I think the hutch got shorter.

Ceiling got taller?
John said once I put the stuff back on top, it will look the same. Did the wall on the right get longer? Maybe it's just since I moved the hutch to the left a bit.

Crown molding is done. Ceiling is done. Door frames and baseboards are done. Just need to work on the window frame and the door that's down (it goes to the door frame on the very right of the pic above). John got it sanded the other night, and it is ready for me to paint.

Hmm, I just looked into the hallway where the hutch has been sitting for 6 weeks, and it looks bigger too:).

This morning I'm going to clean my very neglected house. John's sleeping in. I'm so jealous.

Another week flying by.....

Where is summer going? It's only 2.5 weeks until school starts. This week Mary's attending a camp at the local environmental center. She's having a blast. Ellie and I are getting a glimpse of what life will be for us once school starts. It will be strange for me to be down to just one kid for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I'm still plugging away on the dining room. John finished up the window trim last night. We're using 1x4s that John's cutting down to fit, then sanding them, etc. It is slow going because the window (and door) frame sticks out a bit farther than the drywall, so John's had to cut part of the back of each piece off so that it is flush with the wall. It's sort of hard to explain, but it is slow going and a total pain in the ass for John. But it looks amazing when it's done. I love big wood trim. I thought it might be sort of dorky/out of place in our 1965 ranch house, but then I realized I just didn't care. It's our house and we can do whatever we want with it.

Here's a list of things that are done:
Walls primed and painted.
Ceiling primed and paint purchased.
Trim installed and partially painted
Crown molding installed and partially painted.
Crown molding and trim caulked where needed.
Window partially primed.

There's probably more. It feels like we are so close to being done.

Still to do:
Second coat of paint on the crown molding and take down tape (tonight- 40 mins)
Hope that underside of crown molding doesn't need caulked, but if so, caulk that (30 mins-tonight)
Finish up trim painting (tonight- 1 hour) plus take down tape
Paint ceiling (1 hour per coat x 2 coats...this weekend?)
Sand and paint door (time? when? who the heck knows?)
Spray paint doorknob, hope John doesn't think I've lost my mind (weekend?). It's cheaper than replacing it.
Window--finish priming, 2 coats of paint, caulking, washing windows. (1 hour at least per coat.....1 coat primer, 2 coats paint...so Sunday, Monday, Tues??)
Rehang curtain rod (need John's help..Weds?)

I'm doing most of this after the kids are in bed. So 8:30pm until I can't see straight which is usually 10:30 or 11pm.

I'm hoping to be done next Thursday. With everything but the door I guess. We never use it anyway. But I do want to hang it back up.

Next up, entry way/hallway/living room. It's all one big space.

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

That's a lot of trim to paint......

Baseboard trim, door trim, and crown molding installed! Woot! I've primed it all (not the crown molding, it came pre-primed) and the windows too. John's finishing up the window trim tonight or tomorrow.

It looks beautiful! Amazing really. There's still a ton to do. Two coats of paint and some caulking too. And I've taken the door down to be sanded, primed, and painted to match the trim.  I'm hoping we'll be done some time next week.

It's hard to remember what it even looked like before. Thank goodness I have pics.

View

Slowly but surely.

The view from my desk in the kitchen.

It's a bit brighter and with a tiny hint of green in real life. It's cloudy today so I can't get a great picture. Still need to put another coat of paint on it tonight. Then John's custom cutting, routing, and installing the new trim. He'll do that this weekend. Then I'll prime and paint it (white) and paint the window too.

My old view:

I still need to make the curtains too. They shouldn't take too long. I would have already made them but wasn't quite sure how high I'd be able to hang the rods. All the old furniture is going back in as is. I have some new accessories though. I've been saving them in the basement as I find them at thrift stores, yard sales, etc.

I seriously cannot wait to see this room put together.

(and then start the next one)

I am tired.

And I'll likely be sore in the morning.


But I am happy. I just finished priming the dining room walls. Still need to prime the ceiling, and then I can paint. I'm nervous about the color. I'm mixing some old blue paint with some white to tone it down a bit. I should probably do a test patch or something, but I'm much too impatient for that.

Off to bed.

Hot off the hook!

