The GREATEST transformation of them all...

Once again I'm keeping the road hot and traveling to one of my very favorite places: the mountains of Virginia.  My parents grew up in this area and now plan to retire here in the (we hope) near future.  I remember visiting relatives when I was little and being bored out of my mind with no television, no phone, and no modern conveniences of life.  (We did have indoor plumbing, but that's about it!)  Today it is not as remote as it once was (hence the reason I'm able to write this blog), but it is still a place of pure peace.  To show you what I mean, take a look:

One of the GREATEST transformations of all time (in my opinion) was the transformation of the home that my grandparents built in the 70s.  This is the same home that my parents now call their "home away from home." 

We used it as more of a "camp" when I was growing up because we were only up here a couple times a year.  By the time my parents decided to take the plunge and officially retire here, the house was basically falling down.  They had to take care of some MAJOR repairs before they could make it their permanent home. 

This was the extent of my help with the remodeling project:

Now it is the most beautiful place on the planet!  I love visiting (did I mention that there are wonderful thrift stores nearby?!?!) and I cannot wait for my parents to enjoy living here permanently for a very long time.

Now it's time for Mom and me to leave this beautiful home and hit some of those great thrift stores that I mentioned.  I'll keep you posted with some of our fabulous finds!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

More Chalkboard Cabinets

I am a sucker for cabinets.  Particularly cabinet doors.  This all started with my very first chalkboard cabinet project (click here!) and now I just can't get enough.  This project is cheap, easy and the end result is not only adorable but very functional as well.  I bought these babies at a salvage yard.  They had LOTS of cabinet doors, but I left the store with only four (I could picture Mr. Dump opening the garage door to remind me of all of the loot in there if I had brought home any more than that.  I'm trying to sneak more stuff in when he's not looking!). 

 I primed all four cabinet doors with a latex primer.

For variety, I painted two of them turquoise and two of them green.  (I would have picked more colors, but I spent my entire day cleaning out the spray gun!)  For my future chalkboard projects (Oh, YES, Mr. Dump... There will be more!) I will prime them, leave them in my garage and pull them out as I'm painting other pieces.  This will be much easier and much more efficient!

Then I took my sander (I recommend using a 60 grit sandpaper) and I sanded most of the blue and green off to give it a distressed look.

Mr. Dump helped me paint the chalkboard paint inside the lines (I was never very good at that!).  Plus he LOVES helping after a long day of work!

I hung a picture hanger on the back of each one, and now they are ready for a new home (or maybe my home...)! 

Next time I will probably hang knobs on the chalkboards to make them unique and extra special.  Hobby Lobby didn't have them on sale this week (isn't everything ALWAYS on sale at Hobby Lobby???  I'm still a little bummed about this!)  In the end, I liked the simplicity of them (I'm really just trying to make myself feel better about the knob situation...).  Does anyone else know where to find cool (and cheap) knobs??

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah