I never said "After"

Dining room last summer.

And I am certainly not saying it now! But, I could say something like "closer" or "another item off the list" or something else that gives me an out so I can change things up later.

This picture hides the hole that's still there from the old fixture.

This one doesn't.

Why on earth wasn't the old electrical box centered in the room? When the old chandelier was there, the person sitting on that side of the table would hit their head when sitting down or getting up. We took it out and put in a cheap flush mount fixture the summer we moved in.

Sick of this picture yet? Last June.

Old chandelier.

I really wanted to get a picture from this angle again, but the table that's in that corner is full of junk, plus it's raining AGAIN today. I took a picture but it was super dark. If the sun EVER comes out again, I'll take one.

It feels like a real dining room now!

Fall table runner

One more thing off the to do list!

Birthday money and projects galore.

Yesterday morning I went to the big antique mall in the next town over. I had $45 from Mom. And I got 2 hours to myself. Perfect.

Milk glass jar and a little hen for the hutch.

Three ironstone butter pats and two tiny oval plates. These will go on the wall of white plates as soon as I get them cleaned up. They are pretty dirty. I have them soaking in peroxide to clean up some of the discoloration on them.


The hutch is coming along nicely. I need a plate to stand up on the bottom shelf and maybe a few other little things.

I also bought a HUGE oval ironstone platter, but didn't get a decent pic of it yet. It's so heavy. There's no way I would trust it on the wall. It's going to be used as a centerpiece.

Thank you Mom for the money, and thank you John for letting me have a couple hours to myself.

On the other side of the dining room, I made something to hang on the wall.


Over the chair in the corner there, on the right side, I hung these:


I did the frames a long time ago using this tutorial, but never could figure out what I'd put in them. I ended up using some left over drop cloth from the curtains, and embroidering them.

The dining room is almost complete! I am so happy with it.

To celebrate being done, I started ripping up the entry way flooring last night. It's glued down. I might have the adhesive removed before my next birthday. It is going to be painfully slow going. Not to mention my hands and arms are super sore today.

And a have my huge knitting project going.

AND!!!!!

John's making a new head board for our bed. I am so excited. He's almost done. Then I get to do my thing....painting, distressing, and glazing it. Woot! I am seriously so excited. It's the Farmhouse Bed from Knock-Off Wood. That lady is amazing. She uses furniture from Pottery Barn, etc for inspiration and makes free plans for anyone to use. I think the Pottery Barn bed frame was $600 maybe? More? And I don't even like or want a foot board. So John's just making the head board. I think he said he spent $60 including the bolts, etc.

Busy, busy, busy around here. Life is good.

There's a crazy storm outside.

I hope our new turkeys are okay! There were 3 mothers and 7 babies this morning. Then this evening there were at least 6 adults. I couldn't even count them all.


"That raccoon, Mommy?" Um. No. But good guess. We saw a lot of raccoons out that window this summer when the mulberry tree had berries. I told Ellie they were turkeys, mommies and babies. Then all day I heard "Where baby turkey, Mommy?" We scared them up tonight when we were feeding Ariel and checking the garden. Turkeys are some HUGE birds to see flying. Ellie was scared of them and clutched to me.

I'm still plugging away at the dining room. I'm hoping to get the door hung this weekend and then get a final coat of paint on it.


I'd been hoarding, er, SAVING these white plates for months. I kept adding to them when I went to thrift stores, yard sales, etc. The huge platter is a family heirloom. I felt a little funny about hanging it on the wall (I worry it will fall and break), but I wasn't getting any joy from keeping it in a box wrapped in bubble wrap. Besides my $4 ironstone platter (rectangular one on the upper left), I don't think I paid more than a dollar for any of them. I know that 4 of them cost 12.5 cents each (taped together, 2 for 50 cents at Goodwill, then marked down 50%). I love my wall of plates! I might add to it or I might not.

I'm still working on the hutch. I want to fill it with all white stuff. The stuff that is in there is all stuff I had around the house. I'm going to try to hit a couple thrift stores this weekend to see what I can find for it.

Hmmm, the DVR has been searching for a signal for 20 minutes. This isn't looking good for TV time tonight. Maybe I should just go to bed.

I should have ironed!

Ironing these drop cloth curtains is so difficult. I think I ironed 1.5 of them and then gave up. The right one would hang much better if I ironed it. I also need someone who can take better pics than I can.


Still need to get the other 2 chairs from the basement. And then hang things on the walls. Last night I tried the furniture in about 10 different arrangements, but the old one is the only way things will work.

I cannot believe what a transformation this is! Makes me want to start on the next room.....right after I sleep for a month.

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.