RedPosie

http://tarynawilkinson.webs.com
Check out her website there are some really awesome pictures, sketches and photos.
She just graduated from George Mason University with a degree in
Global Affairs.

Well, it is finally over the mess and the cleaning up over and over again. The floor was finished lastnight. I think it came out really well. I have trim to cut and you all know how much I am not that great at it. Right now the curtains cover up the missing trim so I have a little reprieve before I need to start cutting.
The curtains are a nice plum color. I found them at Target they just came in and are 96″ long which is difficult to find. I need about $167.00 for a blind since it is 108″ long.
I used the furniture from the diningroom since its not in the budget for special furniture and it really was crowded in the diningroom.
I found my daughter in the room reading when I got home so it is cozy and sunny. There isn’t much light in the house so its a treat to be where its sunny and WARM.

The wall stuck out at the bottom because of the drain pipe for the washer.  We actually hired someone to cut  it out so that the wall would be flush.  I filled all the holes (not this one yet-) but the small crappy looking holes and dents from age. Painted the ceiling, and the trim and the knarly back inside door that goes into the kitchen.  The last owners had a dog that pretty much ripped the door apart with its nails.  I used 2 tubes of caulk either fixing the drafts or just to make everything looks crisp.  You know I am a caulk fanatic.

This room is 8 X 15 which is pretty narrow and the ceiling is 12 ft. I hope with the darker top the room would seem more cozy and not so narrow. we will see. Thinking now about the curtains for the window. It is 108″ wide. Wow major fabric.

Is this a great day or what?  Just laying around and napping.  I only watched the nappers since today I didn’t get a chance to sit down.  My daughter gave me my birthday gift-to look 22.

I had and hour face massage.  My skin is nice and young looking.  That is my start to a new year either a face or a body message, starts the new year right.

My daughter also took me out for breakfast and we did a lttle shopping a perfect day.  My husband worked on the porch for my gift.  Still not finished but getting there.  Had to hire a plumber to take down the large pipe so we could get an even surface for the wall.  I can’t wait!

The lower upper hallway is finished.  I know need a ladder to get the upper part.

Really getting tired of cleaning up the stray wallpaper from the whole house.  Needs to get finished so I can clean up for good (minus all the cat hair that floats around here and of course the old house dust and dirt.  If any of you have those see thru vacs it is a sight to see what you live in and with on a daily basis.

Well, my birthday is over and I made it without a crisis.  A Good Birthday.

I am so excited found this great deal thru Craig’s List yesterday.  I have wanted the one from Ballard Design for about 3 years but I have not had $1200.00 to spare for it.

This completes the kitchen.

I am still working on the 3 layers of wallpaper in the hallway.  What a mess! I have wallpaper remnants everywhere.  I also am still looking at my 8 gallons of paint sitting waiting for it to be rolled on.

Yesterday was so Frustrating! I have little money great many projects.
My one great need is a faucet. Mine squells something awful so bad ly in fact I am barely doing dishes. So, I went out looking for said faucet and Wow pretty pricey. I spent $135 on the one that makes life miserable and so what do you spend? Is price the factor? I walked away because I really didn’t want to spend about $80.00 on a faucet since you will find out why with all my projects I have started. Anyway, I went to Home Depot because get this they are discontinueing Ralph Lauren and you all know what I think of his paint….yeah I will miss him. I went today to get some extra paint for my rooms, just in case I need to touch up for some reason and that reason is always when you don’t have enough to touch up.
Anyway, the paint has been marked down to $15.00 a gallon, and get this- you can get a $5.00 rebate on top of it, so $10.00 a gallon. Amazing!!!!!
I bought paint for the porch, 2 upstairs bedrooms, and ceiling paint, the upstairs hall paint. I am set on projects for awhile. As I was ready to check out I saw faucets. I bought the above faucet for $43.00 down from $78.00. Wow! I did the happy dance. The rebate from the paint paid for my faucet….yes, that is iffy contractor math.
Yesterday, was a bummer because for some reason I figured I would need 10 12×12 tiles in 15×8 porch area. I know that is really new math. Sometimes! It went from a $10.00 project to a $120.00 one and on top of that I need to wait for my husband to help me with the project. His van, his help and his ladders. That bums me out. His idea is spring and mine is now. We will see.
When we bought the house they had made the upstairs laundry in the porch area and I moved it back to the basement. ( I really don’t want to see dirty clothes when coming in and out the door.)
My husbands office has been there for 2 years and this past weekend we moved him upstairs on a writing desk and a closet for all of his books and files.
The back porch is just a mess. Concrete floor, messed up cut up walls not a nice job when they closed it in. So trying to keep within my dime budget I am really trying to come with a easy cheap solution. Going to add beadboard paneling and I think a wood floor since I found it for .57cents a foot. It will give me practice for the master bedroom floor. And my favorite trick- paint.

