Time flies...

We've been working on our home, but it's been a much slower pace than previous years. Meh! LOL

Recently, we've been invaded by squirrels that have attacked the porch. We had a bird (dove/pigeon - either way - yuck!!) It died on it's own -  probably a heart attack - not really sure. Maybe the ghost was protecting us. Maybe there are ghosts - maybe not - I'm not sure. So far, if they do exist, they've been friendly. Thank goodness!

Back to the original intention of this post - update pics!

This is a project that will be tackled after Thanksgiving. Hubby is going to take off the siding - and put in insulation. This used to be a back porch, then, at some point was enclosed. There's 0 insulation in the walls. Also - the soffit is going to need some assistance - you know - birds - squirrels - they must find a new location!

This is a hobby - stamping metal. This was a first attempt. This will be something I pick back up after retirement or when I have nothing to do prior to that...bwahahahaha!

April 22, 2018 - Some purchases at the auction from the house next door to ours. The owner, Mrs. Joyce Arlene Asher, passed and her family auctioned all the contents of the home. She was so nice! I miss her.

I bought this table - now my nightstand - at the auction, also. Love it!

Feburary 4, 2018 This was a day I thought was our last on the face of this Earth! It wasn't supposed to be a weather issue. We left very early to head home so we would not take a chance in being caught up in the weather that was coming. They got it wrong! A driver, far enough ahead of us we couldn't see it happen, apparently hit the brakes, causing everyone else to hit the brakes. Luckily we stayed far enough behind the truck in front of us, we had time and space to react to be able to pull over to the side and not hit the pickup in front of us. We sat there and prayed that we wouldn't get hit - 3 semis came through past us / beside us. The semi on our side of the highway came from behind us, as did the 2 beside us - then the pickup truck came flying through, hit the semi beside us which sent it spinning - not sure how it missed us! I closed my eyes at that point and thought it was the end. I think the pickup is why that white car was under the semi trailer.  Mayhem continued from this - this was a pileup that stretched about 4 miles. Only 1 person was killed in all of it! Such a miracle! I'll never forget the 2 men's faces in the truck spinning - they were laughing as they came up - then hit the semi - like I said I closed my eyes at that point - not sure what their faces were doing then.

These are old pictures of homes in Aurora. The top one is ours. We own these pictures now - we found them at a flea market in Aurora. They were hanging in Richard's Hogwild Bar-B-Q restaurant - now closed - in downtown Aurora.

This is my new classroom - finally made it out of 6th grade! Now teaching 7th grade ELA! I've absolutely loved the change!

June 2018 The beginning of our trip to North Carolina! Off to a slow start - brake line went out on the interstate in Tennessee - that was exciting!

Kure Beach's coquina rock formation is home to a very rare and distinctive mossy hard rock outcropping. Only visible during low tide, the rock is cemented together by seashells and coral with an estimated origin ranging from 12,000 to 80,000 years ago. (From Wikipedia)

Our view! Love it! - It survived the Hurricane!

June 30, 2018 Back home - back to mowing! Our backyard. The fence will eventually be replaced. We hope to be able to put that back gate into use in the future. 

July 2018 - one (3) of our whys.

July 11, 2018 My friend, Tina, and I after painting with our beautiful masterpieces- no wine or alcohol was available! I got carried away with the blue - even though he said be careful not to do that - I think he should have directed that toward me specifically. Obviously I was the reason he said that. It's clear to me now - I wasn't picking up what he was laying down. Would wine have made this better or worse? HMMMM...

July 22, 2018 This is our new sink in our bathroom in our other non-retirement home. I love it!

July 25, 2018 I learned how to build this in preparation for my after-school Robotics team gig. However, it was not a design they chose to incorporate - not sure why - but it was a great design!

I love our garage - not sure my car would actually fit...but I wan't to figure out a way to incorporate some of these materials into a future garage design that will house a workshop area. The doors slide - 1 was actually a bi-fold door.

September 15, 2018 My husband's 40th class reunion. Sadly not all of these amazing classmates are still with us. Rest in peace friends!

October 21, 2018 A great day with the grands and their cuz at a local Punkin' Patch!

October 28, 2018 - Such great fall colors! It did not show this color this year - it turned and then went to brown. This past weekend it was almost bare!

