Lovely Spring

Ahhh, Spring. The epitome of hope. Sunshine and warmth, birdsong, flowers - I love it all. (Well, I don't love the mud, but I can ignore it in order to have the birdsong, flowers and warmth.)

We've had an extraordinarily early spring here this year, and I am loving every moment. I do seem to have spring fever, however, as I spend great chunks of time gazing out the window and dreaming of what I would be doing if I wasn't attempting to focus on what I *should* be doing. That last sentence may not make sense to you - if it doesn't, chalk it up to my spring fever, ok?

As we pull up the shades, let the light stream in, and sweep out winter's cobwebs, the house is getting a bit more freshening, inside and out. Yesterday, we used our Groupon for a bedroom floor brightening from Fabulous Floors. What a painless way to get your wood floors looking good again. We only had to stay off them for about three hours, but during that time we had to make sure we kept three sets of paws off the floor, as well as our own. We took advantage of the bright spring weather to take the two dogs to Headwaters Park and let them explore. Cosmo was content to stay home in his bed, thank goodness. Here's what the floor looked like when we got home from our excursion:

This was the easiest wood floor re-do ever. It took very little time, was dry enough to walk on in three hours, looks great, and didn't create a bunch of dust. Tonight we'll put things back together and see how it looks.

Anniversary

Fifteen years ago today, I married my best friend in an intimate little ceremony near the cash register at Turtle Bread. That year we honeymooned in North Carolina, and bought a house there for good measure.

Four years later, we celebrated our anniversary on the Eiffel Tower, and ate chocolate waffles.

The next year, we owned a store, and celebrated our anniversary dining on fried chicken from the gas station.

Last year, for the fourteenth anniversary, we sat by the creek and dined at L'Auberge in Sedona, AZ.

This year, we had Chipotle and cake from DQ.

I'm thinking the years with the fours in them are a little fancier than the fives, don't you?

Re-do Done! (For photo purposes, at least)

This is as good as it's going to get. There are still more things to move back into the treehouse, but as that happens, it's never going to look this good again, so - this is the ideal. Of course, it will be more cluttered in the VERY NEAR future. (All photos should be clickable, for larger viewing.)
Above: The east wall, the abundant work surface, and under desk storage.

Above: The west wall, with plenty of bins.

Above: The south wall, where the hooks full of fibers and ribbons used to be.

Above: The north wall bins. Same wall as my one window.

Above: Detail of the north wall - between the bins and the window.

Above: Credenza detail (south wall).

Above: The northwest corner, showing all the bins.

Above: The northeast corner detail - on top of the work surface.

Above: More credenza detail, showing the storage.

Above: I even have a glitter drawer! Who ever dreamed I would have a drawer full of glitter?

Ready to Re-Stock - One Last "During"

Will I fit everything back in the treehouse? We'll soon know - the room is ready to re-stock, at last. The guest room is ready to receive final touches and house guests, as well. My Oldtimer did an amazing job of persevering through all the allen wrenches and MDF that is Ikea. My treehouse now has storage and work surfaces galore. One last look before I fill it up again with fabric, paint, thread, beads, glitter, and patterns:

Above - the west end, the former wall of shame.

Above, the east wall, the former inspiration wall. Note the large L-shaped desk, the credenza on the right, and the two floating shelves above the credenza.

Above - one end of the desk, showing the extra storage drawers and the window. I love that little wire drawer set.

Above - storage cubes all the way into the corner, with added drawers, bins, and doors.

Above - dining room sideboard or credenza, to be used as additional work surface and storage. The black boxes will store patterns.

Here are a few shots of the guest room as it looks right now. It's also ready to be re-populated, though the bed, blanket chest, and wardrobe have already been put into place. I hope to uncover the pillows for the bed soon.

Here's that same view I posted a couple days ago - no more Ikea boxes on the bed, and it DID all fit into the treehouse! If you look closely, you can see the difference between the two shades of green. The guest room is cooler, kind of a pale sage-y green, while the treehouse is warmer and brighter.

Upstairs Re-Do; Still in the During Phase

Friday evening, in front of the threatened winter storm, we made the "quick" run to Ikea in Pittsburgh for the rest of the things needed to put together the sewing room (my treehouse). Here's a look at what was in the back of the Edge, now stacked up in the guest room:
See that little room across the hall with the bins? It's all going in there!

Another view of the guest room (also in a "during" phase) and the boxes of stuff from Ikea:

Here's a during shot of what will be my new work surface for sewing machine, embellisher, serger, etc:

Storage bins!

This little treetop room is just 6 1/2 feet wide, but 15 feet long.

Here's my poor lone window - but the view is good:

We left Ikea at 8:40. Normally, the drive home is about 2 hours, and we had high hopes of beating the approaching snow storm. About one hour into the drive, traffic came to a complete standstill on the Turnpike. When we finally started moving again, this was the dreadful scene:

Another view - a tractor trailer on its side, and that happened before the snow started. After we cleared this accident, we saw four other accidents and people off the road.

We made it home intact, thanks to my Oldtimer's beloved Daisy (the Ford Edge). She really hauled a lot of stuff home the past few weekends!

We Interrupt our Re-do...

...for an important message.
Having just achieved my 61st birthday, I was delighted and inspired by this presentation by Jane Fonda:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1313

Forget your politics and your movie reviews for a while. If you are jealous that Jane can afford a facelift and you can't, put it behind you. This is such a worthwhile message, not just for women my age, but those coming up behind us.

