Priming the Bathroom/ Before Shots

I've been working on priming the trim and doors that you saw in the last post, and I thought I'd give you some background on this room. this is what it looked like when we bought the house. Complete with plastic, sort of wood looking vanity.
We bought this house in 1988 and this definitely looks like an eighties bath in an old home. In 1999 we decided that we couldn't stand it any longer. I tried to strip the wallpaper, but the wall board came with it. We did not want to gut the room at this point, so I decided to cover it if possible.
Joe and I primed lots of paper bags and tore them up into random pieces which my sis and mom and I applied with wallpaper paste. We planned to do a paint treatment over the paper.
At this time, I got terrified that I had actually made an even worse mess of the bathroom and that we'd still have to gut it.
So I mixed up some paint and did the wall behind the door...and I liked it pretty well!
We found a brand new Kohler sink at a garage sale for a dollar. Which seemed like a great deal until we realized it was a very unusual sink and would require a faucet which cost a couple of hundred bucks over what we would usually spend on a faucet. We bit the bullet and ordered the faucet. Here you see Joe constructing the counter top. He also laid a green vinyl floor.
Counter top almost done. You can see that we had to curve it back to make way for the closet (under the stair) door. I don't have pic, but a skirt hangs under this counter to cover the storage space. I wanted a vintage mirror with no medicine cabinet, but Joe wanted a medicine cabinet. Sometimes you have to compromise...I know Joe does what I want a lot, so turn about's fair play. I'm still not wild about the light on this, and may be trying to find a way to alter the lighting situation and a still keep the cabinet. Any ideas?
The business end of the room. I etched the glass on the window so we wouldn't have to have a curtain. I would love to replace the window with a bigger sash window like in the rest of the house. We could put shutters over the bottom section.

Now the room has been like this for years. We had shower doors for a long time, but they were a pain and now we have a curtain. As you can see I painted the trim a darker color the first time, and now I am going to paint it a lighter creamy color to try and freshen it up. Except the ceiling trim...I like how that kind of just blends in with the border. I'll keep you posted and show more pics as I get things back together.
Today's work....... filled nail holes and primed the doors and jams.
My helper got a little primer on his nose.

While I was doing this, Joe was up on the scaffold painting the fishscale siding on our front gable.

Bathroom Trim

Ahh, a lovely picture of the throne. But wait, look past the throne and what do you see? Baseboard!!!!! You have no idea how happy this makes me! We did this bathroom right before our Year 2000 New Years Party. Every time I sat here, I would get irritated that we still didn't have trim around this floor. Joe has the this week and next week off and he has been knocking out some jobs that have been waiting a long time.
Now tomorrow I have to pick out some paint. I'm going to paint all the trim in this room and that should freshen it up pretty well. Looking at this pic, I think I may have to fill the nail holes too.

Edited to add: I just wanted to say that Joe cut these corner blocks...I think they turned out very nice!

Tagged.......

I was recently tagged by Margo at Robolady. If you like recycling things in a new way you should visit her blog. She's full of ideas! I need to think of 7 random things about myself and then pass this on. So I'll try and come up with 7 new things that I've not shared before.

1. The best practical joke I ever did: sneaking into (breaking and entering!) a friend's apartment and rearranging and hiding his stuff. Several weeks later we visited him and there were still dishes hidden in his overhead light fixture. What can I say...it was college. And were lucky not to be caught.
2. I'm afraid of heights. Afraid enough that I sometimes end up in tears when attempting high up home repairs.
3. My desk really does look something like the cartoon above.
4. I'm 45 and I still want a tree house.
5. In my baby book it says "When I grow up I want to be: a trapeze artist and queen of the Rose Bowl parade." I guess I've always been very practical ;o)
6. My "new" used car has a ton of gadgets---and I love them!!
7. I'd like to bicycle from my house to my sister's house in Indiana. 220 miles.

I'm tagging:
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Hummingbirds Don't Lie
Equus Villa
Sand Flat Farm
Swallowfield
Garden Antqs Vintage
Red Shoes Blog

Stay tuned....Joe is putting in the baseboards around our bathroom today, and I hope to post a picture tonight!

Prom!

This is our youngest's senior prom. Her cousin was nice enough to travel all the way from Indiana to do hair and make-up for our daughter and her friend.
One of DD'd friend's made these beautiful garters to match each girls dress. She did a wonderful job on them.
They clean up pretty well!
These four have such a good time whenever they are together. If you are a house blogger frustrated at seeing prom pics, please look past the pretty young folks and notice the paint on the porch. Joe and I have a goal to get that painted before graduation. So hopefully when that time rolls around in a month you will see the front of the house freshly painted.
Off to have a wonderful evening!

Birdbath Bling and Peeking at Prom

This is one of those trash to treasure projects that I love. I did post about it a long time ago, but since I filled it up today for the first time this spring, I thought I'd show it again. The birdbath is one we'd had a long time and it developed a hairline crack and wouldn't hold water very long.
I used GE Silicone 2 to put marbles, tiles, coins and bits of dishes on the old birdbath. Then I grouted with sanded grout. I sealed it with a sealer available at Lowes. It says it's safe to use around food products. It seems to be safe for the birds too.
I know now that the silicone is probably not the proper thing to use on this project but it's held up well for several years. I try to haul the top of the birdbath to the basement for the winter, but for the last 2 winters we just leaned it against a tree so no water could collect and freeze....and it seems to be fine.
Here's a little peek at daughter's prom dress. It's pretty amazing.
And she got a sassy manicure to match.

