Well life has been busy……and fun……and busy. We are still not in the house 😳. It’s all good, life has just gotten in the way.
Here are just a few shots of the house. I am going to try to get back to blogging. I am missing y’all. ❤️❤️❤️
Holly
I am sorry I have not blogged in forever 😁. It’s been a busy couple of months. Spring sports started and another broken arm 😩😩😩. This time Big T. She fell at school. Thankfully tho it wasn’t a bad break.
The house is really coming along. The paint is done and it’s amazing. I am in love with the Cloud White by Benjamin Moore. 
Little man eating breakfast in the chaos. 
Jose seemingly has no fear. He is the best painter. 
I am so happy we went with the trim and walls the same color. It’s calm and I think, a nice balance to the ceiling. 
Big C wanted this Marine Blue color in his room. I would never have picked it. But I am so glad we let him chose. It is a beautiful color. I think it really works with the white walls and rafter beams on the ceiling. 
This is Big T’s room. She chose a Cotton Candy pink and I chose the classic gray to go with it. She really wanted light green……but I think the gray will grow well with her. We will bring some accent green in. 
Pink cast on my dear girl. 
Here is looking into little T’s room. The two littles, got cloud white rooms. We will paint furniture in fun colors for them.
So paint is done 😄. We got all the cabinets painted. And the screened porch. The exposed duct is in. I will post on that soon. So now I am busy getting all the lighting organized. Before finish electrical.
Thanks for following along, hope you week is going well.
H 😊
Well, we have been at a stand still all week. Freezing temps….and snow ❄️ Here are a few snowy photos. Hope you enjoy.
Crossing my fingers that on Monday the painters will be back. It is supposed to warm up.
Snowman selfie ⛄️
Thanks for reading, have a lovely weekend.
Holly 😄❄️
Paint….getting one step closer. Yay! Today is the start of the painters third week at the house. The first week was all preparation to seal the siding material on ceilings. After some research and test boards we ended up using an acrylic urethane, it left the wood looking very natural, and is low VOC. I wanted it all sealed so when (if I ever 😝) dust it the paint won’t flake. The old paint is beautiful. But I want it to stay on the old wood.
The painters got that done the beginning of last week. Then they prepped for paint on trim and baseboards. We went with an oil paint….not sure how I feel about it. Jose (the painter) said it would wash and wear better. And with four kids and white trim I was really wanting washable!!! The paint smell is so strong in the house now….with just the primer. I don’t know if I made the best decision to go with an oil base?? The wall paint is all going to be water based low VOC Benjamin Moore Aura paint.
They are using sprayers to paint so the prep is very labour intensive. Take a look.
It looks a bit like a spaceship in the house.
They primed all the trim on Friday and now are hand sanding it all before they start the first coat of paint. So I think it’s going to be another two weeks possible three to get all the painting done.
The laundry chute upstairs. All primed.
And (in other news 😉) everyone is pretty excited to have our piano here. It came from California the week before last. It’s Coles family’s piano. It’s been sitting unplayed for 20 years. It will be played often and much enjoyed in its new home. 🎶 I love the 80’s retro vibe of the piano.
So this is what the next few weeks are looking like. White paint and more white paint…..with a few surprise colors in the big kids rooms.
Thanks for reading
Hope you have a wonderful week
Holly 😊
Things are moving along at the house. This last week we got the railing over the loft and stairs done.
I wanted to keep the detail of the birdsmouth’s on the rafter beams to add some interest. And Because I think they look cool :). I had them all face into the loft so from downstairs it looks clean. But from upstairs it’s a bit ummmm…….random. 😉
Cole and Jerry (carpenter) notched the floor cap beams out so they lay over the drywall. This made it so there was no need to trim along the bottom, my idea……but a big job for them. That old wood is hard to notch out!!
The posts and bottom floor cap are bigger beams, than the railing and the railing cap. The guys drilled a hole in the bottom of the beams and places it over these pipes. They won’t move….ever. Super heavy duty.
That new wood, in the foreground of the photo with Big T looking over the stairs, is our wood floors for the upstairs. It is acclimating now. Excited to see how that is going to look. 😄
I was not sure what we were going to make this railing out of. There was a lot of time spent on pinterest. We looked into wood with pipe, iron, even old doors. But we had all this reclaimed wood left over, and it seemed silly not to use it. I am happy we did.
I was very worried that the wood was going to look too heavy. But it seems to work with the height of the loft railing from down stairs. And upstairs it makes the loft/playroom really cozy. And it gives everyone a chance to see all the detail, nail holes, saw marks, white paint and age of this pre-civil war era wood.
Andddddd…….added bonus is I can relax when the kids are upstairs. The 11 foot fall was always worrisome for me. 😁.
The base and trim are all done as well, so now on to paint.
