I confess...I'm a copy-cat

If you're on Pinterest, or read design blogs, I'm sure you've heard of Rebekka Seale.  Among other illustrations, she does these amazingly cute house portraits that are personalized with your name, street address, quote, etc.  Here are a few of my favorites...

Although I have NO experience with watercolors, I do have a tote full of artist paints that Grady has been begging to use for a while now.  This weekend we decided to drag 'em out & I thought I'd give a Rebekka Seale style house portrait a go.  It's definitely not anywhere near her level, but for my first attempt I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

First I printed out a few of her houses that had similar characteristics as mine, along with a picture of the front of my house.  Oh, I also printed out our last name, address, & a short quote in a font I liked in case I wanted to add that to the bottom.  Then I went to Joann & bought a small pad of watercolor/acrylic paper (4x6) in their dollar section.  (Grady bought a small bird house, also from the dollar section, that he was going to paint.)

I watered down my paint & layered it on in the rough shape of our house.  I just eyeballed it & didn't sketch it out at all beforehand & I certainly didn't try to get it perfect.  My house is just a box with no crazy angles, so it was pretty simple!

After getting the base painted, I filled in the windows, door, steps, trim, etc.  I also added random lines on the roof & walls for the shingles & shake siding.

Next, I focused on the details...the mortar lines on the chimney, adding a little depth to the windows & doors, etc.  I just kept tweaking it until I was happy with the look.

I didn't have much room below the house for text, so I opted to keep in simple with "Home".

Then I painted an old garage sale frame yellow & called her complete!

Like I said before...it's certainly not perfect, or nearly as cute as Rebekka's portraits, but it does add a little cheer to the kitchen & makes me smile when I see it.  All for a couple of hours of time & less than a buck!

A 'poor man's' pergola & some porch art

Another weekend of rain - of course!  Doesn't mother nature know we're on a strict schedule with this project?!?  We had high hopes of getting the roof off and rebuilt on Saturday, but it didn't stop raining all day.  We got a few dry hours yesterday & were able to take off all of the old tin roof & a lot of the old siding, but we're not nearly as far along as we'd planned.  It sort of resembles a very primitive pergola now.  Haha.  Dad was able to take the afternoon off work today to work on it a little bit, so we'll see how far he gets by the time I'm off work.  Hopefully we can play catch-up tonight & get this project back on track!

Old cedar siding off...getting prepped to re-wire & eventually put up new siding!

Dad working on re-hanging the gutter after we took off the old tin roof.  It's so much brighter without it.

Some art I sketched out the other day to hang in the porch - I can't wait to 'decorate' it.

The list looks pretty similar to where is was last week...with a couple of unexpected additions like re-hanging the whole gutter since it was apparently just resting on the old tin roof:

• Jack up porch.
• Order roofing material.
• Demo lattice & chicken wire & clean off porch.
• Dig post holes.
• Pour cement footers.
• Level out the porch & get the posts put up.
• Tear off all of the old siding.
• Tear off the old roof.
• Re-hang the gutter since it was resting on the old roof.
• Frame everything out.
• Build built-in bar.
• Re-route cable to other side of porch.
• Wire for the new light & outlet.
• Hang new siding.
• Prime & paint all framework.
• Install new roof.
• Paint siding.
• Install new light & outlet.
• Hang up screen.
• Retrofit screen door for existing space.
• Paint screen door.
• Prime & paint porch floor.
• Trim out patio door, window, and all screen panels.
• Purchase & hang porch swing & pallet planter.
• Build, prime, paint new steps up to porch.
• Fill nail holes & touch up all trim work.
• Hunt down three cool chairs & paint them.
• Sew a few throw pillows for the porch swing.
• Plant window boxes.
• Mulch garden around porch.
• Perhaps finish off bottom of porch with lattice?

26 days & counting!