Memorial Day

It has been almost a month since my last post. Life here has been non-stop and if you've ever experienced one or two of those times in your lives, then you know how hard it is to get caught up. I am committed to posting this new entry tonight!!! Even these pics are outdated by now. I will get these posted and then it will be easier for me to add new ones in the next few days! Thanks for your patience.

We traveled down to the Dallas National Cemetery for Memorial Day. Bob's dad is buried there. It is always such a sobering experience. I am so thankful that every grave there represents a person who loved this country enough to fight for the freedoms that I take for granted every day of my life. Thanks to every one of you.

The floors are actually stained with one coat of poly UNDER all of this cardboard and paper. This is to protect it during the painting process, which is currently underway.

Have you ever stripped wallpaper? This was the fruits of my labor one afternoon. The project is still not done. If you are not from the area, you are missing out on record heat and low rainfall. It was 105 today in McKinney. Not the best weather to be stuck in a powder room scraping and scraping! Oh well, it will still be there when I get back to it.

ISLAND UPDATE!!! The base it done!!! Bob is working on the top so I will take a pic tomorrow and post it. It turned out so much better than I had even envisioned.

The electrician and Bob. He is quite a character and we are so thankful for his talents. Anyway you can see the island minus the top, the cupboards installed and the pine floors down. As of today, the cupboards are now painted white and the floors are stained, varnished and covered with paper. This kitchen is the most amazing change in the house. It is so bright and happy. I am so excited to see the rest of it come together. The counter tops are being installed this week.

This is a shot of the island as Glenna was working on it.

I think there were at least 6 layers of paint put on before she was finished.

These are a few pictures of a dresser we used for the apartment bathroom vanity. It is finished too so I will take a new picture of it. Bob did a fabulous job putting two sinks in it.

Before the sinks installed....

One of the possibilities for our lights above our island. I have another choice too. These may end up being too big but they will also work out in the apartment if I choose not to use them in the kitchen.

As I mentioned earlier it has been a crazy busy month. Our son in law Paul graduated from SMU Law School. We are so proud of him! It is an amazing accomplishment!

My daughter Sarah and precious Halie at the graduation.

Paul and sweet Austin at graduation. I'm not sure what the deal is with those caps......!! Congratulations Paul!!

The following weekend we headed to Lubbock for our son Jeff's graduation from Texas Tech School of Medicine. We had a great time with the family. Avery checking for free bubble gum!

Sawyer and Ben learning from their big sister! It is so funny how those machines intrigue kids even if they never get anything out of them.

Bob had the honor of hooding Jeff at his graduation. It was really emotional for me. What a journey his education has been. He actually beat his dad for the number of years in college. We have had some member of our family in college since 1971....yes, I said 1971!!!!! Wooohooo....I think everyone is DONE!!
Congratulation Jeff!!

And a word of thanks and congratulations to Sarah and Kristen for their love and support of Paul and Jeff in this journey. They are both such amazing women and every day I thank God for the gift they are to us! We love you!

OK.......there it is...a quick update! It will feel so good to push "publish" and get this off of my "to-do" list! Now it will be easier to get new pics on! Again, thanks for your patience! Have a great week! Stay cool!

Live a Little

This is the restaurant of choice in the south....and tonight we participated in the fine dining experience! But just for a hot fudge sundae and a pecan caramel blizzard...we passed on the burger and fries! What a great ending to a great day!

And you can tell we are in the deep south.....what way does that "N" go?!!

Today was a run around day.....I was in three lighting stores looking for new lights for the front of the house. Currently there are light posts and they are way too small for the scale of the house. We are taking them out and putting lanterns back up. I didn't end up finding anything....there were too many choices. But a friend bailed me out and found a great two for one sale! I will take a picture once they are up on the house.

Another possibility.

I was also tile shopping for the bathrooms and kitchen. I found a great overstock store in Plano and found tons of Carrera marble. That part of the day was a success. We are not using the black accent. It think we will cut the 12x12 squares in half and do a basketweave pattern.

We are using white subway tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. I think the tiling will start next week. The kitchen cupboards will be in on Friday. It is really starting to come together!!

I went over and shot a couple of pics of the island. What you see now is only one of many layers that will go into this project. If you look down a couple of pics you will see some examples of what the finish will look like as it gets closer to the end. I am heading over tomorrow to take some updated pictures. I'll post them tomorrow.

You realize this is upside down! Bob is going to make the top out of the old reclaimed pine. I wanted zinc but the guy I talked to about making the top never called me back so I going with the guy I know will come through!

These are a few of the roses in my garden. The color was amazing today.

More garden pics.

My herb garden.

This was one hungry little guy! It is so adorable when a toddler is big enough to handle a whole piece of pizza!

Halie opted for plain noodles! I guess we finished that pizza off!

Sunday we celebrated Mothers Day and my little girl turned 32! It has been a joy to be mom to Sarah and Jeff. They have blessed my life beyond measure! For all of you who are parents to young ones, I know that there are days that you think will never end. You are tired but those days do end. It goes by so very quickly but God is so faithful to refill your life with new blessings. Bob and I have been blessed with their spouses Paul and Kristen and now our 5 grandbabies. Life is grand.......so go to DQ, celebrate with no guilt and "live a little"!!!

Intuitively Obvious?

Apparently not! The picture above and the one below are two examples of what may be obvious to one person, may not be obvious to the next guy. We needed to put a floor vent in the new kitchen floor. Bob had it marked out for the floor guy and when we came in today, there was a trapezoid carved in the floor instead of a rectangle.......any guesses on what he was thinking? Have YOU ever seen a trapezoid vent cover? Actually what you see is not what was really cut. It was a real trapezoid and this is after Bob messed with it a little. The next pic is the ceiling in the apartment staircase. We told the lighting guy we needed an electric box centered in the ceiling.....does that even look remotely centered? I'm not sure what he was thinking or drinking! Anyway, Bob went up into the attic today and put one up where it is supposed to be......centered in the ceiling! I guess he should have done it in the beginning!