The painters are in and busy prepping, we were going to paint ourselves but our painter talked Cole into letting him. 😋. He will do a much better job than me….
And our ever present little helper…hauling rafter railing up the stairs. 💙
Happy Saturday everyone.
Thanks for reading,
Holly 😊
Ok, this last week has been a bit of a busy one. We had the downstairs floors polished. We…….well I say we…….Cole had been researching the best way to finish our floors. Stain, seal, wax or polish? Or a combination? We went with polish, it is supposed to have less upkeep and more durable? And I wanted to stay with the natural concrete color anyway. We found a very reputable guy about an hour away. He polishes floors for u-haul. Ha!!! Seriously the faces that people made when I told them our floor was going to look like Home Depot. 😳
From the loft, it’s a bit darker than this…..the dust has settled a bit.
Here is a close up, in the living room.
This is the hallway from the master.
So we love it ❤️. We even love the cracks 😊
Little C’s room.
The man who did it had never done a floor quite like this, he usually takes more off, to show a bit of the aggregate. We wanted to keep the “cream” as he called it. This way we keep a bit more color variations. And the swirls that were left when they were pouring the concrete. They went over the floors three times. With an 200 grit, then a 400, then an 800. They could have gone way shinier but this sheen is perfect for us.
I found these next two pictures on Pinterest. They look just like our floors. I am pretty sure both pictures are homes in the Netherlands.
Loving it!!!!
Our wood for the upstairs floor came last week. We are going to give it a month to acclimate. So now I have to decide how I am going to finish that. Paint or wax or stain?????? Decisions!
Happy Saturday!!!
H😊
Well I fear everyone is going to be sick of seeing my ceilings, but they are all done. Yay!!
This is the master bedroom ceiling.
The master bath ceiling (I think maybe my favorite, because it’s so close you can see the details in the old wood). The tub will be in front of the window.
Hallway looking from the master to the great room. It’s a very heavy looking ceiling….I wouldn’t have wanted it everywhere. But I like it here. This hallway will be a gallery for artwork that my Mother in law has painted.
And the loft ceiling, I really like the lightness of this ceiling, we used the smaller rafter beams. I like how it carries the wood into that room.
And a dance party, just because. 😊
Happy Tuesday ❤️
H
I wrote this yesterday and it didn’t publish properly. And so I will try again. 😄
New post, sans the wine in one hand. (Possibly the reason for the publishing problem 😉)
Today is my birthday, I am 40…..Little C and I share a birthday. He is 5 today. His Happy Birthday hug was honestly the sweetest this morning.
Horribly unclear picture….but that was him and I on a field trip this last week. On a school bus.
Yesterday, Cole insisted we all take a trip over to the other property to feed cows together.
So we all donned our new toques (made by our lovely neighbor). And headed across the way.
Cole wanted to “check” that the heat was on in the house so we all went in.
And to my very great surprise he had bought me a very beautiful gift.
An antique, or possibly just ‘old’ chandelier. We found it a few month ago at an old home supply store in Ft Worth, when we were looking for door knobs. I fell in love with it, but knew we had more important things to buy. So I just hoped it would not sell before we could get it.
I am not sure the year it was made. I do know it was in the foyer of a historical home on Pennsylvania Ave in Ft Worth. I am hoping to get more details. The two finish guys had gone and picked it up Friday for Cole and hung it. (It’s not wired to the ceiling yet) They were all so sneaky…….it made it a very fun surprise, and a very exciting Birthday.
We did go feed cows.
And Big C climbed way up on the wind mill.
Lots has been going on, septic went in last week, interior doors were put in, trim was started today. And we have ordered almost all our plumbing.
Still have to pick tile and wood floors upstairs. Cabinets are done and sitting in the living room waiting for us to get floors figured out before they get installed. Just have to figure out what and how we are going to finish the concrete.
So things are really moving along.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Merry Christmas 🎄⛄️🎅❄️❤️
H😊
The fireplace is done……and we love it.
I can not wait to build a fire in it. 😊
Happy Tuesday
H 🙂
Well first off, it was a year ago this week that we poured our foundation.
That was a very fast year.
Things are moving along. The rock guys have been here for their second week. These our different guys than the ones who rocked the outside of the fireplace. (That guy decided to add a few thousand dollars onto the bill, right as they were finishing up the outside of the fireplace.) So we made a change and could not be happier. Our new rock guys are great, and have worked so hard to give us what we want.
This piece of wood for the mantle is huge. But it actually looks perfect for the size of the fireplace. Not too massive.
It took all three guys plus Cole to get the mantle in place.
It is perfectly imperfect….just my style.
We had to take down some rock in the beginning…because I kept making suggestions….and it got all catywampus….So I stayed out of their way and they worked their magic. I can’t wait to see how it looks with a hearth……and stockings?? 🎅 fingers crossed.
Happy Thursday.
H
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