The Barn Flooring

I am thinking ahead to all the projects

I have promised to make ...

... not to mention I'm just

anxious and ready to start painting again.

I was fascinated with butterflies as a kid ...

I drew hundreds of pictures of them

and even wrote stories and poems about them.

When I saw this butterfly outside the barn,

I told myself it could be a sign ...

Whether it was a good sign 

or a bad sign, I had no idea.

This is a view through the glass in my door.

I'll admit, I was pretty excited at this point!!

The closet had these three rows of tiles placed ...

... the bathroom had three rows of tiles placed.

Guess what?

I'm happy!!!

Now for Pete's sake,

don't stop, Mr. Floor Guy!!

Ya left your radio and your soda ...

so come back tomorrow

and finish this up!!!

I'm going to go make some lists

about what to pack

and what to move first!

And some lists about what to throw away,

and what to donate, and what to keep,

and how I'll organize stuff ...

... and I'll need a list of all the areas that

will need to be decorated so I can

go shopping ...

Gosh!  I need to go make a list

of all the lists I need to make!

I'd better get started!!

WOO HOO!!!

 Peace and Tile, Baby!!!

Happy Things

Here are just a few of the things

that made me happy this week: 

Author's Note:

My happiness is not limited to nor

is it completely defined by this post.

There.  Having clarified that,

let's begin.

"Clean Up Crew" - turned out to be

me and Doc ...

I'm fairly certain a clean-up crew other than

me and Doc showed up,

but only because I couldn't account

for the missing sawdust inside

each drawer and cabinet.

Otherwise, the build-out was

a complete white-hot mess and here's

what Doc did about it:

He mopped!

He mopped up the cement dust and washed

away the chalk lines and 

just look at the technique!

I don't care one whit about technique;

I'm just so dang excited that I had help

getting this place cleaned up!

I think if more men knew just

how incredibly attractive they are

holding a mop,

more men would mop

on a regular basis.

I'd bet on it.

;)

(sniff)

Just. So. Dang. Happy!!!

 

I wanted really old-looking rustic hardware

for my cabinets.

We found these - lots of these! - in

 an old rusty cook pot

on the bottom shelf of a bookcase

that had seen better days

in the deep dark spider-web covered

corner of a fall-apart flea market.

Score!!!

Seriously, there were

exactly enough for the cabinet doors

in my studio and the

barn kitchen.

Wait til you see the cup pulls

I've found for the drawers!

They're new, but they look really

old and I can't wait to get my hands and my

paintbrush on them.

Doc hung two mirrors for me -

which makes me very happy -

but I'm not sure about this mirror

in the bathroom.

First of all, since he's 6'2" tall,

he wanted to hang the mirror very high.

I'm only 5'3" but if I stand

on a stool I can see myself in the

bathroom mirror.

just kidding

The curtains have a bird print on them,

and I'm planning to make some

great curtain tie-backs with nests and

fun decorative birds,

so I'm thinking I'd like to go with

a vanity mirror that fits

my whole "bird" theme -

like branches and birds on

the mirror frame.

We'll see.

And, some random pics 

of a few other happy-moments 

this week:

The super-cool, awesome, and unexpected

ceiling detail in the barn ...

(like, like, LIKE!!!)

The boys reading a passage

after Religious Education this Wednesday.
(LOVE!)

Friday night when Amelia's fever

finally broke (it'd been 106 - yikes!)

Please note:

we ran out of Kool Strips,

so she devised her own cool pack

to keep her fever down.

I don't want to squash her

creativity or anything,

but I'm investing in more Kool Strips.

And, of course, Kitty Blu.

She's discovered climbing this week.

Her favorite resting spot

at the moment is on a bar stool.

She's also been known to chillax

on the back of the sofa,

the flower arrangement on the

kitchen table,

and I've found suspicious tiny

white cat hairs on my

freshly washed and folded

blanket on the laundry room cabinet.

I think it's time to invest

in some sort of kitty climbing apparatus,

because I canNOT have Kitty Blu

on my cabinets or my clean laundry.

Even if she IS the cutest kitten

in the whole entire universe.

peace out

Scene From the Barn ...

I drove out last night to take a look at my

new barn bathroom - and this is 

what greeted me!

Ah, well ... I have complete confidence

in Norm the Plumber,

and I know tonight will be a different story.

I just know it will.

Peace Out

Happiness Is ...

Happiness is ... ... ...

hiring a new plumber to get 'er done!!!

Hooking up the dishwasher

and cementing the sink and fixtures in my

barn kitchen ...

... and in my new studio ...

and today, he should have the barn bathroom

completely finished.  I hope.

Thank You, Norm the Plumber!!!

YoU ToTaLLy RoCk!!!

Happiness is also ...

... replacing the brand new ceiling fan

that didn't work.  Really, someone literally

blowing on me was more refreshing.

And finally, Happiness is...

... my sweet husband, who surprised me by

having a patio poured outside

my art studio!!!

What a great surprise!!

I can't wait to pick out some fun

and comfortable patio furniture!!!

Peace Out

The Barn Bathroom Window

Can I just complain for a moment?

It's been the tiniest bit rainy, and that is

definitely not my complaint because

we need the rain.

No, my complaint is that we're trying to

have concrete poured around the

barn.  No, wait.

My ACTUAL complaint isn't about the concrete,

because I understand that some things

just canNOT be done in the rain,

and apparently pouring concrete is one of them.

My complaint is ...

why can't the plumber work inside,

out of the rain,

and get my bathroom put together?!

