Bathroom....Gone

Ok - that's it - it's all gone. The tub is still in place, and the toilet.....temporarily. Sink is gone, so we'll be using the kitchen sink to brush teeth etc.



Am mainly thankful we did not find any surprises behind the sheetrock. I must say it does smell kind of musty. Overall, not very exciting other than the prospect of a new fabulous bathroom!


then we found a little surprise under the flooring where the old toilet WAS LEAKING! I told everyone it was leaking, they all said oh you need to change the doughnut...but I knew that stupid toilet had a crack in the bowl, and it slowly seeped ...pretty nasty

Like our "bathroom graveyard"?

Cabinet Disaster....GONE!

The hideous monster in our bathroom, otherwise known as the "cabinet disaster" is no more!































but now.....

what the heck to do with all the STUFF that was inside!? while we renovate......sigh

Decisions Decisions.....

I am now faced with a myriad of decisions. From colors to styles to tile and fixtures, just to name a few. I have spent a good 12 or more hours now and my head hurts.

Did you know they make a SQUARE toilet!? I might have to have it.

I know one thing for sure. We will install hardwood floors, stained black, like the rest of the house. Whew. I feel better already. One down..... I shudder to think how many more I have to make.

I'm thinking that keeping the floors uniform throughout the house is ideal due to it's size. The dark floors, we discovered after we stained them, give the illusion of depth. They sort of "disappear" and make the house feel larger. I am hoping for the same effect in the bathroom! Not to mention, I think they look cool and really show off everything from wall colors to furnishings and rugs.

ok....fast forward, I started that post a while back and now it's August 1st.

Floors are now IN - and look amazing.

Square Toilet....check

Baptismal sink complete with shroud (like Turin, get it)......check

(could have had this same sink with a pedestal instead, but come on, ANYONE can have a pedestal....how many people can say they have a SHROUD!?)

I think when we're finished, using our bathroom will be like having a religious experience!

It better be anyway....

The toilet/sink/tub decision process was rough.

Our original plan was move all the fixtures around & get the clawfoot tub, if you remember. Clawfoot tub we had access to was stolen out of friend's garage. on to plan B - or maybe C....I am already losing track.

Next idea was an all monochromatic grey bathroom, including fixtures. For several reasons, that didn't pan out. For one, our tub is a good quality expensive cast iron tub which would be very difficult and expensive to replace. Once all the gunk is cleaned off it, it's in excellent condition also. The replacement tub would essentially be the same, only grey. It seemed very wasteful. That left me stuck with white fixtures. Boring, but about $1000 cheaper in the end, not to mention a great deal of blood, sweat and tears saved by not having to pull that thing out only to replace it with something nearly identical.

But it would have looked WAY cool.

Ok....so then it was between the Reve line and the Memoirs line.



I had been planning to use the Memoirs sink and toilet since forever ago!!! I loved that sink! the style echoes crown molding (if you've seen our living room & dining room, you'd know how much I am in love with that stuff). It was more traditional, square (I love squares and rectangles for some reason) and a little bit Art Deco. Best part, for us, it had a rim around the edge which would allow a person to set something down while getting ready. If you've ever gotten ready in a bathroom with a pedestal sink and no countertop, you realize JUST how convenient this little ledge can be!

One up side to having a pedestal sink & no countertop is that it has forced me to put everything away in the cabinet & this little act eliminates clutter. (I had a hard time training Stefan because he loves to set EVERYTHING and on the back of the toilet, never putting anything he uses away. He then loves to accuse me of having clutter!?) Our current toilet does not have a flat surface on the tank, and it was the only place to set anything, because our sink rim was too small & uneven. However, so was the toilet tank cover, so things we set there also tended to fall off. It was maddening. Sooooo, the Memoirs toilet had a flat area on the toilet tank also.....so an actual surface, to use for decorative purposes as well as convenience.


ok, so now you see the surfaces dilemma I was dealing with.

