Pretty Things

 

              

Alix and Kate’s room had bifold closet doors.  But they were not in the best shape.  So we decided to take them off and go with curtains.  I had a beautiful sheet I had picked up at an antique store on an anniversary trip with Glenn (notice a them with our anniversary trips?).

           

Well, apparently Alix has had her eye on that sheet for a little while now.  She asked if we could use it for the curtain.  Knowing one wouldn’t be wide enough for the closet, I came up with a plan.

 

I split the floral sheet in 2 (it was hard to do – I always have reservations about cutting beautiful fabric!  But that’s why I buy them in the first place – to use!)  Then I looked through my bin of extra bed sheets (I love linens!) and found a big King size white one that would do perfectly.

                          

Instead of joining the sides of the different panels, I would make 6 separate panels.  I cut the sheet into 4ths, hemmed both long sides, and then evened up all 6 panels so they would have hems the same length.  I used a yardstick to evenly space the marks for buttonholes across the top of each panel and then stitched them on the sewing machine.  Finally, I cut similar lengths of white ribbon to thread through the buttonholes. I wrapped the ribbon around the curtain rod and tied double knots to secure it.  With the little girls, I may have made bows, but I thought the knots looked better for the older girls.  The ribbons are all white, and essentially the same width, but they are slightly different – one is organdy, one is satin, another is satin with tiny fringed trim on the edges.

 

 

The girls are very happy with them.  And we thought another cute idea might be to hang a couple of long strings of pretty beads from the rod between a couple of the panels, maybe the center ones.  We may be accumulating pink beads for a long time!

From doors…

                   

to curtains!

         

Beauty + Function! 

Details, Textures, People

You may be wondering what a strange title this post has.  What do these things have in common? For some people, probably nothing!  For me, I guess they are intertwined in a way I can’t even describe except to say they make an impression on me. 

I love details in furniture, in fabric, in art, in people – they’re everywhere!  God has blessed us with beauty in so many places and forms.

For instance, look at this beautiful, delicate lace curtain (?) I got at the antique store.  Not content to just make a casing and call it quits, someone put a narrow casing at one end, plus two more farther down.  The fabric itself feels like linen or thin cotton – so soft and lightweight.  Finally at the end, there is a sweet lace trim – a beautiful finale.  Hanging behind it is a blanket I found at GW.  It was so soft and warm, with a nice waffley kind of feel, long and flowing.  The perfect shower curtain, in my mind.  I put grommets across the top, cut off some of the bottom so it wouldn’t puddle in the puddles from the shower.  The girls love it because it makes them feel cozy and enshrouded in the bath.

              

And then in the entry – a little white hope chest that belonged to Glenn’s mom.  It has some hidden treasures inside.  A couple of fringy trimmed pillows, the warm wood tones of the floor and molding, clean and fresh white paint, a ruffled floral lamp shade on a tarnished brass lamp stand.  A swirly embroidered textured slipcover, the egg and dart trim on a bookshelf.. They are all details that delight me.  Even if they are unnoticed by anyone else, I see them – whether here or in someone else’s home.  I love it!

 

                                   

 

         

The soft glow of a pretty lamp, books!!, mirrors, and tiny dried flowers.

And then there are people!  God’s masterpieces.

The range of emotions and abilities He has given are amazing.

 

                      

                     

                                                                                                                                                                                

 

                                  

 

         

 

                    

 

                                                     

 

  Luke 6:38, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your lap. For with the same measure that you measure it shall be measured to you again.” 

That’s how my blessings feel this day – given to me in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over!

From Studs to Drywall

Slowly but surely, we’re getting there!  Glenn has been working steadily and quickly, pushing himself to get so many things accomplished as soon as possible.  I’m so thankful for his hard work. 

He and Luke, with help from both Cameron and Mick, have drywalled everything in the new area.  Here are some progress shots – I hope they make sense!

This older one shows a look towards the mudroom. (it cracks me up that there is a door leaning against the far wall in both shots – but different doors!  It’s just a good place to lean one…)

Here it is now.  Don’t be confused about the white door in the first picture, I’m standing in front of it in the 2nd shot so you can’t see it.  The opening in the 2nd shot is a little closet that had been covered up (since it wasn’t built yet) in the shot with Colleen.  We had covered the opening with that striped piece of plywood.  Why?  It was an open view of the toilet in the bathroom.  Not especially private!  We were all thrilled when Glenn took away the plywood and made the little closet.

