10 years, and in storage before that.  The finish was looking pretty worn out.  Water rings, and just dry.

I didn’t want to refinish the piece.  I liked the patina of the old finish.  Plus, it’s at least 100 years old, and I see no point taking away the original finish!  But I didn’t want it to look quite so rough and aged.

I used a product called Restor-A-Finish.  Basically I just wiped a thin coat on with a rag (material applied to the rag, not to the furniture) and, wiped off any excess that didn’t absorb.  I repeated once.  It took ten minutes, tops.

I was pretty tickled by the difference it made!  Why had I waited so long?

This is not rocket science or mind blowing, but I thought you may want this little tip for your own antiques.  It’s the easiest DIY ever!

Happy Friday, Friends!

XOSJ

Often times when we have guests, they say, “your house is so lovely!”.  Which I’m sure is a standard compliment that new guests give to their hosts.  I always reply with, “Oh thank you, it’s a lot different than when we bought it, but we still have a long way to go.”

Looking back over these photos I’m about to share with you, I had forgotten how far we’ve come.  Some days I get impatient with the waiting.  My kitchen layout drives me batty, I have a very ugly bathroom, and some really nasty floors (carpet isn’t my friend).  But then I look back at these photos and see all the massive change, and it stops me in my tracks.

Gosh, I need to be more grateful about the progress we’ve made, rather than always focusing on what’s left to be done.

We purposely purchased a home that needed some TLC because that’s what we do best: taking ugly spaces and bringing them back to life.

We have bought ugly homes for several reasons:

*we are not afraid of hard work.

*we typically are not happy with someone else’s idea of a “good job” on a remodel project, so it’s preferable to do it ourselves and get just what we envision for the space.

*we wanted to be in a certain area, and it just so happens that acreages in this area are not easy to come by at an affordable price.

*since we are able to fix most things ourselves, we have been able to build “sweat equity” in our properties. Our first home gained a significant amount of equity in 5 years, about 45%, enough to buy the one we are currently residing in without breaking the bank.

*we couldn’t afford anything more, and location has always trumped size or a perfect, turn-key home.

Now, this philosophy does not work for everyone.  In fact, there are some people that should not buy a fixer-upper.  But it works for us.

And without further adieu, here are some photos of our fixer-upper (on the day we went in for home inspections and the day we closed):

Exterior:

It was like a maroon paint can had exploded everywhere.  The prior owners were in love with maroon.  Maroon roof, porch, shutters, and even maroon bushes galore (not pictured).  Also included: lots of weeds (home had been unoccupied for a while).

Moldy siding!  Overgrown bushes!  Swampy backyard from poor drainage!  More weeds!

Interior:

Living room

Fake floral arrangements at every turn.  Even in the fireplace, as if on top of and next to the fireplace wasn’t enough.

Dining/kitchen

Nasty nasty wallpaper.   Nasty.  Original almond stove.  Mis-matched white dishwasher.

It’s the biggest floral arrangement EVER!  And the largest microwave on the planet (which, if I recall, the prior owner took at closing. Probably to put into the museum of “largest microwaves in the world”).

Please note the smoke colored glass light fixtures.

I shudder inside when I see these photos.  The whole place smelled like a funky plug-in.  The prior owner was attempting to cover up the lie that she didn’t have pets.  If a seller tells you they have never had pets, just assume they’ve had 5 cats, mkay? (disclaimer: I’m allergic to cats and they make me sick.  This is not a personal attack on your cats, which I’m sure are quite nice, always clean and minty fresh, and never shed).

Bathrooms

Master Bath

We will call this “tiny master bathroom with giant vanity, peeling popcorn ceiling and falling-down towel bars”

Upstairs Bathroom (for bedrooms upstairs)

Did you know toilet LID covers existed?  This owner loved a good toilet cover.

Guest Bath/Powder Room: we have more toilet seat covers, complete with floral arrangement and circa-1986 wallpaper and mauve mini-blinds.

Do you think we are cray cray?  Oh, friend, I’m not done.

Nothing says sexy like a laundry room that has not been painted in 25 years, yes?

