Double Family Whammy and Living Room Floor is Done

Yes, it's now confirmed as we feared.  My step-father Lowell has pancreatic cancer.

My step dad is temporarily in Ohio with Mom in an apartment... they are close to the docs of his choice and his daughter and son.  Mom is trying to keep it all together, but we will probably head down there sometime soon to see if we can help and use up some vacation time.  They live in Florida, but chose docs in Ohio that my stepsister knows and works with and easier to get into than the VA in Florida. I don't know how my mom is going to get through this. This is gonna be rough for the holidays on all of us.

This news is on top of my father having lung/kidney/bladder cancer.  My father's name is Steve. Yes I am daughter of a Steve, sister to a Steve and also wife of a Steve.

We are helping Dad as best we can. My Steve is working Mon-Fri so we are still bound to staying by home during the week.  Running up to my dads is 250 miles round trip each time. I try to go up once a week during the week to help out.  I do all I can to set up things and handle stuff over the phone, or mailing up packages.  "You Fit It Ships" boxes are handy....  He is on Hospice, has visiting nurses, has Meals on Wheels now, and he is no longer driving or even walking outside to the mailbox.  My brother Steve was there on Wednesday and got him up to a doc appointment, and picked up things he needed.  We are so thankful that sibings can help out and take turns.  It is tough when we all live so far away.


Please keep us in your prayers and send kind thoughts our way as our family gets through this.  We are doing what we can to help, but the reality is that both father figures in my life are struggling with this horrible disease. Prayers and kind thoughts are most appreciated.



Trying to keep my mind busy and keep me from going crazy, I need to be "doing something"... ya know?  

Since Steve ripped out the wall-to-wall carpeting in the foyer, livingroom and diningroom, I have been slowly sanding, staining and sealing sections of the floors with coats of polyurethane.  Last week I finished the diningroom.  This week is the livingroom.

When Steve removed the carpeting, the floors were in great shape structurally.  No holes or warpage.  We cleaned them up and dampmopped them.  There are some water rings that left marks in the varnish around the fireplace.  The previous owner's daughter said that was probably from the Christmas tree stand.

 The varnish finish is "dimpled" with marks from the texture of the carpet padding.  
There are deep splotches of something near the pocket doors.

Although we already had put a large wool oriental rug in here, we really wanted to redo the wooden borders around the room.  The doorway into the foyer area was the worst, with some blotches of something that could not scrub off, it was through the varnish and into the wood.  

Some folks might wonder why don't we just bring in a big floor sander and start from scratch and redo the entire floor from raw wood on up?  Well, we could.   But.... (there is always a but)  you could never get that same golden/reddish hue of the old wood. There is a shine to the woodgrain that looks like that tigereye jewel stone.  Like you can look into the wood and see glints of gold down deep. 

You could never replicate the lights and darks of the 101 years of yellowing or gaining that patina that only old wood has.  If we sanded it all and stained with new, it would look like ... well... a new floor!    Call me crazy, but I wanted to do it this way. My way. 

Out came my little sander with the "finger" attachment that lets me sand just on the bad spots.  It lets me pick and choose and get in between the lines of the hardwood. This area between the livingroom and diningroom is the worst for wear and spots... some paint spots too from over the years were able to be sanded out as well as the blotches and scratches.  

You can see the definite line from an area rug that laid here for many years, 

with the outer edges of the room exposed to UV but the center protected.  

That isn't a problem because we are putting the big wool oriental rug back in here. 

I sanded some of the paint spots that were in the light areas too...

Even though I had done the foyer in the spring, there were two bad spots that I never really ground down on or restained. (I was too scared to mess with it back then)  but now that I know what I am doing, I also got those two areas completely redone too. 

Once I had all the sanding done, then I shop vacced it good, and tack cloth / damp mopped with a swifter pad too.  Now it was time for my "magic" of blending some Valspar red oak stain, and then some Olde Maple Minwax Polyshades... I am able to get close to the same color as the existing wood.  On some of the water mark rings I had to go a bit darker, but it covered them quite well.  

After letting that dry, then I did up two coats of quick drying floor poly.  It is low-odor and fast drying. I use a wide pad on a long handle and spread it evenly without causing bubbles.  I did the first coat in the evening and spread a second coat right before bed... so it could dry overnight. 

The floor just GLEAMED in the worklights...
and we gated off the way into the diningroom just in case the doggers got through.
See that part that I had sanded previously? It is all stained to match now...

It's a good thing we live in a house with two staircases.  We could use the kitchen and laundry area, and spend the evening upstairs in the bedroom.  We were cozy with our laptops, tv and the doggers on the bed.  They didn't seem to mind, eh? 

We awoke to let the dogs down in the early morning darkness to see what we did....

they wanted to know where their furniture, toys and comfy sheepskin were????

They were perplexed. 

