Floor Refinish

Before we even moved into the house we tore up all the carpeting in the down stairs. The old shag carpet that was well worn. Well past it's prime. So past it's prime there were definite worn areas from the previous owners paths around their furniture. Like the carpeting upstairs it had a distinct odor of cats and old people. When we tore it up the floor underneath was the four inch pine boards. We decided then and there that we were going to try and have them refinished rather than cover them up. We knew that they would be beautiful when finished, or at least that's what we kept telling ourselves. The boards were unfinished and dirty and scratched and there were gouges and imperfections, not to mention the two foot border of paint around the edge of each room. Did you know that back in the day people would paint the edges of the floor and put a large area rug in the middle of the room. I think I told you that before. We have lived with unfinished floors for over two years now. 

We kept going back and forth. Do we try it ourselves or do we shell out the money for someone to do it for us. Back and forth for two years. Then we thought let's try it in one room and see how it goes. We would try it in what is going to be the office and crafty room, perfect area for our expirament, if it didn't go well it wasn't a common space like the dining room or living room. We kept he-hawing around as to when we would give it a go. I made an executive decision. I took last Friday off put on my big  girl pants and rented the sanders. I recruited Mr. B's brother for a pair of extra hands. No turning back. 

We sanded for most of the day on Friday. I do mean we this time. I helped, pushing the big drum sander back and forth across the floor to smooth them out and remove some of the blemishes. It was like mowing the lawn, back and forth back and forth, slow and steady in nice straight lines. Another day of applying the polyurethane  Well two days. We put two coats on let them dry, and they weren't smooth. The next day I buzzed over the floor with 220, really fine, sand paper on the orbital sander and we put a third coat on. Perfection this time. 

Come, let me show you how it looks now.

Side note: Mr. B and I used this room as our bedroom for two years while we waited to work on the master suite. It never had a door. We never put one on. For the life of me I don't know why. We bought one this weekend and Mr. B had it installed in an hour. It took me a few more to get it painted. What were we thinking. All those fights were I just wanted to run to the room and slam the door in anger. Those days where people came to the house and could see into our room. Really, could we have been that stupid!

Let's not dwell on that. We are not here to figure out the logic in our thinking, but to admire our handy work. 

Look at that beautiful floor. 

We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. There are still some imperfections and stains in the wood. You can see where they are nailed down, in one place some one went a tad over board with the nails; must have been a squeekie floor board. The weathered look adds to the farmhouse feel we were going for.

It was alot of work but well worth it. And we saved a chunk of change doing it. We are so happy with our refinishing abilities I have already taken another Friday off at the end of the month for us to do the other two rooms.  

One more look. Let's do a side by side comparison. 

Painted Trim and Curtains

Over the weekend Mr. B had to work, so I dug out my painting close and went to work on the trim. We finished scraping paint and sanding the weekend before and over the week we finished prepping for paint. We puttied the holes and calked along the seams. I started priming Friday night and was able to finish up with the touch-ups on Sunday afternoon.

I was going to wait for Mr. B to get home to help me hang the curtains. You see the week before I had tried to hang the curtains in the dining room, but there was an incident with the plaster. I was drilling a pilot hole before I put the screw in. It didn't want to go, so I applied more force. Well all of a sudden it went and I put the drill into the wall creating a large-ish hole in the plaster next to the window. We filled that hole and I touched up the paint this weekend. You can't even tell it happened. Sorry I "forgot" to take pictures of it. Taking pictures would leave evidence and the world would know. I suppose telling you does the same thing.

Like I said I was going to wait for him to get home to help me, but like most things I got impatient and decided to try it again. Success this time. I got a system down. Now drilling pilot holes, just start it by pounding in a nail. If it didn't hit a stud I put in one of the plastic dry wall support thingies. (I'm sure they have a proper name, but it escaping me right now.) I got every one right on the first time. The curtains are hung and the curtain rods are level. 

I suppose you want to see what they look like. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to take pictures of windows/window treatments and get the lighting right. There is probably a tutorial somewhere out there about it. I'll look for it when I invest in a nicer camera. Not much I can do with our old pocket size point and shoot model.

I can't believe it took me over two years to get this done. We spend so much time in this room, now that they are done I realize the globy green paint was bringing me down. The white trim makes the details on the woodwork stand out and compliments the tan walls in a way green could never do. 

