Busy bees

The guest bedroom just keeps getting closer and closer to completion! Quentin framed in a new closet and ran electric. The ceiling has about 1 more coat of mud to go. What do you think of our new closet? We put in his and hers because the closet is shaped so funny that this just makes it alot more accesible.



I have been using antique wood refinisher on our windows in the dining room. I spent $280 on 2 new roller shades for the dining room and I want the windows to be refinished before I install them. It wouldn't make sense to pull them back down 2 months down. So I recruited 2 friends to come over and help me last weekend. Ugh. This is how far we got:

If I ever said the refinisher was easy, I was just happy to be doing something else. It's not the easiest task and it smells horribly. I am almost halfway done so hopefully I'll just get it done quickly. I don't know how much more of it I can bare.

Guest Bedroom

We are finished with the 1st coat of mud. Taping and mudding really isn't my cup of tea but I'm drinking it anyway. Tonight I am going to finish sanding and maybe put up another coat of mud. In total I think we are looking at doing around 3 coats of mud. Quentin has begun framing in the new closet- it's going to be so cool! I am excited to just get this room finished. I am tired of all of the ugly that I've been forced to look at upstairs over the last year.

We have a new foster dog that we are watching. His name is Archie. He was dropped off to a kill shelter and was deemed unadoptable because he is ten years old. His owners said that they wanted to go travel around the world and didn't want him anymore although he's been a great dog. So sad. He is a little overweight but we are putting on a diet to get him healthy and slim. Our dogs are chasing him all over the place the way it is. He's getting quite the workout. I'll post a picture of him up here once I get one. He is such a cute, good hearted dog.

Office Furniture

So I though I would post some before and afters of the office. The office doesn't have all of it's furniture yet but I've got the 2 largest peices and I just couldn't wait to share it. We have yet to get a new mesh office chair and 2 accent chairs by the mirrored table. Here is what the office used to look like:



And now with the new desk and bookcase:





There is the full view from different angles. The L shaped desk makes so much more sense considering the slopes in the ceilings. Also this bookcase is so much better because the other one was WAY too big. These are the accent chairs that I am considering:

The cool thing is that these chairs could also be extra seating for our dining room and would flow with the rest of our color scheme. Then once we get up the art work and all I think it'll be looking great.

Under the weather

I've had an awful cold for the past week that just won't seem to go away. Atleast I am finally back at work and it can only get better from here. can you believe the -21 degree temperature we're being fordced to endure?

We have made quite a bit of progress on the house. I bought some new office furniture that looks awesome. I got a great L shaped desk and a new bookcase that didn't waste as much space as our last one. Everything that used to clutter our office has been sold on craigslist (I love you craigslist xoxox) and has helped us fund our new purchases. I just need 2 accent chairs and a new office chair and we'll be done with furniture purchasing. Then I'll need to decorate the room but I figure that can wait until more projects are completed.

We are also putting down new maple quarter round in the hallway. The old stuff was just so broken up. It's a shame I am priming and painting all of it but the trim upstairs is all white. It looks amazing. I'll post more photos soon. Now we just need to finish mudding the guest room...

After Photos of the Floors

Overall I am pleased with the floors. The floors seem to have a yellow tint, which was sort of expected. I am happy that we went with the oil. They definitley have more depth than if they were just white maple floors with water based. I can't complain. Wait, I can complain. The contractor left some chips in my stairs that we just refinished and he also blew a fuse in the kitchen that we just can't seem to correct. Do I have any recourse? I plan on talking to him about these issues tomorrow before paying him. Other than the mess they left I am happy with the floors. So, are you ready???

Here are my refinished maple floors.

Office:


Sorry for the neck cramp. The water damage cleaned up nicely, didn't it?

Hallway:

I can't wait to show you the photos with my antique bronze grate- it's going to look great! haha


Guest room:

This has to be the best transformation. He did a great job with the patch work. I can't even tell.



It will be nice to sleep in my own bed again. The fumes have been too strong to stay in the house. It will be great to get back to normal life. I'll just have beautiful floors now. =)

A great anniversary present

We have offically owned our home for 1 year as of 01/03/09! I couldn't think of a better way for us to treat ourselves and our accomplishments than to have someone else sand and redo the upstairs floors. We have the ceiling in the guest room completely patched. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to tape and mud the ceiling. The walls just need 1 more coat of mud and some killz before we paint. I can't believe we are almost finished with the guest room. That room was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen in my life and I thought it would be years before we got to that room.

Here are our lovely sheet rocked ceilings. We're getting pretty good at this.


It's a little tricky sheetrocking coved ceilings.

So as I type this they are working on my floors. I am so excited to see them when I get home- I just can't wait. I am posting before photos and will be posting afters on Thursday so make sure to check back.

Guest room Floors:



Beneath all of that dirt is a lovely shade of orange.

Office:


These floors have to be the worst due to the water damamge shown above. The wood almost buckles from water damage.


The Hall:



I'll keep you posted. =)