Steve helped me put most of the furniture back. I still had to finish the little 8x3 spot where the couch had been the night before. It didn't take long and was dry by the time Steve got home from work.  Now it was time to put the room "back together" .... Steve cut and nailed in the quarter round trim strips (but we are short two lengths and have to go buy some more and stain/varnish them to match) 

I know the rug takes up a large portion of the room, but it also covers that transition from the dark to the light wood, and seems to pull it all together.  It's not a very big room.  The diningroom is actually larger. But when we close the pocket doors and light the gas fireplace, it's pretty cozy. 

We decided to switch around the two corners... and put Steve's chair by the window.

Moving the tv to the other corner made more sense, but we had to run a new antenna coax. 

Steve had that done in about five minutes, what a guy! 

The foyer came out much nicer this time... and I was able to remove the worn spot near the front door. It was made from many years of people standing in the same spot, and grabbing the doorknob to go out to get the mail.  It think all those years of pivoting with a shoe on the wood wore it down... Now that its refinished, I think because we wear socks, it will stay nicer.  I hope. 

The dogs were VERY happy to find their sheepskin
restored to it's original spot...

I had a tickle in my throat last night before bed... and this morning woke up with a congested chest, coughing and sore throat.  I am going to slather myself with Vicks now and head up to bed to rest.  I simmered chicken veggie soup all day, and the house smells great.  Hope I can kick this out of my system.  Steve is coming down with the same thing too.  If we are sick, we can't be much help to the other family members who need us so much more! 

It All Started With a Craigslist Post

This morning we had a bunch of tasks to do... I had to pick up some stuff at Walmart and ship out some packages.  Steveio changed the oil on the motorhome and replaced the tension pulley.  Same old, same old---  just getting some stuff done around the house.

But then... Steveio saw a Craigslist ad....

It was a wool oriental rug, for a very reasonable price. Real wool, not polyoleflin junk.  And it was JUST THE RIGHT COLORS that we wanted for our livingroom.  We drove about 50 miles to get it, and it was in like-new condition.  It had recently been professionally cleaned before the people moved and it was not the right size for the lady's new house.  So that is why she was selling it.  It came home with us for only $130.00.

Also, the new rug coordinated with our dogs....  heh heh

Okay.. so no big deal, we bought a rug, right?  Well.....  we stretched it out in the livingroom on top of the beige wall-to-wall carpeting and it was perfect.

But----  

Seems Steveio has been chomping at the bit to rip out the wall-to-wall carpeting in our livingroom.  There is nothing wrong with the carpeting, it's in great shape.  But he knows that underneath is some lovely hardwood flooring.  We had peeked at the floor when we uncovered the hearth tiles after putting in the gas log insert in the fireplace.  So he KNEW what was under that carpeting and he wanted to tear it out to highlight the hardwood flooring.

RIPPP  up came a corner to check it out (this was at 4:20 pm) 

 Soon we were cutting a seam line to the dining room

and he started to pull up the entire piece of wall - to - wall carpet.

(I had to quickly roll the new rug out of his way!) 

Finney supervised. 

We pulled the carpet out in one whole piece and rolled it up.  Then I posted on the local Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade page for anyone who wants it to come and get it. Free.  It was clean and in good shape.  A young couple who own a big old farmhouse were first to place dibs on it.  They said they would love to have it on the cold floors upstairs this winter.  They were here in 15 minutes to pick it up.  (and if we decide to pull out the matching hunk in the diningroom, they want that too) 

Within minutes he peeled back the padding to reveal

THE LOVELY 101 YEAR OLD HARDWOOD FLOORS! 

This was the time-consuming part.  Armed with a pliers and a bucket, I started pulling out the zillions of staples that were used to secure the pad to the flooring. It was a "sit down" job and I scooted around the floor pulling staples till my hands hurt.  Steve was going around all the edges prying up the tack strips for the wall-to-wall carpeting.  He used a pry bar and a piece of cardboard to pad the floor underneath so he wouldn't leave any marks.

We did take a little break for some supper, but soon we were right back on the job.  By now it was after 6 pm and we pulled the very last staple!  I went over the floor with a Swiffer and hardwood floor cleaner.  The pad on the Swiffer let us know by snagging on any little pieces of staple left behind.  Whew.....  it sure looks PURTY!!!!

In the matter of two hours, we REALLY transformed the livingroom floor...

There is a noticeable outline where a previous rug had been sometime during the last 101 years.  But we whipped out the tape measure and sure enough, it was a tad bit smaller footprint than the wool rug we bought.  So it would cover up the outline almost perfectly! What luck! 

