Improving Curb Appeal-Mailbox

 
It is nice to increase the curb appeal of your home..... especially if you want to sell. Our mailbox post was a metal one and rusted at ground level and needed to be replaced. One of our sons used some wood and made a post. Another son had a mailbox leftover from a job and gave it to us. What a blessing!

I hadn't planned on a red mailbox and wasn't sure about it at first, but didn't want to take time to paint it, so we just used it....   and I liked it after all.

The red mailbox was good, but I felt it needed... something. After hunting out by the shed, I found an old trellis that wasn't being used.









   I asked the guys what they thought about using it. I found NO encouragement from the guys..... NONE.  The girls and I liked it, but the guys did not. I liked how it would add just a bit of interest out by the road and in the flower bed, but wasn't "too much".

After standing it there and taking pictures that day then putting the trellis away, I kept thinking about it, but the guys just didn't like it. When I showed the pictures to my husband, he wasn't enthusiastic but he was willing for us to add it, so......... we did.

Our son had added a top to the mailbox post and the black on it worked well with the black trellis.

Another plus is that we usually have autumn clematis and passion flowers growing by the mailbox, so this gives them a trellis to hold them up.... and add some contrast.

 I really liked the diamond design in the middle of this trellis... and the delicate trim on the sides, so it adds interest whether covered with flowers or empty. The wrought iron looks nice all by itself there also.

It did add something to the front of our house...  and the post was painted the same color as our front deck, so those blend well.

 By the way, we stood the trellis where it looked the best and attached it with a couple of zip ties. The zip ties are covered by the flowers much of the year, but they aren't a problem the rest of the year either.

I really liked the improvement and so did my husband and daughters. The guys were a bit slower to approve, but even they agreed it was "all right".  :) 

The island garden bed in the background here has one of my semi-permanent trellises in it and it is amazingly beautiful in late summer as it is covered with the small clematis flowers. Very showy.
That bed needs work in other ways, though... weeding and sprucing up... but that is a project for another day! 






It wasn't a large addition... or an expensive one... but it was an improvement and it has been a good one.

Many people no longer have mail boxes, but some focal point can still be helpful... a trellis, flower bed, etc. Curb appeal is important. The first thing someone sees of your house is the outside front of it.

By the way, I like to use trellises for many purposes.... not a large amount of them, but a few here and there are so helpful as long as it doesn't look too busy.

Some of my trellises are placed semi permanently- they could be moved, but they just stay in one place all year round. Others are stored and used when needed... for the peas, cucumbers, morning glories, squash, etc.

By the way, I was really pleased with the mailbox post that our son made... he worked hard on it and did a great job.




Thank you for visiting my blog today....  Are you doing some project to increase the curb appeal of your house and yard? I'd love to read about it in the comments. Have a great week!

#mailbox #CurbAppeal #trellis


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Family Room Project-Fireplace Update

 The brass fireplace front looked really dated, so when we were doing our huge family room project, I asked my husband if we could also paint this. He was hesitant, but he reluctantly agreed.

The new paint was looking really nice and then it was time to do the fireplace. Our sons removed the brass front. We saved the insulation(you can see it in this picture) and re-used it when we replaced the front.

 One of our sons covered all of the glass in the fireplace front....he did such a good job of covering each of the 4 panels.

We used steel wool to rough up the brass a bit so the paint would hold well, and then  we took it out and put it on the gravel walkway for painting.

We needed to use a high heat paint because it is a fireplace front... this is the one we used although there are other brands that should work just as well.








 

 We sprayed it.. and it dried really fast as you can see here. We needed to cover the front, top, sides, etc, so we painted from various angles and let it dry.

 On one section, the paint bubbled and wiped right off and I realized some wax had gotten on there. We carefully wiped all of the paint off those areas and used steel wool again.

Then we re-painted.

 
This was the step that really made appreciate our son's careful taping of those windows. We moved the glass to various positions and painted so that every area of the brass would be covered.

