What Goes Down Must Come Up

Needless to say, work on the cottage this summer has been slow. Time and money (or lack thereof!) has a way of causing plans to come to a screeching halt.

Not to be deterred, though, we've gone ahead and moved along with some of our demolition work. Afterall, it's free! One thorn in my side since we bought this place four years ago has been the flooring in the kitchen. The lino itself, the color and pattern, wasn't that bad, but it was not in the best of shape and had been poorly installed. Also, for some reason, there was a lovely flooring hump right in the middle of the room where the new kitchen addition was added to the old part of the house many years ago. For four years, we've wondered what caused the hump and if it was something that could be fixed.

So this weekend, we ripped out the top layer lino, the luan backing that was under it, and the original lino that had been installed when the house built. Seeing that original lino was quite a shock as I'm not a particular fan of harvest gold! And I'm pretty sure this it was the very same lino that was in our kitchen when I was a little girl!

So on with the photos!

The demolition begins...


Ah. The hump. I felt like we were exposing the spine of the kitchen when we got to this part. What was causing the hump? When the kitchen addition was added by the previous owners, it was ever so slightly higher than the old part of the kitchen. Instead of putting down new plywood on both the new and old part of the house and overlapping the plywood from the old side to the new side (thus joining the two parts together almost seamlessly), they tried to butt the new plywood and the old plywood together. They tried to chip away and sand down part of floor joist by a quarter of an inch to make the floor more level, but it didn't work. I don't think they chipped away quite enough. So then, they just smoothed over the descrepency with lots and lots and lots of some plaster like material. They did the same thing in the dining area where the room was enlarged during the last remodel. We couldn't believe how the subflooring was so piece milled together. No wonder the lino looked so horrible! You can enlarge the first photo at the beginning of this entry for a detailed explanation of everything that is wrong with our dining and kitchen flooring.





This old harvest gold lino against the primer green on the walls made me feel a bit nauseous. I couldn't get that flooring up fast enough! Mom, does this flooring look familiar?



So this is our flooring for now (below - and what flooring?). Pretty, isn't it?! We will be replacing the plywood subflooring before putting down our hardwood - but our new hardwood won't be going down anytime soon. We still have too much messy work to do and I don't want anything to happen to it. In the meantime - yuck, we'll have to live with this. And did I mention that it stinks? It smells like musty old linoleum. Maybe we'll at least replace the subflooring soon so I don't have to deal with the smell. Ah, the joys of remodeling. Well, at least I hope to have some great before and after pictures one of these days. It can only get better from here!

On a Personal Note...

Our hearts here at home are very much saddened this week by the plane crash on Saturday that killed five. They were all our brothers in the faith, but one in particular we knew personally for many, many years. Because of his fine example as a caring and devoted husband and father, Hubs looked up to him so much that he wanted him to give our wedding talk when we were married, but we ended up marrying in North Carolina where hubs lived at the time. We are all shocked and deeply saddened and send our love and prayers to all the families and friends affected by this tragedy.

I hate to dwell on the negative - but also this week, hubs grandmother suffered a heart attack which has left her heart at 15% capacity. She is home now but is very frail and weak - and of course we are worried for her.

Just wanted to give a heads up...it's been hard to concentrate much on anything else. We've all passed around some sort of bug here for the last few weeks and everyone is finally better (I think!) and so we're trying to get back on track...

I hope everyone is doing well:)

Reader Mail - Ceiling Fan Makeover Revisited

Often I receive emails from folks with questions about some of the projects we've worked on here at our Twice Remembered Cottage (in the making). I admit, it takes me a while to get to all the questions and I thank all of you for your unending patience! Today I thought I'd post a rather recent question that I often get about our living room ceiling fan makeover.

"You are my saving grace. I have two 42" and one 52" ceiling fans I will be installing shortly. When I purchased them I wanted polished brass and got just that. The trend has moved to sedate/aged bronze, etc. and is such a great look. I love your handiwork. Where do I get the paint; what type/kind of paint do I need to purchase; what was the technique (if anything special) that you chose; how long did it take? Please, any advice you can afford will be so well received. Thank you. ~F."