Here’s what the closet looks like.

It will be a utility closet, accessible from the hallway.

Here is a look into the master bedroom.  The shots aren’t exactly comparable since I have slightly different views, but I think you can still see it.  Use the window frames as your guide.

Here’s a deeper look into the master – I’m standing just in the white door (the old garage entry door), the bathroom is to my right.  Not even the studs are up yet in this picture!

                    

Compared to now!

                        

Master Bedroom – again, using the window as a guide might be helpful.  Looks like the miter saw is in almost the same place, too!  LOL

 

This one is taken with me standing in the master bedroom as I look toward our bathroom and beyond that, our closet.  I actually am standing in the same spot for both pictures!

 

             

 

               

The mudroom…use the door for your guide.

 

 

Back to our bedroom again -

The door is leaning against the wall where Mick had been working on the dryer vent.  The partial wall in the 2nd shot wasn’t framed out yet in the first one.

 

Here is a look from the mudroom toward the laundry room and our bedroom.

Same view again – but that little light switch opening kind of makes the wall look like a door in the 2nd shot!  Laundry room is the first opening on the right.  The next doorway on the right is our bedroom.

What I haven’t shown is all the electrical and plumbing Glenn had to do!  Talk about a meticulous job!  Not only did Glenn need to do all the new wiring for outlets, switches, light fixtures, and vents, he also has to try to sort out the tangled mess he found in the attic representing the wiring in the main house.  Still working on that one a little at a time, so a couple of rooms have dimmed lights, or only have light if the switch is on in another room. There are no before and after shots for all that!

I don’t know if you noticed in the recent shots, but most of the walls are already primed, and Glenn has been mudding the seams and nail holes the last few days.  It’s a slow process, especially because Glenn does it in 3 “layers”, using different sizes of mudding blades, letting each layer dry in between as he feathers the mud out away from the seams.  He did this technique in the dining room, too and it made beautiful seams, practically invisible.  Due to the layering and feathering, there is almost no sanding!  We’re all glad for that! 

He has mudded all the master bedroom areas – including the bathroom and closet.  Now he has the hallway, closet, laundry room and mudroom.  After that, he will be doing the ceilings – texturing the old ones – the ones that were part of the garage, and doing the same technique as the walls for the mudroom and closet ceilings, since they are new and don’t have to be textured to cover up the patchy places – as in the master bedroom and laundry room. 

Then we paint!

Loft beds

When Glenn started the twins’ cute little bed nooks, Alix and Kate thought it would be a great idea if he did something “special” in their room, too.  Actually, it was a really good suggestion.  Their room is pretty small and they have quite a number of girly things.  Glenn came up with the idea of loft beds, to create more space in their room.  They talked about how close to the ceiling they wanted them, and then one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, Glenn put them together.

I think he did a super job – and Alix and Kate are thrilled.

There is plenty of room for each of them to have a desk and chair, plus shelves to hold their many objets d art. 

 

 

Actually they didn’t stop there, they have already put things on the wall and window sills.

 

This little room has changed completely from a man’s office…

 

to 2 girls’ little slice of heaven…

From Bedroom to Schoolroom

We moved the schoolroom here a couple of weekends ago.  It was immediately the favorite place for the kids to be.  For some families, a game room would be the ideal, for our family it is the schoolroom.  In the schoolroom the kids can play drawing games, have computer time, play the piano, read, listen to music…the variety of things they do in here is seemingly endless.

It’s chock full of books, paper, pencils, etc, plus chairs, the table, the bookshelves, the computer table, the piano, etc.  But I think that’s what makes it cozy for them. 

Here’s Luke – thrilled to be on the computer after many weeks of doing hard labor.

           

 

And when the Worleys dropped by the other night, Rachel sat right down at the piano and started playing beautiful music

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And Noah and Grant sidled up together on a chair to play with… something?  Phone games?

               

From a bedroom…

To our schoolroom!

Wonder what other rooms this has been?