It Only Took a Month.....

I've done it!!!
And I don't just mean that figuratively....it was actually me who did it! 
VOILA!!!!!!!!!

This picture represents The Last of the wall boards to put up!!  Hooray!!!!  And see what I did....all those little dots of wood putty are where I nailed them to the studs with the nail gun!  I even had to add new nails when it ran out, which I figured out quickly.  Also, notice that I had to cut the top board out for the switches -- very cool, right?!  I LOVE it, I love the feeling that I could get this done when I wanted to, instead of having to wait (and hope!) for Brian to want to do it.  He gets bored when projects take too long, and he's ready to move on to something new (like the garden) -- that's not a bad thing, either!  But when I'm in the middle of a project, I want to get it DONE, especially this family room and hallway....I've been planning and had it half-started for years, really YEARS!! Oh so many Christmas pictures with the messed up walls behind them....now, no more! 

So next, I will get out the paint and roller, and get those last coats on, like I've been talking about all month! (Haha!)  Then, all that will be left (besides the floor, of course) will be the ceiling trim, door trim in the hall, and the little trim top for the boards....you remember that, right?  They are just waiting in the barn!
Aaahhh....I feel another "Sigh of Relief" entry coming! ^-^ (that's a smile, by the way)(according to my daughter, anyway!)

On a side note, this weather is annoying!  It was supposed to be cloudy and cooler today (like 75 - NORMAL!), but it turned out to be 85, that's eighty-freakin-five!!  It's too early to have to deal with this!  I had to turn the air on, and I just had the heat on a few days ago!  Oh, and it's going to get worse -- it may even be 90 in the next couple of days!  I am NOT happy, and neither are my baby plants....they will slow their growing in that kind of heat, and that's a best-case-scenario.  They could die.  I watched them today, as the air heated up, and they were wilting but it didn't look too bad.  I sprinkled them with cold water, then watered them again when the sun went down, and they didn't look wilty then, so I'm hoping! 
I love the breezy warm air right now, though.  It feels nice, and it reminds me of vacationing in Florida when I was a girl!!  Happy times! ^-^

PS - I don't know WHAT the heck happened to my fonts up there....I tried to enlarge and bold "voila", but somehow that happened.  It looks fine here on my posting screen, it's only in the blog where it's all wrong!  GRRRR!!  Blogger can be really frustrating sometimes!

Here I Am!!

WOW -- I haven't posted since Tuesday night!!  I've had some things I wanted to post about, but I just haven't done it before falling asleep every night!

After Tuesday, I cut, sanded and painted all the remaining wood for the family room walls!  THAT felt good, and I thought I'd be putting it up with Brian this weekend.  It's still sitting on the porch, waiting!  Haha!!  Oh well, the best of intentions.....
What we did end up doing this weekend is the garden.  My tomato plants really had to be put in the ground.  They should have been planted about two weeks ago, but those super cold nights last week would have killed them.  But this weekend, I noticed them wilting a little, and some of the peat pots had the start of mold on the outsides....bad news!  So Brian and the boys tilled, and dumped fertilizer and compost and potting soil in there, and I planted them.....

Now they need to be papered and mulched.  They look too spread out, but believe me, they need the room!!

Here are my leeks that we finally dug up.....

They have been in the ground for almost a year!! (they were very small)  I am going to cut them up and freeze them ~ they smell so good!!

I also picked strawberries with Emily.....

YUM!!  They are really good!  While we were picking them, Emily said, "This is fun!" ^-^  She was right!!
I'm going to make a dessert with them tomorrow!

And, I bought this on ebay.....

I LOVE pitchers!!  Isn't this one great!?  No one else even bid on it, and I got a great price (of course, or I wouldn't have bought it).  While I was looking at stoneware pitchers, there was one that was wonderful!!!  It was a true antique, and I loved the shape, it was my favorite primitive look!  Wait....here it is!!.....