That hallway picture I had posted a couple of weeks ago, I dug into it today. 3 layers of paper. Maybe I will get lucky in the other areas. Always an optimist. If one doesn’t nothing would get done in the house.
Don’t forget to start a notebook with all your paint colors, fabric and pictures it really helps at the store while looking at thousands of paint colors. It is also nice when you can’t remember past the project. Its also nice to see your progression of color choices through out the years. It’s nice seeing how much your style changes.

I finally figured out how to get the presents that I want for the holiday season and that is to purchase them yourself and have your pets give them to you. I know many of you have figured this out and what a concept. This was a great gift giving year because I wasn’t disapointed.
Pumpkin the cat gave me great perfume and Jasmine the dog gave me great slippers from Bath and Body. How did they Know?
My big gift the most Awsome wireless Mac computer mouse in the world, the Mighty Mouse, Snow Leopard, Pages and Numbers which are Fantastic! The reason I got this gift was I dragged my husband to the mall and we purchased it.
Last year, my husband gave me a blender which after having a food
processor didn’t see the need for a blender so I took it back and bought something else for the kitchen and he has never forgiven me so no appliance this year.
I really NEEDED a toaster and even laid the picture on Mike’s desk and I didn’t get an appliance. Rooster place mats. I found my own toaster at Sams. A 4 slice toaster. I am so excited. I invited everyone I knew today for toast. No takers. Can you imagine?

I want to just express that we made it through this year pretty tough! I hope that all of you also made it through 2009 that you too also made it with some hide intact. To the next year may it be better and happier and a LOT more properous.

My sister in law came down from Indiana and of course she saw the kitchen and we didn’t think the countertops were the right color- not heavy enough to weigh down the area. I think the color change is Fantastic. Looks finished and complete. It also helped bring over the color from the other side of the room which brought the curtains together too. What a difference. Once again, not happy with the choice you made just take out the paint brush again and do a REDO……..Paint is never final.
I don’t know if I will add texture on the final coat before the poly. I need to paint a board and check it out.

Before:

This is the staircase leading upstairs from the kitchen.
We just put in a new furnace and was wondering why it was so cold in the main level and went upstairs and felt ALL the heat lurking up there while are toes had frost bite. So we took the door off leading to the upstairs and now the ugly, tan, textured wallpaper is in full view. Time to colorize. What to paint?! Once again I got on the Ralph Lauren paint site and played with there wall painter program. Still haven’t decided but my brain is a whirlin.
As the saying goes one project creates so so many more and upstairs is just a pot full of issues.

When we purchased the house 3 years ago this buffet was in the basement. Many, many people tried to get it out of the basement to no avail.
The buffet came into the basement by the now closed up with the master bedroom door. The past owners didn’t realize they made the buffet a hostage.
We thought and thought and thought and of course tried and tried to get it up the stairs. We scraped the basement walls and ceilings trying to release this beautiful buffet to the upper more beautiful place than the nasty grey basement. PS I hope by now you know that the grey basement is just for theatrics
So, Thanksgiving morning before company arrived we thought some more and we came up with an idea letts cut the legs off at the top and then drill holes and place dowels in the legs and put it back with glue and you can see it worked. Where there is a will there is a way.
My new official diningroom

My make believe kitchen island – some day!???