Home Sweet Home

The decorating is coming along! We are awaiting to have someone help us bring my large dresser upstairs and we'll need to attach the large mirror to it. I'm so anxious to see the whole thing completely put together and finished to perfection, but everything with this room has required a tremendous amount of patience, so I will be patient as I can be. The closet door came out beautifully. It's prettier than I can show on camera. We still need to put on the doorknob, but it's all done. I just can't even really begin to explain what hard work paying off feels like. Liam and I will never take anything we have in life for granted ever again, and we will never again underestimate our ability to do anything we set our minds to. Let this house be a testimony to that.

"You've got to be willing to take risks." -Cecil Mills

Without further ado...pictures for your enjoyment, and mine.












CLICK HERE for the miracle before and after!

Decorating in progress!

I'm so thrilled to finally be decorating the room, although the closet door is still not hung. The hinges are in process of being cleaned up. They were previously ridiculously splattered with stain and paint, and not in the shabby chic way.

My decorating ideas have changed several times since we began working on the room. I've finally honed in on the right idea for the room. I'm keeping it very simple, all neutral, and with a coutry cottage, yet elegant feel. It's our grown up room. I've wanted it to feel as if we are staying in a bed and breakfast somewhere out in the country. I think I'm definitely slowly accomplishing that look.

I made my own rustic curtain rods by purchasing a pair of rods from home depot in the style that I wanted, but not the color. I spent the day painting them and rusting them up. Liam is installing them right now! :)

Pictures.....

Master Finished...At last.

Ceiling fan installed! Just in time for the rising temps.

It has been one hell of a journey over the course of one long winter to finish the master bedroom.

And now, at last we see the day, that these four old old walls, become our "home" and we'll never take them for granted.

I'm going to take additional photos of the room today. I've just needed to catch my breath before I dive into decorating the room a bit.

Here are a few photos I've taken of the yard as it looked a few days ago after I had just potted new flowers on the front stoop:






Well, when Liam comes home, we'll finish cleaning up, and adding the decor! If we finish everything, I'll have photos up tomorrow.

Retro-Fitting

We're learning pretty quickly that it is not as simple as 1-2-3 to retro-fit anything to our K&T system. So, what should have been as simple as wiring a new ceiling fan, has become a bit of a doozy.

1. The old pancake box had to come out because there was nothing to screw into, to mount a new ceiling fan bracket.

2. The old lines were spliced and knotted and wrapped heavily in electrical tape making it impossible to fit them through a new bracket as is.

3. The old pancake box was mounted by a rod extending around 1 3/4 ft into the ceiling.

So, a chunk of ceiling had to come down, so the rod would come out and allow the old box to pop out. The old lines had to be spliced and a new fan rated pancake box would be installed.

Currently, we have a hole in our plaster ceiling. We will need to install a drywall patch and skim with mud. Allow that to dry, re-stipple, dry, paint, and install the new fan.

If you think we're doing all of this by ourselves, the answer is NO...

Still waiting on the "electrician" to come as he was supposed to be here at 9.

Weekend Update!

I promise that I will have photos soon. It's around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, and I'm eating greek yogurt and delicious banana nut granola, so I thought I would pop in with an update!

We're about to come very very close to finishing the master-bedroom today! So close! The only thing left to do is touch up a couple pieces of quarter round that I finished painting last night, and then install our ceiling fan. Lastly, we need to finish the reverse side of the closet door. The first side is finished! I need to clean-up the hardware with the stripping agent, and find a new suitable doorknob. I think I'll probably go with a nice vintage replicca from Home Depot or wherever.

I've already come up with most of the decorating needs for the room, aside from a lamp and a few pillows. I have some vintage eyelet curtains that I'm currently soaking a few stains out of. We picked up the Better Homes & Gardens curtains rods yesterday as well as a nice handmade twine wreath. I might add some dried flowers to it. I'm awaiting a lovely antique tulip applique quilt from eBay. It will be our spring quilt. I'm still looking for a quilt that would be great for year around in neutral hues to match the room...still no such luck yet, but the Tulip quilt I'm sure will be really pretty for spring.

RANTS + new photos!

Dear Blog,

I am sleepy. We've had a busy last few weeks since my last update, working on our yard, painting the face of our garage, and we've also finished installing the quarter round in our bedroom.

We still have to: touch up the nails with wood putty, sand and touch up with paint, install our closet rods/shelving, and finish refinishing the hardwood closet door. THEN, INTSTALL A NEW CEILING FAN! we're getting so close!

I've also had to keep up with my vintage shop, and manage to stay on top of laundry, and cleaning. It's very tricky to juggle all these things, but I'm glad I keep busy. I feel like some moms. The house is really our baby.

I want to grow some tomatos in the sun-porch this year too. I think I'll be too busy to actually start a garden until next season.

Yes, we still have things everywhere, but that's all part of the process. Isn't she really coming along though? Check out that closet door, reclaimed 80+ year old pine, and birch I believe with some oak (I think it had a repair at one point with some plywood on one side because that closet was altered- during the 1950s perhaps.) It's nearly finished on one side! I have to rub it down with some steel wool, and I intend to apply a couple additional coats to the plywood edge.

FACT: Our house would be worth a quarter million finished if she stood in say, Philadelphia...but alas, here she stands in poor ol' Cleveland. Well, down the street we have some valuable big old estates, but we're at that crucial border, where the poverty is just creepin' in! It's in your backyard, it's right up your driveway. It's coming. It's already here. Properties going for $50,000. (Properties that sold in the $130's less than 5 years ago.)

Well, she'll just be the nicest house on the street, and she'll raise everybody up. She'll stand there with her flag, and say "C'mon ev'body we can do it! Yes we can!" She stands proudly here and out from her chimney cries, "Thou shall not pass!" and poverty, will just turn its back. You've got to believe she has a soul now, that she is rising up. She is the roaring spirit of Cleveland in 1928, when Cleveland Heights was an infant city. Dirt roads were being carved out of the fields, and she was watching the big school built across the street. Long live the American Dream!

We're saving one house. We're fighting for one neighborhood. That's really all it takes though.