One of these is for Mom. I'll keep the one she doesn't want. 

I like them both, so I'll be happy with the left over one.

Off to clean the kitchen yet again.  

a busy week

I am so glad it is Friday! I feel like we are, in some ways, back in the swing of things after our trip. And yet, this week was complete chaos. On Tuesday, they started installing the new windows. As they started to remove the first one, I thought the house was going to fall down. Turns out the way you removed old windows is to saw them out. It was loud. The house was shaking. I took all the pictures off the exterior walls. It took two days for them to get all the old windows out and the new ones in. Now they are working on the trim work of the exterior. I think they have another day or two of work. I love the new windows. Pics to come when I get them painted....so maybe in a year? Hopefully it won't take that long.

John snapped this picture while we were making breakfast Monday morning.

They both wanted to help him make coffee.

Here's a crazy picture I took today about 15 minutes before John got off work. The kitchen exploded. If you look closely, you can see the new windows. And blueberry muffins in the oven.

Seriously. I never let the kitchen counter get this bad.

The trash can was in the sink. There were clean dishes from last night that needed put away. On top of them, clean kitchen laundry that also needed to be put away. Our mess from making muffins. Dirty dishes that weren't even organized/stacked up to be washed tonight. Oh well, it's life.

I was so hoping they would have the dining room ready to be painted when they left today. But it needs a final sanding. So I will have to wait.

The lighter joint compound is where they have patched. In the corner, next to the ceiling, and down every other stud where the paneling was nailed. I should go count the holes. I am sure there are 100. Curtain rods, pictures, etc. etc. 45 years of holes. They are supposed to finish up sanding and cleaning up on Monday. There's about an inch of dust on everything in there. Ick. I am so very glad I didn't try to do this myself. I told John that when I get freshly painted walls, I might not even be able to bring myself to hang anything on them.

We've got a to do list that's a mile long this weekend. If we get through half of it, I will be happy.

I love summer

I love summer.
I love living in the country with a huge yard.
I love my flower garden.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

I'm glad it is Friday.

Ellie is sick with a stomach virus. I'm waiting for the rest of us to get it. I don't think I got any real sleep last night. Coffee is my friend. That and hand sanitizer.

These little butterflies love the coneflowers. We have a lot of butterflies in the yard this year. I love it! I want to plant more flowers to attract them.

I have gotten so much joy out of these flowers. They are stunning. The row of them is almost 30 feet long.

I got the binding on my table runner done. I washed it up yesterday and one of the seams frayed. Ugh. I actually didn't even get very upset. I got my sewing machine back out last night and fixed it the best I could. I doubt anyone would notice but me. It's certainly not perfect, but I love it. I wish the brown fabric with the white flowers looked a bit better. The design wasn't printed on the fabric squarely. But it reminds me of my Mamaw Judy, so I used anyway.

Now I need a new project. I wonder if I can squeeze one more in before they start working on the dining room.

Yearly trip to see our friends!

We were in Evansville last week. John had to go down there for work, so the girls and I tagged along to see old friends. We had so much fun! Thank you Karen, Kevin, Amelia and Miles for hosting us. I'm already looking forward to next year.

We played outside every day.

They jumped off the trampoline into the pool. Karen and I were amazed that no one broke an arm.

Ellie loved it!!

Mary looks hungry and worn out, but we weren't done yet!

I wonder if Ellie ate this or just put it back in the bowl.

We (well, Karen) let them paint the side of their shed. It's washable paint, but now I'm wondering when it will rain down there.

Ellie decided to paint herself instead.

Best friends! I was so happy to see Mary and Amelia play together so well.

I came home ready to get stuff done. I didn't take any crafting stuff with me at all last week. In fact, I hadn't crafted for about a week before the trip either. Karen's a crafty person too. Her house is full of stuff she's made. I love seeing it all. I got right to work on this quilted table runner.

It isn't quite done. I am so happy with it! Not perfect by any means, but I did my best. It was my first quilting project.

The dining room is still all torn up. I guess I jumped the gun a bit in tearing the paneling. Oh well. We don't use the dining room very often anyway. The good news is that they should be starting soon. The windows are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow! I'm waiting to hear from the contractor as to when he'll be able to start. Yippie!