Trying To Win More House Makeover $'s

 Hello Blogland...tis I, Your shameless resident Witch trying to win some more $'s to get this house up to snuff. The latest contest I am entering is from 5 Minutes For Mom (check it out). There is a $500.00 Walmart gift card up for grabs here if you have the creepiest or funniest story about bugs! Wickedly awesome don't cha think? Okay, I will start mine off by explaining that My father had his own business.....an exterminating business. Neighbors were always coming to the door with jars of different bugs demanding to know what they were. One day (this is not the creepy but the funny) a neighbor banged on the door with yes, a jar with a bug inside. I was maybe ten years old & way over this stuff. My father happened to be in the other room & heard the knock at the door. I got to the door not knowing that Dad was right behind me. I open the door & hear "Whats this"? The neighbor is of holding up a jar with a bug in it. I replied, " It's a jar with a bug in it". Then slammed the door shut. I turned around in time to see my father turning red because he is trying very hard not to laugh. He wanted to tell me what I had done to the neighbor was wrong but he could not get the words out. Luckily for me he thought it was funny enough that I did not get punished. 

 The creepy comes when my father, realizing that my two older brothers want nothing to do with the family "bug business", recruits me to be the one to learn how carry on the business. I am at this time 12 or 13 yrs old. My father has a job to do in the middle of Baltimore city. I get on a long sleeved shirt. jeans & a hat. The sleeves of the shirt will be taped shut once we get to the job as well as the pant legs of my jeans. The collar of my shirt has to be buttoned all the way up. This keeps the bugs from getting into your clothes once the exterminating begins. (funky, but yes this does happen) We spray this row home for roaches (hate those nasty buggers) A few but not too many start to drop from the ceiling onto our hat covered heads. (gross) We finish with the inside & Dad takes me out the front door & tells me to look up at the front of the building. All I see from the first floor windows & up are roaches, tons of them, swarming up the front of the row home. I know my eyes had to have bugged out (yeah I used the word bugged here, pretty fitting) of my head. I was tripping.

 On the way home I refused to untape my sleeves or pant legs for fear of a stray roach being somewhere on us or in the truck. I nearly gave me Dad heart failure when the wind blew a loose section of my hair across my face. I screamed so loud & hard you would have thought I was auditioning for a B rated horror flick! I thought it was a roach crawling on my face. To this day, I really, really hate roaches.

Wow, that was pretty therapeutic for me. What would be more therapeutic would be to win one of the TWO $500.00 Walmart gift cards being given away. Yup, I think that would help me look at my trauma in a different light! So go on over & tell your story. 5 Minutes For Mom/Raid bug story

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Me & The Broom & These Big Ol' Freakin' Mountains

 Hey Blogland! Me & the Broom have been fighting since our last outing & he has been in the basement sulking until I decided to take him out for a bit today.  The winds were kicking pretty hard & he did not need to swoop & dive on his own. It was a shaky flight just trying to keep from being blown hither & yon & into the side of a freakin' mountain. Will I ever adjust to this? We managed to drop in on a few of our friends before we had to call it a day & turn around towards home.

Blue Cricket Design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finishing Crate #1

Hey my Blogland buddies! I managed to get Crate #1 finished & it is drying in the basement as I type this.  The white coat from yesterday was of course dry when I started on it this morning. 

Here it is as it was waiting for me this morning. I got my paint sample from the Facebook  Valspar paint sample giveaway.

The color is Sumptuous Purple. You know I had to opt for the purple type samples. That is my color. This came in the mail the day I arrived in Uniontown with $.05 postage due on it. I have since received yet another $5.00 coupon from the folks at Valspar to cover the oops they made on the postage. Not expected, but most welcome.

I went on to mix a bit of the paint with a little water to make a wash.

 My first application was a bit too light for me so I reapplied the wash.

 Did sections at a time & let it sit for a bit before wiping it off. My cat Ramses walked across the top when I had my back turned. Did not get a shot of that cause I was too busy trying to correct the damage & remove the paw prints. Maybe I should have left them there like foot prints in concrete. Oh well, wasn't thinking too clearly as I yelled at the cat to remove himself from my project. I knew it would have been better to paint this bad boy outside but it was starting to rain (again) so inside painting was the call of the day.

