Finishing touches

I finally put the crown moulding on the two windows in the guest bedroom. It definitely makes it look more finished than just the 1x6 did. Here's a reminder of the before:

And the after:

I may still add a piece of lattice moulding to the top of the crown, but probably not anytime soon. I made Roman shades using a cheap set of vinyl blinds. You can unfortunately see the glue line through the fabric, but it's not bad for about $7 a blind! (I bought a bolt of fabric eons ago for $5, and it serendipitously exactly matches the wall color - another clearance find.) The amount of sunlight coming in is hugely reduced (this room has eastern, southern, and western exposures), keeping the room substantially cooler.

Holy smokes. A whole month since I've blogged. And no, the bathroom still isn't done. Not even close. I took some time off from tiling to let my hand heal - the skin on my hands is super-sensitive and I thought that the mortar I was using was causing major irritation. It probably wasn't the mortar after all since my hand still hasn't healed, so I started back up again this week (wearing latex first-aid gloves to prevent any further skin irritation). This is the current condition. The vast majority of the tiles that are left need to be cut, so I'll be marking tiles tomorrow. If all goes well, I should be able to wrap up the tiling this weekend!

 I hauled Tom's old desk upstairs into the spare room to use as a sewing table. It had the unparalleled benefits of being free and of freeing up some room downstairs. However, it's also old and kind of crummy, so it's got some extra special customizations to make it work. Namely, duct tape and a stack of books. My dad would be proud, at least regarding the duct tape.  It doesn't look as bad as it sounds. Here it is looking halfway respectable.

 You have to get down low to see the books propping up the back side.

The duct tape will be unnecessary once I locate the metal brace that holds the two tabletop portions together.

Finishing what I started, part 2

My mom's been begging for part 2 of this series, where I actually do something with the furniture I've been hoarding. This chair was given to us by the same friends who gave us the desk in the entryway. The fabric was torn, and the frame was a tad rickety. Here's the before shot:

Twenty minutes later I had turned it into this:

I added a layer of foam to make it a little cushier and swapped out the embroidered cover for a suede-like yellow fabric. A lot of people might have painted the frame, but I like the yellow fabric against the wood. I think every room needs a little natural wood anyway, plus the brown ties in to the tones in the rug. The rickety-ness vanished after I put the seat back on and tightened the screws. Since this is to be a sewing chair, I added a throw pillow ($.25 or $.50 from a yard sale) for extra comfort.

I finally got a chance to do a little more tiling in the bathroom. I fixed a few loose floor tiles and then started on the walls. The top tile reaches to over 8' off the floor. Today I have a date with the tile saw to make lots of cuts.

Finishing what I started, part 1

This side table my mom gave me was kinda rickety, the drawer bottom slid out of place when you tried to open the drawer, and it had scratches and water rings all over the top.

 

 

I used it as a bedside table in my room for a long time, but that faulty drawer bottom with a handsy toddler was a messy combination. I fwas thankful to find that the table legs were attached with bolts rather than nails, so a few turns of a wrench was all it took to make it solid. Then I sanded down the top completely. All the scratches and rings disappeared to reveal a gorgeous walnut top. 

 

The top got two coats of walnut stain and a couple coats of a wiping varnish. The rest of the table got primer and paint. I also ran a thin bead of glue along the back edge of the drawer bottom and clamped it. Now the drawer slides easily and the bottom doesn't fall out. It now resides in Clara's room and holds bedtime essentials - a lamp for reading, her Bobby bear, and a basket of books. I think it turned out pretty well.

While my family was in town

I've been working on a long update post, but there is a problem with Blogger and I can't access my unpublished drafts. Boo. In short, my brother-in-law and sister made short (but dirty) work of the attic floors:

In case you can't tell, they look fan-flipping-tastic. I'm pretty excited.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, they installed the first piece of a 3-part baseboard in Clara's room. I don't have pictures of this, but it is just a 1x6 around the perimeter of the room. I say "just" a 1x6, but moulding installation is never that simple.

For my part, I managed to do not much more than applying Redgard waterproofing membrane to the shower. I was dragging my feet on that project because I was nervous about screwing up, but it was easier to deal with than I had imagined. It goes on bright pink (think Pepto-Bismol) and dries red. The stuff is pretty pricey ($135 for the 3.5 gallon bucket I bought), but it's a small price to pay to guard against rotted studs in a few years. Two coats probably would have been fine, but I did three to the walls and more to corners of the niches and anywhere that needed more. I've heard nothing but good things about the product's performance, so hopefully I'm all set.

Now that my self-imposed completion deadline has come and gone (home to Louisiana), I have been slacking a little. The girls haven't been napping, so my work time has been nil. I'm anxious to get this thing wrapped up so I can start on the next great parenting adventure known as potty-training. Yikes.