See the special man...

Well, it's been a trying couple of weeks.  I managed to obtain some pretty nice furniture off of Craigslist, but I experienced some rather expensive technical difficulties in doing so.

Mainly, I found a nice cherry sleigh bed in Lake Charles for about $150.  I called and spoke with the seller, who seemed legitimate, and decided it would be fun to cruise to Lafayette (which is 2/3 of the 3 hour drive to Lake Charles) and say hi to the folks, and Claire, Brian and Heidi.  That way, I could stay at Mom's, get up in the morning and finish the trek to pick up the bed.  Unfortunately, things did not work out as I had planned.

Halfway to Lafayette, I got stuck in a traffic jam that lasted 90 minutes and 25 miles.  All of the stop and go traffic apparently was the straw that broke the camel's back for the clutch in my car, and I limped along to Lafayette not knowing if I would make it.  The next morning we managed to get my car to the shop, where the estimate came back at a whopping $1500.  Plus a needed brake job for another $400.

Fortunately, Mom offered to drive me down to Lake Charles and I was still able to get the bed, but what a nightmare!  She then loaned me her car for a few days while mine was repaired.  Mom, thanks again.  You're a saint.  And those of you that helped get Mom where she needed to go while I had her car, thank you too.

Without further ado... the pictures:

Here is the bed with a replacement support (the whiter wood piece).  I had to fabricate this when I realized that the original was missing.  That may have been part of the good price.

And from another angle, the whole bed:

I have also been busy on ebay.  I bought a few antique doorknobs and rim locks (surface mounted "lock boxes") to replace a couple of broken ones around the house.  Here's the bedroom knob/lock:

 

And here's the one for the bathroom:

I replaced the knobs on the front door with something a little fancier:

And, finally, we got some furniture moved!  Hooray, we're in the home stretch!

This is working out!

So, I drove by the house today to see what Dave worked on today.  Yesterday, I had discovered that Riverside Lumber carries and stocks cypress moulding, so I was able to get some casing that dave could use to rebuild the window framing in the entry doors.  To my surprise, when I drove by the front door was hung!  (Remember, you can click on the pictures to see bigger, clearer copies!)

I am REALLY pleased by the way this door turned out.  The back door is on the worktable, ready to hang tomorrow:

Meanwhile, I have been a busy Ebayer.  When I was younger, during a renovation of the house on Baudoin where we used to live, Dad found some great old Victorian/Eastlake doorknobs that we installed on some french doors joining the den and living room.  I purchased some knobs that remind me of those from a seller in Delaware, OH.  Here's a pic:

I think these are going to look GREAT!  Meanwhile, Dave has been ludicrously productive.  The man is an artist, and extremely efficient.  He has:

Cleaned and applied polyurethane to all of the wood surfaces associated with the wainscoting:

And the mantels:

Installed crown moulding on the kitchen cabinets:

Installed the bathroom shower curtain rod assembly and shower:

And here's a pic of the front of the bathroom (ignore the sawdust, it's everywhere right now):

Also, Sylvia stained and poly'd the doors for the bathroom, bedroom, and hall closet:

Bathroom:

Bedroom:

Hall Closet:

Also, I am borrowing Jack's truck tomorrow to go look at and probably purchase this antique table off of craigslist ($190!!! What a bargain!!!):

Antique Table and 4 chairs. Approx 29 in. high,39 in. wide and 59 in. long. Has pop up leaf(such a neat feature,self contained under table) that is 1 ft wide. Dark mahogany in color,not sure of wood. I bought at Auction,planned to strip and redo but hubby says"Has to go-no room". Call if interested.

Anyway, it's been a good few days.  Love, all!

The Perception of Doors

So, I recently had the exterior doors to the house removed and "dipped" to remove the crazy green/turquoise/ugly paint that had been applied by someone in the home's distant past.  You may remember these doors:

The results were at the same time spectacular and disappointing.  The doors themselves are absolutely amazing, but the due to the fine detailed moulding and carving, along with some age lines, not all of the paint was removed in the dipping process.

My contractor was a little disappointed in the result, I could tell, as he called me and suggested I would have to decide whether I was *really* committed to my original plan to poly the doors and allow the natural wood to show, or if I wanted to punt and paint them.  I told him I was not even going to consider repainting them, so he instructed me to obtain some dental tools and begin removing all of the tiny paint flecks from the nooks and crannies of the doors where dipping had been insufficient.  For hours I (and for some of the time Becky) labored with tiny precision tools, pulling old paint off of these doors.  If you happen to come to the house once they are finished, love the doors.  Please.