Friendly Field of Flowers

This is Tall Flowers from Bucilla.
These were a lot of fun to stitch, the stems went very quickly, but each flower took lots of delicate little stitches.

As usual, I didn't follow the directions. I used stem stitch, back stitch, and French knots only. It called for other stitches, including satin stitch, but I didn't want to see filled in spots, so I treated the whole thing like an outline. I also used stronger, bolder colors than usual, and I'm very pleased with how this set turned out.

The thread I used:

DMC green #580 for the stems (it's a nice bright olive-y green)

DMC yellow #742 for flowers and centers

DMC pink #3350 for flowers

DMC purple #3834 for the single butterfly At first I wasn't sure about putting a fourth color in there, then I wasn't going to do the butterfly at all, then I did him with a pink body and purple wings. When I got to the second pillowcase, I decided the whole butterfly should be purple. More whimsical. The first one bugged me so much, I just had to tear out the stitches and do both butterflies in all purple. Probably an hour's work. For a few moments, I felt a bit like Greg from Petch House.

Upstairs Bathroom Details: Things Still Undone

Someday I'll find enough matching tiles to finish this spot above the door. They ended the shower area, and we thought it would be fine. Until we saw how awkward it looks now that the door trim is back in place. That spot is only three tiles high, and less than 30 inches wide. Plus, when you are in the room, it is mostly behind the support beam. But I know it is there. And it bugs me. This extra wide door jamb is made of red oak, which when stained is one of the closest matches in grain to the original chestnut. I'm too much of a wimp to try matching it myself, so this is a project for Jack. Someday.

First Snow of the Season

Upstairs Bathroom Details: Finishing Touches

I just loved the shape of all the accessories that went with the Standard Collection from American Standard.

The faucet, with its lever-style handles, and porcelain stopper stamped "Standard" in old-fashioned script. The light fixtures, with adjustable angles, and shades that mimic the bell-shape on the faucet.
Co-ordinating t.p. holder.
Even the toilet's flush lever!
And the important grab bars (from Moen). A safety feature that is also a great place to hang a washcloth.

Upstairs Bathroom Details: The Saga of the Medicine Cabinet

The medicine cabinet is just about the only original fixture left in this bathroom. And even some of these pieces are replacements. Like the large flat piece that makes up the header. At some point, some P.O. decided that wide piece of wood was the optimal spot for a light fixture. Yeah. One of those eighties theatre dressing room numbers. So that piece of chestnut had to be completely replaced, as well as the piece that makes up the apron. That one suffered when the backsplash and new counter were installed. Yeah, I know the knobs don't line up with one another, and it used to bug me, but there is no evidence of another hole on either door, so I guess they were always like that.
The back is made up of bead board- the real stuff.
Small holes were drilled at (irregular) intervals for shelf supports. We've discovered the holes are an in-between size, too!

Seriously, though. I love this medicine cabinet. Now that it is all nicely refinished, it looks so nice in the room, all warm wood. Without it, I don't think the bathroom would look as well-adjusted to the period of the house.

Upstiars Bathroom Details: Shower Rod Woes

So, I haven't come up with a really good solution for the shower rod. You see, a normal L-shaped rod won't work to cover the end of the shower because of the sloped ceiling. Which of course is some odd angle like 52 degrees, or something. We did buy a regular L rod, as you can see, and my dad adjusted it for a temporary fix. More than two years ago.
See the bracket? It is at a fixed angle, not at all flexible.
Does anybody have any suggestions?

Summer Fresh Dasies

These pillowcases are done in the Daisies on Gingham pattern from Dimensions.

As usual, I didn't quite follow the instruction when it came to color. Close, though. You see, I've decided that I rather like working with the cotton perle #8, which is a bit different from the regular floss. Plus I have tons of it from my mom's stash. So when I pulled this set from the package, I realized I had the same blue, and nearly the same yellow and orange in the #8 thread, I decided I may as well use it. The only thing I didn't have was the right green. I think the green I used is a bit strong, but that's what I had. I have since discovered that I can buy new balls of DMC cotton perle #8 from Joanne's online. Oh well, next time.

