THE LAST POST FOR 2014

Oh Lala, I've been gone a long time but it seems like only a few weeks. The time machine is broken and is going out of control...

When I started this post  it was still in 2014 but I got sick for 4 days and went to work at the farm sick twice a day and went to bed when I returned home. I'm still not feeling well yet.

I've missed visiting you because I just couldn't sit at the computer very long.
A lot has been going on since my last post so I'll try to condense it as much as I can.

My calf nursery is overflowing again with  more on the way... I've had 22 calves born since November 1st so I've been very busy.

We has a huge storm on my Birthday and it  knocked the power out. The new stove installation was delayed for 3 days, I was so tired from having to care for all the new calves being born  almost everyday and all the work that went with and the cold and everything else ...

We  really got dumped on and no heat in the house.... A view of the back deck from the sunroom door

Caught in the act... Sound asleep with layers and layers of clothing and a heat bag on my neck to warm up after work... Notice the Rug Hooking Bible on the table...

I had no internet for many hours. Can't even remember....
Even with the generator I was still cold but I had internet after they removed a fallen tree off the wires that provided internet and phone communication.

We hammered  out a wall of white and black speckle faux bricks, the wainscotting and a pine board wall was removed and George laid a sub floor over the old yucky  flooring.

The porcelain tiles were finally installed

I sanded the glue my husband had put on the wall behind the wainscotting and used some Polly Filla to cover all the uglies, but had to wait until later to sand as the stove installer came.

They had to tear the chimney liner and install a new chimney pipe.

This insulated pie was installed through the new hole cut through very hard bricks.

The new energy efficient stove finally installed.  It's an amazing stove that once lit stays lit for up to 14 hours so all you need to do is add wood and push a few livers and away it goes and it close the damper by a timer.  George loves it.

The library was emptied all over the livingroom  and I had my cookbooks and my gardening books  were put on the stairs. I painted the den and had some help from my granddaughter Jordyn.

I got the furniture all moved back in and the house just straightened out just in time for my daughter Christine and her little family's arrival on the 21st of Dec. The next morning she's reading a book brought by The Elf On The Shelf. He brought a new book  every day since December 1st to Christmas Eve. The boys loved it.


To be continued...

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone...  I'll try to catch up again as soon as I feel better.
JB

I'VE BEEN UP THE LADDER, I THINK BETTER UP THERE...

I've been promising update photos of the renovations and finally I got some to show. Our friend was supposed to give me three days worth of his work doing renovation in my bathroom. I had paid $600.00 at the Church auction a year ago in February 2011 for his work. He offered his work and the church got the money and he was getting nothing. That was his contribution. The poor guy was so busy all year and I told him that I wasn't in a hurry and not to worry about it.

                                   The new stairs

                                             View from upstairs

When he came in my house a few weeks ago and saw the stairs without a railing he was concerned about our safety and I told him that it was my next project.  I told him that I had wanted a nice oak stairs with a banister when the house was built but when I came to see the work, someone had already built a plywood stairs which was to be covered with carpet.  I was upset but didn't say anything at the time. My husband had bartered with an ironsmith to have an iron railing for a side of beef.  If you have been following my blog you know that when the carpet was removed I painted the stairs and the iron railing didn't fit anymore and was never replaced until now.

              
                                              The old stairs

Our friend said, I'll built you a nice oak stairs and I said," Oh great, I'll pay you". He said that he would give me a little bit more than three days of his work. I told him, "No, I will pay you for the work if you want to built the stairs.

He put three coats of Polyurethane and use a power sanding tool to sand in between coats. Today I uses some fine steel wool to sand all the wood and vacuumed and used a tact cloth to remove the fine dust but didn't had enough time to put on the 4th coat. I'll do that tomorrow.

This evening I finished removing the rest of the vinyl wallpaper in the bathroom and will paint the ceiling and the walls another day. The bathroom is not finished and we will finish it ourselves.

I love this type of tap that regulate the water temperature even when someone flushes the toilet you don't get a change of temperature to startle you.

         A nice large shower head with lots of pressure.

                              A nice ceramic corner shelf for soap and shampoo.

  
                              I love this ceramic tile floor.
The  sink and taps and the toilet are  installed but the tank is not installed yet.
There is still lots of work to do like install the light fixture, towel bar, toilet paper holder, mirror, knobs and hinges, sanding the cabinet and priming and painting the shelves, painting the ceiling and fan,painting the trim and door,  hanging  a few pictures on the wall maybe.

