The American Dream... A House with a White Picket Fence

We are on our way to having a house with a white picket fence. A friend of Gary's started on it last weekend and should finish it this next weekend. Of course, you can guess who'll be stuck with painting it.

Needing Some Motivation

HELP!!! We have not done anything to the house since August! We seem to have got burned out over the summer when it seems like we spent every waking moment working on the house. Here is a list of some of the projects I need to be working on:

1. Finish painting the kitchen (walls, trim, and brick)
2. Install a new sink and countertop in the kitchen
3. Paint the parlor
4. Paint the downstairs bathroom
5. Paint the stairway

The thing is... we already have most of the paint. The only costly items would be item number 2 above. What do I do first??? How do I get re-motivated???

As Finished as it Will be (for a While)

School is back in full force, and that means work on the house has slowed down to almost a stop. So when we do work on the house, we will either have 1). A lot of energy to spare (ha!), 2). Nothing else to do, or 3). Relatives or friends coming to see the house. Well, we had relatives visit us (and to see the house) yesterday, so we had some motivation to get the kitchen as done as possible. Here are some updated pictures as a result. What's left to do, you ask...

Paint crown moulding

Replace sink

Replace countertops (island already done)

Backsplash

At least the kitchen is finally looking like the kitchen I imagined it to be!

My Last Day of Summer Vacation

My first official day back at work is tomorrow, preparing for the students to return a week from tomorrow. I had a long list of things to do today; however, my body had other plans. For some reason, I had a total lack of energy today. Maybe it was God's way of saying to relax and take it easy. Yeah, that's it... That's the excuse I'll use to tell Gary that although I had the whole summer to go to the Courthouse to find clues as to the age of the house, I failed to get that done on my last possible day to do it. Oh well, we'll just continue to say that it's 100 years old because all of clues so far point to that. By the way, I did make one trip to the courthouse. They sent me to the county appraiser's office who told me to go back to the courthouse...

Little (Excuse Me) Big Girl's Room

Although we've had her room done for quite some time, I have added to it here and there, purely decor, no paint or anything, much to my daughter's dismay. I'm going for a "vintage little girl's room look. " She, of course, wants it BRIGHT PINK with animal prints. We'll have to see if she can keep her room clean for like a year before I will venture there. Anyway, the plaque over her window reads, "With God All Things are Possible," a verse specially chosen by her. I have to remind her of this many times since often her favorite words are "I can't!" She is such a little Miss Priss who never wants to get her hands dirty or exert any effort to accomplish a task. Of course, it doesn't help that she's an only child and spoiled rotten!

Kitchen To-Do's (sigh again)

OK, one more post for today. I guess I'm trying to catch up since I haven't posted in a while. Here are some pictures of the progress (albeit slow progress, in my opinion... Oh well, Gary doesn't read this anyway) of the kitchen.

What's left to do? Well, here's the list. And remember, this WILL, I repeat, WILL be done before I go back to work.

1. Finish painting (second coat, trim work)
2. Complete cabinet doors (install glass. First re-purchase glass that we, OK, I broke yesterday. "Someone" put the glass on top of the refrigerator where I was painting with a long extension pole at such time my elbow came down on the glass, which fell to the floor and broke... The glass was too thin anyway, cut by a seemingly inexperienced Lowe's employee who took 20 minutes of his precious time to cut. Anyway, I'm going to purchase new glass today, but not from Lowe's).
3. Decorating (My Favorite Part!!! Moving all my decorations back into the kitchen that have been littering my dining room for about 6 weeks or so).

What To Expect During a Remodel

Since I am in my reflective mode, I thought I would share some intellectual thoughts with those of you who have never had a remodeling job done by a contractor who may be planning on this type of venture in the future. Here are some things to expect:

1. People in and out of your house (all day)... unannounced, early, before you really want to be dressed, have your teeth brushed, before you wipe the sleep boogers out of your eyes, right before you realize your child decided to sleep only in her underwear and she has thrown the covers off, etc.
2. Dust
3. Dust
4. Dust
5. And finally... did I say dust?

OK, that was easy.

Sense of Accomplishment

Summer vacation is quickly winding down... it has gone by way too fast. However, I can look back and see that we got an awful lot accomplished. In fact, it's really amazing at what we've been able to do in such a short time. Here's a short list of the rooms that we completed this summer:

• Upstairs Bathroom
• Master Bedroom
• Walk-in Closet
• Guest Room

Still in progress: Kitchen (sigh...)

