The ever changing table

So one day I was out at a thrift store and found this little table and chair set for $19.99 and it came home with me.

Chuck sanded the ugly textured I have no idea green off of it and painted it to match the rest of the table.

Now that I look back at these pictures, it's funny to see my ladder back chairs blue when now they have been red for so long! Anyway, when we lived in this house I had a formal dining room and a kitchen nook so I had plenty of room. Now that we bought the big yellow house, I have no dining room at all and a small kitchen but I can't seem to give up either table. So the enclosed porch back room has become the laundry room on one side and dining room on the other side.

And this little table has recently taken up residence in my kitchen since I can leave the sides down for room if I want or put them up for more than 2 people to sit at if needed, although the chairs have been stored away.

And yes, it did turn black for a while. It was chalkboard. I thought it would be a fun homework table while I was watching my nephews. But since they have now gone, it was time for yet another change. It took a LOT of work for Chuck to get the paint off, but he finally did it and the end result is beautiful.

Completed Laundry/Dining Room "Tour"

We moved in this house around August 2010. Finally, 3 years later, we got around to tearing down the walls in the laundry room to add insulation. Wow, what a mess! Not sure when this room was added on or worked on after but the walls were very random. I believe this room was a porch at one point and then enclosed. The ceiling is slanted which wasn't easy for a novice to work with, but to make it worse, the floor is uneven and the door frame is kinda cock-eyed.

But, we finally did it, well mostly. The door still needs some tweaking, but that will be saved for another day, the wind doesn't blow in the room and I'm happy about just that. There were boards and pieces of boards nailed into the 2x4s.

There was also plenty of nests inside the walls where parts were not sealed.

The weights, ropes and pulleys were dusty but in good shape.

But blah blah blah, we finished! I love the stripes behind the washer/dryer, don't you?

My laundry basket used to be my now wall color so it had to be painted too, looks great yellow, right?

No real decor in here when I took pics, but here is the dining room side

The dog door is on the east side of the house now, MUCH better.

I even created and hung a new light fixture.

So that completes the tour of my Laundry/Dining Room, next up is the Guest Room and the Wizard will have a new home!

Oh! I almost forgot, and people always ask,  my "blue" for my room is by Valspar (the only paint I use) and it's called Aqua Dance.

Getting Closer

Do you make your own laundry soap?

I started doing it a few months ago and love it! I was in the process of making some more the other day when I realized I still had a LOT of borax and super washing soda left, and I've already made 5 batches!

And ok, maybe my scoop IS a little bigger than a tablespoon, but it's cute so who cares, right? And it still lasts for SO long!

This is all you need:

1 cup borax
1 cup super washing soda
1 bar Fels-Naptha (grated)

1 tablespoon per load

Kitchen Confessions

The other day I went to the store for groceries. One of those items was a bottle of canola oil. The cabinet where it goes was so stuffed with other things it wouldn't fit. It sat on my counter for a week. I got tired of looking at it and before I knew it, I had rearranged the entire kitchen just to fit a bottle of oil in it. My husband states it's things like this is why he can never find anything. Hmm, maybe.

This is not the first time this has happened though. I haven't even lived here a year and I can't even begin to count the changes. For instance...

I think this was the first table to make it into the kitchen. It fit very nicely on that odd wall.

 Then I decided this table was too big for the laundry/dining room so I moved it to the kitchen.

I then moved the little table to the laundry/dining room. Looks cute, right?

Then I decided that I didn't like my desk in view of the front door since I umm "work" a lot in my jammies. So when I rearranged the sun room, I had a space to fill.

Hmm, well that looks nice too. But I was so tired of living with that blue floor so I had to paint it.

So out with the table again and it went back to the laundry/dining room aka back porch. Until one day we were out garage saleing and I found a couple of lovely pantries.

Ugly right? They were using them for garage storage. I had something much better in mind.

One fits very nicely on that odd wall in the kitchen, and the other "finishes" the back porch. And by turning the big table a different way, it fit much better in the space too. Although, I do miss having a table in the kitchen...................hmmmm

Linky Party I Joined:

The basement doors

....are in the floors of the sun room and the laundry room and are a P.A.I.N.

They just lay there, in the way, not doing much unless you need them. They also make it hard to do flooring.

The one in the laundry room is painted this ugly brown color.

We decided not to strip the floors at this time because there are several other things that need replacing under the floor. But since I needed a floor before hosting Thanksgiving, we (he) laid down the same stuff I used in the kitchen. It's waterproof and seemed like a perfect fit for a laundry room anyway. Btw....most people that come over can't even tell it's not real wood ;) So anyway......... I decided to paint it, but quickly changed my mind when I remembered I had black glaze.

This is after the first coat. You can see all the essential tools to the right of the door. I love the way it turned out besides it being darker than the flooring we put down. I imagine if I painted it a lighter color and then glazed it, I would probably get a better match. It takes up an entire length of wall.

My whole laundry/utility room looks so much larger now!

Ummm yeah, ignore the hanging laundry and my slippers drying on the chair.........It still needs some more organization, but I love the way it looks and feels in there now! My mom made me those curtains for the previous house I lived in. I don't have enough toppers, but luckily for me, she took a topper home to make me 2 more. Isn't she the bestest?

Because of the way this turned out, I'm almost tempted to paint the sunroom floor a light tannish color and glaze them too versus trying to strip them. *sigh* Is that lazy or what?