Yawn, I'm back

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! (Unless you're not American. But then you're missing out - this is the best holiday we have!) I've been keeping up with everybody and it seems like yall all had a good thankful holiday. Go give Andrea a hello, though - she has a lot on her plate right now.

We had some snow earlier this week, then ridiculously cold temps. It was 7 or 8 when I woke up for three mornings in a row - and no, I don't mean 7 am, I mean 7 degrees Fahrenheit! Yuck.


The goats are angry when it snows, and the chickens are confused when it's cold, but Dixie is impervious to everything. I didn't blanket her because she never shivered. That stupid coat may make her too sweaty to compete, but it sure works great for keeping her warm.

Yesterday I built a pair of very handsome sawhorses. I think the wood is fir - it's some re-usable timbers that were part of the junk heap in the backyard. It's too seasoned to nail well, but if I pre-drill the holes it works fine. And they're free, yippie!


I dragged them into the Blue Room. The carpet in there is terrible, so that's going to be my work space for re-doing the doors. I bought new-used doors off of craigslist back when we bought the house, and I haven't gotten around to hanging them yet. But the "walnut" doors in the hall are starting to bug me.

This isn't a very good picture for any purposes, but can you see how the doors are enormous black holes? Hate it!


The current doors are "walnut" hued fake-grained pressboard. The new-used doors are pre-primed heavyweight hollowcore interior doors, with real wood veneers. Much heavier and nicer. I've got replacements for most of the doors in the hallway, but two of them are very small so I'm going to try to refinish them. I'll sand the gloss off, prime, maybe sand again, and paint. I did some test sanding on the door to the Blue Room (it's cracked, so it's coming down no matter what) and it's really hard to sand without roughing up the door so it looks "fuzzy." Anyway, the broken door will be my test piece.

I don't think I showed yall this awesome painting my mom sent for my birthday! It's better than the real Dixie, because in the painting she has a snow-white mane and tail. ;) I really do love this.


I'm thinking about tackling the front room, too. We both thought it was a weird room when we first saw the house. It makes a terrible first impression - it looks very long and narrow, like a giant hallway tacked on the front of the house. There's a full-wall flagstone fireplace against one wall, a lovely triple window in another, and varnished wainscoting and "crown molding" on the third. The fourth wall is the opening to the hall and kitchen and front door. If you're standing by the hall/front door, it looks like the room goes on forever to a distant looming rock pile. Other people don't seem to care, but the trim makes me grit my teeth - it's DOOR TRIM. Stuck on the wall, up against the ceiling. It has nothing in common with real crown molding except its location. The "molding" and the wainscoting are varnished natural wood, and the sheetrock is textured and painted (of course) glossy white. The whole effect is horrendous.



We got out the tape and measured - the room is actually 12 1/2' by 17'. It's plenty big! It's just dominated by bad design choices. You can't tell from the pictures, but every bit of the trim in this room is door trim. Door trim at the bottom of the wainscoting, door trim at the top of the wainscoting, door trim along the edge of the ceiling... gggrrrrrrr...



My plan right now is to finish out the trim correctly, then paint the trim and wainscoting off-white semi-gloss. The wall above the wainscoting will be a bold color - G is leaning toward the oranges and reds, I like the chocolates and tans that complement the flagstones. The other walls will be the off-white version of the bold color. We are sort of thinking "dining room," but I dunno. I am not great at putting furniture in rooms, just making the walls look good. :)