It's been a while since I did this project, but I'll tell you what I know. Remember, I'm not an expert but this is what worked for my fan.

For this project, I used Rustoleum Anodized Bronze metal paint in a quart from Lowe's. It is oil based. I used a little foam brush to paint the pole and other brass fan parts and used a small foam roller to paint the blades. Rustoleum also makes this paint in a spray can...I've used it for other projects but for some reason, to me, the spray paint looks more grey than dark brown. Keep in mind that I don't know what will happen if you accidentally spray paint into the fan motor. This was another reason why I decided to brush the paint on because I didn't want to possibly damage the fan. Brushing on the paint is more tedious, I know, but this is what worked for me personally. Also, I didn't use primer as I don't think the directions called for it. Maybe I missed it if it did say anything about primer, but my paint has held up fine without it. We've tried really hard to refrain from tap dancing on it or anything else of that sort:) So on with the project...

I first removed the blades of the fan and cleaned them really well with a good degreasing spray. I also cleaned the rest of the fan which I left attached to the ceiling. I know - that's weird - but it was easier for me to paint it that way. I didn't have to worry about holding it and trying to paint it at the same time. My neck hated for a while after this project though!

The rest is pretty straightforward. I just gingerly painted the pole and other brass parts with a little sponge brush. (Make sure you tape off the ceiling if you leave the fan attached). All in all, I needed two coats. Because it is oil paint, you'll want to give it a day or two to dry between coats.

The blades were much easier to paint because I was able to use a little sponge roller. Again, two coats. After letting everything dry for a couple of days, you can put the blades back on and Voila! Your brand new fan!

Here are my before and afters in case you haven't seen the photos when I originally posted them (before my living room was painted!):







Well, F., I hope this helps to answer your question and I wish you much success with your fans! I'd love to see how they turn out!

Surprise Party and Cupcake Fun

Last Wednesday was my youngest daughter's last "half day" of kindergarten before starting full days like the other grades. On Tuesday, I was trying to figure out what we could do when I picked her up on Wednesday. The way I viewed it, it was her absolutely very last afternoon of "freedom" before the reality of life set in - before having to go to school - all day, everyday, followed by growing up and being responsible and having to do other things like work and care for a family - all day, everyday. (Overanalyzing? Probably.)

So I wanted Wednesday to be special but it was too hot to do anything outdoors like the zoo or the park. Most of the indoor places we've gone to many times and I was looking to do something different. Finally, at about 10 o'clock Tuesday night, I decided that she and her best friend, who also started kindergarten this year, could frost and decorate cupcakes. Hubs thought it was a great idea, too, and we decided not to tell her of the plans.

But you know how it goes, how one thing leads to another...and I ended up just throwing a full fledged party. I bought all the things I needed Wednesday morning while she was at school but I only had a couple of hours to get home and decorate and setup. It was a whirlwind of a morning but everything was finished by the time I had to leave and pick her and her friend up from school. We had lots of balloons and streamers and SpongeBob decor. Someday I'd love to do a party where all the decorations are vintage-y and classic and handmade, but this time I had no time so store bought had to do. I went a little overboard buying sprinkles and candy and frosting - but the girls just loved it! When all the big sisters came home at 3, there were six girls total and it was so much fun! It was a Wednesday afternoon and though they had homework and I had other responsibilities, we all just forgot about that for a while to decorate cupcakes and cookies, dance, drink punch, eat mozzeralla sticks,raw veggies, oh - and cupcakes! I even let the little kids jump off the furniture, hehe. Everyone was *so* surprised and couldn't believe that they were having such fun on what would otherwise be a pretty boring Wednesday afternoon. My little one was so thrilled that she kept running up and giving me big bear hugs and saying, "You're the BEST mommy EVER!" I can't count how many times she did that - and it just made it all so very worth it:)

I took the above picture a couple of hours after the party was over, when the girls' friends went home and all was quite in the house again. The girls didn't want me to take down the decorations so they stayed up for a few days afterwards:) I decorated the living room, too, and got lots of fun photos of the girls being silly and having fun, but I've grown a little more "afraid" to post many photos of my kidlets online. So instead I'll post some of their cupcake creations...you can certainly tell that an adult didn't decorate these!