Before I take you to the bedrooms, let me lead you up this beautiful set of stairs, and don’t forget to look up to catch sight of the pretty wallpaper border AND BATHROOM DOOR WREATH.  That baby could take an eye out.

Bedrooms:

The only part of the home that looks better then, as compared to now, is the upstairs attic storage.  I can only dream of it being this empty today!  I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t put this in the post, as Nathan will freak out and rent a dumpster for us to fill.

Yes, we bought this house on purpose.  With eyes (and nose) wide open.  We saw potential.  We saw a quality, custom-built home that needed some (lots of) love.  We saw a home that gave us room to grow and host guests.  We saw 3 acres within 15 minutes of our jobs.

Even though we saw all of that we were quite skeerd.  We were afraid of what we may find.  Of how long it may take to fix up the home.  When we bought it, we couldn’t even afford to buy a gallon of paint.

I snapped this photo of our boys playing on the front porch of the home we were selling.  This was taken the morning of the closing day.  It’s no wonder I had to go in the bathroom of the bank, sit in a stall and ball my eyes out.

We had to step back to move forward.  And it was hard.  But worth it, even though there are days I still miss our tiny, completely updated, 1920s bungalow.

More coming in future posts on the things we’ve done to our home, and what’s still in the works.  We’ll never be “done”, but seeing these photos will help give you context to appreciate where we started.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

Thanks for reading.

XOSJ

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We bought our home in 2010, and while it had good bones, it needed A LOT of TLC. We were able to see past the rough issues, in exchange for a location we wanted in a price range we could afford.

We are not afraid of hard work. We can be patient. We have lived in this home for 5 years, and there have been so many areas inside and out that needed attention. Even if we had the money, we don’t have the time to attend to all of these areas at once.

Just to backup a bit, this is what our home looked like when we purchased it 5 years ago:

Not totally ugly, just needed a lot of attention.  Bushes unkept, weeds growing.  Ugly roof.  Front door was rough.  But from a distance, it didn’t look too bad.

We knew we wanted a new roof, but a new roof is an expensive proposition.  So we waited.  Did little things, like trim bushes, add landscaping rocks, paint shutters, clean siding, replace light fixtures.

***this photo was not taken last night.  This photo is one year old, from July 2014, four years after we moved in.***

Lots of little things, totaling less than $200, made a difference in making this home look more “loved”.

But when you walked up close, you would have noticed that this home still had some curb appeal issues.  Doors are so important for making a home look up-to-date, well-kept, and appealing.

Our front door wasn’t cutting it for us.

Saying it lacked curb appeal is an understatement. I had done my best, adding a vinyl “welcome” cling and painting it (I’m pretty sure the prior owners had painted the front door with interior flat paint, it was beat up and rough). I added a wreath and we put on a new door handle.

But you didn’t have to look far to see it’s flaws.

Between an ugly storm door, awful caulking job, and bad painting, it was just rough.  After we re-roofed our home earlier this year, it made us want a new door even more.

Unfortunately, new doors are not cheap, so we waited.  The other unfortunate thing about our front door is that it let no light through.  If you are inside our home, you will realize quickly that the living room isn’t super bright, because it’s covered by the porch.  This is great for energy-efficiency, but not great for light.  So the front “entryway” of our home felt dark, cramped, and dank.  Kind of like a cave.  And if you know me, you know I don’t like caves whatsoever.  It may or may not be a phobia.  We won’t go into that today.

We knew we could not change the tight size of our entryway, and that’s fine.  Only guests ever use our front door, so it’s really not a big deal.  But we could change the way the entryway felt to us inside.

Earlier this year we came up with a solution that would work in our already tight home-improvement.  You see, we took on the major task of adding space to our home, which incurred a lot of expenses.  Was it worth it?  Yes, but still expensive!  We decided: no Valentine’s day, birthday, mother’s/father’s day or Christmas gifts for each other.  We were buying each other a new door.  We knew we needed a door with lots of light.  We knew we still couldn’t afford anything out-of-this-world expensive.  We looked at a lot of options.  Mission-style doors are very popular right now, and even though we love them, they don’t match our Cape-Cod style home.  We finally  pulled the trigger and ordered the door.  And waited.  And waited.  It was only 6 weeks, but it felt like an eternity (wait…did I say earlier that I had patience?  Because I don’t).

