Ten Acres and a Pond

new friends...

2012-02-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

see that little deer peeking in from the right?

He was just checking things out before his friends got there...

overnight....

2012-02-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Nancy

making our guests happy...

2012-02-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

It took at least 12 trips to Lowe's before I was satisfied with the layout of the new kitchen and what cabinets we were purchasing and where they would go and what I would use them for and how many drawers I wanted...and then at the very end...I talked to the designer over the phone and changed one cabinet around and lost the cabinet I really needed...

There is no where to set a trash can in the kitchen. There are no niches, no end of the cabinet available, no pantry closet to stick it in... Since October I have put a plastic bag in the kitchen sink for all the trash acquired during cooking and then just tied it up and tossed it into the trash can...which sat in the laundry room...behind an always closed door... It drove my girls crazy...it drove my sister crazy....it drove everyone (but me) crazy...

TA DA!!!

This morning before I got up Rich put together two more chairs for the dining room...

we retired the bench that sat on the other side..

And today is Spaghetti Sauce day....

with meat

without meat

And the meatballs are ready to fry... so that's all for today...

Did you notice the new blog header? We are on the Missouri flyway for Canada Geese and every few days we get a flock of them landing in the pond...

Nancy

"under protest"

2012-02-12T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is how the weekend has gone so far...

Saturday
8am - I leave home to drive to St Louis and attend my meeting of the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild.
12:30pm- meeting over
1:30pm - pick up BBQ at a "wish it was more local" BBQ place..
2:30- arrive home and clean two bathrooms (did all the other cleaning Friday, but refuse to clean the bathrooms for company until the son and girlfriend have left)
3:30pm- first guests arrive (early) while Rich is still in the shower.
5-6pm - Rest of guests arrive for Rich's 60th birthday and Abbie's fourth birthday Party! Dinner, cake and presents for all!
They all leave and we start the clean up...
10pm- bedtime

Sunday

6:30am - Rich wakes up and takes coffee to the sewing room (because we have a teenager sleeping on the couch) and watches the news.
7:30am - I wake up and finish cleaning up
9am - we leave three teenagers sleeping and head for the local hardware store to get hinges and pulls for the doors of the cabinet in my sewing room..
10am - Start making home made waffles with the new waffle iron Rich got for his birthday. Rich cooks bacon while I use the giant mixmaster, some flour, eggs and a stick of butter for the waffle batter...
11am - teenagers want to know how soon breakfast will be ready
Noon - all the waffles are finished, bacon done... let's eat!
Clean up breakfast and start putting cabinet doors up...

This is what I bought for the cabinets...

bright shiny hinges..

U-Bolts..

yep...i wanted an industrial look and these are U-Bolts

the "drunk" guy made the doors...he did such a bad job, but they work...

I think it looks so nice now...I just need a little bit of organization on those shelves to get it to look perfect..

Rich would like you all to know he did not like it when I picked out the shiny hinges and the U-Bolts.. He really wanted me to get some black regular hinges and knobs...of some kind...

He did this "Under Protest"....

Nancy

closet...

2012-02-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

We have two closets in the back hallway. One is all shelves and I use it for food storage. The kitchen doesn't have enough cabinets to keep dishes AND food... the other closet had shelves on either side and then a hanging rod. We thought we would use the hanging rod for coats, but we each keep our current coat in our own bedroom closet with extras in the guest room... What I really needed was more shelves..

Friday night we headed to our local Menards and picked up some pre-finished white shelves.. Rich tore out the shelves on the right side of the closet and removed the closet rod. Ripping out the shelves created a big mess in the wall, so I did a little taping and mudding yesterday..

He added the cleats and I sanded and painted this morning...

and shelves were added...

So much more storage now...

Yesterday Kristin called and asked her daddy out on a date. They both love horror films and so they took off and saw "The Lady in Black"... Owen and Ava and I watched "Rio" and had popcorn and then Ava and I played Sorry and Phase 10... She's getting really good at Phase 10...

Rich is already thinking about the project for next weekend..

There will be NO project next weekend. We have 20 people coming for a combined 60th birthday party for Rich and a certain little granddaughter turns four!!

Nancy

weekend projects...

2012-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

We are still in the midst of little projects here and there... What is wrong with this picture? Well, apparently the previous owner needed some electricity somewhere else and decided to cut the insulation off of these wires and just wind the new wire around it... brilliant? or stupid? Code says STUPID!!

Let's take a closer look...

uh huh....

We really needed to fix a problem in the living room. We both have laptops...Mine sits on the cedar chest when plugged in...Rich was sitting his on an end table across the room from the couch (where he typically uses it) and using a long white double ended extension cord...which dragged under the table, under a chair and across the room to the couch. I hated it...I was always tripping over it. There is no other plug nearer so we decided to add one in the floor underneath the end table between our couches.. Luckily we have an open basement so it's very easy to get electric from one place to another.

First you buy this...and even though it says all instructions are inside..they aren't...

and then you measure once..measure twice...and cut a hole in the floor


and we now have a little less mess.. That white cord hanging down from the top of the table is my camera cord. I didn't notice it was hanging there until I uploaded the photo...And I moved the table back to get the photo...when the table is in the right place you can't even see the plug. And we are in the middle of finding a small brown extension cord to use. These outlets only come with one outlet so to plug in a lamp AND the computer we need it. We looked three places yesterday and can't find one.. OH...he also fixed the mess of the electric before..but I am just too tired to go down there and take a photo..Trust me it's up to code now..

This is the before view from my sewing room..

and the AFTER view... Do you see anything different?

Rich hung my bird feeder...He got it for me for Christmas and I hope to attract all kinds of birds to watch while I sew...

He made a little pulley system so I can go let it down, fill it up and pull it back up again... He's so smart!!

This is why the bird feeder is a good idea... Cat hiding behind cat feeder on left...bird feasting on bird feed on right... No birds (or cats) have been harmed yet...but it was only a matter of time..

Nancy

the latest project...

2012-01-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

Heat in the son's bedroom. I know...maybe we should have done this sooner? When we bought the house his bedroom was a "walk in closet/dressing room" travesty... We turned it back into the third bedroom... so we had to find the location of the original register that had been closed off when laid the new sub floors ... sounds confusing...and it would have been disastrous if we hadn't started this blog. To start this job we merely went back to a photo...

Wow...this photo really takes me back.. but you can see right inside what was to become the master bedroom closet, just behind the right stud wall...down there to the right of the hammer...YES! the location of the original heat register... now to relocate..

Rich did some measurements and drilled a very small hole from the top while I watched from downstairs and YES! we landed between the floor joists...

Nancy

some little projects...

2012-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

Today is MLK day.. which means that Rich has the day off. Last night we ran into Columbia, had dinner and bought some goodies at Lowe's.. Of course that means that today the tools came out... drill, screwdriver, saw, tape measure, pencil...

First up is a little help in the sewing room. In the other house we had a tall white cabinet in the garage..It held some ~~crap, stuff~~, important items that we decided could be stored somewhere else. So I ~~tried to help carry it~~ had Rich and Ryan schlep it up the stairs...

see? not ready yet!

Let's add some strips of white wood...

three strips on each side..

add some white peg board and I now have a place for all my quilting rulers...

circle cutters on the other side...I must really like circle cutters since I have two...

and some of my specialty rulers..

But that's not all we did...

This is the back hallway ... This window faces the front of the house..

and the laundry room... what a mess!! AND

this is the view from the front porch!

YEA!! New blinds...

And this is the view NOW from the front porch...

and the back hallway window...

From the inside!

and from the outside!!

Nancy

The Work Shop...and another project.

2012-01-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

Apparently there are a few people that actually ~~stalk,~~ visit this blog faithfully to check for updates. Looks like I updated last right after Thanksgiving.. We have been busy... We paid the son to move all the tools from the basement to the shop...and clean out the garage and move some stuff from the shop to the garage...

I don't have before photos of the shop... Just imagine a large steel building with lots of big wood working tools, tons of boxes, no insulation, no heat and no electricity.. Now you know what Rich has been doing...

First he put up some walls...

Then he added blown insulation...

Then he put in electric...

Then he put in a wood stove...

Then he unpacked...

And now here it is...

the outside...

step in the door and look to the left..

look straight ahead..

left of stove..

right of the stove..

I guess you noticed that every thing has a place and everything is in it's place. This is not because he just finished unpacking...It ALWAYS looks like this.. ALWAYS!! It's truly annoying..

And now that the shop is all put together...~~we get to do more projects..~~ we finished the shelves in the kitchen...

As soon as I get them filled I will post a photo.. . I'm working on it.. The bottom shelf is reserved for my Kitchen Aid mixer...

Nancy

PS - Happy now Don?

A New Addition...

2011-11-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.. It was our first official holiday and we had a great day with 14 for dinner... We went all traditional with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and all the "must have" side dishes...'' I don't usually use paper and plastic but it was so nice to toss most of the dishes after dinner..lol

I had a surprise when my sister-in-law showed up for dinner.. She does stained glass and just look what she made me!!

Isn't that so pretty? I just love the quilt block...those are my three favorite colors...hate that there is no sun to show it off in all it's glorious color... I just couldn't wait for the sun, that might take days...and I couldn't wait to show this off...

Of course this is hanging in the window in my sewing room...You can just see the shop and garage through the window...

Thank you so much Donna...I love it!

Nancy

Waiting on the sun...

2011-11-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, we are mostly moved in... We kept the railings off of the front porch until the movers had left. Rich got busy that following week and finished it...

But I am getting ahead of myself... Like any move, we had a couple of mishaps...unfortunately our mishap ended up at the bottom of our steps..

As the movers were carrying Rich's dresser down the steps the guy on the bottom slipped... The moving company is making it all better...they have a guy going to the other house next weekend and will fix the floor, the wall (no photo, but the bottom guy ended up with his shoulder and head going through the drywall) and the banisters.. The mover is fine...he was very upset though and hardly spoke the rest of the move. You can believe they were very careful when they delivered the furniture..