We both agreed that it makes our living room cozier and more inviting. The sun blared through the windows most of the morning and afternoon. The new curtains still let in the light but defuse it. It's not as intense any more. 

Just in case you were wondering the curtains are from Target and the curtain rods are, get this, from none other than Wal-Mart. Would you believe that out of the big box department stores the Mart has the largest selection of curtain rods, and the most reasonable prices.

Guillermo update:

He is still limping no major improvement. Which isn't great but it's better than it getting worse. It is still painful, but seems less so. He's limping with more speed and seems surer on his feet. He is also back at sassing the dog, a good sign. 

Guillermo, Mr. Squirrel, and a Turkey

Friday I noticed that Guillermo, one of our large male geese, hurt his foot. From what I could tell, as close as he would let me get to him, he cut the bottom of his foot on something. Not sure what he cut it on. I'm thinking maybe his foot got cold and he cut it on a piece of ice, but that's not important. 

He has been gimping around all weekend. Yesterday he seemed to be doing better. He was getting around rather well, still limping but managing. His BFF Bruce has been keeping a close eye on him. I tried to get close to take a good look. It was starting to stress G out and Bruce came to his rescue hissing at me and trying to chase me away. They are cute together, rather inseparable. I noticed Christmas has been trying to take advantage of G's injured state and move up in the pecking order, bird will be birds.

Today when I got home from work I he is still limping but now the foot is very swollen and darker than the other. I have a sinking feeling it is getting infected or he broke it. Hopefully it is neither. He is still managing to tag along with the other birds and is eating, drinking, and preening himself, from those things I believe he still has quality of life. We shall watch him closely the next few days to see how he is doing, I will keep you updated. 

This weekend I noticed that we have a visitor coming to the steel  some munchies from the bird's food dish. Sneaky little bugger, he was eating while the Bruce was taking his morning bath and he didn't even notice the thief.

I also made a turkey. I got one two years ago for my Christmas bonus, I decided it was about time to cook that bad boy. Several phone calls to my mother I was ready to put him in the oven. I don't know why, I've made chickens before but for some reason a whole turkey seems intimidating. Maybe it's the size. 

Well it turned out. I took a picture before it went into the oven but not one when it came out in all it's glory. I must have been distracted by the other projects I was working on. It has been shredded and tucked in the crock-pot with some gravy for Mr. B to take to work. They will enjoy hot turkey sandwiches for lunch tonight. 

Keeping Busy

We've been chipping away at a bunch of small projects using the supplies we stocked up on from our last trip to the hardware store. I say we, but in reality Mr. B has been keeping himself busy at night. .

Not that I've been sitting on my fanny doing nothing. We have had delicious home made dinners every night this week not to mention the chocolate cupcakes that I made Tuesday night, with peanut butter frosting. The kitchen is clean be fore we go to bed, apart from the floor. I've been meaning to scrub that for over a week now. I love the checkerboard floor but the white squares really show the dirt. Didn't think that one out to well.

Meanwhile his our project have taken over the dinning room table. The plates are more of a Maggie project which I am hoping to complete in the next few weeks. I still need to collect some more. See the curtain in the background? Very exciting update, but more on that later.

There seems a division of labor into "pink" chores and "blue" chores. Part of me thinks I should be upset that I am getting stuck with the domestic traditional housewify chores rather than playing with electricity and using power tools. (maybe not the playing with electricity I would rather not tempt fate, the thought of getting zapped is not appeasing for me.) But then I think OMG we are getting stuff done! Who cares that I'm in the kitchen every night. We like to eat good home cooked meals, and well I happen to be much better at cooking than Mr. B and he happens to be better at playing with electricity. Besides it's not like I can't do "blue chores." I am perfectly capable of taking care of things myself.

Bird Pillow

Remember how I told you I took down the big snowflakes I had hanging in the living room. I’m trying to banish winter. Once they were down it got me thinking on the pillows. Remember I had made sweater covers for them. I figured sweaters on the couch is just as much of a wish for cold snowy weather as snowflakes on the wall. I decided this weekend something needed to be done about them. I want something cheerful and summery for the throw pillows.

That is easier said than done. You see our couch is this weird shade of slate/moss green. Deep reds and browns work nice with it but I want something brightish and cheerful! It took several walks around the fabric store to come up with a plan. I decided on some red-orange (to complement the TV stand), navy blue, and a hint of light green. Of course there will be some neutral grays and whites thrown in there.

