You call me a hillbilly....

My mason jar light fixtures are up! They are really beautiful. We originally hung them on Sunday before church, but we mixed up some wires and they were staying on contstantly... like the switch wouldn't turn them off. So we had to flip the breaker off and wait until Monday evening to fix it. Last night we went back over to the house and flipped some wires around and voila we have light! (that can be controlled with the flip of a switch)

I promise to post pictures soon, last night I was too tired to take any.

We also primed the dog gate. The dog gate was something I created based on something my Dad, E. created when I was a kid. It's big. When you have three dogs who weigh between 30 and 100lbs you need something big. It we bought one already made it was going to cost us about $100. I don't know about you, but I would rather spend $100 on something more fun that a dog gate. For about $20 and some change we are in the process of making a spring loaded wooden dog gate that will match our kitchen decor. I'll keep you posted.

I also scrubbed mildew off the basement stairway. That was sicko. I haven't experience any toxic side effects yet, so pray that I don't. I don't know if the stairs will be painted and primed before the carpet goes in on Friday, but at least the mildew is mostly gone! Aren't canvas drop cloths for keeping paint off of floors?

Our hardwoods also got their second coat of poly yesterday. They look beautiful! The 3rd and final coat should be tomorrow, so hopefully they will be dry by Friday!

My main man, Mr.

Don't you want one of these? Find your own, you can't have mine. He snuggles, comes when you call him and takes orders pretty well. He doesn't make too much of a mess either. Other than the farting and a small issue with invading personal space, I'd say he was perfect.

We have a winner!

The hardwood floor process began yesterday and baby they are beautiful. JD and I left work early and met over at the house yesterday afternoon. We agreed on a stain color immediately! The stains from left to right are Jacobean, Dark Walnut and Provencial. Can you guess which one we picked?


PROVENCIAL! I can explain why.

First of all, these pictures don't do the stains justice. While I like darker stains, the dark stains were really dark. Because this house was built in the late 1950's-early 1960's the living areas aren't as large as some in today's homes. Really dark floors look great in big rooms, but not in small ones. They can make the rooms look even smaller and that is something that I wanted to avoid. So, we decided immediately on Provencial. We also found out that our floors are premiere white oak. I don't really know what that means, but I do know that we could definitely not afford to have them installed in today's economy. They did have to replace a lot of damage due to the powder puff girls(powder post beetles) that we found when we ripped up carpet.

We are on schedule folks and packing to move in on next Friday the 21st! Yahoo!

I can see the light!

Baby, I can see the light! I took yesterday off so that JD and I could try as hard as we could to finish up painting all of the woodwork in the rooms that have hardwood floors. We finished! I had the brilliant idea of taking all of the doors off of the hinges because #1, the hardwood guys are going to do it anyway and #2, it made painting door frames so much easier and #3, we could paint the doors this weekend in an area that does not have hardwoods while we are waiting on our floors to dry.

There are still lots of things to get done before we move in like:

1. paint and hang all doors
2. make and install mason jar light fixtures for kitchen and laundry room (these are going to be really cool and you folks are going to be waaaay jealous)
3. move ceiling fan into den
4. prime and paint stairway to basement (first remove and kill mold that is growing on wall, YUCK)
5. Paint ceilings in den and kitchen
6. finish trim paint in bathrooms and paint cabinet and change knobs in JD's bathroom
7. buy and install light fixture and mirror in JD's bathroom
8. paint air conditioning vents and re-install
9. have duct system in house inspected and cleaned.
10. clean entire house.

Yes, all of this is to be done before the 21st/22nd of this month. Might I also mention that my only day off between now and then is Sunday, the 16th? How is this possible?