 The hubs came home from returning a microwave he got last week. The darned thing heated up more than I do having a hot flash. Never in my life have I ever seen a microwave get so hot on the outside after running for 60 seconds that you could not put your hand on the top of it. It had to go back. Sorry, lost my train of thought. The hubs comes into the basement & says "Eww...I don't like the color". Apparently, he has forgotten that he needs to like or agree with everything I say or do for like the next twenty years. I shooed him away & finished up. Here it is drying.

My lighting for this picture is off now thanks to the Hubs deciding to hang clothes in the basement & disrupting my light. He is so pushing it right now. Maybe tonight I will turn him into a toad!

I will have more photos once this sucker is dry & in it's place at the foot of the bed. It will no doubt have cats on it then.

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Crystal's Craft Spot

Started Crate #1

 Howdy hi Blogland! I got some work done yesterday while the sun was out. ( it truly was out! I was shocked) I was able to get the crates outside & give them a good washing. Here they are drying in the sun.

 They were actually lighter in color once all the funk was washed off. I gave them a washing in the basement but they needed much more then just a wiping down. These guys were wickedly funky!  I tore out all the musty lining paper & the insides were cleaned up & ready to go.

I was finally able to claim the space that is my new (antique) work bench. Got my staple gun & tape measure ready to go to work.

Stared off with lining the inside top first.

The bottom was next & I started on the sides.

Inspector # 1 had to make sure the work was being done properly. Are you lucky enough to have your own inspectors?

Approval was granted & was able to finish up after shooing away the Inspector.

 

Finally, the paper lining was done. I was happy cause it was killing my back.

I found a left over can of paint from some historic project that was still good & had a primer mixed with the paint. I can't get that lucky too often.

Found this old can of paint too but the insides were dusty & the once paint is now a giant clump of ....stuff in the bottom of the can. Look at the old picture on the can. Why 2 smiling women? Why not a project of something painted with the paint? I guess that is why I never got into the Marketing business.

Soon I forgot all about the 2 smiling women & was on my way.

First coat is drying & it looks better already! As you can see, I propped it up on some saw horses to help out the old back. Can't wait to get this baby done & put it to use as much needed storage space. Right now all of our bath towels are still in boxes cause I have no linen closet in this house. The 2 closets in the upstairs rooms are only large enough to hold 4 or 5 items on hangers. (sigh) No space = lots of "what am I supposed to do with this stuff" questions.

  

Stay tuned my Blogland friends to see how this sucker turns out. Thanks for hanging out with me & keeping me company while I go through this dilemma with this house. It sure helps keep me focused knowing I have you guys hanging out with me & giving me pep talks along the way!

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Vintage Revivals...Please Revive My Vintage!

You all know my story. I was stupid enough to let my husband tell me a house 1100 miles away was perfect. "Perfect hardwood floors", he said. The walls only need to be repainted. (yes he left out the fact that they need to be compounded & sanded down before painting) "The place is huge" he also said. Okay. I will maim him later.

I am so tempted to use a human sacrifice in order to get this place livable. But as I understand that sort of thing is frowned upon these days.........(sigh, can't a girl get a break?)

 Oh Blogland friends, I could sure use this! I stumbled upon this while going through the dashboard & I was like......"Oh, this would be wickedly awesome to have at least one of the rooms in this house taken off my hands & put into those of another who has knowledge & know how to get things done"! This would totally be a saving grace for me. I have been pulling my hair out trying to think of ways to do the master bedroom in this antique house (I use antique cause it sure sounds more blogified that the term that is rolling around my head). Anyone who can tinfoil a night stand is wickedly cool in my book. Check it out here

 I would love for all of my Blogland friends to go on over & vote for me so I can maybe regain some sanity! (yes, I did have some at one time....a long time ago)

Voting starts May 1st at midnight. I will remind all of you again at that time to poof on over & vote for my bedroom to be redone.

