A Bridge To No Where And A Good Place For A Cat Nap

10/31/2010
Halloween

We are not one to celebrate the holiday so nothing special is planned and no candy handed out.  One of the neighbors down the street goes all out so we will let him have the fun.

I has been a beautiful week here with cool days (70's) with a light breeze.  It is basically November and the leaves have not even started to change yet.

Some of our projects are coming together now.  The bridge for Pam's work area was installed today.  Built from Aspen and designed to fit her Craftsman Style Desk.  We bought the desks when we moved to Schertz in 1998.  We have re-purposed them several times so this is their latest incarnation.

The ottoman for the office was also finished.  This is the second ottoman I have built and it went together easier than the first.  Finishes the reading area of the office off nicely.  Pam added a throw that she crocheted. I added a coordinating pillow made from leftover upholstery fabric.  The fabric is a sage green and goes well with the fabric that will be used to make the office curtains next week.  The last outstanding project for the office is the new set of curtains.

Now to the good place to take a cat nap.

Blaze likes to keep me company in the office and especially likes laying in the window so I made him a cat bed that is upholstered to match the ottoman.  He has already given his seal of approval but refused to be photographed in it.

Pam has been taking a quilting class.  She has finished the front and will be adding the border this week in her last class.  I think it looks pretty good.

She has also just finished a crocheted throw as well.

Hopefully this next week I will finish the inside of the closet and can get on to some other projects.

More later
Bruce and Pam

Not Quite Done But Getting There

For the last couple weeks I have been working on the Craft Room.  Putting back a closet that I had torn down about 6 years ago to be able to get more computers in what was then the office.  Now we need the storage for fabric and craft materials.  So it goes back.  I also removed some wainscoting that seemed to be a good idea at the time but, did not end up being a great idea after all.  New crown molding was installed as well as new baseboards.  The closet was put back as the builder originally had it and like all of the closets in the house it has a nook above.  Unlike the others I used a wood deck instead of sheet rock making it more usable for storage  space.

And of course like the other rooms I painted the ceiling as well as the walls.  Put up a new ceiling fan as well as smoke detector and a new vent as well.  House is 9 years old and we have lived here for eight.  It is surprising some of the things that already need to be replaced.

In a return to furniture making, I made a new work table and a bridge for Pam's area.  Still haven't decided on the remainder of the room bu,t in the next few weeks we will finish up the appointments for this room.

The fun begins.  Closet is framed.

 New fan is up and crown is in.

Closet is back

 Furniture starts being put back

Tomorrow the new table and the bridge are installed.

More later Bruce and Pam.

One Down, Many more to go.

10/11/2010

One of the things I am finding about retirement is that there are no excuses not to get projects around the house done.  This was the case this last week.  We had two guest rooms and a very crowded office/craft room.  After much discussion it was decided to empty out one of the guest rooms and to make it the office/reading/music room and the old office would become just the craft room as it has the hardwood floors.

In a happy turn of events one of our nieces was moving into her first home and welcomed the bedroom set that we gifted her.  I then went about emptying out the room of other items.  Now we have been in this house just over 8 years (a new record for us the previous being 6) and this is the only room we have not repainted.  It hasn't gotten much use in that time either.  However, the builders paint job was not the best and the color was a little to mauve for us.

So first I painted the ceiling.  We use a bright white satin finish.  It looks and stays cleaner than a flat finish ceiling paint.  Two coats of course.  Then is was time to change out the bright brass ceiling fan the builder had put in.  An antique finish Hunter was chosen.  I also sized it correctly for the room.

Now it was time to add the trim.  We have slowly but surely added crown molding to all of the house and this was one of the last rooms that had not been done. It adds a lot to the look of the house making the room look more complete. 

I did a two piece crown through out the room  There was a little cussing and fussing as I had not done any in about a year and it took a few screwed up pieces for it to come back to me.  But with that done I now went on to paint.  We have done the whole house is one of two colors and they are close but the bathroom and laundry room walls have a little more yellow in them.

With the walls done it was time to address how to furnish the room.  We had decided we wanted a comfortable chair in the room.  A computer desk for the larger computer and a desk for the laptop as well as a place where Pam could sit and write while I am on the computer.  Some bookshelves were also in order.   The shelves and the small desk came from Target.  It only took me about four hours to put the whole bunch together.  Surprisingly they are wood.  Very similar to IKEA furniture.  The only thing not finished in the room is an ottoman I am building for the chair and a new set of curtains.  We have not found what we wanted and have decided that I will just make them now I just have to find the material.

Not quite as many guitars on the wall as before but the room turned out well.  My contractor was pleased. He thinks I work to slow.  This room took almost a week  Started on Tuesday and finished on Sunday.

He has given it his seal of approval.  His assistant was too busy to have his picture taken but he voted thumbs up on the room as well.  Both are now contemplating the next project.  The craft room.

More Later
Bruce