Front Doors... A Quick Makeover

The weather is nice and I need to take advantage of it while I can. So instead of working on indoor projects(which there are many of) I decided to keep working on the outside and sprucing things up a bit. After all, I will have a long Maine winter to work on the inside.

Today I painted the front doors...  Ever since I lost my lovely white screen door to a windstorm, I have hated that the two front doors don't match.  The one on the right was painted red and I never bothered to paint the door on the left because it was a stained red wood color, and with the screen door over it, you couldn't tell they didn't match.

I decided to go traditional and painted them both black.

 
I really like how they turned out... clean and classic.

Not too many houses in my neighborhood have black doors(actually, I'm not sure if any do, I'll have to look next time we are out running), most are white, some are pumpkin colored, there is a bright yellow one, and I think the closest to black is my next door neighbor but her's is a navy blue I think.  Anyway, I like them and glad that not too many houses have them.

Of course, now I'm afraid to hang anything on this door because I don't want it to get scratched up!

I need to motivate myself to do some yardwork, yuck!

Have a safe long weekend,

Tiff

First Day of School Kids and Bulletin Boards...

It's just me and Mason in the house today, everyone else is either at work or at their first day of school...it's so quiet!  I'm not like a lot of people, I actually don't like the first day of school, I'd rather my kids be at home with me and I think the kids feel the same way...but this year.... I think they really wanted/needed to go back. They all had a lot of together time this summer and a break from each other will be a good thing :)

I went to school on Tuesday to redo the bulletin boards. I wasn't sure what I would do for the first month, in the end I came up with this...

 I took down the old tree and made a new one that will stay up the whole year... but this one is in the corner and goes up to the ceiling.

Here is the board I did in June..

 Redid the birthday board too, took down the big cake and replaced it with tiered cake stands...

  And now for the kiddos...  My 7th grader...

 My 10th grader, who by the way is now down 50 lbs!!! I'm so proud of her. She has been making the lifestyle changes right along with me.

Off to middle school and high school...

 My 2nd grader...

My three youngest(Mason had to be in on the school day pics)...

 And my 5th grader... He loves his bowties and he and the male teachers at school have decided that every Thursday will be "bowtie Thursday".

  They grow up way too fast don't they? :(

Tiff

$7 Outside Light Makeover...

I've been wanting to change my 4 front outside light fixtures since the day we moved in 7 years ago... but they were never that hideous, they  functioned fine, and I never wanted to spend the money on nicer ones.  Until this weekend when we were at Lowes getting a part for the master bedroom toilet that needed fixing... I decided it was time for a quick update. One $7 can of Rustoleum black hammered finish spray paint did all four lights.  

Here's the before...  not even sure what color they are/were(a faded out greenish)...

 Another before....

And after 15 minutes of work(per light), here's the after....(washed the glass too)

 And another after... These are the lights by the garage doors.

Here is the before of the lights by the front door(let's not discuss the cobwebs, I really need to scrub this whole area)...

 Another before....

And the after....

 Better, right?  I'm happy with how they came out and for the price and easiness of the project, I say it was a total success.

I did see some lights at Lowes that I really liked, but they were $80 a piece, which would be $320 to redo all four, so for the $7 I spent, I can live with my lights for awhile longer :)
Oh, and if you are wondering, I didn't take the lights down to do them. I took off the tops, removed the glass and the bulbs, taped off the sides and put butcher paper all around the lights, and then spray painted. It worked like a charm, was easy, and took a lot less time than I thought it would.

It's a busy week ahead, school starts and lots to get done.

Tiff

Back to Reality....

Monday is here and our vacation is officially over with hubby returning to work this morning, not something he was looking forward to(neither was I).  We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and have tons and tons of lovely memories from it. It was the longest hubby has ever taken off from work in the the 20+ years we have been married, but it was a break that was deeply needed for both of us. 

Thank you all for following along on our journey, I enjoyed reading all your comments. Maybe on our next trip I meet another blog friend or two :)

This is the last full week the kids have off before school starts again:( Summer just seems to fly by!  I have so much to do... design and create a back to school bulletin board, finish a wood tree for the school, clean my house, finish up on the laundry from the trip, possibly rearrange the house a bit, and hopefully get my van back soon(with Ford being the one who needs to fix it, long story, but I'm not too happy with them right now).

