Renovations Interupted

I wish I could say I could do more sewing this week, but I can't yet. (Next week is the plan).

Hubby and I went to the "Home Show" in Hartford this past weekend looking for flooring (kithen, hall, bath) and came home wit hlots of ideas and plans for measurements to be taken by a few new companies, but it was unusually cold come Sunday night, .... and Monday....so I called the gas co. since the heat didn't seem to be on.
Well, the good news is... we have the heat on!

The bad news is.... they recommended (can you say... INSISTED) we get some furnace /boiler quotes to replace our present one. So I spent the week getting quotes. Can we say anywhere from $6500-9,000? And we really had about $5,000-6,000 left to spend on the ktichen. I guess that may have to wait. Crap!!

This is the old cast iron one. Probably as old as the house (circa 1947).

This is the water heater.... another old bear! But it works well, so far. (Though REALLY inefficient!)

Door Renovations

Well, (Jan 13, 2010) we gave our choices of back door/storm door to the contractor! It will be so nice to get a new back door (our old one is soooo bad), AND a new screen door (that works!). I can't believe I'm getting mini-blinds inside the glass panes (they don't get dusty and I can wash one pane of glass!) and a screen on the storm door that I don't have to take out and put away!! WHoooo Hoooo!!

I actually think I'll post photos next to each other... before and after shots....

This is the interior door from the inside kitchen. pretty shabby....I'll show details of the really bad spots, since the devil is in the details, as they say.

And this is the new door... Mini blinds are pulled down now, but I'll show you them when you can see the outside (tomorrow when the sun is shining).

Here we go. Figures, my grandson needed to 'help' show off the doors. You can tilt the blinds using the top 'bar' or raise and lower them using the bar that runs down the right side of the door. You can't imagine how much fun I had the first few days playing with that door.

Some of the bad 'details' are such.... a storm door that is pulling the wall out everytime the wind catches the storm door......

a door knob that has a section of it in the middle that has chipped off (the key still goes in, I don't know how)

Great door latches that barely work (great security, huh?)

...a door sill, that is chewed away. (This was the part I loved getting replaced!!)

And this was the pile on the driveway that was gonna go, 'bye bye'!! (No, the garage doors are NOT on this year's list, although they will be replaced (or the garage will be rebuilt...someday).

Now for the storm door.....This was the old one. Pretty ratty.

This was what held the storm door on. (not much, wouldn't you say?)

This is the new door before the storm got put on (and no trim). NICE DOOR! It just needs to be painted (primed fiberglass)

This is the storm from the inside. The nice thing is the top glass slides down into the bottom pane, while bringing the screen down with it (from a secret place inside the top of the door). No need to store the screen door somewhere and the screen is high enough that the cats can't dig holes in it (what a concept!).

And this is the view from the outside. YEA!!!!Ain't she a beauty?

More renovations.... smaller scale

Even though these closet innerds look as though they are a color, they are really a gray... the first one is off the dining room, no window in closet.

The other one is in the foyer with a window... maybe that's why the difference in the shade of grey.

They were painted by a friend of mine (since he was out of work and I was too busy). Well, worth the money I paid. Hey, ... they're DONE! and actually, they are filled partially with the stuff I took out of them. What do I do with the rest of the stuff?? St Mary's May FAIR!

Painting is done!- bedroom anyway.

Here is the first stage of the bedroom renovations. I wish I had taken a photo of the ugly paneling that covered the 'pitch' on the ceiling, and along the walls (notice that's still there). It also was on each end of the room, where we enter and the windowed wall.

In this photo, they took off the paneling and put up drywall. It's now finally ready to paint (three coats later of spackle).

Sneak peak at the color...

I've now got primer (gray) on the pitched ceilings and the entrance wall. Somehow I thought it would look 'cottage-y'. Not sure that it does, but I hated the darkness of the room with all that paneling!

The green is creeping in... (anyone who knows me is probably wondering "What is she doing with GREEN in that room?"- I'm not fond of green)

These photos make the room look really grass green, but it's more 'sage' than that. They still have to add the 'molding back at the ceiling part (but I'm gonna have them leave the ones I'd like to make green. The only ones I want them to add back as wood molding are the ones that were at the top of the 'wall' pieces. I would have done them already, but with my luck I'll paint the wrong ones!

It certainly did warm up the room! We'll see how it is to sleep in it and wake up.... Now I just have to make curtains for it. or maybe I'll buy them. I'll see how much money I have left.

Renovations continue...inside

While some of the renovations in the house this year will be done by me, these won't be! Since I don't have the ladders/equipment, I'm paying to have this done! I wish I could have taken a before picture, but I'll describe it.... picture dark brown woodgrain contact paper. Over some textured wallpaper, ... yeah, I know. I thought that was all they had to contend with. WRONG!

This is the hallway going up to the bedrooms with the contact paper off and some of the wallpaper stripped.

Oh, WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY?? More wallpaper?? Oh yes. In fact, it's three layers of awful stuff and over a section of number 2 wallpaper, someone must have spackled something... THAT was a mess. My guys finally steamed it off and it's to this stage right now. They will prep the walls next week and paint them a soft gray.

This is the walls in our bedroom (the pitch of the cape ceiling) which had paneling on the walls up to the pitch and the pitch. I had them take off the paneling on the pitch and put up drywall so I can paint it.

This is the drywall on the pitch almost ready to be painted a soft green.

They also are stuffing the rafters in the ceiling of the cellar with insulation. (They haven't finished yet), and installed some 4' florescent lights--- the better to see you with, my dear!) Julie's is thrilled since she can see down there now! No more cave people!!

Renovations, no sewing yet....

Okay, I took the plunge!! I haven't been much of a decorator, but I got a 'push' from my sister (who does stuff all the time to her house), and a friend from church (who said he'd be glad to help me paint- he loves it-in exchange for doing some sewing - curtains and replacing a zipper- and my hubby is working on his car). Barter is a wonderful thing!... Notice the ugly paper???...

This room (dining) hasn't been touched since we bougtht the house 12 yrs ago. It was decorated 'early, ugly 70's,... you know, avocado green, harvest gold and brown and beige, ....YUCK! AND it was all smoke stained!! (Any smokers who read this... it took 2 coats of ceiling paint, a coat of KILZ and another coat of ceiling paint just to do the kitchen ceiling years ago. This time we did a coat of Kilz and a coat of ceiling paint (white) , but I kinow that I'll be doing the ceiling again. I can just see the yellow seeping through....Gross....)

This is a shot looking into the kitchen (the island is holding a lot of the 'mess'...

We have two large buffets (from both sides of the family) and don't want to get rid of either one... hence the picture of them still in the room...(it's a small house)...

This is after the 'dust settled from Lee sanding the spackle...

Just a deep shade of ugly yellow/gold.... Not sure which is worse, but I understand why they wallpapered... it needed a lot of spackle!

I tried the color I was using on the panels of the coat closet, it's called Pistachio green... Looked better when the painter's tape came off.

See the other buffet on the right? That's the 'ornate' one from Lee's grandmother, but real interesting.... I'll post photos of it once it gets all put back together.