The next day DirecTV delivered and installed the satellite and set up the tv in the living room and sewing room.

And look what we saw when the truck left!!

That DirecTV Dirigible was headed from St Louis where they were covering the World Series to Texas for the games down there... I'm not sure, but it must be rare to have the dirigible and the truck in the same photo...

And back on ground...

I had these waiting for me...

UGH! And that's just the kitchen...

This was the master bedroom... The bed is set up only because the movers did that...

Rich and I returned to the "other" house the following day and our second daughter surprised us by putting the whole bedroom away... sheets, bedspread, pillows on the bed and all the clothes safely tucked away in the closet... What a nice surprise it was when we got back...

The shop went up the day before the movers delivered.. it was a very tight schedule...

This the view out our front door now... the shop is the building on the right... Rich is working to get insulation, electric and heat in there...

The house is finally put together...drapes are hung..some pictures are up...we can find dishes and food and towels...

And now I am just waiting on the sun... I plan to take some good photos of each room so you can see where we live now...

Oh...the BASR? Here are some photos...

the shelves are right inside the door...ready for books and pretties...

I put up the thread rack all by myself...

Tv is working and the drawers are empty..

This is the main set up... my machine will face the windows...

and shelves are ready for fabric...

Now...If I could just talk three friends into coming by this Thursday to help me unpack...I would feed them lunch!!

Nancy

13 months later....

2011-10-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

Then

and now...

Master bed room then...

and now...

Third bedroom then...

and now..

The bed does not stay... the curtains are blue..

The second bedroom then..

we used it as a kitchen for awhile..

and now..

yes, i need to add curtains and and apparently a register cover! How did we miss that? And maybe some pictures! And none too soon as our first guests arrive the evening of the 27th of October!!

The kitchen before..

and the kitchen after...

The living room before..

don't you love the lawn chair?

and the living room now...

click on this to make it bigger... Rich made both chairs, the end table between the chairs, the desk and the desk chair... We aren't sure if this will all stay this way, but after 13 months, we wanted it to look like someone lived there... That brown thing on the floor is a rolled up rug...

The dining room before..

the dining room is that room behind the table... when we bought it there was drywall and plywood on the walls. This is the best before photo i could find...

Dining room after...

we can't add the hanging light until the table is in there... We have a buffet, table and pie safe to go in there...and we aren't sure where the table will end up..

This weekend was all about getting it done..

I used these to scrap all the paint off of ALL the windows...then cleaned the windows inside and out, mopped the floors, scrubbed the bathrooms and the house is all clean and ready to move into..

This just might become my regular vacuum .. it really sucks up the dust..

Sad to say that the Magnetic Paint I talked about here... EPIC FAIL. This area is roughly 3ft x 3ft. I used almost the whole quart of magnetic paint and it won't hold a magnet. NOT HAPPY!! And I will be calling the 800 number on the back of the can... So this weekend I gave up ... I painted over the black with some leftover white...

And painted over the white with the blue... Yes, there is a big black spot in the middle. Stay tuned..you will see what ends up there...soon...I hope...

Rich worked on these projects....

lots of tools...

to add this to the living room wall...

For this...a 46 inch flat screen...sure wish we had our satellite hooked up..can't wait for Friday..

Three smoke detectors added and two CO2 detectors added. Not surprisingly we found NO smoke detectors or CO2 detectors in this whole house when we bought it. And we have a propane water heater..that wasn't vented properly..

We really tried to reuse the track lighting from the kitchen here in the sewing room. But it soon became apparent that something wasn't working as two of the lights didn't work. So this morning we ventured into town and bought new track lights... We also bought the bulbs...we even had the guy help us find the correct bulbs...we don't have the correct bulbs...so we left one light off the track to take to the store and get the correct bulbs...

He also helped a friend of his haul off all the wooden walkway... and he installed a plug in the basement for the freezer...

Nancy

the small things...

2011-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's getting close ... A week from today our doorbell will ring and the packers will be here to move us. I have spent the last two weeks cleaning out drawers and closets, donating stuff we don't want to take with us, and today I cleaned out both freezers. I have called two electric companies, two telephone companies, two water companies and changed email addresses on Flickr and Facebook. I have attempted to contact our trash company here and have attempted to figure out who our trash company is at the new house. I got my hair cut for the last time here this morning...and need to find a new hairdresser in the new town. (I think I have a lead) We have decided to purchase a flat screen tv before moving and have called a local crisis center and donated our current tv to them...along with the stand, a vcr and various kids tapes... (luckily for us they agreed to pick it up next Tuesday so we aren't without news!)

Part of the sewing room... table from breakfast room here will become the table for my sewing buddies (they better come!) The little wood tv tray will become their personal ironing surface..nothing is too good for my sewing buddies...

This is some of my sewing stuff waiting to be put away... I'm hoping to ~~persuade~~ pay a grandkid to come help me...

I painted this dresser this past weekend. It used to hold all my paperback books (that were given away) and will now hold my tv in the sewing room.

another register cover added to sewing room floor

After realizing that the magnetic paint didn't hold a magnet, I added another coat of the paint. If it doesn't work this time it will become an epic fail and I will paint blue over it...which will mean another three coats of blue to paint over the black...sigh...

Meanwhile, Rich worked outside on Saturday...and I helped him finish up on Sunday...

no more wooden walkway up next to the house

no more wooden walkway from the house to the garage

some of the wooden walkway removed from the hillside.

We used a sawzall, a crowbar and a truck with a chain to remove all this wooden walkway. We also removed a lot of miscellaneous bricks, rocks and pieces of wood that were strewn all over the yard.

We now have four piles, one pile of bricks, one pile of wooden walkway, one pile of rocks and one pile of railroad ties... We have a friend that is taking all the wooden walkway this weekend.

This weekend we have more small things to do...

Hang curtains in son's room..
clean all windows, floors, kitchen and both bathrooms...
add electric box in basement for freezer (we I decided to locate the freezer in the basement instead of the back hallway)
help deliver all that wooden walkway..
clean out freezer so I can move the leftovers from here to there...

Nancy

Behold....

2011-10-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

the beauty of concrete...

I spread a sealer so it will clean nicely...

I can't wait to cover all that gravel with dirt....and get some solar lights...

and now you don't have to walk underneath the eaves of the house to get to the front door. I hated that..

her graceful curve...

her long stretch to the driveway...

The day the contractor came to do the shop pad we talked to him about doing a sidewalk. He gave us a price and we said "Yes"... I kind of walked him up and told him with arms sweeping "I want it to come from the porch and around a corner and to the left of the plantings and then end here" which we marked with two pieces of re-bar from his truck. I am ecstatic.. I love my sidewalk.. I love a small town where you just tell someone what you want and they do it. And they do it right. We didn't give him any money upfront and there was no bill hanging on the door. We know that he will either send us a bill or stop by and get paid. And he knows we will pay..

because we have a garage that needs a pad.

Nancy

numbers...

2011-10-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

4200 - the number of American dollars it took to get this... the slab for Rich's workshop. We rolled two coats of concrete sealer on it to protect it and make it easier to sweep. The workshop will be delivered within the next few weeks. The building is situated right across from the garage and in front of the house.

32 - the number of minutes it took two adults to locate the water line in the basement... it was hiding under the steps and above the duct work...

13 - the number of ice cubes in the first batch...

6 - the number of lakes we saw here.. Sunday evening we decided to take a bit of a break and drive through this conservation area. You have to hike to the creek and that certainly wasn't on our agenda so we just slowly drove through and looked.

5 - the number of ~~frogs~~ turtles that were sitting on this rock as we drove by... they jumped as soon as Rich put the truck in reverse to snap a photo.

3 - the number of cans of white spray paint it took to transform this formally red night stand.. I am now on the lookout for a used queen size head board to spray to match. These are for the guest room. I also need to decide on a quilt and drapes for this room. The room is pale yellow (think butter), dark floors and white furniture... any color combo's you think would be pretty? I would like something without gray since that's what our room will be.

1 - the number of laundry tubs we installed this weekend. Next weekend we will put a couple of shelves up there...

Rich had to remove a couple of sections of the walkway.. and that one step from the porch because..

when the concrete guys come back to remove the concrete forms and pick up this..

(which sat in the driveway all weekend), they are going to make a SIDEWALK!! We will actually have a sidewalk from the gravel drive to the front porch.. you have no idea how exciting it will be not to have to sidestep the dog poop to get to the front door..and if those dogs poop on my sidewalk heads will roll!!

And that was our weekend...

Nancy

EDIT - not sure why that one part of the text has a white background. I have tried everything to get rid of it so just know that I am not yelling, complaining or asking you to find me a headboard. lol Just can't get that highlighted text to go away...

a short weekend...

2011-09-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

It was a short weekend for me... Rich left early Saturday morning to go out to the house to watch the concrete guy stake out the area for the shop building. I would show you a photo of the orange stakes, but there aren't any. Rich basically told him..."fit the shop here between these trees". The concrete guy said "ok" and left... That's how you do business in the country... Then Rich got busy and finished the front porch...

we now have a step!!

front view

Many will ask why we decided to add the step to the side of the porch. We have a large planting of something in the yard that we would like to keep.. If we put the walk to the left of the planting we would be walking right up next to the house.. If we put the walk to the right of the planting the flow works much smoother...that meant that we couldn't add the step to the front of the porch, but went to the side. A concrete walk will run from the step to the driveway. We will add balusters and banisters after the movers are gone to make it easier on them...

He also got a couple of small jobs finished. Put the doors on the closets in the back hallway, adjusted the front door and adjusted the master bedroom door. He also took off to town to get all the "parts" we would need for Sunday's job.

What did I do Saturday?

I had a great time with this and some peeps...

I showed up late Saturday night...just in time for bed...

Sunday we started out with this mess...