*SIGH!!!  Of course, it's hundreds of dollars.  I will NEVER buy a pitcher for that much!!  The one I just bought was $9!  I think it looks almost as good, although, nothing beats that brown one (it's actually "redware"!)


Well, this week I ought to be able to nail up the wood for the walls, putty the holes, and roll on the last coat of paint!  I have a little more planting to do, but the wood is my priority....I'm eager to get this DONE!!

Work, Work, Work!!

Well, this whole thing is slow-going....I can't seem to make any REAL progress.  It could be because no matter what I want to accomplish, I am limited by all the other things I MUST do.  Still, I am going along!

This is how many nail-holes there are (in each wall!)....I filled them all with putty!

Instead of cutting the whole rug out, I went around the whole room and cut just the rug around the wall (so I can use the paint roller).

Here, I've started the back doors -- MORE places that need painting (and at least three coats on white like that!)


Tomorrow, the kids have braces appointments in the morning, so if I tackle the roll-on painting, it will have to be in the afternoon.....we'll see if that's possible!!
If I don't paint, maybe I'll post tomorrow night about my favorite websites and items on ebay and etsy! ^-^

NOPE!!!

The saga of me finding the right paint (in ANY situation) continues....  I spent this past week mixing different paints I have to try and match the wallpaper (for the ceiling trim)....(keep in mind I haven't painted the boards we put up yet, but this is somehow so important....).  Here are the different "patches" that have come the closest.....

In the picture, you would think the two middle spots match, but you would be wrong....in certain light they look pretty close, but anywhere I've put them up to the wall....NOPE, wrong color, too light, too greenish, not "tan" enough.  The two colors on the ends are much darker, and have no greenish tint, they don't match in sunlight or in the light at Lowes, but on the wall, they come the closest!  I was too scared to get a sample of those, especially under those florescent lights - the middle color is almost exact!  So here I sit, with another paint sample that isn't right.  I guess I'll go back and ask the paint-guy to add a shot of brown in there....why do I always struggle with this???

So we didn't get any wood yet.  I figured we could wait until I got this paint right, plus we didn't want to take the van and it's hard to fit in the car.  I am determined to get this room finished, and maybe finish the trim in the living room and the painting in the library while we're at it!  I am toying with the idea of "aging" the walls like I've seen other people do....it looks so great, I'd love to have that look, but am I brave enough?? LOL

I did get most of the nail holes filled in the wood that's been put up (with wood putty) -- TEDIOUS!! -- so I really can paint the walls now.  Then the double-doors, then the bedroom doors, then the bathroom door, then the closet door that we need to make, then.....  AHHHHH!!!!   No, I'm kidding, I am really enjoying getting all this accomplished!

The other thing I did today was replant my tomato seedlings into new peat pots.  They needed it!  Some of the larger one's were really drooping, from being confined in those tiny pots.  I hope they perk up, although I have PLENTY.....

Aren't they great?!!  I keep dreaming of all the canning I'm going to be able to do...!!! ^-^

The Front Door!

I am finally posting the front door pictures....this is actually late Thursday night to me, because it's almost 2am, so I haven't gone to bed yet!  I wanted to get these pictures up, because the door has been done since Sunday!!

Here is BEFORE....

I still love that color, so I might go back to it if I get tired of looking at the darker color!  This is a Christmas door decoration, and I am really proud of myself for it.  It's just some cedar branches and red berry stems (fake) tied together!  I'm usually terrible at this kind of stuff, but I love how it came out.

Now get ready.....TA DAAAAAA......!!

I still have to fix that window pane, but isn't the color wonderful??!  It looks so pretty when walking toward the house!  It just makes me happy!!

Now I have to change THIS door color too.....

Right?!  Hahaha!!  Actually, I really do!

Sweet dreams!!

I Did This....!!

I DID it -- I put up the wood myself, that I cut myself!!  Of course, you have to realize what this means....I cut the wood to the right size with a circular saw, then after painting it, I put it up using the nail gun!! 