Upstairs Re-do - Getting Closer

The carpet was installed yesterday! Now we get to do a few touch-ups, and then begin the repopulation of the rooms. Hopefully, we'll (I'll!) be able to edit what returns to the rooms. The first thing we bought last night to help with the look was a new window shade for each room. They are nice, white slatted blinds, and will tie in well with what we have in the rest of the house.

Here's a view of the guest room, complete with empty closet:

Another view of the guest room, including the empty wardrobe that needs to move back into place and return to its storage duties:(Please notice the carpet is Molly-approved.)

A view of the treehouse wall, formerly labeled the wall of shame:

And the end of the Treehouse that had the overloaded bulletin/inspiration board:A view down the steps:

The metal handrail in the stairwell had been painted the same flat white-beige as the walls. It seemed very strange. When we took it off the wall to paint, we could tell that it had been black metal originally. We used the leftover copper metallic paint and glaze from the front door, and turned the handrail to copper.

Upstairs Re-do; During

A few during shots - far from perfect lighting, all the usual apologies...

Over the weekend, our helper painted all the ceilings, and started on some trim work. Gerry taped ceilings, patched holes, ripped out more carpet and weird looking tack strips, etc. My entire contribution was emptying the fabric cupboard and loading it into the already-burdened living room.

The stairwell is dark, and had one wonky little single-bulb light in a 1960s Early American design. We finally replaced it. As you can see, the tape still has to come down, but I'm really happy with the wall color (Homestead Cream) and the satin finish of all the paint we are using, giving a little more reflective surface to bounce some light around:

This corner shot of the guest room gives a look at all the angles and issues to deal with - but isn't quite accurate with the color:
Another shot of the guest room - on my monitor, the color is a little more accurate. I love this color - Pale Cucumber. Note the nasty brown shag carpet still on the floor in this room:

Only the ceiling has been painted so far in my treehouse. The white that we are using for the ceilings and trim is my new favorite white, called Dove White (the color is from Lowe's line, but we buy Behr paint, just have it custom mixed). This room will be a different shade of green, slightly warmer. Both ceiling lights in the upstairs rooms have been replaced - I'll show you another time:

The poor, poor living room has had to accomodate all that has been boxed up and dragged down. What a mess (though Cosmo thinks he's found a new world to explore):

I've set up a temporary sewing/creative corner in the lower level family room. While I feel lucky to have the space to do this, it also makes it official that not one room in the house has escaped the two-room re-do. Of course, I also took this time to empty drawers of old magazines and try to sort them out and get rid of a few, as well as to empty the closet of clothing that no longer fits.

The new carpet will be installed next Wednesday, so we have a lot of painting to do over the weekend. We've also been doing a lot of research on how to put together the treehouse again for maximum storage and workspace, without disposing of any more goodies!

Visitors (Deer)

Last night as I left my desk for the day, and headed toward the stairs to fix dinner, I spotted this young doe across the lower deck. That's the closest to the house we've seen them. She appeared to be grazing through the garden area. So...since she had three companions, we decided to go to the apple farm today and get bags of horse/deer apples to supplement what they've found in our garden!

Upstairs Re-Do, Guest Room Before

Because the entire upstairs is being re-carpeted and painted, I'm showing some shots of the guest room, as well, even though it doesn't present anywhere near the challenge of the Treehouse. These photos are kind of "before" - before emptying, pulling up carpet, and re-painting. (Look! Some color on the walls!) However, they are not before things spilled into the room from emptying the treehouse.

This view is toward the southwest corner of the room. The window looks out on the front lawn and road. The maple bookcase has been in my family as long as I can remember - Lolo refinished it. The blanket chest was made by my grandfather. The bed we bought while living in NC.

This view is toward the hallway and the Treehouse on the other side. Those two sewing machines are for sale. That closet in the hall has (surprise!) floor to ceiling fabric. See those "60!" poofy centerpieces on top of the bookcase? Someday, one of them is going to be the base for a doll.The east wall - three closets. The left one has Oldtimer's off-season clothing, the right one has my off-season clothing, and the middle one has built in drawers full of... art supplies. I tried so hard to not spill into this room...
Though it doesn't look as challenging as the Treehouse, I've been working on breaking down this room for about three days now. I've packed up all the books and carted them down the stairs, but there is much more to do.

We got the carpet estimate yesterday, and of course it is more than we expected, and we thought we were over-estimating. Looks like we have two to three weeks to repair walls, paint, and get ready.

Upstairs Re-do - Treehouse During

The treehouse is empty. My Oldtimer spent most of Sunday pulling out ancient carpet and pad, yanking staples, removing quarter-round, etc. The only piece of furniture remaining in the room is the antique library table (the carpet installers say they can work around some pieces of furniture).
One of the things I could not understand when we bought this house, was the fact that it was listed as "freshly painted" yet it seemed so dull. As we've worked our way through the rooms, we've realized that almost everything was painted with the same, flat, refrigerator white - even exterior doors. I've speculated that it is all white primer, not even paint. This room is no exception.

The west wall, shown in previous post as the wall of shame:

The southeast corner:
The north wall, with the lonely window (which Murphy now LOVES to look out):
SOME of the holes to be repaired in the north wall. I think they installed the wall shelves with railroad spikes:

Also, a during shot of the stairwell. After pulling the carpet, my dear Oldtimer scrubbed this entire set of steps thoroughly. Please note the cat at the foot of the stairs:All photos should be clickable for detail - not that you'd really want it.