What a mess! We had closet rods, shelving units, shelf supports, shelf hangers and too many parts to keep track of...that doesn't count the drill, drill bits, sawzall and hammer. That little chest of drawers was found at an estate sale right before we bought this house and we have kept all of our clothes in there for the past year. Four drawers of work clothes.. It will soon have a place in the sewing room.

top shelf

two closet rods

two shoe racks

another shelf and my closet is done!

Rich already had two rods in his closet so we added two shoe racks and three shelves..

Yes, we have separate closets for the first time in our married life. He took the closet that was already in the bedroom and I got the new one. The closets aren't huge by any standard. Neither one of us have a huge amount of clothes. He probably has the most as he has work clothes and weekend clothes. I am not a big fan of clothes shopping or any shopping (except fabric!) for that matter... so our closets will be sufficient for us.. And we are very happy that all this wire and all four closet rods were recycled.. we saved them and took them to the car wash a couple of months ago...so we just had to buy a few parts to put it all together..

And that took all day...all. day. But we did one more thing before we left..

Do You See It?

See It Now?

A NEW DOORBELL!!

This house never had one..I always wondered how they knew someone was at the door. You can't hear cars come down the driveway. The only windows that face the driveway are either in the bedrooms or the back hallway.. I found this wireless set at Lowe's for less than $20. The doorbell has a little battery in it and comes with a self stick pad or screws to attach it to your house..and then you plug the other part into a wall outlet. Easy Peasy.. It took less than five minutes and we will know when you come to visit...

Nancy

Our Anniversary...

2011-09-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

One year ago today we signed the papers and this house became ours. We knew it would be a lot of work...we had no idea.. We had great hopes of being done with everything in nine months. Like most renovations we ran a bit over time...and budget. But we are so proud and happy with the results so far.

Saturday started bright and early with me calling on a grandchild and asking for help. At some point last week, I twisted my right knee and even with Aleve and ice and rest it was still bothering me. Brad (our son-in-law) was coming over to help fell two trees and I asked if Owen would like to come help Grandma and maybe make some money...

That boy can work. Our first job was the basement. We moved wood, cabinet doors, screens, tools, doors and then swept and he hauled all the trash up and around the house to the trash pile. Every so often I would look around and he would be gone... the first couple of times I figured he was going to the bathroom or getting a drink...after the third time I asked him where he had been. "I was checking the time.." he said. "Why?" "So I know how much I have made so far".. You see, I was paying him by the hour! lol

After he was done helping me, he asked Grandpa if he had any "paying jobs".. Why yes...he did..

He made $27 ....

And we decided it was finally necessary to replace the front porch...

We used all of these tools to do this...

There will be a railing added after we move. We didn't think that the movers would be happy to haul their butts up a 3 foot hike into the house. or work their way around a railing.. And there will be a skirting added around the bottom...

This is where the railings will go...

And as it turns out our daughters were correct...we are moving "to the middle of nowhere" as evidenced by the fact that I spent all day today on the phone attempting to find out who our telephone provider is. We "thought" it was one but when I called they said ATT was our provider, but ATT said no and round and round we went until finally ATT actually decided they were our telephone provider but no...we can't get ATT internet...so back to square one..

And I confirmed our moving date... {yea!}

Nancy

starting in the front...

2011-09-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

And this is how we started the weekend... The first post for the front porch... This is what the front porch looked like before..

Well, it wasn't even a real porch...Just a walkway...and a badly constructed one at that...

Rich used a gas powered post hole digger and I used the shovel and we dug out seven holes...then he poured the concrete and I held the post til it was partially set and then this was all done by Saturday evening and we cleaned up and went into town to see "Contagion" at the show... very riveting movie...you will never touch your face again...

Sunday morning we got up and got to work putting in the floor joists. At the beginning I held the post at one end while Rich nailed the joist hanger. At some point I said "too bad you don't have another hammer, I could help". He looked up and said "there's a hammer right inside the door, you start on one side and hit this little piece to set it into place and then put three nails on one side, then go to the other side and put one nail into the toenail and then just finish all the rest of the nails".. "Um, yea..I can do that" and I did.. I nailed at one end and he nailed the other and it went really fast..... ..and Rich looked up and said "Do you want to take a photo to show how far we got by noon?" I took the photo and then looked at my phone.. Actually it was around 2pm....

And this is the way we left it on Sunday afternoon.. Next weekend we will put the top boards on and then it will get RESTORE put on next spring... The wood needs to weather before using the RESTORE product.

And in between doing the porch I used a little spray paint to put a final coat on this...

I really love to spray paint. See the handle? It was brown plastic and I searched all over for a replacement but it's an odd size so I bought some of this...

and sprayed the handle...and then I got crazy and sprayed something else...but it wasn't dry so I will show you next week.. Who knew spray paint could be so much fun!

Nancy

It was a long weekend,,.

2011-09-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

For those here in the states this past weekend was the unofficial end of summer. With three days off of work, Rich got a lot done. Me? Not so much. Without realizing it, I agreed to babysit the smallest of my grandchildren on this holiday weekend. She came to stay Thursday night and didn't go home until Sunday night, so every day Rich would drive out to the house, work and then come back... Abbie and I did some crafting, went to see GG (my mom) and did some baking..

Rich got loads accomplished...

He got all the baseboard and quarter round installed in the back hallway. We are finally done with all the floors.

He literally tore the sidewalks out from the front of the house.. This is the view from the front door.

And the view towards the front door... There were big concrete slabs found under the wooden steps. One of them will become the footing for the new step off the new front porch.

Those are the guest room windows.. Well I guess one of them is..We just recently found out that our son will be moving with us to attend school. So he will get his pick of rooms and then the other will be a guest room. Need to decide whether to put the trundle bed or the queen bed in the guest room.

Monday Rich and I got the ledger boards installed. The front porch will be 6 feet wide from the front door along the right wall and then will include the little niche on the left there. One step down and railings will finish it off.

And I used some more of this...

To finish the Magnet Board in my sewing room. I am thinking of putting a white trim piece along the top edge.. just not sure..any thoughts. Yea, Nay...trim piece...no trim piece? I will say that the blue tape did a great job...no bleeding so that line is nice and sharp..

And I did more spray painting on this little cart for laundry area. I love the orange..

And I guess that's about all.. The weather on Monday was fabulous..we ate lunch of grilled pork steaks on the sun porch... I am hoping to find a nice comfortable chair and ottoman because I think it will be the perfect place to sit and stitch or read a book...

And the best news? We have our moving date!! More on that later as we finalize our plans..

Nancy

It was a wild weekend...

2011-08-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

How wild was it?

I found a snake in the basement...it was a small snake..so small I thought at first it was a worm.

Rich saw this spider by the front door. It's BIG...and look at that web...he did a zigzag stitch...

And this frog was spotted on one of the windows..


And this little "wild thing" came to visit Saturday morning and proudly showed us her first "writing" from school. She is three and just started going to a local day care. She was so excited to hang the paper on the refrigerator. If you click on the photo you will notice that she only traced the A's and B's. When I asked her why she didn't trace the C's, she said "well, I don't like them as much". LOL


Our tools for the weekend..

A. New Front Light...

B. New floodlight installed on the corner of the eaves of the house. Sorry, no photo..

C. I had no idea that you could buy Magnetic paint. It comes in a quart and you use a foam roller and do three coats. This is in the sewing room and there is only one coat so far. There will also be a piece of white trim added to the top to finish it off. I can't wait to do the second and third coats and try it out. Walmart had all the lime green school supplies on sale last week and I bought a new pencil holder, new stapler and 16 matching magnets.. I think the board will come in handy..and it was kind of fun to do something that was an "extra"...and really not necessary to us moving here..

D. Those are the knobs for the closet doors in the back hallway. We thought we lost them and refound them this weekend so I had to make sure they stayed in the kitchen and don't get lost again.

E. We bought this little metal cart at an auction last summer..We paid less than $2. I always knew that it would end up in the laundry area and after painting the back hallway white I thought this would be a perfect pop of color...and I love orange. I had one can of spray paint so it only has half of the first coat and doesn't look so good...but more will be done on this in a couple of weeks.

F. New dryer vent. The previous owners had the dryer venting into a plastic trashcan in the basement. Not a good idea for so many reasons...

Ha Ha... Rich asked for a soda while he was cutting the hole...

And that was all on our little list for this past weekend... of course that means there was a big list...right?

Insulayment...

Flooring...

With those items...we did this...

just a plain back hallway

Insulayment down and first flooring going down...

Hallway done

Closet floors done

laundry area done...

You know what this means? All the floors are done...every last floor in this house has been ripped up, removed, hauled off and new floors installed. That's 2009 sq ft of flooring.. Yes, we still need to add baseboard..heck, we have to buy and paint the baseboard...but my legs are so happy the flooring is done...

We also did some touch up painting on the garage...that back wall where Rich dropped the bucket of paint now looks perfect..

And Saturday night we did a DATE NIGHT!! Can you believe it... We knocked off working around 3pm...took showers...put nice clothes on...and went to dinner... After dinner we had tickets to tour the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo. This prison closed in 2004 and all the inmates were transferred to other Missouri prisons. They now give history tours, ghost tours and occasionally do over night paranormal ghost tours. We took the history tour and it was fascinating.. We had a wonderful tour guide named Mark Schrieber who was an investigator for the Department of Corrections and a former Deputy Warden at this prison. If you are thinking about taking a tour do it before November as he is retiring and he is the best. Our tour was listed as two hours...we left at two hours 20 minutes and they were still standing around talking at the gas chamber...

Here are photos I took..

Front of prison

One of the housing units

typical cell

Cell of James Earl Ray..who escaped in a bread truck and later assassinated Martin Luther King. He was incarcerated here on a different charge and Mark said he was a model prisoner and gave no indication to anyone that he was capable of doing that murder.

J.E.R. is for James Earl Ray... click the photo to make it larger for dates of imprisonment

One of the inmates made this sign...

Sonny Liston was housed in this cell. Note the clear TV set.

