Ahh, The Melodious Sound of a Flushing Toilet

I am pleased to announce that our plumbing system is back on track. After spending *a l l d a y* working on the lines, Jeff and his dad got things straightened out. As of this morning, and even with some very heavy duty drain opening chemicals poured in last night, the clog in one of our plumbing lines wouldn't budge. It was somewhere near our septic tank but they couldn't get to it with the snake. They discovered that the PO had built the sunroom on top of part of the septic tank (I know...unbelievable) which makes it extremely difficult to access all of the line. (Grrrr!) I didn't retain all the details hubs relayed to me about the problem and how they fixed it, but basically, they laid a new line that is much more accessible and easier to snake if need be in the future. So all seems to be fine now. He forgot one plumbing part at Home Depot so we can't use the kitchen sink or dishwasher tonight, but I don't feel like doing those mountains of dishes now anyway.

Today I worked really hard on our office/playroom/sunroom, scrubbing the tile and doing a quasi 'spring cleaning' of sorts. I still have a few toys to sort and we have a couple pieces of furniture to bring in, but hopefully that will get done tomorrow. Our place is still pretty much upside down. I basically purposely turned our (already upside down) house inside out to give it a good decluttering and cleaning (the house looked/looks like it threw up) - and in the midst of it all, we had the plumbing emergency which added to the chaos. Oy. The chaos just overwhelmed me today and I would have cried, too, had I not been so busy trying to get control of it. I finally made it over to Eese's house to take a nice,long, wonderful bath. I felt so much better afterwards. The girls all had a bath, too, but I'm sure they didn't appreciate theirs half as much as I appreciated mine! Thanks, Eese!

I think I'll go flush the toilet now, just because I can.

Plumbing Woes

Since our bathroom demolition, the five of us have been reduced to using one tiny half bathroom. As if that isn't challenging enough, last night our one and only toilet rebelled against us and refused to flush. We're not quite sure what the problem was, but we figure it has something to do with the fact that we have three girls who love to use toilet paper. They go through it like air here. Anyway, the toilet filled up with water to the point of almost overflowing, but fortunately it didn't. Jeff plunged and plunged to no avail. By this morning, the toilet water had gone down and he was able to flush. All seemed fine until a couple of hours later when the bowl filled up again. Did I mention that our washing machine water backed up into our tub last night as well? So something is definitely wonky with our plumbing system. Jeff crawled up under the house last night to inspect and he says that it seems that there is a clog in an elbow shaped pipe. So he's on his way home now with a 50 ft long snake to try to unplug it.

Forgetting all of these plumbing woes, this morning I made myself a delicious cup of coffee flavored with Hazelnut creamer and whipped cream on top. Normally, this would be a perfect way to get my day started. However today - I'm afraid it was a mistake.

I could really use a bathroom right now.

Virtual Fun with Paint

I've enjoyed testing some of the colors that I've picked out for the house with the Lowes online virtual painting software . Below is a photo of what my kitchen cabinets *should* look like when they are finished. Mind you, the photo is not one of *my* kitchen, but it is just used to show how the wall and cabinet colors will look together. I think I've finally, for the 12th time, decided on Homestead Resort Parlor Sage for the walls. Yeah, I know. Last time it was something different, and the time before that, too. But I've decided to try and only use historic colors and this one is quite pretty, though it is a little darker in the photo than it's suppose to be. See how the kitchen and dining concepts are starting to coordinate? Remember, it's all one big room.




I'm still having trouble picking a final color for the living room. Everytime I think I have it, I start doubting myself. I really don't know if I should go with an ever so slightly orangy yellow, or a "yellow-er" yellow, or with a light yellow. Here are the three historical colors that I'm bending my brain around. Ugh. This is hard!







Saturday, Jeff and I got some work done around here, though I didn't get anything primed as I had planned. I needed to finish (yes, I said FINISH! I'm finished!) my last stencils, sand them all a bit, and then wipe down the walls. Jeff worked in our gutted bathroom. He moved the bathroom door over 10 inches to the right to keep it from banging into the newly relocated toilet (the toilet isn't installed yet, but when it is installed, we don't want to be whacking it - or whoever is sitting on it- with the door everytime we walk in). We also brought in the new vanities/sinks to try to get an idea of where we want them installed.

