Friday, December 31, 2010

Door Painting Weekend

Not too long ago my hallway looked like this - new doors with no paint and concrete foundation floors - in fact, it was like that for a long time, probably more than a month. Don't even ask how long it was before the doors went in and all that time, no floor. It was the best of times (yeah right!), it was dusty times!



Then we finally put in the wood floor but still no paint for the doors and we've had our floors since some time in October, so a couple months have past. Oh and this pic shows no baseboards (those were done shortly after the floor thanks to Zack, my very handy son-in-law):


Also need to show you the creative way we handled the corner in the hallway - the installer had never done this before because there were some edges that had no tongue and grove, but I really wanted it done that way so he agreed to do it. He said it would be okay since we were gluing to the foundation. He was excited with the outcome and took several pics.


Now it's time to paint the doors. This is a dreaded job. We're using oil based paint on all the trim and this is a lot of painting. There are seven doors in the hallway plus the linen cupboard - then there's one other door to the laundry room that needs to be done. And did I mention that the door to our office is a french door? We're talking some painting.

We got a bid for a painter to do the job and along with repainting the walls and ceiling the bid came in at $1000. My dear sweet hubby just couldn't give away $1000 for doing something that he and Zack, my very handy son-in-law, could do themselves. So, Zack came over two days this week after work and primed the doors. Now tomorrow and Sunday he and DH are going to knock it out. I'm so happy, this is the last really big job before the renovation is completely done.

Here's a pic of the hallway this morning - doors primed, contractor paper down (see the baseboards?). Zack said the contractor paper probably made me feel like I was at home again! He's not far off, we've been living in renovation hell for so long I don't remember what it's like to have a house that's done.


Till later ~

Reba

Office is Almost Done

Well, I feel we finally have a nice place to work. I'm still going to put a console table on the wall behind the desk on the right and we're going to hang family photos over it, but other than that, the office is done.

Remember where it was a couple of weeks ago on the day the glass desktops were delivered.


Now here's what the desks look like - it looks a little cluttered but it's a workspace and really looks much better in person. Also, the walls look yellow - only the desktops are yellow, the walls are a dark mushroom color. You might notice that there is lighting on the desktops, we did this because the lighting in the room is just too dark. We are going to put four recessed lights in each of the corners of the room, just not now. So, for an interim measure, we bought the tabletop lighting. I love it, it really sets a relaxing mood in the room unlike overhead lighting can do. Because it's so nice we may decide to not do the recessed lighting, maybe just an overhead task light of some kind.


And then remember the bookcase/wall unit I showed you yesterday. It's on the wall that's to the left of the desk area, kind of behind the left desk.

 

I'll post some close-up pics tomorrow if the sun is out - it's overcast today and the lighting isn't very good. The pics aren't as good as they could be if the lighting was better.

The little footstool I covered with the Izzy Birds fabric is going to stay right in front of the filing cabinet. I found it's a really nice place to put my feet up! Here's a close-up of how it turned out, I still need to press the skirt, I forgot to do so before I stapled it on to the base.



Now I need to tackle the third bedroom, haven't been in there in a couple of days.

Till later ~

Reba


Thursday, December 30, 2010

Vacation or Work?

I've been off work all week and aside for the time I've been 'chilling' ('cuz of allergies from being with kitty 24/7), I've been working on unpacking all the boxes stacked in our third bedroom. Plus I've been trying to make order in our office. Some would call this work but I actually love turning a space from something horrendous to a beautiful orderly place to spend time.

Here's the 'before' pic of the third bedroom.

And somehow the closer version makes it look even worse.
Well, after spending about 8 hours sorting and sifting, I'm now mid-way through. We plan to put a full-size bed, a gun cabinet, and my sewing table along with all the sewing 'stuff' in this room. The sewing table will be under the window, the bed in the corner on the right, and the gun cabinet will sit on the wall next to the bookshelf that is already 'dune-up'. I'll show you pics when I'm done.



I've also been working on this wall unit in our office - doesn't look like much but the room looked a lot like the third bedroom before I started. We almost sold this wall unit because we didn't have a place for it but it hurt my heart to lose a beautiful solid wood piece like this. So, we put it in the office instead and I think that was a good move. I'll follow-up with 'after' pics when I'm totally finished.


Now, I need to get back to work!

Until later,

Reba

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Picture Collage - Yeah I Know, It's Ugly

I've been working on putting together this picture college for a few weeks now. I purchased the frames on Black Friday and took the pictures that weekend. Why did it take so long?

Well...

Week 1 - we knew for a fact that hanging the pics without the new 'Hang N Level' picture hanging tool we saw on TV would be a disaster, so I went on a mission to find it. Finally, I got the last one at Home Depot for $14.95. That took a week.

Week 2 - we had to put the photos in the frames. That took a week.

Week 3 - we had to let the pics sit on the kitchen bar for a while. That took a week.

Week 4 - we realized that we needed wire on the back of the frames and we didn't have any. We'd need to go to Lowe's. That took week.

Finally, time to hang them and once they were hung - disappointment.

Okay, what's wrong? Well...here's what I think.

This is in our living room, so I think the frames need to be a little more substantial. Also, the frames are too dark, our furniture isn't that dark and since the walls are light, I think the contrast is too great. Also, we have a big piece of art hanging on an adjacent wall with a lighter colored frame and the two just don't go together.

Okay, today I will look for better frames and we will start over. Until then, these are staying on the wall.

I'll update with a new pic after the redo.

Reba

New Sound in the Living Room - Brent's Christmas Present

It's too big and heavy to wrap - sorry honey!

