Special Delivery....

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...

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.....

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...

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...

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...

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...