I think I have lost my mind... for real this time

My bathroom. What you may not believe is that this room started out a pink tiled fairy land. It was not pretty. It had a pink cabinet, pink tile 1/2 way up the wall, a pink toilet, pink tiled floor and a pink tiled shower. The wallpaper on the top of the wall was pastel flowers from the sixties. We were stylin'! In order to not make feel like vomiting every morning when I went in the bathroom, we ripped out the wall tile and replaced it with beadboard. I wanted to rip out the floor and re-tile the shower but my contractor said something about tile being laid differently in the sixties and subfloor and backer board and all I heard was $$$$$$. So the pink tile stayed in the shower and on the floor. Luckily it is a very small bathroom so you really don't notice. I had a cabinet maker build the cabinet you see there. What I love about this cabinet is that it is taller than a traditional cabinet. It covers up everything below the waist. Personally I would rather not know if my pants are making me look fat. Problem solved for $400 and some change. Much cheaper than lipo. The pink toilet had to go. 1. it was 40 years old and not water efficient. 2. it was pink. 3. it was someone else's toilet and had been used for 40 years. ( yes, I know they were my grandparents, but bodily waste is bodily waste). After the toilet was replaced, I painted the walls a very light gray, which compliments the very minimal pink that had to be left. I am not done yet, so if you any suggestions, let me know.

My bedroom. It is connected to my bathroom so I wanted a color that would coordinate well. I went with Sherwin William's "Beach Glass". It isn't gray, blue or green. It's a nice combination of the three. 3" crown molding is going to be added in here this week. I hate the ceiling fan, so it will be replaced soon.

My cabinet debacle. Ok, my grandparents had these cabinets custom made about 15 years ago. They are real wood. I also think that they are really ugly. I want to paint them white (or pay someone else to do it), but I have to wait awhile to break the news to the rest of the family. I think they all might have a litter of ducks when I tell them. Do ducks have litters? In the meantime I am replacing the cabinet pulls. The ones on the left are the ones that are there now. The ones on the right are the ones I am replacing them with. The only drawback is that the original cabinet pulls have 3 holes drilled into the cabinet and my pulls only have 2 screws. So underneath the pull there is a hole that you can see, although not in the picture. When they are painted, they can be filled in. For now, I have hole-y cabinets. I know I could have installed similar pulls with backplates, but did you know that backplates were expensive... like 2x as much as regular pulls so that would be like $8-9 a pull. And I have 39 cabinets and drawers. I think not folks.

Ok. This is the den. This is linoleum. I hate linoleum. Everything in the house except for the basement, den and kitchen has hardwood floors. We originally were going to have the guy who is refinishing the hardwoods install hardwood flooring to match the rest of the house in the den and kitchen. Well, we came back to reality when we found out that would be an additional $5000. I shudder knowing that we will be putting new carpeting in the den(you should know how I feel about carpet) and another kind of linoleum in the kitchen. You can sort of see the panelling herein the above picture and please don't worry, I have more pictures of that ugly panelling stuff for you. Sorry about the dog; Pickle likes having her picture taken and she wouldn't move.

The Panelling. I HATE IT! I know that it is real knotty pine, tongue and groove and that it would be expensive to replicate today. Why would you want to replicate it? I know that the electrician, the carpet guy, the sheetrock guy and the hardwood guy told me not to paint it. I know that I am going to do it anyway. What do you think?

It's been a long weekend, as you can probably tell by this post. I know it's a long one and I am sorry. We are still not done painting the woodwork in the rooms that have painted. Who knew that they were going to need 3 coats of paint? Yes, the hardwood floor guy is still coming on Wednesday to sand and stain. Yes, I am supposed to be done with the painting by then. Oh, what is every ones opinion on wood floor stain? I want to go dark... like not as dark as a chocolate, but pretty dark. What do you guys think?

Hang on to your hardhat....

An example of the wallpaper in the hallway. The hallway was also know as my shrine back when I was an only grandchild. See... they even decorated it for Christmas.

My biological mom (the one I don't claim), My biological Dad(I do claim him), me and my great-granny. Also notice the lovely knotty pine panelling. I will post about that later on.

The panelling and my grandparents television. They were still using that television in 2008. Talk about keeping something until you really can't use it anymore.

More panelling. And me and Aunt G. This was the eighties folks, Don't be judging the clothes and hair too harshly.

My Gamma. Notice the plastic wrapped chair. No, it wasn't a new furniture delivery. Yes, that furniture is probably at least 10 years old in that picture. Who needs scotchguard when you have plastic. Just a little windex and you are good to go! Also notice Pekingnese under kitchen table. That was Pappy, the tobacco chewing devil dog. Yes, I said tobacco. Don't go calling us rednecks. That patio is now an enclosed sunroom. I am not normally one for additions, but this one was done well and looks good now.