Here's the saw, I love how it has a battery, making it easier for me to hold.  It's also smaller than a typical saw, so it wasn't too heavy for me at all!  It was VERY loud, though, and spit lots of wood.  I had to wear goggles to cut, and before I was halfway through the board, my ears were actually hurting from the noise.  Brian showed me where the ear plugs are to use if I ever use the saw again.  He doesn't use them himself (and now I know why he's practically deaf!).

Here's the nail gun I used!  I used the air that was in the tank already, because I hate when the compressor runs, it's WAY TOO loud!!

Unfortunately, the top board had a bow in it, right at a point where there was no wood in the wall to shoot it to (believe me, I looked), so I had to glue it to the wall, like SO.....

 See all the dots on the top board?  That's from me trying to find the wood in the wall that I thought was there!! LOL  Get the wood putty!!
Here's the "Before" picture.....

OH, this is so fun!!!!  I just love the dark red color!  At the rate this is getting finished, it should be completed, REALLY completed, by Christmas!!  I can't imagine actually having a space to do real decorating, and take pictures that have beautiful finished backgrounds!

This is all I'm doing for today.  I have dishes that need to be washed now, and supper to start (blah blah) - boring!!  At least the weekend is almost here.  I'm going to get wood for the ceiling and I think I managed to match a paint color to the wallpaper, so I'll get that too.  Eventually I will have to take a break and plant in the garden.... ^-^

I Changed It Again!!

Ok, got rid of the purple!  It was way too grapey, so all I did was change the background to these mustard-colored checks, and changed the title header color and font color.....I LIKE IT!!  I have a test blog that has these checks with teal colored fonts, and that's really pretty, but these colors go really well with the checks too.  I think I'm FINALLY happy with it! (haha!!)

I promise my next post will actually be about the house and have pictures!!

Tweaking!

Well, I keep tweaking the layout, style, and colors of this blog.  It's kind of scary, because there are SO MANY decisions to make, and once I select something different, I don't know how to get back to my original (if I even can).  That's how I made this latest change, I accidentally selected a new template (I was just trying to see what it looked like), and it totally changed everything in my whole blog....colors, fonts, layouts....terrifying!!
It's ok, because I didn't like the original look at all, but I liked SOME of it, and for a few seconds I wasn't sure how to get those parts back! LOL  But I did.  I am still not sure about the color, and I tried to add a template from another site, but it came out wrong.  She had instructions on how to do it, but they didn't work for me, so I tried another way, and that worked sort of....but not exactly!  I am also not sure about the brightness of this purple, I wanted it to be more grayish.  I'll keep it for awhile and see!

I'll add more pictures of my house work (haha!!) tomorrow!  I used another new saw today!!

A Sigh of Relief!

For YEARS now, I have sat on my couch and looked over to the wall that has the mural on one side, and closet on the other.  The mural side is so beautiful, but distractingly, the closet-door side had unfinished plaster, too-small trim, a small piece of old (log cabin!) wallpaper, and old paint and stenciling on it....yeah, I know.  It was so upsetting to look at, and then I'd get lost in thought, imagining what needed to be put there, and how I'd trim it and paint it, and how WELL it would compliment the mural side.....

TA-DAAAA!!!!!!  I know it isn't painted all the way to the top (YET!), but you can see why it makes me so happy to look over here now!  I LOVE THE FINISHED EDGE!!  And just WAIT until the rest of the trim and door are painted, it won't look like the same spot!
 I painted this today (three coats, even the very edge - tricky!), I painted two more coats of blue (ish-green) on the front door - it's DONE now, except for the new glass, but I'll post pictures of it tomorrow - and Brian fixed 4 holes under our bathroom vanity cabinet that MICE were climbing through, into our cabinet!  They even dragged a wrapped bar of soap out of the drawer and under the shelf, and chewed both sides up!!  There was mouse crap and pee all over under there (YUCK!!), and I was able to clean that all up with disinfectant spray.  I knew they might be getting under there, because my cat always wanted to go under there when I opened the cabinet doors, but I had no idea they were taking over!  I'm very happy about that project, too!!

