So
with the impending move I scramble to get the bedroom trim in so we can have the
carpet that we purchased oh... in December... installed.So
with the impending move I scramble to get the bedroom trim in so we can have the
carpet that we purchased oh... in December... installed.
We also got the ceiling fan my grandfather bought us installed. He was adamant we have a fan in our bedroom. I don't really care for them, but finally gave up the fight and let him buy one for me.
My grandfather ended up passing away later on this year. I am so happy I caved and have this fan to remind me of him.
The bedroom was painted a soft tan color. We discovered American Traditions paint by Valspar at Lowes. We really like their color choices, and the fact that part of our purchase goes to the Historic Trust.
When I finished installing it was back to refinishing, but I don't seem to make much of a dent in the pile. The above picture is half of the pile downstairs of woodwork at my mom's garage. The upstairs woodwork not yet installed is at my uncles building yet.
The picture to the left show Tim working on the bathroom floor. The tiles are a stock item at the Home Depot. We wanted the old fashioned hex tiles, but had to change our minds when we found out how much they cost. These are much cheaper and still kind of have that old fashioned rounded tile look.
I wanted a border around the room. Tim cut up a bunch of tan ceramic wall tiles the same size as the little squares in the white tile. He then pain-staking replaced each little white tile with a tan one around the perimeter of the room. It was tough to do at the time, but we are both really pleased with the little visual pop it gives the otherwise white expanse of floor.
The lesson learned on this floor was make sure you buy all the same lot number of tile. When we got the boxes home we realized we had three different lot numbers. We decided how different could white be. Well let us tell you, VERY different. Tim ended up cutting some of the grids apart to disguise the variance. However, if you know just where to look you can still pick out darker and lighter areas in the floor.
The
next bathroom job was to install the vanity and sink. Tim works for a
cabinetry line maker so we get our cabinets at a very nice price. You
can't really tell it since these photos got a little damaged, but the vanity is
a bright white.
The top of the vanity is a unsealed/unfilled travertine slab. My mother-in-law worries that I'll get toothpaste stuck in the holes, but I love the stone so much I'm willing to chance it.
The faucet is a Home Depot purchase. We're hoping to one day upgrade to something more classic, but it works for now.
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And here it
is. What I've been waiting over a year for. Our first toilet.
I don't think I have been or ever will be as excited about an up-date as I am about this.
Try going over a year without one and you'll understand.
April
showers brought May yard work. The start of what Tim hopes will be a "golf
course of a yard."
He started by plowing up the entire yard. He then went over it with a disk to break up the big clumps. After that he drug and rolled it for a nice even surface.
Then he planted our new grass seeds.
Cross your fingers for a good growing season!
After the farming was over it was back to work on the current project of replacing the siding that was torn out of the covered up south porch and where we re-installed the parlor door.
This isn't really a house related picture, but it was the only picture Tim insisted be on the web page.
It's Tim's buddy dropping him off in his helicopter. They landed on the old foundation next to our barn. Unfortunately Tim was a little too excited about this and forgot his newly plated grass seed. Grass seed and helicopter blades in motion do not mix.
We
begin to feel the crunch as we realize that we have less than a month before we
have to move in and no kitchen. So Tim forgoes working outside for some
quality kitchen time.
This is the only room we attempted to spray with the paint gun. We didn't like the way the texture of it turned out so we rolled over it and went back to using the roller for the rest of the walls.
My kitchen is a lovely sage green. I think my favorite color in the house so far. But then I like sage green.
We had to take
a day off from the kitchen project because our trees for our wind break came in.
We were able to get our trees for a very decent price from the local Trees
Forever group in town.
We planted: 100 red dogwood bushes (picture to the left),
35 red cedar,
15 Norway spruce,
7 maple trees,
2 peach trees,
3 apple trees, and
2 two crabapple trees all in one afternoon.
