Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kitchen Forward Progress

Ahhhh kitchens and painting. That's what I've worked incredibly hard on lately. The inside and outside of all the kitchen cabinets which go very deep in the corners and involve me actually climbing inside them with most of my body and using a flashlight to see to paint them. Ummm yeah that was fun. (NOT!! LOL)...

Even more challenging than the painting of the cabinets was keeping my little angel kitty cat from climbing inside. Most of the time I was successful...the one time I wasn't, this was the result:

Let's just say she wasn't thrilled about having her little paws scrubbed afterwards either lol but we made it through it....all 4 of them. lol 

Just a before photo reminder:

And so far, this is what I have done...

The countertop and backsplash haven't been touched other than cleaned...and they are way worse than what those photos represent. there are nails in areas holding that laminate down to the cabinet...it'll be replaced as soon as I can get that far, but so far...what do you think??


Saturday, October 1, 2011

I Can See Clearly Now...

I'm really beginning to be concerned about my mail. Thus far I've not received one piece of forwarded mail here at this house. I've received mail in which I'd changed the address to this one but there are several things I've not gotten yet that should have already been here. Like CHECKS from some of the companies I work for!! ARGH! Moving is such a hassle and it appears as though no matter how ahead of the game you try to be...the best laid plans are in vain. I suppose that was on the forefront of my mind as I typed this post but anyway on to more fun things now. :)

I've been working on the kitchen as far as painting and getting it completed since all of my bathroom walls still aren't up as of yet. To me, the kitchen and the bathroom is the most important then the rest will fall in line behind those things. I must say though, it's unnerving to not have one room that's finished. Just that one place where you feel like it's right, that one place where you can relax. I don't have that yet and am trying so hard. Then, however in the middle of the kitchen work, I realized I needed to start working on the scraping and painting of the front windows in the house because the weather won't be this lovely for long, then it will be way too cold to work out there. At that point, the interior will have my full attention.

So, I started working on the front picture window that's in the living room, just the exterior. Here's a before photo of it, though please bear in mind it was much much MUCH worse than the photo depicts:

And, what it looks like now, after 2 days of scraping old paint (all around it, not just what you can see in the above pic) then painting it and finally what it looks like now:

This beautiful baby was scraped, primed, painted, caulked and any mistakes were scraped off afterwards.
It tickles me when someone stops by here and thinks it's a brand new window. There are plenty of flaws still in it and I see every one of them but it honestly does look new from the front walk. I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The State of The Cottage

This week has found me juggling a gazillion things. My storage rental that I obtained back when I thought I was moving out of state over a year ago is due to be paid again on October 4th. Though I've not really been ready to bring more things into this house (it's alot easier to work in it with less stuff to have to maneuver around!) I realized I could save some money if I went ahead and started getting things in order to have it emptied before the 4th.

So, when my parents came this weekend, we took off in both vehicles and filled them full a few times...now all that's left there is my leather sofa (that has a little bit of damage from being stored), my bedroom furniture (bed head and foot pieces, metal rails, 2 nightstands, dresser and chest), and two bar stools plus two large boxes that for the life of us we couldn't fit into that last run of stuff. Then, everything will be here under one roof which will make me oh-so-happy.

The problem with being an artistic person is the fact that you accumulate ALOT of things. I've painted, made jewelry (to display my art), made artistic cards, made collages, sewed, etc...which means I have tons of things. Plus lots of glassware, wood pieces, etc in which to paint on. Some of those things were already painted in a toll style fashion which I was doing alot of back in 2008 and 2009 like this one:

So, as I've started going through these things, I've found so much more work that I need to do. It's overwhelming and the house is full of boxes, here's my view from the hallway into the living room:

So....yeah...my life is a total chaotic mess right now!! lol :)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Mirror Mirror On the Wall

In my apartment were two HUGE mirrors - one in each bathroom. Because of that, I had no need to purchase any during my stay there, and I actually didn't even think about it. Until....being here. Well, let's just say I'm sure I looked atrocious for about 2 weeks, as I had no mirror at all and the small ones I had were still packed somewhere.

