Ain't No Sunshine

Just as the song goes, there ain't no sunshine when she's gone. "She" in this situation would be my aunt because she is the one responsible for the very large, very literal sunshine painted on her old bedroom wall.

Auntie has gone to stay, and now, so has the sunshine.



Along with the ginormous sunshine, there's was teeny-weeny horse - see him? My Aunt is quite the artist.



I found this paint color in our basement when I was poking around the other day. It was a color my dad had acquired from one of the many blue light special deals he finds. It's BM's Cedar Key. It's a soft tan/gray... and I'm in love with it. I'm trying not to paint every room in our house straight up gray and I wanted this room to be a little softer/cozier but still go with the rest of the house. (It looks more gray in the picture than it does in real life.) So, it was pretty much the color I had picked out for this room in my head. What an awesome coincidence to find it in my basement from forever ago...? Once again, thanks dad. You're the best.



I'm completely getting ahead of myself with this post btw... the stain isn't even dry yet. We still need to do touch ups and poly it but I couldn't wait to slap some pictures up here.



(almost)Voila!

The Smokeless Monster

I apologize in advance for the all-over-the-place-ness of this post. There will be mention of babies, monsters, ducks, and LOST.
In August of 2012, we installed our brand-spankin-new gasification wood boiler. These were exciting times for us because we had finally escaped the evil grip of #2. This is what our basement looked like when we were slaves to the oil company:



In November of 2011 - our furnace AND our oil tank both failed inspection and needed to be replaced. The nicest thing they could have done was to die at the same time, and so they did. We all knew it was time for them to go. So, we borrowed an old furnace from camp to help us limp through that winter and in March of 2012, we made the long haul to Lebanon, PA and brought home our humungo bundle of joy.

Meet The Smokeless Monster::



She looks a lot better in the basement than she did in the garage.





Among our failed heating system, I forgot to mention our failed chimney. It was essential that we build a new chimney before we used our boiler. So, with a HUGE amount of help from Clint, Adam, and Wes - our old chimney was torn down and the new one was installed in one weekend.









This was the same weekend that JC's sisters were visiting. So, While the boys put up the chimney, I got some quality time with our niece and nephew and my favorite sis-in-laws. Which basically consisted of lounging around on the grass and chasing the ducks & chickens :)











And we lived warmly ever after...

Saddle Up

Here's a little ditty about installing our hardwood floors: JC and I checked out Lowes and Home Depot for the best price/quality of flooring options. We knew that this area has a high traffic volume and we wanted these floors to last forever so we went for the real deal - solid wood.

We chose Bruce - Oak Saddle as our brand/color of choice. The Oak Saddle in the store was ridiculously expensive, I was bummed because it was my favorite but after doing some searching online, we found the same floors for half the price (woot!) we scooped up 19 boxes and crossed our fingers that the color was the same. One week later, we got a call from Estes and got to skip out early from work so we could get home and unload our pretty, pretty floor boards.



But, wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. For the sake of remembering those ugly old carpets, let's take a look back in time....



Going...



Going...



Gone... Oh - Hi, Nuisey and furniture.



That floor was installed by my grandfather, it's actually some sort of sticky tile that looks like wood. He had nailed it down in places where it started to peel up. I actually had a few people compliment our "new floors" while we lived like this for a few weeks. Hah! Please... but in their defense, it was dark and we don't have lights in those rooms. So, I guess it's understandable. Here's a peek at the dining room with a little less linoleum:



Then came the fun part, eeeek!! This was seriously the best. We opened a couple of boxes at a time and grabbed the prettiest pieces to use. I loved it, all the boards were different and they fit together like puzzle pieces.



My favorite part was sliding the pieces into place and nailing them together was a fun little bonus. Yes, I'm stupidly barefoot. Just don't tell my mom.



We had some late night helpers, Adam and Sam. They were real troopers, I think Sam enjoyed it as much as I did. We worked in teams, Sam & Kaylene vs JC & Adam. We dominated that installation like it was our job.



Day 2... it was hot, we were ready to be done, but the long hours were totally worth it. Who doesn't like a giant puzzle made of pretty oak? JC, that's who. He was less than thrilled by day 2 of the project. Here he is before the frustration of tight quarters and weird corners sets in:





Inching towards the weird corners... and JC's mini anxiety attack.