Before the weekend is out, I would like to get our living room ceiling painted and maybe the kitchen primed. We shall see:)

It really does get worse before it gets better...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my finally finishing up the "old pitted wall" effect that I'm adding to the walls in the dining room, kitchen and living room. I thought I'd share a few photos of me in action, hehe. As you may recall, I plastered my entire living room back several months ago, but I used a different technique (which later I decided I didn't like...so I did-it-all-again using the above mentioned technique). It goes without saying that I'm really sick of drywall mud now, lol. Notice me below giving my new bucket of drywall compound the "evil eye":)




After all the mudding was done this time around, the dreaded "light" sanding began. However light it was, it still created an awful mess that took FOREVER to clean up. Fortunately, the kidlets were out of the house for day so at least there wasn't the pitter patter of little feet through all the dust! Here's a shot of what my living room looked like right after sanding the walls:



Joy.

I wanted to also post a few pics of my husbands handywork. A few weeks back, he moved the unsightly,ill placed, and disorganized electical junction box from our hallway to inside of our laundry room/pantry area.

A couple of before shots of the box when we opened up the panel and wall...the sloppy wiring really drove my husband nuts!





And now, a few shots of the neat and tidy relocated panel. The first one is of the new location before the panel was installed. See the shelving with all the lined up canned goods? That, too, is an example of his handywork:)







I would be remiss if I didn't post a photo of one of our little helpers at work. Our oldest daughter is shown here priming a few exterior trim pieces for her daddy. That was one less thing his *bigger* little helper (Me!) didn't have to do! Thanks, dear!



In the latest renovation news, we're inching our way closer to painting. I have about four more plaster stencils to put up and a little more sanding before we start priming the ceiling and walls. Before we actually breathe life into the walls with color, I may go ahead and get started cleaning and priming the kitchen cabinets. Believe it or not, I'm actually starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

As promised, photos of my ceiling fan makeover

Well, I'm finished with the fan project and just put the blades back on this morning. As you can see in the "before" picture below, our living room fan was a standard fake wood grain/yellow brass ceiling fan. With a couple of coats of anodized bronze metal paint, it is remarkably changed with a whole different style.

Before:


After:


Yet another After:

Ceiling fan makeover! Good-bye yellow brass!

I haven't updated in a little while...everyone here has been sick (and I was on a several day fast/cleanse and was not at all focussed on work!), so not too terribly much has been happening around the house.

But I do have to share my ceiling fan makeover story. I really don't like ceiling fans in general but I do know that in some cases, they are absolutely necessary...like in our living room, for instance. Our ceiling is very high and we need the fan in the winter to push down the warm air when the fireplace is being used and we need it in the summer to keep a nice breeze going. I would love to see a simplistic chandelier in place of our ugly shiny-yellow-brass-with-fake-wood-grain-blades fan, but I know that function trumped beauty in this case. Until now, anyway.

I spent some time online looking at different ceiling fans, particularly ones with my favorite old fashion metal finish - oil-rubbed bronze. They *are* available, but pricey. And those that aren't too pricey look just like our current fan, just in the bronze finish. Sooooo, I decided to buy some Rustoleum anodized bronze paint made for metal surfaces and refinish our fan myself. I'm still in the middle of the project as the fan needs another coat and the blades still need to be done, but even with just one coat, it looks *great* so far! The difference is like night and day. From cheesy to tasteful just like that, lol. I'm going to be doing the blades with the same paint because I don't want them to stand out but just blend in with the rest of the fan. I'll be sure to post pics when the project is complete:) This would also be a great idea for other fixtures that have a nice form but an ugly finish. I may even do this with our current kitchen cabinet door handles and pulls and I'm even considering doing our interior brass door knobs. Can you tell I'm really excited to discover this paint? lol

Jeff did surprise me twice this week by bringing home our long awaited new bisque colored sink (pictured in white). And then later in the week, he surprised me with a new bisque colored GE over the stove microwave to match our stove:) We got the microwave installed yesterday and it looks great! I was so happy to get rid of our old black one. The old one worked great and was also a GE Spacemaker (16 years old!!!), but it really was an eye sore that stood out amidst all of our other bisque colored appliances. Our dishwasher is black and will someday be replaced, but you don't really notice it unless you're standing in front of it - you can't see it from the living room like you can the microwave.

We won't be installing the new countertops and sink until the cabinets are primed and painted Russet red, but with the installation of the microwave, I can already start seeing the cottage/farmhouse theme come together. I love the cabinet color! It's so cheerful and vibrant and homey.

I guess that's about it for now...this week I'll be working on the plaster stencils some more. Can't wait till I'm done with those!