Progress Pics? 0

Despite having promised daily updates on the flooring, I do not have any pictures for you today. We keep our key to the new house in a hidey spot, at the new house, but when I stopped by yesterday evening… there was no key. I think the flooring guys may have taken it with them. So, I could not get in to take pictures. This will just add to the suspense for tomorrow's progress report.

I also did not imagine that y'all wanted to see lots of pictures of sanded trim, which I am still working on, so I have no progress pictures of that either. Just imagine a sanded pile growing, and the non-sanded pile shrinking, slowly.

For today, I will simply leave you with these links that made me smile recently.

Have you ever seen anything this adorable? Well maybe this. I can't wait until Frances is big enough for those!

Of course, this made me smile.

I am very curious to know what a reasonable offer on this would be. Any takers?

And I really wish I was writing this from there. 

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Oh What It Is To Be Green

Continuing with the flooring theme from yesterday… here is a quick update on where we stand (or should I say lay?) with the floor installation.

This is the view from the kitchen, looking through the dinning room, foyer and into the living room. (Ooing and Ahhing are appropriate)

This is Frances Harper's room, but this is how the whole rest of the house looks outside of the dinning room, living room and foyer.

They got about half of the floors installed yesterday. They should finish installing them today.  To help them move quickly, Michael and I cut the air conditioner on when we went over yesterday evening. Or, they will at least be more comfortable as they crawl around on their knees (which is never a fun way to spend your time). 

Now, moving onto what I am working on this week. As you may remember, we had to remove all of the base boards and door jambs in preparation for the flooring (you may read about that here). We will re-install the trim once the floors are done, and we will also take this opportunity to put crown molding in many of the areas that do not have it (kitchen, living room, master bedroom… the list gets shorter the further into this I go). 

Michael and I were fortunate because my dad had  a bunch of crown molding that he was not using (it was scrap from a previous job because there was a mix-up on what color it should be stained). This has saved us the expense of buying trim! YAY!! So our crown molding will require the same investment as the other trim in the house-- time and paint costs. Time is what I am investing in the trim this week. 

ALL the trim has to be sanded (so that we can paint it).

I have sanded the left side of the board in the middle of the picture.

I have completed about 1/20 of the all the trim. Sanding is not hard, but because I am pregnant I have to wear a face mask (which is no fun), and I constantly want to sit down. Some of you might be asking why I do not just leave the trim in the house stained. The answer is... the trim in the house is stained a greenish color. The picture below shows what I am talking about.

My succinct opinion is that this color is ugly. If your trim is stained any other color, I would encourage you to NOT go to the hassle of sanding and painting it. Or, do not be pregnant while you do it. But alas, my trim is puke green and must go. I hope your trim is not.  

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Progress! Progress! Progress!

As many of you know, home improvement schedules must be flexible and tasks are often completed more slowly than one hopes. The good news is that our floors are being installed on time!! Ryan Williams, the man installing the floors, said he would begin today, and he did. Feel free to jump around in your chair and cheer. I am.

(Yes, I am responsible for the deforestation of a small forest.)

This is one of the piles of flooring that was delivered on Friday. The piles of flooring got me excited, and I can hardly wait to go over and see the floors this evening. Hopefully, they will get most of the installation done today. They will come back tomorrow to sand and put on the first layer of stain. 

While Ryan Williams stuck to his schedule, the rest of us have fallen slightly behind. We were hoping that before the floors were installed, we would get the walls and ceilings painted. As you can tell from the strip of wall that is visible above the pile of wood, this plan was a little overly ambitious. The walls did not get sprayed. BUT, the ceilings did! (For sanity and morale, it is important to focus on the positive)

This is the ceiling in the dinning room. This is the only room that had crown molding, and we were able to prime it while we sprayed the ceilings. I wish we had a picture of the ceiling pre-paint so you could see the comparison. Just use your imagination and picture a swatch of ceiling that is slightly yellow (or if you have not painted your ceilings in the past 10 years, just look up). 

With the ceilings painted and the floors going down, things are really beginning to move. Hopefully, we will make our June 1st move-in date. Fingers crossed.

Tune in tomorrow for more flooring progress and to see the project I will be tackling this week.

Happy Monday!

Figs-Strawberries?

A couple of months ago, Michael and I purged our tiny house of a lot of unnecessary clutter. We got rid of boxes and boxes of stuff that we do not use and do not need. There is a real sense of triumph when you are able to cart off a good mountain of clutter. I instantly felt less encumbered.

One item that did not get carted off was this recipe box.

I do not know how old the box is, but it is metal and has been used enough that the paint is coming off some of the edges. Also the box was made in the United States so… obviously it is from a different era. Getting back to the point though, the box is full of hand written recipes cards, and ones clipped from newspapers or torn out of magazines. NOT A SINGLE CARD IS BLANK!

I love the box, and I am amazed at the amount of time someone put into collecting and writing out these various cards. I was shocked when I found it at a flea market. 