So then I see the square toilet (I mentioned my love of squares?......I know I know..."your face is so angular LOL". But it had me. Then, the icing on the cake.....my friend Maria told me she saw them in Italy while there in June. MY FAVORITE COUNTRY! I had to have it, that was it. But it didn't go with my favorite Memoirs sink!!??!! So I looked at the sink to go with it....the line is called Reve. Both lines are by Kohler. Well naturally the larger size Reve sink is much more stylish than the smaller, but won't fit in our tiny bathroom. Ok, I can live with that....it was also an issue with the Memoirs sink. They made two sizes and the larger (of course) looks much better. I just had to suffer that one no matter which sink I chose. But, I would be losing quite a bit of surface area by going with Reve.

Just so you know, the prices would be roughly the same for either toilet/sink. Once you get to shopping around on the web....Reve was maybe a little more, but not significantly. Am thankful for that!

Soooooo....ultra mod and square fabulous Italian toilet with "eh" sink. Or traditional style sink I have admired and dreamed of having for 7 years with surfaces, but with "eh" Memoirs toilet (which I was not in love with, but it matched).

After changing my mind at least 67 times (I seriously lost sleep over this)...... Reve finally won. Here was my final thought process: I decided the streamlined look was good for our small bathroom, even without convenient surfaces. In fact, surfaces invite clutter. Also, without the clawfoot tub to add drama and excitement, the memoirs sink seemed hopelessly dull. Each time I decided to go with Reve I longed for the classic beauty of the Memoirs sink....but each time I had made up my mind to do "Memoirs" ....I would very soon I get the sense of "b-0-r-i-n-g". Also, when you are talking sinks then you have to talk faucet hardware. I liked the Memoirs sink faucet, but I really did not like the Memoirs shower faucet.

Not to mention, I kept seeing the Memoirs sinks and toilets everywhere. The line really is a common choice. It's traditional styling and I think it's "safe" while still being good quality and stylish. ......but I can't stand always being like everybody else...... and I really don't like playing it "safe"! ( well, not all of the time anyway.) So, if I MUST be stuck with a boring white drop in tub....I MUST have some PIZAZZ.

Bathroom Renovation...... finally

My husband made the announcement .....he is willing to start the bathroom renovation and do the work himself instead of hiring a contractor!

Imagine my surprise, after 7 years!

To be fair, we have tackled some major projects over the years, including the kitchen. Since we mostly "pay as we go" and do the work mostly ourselves, we could not do it all at once (this house has been quite a project). We have saved the bathroom for almost last.

Our original plan, which we'll call "Plan A", was to reconfigure the entire room, but to hire someone for this monumental task. Lately we've been discussing the practicality of keeping things simple and doing only a cosmetic upgrade. This alone will be quite a job.

It's a really tiny and really ugly room. Honestly, at first glance, you might think it should be condemned. It's that bad. However still maybe not as bad as our kitchen was.

So, now for the "Before Pictures" which are really important, albeit very embarrassing, to get an idea just how bad it really is (or was, once we can show off the finished room):




Please, before that thought, "jeez, she could at least clean it! it would look better...?" pops into your little head, allow me to explain! I have attempted everything short of sandblasting this disaster to try and remove the mold. The problem is, the moron who redid this used plastic (fake) tile board - that stuff that just looks like tile but comes in big sheets! It was installed all the way around the room, and then the person had the bright idea to install it in the tub surround! Maybe they ought to have considered whether this stuff was rated to handle the constant wet conditions of a shower/bath? as the surface coating of plastic cracked, it revealed the fiberous backing, and trapped moisture causing it to expand and mold. The more I cleaned it, the more it removed the plastic and gradually has gotten worse. OH JOY.

Additional mold is growing underneath the very sloppy gloppy caulking job they did around the trim. Nothing short of removing the caulk & trim will get it off, hence we were "saving it" until we ripped it all out. It's so disgusting I can barely stand to bathe in there!

