OK, I finally got it painted white!! I still need to fill in some of the holes & the ends, but for the most part, it's done & I love how it looks. It most likely won't be long before it starts rusting through too...LOL! I used at least a dozen $1 cans from Dollar General to paint this bad boy! I have to say that they only contain 9 oz. of paint compared to other brands & the spray nozzles will make a sore finger in short order. This was easy to put together, once we decided how far the top door would overhang the side ones, he just lined up the holes of the brackets to the door, pre-drilled & then screwed them in with the existing screws from the door. This was definitely a low budge operation! LOL! In case you can see, I switched out the larger metal flowers I had on the barn door fence for some maple leafs that are made out of twigs! I just HAD to have them & bought them at the local Blueberry Festival this past weekend. I mention them because someone on here might be motivated enough to try to make them. TFL!!

LG, your urns and the cache pot are lovely. And perfect for you. I am looking forward to seeing how you decorate with them. I'm not ready for Christmas, other than loving looking at stuff and buying some. But I sure want summer over, our nice Fall weather doesn't even start till around first of Nov! But last year I decided to start decorating for it on the actual first day of Fall. LOL. And I will again this year, it gives me so much more time to enjoy it. Its easy to tweek for Halloween. By the way, "someone" in Canada sent me some cookies!! Only in Canada can you find chocolate type cookies called Whippet (like my dogs!). I'd heard of them but never saw any. Now I only know two people in Canada, and the other one doesn't have initials of L.G. like on the mailing label. Did YOU send me these yummy cookies? ;o) hugs, Karen PS...Candy, thank you for not fighting me for that Cookie Chef Nutcracker! I really, really wanted him badly.

I love old houses - the quality, the history (I was THRILLED when I saw the names of the owners of our then under 5 year old house on the 1930 census), and the style. If I don't win the lottery, I will never live in another "new" build (80's and up) because the vast majority of non custom built homes are just not up to my standards. Of the 4 new builds I lived in in my life, only two were decent. The last decent one had been built by a guy who had previously done commercial building. It was built to last and I have no doubt that one would still stand after a tornado. Because of the commercial background, the finish "prettyness" wasn't there, but those details were added later, by us. The last new build was a nightmare. The "quality" semi custom build was so lacking that I can't even imagine how much worse some of the mass produced really poor quality houses will last. Within the first 5 years the deck was partially rotting (no flashing between the house and it), the roof leaked at the chimney, many of the windows wouldn't work well and/or leaked at the top, lots of the trim wood was rotting out and the floors of both 1st and 2nd floor creaked in almost every spot as did the entire staircase. And then of course you had the "minor" issues like one couldn't use a hairdryer in the master bath before resetting the outlet in the upstairs bath if someone had used a hairdryer in it before the master bath. And the defective shingles requiring a complete reroof at 3 years is hard to forget. My brother has a friend who last year moved into a house in one of those new mass built neighbourhoods in South Carolina. Brand new. 6 months after moving in, a water pipe junction burst (iirc, they thought it hadn't been correctly connected or something) in the attic while they were on vacation and ruined most of the house and their items. The builder denied responsibility and the insurance company was blaming it on the builder since the house was still under "warranty" and it was turning into a huge mess, to say the least. New does not equal free of work and I'd rather strip wallpaper than deal with finding out what corners were cut.

You all are INCREDIBLY kind! I wish you could have seen this house when I bought it in 1986. It looked like a little red school house with white trim and black shutters. The back yard was a ravine with dying trees in it, and the shed was next to the house where the garage is now. There were no gardens...I was younger then and dove in and worked hard as I LOVED the house from the moment I saw it, with the blazing wood stove in the kitchen,(now in the cellar) which had dark home made cabinets and 24" of counter space, and a vinyl 'brick' floor. Oldhouse - It makes me think of your journey that you are on with your house now, although mine only dates to 1937. I have touched every square inch of this place and added some square feet! It'll be 25 years that I have had it this December, and I love it even more today, as it's perfect for me and my doggie kids. I have truly enjoyed working in the house and yard all of those years. It sure doesn't happen over night. So anyone who thinks that it's nice; I am very grateful that my love for my home shows. It's been a long time coming. My taste has been 'honed' over the years, from the blue and pink of the 80's, to what it is today, thank goodness! And, I know that I talk about eBay and Craigslist often, but they have helped me immensely with wonderful unique items. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL COMMENTS ABOUT MY HOME!