After the party, hubs and my little one went out to run some errands and when they returned, my munchkin brought me these beautiful flowers! Hubs said she saw them and told him she wanted to give them to me to thank me for having a surprise party for her...how sweet! They look perfect above my sink. (Hubs recently dunked my kitchen curtains in some dirty dish water when he was removing them to do some work, so my window is naked once again until I put them back up...and maybe soon I'll put a photo in that frame!) So it was such a lovely, lovely day that none of us will soon forget.

Speaking of naked and work, I'm really chomping it to bits to get our crown moulding up in our kitchen. Doesn't it look so bare without it? So that's our next kitchen project as soon as we financially recover from all the school shopping we've had to do lately!

Have a great day, everyone!

This Drought Is No Joke! Photos of My Scorched Yard

If you aren't living in the drought affected areas of the country, you may have seen footage on the news. I tell you, it's awful! Here in Middle Tennessee, we've experienced the dryest - and probably hottest - August ever.Well established trees now have withered up brown leaves and look dead (though I hope they aren't!) The grass crunches under your feet and there are literally patches of scorched grass all over the lawns. I can't remember the last time we've had to mow the entire yard. Except for the little area in front of the lanscaping beds where I water, it's been weeks since the grass has grown. I wanted to share with you a few comparison photos of our backyard -the first one was taken from June or July of last year and the others I took yesterday. Usually in August, the grass does start to lose it's green - but not like this! We live on an acre so keeping the grass watered isn't an option- plus we're in a drought, so that wouldn't be wise anyway.



All those brown spots are the scorched patches of grass...









Of course, this was the year that I decided to finally plant flowers in our front landscaping beds. I have a brown thumb of death when it comes to plants, but I really wanted to try hard this year to keep a few plants alive. And somehow, even with the lack of rain and blazing hot temperatures, I've managed to keep most of them alive! They don't look fabulous, but they are alive, and that was my goal for my first year of "gardening". There were a lot more blooms several weeks ago , but many of the plants stopped blooming, so I took a couple of shots of some that are still in bloom...AGain, not gorgeous but alive. I've learned that lavender, lantana, verbena, and rosemary do very well in dry conditions. I didn't realize that lantana (the plant with the yellow blooms) gets very big very quickly and so I will probably have to move that plant next year. The red verbena is great and I have it bordering my entire landscaping bed...it grows quickly, too.





I want to thank Primrozie over at Prim's Place in the Spring for nominating me for the Nice Matters Award! What an honor and that was so sweet of you, Primrozie! I'm going to nominated some, too, though all my cottage neighbors are nice! Thank you so much!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Even in the midst of remodeling chaos, there are some things around here that continue to make this place feel like "home". I've always loved the giant canvas that sits atop our mantle. The flowers and colors are so alive and are a great pick-me-up:) A few have said that perhaps the piece is too large for the space but that has never mattered to me. I could lie on the couch and stare at it all day and never get tired of looking at it.

Because we don't really yet have any bookshelves (gasp!), I do a lot of book stacking here and there and I love how some of my favorite books coordinate nicely with the canvas, which brings me to another favorite - old books! Not all of the books here are old, but how I do love finding a great old book! Do you every open them up and just smell them? So I'm always on the hunt for old books that pertain to gardening, housekeeping, music and other titles that interest me.

Atop this particular stack of books is my pair of birds, partridges I think. I picked these up at Goodwill months ago. The first time I saw them, I carried them around in my cart and ended up putting them back as I was already buying loads of stuff that day (sound familiar?). But when I went back to Goodwill, they were still there so I brought them home. Actually, I think when I saw them next, I could only find one of them, but then the *next* time I went, they were together at last. I love these little birds:) One looks like it had been broken and glued back together, but that's ok. I just like how they look like they belong together and love each other and are up there on that big stack of books by all by themselves but huddled together. One is a little bigger than the other, so perhaps they are mother and child. I keep them facing each other as they are extra sweet that way.

