Door Knobs

Soooo, it has been awhile. I haven't had a whole lot to really discuss. How interesting is painting 9,000 feet of door/floor trim (a slight exaggeration), 9- 5 panel doors, and bead board in 3 bathrooms???

Let me tell you--- not very interesting! 

Bless Matt's heart because he has been working away at the trim like crazy. This should bring me great joy, but I just look at every inch and think I've got to paint it--TWICE! 

When your whole house is destroyed and covered in various types of dust, you don't notice all the horrible painting that came with the house. Now that we are putting things back together and the layer of dust is gone, I keep noticing another area of trim that needs to be painted. 

Deep breath.

On to more exciting news. 

We have several original doors that are still actively in use here. I love, love, love the old mortise locks, strike plates, and original glass knobs. (I am slowly replacing all the tacky modern ones with "brass colored" metal that have been used around here.)

1905 door knob, strike plate, and mortise lock

We had to buy 9 new doors. I was really hoping to reuse 3 of the old doors, but it turns out that they had been "customized" over the years and just wouldn't work in our new door frames. 

Those doors cost a small fortune. It would have cost a large fortune to have them cut for mortise locks. This was discouraging. Throughout all of this process I have been trying to avoid the "this is the old part of the house and this is the new part" look. 

Okay, the down-down stairs screams 1990's. I will work on this next summer when the memories of all this trim painting business has faded.

I searched the internet and sent Matt several modern versions of our old glass door knobs. He was less than excited about the cost of my little beauties. Since we couldn't agree, I just didn't do anything.....oh, I went back to painting trim! 

Black Friday rolled around and what arrived in my inbox???? A fabulous coupon for 25% off my most desired door knobs!!! This brought the price down to less than horrid! They look almost identical to our originals and Matt wasn't going to kill me over the price. It was a dream come true. 

My only crazy Thanksgiving deal were door knobs and I couldn't be more satisfied.

A little bit of black paint in the key hole and you won't even notice that it is fake.

Just look at this picture brings a smile to my face! 

Now I just need to install the other 4.... and paint 2 more doors....and 3,000 more feet of trim.  

Another step forward. Moose and crew came by and put up the frame for the back deck. It will be nice to not open the door and step (or fall) into the Pit of Doom.

We have created a new tradition around here: decorate the coop. C and N made the light selections. I love the goofy cheeriness it brings to the backyard.

The Most Fabulous Powder Room

Much to my dismay, the end of the Pros work on our house coincided with me heading back to school, C and N back to school and Matt beginning some epic travel for work.  I was really hoping that I would have all summer to paint the interior of this house as we had planned, but construction goes at its own pace. By the time I am done, every inch will have been painted by yours truly. It is overwhelming if I think about it for a minute. For my own sanity, I just have to tell myself, "Just paint this little bit today."

I haven't been blogging because when I am not taking care of the kids or teaching, I am painting. It is like some sort of painting purgatory!

Wall painting is fun. Ceiling painting is horrid. Trim and door painting is somewhere in-between and there is just so darn much of it.

I have finished all of the wall paint everywhere, except for the laundry room and the down-down stairs (this I am leaving to next summer). It is the trim, doors, and bead board that is killing me.

In any event, here is the most fabulous powder room I have ever seen!

The $2.70 a square foot tile from Home Depot with the dark gray grout turned out better than I had hoped!

I love my 1930's vintage light fixtures with Edison Bulbs. This pic doesn't do it justice. 

Perhaps you were expecting something more.... fabulous?

Well, this is the first room in the house that is completely finished, well minus some decorating, a door knob, and the toilet paper holder attached to the wall, but the point is that it is all painted and things are where they belong!!!! I finished it almost a year to the day after moving. It has been a long, long year.

Plus, also, the other house didn't have a powder room so this one is extra special.

I have ideas of what I would like to do for a better window covering, but that will have to wait until I finish painting! This self-adhesive window film works well for now. I had a plain frosted version up, but it got trashed with the drywall installation. I kinda like the texture this new one adds to the room.

Here is another look at my light fixtures....can you tell I am in love?????

I only have 8 more doors to paint and like 3 million miles of trim.....

Sheesh, it has been awhile!!!

We have been working on the house like crazy over the last few weeks on the house and it has left me with little energy to blog. Sorry!

I realized today that this weekend marked the first time, in I really don't know how long, that we have honest to goodness flooring everywhere. Not all of the floors are finished, but the joy of not walking on nappy old sub floor....BLISS!!!

Here is a quick update of what has been going on:

The Farmhouse is all painted (minus a second coat on one door). Katy Esser, you are amazing! I was looking at The Farmhouse from the street and it is hard to tell where 1909 ended and 2015 begins. So beautiful! I am telling you, if you need an architect, call Katy!

 I painted C's room, but we had a little hiccup. She really wanted a purple room and the color we chose turned out to look more pink than purple when I put it up on the walls. She was so sweet about talking to me about it and I can't fault her for having second thoughts after seeing it on the wall. (I have only done the same thing 4 times since we moved.) We all packed into the car and back to McLendon's we went. They were able to re-tint the original paint to the new purple color she loves. Success!

First color

New Color

My assistant....he only got a little paint on him!

C really wanted 2 chandeliers and we decided to go with sparkly ones. I have to say, I would have loved these when I was little.

Michael laid the new fir floor in the kitchen and I finished them with StreetShoe water based finish. This is the same type of finish that they use on basketball courts. Now, I didn't use that shiny finish; I went with the satin finish. It is also the most forgiving finish on high traffic areas.

 

 Salvaged cabinets installed.

