Wait... Did Hell Freeze Over?

So remember that piece of furniture I was refinishing? Did you click on the link? Did you notice the title of that post? How it was #1, like there was going to be more posts about it. And then you waited and waited and then you started to think that maybe the buffet fell off the face of the Earth. And then you went on with your normal life and forgot all about it. Well no more my friend! Today the buffet was dragged out of the corner it had been pushed into, and I went at stripping with a renewed zeal that didn't even last until lunch. But fear not I did return after eating.

Now the buffet has been stripped over once. I used Parks gel stripper for the first time. My stepfather had recommended it and it did a decent job. About the same as the Dad's we had used for much of the woodwork in the house. I don't know how the comepair price wise yet since I haven't bought him a replacement for what I used.

I just have to figure out if I'm going to stain it or not. Over the years I've grown partial to non-stained wood, but that could be my sub-conscious trying to save time and those pesky brain cells that die off when you use harsh chemicals.

Something else I'd like to mention. I don't know if I said this or not in the earlier post, but I'm refinishing this at my stepfather's shop in town. Well, I have to say so far that it has been a lovely experience. When we are there together he does his thing and doesn't offer a lick of unsolicited advice, and when I do ask for help is always willing to drop what he's doing and lend a hand. Now this may all back fire for him because I'm having such a lovely time there that I'm thinking of other projects I could do in his warm/well stocked shop.

Buffet Post #1

This last winter my aunt gave me my grandmother's buffet table. It had sat in her basement for quite some time so it has a mold issue. Her daughter had wanted it, but has since decided she won't have room for it in her house. I jumped at the chance to have it because I need another piece for the wall next to the bathroom door in the dining room.

Plus, I love pieces with a family history. So last winter I moved it right to my step-fathers shop with hopes of refinishing it before Christmas. Those of you with small children understand why this didn't happen. Now my mom has offered to spend the remainder of her summer break from school watching them so I can get it finished by next Christmas. Thanks mom!

It's not a "fine" piece of furniture. The exterior of the cabinet is an oak veneer. The legs and mirror frame are oak. But amazingly the old mirror is in wonderful shape, and the curved glass of the doors survived a household of 7 children and is still in two whole pieces. So once I get it in place in the dining room Molly and Elsie are never going to be allowed to set foot in that room again. Sorry girls.

I actually started the project yesterday, but I forgot the camera so I don't have any shots of the cabinet as a whole. Sorry. Yesterday I took all the hardware off and stored it away in a baggie. I removed the glass from the doors, and let me tell you that was the most nerve-wracking thing I've done in a long time. I was sweating and it wasn't hot in the shop. Bruce (my step-father) then helped me glue broken pieces of the veneer and replace a missing drawer guide for the upper drawer.

Today I got the mirror out of the frame and glued up where wood was separating on the frame. Notice I had lots of help from Cleo the shop kitty who decided that frame was also lovely frame for her ample kitty body.

It's been so nice. I had forgotten how good it feels to have a project. For some reason I really enjoy doing this sort of thing. Lately I've even been having a longing feeling for another house. Someone bought the house two miles down the road from us and has been doing renovation work on it. I'm surprised Tim doesn't stop driving by it with me because every time he does it goes, "Look they have a dumpster! Do you remember when we had a dumpster every summer? Don't you miss getting a dumpster?" or "Look their windows are out. Do you remember when we didn't have windows? I wonder what kind of windows they are going with." and so on and so forth. I know it drives Tim nuts but I can't help it. Tim doesn't have the found dumpster memories I do.

New And Improved Cute Little Farm House...

Now With Door Bell.

Yes, that's right, we you visit us you can now ring the doorbell and we will answer if home. Well, if we are home and want to see you that is. Just kidding!

Yes, it's been a hardship not having a doorbell in a house that is 3x as long as many of the houses around here. More than once I've been up in the laundry room and caught the glimpse of a car driving out of the drive way. Which is a disappointment. Though, if I was logical about it I would realize that the car was probably a vacuum salesman or something. Everyone we know knows the door bell doesn't work and walks right in and yells up the stairs.

The actual door bells and wiring have been installed for quite awhile now. The problem was I couldn't find a door bell I liked. I was briefly excited when Rejuvenation came out with door bells, but none of them really tipped my trigger either. So I asked the electrician if we could just install the insides of one and I'd build a box to go over it (You should have seen the face of my electrician when I was telling him this, you could tell he was thinking, "I sure am glad I'm not married to you!"). Which he did. So now I just have to go see my step-dad about getting something made. He has a woodworking shop and a carving machine that I think I might use. Although it might take me a while to decided on a pattern!

