Two doors down, and One to go...

Our bathroom door is in...  The trim isn't there just yet... next week???  :-)  We're still trying to decide on what goes in the closet on the left.  The opening is 44", but they just don't make 42" or 43" doors.  And we don't want one of those accordion things.  This needs something old looking...  Will have to think about this for a while.  It will come to me... probably in the middle of the night.  LOL!!! 

This one looks much better.  But it has trim around it.  We'll be going back to Lowe's in the next day or so... We'll exchange the door knobs... And get another gallon of Cream in my Coffee.  Oh!  Where's my sticky notes???  If I don't write this down, I won't remember it.  ...  OK... it's stuck to the monitor. 
Did I tell you that I have two days off?  In a row???  :-)  We got the house cleaned up... We're having company this weekend.  :-)  A really cute little girl and maybe her cousin, too.  That would make me very, very happy!!!  Grandpa would be happy, too.  Right, Grandpa???

Three doors...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_230295-77999-30151089715_0__?newSearch=true&catalogId=10051&productId=3054177&UserSearch=230295&Ntt=230295&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151

We just got home from Lowe's.  Picked out the three interior doors we needed.  We'd love to have solid wood doors, but they didn't have them.  We made a couple of quick decisions.  Neither of us liked the hollow core luan doors.  They would be too ordinary and plain.  We chose the ReliaBilt  32" 2-Panel Hollow Core Molded Composite door.  So far, we're thinking the doors will be painted Cream In My Coffee.  Seems like John and I talked about painting all the baseboards Cream In My Coffee.

Another item we bought at Lowe's...  a quart of solid color stain for the porches and railings.  http://www.olympic.com/Stain/color_inspiration/Color_Finish.aspx

We chose pewter... got 1 quart to see if it will work before buying several gallons.  Will take photos after we get a couple of samples done...

http://www.olympic.com/Stain/Find_Products/solid_maximum.aspx

That's for the olympic base stain.  Clean up is with soap and water.  Oooh!  Great!  Much better than clean up with paint thinner!  Am anxiously waiting to see the samples!!!

First Azalea Bloom

This is the first bloom on my azalea bushes.  In a few days there will be blooms all over the three bushes along our driveway.

That's it for today.  There's so much pollen in the air that the Zyrtec-D that I'm taking fizzles out after 6 hours or so.  Went to see my doctor this afternoon... Zyrtec-D twice a day, use the Omnaris nose spray and take the antibiotic for the full ten days.  I'm hoping this will stop my allergies before it turns into an upper respiratory something or other.

Later... Gator!  :)

Living Room and Bedroom floors...

Living room is finished, except for the baseboards.  But that is a few small projects away.  The bookcases on each side of the fireplace need to be built.  There's a tall dish cabinet on the pantry wall.  And we've got to pick out the three doors for the bedroom and both bathrooms. 

 Oh, My!  I love the light patterns on the the wall!  There won't be very much of that, but that little bit is going to go a long way for me!  As you all can tell, I love pictures... and details... and color...

OK...  The tee strip that goes with the flooring looks great.  But...  there's a definite crown in the middle of that tile.  Oh... I have no idea how John is going to deal with that.  That must be the reason he didn't nail it down.  ...  We'll deal with that later.  :-)

Looking into the bedroom.  Oh!  Yes!!!  I need to pick out a door.  :-)  Well... Of course, the floor is fantastic!!!  It is a shame that the bed is going to cover up so much of it.  That can't be helped.  We don't have the luxury of enough space to have a regular bed.  After the doors are put in and the two closets are finished, I'll order the bed.  When it goes in there, it won't be moved. 

John even go the closet floor in.  It looks really good! I'm thinking a bi-fold louvered door for that closet???  Or... Lowe's has a very nice looking sliding mirrored set of doors that would look good.  Isn't mirrors supposed to make a small room look larger?

Our other closet goes here.  As soon as I get the details on paper, I'll see if I can get them posted here, too. 



More Oak Flooring...

Bedroom floor is almost done!!!  There's still a couple of strips of boards to go, but it is almost finished in there. The other closet and where the wood floor meets the tile in the bathroom.  There's a t-strip that fits there.  Oh... We need to go get a couple of doors!  I had bought a paneled door from a local church when it was being torn down... thinking I could use it here, but it has only two panels and not sure it would look right.  I'll find another place for it. 