This was a great set to learn from because there were so many different stitches used:

back stitch

chain stitch

stem stitch

cross stitch

french knots
Many of these stitches I hadn't had much practice with before this. I just love the textural feel of the flower's centers.

DMC green #702
DMC blue #519
DMC yellow #444
DMC orange #741

Upstairs Bathroom Details: the Tile Tale

Of course, we went with the subway tile, a classic, for the walls, and hex tiles on the floor. Tell me, can you get anymore bungalow than that?

The subway tiles cover the two shower walls and the slanted ceiling. You can see the wood strip we had to install to cover the gap where the plaster and the tile could not meet.The tub surround was supposed to be capped with marble, but instead, it is some sort of plastic composite. I'm not thrilled with it, but well, more about that later. Also, you can see in this photo how the tiles now completely cover the front, but they didn't always. I wish I could find a picture, I'm sure I have one somewhere. When Tile Guy finished, the tiles from the sides were exposed on the end. I stared at it every time I went to the bathroom. It drove me crazy. Eventually that problem was solved, though. I love the additional shelf space in the shower. There is nothing I hate more about those new single piece molded shower units than the lack of shelf space. Except maybe that there is nowhere to hang your washcloth, either. Can you tell that there is a seam on the shelf just to the right of the soap? Tile Guy again.
Tile Guy used twine as spacers between the wall tiles, so the grout lines are pretty slim. That is one good thing. The floor tiles came in sheets, so they were already pre-spaced. They did manage to get the marble threshold I wanted, although I did think it would be bigger.

Okay, now let me tell you about Tile Guy.

We hired the same company to install the bathroom tile that put in the cork floor in the downstairs bathroom and the carpet in the back bedroom, because the had done such a fine job in those other two rooms. The sales staff were great. They were friendly, not a hard sell, and they knew their products. However. Their Tile Guy had an attitude from the moment he arrived here. It was supposed to take them a week to ten days to tile the bathroom. Obviously, I could not take off work every day for a week plus, so I made arrangements for someone to be there every day. My friend Tallen was home from college at the time, so he was volunteered to be my liaison. Poor guy.

Anyway, Tile Guy's 'tude seemed to stem from the fact that I wasn't there to greet him. Over the course of the week he dealt with Tallen, my dad, my mom, and Bill. If anything came up, they could always call me for a decision. This wasn't good enough.

The wall tile was offered to me at a discount by the owner of the company, because they had it sitting in the warehouse. It was leftover from a previous job, and I paid for the remaining boxes. It should have been enough to do the job with a few tiles left over. When we got the boxes open we did discover that many of the tiles were chipped on the edges, I guess they had not been handled with much care, but there were still plenty of tiles completely intact. When the job was finished, there was still one whole box and part of a second box of tiles. Months later, when we eventually got the owner's son back to fix the problem areas, we discovered that I only had the partial box left, and no hex tiles at all. When questioned, Tile Guy claimed that there weren't any floor tiles left over. Come on, seriously. Not possible. I can believe that there might not have been whole sheets, but I was just looking for a handful of individual tiles for repairs down the road. In fact, there was one hex tile that was damaged right from the beginning. The owner's son took the matching tile off their sample board to use as a replacement. Luckily for them it is indistinguishable. I guess I'm still pretty irritated about the whole ordeal.

As for the shelf that was supposed to be marble, well, it was installed on one of those days I was not there, and Tile Guy never told Tallen or my dad that there was a change, and would that be okay. Because if he had asked, I would have said no, it must be marble. I did not want anything synthetic, but by the time I got home that night, the grout had already been set. Too late.

Tearing it out would have made a huge mess, and it may have damaged surrounding tiles, which may not have been able to be replaced. To add insult to injury, this plastic composite stuff only comes in certain lenghts, i.e. not quite long enough to go the entire length of the tub. So there isn't just the corner seam, where it makes the L, but there is also a seam near the front. I hate it, but there's nothing that can be done now. Plus, when Tile Guy was done, the end was still so sharp that I even cut myself on more than one occassion. The owner's son rounded out the edges to make it as smooth as possible.

