To My Students at NIS...

I have greatly enjoyed being your 4th grade teacher this year, and I am so proud of all your accomplishments. You've come such a long way. I hope you have a wonderful and safe summer. Drop me an email sometime and let me know what you're up to this summer.

Love,
Mrs. Tackert

"Finished" with the Pantry

Why is it that when we "finish" a project, there's always something else that we know needs to be done, and yet we still declare it to be "finished?" This seems to be the case with every project we take on with this house. The downstairs bathroom is considered finished, and yet the ceiling still needs to be painted. The parlor is finished, but the floors still have to be redone. Now we are declaring the pantry to be finished, and yet the cabinet door hasn't been made, and there is still the door frame and around the window to be painted. Well, anyway, we are VERY happy with how the pantry has turned out. A HUGE improvement from what it was.

One More Down... Well, Almost

Except for refinishing the floor, the parlor is complete.

Absolutely Precious!

This little guy has a huge gash from one end of his front leg to the other. We noticed it a couple of nights ago, so we've been bringing him in twice a day to put hydrogen peroxide on it. It hasn't seemed to affect his cuteness factor!!!

Before Painting Pics

Because we are pretty pooped from painting, we finally hired someone to paint the parlor, Camryn's room, and the rest of the stairway. These are the "before" pics. Hey, how'd that picture of Simone and her kittens get in there?!

Pantry in Progress

Roof

We had a new tin roof put on the back part of the house last March. I just hadn't blogged about it. This should solve the leaking problem.

Pulling up the Carpet

After more than two years living in our home, this past weekend, we decided we could no longer live with the grungy old carpet covering the floors of four of our rooms. So, we decided to pull it all up (at least 3 of the rooms, that is). The good news is that the hardwood floors in 2 bedrooms upstairs are structurally sound and just need to be sanded and stained. (I say just, but we all know what a big job that will be!) The bad news is that while 2/3 of the floor in the living room is hard wood, the other 1/3 is plywood. We have to decide if we want to try to have the floor restored to its former glory or just re-cover it with carpet. By the way, the floors that I said just need to be sanded and stained... they are spotted with paint. Look at the pictures. The floors are hideous! I hope we don't have to live with these floors for too long.

It is Finished!!!

Well, it was a little less than a year ago when we started tearing apart the downstairs bathroom. I can finally say it is finished (at least it is except for the door knob that we are waiting to arrive by mail). We have a beautiful new bathroom with a built-in shelf, new cabinet under the sink, and of course, most importantly a new toilet and a 1927 clawfoot tub.

Camryn and I have taken bubble baths already, but Gary hasn't found the perfect moment yet. The only thing I'm missing is one of those blow-up tub pillows (I can't seem to find one in any store and the ones I've found on the internet are all pastel colors -- no white). Oh, and also a CD player to play what I call relaxation music.

I think we are all very happy to have a downstairs bathroom again after having to run up the stairs everytime we needed "to go."

Oh yeah, there's also one other thing left... the ceiling needs to be painted, but we won't do that until we replace the roof over that area of the house.

Some In-Progress Bathroom Pictures

These pictures were taken probably in early to mid December when we first started back working on the downstairs bathroom.

The Never-ending Project

Have you ever had a project that just goes on and on and on with no end in sight? For us, it's the downstairs bathroom. It all started this past January, yes, January! You know, the month that was 8 months ago?! I can't tell you how old it is getting to run upstairs everytime you have to go to the bathroom. And if you have visitors, you have to make sure everything is clean upstairs in case they have to use the bathroom.

Well, I am happy to report that Gary and I decided to work in the bathroom this weekend. I painted one wall so that he could build a new shelf. He also finished putting up the crown moulding and trim. The paint color I chose is called Tanbark from Sherwin Williams, and I really like it. I'm planning on doing a wide stripe throughout the room in another SW color called Interface Tan.

Next Steps...

* Finish Caulking
* Paint Walls
* Install Hardy Backer Board
* Install Tile, and...
* Put in Toilet (the one I'm personally waiting for!)

The clawfoot tub will have to wait awhile, but I'm okay with that as long as everything else is in place. We're moving right along... a little slower than a snail's pace.

