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.

More Eggs and Darts

Ahhh yes, this is my life.

I'm not even fully awake yet this morning. Steve had been so kind to bring me a cup of coffee in bed. Actually, I had only gotten about half of it down when he was being Mr. Antsy Pantsy and ready to go go go about something.

He called me into the living room because he wanted to show me something.

With a flourish, he led me, half stumbling into the living room, while I was still in my pajamas and only half awake.


His next sentence is the one that always makes me wonder what in the heck are we up to next:

"Hey, I was just thinking about something 

and looking at this..."

He said that the dining room lace curtain valance was too long. He said that he has to stoop over every time to look out the window.  The diningroom ceilings are only 8 feet tall. He's over 6 feet tall.

In contrast, he feels the living room curtain valance is too high and not as long, he said it looks "odd" to him. The livingroom ceilings are 9 feet tall so that window is much higher than the diningroom. I thought it looked just fine, and we could see the pretty leaded glass window because we put the shorter valance there.

He was leading up to something... I could tell.

He must have been pondering this for a while. He said that he wanted to switch around the curtain rods around and put the longer valance in the living room and the shorter one in the dining room.

Okayyyyyy...  he went right to it. 

So then he decided he also wanted to move the curtain rod brackets down off the section of plaster wall and move them down to be screwed onto the actual woodwork.

But but but.... Now to me that looked "odd" because all of the other windows and door frames in the house have a beautiful piece of crown molding and egg and dart trim.  I know over the doors it is referred to as a "lintel". I am not sure what it is called for trim over a window frame. But this one didn't have any.

Why the dining room window doesn't have it, I don't know? Maybe it had been damaged in some way and taken down?

The previous owners had just screwed the rod brackets up higher onto the wall... So the curtains covered the entire top of the dining room window trim. So then nobody noticed there wasn't any fancy egg and dart trim above that window?

I agreed to a swapola of the curtains.... if if if... I could in turn impose upon his woodworking skills to make me a piece of egg and dart crown molding trim to go on top of that window frame!!!

We ran some errands to Green Bay including a visit to a hospitalized family member. And will be hospitalized for a couple more weeks. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

While in Green Bay, I got Steve to swing past Menards on the way home. Voila! I found just what I was looking for. The total cost was under $10. Plus, of course, my husband's woodworking skills.

We got home and I got out the tape measure. We did a little bit of measuring and a little bit of marking. I sent him to work his magic out in the garage.

He came back in with exactly what I wanted.

I gave it a couple coats of paint. Together we mounted it into place. Then we added the egg and dart trim to the join where it met the original window frame.

He put the curtain rod brackets back on at the same height as the rods that were on the other windows.  I touched up the bits of spots where the nail heads had been countersunk and spackled over...  none of them showed after dabs of paint and I gave it another coat for good measure.  It was time for dinner so the trim could dry before hanging the valance back up.

There... the shorter valance is now in place.

Now the top trim and molding can stick up 

over the valance like the other windows.  Ahhhhhh  

And there you have it, 

---the solution to 

his need to move my valances 

plus 

---the solution to 

my need to have all of the tops of windows 

and doorways match.

I guess that makes it a win-win situation?

We sat down to a little friendly game of cribbage tonight. It was so peaceful and relaxing in the she shed. We curled up with a couple dozing sleeping dogs and played some cards and just unwound. He beat me in all three games.  One game he even got 24-count hands TWICE!

Such is my life.

And I love it. 

Farmhouse Project - We Got Eggs and Darts

In yesterday's blog, I posted about some beautiful egg and dart moulding trim that I found at Home Depot.  I wanted to add it to our mantel.  If you remember a few blogs back, I spackled up 327 holes in the mantel prior to painting it.  Although it looked better, it was still a tad bit rugged. I wanted to cover the front edge with some trim.

This afternoon, Steve got out his tape measure and figured out that we had enough trim on that 10 foot long piece, exactly to the inch --- enough to not only do the front surface of the mantel, but also a piece for each side!  If the trim strip had been even one inch shorter, it would not have worked out mathematically to have enough wood to cut the corners.

As he made his cuts carefully at 45 degree angles at both ends, there was exactly enough leftover to do each of the two side pieces.

  

He brought the air compressor around to the front door and dragged the air hose into the house with the air nail gun attached. Carefully balancing the strip so it was level and flush with the existing mantel, I held it while tight while he started to nail it on.  Once he got most of it nailed into place, I could let go and grab the camera for a pic.

He put a thin bead of caulk at each of the 45 degree angle corners and then proceeded to nail on the two end pieces. What a transformation!

Out came my matching brown paint and my little paintbrush. I got the first two coats on before supper and then I finished up a final coat after we ate.

I think it looks like it should have always been there....  

The reason why I wanted the egg and dart motif, is because it matches the smaller egg and dart trim we have over the doorways and the window frames. That trim is probably 100 years old, and I would think people were pretty proud to adorn their farmhouse with such fancy mill-work.  I think I know the feeling --- by adorning the mantel now to match.