As money has been allotted for more important things (electrician, plumber, etc), I've had to work on some creative options as much as I can. The mirror was no different. My parents, along with my Uncle, had acquired some things from an estate sale, basically what was left over that no one bought during the sale itself. One of those things was a mirror. When I saw it, I knew it wouldn't fit with what I was trying to do with my new house but felt it might have potential to at least work for a little while.

It is a very large, heavy, old and well made mirror. It's oval in shape with some decorative trim around it. However, it was gold on the frame. I've never personally cared for gold, even in my jewelry. I've seen homes it looks lovely in, but it's not for my tastes in my own home.

I wish I had taken a photo before putting the plastic on it in order to paint it, but here's a before and after photo of what I did with it:


Since the walls aren't finished yet, I can't do anything else in that room but hey - I have a mirror!! And, let's just say I definitely never need to be without one in the future lol :) 

Cost for this project? $2.58 
(paint, plastic and tape was leftover from other projects, mirror was a gift, and the special hanger to hold that kind of weight was $2.58...not too bad for a girl on a tight budget)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Catching Up....Part 2

I guess I'm on a roll now!! :)

So here I am a little bit later and the plumber fixes my water - there was trash in the lines at the hot water pipe for the tub from the rust. Then the water for both hot and cold didn't work for the washer. Both of those are now fixed. The dryer needed a new plug-in to fit the outlet and still the duct needs to be trimmed so the dryer isn't in front of that door, making it inaccessible. Still, I can use that dryer during these cooler nights, let it vent into the house and it takes the chill off. I make sure the lint filter is clean as a whistle each time to avoid any lint issues. I don't want to do this for much longer though as it's a moist heat, but still I'm thankful for it! The gas logs in the fireplace are broken so they aren't going to be any good as a heat source and the only other thing is a gas heater in the hallway:
(photo taken when i first looked at the house, but the heater still looks the same)

I've not had the gas company out yet to see if this heater is ok to use. My handyman tells me he doesn't think they'll cut the gas on in here for several reasons. So, in feeling sorry for me, he brought me a 4 stack electric heater to use "as long as I need it". He also brought me a new-in-the-box ceiling fan he'd had in his garage for a year. A very, very nice man and I'm thankful for him and all his work on this house. 

So let me take you into one room and show you it's progress to this date (new photos were taken tonight while writing this post, see those at the end of the before):
The bathroom - the walls are mostly up and the floor is down and has the temporary vinyl tiles on it. There's still one spot that the studs are still visible but it's not big. Then the window needs a new piece of trim on the bottom side. The walls still have to be mudded when he's finished in there. Right now, there are some pieces he needs to countersink screws and cut off some excess where the pieces were a little too big. I just take careful baths for now. Eventually the area surrounding the tub will be tiled, the walls will be painted, and there will be a bathroom sink in there, storage above the toilet area, among other things. But it's functional and I'm thankful for that. A reminder of the before photos:
(the very first time I saw the house, I snapped this photo)


(old walls, old tub surround, old moldy caulk)

(a close-up pic of what I actually cleaned off this tub, ugh lol it was a grin and bear it type situation for sure!)

Here's the progress of it:


(before I cleaned it out and finished cleaning the tub)

(the floor during the construction)

(view from the hallway check out that shiny tub!)

(view just inside the door, should have straightened that rug out but kitty likes to play, thus it's never in place right lol !)