This week, I'm going to paint, paint, paint, all over this family room!

Final Trim!!

Brian got the wall trim on for me today -- it looks great!!

Can you see the difference?  It looks alot smaller now that the pictures are on the blog...I should have thought of that!!  Wait....

....that's a little closer, although without the flash, the color is terrible, but at least you can see the shape of the trim.  Keep in mind I will be painting the wood two more coats of paint, so the color will be deeper, like the trim (that has three coats).  Now all that's left is to do the ceiling trim...Oh!  And the hallway!! LOL  Actually, I really think I can do that myself....and I will!!  Hahaha!

Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment in the morning in Charlotte, so Brian will be home tomorrow too!  I don't know how much work he'll want to do, since it's his last day off, but I can maybe get some floor wood, or try to match paint to the wallpaper (for the ceiling trim).  Yeah - my first attempt didn't work.  Just what I need, more goldish-tan paint samples (I have about 8 of them)!

While being excited about finishing this room, I also have a weird feeling that I can't figure out.  It's kind of a bad feeling....disappointment?....dread?....it's negative, whatever it is, and I've been trying to understand where it's coming from for the past two weeks.  Maybe, because I've spent so much time planning how I'm going to finish the house, I'm actually sorry to stop?  Maybe it doesn't feel as fun to LIVE with my ideas as it is to MAKE them?  It could also be that soon the only thing left to do in here will be cleaning! LOL  Really!
Whatever it is, it's strange!  It's not overwhelming, I'm definitely MOST excited about completing my years-long plans, so I'm not going to give this too much attention.  I just find it a bit interesting, and ironic!

I think I'll have the front door painted tomorrow!!

What a Day!!

Brian worked on the garden today, then he grilled burgers for lunch, THEN he put up more of the wall wood - the tiny pieces --- HOORAY!!  I thought I was going to have to do those myself, or at least wait for next weekend, but NOPE, he did them all on the main wall!  Now, all that's left is the hallway, and I can definitely do that (since the pieces are bigger) if he wants to take a break.  There's also the ceiling trim, but that's usually easier than all these board pieces, and the top thin red trim for the walls, but he said he wants to get those done this weekend.  Oh, it's SO exciting!!  I've been planning on finishing this room for years, and now it's almost done! 
Here's a picture.....

If you look back to the pictures last night of the trim, you can see the white areas of the wall are now covered....I'm so happy about this!!

Before this, I was painting the front door.  Here's the color....

Isn't that going to be beautiful!?! 
And this is only 2-3 coats - you can still see the white primer through 2 coats!  I'm going to have to do 3-4 coats to get the deep color I want.  I just love it.  (I'll be replacing that seedy glass, too!)

I love Brian.  He makes me so happy!!

TRIM!!!

Brian did a bunch of trim in the family room today!!  It's not painted yet, because we just bought it today too, but it looks so great....I've been waiting YEARS for this!

I also finished priming the front door today (with a second coat).....

I wanted the primer to fully dry before painting the new color, so I'm waiting until tomorrow to paint it --- I CAN'T WAIT!!!!  Did I emphasize that enough???  (haha!)  Just looking at the color smear on top of the can makes me joyful, it's such a wonderful color!  Wait until I post the pictures, you'll see what I mean!

While at Lowe's getting the wood today, a little old man came up to Brian and asked if we would buy his Lowe's gift card ($100) so he could have the cash, because he needed it. :-(   Even though we didn't plan at all to spend that much at Lowe's today, we just had to do it.  This poor, sad little man.  He said he was ashamed of having to ask someone to do this, but Brian said not to be, there was nothing wrong with needing to trade that out, and we know (like so many others) what it's like to struggle like that!!  Everytime I think of him, I say a small prayer for him, that he's warm and full, and loved.  I hope anyone else reading this will say a little prayer for him too.