Along with the doorbell we now have the downstairs bathroom, dining room, and all the upstairs wired. They even put the fan and ceiling fixture in the downstairs bathroom for me. They offered to put the wall sconce in too, but I explained to him that I hadn't found one I liked. And at this point I think his wife owes me for showing how difficult "some women" can be.

Thank You Jen

I've become so lazy about taking pictures since my brother-in-law Tom married Jen. Her camera is a permanent attachment which is why I was certain she'd have some great photos of the dining room the night of the party. You can check them out at Newton Boer Goats- Also...

I love how in the first picture it looks like Lyle is trying so hard to think of the answer.

And it didn't bother me at all in real life but now that I see those folding chairs in the photos they look so tacky. I really need to start going to some sales, those little bent wood chairs shouldn't be that hard to find right?

Our First Party In The Dining Room

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. I thought of the camera right when I got everyone seated, but something came up and I forgot completely about it. Maybe Jen has a few and will post them on her site.

Tim and I agreed that it went very well. I forgot a place setting. It was stupid really because I remembered to borrow a booster seat for Connor, but then forgot to set a place for him. -sigh- If I had it to do over again I think I would have squeezed a folding table onto the end of the dining room table. I know it's less classy, but then we all would have fit into the dining room. I didn't get much of a chance to talk with Kyle and Amy before they left.

Molly had been on the road the last few days, staying at Stacyville Friday night and all Saturday and then to my moms on Sunday before the party. I was worried she'd be a real crab, but she did very well. She really didn't like sharing her toys which I'm horribly embarrassed about. I know I shouldn't expect it, but I want her to look sweetly at our company and offer up even her most favorite of toys. Instead, she'd stock piled her treasures on Grandpa Lyle's lap expecting him to guard them for her. And no mom, you don't have to say it, I know she's just like her mother.

I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but last night I couldn't help thinking how much I have to be thankful for. A good husband, a beautiful home, healthy children, and wonderful friends and family (mom, thanks for watching Molly so I could get the cleaning done).

And Kelli, we missed you and the family. One of these times we're bound to get everyone together, right?

Can't Talk Now...

The party is tomorrow and we have a ton of stuff to do. But just a few quick pictures of the progress.

Molly's Run In With The Grate

Last week when we were refinishing the floor in the dining room we had to take the grates out. Well one of the grates is right around the corner from the door. The night we did that Molly takes off into the room and rounds the corner and BOOM, she's in the floor. Luckily she was more scared that hurt. She had just gotten a giant knitted winter hat with the braided tassels on the side that are so popular now from Grandma Ronnie and that protected her head from the sharp edge of the floor. She went all the way in, one leg in the tube. After some hugs and kisses she was down on the floor again running at full speed. But we haven't let her back in there since. But now she'll be free to roam once again because Tim got the grates refinished.

He's of course on a kick so he took the living room ones with him too.

Yesterday's Progress

Yesterday evening Tim got the pass-thru doors stripped. He didn't use the typical stripper we use, Dads (we bought it at K-Mart). Instead he used a furniture refinisher. This is what he also used on the foyer stairway. It's much more liquidy than our normal stripper and Tim just sprays it on with a spray bottle. He seems to like working with it better. I can't say myself since I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Tim said it was really great on the dental moldings we have downstairs.

He also got the doors stained. He said they turned out nice. I can't wait to see them. I've got to get the bottom of the pass-thru cleaned out today so he can beef up the shelves. They really sag under the weight of all my good dishes.

Weekend Up-Date

Saturday we got the woodwork up in the dining room and the two bathroom doors operational. The door to the bathroom was on previously, but the knob wasn't in place yet. Of course we weren't able to locate all of the pieces. They are around here somewhere, it's just going to be keeping our eyes open for them. Like ask I was sorting the dining room woodwork I ran across the tiny pieces of door stop that were missing from the living room double doors.

Sunday I wiped everything down in the dining room while Tim painted on the kitchen porch. Then later that night he helped me move furniture in.

The table and chairs my mom bought maybe 20 years ago at an auction. It was in our kitchen on the farm. The cabinet is that one the neighbor had out in the yard. The picture on the wall Tim's mom bought me quite a few birthdays ago. The rug is way to small for the space, but it will have to do until we can find a rug we like/come up with the cash for it.

The only woodwork that didn't get put up (besides the few missing pieces) is the trim around the pantry pass-thru. The doors weren't refinished yet so Tim took those down and hopes to work on them the next few evenings so they are done in time for the party on Sunday.