The gas chamber


When this gas chamber was being built, there were two people on death row that were to be executed at the same time. Hence the two chairs...

These are the photos of all the Men and One Woman to be executed in this gas chamber. The last two photos on the right in the fourth row are of Bonnie Heady and Carl Austin Hall. They were the Greenlease Kidnappers.. you can read about them here andhere.

Nancy

still painting...

2011-08-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend doing what we have been doing forever...well, not really, but it sure feels like it..

We finished up the house and garage and now we look so much better... I will be so happy when I can take a photo of the house without a trash pile in front...

Trim on two windows done. My sewing room is on the other side of the long window on the left.. The other window is in the long hall way that is waiting for flooring,.

The front of the house. That horrible wooden walkway is on the list to be removed..but doesn't the new paint color look nice?

The front of the garage. Yes, the garage sits in front of the house. Hate the location, but there is no way to change it. As it is, we are struggling to find the perfect place for the work shop. And no, this will NOT become the workshop.

We still have a blue door, but that will change next weekend..It will be painted white to match the front door. And Rich will paint over those three spots on the wall where he spilled the bucket of paint moving the ladder...with the paint hanging from a rung...he wiped the paint off but of course he couldn't get it all off...

Look who came out!! This is our youngest, our only son, who came out and did a whole lot of work this weekend. He mowed all the grass, moved firewood from the basement to the OUTSIDE firewood pile, moved two or three different wood piles to the trash pile...and then we let him go home...lol "Somebody" might have told him he could leave as soon as all his work was done.. He sure sped up after that...BTW, "somebody" might have been his oldest sister.. getting your car insurance paid for is a great motivator...

This is the pile of wood he moved from various areas to this trash pile..

i put the doors back up on the cabinets in the laundry room. So glad I took the time to paint them white..

OK...this is what the side of the house looks like. The bad before...We can't paint this side, or the other side or the back. It's two stories and we don't like heights... That yellow/cream/beige color gives me the chills..along with the bad paint job of the dark country blue... There is paint all over the windows and the trim is all sloppy..it's quite obvious someone was a little drunk while painting... And look at that planter! That window is the master bedroom and inside that stupid bird feeder is a dead bird. And the dang thing won't disintegrate..it's been there over a year and it just won't go away... The whole planter/feed thing is OUT! As soon as I can get up there on the ladder with the drill..

And last week, I forgot to show you what Rich did.... These are all the railroad ties that he pulled from around the garage..the house...down the driveway..all by himself ...last weekend... in the heat...

This week we pick up the flooring for the back hallway and decide on a front porch. I want concrete, Rich wants to use TREX... Your thoughts? Has anyone used this?

Nancy

I want to do something besides....

2011-08-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

PAINT!!! Please....

Saturday was my monthly Modern Quilt Guild meeting so I didn't make it to the house until around 3pm...or maybe later...
Rich took off around 7am and got the rest of the front of the house painted. By the time I got there he was ready to quit, so I helped him finish trimming the windows on the garage. There were three windows and none of them had any trim... Then we ate dinner. Rich put a pork butt on the smoker and we had pulled pork sandwiches and then headed to town to see Cowboys and Aliens. It was ok...a great way to spend the evening...

Sunday morning Kristin brought over already cooked homemade pork sausage, a coffee cake and some mini-muffins..I added scrambled eggs and fruit and we had a great breakfast. With all that food, we didn't even stop for lunch..The grandkids start school tomorrow. Owen will be in third grade and Ava starts kindergarten. Where has the time gone. The other grandkids will start school on Thursday. Grace in fourth, Jackson in third and Abbie started a new day care that is working out wonderfully...

before photos...


after photos...

I hope the mosaics look OK. I am learning how to use Big Huge Labs... I hope they are click able and you can see them better. This is Before and After of the garage.. And the weather was fantastic..in the low 80's with a nice breeze and we were in the shade all day...

Next weekend we will start on the trim... let's keep our fingers crossed for nice weather then too..

Nancy

what a difference...

2011-08-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

This is what the house looked like when we bought it last September... Good thing we are visionaries...lol Our daughters were not...they wondered if we had officially lost our collective mind.
We could "see" the way it could be... Lots of trees, a great floor plan, peace and quiet and close to the grandkids..

This past weekend the temperature was 99F in the shade and the humidity was 4356%... For the first time in my life I had sweat dripping from my chin and running down my neck. For the first time in my life....I did this...

Ok....that's not me...On Saturday Rich rented a power washer and washed the sun porch screens...and all the windows and well, the WHOLE HOUSE!! I was amazed at the dirt that came off those screens... you can now see out of them...

So this is what I did...

Ok, I didn't do this either... I sat on the step and had my fingers poised over the last 1 in 911..as Rich used some kind of saw to get that last piece of nasty fake plastic red brick siding down. Do you see the electric wires over his head? Yep, they are live...as in...they carry enough volts to permanently damage your body if you touch them. He got VERY CLOSE.... but he did it.

So...THIS is what I did...

I painted all of this myself... I started at 8:30am and ran out of paint around 3:30pm. It was grueling ...hot...dirty...tiring...arm hurting... work. All the vertical surfaces and sofits were painted French Silver by BEHR.

While I was painting the left front and side, Rich was adding the batten boards to this end and then he got up on the ladder and painted all you see in this picture..

And just so you know...the trim hasn't been painted yet. You can see in that last photo that I started painting the lower trim board the same as the house paint...then all the other dark trim will be painted a darker gray...just a shade darker... that red roof is gonna stick out like a pimple on a big nose...{sigh} hopefully I can bring some red into the plantings in front of the house. Anyone know of any red flowers or bushes or anything that don't require a lot of maintenance...cause I'm not an outside girl..I would like to spend more time in ~~that BASR~~ Margaritaville...lol

This is how far we got. We used 3 gallons of paint...and need a couple of more...

Paint - Home Depot BEHR French Silver UL 260-19 house
BEHR Dark Pewter UL 260-20 trim

Nancy

The outside...

2011-07-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

Rich started on the outside of the house this weekend. He and Oliver were bachelors this weekend as my sister and firstdaughter and I went to see

But before the concert we went here and had the most fabulous chicken fried chicken...with mashed potatoes and the BEST green beans in the world...

And if that wasn't enough...they then bring out homemade yeast cinnamon rolls...

And while we were sweltering in the heat and humidity and watching many Da'Runks make absolute fools of themselves, Rich was busy in the sweltering heat and humidity.. pulling railroad ties out of the front yard. The former owners had them everywhere...rows and rows of them..

Now you see them!!

Now you don't...

Here are all the railroad ties up by the house... and look closely at that "fake plastic brick siding"...

because now most of it is GONE!!

and all of it on this side...except for that little bit on the upper right hand side where the electric comes into the house. Rich said he needs some clamps and me to be there in case I need to call 911

Underneath the "fake plastic brick siding" was the same siding as the left side of the house. All Rich needed to do was add the 1x3's otherwise called the batten boards...

So one of our next jobs will be to paint all of the this siding the same color and then repaint all the trim.. Color? I don't know... I am wavering between gray with black trim and tan with brown trim and blue gray with dark gray trim... any ideas? any thoughts? and other colors you think would look better?

Did I tell you that the Kenny Chesney tickets were one of last years Christmas presents? I have an amazing husband. Thanks Rich for giving me the weekend off.. I love you!

Nancy

The back hallway...

2011-07-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

The back hallway leads from the kitchen, through the laundry area and back to Margaritaville AKA BASR...

I hesitate to say it, but I think this might be the LAST AREA TO BE FINISHED!! We might be almost done with the inside...

We painted this past weekend... We painted anything that didn't move... in this hallway we had dirty white ceiling, tan closets, gray trim, blue walls and yellow walls....I'm not sure who picked out this color scheme, but a blind monkey could have done better... We painted the ceiling white, the trim white, the closet doors white, the insides of the closets white and the walls "Silent White".. All white...I love it... It looks fresh and clean now. We measured for the flooring and it will match the sewing room floor..

these are the cabinets over the washer and dryer. They were a nice cheap brown stuff... OMG...I just noticed that I took the photo before fixing that nasty area on the left top. It doesn't look like that anymore...it's all fixed and painted..

I want to know who? paints the inside of their closets tan... it just looks dirty...

I painted the front door..and had a bit of mishap..I had the door laying on the saw horses and apparently it wasn't balanced and it fell off and broke off part of the window frame... I fixed it with a bit of super glue..

Rich sprayed the pot light frames.. The three big ones go into the living room, the two narrow ones go in the back hallway and the odd man there second from the top went into the trash...

The back hallway is where the second front door is. We don't know why there was a second front door put in. This house was never a duplex, there was never a rental apartment.. any way it was there..and needed to come out.

Rich's idea - Let's finish up the back hallway, get it painted, put the new floor down and then sometime in the future we will take out the second front door and rip up the new floor and then drywall and repaint...

My idea - DO IT NOW!!

Guess who won?

Door removed.. we had to put a piece of board up there to keep the cats out. We didn't know what supplies we would need until he removed the door and so then we had to go to town.

header board in with stud holding it in place.

two studs...

third stud added, plastic barrier and outside siding piece added

and the second front door is no longer. We tried really hard to match the paint, it couldn't be done. The paint guy at the hardware store mixed two different colors trying to match and this is as close as we could get.

This is the front of the house. The white door I painted is now in that hole. Our plan? Remove all the plastic brick siding, put matching batten board siding on and have the whole house, including all the windows trim, painted. Hopefully next spring. We will also remove all that wood walkway. It's get very slippery in the winter and add a concrete porch. Then a new concrete walkway will go through the yard and out towards the driveway.

Did I mention that Rich did all this outside work in these temps? grueling heat. He would work for about 20 minutes and then come inside to cool off for 10 minutes. We both drank lots of water...

He also removed all the wood walkway that led from that second front door.. We will eventually add some kind of planter there and put in bushes.. or something...you will soon find out we aren't gardeners..at. all.

looks like we need to call the trash guy...

