on friday afternoons

i like to let bo do things like this... and while we are at it, some of this.

i think its kind of neat that her name will be ALL OVER the inside of the walls in her new room. i reinforced to her that i did not think it would be neat once her room is painted. she agreed. for now.

and the outside of the chimney is finished.

and chris decided that he wanted metal on the ceilings of the porches. let me tell you, that wasn't my first pick. much like his siding choice. BUT he did a nice job on his pick there, so i said the metal would be fine. i mean honestly, i am OVER picking out mess. and again, to my surprise it turned out quite nicely. dangit.

it is kind of hard to see from this angle, but we are lucky i even got a shot of it. at this point, bo's face pretty much sums up how i am feeling about all of this.

but, the beginnings of a mantelpiece showed up. it was made from a huge pine tree that fell down at chris' shop. so that's pretty cool. it still needs some work of course. incidentally i realize that is 2 pieces of wood. we get to pick our fav. yea! more choices.

and some more stash i have accumulated, and projects i have in progress. i have these things going on at like 3 different locations. maybe one near you! the engine is NOT a part of my master plan. chris is encroaching on my storage/work space. rude.

oh and my genie lamp. i may be the only person that likes it. but it used to be black and chrome. i like it muchos more now that genie may pop out and solve all my problems at any moment.

and another overstock buy. some tile for our shower. i like it. a lots.

so chris has been cleaning out trash from underneath our house. that's right, under. there are still coke bottles, cans, cups, boxes, nails, etc. under there. awesome. and the insulation is supposed to start tomorrow. this boy needs a break.

i could

list all of the things that are currently going wrong at the house. but i won't. instead i will just say "Happy Birthday sweet miss bo". and be careful on that scooter thing. you and your daddy both. just because you have on your hello kitty rain boots, doesn't mean that they are the best thing to ride your hello kitty scooter on. it says its also for 5+. to that i say whatever. her 4 is better than a 5+ anyday.
p.s. chris enjoyed the scooter as much as she did.

finally

the doors are in. you can just see them across the pond.

the front double doors, they still aren't exactly right. but they are now located on the house. which is better than their whereabouts being unknown, or in the garage.
and the back of the house.
the living room view of doors. hopefully they will be operational at some point.

and the chimney goes up. and up. and finally what i suspect may be your first glimpse of what will some day be an art studio. there won't be a whole lot of updates on this area, basically because this is how its going to be looking for a while.

for real?

did my doors really show up? the applebees doors? yes, yes they did. did the show up on time? no. did they show up right? no. this door situation has been nothing short of soap opera material. i kid you not, threats have been levied, accusations have flown, people have been admitted to the hospital, there was a fried chicken dinner to celebrate the arrival of the doors. and they still didn't show up right. oh they look good. they would look better with a transom window above them. my head framer, fast eddie, told me he called my supplier and informed him he was "giving him a courtesy call to let him know about this, before jamie calls and gets a hold of you." good job eddie.

there is a set of double doors for the front of the house, then 2 single doors for the side entrance and the back door. lucky for my supplier the singles were right.

the siding is also going on. we wanted to do a cedar shake look in the gables. but you would not believe how much more that was gonna cost. i mean you would not. it looks good though. chris picked the color and is very proud of himself. and keeps asking me if i like it. if i really like it. so he can point out that i like something he picked. basically that he was right.

back of the house.

side porch area. basically the side of the house we will live out of. instead of a backyard, we have a sideyard.

and the fireplace has begun. it better look good. the brick mason is already on my list. who am i kidding, everybody out there is on my list.

and finally. the sink i acquired. which we will leave it at that. i spent about 85 hours cleaning it this weekend. or that's what it felt like anyway. don't hate. its going to look good.

more on the yardwork situation

so chris actually had two tractors doing yard work. he would use one then the other, etc...

and then bo decided she would help with the shovel. and this is the point where she catches chris on the chin with it. which seems like it would hurt, but as far as this house has gone its the littlest hit he has taken.
then they get down to real work.
and the fireplace is shaping up.
some chairs.
and some more stash. i actually have a stash. good lord.

is this how?

you do yard work?
because it is how my husband gets it done. he actually had another tractor and a backhoe involved as well. more on that later.

a surprise

my mom just bought us this. for the porch. good times. 4 chairs. one table. on the cheap.

good times

well maybe not good, but at least better. i am trying to keep my temper under control at the jobsite. so maybe that is helping.

some of the front of the house now has a roof. which is good, because it rains at least twice a week still.

and you can notice a bit of the brick work. its getting close to done as well. mostly the fireplace is left. and when its done, me and the brick mason are going to have a go round. and i certainly don't mean a go round the park.

two doors are in. i promise you these are the priciest doors around. which i absolutely did not intend to buy. and i wasn't bowled over by them and just HAD to have them. no that is NOT the way it went. apparently if you mention you need something out there, then some little group of men started cobbling away at said item, and it is yours. whether you actually wanted it or not. i like them, yet i don't feel they are quite at a super special order-cobbling price level. oh well.

my main exterior doors have yet to show. i think the head knocker cobbler is in charge of those. and he didn't even have to build the doors. just the casings. or jambs. the thing that holds the door up. i bought the doors on the cheap. my sister will tell you they came from applebees. i did not buy them from applebees, so i can't speak to their original whereabouts, but they are nice. and they better still be nice when the head cobbler sends them back. or his cobbling days are over.

onto to some niceties.

i took this gross chair.

and turned it into this less gross chair...

i realize this isn't the best picture i could have taken. i will get some better shots this weekend. along with some other things that i have going on. chris has a love affair with recliners. i do not have any sort of affair with recliners. i don't want to have anything to do with them. you can hardly find one that isn't plush enough to lose a small animal in. in fact, i have a small animal who totally destroyed a lazy boy one afternoon. im not sure how he pulled it off, but he obviously got his paws on some dynamite from somewhere and exploded that thing all over my living room. i gave him a box of dogbones. and signed him up for the disposal of the current replacement of that chair. so anywhoo, i had this recliner. and it was sort of modern-ey looking. and i had that fabric, (which is a slate brown velvet fyi). so now i have that chair. which is one meeeeelion times better than what i had.