Blue, Blue, my World is Blue

Finally, I am back to write more about our new "Country Life" adventure.  Since my last blog post I have become the full-time Nanny of four children: Everett (Age 6), Owen (4), Lilly(2) and Sawyer (3 months!). It has been an interesting few weeks and progress has definitely slowed now that I am working five days a week.  However, things continue to change and improve at the Last Dollar Holler!  For one thing, we have living room and bedroom furniture, and the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, and one bathroom have been painted.  You might enjoy seeing the difference a coat of paint can make!

Remember the lime green kitchen?

The kitchen is now blue and white, with natural linen curtains in a burlap color.There is still much to be done, but it is coming together. Stainless steel appliances helped, as did the glass top for the old door table (found at a resale shop for $40.00).  I want to change out the light fixture. This table begs for a black wrought iron lantern, don't you think?

I had Paul remove the doors on one of the upper cabinets and use this cabinet now to display my Blue Willow China and cobalt blue glassware. I found this great little shop in Conroe where I bought an entire set of Blue Willow. You may have heard of it...it's called KROGERS?   I hope to have new white cabinets eventually, but...in the meantime, this will have to do.  When I can find the time, I am going to try my hand at painting these cabinets white. Or ...who knows? Perhaps I will just take the cabinet down and replace it with white open shelving.

The Master Bedroom has come along way from that crayon smeared purple wall.  The purple wall is now the color of  "Morning Rain" from Walmart (hey - I'm proud to shop at Walmart!) The rest of the room is white. To refresh your memory, the "before" picture:  

I found an ugly two-toned wooden headboard at a junkshop. The wood was ugly, but I loved the design, shape and PRICE (35.00!!) so I bought it and put about four coats of white paint on it.  I love it.  I found the small chest of drawers at a little antique mall up the road. I am currently using it as a night stand, but...eventually, it will go on the west wall, under the arched mirror that matches it.

 I used black as my third color, mainly on accounta' because I already had a lot of black stuff from Coyote Cottage in Arizona.

 I still haven't found the perfect dresser yet. When I do, it will go on the wall opposite the bed, with a flat screen TV hung above it.

Some of my friends will remember the Javalina painting I bought for $2.00 at a garage sale in Gold Canyon, AZ. (Right side of window.) It was a brand new, still in the wrapper, signed original using a technique that involves scraping black paint OFF the canvas to make the picture. Loved it then. Still love it now. Couldn't leave it behind, and now I'm really glad I didn't!


Our son, Heath, has been doing some outside work for us.  He worked from daylight to dark last week, cutting down small trees, and clearing the scrappy brush around the bottom of each tree in the front yard. Our place now looks CLEAN. Neighbors are stopping by to tell us how great the place is looking! Thank you, HEATH!    Heath is also feeding the deer at the back of our land, and hoping a deer will feed HIS family in return this winter!  Nothing better than good deer sausage! (But...he promised he would NOT shoot the mama and fawn that have been visiting lately.)   This is how it looked before Heath tackled it last weekend with a chain saw and a weed-eater.

This is how it looks now after Heath did his thing and Paul spent all day Monday on his new lawn tractor.

 Our neighbors are happy to see the place coming to life again!

And we enjoy sitting on our front porch and looking out across the holler. We can actually see the road now and wave at folks as they pass by.  Life is good!

What a Difference a Week Makes!

Our First week in our new home has been exciting!  We closed on July 26th, and by Monday evening we had accomplished our Primary goal of getting water, sewer, air conditioning and indoor plumbing! That might not sound like much to y'all, but it was quite an expensive and stressful ordeal!

The most exciting and noticeable difference this week is OUTSIDE.  I think I mentioned that our two and a half acres is 140 ft wide and 770 feet deep!  Most of our land lies behind the house, and was impossible to walk through. I guess you would say we bought it sight unseen, as the only thing visible from the small back yard area was a THICKET!  (Below: There is a small stable back there somewhere!)

 Our Backyard, prior to clearing THE THICKET stopped about 30 feet from our back door.

 All of the property behind the house looked like THIS or WORSE!

But, OH MY!, what a difference a Bulldozer Makes!

Paul loved supervising the entire procedure...And as soon as the first trail was blazed he wasted NO TIME in checking it out!

NOW, THIS is my view from my kitchen window! Our

Backyard looks like a park! I love it!

We will be having a rather large bonfire when the weather cools down.

 This photo shows the house and stable from the back portion of the property.

 And remember that abandoned little stable?

Paul can actually park his lawn tractor in there now! He is a happy farmer!

Wizard was pretty stressed out about it all, as you can see.

Heath and Aimee and Blake came to check things out. They also brought steaks to grill,

 for which I was truly THANKFUL!  

 Heath put a feeder out  back and we are hoping to attract some deer for our morning and evening viewing pleasure!  I will let you know how that works out.

We are thoroughly enjoying LIFE IN THE COUNTRY!