Aside from it's hideousness, the tub does not have a level rim or any shelves, so there is absolutely no place to set shampoo bottles or soap. If you attempt to set anything on the rim, it is not level so most things end up slipping and falling off. We use one of those dumb flimsy unattractive shower caddy things.

The next source of utter embarrassment (the entire room is awful, but these are the WORST areas) is an original metal cabinet - the only storage we have for the entire bathroom, pictured below. Obviously, someone attempted to refinish it, but just never quite got the job done. I am thankful it's BEHIND the bathroom door, but this is also a problem because the doors from the cabinet are in the way of the bathroom door constantly. When I first saw it, I did not want to even use it! I realized I had no choice so I scrubbed and bleached and lined every shelf surface with heavy contact paper. You can imagine how ready I am to rid our home of this catastrophe.

Other fun and funky things about our bathroom - one is the door handle. It's one of those cute glass door knobs, but it's stripped, so after attempting to fix it several times we gave up and left it for when we "renovate the bathroom". We know not to close the door tight, and try to warn guests. In the event of emergencies we would keep one end of the door handle in the bathroom cabinet, but after having to walk a number of trapped guests through the process of finding the door handle to release them from our bathroom prison, we decided to keep it dangling in the door, and sometimes it falls out.

Other issues:

The only ventilation is the old fashioned way....open the window.

If the bathroom door is left or pushed open (which is usually is due to the above mentioned door handle issue, people walking outside down the street can see directly in through our living room window and into the bathroom with a perfect view of anyone using the toilet! Always fun when my sister's dog visits and feels she must investigate each and every time someone uses the toilet, and pushes the door wide open! Hi neighbors!

Of course, we are now scrapping Plan A for Plan B so we will not be moving the toilet afterall, which means this will continue to be a problem (but at least the door will finally be fixed!)

Just as an FYI if you are interested - "Plan A" was going to be to reconfigure the entire room. First we planned to knock out a closet in the dining room which would give us a good extra 9 or so square feet in the bathroom. We planned to then move the toilet to this more private area (where the closet was), which would have prevented neighbors from inadvertently viewing toilet users. We also were going to move the tub to the far wall below the window, and replace it with a clawfoot tub.

See how complicated all that was? Our new plan "Plan B" really is so much easier. I am, however, really sad about scrapping the clawfoot tub idea. Maybe in our next house....or our next life....sigh. I suppose we just can't have EVERYTHING.

But it does mean we can now afford some nicer upgrades .....heh heh heh

CHAMPAGNE

One of my Philosophies of Life is.....

Life is simply too short to not always have a bottle of CHAMPAGNE chilling in the refrigerator!

Now before you say anything.... it can most definitely be a less expensive brand, or a cava (Spanish version) or a prosecco (Italian version)....but, you never know when a special occasion will arise, like maybe a good friend popping in, or your husband comes home after just having a good day at work! If we don't celebrate little things like this, when will we celebrate? Annual holidays don't come around often enough.....and Americans are overworked and overstressed so maybe it would help if we looked at more of the little things as worthy of celebration.

Now, for my "wine storage" - we have a small inside joke - when we bought our refrigerator, we were "forced" to get the KitchenAid Architect series (terrible I know) - because we have a door in the way in our tiny house which a deeper refrig would just out and be very much in the way, not to mention the aesthetics. We couldn't really afford a Viking or other "counter-depth" model. KitchenAid was affordable in comparison. Well, one of it's features is a "wine rack" which consists of a plastic thingy that hangs on the side of the shelf and holds one bottle of wine. You would not have thought to call this a "wine rack" if you had seen it. We found it quite humorous. Admittedly, it sounds impressive to tell your friends you have a wine rack in your refrigerator, and it works perfectly to keep a bottle of some sort of sparkling white wine on hand at all times. It keeps it up and out of the way, so it was partly my inspiration to do so. Anyone could buy one of these for their own refrigerator, probably through the Kitchenaid website - or I'd bet The Container Store or maybe even Target has something functionally similar.

