Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Nothing makes me happier than these 3 boxes of pure amazing joy... mirrors!!! AH!  150 of them. 12"x12" each.. FREE!  (don't mind the mirror picture- underneath are the square ones :)

A lady I bought a chandelier from 2 YEARS AGO had a wall of mirrors that I told her I loved.  She hated the wall with the mirrors and said she and the husband were going to take them down and would I like them when they took them down.  Uh, yeah!  So 2 years later she emailed me (even remembered my first name!) to tell me that the mirrors were down and I could come get them.  Needless to say I nearly peed my pants with excitement to get the email!  These puppies are shiny, shimmery, gold to me.  I'm a magpie, what can I say....if it is shiny/sparkly/reflective I'm in heaven!  I have big plans for these mirrors... lets hope my idea works!

Years ago I found this amazing junk store in CR and sadly they went out of business.  I think they were probably a front for a meth lab/drug ring, but hey, they had great junk AND they would let me haggle with them.  I love to haggle :)  Luke is learning to do this well too... way too much time spent with me.  He haggled a poor lady at a garage sale this summer and got what he wanted for the price he wanted and then turned around and changed his mind got his money back and bought something else...what a kid. 

Back to the junk store though... before they closed I found this lovely treasure there.  It, as you can see, was in not so lovely condition, but with lots of time and diligent sanding she really became a beauty!

It had layers of thick bright red, blue, and yellow paint.. it was like sanding bubble gum. Then there were layers of gesso... It was crazy!!  It literally took me over a span of a year to finish working on it off and on, but it was well worth it!   I'm amazed at how awesome the original hardware looks on the finished piece.  And to think I paid $15 for it!

And of course it needed some beautiful insides too!  Robins egg blue with shimmery fuschia paisley print paper- beautiful.

God really loves me... I know because the junk store/drug front has moved closer to me and is just one city away!  They know me by name and we are at the "Love ya!" stage when I pack up my car and drive off with all my newly bought treasures! :)  It's the only place I know that will sell you a solid wood vintage buffet for $5!

Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying this fabulous week!  We're canoeing this weekend- it might be more of a canoe walk with how low the river is, but it will be fun with all our friends!

Happy treasure hunting everyone! :)

Black, white and fuschia all over

This little gem is quite possibly one of my favorite pieces...  I have furniture ADD so we'll see how long I keep it before it gets sold. :)  My house is a rotating door with furniture.  Also, nothing ever gets finished on my house because I'm always working on projects to sell...  I need two of me to get everything done. :)  That's a scary thought... two of me.

The before shot.  Not even sure how I got this lifted into the car.  A couple stopped while I was trying to stuff it in the car and asked if I needed help, but I was determined to do it by myself so they just stood back and watched me sweat it out... :)

Obviously this is a jewel :) but couldn't stay in this fabulous shape.  It's a great chair that reclines and has a foot and leg rest that come out from below.  What a great chair!!  Here's the end result... I adore this chair!  How can you not love velvet fuschia chair!!!

I realized when I was finished with the upholestry that it was missing a couple springs on the inside so I still have that to finish and the fabric guard that goes between the chair and the leg rest.  Almost done! :)

Doug was not happy about this project, mainly because I left the dresser in the front yard for about 2 weeks... It's pretty ghetto looking so it did not help the look of the house.  It was rained on, made of chip board and upholstered with padded vinyl... I repeat... padded vinyl. ?!  What exactly goes through someones head before they upholster something in PADDED vinyl?!

 So I went to my local crack dealer and got the hook up.  The dealer being Restore/Habitat for humanity and the crack being wallpaper :)  I <3 Restore.  I take a paper sack with me every time I go because I usually hyperventilate because of excitement when I'm there.  Picked up this fantastic wallpaper and slapped it on the dresser put some clear plastic protector over it and nailed that sucker down with nail brads and voila!  It's the cutest little thing.  It works great in Luke's room with the chevron pattern.  With it being chip board there was no painting it so wallpaper was the next best choice besides fabric.  And here's the after!

Well, I'm off for a ham sandwich for lunch... peace out.

