I’ve started painting the trim on the backdoor.  Someone commented that it looks like a front door.  Given that it’s off the driveway and into the Quilt Studio, I suspect it will get more use than the front door. I need to get out and finish the painting this weekend.

The painters have been here all week. Another coat of paint has gone up in the dining room and piano/living room.

– and crown moulding! I think they are to finish up the bedrooms Friday.

The timing is good.  The guest bed has arrived.  I hope it’s comfortable as I’ll be sleeping on it when I start working on my bedroom.

It also means I need to get the dining room furniture ready to move into the dining room. One chair covered, 5 to go.

In other news, assuming it’s not raining Tuesday, my windows are scheduled to be installed — except for the patio door in the Sun Room.  It won’t be in until mid-April.  That puts the painters on hold as I need to get the trim put up on that wall first.

In quilting news, I’ve called for the long arm. We are aiming for the week of March 21st. We’ll finalize the date next week.  It means it will be here before the painting is finished in the Quilt Studio and Sun Room, but the machine is 3 feet from the wall on one side, 7 on two sides and 5 on the 4th side.  I think it will be OK.

I need to find some Howard Restore-a-Finish in Cherry for the dinning room furniture.  I can find just about any other color at Home Depot, Lowe’s or Ace, but not Cherry.  Looking on the Howard website, they sent me to Antique Aly.  Cute little store. They has a couple of colors, but not Cherry.  They suggested Repeat Street or Ace.  So, off we went to Repeat Street.  They didn’t have any of the Restore-a -Finish, but I found this Duncan Phyfe  game table.

I’ve been looking for one (game table/foyer table) for the past couple of months.  I’ve seen some, but they were higher priced and not in as good of shape.  I snatched this one up — possibly just moments before some other folks.

I’ll need to make a quilted topper for it opened as I plan to use it as one of my tables for Bunco this fall.

After I got it home, I swung by another antique shop, Interior Market, in Jackson and picked up some Mahogany Restore-a-Finish to work on the table top. Next door is Brent’s Drugs, an old fashioned Soda Fountain. The pharmacy closed in 2009.  I grabbed a burger, then went next door to Corner Market.  It was like old home week at the grocery store – Frick’s Ham, Best Buy products and McCormick Pork Chop Bag & Season.

Next week the contractors will be back. #1 is the Living Room, or as my contractor calls it the Piano Room.  The piano will be delivered between 3/15 – 3/22.  #2 is the Dining Room — I have to be able to get the dining room furniture out of the Quilt Studio so they can work in there.  #3 is the guest bedrooms, office, and hallways. I’ve ordered a bed in a box from Sam’s and it’s supposed to be here by 3/15. The last (of the stuff started) will be Quilt Studio and Sun Room.

I mentioned in my last post that I have my office cabinets ordered. They should be ready by the end of March.  This one will go on the Sun Room wall in my office. I need to get 4 drawer pulls. I’m considering these:

On the den wall of my office I’ll have wall to wall bookcases with a couple of cabinets.

I have to decide if I want to use the same pulls, or go with the matching knobs.

Once all of this work is done, it will be time for the Den and Master Bedroom.

I have the back splash, tile, granite and paint picked.  I need to pick my fixtures, shower floor & door, plus make a decision on the cabinets. The vanity will have a stack of drawers on either side of the sink, a sponge drawer in front of the sink and cabinets below that. The mirror will be trimmed out in the flutes and rosettes that I’ve used in my office, living room and dining room. I’m not sure what I’m doing in the closet – I need to figure that out. The floor will be the same laminate I’ve used elsewhere in the house.

In the bedroom, the walls will be Crisp Linen, except behind the bed. I’m going to use Danube by Sherwin-Williams.

In the Den I have more built-ins ordered, but they can’t be started until I have the paneling down and the sheet rock up.

These won’t have the flutes and rosettes, so I’ll pick sleeker pulls. Before these can be installed, I need to get the paneling pulled down, sheet rock installed and possibly have the electricians come out.

It’s been a long 2 weeks.  It’s taken me 2 days to recover.  My brother and his wife left Monday morning. Between his arrival and departure, a ton of stuff got done around the house.  The pictures are not in the order of accomplishment, but rather in a tour of the house fashion.

I’ve got a new front door and it swings open in the correct direction – against the bedroom wall and not over the light switches. I would have settled for weatherstripping for the moment.  After the windows are installed, I’ll paint the trim to match the window trim.