Anyway,  I wanted to share today something that I did for the first time ever yesterday...  Hubby and I got up early and headed over to Back Cove in Portland.  See that round body of water in the right of the picture?  There is a 3.5 mile trail that goes around it. Hubby and I ran the whole thing!!! Actually, we ran a bit farther 3.7 miles!! And I didn't stop once, I may have slowed down, but I didn't stop and I didn't walk. It was a huge triumph for this former couch potato(I didn't even run as a child!). I could never have done it alone and I thank my dear hubby for being there with me and pushing me along.  And I am down 60 lbs !! Despite indulging a bit on our vacation, I managed to keep my weight loss going, 22 lbs till my goal :)

photo courtesy of www.flightsim.com

Have a great day,

Tiff

Monticello and Home....

Just warning you, this is a picture heavy post, with more than 50 photos, sorry, I didn't know what to cut!

Last you heard, we were going to do Mt. Vernon after Schuyler, but we changed our plans last minute(no surprise, right?!)  We plan on doing a just Virginia trip and will see Mt. Vernon then.

After a morning in Schuyler and visiting all things Waltons, we headed back to Charlottesville to tour Thomas Jefferson's Monticello(little mountain).

 At the base of the mountain is a new museum and discovery center, built just 4 years ago. You buy your tickets here and then are shuttle bused to the top of the hill.

Here is a model of Monticello in the museum... what an awesome dollhouse that would be :)

At the top, the grounds were just beautiful...

The kids...

Hubby and me...

More views...

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the house, not sure why, but followed the rules.  The house was nice, but not grand. Jefferson wasn't about showy things, but about innovation and technology... incorporating the skylights that he saw in Europe into his home along with in the wall beds and dumbwaiters. He hated big entryway staircases so his home's staircase was tucked away in the middle of the house and was tiny and curvy and only 22" wide. It looked like a small back stair in an old farmhouse.

We were allowed to take pictures outside and in the slave and worker areas...

Lots of gorgeous scenic views all around. They were probably even better views in Jefferson's time because most of the trees at the top of the mountain had been cleared to build the house. He regretted that decision though when summer rolled around and there was no shade.  All the trees there now were grown after Jefferson.

All of us...

These flowers were spectacular...

Two wings stretched out on either side of the home. These wings contained all the working quarters for the running of the house. They were partially underground and ran beneath the house, giving the slaves and workers access from the kitchens and laundry to the main house.  Because of Jefferson innovative design, they also created long decks for the house and the roofs were designed to capture water.

96% of the outside of the home is original...

Neat trees...

View of the working quarters...

The smoke house room(kept under lock and key)

The cook's room. Nicer than most with a real bed, brick floors, and a fireplace...

The kitchen...

Other side...

I liked the lines of these shelves...

 The walkways in between...

 Beer storage room. They drank a very weak brew because it was safer than water...

More walkways...

Stables...

 I think this was a second kitchen and prep room...

The grounds...

His weather vane... he recorded the weather daily and was one of his main hobbies...

The weather vane above is connected to this one in the roof of the porch, so that he could easily see the wind direction and record the time...He loved clocks too...

 More views...Can you tell I liked the views!

The gardens...

Mulberry row runs along the gardens.. this is where the majority of the slave quarters used to be, along with the blacksmith shop, woodmaker shop, privy, and other buildings needed to run the home and farm.

More neat trees...

This was my favorite view, the hilltop was just so perfect and looked like a painting...

The walkway leading to the cemetery ...

Thomas Jefferson's grave...

His mother's grave...

People are still being buried in the cemetery, there was a grave that was quite recent as it didn't have a stone yet and the straw was still visible with new grass growing...

 I liked these tombstones...

Back inside the museum, a couple things caught my eye... these are the seed varieties they planted...lots!

And a  sewing kit...

 Thomas Jefferson...

 We stayed at Monticello until it closed and just made it to the car before it started to downpour!  We did get to drive by Michie Tavern but they were already closed.  I love this log cabin on the grounds...

Michie tavern, Virginia's oldest Inn....It's at the base of Monticello....

I wanted to see Ash Lawn-Highland(James Monroe's home) but they were already closed too, plus it was raining. Here is the entry to the property. It's about 2 miles from Monticello.

Oh, and this blue ball with zinc lid was bought at the general store in from of the Hamner home, I forgot to show it to you yesterday.  No recipe in it though :O

We decided to drive straight through to home instead of breaking it up between two days.  We left at 6 in the morning and pulled in our driveway at 7:50 pm that night. It was a long day but we are glad to be home.
Crossing the bridge to Maine...

Maine is pretty, but it doesn't compare to Virginia in beauty...

I'm taking the weekend off. See you all on Monday,

Tiff