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Yes you're still at The Virginia House and yes I re-wallpapered and hung some new art whilst you were slumbering. You know how the song goeth, "it's my bloggy I can redecorate if I want toooo..." or something like that...

Moving on...

This weeks feature is from a blog called The Gathering Place. Krista was inspired by a store in Napa Valley called NapaStyle. Sounds inspiring huh? Lucky for her, she had a piece just waiting for her to use her ideas on.

Doesn't it look dandy! I love the new lettering she added. Stop by and tell her if you like it or just plain love it!

Link on up and let me know wacha been doing. Crafts? Room makeovers? Would love to see some "I saw it and made it cheaper" designs! Humor me.
1. Only link your post URL, not your blogs address!
2. Be sure to take that button at the top with you so that everyone can know where you're linking up!
3. Please only link crafts, DIY projects and the like. I don't want to delete your link!

Are you all ready for this? I know I am! So, to look forward in this project, we must first look back just a little.



Remember these pictures?





Yuck right! Not only was it u-gly, it smelled like a dog. (very badly I might add) It was actually used as a dog house by the previous owners, so decor wasn't high on the list.

So buckle up and brace yourself for a loooot of pictures!







See more on how I did the walls here.











My goal was to keep the whole project under $200 and to try and do all the work myself.





I did keep it under budget and I did about 80% of the work. Thank you to my father-in-law and most of all to my husband for lending a hand!









I also wanted this to be a place where our kids could play, so I changed the dog door into a small swinging door for them.





Look back on my faux stained brick floor tutorial here.









The window seat was the first building project I had ever taken on. My husband and oldest son left for the weekend so my 1 year old and I got to work.



The seat opens up and all our pool supplies and chemicals are stored in there.









Three sets of curtains, one window seat cover and two pillow covers were made out of a package of 2 drop clothes from Home Depot. Only $9.99 for 2! Can't beat that with a baseball bat!



The metal shelf is from Ikea. I love the industrial touch it brings to the room.









I really did have so much fun doing this project, even if it did go on and on... It is such a fun challenge to try and think of creative ways to do things as cheaply as possible. You never know what may happen!

I'm sure many of you wonder why there aren't pictures of the other wall. You see a bit of it in the very first picture with the hooks and stool, but otherwise it has a window with an a/c unit in it, sooo, not very pretty.



Hope your eyeballs didn't fall out with the overload of pictures. I got a little snap happy.

Let me know what ya think of the pool house!

I bet you all thought I had given up on working on The Pool House project. Ha! I've worked my little fingers to the nubs (yuck) on it!
And guess what! It's almost done!
So, if I can wrangle in a trip to Ikea this weekend (my oldest son is still sick after all) then I will be ready for the big reveal next week!
I can hardly wait. I love this little house with all its un-square corners, sloping floors, crooked doors and small critters.
I wish I could show ya more, but to be honest, there's not too much to show since it's only about 80 square feet in all.

So come see me next week and I'll give you the good news (or bad if there is no trip to Ikea).

Hope that my son gets well soon! He managed to get sick again last night at bedtime and get every blanket, pillow and father soiled.

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Well the sickness has departed (though Internet info says it can be contagious up to 2 weeks. Say-Whuu?!). Let us mark that grossness off our "to-do" list for the next few years! I just thought I had laundry before! Try having a 3 year old throwing up about 20 times in one night. I may never catch up with that mountain.



Sooo, it's already time for We Can Do It Cheaper again! I have been working like a mad dog the last two weeks since my oldest sister sprung a quick visit on us and had never seen my house before.



One of the projects I managed to complete is my shelf idea that popped into my head around 3am one morning. I had previously fallen in love with this one from PB....



But, since it is $350 and I don't have that saved up in my penny jar yet... weeell, I had to go a different route.



To all of you out there that also love this PB shelf, it really would be easy to make, I just chose to do my own version since I also wanted hooks.

I decided to go with a double stack, faux crown molding since I am not real thrilled about cutting real crown molding angles and such.

I already had the large board on hand, so I just purchased a piece of baseboard and another of window casing, then a plain piece of narrow trim to top it off.

The hooks are from Hobby Lobby of course, and were half off, making them $1.50 each! They were black, so I slapped some white paint on them, sanded them down then rubbed stain over them.

I still have a certain fear respect of the nail gun, so my husband graciously nailed it all together for me. (he's peering over my shoulder making sure he gets credit, love him for that)

I wanted a very rustic, rough look so I pieced some of the trim together (ok, so I messed up! But I love it!)and didn't sand down the rough spots prior to painting.

(The "1,2,3" pictures are about to go in My Etsy Store for anyone who is interested!)

I darkened this next picture so you can see better detail and color.I put on a coat of gray first then white and lightly sanded it to get the perfect (for me!)look.



My total cost? Approximately $17! Now that, I do have in my penny jar. Well, I did, I spent it though. You get the idea. Go Link Up Already!



Sorry I didn't get to comment on each of your links last week!

Remember that someone from this week will be featured next week!

1. Only link your post, not your blogs address!

2. Be sure to take that button at the top with you so that everyone can know where you're linking up!

3. Please only link crafts, DIY projects and the like. I don't want to delete your link!