November 2, 2018 - Finished sanding, staining and polying (is that a word - spell check says no) all the small trim pieces for the coffered ceiling in the Gentleman's Quarters. It doesn't recognize "coffered" either, however.

Still one more piece of trim is waiting to be added to the whole thing!

November 8, 2018 Finally decided how to deal with the tile. We originally were going to keep this in the 1x1 squares - had it layed out so the veins lined up fairly well looking like a solid marble piece - similar to what we've seen on Rehab Addict - but then, well, I put them in the box without numbering them...sad, sad, decision.

Saturday, November 10, 2018 We opted for cutting all of them into 1 3/4"x7" rectangle tiles. This allowed us the least amount of waste so that the tiles went past the wood fireplace mantel. You would've thought that x6" would have been the best choice - but NO it didn't work out that way. LOL Only a few weeks before we host Thanksgiving - let's finish the tile project!

Sunday, November 11, 2018 Here it is back in place without the surround and no grout, yet.

Surround - back in place - again.

Air vent still not centered - oh the madness! I just try not to look at it!

Saturday, November 17, 2018 - Robotics competition. 1 of my 2 teams placed in the qualifying round with their Mechanical Design. Very proud of what they accomplished in such a short time!

Way to go team!

Lots of wins for the day for many of our teams!

November 22, 2018 - Thanksgiving 2018! I am so glad we get to host Thanksgiving! I love this!!! Hoping for the new kitchen in 2 years! Time to start planning to allow how much time it takes for us to decide on things so we will be ready to put it in. SMH LOL

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 - Finally replacing that pesky knee! Look out ladders - here he comes again - well - after a while!

This amazing little supplement drink is what keeps my joints going up and down the ladders and over night recovery of whatever I put my body through with restoring our home. Chucky had bone on bone - it's not that good, yet!

A trip to the manufacturing and business home of my supplement and home-based business. 

February 21, 2018 - What a great conference and wonderful people! It was so much fun! This is sooooooo out of my comfort zone - social marketer - me? What? Taking personal days from teaching - me? What? Getting on a plane - by myself to Utah - me? What? I hadn't been on a plane since 1986ish? Things have changed people! Short story: Arrived in Dallas to get to my next plane - worries at this point - do I need to get my luggage? I don't think so, but I better check. Nope  - they've got it! Ok - sure, we'll see. Next - find my next gate - ok - follow the signs - self talk - I can do this - I'm sensible - I can read. Follow signs to the next gate - they take me to an escalator - ok - weird - but ok. At the top of the escalator - now where - to the other end - ok - this goes no where. I'll observe. Weird - people are standing at those windows - they weren't there before - where did all these people come from - why are they all standing at the same window - they don't look like they are altogether. Hmmm - more observation. Huh - that's an L-train, who knew - those aren't windows, they are doors. I notice the gate numbers above - oh - that's where I'm supposed to go. OK - I get on and see that I'm headed to another terminal - miles a way - well I don't really know how far - but hey - I've got plenty of time before my flight departs - let's see this through. Lots of people on and off - still not to where I'm supposed to go. Finally - here we are and still with over an hour to kill. (Don't use words like that in an airport, though) Then I start wondering about a ticket to get on the plane - go to where my flight is supposed to be - no one. I see someone in a gate next to it. He reluctantly helped me out and printed my next boarding pass. I thought Texas people were supposed to be so kind and helpful. Hmmm. Must be a myth. I'll tell more about this later. It was a great trip!

Some of the wonderful people I get to work with to grow my little business. (Shameless plug - if you are interested in any products this company produces - I'm happy to provide more information and would be happy to place orders for you or help you set up an account for you to place your own orders - they can be canceled at any time - no questions asked - nobody will bug you about continuing your order - it really has made my body happier - along with being safer for you and your family. Our products are clean! Our toothpaste is EWG certified - and I love it! No gaps in my gums any more! Okay - I could go on for hours...lol) Yes, I make money from what you order and my plan is to use this money so I don't have to substitute teach when I retire. Feel free to help me do that! I absolutely believe in this stuff - if not I wouldn't sell it. Obvsiouly it is one of those companies you also can join me in selling their products - but different from some of the other companies you don't have to. My earnings all come from  sales of products so far. I've been doing this for over a year now. I was such a skeptic and then I tried it. Life changer for sure!

