Tag...You're It

 Barb at Turtles & Tails
tagged us in a fun blog q & a.  Barb's blog is full of wonderful ideas. I highly recommend checking it out as soon as you have a chance.  Here are the questions that she asked Megan.  :)  Read to the end to find out who I tagged next and the questions they have to answer.

 What is your funniest vacation experience? too many to recount

If you could have a super-power, what would it be?  Flying to avoid traffic  :)

Do you speak any other languages?  If not what other language do you wish you knew?  Nope...I'd love to learn sign language

What is your morning routine?  Get ready, get our daughter ready, feed the dogs and head out the door in an hour.

If you had an entire day to yourself, how would you spend it?  at a flea market

What are your two biggest pet peeves?  people that drive with their blinker on and people that don't act courteous to others

Are you laid back or high energy? high energy

What was your first job? a lifeguard and I sat in the chair praying no one would do something stupid and I would have to save them. Had to put the Baywatch type car for the picture.

What movie are you embarrassed to admit that you love? Little Rascals (the 1990's version)

What's your favorite decorating tip?  mix it up not everything has to be a matching set

Did you make a New Years resolution? Have you kept it? Nope

I've tagged the following blogs to answer some questions too!  Looking forward to the answers!

Elena at A Casarella
Lori at The Stonybrook House
Sharon at Elizabeth & Co.


Questions:


1. What was your first pet?
2. Which season do you prefer and why?
3. Where is your favorite place to shop?
4. What do you like to do in your free time?
5. What is your all time favorite TV show?
6. Do you like to garden? If no, why?
7. What is the biggest splurge purchase you have ever made?
8. What was your favorite grade in school and why?
9. Who do you admire most?
10. What can someone tell about you as soon as they visit your blog?
11. If you could name a lipstick color...what would it be called?



**If you were tagged:

• answer the questions above
• create 11 new questions  (or use the same ones)
• tag 3 or more other blogs and link to them in your post
• let them know you've tagged them
• have fun!

Gray China Cabinet by Rob & Megan

Rob and I have become the newest Craigslist stalkers. We are looking daily to see if there is a piece of furniture we can try something new with and transform it. We found this china cabinet on Craigslist the other day for a steal and the owner offered to deliver it for a small fee. We bought it sight unseen and hoped for the best.  We were excited to see at delivery that the piece was in great condition overall.

We then went and checked out some Valspar paint at Lowe's. We narrowed it down to two colors using the sample sizes. What a great deal it is to use those at about $3 a container.  We decided to use Valspar's Woodlawn Colonial Gray in flat paint. 

Rob took off all of the doors, glass, and the back of the cabinet. The back was very flimsy so he decided to replace that later on.  The center section of glass was not able to be removed, so Rob taped it off instead. Rob used CitrusStrip stripping gel with steel wool to remove the layers on the cabinet before painting. He actually found it to not be his favorite product due to residue that remained afterwards and got in the way during painting.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but Rob has gotten the stain off using the stripping gel.

Here are the doors and cabinet drying after two coats of paint and one coat of polyurethane.



We went to Home Depot and Lowe's to check out potential hardware choices. Well we ended up having to order new handles online because the standard width is 3 inches, and of course our handles needed to be four inches. I snagged two standard satin nickel knobs for the doors and then ordered from DirectDoorHardware's Residential Essentials Cabinet Pull for the four new handles.

We have ordered this fabric from the etsy shop Decorate 23

The plan is to use this fabric to provide a better looking backing for the cabinet.  Rob actually was able to attach the fabric to the original backing of the cabinet.

Cabinet $50.00

Delivery $10.00

Samples to Determine Color: $7.00

Quart of Woodlawn Colonial Gray: $13.00

Handles (HomeDepot & Online): $30.00

Stripping Gel and Steel Wool: $20.00

Fabric: $20.00

Total: $140.00

We hope you like the finished product. 

Rob & Megan

Paint It Party

Our Barn Find

We have a place called the Westminster Rescue Mission Thrift Barn  in our town. I had heard about it through friends before but had never ventured the whole ten minutes from my house to check it out. After a minute inside I was very happy that I had found this place.

I found this dresser/console/credenza whatever you'd like to call it hidden deep beneath three desks and an end table of the barn. It was dark and the floor is dirt, which did not make the best condition for viewing the condition of the piece.

It has a particle board top to it and a partially broken back right leg, but for $25 bucks I didn't want to pass it up. I loved the handles and the legs and it reminded me of this dresser in the beautiful nursery from Young House Love that I had pinned on Pinterest.

Pin-spiration

I had brought the cabinet home in the midst of Rob working on the gray china cabinet, so it immediately became an additional work bench.  See I knew it would come in handy. 

While I love the bold yellow above to save some money we are going to go with the Valspar Woodlawn Colonial Gray that we used for the china cabinet we are currently finishing up.  We would like to do our guest room (maybe next baby room) in a yellow, white and gray color palette.  

We hope to get started on this project this weekend.  I can't wait to show you how it turns out.

Rob & Megan