This beautiful oil painting was painted by my artistic friend Rosie DuPuy of Bethel, Missouri.  She gave it to us on a visit to her home, many years ago.  It has always hung in a place of honor in our homes.  In this house, we chose to hang it in a place of honor over the mantel. The frame was a little too brightly gilded gold. Last summer I had toned it down a bit with some watered down brown paint, and it blended well with the old paint on the mantel.  Now it seemed too reddish in tone for the new color of the mantle. While the mantle trim was drying, again I watered down some of the newer paint, and I toned it down some more.  I think the transformation has worked and it will coordinate well with the mantel trim and color.

Here is an evening picture, but I am sure it will look much better in the daylight.  I will check it in the morning for any little spots that need a touch up. Sometimes with the glare of evening lamps and wet paint, I can miss tiny unpainted bits in the cracks and grooves of the carved moulding.

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The other thing I wanted to post about was our Saturday entertainment:

Granddaughter Chelsea, who is 10 years old was attending a fundraiser for her cheer dance competition group. They are called the Illusion All Star Oconto Youth Cheerleading Group.  They are trying to raise funds to buy new mats for performing and learning their routines on. They put on a production called the Spirit Showcase.

Manning the admission counter was none other than our darling little granddaughter Claire, who was helping to collect all of the ticket money and put it in the box. She takes her job VERY seriously and does it well.

Then granddaughter Chelsea and grandson Clayton had the honors of marking people's backs of their hands with a stamp showing that they had paid their admission.

The dance team parents were offering a lunch counter of homemade food, so we ate lunch there and helped donate to the cause.

They also held a bake sale. I got up early and donated four platters of homebaked toffee bars that I brought over earlier during the event setup.  The bars sold out right away, so fast that when our daughter Erin went to go buy some, they were already gone.

They invited various vendors into the cafeteria to sell crafts and merchandise and then they donated to the group fundraising efforts. A local favorite guy who sells tie dye items at festivals and county fairs was set up there. I snapped up three lovely tie dye t-shirts. I love his merchandise as the shirts are 100 % cotton and very thick and heavy. Then don't stretch or shrink or fade either.

Indulging in my Inner Hippie-ness 

The parents and sponsors also held a raffle with gift baskets. We bought a stack of 30 tickets and selected various baskets to take our chances on.  Later when the winners were called, we were surprised to find out that we won two baskets!  One was full of holiday baking supplies, cookie sheets, cutters and pans.  The other was full of games, puzzles, sketch pads, markers and colored pencils.  How nice... Perfect baskets for these grandparents.

Chelsea's group did a few fun routines.  They won first place at their last two tournaments, and put in many hours of hard work and practice.  Here is a little video clip of their group.

It was cute to see that the older girls sit along the edge to encourage and cheer on the little ones.  Such nice support and positive energy, (in a day and age of bullying and negative peer pressure).  Even the high school cheerleading girls came to help out and do some routines with the younger girls.  The coaches helped demonstrate the safety of learning different aspects and how each girl could try a new thing with adult spotters on all three sides to be extra cautious.

When the event was over, we only had a mile or so to travel home, not like other years where we lived 70 miles away... we had to travel a lot to attend these grandchildren functions. 

SIDE NOTE: ONE YEAR AGO TODAY WE TRAVELED UP TO OCONTO TO VIEW THIS SAME EVENT FOR CHELSEA IN 2019.  ON THE WAY HOME IS WHEN STEVE UTTERED A PHRASE:

"THERE REALLY ISN'T ANYTHING

 HOLDING US TO CHILTON ANYMORE"

 ----  THEN HE BROUGHT UP THE IDEA OF SELLING OUR HOME IN CHILTON AND MOVING UP TO OCONTO! THE REST IS HISTORY --- 

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Today the weather was absolutely beautiful again. I think this is our January Thaw in February. I went out on the front porch for a little while, wearing a sweatshirt while the sunshine was streaming across the porch. I sat in the rocking chair and enjoyed the break in the weather.  I could hear birds chirping and I swear I heard a red winged blackbird!

Our snow is melting fast

Steve had a little bit of spring fever too, and suggested a lunch of making some bratwurst on the grill. He grilled out some good Klement's brats while I whipped up a pasta salad and some deviled eggs. It sure felt like summertime!

It was only 35 degrees, but the sunshine gave it a "feels like" temp of 41.  So with a bit of warmth, we both got bit by the bug to act like it is summertime!

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And now for two personal notes:


A beloved family member is undergoing heart surgery tomorrow. Please add this person to your prayers if you feel so inclined. We will be spending the next day or two at the hospital helping out, and possibly helping with things for the return home afterwards.

Also our darling little Grand-Nephew has come down with a second battle with cancer.  A tumor has grown again on his little liver. He is only 3 years old. He needs to face chemo all over again and possibly another surgery or maybe a transplant. If you have room in your heart and room on your prayer list, please give a little thought of kindness and healthy healing to little Bennet.