Too Cool for Words !

Norman is having a "Cool Photo" contest! I cannot even begin to compete with the picture he has of his Woman. The hair, hot pink suit and silver shoes were way too cool! Most of my younger, cooler pictures are packed away in honor of the dining room redo. But I did find one picture of me back in the day of big hair. I can tell that my hair was not at it's biggest because the bangs are not as huge as I have seen them in other pictures!

Please note the cool vest that I hand knitted (that should count for some coolness points!) - It weighed a ton because I had knitted it out of.............

MY EX-HUSBAND'S CUT UP PLAID SHIRTS!

The Fireplace

On January 1st the fireplace looked like this:

I love the original tile. That we will keep and it limits my color choices. It is chipped and dirty -but I love it.

We have debated the painted mantle. This room is really dark and I want it lightened up. I was afraid a stained mantle would add to the darkness. On the other hand I love how the parlor mantle came out and I like the idea of them both being stained. With the pocket doors open you can see both of them. So the decision is to strip the mantle and see how it looks- then probably stain it.

I also love these few unexpected tiles of a different color......

When we removed the mantle to take it outside for stripping we found the tiles were very loose.....

So down they came.....

So here is my fireplace now..... We were able to find some tiles made by the same company on ebay. They might not match exactly but that is OK because we already have some unexpected tiles! We can use the non-matching ones on the floor of the box. Even though we have a cover - we want to make it so we can add an electric insert in the future!

The Remains....

....of the dining room...

Oh, Lordy!!!!!!!!! They say it has to get worse before it gets better!

Pug Rescue Scrapbook Page

Punchy has asked for some Senior Pug themed scrapbook pages for a contest. The winner gets a donation to a Pug Rescue group. So I borrowed some pictures of 2 famous Senior Pugs- Alfred and Holly. I haven't scrapbooked in about 6 months so I really enjoyed it!

Maybe now I'll get motivated to work on my scrapbook from our last Disney vacation - January, 2008. I got the first day done then it got lost under other projects!

"Baby"sitting

We babysat our newest Grand-dog tonight, Pappy! He is a 4 year old Pappilion that our daughter and her husband just adopted. They will be taking him with them back to Alaska tomorrow. He will be going carry on!

Everyone gathered around to check him out...except Lulu. She took off as soon as he came in the door and sulked all night. I think she is afraid that the cat/dog balance of the house has been upset!

The Demolition Continues

The demolition continues! Under the sheet rock (which was not put up properly) was the crumbling plaster. So now he has 3 walls down and he has started on the ceiling and the 4th wall. The ceiling still has the plaster under the sheet rock as well. The dust and mess is awful. DH found two things of interest. First he found a level that he lost 8 years ago sealed up in one wall. He was repairing the siding on the outside when we first moved in! Second he found a hidden space behind the piano wall - under the stairs. No treasure there- but an opportunity for more storage space.

Ceiling.......

Hidden cubbie...........
On the other side of the stairs is the closet where I used to keep the vacuum cleaner. This is the closet where you open the door and stuff falls on you! So to keep my mind off the demolition I decided to clean out this closet! My goal is to get the vacuum back in here....

Here you see boxes of who- knows- what that have been in here since we moved in!

And this is the stuff I pulled out (or fell out when I opened the door!)

After several hours of sorting, and cleaning, and purging I can now get my vacuum in the closet!

I got out 4 big bags of trash, 3 boxes of stuff to donate to the thrift store, 5 more boxes to go in storage (Grandmother's China) and a few tools and cans of paint to go in the basement!

We also realized that the floor in the closet is in good shape so we will be able to take it out and use it to replace the damaged spots in the dining room! We might open up the back of the closet to the cubbie space in the dining room wall. It would not be easy to get to but it would be easier to store Christmas decorations there than to carry it up to the attic! Less than one week into the dining room project and we are already extending it!

New Year = New Projects

Happy New Year! I had to take a little blogging break to clean up my house. The new project officially started yesterday and had to get Christmas packed up. I did pretty good, but we still had to put the big tree away yesterday. It was dismantled just not in the basement! Then we had to move the furniture out. Some got squeezed in other rooms - most of it went to a storage unit. Today began the demolition phase. DH knows how I hate this part so he suggested I go shopping for a while! When I left the dining room looked like this:

When I came home it looked like this:

I'm not very good at keeping New Year's resolutions so I make them pretty general. Maybe I will be more accountable if I post them!

1. Read more.

2. Declutter and organize and purge.

3.Maintain weight (within 3 pounds up or down).

4. Intercept pug mail advertisements before DH sees them. (See flag in top picture!)

For #2 -I purchased and installed a neat little gadget today in my closet. It is made to hook on doors but it was not long enough to hook on the shelf I had in mind so I borrowed the drill and went to town.

My closet needs some work. Tons of clothes that don't fit or are very old need to be purged -ignore them. DH built me this closet out of the corner of the master bedroom that was in the worst shape. At one time there was a wood burning stove in a rock landing. The stove had been removed before we bought the house leaving a hole in the roof. The day we moved in the rock wall was a waterfall! Now I call it my throne!