More Home Remodeling Progress

My awesome handyman worked on a couple more projects this week for me. He did such a great job on the trim around the new door and the trim around the widened doorway into my future office that the living room windows were looking a little sad. I wanted them to have the same style of trim as the rest of the house and they had been redone at some point with something more modern...and with less character. Me likey character!
Here are a couple photos of the windows with the new trim.
Also, I went on a little scavenger hunt for wood to fill the hole in the dining room floor. Everywhere I went they told me "We only sell bundles of wood." Well, I didn't need a bundle or even half a bundle. What I really needed was wood scraps. (Is that supposed to be "was" or "were". I'm too tired to think!) Well, luckily at one location they gave me the name of a guy who installs wood floors and he was kind enough to bring me scraps from his shop. The only thing that I needed to buy was the wood to make the frame around the outer edge of the hole.

Originally my plan was to use two different colors of wood but that was hard to come by so I had an idea to just place the squares in different directions and use the wood grain to my advantage. I'm pleased with the result. I see from these photos that I have one spot where there are two darker squares next to each other. I meant to scatter those around but I was dealing with a headache coming on so I wasn't fully engaged! Ha

Here are some photos of the stages of the creation. This one is getting things mapped out.
Richard, my carpenter, placing the squares into the hole in the floor.Applying another strip of wood glue for the next row of squares.
All the pieces in place. Time to let the glue dry. Next step is to fill any gaps with a mixture of sawdust and wood glue, then sanding.
I'm glad I decided to stick with all oak. I think this will look nice and subtle.

OHHHHH....funny story. When I talked to the guy who supplied me with the scraps he said he'd just bring them to my house. I had given him a little back story about WHY I needed these supplies and then when I gave him directions to my house he said "I know exactly where that house is. My cousin used to live there. In fact, he's probably the one who cut the diamonds in the floor!!!" That cracked me up. When he got to my house I said "Will you kick your cousin in the shins for me for doing that to the floor?" But, I really don't mind because I think this is pretty cool and makes my little house more unique.

The Sanding Bandit

Today my plan was to rent the edger sander from the rental place, sand my little heart out around the perimeter of the rooms and return it tomorrow. So, I picked up the sander this morning, got my crash course from the proprietor and off I went. Apparently, my floors don't have a thick layer of polyurethane though because that little edger sander was like a dang barracuda and was taking the finish and the wood down way too fast. I didn't go very far before I realized I needed a Plan B.

I returned the sander and went to Lowe's to buy an orbital sander. I bought the most powerful one but unfortunately it is a little less aggressive than I need. It's kind of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears but I haven't found one that's "just right". So, I had to resort to good old muscle and sand paper wrapped around a stick of oak flooring. I was able to hand sand through the finish and then use my newly acquired sander to do the rest. Plan B is going to take about three times as long as the original plan would have! I hope my muscles, fingers, arms and KNEES survive this. I DO have a little padded gardening mat to kneel on, so that's helpful, but I was sooooo exhausted tonight that I had to take a little power nap.

I'll be going back tomorrow to keep working at it. I think I need to have a sanding party. If only I had about 10 more people to do what I did for five or six hours, I'd have that floor done in no time!

Two Two Two Dollar Tuesday!

Why are these weeks just flying by??? It's crazy! I have nine things for sale for the next 24 hours....$2.00 each so get 'em while they're cheap. I mean get 'em while they're inexpensive! Ha

This week look for my Fabrications Paper and Elements, Gardenologie Paper and Elements, Stir Up Some Fun Paper and two sets of Elements, and Sweetness Paper and Elements. Those four are some of my all time faves!

Tomorrow I have to head out really early and stop by a wood shop to pick up some hardwood scraps to fill that hole in my dining room floor. My handyman, Richard, feels confident that he will be able to make me a pretty inset. I told him I want a simple frame with a checkerboard center. I hope the simple pattern means simple to install too!

I'm also rented an edger sander that I need to go pick up and then I'll be crawling all along the perimeter of each room sanding my little arms off again. Whew! I'll be glad when that is done. I'm so glad I'm doing it though. It looks more amazing just as it is now with the sanding incomplete.

So, I think I said I put a profile on a dating website. My profile has had over 500 hits in about three weeks! Good for the ego. Some of those are repeats...they visit my profile over and over. Some even leave me an "interest notification" EVERY DAY. What is up with that? If you're interested send me a real message, not some lame "interest notification" that's generated by the site. I mean once is fine but there's one guy who's probably notified me 20 times! I've sent a note saying "Uhhhh...hello...do you have fingers?" No response. Just another "interest notification" the next day. Now I just hit DELETE!

