A productive weekend

First... one of the chores I took on to complete..I washed windows... and since they are now clean, I decided to mount the mini blinds.. not that they had to be put up now, but it gives the house a more lived in look from the outside... which I will show in a bit..
This is one bedroom ,,,,with mini blinds installed....
Here is the other bedroom....
Here is a close up on one of the windows in the last 1/2 bedroom ha ha ha ...

Now for a look at the effect from the outside... it looks more like a home, doesn't it?

This one was a rough one to complete.. but the floor is all sealed.. has three coats of sealer on it..
the "first time do it yourselfers didn't know to seal the slate before grouting, so the grout sorta soaked into the slate in some places.. had to scrub it out each tile individually.. best that could be.. it's liveable now.. and looks darn good all sealed.

inbetween coats of sealant drying, we managed to get the tub completed.. the water is all hooked up, and the faucets are installed.. the walls are caulked,, ready for a shower! Bout time!


Hmm I forgot to snap a pic of it all caulked... *smacks hands* ohh well.. next trip .

yes work was done... but....

Nothing to show. It was a discouraging trip.. came home early... seems being newbies to tiling, we didn't know when you install slate tiles, they should be sealed before you install, so the grout mixture doesn't absorb into the tile... arghhh... there are some cleaning options we will try, but it was very disappointing to clean up, and still have it look undone.

Not gonna tell ya... how upsetting this made us.. that's the reason for the quick trip home.. next time .. I hope.

Summer is here.....sigh.... no wheres near done

Well.. while waiting for the sealant to dry on the grout in the kitchen, it was a good time to put some more lights up. These were originally in the master bedroom.. we decided they weren't needed there, and put them in the hall.. I plan on putting only 25 wattt bulbs in them, to make them night-lights.. we have the bright recessed lights in the hall.. but this can be left on at night to travel back and forth to the bathroom. There is a light switch for them between the kids rooms.


Here they are all mounted... I like em.. and I got to keep some more original from the house.. a little old, a little new!


Here is the kitchen floor.. it's all grouted, and all the grout was sealed! Hopefully, it will make it easier to maintain. When we purchased these tiles over a year ago, we paid $.77 each.. geesh, if they don't go for $.56 each now! Grrrr oh well.. they aren't the most expensive to begin with, but I think they look nice.. and it isn't linoleum! (regular 12 x 12 inch tiles run around $2.49 each.)


What I had no pics of yet, were the cabinets.. they got very dusty waiting to be installed.. so he spent some time cleaning them up so they can be painted.. trying to get them all done so he can get them put up.

Busy Weekend

First a look at the rewired old ceiling light fixture.. it isn't spectacular, but it's original to the house, so we kept it, and it fit just nicely at the top of the stairs. It had no lens cover, so we made one out of a piece of plastic for a recessed light... it does the job, and obscures the light bulbs from view. The Frame got a good clean, and repaint.. and all the colored glass was thoroughly cleaned and reinstalled. All the wiring and sockets were replaced and rewired..

Now just a few different views of the kitchen floor.. both surfaces were grouted.. they still need a bit of a clean-up.. was just too much in so little time.. but it looks real nice. The grout for the beige tiles, was supposed to be almond, yet it looks white.. not sure if another wash will brighten it up bit more. The slate tiles need to be polished off to remove residue in the cracks and seams.. then they have to be sealed. All photos are clickable to enlarge them!








the open rectangle in the center of the floor is going to be under the island.. it's for the drain and water pipes...
Well, that was about all that was done this weekend, except the lawn was mowed..

Just a note...

The wall sconce at the bottom of the rear staircase, was hanging on the wall, with some really dumb plastic globe on it.. it's cast iron..and I thought it needed something a little more.. um.. well.. old looking...

While cleaning the rooms, I remembered an old globe for something, maybe a ceiling light, sitting on the windowsill upstairs.. so I washed it up, and it fit nicely! That's why maybe that wall sconce has a weird look to it.. ha ha ha.. it looked fine to me!

Little this..... little that

Well, this weekend, was moving day for cousin and sis in law. Not much time to do a lot of work on the house, but every little thing done, is one more thing finished. Too tired to work on the floor tiles, lights went up instead.

Here is the ceiling fan that will hang over the kitchen table. The hole in the ceiling is for the smoke detector.


Here is one of the old wall sconces we rescued and rewired. Apparently, the new building codes, weren't applicable to the old lights.. we had to create a back plate to cover the new box for the wires... we tried everything we could to cover them nicely.. and this was our best idea.. he traced the wall sconces on plywood.. and smoothed out the curves.. and panted them the color of the walls.. so they could blend in ... the picture look good.. have to see them in person.




here is just a long view of the ceiling fan...and the wall sconce by the bottom of the rear staircase.



We tried so hard to include a lot of the old in our design..it is an old house, I didn't want it to look real modern.. but I wanted some of the modern conveniences. I sure hope it all works together and looks appealing!

still tiling

A few more tiles were added to the field of cream tiles.. then the slate tiles went down..









He stopped tiling the remainder of the kitchen to get the tiles by the door done.. it's tough not being able to come and go!