One step forward, two steps back!

 Well Goodness!!! Remember the dining room, which was scheduled to be stained today?!! It's not!

 

See this fireplace surround?

 

It ain't there no more!

 

We knew it never really belonged in the dining room.  It really didn't fit right. It was a tad too wide and somewhat more than a tad too short.  Initially we thought it was too short because the dining room floor has dropped a little (which it has), but in reality this was never originally there.

Jim and I carried that monstrosity up.....

 

 

.....these stairs....SHEW! It was funny, and I was laughing so much I could hardly hold on to it. As you can see, we knocked the top off the banister (or whatever that's called). We also bumped it against everything we could going up! We got to the top of the landing where we have to turn and go up the side stairs.....and we were stuck.  Both of us set it down and stood there looking at one another...no idea of what to do. Jim just kept trying to lift it but I didn't see any reason for that as we didn't have a plan of what to do after he lifted it. It's funny now (and kinda then too), but we did eventually manhandle (and womanhandle) it into place!  Every time Jim attempts plumbing he tells me I should have married a plumber.  Today I told him he should have married a moving man!

 

Anyway, here it is....

 

 

....in The Greta Room

 

 

 

See these little notches in the baseboard? We knew that's where it used to live....however long ago.

I guess it's back home (or will be when it's fitted (it does perfectly) and nailed in place.  Sweet.

 

 

Of course, we'll now be searching for one to replace it for the dining room....hopefully one that will fit better.

OK! Shew (again)! We went almost to Roanoke today for this Craigslist find.....

Wall cabinets....OLD wall cabinets.....Kitchen cabinets.  We couldn't pass them up!!!

We considered putting them here....

 

.....but I SO love the look of this cabinet we already have.  I don't know, maybe we'll save the cabinets we got today for the laundry room.  I have some great laundry room inspiration pictures I'll post!!!

 

What to do, what to do!

 

 

Dining room...

Dining room all cleared out (with all the junk piled up in another room!)

 

We have NO idea why they plastered over the fireplace in the dining room....?  There's another woodburning fireplace on the wall right behind this one....in the sitting room. It is not plastered over, and appears to work....although we've not tried it...yet.

 

 

 

Let the sanding begin!!!!!

"The Greta Room"

This is one of the upstairs bedrooms. Jim "lovingly" refers to it as "The Greta Room" because my friend, Greta, provided the bedspread, the rug and a lot of the accessories.....Thank you, Ms. Greta.  As you can see, the floors have yet to be refinished...but that will have to come later.

 

I think it goes to show you can put "lipstick on a pig" and have it look good.  In spite of all that stiil needs to be done, a little bit of "pretty" goes a long way.

Dining Room (to be)

This is the dining room.  Not many people would be willing to show you a mess like this, but I have nothing to hide....it is what it is.  However, we will be attempting to make some sort of calm from this clutter in the next week.

 

I have to be honest, I'm at a loss.  I have NO earthly idea what I want to do in this room....or what sort of look.  I showed Jim a bunch of dining room pictures (from very formal to primitive rustic---and everywhere in between!) and asked him which he tends to gravitate toward. He said, "I just do floors."  My friends, IF you'd like to share your ideas with me, I'd sure be interested....either here or through Facebook.  I tried to take a picture from every angle so you'd have a better idea what we're working with.

 

This is looking into the dining room.....with the picture taken from the kitchen.

I tried to show that there is a space behind this cabinet. The cabinet is just sitting in the middle of the floor, and in some of the pictures it was hard to see that there is space behind it.

If you look behind the green cabinet, you'll see a fireplace tucked in there. It's been boarded up but the surround is still there. Also notice that there is a radiator underneath the window (matters for furniture placement!)

Above is a closer picture of the fireplace surround.

Here is a picture taken from inside the dining room....attempting to show the location of the dining room in conjunction with the foyer and kitchen.

Fireplace would be on the right in this picture.

                                                                            

OK, there it is. The only thing that will be done in here is sanding, staining, and polyurethaning the floors.  Any decorating ideas for window treatments, fireplace mantel, walls, ANYTHING? Ceilings are 10'.  Help!