I have been corresponding with a really nice guy whose name starts with a P. He lives in Louisiana though so hmmmmmm. Missouri Louisiana Missouri Louisiana. Arkansas is in the way dang it!!! Anyway, I am suddenly VERY interested in the Saints and I watched most of that awesome football game the other night. P. said he was in the city watching and that the whole place was going crazy! For me, it's just nice to get some long notes from a guy who seems genuine and kind and thoughtful and he's cute, too!

This and That

First of all, I am so excited that I finally got myself in gear and had a Quirky Twerp banner ad created by Graffiti Chicks. They do such a fantastic job with blinkies and banners. My banner is now up and moving at The DigiChick so please go check it out! I love it. You have to click on the Forums or the Gallery and then it'll pop up somewhere, top or bottom of the page.

Now, back to the work I'm doing on my house. Today I rented a floor sander and I sanded my little arms off. Let me tell you, if you have flabby little old lady arms, change careers and become a floor sander person because you will have buff arms in a short amount of time! I'm sure my arms will be killing me tomorrow. I got the whole house sanded with the rough grit paper. Tomorrow I go back and use the fine grit. This big sander doesn't get right up to the wall so then I'll have to rent the little edger sander and do all around the perimeter. But, it's looking so nice that I'm really glad I decided to go for it!
I have talked to my construction guy about filling that hole in the dining room floor. He thinks he can do it next week. YAY! That trash bag in the photo is full of sawdust. I really need to get those yucky red walls painted and also remove that ancient window air unit. Unfortunately, half of the window is missing so maybe I can get Mr. Construction to make me some sort of framed piece of glass and just nail it in place for now. Anything is better than that old thing!

A Little More House Progress

I met my handyman at my house today and he installed my storm door. He did a great job, as usual. I like how conscientious he is.
This door is really cool...the top window can be pushed down and a screen comes out of a little pocket at the top. When you push it back up, the screen rolls up into the little pocket! Much better than the door I had at my other house. That one had a window that you had to raise with both hands and it was kind of heavy and could drop fast if you didn't hold on to it. This one doesn't do that. Plus, I'm supposed to be able to get a tax deduction for both doors because of energy efficiency. Sweet!

This is a photo from the opposite direction from the other photos I took of the bedroom. I have now finished painting all the aqua. I started painting the trim but only got around the doors. Then I had to meet my garage door guy so I guess I'll finish that up later. The garage door should be installed next week or the week after...he wasn't sure. I hope it's sooner than later! Let's all think that! Hee hee

As far as life goes, I put a profile on a dating site. It's one that's geared more toward people a little older. Not OLD...just oldER. There seem to be some very nice men on there and let me tell you I feel VERY popular! :-) I have gotten a LOT of requests for more correspondence. Right now I'm trading emails with a few men but haven't met anyone in person. Of course, some of them are from places like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa, Louisiana! Why does the United States have to be so big!? Or why can't these guys live closer because they do seem to be very nice.

The Farmer has been contacting me, even though the divorce paperwork said not to. I haven't promoted it but I haven't ignored his messages either. He doesn't have my phone number so he can only email me. I told him I needed clover for my bunny, Buster and he kept saying he'd bring me some. Promises, promises. Well, today he came through for me with, not one, but TWO bales of clover. It is so far superior to what Buster has been eating since our disruption. I could only get fescue around here and that's not as yummy for a bunny!

Well, I gave The Farmer a tour of my house because I felt it was important for him to see how much I have had to compromise because of his choices. He was very polite and friendly and even helped me get a floor vent back in place. (It wasn't cooperating for me.) One thing in particular, that I wanted him to see, is the kitchen and also the view from the kitchen window. Let me tell you, I had a BEAUTIFUL kitchen at the farm. Some of you know that. I also had a lovely view of a pasture of cattle. Well, at my new house I have some neighbors who really need to clean the trash from their yard. They also have three dogs that are in a not-so-great pen and boy is it a muddy mess. And the dogs have torn up some trash so that's lovely, too. I told The Farmer to take a look and think about what I used to look at from my beautiful kitchen. He didn't have much to say. He took it all in though so I'm hoping his conscience will kick in. I keep telling him "This will eat at you until you make it right." I'm going to believe that he will. I have requested a privacy fence so that my pets will be safe and he says he will do that for me. I'll report back and let you know WHEN that happens! :-) That's me thinking positive thoughts and sending good vibes into the universe.

This weekend is hardwood floor sanding weekend. I'll take some photos and post. Hopefully it'll go well.

Time Flies!

Man alive...is it time for $2.00 Tuesday already? Where did the past week go?
This Tuesday, for 24 hours, you can purchase the paper and elements from my Sugar & Spice Collection and my Festivale Familie Collection.

