It's all in the small details

So, we've made several small steps forward on several projects.  I wish all those steps were forward on one, so that it was almost complete.  Alas, when weather and other responsibilities call, you gotta' do what you can do, right?

So here's what we've done lately:


My attempt at a Mackenzie-Childs-esque birdhouse.
I bought some dollhouse shingles to roof it, and got this far when I encountered the problem of how to cut them and how to glue them.  Still working that out.

My jewelry box:

It's actually finished but I can not take pics of it in the bathroom because my bathroom is off limits right now... more on that later...

Here's my cow:

I started out doing him in my favorite distressed blue over red.... until the husband reminded me of the cows I love down the road...

Here's what he looked like at first...

And now in my kitchen flanked by those Bavarian China saucers I found at Salvation Army:

Pretty right?  A steal at $.99!

He joins these cows and other farm animals around my banquette:

That's my horse, Yo, on the top here

And when I am not working on these little projects, or taking my kid to swimming or Baseball...

... remember this room and all that wood flooring hubby and I are planning to install?

We are about 1/4th of the way there, thanks to Husbands friend who got us started and did the hard parts:

At the entry at the top of the back stairs.  The option was leave the 2 pieces of hardwood there, or remove them and butt the pine up to it.  I am glad we went with the latter.

This pine is 8" wide, and therefore it required a small sliver of a piece to finish filling the doorway.  There is no way I woulda' thought of doing this, nor would I have been able to execute so perfectly!

We left about 3/4" all the way around for expansion, it willl be covered by the drywall, and trim.

My idea?  Not on your life. 

So this is the area between the North and South facing dormers.

Right in front of you, at the bottom of those windows, will be the Vermont Casting gas stove.

Then, between those dormers, I want to create faux beams out of this pine that run up the angled part of the dormer, across the ceiling, and then down the angle part of the opposite dormer.

We think we want to do a plank ceiling, painted white, so the 'beams' will really look great against that.

Let me just tell you though, sanding that small portion of floor with my hand sander?  Well it's a lovely result, and it sure beats the time I spent on my hands and knees de-waxing the Mother in Laws rental houses' no wax kitchen floor [we really know how to enjoy our Easter Break, let me tell you!].... but both wreak havoc on the back!  And I can not even get to my clawfoot tub for a soak!

At least this effort was for something I want to do, not something I am doing out of necessity.  Did I say how nice it looks and feels though?  And I intend to slow us down further by sanding each cut end as we install too, cause some of those ends look jagged and though you can't see it when you're standing in there... when you are on your hands and knees sanding it?  

Well, they bother ya'.  

Trust me.  

So they will get a quick 'ZIP!' with the sander before install.  

Because in the end, it's the little details that make the finished job really shine, right?

Yup, a bit more crap to remove [that was the hardest part, to be honest], and all the rest of that flooring to install.  And yes some of the flooring had to go into my master bath 'cause there was no room to work, hence my inability to use my bathroom or show you my jewelry box as it sits there or use my tub to soak away these aches.  

But I guess that's a good thing, a sign of progress, so no complaints for now.