A Pain in the Neck... But a Beautiful Dining Room Ceiling

I had been wanting to stencil around the light fixture in the dining room for a while, but the ceiling stencils I found were all in the $100 range. Then I had an idea... would it work if I took a design and just repeated it around the light fixture to appear as a medallion? Well, I decided to give it a try. For the last several days, we have been eating at the kitchen island because I've had the big ladder taking up the dining room space, painting a beautiful design on the ceiling. I kept thinking how nervous my mother would be if she knew that I was standing on a ten-foot ladder painting on a ceiling! It was tedious, time-consuming, and definitely caused a pain in my neck, but the result, I believe, is well worth it!

Judge Ed P. Curry

Yesterday, I spent some time in the library on Ancestry.com and discovered that the "E.P. Curry" that lived in our home from 1899 until his death in 1908 was a county judge. Still trying to fill in the gaps of the history of our home but definitely making progress!

Seeing Some Progress

Since my last bathroom update, we have completed the following:

* Replaced the portion of the floor under the tub with plywood.
* Patched up the holes left by the shower with beadboard.
* Added beadboard to the area to the left of the tub and over the door where there was no beadboard.
* Put up crown moulding (Gary is almost finished with the moulding, and then he'll put up the rest of the trim in the room).

My job is to continue getting the walls ready for painting, in other words, caulk. Then of course, it is always my job to paint, which I am happy to do since I get to choose the paint colors. My plan is to do a wide stripe around the room. I was thinking about a dark beige with a red stripe, but I'm still trying to decide. I have leftover red paint from the brick wall in the kitchen, so I'm trying to use paint that I have as we have a lot of paint we have purchased but unused.

In another area of the house...

Speaking of paint, I had purchased a gallon of paint called "Wooden Cabin" for the bathroom but didn't like it for the bathroom, so I decided to paint the bottom portion of the stairway with this color. I think it turned out nice... Take a look at the pictures. I'm trying to decide on a color for the top part of the stairway wall/landing area. Any ideas???

House History Update

Yesterday (our 14th wedding anniversary), Gary, Camryn, and I spent the afternoon in the basement of the county courthouse reviewing deed records on our home. Check out the History of Our Home link for the new information we found.

DING DONG! THE TUB IS GONE!

Those six little words are cause for celebration in the Tackert household. After some prayer on my part and manpower on Gary's part, the dreaded toilet pipe was removed out of the floor and the tub is now at the city dump! Oh yeah, we also had the help of a friend to get it into the back of Gary's truck. Thanks, Jason! The tub weighed 360 lbs. according to how much Gary had to pay to get rid of it. It had a date stamp of 5/25/1950. You should've seen the mess underneath it... 57 years of leaves and debris either blown in from under the house as there was a gaping hole or by mice or rats... oooooh! Unfortunately, my camera wasn't charged, so I couldn't get a picture of this lovely scene, but I am presenting you with a picture of the now vacant spot where the old tub sat. We are well on our way to our new bathroom!

Bathroom Blues Part II

The downstairs bathroom has been out of use since January. As per a previous post, we started working on it in January, and not a whole lot has been done since. We have our excuses (again, see previous post), but now we really have no excuses (except for a teeny tiny mouse that showed up earlier this week). That's my little excuse (not Gary's). The bathroom had been a storage area for a while, but I got everything out and pulled up the old linoleum floor to discover the wooden floor underneath it in good shape. Since we moved out the toilet months ago, there's been a pipe sticking up out of the floor that needs to come out before Gary and some friends can pull the cast iron tub out. My job is to caulk all the many cracks in the beadboard, which I started to do with Gary at my side but will not enter the room with a mouse lurking about. I started to continue with my job yesterday being assured by Gary that all the holes in the walls were boarded up, but then I saw some cute little mouse droppings on the floor. So much for that. I know, I know... I'm a grown woman. Why would I be afraid of a little bitty mouse? It's not rational, but it's a real fear that I'm not proud of but humbly admit. Here are some pictures of some slight progress we've made since January. We need motivation!!!

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

I custom-ordered these letters a few months ago and finally painted my scrap wood board to make this beautiful wall hanging for the dining room.

Thank You to My Students

A special thank you to my Ault students for a wonderful school year. I want to share a picture of the Southern Magnolia tree I purchased with a portion of the end of the year cash gift. I will always think of my students as I watch this tree grow and bloom just like they did throughout the year.

Updated Wish List

As if anyone would be interested but me... But if you are interested in knowing the things that I am wishing for, take a look at our updated wish list.