Sugar & Spice Paper Pack

Sugar & Spice Elements Pack
Festivale Familie Paper Pack
Festivale Familie Elements PackAnd the news on me...I got the stuff in my storage unit moved to my house today. I was paying $75.00 a month to rent that thing so I'm happy to have that money in my pocket instead. On Wednesday, my handyman is coming to install my storm door. I'll make sure to take photos. Every little bit and I'm closer to moving in.

I also stopped at the rental place and put in my reservation on the floor sander. So, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'll be sanding my little arms off. I hope it goes well and I can get it done without exhaustion!

Sneaks of QT and Wendy

It has been SO STINKIN' cold here and on top of that some snow and ice so I haven't had much of a chance to go to my cute little house and do any more work. It's so frustrating! Grrrrr Today I had to go sign a health insurance paper, check my mail and pop in to say "Hi Wendy! How's it going?" She needs furniture! Hopefully soon!!! I'm aiming for Valentine's Day as my move in date. That's a month away. EEK.

While I was there I did a couple of things. First I did the cutting in on the ONE wall I have painted in my bedroom. And when I say painted I mean just the beadboard. I haven't done the ceiling or the top of the wall yet. But, I wanted to make some sort of progress so I got the paint finished up to the chair rail trim at the top and down to the baseboard trim at the bottom.
You can still see that horrid pink and yellow up near the ceiling, but just pretend that's not there. Look at what a lovely job I did up near the chair rail. Yummy! It really is a blissful room.

Even though I still need to paint in there, I went ahead and hung the mirror in the bathroom. It matches the vanity. This photo also shows the tile board that the handymen put up for me. I think it looks pretty nice!
The reason that the lights above the mirror are pointing up is that when my other handyman was installing that for me he didn't realize the light would come down as far as it did. He installed the electrical stuff at a good height but when the light went in we both kind of went "Oops!" That's okay...I'll leave it like that for now and if I want to make it higher and flip it around I'll just have to do that. I think it looks okay the way it is now.

I'm sorry I keep showing photos of the same thing over and over again! Soon I'll have something more interesting! Also today, I did a little bit of sanding on the hardwood floors, around the baseboard. I was just using a hand sander, experimenting a little bit. I'll need to reserve a big floor sander at the local rental place and then get busy and sand the entire house. Good thing it's so small!

That's all I have from Home Ownerville. And this week from Quirky Twerp I have a sweet new collection that's available in a scrap kit, a paper pack, an element pack and an alphabet pack. I LOVED creating this stuff and those of you, who know me well, know exactly WHY I loved it so much. SWEET!
Check back on Thursday when I reveal the entire collection, plus some beautiful layouts by the creative team.

This Week

This week I have been working on projects for my graphic design clients and trying to get out to work on my bungalow, although the snow has caused issues with that. My design clients are getting themselves geared up for CHA-W at the end of this month. I was really hoping to go this year but I think I'm going to have to wait and try for the summer show. It's been a couple years since I've gone and I'll be sad to miss it...it's always so inspirational to be surrounded by so many new products and creative people!

I did get over to my house yesterday. It's been so cold here in the Midwest that I wanted to check that my pipes weren't frozen. All was well. I painted one wall in the bedroom. I was using a brush since the wall is bead board and that was really time-consuming. I'm using some Valspar paint and man alive that stuff is thick! It didn't want to be spread very far so I had to keep loading my brush. Next trip over, I need to allow more hours so I can pour some paint in a tray and use a roller and really make some progress. It looks very pretty though.

That's all I've got today! But, since blogs are most fun when there are photos to view, here are a couple that one of my mom's friends sent to her the other day. This is my mom and dad back in the mid-60s.
And this is me with my mom's friend's daughter, Patty.

More Remodeling

My sister came to visit and help just at the time that the handymen came to work, so that thwarted our plan to paint our little hearts out, but Barbie was still very helpful with picking things out, giving me her opinion, cleaning and spackling AND she was very kind to buy me lots of things for the house. She spent way too much money!
Here are photos of some of the latest improvements. I'm really getting excited to live here now but there's a lot more to do and it's best to do them in an empty house!

I had the handymen put bead board on the bedroom walls because the walls weren't in very good shape from a prior leak. They were kind enough to prime the entire room for me and I just had t0 slap a little paint on to see how it would look. I love it. I still need to paint the trim because it's just primer right now.

This is the light fixture I chose for the bedroom. I have always wanted a small chandelier and I think this one is so cute! I love how it looks in there.
Here's a shot of part of the bathroom. I still need to paint the walls and hang the mirror. It's framed in the same espresso color as the vanity. (That blue tape is holding those little caps on the sides of the toilet while the silicone dries.)
Well after such a whirlwind week I ended up with a slight cold. I'm not sure if I'll get any new products in my DigiChick shop this week or not. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm just happy that it's 2010! Yee Haw and Woo Hoo! :-)