Rooms to Complete (besides the kitchen, which WILL, I repeat, WILL be complete before I go back to work):

• Parlor (Decorative painting technique with multiple beiges)
• Dining Room (Color wash over current color... the paint color just looks too flat to me)
• Stairway and Landing (Paint... probably a neutral beige color... definitely NO decorative painting technique)
• Downstairs Bathroom (Caulk cracks in beadboard, paint walls, replace light fixture, and install new flooring, and, oh yeah, paint ceiling)
• Utility Room (paint... no big hurry on this one)

OK, so now I know how I'll be spending my Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving Break, and Christmas Break, and most likely, every weekend in between.

I REALLY need a vacation, no I mean a real one... away from this house! (I'm still smiling, though...)

Disarray in the Kitchen

As from the pictures, you can see that our kitchen is in total disarray. I have taken all the cabinet doors off (by myself... I am becoming an expert at using the drill) and primed the doors, along with the cabinets. My plan today is to put two coats of my chosen "Corn Silk" paint and then the fun part... lightly brushing on the antiquing glaze. (One of the pictures shows the finished product on the island).

Wish List

Just to let you know... Our wish list has been updated. Take a look!

Not Gilligan's, But Gary's Island

Today we (well, mainly Gary) are redoing our kitchen island. The island that was there is acting more or less as a shell. Gary is covering it with bead board and moving the cabinet doors to the longer side of the island. My main contribution will be painting it when it is done.

Guest Room... Another Check!!!

Until now, I have never shopped the "oops" section of the paint department. However, when we were looking for a paint color for the guest bedroom, 2 cans of this Ralph Lauren dark olive green paint caught my eye. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I paired it with burgundy accessories (from our previous master bedroom at the last house), and I think it looks great. We finally have a guest room/sewing room/sitting room/soon to be office (when we move the computer and desk upstairs from its current location in the dining room).

Now I Consider It Done!

Now that we have our plantation blinds installed and the new curtains hung (lovingly sewn by me!), I consider the new bathroom completely done.

Master Walk-In Closet... Check!

Although we are still in the process of moving our clothes, shoes, accessories, etc. into our new walk-in closet, the closet itself is pretty much done! I know one thing... I have too many clothes!!!

Now that our clothes are out of the middle of the guestroom (previously piled high to the ceiling!), we can actually walk in the guest room, and who knows, someday soon, we may even be able to use it as... hmm... maybe a guest room (instead of a large closet/junk room).

These pictures are during and after.

Red, White, But No Blue

Today, we (actually just I) began to paint the brick wall in the kitchen red. I say "just I" because Gary only agreed to keep the brick wall if I painted it. It's going to be more than I bargained for as my roller doesn't reach the mortar, just the brick. That means I have to use a brush to paint the mortar. And that's not the worst of it. The portion of the brick wall that is original... well, the mortar has turned to sand, so when I try to paint it, sand comes off on my brush. We will probably have to re-grout it in those areas.

I started off trying to paint the kitchen ceiling white, but with such high ceilings, it proved too much for my barely 5'2" stature. So, Gary took over, and completed the task perfectly. Hurray! It took just one coat!

The other priority has been the walk-in closet. Gary is putting the finishing touches to the wall as he had to patch up the holes left from the old bathroom cabinet being torn out and the hole made for the pocket door. He will be sanding it one more time before we paint it.

Master Bedroom... Check!

Hurray!!! We finished painting and decorating the master bedroom this weekend. I used a faux stone painting technique by tearing up newspapers and applying to the wall when the glaze was still wet. The colors are rust and gold. I finally feel like the house is becoming our home.

Bathroom During and After

Bathroom Before and After

I thought it would be fun to see some before and after pictures of the bathroom. It's so awesome to see progress.

What Do You Do With a Parlor?

I've never had a parlor before, so I've struggled a bit with what kind of room I want it to be. It serves as the entryway to our home, and it also serves as a home for the baby grand piano that was given to me by by uncle. So far, our parlor has been a place to store things that haven't yet found a home. However, since the vanity and bathroom shelf have been moved upstairs to their new home in the bathroom, I decided to work in the parlor today. I'm still considering reds and browns for the room, but right now other rooms are taking a priority.

Now For Our Work to Begin...

Here are some pictures of the completed kitchen tile. Our new focus, now that the bathroom is finished, is to concentrate our efforts on the cabinets, lighting, and walls in the kitchen.