Thursday, September 13, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
Remodel - Crown Moulding
I am going to attempt to document our remodeling adventure this past summer. However, as I peruse the pictures I am realizing that as complicated as the whole project was to work on, so it is to put in writing! We didn't finish one part and then go to the next. We had several sections ongoing at once.
We started with painting. Ok, I started with painting. I wanted to get that mess out of the way while the floors were still "old". However, floor work began even while painting continued. Laundry room tile first (good practice area, since it would always be covered with those machines!). Kids' bathroom tile came next. Painting was still ongoing.
As the kids' bath was finishing up, the master bath was begun. However, somewhere in all that, Dad starting ripping all the carpet out of the house. The whole house. Everywhere but the bedrooms that were going to be replaced. No carpet. Just concrete. Felt like a camp cabin. It was lovely. So, the kids' bath was completed and the master bath was begun. However, somewhere in there, new baseboards had to be painted, cut and installed in the laundry and kid bath. Ok, so the master bath is underway. It was a long project. We got a little creative. It was complicated.
The carpet guys were coming soon, so we had to get the master bath tiled, grouted and sealed before they came. Then came the new carpet. However, before the carpet came, we had actually halfway begun the kitchen tile because all the furniture was out of the kitchen when the new carpet was installed. Oh, and I was still doing some painting, because when the carpet guys got there that day I had doors out that I was putting another coat on. Did I mention I began repainting all the doors and door mouldings? Oh, and we got Little Buddy's room repainted just before the carpet guys came, too, because we wanted to get rid of the one red wall he had in there. The kids helped with that one. Lots of touch up is still needed in there...
Ok, so carpet was in, kitchen was still in progress, new baseboards were continuing to be installed in all the newly tiled areas. We finally finished the kitchen and got all the furniture back in there, however, we didn't seal it for a while because we had a problem with the grout that got stuck in the little divots in the tiles. I wanted to clean out the divots, but we had to let it cure for a week before we could put the stripping cleaner on the tiles/grout. Well, after a few weeks...we gave up cleaning out the divots and just sealed it. The look grew on me and no one else seemed to notice that it wasn't supposed to be that way.
In the mean time, we had begun the Pergo in the family room. We got all the way down the kids' hallway and felt fairly finished. Started getting the baseboards in the family room, entry and hallway. Oh, and in the kitchen that had finally gotten sealed. We left the "best" for last. "Happy Father's Day", Dad wanted to get it finished. I told him he couldn't work on Father's Day, but he was obsessed with it. However, I had to make it difficult because we still hadn't repainted the last room, the Study. That was where we had put most of the junk from other rooms and it was still a complete disaster. I made him so mad, because I told him we HAD to repaint that room before doing the floor. So, we did and 24 hours later, the paint and floors in that room were complete.
By the end of that week, we had most of the baseboard work done and were just left with a long list of touch up areas to complete. We still have a list. The list will be in effect for a while. We're tired. From Mother's Day to Father's Day, we worked almost non-stop. We went to New York for a few days after Father's Day and work hasn't been the same since. So, here's my other dilemma with writing and posting pictures of the remodel. We're not really done! However, if I don't go ahead and post some of this, it will never happen. And you'll never see how proud we are of ourselves for what we learned and accomplished this summer! I guess it's kind of like making those dresses. They're far from perfect, but what a feeling of accomplishment knowing we did it ourselves! We're ready to go build a new house somewhere... NOT!
Well, after all that rambling, here are the first pictures of something I know we did, but I don't have listed above because I don't know where it came in the process! I know we did it, but WHEN did we do it?? Don't know.
We started with painting. Ok, I started with painting. I wanted to get that mess out of the way while the floors were still "old". However, floor work began even while painting continued. Laundry room tile first (good practice area, since it would always be covered with those machines!). Kids' bathroom tile came next. Painting was still ongoing.
As the kids' bath was finishing up, the master bath was begun. However, somewhere in all that, Dad starting ripping all the carpet out of the house. The whole house. Everywhere but the bedrooms that were going to be replaced. No carpet. Just concrete. Felt like a camp cabin. It was lovely. So, the kids' bath was completed and the master bath was begun. However, somewhere in there, new baseboards had to be painted, cut and installed in the laundry and kid bath. Ok, so the master bath is underway. It was a long project. We got a little creative. It was complicated.
The carpet guys were coming soon, so we had to get the master bath tiled, grouted and sealed before they came. Then came the new carpet. However, before the carpet came, we had actually halfway begun the kitchen tile because all the furniture was out of the kitchen when the new carpet was installed. Oh, and I was still doing some painting, because when the carpet guys got there that day I had doors out that I was putting another coat on. Did I mention I began repainting all the doors and door mouldings? Oh, and we got Little Buddy's room repainted just before the carpet guys came, too, because we wanted to get rid of the one red wall he had in there. The kids helped with that one. Lots of touch up is still needed in there...
Ok, so carpet was in, kitchen was still in progress, new baseboards were continuing to be installed in all the newly tiled areas. We finally finished the kitchen and got all the furniture back in there, however, we didn't seal it for a while because we had a problem with the grout that got stuck in the little divots in the tiles. I wanted to clean out the divots, but we had to let it cure for a week before we could put the stripping cleaner on the tiles/grout. Well, after a few weeks...we gave up cleaning out the divots and just sealed it. The look grew on me and no one else seemed to notice that it wasn't supposed to be that way.