As you can imagine, I've been incredibly busy. I do really hate that word and wish that I could remove it from my vocabulary. I ended up having an extra week to fill my candy order so I'm very much relieved by that because between school shopping and the kids actually going back to school this week, it has been crazy around here trying to get back into the school routine, attending all the orientations (one on Tuesday and two tonight!), and other little things that I just didn't have to do during the summer. The week after next should be much easier as all three kidlets will be in school all day long and I won't be picking up my kindergartener in the middle of the day as I am now.

I did make extra boxes of candies with the large order I've had to fill so that I could go ahead and post them to my shop, but I had some requests for those boxes - which means they won't be going in the shop afterall. I want to apologize to all of you who have written and who are waiting for them to be posted online - but I will be making new ones again starting next week and won't fill any other requests locally until I have items online. Thank you for your patience!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying cool! We're having a major heat wave here - got up to 104 yesterday! Whew!

Crazy Summer

Good afternoon! I'm still alive and kicking here at the old Twice Remembered Cottage, but summertime has brought with it much activity that has kept me away from the computer for the most part. I've noticed over the years that this is how goes for many bloggers during the summer - kids are out of school, trips are planned, and the days are spent either go-go-going or being completely relaxed and lazy at home. I've been all of the above:)

In my last entry, I wrote about how I was laboriously removing paint from my backsplash. Well, it may not surprise you to learn that I've changed my mind about the distressed backsplash look. If you remember, I was on the fence not too long about whether to leave the "freshly painted" look or to go with the aged and distressed look that would require removing much of the paint. After seeing and studying the two "looks" side by side for quite some time, I've decided that the distressed brick just looks too busy with pattern on my countertop. For me, there's just too much going on. Now, if my countertop was more of a solid color, I think it would look great. So...it looks like it's the crisp, freshly painted look afterall. I just have those spots that I've already distressed to repaint, then the backsplash is DONE. I have those wrought iron brackets to install but I have to think if I want to leave them off white or paint them more of an oil-rubbed bronze color.




I bought a little piece of art recently (haven't hung it yet) but I thought it looked so pretty against the painted brick backsplash. This is what really sold me on the idea that the solid white looked better to me. And I love how the red in the art, the cabinets, and my "faux" candy seem to work well together.

In other kitchen news, I found some old-fashion curtains for the kitchen window! Of course, I got them at Goodwill. They are actually 84 inch long curtains that I just doubled over the rod - this created a fuller effect. I found some oil-rubbed bronze tension rods last week that will look much better than the standard white one that I'm using. If I would have known I was going to find these curtains, I would have picked one up...I'll just have to make another trip to Old Time Pottery:)

Next month with my *all* my children going off to school, for the first time in 12 1/2 years, I'll have hours each day to myself. You know, I've been feeling pretty anxious about that! It's like a graduation of sorts for me - graduating from one stage of my life to the next. I want to devote two to three of those days each week to my ministry, one to volunteer at the kidlets' school, and the other days will be for me to work on crafts, (such as the faux candy in the photos above, etc.,) for my online shop. I don't know how the shop will work out - whether I'll want to stay online with it or just create things for local craft fairs or flea markets. So many decisions... Do any of you have an online shop? How is it going? Do you use Ebay or Etsy or just your own website? Any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I set up a Twice Remembered Cottage Etsy shop to get the feel for it, but I'd love to know what your experience with it has been...

Speaking of appreciation - *I* appreciate all the mail I've been getting and your lovely commnents in my last entry! Thank you! I said in my last comment that I'd answer many of your questions in my next post, but I went ahead and emailed them personally. If I forgot anyone, please let me know! One of the questions I've been getting is about my shop, when it opens, and if I'm selling more of the faux candies. Sometime in August is my goal...I'll have some items to sell including faux candy. Thank you for your interest!

Now, you see those beams in the kitchen in the last photo? I am determined that those are going to be primed this week! Today, hubs and I (okay, just hubs) will be filling in any seams with wood filler and tomorrow he'll sand so that I can prime. It really should be against the law to have to work on remodeling projects during the summer:)