Saturday, March 2, 2018 My mom and I. Love her! She's always supported everything I've done!

April 2018 - A fire burned down the church a block away from our home. So sad. A major landmark lost. From what I read it was being used as a manufacturing facility. I believe people were also living there. I'm sure a sprinkler system was probably not up to date. It was a beautiful church.

A different view of the church on fire.

Saturday, May 11, 2018 - Fun with chalk and the grandgirls! I needed to have gotten out a ladder and taken the picture from higher up. I think Lil' bit was having a sun issue.

Just sitting on a branch with really big birds!

June 12, 2019 Prepping the '04 Honda Element (bought in '03) - my friend and traveling partner for a long time. I knew this day would come, but I was dreading when we would have to part ways. 194,000  miles - no issues - still running great - needs new struts, but otherwise I still love it close to 16 years later. I really wanted to just keep it - only $2000 for it as a trade-in. They listed it for $5,990, but then there's the additional insurance, keeping it maintained, etc., etc., etc.

Original door sticker!

New door sticker...:(

Summer 2019 - Shared birthday present for the 3 grandgirls - hindsight - they are too young to share a present - they didn't get it that that was each of their birthday presents! They all had a great time with it, though. Hopefully it's good to go for this coming summer as well!

Saturday, June 29, 2019 New fire pit for the McClurg home! Can't wait to use it!

Yet another picture of my mowing that was included in many Facebook posts this summer. I think about a lot of random stuff when I mow and share it on Facebook. I don't know - I think it annoys some people - but they can scroll on by.

June 12, 2019 - My new traveling partner. I've wanted a Honda Pilot for years. I always thought it would be white with tan or charcola interior, but after last winter - we notied that people that drive white vehicles tend to be crazy drivers who cause a great deal of mayhem, so I really didn't want to get a white vehicle. Recall the 2 crazies who were laughing as they were headed toward the back end of a semi during the I-44 pile up February 2018? After that, really started noticing how ridiculous white vehicles drive. Start noticing!!! If you drive a white vehicle - I'm sorry if this has offended you - consider your driving habits - is this talking about you? If not, please disregard - could just be a correlated with no causation!

July 11, 2019 Yes, I started taking more pictures of food. Why? Why does this happen? This was the start of eating more avacados - which sounds really good right now. The other day I saw an ad for wool socks to put your avocados in - does that help with ripening?

July 13, 2019 Cutting 2x4s to help shore up the fence until it gets closer to the top of the list of time to take care of this...It's very far down the list currently.

July 17, 2019 MMMMMMMMM

August 3, 2019 Every time I mow I curse whoever decided that this needed a curvy look to it. Why? It's probably going to be removed next summer. We haven't come to an agreement of how to replace it. Hubby wants the Redbud gone. I agree it's too close to the house, but it's sooooo pretty! When you plant trees - please realize they will be getting bigger - keep this in mind regarding the roof!

There's actually a French drain here already - but it isn't working properly and the basement gets water if these pipes aren't here. Also down on the list.

August 7, 2019 This is a new food find located in Battlefield, MO. It's amazing! It's called: BillyNeck Food Station. Absolutely delicious!!! Great price as well! I found this through doing a search for Food Near Me when I was traveling from Springfield. Love these fun finds - trying new things! Score!!!

Saturday, August 24, 2019 Here's the wall we built forever ago for the air return for the HVAC that we designed to put up a faux fireplace. The airvent was also our created made from a screen. I believe these can still be purchased. I'd like to get one to put outside behind the porch swing also - hang it by chains. I think I'll get a piece of the one we used for the vent and see how it holds up to the weather before purchasing. I think it's a plastic type material if I remember correctly.

Again  - the fireplace surround removed to put the grout on the tile surround we made.

Another trip to BillyNeck's!

September 1, 2019 Remember the built-in we bought from the house they raised in Billington? Here it is - still not stripped. :( I hate stripping paint.

