June 9, 2011

This Old House is looking fabulous!!! Andy, from Horton Floor Covering, has been down at the house working the past 2 days getting my tile installed in the mudroom, kitchen, and bathroom. I went into the store wanting to find a floor that would match my tin and I the perfect match! It looks fantastic!!

This past weekend I got my wood floors sanded with the help of my neighbor, Page Mitteness. She is a wiz at all this woodwork stuff and I couldn't have done it without her. I will warn you though, sanding wood floors is alot of work!! So think twice...or three times before doing it yourself. I made a Lowe's run on Saturday and got my Floor Finish but I just haven't put it on yet. Hopefully this weekend. I still have some touch ups and a small amount of sanding left. Even though it was a pain in the butt and dirty, I think the floors look good for being 100 years old.

I also got my lights ordered for above my kitchen sink. I ordered them from the same gal that made my porch lights. Her company website is www.thelampgoods.com. Check it out if you are looking for new light fixtures. The lights look outstanding. I wanted unique and I got unique!

Travis will be back tomorrow putting on the baseboard in the kitchen and bathroom. He will also be putting tin on my island and in my mudroom, installing my toilet and dishwasher, plus a few other things that you will have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week!!

Oh la la...

Words can't describe these....enjoy

You have permission to stare...

I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Travis came and got my shutters put on today along with my new screen doors I had gotten earlier. I can't believe how good it looks. The shutters really pull the house together. It doesn't look so big and white anymore. It just looks like a cute little house. My screen doors also look super good! I had thought about getting wooden screen doors but after I did some research I found out that they tend to sag within a couple months, so I think these storm doors will do just fine. It really looks good. These pictures don't even come close to doing it justice. If any of you are ever out and about, drive east of Millerton and come see me! I think I drove by 6 times tonight just looking at it!

I also picked out my kitchen tile and carpet for the master bedroom this weekend. I think it has been the toughest decision I have had to make so far in this "little" project of mine. I wanted my kitchen tile to match the tin ceiling so I took a small piece of tin to Horton Floor Covering and Marjorie laid out several options and I took a couple home and looked at them in different light, different angles, and different placements in the kitchen/mudroom/bathroom and after 48 straight hours of flooring on my mind, I finally came to a decision. The tile and carpet will be laid the end of this month of the beginning of June.
I also heard from my cabinet maker. He told me that he could have them done by Saturday if I needed them. Heck, I've waited this long so I just told him to do a good job and I can wait until next week. So maybe this time next week I'll be posting pictures of my new kitchen! *Fingers crossed*
So this week I am going to start cleaning my baseboard and my trim around my doors and windows. I also need to start thinking about re-finishing my wood floor. I think I'm just intimidated because it's going to be a big job and quite a bit of work. But hey...has that stopped me yet????

Dude, where's my cabinets???

...Your guess is as good as mine. Knowing my luck, there is still an ash tree standing in the forest and that tree is suppose to be my cabinets! I called my Amish cabinet maker the last Wednesday of April just wondering how the building was going and what day he thought he would install them...since he told me 4 times that they would be installed in the FIRST WEEK OF MAY. He returned my call later that day and told me that he was in Minnesota. Upset?? Of course!! Especially when I gave him 40% down already since that's his policy. Whatever, I guess. He did call me this Saturday and tell me he was back in Iowa (good to know) and that he was going to start on my set this week and it would be 2 weeks.
I do have a shimmer of good news though. Jon from CornerHart was at the house a couple days last week hooking up lights and getting my ceiling fan hung in the kitchen. He also got my outside porch lights on. I know quite a few of you wanted to see how they looked hung up. I think they look pretty good. I also got some shutters ordered and they should be in by now. The next step is getting Travis back over here to get them on for me. Thanks so much for keeping up with my project and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Hopefully you shared it with Mom!

1st Week of May...

Well GREAT news...Levi Yoder, my Amish cabinet maker, came up and measured my kitchen and bathroom on Thursday for my cabinets. After measuring and sort of laying things out, I assure you that it's going to be one of the most beautiful kitchens you all will ever see. Yeah...I'm alittle bit biased but I want my kitchen to kind of be the highlight of the house. We got to talking about the schedule that Levi has planned for the building process and he told me that they would start building the middle of this week and that they would be installed during the 1st week of May. HOLY COW!!!! That's not this week BUT NEXT!!! How exciting!! So that's all that I'll be thinking about between now and when they are actually hanging on my walls!
Another awesome thing is that Bob, one of Travis's workers, got my railing done. It look FANTASTIC!! I absolutely adore people with these kinds of woodworking skills. It takes a crazy amount of talent and patience to do this! So enjoy the pictures and it won't stay this color, I'm going to stain it to match the other woodwork in the house.

And until next time, I'll be painting, scrubbing and cleaning like a mad woman!!

Going way back....

I got a couple pretty cool pictures handed to me this morning. My Great Aunt is here visiting from California and she gave me a couple pictures she had of my house. They were taken in 1942 or 1943. These are probably the coolest pictures I've ever seen of my old house!

My Great Aunt Patty is the little girl in this picture. She was 9 or 10 when this was taken. The man in the hat in the right side of the photo is my Great Great Grandpa Brown. Burt was his name. The man standing back by the water pump was my Great Great Uncle Lafayette. As you can see, the house hasn't changed much.

Pictured here are Maud Brown, my Great Great Grandma. We aren't sure who the lady in the middle is and the girl on the right is my Great Great Aunt Mae. Aunt Mae owned the farm before Craig and Shirley. But I just HAD to share these. I think old pictures like this are so awesome!
A couple other things that went on at the house this week was that my ceiling fans and light fixtures were installed. They aren't anything fancy but they go great with my dark wood work.

The other thing that has been going on is the installation of my new railing downstairs. Bob, who works for Travis, is building it from scratch. So far I'm very impressed with his work.

Plans this week...hopefully, hopefully, HOPEFULLY finishing up electrical work and getting started on cleaning woodwork. I just haven't got my accomplished since the weather has been nice. We have been getting things ready to go to the field and the cows are still calving. Those 2 things have taken up alot of my time. I hope everybody enjoyed the nice weekend weather and have a super week!!

Movin' Along...

Not alot went on this week with the house. Travis and his guys came back and got my doors installed. They also got barn boards put on the header between my living room and dining room. Also, another cool thing they did was trim the top of the kitchen with pieces of barn board left over. I'll post a picture. It looks pretty cool. I'm short about 10 feet so I'm on the lookout for more barn board.
Jon is finishing up my electrical work. He's been getting all the switches and receptacles installed. I also went ceiling fan/light fixture shopping with a couple of good friends this week and we got alot accomplished. I ended up getting 6 ceiling fans and a chandelier for my dining room. Since I'm not going to have central air, I need all the help with moving air as I can. I look at it this way...if the house has gone without air for the past 100 years, why wouldn't it be fine without it for the next 100??
I still haven't started on my woodwork. The weather has been too nice and we need to be getting stuff done outside. Maybe during a rainy day this week I can get started on it.
Thanks so much for reading and everybody have a fantastic week!