From the kitchen looking through the bedroom door.  Several times over the past... eight or nine years... I have wondered if I'd ever see anything like this.  It has been just open walls for so long.  It is amazing to actually walk on this awesome oak floor.  ...
The floor of my parents house was oak.  But nothing like this.  It was not finished.  It was so old that the boards had shrunk, leaving 1/4" spaces between the boards.  We lived on a dirt road, so there was no end to sweeping.  That house was torn down many years ago.  But memories last forever. 

From the french doors.  Yep... Awesome!!! 

Flooring progress...

This is our bedroom.   John's about half way across the floor.  It is looking really good!!!  A friend has oak flooring in her house and gave me some pointers on how to take care of it.  She recommended getting a Hoover FloorMate.  It will clean, scrub and squeegee the floor dry.  Sounds interesting.  Will have to look into that.

I was standing in front of the french doors looking through the living room and into the kitchen.  That shiny thing at the floor is the receptacle for the new range.  It's a bit closer to the floor than it should be, but that's OK.  It's in the right place.

Standing in against the kitchen wall.  As soon as John gets the bedroom finished, he'll get back in the living room.  The new nail gun has made a big difference on how much he can get done in one day. 
LOL!  The only casualty is one piece of trim on the window on the left side of the french doors.  That's not bad.  If David & I were doing this, there would have been lots more damages! 

Oak flooring...

 Ok...  here it is.  It sort of looks like the lanes of a bowling alley.  LOL!!!  We're very pleased!  The nail gun that John had rented was not working properly... causing twice the work.  David went over to Harbor Freight and found another one.  Before that, he looked at several places.  All gave him about the same advice... hit the ... whatever it's called... twice.  Well... hitting that thing twice would put two nails in the board.  I didn't think to get a picture of the new nail gun, but will do that in the morning.  The nails look a lot like horse shoe nails. 

A close up...  It looks red where there's no light on it, but at the bottom of the picture it looks just like it really does.  It feels like a lot of wood, but when we get cabinets and furniture and rugs...  It's going to be fab-u-lous!!!!!  :-)

What's New on Monday 14 Mar 2011...

Well, hello! Daven!!!  How are you doing today???  That is a fine felt paper flooring you have there!!! What? It wasn't quite level in that corner??? So, you had John do something to it?  And it should be all ready to go tomorrow or Wednesday??  WOW!  That would be awesome!!!  Are we ready for that?  We'll ask John about that in the morning, ok?
Doesn't it look nice with it so open in here?  I'm wondering how it will look when we start putting furniture in there???   
It must be cool here?  46 degrees and windy?  Yep! That's what I was thinking, since you have on a sweatshirt and a cup of coffee...  

Oops!!!  I think that fireplace needs some serious attention!!!  It's face is dirty!!!  I do have some cleaner that I'll use on it.  However, it will have to wait a while, I've got several things that need to be done first.  But... the rest of it looks good, right??? 
I had thought that we might need to paint the brick, but I don't think it would look right.  From this picture, the red/copper tone looks perfect with the yellow.  And, what color furniture will we have?  Oh!  The decisions I have to make!!!! 

Ah-Ha!!!  That's where everything went!  Somebody has been busy at our cabin today.  I hope John and Chris took a couple of extra-strength Excedrin tonight!  I didn't move nearly that much stuff yesterday and I was very sore this morning. 

6:45pm...  It was windy, but it is gorgeous!!!  Can hardly wait til we can sit out on the back porch and really enjoy this! 

Oak flooring...

Well... We have the oak flooring!!!  It has to acclimate itself to the cabin several day.  There's 41 boxes!!! 

http://www.truehardwoods.com/catalog/item/5652585/5539077.htm

But we bought ours at D & S Carpets in Ashdown, Arkansas. 

This is about half the boxes of flooring...  there were 41 boxes, each box has 25 sq ft of random length 2-1/4" planks.  It's pre-finished, so that when it's down, it's ready to use! :)  John and Chris took our trailer to town this morning to get the flooring.  I suppose it will be next week before they can start the installation.  The electrician will be here first thing in the morning to check the wiring to the HVAC.  Dean, the guy who installed the unit, said it's all ready to go, but that a wire isn't hooked up to it somewhere.  We'll see what Tommy says in the morning. 

Will post more when there's something new.

Master Bath walls...

This is the master bathroom wall.  :)  We, John & I, decided not to put crown moulding at the top of the tile walls. It looks good with it stopping right there in the corner. 
David and I were just down there to look at the latest supplies...  That will be my next post. :)

The other side of that window. There's not much that has to be done here in this bathroom...  Well, I do have to decide where to put a small ceiling fan & light. 