While I was waiting for the door to arrive, I ordered new door hardware.  We ordered Schlage hardware, which we used on all of our interior doors.  If you special-order door hardware you can choose for the interior to match your interior hardware, while your exterior can be whatever you choose.  We used buyschlagenow.com and it went from order to our front door within 1 day.  Seriourly, I don’t know how they did this (shipping was free!).  I would highly recommend them, based on our experience.

Once the door arrived, it took Nathan about a half of a day to install it,  He’s pretty handy, and while I wouldn’t say it was too difficult, it takes awhile to make sure you get everything level and secure.  And we love it!  Get ready for photo overload.

The interior has improved dramatically, too.  Our once-dark corner lets in a lot of light, and makes our small entry-way feel much larger.  It look a little while for us to adjust, as it always felt like our front door was open :-).

That light was so very needed.  Photos don’t show the difference in before and after, in terms of how much better our entryway feels–inside and out.

We’ve come a long way.  I am so amazed what a difference the front door has made in making our home feel more fresh and current.

So as a review:

We still have one major front porch project that I’m hoping to work on in 2016.  Here’s where we stand on our front of the exterior renovations:

*Clean up landscaping

*Added landscaping rock border

*Replace front light fixture

*Painted shutters

*replace roof

*replace front door

*Replace porch flooring (prior owner loved maroon everything, painted the concrete, and it’s now peeling.)

*Replace skinny front porch columns with something larger

*Change out character-less, sagging vinyl porch ceiling with wood beadboard

*Add porch ceiling fan

Even though we still have a decent amount of projects left, it’s a huge improvement from where we were.

 Sometimes it’s hard to wait till you can afford to do projects, but when you do them, and you do them the way you want them, the reward is greater.  I really enjoy our front porch these days.

#grateful

#happyfallyall

#hopingtoblogagainsoon!

#thanksforreading

xosj

Recently I posted a photo on my Instagram page of all of my workout laundry, and a friend suggested I do a post on workout gear.

Now, I tend to go through a lot of workout gear every week because I teach Jazzercise 5x a week.  That, my friends means a lot of laundry.  I try not to live in it when I’m not working out, even though it’s easy to do, it’s dangerous (read this post regarding my opinions of living a life in leggings).  The trend these days is to wear fitness apparel even when you have absolutely no plans on breaking a sweat.  Because of this, the fitness fashion industry is booming, giving us lots of styles and choices!

Here are some of the things I’ve observed of fitness fashion trends:

#1 Loose-fitting tops

It’s still very common and normal to see trim-fitting tops, but the world of loose-fitting tops are making their way from the normal fashion trends to the fitness fashion trends.  This is a refreshing change for those days when sucking in and standing tall don’t sound appealing 🙂  Often times you tuck in one side to your waistline of your pants…or you can tie on the side (hello 1980s!).

Via Lululemon

#2 Bras Making a Statement, 3 Ways

There are a few different ways that the undergarment is making their way into the fitness trend.

Peekaboo Bra

Often times the top is loose fitting, and the bra is peeking out on the sides or in the back.

Via Jazzercise 

Colorful Bra Layered Under Basic Top

You don’t have to have a wild and crazy patterned top to have fun.  Start being more adventurous with your bra colors and more basic with your tops.  Victoria’s Secret has a great selection of fun sports bras.

Via Jazzercise

Statement Backs

Of course, you can always just wear a bra top (but you won’t find me doing this…no matter how much I work out!), but if I were to wear bra tops, I would be looking to find more with statement backs.

Via Victoria’s Secret

Via Lululemon

#3 Sheer Fabrics

Colorful, sassy pants still have a place in the fitness world, but again, I’m noticing a trend towards solid pants with a subtle statement of sheer pieces to break up the same ol’ same ol’ black leggings (and also noticing sheer in tops).

