Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope you can see in this picture the addition of the red trim color on the pillars. I absolutely love it! It gives the porch posts a real visual pop. (Okay, that is the most overused word on HGTV and I hate using it, but suddenly I can't think of an alternate word!! The porch floor still needs to be painted (a deep sage) the new storm door installed, and the gutters but for the most part this is how she will look when all is done. In the spring we will probably repaint the porch skirting white and maybe the brick pillars, but we aren't sure yet.

And last but not least, here are my three babies! The best thing about this home is the three amazing children who live under its roof. Soon, very soon, we will be home. What a journey this has been.

And then there was paint. . .

So David hardly ever posts, and when he does, he is whining. At least I share photos along with my whining!! Ha Ha. Sorry D, just had to say something about your post.

Okay, so I have been a little behind in the blogging department. I have been dealing with some medical and job issues that have kept me sidetracked. Not that being sick with a mystery illness is a good thing, but it has kind of taken my mind off of the house. So here is what you have missed. . .

Plastering. Let me just say that the guys doing the plaster in my house are not the most tidy people. They have not been to mindful of my 80+ year old wood work either. It is a mess along with our windows (including the brand new ones), my 80+ year old furnace grates, the floors, and on and on. They sprayed some type of primer over the plaster and got over spray along with globs of plaster on EVERYTHING. {sigh} But on the bright side, we have plaster and it is done with the exception of some touch ups and cleaning. Which brings us to. . .

Paint, lots and lots of paint. Let me tell you, I love color and wanted every room in color. Should be easy right? NO! It is really hard. Do you know how many paint colors are out there? Millions. I think though that we made some really great choices. No two rooms have the same color shade, everyone is different. We have color going up already, hopefully I can get some pictures of it posted soon.

I mentioned the woodwork, so that brings me to my favorite person working on my house, Del, the wood trim guy. He is working so hard to clean, repair, and replace all of my wood. I think I mentioned that the beautiful wood was one of the things that sold me on this house. When I walked in the front door it was the first thing I saw. Knowing that, you can imagine how sick and upset I have been over the mess the plasterers made of my wood. Some pieces they took down and threw in a pile, others they left in place and coated with plaster. Thankfully though we have Del!

Suddenly blogger won't let me add more pictures to this post. I will have to start another. . .

Sooner or Later

Well, after the delays we are anticipating a mid to late January return. My tolerance of this current situation is wearing thin.
Four months.
Doesn't seem like that long when you say it, but that's how long it's been now.
Four months.
Enough whining.

By the way, I was wondering how many are actually reading this site. Please take a moment to say hi in the comments for this post, just to show you are there and that this isn't just floating around cyber space.

Thanks.

December 4: Sheetrock

It is official, we won't be home this month. The kitchen cabinet fiasco has been confirmed as a Christmas at home killer. The most recent shipping update is the week of Christmas. There is no way to be moved in. Oh well, we continue to push ahead.

All of the sheet rock has been hung. We are now waiting for the mudding and taping. Downstairs they will be plastering over the drywall since all of our walls were plaster. Now we are at the mercy of Ameren IP, our electric company. The recent ice storms caused major power outages. We had a work order in for the gas to be turned back on because they need the furnace running for the wall finishing. Needless to say, we probably won't be getting the gas back on anytime soon considering there are still 100,000+ people without electric service in the St Louis Metro, 5 days after the storm. We don't even know if we have electric for the furnace either. So like many others in the area, we are waiting on IP. (On the bright side, our rental never lost power so we were very fortunate to have a warm place to stay.)

The foyer has been stocked with bags of plaster.

Our bedroom is still doubling as a storage room. The pile of lumber is all of my beloved woodwoork. I don't know what the broken piece is, I am hoping it isn't anything important. . . biting my nails on that one!

The kitchen, still waiting for cabinets.

Looking down the stairs at the back doors. When we bought the house the landing was all just exposed studs. It was an unfinished remodel project by the previous owners. It is really nice seeing it closed in. Although I think we will all miss the opening in the wall where we could throw dirty laundry down to the laundry area. Now we will have to carry it all the way down.

Looking toward the back dormer. The remants of the closet in this room are gone. It is now just one open room. The wall around the stairs was pretty low before and didn't go all the way to the wall, there was actually a gap there. We had the wall raised and connected so it would be a little safer. Because of the window it is a little odd shaped there, but a whole lot safer.

Looking toward the other dormer. I think I mentioned before that we decided to take down the wall that divided the space into two rooms. It makes for one really large, long room.

Looking back toward the back. One the right is the bathroom. In the center you can see the chimney which we drywalled around.