Throw Pillow

While unpacking winter clothes last weekend, I came across this little wool tank...

I love the bead work

Inspired by some pillows that Lynn at UpCountry Olio made (here),

I thought this could be turned into a throw pillow for the bedroom.

So, I grabbed this plain spare pillow, to use as my base/stuffing.

It fit perfectly inside the tank.

After trimming off the excess material at the top & bottom,

I quickly stitched it up by hand, with some dark gray thread... 

(read: still intimidated by the sewing machine!)   

Since the material was "fuzzy", the stitches are really hidden well, so I didn't even have to fret too much about making them exactly even.

It took a total of about 20 minutes!

More Molding Painting

The molding just keeps on going... so I kept on going too!

We can add the little hallway to moldings that I've painted white!

Here's a pic... 

Please excuse all the doors, which now look twice as bad being that cream color.

They need extra TLC where the previous owners' dogs clawed & damaged them.

We'll get around to that sooner or later- it'll take more than a quick coat of paint!

(Previous details on this crazy little hall and our big plans for it are here and here)

Spackle, Sand, Paint- Repeat

In between cleaning up the yard after Hurricane Sandy, we decided we needed to get the living room corner cabinet & the foyer finished... 

It's been dragging on ENTIRELY too long!

So Mike spent last weekend spackling & sanding.  

It's pretty much his least favorite job, and I hate the mess (SO much dust!)  

But since it was needed to wrap up these rooms, we bit the bullet & got it done.

Right now, they really don't look much different from these pics...

Just add a coating of white dust EVERYWHERE.

Foyer

Living Room

The good news is that we bought the paint for the foyer & grabbed the almost full can we already had for the living room.  I'll post new photos as soon as we get it on the walls!  The plan is to work on it over the Thanksgiving weekend.

So, while Mike was sanding, I decided to work on the upstairs hallway moldings & banister balusters.  My mom had gotten a first coat of paint on them when she was here last, so I was able to finish it up in a single day!

They were all a creamy off-white color, but we decided to change them to white.  The pretty molding details should really pop once we get the hallway painted.

Check out the difference:

Before on the left;
After on the right

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

 It felt really good to have something to work on that showed immediate results!  

But I'm not going to lie... those balusters were a nightmare!  

I'm now dreading doing the rest down to the 1st floor, & up to the 3rd floor.

AFTER

I guess that's the biggest problem with trim work- they all run together & once you finish a section, the rest looks twice as bad sitting next to it!

Now the doors look
REALLY shabby!

We still have to decide what to do about painting the walls in this upstairs hallway.  

The stencil is really starting to bug me.  The problem is wallpaper that's under the existing paint.  We'll have to remove it, then more spackling & sanding (UGH!) before we can re-paint.

Oh well, little by little, we'll get it done...
(I'll just be keeping the lights low in the meantime!)

Power's On!

Just a quick post...
After 8 days without power, water or heat, we're very thankful to have gotten everything back last night!

Our hearts go out to all those suffering damages & loss from Hurricane Sandy.

Vent Pipe & Roof fix

Even before Hurricane Sandy was blowing in, we knew we had to take care of a leak around the vent pipe that comes out of our roof.  News of the hurricane approaching spurred us on...

Here's a photo (taken in the spring) where you can see it in the middle/front of the main roof.

During big rain storms, it had been leaking, and we didn't know what might happen with it during a hurricane!  So Mike got up there with the big ladder...

Here's a view from inside the attic:

Close up

This is the vent pipe that was attached to the stack that Mike replaced earlier this year.


The close up photo shows where the new bathroom vent got attached into it.




We hadn't replaced the very top section of the cast iron pipe, since it went up through the roof (and we weren't confident about messing with the slate roof!)

But now was the time to do it!


Here's the old pipe:

We replaced it with PVC, which we painted black to be less noticeable.
A bonus was the chance to clean out the gutters while we had the big ladder out.

Here's a photo of it taken the day after Hurricane Sandy...

...Whew, fixed just in time!

Hurricane Sandy- surveying the damage

We feel very thankful that we are all safe and were very fortunate that the house did not sustain any damage from Hurricane Sandy.  We're still without power, heat and water... fingers crossed that it comes back soon!  Thank goodness for the fireplace!

Reheating pizza in the fireplace
(Without power, we had time to get a little creative!)

We lost about 7 trees in the yard, and damage to others.  The trampoline also went flying, and the privacy fence is leaning a bit, but that's about the extent of the damage.  We were VERY lucky!

This tree was one of our favorites- it stood in the middle of the field.
I don't know if we'll be able to save the part that's still standing.

Lots more trees down on the side property line.
Luckily, many of these were already dead & slated to come down.

The trampoline had been on the opposite side of the car in the background!
Must have flown right over!

Three shutters flew off & broke

Now the clean-up begins!