You know, I paid 50% down at the beginning, and when the job was complete, they sent me a bill for the other 50%. Okay, but I wasn't satisfied with the quality. There were several problems that needed to be fixed. I called, spoke to the owner, who was nice, but didn't get back to me to set up a time to do the repairs. I called two more times over the next three months, then just gave up. I had no intention of paying them until these things were resolved, so I figured I wait them out. Don't you know, a week before the end of the year, I get a call. Did I know I still owed them money, they ask? Why yes, I'm aware. Did you know you're not done with the job, I ask? Oh, well, we'll send someone out right away. This was easily 8 months after Tile Guy left.

So, the owner's son came out, and he was very nice, understanding, apologetic, and he made the repairs he could with what materials Tile Guy left for me. I paid them, and we parted ways. I didn't need any more flooring or tiling done on the house, but if I had, I would have to think twice about hiring them again. On the whole, their other employees did a fine job on the cork floor and the carpet, the sales staff was lovely, and eventually, the owner's son did come out and make all the repairs possible, I think the only problem was Tile Guy and his 'tude.

Upstairs Bathroom Details: Structural Support

You may have noticed that the new bathroom looks a lot bigger. That's because it is.

We bumped the wall where the door is out into the hallway. This gave us another 16" or so in the bathroom, and we didn't really loose anything but dead space in the hall. We considered it carefully, too. We didn't want to find that we'd made it impossible to get furniture in. This didn't impact that at all, mostly because the chimney stack was already there. That's another plus. The bathroom doesn't have heating, so by moving the door wall, we've now got two sides of the chimney in the bathroom. And when the hot water is running, like when you're in the shower, the chimney gets hot enough to warm your towel! That nice structural beam had to stay, but I don't think it looks out of place. Or, maybe I'm just telling myself that so I feel better.

Another place we gained space was the ceiling. Bill started to level the old ceiling when we had the bathroom gutted, and he realized that it was going to be a lot of tedious work. He asked me if it would be okay to take the framework down and start from scratch. I'll bet Bill got nervous when he saw the gleam in my eye. I had an idea. Since we had to tear it down anyway, could we raise the ceiling? Pretty please? At only 7', it always felt claustrophobic, and Lewis' hair grazed the light fixture. So Bill agreed that would be best all around, and I couldn't be happier.

One last place we expanded was the knee wall. As it turns out, there was over a foot of dead space between the bathroom and the back bedroom's cubby. Just dead space, not being used for anything. Of course, you can't actually stand there, because of the slope of the roof, but I got my longed-for shampoo shelf and plenty of extra elbow room in the shower. It really makes all the difference. The whole bathroom feels so spacious, even considering its size.

House Tour: Upstairs Bathroom After

I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Compare to the before photos posted yesterday. Details to follow.

House Tour: Upstairs Bathroom Before

I can remember the first time mom and I walked through this house. The owners were showing it themselves, because it was up for auction. I stepped into this bathroom, turned and said to mom, "we're going to have to factor a bathroom remodel right into the budget for this house." She agreed. We both knew it couldn't stay like that for long.

Once the paperwork was finalized and the P.O.s moved out (five weeks of me renting to them), I finally got the house all to myself. Little did I know then... But I always knew this bathroom had to go. I've even thought it could have made a good entry for American Standard's Ugliest Bathroom Contest. But they don't seem to do that anymore.

These photos were taken in September 2003. Once upon a time, there was a claw foot tub in here, but it was long gone by the time I arrived. I'd guess 1970s?

The ceiling was low, the lighting was ugly, the floor was squishy, the tub was shorter than normal at 4-1/2', its faucet leaky, any natural daylight was almost completely blocked by the weird shower wall addition, daddy couldn't even get to the plumbing access panel...

...that's about 10" there, people.
If your eyes can get past the nasty, teal with gold veins ...laminate?... wall panels, you can see they butchered the poor header on the medicine cabinet with that hideous 80s lighting.
The toilet also leaked. Alot. We woke up one morning to water dripping from the ceiling right onto the kitchen counter! I would have been a whole lot more disgusted if we had actually been using the kitchen at the time. Anyway, the downstairs bathroom wasn't yet completed, so my dad's solution was to turn the water off to the toilet (luckily it was the ingoing water that was leaking, not the, erm, outgoing). This did not render the bathroom unusable, however, because all we had to do was collect water dripping from the tub faucet into a bucket, and voila! Instant use of wasted water. The tub faucet was leaking about a gallon of water every two hours. Daddy intended to fix it, but he said the whole thing had to be replaced, he couldn't reach the plumbing, and we were going to gut this room in less than a year, so...

