Church Bathrooms Remodel

I mentioned last week that we had done quite a lot of painting.  Every and I do mean E.V.E.R.Y room of the church parsonage was painted.  Not that there are a lot of rooms, on the contrary it's a small 3 bedroom home but it has cathedral ceilings. The fact that I painted each bedroom and the living room different colors probably didn't help either. 

I thought I would share some of the fruits of our labors from the church as we didn't take any before pics of the parsonage...bad blogger, bad, bad!

A before pic of the ladies restroom in the church

 Another angle after holes had been patched

A pic of the "cabinets" in the stalls

 

Oops...another blogland blunder! 

The baseboards and trim had been painted to look antique cream and were nice but didn't match the stall doors.  It was also dark in there due to poor lighting (which we remedied).  I wanted to brighten and freshen it up so I went with Behr Ultra Bright White for the trim and doors and Behr Ultra Premium Plus in Hallowed Hush.

And the result...

 

Sorry the after pics aren't as good, they were taken with my iPhone

I replaced the non-used green cabinets with these picture frames from  Pier 1, LOVE that store!
I just took out the glass and the backing for the wall to show through.  There are 3 stalls, one of which is a bit larger and I have something different planned for the wall in there and it will be completely finished when I get it done.

The before of the men's room

Another angle and a pic of the lovely ficus tree...blech!

The reveal...

Once again they are not the best pics because they are from my iPhone.

I absolutely love the orange and it's not really this bright in person.  It's a lovely, warm shade called Carmelized Orange by Behr.

I stripped the honey oak stain and varnish from the sink cabinet with Citristrip which I learned about from here http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/03/a-tale-of-two-strippers/

It worked wonderfully well but I did read on another website, can't remember where, that you have to put it on very thick and keep it moist for it to work better.  So I practically "painted" the cabinet with the Citristrip until it was orange and then taped 50 gallon trash bags onto the counter top so they hung down around and covered it.

 

 Sorry, another iPhone pic.  I've learned my lesson though!

I re-stained it with Bombay Mahogany, which I absolutely love.  I used a brush and put it on pretty thick so there are darker streaks in the crevices and grooves kinda like glaze but much easier.  I sanded it down between coats of which I did 2 b/c they were so thick and between the Polycrylic.

Hope you've enjoyed looking at the process as much as I've enjoyed sharing it.

Let me know if you have any questions, you can email me at lauras (dot) kaleidoscope (dot) sky (at) gmail (dot) com.

God bless,

Goodwill = Armed Robbery

As I said in a previous post, we've just moved to this area recently and with painting, moving, painting, home school, painting, new pastor responsibilities, and painting I just went to the local Goodwill this past week. It is AHMAZING!  And I do mean awesome.  It's one of the biggest, cleanest, and most organized Goodwills I've ever been in.

That said, I must proclaim that I was somewhat "Shocked", yes, shocked with a capital S, at the prices.  I went there to find the makings for a cloche.  Seems that all DIY/design blogs have featured these and it's almost a requirement to make one if you are a DIY blogger.  Luckily, I did find what I needed so that will be the topic of a future post.

However, as I was trying to find some things for another project I came across the perfect 2 piece bowl and lid set...think candy dish...It was a whopping $14.99 for the set!  Hello?!?!  Did you catch that?  $14.99!!! This was at Goodwill!  I admit it was a nice set with no cracks or scratches but I was not paying FOURTEEN NINETY-NINE!!! for it. 

Also, I was looking for something to make a tray from for a centerpiece for my coffee table and came across a picture of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, the one that seemed to be on every living room wall in America in the 80's, in a white plastic frame.  We're talking muy el cheapo.  But it was the perfect size and depth for what I had in mind.  $3.99!!!!  Really?!?!  Ok, so maybe I'm a cheapskate (I prefer frugal) but this was not worth $1.00 let alone $3.99.  I really should've taken pics but I was so flabbergasted I forgot.

On the bright side, I did score a particularly fantastic chair for $9.99  

What I'm perceiving it will be IS fantastic!!!
More to come on that later.

God bless,

Wow...Say It Backwards!

Well, lots and I do mean LOTS, has happened since my first and ahem...last post.   I know, I know, I am a bad blogger...if I can even call myself a blogger at this point.  So, to bring you up to speed, when I started this blog in April...Yes, I KNOW it is November, but I have a good explanation, I promise!  Anywho, when I started this blog I was the wife of an evangelist and yes I am still married to the same man, but he is now a Pastor!  I had started this blog with the intention of documenting our life on the road.  In fact the by-line of the blog was "The View from Life on Wheels."

We no longer live in a 40' fifth-wheel and travel the countryside, so I had to find a new topic to blog about. 

as soon as I figure out how to get the pics off of my iPhone there will be one of our home on wheels here. 

I was completely unprepared for the transition because we had been traveling for 4 years and didn't have any plan to stop yet when we received a call from an acquaintance that was a pastor in Ohio.  He was resigning his church to relocate to Georgia, and wanted to know if we would be interested in coming to Ohio to be voted on as the next pastor.  YES!!!!!! God had heard our prayers, finally...I had no doubt he had it was just 2 years after the fact.  Oh, well God's timing is perfect, always.

So here we are.  In Ohio.  WE LOVE IT!!!  God knows what He is doing.  We are settled into the parsonage now and have already started on DIY projects around the church.  While we no longer travel full-time this blog will still be dedicated to all things God, family, and DIY/craft projects.  Really, is there anything more important?

God Bless,

P.S. Really got to work on the size of that signature!
P.S.S And it's supposed to be transparent...I'm still working out the kinks.  Bear with me!