Scattered Thoughts . . .

This past weekend, Sheila and I finally got out of the house and managed to do some much-needed shopping.  This was the first time we were out and about since before our cross-country trip well over a month ago.  What held us back, mostly, has been my health...  between the flu and the associated impact on my primary health problems, I was stuck at home and mostly slept so that kept us at home.  Needless to say, we were in fairly desperate need of some grocery shopping as well as personal hygiene items so those two things were our priority.  I have to say that it was nice to be out of the house though!  Sheila and I went to lunch too and had a much-needed tasty lunch.   Sheila wanted to run through a car wash since it was nice out for a change so we did that and then headed back toward some shopping in Williston.  As we were passing Ashley Furniture, I quickly told Sheila to "pull in here".  As she was pulling into the shopping center, I mentioned that perhaps we should d

About a year ago, Sheila and I were out browsing in a store in Burlington and came across a small sectional couch that would be great in our small home. It was on sale but the price was still a bit more than we could handle at that moment so we passed on that couch. After seeing that little sectional couch, however, our slightly larger sectional couch was looking a bit worn and out of style so we've been keeping our eyes open for other options. About a month ago, we were again in that same store in Burlington just browsing around and we found a very comfortable couch and armchair. The armchair was smaller than most so we thought that maybe it would fit in our living room. The couch was just a straight sofa-bed couch so we figured that would fit as well. Both were very comfortable and we had a large selection of fabrics to choose from so we were pretty excited. We were told that these pieces would be on sale within the next two weeks so we excitedly started looking for fabr

About a year and a half ago, I refinished our pine wood flooring in the kitchen. I had painted it a gloss white. At the same time, I replaced the carpet in the living room and adjoining front room with a Berber carpet. We just wanted to clean up the look with a cheap temporary fix until we were ready to replace all the flooring through the kitchen, living room and our front room (which is currently our temporary bedroom but will be a study/piano room when we finally renovate our master bedroom suite). Well... we're about ready to replace all this flooring... finally! We decided upon an antique birch wood flooring.  I bought a box of this flooring to bring home and test it out in our living room. Even though it is just lying on top of the carpet in these photos, it really looks great and is exactly what we were hoping to find! I ordered 23 cases of this flooring and it should be delivered in the next couple of weeks. We're collecting a lot of building supplies at this poi

As it rains, sleets and snows outside, we have remained indoors all day. Some of the details for the dollhouse have arrived so I spent some time working on these details. I have two staircases to install but, first, I need to paint each of the staircases as well as all the balusters and railings. Today, while watching a couple of movies, I managed to put a coat of paint on all of this stuff. While I was painting all these tiny pieces, I was trying to figure out the best way to assemble all of this (and shaking my head, wondering why I got myself into all of this...)... the only thing I figured out is that this will be a frustratingly tedious task! I guess if I just take it one piece at a time, it will eventually get done. EDIT:  Sheila and I were just talking about these staircases. There is about a 95% chance that either Kenzie or Lukey will break the railing and balusters within a matter of hours so... I am now thinking that I'll eliminate the railings on the sides of

As some of you have already seen in my Facebook posts, I managed to get the fireplace project finished just in time for Christmas.  Actually, I don't think it was finished until 4:30pm on Christmas Eve!  Then, after cleaning the house of all the construction debris and sawdust, we carefully carried an ice-covered Christmas tree into the house and decorated it.  Between wrapping presents, putting together toys for the grandchildren and decorating, I don't think we made it to bed until 1:30am on Christmas morning.   Since we started renovating the house about five years ago, we have seen various parts of the house in multiple stages of construction.  So the purpose of this post is to show some photos of the progression of the living room project over the course of a few years.  There is no doubt that the living room is a much more comfortable and 'warmer' room today than ever before. Of course we still have a lot to do... ceilings, floors, another wall which is shared

Taking shape... notice the new custom paneling in the background where this fireplace will reside... (don't mind the dirty floors... I have really been beating on them this week!) I had an exceptionally productive day yesterday as you can see from these photos.  Not only is the maple and aspen paneling stained and finished looking warm, inviting and beautiful, but I have a good chunk of the fireplace and shelving unit cut and assembled. The mantle will also be aspen to match the walls.  The plywood sides of the fireplace and shelving unit is cut from birch. Much of the rest of the fireplace will be douglas fir and pine. I hand selected all the wood but did have to make some substitutions from my original plans because I could not find what I desired. The finished product should still look beautiful albeit a bit more expensive. Between the price of my substitutions and the time wasted trying to find what I needed, collecting materials was a long, tedious and frustrating proces

Laying out the tile and some dimensional lumber for the fireplace... A week or two ago I wrote about a new home renovation project... designing, building and installing a little fireplace. This fireplace will be a relatively simple gel-fuel fireplace which does not require any flue whatsoever. This project entails upgrading an entire wall of our living room so, as usual, this project is a bit more than my health would like to tackle... but I'm hoping to be successful with this project which entails getting it finished before Christmas. First, I started working on our primed steel front entry door.  It is a 15-lite door so calling it a 'steel' door can be misleading.  It is a nice door but isn't so nice looking with its factory gray primer.  I've been saying for a few years since I installed this door that I would like to finish it to appear as though it is stained wood.  Since this front entry door is part of this wall sharing the fireplace, I decided to tac

Although the wall is difficult to see behind all these Christmas presents, we are building a gel-fuel fireplace for this wall between the door and the window.  We will be covering this entire wall in library paneling matching the interior door at left. Today I started working on our newest home improvement project... Building a gel-fuel fireplace with an attached shelving unit for our entertainment components. This project also involves upgrading the entire wall with custom library-type paneling to match the fireplace. Today I started the project by clearing off the entire wall.  I also cleaned and primed the new front entry door.  This door is a steel, 15 lite door currently adorned (sarcasm) in its factory primer coat. Today's priming job is simply an undercoating for a grain-like appearance which will show through a brushed-on wood stain topcoat. In the end, this door should look like a beautiful wood door. I've used this same technique on a few other doors in the past

Who doesn't want a fireplace in their home?  A fireplace conjures up feelings of warmth... physical as well as emotional... beautiful architectural details... the faint smell of burning wood... the crackling of the fire... the playful dance of the flame... and a place to hang your stockings at Christmastime. Fitting even a small fireplace in a small home can be almost impossible though.  Fireplaces take up valuable real estate in any home.  Actually, fireplaces often become a major feature in any room and can even be monumental in size.  Even small fireplaces sometimes just can't fit into small homes... or can they?   Preliminary sketch... We have a small home.  Okay...  we have a really small home.  We have only three adults in the house but it is a tight fit.  It is such a tight fit that we are having difficulty renovating the house. Where do we put all the stuff that is in the room we want to renovate while we are renovating? It is like those little sliding tile gam