Where O' Where has she been?

Gosh, where has time gone? I guess I should begin this post my apologizing to all my loyal followers for my long absence.

I am truly sorry for not updating my blog on a regular basis but I got involved with doing some major renovations around my house during the winter months that I expected to be completed much sooner. I encountered several unexpected surprises along the way. Let's just say I have put months and months of sweat equity into my house and still have much more to go :(.......

Thus far, over the last several months I have completed painting a two car garage and workbenches, 2 bedrooms from top to bottom, a hallway, a major gutting of a basement to create a craft room oasis and landscaping to repair the mess left from replacing the sewer line last spring. I think that is all aside from other minor fix-ups.


Since I have so many pictures of before and after to share with you, I will break them into several days of post.

Today, I am so anxious to share the biggest of my projects... The basement!

A little background first.... The basement had been in horrible shape for years. Many years ago it sustained a major flood and from that point on I never bothered to venture down there. It became a storage haven for all castaway items. Clearing it out was a project in itself and torturous! The floor was tiled with old carpet squares that were rotten and moldy. The paneled walls were buckled from water. With the help of a dear friend I gutted the basement and let me tell you, what a mess getting up the old floor!! That alone took days and several trials and errors using various chemicals and methods.

The first pictures you see are the basement prior to any work and they progress from there into what I now am calling my dream room. Believe it or not the room went together pretty cheaply.
I did splurge on two items one being the wall mounted cubbie holder that houses all my flowers and Sticklers. It was purchased at Home Decorator marked down to $75.00. I am so glad I bought it. The quality is amazing! The other purchase I made was the embellishment cabinets (6 drawers) from Ikea. They too are of a super quality and house not only my embellishments but as you can see punches easily without warppage. The center work table I made myself!

I have always drooled over the Bradford one that Pottery Barn carries but priced at $1000.00 was never in my budget. After looking at it for days and doing a little internet searching I came upon this post and decided to make it myself. It is totally true that it can be made for less then n $150.00 . The 4 x 8 sheet cost me $30.58 at Home Depot. I had them cut it to my size and have some left over for a nice shelf. I now have a nice table to work on with plenty of storage underneath. It took me about 4 hours to assemble the cubes and to trim the edging of the melamine sheet with melamine iron-on trim but I absolutely love how it turned out.

So, who wants to come play in my new room? Hopefully, before long I will be cranking out some cards to share.

Thanks for hanging in there during my long absence!