Buzzings from a quilter who bumbles her way through life!

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Something Old, Something New for the New Year! Hill Country House Update for December!

Something new:
We have a floor! I love it! It is a "distressed" wood that will work really well with the "hill country" style.


The kitchen island is not finished but the appliances are in the garage waiting for installation and the gas line and water lines have been run as of Tuesday. The cedar island countertop is just sitting there and the baseboards are not installed, as you can see, but we are getting close enough that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Speaking of baseboards, I spent some time caulking and painting baseboards after the floor was installed. 
I'm pretty handy with most tools, but I found that I was extremely clumsy with the caulk gun! I had an entire main floor to caulk, so I knew I had to come up with a solution! I just couldn't imagine trying to run a fine line of caulk around the shoe molding (or is it toe molding? I know it has something to do with a foot!) when I was ending up with more on my hands than in the cracks!
I decided to draw on previous experience that gave me much more control!
I used the caulk gun to squirt all of the caulk into a quart sized Zip Loc freezer bag. Then I snipped off a tiny bit of one corner.

 (I have used this method to decorate cakes. I knew I could make it work although my sweet husband was pretty skeptical!) 
  

 
I was able to control the fine line of caulk easily! I also filled in nail holes and then smoothed the line out with a soft rag. (Sometimes I used my fingers, I must admit!)
All finished! (This is the same area in the photos above.) I know that those of you who are professionals at caulking are shaking your heads, but it worked and looks pretty good!

Now for something old:
My sons gave Doug these two stretched canvases for Father's Day. They will be hung in the entryway. The one on the right is a photo of his great grandaddy, known as Little Buckshot. The one on the left was his sidekick. Little Buckshot, Conrad Wentworth, was a colorful figure who scouted for wagon trains and actually taught Buffalo Bill how to shoot! (They were in the Pony Express together. Buffalo Bill was a young teenager.) Do you see the buckskin jacket he is wearing? He loaned it to B. Bill to use in his sideshow and it is now in the Cody Museum. The Cody family gave it back after Buffalo Bill's death and I have actually seen it in person before Doug's family donated it to the museum. It is much more colorful in person than it looks in the picture. There is a pass in Montana named after Little Buckshot. It is so much fun to have the photo. There is quite a bit of family resemblence to my husband and sons!   His daughter Harriet, known as Hallie, was my husband's grandmother. 

Another old item:
I have removed the slate centers from the old Craigslist coffee table and side table. I plan on making a shallow shadow box center where interesting photos and mementoes can be displayed.
Hopefully soon, I can show you a finished kitchen! Things are looking better now!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

December Hill Country House Update - Kitchen


The kitchen is coming along! The stone has been installed and we are waiting on the flooring to go in. We still have crown molding to put on the cabinets and top of the vent surround. Some cabinets need paint and the vent surround needs plastering. After this photo was taken, the electrical outlets were finished and those blue boxes you see on the penninsula are now nice ivory covers.


Here is a photo from the other side of the columns. The red cedar island top you see is not installed yet and is only set down there to see how it will look. There is still a plastic cover on the countertops. The stone masons actually left it in place and it is mortared in where the stone comes down to the countertops! We will have to figure out a way to remove it without scratching our counters! The cabinet to the right of the vent does not have it's shelves and door yet and the cabinets connected to it has not been painted. We still have a lot to do, but now I can see my vision coming to life! 


This is panning to the left of the island. You can see the cabinets still need crown molding. (There is some old molding still attached to some of them.) I will also have to choose lights for over the island and the window sink.
The pot filler is due to be delivered today!

My kids were all here for Thanksgiving and we went up to the hill country house for a day. My grandson doesn't have many chances to climb trees and that was very much on his "want list"! He went from tree to tree having a great time! 




I hope you have the chance to do something you love today!

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