Old Mother Hubbard ...

... went to her cupboard to fetch her poor boiler some wood.   But when she got there....

... her cupboard was bare, and so her poor boiler got none.


But then her husband fetched some wood from the big woodshed and made her help unload and stack it.

And this old mother remembered why there were no treadmills necessary 100 years ago.  And that she hates manual labor.  And is lazy.

The end.

Precarious sanding

The Hubs and I betook ourselves off to The Lake to accomplish that most onerous of tasks:  sanding the living room ceiling.  UGH.

How - you may ask - does one sand a "cathedral" ceiling over a clear second story?   Well, if that "one" is me, the answer is:   I don't.    Well, I did... but just the small areas reachable with my feet on terra firma.   If that "one" is Bob, then
1.)  Construct a temporary floor by layering boards over the exposed floor joists.
2.)  Rig up lights and such.
3.)  Use a step-stool-laddery thing and a sanding pole.
4.)  Administer smelling salts to your timid wee wuss of a wife.
5.)  Blink the dust from your eyes.  A lot.   Because, as I discovered, when wearing a dust mask, you can't also wear safety glasses; they fog up.

To wit:

This last shot is standing in the master bedroom looking out through the pocket doors to the front of the house.  You can see where the edge of the makeshift floor is -- that's the edge of the balcony.  We're still trying to decide on the style of railings we want.  Part of us wants a nice rustic log railing, but that is a lot more work to design and construct....    so we're still vacillating.

Ideas? Links to awesome examples of log railings?  Personal experience in the area of railing design?  Please share!
  

Bathroom floor

You'll recall that Bob and his friend and coworker John were cutting and prepping the master bathroom flooring a few days ago, right?   That's now completed, and I thought I'd drop in a few before and after shots.

Before:

During:

After:

I know that laying a small bit of linoleum isn't exciting, and it certainly isn't fancy as far as flooring goes, but it is, as I am wont to say, PROOOGRESSSS!!

The sink (around that back right corner) is the next thing to go in --  it's now in pieces on the bedroom floor awaiting its turn at installation.  The toilet (dead ahead over that hole in the floor) will wait until we're done tiling the tub surround (left).  The shower (right) also needs to be tiled, and all the trim needs to be done, of course....

But I'll take what I can get!

Dark Schmark

*I* still like the dining room wall color, and interestingly opinion seems to be split along gender lines.  Either that or the womenfolk are too nice to say they hate it...

Here's a few shots with the second coat of paint  -- although I didn't wait for it to dry completely before photographing, so forgive the streaks:

Flash

No flash

No flash, near the window

So, whatcha think?  Bob still thinks it's too dark.  He also sneakily tried to hide the darker paint can and plopped the can of lighter blue paint on top of the table.  Sneaky!  But ineffective in the end, as I put that nice, rich, DARK second coat on this morning.

I love it!  and I think it will look great with natural-color wood wainscoting on the bottom.

Stay tuned for more debates in home decorating as we attempt to select tile for the master bathroom.

UGH.

Too dark?

It's a school vacation week in these here parts, and I finally got off my duff today and went up to The Log House and painted the dining room.  Which Bob and John promptly declared "too dark!"

But first let me set the stage:
The Girl had a friend over this morning, so after a game of Heroica, Bob and The Boy went up to The Lake to work on the new sugar house.  Because you know what it's almost time for?   Mmmmm....  I can almost smell the sweet steam.   But I digress.

The girls and I made brownies and they played some weird scenario where they found a baby in the woods and had to name him/her...or something. I couldn't follow the thread of their imagining.  So after we ran the friend home, The Girl and I went up to The Lake to join the boys, who were finishing up the siding on the back of the new sugar house.

We trooped up to The Logalicious House and Bob and John commenced working on the flooring for the upstairs bathroom.

(photography by The Girl, age 6.)


Since I'm of no use when it comes to measuring, cutting and fitting linoleum, I busted out the paint for the dining room and got to work.  We had originally intended to have a light blue on the top half and a darker blue below the chair rail... until Bob offered to put wainscoting on the lower part as we stood there pondering, and I changed my mind again and decided to use the darker blue on all the rest.   This house is a constantly changing kaleidoscope of ideas.  No plan is safe until it's actually accomplished!

You get the rare sight of me painting the wall because both The Boy and The Girl picked up the camera and started snapping away.  I see a new era in this blog arising before our eyes!  

Ahem.  Yes, anyway, both kids also pitched in to help paint:

So from what little bit you can see in the photos, what do you think?   Do you agree with Bob and John?  Is it too dark?  I like it, so it doesn't matter what y'all think, but it's good to have feedback nonetheless.  I'll take some more pictures once the second coat is on and maybe you can get a better idea....

Hopefully, the upstairs bathroom will have some more photo-worthy progress soon, so I can update you on that.  I would like to have a good chunk of the remaining work done before the kitchen cabinets are installed, because that feels like a final step to me.  I know there will be details and trim work left to do for ages even after we move in, but that can't be helped.  It's been a nearly 8-year journey now and I am NOT WAITING FOR TRIM before I move into this house!!  

Pardon the shouting.  Perhaps I should go lie down.  It'll pass, I'm sure.

 

What snow?

Our experience of this most recent regional snow storm was a good 12" on the ground....    you know:  a decent snow.  Not amazing or remarkable or catastrophic.

We got some snow.

Here's a shot of Bob and our snug house with a white coat from Saturday:

Hopefully I'll have some new interior shots of some progress soon....    thanks for staying tuned!