Master Bedroom

Ahh- finally out of the plumbing posts!

After getting the rest of the house into fairly decent shape, we were finally ready to paint our bedroom.

Below are 3 stages of photos for this room...

On the left are the photos from before we moved in.

Interim photos- we moved in, but hadn't done much except clean it up a bit- in the center. 

And finally, the latest photos on the right. 

From the main hall:

Before



Interim Fix





After

From the back hall:

Before

Interim Fix



After

From the far side of the room:

Before

Interim Fix



After

Not quite as dramatic as some of the other rooms, since it was sort of a slow transformation.

But better, none the less!

Of course, there's still some more to do...

-Paint the radiator, or better yet, get a cover for it.

-Replace ceiling fan with light fixture.

-I'm still playing with placement of art & photos on the walls.

But in the meantime, I'm enjoying the new color scheme.

All the accessories I was working on  (discussed here) have been integrated into the room...

And finally, a quick mini project to add:

A few weeks ago the kids & I collected some pinecones in the yard. 

All it took was a little spray paint (purple & silver), and a clear vase!

Drip, Drop- Drat!

You know, I think we jinxed ourselves posting about the last two plumbing fixes- and how relatively quickly & easily they went.  Get ready for some more ugly basement photos!



I missed taking a pic of the old pipe
before Mike removed it,but you can see the wet beam!

On Sunday morning, Mike went down into the basement & found a trickle of water running across the floor. 

After a little investigating, we found a pinhole in some copper piping, that was shooting a very fine mist onto the adjacent beam and dripping to the floor.

Luckily, Mike's gotten quite good a fixing copper piping. 



The patches on the old pipe. 

He assessed the rest of the pipe, which had two sections that had been patched by the previous owner.

Figuring it was just a matter of time until there were more issues with it, he decided to replace the whole length (approx. 20 feet).

I thought all was going rather smoothly (Yup- jinxed again)

The new "T" connector all finished! 

Mike got to the "T" where it joins with the rest of the system. 

The old pipe just WOULDN'T come out. 

We had enough pipe to cut and re-do that section too, but didn't have an extra "T" connector... back to Lowe's.

Well, we're back up and running. 

I'm really hoping this is my last plumbing post for a while (knock on wood!)

PS- While all of this was going on, I did manage to take photos of the master bedroom.
I will have those posted in the next day or two!

Just a little fixing...

The surprises never end!
Here's a little round up of this month's unexpected fixes...

TWO plumbing issues

First one-

I heard a hissing coming from the pie-safe in the basement (it's basically a walk-in closet that we are currently using for paint storage.  It's not very pretty- yet- so I don't have photos!) 
I went in to see the main waterline sputtering water right where it comes into the house- not a lot of water, but not good. 
The hole was below the shut off valve (the blue handle in the photo).  So, we had to turn off the electricity to keep the pump from running while Mike fixed it. 
A day without water or electricity, but fixed without calling a plumber!

All fixed!

Second one-
When I cleaned off the porch for the winter decorations, I decided to wash the porch furniture cushions.  Sounds good, right? 
Except that one of the cushions was a little too big, and it threw off the washing machine balance during the spin cycle (Oops!). 
Which in turn, knocked a hole in the corroded nozzle that ran the cold water into the washer (Yikes!). 
Mike already had a replacement hose (Yay!)  but needed a quick trip to Lowe's to replace the blow torch that we still haven't found since we've moved... an hour later, up & running! (Whew!)

And finally the one thing that didn't give us a headache (but was too minor for it's own post!)

Three drawer handles of my son's dresser drawers were broken... it's the little top drawers, so wasn't too much of an issue... for a while they just kept popping out of their bracket, but then got lost (as things usually do in the bedroom of a six year old!) 

While I knew it was an easy fix, I just hadn't gotten around to it...

After

Before

Well, I finally fixed them!
We can now get socks out without using our fingernails to pry the drawer open!

Why didn't I do this sooner!?!



Lost & Found

One of the fun things about living in a really old house is finding out about the people who lived there before us.  One way to catch a glimpse of the house's history is through the trash they buried.

Mom & Dad gave us their metal detector to sweep the yard.  Mom had gotten it a few years ago to use in the yard of their 1860 house. 
They found cool things like a monogrammed pin. 
I'd LOVE to find something like that-  The search is on!
It's a challenge to differentiate the beeps... we're still learning!

Some finds are better than others....

So far, we have:

Pulley

-about 20 old-style nails (square heads)

-two horseshoes

-a metal pulley

-various unknown pieces

 

  

  

Here's a pretty cool door lock.  It's in very bad shape, but must have come from somewhere in the house!

Oh, and if you're wondering what they found in the very first photo of this post... it was a NEW screw from the fence Mike recently put up!  Certainly better that we found it this way, instead of one of us stepping on it... but not quite the treasure we were hoping for!

Anyways, we'll let you know if we find anything else interesting!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I've been waiting for this since April! 

I didn't do much decorating for Christmas last year, because we were in the middle of showing our old house for potential buyers.  So, it's been two years and I'm VERY excited to re-discover all the fun decorations, & find places for everything in the new house!

This past weekend, I worked on the front porch:


I took in the wicker furniture for the winter, and brought out our sled & ice skates.

I love the little black pair that are hanging from the top of the sled.  They're the old double blade training skates, and just fit my 3 year old!  Can't wait for some ice!







I moved the wrought iron cafe set over to the one side of the porch- it just looked so empty over there!

Since we have a lot of landscaping to do, we decided to get a little live tree for the porch that we can plant somewhere in the yard after the holidays.  I wanted to do the same for the inside tree, but my 6 year old revolted against me on it- and I caved!

Good tip from Mike's mom- dig the hole for the tree now, before the ground freezes... otherwise we might have a big problem trying to get it planted in January!

I went with a simple wreath for the door, and hung a curtain with a little red trim.  Our usual crocheted curtain looked too busy with the wreath.

And check out this little guy --->

My brother's girlfriend made it for us a few years ago out of a patio paver.  Cute, right?

The inside decorating is going a bit slower.  Everything is down from the attic- but I keep moving stuff around, trying to find the perfect spot for things! 

We'll be putting up the living room tree this weekend- I can't wait!

Update:  See the inside decorations here