Colonial style home tour in New York

  I was so excited and honored when my dear friend Debbie, whom I've known since our RMS days and who is also a big reason why I started my blog, asked if I would like to be part of her home tour edition. I immediately said yes and then worked like crazy getting this post together!
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Welcome to our home.....

     We bought our home in January  2003. When the realtor showed us this house we knew this was the one. The couple we purchased it from was a young Chinese couple with no children. 

They were moving to Pennsylvania to take care of the his parents.I guess a blue eyed baby boy is good luck in the Chinese culture and the couple was trying to have a baby for sometime. The women told our realtor she felt my son was going to bring them good luck. 

We found out a few months later the women was pregnant. That's our little story behind the purchase of our home!

Summer 2011

At the time my son was 8 months old and when we went inside to look around the young women went crazy over him and asked if she could hold him. She was very sweet so I let her. The next day our relator called us to let us know there was multiply offers on the house, we thought great now the bidding war starts! Well to our surprise that didn't happen, the couple excepted our offer and within a few weeks we closed on the house. The realtor then told us we have our son to thank!?!

Going down to the backyard and pool. We did all the landscaping ourselves accept for the stonework.

We put the pool in the Fall of 2007 and it was the best thing we ever did.  My kids all taught themselves how to swim. We spend a lot of  time out here in the summer months!

Come on in....

     Last year my husband and I added the picture molding in the hall and dining room. 

We are big DIY'ers. When you come through the front door to the left is our living room and to the right is a small sitting room(where you will usually find me blogging).

Our Living Room

I love to mix different pieces in a room. All the pieces that you see painted throughout the house have been painted by me. I walk around with a paint brush in my hand looking for the next victim(LOL)!

In our Dining Room along with painting we added the crown molding and picture molding.

 One of the first things we did in our kitchen when we moved in was add the granite counters and tile back splash. We also changed all the white appliances to stainless steal.

 Last year the hubby and I gave our plain builder basic kitchen island a makeover. We added bead board and decorative molding and painted and distressed it black. LOVE this change!

    Our kitchen opens up to our family room which I love since this is where we spend most of our time. This room was carpeted and a few years ago we added the hardwood.

In the bedrooms all we did was paint and the hubby added crown molding to them.

 This is my oldest daughters bedroom and bath. We painted and added the bead board to her bathroom last year. Every bedroom having there own full bath was a BIG plus when we looked at this house.

 I added the striped accent wall to my sons room.

 My youngest daughters room.

Thank you Debbie for letting me be part of your home tour edition, and thank you all for coming along on the tour!!

Thank you Martina for having us over.  I really enjoyed the tour and the story!

Northern nesting

This home tour is a day early. Wish me luck tomorrow with my move to word press.  Hoping for a smooth transition, and that I do not vanish into thin air:)

DIY home projects that made for a lot of comments...{who would think}?

Yesterday I shared with you a recap of my favorite top diy home projects.  How about I share with you the MOST viewed posts on my blog to date! Then go on to the most commented posts.

Thanks Rosemary for the inspiration on this post!
This is not something I would have done or thought to share.

Our Home tour with 8,099 views to date.

You may view that post 

HERE

I keep this post on my sidebar and I still get a lot of views.  Perhaps you may want to put a little home tour post together of your own. Everyone loves Home tours!

{thank you}
Now I will go on to show some more of my MOST viewed posts.

Second, was my Chalk paint posts,

that you may view

HERE

Next, and surprisingly was my recent

Holiday Magazine copy cat challenge...

 It sure was a HOPPING party.

You may view that party post

HERE

Then there was our 2011 Christmas mantel....

View our Christmas mantel 

HERE

Now how about I share with you some of the most commented posts.

Some I am not including, if they are NOT project related, etc.

I have blabbed about a lot of things and have had thought provoking coffee talks, that have also gathered a lot of thought and comments.

Some are redundant and are the same as most viewed, so I will go to the next ones...