Redware Crock??

Look what I did.....

I love this!!!  I got this stencil from a picture in Country Sampler, and I just got brave enough to cut it today! (I've had the copy for over a year! LOL)  It came out great!!  The color is mustard on redish/brown, so it looks a little like Redware....well, not really, but close enough to have that cozy, rich look that I love about Redware.  I'll probably never have any "real" Redware, anyway!!  I also plan on painting some wooden plates this color and adding the mustard to imitate Redware plates.  When you have my limited funds, you must be creative!

So this is basically all I did today!  I really need Brian to cut the small pieces of wall board.  I'm not good with the saws, I'm not strong enough to keep them on the cutting line.  Oh, I did scrape and prime the front door...I didn't get all the paint off, but most of the flaky stuff.  I can't wait to paint it the new color, it will look GREAT, I just know it will!!
I would have done some gardening, but the weather has turned quite cold in the past few days.  I'm not complaining, but I can't plant my tomatoes until it warms up.  Probably this weekend.  I'm excited about growing tomatoes again this year, especially all the varieties I have!  One kind didn't sprout at all, not one seed I started - and I tried three times!!  They were Costoluto Genovese, and I really wanted to grow them because they are supposed to be delicious for juice.  I did read, though, that they are "fussy" and tricky to grow, so maybe this is a blessing, but I'm not giving up yet!

Brian's home tomorrow!!!  I LOVE when he's home with me!  I'm sure I'll have great pictures to post by Sunday!! :-D

A Spring Snowfall!

Well, I got the rest of the popcorn ceiling down in the main living area, and here's the result - snow!!  Phew, what a job!  Now the only popcorn left is in the bedrooms and bathrooms (and closets...), and I have no need to tackle that for a while.  Someday, I would love to paint the ceilings, instead of keeping them stark white.....someday!

I used the nail gun by myself yesterday!  Yup, that's right - I had to fix some wood in a corner that was done over a year ago (it's taken that long to finish the job!!), so the boards were equal widths of 16 inches, instead of the 24/17/7 that I decided to do.  So I had to pry them off, cut them, and nail them back on, and I did it!  It wasn't hard at all.  Now I know I can do the other small pieces.  I may do that tomorrow. 

I am scraping the paint off the front door so I can repaint it the darker green-blue.  It's tedious!!  I'm going to try a wire brush tomorrow.  I can't wait to get the new color on it!!

Happy Easter!!!

Today was candy day!  And tomorrow will be candy-hoarding day!!  Haha!  I love the white chocolate M&Ms, and tomorrow, they will be half-off -- HOORAY!!

We don't really do anything special to celebrate Easter....we talk about why it's a special day, what it symbolizes to us as Christians, and I say a prayer of thanks to God and Jesus for the sacrifices made for us.  But I don't make any special meal or anything.  It's just one more holiday that only we would be celebrating, instead of being with extended family, so I don't mind skipping it.

What did happen today that was great, was Brian put up more wood with me!!!

I think I am going to try to put up a few smaller pieces by myself this week.  I know I can do it, it will be slower for me, but I know what to do.  We'll see.  I'm also very happy because Brian agreed that the rug can come out!  I'm not ready with the wood for the floor, but I hate the rug so much.  I was planning on cutting it out anyway, whether or not he said so, but it's easier if he helps me - he's much stronger!!  Haha!  So, if I can get to that too, I'm going to try.  I can buy one or two boards a week and stain and sand them, it won't take long, less than a month - that would be great!!

So hopefully, I'll have more great pictures this week.....!

More Wood!!!

Here's a Before picture!  We've pulled back the icky rug - which will be coming out soon .  See my old stenciling above the old (fake) wood?  I especially hate the white patterned wallboard that they put all over this house....who picks that???  Hideous!!