We moved around and sprayed from different angles... another son and I did this step and it helped to wait for it to dry and then look... sometimes it was a bit hard to see what needed a little more paint, so having 2 of us on this step helped.

 Time to add the newly painted fireplace front to the newly painted fireplace..........

 We all agreed that we liked it much better than the old brass. It is amazing how much one small part of a project can help change the look and feel of a room.

This was especially nice since my husband had been quite skeptical and I had really hoped he would like it!

When our oldest son, who lives on his own, visited, he was surprised at what a difference this had made. That felt good too. :) 

 Overall, it has been a good project. It was a lot of work, but we have really enjoyed the results. If you missed other posts in the series, I am including the links to them here:

Family Room Project-Adding Built-In Bookshelves

Family Room Project-Paint Change

Family Room Project-Ceiling Design


Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a great week.




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Sunshine Eggs!

I grew up knowing that these were called Deviled Eggs, but when we had little children, I didn't want to serve "Deviled" eggs, so we changed the name to..... SUNSHINE EGGS!

It stuck... and over the years the kids have always known them as sunshine eggs. It has been funny to hear people at church dinners or family dinners tell that they started calling them Sunshine Eggs because they heard it from our family.

We make them just like deviled eggs are made... with some dressing, mustard, salt and pepper. Sometimes we sprinkle some paprika on top for color.

They are tasty and we don't even think about the oddity of calling them "Sunshine Eggs" anymore.

 Whatever you call them, they taste great! :)

So, if you hear someone talking about Sunshine Eggs, now you will know what they mean, or at least that's what it means w hen we say that name!

By the way, we also changed Devil's Food Cake.... to Chocolate Cake..... just didn't want to give the devil any attention... not even with the name. It may seem silly, but that's what we did in our family.... and it has lasted well.  :) 



Thank you for visiting. Do you have names for foods in your home that are not the "normal" ones? Feel free to share them in the comments... I would love to see them.

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#SunshineEggs #DeviledEggs #FoodNames

Family Room Project: Ceiling Design

 The family room project was a big project....

we added new built in bookshelves:

Family Room Project: Adding Built In Bookshelves


 we scraped the old popcorn ceiling off... what a job.

Family Room Project: Paint Change

 You can see that we have started painting the ceiling and the walls... it is nice to start so that we can get an idea of what it will look like.

 Okay... walls are painted, ceiling is painted and we are still working on the backs of the bookshelves.

It is so nice to have fresh clean paint and a new updated color combination.

 There is a trim board around the top of the walls... and we painted it white to match the ceiling.













 It bothered me, though.... just looked a bit... boring.... so started the process of trying to come up with ... something to make it better.

  First of all,  I decided to put a 4" strip of paint... the wall paint color... around the ceiling.  Hmmm.... that was better... and the funny thing is that from certain angles, the ceiling looked taller. It was just a visual effect, but nice anyway.

Lots of work, but worth it, BUT on the one long wall, I was horrified to see that the line looked crooked. Oh no! I had been using a wood yard stick as my straight edge... and figured out that it wasn't really straight. What to do???  I was all done and didn't want to re-do it.








I looked through my stencils and found one that waved back and forth...  I chose that with the idea that going from the white to the pale green and back, the edge would not be as visible and maybe the crooked part wouldn't show.

It worked... the design distracted from the other and it is very hard to even find the crooked part now!

 An added plus was that we liked the design... and it make our family room project quite unique. Just a little touch of my creativity which we are all enjoying.



The project was coming along....  and we were liking it. I love it when a plan develops and works out. I many times am inspired after doing one thing... then another can seem do-able. I start with a plan, but I know it is VERY possible that the plan will change... and be better, by the time we are through with it.

This one was a success, at least up to this point. I had another idea that I wasn't sure how it would work.... I will tell you about that in a future post. Have you painted your ceilings? Do you like the look of painted ceilings? I look forward to reading your comments.....  It's a new thing for me... SO glad to get rid of the popcorn ceiling so that now we can paint the ceilings, although I don't plan to paint them as often as we paint the walls.  :)

Thank you for visiting...  More of the Family Room Project to come.

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