A Love Poem

Yes, this certainly isn't house related. Below is a note I received from my 6 yo. I'll cherish it always. These are things homes are made of...

Poem
I love you so much
I may never leave

"Ugly Dining Table Turned Cottage Coffee Table" Project

Update on the ceiling planks for our kitchen...they were primed all primed a few weeks ago and now sit waiting to be painted. We have to paint them in the garage (as opposed to outside where we primed them) to prevent the wind from blowing grass, leaves, and bugs onto our paint job. Painting in the garage required us to first completely clean out our garage to give us lots of space. We have close to 200 planks to paint and we need to let them dry in an upright position. We'll be starting on the painting this weekend.

Another project I'm working on now is converting a very beaten up but SOLID wood small dining table into an oversized coffee table for our living room. I purchased this table at Goodwill a few months back and had in mind that I would refurbish it, paint it shabby white, and resell it. But I really like it! We don't have a coffee table and I've been looking for a good one. I've started sanding it down and we'll be cutting the legs down to coffee table height. I want to paint it white or white and distress it just a bit. I'll probably end up putting a piece of glass on top to protect the surface.

Some will probably think that the table is too big for the living room. Lol, maybe it is, but I've always loved cozy living rooms with a big table in the middle. I see the kids playing games, putting together puzzles, doing homework, coloring or just playing at the table...I see hubs and his friends putting their drinks and snacks at this table on TV night. I see me having a pretty fresh floral arrangement, lit candles, and my favorite books and magazines stacked in neat piles. Lots of possibilities!

I'll be sure to post photos when I'm finished:) Hope you all are doing well!

Oh, I almost forgot, we found a cute little frog on our house the other day...we don't see too many around here anymore!

Blankety Plank Plank Plank

Seventy-seven ceiling planks primed!

Only 109 more to go...

Our plan was to prime *all* the planks yesterday, but we had to mow the lawn which took a chunk of time out of our schedule. *sigh* (Plus hubs and I decided to go and have a finger lickin' good lunch at Famous Daves Barbeque...Hot wings and rib tips to die for!)

We've decided to go ahead and put one coat of paint on all the planks after priming them. We tested a couple of primed and painted pieces yesterday and they fit together just fine without any force. So we're good to go.:)

Imitation Cottage Cheese Ceiling vs. Real Cottage Style Pine Plank Ceiling

Tomorrow it's back to work time for the Cottage Life crew (hubs and me). It has been so nice taking this long two month break from house projects, namely p a i n t i n g. After working on our kitchen cabinets for as long as I did, by the time I was finished I just knew that if I saw another paint brush, I'd find a dark closet and curl up into a fetal position...either that or I'd be fit for a straight jacket. But as of late, I've been antsy and eager to pick up the brush again. These household projects are a lot like childbirth...difficult and exhausting...but how soon we forget all of that after a bit of time has passed!

Tomorrow hubs and I start on our kitchen ceiling. Our current ceiling is horrid...just...gross! The rest of the ceilings in the house are covered with "cottage cheese", which is bad enough. But the majority of our kitchen is an addition which was built by the previous owner several years ago. The kitchen ceiling is not the same 'spray on' cottage cheese that is in the rest of the house, but is instead some type of plaster that was textured to look like cottage cheese. Yes, folks, we have an imitation cottage cheese ceiling in our kitchen!

What is worse is that you can actually look at the ceiling and see where the additions in the eating area and kitchen where added. In those areas, the "cottage cheese" just seems to look...festered? *gag* Look at the photo to the left...see what I mean?

So to rememedy the problem - and to add more cottage style of the non-cheese variety - we'll be intalling tung and groove pine plank ceilings and painting them white. The first step is to prime all the planks. Priming before installing will prevent any unprimed wood from showing when the ceiling expands and contracts. Hubs wants to go ahead and put the first coat of white paint on, too, before installing, but I'm afraid that a build up paint on the tungs will make them harder to install and might increase the chances of damaging some of them while trying to snap them into place. Plus, I'd really like to cover the festering cheese on our ceiling ASAP.

When the new ceiling is in place, we'll install most of the new lighting. We have some new recessed lighting plus oil rubbed bronze fixtures for above the sink, island, and dining table. I think, though, that I'll want to put back up the old brass fixtures temporarily until the dust settles from the rest of our projects here. The oil rubbed bronze fixtures have off-white linen shades that will just become filthy if we install them at this point.

But first things first, tomorrow we'll be laboring on Labor Day and will get our pine planks primed. I'm actually pretty excited about the thought of reuniting with my paint brush again!