Four Years Later

The light in the dining room is up. We purchased if off of Ebay just over four years ago. Amazingly this delicate fixture has been moved all over and never broken. Right now it is missing the crystal ball that hangs in the center, but I remember seeing it up in the attic a few months ago so I'm sure it can be relocated with out much trouble.

I think it's too high. The only problem is who ever rewired it didn't leave enough wire to hang it very low. In fact, we had to remove links from the chain to hang it. I'm keeping those links and after a few years (when I get bored with having an actual working light fixture) maybe I'll have it re-wired again to hang at a more respectable dining room height. Maybe in say, four years. For now, since it is such a delicate fixture I don't think it looks awful. The final call will be made when the table gets drug in.

Dining Room Floor Refinished

Here's a shot of the finished dining room floor. Want to know how dusty it gets? Look at that wall on the right.

We are guessing this is maple. It's not the original floor in here. You can tell because it was put in around the baseboards and door trim. Someone told me that this is a "school house" floor. When they shut down the one room school houses people would take the flooring out and install them in their homes. I don't know for sure if this is what happened here or not.

It's a beautiful honey color that goes very well with the red walls. Our only complaint is someone at some point tried to sand it down and didn't do a very good job. You can see the mars made in the wood. They are especially bad by the doorway to the kitchen. I tried to take some pictures below.

Tonight I'm hoping Tim will be home in time to install the light fixture and maybe even get the new window trimmed out so we can start to install woodwork.

Sander Surprise

Tim went out this morning to run shed related errands. He called around 11:30 and said, "I've got the sander, clean out the dining room." Surprise!

So here he is working away. This was the sander we rented to do the up-stairs hallway, we had an orbital for the downstairs floors. We just got done talking about it and we like that this sander is leaving the "character" of the floor. The orbital would have made short work of it and stripped it down to white. This isn't sanding as fast, therefore "character" remains while still evening out the warping in the boards. We're not that worried about the uneveness because someday most of the floor will be covered with an area rug, and even if we weren't doing a rug the giant oak table will really break the space up. Therefore the sanded area doesn't have to be pristine.

Oooo, I had better find some cute crafty Christmas party invites to make!

Ms Scarlet In The Dining Room With The Hammer

La Fonda Geranium Red also makes for a lovely inadvertent Halloween decoration this year!

Molly as Little Red Riding Hood

(the costume was mine when I was little)

Elsa the pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Review: EZ Clean Paint Brush

Web site for you to check out: EZ Paint Tools, Inc.

Also check out what others thought.

First off what I used to paint with. i.e. the comparison brush, or for my fellow scientific types the control. My paint brush of choice for most of the rooms in the house is made by Rubbermaid. It's just one you pick up at the local Wal-mart. It had a nice grip and didn't seem to fall apart after a couple of uses. My biggest problem would be washing it up too later or not thoroughly enough so it would gum up and have to be thrown away.

Secondly, painting with the EZ brush. The EZ brush was a dream to edge with. Much better than the control brush. Yes, it didn't hold as much paint, but that was well worth the nice clean lines and the lack of colored goobers on my nice white ceiling. Also the handle of the EZ paint brush is kind of funky. I expected it to be very uncomfortable to paint with, especially since the Rubbermaid has a nice rubber grip. And yes that was true. However, it was not as bad as I thought it would be and in the hour that I used it did not get fatigued. Painting wise I'd choose the EZ brush over the Rubbermaid.

Thirdly, cleaning the EZ brush. As you know I don't really have the set up to clean the brush here at home currently. It would be nice if they could set up some sort of laundry room sink attachment. Plus how do you clean the thing once it gets to be winter and you can't use the hose? A couple more weeks here in Iowa and I won't be able to clean the thing outside even if I had a hose.

Our solution for no hose was to take it to my parent-in-laws. Here's a shot of when you first turn on the water. The water pretty much runs though the center of the bristles so...

I started squishing it around in my hands. Which pretty quickly took the paint from the outside.

Tim wanted a shot, still being upset he didn't think of this idea himself. His way of hitting it on the propane tank also worked, so it just depends on how sensitive your hands are to the cold water.

We should have timed the clean up time, but we didn't. I would defiantly say it wasn't over two minutes for both of our tries. An easy win over the Rubbermaid.

Conclusion: I have one unknown variable that makes this hard to write, the price. If the Rubbermaid brush and the EZ paint brush cost the same I would easily choose the EZ paint brush. However, if the EZ paint brush is 1.5x more expensive than the Rubbermaid I would probably choose the Rubbermaid because I am cheap.