My Trash to treasure project received 116 comments.

You may view that in full 

HERE

My Mod podge project

91 comments

You may view the tutorial and post

HERE

Whimsy in the garden was a big one too...

Funny to see how much has changed since then...

this post received a 114 comments.

I was only blogging for a few months when I posted this.

It sure was a a lot encouragement for me.

You may view that post

HERE

Summer Love..

92 comments...

I am starting to see a trend here...y'all really like my outdoor posts!

Some of my tablescapes have also received a lot of comments,

this Vivacious red being one of the tops..

You may see that post'

92 comments

HERE

I think this one shocked me the most...

at 90 comments on a lampshade that took me all of 5 minutes to come up with.

To think I was almost embarrassed to hit publish on this one.

You may view that post and tutorial

HERE

I have to say this was a lot of fun digging back in my archives.

Hope you newbies of mine had fun looking back too, these are posts you have never seen before, and some of them are from my early on days of blogging.

Fun to also see my photography improve some, and my decor LOL!

This table here was a little wire rack I purchased at Walmart and spray painted it.  It did me good for the time I had it!

Sharing with:
Open house party
It's overflowing
Home sweet home
Feather nest Friday
Potpourri Friday
Ivy and elephants

The grass is never greener on the other side!

So we've been told many times!

However, if you are patient, hand drill thousands of holes in your lawn,

plant zoysia plugs...(info here)

you too will have green grass.

It has taken 5 years to finally take off, and this year, the reward was worth the wait.

As Summer is coming to end, it is bitter sweet.

As hot as it was, and as busy as we were,

 all the fun we had...

I will miss certain aspects of the Summer Season.

I enjoyed my boys being home this summer...and believe it or not, there are parts of the day when I miss their little chatter, bickering and in and out of the pantry runs.

I enjoyed summer projects, and all the  fun,bright colors of Summer...

Our back yard dream is almost complete...

we are just waiting on a few more things, and Mike can complete the 

Pizza oven.  It has been quite the job I tell ya...

Pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong...but in the end, it will all work out, and soon enough we will be cooking up some pizza's!

 The boys can't wait!

The leaves are starting to change ever so slightly...

Our back yard is so gorgeous when in peak.

Today the high is around 70 degrees...not an ounce of sun in the sky...

However, we sure have some green grass...so YES,

the grass is sometimes greener on the other side!

Have a great day!

NEWBIE party still going on 

HERE

Mini home tour, Newbie party started!

Hello there all!~

 I thought I would share some snippets of my Mom's townhouse. She downsized around 5 years ago, and it was the best thing she could have done.  Although, she misses all her property, sprawling gardens, and space, she has adjusted well.

Her place is so charming,cozy, and home sweet home.

She recently painted her Brick fireplace. It was originally dark brick, and she hated it.
She used a kit called Brick ANew.  She said it was so very easy to do.

This of course is the before.  It really darkened the space, and brought the ceilings down.

Did I mention she loves birds? Oh yes indeed she does.

As you can see, she has filled every nook and cranny in her space.

She has been inspired by blogs too, as you can see she found these wooden boxes that many of you have as well.

She also loves Chalk paint! She did a great job on this piece.

I love her kitchen window treatment. So charming.

Guest room, and I will say it is so very cozy!

Can you tell my boys are having fun?

 AS for me....well...

That would be a YES!~

Enjoy the newbie party.

GUIDELINES:

Blogging six months or less, and/or less than 100 followers.

PLEASE add my link or button.

If you are NOT a friend, sure would love to have you.

ANOTHER reminder, is to head on over to the MOUNTAIN of giveaways!

10 cans of Chalk paint and more in the works, very very GENEROUS, and one of the best giveaways I have ever seen!

Sorry I have been a bad host at the newbie party. I have barely a minute to even make this post.

I appreciate you stopping by and joining in.

Joining:

MM with SBNOTP 
DIY