(toilet area...though the concrete at the base of it will be removed when I tile it...the floor was built for real tile, not peel and stick (temporary fix) and then the concrete filler will go away. unsightly but necessary)

And, finally the sweetest picture of all...my little Mietta who is happier in this house than I've seen her since her spay surgery. She's what kept me sane when things were bleak. She was too happy for me to be sad for very long :) 

P.S. I'm sooooo proud of my hard work not going to waste on that tub! It could have been a disaster under all that but I held out hope (and over 6 hours of hard scrubbing, scraping, etc) that it'd be lovely and I'm really happy with how it looks now. Notice the shine on the tub, floor and toilet? Well that makes me happy too :) 


Catching Up....Part 1

(before the toilet went in)

Gosh, I'm sorry it has taken so long to write in my blog. I've received emails asking how things are going since they've not had any updates on here. Thank you for following me and for caring!

Well, ok, so I did get moved in here on the 31st as planned. But that's about all that has gone as planned. My lovely internet company which I had scheduled my move date 2 weeks ahead of time, to avoid any interruption because above and beyond anything else, I didn't want my business to suffer from my personal life. However, as my luck would have it....my internet cut off my internet TWO DAYS early....then "lost" the move order and told me they didn't have the new address on file. I told them that was impossible as I'd already received 4 pieces of mail from them at my new address. Fast forward 8 hours of phone calls including the automated "hell" that they now have "for your convenience" over a period of 9 days without internet, then a nice young lady took it upon herself to see it through and see that I got my internet. They had to cancel my old service, make a brand new order with a brand new phone number in order to make it work. Bless her heart though, another 2 days after she started working on it, I had internet again.

During the period of time without internet, I began working with a wet saw to cut the tile for the bathroom. Something was wrong with the saw in which sediment made it's way into the pump (from a previous user) and caused the water to go in elsewhere....leading to a horribly bad electric shock for me. I was jittery and didn't feel right the rest of the day...and it took about a week for the tip of my finger to once again feel like normal. This could have been due to all the work that finger has been seeing, no way to know I guess.

When the shock occurred, somehow it burned up my computer inside the house. Then the next day would be the day I got my internet back on. Again, this is my luck. I had internet but then had to use my laptop, which wasn't capable of handling many programs I use in my business and is extremely slow. However, I made do with it until my computer was repaired, which took alot of time, money and a new power supply. Needless to say, I decided to nix the tile idea for the time being as I felt a little shy of using a tile saw for a bit there. Peel-n-stick tiles to the rescue for a temporary fix! Just temporary though as I'm going to have that bathroom tiled one way or another!! :)

After getting the new power supply, the computer worked but kept shutting itself off. I finally became frustrated with it and went to clean the tub. Oh! Let me back up a bit, for almost 48 hours in this house, I had no toilet..just a convenience store down the road which was unpleasant to wake up in the middle of the night and having to drive to use the restroom. Still, I made it through that 48 hours. Still, I had no tub but I had a toilet and that made me so so happy. Back to the computer shutting itself off....that particular day my handyman was here and had finally gotten the wall up behind where the tub is and put the faucets back into place, I just knew I was going to finally have a bath! It had been 106 degree weather and I moved from an upstairs apartment...I wanted and needed my bath and not just a sink bath - a real soak-in-the-tub bath!! So I went to clean it and there was tons of construction debris inside it. I got up the nails, large pieces, etc and then plugged in the vacuum cleaner....which didn't have enough power to have any suction. And, when it was turned on, the lights went dim all over the house. OMG electric problems too??? Ok, one thing at a time, Rhonda. Right now you are going to have this bath, so do whatever it takes to get it clean. And, I did. It took 2 hours but I could think of nothing but a good hot bath. Finally, it's ready. I turn on the water....rust, rust, rust and rust. Then it stopped coming out. Nothing. I sat down in the floor and cried for a good long while. I guess I was feeling sorry for myself and I was terribly disappointed, felt personally hurt that this house took my precious bath from me. Did I mention this was Friday evening before the holiday weekend? No one could come out until Tuesday.