As my husband and the helpers at Goodwill can attest to, I am not a pack rat or a hoarder of things. I will happily throw away pictures (my father almost has a coronary at the mention of this) and give away gifts that I do not use (sorry family), but I could never part with something like this. This is a family's history. 

One of the cards has a recipe titled "Figs- Strawberries". This is obviously in a shorthand that only the writer and those close to her would get (I think it is also fairly obvious she has exceedingly different taste than me. I take my figs in a newton and no other way.)

In case you can not read it, the recipe calls for 2 cups of figs, 2 cups of sugar, and 4 boxes of wild strawberry jello.

Somewhere someone is talking about the weird fig jello recipe so-and-so used to make; much the way my parents talk about the corn cakes my grandmother used to make. They can't replicate them and other recipes are not the same and my grandmother is no longer around to ask. 

For me, these recipes are traditions that should be passed down. So while I will never make "Figs-Strawerries", I will keep this person's box, simply because to me it deserves the respect of not being at the flea market. 

I hope everybody has a great weekend, and now I think maybe I will make this just to see what it is. 

Snow!? No.

All of those who have sanded sheetrock mud, please raise your hand. Those with your hands raised can sympathize with me, and those of you with your hands down (for reasons other than you were too self conscious to participate) are lucky -- this is a job you should continue to avoid at all costs.

Sanding is nice in one way because you instantly can feel improvement in the wall's surface. In all other ways this is a pretty awful job. Here is why…

Can you see that fine white powder that is sitting on top of the chair rail? Good. Now, imagine it coated all over you. Not good. That is sanding sheetrock mud in a nutshell.

On Tuesday, I went around mudding the gauges and nail holes and nicks that were marring the sheetrock. I then let the mud dry overnight, and I sanded all of these spots on Wednesday. Sheetrock mud was also my solution to all of those lines of glue that were causing me such aggravation last week (you can read about that here).

I enhanced the picture a little to make the glue more yellow and visible. This glue was stuck at every place where there had been a seam in the wall paper. When sanding the glue off did not work, my dad suggested mudding over the glue and then sanding. The wet mud would either loosen the glue, making it easier to sand off, or would cover up the glue and allow me to make the surface smooth.  The Old Man was right. 

These walls were pretty easy as far as mudding goes. Find a gauge, hole, or nick. Sand rough edges off. Put mud on your knife. Smooth mud onto gauge, hole, or nick. Scrape off excess mud. Dry. Sand until smooth. For those visual learners among us, you can scroll through the next few pictures. 

I have never felt a baby's bottom, but I would wager these walls are as smooth as one. 

(every line of white mud is where a seam of wallpaper glue was and represents about a gallon of white dust that was left behind)

Overall, a job well done. Now I can devote some time to clearing out my nasal passages (the dust does not only get all over you, but it also gets all in your nose).

Have a great Thursday!

" Is Inches

Now that I am a homeowner, I spend a significant amount of my time looking at things I want to buy for my house. When I am not looking at things I want to buy, I am sleeping. I am not one of those pregnant women who are full of energy. I sleep A LOT!

I think this light fixture would be great in the dinning room or it would look really dinky.

I really love this sofa, this rug and this pouf.

While I spend a good amount of time picking these things out (and even research the quality of the materials used), no one should expect to see them in my house any time soon. This has to happen first.

Yesterday, I was picking out countertops. I knew exactly what I wanted. Butcher block countertops in cherry with a varnique finish. I found them too! FOR ONLY $102!!! Finally, something I could afford.

I was ready to order. I just wanted to check with my dad to make sure 12 feet would be enough. When he got home, I was telling him all about them and the lengths they were available in: 6 feet, 12 feet, 18 feet…

I am sure you can tell where this is going. He was doubtful from the beginning and disbelieving after 6 feet. That is when the light bulb went off for me… " is inches, not feet. My countertops cost $102 per foot. So, I am back to praying for this.

In the meantime though, I am still going to pick out everything that I want. Hmm… I haven't looked at chairs for the living room!

Happy Monday! (or it will be once you watch the video at the end of the post)

Running a tad later than normal today. I have quickly learned, when you do not have a regular job, Mondays become your catch-up day. Monday is now when I do all of my errands that I used to do on the weekends. Now, I can savor having accomplished so much all in one morning.

We had a very busy weekend in our household. As I mentioned on Friday, my sister and dad were working a booth together at the Indie South Fair.

This is Mary Frances in the booth. She and her friend made all of the pottery and my dad made the red cabinet behind her. Michael and I went over Saturday afternoon, after all the work had been done, and had dinner with everyone. Athens is really quite the charming town. 

We also worked over at The House. MORE round-upping had to be done. Some of those weeds are persistent critters. I also worked on more of the wall-paper. I will have a full post on the new developments in that department tomorrow. Of course, we took our trusty helpers to the house with us to work. 

Cooper likes for him and Macy to sit on the same side of the backseat. She would rather not. 

And on a side note, I read this on Friday. 

And my mother-in-law shared this on Facebook over the weekend.  Super cute. 

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!!