This is a WAR ZONE Man!

You read that right! My house is currently not FIT for company. As I stated in an earlier post, we are currently working on fixing up our house. Because of the house having the original plaster walls, the walls have cracks in them. Rob has been working to open up the cracks to accept new "goop" (for lack of a better word), like a new plaster to fill the cracks. We are also working on painting the walls and windows.

When the new windows were put in the house, the installers used pine wood to make window sills and the trim work. Because pine isn't a good receiver of stain, at least this pine wasn't going to be good for stain, we opted for painting. The windows are now white painted. At the same time, we are using the same white paint on our ceiling. Again, spoken (and pictured earlier) our ceiling is the original plaster ceiling because we found the wire mesh within the plaster. When we changed out the light for our ceiling fan, that we've carried with us from house to house for the past 10 years, there was a lot of fixing that needed to be done to make the space nice. There was no way we could duplicate the texuring done on the ceiling. So, that was fixed with the architectural feature. Rob has started painting this as well.

With the walls, when the windows were done, we were able to collect a nice sample of the wall paint. After taking it to Lowe's, we were able to match what was on the walls (because we like the color). We have started painting the walls and the have two of the windows in the great room (living/dining room combo) started.

At the same time, I said to Rob, "Since we're fixing cracks and such, why don't we move our thermostat down the hallway."

Our house is a ranch-style house. The furnace lives in the basement, just under the dining room. And the thermostat was living in the dining room. Well, once this room got to the designated temp, it shut off, leaving the rest of the house cold. Cassi's room is the farthest from the furnace and is always the coldest/hotest. With the move of the thermostat, this should fix the problem. I know our great room will get warmer because of the change, but, I can just close a vent and push the heat to the back of the house.

Next, most of the house as the original heating vents. They are kind of angled, etc. Instead of paying for new vents, Rob started cleaning up the vents and painting them white. At the same time, we've got hard wood floors under our carpeting. We have started the task of removing the carpeting and will eventually this summer refinish the floors, starting with the great room. About half of the floor has had the carpeting removed. While this is going on, Rob has been painting the floor trim work white to match the windows. It's really starting to look nice. Yes, I've got pictures and will add them in another post.

As we've been removing the carpeting, a strange thing was found. In the far right corner, between the two dining room windows, you find the corner unstained. Then, moving up the wall, you can see where there were shelves placed against the wall. Hmmm? I believe there was a corner cabinet in this room. Very sad that the unit isn't still there. I would really enjoy putting another one there sometime in the future. NO, not now.

But, with all this moving and such, all of my STUFF has to go somewhere. So, I've been boxing up as much stuff as possible and taking it to the basement.

Once we're ready to refinish, the furniture will go out in the garage. What fun that will be!

On the bright side, on Saturday, we went to a local flea market, about 20 minutes west of here. A business that was in one of the buildings was going out of business, looked like the last day. They were giving away BOXES of ceramic wall tiles for FREE!

Yes, you read that right, for FREE! Eventually, both the bathroom and the kitchen need to be gutted and fixed correctly. The kitchen was done before we bought the house, but half-ass! I'll probably keep the cabinets, but need to fix the countertops and will need to gut and redo the walls, etc. That probably won't happen for a few years.

But, with the free tiles, here's what I got. Each box has 80 tiles in it. I did find 1 box that had 2-3 tiles broken on the edges, but they could still be used where a tile needs to be cut anyway. But, the colors: dusty rose and black. I've got 11 boxes of the dusty rose and 8 boxes of the black. Based on pricing of tiles at Lowe's, I've got almost $800 of tiles for free. Luckily, we had our wagon at the flea market that day. Let me just TELL you how low that car was riding from the weight. But, free tile, I'll take it. Mom just suggested to me that the tiles could be used in my bathroom. Hadn't thought of it, but there might be enough for the bath walls, at least. Hmm, that might look nice. But, it might be a year or two before the bathroom even gets done.

And, since the windows were done, I've got slabs of marble that were the old window ledges in my living room. I might try to get at least the smaller pieces out to my garage this weekend. They need to go for now. I'm still unsure what to do with them. Someone suggested trying to sell them in my grandpa's shop. I could try that after I know I've got enough for my kitchen.

Okay, that's it for now with this story. I'll post pictures later on the progress. I know it will take all summer for this to get done.

Love to all,
Cathy
8^ )