We do have to buy some lengths of red oak quarter round molding trim. You can see the gap where the old quarter round had been removed to install the wall-to-wall carpeting. There wasn't any old trim left in the garage of that size, so I imagine it was tossed out by the installer of the wall-to-wall carpeting.  I will stain and varnish the new quarter round trim to match and then Steve can nail it into place around the room.  Some of the flooring varnish has marks pressed into it from the padding. There is a little bit of wear here and there.  For 101 years old, that ain't so bad? 

I think if I do a light sanding in some areas and a thin new coat of poly will take care of it.  That is what I did in the foyer this past spring, and it looks great.  So a little touch-up can be done here and there once we get the quarter round all into place. 

The fireplace looks even bigger now with the tile hearth is nicely featured. 

Years ago the tile hearth had been hidden under the carpeting by the installer. 

Why hide that beautiful tile hearth?

In the famous words from HGtv's Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict

(and I quote)  "Why in the Hell would you cover that up????"

Now it's 7:30 pm and time for us to set the furniture back into place.  I bought a pack of heavy felt pads to put under the legs of all of the furniture.  We carried in each piece and set it back into place. It was all coming together and felt soooo good!  I think the most time-consuming part was hooking up all the tv/recorder/modem/antenna wires to the tv in the corner.

Looking from the staircase in the foyer into the livingroom...

it sure looks like 

HOME SWEET HOME 

to us! 

What started with a Craigslist ad

 has ended with a transformed livingroom.

(and I have a feeling he has his eye on the diningroom next) 

Warming Up and more Before and Afters

First off, I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of our grandtots.  Today little Chelsea turns FOUR!  Oh my... just seems like yesterday, yadda yadda yadda....    I think she is 4 going on 18!~

(dontcha love these old phones that were in the house when we bought it?) 

Tomorrow is her birthday party up in Oconto, so I will post more about that tomorrow or Sunday.  We will be seeing all FIVE of the grandtots at the party, so it will be a delightful day.

Wheeeeheeeee it's 6:30 a.m. and the temp is already TWENTY FIVE outside!  Now, to a lot of you that sounds cold, but to us who have been suffering at 25 below, this is a HEAT WAVE!!!!   The dogs zoomed out and back in from potty break this morning without needing to wear their socks.  The road out front is damp from melting snow (the salt that had been spread is now working).  The furnace has actually kicked off and on instead of running steadily.

We got our heat bill for the last 33 days... it's 80 dollars more than normal, but that is because we had overridden the automatic thermostat that turns it down to 56 overnight.  During this cold snap, we didn't want to risk frozen pipes anywhere so we left it set up in the higher 60's overnight.  It actually gets too hot up in our bedroom when the furnace is on all night.  We have been sleeping with the door shut, so the wee pup doesn't happen to wander at night.  The last few nights, we have been putting a baby gate across the open doorway instead.   So far the pup has not strayed from his bed mat all night, but there can always be a first time. A few more weeks of this, and we might not have to use the baby gate either.

On the puppy front, little Finnegan and Duke are becoming best buddies.  I was sewing in my Loom Room the other day and they were both laying behind my chair.  I turned around to see this:

Duke taught little Finnegan about "fetch" and now he brings the ball back, most of the time.  He gets quite adept at rushing ahead of old Duke to get the ball first, but as he passes by to bring me the ball, Duke usually swipes it away from him to bring it to me.  It's become quite a game.


On the quilting front, I got 20 blocks done of the quilt I posted about the other day.  Now I have to get some contrast coordinating fabric to create sashing, or frames, around each block and put them all together.  It was so nice to spend a few days at my 100 year old Singer treadle machine, sewing in the sunshine and looking out over the frozen outdoors.

Let's see... some more "Before and After" pics.   The reason that I am doing these blog posts of room by room through the house is so I have something to blog about. Perhaps if we get to sneak out for a few weeks or more for vacation, I will have something really interesting to write about!~   In the meantime, I will do these from my files of "Our Old House"  LOL

The livingroom....  turning to the right from the foyer I wrote about yesterday, if you go through the double pocket doors, it leads to our livingroom.  When we first looked at the house, it included a big old console tv!  LOL   Also a "faux fireplace" which is built in to the wall, all cement and tile-  but it only has an electric log with a rotating tin foil flame reflector in it.  We bought a gas log fireplace to go in it's place, and will work on that next spring.   Steve will cut through the cement and run the direct vented gas log unit right out the back.  We will be able to keep the existing surrounding tiles and mantle.  Here is how the room was when we looked at the house.

 BEFORE 

Once we closed on the house, we took down the curtains, and removed the shelves.  I put those up in my fiber storage room for inventory to get stacked on.  

We hauled the tv over to the thrift shop, because it still worked and they said the old folks at the apartments in town have cable and this tv will work for them, even though it's analog.   Then we spread out the tarps and started to get to work!   