 Look! Look! See that? There are actual cabinets and counters in the kitchen. I almost died and went to Heaven when Moose installed the garbage disposal. 

Finally, finally, finally it is time to put the floor in our bedroom and closet. 

Such a lovely photo of me. Just direct your eyes to that cute little man streaking through the frame.

Matt worked like crazy this weekend to lay the floor. He is getting so good at this....I am thinking about where else we can use his skills????

I love these two photos. E had snuck into C's room and absconded with some Polly Pocket shoes and then decorated our room. 

C was less than thrilled at discovering his hiding-hole. 

Michael has also put tile into both the kids' bathroom and our bathroom. More photos to come!

Turning a corner!

We are heading up from the bottom!

Remember this?

This was the temporary wall the built to try to stem the wave of insidious drywall dust. It went across the original entrance to the kitchen. We have spent the last 2+ weeks with it in the way and kinda stopping the flow of dust and crap. 

Every time we go to the kitchen, you have to bat the visqueen away. Annoying to say the least, not to mention that the kids feel like it is the veil that prevents Mama from seeing naughtiness. 

We have had some trouble with the drywallers showing up constantly. I need to explain that, Ubaldo, the owner of the drywall company, always comes and has found people to work our job when his regulars haven't come through. He is wonderful and I would be happy to share his number if you are looking for someone! 

Here is the process with drywall:

 1. Hang the drywall

2. Tape and mud the seams

3. Apply 2 more coats of mud to seams and screws

4. Sand (AKA The BIGGEST mess you can possibly imagine and spreading farther than you think is ever possible)

5. BONUS-- Ubaldo applies a primer coat before leaving.

I almost kissed him when he said that he would prime everything for me. Since I am doing all the interior painting this saves me so much time.

On Tuesday, Ubaldo and his two reliable dudes came to get to work. I asked him if they thought they would be done this week. He was noncommittal, but I explained that I haven't had any kitchen cabinets since Easter. He visibly flinched. I explained that the drywall being finished was all that stood between me and a kitchen again. 

Bless him, but he came every day with workers to get the job done. Today they finished and we were able to remove the temporary wall to see what our new kitchen will look like.

Here it is!

 Katy Esser (our architect) you are fabulous!

E making a run through the new open room. I don't usually have him running around in a diaper, but it has been 95 degrees here and he has been HOT!

I am trying to paint all the ceilings so that we can install flooring. Here are some pics of C's room, laundry, kid bath, and master suite.

If you see me in public, please disregard all the white spots I am covered in. Hazard of painting ceilings.

In other news, Moose and Michael have painted the outside. It took us a long time to decide between two colors, but I thank Susy Matthews immensely for her help in picking out our house colors. She is so good at thinking about the colors in your house and how they work off of each other. If you liked the colors in my old house, it was because of her!

You can see a bit of the old yellow and the new blue!

The poor guys have been painting in high heat, but it didn't slow them down.

I love how the blue really makes the garden pop!!!

Drywall

This is the bottom....the absolute bottom. Every time I have complained before about a shrinking house has been nothing compared to this. It is kinda like when you complain about being tired before kids...you have no idea what tired is. Well this is like that.

The drywall delivery came early on Friday, ie 7:15 AM. I wasn't quite prepared for that, but C, N, and E loved seeing the crane lift the load of drywall. It is amazing how quickly they can unload sheets and sheets of drywall and then get on their way.

Everything, I mean EVERYTHING, has to be moved out of the drywallers way....so we don't have a square inch of extra space and I think it might cause me to lose my ever-loving mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One day, after I have recovered from this remodel, I will be mortified that I posted these pictures.....

They arrived at 10 on Saturday. This weekend the temps have been in the mid 90's. I would do hard labor early in the day, but okay. They left at 4 with the kitchen, pantry, and bathroom pretty much done. It is so exciting to really see things become real... it almost makes me look past the dry, white dust that is EVERYWHERE.

This is one hot kid.

Before

After....

My little 2 foot by 4 foot counter is gone.

Pantry

Trying for a little privacy for the bathroom.

Back door and the mudroom. The fridge does not belong there.

Cleaning up is not on their To Do list. Good thing the kids were great about picking up scraps and nails while I vacuumed. They didn't get done with most upstairs until 6:30 PM on Sunday. It is destroyed from their work, but most of the rooms have drywall. It is a win in my book.

 Master entrance (and dumping ground)

Master closet

 N is a man on a mission! No screw, nail, or piece of metal will miss his magnetic roller. He has been such a hard worker.

C checking out the screw removal.

C screamed in delight when she saw her room.

Not much maybe to you, but there haven't been walls up here in a long, long time. 

 More master...

E checking out the Potty Palace (copying Moose's commode's name). Matt is talking about putting a TV in there! No way-- he will never come out!

 Mater bathroom. The tub will be on the far wall.

In other news: Henry! He has only been with us a week, but he has proven to be such a gift. I believe when you get a gift like this, it has to come from God. He does things that remind me of Lucy, but brings his own gifts. 

Notice the sweet little speckles...just like Lucy. He has the cutest little under bite. 

Generally, he sticks super close to us, but has taken some solo tours of the neighborhood that have taken some years off his Mama's life. N has told me several times how happy he is now that we have a dog again. C can be found cuddling with him and he lovingly follows her as she talks to him. E has progressed from saying "Ewww" every time Henry kisses him to petting him. He says "Enry" too. I have learned that he has picked up on the fact that Henry can make things he doesn't like to eat disappear. Today his little sweet voice called "Enry....Enry!" I found the strawberry I gave E on the floor where Henry was napping. He didn't like it either, I guess.