Via Nordstrom

Via Jazzercise

#4 Joggers

As a child of the 1980s, I knew these as “sweat pants”.  But “joggers” is way more fun, don’t you think?  And they are everywhere.

  Via Athleta

#5 Motivational T Shirts

Nordstrom has a great selection of these shirts, but unfortunately I can’t save a picture of them.  But check this one out here or this one here.  I’ve also seen a lot of affordable motivational shirts at Kohls near the fitness section.

A word on brands…..

There are so many good brands in the fitness industry, it’s hard for me to narrow it down to just a few good ones.  Generally, I do believe you get what you pay for.  Even though Lululemon pants are overpriced, they are better than a pair from Old Navy.  Even though an Athleta shirt may seem a little sky-high at $50 bucks, it feels so much better than a top from Target and lasts longer.  But perhaps you don’t want to spend the money, that’s okay.  As I’ve worked out more, I’ve come to appreciate the higher quality workout gear and tend to only be buying nicer brands these days, knowing they will last longer. I’ve bought several nice brands via Facebook swap sites, or at consignment stores!  They have lasted way longer than my Old Navy bottoms I bought new!  My go-to brands are pretty much all the ones you saw listed in this post.  I’ve heard GREAT things about the Zella pants (Nordstrom’s house brand), but I have not tried them yet.

A word on supportive sports bras…

If you have anything to “hold up”, I highly suggest plunking down the bucks for a good bra.  Here are my 3 favorite for support, shape, and quality: Panache/Victoria’s Secret/Natori.  But everyone is different and I would suggest checking out Title Nine for a variety of styles/support levels.

What’s your favorite, go-to brands for fitness apparel?

We’ve been in the middle of an addition to our home, it’s not something that will be done quickly….more at a snail’s pace.  But Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?

Last I updated on the exterior of our garage doors, it looked like this:

We had no driveway, no electrical, therefore garage doors that would only open manually, no lighting installed, and we were dealing with a lot of this:

That, my friends, was the view out of my back door all winter.  Let me tell you, it was muddy outside our house AND inside our house.  Try telling 3 boys to stay out of the mud for 6 months.  The holdup and the reason for all the forever mud is that we had the project started in October/November, but we didn’t pour concrete till the temperatures warmed up in the spring and the weather cooperated.

Even though I get anxious to move this project along at a faster rate, it’s good to look back at these old photos, because it’s come a long way, baby!

As of today, this is where we stand:

Our driveway has been poured.  I was about to hug the contractors when they came with all their fancy machines and trucks full of concrete.

Also, you can see that we added lighting all along the garage doors.   They are not the nicest, fanciest lights ever, but I think it helps the house look more finished.  Lighting on a house are like the “accessories” that really set off the perfect outfit (not that I would know, since I never remember to accessorize).  Hopefully these will last for a bit, and perhaps when they are wearing out we can replace with something a little nicer.

I have a friend that’s in the middle of a major remodel at her home, and she summed it up best when she said, “I feel like there’s a hole in the bottom of my wallet.”  

Ummmm.  Yeah.

But we are coming along!

Having a driveway is so nice, parking in the garage is a luxury that I missed dearly when I was banished, and 2 of the 3 garage doors are fully-functional with a garage door opener!

We now have a really long driveway.  The old garage space and driveway connects to the new garage and driveway.  What we’ve done so far to this original space is enclose the old 2-car garage, exchange garage door openings for windows, and replace the light up high to match the garage door lights (it’s larger in scale than the garage door lights).

Ascetically, we would like to purchase shutters for the new windows that match the front of the house, making this space feel more original and less plain.  Also, I think two large, long planters underneath the windows would help break up the long driveway and make it feel less concrete-ish.  For now, a generous friend gave me some pots and old patio furniture when she was moving, and I’ve just added those plants to help add some warmth.

When I was taking these photos, I noticed I had a photobomber! I’m pretty sure I scared the crap right out of him.  Literally.

 

I love this photo I happened to catch of the boys visiting with the scared little turtle.  Eventually they got him off the driveway and set him free in the back yard.