For those of you who don't know, or have been living under a rock (also known as busy with your own lives, which is perfectly understandable, by the way), I have been in the midst of renovation torture. Yes, yes, yes I know a good majority of us have done home improvements and maybe some of us have even renovated homes, but have you ever had to completely pack up and clear out a house and work with a contractor and keep everyone in your family happy with all of the changes you are making because it is your grandmother's house and everyone has "memories" attached to the way things are? I didn't think so. Put on your hardhat, buckle up your seat belt, grab a hammer or tool of your choice and hold on, I can guarantee it is going to be a bumpy ride. FYI, you might want to put on a pair of safety goggles and a mask because it's going to get dirty... and dusty and there might be mildew.

Welcome to my nightmare.

JD and I did sign up for this. We were both completely sober. I don't drink at all, so I can promise you I was. I can't 100% vouch for JD. I thought (and still think), "Wow! I can live next door to my Aunt G and Uncle F! My adopted Granny and Grandad are on the other side of Aunt G and Uncle F. We'll have fifteen acres in the pseudo countryside!". Yeah. I don't know if I thought I was going to be churning butter or what, but I did also mention that I wanted to raise goats and maybe some cows. Aunt G and JD quickly shot that idea down. Laura Ingalls Wilder was not to be my destiny.

So we got the house packed up. We ripped up the lovely shag carpet and found wood floors. Technically, I was pretty sure they would be there... back in college I discreetly ripped up a corner of the old shag to see if there was wood and there was. But there was wood all over the house, except for in the basement, the den and the kitchen. Cool! I hate carpet, so this was excellent news. Don't get me started on how unsanitary carpet is.

I quickly learned that I HATE WALLPAPER! I have personally made a vow to never have wallpaper in a house. Removing wallpaper from walls is not fun. Like... peeling it off the wall was easy, but scraping the glue and dirt and mess it leaves behind is tedious! I think I would rather perform my own appendectomy than remove wallpaper again. My grandmother loved the stuff... it was in nearly every room and in every bathroom. When we went to buy the paint I learned that we would have to paint every wall that had previously had wallpaper with oil based paint. The good Lord only knows how many brain cells JD and I lost that day.

We are in the home stretch now. We just have one more room to paint and all of woodwork to paint. We have to finish this weekend because the hardwood floor guys are coming on Wednesday to begin refinishing the floors. And we plan on moving-in in exactly two weeks. I may still be high from paint fumes, but I believe this is possible.

Because I am the idiot of my village, I didn't take pictures as the process began. I have found some old photos of the way my grandparents house was when we began. The furniture isn't the same as what it was when we began, but you will have a very good idea of what we are working with. I promise to take pictures this weekend.

Martha Stewart dreams...

I want to be Martha Stewart perfect. I know that this is impossible; and that she herself is not perfect, but doggoneit, I want it.

Lately I have been thinking about why I am this way. I have come up with a couple of possibilities:

1. My mother (who I don't have a relationship with) is a hoarder and a slob.
2. My grandmother was a "Southern" Martha Stewart. She didn't stop. She kept a perfect home and made it all the way to the National Beef Cookoff in 1980. Might I add that this was after she suffered a massive cerebral anyeurism in 1976 where doctor's told her she would never walk again, or be able to take care of herself. GO GAMMA!
3. A combination of #'s 1 &2. My mother was horribly undependable and made me feel insecure, whereas my grandmother was the definition of dependable and made me feel comfortable, secure and loved. As a result of this a neural pathway was formed; clutter and messiness made me feel yucky and cleanliness and organization made me feel safe and happy. *

I am going with option #3. I am sure if goes a lot deeper than that actually; that self-esteem is wrapped up in keeping a "perfect house and lawn and life and car and closet and refrigerator and scrapbook and desk at work" and on and on... but I don't want to scratch deeper.

So my family loves me as I am. My cousins can attest that at 10 years of age I was a mini-Hitler; making them bathe on camping trips and washing all of their dirty clothes. My college roommates can remember that I woke them up at 7am on Saturday mornings bleaching the baseboards (God bless you, JD and BB (now BBB).

Take me as I am. I can promise if I come to visit your house will probably be cleaner when I leave than it was when I got there. Sorry about that, it's how I am.

*Not a scientific fact