9-1-19 Finally - stripping has begun. We used a heat gun and the SpeedHeater and KleanStrip KwikStrip Paint & Varnish remover. We also have a couple scrapers that came with the SpeedHeater that I absolutely love. Still hate paint stripping, in case you were wondering. Yep. Hate it!!

And all the other parts...

And the glass doors...

September 1, 2019 Here's the tile surround with grout finally applied...how long has this project been going? I've lost track. Still not done at this point. It's been a busy weekend.

The brick is going to go inside to make it look real. That's been a thing - do we do the whole thing? Cut out the floor? UGH!

November 8, 2019 Found this! Yum! 

November 9, 2019 - These were stripped a couple weekends ago, but apparently I didn't take any pictures. Weird. Time for the next step

November 9-10, 2019 Detailing final bits and pieces before we apply the stain. I'm glad hubby can deal with this tediousness - I can't!

November 9-10, 2019 Prior to today - we removed the paint with heat first and scrapers - 5 in 1 and a clapboard scraper from SpeedHeater (LOVE this tool!), cleaned up with chemical stripper (KwikStrip) and followed up with a stripper wash so she's as clean as possible!

We plan to use a stain marker to cover up the white specs if the stain itself doesn't cover them.

Fireplace - done! Andirons were purchased at a flea market, white paper birch logs were purchased probably 3 years ago from Amazon. You can see the brick is now attached using a construction adhesive. Look at that beautiful grout! We have currently chosen to leave the floor bricks loose. I think I may put double sided tape on the front ones - we'll see how it goes. The interior side walls is thin board 1/4" that is painted with a tan camouflage and gray primer spray paint.

Side panel with stain applied (dark walnut - Varathane)

This is the bottom part of the cabinet. We are turning it upside down. When we originally purchased it we were going to put it on the opposite wall and it would have been turned the right way. That wall is too short and we decided we wanted to keep it full size. Originally, I think we had planned to cut it down to fit. It's not in yet, this could still change! You just never know!

You can see in the background - the remaining wood that is left to finish detailed paint removal using dental pics and then stain. I don't think we will have to use a marker to cover up much. I also applied some stain to the white paint that we left on the interior. I didn't take a picture yet, but I really liked how it turned out. Hubby - not sold, yet!

Squirrel!

No - literally - Squirrel! The DH and I were sitting there, watching a bit of Fixer Upper and kept hearing a noise, a scraping - or was that a scratching. What in the world is that?

Pull the blue painter's tape off the door that's been acting as a barrier to the cold wind that occasionally exists this winter (hopefully next year it will be replaced by some NEW spring bronze) - what is that?

OMGoodness! It's a squirrel and it's on the screen. Look!

Poor thing, he looks like a baby. He doesn't seem to know how to get off the screen. He may need some extra squirreling lessons.

Hear that? That's momma squirrel going crazy chirping at us!

What the heck? We've literally scared the piss out of the squirrel! Eck! I think he actually tried to pee on me!

 Oh dear - seems as though that small black panther thought the chirping ruckus was a dinner bell. Feeling a bit guilty we scared the cat back from where it came - beautiful cat, btw. Truly looked like a miniature panther or a gigantic black cat!

We seem to have a small squirrel family living in the ceiling of the porch - so that will be next on the list for fixing. So many projects...so few weekends to work on them.

Look what else we saw this past weekend! Leprechauns!!

Can't wait to see these little germ ridden babies! I gotta remember that just because they are the most precious things - they carry germs that keep making me sick. Gotta not get so close - but how in the world do you resist those little faces??

Check in.

Progress is slow as of late. Between flu and respiratory issues neither one of us have felt much like using the steamer in the "Gold Room" to do what should have been done before we started on any of the rest of it. It has stepped up to be what we must do next so we can make some progress, put to use the architectural salvage we are storing. That just seems like the best idea.

Another project is the planning for HVAC in the upstairs of the house. It's time to call our favorite HVAC people and see what options they can provide. I'm kinda wondering about a mini-split system for upstairs. They seemed to have come a long way and would certainly take up less space. We also need to get the wood trim on the outside painted AND we must find someone who is a knowledgeable and capable brick mason who understands tuck-pointing an old home with soft brick.

So much fun! It really is - it's just stressful finding someone who is trustworthy when we have to hire something out - like the masonry work.