Eventually I got over that. The next day, my parents came over. By the way, I still had no fridge and no stove, so I was eating out every meal or eating junk here. There were no cold drinks or ice, I had to go out and get one if I wanted something cold to drink. Anyway, back to my parents coming over. We worked on a few small things and they had brought me some roast beef, some pinto beans and some cornbread. I'd eaten mostly junk food/fast food forever while moving and living here so I could have cried when they told me what was in the bag. Well, they finished and left and I went immediately to heat up my precious food in the microwave...which didn't have enough power to turn on. What? Try another outlet. Same thing. Ok try another room. Same thing. Again, I sat down and cried my eyes out. I just wanted a hot meal. but I ate that meal cold and was glad to have it because even cold, it was marvelous.

In the meantime, I was still working on my business, working on this house and just wanting a few things to work or work somewhat normally. I feared sleeping with anything on because what if the electrical here was dangerous? So I unplugged everything before bed except the air conditioner. And just prayed it would be ok. I could have made it without the air but little Mietta in her fur coat? Well let's just say that wasn't going to happen.

With the electrical issues, there were several which were repaired by an electrician. There was an issue with the line that went from the house to the pole thanks to a squirrel(s) pretending it was a chew toy. It was so bad, they had to bring out a bucket truck and replace the entire line from the house to the road.

There are still some electrical things that need to be fixed but all are "ok" for now. Mainly some electrical boxes are in poor locations and could be a big problem, as could the wires that should be in a pipe that run outside the house. All these will be fixed soon, but there have been bigger things and my electrician says they will be fine for now but not to forget about them.

There's more but this post has been like writing a book....I'll pick back up on more as soon as I can. It always feels good to get all this out of my head, as I've held onto it to share here. I think I have all my days straight and somewhat in the order they happened lol but I've no idea if I missed something or not. If so, I'll be sure to share.

Hopefully when reading this, you take it with a grain of salt. I really was feeling sorry for myself when those two things happened (the hot meal and the bath) and they were very low moments. I did snap back out of it - the hot meal as soon as I ate those cold tasty morsels and the bath as soon as I took buckets of water from the kitchen to the tub a couple days later. I bounce back pretty good and really am glad I went through what I did with all of it. It makes me appreciate the hot bath and hot meals I'm having now. Very very much. :)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Hope

Ok, so I'm feeling a little better. I just talked to my boyfriend about all that's going wrong in my world right now. He told me to take a step back and breathe, told me I was getting very overwhelmed with everything. Then I stopped to think about how happy Mietta is here and I started talking to him about that. She's running around, exploring, jumping over things, and is more active than since she had her spay surgery. So, there are good things going on too. I know I have to take one thing at a time and I've honestly been trying to do that. It was just seeming every time I did one thing and was ready to move to the next, the first thing didn't work.

But, alas, I'm listening to my boyfriend. Those kinds of reasons are just a small tip of the iceberg as to why I love him so much.

Very Very Sad

Another night goes by that I feel like sitting somewhere in this house and crying my eyes out as I've done the nights I've not been frustrated and worried. I'm so very tired. Nothing works in this place. If I plug up a vacuum cleaner, it barely runs and lights dim to the point of going out. If I turn out all the lights and unplug everything in the house it has a tiny bit of suction.

Unfortunately I'm not so fortunate with the microwave. My parents brought me some food tonight and after they left, I went to heat it up and no outlet in this house is strong enough to power the microwave.

I took an electrical shock with the wet tile saw and still am not really sure why, as it was used as I've used any in the past. The electrical inconsistency burned the power supply on my desktop computer and money keeps pouring out to fix everything that is wrong. I can't share pictures again as I have no SD card adapter on this laptop, not that there's anything but a mess to show to anyone at this time.

The plumbing doesn't work anywhere except to the toilet and to the kitchen sink. No hot water comes out of the bath faucet. The lines to the washer are also clogged.

I'm tired. I want a hot bath. I want to have a fridge again. (It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow though I have my doubts if the electric can handle such a thing and am honestly surprised it's handling the AC ok.)

