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!

Dining room progress and concept photos

This weekend, I slaved away at the dining and living room walls. I feel like I have a love/hate relationship with drywall mud, lol, because I love how the walls turn out when I'm finished but I *hate* the process of getting there! Putting on the mud, rolling it with a texture roller, smoothing them out a bit, waiting for them to dry, adding a smooth coat, sanding them, wiping them down...and then cleaning up all the sanding dust! So went my weekend. It was a dirty, dirty job, to say the least, but we now have nice dining and living room walls - a clean slate that only needs primer and paint:) I have photos of the mess but I'm going to wait and share those later because I don't even want to think about, lol. I'd rather think about what all this work is for- the end result that we'll someday enjoy.

So I've posted a few before, during and (future) after photos of our dining room. It's starting to take shape, though I must admit that it seems really bare now with those stark white walls. I *finally* settled on a paint color. I thought that I had chosen a shade of green called "Paris Green" but then I found a similar shade that I liked even better. It's called "Whispering Pine". It's a lighter, foggy green, if that makes any sense. The last photo below shows what we're going for in our dining room. I'll explain more down below. (click photos to enlarge)





On Saturday, I worked for about 9 hours straight on these dining room walls. I was so glad to be finished mudding! The table won't stay turned this way. The room is longer than it is wide and I think the table looks better turned longways. I'm just storing the white piece of furniture (in front of the window) in there for now. It's a future project, lol.



When we're all finished, this is what I want the dining room to look like (except for the ceilings - just pretend the photo shows white plank ceilings, lol!). The actual paint color I mentioned earlier is actually a smidgeon lighter than what is shown. I really like it! It's a nice soft peaceful green that looks great against the digitally added white window and door trim. The door you see there, that leads into the pantry/laundry area. We'll be replacing the bifold with a solid pine door painted "Russet" red, which is also going to be our kitchen cabinet color. Our dining/kitchen is just one big room, so I wanted to tie some of the colors together. I'm ashamed to say how long we've had this light fixture (still in the box!), lol, but it's just a very simple piece with linen shades. The dimensions in the photo below are askew - it's not *that* big, but about 25 inches across. The floors will be heart pine finished with tinted tung oil. My curtain fabric (that I've had forever) is a silk plaid taffeta- a sharp contrast to all the rustic, simple elements in the room. Though I'm not a taffeta kind of girl, I really fell in love with this fabric at first sight because the plaid element adds a colorful country touch that will tie all the colors in the house together. The curtain design will be simple - just long, straight drapes hung on an oil rubbed bronze rod. I'm still not sure if I want to go with a rod pocket design or just hang them with rings. I bought some white linen sheers that I may also use in here and they have a rod pocket, so if I use them, I guess the plaid curtains need to be the same.


So...I'm going for a really cozy and warm kitchen and dining room. Hopefully we'll be able to pull this off:)

Some before and after photos

Folks, what can I say? It's cold. I'm trying my hardest to thaw out so that I can get some work done around here, but I guess the best way to do that is to just start moving...

Before I do, I want to share with you some photos of some of the projects we've been working on. I finally found my photo editing software and can now upload new pictures. Remember to click on the photos to enlarge.

I posted a before and after video clip of our deck a few weeks back, but for those of you who didn't see it (and because we're so darn proud of it) here is a before and after photo.

Before (poor, poor, deck):


After (va-va-boom!):


On to the inside of the place...

Our living room fireplace wall before: (notice the dark heavy tile for the fireplace surround - it's ok but we wanted to lighten it up)


The fireplace after: (We went with small tiles that resembled limestone. The real limestone tiles were too thick and wouldn't slide right under sides of the mantle. To avoid "dismantling the mantle, we opted for a thinner tile that gives us somewhat of the same look for more than half the money and effort. It really lightens the feel of the fireplace, I think)



The walls in the above photo are now drywall mud white. You can't tell it in the photo, but I applied a certain texture to the wall. In a couple of weeks, we'll be priming them and then painting. Here is a photo that poorly shows an approximate shade I'm shooting for. It's warm yellow. We will eventually be putting pine planks on the ceiling, painted out white, but until then, we'll just give the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint.



It's been fun trying to figure out ways to turn a contemporary home built in the 70's into an "old" house. There is no trim around the entryways into the living room, kitchen, or hallway. Adding trim would be somewhat tricky because of how the corners meet. You may have read here before about the decorative relief that I'm doing around these entry ways. I now have photos to share:) The reliefs were done using a large stencil and drywall mud instead of paint. I still need to sand the reliefs to smooth out a bit, but they've turned out great! I have a couple other entries to do and it is rather time consuming, but it will give some character to otherwise boring entries. The stencils will be rather subtle - painted out the same color as the walls and maybe antiqued a bit.

These are a little hard to see...

The first one shows the pitted effect I've added to the walls.







I have other photos, but I need to get to work. Right now, Jeff is moving our electrical junction box from the hallway to the laundry room. This will get it out of view but will also allow us to raise the ceiling in our hallway from 7 feet to 8 feet. All the wiring was in the way above the 7 ft ceiling which made raising the ceiling impossible (unless we wanted to just box it all in with drywall, but I didn't want to have to look at that every time I walked down the hall).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Kim

She lives!!! (And has photos to prove it.)