I copy and pasted a picture of the fan from Lowe's website.  There were 20 something reviews... all were positive comments.  I saw it at Lowe's when we first started the demolision. 
allen + roth  24" Roman Bronze Ceiling Fan

Window trim is done... Crown moulding is done...  Vent is installed, cover is attached...  This part of the bathroom is finished... 
As soon as the flooring in the rest of the cabin is installed... the cabinets built and installed, doors installed...  What else??? There will be some serious cleaning to do in there.  But... that will be good!  After the floor is down, I can order our storage bed.  :)

This is the back of the shower wall.  John did a really good job of finishing off that wall.  It didn't look right with the tile stopping where it did.  The casing trim with a little cut off one side was perfect!  The texture is the same on the walls and ceiling.  I love it!!!

The shower side of that wall.  Another two months should have us moving in.  That will give John time to get the floor down and get the cabinets finished??? 
That will also have me all finished with H & R Block!!!!  YES!!! 
That will also be a couple of anniversaries for me.  High school graduation and wedding anniversary... both in May. 

First Signs of Spring...

Here are several photos I took last week.  The pink Japonica is from my yard.  The Daffodils are from our neighbors yard.  These are always the first to bloom each year.  The first signs of Spring. 

Utility room and bedroom...

This is the Utility Room trim.  We didn't have any trim for the tile.  I was thinking a very small bead trim, but John said he could modify the trim we already have.  He trimmed off about an inch...  It looks very good! 













 This is from the bedroom.  We needed some place for the switches to the ceiling fan and lights, so we added this little section to that wall.


Not so recent pictures...

From March 3rd...  The trim for the doors, windows and crown moulding is up and painted.  The contrast is good.  Yes, I could have had John paint the crown moulding the cream color, but I like it as it is.  As soon as John and Chris get all the coats of sealer on the ceiling and we find a place for everything in the floors, it will be time for the floors!!!  Oooh!  That is going to make such a difference!!! 
Over the weekend, I worked on a rough draft of the kitchen cabinets and the Utility Room.  Good Grief!!!  There is a lot of detail that goes in to remodeling a house.  I can see where it would cause a lot of problems between spouses when trying to build a house!!!  We have done well...  Only one minor argument and that was several years ago.  :-) 

A closer view of the trim and beadboard.  After John gets a coat of sealer on the beadboard, I'll get another picture to show you the difference. 

Early Spring and Lake Level...

This was taken on Jan 6th and late in the day. 

This was from this morning.  A boat was going up the river...  You can see the Red Bud tree has bloomed, too. 

Beadboard... Before and After

I took this photo yesterday about 6pm.  John stayed until he'd finished putting the first coat of sealer on the beadboard in the living room, dining room, kitchen.  He and Chris had done the bedroom in the morning.  It is looking SOOO good!!!  I wish the pictures were clearer, but they just don't let you see how much better it really is.  The stain I'd started with, and what is on all the beadboard, is Minwax Golden Oak.  Before I finally picked this color stain, I bought several quarts of different colors.  Sure wish Lowe's had those 2 oz samples. 
By the way... Just about everything we've used in the remodeling project, we bought at Lowe's in Texarkana, Texas.  We tried shopping at The Home Depot, but we always came back to Lowe's. 
The sealer is Minwax Oil-Modified Water-Based Polyurethane Semi-Gloss... purchased at Lowe's, of course. 

 This was from Feb 20th.  The crown moulding and trim had been painted.  The beadboard looks good without the sealer on it, but it needs that extra something to finish the look.  I'd wanted the Satin finish, but they didn't have the Water-Based in the Satin.  Semi-Gloss has a little more shine/reflection than I wanted, but I certainly wouldn't change now. :-)

Here is the photo I took this morning.  There is a definite reflection of light on the ceiling now. And this is just the first coat.  The instructions on the can says that Water-Based Polyurethane needs at least 3 coats with drying time of 2 hours between coats.  John said the odor wasn't too bad, either.  They had the doors and windows open...  I didn't notice any odor, either.

 This is on the right side of the fireplace.  Not sure what day it was, but it was night time.  The crown moulding is up and painted...  The paint is Valspar Filoli Honey... purchased at Lowe's. :-)

Oh, Yes!!! Much better!!! Sorry about the optical illusion look to the beadboard.  I thought I had the resolution set to the highest possible, but I'd changed it for some reason and didn't put it back.

Another night time shot...

From this morning. 
I guess that will do for now.  I'll look through my photos to see if there's anything else that I think you might be interested in seeing.
Oh...  The Corp of Engineers has raised the lake level back up to normal.  I'll put a couple of those up next...