My other inspiration for always keeping a bottle of Champagne (or sparkling white wine) in the frig is one of my all time favorite movies "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - because THAT is the life I really want to lead..... ;)
I strive for it. (ok, maybe not the call girl part, just the endless wild swanky parties wearing fabulous clothes part.)

One issue many have is how you open a bottle of champagne, drink a couple glasses, then what the heck do I do with all this champagne? I have two solutions.

1. Buy the little bottles. I think they are half liters - maybe even less. Enough for about two full glasses or 3 to 4 small "toast" size glasses. Even a few of the better Champagnes comes in these smaller bottles. I often purchase them for just the two of us, because Stefan doesn't like to drink ANY white wine. He will drink it when I make him, but not more than a glass, then I end up drinking the rest by myself! Not an entirely unfortunate scenario I suppose, but I can't say I always want to be drunk all by lonesome.

2. There are some very handy special stoppers (also available at many stores which sell that sort of thing - like Bed Bath & Beyond or Target/Wal-mart) which work perfectly to keep any bubbly beverage (I also use them for sparkling mineral water) fresh and bubbly for very long periods of time. Not the vacuum type wine stoppers, those won't work at all. These have a silver or metal thingy which bends down and tightens the seal. They work extremely well. The prosecco I used for dessert at Easter had been in there since New Years! I'm serious! It honestly, in my opinion, didn't taste horrible or anything. Especially since it was only used for dessert. It's not like I had a sommelier coming to dinner. It will only work if you have at least a quarter to a half bottle left. Anything less is not worth keeping anyway, make some Champagne vinegar out of it!

(money saving recipe for champagne (or any other) vinegar: take any amount of champagne (or wine or cider etc.) in any glass bottle or jar, I usually use the bottle the champagne or wine came in, and add a teaspoon or so of Bragg's raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar with "the mother" in it - available at many health food type stores. "the mother" is the living culture that will feed off the sugars in the wine and turn it to vinegar within a few weeks, depending on the temperature. Do not cork or keep the lid tightly closed. It needs air. I usually wrap the opening with a little fabric (like cheese cloth) and tie it with string or rubberband. This keeps fruit flies etc. out yet allows it to breathe.)

Now, I am certain a sommelier would cringe at the thought of this. However, while I know I have a fairly good palate, my taste buds are not QUITE that refined.... (and not to be rude, but neither are my guests', for the most part anyway! So I just don't think most of us need worry about this aspect.)

Honestly, if you are one who claims you are not crazy about champagne, I have found it is often due to having exclusive experience with nasty cheap Andre (or similar least expensive brand) often found with a plastic cork. Or maybe only having experience with that which is served at midnight on New Year's Eve in most clubs after already consuming a dozen other drinks, which is a most common cause of the "champagne headache" many of us have personal experience with on New Years Day! It is always amazing to me how anyone could proclaim they do not like "Champagne" when this is often their only experience with it!

My advice, hit a wine store, talk to someone there and get suggestions. Try out an inexpensive, yet still decent bottle (avoiding plastic corks and screw caps). My rule for most wine is usually $10 or less, unless I splurge on good Champagne. And, don't be afraid to tell the person at the store your price range, otherwise how will they know? Just begin to experiment with a few sparkling white wines. Then, go home and have a glass with some fruit like say ...peaches, strawberries, raspberries etc....you might just be transformed!

Last Minute Easter Dinner

Of course, as usual, our life is crazy and I don't think ahead about any details as I am usually just trying to keep my head above water with a million or so things on my plate, so holidays always tend to sneak up on me. Every year I swear I'll plan better next year..... uh huh....sure I will.

I had the revelation (Saturday) maybe I should dig the Easter stuff out? Fortunately, I at least had the presence of mind during the week to plan a simple menu and make a grocery shopping trip Friday, but I had forgotten all about the decorations! Seems like every year I forget about many of the small treasures I have accumulated. I find stuff in July and think, oh wow, I forgot we had this (again) - I MUST remember this for next year.....

