I Think I Need a Nap

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while. A few weeks ago, I stopped by the workshop to get my first look at the assembled bed. It was staggering to see it. I'm not sure I can describe what it was like to see the bed all together for the first time. I've seen the individual parts, run my hands countless times over the smooth surface, but nothing quite prepared me to see the whole thing.

John went to Wilmot's last week to see about matching the stain color to the other furniture in the bedroom. I've mentioned Wilmot's in Middleboro before, but they are so awesome they deserve another shout-out. They not only tried about eight different stain mixtures, they tried them all on conditioned wood vs. non-conditioned wood, shellac vs. no-shellac. They even called Zinsser about how to treat the shellac so that a spray on finish will stick to it. Seriously, if you need to buy paint, stain, wallpaper, or flooring and you live in southeastern Massachusetts, you will do well to rememer Wilmot's on Everett Street in Middleboro. They are awesome!

I'm extremely nervous about the finishing portion of this project because we basically only get one shot to get it right. I'm sure we'll be fine, and pretty soon I'll get to take that nap in my spankin' new, fabulous bed!

Good night everyone!

I'm Plastered

These photos are a week late. The plasterer was here over a week ago hanging blueboard and doing the skimcoat. These are some in-between photos (in between the hanging and the plastering). Paint is next. Good thing I've been on vacation.

The closet. Unbelievably, this closet is the same size as it was before the renovation. For some reason, this big space existed behind the teeny-tiny door that was here before. Now, it's going to get all tricked out with fancy hanging devices and big amoir-style doors.

The SMOOTH ceiling. I wish someone could explain to me why people choose those bumpy, impossible to paint ceilings that seem to be in all the new houses now. In my opinion, there is no substitute for a smooth-as-a-baby's-bum ceiling.

Slow and steady wins the race. I hope I finish by Thanksgiving, because I need my dining room back. I got quite a bit accomplished while I've been on vacation these last two weeks, but I'm back to work tomorrow, so I expect that the rate of my accomplishments will slow dramatically. I'll do what I can.

Ready for Plaster

And we have lift off. The new windows are in, the room has been insulated and we are anxiously awaiting the plasterer. By this time next week, hopefully the room will be painted and will start to feel like a regular room again. I went to Wilmott's yesterday and bought the paint (when did paint get so expensive, by the way) and the fabric for the valances has been ordered. Good thing I'm on vacation or this would never get done.

I Have a Lot of Plaster Dust in My Nose

I think I have officially gone off the deep end. The last time we did a "project" I silently vowed that it would be my last. All I wanted was to get some new living room furniture and to paint the living room a color that didn't look like last week's moldy supper that I forgot to throw away. Simple right? Not if you live in my house. John took this as an opportunity to remove the wall between the dining room and the living room because it wasn't done "right." Turns out he was correct, but it turned a relatively simple project into a not-so-simple one that took several weeks to finish.

But I digress. Anyone who knows me knows that my dining room has been reluctantly transformed into my "craft room." If it wasn't supposed to be a dining room, this would not be a problem. I am into paper-crafting and I have a lot of supplies. Turns out, the dining room is big enough to hold all my supplies and it is conveniently situated next to the kitchen which has a tv so that I can watch it while I Create, and has ample counter space to spread my supplies on.

However, as I mentioned, this is actually a dining room. It's not supposed to hold crafting supplies. It's supposed to be used for dining. I caught a break last year from temporarily cleaning it out for thanksgiving because my mother decided to host that instead of me, but this year I feared the worst. Where the heck was I going to put all that stuff so that people would have a place to eat on thanksgiving? The answer: the spare bedroom.

This is one view of the room before its amazing transformation into my new, cool stamping studio. Why is there a big whole in the plaster, you may be thinking? This particular bedroom has walls that are in very poor condition. (I found this out the last time I painted it. Yes, that was me that decided on the bizarre random stripe, and no, I don't know what I was thinking). So I decided that it was time to rip out those old, crappy plaster walls and re-do them with nice, new plaster walls. And while I was at it, I thought it would be nice to replace the old, crappy windows with new, fancy, energy efficient ones. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Construction, or should I say destruction, began this morning. It will not end soon. I live in an old house which means lots of lathes (as you can see in the pic) and lots of horse-hair plaster (hence the plaster dust in my nose). Unfortunately, we only have one level B suit and I didn't get to wear it. I mostly stayed out of here while the destruction was going on, but I did enter on occasion to bundle up and bring out all those lathes. What I was doing in the meantime was stripping the paint off of the trim: windows, doors, baseboards. Yahoo.

