A few pieces of furniture, and working on our house exterior.

Lately house renovations have been slowing down.  We've been focusing more on finishing up little details, refinishing some furniture, and getting the house ready for winter.





I'll start by sharing some furniture projects I did this week.  To jump start the long line of projects: a beautiful fall-inspired antique dresser, refinished in Barn Red by Homestead House.  The top was stripped and stained in Provincial.

I also did an antique desk.  It's painted white, and the top was also stripped down and restained.

The top came out pretty wild on this piece.

Mark even did a piece.  We've had this little vintage dresser in our garage for months.  So in a last attempt to give it another life before it hit the burn pile, he refinished it.

The top on this piece was done with my oxidizing solution.  Basically, I soak a steel wool pad in a jar of vinegar overnight, and paint it on the bare wood.  It turns it gray, and gives it this lovely weathered look.  I used this for this sideboard as well:

Before:

And after:

As for our house, we've been focusing on getting a few things done on the exterior before the snow flies.  I toyed with painting the exterior, but finally committed to stripping the brick. Using paint stripper and a pressure washer, Mark and I stripped all that nasty pink paint off our house.

 Mark did most of the pressure washing.  I wasn't too keen on operating a power tool on the extension ladder.  Here you can see the bottom half is stripped.

I did the back wall of the house.  The paint was on there really thick, and it took a few coats of paint stripper and power washing to get it all off.

We painted the sofits black, and the window frames white, just to freshen it up.  We also painted the cornices (the brick on the corners of the house and around the windows).  And finally, I painted the basement stone a putty colour.  I find it really cleans up the shabbiness of the house.

Mark found some beautiful exterior pendants on the side of the road.  I took them apart, cleaned them up and painted them black.

And Mark installed them.

Now when I come home at night, I drive up to a really cozy looking farmhouse with two pretty little lights.

One of the little finishing projects we did this week was our island.  It looked something like this for quite some time.

I had a vision for it in my head for the longest time.  We finally carved out some time to tackle the project.

We basically added some paneling to the sides, some cupboards on the back, and trimmed it all out around the base.  It was finicky and took all day.

Then, of course, Mark found these stools that fit just perfectly underneath.  But they were stained this ugly glossy red colour.  This is what they looked like before:

I painted the bottoms white, and stripped and used my vinegar solution on the seats.  They match much better now.

As for me?  I'm 35 weeks pregnant with baby girl #3, and celebrating my 29th birthday this Saturday.  I had the opportunity to celebrate with some friends last week at my friend Rachel's house.  It was a lovely way to celebrate 29 years of life.

 

This week, I'm working on a beautiful old armoire, an antique vanity, dresser, and finishing our downstairs powder room.  It's all painted, and we've found a vanity that fits well.  Now we just need to find a toilet and faucet, and we can put it all together.  Ah, projects.  They make my world go 'round.  I would be absolutely lost if I didn't have any projects to work on.

I'll slow down when baby comes.  Until then, I'm in great health and am so thankful I can still work.  (And that my midwife lets me) :)

Happy Thanksgiving, all!