Tomorrow is another day. Thanks for stopping by my blog and for laving a comment.  I much appreciate it. I hope that you have a nice March break.  JB

JUST A LITTLE UPDATE...

Blogging has really taken a back seat lately. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about it's just that I'm not good a juggling my time. I'm all over the place and I don't take many pictures lately.

My house is turned upside down and there is dust all over the place and things dragging everywhere but I'm happy.







 This is the BEFORE picture of the plywood stairs without a guard rail because when the carpet was removed the iron rail didn't fit anymore and was disposed off and never replaced.  I painted the plywood.

After the steps were ripped off, boards were tacked in place so we could still use the stairs  very carefully.

This is what has been done so far. The guard rails need to be put in place and some finishing touch  here and there to hide the nails under the lower steps. I'll keep you posted  when the jobis done.

This is the picture of the vanity that I promised to show you with the double sinks of different color. The Double sink will be replaced by one sink only and  a few minor changes of knobs and a coat of paint.

Here the counter top of the vanity has been removed and the wall paper also has been removed on top. You can still see some wall paper on the right side.  The flooring has been removed.

Here is the new vanity top. The sink is not in yet.

Some shelves for towels.

The old tub and enclosure was removed but I forgot to take a photo of the new tub so it will have to wait.

The tile floor was put over some newly laid quarter inch plywood for durability.
My remodeling job is very simple  because I learned a long time ago that  renovations are better kept neutral .
I hope that you enjoyed visiting and please leave a comment to let me know that you were here.  Have a safe week.  JB

WHOO-HOOO... IT'S HAPPENING....

 Our main bathroom is disgusting. I've seen worst but it's disgusting just the same. The taps leaks in the tub and the wall around the tub is stained with rust and the fixtures  are MAUVE from 1977. Yuck.  It has  huge mirror, double swags lights and double sinks.  Oops, I guess that I forgot to take a picture of the vanity, oh well I'll take one later.( I need to recharge my  camera  battery).  One sink is mauve and the other is ivory since one of them was leaking and my husband replaced it with one he got at a yard sale a few years ago.  Colored appliances were the rage in the late 70ies.    The girls all loved mauve back then. Anyone with mauve bathroom fixtures?

The wall needs repairs beside the tub as there was a leak in the wall and the plumbing was fixed and the wall patched  and never finished.

I've paid for three days labor at a church auction last year to have a contractor do the renovation but he's been so busy even though he's retired and he finally came over yesterday to check up on the job.
There's even a small hole on the small wall shelf to hold the soap.

He's also going to redo my stairs and put a nice oak rail etc as the carpet was removed from the stairs when I was on chemo as vacuuming the stairs was just too difficult for me and I just painted the plywood stairs with a white satin Melamin paint.  Since the iron rail didn't fit on the stairs rungs  after the removal of the carpet they were never reinstalled. Neither of us are getting younger and also it's required under the construction code, we need this done pronto.

Remember me jumping out or rather falling out of a birthday cake on an earlier post?... well the contractor is non other than the birthday boy and he even is giving me extra work at no charge. Now how nice  of him...  He's appreciated the trouble I went through for him and now he's paying forward.

So yesterday my hubby and I went to buy a bathtub, sink and toilet and they have been ordered and should be  at the warehouse on Thursday as they don't keep them in stock usually. They have a showroom.  It will be nice to not have a leaky facet in the tub.  I'll post some more photos later as the work is in progress.  The contractor is coming to work on Monday next week.

Now I have another boy in mind. My daughter Christine sent me some new photos of James.

How do you like my little snow buddy Mama made for me. I think that he needs eyes but I love him just the same. I want to bring him in because it's cold out here.

I just love to play with my snowball and smile for the camera. I've never seen this cold white stuff before.

Meeoww.... I'm a red striped kitty cat going in the cat bed... shhh, don't tell Brazen, she won't like it.

Look at me... silly mama forgot my bib but who cares, the food was yummy... all gone...

James listening to daddy play the guitar. It won't be long That James will play too.

I love posing for the camera especially when mama is reading fish stories.

Oh dad, I just love how mama read Mr Brown can Moo, don't you?

Mom, I think that Mamoo should have put this picture first.   This was before you started reading the book.

Watching the Super Bowl with dad. Us guys love football.

Lasagna for supper and sharing with my son,

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my long blog posts. I hope that you'll leave a comment, they let me know that you visited as I don't have a traffic gadget to spy on who is visiting me.
Stay safe and warm and have a great week.   JB