I know it will eventually be done, but man, I gotta tell you hauling all that ridiculously heavy plaster debris downstairs and out to the bagster is hard work. One thing that I realized is that I'm not "young" anymore and doing all this hard labor is way harder now than it was ten years ago. My back is killing me and I'm tired of trying to get all that plaster dust out of my nose.

By the way, several years ago we hired a local company to blow insulation into the outside walls because we knew there was nothing there and it would help somewhat with the obscenely high heating bills we were paying. Although I can honestly say we did see some benefit from it, as you can see from this picture, trying to blow insulation into an old house is a crap-shoot. This is blown fiberglass insulation, which is not supposed to settle as much as the blown newspaper type of insulation, but settle it has. Something to think about.

The Mysterious Rash

Let me first begin by saying that I am not a marketing expert in any sense of the word. I am, however, a consumer and like most consumers (and most people, really) I know what I like and what I don’t like. I was searching on eBay recently for anklets and happened on a listing where the thumbnail was intriguing enough that I clicked on it to get a better look.

I really wish I hadn’t. I think feet and ankles are not the most attractive feature on anyone, but this is just wrong. If I made jewelry for a living, I would pick someone with really nice ankles to model my creations. Not someone who is covered in bruises and who has recently gotten over a mysterious rash. I’m just saying.

Nate's Birthday

The birthday boy. Some of those boxes are way too big.

Ah. So that's what was in the BIG box.

Born On Dates

The experiment: Can John really tell the difference between new and old beer? He claims that he will not drink beer that has a "born on date" more than two months ago on account of it tasting foul. (This is Bud Light we're talking about). So Scott challenged him to a blind taste test. The beer on the right was born within the last two months, the beer on the left is from earlier this year (I can't remember the exact date, but it was way more than two months ago).

Here, he's drinking the newer beer.

This is the "old" beer. He thought Scott was playing a trick on him and that both beers were from the same bottle. However, in an uncanny ability to sniff out the newer beer, he did claim that one tasted really good.

The conclusion? Who knows. He still won't drink a beer more than two months old.

Batman's New Nemesis

The Fiddler

He may be small, he may be ugly but he's got that really cool rockem sockem claw. After surviving fallout from a nuclear chemical spill, the Fiddler found that his left arm was imbued with super-crab strength. No longer was he the funny looking crab always poking around in the dirt at low tide. Now he was a dangerous force to be reckoned with. After learning that Batman enjoyed the occasional crab leg with a crisp Chardonnay, the Fiddler was determined to rid the world of the crazy-crab-eating-crime-figher. Don't be fooled by those beady little eyes flopping around on the front of his head. He keeps a very close eye on Batman's goings on. He'll be ready to strike.

Bed Knobs. No Broomsticks.

We are so close I can almost FEEL the sweet dreams. These are the bed posts that will go at the top of the bed with the headboard. Everything is sanded except for the ball at the top and the square part where the side rails come into the posts.


Today we fit the bottom rail to the posts so that that the hole for the really long screw could be drilled.

This is a shot of the other post.

Detail of the post. In person this thing is so smooth. Smooth as a baby's bum.

It is officially together. Although I was outside watering and fertilizing the flowers while the real hard work was completed, I believe that it was not as hard as some had feared. We've been looking for brass bed post covers. My department. Easy stuff compared to the actual woodworking.

Entomologist Wanted

Finally, a picture of the rare and mysterious bug that lives in my cellar. I have lived in my house for almost 18 years and have co-existed with this dude and his ancestors for the entire time. They mostly keep to the cellar, but occasionally I will find one upstairs. I think they prefer moisture because usually when I see them upstairs they are stuck in the sink. Once I found one in the washing machine (ugh!). As you can see they have lots of long legs, and I can assure you that these little bastards can motor. This one has a body about an inch, maybe an inch and a quarter long, but I have seen them bigger. I have never been able to figure out what it is (it's not in my bug book), so I have to hope that some bug expert (perhaps looking for a job) googles just the right combination of words to bring him/her to my blog and can tell me what the heck this is.

Saturday in Quogue

Lisa and Jack

Sunset in Quogue.

Jack at the canal.

Summer Lovin'

What a great picture.

Hi Wees. From Poop.

Ga and Auntie Neck.

This boat didn't make it through the first time. The junk at the top of the boat made it too tall to fit under the bridge. We thought they gave up because they turned around. But about 15 minutes later they came back with all that junk dismantled and sailed on through.