Maybe if we ever get out of the "renovation" stage of our house, I'll get things slightly more organized, but until then, it seems impossible. I suppose it's because nothing can be put away properly - things end up being moved around, and I can't seem to keep up with where it all ends up getting moved to. Plus, we don't have much storage space to begin with (800sf remember?). We certainly do not have enough space to store all holiday decorations in one place - so we have things in closets & cabinets...in the shed....and in our storage room we rent. I try to keep track of it in a notebook.....but it's no easy task (esp. for ME)

In previous years I have forgotten about using my good china, so I was determined to remember this year. We have never used it for a meal since I bought it. Well, only for coffee and cake a couple times. I did not opt for china when we got married, I went for nicer everyday dishes, because my mother and her mother and her mother all had gorgeous expensive china which was always packed up and never used! Maybe Great Grandma used hers sometimes, but not in later years. Her's might actually be worth something today as a collectible, it was Haviland Limoges, purchased around 1915, when she got married. Both her parents and my Great Grandfather's parents were big landowners, legislators and business owners, so they were well to do and the china was expensive for those days. However, it was lost or stolen (probably by one of the kids) after being stored above their store for years. I have no idea what happened to my Grandmother's china, and my Mother's was lost in storage during one of the many moves we made as I was growing up. I decided, what is the point to buy it, never use it, then lose it.


The catch is....we (the females in my family) all LOVE DISHES. My mother and sister in-law love them as much as my family. There is just something about dishes that calls to me. Beautiful objects which are as useful as they are decorative. Having just the right piece for each course etc. Collecting....or as Stefan says...."nesting". My sister-in-law always shops for china, during one of her quests, she got me looking on ebay for the same brand of china, made in a small factory nearby where her mother grew up in Germany. I was into ferns at the time. I still love ferns - and I found these dishes. No bidders. I couldn't let them go unloved. The shipping was more than the dishes...but the total amount was $100. There were 12 complete place settings and many extras were included: berry bowls, bread plates, serving pieces.....etc... an AWESOME deal. I would not have purchased such a thing at full price, but for $100? why not? I do not think it is the finest china, but it's delicate finely made porcelain and in excellent condition - almost no wear, no chips and the gold painted trim was still almost like new. I have one wall of cabinets, floor to ceiling with plenty of room to store them.....so why not? But I vowed to myself, "as God is my witness, we WILL USE THIS CHINA!"

I had thought last year at Easter, DARN - why didn't we use the china? It's perfect for Easter.....I told myself......ok, next year. I even planned to buy a new mint green hemstitch table cloth to use with them, but never got around to it. Then, I almost forgot AGAIN! But, at the last minute while I was beginning to prepare dinner....it came to me! YAY ME!!

Darn, no hemstitch tablecloth. Place mats just would not do, ugh, I have to iron the damask table cloth I have. So, while waiting on the potato galette in the oven I dragged out the ironing board and the damask table cloth & napkin and ironed them. You know, I always dread doing this, but in reality it only took about 10 minutes.

I then remembered....duh....I HAVE BAMBOO GOLD flatware I have been acquiring specifically to go with this china, which I also found on Ebay a few years back. (oh if you only knew how much bamboo flatware I have now, but that story can be for another day). I also remembered I had recently acquired some mix-matched vintage glasses that were given to my Grandmother as wedding presents in the early 1940's. There were only a few left, not a complete set, so my fussy mother and grandmother didn't want them.....oh well....their loss! They wouldn't use them anyway.


While cooking, I sent Stefan to the field near our house to pick a few wildflowers for the table. Shhh, don't tell the neighbors..... of course, the city will come mow the field soon anyway :( but actually, that's a good thing...sad for the wildflowers, but they'll be overtaken by taller weeds soon anyway.

