BUSY BUSY BUSY

Happy Saturday Friends!!!
I promise I have not intentially neglected the blog and my blog-friends, it just has been a very BUSY week at the house!! And Spousal Unit had me hands on assisting!! Well....I guess I did create more work for him by getting the Martini Room wallpaper stripped. He grouched, but......I know he was happy to have that mess done before the final floor finish! He even has the entire room painted and trimmed!!

Okay, I like creative names! (Hence, we have a Martini Room in our house!)  I confess, that I prefer to buy my nail-polish by the name of the color for the event I am dressing for!  For example, for a trip to Chicago I wore "Swimming in Lake Michigan". My friend E bought me "Itsy Bitsy Tini Weeny Pink Bikini" for my summer birthday as we hang out at the lake together!  SO....back to the house, I loved that the Hearthroom/Kitchen which I have now named "Heart of the House Room", paint color is "Tarragon". Love it! The name of the Martini Room paint color is "Anonymous". I was going for a smokey, lounge type color, and so, Anonymous is cool! Those of you who have been to the original Martini Room in our old house will note that I went a number of shades lighter in my gray color in Martini Room #2. I thought with the stained trim and windows, this would look even better. (The original room has white trim that really pops the dark pewter gray in that room.) I am pleased and anxious to get furniture in the room!

I think all the natural light in the room brings the "Anonymous" even more to life! I will break it gently to Spousal Unit in a couple of days that I found some awesome glass tile pieces to decorate the buffet back wall with! Gotta stay two steps ahead of the man...which is hard to do when he accomplishes so much in one day!! He rolls his eyes alot at my decoration ideas.....but for the most part, learns to appreciate them once they are done and he lives with it for awhile!

Staircase:
The Carpenter crew is now finished completely with the staircase! We are pleased with the look of it all! The floor crew has one more coat to finish on Monday, but otherwise FINISHED! Yes, the missing spindles arrived by horseback from Texas!

 And yes, the workers all fessed up they thought that painting them black was maybe a little crazy, but now they like it alot. At least that is what they are telling me, as they have yet to present us with the bill and want us to be happy!

I even had the backs of each stair, and the side pieces painted black. The staircase at the old house had white backs and they ALWAYS were dirty and scuffed up!

We plan to replace the small windows with new that do not open and are frosted to let in light but not readily see out. And Spousal Unit plans to encase the deep recesses with stained wood. I think that will really finish off the look!

I would have liked for "Terrible Black Jack Baby" to have been moved into his spot prior to the spindles being placed because he is sooooooooo very heavy. But, the floors still needed the last coat. I heard a nasty rumor that Spousal Unit is offering our RG a monetary bribe to drop and break the cute dog when he is asked to move the dog from the old house to the new!! Can NOT imagine that RG would ever want to break Momma G's heart by mistreating my dog!!! Looking forward to seeing him in his new home!

Fireplace:
Spousal Unit has painted the shelves, and mantle pieces and trimmed out the fireplace now. I like the black color a lot!

The TV will go above the mantle. Spousal Unit created a "hidden in the wall" tube for the wiring to go through. Pretty cool. I am ready to finish painting the brick hearth, as soon as Spousal Unit's heart can handle it. We will see when that happens!

"Heart of the House" - Bathroom:
There is a small bathroom off the kitchen that I am assuming will get used alot in our "Heart of the House" room! It has a neat oval window in it. It had some dated wallpaper, and a material encased frame for the window. The Sheetrockers had redone the ceiling and finished it with "knock-down" when they did the kitchen, so Spousal Unit was going to have to paint that ceiling too at some point soon. SO...Friday happened to be a cold and very chilly day here. Parents D were unable to work on their outside project at their house, and their dear friend HB had fallen and broke her arm, so their casino plans were squelched too!
They drove in and stripped off the wallpaper in the bathroom! I was thrilled, and Spousal Unit not so much! He was grateful, but not thrilled with yet another room to finish!

I now have to get busy with decorating ideas for the room! I think I will start by checking out our leftover paints at the old house and see what I might have enough of to do that small amount in. There is paneling halfway up the wall that I think I will leave at least for awhile. (You are welcome Spousal Unit!)

Floors:
All the wood floors are completed with the exception of the final semi-gloss coat. They plan to complete the last coat on Monday morning. We are so happy that Carpenter Danny suggested we have the vents made from wood and recessed. They turned out super!

I was really tired last night (and cold), and was in bed before 10:00 on a Friday night!! I told Spousal Unit I really had to quit hanging out with him so much, because I was awake at 4:50 AM this morning! I finally gave up trying to go back to sleep and got up about 5:30. But while I was laying in bed "resting"- and dreaming... I had another decorating idea to paint the upper-most trim piece on the existing kitchen cabinets black to tie them in more with the Island that is being made! This idea was met with some eye-rolling when I shared it, but Spousal Unit did ask for me to find a two-inch angled paint brush! Good sign he might do it! Just a teaser for the next upcoming blog!!

As we keep saying.....one project ALWAYS leads to another!!!
Keep smiling!!
Deb

Working Weekend

Happy Sunday!
Since we last talked.......the stair parts finally arrived after their delay in Texas. The newel posts are beautiful...but huge! The "Master Carpenter" Danny assures us when he is done we will be very pleased. I really believe him!

