….. and how was your weekend? HA HA! Mine was bloody good, thank you.
HEY, home renovation is NOT for wussies! You got splinters…too bad. Your legs ache from standing on a ladder all day… too bad. You’re blowing black boogers out of your nose from sanding disgusting windows for hours on end … FEEL PROUD! (yes, we share our sanding boogers with each other. It’s true love. :-) LOL
At the end of the day that’s what it takes … and so that’s what we do. And a good time is had by all.
Did you believe it when I said good time? SUCKERS! Okay, I’m just teasing. You know we try to have fun but it’s also exhausting (and painful). We’ve been working on these bedroom windows so I thought I’d give a quick update. There are 8 windows in this room. Damn, who has 8 windows in their bedroom. Welcome to my world. I’m not bitching. I adore these windows and they’re going to ROCK when I’m done.
Each window had to be taken apart from the outside, repaired if needed and put back together tightly and correctly. Each window stop was pulled off re-positioned and reattached. Here’s Richie handling that end of it. The windows are very unique, as they open to the inside… but lets face it.. who really opens their windows in SETexas in the 100 degree 100% humidity weather. NOBODY I KNOW. So we’re sealing them really well.
You can see that one of the bottom stops had to be completely replaced.
The outsides have to be repaired and sealed before I can complete the inside. It’s a dirty job but totally worth it. We had to do this on our previous home (which was 100 years old. Imagine those windows. They make these look like a breeze.)
After that gets done Richie leaves the crime scene and I come to clean up the mess. I’m going to sand it, caulk it good, and make it pretty to look at. I just looked down at my fingernails while I type this and I still have gray caulk in my nail beds. I’m a slob. But those windows are caulked like nobody’s business….
I could probably give a class on how to caulk. I know, my modesty is too much, isn’t it. HA!
So now that all the windows are repaired, sanded, caulked, and all nail holes puttied… it’s time to stain. The staining is just getting started after 2 days of the tough stuff, but if the weather holds out I hope to have them done this week. Here’s a pix of the inside getting started and one on the outside.
I also received my crate and barrel rug and pot. It came on Saturday. I just rolled it out to see how it was going to fit. I’m glad I went with the 8×10 because we are putting a king-sized bed in this space. You may remember my inspiration post showing this rug decision.
So as you can see it was very productive few days and even though I’m all cut up and the Advil has been used and abused, I always feel great when things get accomplished. Of course I joke about this house and the work we do but it’s a privilege to even own a home. Some people don’t and maybe won’t ever. I get stressed over all the work… but when I lay my tired body down at night I’m so thankful to even have the chance.
I don’t know how you guys do it —- work full time AND spend all week-end doing meticulous work on your house!
Some of the first posts I read were when you were a bit down, ie., during the yarn phase and the water leak. I was very discouraged with my decorating then. We had ordered furniture which took forever to arrive and cost lots of money. Then I decided it all looked terrible.
The saying ” misery loves company ” must be true. I felt a little better after reading about your problems and reading the “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy…….” quote.
That seemed pretty cool to me to have a little support group right there on the Internet!!
This past week-end we went on the Rice Design Alliance home tour. It featured houses that were decorated and / or designed around the owners art collections.
It was a great tour. There were lots of exames of things to DO and NOT TO DO. I also realized there is no right or wrong in decorating . You should just do what you like.
Our fav house was modern in structure and had antiques, modern art and pieces, traditional art, Asian art and pieces , Persian rugs, some stuff from Ikea(!!!!) and some Frank Lloyd Wright, sort of arts- and -crafts- looking furniture. It was beautiful, interesting , warm, and individualistic.
Seeing all this bolstered my spirits, too.
Hang in there and I hope the wounds heal soon.
P S I love Richie’s folk arty tooth and the new rug!
Thanks Polly. You always say the right things. I don’t ever want to come across as whiny or upset because 98% of the time I’m really not. But of course anything you do that’s hard … that you do for almost 3 years… consistently…. can take a toll on you. I think the one thing that we both have never struggled with is being motivated. We are both self-starters and motivated to finish what we start. It takes consistency… and honestly I think that because we have both been teachers in our lives we had that skill of EVERY DAY being consistent with children. (which is hard to do!) I have to think that rubbed off and bled over into other parts of our lives.
Funny that you mentioned the Rice Design Alliance because the one thing recently that did get my a little down this past week was that I received a letter from Steven Fox (architect) over at Rice Univ. and he had brought over groups to Beaumont twice to tour our house. (an experience I LOVED! Read post here.) Anyway the letter last week was a request for him to bring the Publication Committee of the Texas Society of Architects which publish “Texas Architect” magazine to tour the house. It broke my heart to tell him that we couldn’t do it because sharing this house with people like them means the world to me. I was disappointed that I hadn’t achieved more on this house since the last time he was here… but I just couldn’t host another visit. I was too busy with other things and I didn’t want to get blood all over the guests. HA HAHA! But those tours and those experiences, whether you’re hosting the tour or taking it, is wonderful. It probably showed you that what you’re doing and the things you are choosing really are perfect. Perfect for you, perfect for your life and taste and interests. And set you apart from others… which makes it beautiful… and all yours.
I recently read a post on a photographers blog that talked about a house shoot that she was doing for “Design Sponge” and basically she went in and changed everything. She brought in her own accessories, some of her own furniture. She moved things from one place after she shot the picture and then put them in another place (same objects) for another picture. It was then that I said “HEY, THAT’S CHEATING!” I mean I realize “styling” a home goes on all the time but I was immediately proud that I have never done that nor will I ever. When I post a picture on this blog… it’s as we live day to day. It’s not staged… its home. So I guess my point is that it sometimes seems frustrating when you’re “shopping around” and looking at design mags and blogs and trying to put together your own space and realizing that your shit didn’t come out as good as their shit. But really their shit is all staged! In the end what you do and decide is YOURS and not staged… so in my opinion it ROCKS! So I seriously doubt your new furniture looked terrible. I bet its perfect!
-Stacey
Wow, so much accomplished in a weekend! And only a bloody finger? I’d feel accomplished too! Bravo! Can’t wait to see more…
HA HA! Thanks Meghan… I didn’t show you all the splinters. I’m still picking those out. OUCH! Those little suckers are in there. :-) Thanks for looking… I hope I can get those babies stained and done this week. Fingers Crossed.