My mother-in-law (as I mentioned) is German, and it is typical to have a decorated Easter tree (she usually uses pussy willow branches, which might be traditional, but that takes far more effort, finding and buying them....somehow it seems to elude me every year)

We have two little trees which produce some type of very sour cherry, so I have been cutting branches to use at Easter the last couple years. Last year, Easter was early enough the blossoms were still blooming! I decorated them with little Easter ornaments I bought at Target in college (you can see, I am in the process of recovering our dining chairs in white leather - I have one and a half done so far - I'm taking photos of that process to document soon)




I also managed to dig out my "Easter" bin from the shed, so I laid out a little spread of all my little Easter treasures I have slowly collected. I thought I had given that blue/green basket to Goodwill (I made that bow YEARS ago), but it was one of the items I found through the year. I had been storing it at my Grandmother's house and forgot all about it.

Next, I died some Easter eggs. Now if I were organized, I'd have made some fancier ones.....oh well, maybe next year. At this point, I was glad to have anything. Many past years I haven't bothered.

Note the black egg - actually just made a mistake when trying to make purple, but it's Stefan's favorite color, so it's especially for him!


One year, when one of my nieces was about 6 years old or so, she spent a few days with us before Easter so we made these little bunnies and chicks out of cotton balls. I saved them and put them out every year.


Ok....now for the food.

Ham with Apricot-Mustard Glaze
Potato-Leek Gruyere Galette
Asparagus-Pea-Radish Medley

VOILA



Impressive...if I do say so myself!

but, honestly....looks can be deceiving....and presentation is EVERYTHING

How 'bout those bunny napkin folds??

While Stefan was out picking wildflowers, I quickly looked up how to fold them....a new addition to my Easter repertoire.

The most difficult thing about this meal was..... buying the groceries and digging out all the decor/china/linens etc. Thank-you Martha Stewart for the menu which came straight to my inbox the week before.

A big time/mess saver: I didn't follow the recipe for a big ham...it would have been too much for the two of us anyway, so I decided to buy one of those pre-cooked hams where all you do is slice and warm. The glaze was simply apricot preserves and mustard powder, and was quite tasty. I served it warm on the side. The potato-leek galette, while it looks very impressive, was merely a matter of slice/shred and assemble. I used a Zyliss mandoline - a slicer I got a couple years ago at Bed, Bath and Beyond - which is AWESOME and will cut perfect slices (including your fingers, so use the finger guard gadget!) super fast. I used the thinnest setting. If you don't have one, I really think it's worth the investment of about $50, mainly because of the time it saves. Use your BBB coupon, and it will be 20% off! Also, check ebay!

Just a note:

If you go for another brand, just be sure to get one with various thickness settings, a sturdy stand and get one with a hand protector thingy!!! Yes, I have sliced my finger. Luckily not too severely, but enough to make me really careful now. I was not using the hand protector thingy, now I ALWAYS do.



Here is the galette fresh out of the oven, before it was flipped onto the platter

I even sliced the leek on the mandoline.



To serve, I flipped it out onto a plate, then took a second plate (the one you will actually use to serve it on) and flipped it again (if you try this, be sure to do it over the sink and have a cloth ready to wipe the drips off the bottom of the plate so you don't get the juices on your table cloth)

The veggies only required steaming. The peas were frozen. I sliced the radishes on the mandoline also.



Now for Dessert

I didn't plan this too well....ok...I didn't plan this at all......but it worked out beautifully.

I had some fresh raspberries intending to make a cake or cupcakes to serve them with. Well, I didn't have time for all that.....I spent half the day Saturday with neighbors in the park killing poison ivy, then some good friends stopped by for a quick visit.....then I had an Ebay issue come up (have been selling on ebay on the side), and finally decided decorations had priority over cake. So, this afternoon after dinner (yes, as in after Easter dinner) I wondered what the heck I could make that would not be too complicated. I was kind of thinking some type of pudding like thing. I remembered how much I like sabayon, it definitely should be good with fruit. Is it hard I wondered? Will I need 25 ingredients that I don't have? So, I pulled out my trusty "Joy of Cooking" and discovered - WOW - 3 ingredients! Sugar, egg yolks, and champagne..... I can do this

So this brings me to one of my PHILOSPHIES FOR LIFE

I know many people don't usually have champagne on hand - but YOU SHOULD.