The treads are in place and one handrail. To avoid the railing ending up directly in the middle of the window, he is creating a curved railing. There will be a ledge between the new railing and the edge of the flooring in front of the window. Master Carpenter Danny thought it appropriate that a statue...(bust of himself) be fitting watching over the new staircase! I think probably...NOT, even though I think very highly of his skills! I am thinking "Terrible Black Jack Baby" my concrete dog has a new home! (My dog was purchased with my winnings from a girls trip to "Terribles Casino" in Missouri one weekend, hence his name!) We will see how much room there really is when the stairs are all finished!

The Wood Floor crew, showed up a day late, but have been busy "filling" in where the old built ins previously were located, with no wood floor beneath. They are reusing some of the flooring removed for the creation of the stairs.

They also are cutting in new wood registers that will lay flush into the floor in both the Hearthroom and the Martini Room. These will be especially nice in the traffic areas.

There is hardly any evidence of the old staircase left! Some of the old tile were removed and replaced with hardwood around the kitchen island "to be", so the island can be installed level as well as solid wood look on the front of the island.

This picture is to remind you of what the fireplace was before. Spousal Unit has been hard at work creating new trim and redoing the mantle for the fireplace. I just didn't like the plain red brick surround, and so I got out my artist paints, palate and paintbrush. I attempted to make a "wash - dark tea stain" effect in black. I thought Spousal Unit was going to have a heart attack. He kept saying, "are you sure about this?" "Maybe only do a few until we see if we like this or not!" After I completed the top row, he was liking it more and more, and eventually bought all in! He even painted the mantle and decorative trim around the fireplace a glossy black to coordinate. We loved it, so he then painted the shelving unit black, and is trimming it out in the coordinating stained oak. We now are debating painting the hearth seating area as well! Looking forward to seeing it all up!

The Hardwood floor crew will be back on Tuesday to sand down and refinish all the wood floors in the Hearthroom and Martini room. That got me to thinking that since I would really like the "dining room chair rail" off in the Martini Room, as well as the wallpaper, I really should have that mess fall on the old wood floors before they get finished so nice! SO....on Saturday while Spousal Unit was trimming away, we turned on football games on the radio, and I started stripping the wallpaper! I didn't realize how tall the walls were in that room until I was up on the ladder trying to reach the top of all those walls!

I worked most of the day and got about half-way done. I just had to finish on Sunday, so I called in reinforcements! My parents had offered to help strip wallpaper....."some day soon" they had said! Well, I was hoping that day would be okay to be today!! Luckily, they were not in a golf tournament, and they said yes! We finished off the rest of the room in half the day! We still had most the afternoon to go to the lake! "Grandpa and Grandma D" still had lots of golf, and football to watch on TV with their feet up I hope!! I plan to treat them to a steak dinner real soon!!

Isn't it true that one project leads to several more!! Spousal Unit now has another room to work on. Spackling, and painting this room will take some time! I have the paint waiting for his next free moment! I also am visualizing some glass tile work in the buffet/shelf area! I need to spend some time on those thoughts real soon! Spousal Unit told me to take my time thinking about that project!

Tomorrow is Monday, and Spousal Unit will be working at his "other job". I will be supervisor at the house until he returns on Tuesday to work!! I better charge my phone....he will be calling ALOT!!

Heavy heart today, remembering 9/11/01.
Give extra hugs today to those special people in your life, and always let them know you appreciate them!
SMILE!
Deb

Holiday Fun

Happy Labor Day!
Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! We enjoyed ours working on the house, spending some time on the lake, and a road trip to Sparks Kansas for a huge Flea Market shopping trip! Great fun! And "Deb Fun" is starting at the new house. Spousal Unit has had lots of fun with destruction and construction, but now at least in the Hearthroom/Kitchen we are nearing the finishing work. The sheetrock work is complete and he was able to paint! Spousal Unit also stained trim and finished off the ceiling and window trim. He really is talented and sooooooo enjoys this work.

The paint color we call Tarragon.

Spousal Unit also hung the two chandeliers that will light the kitchen island when it is completed.

We are hoping the island will arrive by the end of the month. The old kitchen cabinets will be cleaned up and dressed up with new hardware. The fence outside is now completed. Spousal Unit received his City Permit for the new garage, and I do believe he would declare that day a permanent Family Holiday to celebrate he was so excited! Next step is to line up the subcontractors.

The stair parts were delayed somewhere in Texs, but are now scheduled to arrive tomorrow. The carpentry crew are just waiting to begin the finish work on the staircase. The Hardwood Floor Crew that were scheduled to begin work today were a no show. Spousal Unit will have to look into that situation tomorrow.

I had purchased a new light for the Hearthroom, but I got outvoted by the family as it just might hand low enough to block the TV viewing from the kitchen. I will probably not use my "Mom Veto" as on second thought, I am thinking I may like a ceiling fan/light combination better. I will need to ponder that situation further, as I do love the new fan/light in the Martini Room that was just installed.

I have had some wonderful volunteers come forward who love to strip wallpaper! Crazy but true! I am very anxious to put them to work in the Martini Room, converting it from a formal dining room to our infamous Martini Room! I am also considering paint color and wall decoration for that room as well. I will find my inspiration soon! Every room has one inspiration, be it a fabric, art piece, furniture or something that starts the decorating ball rolling!  This is the remodeling fun I love!

We are planning to have the next REDO sale at the new house prior to us moving there. I do hope to be living in the new house by the end of the month. We are inching ever so close!

Create your own happiness!
Keep smiling!
Deb