Loving Our New Home

 Hellooooooo everyone.  It's been quite a while since I have posted to my blog because we have been moving to a new home.  Talk about a time killer.  First, we were notified that our landlord was going to put the house we were living in on the market.  Shock and despair was the first reaction, then we immediately got over that and knew we had to get busy, busy finding a new place to live.

Nashville has been fairly impervious to the real estate meltdown that has occurred in a lot of the country because the job market has remained good and so has the real estate market.  Let me put it this way, prices on rents and homes here are sky rocketing.  People are moving here in droves and the inventory is limited which has driven rent prices WAY up.  Not good for us old fogies living on fixed incomes.  So, the hunt was on and I was spending hours on rental sites like craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com.  Every few hours I would scan them all looking for anything in our price range, calling, driving to look at them and experiencing a lot of disappointment.  But, if you are persistent and keep a positive attitude, the perfect place will appear and it did!  We found a lovely condo that had just been redone and we were lucky enough to be chosen to live in it.  It really is like winning the lottery at the moment if you are the lucky one chosen for the place you want.  Places are being rented site unseen.  It's kind of crazy.

Next, it was weeks of packing, pitching, and donating.  Then came the big day.  We worked hard in the heat of July loading and unloading the moving truck.  Then, two  weeks of unpacking and placing things.  Rearranging, getting it right.  You know how it goes.

Anyway, This is a picture of our beautiful new kitchen.  It is different from anything we have had before because it is contemporary and I am more of a shabby chic/country kind of girl.  Here is the kitchen before we moved in.

 It's very sleek and I love it.  The 5 burner gas stove is a dream!!  I knew we needed some kind of bar stools for the counter.  Especially since I sold our table and chairs to the couple buying the house we lived in.  It would not fit in this setting.  So, we had to have someplace to sit until I decide on the kind of table and chairs I want in here.  (I do have some ideas!)

The search for bar stools was on.  I looked at several places and was very discouraged at the cost and there wasn't a lot of them that I liked.  A light bulb went off in my head one day and I told Dan we needed to make a trip to the Habitat Re-Store here in Nashville.  It was truly our lucky day.  They had the bar stools in the picture for $ 7.00 each.  You read that right - $7.00 each.  Talk about the right price!!  I had seen similar ones at Target for $99.00 each.  That was not happening, but these beauties were coming home with us.

These bar stools didn't look like they do in the picture above.  Actually, they were pretty grungy, but the bones were good.  They were good and sturdy. Paint and fabric would make them ours.  This is how they looked.

Yeah, the seats were GROSS, but they could be recovered.  We paid for the stools and crammed them in our car.  Next, it was a stop to get some Annie Sloan chalk paint at my favorite little supplier, C'est Moi in Brentwood.  Once again, I wanted something a little different color wise from what I had been using.  Annie Sloan paints are based on historical colors and I fell in love with the Provence Blue which is a sort of turquoise color.  Paint purchased and on to the next stop at the home dec fabric stores.

There are several really great home decorator fabric stores here in the area and I hit all of them.  I found what I wanted at the last store (of course).  The background is a gold color with dark red roses, green leaves and hints of the turquoise color in the smaller flowers.  Perfect.

Annie Sloan paint can be used over most anything without priming.  They do recommend priming over dark wood if you are using a light colored paint.  I didn't want to risk bleed through from the dark stain on the stools, so I primed them all with white primer.

 All the stools were then painted with the Provence Blue and waxed with Annie Sloan clear wax.  I recovered the seats with the beautiful new fabric and sprayed them all with Scotch Guard.  Here is the finished product.

Oh, I  am so happy with the way they turned out and it saved us hundreds of dollars.  That is the very best part!  They are definitely being put to good use.

Next time you need or want to make a change, consider recycling something you have or buying from a thrift store.  Purchasing from a Habitat Re-Store helps fund habitat homes.  Picture a piece in a new and different way.  It's so creative and fun to see the results - and it's super friendly on the old pocket book and environment!

I'm so glad to be back and will be sharing all kinds of new recipes and ideas.  Hope to see you here!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

It doesn't have to cost a lot to look good and serve a purpose.   See things with new eyes!   donna