House Warming/Party

Got moved in November 13th - had the Holiday Housewarming on December 15th.  
Great folks, great food & great time.  Here are a few pics (of the house).
I guess I wont' be blogging much for a while...the initial project is done.  
Of course, we'll have ongoing projects - in fact, right now the upstairs clawfoot tub drain is leaking & needs to be fixed...here's to old houses!
Christy

Moving day is scheduled!

There are just a few things left to do - the poles on the front porch, down spout on the turret gutter, painting the entry floor (not counting, the next 10 years worth of odds & ends - smile).

We are moving in on November 13th, the closing should be shortly after that.
Here are a few pics I've been gathering for our 'after photo' collage.

Both tubs refinished - they look beautiful.
We used Glaze of Arkansas.  They did both tubs as well as the sink unit.

 

The Entry stairs before & after.

 Above & below are a few of the before & after ceiling pictures - above is the area under the stairs, then the entry ceiling and then the living room ceiling.

Entry Ceiling After

 Downstairs bathroom before & after (above).

Guest room fireplace.
the wall & fireplace were a disaster.

 The 5th bedroom - or 'game room' was the worst room for walls & ceiling.  It is the one with the turret and there was tons of rain damage.  It looks wonderful, now.

 The upstairs bathroom is my FAVORITE room (I think).  The vintage-style pin-wheel tile was the same as in my Nana's house - that maybe part of my it's my fav.

 Yes, the above & below are the same room - at roughly the same angles!

 Jim's office (below) is probably the best room overall - the upstairs bathroom is my favorite, the stairs turned out closest to the inspiration but his office is still probably the best.  The navy-gray color he picked really works.  The vintage rolltop desk (not pictured here) makes it feel like it's always been that way (in a good way, not a 'The Shining' way).

Notice the kitchen isn't featured yet...in my opinion, it's just like the inspiration room & just what I had in mind.  I LOVE it.  But it's just not 'right' without the 1941 Merritt O'Keefe, so I'm not posting those pics until we get moved in. 

Working too furiously to blog...

So the exterior repair is set to be wrapped up the by the end of October.
Yes, about two months early.  That means I need the inside 'move-in-able' in the next 3 weeks.  That's why I haven't been posting - I'm in high-gear.  We are at 39 major items on my to-do list.  
All 5 bedrooms are liveable.  The bathrooms are about a day away each - plus the tub refinish process.  Dining, Office, Entry, LR and the like need a final coat of paint on the walls, trim painted & lights hung.  The big unfinished item is the kitchen...but the counter tops are going in this week & the floor next week.  The sink unit is already at the refinisher and the vintage stove is ready to drop in. 

The exterior is looking fantastic - went with the gray, cream, navy & red.  The copper finial and edging on turret gutter is such a nice touch of glitz that we're planning on putting a little copper on the ball of the porch post.

The porch ceiling is 'sky blue' which I'd always loved.   Here's what Google has to say about it:  Either they did it because their grandmother & her grandmother before her did it or "Once just an old Southern tradition, the blue porch ceiling has made its way north and is being introduced to new generations. There are numerous theories as to why – from fooling spiders and wasps into thinking the ceiling is the sky, to blue being a harbinger of good luck, to the color extending daylight, to scaring away evil spirits."

Jacob's room (13 years going on 23).  We went with a gray & black scheme with green as an accent.  Not sure you can tell from the pic yet, but it's looking great. 

Lucas is 8.  He LOVES red.  This is his room WIP.  He even painted him own red wall (the one around the corner - I showed it in a previous blog - I think).

The kitchen - see, it's still a mess.  I'm making more progress than you can tell.  I hung the inspiration room on the wall so everyone could see why the walls are that crazy green.

Test Paints are on the house

We decided on the gray color scheme.  There are now test paints all on the house - very exciting!  Luckily Jim & I picked the same 4 colors for wall, accent, trim & fish scales.
Martin Senour Cape Cod Gray 315-6 for the wall color; Martin Senour Antique Doll 48-3 for the trim.  Benjamin Moore Hodley Red HC-65 for the red accent and a navy color - Benjamin Moore Newburyport HC-155 for the fishscale.

In the pictures below - there are two wall colors, a gray (the one we chose) and a blue.  The blue was a little too 'teal' for us and we didn't like it with the navy fish scales.
On the pictures of the test paint, there are two reds, two white/cream and two navy, but you can't tell the difference in the pictures.

The top picture is the inspiration house that we found locally - when we turned in the house that we liked online, the contractor said 'oh, there's one just about like that on Arch Street'.  It has the 4 main colors, then a metallic on the post 'balls' - I'm thinking copper for ours (would match the turret rim & finial).
Thanks for looking,
Christy

Cute Kids at County Fair - off topic blog

So a quick off-topic blog - our kids at the Pope County Fair!  Aren't they cute?
In Arkansas - September is County Fair time.  From vegetables & crafts to chickens & cattle, farm families & 4-Hers bring their best products to compete & have fun.  Our family farm is in Pope County Arkansas - the boy's grandmother raises cattle and they show the animals at county & state events (just like me & my granddad).  We had lots of fun at the fair this year - as always, but the farming was hard for 2012.  There has been a bad drought going on in most of the country & Pope County seems to be the epicenter of it.  NBC, PBS & the Weather Channel featured my Mom on the news - check it out (I said this was an off topic blog...)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19158664

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/48131639#48131639  

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/48127198/#48127198

Now...back to the super cute kids!

Thanks for looking,

cm

A break for a few days...

We've been hard at it evenings & weekends since July 16th.  
However, this week, our family is exhibiting livestock at the Pope County Fair Thursday through Saturday. Next week is a business trip to Minnesota & then a surgery for my Mom.  

So, OCD-Christy will have a 4 day and then a 5 day 'break' from working on the house.  You regular folks are saying "Whew, how wonderful" - the other old-house-ers are saying "Oh dear, how will you survive" (In case you hadn't figured me out yet - I'm the latter).  In anticipation of this emotional period - yesterday I did a walk through of each room & wrote down everything that needs to be done before move in.  
(Of course, keep in mind that the to-do-list and the to-buy-list and the repair-list and the 'plan' are all existing lists...but now there is a room by room version...doing a list from scratch & then comparing it to the other lists is essential for Virgos...be patient with us.  And, if I do say so myself, it's a pretty darn good list!)

We'll be counting on our 3rd party contractors to be doing all work while I'm off on other adventures - CM Construction is finishing  up the wood replacement & has started sanding & priming...picking a color is coming soon (oh, the pressure).  They are fixing some windows and installing a door where there's just a piece of insulation now.  Also flipping the front porch poles over...they are upside down (picture below).  We also have a fella that is going to patch-up the insulation on the ducting under the house.  It was on my 'to-do' list, but I'm not too game for insulation-scratching nor the under-the-house-area...he was affordable & has done a good job on a couple other items - give him a call if you need just about anything done in the Little Rock area:  Henley's Home Repair 501-747-4473 (found him on Craig's List - http://littlerock.craigslist.org/sks/3233997551.html).

In the kitchen, we finished the tearout & got the lower cabinets installed.  The countertops are on backorder as of yesterday & won't be arriving until 2nd week of October - yikes.  So they are sending me a sample so we can pick kitchen backsplash & flooring.  Checkout this funky wallpaper that was originally in the kitchen that we found.  Pretty vintage!  Unfortunately it's not saveable...BUT I did find replacement wallpaper on Etsy!

Thanks for looking!
cm

The original wallpaper found in our kitchen

Vintage Wallpaper online