Behold the first updated throw pillow.

The bird pillow.

Birds, I know go figure..But it’s not geese so it’s ok right?  It doesn’t contribute to the crazy bird lady factor, does it?

I have been seeing the bird on a wire silhouettes in my search for artwork for the house and I’m continually drawn to it. I haven’t taken the plunge to actually buy anything though. So I thought why not incorporate the design into a throw pillow.

For those of you who are wondering, I used fusible web to attach the bird silhouettes to the background and further secured them using a zig-zag stitch in coordinating thread. But before I did that I had to make the wire for them to sit on. We can’t have the birdies floating in space ungrounded. I marked a straight line on the background fabric and then using the straight stitch on my machine sewed a few lines. I was purposefully sloppy in this, which was rather liberating! (I mainly quilt so straight seems with a perfect ¼ inch seam allowance are a must.) I’d have to say I am darn proud of how it turned out.

Let’s take another look and drool and my craftiness.

There are four pillows on our couch. I'm still working on the covers for the other three, so but be on the lookout for updates!



I'm Back

Well hello there!

Nice to see you again. 

I took a little break this month. Don't worry it's not you it's me. In all reality there was nothing going on in our lives that I thought was worthy of a little chat. No house projects, no craftiness, no baking. We spent most of this month watching movies. There was a week long Harry Potter marathon and weekend of the Lord of the Rings (don't we sound like nerds). We worked our way through many bowls of popcorn and rediscovered our love of the nacho. Tostitos topped with some sort of meat, cheese, and salsa tucked under the broiler for a few minutes and then topped with a dolop of sour cream. Great dinner for in front of the TV and almost no dishes. 

 I did get allot of quilting done on my sunshine quilt. I'd say it's about 2/3rds done. I can't wait to show you the finished product. The quilting really makes it, by far this is the most intricate quilting I have ever done. Lots of loopies and flowers. Several of my finger tips are calloused from the millions of stitches.  

This weekend we finally made it to the hardware store. We picked up some things to get some little projects done.  My theory is if we have the supplies here it is one less thing to get in the way of getting something done. It seems when I want to do something it requires a trip to town and the thought of driving makes me loose all my ambition. 

Yesterday Mr. B went snow boarding, no broken bones this time. He did fall on his shoulder and it's rather sore this morning. Perhaps I should put him in a bubble or not let him go anywhere with his brother unsupervised. Any-who while he was gone I went to the craft store and the thrift store. My creativity and ambition has been restored!! I think we will be seeing much of each other in the next few weeks. 

Last night I baked. For the first time in over a month!

We are celebrating my Grandma's birthday today and I thought some celebration cupcakes were in order. Nothing to fancy, white cake with butter cream frosting and sprinkles. Sprinkles are practically a necessity around here. 

Don't you just love the little flags. I would love to say that I made them myself. I said I was once again inspired, but not that inspired. I picked them up at the craft store, the are Martha Stewart. Gotta love that lady. The colors remind me of spring, nice and bright and cheery. I am so ready for the snow and winter to be over with. I took down the big snow flakes last week. I told Mr. B I am done wishing for snow. Now I need to find something else to hang on the wall behind the couch. But any way I digress. 

One more picture of the delicious cup cakes.

Until next time!!

M. 

Scrapping Paint

We started a new house project last week. A boring, tedious, house project. But one that needs to get done. We are scrapping all the layers of old paint off the trim on our living room windows. There are ALOT of layers of paint on those. Several layers of the nasty green that covered most of the house, then brown, then turquoise, then white, then finally the bare wood.It was gobbed on to almost a half inch tick in some places. Yikes! With all that paint on the trim we were starting to loose some of the details in the molding.

We have been using a heat gun to remove most of the paint. It doesn't smell the best but works much better that trying to scrape it off unassisted or using harsh chemicals. Heat it up just so the paint starts to bubble and it comes off so easily. But don't heat it up to much or you scorch the wood. (we did do this in several places, shhhh you won't be able to tell once it is painted) From there we will fill in some of the old nail holes, sand them smooth, and prime and repaint.

I say we, but in all honesty it's been mainly Mr. B scrapping away. But to be fair I have made dinner and cleaned the kitchen every time he worked at it. And I will be the one doing all the painting. Mr. B only does the roller, no edging or trim.