And while Rich was sweating outside, I was doing this...

When I removed the nasty plastic light fixture in the laundry area this is what I found.. wires coming through the drywall.

So I added an electrical box.. after finding out there was a second ceiling above this one and having to cut it out so I could get the box in there. Rich did use the hole saw to make the first cut.

and a new light fixture. And I did this all myself, with Rich outside.. I did have some questions...but did most of the work.

We bought our first furniture for the new house!! A patio set that was on sale at Lowe's.. It's wrought iron and the legs all have plastic caps on them so no scratches.. If it ever gets cooler than Hell we might get to eat out there..

So we are ready to order the flooring for the hallway and get that down and then I have a feeling we will be working outside...bah! In this heat! I am NOT looking forward to that..

But first...I am taking my sister and one daughter to Kansas City to see Kenny Chesney in concert. I got the tickets from Rich for Christmas and we have two hotel rooms and we get free breakfast and we are ALL looking forward to it. I think we also get to see Zac Brown Band, Billy Carrington and Uncle Kracker,...

Nancy

new header,...

2011-07-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone know what kind of flower that is in the header? It opens up in the morning and closes at night..

EDIT - Rich says the flowers are opened in the morning and close sometime during the heat of the day. We looked at google images of both Rose of Sharon and Morning Glories and neither has the same kind of leaf we have on our plant. Our flowers are large also...around 3-5 inches across..

Any more ideas?

Nancy

a finish and a start...

2011-07-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

The last piece of floor went down in Margaritaville.. Someone asked the name of the flooring..It's Sugar Maple by Lumber Liquidators. It's laminate. We put it over CDX subfloor and then used a felt pad that Lumber Liquidators sells. When finished we had 3 pieces of flooring left. I'd say that is cutting it close..lol

Rich added all the quarter round and then used matching wood filler to cover all the nail holes...

This is the leftover quarter round. That larger piece is about 7 inches long.. We cut that one a little close too...

My design wall....and look at those lights!! I LOVE THEM... They are one of the few items from the original house that we are recycling.. These lights originally hung in the kitchen. We kept them and after scrubbing them down in the sink they are PERFECT over the design wall.

And this the door to the closet in the sewing room. The second coat on the second side is drying and will be ready to hang this coming weekend.

And so Margaritaville (formally known as the BASR) is finished...

So we ~~took a nap, read a book, had dinner, went out dancing...~~ started in the back hallway. The back hallway connects the main house to the sewing room. It also houses the laundry area and two large closets.

This is the ~~beautiful blue~~ color the previous owner picked.. such a small hallway for a big color... but the white trim was ok..

I painted the ceiling (it's still wet that's why it's shiny) and then used the end of the ceiling paint to start priming the walls...

And suddenly realized that the trim and doors weren't white..they are gray...can you see the difference between the wall/trim color and the door color? yea..gray...whatever...so now I have to paint all the trim and the doors..

All primed... and there is the big laundry tub. I haven't ever had one and I am so excited to have it. It will be Olivers bathtub along with many other uses..

When we put in the door to the kitchen, we had to do a bit of demo..and we had a little drywall to patch.

These are the cabinets in the laundry area. Don't like the brown. And that light will be gone..

Cabinets and cabinet doors now primed....

And we hung the sliding doors in bedroom three...

and Rich rehung the screen doors and then moved everything out of the sun porch and swept and vacuumed it...so nice and clean now..

Kitty update...
Sadly one of the babies from the second litter was found dead at the bottom of the steps. We still have four hanging out, a mixture of kitties from both litters.. We have no idea what happened to the others..

Nancy

oh my aching legs....

2011-07-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

Fr:iday evening after Rich quit work we headed out to the house to do some painting.. We painted both sliding closet doors for the third bedroom and both screen doors.. Then we came back home. It was a bit weird. Around 6:30pm, Rich said.. "Why don't you call home and see if there are any messages?" Lo and behold we have a call that someone wants to show the house in a half hour. YIKES! We didn't take Oliver with us...he is in the laundry room... In the mean time Ryan calls and says his car is broken down for the second time in two days and he is waiting for the tow truck. We told him if it worked, go by the house and get the dog out of there...and turn on all the lights...and close the toilet lids!! lol Then we were afraid he wouldn't make it, so I called the neighbor, gave him the garage code and he put Oliver outside on his chain. We were about a half hour away so it would be close. Not knowing if Ryan had made it or not, we headed straight to the house...just in time to see the realtor pull into the driveway.. Luckily the dog was gone so we met Ryan and picked him up. Lesson learned. Take the dog...

Saturday was the July meeting of the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild and I don't miss those, so Rich went out by himself early and I didn't get to the house until almost 3pm. He got the first and second coat of paint on one side of the sliding closet doors for bedroom three and both screen doors...

This morning at 7am I got up and put the second coat of paint on the other side... Now they dry...

this is NOT a dining room chair. There was a bit of touch up needed on the baseboard...the first time I did it Oliver licked all the paint off. So this time I stuck the chair in front of it. SUCCESS!

did I show you that we painted the inside of the sky light blue? I love it...

This morning we laid the padding for the floor in the sewing room...the last time we laid a laminate floor we also had to use padding.It was like foam and very thin and really hard to work with....but boy this new stuff is great. It's all recycled material and feels like felt. Heavy and lays down nicely..we used the electric stapler to hold it down...

First couple of rows...

LUNCH BREAK!!

This is where my legs gave out and we showered, packed and headed home... Rich and I work differently. I handed him the flooring and then stood on the last piece we did and held it in place and also bent over and held the pieces so they went together. Rich on the other hand sits and scoots... He slides the flooring together and uses the handy tool to make sure they lock into place. So I stand and bend..he sits and scoots...AGAIN.. I STAND AND BEND...he sits and scoots. MY LEGS ARE JELLO!! They ache...they hurt...and I would go soak in a nice warm bath, but I would never get out..

doesn't it look pretty??? Those white things sitting inside the built in are the doors.. We forgot to get new hinges and handles... next Lowes trip...

another view...

We started with 17 boxes of flooring and we have 6 left... and 104 ft of quarter round for the edging. Normally we would pull the baseboard, put down the flooring and replace the baseboard. We can't..it's complicated...so we will trim the edges with quarter round to match...it will be fine.. This is the hallway...that blue on the wall is gonna go...quick...

did I mention it was HOT!!

And Saturday night we went to Karen's house where we scored all these concrete pavers for FREE

and there are six round ones... We have no idea what we will do with them...but they were FREE!!

Abbie had a great time getting rides to the backyard!!

Nancy

4th of July weekend....

2011-07-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Since we started this house project back in Sept of last year I have really decorated by my instincts. Rich will say... "ok, it's time to pick out a vanity" and we drive around until I find what I like. Ditto with faucets, bathroom tile, wood flooring...well, you get the idea. The largest amount of time I spent on one project was the kitchen. I must have driven the nice lady at Lowe's absolutely nuts. I think I was down there every 3 days asking a question, changing the layout, looking at cabinets...etc...

This is what Rich did this weekend...

first...it was HOT!

He installed the side lights on the sun porch...

He installed the base board on the sun porch...

He found some dry rot on the sun porch when he was installing the base board and so he cut it all out and repaired it.. Sorry no photo of the repair...i forgot...

He installed the trim strip for the flooring that butts up to the sliding doors in the living room...

He rented a sprayer and spray painted all the brick in the BASR*

And also sprayed all the wainscoting in the BASR* We used "Silent White" by Ace Hardware... We always use Ace Hardware's Royal Paint. It goes on smooth and covers...

Friday am Rich cut grass right in front of the house. Then we both got up at 6am Sunday morning to finish cutting. I cut the very front on the riding lawnmower and Rich cut the back yard first with the push mower, then used the weed eater and then used the riding lawn mower... Sheesh...it's a lot of grass... This morning we took all the wire closet shelves and the old screen door from the sun porch to the car wash and cleaned them. They were filthy... Karen and Abbie came down Sunday night for BBQ... It stormed and the temp dropped to 70 so we moved the table to the sun porch and ate out there. It was so nice. After dinner, I asked Abbie if she wanted a piece of apple pie that Karen had brought or an ice cream sandwich. She gave me such a look.and said "ohh yuk"..I had to explain that an ice cream sandwich isn't "bread" with ice cream... She had never had one before .. HA HA... She likes them now!

Yesterday I put the first coat of paint on the BASR* and then today I put the second coat on...

I painted the inside of the bottom part of the built in white...then the outside is the same color as the walls. It looks like a piece of furniture. And I love the color... The doors and shelves are on the saw horses and have been painted with one coat of paint...

This the door leading into the BASR*. It shows the color much better. It's a blue gray...and reminds of a summer beach cottage .. I would like to say that when I paint I don't tape anything off. I just trim with the paint.. I very seldom get any paint anywhere but where it's supposed to go... Go ahead...click on the photo and make it bigger.. I know you want to...lol

And I finally picked a flooring... It's birch laminate... Can you believe it's cheaper than vinyl?

Isn't this cool? I held the flooring in my hand and took the photo. This is what it will look like when it's installed.

Oh the paint color? It's "Instinct" by Benjamin Moore color matched to Ace Hardware Royal Paint. So out of my usual color palette. I am NOT a blue person at all and was surprised when I picked this out..

And now we might need to change the name from BASR* to "Margaritaville"....

Next project? Flooring will be put down in a couple of weeks. Have to order it yet... Then this...

This is the hallway leading to "Margaritaville" In this photo, I am standing in the doorway of "Margaritaville" looking towards the rest of the house.. That door on the right is a second front door (no one knows why they have two front doors) and will be eliminated. The two closets on the left are for storage. One will become a food pantry and the other will be used for off season clothes, hunting gear and the like. At the end of the hallway behind the big blue wall is

THIS!

