Echoes of the Southwest

In about a month, our house will be delivered on our land. The boys are planning a trip before then to grade the land where the house is going and the driveway to that location. They are also planning on burying the septic tank and finishing the bathroom. Meanwhile, Gary and I have been doing lots of DIY projects of items we are bring up there and antique shopping as well. This is what we have so far: The antique sewing machine cabinet we turned into a bathroom sink. I did a post about it. The vanity I redid. I did a post about it. We picked up 6 used solar panels. We hope they work well for us. paneling for our walls paneling and two butcher block counter tops I found this small farmhouse table at the antique mall. It is the perfect size for our ranch house. My addition to our picnic table. I got this chair at an antique mall. I was wabbly and the seat was not safe to sit on. The wood had some gross sticky stuff on it. We added foam and a board to the bottom, tightened the screws and ...

My husband and I bought this antique vanity from an estate sale our handyman had attended. He saw our recycled sewing machine cabinet and thought we might want to refresh this vanity. We accepted the challenge. It was a mess. The veneer was wrinkled and falling off in some places and the drawers' pulls were thin and breaking. I had a vision and so the fun began. The first thing was to chisel off the veneer. My husband took on that task. Next, he created a back piece because we think a mirror used to be in that spot. I drew it up and he cut it for me. Then came the sanding. I pulled all the drawers and sanded them first. Then we flipped the desk upside down so I could sand the bottom and then I sanded the top. I did have to wood glue some areas as well as add wood filler. All the pieces were brought inside to be painted. I live in the lower desert of Arizona where it is very hot and hard to be outside long. On top of that, it is monsoon season and that brings up our humidity. It is ...

  We may be moms and grandmas, but Sharon and I love Halloween. It is the beginning of our fall fun. Fall is my favorite time of year. The weather cools down and lots of holidays to enjoy with your family and friends. Every year we like to take fun creepy and spooky pictures for our Halloween files. We will take our Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees masks and see what situation we can put them in. This year we took the photos at my house. Here are some of the ones I took. Hope it gets you in the mood for the fall. Just being goofy!