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Exterior

1970 home renovation

1970 home renovation | working on the side of the house

I realized I haven’t shared what we’ve been doing along the side of the house.  It’s still in the works, but I think it’s important to share the reality of a home renovation…  Sometimes progress is made in leaps, but most of the time it’s just one small step followed by another small step. The side of the house isn’t normally very important, but in the case of our house, the “garage side” of the house functions as the front.  Since it’s where we park, this is the door we use all the time.  It’s also where guests enter, where packages are dropped off, and where deliveries are made.  We want to spruce it up to make it more welcoming and charming, but it’s going to take some time to implement all of our ideas. Here is how it looked when we bought the house… When we started cleaning up

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All Things Home

front door details

Last week, I showed our front door makeover HERE and in this post, I wanted to share the hardware details as well as how the door looks from the inside of the house now.  It is a small change, but it really makes such a difference with the curb appeal of the house.  The porch and front door look fresh and inviting.  I admire it every time I walk or drive by now, although I do cringe a bit at the naked, weedy garden beds, but we’ll get there. Here is how the foyer and front door looked shortly after we moved in.  I actually liked the green paint and the wallpaper, but the paper was peeling and stained in a few places, so it was time for it to be removed. Here is how it looks now.  In addition to the recent work on the front door, we installed

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1970 home renovation

1970 home renovation | painting the shutters & front door

Over the past week, I set aside a couple of days to continue chipping away on painting the exterior of the house.  You can see the first two posts about painting the exterior of the house HERE and HERE.  My goal is to get the front, driveway side, and back of the house primed and painted before the cold weather sets in.  The fourth side of the house is covered in a thick hedge, so we need to get that trimmed and cleaned up before we work on painting that side.  With two gables, two walls of siding, and the porch, the front was going to be the biggest challenge and that is almost done! Late last week, I took the day to prep, prime, and paint the front door and the shutters along the front of the house.  I’ve been stalling on painting the front door for months because

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1970 home renovation

1970 home renovation | painting the exterior | part two

Before the rain came over the weekend, Jeff, my mom, and I worked last Thursday and Friday to make a sizeable dent in painting the exterior trim and siding on our house.  The weather truly was perfect for it and, while we were all tired and sore by the end of Friday, we got a tremendous amount done. We started on Thursday with the trim.  I had already primed the porch and trim I could reach along the front of the house and over the garage (as I shared in THIS POST) and it took almost all day for me to just get a coat of primer on.  With the help of Jeff and my mom, I was hoping we’d get all of the trim primed and painted along the front of the house and on the porch, but it was a tall order.  I didn’t know how many coats

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1970 home renovation

1970 home renovation | painting the exterior

I’ve had the exterior paint sitting in the garage since the beginning of the summer, but I just didn’t want to paint in the heat.  I imagined I would spend a day painting and then jump into the pool as a treat, but waiting to paint on cooler early fall days sounded more appealing to me.  I think there was a bit of procrastination happening as well, but I know myself and I will wilt in the heat and won’t be as productive.  This week, the weather report was perfect for painting.  Not too hot, not too cold, and no rain in the forecast.  So, I purposed to do it.  I put it on the mental calendar and let everyone know that is what I’d be working on for a few days this week. Yesterday, I got started. First of all, no, I’m not painting the brick.  I’m usually on

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Decorating

decorating with shells in the garden

I have loved collecting shells since I was a little girl.  Anytime we went to the beach, my Oma and mom would take walks and collect lady’s ears, olive shells, whelks, sand dollars, and whatever caught their eye.  I remember shells drying on the deck railing of the beach house and we would spend a quiet evening or rainy afternoon making animal sculptures out of some of the found shells.  When we cleaned out my Oma and Opa’s attic after my Opa passed away, we found about 10 five-gallon buckets filled with shells she had collected over the years.  I kept some, but couldn’t possibly keep them all.  Also, searching for the shells and making memories while doing it is a big part of the appeal.  So, I’ve carried on the shell-collecting tradition whenever I’m at a beach that permits it.  (It is illegal to collect shells, rocks, sand, beach

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1970 home renovation

pool & patio updates with Walmart

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions expressed in this post are honest and my own. There are a lot of sponsored posts I get excited about.  I don’t work with a brand if it doesn’t feel authentic and if I wouldn’t buy their products as a customer.  But, I am super, extra excited about this post because our pool and patio area has been completely transformed over the past couple of weeks.  There has been a lot of heavy-duty renovation work that has happened to get the pool up and running and we’ve put in a lot of sweat equity on the landscaping and overdue maintenance like power washing, but it’s been all of the furniture, plants, and accessories that have brought our outdoor oasis to life.  There still is more to do and I can’t wait to see how things look in

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1970 home renovation

thrifted teak patio lounge chairs

When I shared the ironstone breadbox last week, I teased that I found something even better during my next outing to some thrift and antique stores.  What I found wasn’t as rare, but it’s something I’ve been hunting for and I scored big time. My mom and I have been enjoying going out together to check out some local antique, thrift, and second-hand stores lately and we’ve had such a good time!  We have both found some treasures and we simply enjoy spending time together now that we’re 40 minutes apart instead of 20 hours!  On this particular day, we hit an antique store (Memory Lane Antiques in Hagerstown) and then went to the Salvation Army, which is practically next door.  I hadn’t been to this thrift store, but I had heard good things about it and the parking lot is always full and hopping!  A swarm of locals is

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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