What do you think?   I would love suggestions and ideas from you on what to do with our old exterior space/garage to make that feel more warm and inviting?  It gets a lot of sun, so it’s not exactly a fun space to “hang out” or put seating.  Plus we’ll use that for parking space when we have guests, so it needs to stay somewhat clutter-free.

Hopefully next week I can share about our patio and our future plans pipe dreams.

I’ve been silent the last few months, mostly because life overtakes me and sitting down to write just does not happen!

Lots has changed over the last few months, lots to share with you, I’m excited!  Hard to know where to start, but I’ll start with my new foodie adventure.

In April I started making my own Kefir.  Have you ever had kefir?  It’s a pretty amazing food that we’ve always been a big fan of around here, but the problem for our family has been two-fold:

*The stuff from the grocery store, while amazingly yummy, is amazingly pricey!  Our family can go through a quart of Keifer in a day, and that’s an expensive habit!

*Most of what you buy from the store, unless you buy plain, is unfortunately, loaded with sugar, making a healthy product less healthy {even if it has natural cane sugar or fruit sugar, it does not mean it’s good for you}.

We make lots of smoothies around here {try this yummy one, or this one}, and I wanted to start replacing my milk for keifer.

Why?

Kefir is loaded with probiotics.  It makes yogurt look like a weakling in terms of probiotic benefit (I’ve read about 50 healthy bacteria strains in Kefir versus less than 10 strains in average yogurt).  It’s mild, slightly tangy, can be a bit effervescent depending on how you culture it, and best of all, it’s very low or lactose free!  Not only is it a great source of probiotics, it’s high in protein, B vitamins, calcium and phosphorous.  It can also be made with other animal milks if cow’s milk does not work for you, and also responds well to coconut milk for a time (but the grains will eventually have to be refreshed with cow’s milk) .

I started with grains from Cultures For Health, and followed their wonderful directions (I purchased locally, but you can buy online).  Kefir grains (not an actual grain) thrive best between about 68-85 degrees.  I started when our house was still sort of in the springtime chilliness, so it was a bit tricky to get them started.  Now is the easiest time of year to get your kefir going (assuming you have air conditioning)!

I make about a quart every 12-24 hours, depending on our room temperature.  Kefir grains grow pretty slowly, but I’m at the point where if I wanted to make more, I’m sure my grains are healthy enough that I could split and culture more.

My body does not get along well with lactose (the natural sugar found in cow’s milk), and so this has been the best solution for me to be able to consume milk without the bad side effects.

Kefir does not react well to metals, so I avoid contact with any metals.  I use glass mason jars, plastic mason jar lids (found near mason jars in the store), a plastic canning jar sized funnel, and to strain my grains I use my plastic salad spinner insert.

My process:

*Place grains in jar.  Add milk (I alternate between whole milk and lower fat milks, because kefir grains like animal fats, so I cannot consistently use low-fat milks).

*Let sit for 24 hours or so.  I cover with a cloth rubber-banded to the top, keeping it out of direct sunlight.  Sometimes it sits for 12 hours, sometimes it’s 36.  It depends.

*When the kefir is ready the grains have typically floated to the top and it has the consistency of buttermilk.  At that point I get out a clean mason jar, strain my new kefir into that jar (you can refrigerate your new kefir at this point).

*All the original grains will be in my strainer.  I then put them back into my original kefir container, add milk, and go back to step one.  About once a week I start a fresh new mason jar.

*Before refrigerating your new kefir, you can ferment it without the grains for an extra 6 hours to increase it’s culture time.  Refrigerate and enjoy at that point.

A few extra tips:

*You should not use ultra-pasteurized milk (many organic milks you find on the grocery store shelf are ultra-pasteurized)

*You gotta keep out of sunlight, but you shouldn’t put in a cabinet that does not have constant air exchange.  Healthy kefir needs healthy air!

*Beware, because it’s a fermented product, fruit flies will be attracted to it.  Keep covered with a cloth or cheese cloth and sealed from any yucky pests that want to infiltrate your fermented goodness.

If you don’t like the taste plain, use in smoothies!  Or add a drop of something sweet to cut the tang (vanilla extract is great, too)!