This is the laundry room. Well, not much of a room, but an area. Very small, but it's just the two of us..so it is adequate .. The washer and dryer go underneath the cabinets. I am so tired of painting that I think the cabinets will stay this color! lol The white door on the left leads to the kitchen. We don't have to do a lot to this area. Flooring and paint (ugh!) and oh! we have to vent the dryer to the outside. They had it vented to the basement into a trash can.. (let that one sink in)...yep...a big plastic trash can...full of dryer lint... A fire waiting to happen...

And that's the weekend for us...

Nancy

*BASR =Big A** Sewing Room

short weekend for me!!

2011-06-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Friday night Abbie came to visit.. Saturday was the baby shower for my niece and Abbie's mom and sister were the hosts.

Rich was busy though....

We have a new screen door on the sun porch..

The door he removed was a nasty brown aluminum thing. And it didn't fit the space. This one has the spring on it so it will slap shut and make that summertime sound I love so much...

And remember this?

This is the sewing room... Do I need a fireplace in the sewing room? No! I need wall space... So Rich did this..

And then I did the old "mud and tape" dance. I am so over the mud and tape... Now where did the fireplace go? Nowhere... We just covered it up..with all the bits and pieces safely tucked in. When we are ~~gone, deceased, worm food~~, dead the kids can very easily remove this and sell the house with the fireplace intact. Meanwhile we will paint all of the brick and it will all blend in...

And then we went back to the sun porch...

We painted the white trim...and the gray walls...

and a dark gray floor...

And we locked the door and hopefully it won't rain tonight and wash it all away... fingers crossed... And back to the sewing room...

we painted the ceiling... never realized how nasty it was until we started.. but we ran out of paint and only half of the ceiling got painted...

And now for some random photos...

a new family of kitties showed their faces this weekend. Mommy and 4 babies. One gray and three tortoise shell..

As I was vacuuming the sun porch before painting we found this ant trying to carry the dead fly. He kept going around in circles... I guess the fly was a bit too heavy for him. I took the photo...then sucked them into the vacuum..

and my John Deere hat came in the mail... I look TERRIBLE in hats, but I think I might wear it Wednesday when we go out to cut the grass.. You know, cutting the grass and sweating I don't think anyone will care...

Nancy

more choices...

2011-06-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Friday was Ryan's birthday so we waited until early Saturday morning to get to the house. Because there was an accident (and we were looking at it) we missed the turn off for McDonald's and I was reduced to eating cereal...

This weekend was all about painting and some demolition and some more painting...

baseboard for the sun room

one of the front doors

I also did touch up painting in all rooms... Except the gray paint didn't match... Turns out that I ended up with two different colors of paint so the master bedroom and the hall bathroom are the same color and the master bath is a tad lighter.. I know how it happened...and it was my fault...but it's too dang confusing to explain...

This weekend was all about the sun room... We decided on paint colors...and finishes and lights...

sun room before... facing deck..

facing side yard... that screen door will stay and we will match it for the other side.

Yes, we decided to go for a painted floor. We are using outdoor deck paint.. it's a dark gray..then lighter gray walls and white trim.. We have black wrought iron chairs and that red/white enamel table will go out here..

we wanted a ceiling fan, but the roof is too low...or we are too tall... here is the new light fixture installed mere moments after the ceiling was painted.. next weekend we will paint the walls and trim and then the floor will be last.

side lights for the sun room. we bought two, one for each side of the sliding doors

And we have decided to have two old fashioned screen doors. Nothing reminds me of summer more than a slapping screen door...and Rich will make sure it slaps shut by adding a spring closure.. and simple pull handles...

Then bright and early (6am) Rich got busy in the BASR*. He moved a load of firewood outside. He moved all the stuff off the bookshelves to the basement. He separated all the leftover wood and put it either downstairs or on the trash pile..along with that brown screen door from the sun room...

before..

the book shelf is demolished and sits in the middle of the room

The brick wall will be painted a creamy white..and a surprise is in store for the fireplace.

after... the lower part of the wall had rough cut oak wainscoting and he ripped it down .. the area from the right of the window to the wall will become a huge design wall..

Now to more choices.. . We still haven't decided on a floor...It would cost as much to put vinyl in there as it would to have laminate...cheapest would be 18 inch peel and stick tiles... Any thoughts? And after today, I have decided that my cutting table will NOT go under the sky light... I painted the front door on saw horses underneath it today and man that sun was HOT!!

And I need to find a wall color....

I am leaning towards the blues which surprises me as I have never been particularly attracted to blue...

And we found the kitties...well, three of them anyway. They have been living under the house..

the gray one (in the back) already has a home, but the others are up for adoption if anyone is interested!

Nancy

*BASR Big As* Sewing Room

finishing touches...

2011-06-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's gotten to the point that we are doing small little finishing touches to the living space of the house. We haven't started on the sun porch or the back hallway or sewing room yet... Those are next on the list...

I have quilt guild on Saturday so Rich finished the dining room step. The dining room is completely finished now except for the light fixture. We won't put that up until the table is in there and we can make sure it is centered...

Saturday night we drove up to Lowe's and bought a mirror for the master bathroom and towel racks for both bathrooms. I love the shape of the mirror...

Rich painted the remaining two doors and we hung them... We also cut off two of the doors as they were too long once we installed the floors..

Sunday afternoon Kristin brought us lunch... roast beef, roasted potatoes, corn, asparagus, salad and even this...

Cherry Crisp...yum

Our next projects are the sun porch and then we will start on the laundry room, back hallway and sewing room...

We looking at different ways to finish out the sun room porch floor. Right now it is just cdx flooring and very rough.. We only have screen windows so the floor has to be able to stand all kinds of weather. According to Menard's personnel linoleum won't last through the winter months as it will crack, we don't want tile, this will only work over concrete and so I guess we are down to deck paint... I think it will be fine...but if you know of anything else to use on an all season porch floor please tell me...

Nancy

blue tape....

2011-06-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

So what does blue tape have to do with renovating a house?

plenty!!

photo courtesy of 3M website

I can't tell you how many times we have gone to Lowe's or Home Depot or Ace Hardware and bought "blue tape"...cause that's what we call it... blue tape. It has an official name...ScotchBlue Painters Tape.. we just happen to be on a first name basis...

And just because it says Painters in the name doesn't mean that's all you can use it for... Don't get me wrong..It's great for covering the edge of the wall when I am painting the doorways, but let's look at all the other ways we have found to use it...

a lot of it ends up on the floor

to hold the bullnose in place while the construction adhesive dries

to hold a piece of flooring down as the construction adhesive dries


Because the step isn't exactly square (what is?) I used blue tape to protect the flooring...

to fill with wood filler

used a stain marker to match and the steps are done

I had to cut a very small piece of flooring and that's a little close to get my fingers...So I taped the small piece to a larger piece and then cut...

remember when I painted the under side of the kitchen countertop? I used blue tape to protect the new cabinets

we used it when we did the crown moulding in the dining room to keep straight on whether to cut an A piece or a B piece we used it again when we put the crown moulding up in the living room

and of course we used it to paint all the trim

and you can't see it here but that window over the bed? Right outside is a dusk to dawn light and I blue taped brown kraft paper over the window to keep it from keeping me awake. I guess it's time to make some curtains..

So how do you use blue tape?

And this is how hot it was on Saturday... in the shade...and the A/C wasn't working so we got the dining room step finished, two more coats of paint on bedroom 2 doors and then we came home Saturday night. It was just too hot...

Nancy

Memorial Day weekend...

2011-06-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

This was a long weekend...Yippee!! Three days to work on the house...in the heat...and the humidity... You see our A/C is not big enough to cool the entire house. Sometime down the road this will happen...not soon enough after this weekend.. The attic fun does help. We flip it on at night with one window open to let in all the cool air we can...then we close up in the day and hope the cool air stays.. It worked Saturday...not so much on Sunday when the temp got over 90. I do not know how people manage to live through the summer without A/C and I know there are plenty that do.

So on to the work and photos..

Friday we stopped at Lowes on the way out and picked up some more supplies...

That is one door and 360 linear feet of baseboard.. the blue tote carries our clean clothes for the weekend..

After we unpacked the truck we realized we had company...

Momma and her babies

They found a nice hidey spot behind a board in the garage

One of our kitties had her a family sometime last week. FIVE new babies... So cute...and they need new homes (except for gray kitty who has been spoken for)..

Then I painted...and painted...and painted some more...

Saturday Don and Donna came out to help us lay baseboard which thankfully was completely dry. So really that means Rich and Don laid the baseboard and Donna and I helped..

bedroom 2

we had more company...gray kitty is going home with them as soon as she is weaned.

entry way

They did an amazing job...it looks so good... Then we had a wonderful steak dinner. Thanks to Don and Donna for giving up another Saturday to help...Call us when you are ready to start your deck...

Sunday Rich finished adding the baseboard to the dining room and I did more painting of doors..and trim.. Then we started on the trim in the kitchen...

We finished all the trim underneath the cabinets...

This trim just has glue, so the blue tape is there until it dries...and notice the cabinet baseboard and trim..

and the last of the trim on the other side of the kitchen..

Monday Rich mowed the grass and I cleaned up the tools, shop vac'ed the whole house and painted two doors...

Know what the best part of the weekend was? Sunday night...taking a shower...and then sitting on the deck in my nightgown and drinking a Bud-Lite.. (except for the dang cicada's )

I know what I want to be when I grow up....

2011-05-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Anything BUT a door installer.... omg..it's terrible..you sweat and get your fingers smashed and the doors don't fit and then they do fit and then it's hot and stuffy and the attic fan makes a weird noise and then it's still hot and on and on and on and on....

But lets go back to Friday night. On our way to the house, we stopped at Two Dudes Barbecue...

and had this... YUMMY... we will definitely stop here again..

Saturday we got a bit of a late start...9am...But we got three doors installed and then headed to Columbia to get four more...and had a wonderful steak dinner (I had a lobster tail on the side) at Longhorn with NO wait on a Saturday at 6pm which is almost unheard of in Columbia..

And then we drove the four doors home...