Have you ever seen those street crews where there are 3 guys on a crew and only one is actually working???!!!!

This is our master bedroom floor! Green carpet.....gone. Old finish....gone. Newly sanded floors!! They are absolutely beautiful. 82 years old and they look new! Now if I could only figure out how to do that to my body!

These are the reclaimed and remilled pine floors in our kitchen!

Looking from the backdoor into the kitchen.

Downstairs powder room....before.

These are the layers of wallpaper that we found when we started stripping the paper off. The plaid metallic paper was the oldest and then the orange and gold. I think I have wrapping paper out in the garage that is similar to the metallic pattern. Don't you wonder what they will be saying about our decorating choices 80 years from now?!!

This paper is probably the same vintage as the orange and gold one. This was one of several layers in the master bath!

Halie and Austin were here for the day and they picked up a bunch of scraps from the new house. Halie was so excited to build something with Papa. She wanted a birdhouse and so that is what they built. Austin got into the hammering too!

Last step...painting.

"No Story For Old Island"! as in "No Country For Old Men"!!

You all remember the old counter that I found at the Round Top flea market? It will be my new kitchen island after a major overhaul. Bob and I, (well really mostly Bob!) were out working on it a couple of days ago and we started talking about the history behind it. I don't have a clue where it came from and the woman I bought it from didn't know either. So now the fun begins! We can MAKE ONE UP!! I took a close up of all of different paint colors that have been splashed on it over the years so I am thinking it was either in a hardware store or maybe an artist was using it. It's YOUR turn! Let's see what kind of stories we can up with. Please don't disappoint me and have nobody respond. I may be sad and never post again....just kidding! Anyway, Bob did an amazing job of taking the top off and putting it on the bottom so that I now have a shelf in the previously open space. He also put new sturdy legs on it and fortified it so well that all 5 grandkids could hop around on it and it won't fall apart! He is an amazing carpenter. Thanks again Bob! The piece is now in the hands of a friend who is painting it.....you will LOVE what she will do! As far as the new top, I want a zinc top but if that doesn't pan out, I will have Bob construct one out of the old remilled pine we are using in the house. More pics as it progresses.

Pink, turquoise, white, black, yellow....hmmmm

Bob has also been busy working on the porte cochere. The ceiling was falling down so he tore it down and put new bead board up, which by the way he said is terribly difficult for a 57 year old with trifocals! Then the fun started. Well I thought it looked like fun since it is one of things in the house that I couldn't wait to see GONE. There were these really bad plexiglass windows with bad screen doors on either side of this wonderful space. So we thought we would just order new divided light windows to replace them. At a price tag of $10000, yes that is four zeros, we decided better. We thought it would make a great all weather kind of living space so we just tore them out and VOILA! It looks great and we know we will enjoy many a rainy day under it.

I think those rays shining down are from God!! Well done thy good and faithful servant! I don't mean that to sound sacrilegious , he really is one! I am convinced that one day Bob really will hear that from God, not just from me!

Ok folks...these are the first shots of the new garage apartment. It doesn't have alot of history since it was only built in 1996. But we plan on changing that. When I first saw this house you all know I fell in love with the doors, windows and staircase. But the thing that really sold us on the property was this apartment. We have a garage apartment at our current house and it's the cutest thing ever. It has been such a blessing to us and God has allowed us the share it with so many others in that last 11 years. But this new one has one special person that it is intended for. Bob's mom, or Veloise, or as we all call her Grandma. At some point she will be coming to live here. She is one the most amazing women I know and she has been like a mom to me since my precious mom passed away. On most days she has more energy than I do, despite the fact that she has heart issues and arthritis so bad it is difficult for her to do so many activities she has done and loved for years. She can no longer climb stairs due to the arthritis so our current carriage house won't work for her. But....this one has an elevator!!!! Can you believe that? It was built for the previous owner's handicapped son. It could not be more perfect. It has 1100 sq ft and although we have some tweaking to do to make it "Grandma ready" , it will be so great to have her so close to us. We are really looking forward to the great times and the grandkids will also love rides on the elevator! I know it will be hard for her to leave her home and we are encouraging her not to do it until she is 100% ready, but when she is it will be waiting for her. By the way, I will get a picture of her driving her VW bug....it is cutest thing! I will post more pictures of it.

The staircase with the NASTIEST carpet you had ever seen....gone! The old pine floors will soon cover them.

Last Thursday Halie and I had a Nana/Halie day. It was so much fun. We went down to the clinic to visit Papa. She totally did NOT like seeing those dogs opened up wide on the surgery table. She just buried her head in Papa's shoulder til they were out the surgery area. She went home and told her mom she did NOT want to be a vet!! So funny! Lunch with Papa and pancakes followed. After that we headed out to Hobby Lobby and got some paint supplies so she could paint on her first canvas. She was so excited! We came home and she painted the whole background a pale pink. My best friend Nan told me how to do this! Thanks Nan! Then she started painting her masterpiece. She called it Merry Christmas. It is so adorable. Maybe not a vet, but she could be an artist!

I had a wedding to do this past weekend and these are a few pics of the flowers. They were georgeous.....Pink and purple hydrangea, lilacs, and lots of different orchids. Surrounded by flowers....such a great job. I make NO money but I love the actual hands on work.

The bridal and bridesmaids bouquets.

One of the centerpieces. I will be back tomorrow with some pics I took tonight!