Living area almost done.

Dave and I like old wood. The strong, sturdy stuff that was used a hundred years ago. There is a guy in town that is an excavator, and every now and then he would allow Dave to come into a house and tear out some wood before he tears it down. It's been a couple of years since he's done this, but we have saved it to use in our new home some day. This is one of three piles that we have.


These are the pantry doors. I showed these on the bee lady blog and explained that they were really a mistake, but because they were special ordered, we are using them anyway. They are new, and it's a prime example of what new stuff is like. They practically fell apart trying to put them up, and Dave was ready to sell it all! One of my blogger friends suggested painting the windows with flowers and such...which is not a bad idea! She always suggested putting material behind them, which we had already decided to do. But.....I do have some friends who know how to paint. I'm visualizing flowers, and bees, and birds and such....Great idea "Hookin' It with Mr. lick lick"

And these are the more-than-sturdy pantry shelves, made from old wood. Love them. Do you ever just run your hand along an old piece of wood, cloth, quilt, doorknob, (history) and wonder what stories they would tell if they could tell stories?

And this is what I walked into yesterday. Dave said he could use some help yesterday. He works out there every day after work, and lately has taken some time off of work to try to get some things done. I work out there whenever he needs my help. Yesterday was one of those days. We needed to clean this room up, and out.

So we both got to work.

Here is a picture of the closet. No doors yet.

Getting there. See that wall at the end of the room? He put that up on Saturday. Took all day. Made from old wood.

Winston doesn't understand why Dave's doing woman's work. I set them both straight right away!

Taa Daaaaa!

But then, we didn't wait long enough for it to completely dry because we had too much to do.

Still....it's looking good don't ya think?

I put polyurethane on the wood to seal it. Still needs another coat. This pic is before any of the wood was sealed. (I just accidentally deleted the pic showing you how it looks, so....next post!) This wall is where the stove/oven kitchen cabinets and sink will go. So, those marks in the wood will be somewhat hidden. I love it.

Cindy

Lights, trim, and closets

Dave has finished hanging rods in the closet. There's actually a support in the center of the rods now, but I don't have a pic. You get the idea.


Trimming out the windows. He made the window sills very wide because he knows I like to set plants and such on the ledges.

And hanging lights.

This fan is in the center of the room.

There are two of these, on the walls in the bedroom area.

Ceiling fan on either end - one in the kitchen area - above....and the other one is in the bedroom area.

Here's a pic of the bedroom area lights.

This light is above the door when you walk in.

As you've probably noticed, I like older light fixtures. I pick them up at sales whenever I can and my Shug rewires them for me.

Cindy

Floor!

Check out this floor! I love it. We had it stained in the living area of our basement.

For those of you thinking about having a floor done like this, let me say a couple of things. First of all, it cannot be a sealed concrete floor. If your concrete has been sealed, it costs quite a bit to remove that sealant. Second, the fumes are horrible. If I were living in the house and had this done, I'd probably move out for a couple of days! VERY FUMEY. (is that a word?) The only maintenance is to wax it every now and then. He said a gallon of was will last us a lifetime. I hope it's a long lifetime! And the wax is a paste type wax.

We still have to grout it. We're going to do that on our own. And after grouting you can't walk on it for 72 hours! We could use a break anyway, so we'll grout it, then take a break. What do you think?

Cindy

Staining the floor

We hired someone to acid stain the floor in our living area. I know, chemicals. I've fought it and fought it, but it was either tiles or stained cement.


He stained three different samples on our floor in the closet, so we could choose what we like the best. It's hard to tell with these pics taken from my phone,

We thought this was a little light, too much floor showing through.

This was a little too dark and too many variegations.

But this....just right. He just called and said he was finished.

I can't wait to see it.

Cindy

Staining the floor

I thought I'd give you a peek at our pond.

Full of geese. It's what we like to look at when we take a break.


A couple of days ago, when I arrived to work on the house, I thought Dave made me a heart in the snow!

Look how perfect! HE didn't even know what I was talking about. Apparently our neighbor came over for a visit on his little "flintstone car", and knowing him, I KNOW he didn't see the heart. What a nice surprise anyway!

Winston, waiting on us to finish up inside.