It's been three weeks.

OVER three weeks, actually, and I

just can't see rhyme or reason

as to why he can't get his butt out here

and put my pedestal sink in,

put the dang toilet in,

hook up and glue down the sinks in

my studio and my kitchen area.

Really.

It would probably take

him longer to drive out here than it would

take him to complete the few tasks

I'm more than ready for him to complete.

GAH!!!

Thanks for listening.  Here's that picture

of the bathroom window:

Now if only someone,
I won't say who,
would FINISH MY BATHROOM
so someone else,
I won't say who,
could CLEAN UP THE CONSTRUCTION MESS
then someone,
(okay, me)
could hang my curtains and make
my curtain tie backs!!!


pfft

A Barn Bathroom

A barn bathroom; a bathroom for a barn;

however you say it, the window needs a curtain.

Actually, this barn is pretty centrally seated on

one hundred and twenty acres of

... well, trees, actually ...

so really, it's pretty private just by location.

My daughter disagrees.

Something about "nature" watching

her when nature calls??

Nah, I actually see her point.

Even Bambi doesn't need to see all that. 

Right?

Besides, decorating is the fun part.

That's my story; and I'm sticking to it.

You may have noticed that none of these pics

actually shows the bathroom window

as the focal point.

Yea, I dunno.  I've been through

three different camera chips and clearly

I never thought the window was the

most interesting part of the bathroom ... until now,

and I don't have a direct photo of it.

I made the curtains anyway,

so this post will go on ... and I promise to

come back at a later date

(hopefully this evening)

and add a picture of the window.

Keeping in mind, if you will,

that nothing is completed yet EXCEPT

my curtains, and I can't hang

them in the window until the plumber

wraps up his business in that room

and the "cleaning crew"

does its thing.  

Actually, as the "" "" indicate, I have

more to say about this, but I'll save it for another post.

Moving on ... to curtains!!

I bought a fabric shower curtain,

and cut it right up the middle into two panels.

 

  

I pressed the edges to smooth them out.

Because yellow is my "pop" color in the bathroom,

( you know all about "pop" colors, right? )

I bought blanket binding in that color and pinned

it to the cut edges of each panel.

I sewed a straight stitch down the

outside edge of the binding,

and another straight stitch down the 

inside edge of the binding.

Then I pressed both panels again.

Picture of finished curtain panels.

For the window.

From a shower curtain.

!

Oh, and I'm making curtain tie-backs

with those nests and birds you see

in the photo ... up next!!

Peace

Around the Bend ... ... ...

... as you break through the tree canopy:

and may I just say, WOO HOO!!!

So, we've built a barn in the middle of nowhere,

to store Doc's collection of vehicles

and tools and stuff, and

to house my Neatly Organized Art Studio.

Which will always be Neatly Organized.

I'm convinced if I keep saying that over and over

and capitalize the letters, it will

magically come true.

We all need a dream, right??

This is the build-out inside the barn ... prior to roofing.

And this is the build-out inside the barn,

after roofing and insulation installation.

And there is a funny story behind this rubber snake.

Yes, it's a rubber snake -

permanently stapled onto the window frame

of my laundry room.

Apparently, one of my kids, who shall remain

nameless, mostly because I can't be certain

exactly which one of my kids did this,

took a rubber snake out to the barn one evening.

And positioned it onto the second story

with just its head hanging over the edge.

You can imagine what the first guy

on the scene the next morning thought.

Well, at least "I" can imagine what the first guy

on the scene the next morning thought,

because I thought it the next evening when

the-one-who-shall-remain-nameless

positioned it on the top step and then led

me over to the stairwell.

Jimminy Yee Haw!!!

Is what I yelled, clutching my chest

to hold my heart inside of it.

Or something like that.

Needless to say, after a few days

of mutual snake-positioning by both the

day time workers and he-who-shall-remain nameless,

we showed up one evening to find the

rubber snake ruthlessly and permanently stapled

to the window of my laundry room.

Moving on to more exciting pics,

THIS is soon to be my Neatly Organized Art Studio!!!

After insulation installation, and prior to sheet rock.

I. Am. So. Happy.  (sniff)

... Peace Out ...

New Beginnings

New Beginnings

My mid-year New-Year's Resolution(s):

* Post More Frequently

* Be Creative More Often

* Organize, Organize, Organize!!!

and, most importantly,

* STAY ORGANIZED *

I tend to go through what I like to call

Organizing Blitzes -

where I thoroughly organize a particular

area, such as my pantry or a

closet: then I almost immediately

spoil it by stacking more crap

in it until it's an unrecognizable mess.

I use the three rules of organization

STORE * DONATE * TRASH

Actually, I don't even know the three

rules of organization, I just made that up.

I either want to store (read: organize)

the crap, donate the crap to someone who

can use it, or trash the crap.

Right now I'm mentally organizing my

new studio.  Basically,

since I have significant random memory loss

and have absolutely no clue what I 

have in my two studios at any moment in time,

I'm just vowing to myself to

really, truly, and absolutely,

ORGANIZE my crap when I get it in there,

DONATE the crap that no longer inspires me,

and THROW AWAY the crap that is,

well, just ... CRAP.

The road in this pic leads to ...

My New Beginning.

My New (and final) Studio.

My Creative Cocoon.

My Paradise.

My Happy Place.

My Reason for Living.

(just kidding about that one)

Here it is:

That was THEN.

And, this is NOW:

Same road, different month.

It's almost time!!