.............becuase life is too short NOT to have a bottle of champagne always chilling in the refrigerator!

Seriously!



Sooooo, I had some prosecco leftover from New Years, just waiting for the right occasion. Yes, it keeps that long....


for more info, see my post about CHAMPAGNE


Back to dessert.......I literally "whipped up" a half recipe of champagne sabayon (zabaglione if you are in Italy) in about 15 minutes. I had no idea it was this easy. You whip egg yolks, sugar and champagne (or other wine - for zabaglione, it's traditionally a marsala wine) over a double boiler for 10 minutes. I don't have a double boiler (partly for space reasons) so I use a glass heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water.

I served the light as air concoction over the raspberries in Grandma's lovely glasses and it was a wonderful end to a nice meal.



Maybe next year I'll really plan a little better.....

(naaaaahhhhh)

HAPPY EASTER!

Grand Entrance

Ok, I'm bad.....didn't I tell you I rarely stick with anything? My latest obsession, Facebook, has had me very distracted. I received a post on my blog recently, and realized I definitely have some projects to show off. Time to post something new!

Since last post, nearly a year ago, we have actually accomplished quite a bit! This picture is a representation of "before" we had much done to the exterior of our house. Taken in July 2007 when we had just had the cedar shingles replaced, but they weren't quite finished yet....you can still see some tar paper on the roof peak.

Here is a nice "transitional" photo of the front. We have fixed the fascia, upgraded the trim around the door, replaced and painted the columns. Also, the front door was scraped and sanded. Unfortunately it remained like THIS for waaaayyyy too long. UNTIL.......















TA DA!! House all painted!! The two windows shown have now been restored and the front door finally painted (just last week). Of course we still have lots to do.... I just wish those darn shingles would fade...but the plan is also to add layers of smaller higher quality cedar shakes. This is just the "rough" base layer. Landscape is also needed, of course. Plus our new gutters and lamp were installed summer 2008. It took some time for me to adjust, the lamp seemed so HUGE at first....but most of the lamps we saw while shopping were gigantic like this..... I am have come to accept it and decided it actually makes a bold statement. Landscape will help hide the very unattractive "cement" skirt - common to all these old pier and beam houses. I suppose as a side task I should at least paint that piece of plywood grey - as we just used an old stray piece of plywood to cover it up when we had to tear a hole to get under the house right to replace the water main. We had a great deal of work done July 2007, right around the time we were planning a major trip to Germany (talk about stressful), and it wouldn't stop raining so our contractor was behind schedule. Of course, now we WISH it would rain like that!

Me Painting (proof)

the wrens built a nest so we painted around them and waited until all the babies were raised and left the nest before we could finish

The back deck last spring - looking forward to sprucing things up again this year, it's been awfully dry so hopefully we'll get some more rain to help green things up!



Resident lizard living behind our new Electric Panel - many of may recognize this as "Geico" - but those commercials are incorrect! We have lots of these here - and this type of lizard is not a Gecko - it is an Anole which is related to the Chameleon - and yes, these do change colors depending on their background and the temperature outside.

Below is the new Electric panel - not pretty - but highly important!


Below - more proof I DO actually work on our house! Here I am working on the baseboards - taping and painting. (According to my husband, this is rare, men) I also countersunk all the nails, filled, and sanded all those little holes


Next photos are of the crown molding. Then I'll stop for today! I do have most of the seams filled and sanded, as well as nails countersunk and filled but not quite all sanded - as soon as I finish sanding the molding, I can finally paint it. We have one window complete, which I will post soon, and the 2nd window is in process.


Stefan installing crown in living room

you can see how we layered and built up the crown and the door frames


Here is a corner seem which I then fill with putty and sand - I have already filled and sanded the nail holes here.



and here is a picture of the carport - you can see the new roof also



The newly painted black front door made a HUGE impact!



LASTLY....BUT NOT LEAST

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEFAN!

I love you!

Ok! That's all for today...stay tuned!