A view from the den.  New door trim, baseboard and the wall corner trim. Tommy was trying to show me something and we liked the look from the living/piano room.  I also have a new foyer light.

This is the view from the foyer into the living room and dining room.  Trim around the openings between the rooms and baseboards.

The bullseye rosettes and flutes were also used on the living room window.  After Penny, my brother’s wife, arrived we counted the # of windows which had a broken lock or pane of glass. 10 of 16. I can’t wait until I get my new windows.

This is looking back into the foyer from the dining room.

More trim work — baseboards and the doorway into the kitchen.  I will get to the kitchen eventually. A dimmer switch was installed for the chandelier.  But another coat of paint is needed, so the fixture is currently sitting in the den.

The dining room window still needs another piece of trim.  Both the living room and dining room will get crown molding – hopefully before the piano is delivered next month.

New lights went up in the bedroom hall as well.  I think these are 6″ and the one in the foyer is 8″.

Baseboard was installed, the AC Return vent cleaned up so it doesn’t need to be replaced and the doorbell box painted.

In the front bedroom quarter round was installed.

This is looking out into the hall from the far corner.

In the corner bedroom, new baseboard and quarter round.

The door knob will be replaced.  We put the old ones back on for cat control.

The plan was to ignore my office until I figured out the built-in situation.  I made the first payment on the cabinets Saturday, so that meant we had things to do, starting with raising the outlets above the cabinet height.  The door into the Sun Room was hung, hinges swapped out and the casing trimmed.  Baseboard was pulled out and new baseboard and quarter round rough cut to size.

The baseboard was put in from the door around through the closet.  That lower outlet will be in the bookshelf.

The laundry room walls in the Quilt Studio (QS) got both baseboard and quarter round because of a weird jut in the floor.  The door into the den was hung and trimmed out.

The wall by the chimney turns out to be a perfect spot for the tea cart until the dining room is ready for furniture. The table top is under the quilt.

The chimney got a bit of quarter round to close the gap.

The Sun Room got baseboards, except on the patio wall. Those and the trim for the new door are rough cut waiting on the windows.

The door on the left is into my office, the one on the right is into the den.  Installed and trimmed out.  AT&T  came out Monday morning and fixed the phone lines.

The sun room window is trimmed out.

The QS patio windows are trimmed out. That’s extra painted trim that will be used somewhere, eventually.  I also got the AC return installed Construction math reminds me of quilting math.  The 12 x 24 filter I needed is only 11 3/4 x 23 3/4.  The thermostat was reinstalled. The HVAC didn’t work.  We poked around and discovered a blown fuse.  Replaced it and now the QS & Sun room are climate controlled for the first time since the ceiling was dropped.

Looking down the Design Wall wall. Baseboard installed.

Early in the week we painted and hung the storage room door.  Somewhere along the way the backdoor got painted.  That peach had to go.

The driveway windows have been trimmed out and baseboard installed along the wall.

I’m considering walling up the door into the laundry room, so this spot is great to store the buffet and dining table chairs.

Twist-lock outlets replaced the regular ones in the ceiling. A little bit of electrical tape and paint and it blends into the ceiling.

One of the very first projects was the outlet and converting my 25-foot long power strip for the long arm.

All the boxes have been moved to the center of the room. It will all have to shift again when the longarm is delivered.

Throughout the house are dark spots on the ceiling.  I took the ceiling vent covers down to paint. I’ll put them up after the painting is finished in the house.

All the Christmas boxes are now in my bedroom to make room for my temporary office, TV and other storage.  As soon as the office and bedrooms are finished, that stuff will move (again) and work can begin on this room.  The built-ins for the far wall have been ordered, but will be the last set built.

The backdoor got a make over as well.  The raised trim will get painted after the weather warms up again. New weather stripping was installed.  It’s not what we thought we were getting, but it works. This was the last thing Tommy did before headed home.

This was the paint room for two weeks. This must have been the first day as there is no paint on the ground yet.  We started to rent a paint sprayer, but for 2 days of rental we were able to buy one.  Buying was a good investment.  It turns out we painted nearly everyday over the two weeks.

Now to get my contractor back to pickup from here.

Late Monday night my brother arrived to help me on the trim work and to bring me the dining room furniture.