Sadly there still seems to be reminders of Christmas around the house - sadly only because it needs put away - or maybe just have a Christmas house. I guess that could be an option as well. Christmas around the year. Hmmmmm. Maybe each year can have a theme decoration - one year Christmas all year, one year Easter all year - etc. I'll have to think about this. Maybe it could become a thing - like No-shave November.

Just thinking about all this - I need to sleep.

Plans...

Having finished my Masters degree, completed the various tests for licensing, my goal is to blog at least once a month. So here's part of this month's blog. We have mostly completed the dining room, but by mostly I mean we still have all the trim to take the paint off. I have run across several places on some of my blog reading faves: Battle of the Strippers and for inspiration to work through to the end goal: Thank you for your inspiration! to help with this project.

Then we've started on the "Gold Room", aka Chuck's room, man cave, Gentleman's Quarters. We found it was aptly named with our original term. When we pulled off the various layers of paint wallpaper combos, we found stenciling with what looks like gold dust of some sort. Any ideas on how to find out? I Google'ed it and found they did use various metal dusts back then. Haven't tried a streak plate yet.

Any who, we got excited about our ultimate plan - which was to put up beams to fix the various ceiling issues. We should have taken all the paper/paint down first, sanded, stained, and polyurethaned before we put the beams up.

Running out of power, so I'll put up pics later. Note to self, don't blog on tablet ever again. ugh!

Time for a little reclaiming...

Recently I ran across a Craigslist Ad for architectural salvage for sale. I contacted the poster and it turned out an old house, foursquare from the same time period as ours, was being torn down and they were selling what ever anyone would buy so it was not lost to demolition.

It makes me very sad to see old homes torn down, but I was glad to see they wanted what could be saved to not be lost forever. We purchased a built-in cabinet, some stair spindles that are the same as our missing spindles, some bookcases - sadly the doors were missing, a couple of light fixtures - which of course we now regret not buying a couple of the other fixtures,  and we purchased porch railings, and some window trim. That, also, we wished our bodies could have held out a little longer to take more of the trim down and reuse it some how. We spent the good part of a Saturday pulling and prodding on wooden parts that had been holding on for over 100 years. They were not real happy about letting go, but they finally gave. I think they will enjoy their new home - oh I hope they do - I hope they do not bring with them any unforgiving spirits with them. Yikes - hadn't thought about that until just now. Well - we'll just have to make them happy in their new home, if that is the case.

Domestic Management Services, Inc., the company that was taking care of all the transactions and contracting the excavation, was wonderful to work with. All the others working on preparing this home for its last days were also very wonderful, caring people. Overall it was a great experience, our bodies were sore and we were tired, but it was a good days work.

This is one of the lights we should have purchased. We kept going back and forth - would it look okay in our home, our home has the original light fixtures - which was something we loved about the home - we were concerned about betraying them. They wanted a bit more than we wanted to pay for a light that we weren't 100% certain we would be using. Yes, we could have sold it, but I didn't really want to do that - so we just didn't get it.

This is the built-in cabinet we purchased - which actually extended probably a foot above the ceiling. I can't wait to get this put into our home. We were originally going to put it exactly where a built-in had been taken out of our house by a PO, but this one is actually longer than the original and so it won't fit on the same wall. It was originally a beautifully stained wood cabinet and will be again. We had no idea it extended way above this ceiling. What a fabulous surprise!

I didn't take pictures of our salvaged pieces - mainly due to exhaustion - but I will soon and post them. Can't wait to get all of it incorporated!

Time flies when you're trying to figure out your next step and find the right product....ahhh the product.

We've known what room was going to be receiving our attention - but what to use? We've pondered....a lot!

The dining room is the next to get restored to its better days, but what do we use to repair the walls? Pondering, pondering, pondering - oh the painful pondering! After reading hours upon hours (not an exaggeration) of conflicting information and not being able to find plaster, other than Plaster of Paris, we finally gave up and have been applying joint compound to our paper/paint combination removed leaving beautiful old plaster clean walls. 

Ya know, Nicole Curtis, who I love, makes all that paper removal and cleaning up with vinegar and water look so easy and so quick. We knew it would be much harder than it appeared, but there's that little part of me who had hoped it was just that easy as it looked on TV. Forever the optimist!