 

Foyer....before Christmas decorations

Hoping to start decorating for Christmas.....maybe tomorrow if I can locate the Christmas decorations.....? 

 

I wanted to give you a glance of the finished foyer before Christmas decorations. The pictures are a little fuzzy....I don't know why....?

 

 



This picture above was given to Jim; it belonged to someone very special. He loves it. It deserves a prominent place in the foyer.

 

....and here's a quick glance at the downstairs bath. I have stuff to hang above the potty....all is not decorated here....yet.

 

Kitchen!!!! 95% complete

Crowded, cluttered and country....Yep, that's the look I was going for! :)

 

Jim built the stove surround using Lowe's unfinished stock cabinets. Jim added some zing! I love it.

 

 

The new sink base...same thing....unfinished stock cabinets with an Ikea wooden countertop.

 

The cabinets may or may not be staying in this place.

 

I'm still looking for something to put on the right side of the radiator (above). For now, just holding pantry stuff until something better comes along!

 

 

And that's the kitchen....for now.  We still need to put up the crown moulding and baseboards in some places. It's definitely what I wanted!!! Looks old and not like a run of the mill fitted type of kitchen.  YAY!!!

My new kitchen color....My new kitchen cabinet!!!!

 

Our new wall cabinet!

We bought a new 30" x 30" unfinished wall cabinet from Home Depot as well as a set of wood brackets, a board, some crackle glaze and paint and made a new cabinet look old. We like it a lot.  Looks good....just what we needed to fill the space!

                                                                    

 

 

The old kitchen color....

 

 

 

The new kitchen color...

 



This is what we'll (Jim) will be working on in the next couple of days.....

 

 

We bought four cabinets today; two 18" upper cabinets and an 18" lower cabinet like the one above and another 18" cabinet with drawers only.  Jim is going to build the top middle shelf, the brackets, and the wall behind the stove. I'll post pictures....at some point!

:)

Downstairs Update

I honestly have tried for a while now to update the SunnyGrace blog, but our internet has not cooperated! For some reason I'm having a very difficult time uploading pictures. I have more to show you, but it has taken me forever to upload the ones below, so for now I guess this is all I can show

you.

 

This is the downstairs bedroom.  If you remember from my earlier blog post, this is where we were/are going to weather out the winter. Initially we were going to get a king bed frame and put the twin mattresses together on that frame.  Well, as you can see, that did not work out as planned. I told Jim that I'm really not liking this Ricky and Lucy scenario much....not much at all.

 

 





Have you noticed the mismatched bedspreads?!  It's nothing like I want. I need matching bedspreads, some pictures on the walls, curtains on the windows...EVERYTHING!

 

               I am kinda fond of this cotton rag rug though! I bought it for $15 at Kohl's!!            

I's a big rug....all country and cozy looking.

Let's see....how to describe the room.  Well, there's a door to the side porch. Also, I have an old ugly chair (covered with a bedspread) in the bedroom right now. It won't be staying there though. The chest is an old piece we've had forever. It holds the TV. I need to paint it....again. It's been at least three different colors. It'll be staying.





See the louvered doors in the upper right corner of the picture below?

I'm not sure what it'll be good for. I'm thinking about leaving the doors open and using it as another niche to display "pretties"....and maybe hanging some type of country sampler on one of the opened doors....not sure.

And....this my new kitchen sink....

....which is huge....and I LOVE it!  Jim said you could bathe a baby elephant in it. Yep! It's a cast iron 33" x 22" wonderful white.....heavy sink!

  

It fits (we hope) into this sink base. I have to figure out a paint color and knobs. I'm truly not looking forward to doing either of those things.  However, I AM looking forward to having a sink in the kitchen though....FINALLY!
Below is something I bought at a junk store to hang in the bath to put towels on.  It has a mirror in the middle and it has a ceramic king of spades and queen of hearts glued to it.  Jim took those two ugly things off so I could add something nice in their place.  I'll be showing that to you later.

 

For now, this is all the pictures that I can upload. More to come soon...hopefully!