Once the trees were taken care of it was back to work on the kitchen. Each point where the lines cross in the tin ceiling pattern is where you had to put a nail. Tim pre-drilled each hole and then nailed each piece by hand. Yes, we really should have invested in one of those air nail guns. What does not kill you makes you stronger... after the chiropractic appointment anyways.
After we go the ceiling up we discovered just how out of square this room is. It probably would have been advantageous to shim the plywood a little to level the surface. But the tin looks so fantastic that you don't even notice all of the waves along the wall. Anyway, that's what we're going to tell ourselves.
This is what the ceiling looked like primed and then painted. The photo of it painted doesn't really show the color at all. It is metallic copper paint. We had it left over from the old tin ceiling we painted in a commercial building we bought and fixed up a few years earlier. After we had painted the copper we decided that we actually liked the color of the unfinished tin better in the space. Oh well, too late. It's not like we were out anything since the paint was left over, and the copper really isn't so bad. I'll know that for my next tin ceiling :)
And so
with a week left before move in time I decide that I want the upstairs hallway
cleaned up before we bring all of my furniture upstairs.
The picture to the left is me scrapping up the tar left from the old linoleum runner that was previously in the hall. After I scrapped up most of the goop Tim sanded the wood with one of those little corner floor sanders we rented from the hardware store. You can see where he's sanded already behind me.
My plan for this floor was to leave what was left of the old linoleum. It was in this beautiful floral pattern with all of these rich colors. I wanted to just carefully clean up the area around it where the PO had painted. I would have then varnished over the old flooring and had this adorable shabby chic look. Guess what... idea was shot down. It was a battle I fought long and hard, but lost. I was out voted by Tim and everyone else who stopped by for a tour. I don't understand why I was the only one to see the beauty of that old floor. I think the loss of that feature is the one that bothers me the most, even more than the original plaster and windows.
The floor does look pretty decent stripped down. I hope we'll think that it was worth all of the work once it's finished.
Once the hallway floor was completed we could put a coat of paint on the closet floor. We used oil porch floor paint in cream. We are really pleased with the results and are thinking about painting another floor somewhere. Maybe in the back somewhere.
But we're ready...
bring on the boxes.
IT'S MOVING DAY!
Here are the photos I snapped quickly the night before we moved.
The master bathroom
The
master bedroom and laundry room
So did you notice? No pictures of the kitchen. So it will be eating out for a few more weeks while we get the floor finished up and the cabinets and appliances in.
Since
we are now offically moved in you'll start to notice parts of our two cats
Norman (white) and Oliver (orange). They always seem to be willing to
"help" with a project.
Like this one. Since our kitchen seemed to be colder than the rest of the house this last winter we decided to go with under the tile floor heat in this room.
The picture to the left is of Tim threading the electric cord around the room and into place with the little plastic spacers that come with the kit.
Once
the wires were in place he laid a heavy layer of mortar down to hold them in
place. That's the gray you see in the picture to the left.
After that had dried he started another layer of mortar to set the tiles in (the white layer in the picture).
The tiles we chose were 18" unfilled/unsealed travertine. If you remember the bathroom vanity top discussion from April you will remember my love of this stone. Well, now my mother-in-law is sure we will get peas stuck in the gaping holes that the floor has. Really the holes were a little bigger than we had planned. So we filled them ourselves with a cream colored grout.
The pattern, which we surprisingly got from one of those tiles display boards at the Home Depot, involves cutting some of the larger squares into 4" squares. For this we used our trusty wet tile saw. This is maybe one of the best tool investments we have made. We use it all the time and lend it out to friends and family constantly. That baby has a lot of miles on it and I'm happy!
While the staggered pattern is really visually interesting it ended up being the toughest tile floor Tim has ever laid. We figured the larger tile would go in so much faster than the small tiles in the master bath. Boy, were we wrong! The larger tiles call for more care in placement because the large surface area makes leveling much more difficult. And interspacing the small tiles in with the larger left a lot of chances for the pattern to go crooked. It ended up taking him about two weeks to get all of the tiles in place.
And I am getting so tired of the cafe in town!