And here are almost all of the doors installed...

second bedroom door

master closet door

second bedroom closet door

we used our bed as a work table..

Apparently I didn't take photos of all the doors... We did install master bedroom door, master closet #1, master closet #2, bedroom 3 door, bedroom 2 door and bedroom 2 closet. yes, count again...that's six doors. The last one we had was for the hall linen closet, but we have decided that the door we bought was a bit too wide for the opening so we brought it home and will return it for the next smaller size...

i swept and shop vac'ed the sun room..

I also painted two coats on two of the doors...but no photo..

Thought it might be nice to have a gas price ...this is the lowest I have seen it for a while..

and did we pass someone famous? There were two of these huge racing trucks. It looked like a nice motor home pulling an equally nice racing trailer. This one says "Thanks to Linda and my boys Cameron and Trey". Then there was a duplicate of this following it... It said "For Sale".. We don't follow racing..at all... Is this someone we should have waved to when they sped past us?? Oh..well...it made for conversation..

And we measured for base board and we need 332' ... that's a lot of painting baseboard...and installing baseboard ...

So what kind is this?

2011-05-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

We were surprised to see these blooming by the garage when we got to the house on Friday. There was one vine that was trailing on the ground and I kind of shoved it into the lattice work. I hope it lives..

Now can you tell me what this is?

Nancy

Thank You....

2011-05-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

How do you thank your family for working 12 hour days? Two days in a row? They were amazing..and everyone needs to know that.

So thank you to

Carolyn - for coming and cooking 3 meals for us. She cooked hot dogs for lunch and pork steaks for dinner on Saturday and then BBQ ham sandwiches for Sunday lunch. She made GG's German potato salad, Sandra Lee's baked beans and brought all the fixin's for strawberry shortcake...

Don and Donna - Rich's sister and brother-in-law. They showed up bright and early on Saturday morning with a miter saw and more and worked all day... He is meticulous and the master bedroom is beautiful.

Barb - Rich's cousin came with her own measuring tape and was teamed up with Rich starting in bedroom 2. I think they talked "dead people" all day...

Kristin and Brad - Second daughter and son-in-law. What workers! Brad likes to work on his own. He started in bedroom 3 and before you could turn around he was starting in the living room and working down the hall. And the other teams were still working in their bedrooms. He left Saturday with bloody blisters on both knees, but they both came back bright and early Sunday am to keep working.. I can not say enough. Kristin was on her knees in the kitchen slamming down boards like she did it every day.

Carole and Tom - Rich's other sister and brother-in-law. They came Sunday to help finish the kitchen and dining room. Carole brought food and we put Tom to work cutting boards. The guys would call out the measurements and he would cut and deliver. He could also do some amazing trim cutting. He would sit on the floor and using only masking tape (and no ruler) would mark the board, cut it and it would fit perfectly around the vent. I shake my head at that...

Ava and Owen - Two of my five grandchildren.. They were great! They fished, swept, hauled out cardboard boxes and plastic, vacuumed, dusted, delivered cut boards and kept busy in the BASR* making a fort...

So now to the photos...

Barb and (part of) Rich in bedroom 2

and all finished with bedroom 2

Kristin and Brad start in bedroom 3

Brad continues on his own

And bedroom 3 done

and he starts down the hall

Barb and Rich almost done with bedroom 2 (yea, out of order sorry!)

Master bedroom closet done

Don working hard in the master bedroom

Don and Donna almost done with the master bedroom

Sorry Kristin...I could NOT leave this out. She thought I was taking photos, not videos!! lol

Rich and Brad. Brad thought if he wore overalls and a holey t-shirt that I wouldn't take his picture..Really?

{sigh} what can I say...the kitchen

Kitchen leading to the deck

Dining Room

and all together now {sigh}

The Fort!!

first time EVER cooking pork steaks on the grill...she cooked a grill full three times to feed us all...

Fool proof recipe to share at the end.. yes the grill is close to the house. Much closer than we usually have it. It was raining and the fire was going out.

So thank you...thank you...thank you...thank you...thank you... We can't say it enough..

Rich and Nancy

*BASR - Big A** Sewing Room

The best BBQ Pork Steak..

3 hours before dinner start grill and let go to coals. In a large saucepan mix 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water, salt and pepper. Dip pork steaks into vinegar/water solution and add to grill. Turn every 15 minutes and dunk the pork steaks every time you turn them. Cook 3 hours. Add sauce (we use Sweet Baby Rays) to one side and let grill for an aditional 5 minutes then turn and add sauce to other side and let grill for 5 minutes. Serve.

Since we had so many people, Carolyn grilled them and then put them into a roaster oven with the sauce. Kept the roaster on 200 and they stayed nice and warm in there until dinner. YUMMY!

just because it's breakfast....

2011-05-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend was Mother's Day and I spent all day Saturday sewing with friends...it was wonderful...Rich spent Saturday at the house priming the sun room and painting the basement and laundry room doors. Sadly I have no photos... and no excuse. I had the camera...just forgot..

I do however have photos of the rest of our Sunday work...

The BEST... It makes adding your drawer pulls so much easier...

Tools all laid out...

Two down and only 22 to go...


LOVE THEM!! And it's so much easier to open those cabinets. The two bottom drawers on the right need some washers for the handles to fit.. The holes are drilled..so it won't take long...

Around 9 this morning, I asked Rich if he wanted some toast. We had stopped sewing Saturday for few minutes to head across the street to a farmers market. I bought some cranberry, walnut, date bread that I thought would be awesome toasted with some cream cheese... I was told "no, I don't want any toast and you don't either". Huh? What? Apparently we were going out to breakfast at 10am with all the kids and grandkids... lol I had ordered coffee with cream and this little cutie wanted to know what was in the little pitcher... We told her it was cream and did she want to try it? She was hesitant, so we told her cream is what they use to make ice cream...that's all it took..

She drinks skim milk at home. She thought this was HEAVEN!! lol

MILK MUSTACHE!!!

This big grankids eating breakfast...

And just because it's breakfast doesn't mean you have to have eggs or pancakes!! I got a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings!! lol

After breakfast they all followed us back to the house to see the progress... And then we got busy...

I painted the trim of one of the front doors..

Rich swept each room ..

dry dusted all the walls...

and vacuumed all the bedrooms...

and the hall and bathrooms...

We are sleeping in the living room again...

Next weekend is the BIG FLOORING EVENT!!! We will head out to the house on Friday to sweep, dry dust and vacuum the living room, kitchen and dining room and be all ready when our volunteers show up on Saturday morning bright and early.

Nancy

remembering...

2011-05-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this photo? The Beverly Hillbillies back deck, complete with ladder leaning against the house.

Well...It now looks like this!!

please disregard the trash pile and the big area of sand..both will be fixed sometime this summer. and did you notice the grass is cut? Rich used the new lawn mower...and found out that there are a lot of areas that we will still have to use the push mower and then the weed eater...{sigh} We both hate yard work.. Oh! The upright posts were not painted because we will close in the bottom of the deck and they won't be seen.

this is what was torn off...

The back section was replaced...ladder removed..

The burned out section was replaced...

Then we used Behr Deck Cleaner ...can you believe the before and after section. Amazing...

Then we used Behr Deck Paint.. in Pewter...

all done...and drying...it is supposed to dry for at least 24 hours before you can get it wet...Oops...it rained about 3 hours later... When we left to come home it was still raining so we won't be able to assess any damage until this weekend..

I added the new tile floor to the entryway...Once the first tile was set it went very quickly...We used a peel and stick from Home Depot. I think they have changed the sticky stuff sometime in the last 10 years. I used a peel and stick back then and had trouble later with them popping up.. This sticky was great..in fact I had to use vegetable oil to remove the sticky from my hands...

Rich added the baseboards and the corner trim and it's done... I searched for a "before" photo but I guess I never took one. Believe me it was terrible. It had some kind of burlap glued to the top half of the walls and some paneling painted a blue gray on the bottom... and there was a storm door on the front instead of a proper front door..and when we looked at the house the first time there was a trash can full of dog food and some kind of handmade bench...and a broom and a mop and dirt...

Kristin brought the grandkids over to see us on Sunday as I was laying the tile. She confessed that after the family saw the house for the first time after we bought it they collectively thought we were crazy...they couldn't see it...and now she can...

Special Delivery....

2011-04-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

This little truck backed down my driveway this morning... luckily the rain had stopped..

Do you like the new ride?

Won't it be fun to take the grandkids for a ride?

the leaf catcher reminds me of Ghost Busters!!

A new tile option....

This is a keeper...it has a bit of yellow in it and it's lighter in color than the stuff that's in my trunk to go back to Home Depot tomorrow...

I painted some trim since I was here anyway...

crown moulding and baseboard for the airlock....or entry way...depending on who you are talking to..

any idea what this plant or bush or whatever is? It's huge..no flowers...and it was green and now it's this pretty red pink color...

Nancy

more doors. and floors..and paint...

2011-04-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

We are working and working trying to get all the little things done before we come to the BIG WEEKEND! More about that later...

This is the linen closet. When we first saw the house there were dark wood shelves and a curtain hanging over the doorway. We primed it, painted the shelves and this weekend I made the linen closet look like a proper linen closet...

The back supports are all we left in there..

side supports added and painted..it's shiny cause I used a Hi-Gloss paint..and the flash went off..oops!

One down and four to go...

done!

Rich had to bring the shelves home and cut them down to 15 1/2 inches and make new side supports so we can add a door..

We did get a HUGE job finished...completed...all done... THE CROWN MOULDING...

We really struggled with this.. First we had a devil of a time matching the crown moulding that was already in the house. There was too much to pull down and start over. We tried Lowes, Home Depot, Sutherlands and a ton of smaller stores and finally found "almost matching" moulding at Menard's. It was so close that I don't think anyone will notice...and if they do, hopefully they are nice enough to keep their mouth shut...lol

I painted it and Rich did all the inside and outside cuts...with some miscuts along the way...he is NOT a visual person so he struggles knowing which way to place the board on the miter saw...and which way to move the miter saw to cut it...We did make more of the cheat boards so we now have Cut A, Cut B, Cut C and Cut D boards... I think we should market them...And of course it helps if you have square corners and level ceilings...which we don't have... Some of the moulding looks like a drunken sailor hung it...but once again..if you notice it....don't say it out loud...I won't be responsible..