Closet Ceiling Done!

It's one of those little jobs that will make a big difference that we have been putting off for years. This is the closet under the stairs. It opens into our bathroom so all sorts of stuff...towels, sheets, extra shampoo, etc are stored there. I've had to keep the sheets or whatever I'm trying to store on the top shelf in plastic boxes with lids........because anytime anyone runs up and down the stairs dirt sifts down. The picture above shows the underside of the stairs over the closet. YUCK. This has just irritated me for years. It's like having a rock in your shoe...and for some reason you don't take it out.
Yesterday Joe hunted down some materials in the garage, and tonight he cut some beadboard and installed it. It took him a few hours, but what a difference.
Tomorrow I'll paint it up and I'll have a nice functional closet. Yes, and I'm going to put a compact florescent bulb in...it'll burn cooler, save energy, and I don't care what the color of the light is in the closet.

Florida Getaway

While Hawkeye was hanging out with his new poodle buddies, the girls and I went off to do a little exploring. Our friend Mary, who was kind enough to share her home and her poodles with us, provided us with some great maps to help us find our way around.
We went to Blue Springs. This is such a beautiful park. The spring water is crystal clear and the park is a tropical paradise.
The water looked lovely for swimming, but we saw a large alligator not far down stream from where this girl was swimming. That's pretty scary for this northern gal!


We saw seven manatees at the park that day. These two are young orphans that were recently released into the wild. The little bobbers are tracking devices.We got lots of pampering from our host and hostess and their three beautiful dogs. Murphy is the biggest poodle I've ever seen....Louie was a big boy, but Murph has him beat!
The girls spent a lot of time on the beach. On the way home we found a dog friendly beach, so even Hawkeye got to wade in the surf. At first he wasn't so sure about the waves rolling in and would run back from them. Eventually he decided it was pretty fun to splash around.

Orange Tree on Dwellable

Poodle Party!

Yes, it probably sounds crazy to some people, but not if you own a standard poodle I bet! Daughter, her best friend, our dog Hawkeye and I traveled to Daytona Beach, Florida to visit a wonderful couple and attend the poodle party they were throwing for the Flickr standard poodle group. This pic was taken after one of the dogs (and her owners) left so unfortunately we don't have a complete group shot. It was so much fun meeting all these people and their dogs in person.
This is Cliff and the lovely Molly, two of our host's dogs.
This is our host and hostess, Mary and Beau, surrounded by poodles. Thank you both so much...we had a wonderful time. Hawkeye slept and slept on the way home. I think he was worn out!
Why is this poodle pup talking on the phone? You can read the touching story here and the background story here. It's a very sweet story about the love between and man, his dog, and a whole community of people who got behind them.
This is my daughter holding the dog who went home early and didn't make the group shot. Cute little Dixie the Dog. Dixie has her own terrific blog.
Here's Hawkeye on the way home....dog tired!
Tomorrow I'll post a little more about our getaway to Florida.

Daytona Beach Shores on Dwellable

Lavender Sachets

As you all know, I'm an antique dealer and I go to a lot of auctions, garage sales and thrift shops. Along with good linens that I can sell, I also get many that are damaged. They have so many good parts that I hate to throw them away, and I look for little projects to make from them. See the toile at the very top of the photo? That is part of a bunch of vintage drapes I got at a thrift shop in Tennessee. Beautifully made, they must have come from a lovely southern home. They were very faded.....not so good for drapes, but very pretty for other projects.
Tonight I cut some of them up and made some sachets to sell at the shop.
I wish you could smell these....they're so nice. I ordered some lavender buds in bulk for crafting and it has a nice strong fragrance. I'm going to be looking for some cedar shavings to make some cedar scented ones too.

Walk with me? Fitness Quest.

I have been trying to get going with the whole fitness thing for a long time now. I've gotten heavy enough that I am not in shape to do alot of things I'd like. Even some home renovation and gardening jobs are much harder than they would be if I were a reasonable weight. I always do better in the summer months, but in general, I've not done well since I opened up the shop again. My friend Dawn told me about a site where you log your miles and it keeps track of where you are on a hike across the United States. The cool thing is that they have pics, and each time you log your miles you can see where you are on your virtual trip. If you'd like you can sign up and walk, run, and/or cycle with me. My ID is 51611. Put me on your buddy list and we can travel together.

I never thought I'd have a fitness category on this blog, but here we go!

How to Make a Bedskirt in a Half Hour

This bedskirt is the easiest thing to make because it's made of felt...no hemming or seaming! It can be made to fit any size bed, even an old antique like this that takes a much longer skirt than you can buy. Just measure your drop from the top of the box springs to the floor and add about 3 inches. Then measure your length and add about 3 inches. Do this for the sides and end of the bed.
You are going to cut a rectangle of felt for the end, and one for each of the sides. If you want to dress it up a little you can sew a strip of ribbon or fabric along one edge as I did-it will just take you a little longer is all.
Then get your self some of these handy pins. They are sold as bedskirt pins or upholstery pins. I got mine at wal-mart.
Position your rectangle so the edge skims the floor and let the 3 inches wrap around your box spring. Pin your felt on using those great pins.
I added 3 inches to the length because I wanted my corners to overlap as you can see in the pic above. That way the box springs aren't peeking out. Ta-da! You're done.

One really great thing about this bedskirt is that it stays put and isn't always trying to slide out one way or another.

Sorry about all these flash pictures...kind of harsh lighting, but I got home after dark tonight.