Welcome To Our Humble Commode :)

I think it's comical when I call my dad, brother-in-law (Kaleb), or friend (David) any time during the day they all immediately ask what I've found on the curb and that yes, I can use their truck to go get it. :)  I don't even have to ASK anymore- they know what I'm usually calling for.  I really need a truck/van/Uhual, but the husband knows better.  Although it was a glorious day, and I may have had a personal revival, when I found out the seats in my car lay down.. it was a powerful moment right there in front of Goodwill when that was found out!  It was one step closer to a truck :)

The curbs of Anamosa produce a plethora of fanastic junk that can be striped down, painted, upholstered, etc.. you just gotta have the vision.  Reminds me of the house we are in- dad said don't buy it, it's in terrible shape!  I saw it and was so excited because it was a blank slate to me.  It wasn't in great shape so I could do whatever I wanted to it and still not ruin it! :)  We got the house for a song and went to work... granted the work continues, but one day we'll get there.  Doug's become a pro at electric work and dry walling and all around handi-man-ness.  Plus he's super cute with a drill in his hand. :)

The bathroom when we moved in... these people apparently had a deep-seated love for wallpaper border.

The bathroom now... Much better than dusty rose with border! 

Still have flooring to install but making progress!


The living/dining rooms.. the house sat vacant for quite awhile and the pipes burst so the carpet and flooring in kitchen was quickly removed and they used crow bars to remove.  Floors and walls were in rough shape so we decided to paint!  I'm not much for plain wood so it was fun to get to do what we wanted with the floors!  These are before...

And after!

These are old pictures and it's just the painted floor before I put the polyurethane on... Unfortunately I used the wrong polyurethane on the floor so we have to redo it, but this is what it will look like again after we redo.

I found a stencil online that I LOVED, but costs $140!!  WHAT?!  So I decided it could be made by hand so that's what I set out to do.   I took the design to Copyworks to be printed on engineering size paper.  Then I painstakingly cut out the stencil from plastic and began painting... let just say, it's a work in progress.  I've cut it out 4 times (long stories there) and quite possibly will have to cut it again... grrr..

It's so great, but I have NO clue why I decide on Majestic Magenta as the color and was not very happy with the color after while so I decided to try again with black

Ah!  I absolutely adore this in  black and white and with the floors it's amazing!  My stencil literally shredded after just a few repeats, but I'm deteremined to get this painted on my wall, so we'll make this a winter project and recut the stencil yet again. :)

This post is dedicated to...

Well, here is is peeps... I've been pushed, prodded and hog tied into doing a blog, er, well, kinda... and a year and a half later, after sister #1 (aka Emie) created it for me, I'm making my first post! :) Thank you sissy!   (Ruby, Van, Soph- I said sister #1, not #1 sister so don't get your panties in a wad!:)    Anyhow, this is the place where you can keep up with all my craziness and dumpster/curb redo's.  I'd like to call it Born Again Furniture (haha, get it?! :), but that name is already used in about every state for some furniture store, so Better Than Ever it is. :)

My kindred spirit... couch strapped to car.  Thank you inventor of the bungee cord- you're a hero.

I have a picture that sums me up pretty well and its of me sewing wearing just *ahem* undergarments :)  That's usually how it was growing up.. I'd buy things cheap and sew them into what I wanted.  With my first real money I bought an ironing board so I could iron my projects in my room instead of having to traipsing downstairs in my *ahem* BVD's to iron.  I would share the picture here, but it is probably not rated G.

I'm going to blame this illness I have on the amount spray paint fumes I've inhaled over the years.  I still remember being newly married and Doug being furious with me because I decided the bedroom furniture needed to be painted black, so that's what I did... spray painted.. the furniture.. in the house.  In my defense it was winter.  I'm just thankful that the paint came out of the carpet in our rental!

So, I dedicate this post to:
-My dear loving husband who has more patience than anyone I know with me and lets me do crazy things instead of cleaning the house
-My sister for setting up this blog and actually thinking anyone really cares about the junk I redo
-My other sisters/mother for being super impressed with every redo and being a fantastic fan club
-Also to all my friends/acquaintances/neighbors/random strangers who've seen my things on FB for telling when there is free stuff on curbs
-And last but not least to Luke, my honest son, who will tell me when a project is really "lovely" (his words) or probably needs to be started over. :)