Here it is now....

Oh so much better!!!  And that rug has got to GO!

Hopefully, more done tomorrow....!

Phew!!!

I finished the wallpaper today!  It looks wonderful, too!!  And after posting a question on A Primitive Place, the brilliant ladies there gave me the idea of painting the trim a similar color to the wallpaper, and then painting the ceiling a similar shade to that, which would soften the slant line in the hallway that bothers me so much -- I think it will look great, and I'm going to do it around the room!  Of course, I'm not ready to paint the ceilings....yikes!  I'm only almost done with scraping them!! Now to find the right color to match the wallpaper....(paint colors are my nemesis)

I've painted my trim pieces for the wood....

....can you see the little shape of them?  It's perfect for the top of the wall-wood!
In the back of the picture you can see my lettuce and cauliflower and broccoli - I just planted it today.  Our two week heat wave (80's) finally broke today, and I can feel cool air coming in the window!  I hated running my AC a week after having the heat on!!  Now it's back to seasonal temps - 60's and 70's --YAY!!

I should be getting A Primitive Place magazines in the mail soon...I can't wait!

A Trick Question!

I love love old tin molds, but most people selling them want more money than I can spend on them.  Years ago, I found a bunch of "copper" jello molds at Goodwill for very cheap, but never put them out because they are that ugly pink metal.  So I finally got an idea of what to do with them so I would like them better....

Voila.....!!!!

Can you tell which one is the Real old tin mold???


Here is a hint!....

Hmmm....I am not sure why these uploaded differently....well, you get the picture, right?  In the top picture, the mold on the bottom left is my only true old tin mold!! (in the bottom pic, it's top-left)
What I did was spray paint the pink molds with silver hammered finish paint by Krylon, then after pouring over grayish paint samples, trying to match them to the color of the scuffs on the tin mold, I picked Gunstock, from Lowes.  All I needed was a sample size - love those!! - and I sponged it on all the raised spots in the molds.  They look great, I'm so happy with them!  I'm going to hang them on my kitchen wall!! (after the trim is up)

Ugh!!

 I've finished everything!!!!

APRIL FOOLS!!!!  Haha!!

Well, I am still not finished with this wallpaper....over the whole weekend, I only wallpapered 1 1/2 more walls!  I kept having problems!!  I measured wrong, and then when I went around an outside corner, the edge went off-level.  So I had to paper over it all up to the edge - now there's a seam right at that corner, which I can see... :-P   Not how I want it to look!  At least I made it to the hall, I guess.  I will be papering above doors now - MUCH easier (hopefully).

Here is what I got done....

Better??  The wallpaper stops where the wood will be, so pay NO attention to the hideous lower wall!  The pathetic red wainscoting (it's 30 inches high, what's the point?) was here when we moved in, only I painted it the red, and then I realized the color was the wrong shade.  Of course, this was 5 years ago!

The shiny thing on the wall (bottom pic) is our thermostat -- definitely needs a wood "box" cover, I think!!
And now my new dilemma is the hallway....

....see at the end, how it slants up?  I think I might want to put trim there and make it level instead.  So the trim would look like a long (weird?) triangle, but the wallpaper would be straight.  And then I'd put a trim piece on the taller wall (on right) big enough to make the wallpaper level with the other wall.  Is that even a good idea??  I have always hated the slant, but will I even be making it look better by doing this?

I'm not sure what is the best idea, and I've regretted many of my other ideas, so I'm hesitating!  Time to get some advice??

OH!!  I've found The Best website....A Primitive Place forums!!  It's AMAZING!!!  There are tons of people (women) on there with the most awesome taste and talent for decorating and style and colors!  I'm thrilled to have such a great resource for help with my "dilemmas"!  And to see what everyone does in their homes, it's so inspiring!!
I guess I could ask them about the hallway (if I could bear for them to see it...)!  Right?!!