For the past few days, I'm wondering if this was a bad idea. I'm falling out of love with this house and I'm miserable. It feels like I need the strength of 10 men and I feel I have the strength of a feather. Even after writing this, I still feel like sitting in the middle of the floor and crying. I just don't know how much one person can take. Everything I think is ready to go (like finally getting the walls up in the bathroom and having the faucet put in day before yesterday) doesn't work.

Even a hot meal that's not from a fast food restaurant seems to be a far away dream.

Monday, August 29, 2011

A Let Down Kinda Day :(


Time is of the essence right now, more than ever. I have two days left as I write this email. My handyman didn't come until after 4 pm with all the supplies...only to work on the air conditioner that quit, which I didn't ask him to do but I guess he felt it was too warm in the house to work without it. After two hours of that and determining that it was completely dead with a failed motor, he said he was done for the day. Not one sheet of drywall or one sheet of cement backer board was laid. All that work Daddy and I did on Sunday to get the room ready could have been spread out a bit more. *SIGH* But, he said he'd be back tomorrow morning early to work on the room.

In the meantime I worked more on scraping the tub, then I caulked the windows, doors and other areas in the Master Bedroom, found a hall closet with wallpaper in it and finished most of it, and went and bought some insulation then cut and placed it inside the exterior walls of the bathroom so at least one room in the house will be insulated for sure. Here we go:

That's the only picture I took today as the other things aren't really too big in the overall prep but all are very important nonetheless.

I really am getting concerned this house won't be ready in two days, despite all my hard work....this needs to happen:
I need a fridge
I need a floor backer board in the bathroom
I need walls in the bathroom
I need the floor tiled
I need to put the toilet down
There's a hole in my living room ceiling that's not been addressed yet
All room floors need to be scraped, swept and then mopped
I need blinds for all the windows
I need to PACK my things here at the apartment
I need to MOVE all my things from here to there
The remainder of that closet needs wall paper scraped
The electrical boxes need to be attached in the laundry room
The bottom of the cabinet under the kitchen sink needs to addressed around the plumbing
I need to figure out what I'll use as an AC
I need a new front door (exterior)
I need a new side door (exterior)
I need a new lock on the garage
I need a new lock on the front door
I need a new lock on the side door
The broken storm door on the front needs to be removed
It would be nice if I can paint just the back of the area where the toilet will go in but somehow I don't think I'm going to make it  that far :(
The tub needs a thorough cleaning
The holes in the drywall need to be patched in all rooms except the studio/office
The closets need to be washed down inside
The holes need to be patched inside the closets

Ok, I think that's all but ummm there's two days left. I haven't a clue how to finish it all except do my very best and let things fall where they may.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Walls Windows and There's a Tub Under that Mess!

It's demolished!! The bathroom walls are gone gone gone - and thank you Daddy for all the help!!

First of all let me say that youtube videos are awesome. Last night I watched several on how to remove the tub faucet, knobs, shower head and it worked! I popped that little cap off each of those knobs and unscrewed those knobs and then the trim behind it, just like the video showed me and it worked! I never could figure out how to get the spout off so we just worked around it. It may just be on there way too tight but we made it ok with it there. I'll get my handyman to get it off as I'm sure he has the right tools. Since I've been in apartment living, you can imagine the tools I have....very very few lol

But here we go - the walls are down!




And a reminder of what that tub looked like on the top edges with the moldy blackened caulk:

And now...don't mind the sheetrock dust...that will be worried about later, as will the inside of the tub and that lower outer portion near the floor but oh my doesn't it look better!?!?