Brent and I decided to not exchange Christmas presents this year because 'the house' was really our present to each other. But I just couldn't help myself. I found this Yamaha speaker system and knew that Brent's ears would be thanking me. You see, he's a very auditory person, he hears things you and I would never hear and when the sound coming out of our TV isn't nice, it irritates him to no end. Consequently, we can't listen to the cable music channels when we're working around the house or cooking, which irritates me. Hopefully this will end that problem.

I don't think we will install all five speakers. I want to mount the rear speakers in the corners of the room at the ceiling and the black bookcase size speakers won't work for that. So until we can find some small (like Boze) white speakers to install, all the speakers will be up front or we'll use the two extras in another room.

I also learned that we can expand this system wirelessly to other rooms, of course, we'll have to do some research first. Apparently, we can buy a transmitter to add to the main receiver, and a receiver for the room where we want to expand, and then add wireless speakers to that room. We can even add a device that allows us to divide the house into zones, so the sound doesn't have to be broadcast to the entire house, just the rooms we choose. This will work perfectly for adding speakers to the backyard. Rocketfish is the brand the guy at Best Buy was showing me, but like I said, we'll need to do some research. I also saw a bunch of wireless stuff by Sony. If wireless works and the speakers sound good, then it's pretty cool way to expand the system.

Once we get this set-up, I'll give you a review as to whether or not it REALLY sounds any better.

Until later,

Reba

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Sky and Her Squirrelly Friends

Sky, our sweet little kee keety has several squirrelly friends in our backyard. She plays with them through the window every morning. Here she is 'sharing secrets' with one of them.


Till later,
Reba

Time Off For Christmas!

It seemed like it would never get here - VACATION!! The company I work for is closed Thursday and Friday this week for Christmas and I'm taking a vacation day today. Then we're closed next Friday and Monday, January 3rd and I'm taking four days next week. So, all in all, I'm off for two weeks straight, less one day. Hip, hip, hooray!!

Today I'm going to do some last minute shopping and tomorrow some last minute cleaning but I wanted to show you the cute little Santa cookies I took to work this week. I got a ton of complements on how cute they were and they were gone by the end of the day - I'd call that a hit.

My daughter and I put these together on Sunday, it took about an hour. We used Nutter Butter cookies, almond bark, mini chocolate chips, red sugar, and red hots. I'm sure you can figure out the rest.


Merry Christmas to all!

Reba

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Sink Skirt for My Baby Girl



I say 'baby girl' but she's 23 and just moved into her first apartment since graduating from college last May. The apartment is the bottom floor of a 1927 two story home in downtown Houston that she shares with a male roommate. They aren't a couple, just roommates. She's so excited to be living down in the 'cool' part of town.

But any building built in 1927 is going to have it's own design problems, for this one, it's the pink and black tile bath room. The old sink is one without a cabinet but instead metal legs and big rust stain where the water drips from the faucet. Her roommate did a good job finding a nice black and white shower curtain with a damask design, so I thought I'd give her a coordinating sink skirt to dress up the place.

It's not quite finished yet but I really wanted to show off my first attempt at adding piping. Pretty nice looking huh? I know it's a little hard to see in the pic because of the fabric design but if you look hard, you can see it. Yeah, the piping foot I recently purchased helps get the stitch close to the cord. Really makes adding piping to your project easy.

I'll make sure dd gives me a pic after it's hung and I'll also post a 'before' pic very soon.

'til later,

Reba

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Office is Coming Along

This evening my husband and I worked on our office. The glass for the top of the desks was delivered yesterday and I snapped this photo. The space is really going to be nice when we finish.

We used solid wood six-panel doors to make the desks. We cut them down to fit across the backside of the room. I bought saw-horse legs from Ikea and are using the file cabinet in the middle for support.

I made the shade a couple of weeks ago after picking up the "Izzy Birds" fabric at an interior fabric store. I just fell in love with that kookie fabric. First, after painting the file cabinet, I Mod Podged it to the front of the drawers. Then I made the shade. Now I'm working on covering a box seat with it and the striped fabric I used on the shade. I'll post that when I'm finished.

Today I decided to also cover a shelf for the desk with the striped fabric. Everything should tie together really well when we finish.

We still have a ton of stuff to put away and I feel we got a good start tonight. The computers are now on the desks and there's a little space in the room so we can sort as we unpack.

I'll show our progress as things come together.

Reba

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

My First Furniture Project - End Table - BEFORE PIC

Here it is - isn't it beautiful? It has a little damage, one of the corners of the beveled glass is chipped off and the wood in that corner is dinged. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I first thought I'd fill the hole where the glass goes with a finished piece of oak or maple, but I'm still undecided.

I'll keep you updated with my decision along with how much time and money I spend. So far I've only spent $19. Cool?

Monday, December 13, 2010

I Wish I Started This Blog Eight Months Ago

What was I thinking? Or NOT thinking? I wanted more than anything to document the rehab of our 'new' 40 year old house, and I did take a lot of pictures, but wouldn't blogging about it have been better? Oh well, another missed opportunity.


Lots of hard work went into our rehab and we still aren't finished, but I don't want to bore my readers with all the details of the past. However, I do think I will interject stories about things we did. Most people love seeing 'before - after' photos and as I organize my photos (now that I found the 'before' photos I thought I'd lost), I'll show them to my readers and tell the story of that day or project.

But the reason I started this blog was to show off my new hobby - painting old furniture and sewing home decor. As I get better, I think I might start offering some pieces for sale. We'll see where it goes.

So now the blog is started, that was step one. Next I'll try to make it look nice, I have experience making websites, so I have the know-how, but finding the time to create graphics and a 'look' for the blog is another thing. But I'm sure I'll do something other than the 'starter' template soon.

I bought my first piece of used furniture yesterday, it's a fabulous buy for $19. I'll take some pics and tell you about it tomorrow.

Until then, good night.

Reba