Happy Valentine's Day! Eggs and Darts

After 13 days, we finally felt good enough to get out and about. We're not totally over this crud yet, but at least we are feeling better. Steve said he is 80%! 

We were able to make a run down to Home Depot and pick up the trim to start on the top of the beadboard and quarter round for the baseboard in the kitchen. They were 8 ft long pieces so we are able to haul them in the Saturn, wedged in from the front to the rear and closing the back hatch. That is a lot easier than hauling out our trailer on a snowy day to pick up trim wood.

It's called "Egg and Dart" plate rail trim.  The pattern matches the vintage "Egg and Dart" our home has above all of the windows and doorways.

Of course, old houses are never level, even, or square! As we started on the first piece of trim, we realized the plaster wall bulged out too far in one spot and did not allow the piece of trim to set flat and flush against the wall. I remembered something I had seen on one of the HGTV shows where they actually cut away part of the plaster wall to get a piece of trim to fit. So that's just what we did!

After drawing a line, Steve used the little oscillating cutting tool and I held the end of the Shop-Vac nearby to catch most of the mess. It worked perfectly! Now that piece of trim could be recessed flat on the wall and nailed into place.

Steve started nailing the bottom trim around where the bead board meets the top edge of the existing old baseboard. This is where we put a narrow piece of quarter round and then I got down on my hands and knees and painted it all the way around the room. It looks so much better, more neatly finished by just adding a little piece of trim.

I painted the first two coats on the upper trim of the "egg and dart" plate rail. Steve cut all of the pieces to size while I took care of painting them on the island.  It's a lot easier to paint trim first, rather than once it's up and on the wall. I used a little brush and was able to get in the tiny little grooves and cracks of the egg and dart design.  While we were letting it dry, we finished the baseboard.

Here is the profile view shape of this trim the top has a groove for a plate rail and the bottom has a notch cut out that sets right over the rough edges of the beadboard. This is a sideways shot, but at least you can see the end detail.

Using his battery powered finishing nailer, he was able to tack tack tack the pieces up into place. Then we used a little bit of spackle to fill in all of the tiny nail holes and any gaps were filled with caulking. Again, the uneven wall makes things difficult but we sure made it look as good as we could. Once all of the spackling and caulk were dry, then I could give it a one more coat of paint to finish it off.

I really like how it sets it off along the top trim of the beadboard. I think it came out pretty neat considering that we had a crooked old wall to deal with???

I took some brighter pictures today as the sunlight was streaming in. We pushed the cabinet back into place and now this room is complete.

Here is one of those wide-angle shots that kind of distorts the view, but now this is the whole southern wall of our kitchen has beadboard on it, and then it goes around to the eastern wall. (Those are the new windows we replaced last summer).

The big cabinet is an upcycled old cabinet that we added some beadboard into the recessed panels of the doors and on both of the sides. It's amazing how much extra pantry space that allows us to have in the kitchen. It contains my big Nesco roaster, my Mix Master, the crock pot, our blender, our food processor, a waffle iron, and any overflow dry goods or canned goods that don't fit in the regular cabinets on the other side of the room.

On the other side of the room, the island and the ends of the cabinets also have beadboard highlighting them. This kind of ties it all together and makes the room coordinate both sides.  Excuse the painting supplies still stacked on the island.

Now that the beadboard in the kitchen is done, NEXT is the master bathroom!!!  Stay tuned.

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We got a little bit of snow the other morning. Even though it was going to be a warm day and the snow is starting to melt on the road, Steve wanted to get out and snow blow away the bank that the snow plow left behind. It was wet and heavy.  Otherwise, the temperatures were dropping down to below zero at night and that thing would freeze solid. Then we would have a hump at the end of the driveway for the rest of the winter.

While the sunshine was streaming in, I took another picture of my beautiful amaryllis bulbs. I can't believe these gorgeous blooms are just evolving and opening up and lasting so long. It's already been over two weeks and there are more stalks are coming up with more blooms.

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Yes, today is Valentine's Day, the day for lovers and sweethearts. We dropped off little red bags over by the grandchildren's houses so they could have some treats. 

ON EDIT:  some of the little ones enjoying their treats, pics sent over to us this evening:

We are enjoying our Valentine's present to each other, our pretty cozy nice fireplace. Not only does it help with the heat bills, but it's also beautiful to look at and so comforting in the evenings if we sit in the living room and read or listen to music.

I think it was a pretty smart investment, made a nice improvement to the house, and it was also a very romantic gift to each other.

The sun is still out this late afternoon, actually quite strongly yet as I write this. It's already 4:30 and we are having daylight running later into the evenings. A sure sign that spring is on its way. 

Someone here in town saw a robin this week and took a picture of it! It's way too soon for robins to be back yet, I think that one got a little confused? Although we have some warm temperatures coming this week, there is still plenty of winter left for us here in Wisconsin.

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During the Super Bowl last night I kept myself busy cutting strips of a bedspread for my newest rug.  These are vintage white chenille bedspreads given to me by my old neighbor Charlotte.   The Super Bowl was a bit boring. I wanted the Bengals to win. Oh well.  I loved the commercials, especially the one with the goats from Disney Plus... and the one with Arnold was a hoot too. 

I already wove up one of these Caterpillar Rugs with the help of little Claire, the youngest granddaughter.  I wrote about that a few blogs back.   Here she is helping me: 

I delivered the first rug to Charlotte as a surprise gift.  She has it proudly laid next to her bed for her toes to touch first thing in the morning.

Now I am going to weave up the second bedspread into a rug to put up for sale in my Etsy store.  It makes a GREAT baby shower gift when combined with the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  It will soon be listed in the store for sale.

I started the header section with bright colorful cotton yarns.  Then I inlay the little knit caterpillars as I weave the rug with the white chenille fabric strips. 

It sure is cute,

 and it makes me smile.

Time to get supper going,

so I will post this now.