This weekend will hopefully be the final coat to the walls, we hope! Then it will be time to paint. That has been back and forth multiple times - from a gold to a grey/green. I think we are at grey/green choice again. Now - what type of paint? Latex? Milk Paint? Primer first? Oil based? Water based? UGH!!!! Anybody have any thoughts on the matter of type of paint to use over lime plaster walls? 

We also have on the near-to-do list to make the air vent to go above our faux fireplace, aka, air return ducts. We had an incident during the birthday party we don't want repeated. A poor, sweet young lady had her favorite red balloon sucked right in and down - gone forever! Still haven't found it! The plan for this is to create some fret work type of wood vent. Something like below, but with a more varied pattern.

We also are going to strip the numerous layers of paint from the trim and go back to shellacked wood. Oh what fun!

We have also now located natural hydraulic lime on the internet. We have ordered some to use to try a little tuck-pointing. Yikes.

Oh - also - we'll be hooking the upstairs tub back up to the plumbing.

And finally - but hopefully not finally - in other words it needs done ASAP - we've been waiting on a roofing company to get back to us to repair our roof and have not had a bit of luck with them, which has really been quite disappointing. We are going to be contacting a different local company this week and hopefully we'll have better luck. 

Oh gmail, how you stress me...

Somehow I've messed up my accounts associated with my blog and haven't been able to get in. UGH!!!

Progress has been slow. We've found the type of crown we should be putting back into the house so it's accurate with the rest of the trim in the house - classic craftsman. Woohoo!

Classical Craftsman from Windsor One

Now we're trying to figure out how to attach the picture molding to the outside walls. Any good ideas?  We have plaster attached to brick. There isn't any wood within the brick other than where the windows are located. We may just attach the picture molding lower than we originally intended, I'm just not sure what that will look like.

We (Chuck) have been fixing the smaller cracks in the plaster in the dining room. There are too many ways to do it the one and only right way! Those of you doing this as well know exactly what I'm talking about. We were originally going to try to do lime plaster, but we were unable to find the type of lime needed. We ended up deciding to use drywall mud. We'll see how it goes.

What can anyone tell me about painting old lime? Again, many, many authorities explaining how, but none of them match. Do we use an oil-based primer first? Does it not really matter? We are both in our 50's. UGH!! But anyway - at this point - I just want it to last - say 50 years - being an optimist. Someone else can worry about it after that.

We did find a fireplace mantel that we've put in the living room for our faux fireplace / air return ducts. It looks great. We found tile that we are okay with. It was not our original intention - but it's beautiful. We did finally find the tile we wanted when we were looking for other tile - after we bought the green marble tile. Of course - but that's okay. I think this is going to be wonderful. I'll see about adding some pics.

Above is the fireplace we found to create the faux fireplace for our air return ducts for the central heat / air.

Below is a picture of the dinning room.

It seems as though the POs just painted straight onto the plaster and it seems to have stuck.

We pulled all the wall paper off the walls. It had substantial water damage. Don't tell, but I kinda liked the pattern. Just saying.  Below is a picture of some of the paper before removal. We've kept a large chunk of it and I'd like to use it as a mat for some pictures in the future. Realize I peeled the green paint off the wallpaper in order to save it; there was also another layer of wallpaper on top of this wallpaper. This paper was attached directly to the plaster.

So after removing all the paint and paper - sometimes - fortunately all together at times - I spent hours using various buckets and cleaning vinegar, hot water, scrub brushes, scrub pads and clean rags to remove wallpaper glue residual, dirt, gunk, etc. Now, overall we have smooth, white plaster walls, with the exception of where there was water damage from unfixed leaks. Fix leaks immediately. Water is very bad when it comes to your home!

Then we hit a stopping point - as previously mentioned - trying to determine the proper (longest lasting) method of fixing cracks, etc.

Next - or coinciding - will be paint removal from the trim. Any thoughts? This we have also researched forever - to see how to do it in the least damaging manner and safest. Not sure those go together. So - hopefully we'll just go with something and be done prior to Thanksgiving. 

I so look forward to the gathering at Thanksgiving time! LOVE IT!!!! I'm hoping to have the dining room finished.