Day 199

Jason and I have finished installing, wood filling and sanding all the baseboards!  Now we have to paint them.  Painting is the only thing left to do before we can have the floor guys come back and finish the floors!  We're trying to keep working, even though we have lots of things going on right now.  

Today, we put up some new light fixtures.  We installed this one in the hallway.  Isn't it nice? 

 Just kidding, this is what was there when we moved in.  I had this exact same light fixture in my bedroom growing up.  We took it down and installed this instead: 

This light was also here when we moved in, except it was in the dining room.  We plan to put a chandelier in the dining room, so we decided we could reuse it in the hallway.  It is one of the only light fixtures in the entire upstairs that is staying.  

  This is the other one.  We like to have a ceiling fan in the bedroom for those hot summer nights, and you can't tell in the picture but this one has glass shades with little bumps all over them.  I think it looks like vintage depression glass.  I know it isn't, but I like to pretend it is.  

We decided that we don't need a ceiling fan in the second bedroom, however.  This one is particularly ugly and wobbled when the fan was on.  

This is much better!  We think it makes the room look a lot bigger. 

Day 192

Still working on baseboards.  I have been helping by doing some wood filling and hammering in stray nails. 

Scott is awesome and has come over every day to help Jason fill in these holes.  If you remember, these holes were created because I thought I wanted three island pendants.  Then we realized that we couldn't center 3 pendants over the island due to the beams in the ceiling.  I think two is plenty now that it is in, but we had three holes to patch in the ceiling because of it.  Scott is some kind of zen master drywall patcher.  He did a fantastic job and we are grateful!  Look how dirty he is.  That's friendship! 

My friend and student Peggy told me today that these flowers are called Surprise Lilies, or Naked Ladies.

  Here is what they are supposed to look like!  It is fun finding out what kind of plants we have at our house, since we bought the house at the end of September. 

I planted these tulips in the late fall.  The purple at the top I hope is a peony bush.  Spring, finally!!!

Day 188

So Jason has been working on baseboards, which isn't all that exciting to see in a photo.  But I have some other things of interest to post about tonight! 

I picked out and purchased these drawer pulls on Ebay.  Jason and I compromised on these.  I wanted something old world looking, so I wanted this birdcage style in an antique bronze color.  Jason wanted something modern looking, like a plain bar in nickel plate.  I think they are perfect now that I see them on the drawers!  Since the drawers have soft close and are held in place with magnets, we really needed pulls because they were not easy to open without them. 

I finally purchased this rug!  It is from overstock.com, and I've had the page bookmarked for months.  I kept checking the page every once in awhile to gaze at it longingly, and I noticed that it went on sale last weekend.  I still wasn't sure if now was the time to buy, since we are already paying off some other things this month.  Overstock.com counts down when it gets close to selling out, and I just couldn't let it get away!  I bought it when there were only three left.  I got it for $280!  Not bad I think, considering it is hand knotted.  Not that I know what that is, but it sounds cool.  Don't you think it will tie the room together?  Online it looked a little bit more blue than it does in person, but I think understated blue will be nice and not overpowering.  If you remember, our couches are a rust red color, and it has a lot of that color in the design.   

And this lovely contraption is a tv antenna that Jason built today!  At first, it kind of reminded me of one of those macaroni necklaces kids give their moms for Christmas, those ones you can't wear in public but you can't throw away.  But we weren't getting very good reception downstairs, and this does work a lot better!  If any of you want a giant metal tree behind your television, I'll send Jason right over and he'll be overjoyed to help you make one. 

Day 182

Jason has been installing casing around the doorways into the living room.  

When we bought the house, this doorway had some cheap molding around it, but it didn't have casing.  Jason bought some lumber that would be long enough to put in as casing without creating a seam.  It obviously looks a little strange as natural unfinished wood, but you can see that it is going to look fantastic when we paint it white!  (I cringe inside at the thought of holding a paintbrush again.  I think Jason does too.  It's a necessary evil!)

 

This doorway didn't have any molding at all when we moved in.  I think it looks much better now!  Projects like molding are really fun because it isn't that hard and it really improves the look of things!  I get more and more excited as I see our beautiful house emerge!  The pink of the past is a distant memory, thank goodness. 

Day 179

Jason worked on the baseboards today.

He didn't get very far because he immediately broke the blade on his coping saw.  We also don't like the quarter round we chose.  We want to return it and get something a little smaller because this quarter round sticks out from the wall a little too much. He doesn't mind though because Lowe's is his home away from home! I'd say everyone knows his name there, except I'd be hard pressed to actually find a salesperson when we go there.  I think they all hide when they see us coming. 

So instead of doing that tonight, I helped Jason put these door panels on the island.  It's a lovely touch of class for people to kick their feet against! 

Day 178

We are settling into our kitchen!

  I purchased these bar stools with some birthday money from Jon and Roberta.  Thanks you two!  I love sitting at our bar and watching Jason make marvelous food for me!

Jason made homemade pasta, thanks to Tracy and Frank's gift of a pasta maker and drying rack! 

We need to install the baseboards.  Here is a piece next to the wall so we can see what it will look like.  Today Jason painted them and we'll install them sometime this week. 

I'm almost done making these curtains!  I need to hem the panel on the left, but otherwise they are complete!  I'm very pleased with them.