Also, even though Tim may disagree the EZ paint brush should not be used as a water throwing weapon.

Dining Room Wall Color Revealed

Here's the dining room with the final coat of paint. Two coats did the job, I was very impressed with the tinted primer.

I like the red, what I don't really know if I like is the white ceiling with it. Well then paint it you say. Easier said then done. It has a finish on it so you don't have to paint it. It's paint-able anyway, but I hate to go to all that work when we don't have to, plus it will make it something to maintain. I'll have to get opinions.

Murphy's Law of 18 Month Olds

If you have shut to door to the dining room to paint (don't worry her kitchen set blocks the other doorway so she was not left unattended) it's bound to happen that your 18 month old decides that is the day to figure out how to work the door knob -sigh-

Oh was she proud of herself, and of course wanted to repeat the trick over and over. Luckily I was just about done. UN-luckily she just about knocked me off the ladder opening the door.

Dining Room Primed

So here's the dining room all primed.

I really like the gray. It looks super with the woodwork. I'm worried I like the gray better than the red. I'm still undecided. It doesn't help that when you paint the red it's more of a deep hot pink. Luckily it drys into a more reasonable shade.

I primed Monday, painted the first coat of red Tuesday, and the second coat today (Wednesday). I think two coats is going to cover it, but I'll have to make a final appraisal tonight after it's had a little time to dry.

Tomorrow's plan is to take a little artists brush around for touch up where the ceiling meets the wall.

Next on the dining room agenda is refinishing the floor. I spoke to Tim last night about taking care of this and he said after he has the fall tillage done. Also, I need him to extend the frame of one of the windows and I might try and persuade him to install the light fixture. It's a little chandelier and I'm so excited to finally see it installed.

Oh, and check out this cute picture of Molly courtesy of Aunt Jen's blog.

The Paint Brush Goes To A Party

Wall Street Journal alert- I took a home improvement tool to a venue where alcohol was being served! :)

Yesterday was homecoming at my college, Wartburg so we had festivities to attend. The plan was to go to the parade and do a quick walk-thru of the campus, head home and prime the walls while the girls napped. Then if was off to my roommates husbands thirtieth birthday bash. Well plans got foiled. As we were heading out we ran into a couple of friends and ended up having a long lunch with them. That didn't leave enough time to buy painting supplies and give the girls a nice nap so sorry but the nap won out.

While at the parade I asked my old roomie if she had a working garden hose (she being more normal than I, did). So I asked if it would be possible to bring the paint brush and wash it out. She, having lived with me, is not surprised by weird questions like this and agreed.

So after nap time I loaded the paint brush up in a cooler with ice packs to keep it as frozen as possible and took off for the party. Only problem is we all got to having such a good time the bush was kind of forgotten about.

Well today we have to head up to Tim's folks for a family-get-together. I know Ronnie has a garden hose so the plan is to wash it off up there. So stay tuned.

Oh, and Molly learned to parallel park...

Seriously, I Did Something On The House Today

I know, late night readers are rubbing their eyes and you early morning guys are spilling coffee on the keyboard :)

Primer edging complete- check.

You'll also notice that Tim got the doors out of the way. The bathroom door is on (the one next to the window), but it doesn't actually shut because it hits the bottom of the frame. The bathroom closet door is now sitting in the closet, and the door to the kitchen is in the foyer leaning against the wall (I know, not safe for the toddler. I'm going to talk to him about it tonight) so every time I walk down the stairs I think someone left the exterior foyer door open.

So I know you are all dying to know how the brush worked. I'm going to save that for a later post. Mostly because the major selling point is how easy it is to clean and I haven't cleaned it yet. Remember the hose problem? So it's currently wrapped in foil and a zip-lock in the freezer. Hey, that's better than I'd treat my other paint brush so it can't complain (plus you can't hear it 'cause it's in the fridge -get it hehe).

So it took me 40 minutes total. Not too bad, only time for one kid to wake up. Guess which one- hint look at the photo. But what's strange is I wanted more. Yes, if I had a roller pad I would have probable had the whole place painted today. It felt so GOOD to be accomplishing something. I forgot what a high it was. Unless it was just from the paint fumes.

T - 4 Days And Counting

Room cleaned- check,
Walls wiped- check,
Paint and primed located- check,
Tools located- brush (of course) and ladder ready...
rollers, roller pads, and tray still needed

Only one thing impeding progress,
Tim.

He needs to get these doors on in the bathroom and the spots he patched sanded down.

But as of right now I can at least do the edge work. The only problem is I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to find a hose to clean this brush.