This is how it looked when we got to PA from Florida

The carpet was like 300 years old & had to come up.

This is how it looked later the next day. Our bed frame would not fit up the stairs & we slept basically on the floor until the Hubs took the frame apart, brought it up the steps in pieces & put it back together. (yes, I am nervous about sleeping on it tonight) Parts of the frame were in more pieces than they should have been normally.

This is the frame before bust up

Here is the Hubs putting it back together

The space shown here will one day ( I hope) become some sort of closet space for us. Yes, there is a closet in the room & it looks like this:

Those couple of my husband's shirts take up the entire closet space.

Bed is raised & I put up drop cloth curtains

I need a new bed set but don't quite know what I am going for just yet.

Carpeting is just some stuff we threw down on the floor so we would not get splinters from the floor. (yes, it IS that bad)

The Hub's night stand that needs to be redone. The rocking chair is getting a make over too one of these days.

My for now night stand. I literally dumpster dived for this.

As you can see we still have like no place to put stuff the bathroom is so small I carry my stuff in there to use it. This is what I guess you could call "my side" of the room.

This is a corner off to the side of the foot of the bed. Right now a funky lamp that I once told the Hubs to toss sits on a dresser & some of his clothes are piled on the desk. Dressers & desk all need to be redone too.

Please Vintage Revivals.....Revive My Vintage!

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My Easter Gift

 My son & daughter-in-law, Tiffany sent me an awesome Easter surprise! This was in my in box yesterday when we got home from dinner.

 Jessica decided to walk for Easter. She is heading for her father's cell phone. They come programed from birth now to want the latest electronics! Let the games begin. She is walking & the fun totally starts now! lol

Why I Moved From Florida To PA. reason # 33

 Okay Blogland. Here is another installment on my moving experience. Why I left Florida for PA. I have to admit that the quality of home repair is outstanding here. Just look at this repair done on some loose wall paper in what is now my office.

Here is your proof Blogland that duct tape really does fix everything! I hope I have the skill to top this stuff or I am doomed. Look there is another:

 Bob Villa, please, please start a new show & pick me to help out here!

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Happy Bunny Day Too All

 Hope all of my Blogland friends have enjoyed their day so far. Save some chocolate bunnies for me. (love those frozen & then cracked with a knife, eating the frozen pieces are a delight!) I went to Maryland on Friday. My youngest daughter had the family there for good food (they decided on Mexican). My daughter made delicious  Enchiladas, Tacos & more. My niece Marie's husband Chris cooked up some fab Mexican Rice & a Vegetarian Mexican Casserole. My niece Heather was in charge of desserts. Loved the little Strawberry Cupcakes & cute Sugar Cookies she made up among other things. The kids had to hunt eggs in a drizzle & luckily got all the eggs found just before the sky opened up & dumped torrents of rain. My oldest daughter brought some Mojito's & I drank a bit of that.

I just love this shot of my grandson Carson & my niece Heather's little girl, Abigail. (she was so cute in her bunny get up!)

 Carson loves the camera!

My niece Marie & her daughter Aislinn after the hunt.

Marie's stepdaughters, Sahara & Maren

Abigail & her big brother Michael

Aislinn eating chocolate & styling in her hat

My oldest daughter, Theresa & Carson

 My niece Heather helping her daughter Abigail dye eggs

My son-in-law, Randy helping Carson dye his eggs

My daughter Tracy & Aislinn

It was a great visit as I had not seen my daughters in two years & it had been almost twenty years since I had seen my niece Marie.

My daughters & my nieces are busy plotting another family get together for when my son Shannon & his family get moved up to Uniontown next month. It has been over seven years since my kids have all been together in the same place at one time. I'm kinda excited about that myself!

Then came my drive back to the mountains. It rained the whole trip there & coming back the next day. 

Made it back through the mountains without too much hassle even though the winds were kicking. Had to keep the windows rolled up so the wind did not bounce the car around too muchor worse yet, pick it up & toss it off one of the mountains!

Sure wish I had some jelly beans right now!

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