The big window faces the east, and the room is separated from the diningroom by two large wooden columns and open doorway.  The window has beveled leaded glass across the top in an old fashioned pattern.  The morning sun comes in through the window through the enclosed front porch, and makes rainbows all over the livingroom carpeting.  I love all the woodwork... wide baseboards, lovely window trims, top crown moulding and two the crackly varnished columns on each side of the opening to the diningroom.

I painted the walls, (two coats) with a creamy antique white paint, and then for the ceiling we did something different in prep before painting.  The ceilings had slight ripples in the plaster for being 100 years old.  Steve didn't like looking at the ripples, even though I thought they were slight and not too noticeable.  There weren't any cracks or falling plaster, but Steve said if we don't take the time to skip trowel over them now, we will never move out all of the furniture and do it later.  So we hired two guys to come over and do all four rooms quick in one evening....   that is a lot of overhead work, and we didn't' feel up to it ourselves.  For $180 they came and did four rooms in just a couple hours.  Here it is wet, before it dried, and then I painted them white. It adds texture and hides the long corrugated ripples that seemed to bother Steve.

One of the daughters we bought the house from, Paula, said she had a mirror that I might like to buy that would work well over the fireplace.  So she brought it over one day and I was delighted to have it!   The frame was more brown than I wanted, so out came my handy dandy can of Polyshades (colored poly stain)  and I gave it a coat to make it closer to our woodwork.  We rotated it around to put the trimmed area at the top and hung it up over the fireplace.  Steve found this great leaded glass fireplace screen on Craigslist to complete the picture!

The livingroom isn't all that large, so we had to carefully choose what furniture we wanted to put in it.  While we were shopping around, Steve wanted a mission style recliner.   I liked the look of the chair, and it's very comfy with a reclining portion that comes out for the legs.

At that same store, I saw a couch on the clearance floor with a big gouge outta the woodwork frame along the bottom.... yes, I could fix that!  But it had a SOLD sign on it.  Dang!  It was perfect!  I asked the salesman that if the other person didn't come for it, could I be next in line?   The salesman then showed me a new one on the floor without a gouge, and it was on sale of a sale for not much more than the clearance priced one!   BINGO!   We bought it!   (and I didn't have to fix any gouges)

We decided to accent the room with some stained glass.   It started with my sewing some stained glass runners from a quilting kit I bought in the spring.  I made some runners to hang on the walls, and a few to set on the end tables.

Then the grandtots broke the shade on the little lamp out on the foyer table, by accident.  I wanted to order three small 5" stained glass shades, two for some small lamps on the mantle and one for that little lamp in the foyer.

I found three replacement stained glass shades for the unbelievable price of $7.99 each on the Menards website. I thought they were small, but the description of the model number of the light fixture they were to go on didn't match up right. It said they were 13" not 5"????   But I ordered them anyhow.  They were only $7.99 each so it was worth taking a chance.  Perhaps they were plastic?  I had no idea.

When the boxes came... they WERE the large ones!   And they were all leaded stained glass!   Hmmmmm   The light fixture they were said to replace was normally $99, so perhaps these replacement shades were supposed to be $79.99 instead of $7.99?   I think it was a mistake on their web site, because the smallest replacement ones were $38 and these were the large ones????

Here is the link to the site I ordered them from for $7.99

I called the store to tell them, they didn't seem to care, and I was told I would be charged a 25% restocking charge if I returned these, even if I did order the smaller ones (at $38 each)   Well, for $7.99 each, why should I pay $2 each to return them? I will just keep all three of them and change my idea of  having two small stained glass lamps on the mantle.

Instead of putting any small lamps on the mantle, I put two of the shades on two larger lamp bases for each side of the couch on the endtables....    and Steve then came up with the idea of putting the third one up on the ceiling fan! What a great place~!

We had looked at a stained glass Hunter ceiling fan in the $300 range.  Whew... we couldn't afford that.  Now we have something similar for the bargain price of $59 sale fan and a $7.99 shade! LOL

Our livingroom has become just about a finished room now, with everything set where we want it. We added a little ottoman with a storage center that holds an even smaller ottoman. I use that for my laptop computer, and the lid of the big ottoman flips over for a table surface as our "coffee table".  Since the room is sorta small (12x13) we didn't want to overfill it.

AFTER

By not putting heavy drapes on the windows, I think the room looks bigger. I only added a lace scalloped valance to the side window.  Steve's brother Pete gave us the big tv, and although it kinda blocks the window a bit, we sure like the large screen and it feels like a movie theater in here. 

AFTER

Once the fireplace gets changed over to a gas log one 

(we already bought a slightly used one off Craigslist) the room will then be complete. 

AFTER

HOME SWEET HOME

IN "OUR OLD HOUSE"

and for my RVing readers...

Here is the rig, patiently waiting in the snow and ice.

We have been keeping the snow clear from the front end, 

so we can just hop in and drive it out ...

Hopefully, we will take it south soon to get WARM!