Over a month has gone by without an update but that's not because we haven't been working on the house. In the last entry, you saw our "beautifully gutted bathroom" as it was just a month ago. So I thought you might be interested to know that it's still beautifully gutted, lol. Yes, as the last warm days of the season quickly disappear, we decided that we need to finish our deck project. This has pretty much been our weekend project since the middle of September. It was in pretty rough shape and we even tore part of it down, which meant rebuilding more railing. I'm pleased to say that it is now repaired and stained and it turned out great! If the weather is nice this weekend, we'll apply one more coat for good measure. It's nice to be able to look out our dining room window and see fresh color instead of old ugly wood planks. I can't wait to put planter boxes along the railing!

Anyway, if you would like to see some of the before/during/after photos, click this link. http://www.onewomanslife.com/deck.wmv Needless to say, we are very pleased with the result! Oh, the lattice you see propped up against the lower half of the deck, that's to keep the dogs off until we do the second coat. I just sprayed the dust off the deck right before shooting those photos, so it's wet.

I just can't stop staring at my beautiful gutted bathroom...

Yes, there I am, smiling from ear to ear because at that moment, we were more than halfway finished with the gut. In previous photos, you've seen that we've already removed all the old lino and the thin cheap plywood it was attached to. The old tub was removed and replaced around December of 2004, so you can see why I'm pretty excited about finally moving ahead with the rest of our bathroom plans. Today, we ripped out the old tile top vanity and cabinet, an annoying and useless partition/nook (which we discovered today used to hold a stacking washer and dryer), old lighting wiring, and the old drywall. The bathroom seems so much bigger already and we haven't even moved the toilet yet!

Another thing that we discovered after pulling out the old drywall is that there use to be an even bigger window in there than the one we pulled out. I joked to hubs that the window that was in that bathroom just kept getting smaller and smaller until finally it just disappeared! Normally, I like the idea of having a window in our bathroom, but we had to remove it due to the fact that it was awkward being able to see people in the bathroom from our new dining room window. Yeah, I know..we could have just put up curtains or blinds, but what's the point if they're just going to stay closed all the time?

Here are the bathroom demo pics. There's a funny story behind the picture of hubs bent down on the floor. Like I mentioned, another discover that we made when we pulled down the drywall was that the bathroom was also once the home of a washer and dryer. Imagine pulling down drywall and suddenly discovering the exposed end of the big fat wire that use to connect to said appliances. The PO had just left them like that in the wall and we had no idea if they were live or not. At this point, I decided to go get the camera to take a picture because for some reason I thought I should, lol. Hubs goes to get his electrical current reader meter thing-a-bob. When I came back with my camera, he's all bent down like you see him in the photo. As he attaches the meter clamps to the possibly live wire, I snap the picture, the flash goes off, and poor hubs thought he was being electrocuted! That really gave us both a good laugh and probably will for a long time to come:)

Cool historic home site

It's 1 am. I should be sleeping now, but I've been sick and slept all day so here I am now wide awake.*sigh* Anyway, I found this neat site that lists historic homes for sale across the country. There are lots of photos of homes that have already been restored *or* are in need of restoration. If any of you are like me, you like to look at homes whether or not your intention is to buy.

Here is the link, followed by another link to one of the houses on there that I found intriguing...it was built in 1895, hasn't been inhabited for 60 years, it's massive and needs a t o n of work. Be sure to click on the "additional photos" link on that page. The first photo I posted here was the home in all it's grandeur in 1895...below is the house in it's current state..*sniff*
HistoricProperties.com


A Cool Old House

Hit the Deck

When we first moved here, we had plans of tearing our deck down and building a large family room in it's place. We have three growing girls that are almost 5, almost 6, and almost 11. We foresee entertaining lots of houseguests (read: giggly girly girls) in our home within the next few years. We weren't really crazy about our deck either...the way the boards were layed out was kind of weird and we just didn't care for the general design. AND it was just too big. That sounds nuts, but it really was. It was multi-tiered and the tiers consisted of the main large deck, a smaller teir off from our sunroom, and another tier on the other side of the deck which *never* was used.

Long story short, it just wasn't in our budget to build a family room so we've decided to get the rest of the house remodeled and then think about a new room a few years down the road. But, that means we have to keep the deck. We don't want to put money into replacing it now because we still have plans of adding on family room in the future and if we can't afford that four or five years down the road, we'll rebuild the entire deck then. For now, it needs a little TLC and a major makeover so we've been working on getting it in good repair. We tore down the useless third deck, replaced some warped boards and fencing, and then built new railing and seating to close off the portion of the deck where the step to the third part once was. We're going to add some lattice so that I can add some nice climbing vines here and there to soften the hard lines.

We have to let the pressure treated would dry for a couple more weeks and then we're going to stain it with a solid stain called "Barn Red". I can't WAIT to see how it's going to turn out. Maybe we just might be inclined to use the deck when it's all fixed up.:) Here are some pics:

Clearly, another "What have I done" moment

Today, a took a few photos of our dining room because I didn't remember ever taking any since we installed new windows in there earlier this year. I had taken some of the french doors, but not the windows, oddly enough. (Click here to see a photo page I put together shortly after that install...)

I decided to find a couple of "before" pictures to compare to my current "during/in progress" pictures. Honestly, after looking and comparing the photos, I'm a little sad. Not because I regret putting in the french doors and new windows (there's so much more light in the kitchen now, the pictures *don't* do the room justice) but because everything looked so nice and neat and orderly and clean in the "before" pics. There was no dust. The linoleum floor, albeit old and beaten up, was shiny and spotless. There were no clusters of paint cans in one corner and power tools in another...The walls were painted! *sigh*

Well, there's no going back now. Someday this house will be whole (and clean!) again! Ok, now for the "befores" followed by the "durings":

Bathroom photos at last!

They're not very pretty, but they'll give a bit of an idea of the deconstruction that's going on here.

First a before, then a during, of the bathroom.