Did I mention I'm so sore I can barely feel anything? OMG it's incredibly true...my hands are literally mush and I'm thankful I can type without moving very much of my body lol

Here's what was removed, including those big force flex trash bags full of smaller pieces of sheetrock, nails and probably 1000 gazillion razor blades, as they were behind the wall for some reason, along with some St. Louis Missouri newspaper from 1996 (no idea why that was there either) and some kids toys...again, no idea what's up with all that in the walls. Here's the pile at the road:

And, finally, my mom worked on the front window, scraping all the paint off the glass. She and Daddy removed the screens from it to clean and I like it without them. The old apparatus that opened the windows to allow the breeze through the screens were painted shut by someone and the pieces aren't all present to crank them open. That's something I'd love to restore much much later as I think that's adorable but for now, it looks beautiful without the screens....it just needs the outside paint scraped, but again, that's another thing for much later...still check out this beautiful window:


So, that's my day's work (and my parents' also!) unless I get a second wind and can go back. I'm thinking I'm just going to get something to eat at this point and say forget anything else for the evening until my handyman tells me he's ready to meet me there to measure the room for the bathroom materials. I feel like I inhaled a bucket of dust (no, I had no masks and didn't take the time to go buy them, but regret that now). So I'm thinking this break is very needed. :)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

From Happy to YUCK!!

In my mad rush to get everything done before my move in date, my day started out great. Last night I drug my tired self to Lowes and picked up the dryer vent, so when I got to the house I started there. Though it was extremely hot outside in the sun, I removed the old vent that had openings all around it where pests and other bugs could enter the house - see the before picture:


I removed the old vent, rusted screws and all to reveal a hole full of lint all inside the walls where the previous occupants didn't use the vent system with the metal duct work:


Then, I worked on cleaning out all that lint and the entire area up including caulking the old nail (yes nail!) and screw holes, plus I evened out the edges to get the new vent installed. Finally I caulked around the entire thing to seal it off nicely from pests and the elements:

Ok, so I was pleased with that project though it took longer than I felt it was going to when I got started, because that looks pretty simple...and I'm still not sure the metal duct work isn't too long inside the house that attaches to the dryer but I think it will be right. We'll see....

Then, I had the bright idea that I'd go start scraping all that blackened, hardened, nasty, old caulk off the bathtub in order to be ready for the new floor, as it's still just a subfloor in there and the toilet is still in the dining room though it's clean as can be (thanks Mama!!).

I started scraping and some of it came off typically and other parts of it was tough as nails, but I got to the back corner and it felt weird. Why did my scraper go through the loosened caulk through the "wall" and "tub surround"??? Hmmm well, quite possibly because someone used a 3 inch thickness of caulk to fill in the gap between the top of the tub and the wall! Peering up under the tub surround revealed more issues - mold. So I realized that even though I was going to redo the bathroom at a later time, it couldn't wait. I started pulling off the tub surround. This revealed more mold, crumbling sheetrock and get this....a piece of wood going from the bottom of the window to the tub...yes wood...which was guess what?? Rotting. ARGH!!! I have like 4 days til I move. And, now I have a falling apart bathroom that needs to have the sheetrock replaced on the back wall. And, really the entire room should be done which I planned to do later - not now. However, it's going to be now instead. A quick call to my handyman and he'll be there on Monday. If I can remove all the sheetrock and have all that cleaned out, it will be cheaper. Soooooo tomorrow looks like I'm tearing walls down out of the bathroom and taking those down to the studs...


When it seems like I take a step forward, more things happen. This is something that would be done within a few months anyway and I know it will allow me to still have entire use of the bathroom versus pulling everything back out and demolishing the room later, but still I had reallllllly hoped to not have to do anything huge right now. Time is of the essence, as is money due to all that's going out right now and all that's still got to go out. lol it's ok though...one thing at a time, one thing at a time, one thing at a time...I think lol :)

Friday, August 26, 2011

Possibilities are Endless

Ok, first let me say this day was the worst I've had in terms of fatigue. I'm exhausted beyond comprehension and while I was working at the house today, it was almost like I had stepped out of myself and was just on auto pilot pushing myself to do a little bit more and a little bit more. Still, as I sit here typing, I have no energy and am completely zapped. However, I've found this little blog gets thoughts out of my head and organized so this is a very good thing for me.

