THE ROCK JOURNAL GARDEN

 This one is for you, Tita Rosita!  You will always be remembered in my garden!! R.I.P.

I'd like to give credit to Alisa Burke (Alisa Burke's Rock Garden) for this idea!  Each time we go on our exercise walk I try to pick up 3-4 at a time so I can go home and paint these rocks and add them to my rock garden.  I try to associate what I paint to how I am feeling that day.  I started it yesterday so it's still a WIP.  Anyhoo, I try to make each one special so I call this my rock journal!

Till my next post... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

SOME UPDATES! The Succulent Fountain and the new Entryway!

I just wanted to post photos of the entryway update.  The decal "Love One Another" which is my motto at the end of every post I purchased on Amazon, just search for it and you will find it.  Then I opted for snapshots of my family members in lieu of portraits (I think portraits are a thing of the past) in white frames to compliment the trim paint.  In the middle is a mirror I had which I painted the trim white.  And of course a metal wall decor I've had at my previous house to add that splash of color and break up the monotony.

This is going to be the final look!

Here is a before and after pic of my succulent fountain

 My oh my! How they have grown!!

Until my next project... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

UPDATE! PAINTING THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE

    

     This house is in badly need of some facelift.  The color has the three Ds.  Drab, dreary and dark.  Time to change it to make the house smile a bit after it gets a new outfit.  See those down trees?  There were what seemed to be a million trees.  They all came down except for one.  The whole lawn was overrun by big roots.  It was choking the house!

    Here are some of the photos from all sides.

So Stuart and Scott (brothers) got to work.  With my choice of color, the house is transformed!  We get a lot of compliments now from neighbors and people walking their dogs, even the mailman!  They all say that the house looks like a totally different house!  Well, you judge for yourselves.

 

UPDATE! UPDATE! - Entryway

 

Before                            After

I know it's been awhile since I've posted but we have been working every chance we get.  It was a lot worse than we thought.  But it just made sense to fix everything as we go along.  The guest bathroom shower enclosure was replaced, I don't need to show you (it's boring).

In the hallway, there is paint on top of wallpaper and there is wallpaper underneath that wallpaper, so as you can imagine, it was a lot of work.  

 

I used 1 part fabric softener to 9 parts water in a spray bottle, let it sit for about 10 minutes and the wallpaper peels off pretty nicely.  There are some parts which are stubborn so I used a metal scraper to remove it.  Then, because some of the wallpaper underneath got torn, we spackled it and sanded to have a smooth finish.  Since the wallpaper left is that yellow flower print, I had to apply Kilz first even though the paint I purchased said it has a primer included.  It's a gimmick, so getting regular paint and kilzing it underneath is much more economical.

 Patience is the key to this project.  Just know that it will take you a lot of time to get it all off the walls.  It took me 4 whole days from stripping to painting.

Here is the entrance. The wall to the right is painted wallpaper.

 

 

So  here is after the first wallpaper was stripped.  It presented another layer of wallpaper underneath... So 70s!

 

 This is after I painted on the Kilz.  Already, the closed feeling of the entryway is now bright and airy.  I opted for a really light blue for the entrance because the rest of the house will be painted the dove grey color.  I decided to break up the monotony by painting this one small section a coastal blue.  It is also in semi-gloss so that the light will bounce off the walls to give it a brighter, larger feel.

 

 

     Of course, I'm not done yet.  I still need to put in my wall decor.  I will post photos after everything is finished so you get the feel of the whole house!

MY LITTLE PROJECT - The Side Walkway!

 Before photo

Well, this project is not so little, at least not in the way of time, back breaking work, etc. This little project involved a crawling vine that grew up and over itself over the years.  It reminded me of a tangled mess of hair that could not be fixed by a hair brush but by some really sharp shears.  The leaves were all diseased and dead and dried leaves lived inside of it.  So dig I did.  I dug and tugged and was finally able to remove this crawling carpet vine which Scott had the fortunate task of loading it into the trailer.  

Now I planted hostas and coleus (annual)! So much neater!

God is great!  Look at the beautiful and different plants He provides for us!

Until my next post... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

WE WILL SOON CALL HOME

This was not the house we were originally going to move into.  The plan was to sell both houses, mine and his, and then buy one for both of us.  We had our hearts and contract set to buying the house in Oakley, CA.  The attraction was that it was by the water, we have a boat, by the delta, so there is definitely fishing.  We would not have to need the house by the lake up north, so that was also placed on the market.   The Napa house could not be up for sale yet because we had renters still living there who promised to move out by May 31st which they did.   However, the house in Oakley fell through, it couldn't clear title.  My house is sold... for now (more on that later).

Here she is.  Do you even see a house there?  Yes, there is a house there!  It's behind the overgrown vegetation.  Mind you, our renter had it cut back a considerable amount!  But as you can see, just outside there is a lot to do!

So we had to get to work!  First order of business is to get rid of the trees, all its volunteers, those skinny branches that just sprout like weeds!  The lawn was so bad because of all the roots eating their way through the whole yard!

See the photos below... I mean seriously, the hubs worked on it for three days in the blistering heat.  We don't have air conditioning in the house!  But we do have a pool (more on that later).

Well she's looking a little better.  At least the sun is shining through!

And now, she is a blank canvas!  Here she is in all her glory, far from perfect but 100 percent better!  I'm excited to give her some curb appeal!

 There is a house right there!!!!!