Day 3 we finished up all the edges near the wall where we couldn't use the nail gun.



This has been the sweetest, most anticipated, hardest, most fun to achieve project to date. We are more than satisfied with the results:



Makes you want to slide down there in your socks, doesn't it?

Magenta Madness

It was high time for that pink rug to hit the road. It was extremely outdated and way past its prime, if it ever had a prime...? I know one thing, without the rose wallpaper, the carpet just looked lonely and out-of-place. We were pretty pumped to tear it up so we set the date: Big Trash Day.
This would be our first experience with big trash day in our town and we had plenty to contribute, namely one pink carpet:



What we discovered under the carpet and foam padding was an unfinished wood floor in perfected condition. It was preserved by the carpet all these years, just waiting to be unveiled, sanded, and stained. And that's exactly what we did. First, we sanded it down and removed all the staples that held the foam into place.



Then the both of us stained it together. This was my first time staining, I was surprised at how "a little goes a long way". The total cost of this project was $7.00. Behold:





Not bad considering this is where we were just months before:

It's fun making our house pretty. I'll be back with pictures of our newly installed wood floors. Mmmm.

Orange-ya Glad I Said "White Risers"?

At first our plan was to stain the entire staircase. When we realized what a pain it was to sand all the nooks and crannies, we decided to look into an alternative. While searching google for staircase images, I came across this little beauty. We loved the looks of white risers and the idea that it would bring a lot more light to our staircase which is sort of dismal. Let's face it, if there's one thing we're not going to turn down, it's a chance for a brighter/lighter area. We're surrounded by hulking whispering pines so even the natural sunlight is dim.

Back to the (stair)case at hand. Pretty much all the natural wood in the house was/is orange. unfortunately orange wood is the opposite of everything we have envisioned for our house so it all needs to be re-stained or painted. Our stairs were our biggest orange transformation project yet. I can't even begin to explain the tediousness of this project. All I can say is that I'm so thankful that these are our only stairs that needed a transformation treatment. Here they are before:





JC sanded his way down the stairs (literally) one step at a time.


Then he stained the treads and banister... Four coats of semi-gloss polyurethane later and they were looking slick as a whistle. Apparently I was MIA during this whole process because I don't have any pictures of it. So, here's a progress pic of some of the risers I primed when we first started - I stopped there because we decided to stain first.



We couldn't be happier with the results. The treads stained beautifully and I love how a little white paint can make things look crisp and new. Hard to believe they used to be orange:


There you have it folks, in the words of my husband... Badabing-badaboom.

You Left A Stain on Every One of My Good Days

In this case, the stain was left on one of our good days - in a very good way. If you didn't get the Matchbox 20 reference, it's ok. Moving on...

The best part if DIY'ing is that you can move at your own pace as your feel motivated or inspired. This past weekend, JC felt the motivation mojo for the office floor upstairs that has been neglected its whole life... the office floor was exposed hardwood that never had a finish put on it so it had been beaten down and become sort of grimy and dull with time.

For some reason I wasn't feeling the mojo, maybe it was my upcoming Lasik eye surgery that was distracting me from enjoying the project. Whatever the case, this was mostly JC's baby. But because I don't like to sit anything out when it comes to our house, I helped out a little. Here I am power sanding like an outlaw... in jammies:

I like JC's ninja style, it's tough being married to someone who is so much cooler than me.



Back to the point... Day #2 of the project, after we sanded and cleaned up the dust (BEFORE my surgery, mind you), it was ready for stain! This is where I stepped back and let JC take this one over all by his lonesome. He was so spellbound by this project, he didn't even mind doing it alone. I did managed to sneak up for a picture. Here's my hunny making our house pretty:



Meanwhile, in the living room, I recuperated from my eye surgery with the cutest couch potato ever:



2 days later, the project was complete. Here's the before and after shot:

ta daaa! Pretty, pretty mahogany. We love, love, love it. Now I just need to get back up there and finish the mopboards. Now that there's some polyurethane on there, any accidental paint drippings will wipe right up instead of immediately soaking into the untreated wood like before. I'm picturing a reading nook with a little white desk and a snuggly beanbag.