One of the many "cigarette" boats we saw. I think they must be the Harley's of the boat world because they sound exactly the same. They are quite loud. We saw several with some scantily clad ladies lounging on the back deck behind the driver there (I think I must mean the "captain" not the "driver."). I have no idea how they managed to stay on the boat if the captain punched it. I believe these boats are known for speed, and if the captain suddenly takes off, those girls are going to go flying back into the drink.

More Long (With a Hard "G") Island Pictures

Although Scott forgot his dental floss, Steph was more than happy to pick out the food particles from between his teeth. Maybe she should consider dental hygienist as a career. There's probably no shortage of crap between people's teeth in that field.

It was a beautiful day at the canal. This is a great picture of Lisa and Jack.

The gang's almost all here. I have no idea why we didn't ask someone else to take this picture so that Lisa could be in it too.

Jack wore his Red Sox shirt on purpose to piss off the resident Yankee fans.

Auntie Neck, Wees, and Ga.

This picture makes Steph look so much like Rebecca. Or is it the other way around? By the way, how do you like the beach cover-up? It belongs to me, but someone started rumaging around in my beach bag (where this was) and decided it was much cuter than the one she was wearing. (As in the one with the hole in it). I haven't seen this since.

How cute!

Weekend at Bernie's...No That's Not Right

We stopped for lunch on Saturday at a place on a canal with a lock. It was pretty interesting to watch the boats queue up to get in the lock to pass through. This is one of the more modest boats we saw.

I like to call this house "the guggenheim." I'm not much for modern-style archictecure, but I can recognize a beautiful home when I see one. In a similar vein to my previous post, this also is NOT where Steph lives.

And Finally, Sunset in Quogue

It's All in the Family

Auntie Neck and Ga. What a beautiful evening. I could do this every weekend.

The Intrepid Crew

Boat ride somewhere in Quogue. From left to right we've got Spencer, Lisa, Scott and John. That smudge on the lens is VERY irritating.

Weekend In Quogue

Ok. The picture is crooked, but you get the idea. We spent the weekend visiting my niece in Quogue NY. This is where she lives. Ha Ha.

Buffet and Biden

Last night I went to the Jimmy Buffet concert at Great Woods in Mansfield. It was my first Buffet concert and it was pretty good. We had really good seats in the first section (thanks to our good friends Dan and Nancy Webber) but I found myself watching the jumbotron quite a bit. I had never really seen Jimmy Buffet up close and I kept thinking that he reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place who it was. Then finally it hit me: Joe Biden. Now I know they don't look exactly alike, but there's definitely a resemblance. Come to think of it, I've never seen them together, so how do we KNOW they are really two different people?

Living Room Digs

This is one of the first things John did in walnut. I think that we got the idea from the magazine Early American Life. Although it's hard to see in the picture, this is actually a corner cupboard and it is mounted on a corner of the living room wall.

This is the TV stand (sorry for the flash reflection). The drawers on the bottom are big enough and deep enough to hold our DVDs and CDs. The upper portion of the cabinet is supposed to have doors, but we kind of like it without.

The coffee table. I had seen a similar design at Boston Interiors, but the wood was not right. I decided to design my own and my wonderful husband built it for me out of walnut. You will notice that the second shelf is a slightly different color. That's because the shelves are made of walnut plywood and the drawers and carcass are made of solid walnut. Once we realized that the stain on the plywood was giving different results than the solid walnut, we visited our friends at Willmott's in Middleboro who expertly matched the stain. They did a fabulous job and that's why the top shelf matches the door fronts.

Big shout out to everyone at Wilmott's. This is not the first time they have helped us match a stain in the house. We lived in our house for about 15 years before they created a stain that matched the existing woodwork in our house. That sort of thing is priceless.

Kerin Sylvester's Sketch Challenge

This is my first attempt at using the Parisian
Breeze DSP. I just love it! The colors and the weight of it are fabulous! The inspiration for this card comes from several that I had seen on SCS. I used Kerin Sylvester's sketch challenge for the layout. Find it here. Thanks for looking.

Downstairs Bathroom

These are some pictures of my bathroom downstairs. I got the mirror on sale from Pottery Barn. The lights were on the clearance rack at Home Depot. They are not the exact color I would like (I prefer an oil rubbed bronze), but they'll do for now. The shadows from the window obscure the true color of the walls.

This picture shows the wall color a little better. It's Ben Moore "Charlotte Slate" and I love the way it turned out.

This view is out the window to the side yard. The valance is just a brown toile that I picked up at the now defunct Fabric Place. The window trim is painted with Ben Moore "Gray Mist." It really goes great with the rest of the colors. They all have a nice tone.

This wall shows the Ben Moore "Bennington Gray" paint. You can just see the corner of the new toilet, Kohler's "Memoirs" which I love.