Check out the gold vein on that counter surface. Not matching, but coordinating.Just wait till you see all we did to this room. You may not recognise it. Once we realized how bad the water damage was, this room had to be torn down to the studs. And then some of those even had to be sistered. We bumped two walls out, raised the ceiling, leveled the floor, well, you'll see...

Swags and Dogwood Blooms

This is the Dogwood and Lace pillowcase set from Dimensions.
I got quite good at doing the satin stitch for the leaves and flower petals while working on this set. They feel so neat when they are done. The stitching is so tight, it makes the flowers almost puffy, very three dimensional.I actually used the recommended colors for this kit:
DMC green #524
DMC off-white #712
DMC yellow #676

One thing I changed was those small flowers. I did them in all yellow, the pattern called for blue. I thought the fourth color detracted from the rest of the design. It is such a nice shade of yellow, too. I think I've used it on one of the other sets before...

The Continuing Story of the Screen and Storm Windows

With winter fast approaching, mom and I took advantage of the mild temperatures on Wednesday to do a staining project we have put off since... oh, April? Wow. We're really good at procrastination. These are the frames for the screen and storm windows for the small, square (-ish) windows in the living room, on the landing, the upstairs bathroom, and all three closets. Seven windows in all, with a screen and a storm for each makes fourteen frames. And the trim that goes with them.

We put in three solid hours, and I'm convinced we'll need a second coat of stain because the pine is so thirsty. Mom disagrees. I think she's just anxious to get them done. We ran out of daylight, plus we were tired, so the second coat and the poly finish will have to be done another day. It'll have to be outside again, though, because I got a wicked headache from the smell. I can't imagine doing this in the basement with just the windows open. I seem to mind this stuff more lately. I guess the fall allergies don't help, either.

We did our best to keep Oliver out of the staining process, but I'm sure there a few golden retriever hairs in there somewhere. As you can see in the top picture, he was close by for the whole project.

House Tour: Back Bedroom After

Oh, boy. I am embarrassed to show you all this room. It is baaaaad. But everyone has a junk room, right? Right? Someday I'll get this organized. Really, I will. If you can believe it, there was twice as much stuff in here about a year ago, so that's progress. And there is a wide path from the door to the closet on the left, both dressers are accessible, as well as the window on the left. Can't quite get to the window on the right just now, even though there is a large empty space in front of it. You just can't get there.


And if you can imagine it, three years ago, pretty much the whole house was in this state. Or worse. So if you look at it like that, we've made progress. We've just stalled here. This was the landing spot for everything we didn't know what to do with.

You may notice that this room is slightly less peach than before, but it was supposed to be a lovely light mushroom color. But our less-than-fab painter, who shall go unnamed, decided he's a one-coat-Joe. So, some day we'll need to paint in here again. The color isn't as deep as I had wanted, and because walls are not perfectly smooth, peach paint shows through where the roller skipped over the concave spots. Idiot.

Also, the this is the only room in the house with painted trim. I'm happy with it, I think it looks nice painted a nice white. Really, it was the only way to go here because both windows were later additions, as well as most of the baseboard, so they weren't chestnut, and it was all already painted, so... I don't feel bad.

Carpet is another only-in-this-room. Some stupid P.O. had glued carpet down to the floor at some point, and while, maybe, maybe the glue may have come up, it would have cost a fortune and been very labor intensive. Besides, only half of the room had hardwood floor, the other half now has new plywood that replaced the rotten sleeping porch floor.

Another someday we'll get the walls painted to match the carpet. It'll look nice with the white trim. The doors themselves were refinished, though, in keeping with the rest of the house.

The closet is reasonably organized......do I at least get points for that?

Okay, so, remember that space behind the door I told you to make note of in the before pictures? Well, here is the final result:That second "cubby" door was built by Bill, and it leads to the plumbing access. That bump out? Well, that is just small space lost in a large room, a small price to pay for much gained elbow room in the bathroom...