Custom hand painted signs.....

Hi Everyone!  While I've been busy working on the remodel of my kitchen, bath and laundry room, I've also been busy with orders.  Almost a dozen signs along with some other larger orders.  A few are signs I've made repeatedly and several are new, custom orders.

I was asked to make this sign based on the sign I usually make that says Faith, Family, Farming.

The same gal that bought the Faith, Family, Friends sign also requested this Get After It sign.  Both of these signs are painted on 24" long boards.


The next two signs were ordered by my boss's niece.  And I really like the way they turned out.

The family rules sign is painted on a wooden canvas that I built and is 12" x 36".  I painted the base dark brown then a top coat of tan.  Then lightly sanded it to reveal the brown.  Then the fun began.  I hand painted the words on.  I began with the Aust Family Rules and then the Love and worked my way up the sign so that I could get the spacing right.  That way if I ended up with a bunch of space it wouldn't look odd separating the Family Rules from the list of rules.  Then I lightly sanded the words.  Which is always difficult for me to do after hand painting all of those letters.  But it turned out looking pretty good.

And the second sign she ordered was this one.  She saw it in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and asked me to recreate it.  I built the wooden canvas, it's 22" x 24" (it's not really pallet wood, just made to look like it), then mixed a custom blue/gray paint (it looks more blue in this picture) and hand painted the letters in white.  I think it turned out pretty well.  And best of all, my client was happy with them.

I have a couple of other signs to finish up that were ordered this past week, a couple of pieces of furniture to paint for one of favorite clients, a headboard bench to build for another client and lots of work to do on the house.  I'm making progress on the house.  I spent this week working on a plaster wall in the kitchen and finished that on Sunday morning.  Then started working on the built-in upper kitchen cabinets that my grandpa built and I'm keeping.  I'll share all the details soon.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:
http://www.myrepurposedlife.com/2014/05/catch-as-catch-can-162.html

Construction zone....

Hi Everyone!  I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and nothing bad has happened to me (thanks for your emails of concern), I've just been over the top busy working on the house and a dozen orders that have come in.  What started out as a small bathroom remodel that shouldn't have taken more than about a month has turned into a three room remodel of the bathroom, turning the large pantry into a laundry room, replacing the door between the kitchen and the back porch and a kitchen remodel.  (I've randomly picked pictures to share with you, more details to come).

I've been living in a construction zone, which wasn't too difficult for the first month or so, but has now become horrible.  The only thing that keeps me going are the positive changes I see happening almost everyday.

What makes it the most difficult is not the dust (I've been able to keep that pretty much under control) but for the last two weeks I have been living without a sink.  I don't have one in the bathroom (it isn't here yet) and haven't for a while, but about two weeks ago I pulled the one in the kitchen so I could send it and several other items home with my brother for one of his friends to use in their home remodel.  And I haven't been able to get the new one installed because my counter top isn't here yet.

I've been taking lots of pictures and can't wait to share the after pictures (once I have them).  It's been an adventure and I've discovered things about the house along the way.  But I really can't wait for it to be over.  I had been trying to keep the mess out of the studio which worked for a while but I've had to move items from the kitchen and bathroom into the studio.

I've purged a lot of things both to the dumpster and to the garage to be donated once the remodel is completed.  Changing the pantry into the laundry room has been one of the best moves I could have made, no more going to the basement to do the laundry.  YEAH!

I've had to repair plaster walls in the kitchen and the drywall in the bathroom and laundry room.  I've put new flooring in the bathroom and laundry room and the kitchen is next.  The carpet (yes there has been carpet in the kitchen for as long as I can remember) should all be up by this weekend.

 I removed plaster from the chimney in the kitchen (well almost all of it) and I love the look of the brick (it still needs to be scrubbed with a wire brush, cleaned and sealed.  Trim in all three rooms needs to be done.  Cabinets in the laundry room and kitchen need to be installed along with counter tops.

The wall treatment in the bathroom still needs to be finished and the other walls and ceiling needs painted.  I need to remodel the built-in in the bathroom that my grandfather built and I careful saved and I have plans to build an identical one across from it to house everything that had been in the closet that now houses the shower.  I still need to build the vanity, the medicine cabinet and frame out the plumbing access area to also house a mini linen closet.

So much to do and not enough time in the day to get it all done.  But I will continue to plug away at it until it is all done!  Thanks for stopping by.