Happy Fathers Day

Happy Father's Day out there to all the Dad's in my life. Thank you to my Dad for always caring and providing. He is one of the hardest working men I know but, is always willing to hang out with his girls to have a little fun!
With his gran-baby.
My Step-Dad, a man who will always listen and fix anything that is broken...including a tractor. His favorite description of me is "all speed and no control". Here he is with one of his grandkids. Love you too!
And, finally my Grandpa! Love you Grandpa and miss you too! Here with Grandma, wife of 51 years. You have taught me about life, marriage and about the love of Christ. You have been given so many obstacles in your life and have come through all with a smile. You've shown me how to love my family and how to cook in the kitchen. Love you lots!

To the rest of the Fathers out there Happy Father's Day!

Your mailbox is ugly, so was mine

I am sorry Mr. mailman that you must pick up mail in these horrible looking mailboxes that are junking up the front of base housing everywhere! At first glance, when you are moving into your new home, the last thing on your mind is, "Wow, my mailbox looks horrible". But, give it time the thought will come. So, what to do? I looked at Wal-mart and Home Depot for replacement boxes but goodness they were expensive! I'm talking 20 bucks for a cheep ones like this, I couldn't do it. I couldn't buy one out of principle. What this mailbox really needed was a good cleaning! I washed it up, removed the Eagle and spay painted it a new shinny black, it was sparkling. It had such a crisp new look and I think the mailman liked it too. But, then I got tired of looking at a black box, I wanted something with more character. Character like only a basket can provide!

Doncha love it! This was at Christmas. I took off the mailbox and attached this basket. I also took off the newspaper holder from the old one and put them on the basket. The baskets do weather more than a old metal box, but I am willing to replace the basket when needed. So, far it's been a year and I have the same basket. By the way, this basket is from Ross. It was cheep and I was willing to sacrifice a few bucks for my mailman. I do think he is much more cheerful when dropping off my mail.

So, here is the calling. Change your mailbox! It doesn't have to be ugly. A friend told me about a girl who painted her mailbox red! Oh, doesn't that sound cute! So, let's help our local postal service and brighten their day with a little color and character added to our mailboxes!

Oh the places you can stain

This is your typical base house privacy fence. Counting blessings: you have a fence, it is made of real wood, it does provide 50% privacy, and best of all it is stainable. At first I tried lend (spell that?) seed oil , but really all that did was make the fence look really streaky and the finish did not last long in 100 degree weather. Before, I could try anything else we picked up and moved. But, at our 4th home I saw inspiration right across the street. Oh, it was the best looking fence I had ever seen. It had such a lovely redwood stain. Staining that fence really helped it look like a real live suburbia neighborhood fence.

This is my neighbors fence...hi neighbor! Also, this is the closest representation of the first inspiring fence I could find. I think she did a great job on this fence and she did this task as a labor of love all by hand. Warning to other stainer's, don't wash your hands with paint thinner.

My hubby was inspired as well, he allowed me to begin staining our fence too. After watching me struggle for 4 hours and only getting a few boards done. He decided a trip to Home Depot would help. He bought the best paint sprayer gun thing ever! He then took over the project and had the whole thing done in a few hours. He pick out this walnut because it match our lawn furniture. It has really been a great color, because I don't believe it is going to fade anytime soon. I will admit it is rather dark, but that's part of the statement.

So, do not be annoyed any longer by ugly fences, pick up your paint brushes or your paint sprayer gun things like hubs used on ours and get to work. So, it'll take a day or two or three depending on which method you use. But, look at the result! Isn't it much more warm and inviting with a little stain.

Adding Charm to the Carport

I have never actually had a car port before moving on base. Well, honestly I have never had a garage either. All i could find out about these mysterious things were a few guidelines, They mustn't be cluttered and you couldn't store stuff our there and it needed to always be clean. Pretty much the first year on base not a thing was in our carport I even swept it with the shop vac to keep it clean...maybe a little OCD doncha think? Anyway, after a year I couldn't resist the temptation to create an outdoor seating place. So, at first I only added the bench. But then Christmas rolled around and I made that cute swag. The best place was to put it above the bench. Very festive. Merry Christmas to all.

Then, finally this summer all broke loose. I added the lantern, replaced the wreath and added the star. I love it! As far as I can tell, I am not getting kicked off base anytime soon for bending these few little guidelines.
This is to show how I mistreated this poor star. Yep, that's just a piece of wire twisted to fit underneath the siding. It used to be on the front of the house hung in the same manner, but everyone has stars on the front of their houses, but no one else had a star in their carport! Please feel free to copy if so needed.

I hope this will help you feel free to decorate our carport too. Hopefully, you are lucky enough to have one!

Transforming the yard

When first moving on to base housing this is all you can seem to find online despite endless hours of searching. I found this on the housing website for the base were we are currently located. At first true, not much to look at and everything looks so plain Jane. And, honestly this is a great duplex! Look there is green grass! We were not so lucky when we accepted our little jewel. We had spare grass in the front and little to none in the back, but hey we "make it work".

The back yard is now an oasis.

Look at that cute little swing! I love it, from Home Depot (thank the Good Lord we have one now) and the lack of grass is still a work in progress. I do have dogs...I think that's one reason we have bare places in the yard.

And then the front yard, I know you've already seen this pic, but I needed it to complete the whole idea of what base housing can be on the out side. Please let me assure there are some much greener thumbs out there than mine. I like to dapple in the gardening areas, but I have a lot to learn from a few master gardeners from down the street.

So, don't despaire when you are shown a house with out grass, a dead tree in the front yard and not a lick of landscaping. With a little elbow grease and "barrowing" of plants from nearby abandoned houses you too can create your own little home.

Lets start at the very beginning

After searching for many years on how to decorate my base house, I finally decided to start my own blog site about what I have done. I hope to share ideas, share what my friends have done and in turn inspire you to make every base house a Home. A home for you, your hubby, and whatever little ones you may have along the way. So, bare with me for a little while as I figure this out. Hopefully, this will help you and I look forward to see how you have turned your base housing into a Home!

Shocking I know, that I have never won "Yard of the Month". Maybe, it's that big brown stain on the driveway where my hubby spilt stain from staining the fence...more on that later.