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.

Uncle Mike

What up Heidi!

Heidi and Uncle Mike

Sink!

Kitchen with Range Hood and Stainless Backsplash

Congratulations... It's a KITCHEN! (almost) And a BEDROOM!

Progress continues... much faster now that pros are involved.

So, here are some pictures of the progress in the kitchen and the bedroom. Dave is masterfully replacing the formica on the countertops. In 2 days he has gotten an AMAZING amount of work done:







Meanwhile, Matt and Sylvia are finishing up the bedroom... It sure looks a lot better than it used to.


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