The research isn’t conclusive, but from what I’ve read, because the kefir grains feed on the lactose (sugar), it’s actually lower in sugar than a milk.  Though, the USDA does not allow kefir makers to claim it is low sugar on their nutritional labels, because the nutritional facts on the back label is pre-fermentation, not post-fermentation (I’m not certain on this fact, but what I’ve read in other places alludes to this fact).

I use my kefir in all sorts of things.  Just recently I used extra I had in my favorite pancakes (kills the healthy bacteria, I’m sure, but still gives that great buttermilk-like flavor), home-made coleslaw, home-made salad dressing, not to mention smoothies.  It has a million uses and is so very easy to make.  I used to make yogurt, but it’s sort of been forgotten because I love kefir so much and it’s so. much. easier.

If you have the itch to start this process, you really should!  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll love it!  You can even rest it in the fridge when you go out of town for vacation, or get ahead and needs to take a few days off.  I would encourage you to read lots of online tutorials and watch You Tube videos, not to mention, read all the great info on the Cultures For Health website.

Let me know if you try making your own Kefir!  Also, let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer if I know the answer 🙂

***Edit: Giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to Erica, lucky #1!***

Last fall I got a wild hair and picked up two silver platters at a thrift store.  They were not high-quality, antique sterling silver platters, so I didn’t feel bad when I painted them.

Years ago on Pinterest I saw this idea:

The link to this photo does not work, so I didn’t really have any guidance on making the item, but the picture pretty much tells the story.  (If you know the original source of the photo, I’d love to know).

First step is finding some cheap platters that you don’t mind painting.

Next step (not pictured):

I used some liquid deglossor over the part of the plate that I was painting, just to hopefully help the chalkboard paint to adhere.  My mother in law actually used a spray paint primer I believe, when she made some similar last fall (turns out we made some within weeks of each other, without the other knowing.) 🙂

Once that dried, I just simply hand-painted some old chalk paint I had on the platter.

It took two coats to cover fully. Unfortunately, I think my chalk paint is old and so it’s not the smoothest finish ever, but it got the job done!

After a few days, I seasoned my chalkboard (rubbed chalk sideways all over it, fully covering with chalk, then dusting off.  This will prevent you from seeing the first thing you write on it forever and ever).

Over Thanksgiving, my sign said “Thankful”, over Christmas I think it said “Joy”, over Valentine’s day it said, “Sweet”, and the other day I chose to write “Shine”.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” -Matthew 5:16

It is stuck to my wall with two 3M stickers that pull off for easy removal.

So, since I was making a platter/sign for myself, I decided to make one for you as well!  And since it’s my birthday month, I decided I should celebrate with a giveaway!

This little chalkboard-themed giveaway includes:

*glass mason jar style drinking glass with chalkboard label (Marshalls)

*chalk board note cards (Michaels)

*chalkboard style stickers (think adorable letters!–got this at Marshalls)

*Chalkboard sign/platter/plate (made with love from me)

*Black and Whilte dish towel (Target)

(not included: plate display stand, but you can easily pick one up at your local craft store)

***Contest Closed.  Lucky #1 Erica Won according to random.org!***

Here’s what you need to do to enter the giveaway:

Comment below on your favorite thing about March (my birthday month, so obviously one of the best months of the year):

If you want extra entries:

If you want extra entries, share this giveaway (or a different blog post from this blog) on either your Facebook or Twitter page and leave a second comment naming where you shared (FB or Twitter).

You are entered! Thank you for reading and celebrating my birthday with me!

The fine print: Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. Available to anyone in the contiguous United States, must be 18 or older to win. One winner will be chosen at random from comment(s) approved on this blog in comments section (not on FB or any other platform of social media). Winner will contacted by sarahandtheboysblog via email. Deadline to enter is Saturday, March 28th, @ 10pm cst.

Use of a private social media accounts (Facebook or Twitter) to promote this giveaway is at the entrant’s sole discretion and not required to enter. Note, promotion of a giveaway via social media accounts such as Facebook and/or Twitter are commonly used as a marketing tool, and also to provide entrant with an extra chance to win.