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Paint Colors I used
Changing for the
     seasons
Halloween Decor



 

Home Improvements have been a passion of mine for many years.  I can remember being a little girl and waking up to the sound of the table saw running in the "cellar" pronounced cellah or basement for those not local.  I would run down the three flights of stairs to see what my dad was working on and spend the day being his helper.  To this day I love the smell of sawdust and hearing power tools riffle through the air.  He taught me how to do some electrical, some plumbing and some carpentry but unfortunately he was taken from this life before I was able to learn it all from him.

My father was a firefighter who built and fixed up houses on the side.  We never had to call in a "handyman" or contractor for anything, since my dad could do it all.  He was also a perfectionist, no matter what project he was working on it always came out perfect, that's a quality hard to come by these days in contractors or home builders.   It has made life frustrating at times for myself, without the help and guidance from my dad when I do not know how to do something and it really irks me if I have to call in a contractor which I try not to do, but sometimes you just have to know when you need "help". 

I have done every single home improvement project in my house aside from installing the hard wood floors, that I left to the pro's since I did not want to mess something that big up!  Of course I mess up sometimes but I guess that's how you learn!  I wish I could say my work is perfect like my fathers was but it's far from it ;)

I fear the day when I will have all of my dreams completed for this house, I won't know what to do with myself when that day comes to pass I may have to just sell the house and buy another fixer upper!  I wish new construction homes had the character of old homes but from what I've seen most don't.  I love old homes, I love separate rooms, I've never been one for modern homes with everything open to each other.  I Love homes that have big walk in pantries, I would forgo extra bathrooms for a walk in pantry any day! Maybe it's because I grew up in a two family Philadelphia style home with one bathroom.  I certainly miss that house.  I miss the 100 yr old claw foot tub, the 100 yr old farm sink in the kitchen.  One day I will own an old house with character again!  You can see photos of the house I grew up in and see why I love old homes Here   My other passions include antiques, especially furniture, white pottery and silverware.  Growing up I had an aunt and uncle who were antique dealers, in the summer time I used to help them at their shows, it was from them that I learned to refinish furniture and found my appreciation for beautiful antiques.  I also like gardening (another project I helped my father with was our vegetable garden in the summer time) I do not have a green thumb like my father though, so I stick to growing impatiens since they are really hard to kill!  

I guess you can say I got my creativity from my mom, we never had store bought Halloween costumes growing up my mom used to hand sew all our costumes, which I carried on the tradition by making costumes for my nephew every Halloween and eventually created life size or bigger props for Halloween (see the Halloween decor link to the left to view some of my past creations).  It was also from that same creativity that I started drawing and painting on canvas and eventually got into graphics and web designing.  While I've since outgrown the whole Halloween thing I still enjoy sewing now and then (making curtains or bedding) and I don't paint as often as I used to.  I still enjoy using my imagination and creativity, now I seem to use it mainly on home renovations.  I rarely decide to do something to my house with out first using my graphic software to superimpose architectural projects onto photos of my house to see if that is the look I'm really going after.  Makes life easier doing that!

I started this site to keep track of my home improvement projects and to share them with friends and family.  

If you have any questions on any of the projects I have done please feel free to contract me at contact@diohomeimprovements.com