In the mean time, we had begun the Pergo in the family room. We got all the way down the kids' hallway and felt fairly finished. Started getting the baseboards in the family room, entry and hallway. Oh, and in the kitchen that had finally gotten sealed. We left the "best" for last. "Happy Father's Day", Dad wanted to get it finished. I told him he couldn't work on Father's Day, but he was obsessed with it. However, I had to make it difficult because we still hadn't repainted the last room, the Study. That was where we had put most of the junk from other rooms and it was still a complete disaster. I made him so mad, because I told him we HAD to repaint that room before doing the floor. So, we did and 24 hours later, the paint and floors in that room were complete.
By the end of that week, we had most of the baseboard work done and were just left with a long list of touch up areas to complete. We still have a list. The list will be in effect for a while. We're tired. From Mother's Day to Father's Day, we worked almost non-stop. We went to New York for a few days after Father's Day and work hasn't been the same since. So, here's my other dilemma with writing and posting pictures of the remodel. We're not really done! However, if I don't go ahead and post some of this, it will never happen. And you'll never see how proud we are of ourselves for what we learned and accomplished this summer! I guess it's kind of like making those dresses. They're far from perfect, but what a feeling of accomplishment knowing we did it ourselves! We're ready to go build a new house somewhere... NOT!
Well, after all that rambling, here are the first pictures of something I know we did, but I don't have listed above because I don't know where it came in the process! I know we did it, but WHEN did we do it?? Don't know.
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| Click to play Make your own Smilebox |
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Seamstress...NOT!!!
Aunt Cynthia got married this weekend!! Her neices and nephews have long awaited this wonderful day for her. Or, for them. The girls have long talked about getting to be in her wedding. Did she have a choice or did they ask what color their dresses were going to be?? They were engaged Memorial Day weekend. They were married Labor Day weekend. Not a lot of planning time. So, she went right to work on planning and preparing for the festivities. Somehow, after a bit of shopping, I got roped into sewing the 4 junior bridesmaid/flowergirl dresses for the neices. We went shopping down on Harry Hines for fabric and even though I laughed at the pattern's "easy" labeling (aren't they all??), I thought I would be able to manage the crepe-backed satin fabric and all the wavy ruffle things for the 2 smaller dresses.
So, since we were in the middle of major remodeling in our house, I tied the fabric up nicely in a bag and put it in my closet to protect it from all the glue, dust and paint we had spread all over our disastrous abode.
My 3 girls were so nice as to remind me often of how many weeks were left before the wedding. I think I may have even said "shush" to them once. With a smile, of course. So, after we got back from vacation in early August, I pulled out the table I had bought at Sam's two months ago just for this project, dusted Bear's sewing machine off (hers is much better!) and got to work. Things were going nicely until I hit "the tiers". Did I spell that right? Maybe it should be "tears". If I hadn't been so darn frustrated with those stinking tiers, maybe I would have shed some tears. I started wondering how long it would take to FedEx the whole mess to Amy in Colorado and have her do it.
And then, Mawmaw came over and in her smooth and angelic way asked me if I was using the rolled hem foot for the tiers. A what? Thirty years of sewing. Never heard of the thing. We looked in Bear's machine booklet to see what feet came with her machine. There was one foot in the pack that wasn't in the book. After some online research, we found that it was...a rolled hem foot! Mawmaw hadn't used one, but she knew her mom had and at least knew what it was used for. So, between the two of us, we figured out how the foot worked, practiced on some extra fabric and voila! A hem that didn't look like crap! Well, it was way better anyway.
(trying out a new slide show website I came across - ran out of storage space over at PictureTrail!)
So, since we were in the middle of major remodeling in our house, I tied the fabric up nicely in a bag and put it in my closet to protect it from all the glue, dust and paint we had spread all over our disastrous abode.
My 3 girls were so nice as to remind me often of how many weeks were left before the wedding. I think I may have even said "shush" to them once. With a smile, of course. So, after we got back from vacation in early August, I pulled out the table I had bought at Sam's two months ago just for this project, dusted Bear's sewing machine off (hers is much better!) and got to work. Things were going nicely until I hit "the tiers". Did I spell that right? Maybe it should be "tears". If I hadn't been so darn frustrated with those stinking tiers, maybe I would have shed some tears. I started wondering how long it would take to FedEx the whole mess to Amy in Colorado and have her do it.
And then, Mawmaw came over and in her smooth and angelic way asked me if I was using the rolled hem foot for the tiers. A what? Thirty years of sewing. Never heard of the thing. We looked in Bear's machine booklet to see what feet came with her machine. There was one foot in the pack that wasn't in the book. After some online research, we found that it was...a rolled hem foot! Mawmaw hadn't used one, but she knew her mom had and at least knew what it was used for. So, between the two of us, we figured out how the foot worked, practiced on some extra fabric and voila! A hem that didn't look like crap! Well, it was way better anyway.
Don't the girls look lovely in their dresses? Don't look too closely.
Still, I would have gladly paid $100 per dress for each girl rather 
than tackle that project again. I was so frustrated with all those dresses and fabrics! It is a good feeling knowing that I made the dresses for the girls, but I also know how bad they looked because they could have been so much better with a professional seamstress!
I'm so glad the older girls wanted dresses without the ruffles. (Bear, Bit, Little Girl and cousin Jillian.)
Here's a slideshow of various pictures from the wedding. We didn't take many pictures with our camera, but I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of shots the THREE PHOTOGRAPHERS got.
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| Click to play Make your own Smilebox |
(trying out a new slide show website I came across - ran out of storage space over at PictureTrail!)
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