Tuesday he unloaded his tools from the trailer into the Quilt Studio. Then we spent a good part of day figuring out what we needed from Home Depot and Lowe’s.

The Home Depot trip was mainly bits and pieces and I didn’t get a picture. We came home, I took a work call, then we were off to Lowe’s.  The baseboard for everywhere that needs baseboard, a bit of quarter round where we didn’t replace the baseboard, door casing and trim and window trim for the living room and dining room.  They didn’t have everything we needed at the first store, so we had to make a second stop.  There is at a minimum one more run, as we don’t have the crown molding or the stuff for the Quilt Studio windows.  We questioned our notes and figured we had enough to begin the process.

Tom set up a saw horses to paint the trim in the backyard. Then he discovered the trim paint I have is oil based (the painters bought it for what they are doing), so he’s off to get paint.

The reason for the huge trailer is the furniture.  It was great to haul the trim in as well. After the trim in the backyard dries, we’ll do more.  Tom also brought me a gas grill.

Yesterday also brought the fabric for the rest of the chairs.  My design choices are causing a division.  People either love or hate the stripe.

It’s right up there with this lamp I’m considering hanging in the living room over the piano.  I need to go back to the consignment shop with a piece of the chair fabric to see if it ‘matches’ and take measurements.  Then I’ll have to decide how much I’m willing to pay since it will need rewiring as a swag lamp. That way if I eventually decide it’s not right over the piano I can use it somewhere else.

I’ve been debating the dining room light since I took down the old fixture and realized “doing it over” wasn’t really going to work.  I spotted this one at the lighting store before Christmas, but wasn’t sold on it.  I decided I need to get my table first. Then a chance remark at the quilt shop about antiques had me reaching out to my sister in regards to my parents dining room set. When I asked her if she thought if she would ever have a space for it, she said not in the foreseeable future and if I want it I can have it as long as it stays in the family.  So, I now know I will have a traditional cherry wood finish dining table, buffet and serving cart.  That sealed the deal and I raced to the store last Thursday to buy the light.  Even better news, is they were selling the display and it was 40% off.  I brought it home this afternoon.  I’ll get it hung after the table gets here.

The electricians were also called back.  My bathroom lights went out Wednesday sometime between 9:30 AM – 1:00 PM.  I thought maybe a bad breaker, but it turns out it was a break in the wiring.  While the electrician was here, we discussed the ceiling outlets in the Quilt Studio and the 3 phantom switches by the den door going into the Quilt Studio.  I think I can safely call the guys in to put the insulation in the ceiling over the Quilt Studio and Sunroom.

This morning the flooring guys arrived.  I left about 20 minutes after they arrived as I had a couple of appointments and got back about 20 minutes after they left.  When I walked in the backdoor I saw this.  The Quilt Studio.

The Sunroom:

I walked through the laundry/breakfast/kitchen into the Dining Room:

This is looking across the dining room into the living room and the foyer – which needs another coat of paint.

This is looking back into the living room from the foyer. 

The floor was stopped here until we can go down the hallway and into the bedrooms.  We laid this much so I can call for the piano – but I really need the the baseboard and crown molding put up first.  Once the piano is in the room, it’s not getting moved.  In the meantime, I need to see about ordering a couple of doormats – both inside and out so I can cut down on the amount of dirt that gets tracked in.

I hope that I can eventually do away with my labeling – or if not, do something more professional looking, but in the short term, I used a dry erase marker.

These are the switches by the main entrance to the Quilt Studio.  They are located on the laundry room wall.

The top panel and the panel by the back door are lined up identically.

• LT – Track lights on the left by the driveway
• CF – Ceiling Fans in the Quilt Studio
• ML – Main lights in the studio
• CP – Carport/Backdoor

Bottom Panel

• Covered Switch – the ceiling duplex outlets
• D – light over main door into the studio
• RT – Track lights on the right by the patio
• DW – Design Wall

Just as you walk into the Sunroom from the Quilt Studio on the patio wall there is another bank of switches

• ML – Main Lights in the Quilt Studio
• CF – Ceiling Fans in the Quilt Studio
• RT – Right track lights
• SR – Sunroom Ceiling Fan

There are 3 more switches in the space

• Single switch for the Sunroom as you come out of the office
• Single switch next to the design wall
• Double switch by the patio door – the left one is for the patio lights and the right switch is for the security lights on the corner.