Now, for what we're up to. I had to prime the walls with paint primer, about four feet up, and across the bottom. We are still waiting for some of the drywall mud to dry, and sand, and dry, and sand....but in the meantime, we decided to have our floor stained. And the cement guy, Derrick, has to put plastic up about four feet on the walls to do this. He tapes it, and if he tapes plain drywall, it'll peel off with the tape when he's finished. So, I had to prime, even though we're not ready.

It's a cement floor and we thought maybe a terra-cotta type look, or something in browns, might look good. So we had to clean the floor really well.

Derrick, is coming over today with three colors and he's going to put all three of them in a closet. It's an acid stain and it all goes on green, so we have to wait until it dries, tonight, to see what the colors will look like, then pick one. It's a variegated type look. I'll show you as soon as I can. It's a three day process. We're excited. This kind of stuff is so much more fun than duct work, plumbing, etc!

Cindy

Priming and Painting and Mudding....OH MY!

We have been busy, busy, busy....and it's getting exciting, finally some visual stuff!

Dave got all of the duct work and lines (water, gas, etc.) finished in the ceiling of the "living area" of the basement. So I finished the insulation.

And we put the last few sheets of drywall up.



Now we have nail holes to fill, dry wall taping and mudding to do. It seems it's been a long haul to get to this part...and I'm ready for a vacay.

So I wore this shirt as a hint. Shows he doesn't pay attention to what I wear! He didn't get the hint.

Anyway, last weekend he had to work...at work. And it was warm out! And I reckon I should do a little explaining here. Above the basement is a house! But the only thing finished upstairs is siding and framing. It's not insulated, there are no walls up, no ceiling up, you can even see a bit of the outside...so it is ccccooooollllldddddd upstairs. Which means, other than the "living area" of the basement, it's cold in the basement. Not as cold as upstairs because there is insulation in the walls and there are walls up in the basement, but the only area in the basement with a ceiling, and insulation in the ceiling is the living area. But, because it was in the 40's and 50's last weekend, and we have a kerosene heater, we warmed the craft/storage room up a bit and I got to paint walls!

And guess what? I found a cream color of paint (see last post). And guess what it's called? CREAMY! Yup...creamy. Not ocean mist, or dove white, or whatever....just creamy. And I like it (smile!)

So, when I was talking to my sister and my cousin on the phone said, "hey you two, I'm having a painting party on Saturday, you wanna come?"

My Sister said, "Oh gee, sorry Cindy, but I think I have plans Saturday."

I said, "well, I can change it to Friday."

Sister, "oh darn, got plans that day too."

Me, "Sunday?"

Her, "Sorry."

But my cousin!!! Well, she heard..."waah waaah waaah waaaah...PARTY!...waah waaah waaah!"

So the next day I got an e-mail from her, "I'm in! What time do the festivities start? What can I bring?"

How about 9:00 a.m., just bring old clothes.

Just look how much fun she is having!

Then, about an hour later, Dad showed up!

He knew it was a painting party, but he said it's too hard on Mom when he sits around the house. She has to think too hard trying to come up with stuff for him to do! (this isn't because he wants stuff to do, it's because Mom can't stand to have someone sitting around...gotta stay busy.)

So Dad rolled, Vickie trimmed the bottom, and I trimmed the top. Vickie actually started out rolling, but gave up her standing position for Dad. Nice of her.

Sorry Dad - but we told you to take your coat off!

Apparently he doesn't have hot bodies like we do!! It's an age thing, and a woman thing, if you get my meaning! Vickie and I were warm. Hot actually. The minute he left (was he even gone yet?) we opened the door and turned off the heater!

We got the primer done Saturday, I painted the room Sunday, Dave put the trim around the doors Monday and Tuesday, and he hung lights and ceiling fans. LOVE IT!

DO YOU HEAR ME? I LOVE IT!!!

These lights...he got them years ago at a school auction. A whole skid of these lights for $5.00! For the skid! They all needed re-wired. He's an electrician by trade...so no big deal.

And this area is gonna be my craft room folks. (we are also using part of the room for storage) And ideas are swirling around in my head as I type.

But right now, I gotta get ready and get out to the house because we are back in the living area, playing with dray wall mud. Ugh.

Cindy