I did get the office studio room swept up really good and mopped the floor in there. I can't wait to refinish it but that's not a priority right now, as I have about 5 days left before my move in day. There's just not enough time, so for now, clean is the priority. The paint splatters, nail polish and other imperfections will just have to wait...here's what it's looking like all mopped and clean:

Aren't they going to look gorgeous one of these days?? I so love them!

Then, my parents worked on scraping the wallpaper backing from the laundry room, as well as worked on the windows in the master bedroom and the bathroom. My Dad took the old plexiglass off the bathroom window and then cleaned it and it looks sooooo good other than the wood needing painting and such a sweet view of the backyard:

Then I knew I needed to address the living room ceiling, as the back corner had dropped (from the house settling, not a leak or anything like that):


In talking with a few people and researching, I learned it's best to remove the area and put a new piece of sheet rock up there. So, feeling a second wind this afternoon, I went back out there. And, started working on pulling it down, being careful not to go past 4 feet (the size of a piece of sheet rock):

What I found, though, surprised me so I stopped right there. I have a decision to make. I REALLY like the idea of exposing that wood. In knowing there's a full floor, ceilings, and walls in the finished attic, I expected it to look decent but I swear when I saw what was there, I started getting new visions of an exposed beam ceiling:



What's the worst that can happen? I pull it all down and the ceiling has to be sheet rocked in it's entirety later on? The wires can be easily concealed from the attic...and I don't have to worry about other ceiling issues. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Obviously it's not perfect up there as it wasn't meant to expose...but look at that. It's absolutely beautiful and would be a shame to cover it up, it seems....

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Master Bedroom Done!

We totally finished that Master Bedroom wallpaper removal today - my parents worked their hearts out too!! It was very disappointing when I got in the closet in there and found not one, not two, not even three but FOUR layers of wallpaper...I felt like crying. Instead, I just kept scraping and scraping and scraping. In a very hot, very small space. But it's done!!! Here's a pic of it now:

And I started the laundry room, which is just ONE LAYER!! A thick layer with an odd netting on the back of it that should be interesting to work on but still...ONE LAYER!! I was rejoicing and so were my parents! lol here's a couple pics of that (first is the pile of paper, second of the way it looks now):



My Uncle goes to alot of estate sales and has a good relationship with one of the people who owns the company who does those. He's often given an opportunity to bid on the remainder from the sale, which he gives to my parents to sell at a yard sale for him. Then, they split the profits. It's a great set-up, and often there are interesting things in there. My parents told me they had a dresser in the last load of things, a white wood one. I immediately was interested. They brought it....it's a little more retro than I had pictured lol but this is going to work out - I have plans for it as well, plus it was free and storage - something which I need right now:

So my right shoulder feels like there's a pinched nerve in there as it's killing me. My business continues to need my attention. My life is chaos. But, I love it. I wouldn't change it for anything!! :)

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

OUCH!!

So there's a piece of glass that broke off the garage window, I believe from a neighbor's mower or something ( I HOPE!)...and I picked it up a couple days ago and sat it inside the window to tend to it later. Today my Dad and I were outside and picked it up to show it to him, hitting my hand on the glass above still attached to the window...


My Mom looked at it and said a little more and it would have needed stitches, but I really don't think it was that bad. Still, not good because I just had to put a band-aid on it and keep going!

More progress was made today. My parents picked up a couple locks for the windows in the studio office, they scraped the old paint off the windows and cleaned them up really good - check out these windows!!


Then all 3 of us worked on the TWO layers of wallpaper in the master bedroom until all of us were ready to lie in the floor from exhaustion...but it's looking so much better. I'd say we probably did 1/2 of the room today and we are really hoping to finish it tomorrow.



Whew! That's about all I can type tonight. I still have research to do on a couple projects and some good ole vegging out for a little while before I start working on my business stuff. lol what a hectic time!! But, I wouldn't have it any other way. :)