Rich got both doors trimmed out...the mess to the left of the door is mudd..We had to make the door opening smaller so a little mudd and tape and some repainting is in order..

And this is a preview of a possible new floor in the airlock.. It is peel and stick tile. I don't really like peel and stick tile, but I like it better than what is down there now...The white you see between the tiles is the paper and won't be there if I decide to keep this tile... It looks a bit orangey to me...I laid the white trim board down so I could get an idea of what it would look like with the base board down...I can't decided... YA? NAY? what do you think....

And how many cats do YOU think are pregnant... I put out warm milk this morning hoping that all four would show up.. They did, but then the flash went off and the other skinny kitty took off... One of them actually let me get close to her and rub her neck and feel her belly... of course I couldn't really feel any movement so maybe it's too early? Her teats were popped out though..and I know with dogs that happens when they get pregnant.. I'm thinking the two skinny kitties must be male...

And the big weekend is May 14th and 15th.. We have many family members that are coming out to help us lay the floor...in the whole house...and we even had a COOK volunteer...so all I need to do is buy groceries... YIPPEE!! After the floor is installed we will be ready to add all the bedroom doors and all of the base board.. Then we start working in the back hall way which includes the laundry room and sewing room..and it will start all over again with demolition, drywall, and paint.

Nancy

would you like door one, door two or door three.....

2011-04-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

This week was all about the doors...

This is door one..and one ugly door left by former homeowners...Not only is it ugly brown but they didn't tape the glass off when they painted so there was brown paint all over....gross..

And this is door number three...well...actually door opening number three..

So Rich started ~~making a mess~~ doing this...

And I started to paint the master bathroom door...

By the end of the first day we had this...

this door leads to the airlock..then there is another doorway to the outside.

and this,.

Look...a door on the master bath!! So exciting... both bathrooms now have doors...Our guests will be very happy...

And no...I didn't miscount or forget door number two.. This is it..our outside door. Some of the siding had to be removed during installation, but it has all been replaced...

And then we started working on the crown moulding.. The living room and kitchen had crown moulding already installed and we took a piece and went to every hardware store, box store and anywhere we could think of to try and match it. We got close, but not an exact match. I don't think anyone but us will notice..well, and now all of you if/when you come to visit... do me a favor..don't mention it..

We started to put it up, but I guess I didn't get a photo...will try to remember next week..

This Cardinal kept stealing the cat food...

I used these tools...

to install two sets of locks on the front door and the entry door..

We got the rest of the base board down in the master bath

This is a sneak peak at the floor we are putting down...in about 3 weeks...hopefully with help...

And this cat might be preggers...and if she is? she is gone to the shelter along with the kittens. I can't have four cats and then four kittens and then they become cats and have more kittens..and pretty soon I am the crazy cat lady on the gravel road and people are driving by and staring...

Should I paint or should I paint...

2011-04-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

As I drove up to the house Saturday afternoon, this is what greeted me...

Well, and this...

so...you might have seen the other photo but I was asked to please remove it...

Anyway.. Rich had taken all Saturday morning and stripped the airlock. Now maybe I need to tell you a little about the airlock.. You can see the blue gray door to it in the above photo. That's a screen door. And the latch doesn't work. You walk through there and to the right is a solid front door, which leads to the living room. This is what was on the walls of the airlock..

I don't even know what that is, but it seemed to be shellacked to the walls. There was no pulling it off... so we had to cover it up. Rich ~~said yelled~~ didn't want to do any more demolition... So we talked about what we could put over it. I guess I wasn't in on this decision...

By the time I arrived there was only one wall left to do..... Alrighty then... let's go with it...

I helped put the last two walls up and painted it the same pale yellow as the living room, hall and kitchen... It took awhile but it grew on me and it really lightened up that area... I wish I had a before photo..it was hideous.. that dark brown shellacked whatever it was on top and some kind of paneling on the bottom...

The master bathroom was also tackled this weekend..

Vanity and toilet installed...by Rich by himself..

Door going in... We did finish installing it

The deadbolt and lock set installed on the back door by ME (with a lot of help)!! I guess I need to do a bit more painting...

Rich up on the roof of the sun room... There was a leak so he braved the heights and sealed it up...

Ok...The photo above just makes me laugh... I took the photo while I was watching Rich on the roof..(I also took the new header photo) ... If that doesn't look like the Beverly Hillbillies ...I don't know what does... Of course the ladder on the deck isn't always there...just today so Rich could get on the roof...but even taking that away...look at that mess. Two levels of deck and the bottom has that ladder hanging down into the yard. That's the ladder that used to lead right to the above ground pool...that we paid someone to take away.. Even though it doesn't look like it, the rest of the deck is in fairly decent shape. Sure, it needs a good power wash and we will chop that ladder off and close that up...and put the BBQ pit on the lower level..

But right now...that photo just gives me the chuckles... It so represents the shape the rest of the house was in...

So what did I do this weekend?? I painted

1. second coat on the kitchen window
2. first coat on the kitchen wall where we fixed the dining room entry
3. second coat on the master bathroom window
4. first coat in the airlock
5. second coat on the back of the hall bathroom door
6. second coat on the trim work of the hall bathroom doorway
7. second coat in the airlock
8. second coat on the kitchen wall where we fixed the dining room entry
9. first coat on the master bathroom door (one side only)
10 first coat on the trim work of the master bathroom

Rich
1. demolished the airlock
2. put up the bead board in the airlock
3. installed the toilet
4. installed the vanity
5. installed the bathroom door
6. installed most of the base board
7. started in the sun room...pulled nails, swept dust, got a wasp nest out of the hanging light fixture...
8. fixed the leak in the roof..

gardening help...

2011-04-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Since we bought the house in September we are just discovering the flora and fauna... This is about the flora part. This bush bloomed last week and we were shocked to see the color as we drove into the driveway last weekend... We are not "the gardeners" people... We have no idea what kind of bush this is...and we know it needs to be trimmed back, but we have no idea when... now? this fall? And please click to make the photo larger and see to the right of that bush there is yet another one in a pinkish red color...Is it the same kind of bush? in a different color? Or a different kind of bush?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Nancy

the light at the end of the tunnel...

2011-04-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

That light is getting nearer and nearer. This weekend we tried to make a list of what is left to do before we start installing the floors and doors... It's all little stuff now.

This weekend we continued to work on the dining room and master bath...We would mudd one and while waiting for it to dry we would paint the other...then back and forth all weekend..

We got three of the four walls in the dining room painted before I realized we had used Hi-Gloss paint... I ~~asked, made~~, insisted that Rich take off to Westlakes and get the same color in eggshell. See the difference? It's Hi-Gloss on the left...Eggshell on the right... I like it much better...

While I was sanding and mudding the bathroom, Rich installed the sconces in the dining room. This is not a design element we would have thought of, but the wiring was already there when we bought the house. All we had to do was put on the sconces and now I really like them. (oh, we also had to figure out which of the millions of light switches were wired to them.. That was a feat in of itself) We have an old Oak Hutch that will sit between them and an Oak plate rack that Rich made will hang on the wall between them.

And back to the bathroom to install the shower doors.

The bottom track is just taped on...

Then you add the side tracks....

And then you snap on the top, attach the rollers to the glass doors and the handles and you are done....It took about 2 hours from start to finish and the instructions were fairly clear.. What you can't see is that the frosted part of the door is really really small polka dots...and yes...I used that towel to shower and the step stool was my "vanity"...lol (the blue rag is just that...a rag! I used it to clean the shower of all the drywall dust while I was taking a nice long hot shower...)


Let's lay out the floor and see where we end up... Apparently when Rich builds a wall it is straight..and when he installs a shower it is straight cause all the tiles just lined up there as pretty as you please... We got all the tile laid. He does all the cement stuff and I trim and cut the tile to fit. We were a pretty good team..and then we had to let it dry for 16 hours so we took off and had dinner at T.G.I. Fridays... and bought some more bathroom stuff...

This is the vanity..

This is the black granite top.. No left side piece will be used.

This is the faucet. Holy Moly these are expensive. The counter top we picked requires a faucet set with a 8 inch center. They don't make a whole lot of those and they are ridiculous in price...but it IS pretty...

Rich installed the overhead light...and added the cover to the fan after this photo was taken.

Rich also installed the vanity light.

Mixing the grout..with the drill and some attachment that looks like a cake mixing beater...

And it is all grouted and shiny and needs to dry for 24 hours so we came home...

In between doing the tile we trimmed and painted the dining room window, trimmed and painted the kitchen window, painted the hall bathroom door, painted a lot of crown moulding for the living room/kitchen, trimmed the master bathroom window, swept the sun room and our son came out and (worked for payment of his cell phone bill) cleaned all the "junk" out from underneath the deck. We now have a huge pile of trash for the trash man.

We used the attic fan for the time this year. The temp outside was 81 and with the fan on it was 72 inside.

And we saw our first act of Mother Nature.. We have muskrats in the pond. They are a nuisance.. They will dig their tunnels into the dam and it weakens the dam and your pond can drain. We are allowed to either shoot the muskrats or live trap them and move them somewhere else. We do have a .22 and we don't have anywhere else to take them. So Rich has been watching..and watching...and over the past few weekends he did get a couple with the .22. This weekend we saw one a few times, but he wasn't lucky enough to get a good shot. Friday night I happened to look out the kitchen doors and saw some movement on the other side of the pond. It was a fox and quick as a wink he grabbed the muskrat and took off . Guess he had a nice dinner... I was so excited I started yelling and Rich got there just in time to see the fox run over the hill...