Beadboard Doors - HCE - and Chandelier Facelift

I think my National Folk Farmhouse Kitchen is done?

Now that all of the ends of the cabinets are covered with the beadboard panels, there was a little bit left.  From the remaining sheet of beadboard, Steve was able to cut out five more smaller panels. He had to really carefully plan the cuts, so the beadboard pattern would be equally balanced and centered on each side where it sets into the door. These were then glued to each cabinet door of the island, using contact cement. 

He utilized my rolling pin to help make sure that each piece of beadboard was firmly pressed down onto the door panel.

Once they were in place, he went around the edges with a bead of caulk to finish in the joint all around.  After the caulk was dry, I gave each of the cabinet doors two coats of paint. I was very pleased with the final result. It looks like they were originally made that way with beadboard.

The first thing this morning, before he even had his second cup of coffee, Steve got the doors all mounted back onto the island. He made sure they were level and each one shut perfectly and was correctly lined up.

These two smaller ones were just regular cabinet doors on each side of the island stove. A while back, we added pull out Rev-A-Shelf kits to make one a trash bin and the other one a recycling bin.

This is the back side of the island that faces the sink.

I'm really glad we did this. It was a lot of work. I wasn't sure if I wanted a white kitchen, because this was Steve's idea.  But now it looks so bright and cheery, I smile when I walk into the room. 

My Oh My, 

this really dressed up our 

National Folk Farmhouse Kitchen!  

I also repotted a couple clumps of ivy that I had rooting in water. I found the perfect shade of red flower pots in our newest store in Oconto, a Dollar Tree. So for a dollar apiece I got these pretty little flower pots that look so nice in the window over the kitchen sink.

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Tuesday was pretty busy for me. Since we've moved back to Oconto, I rejoined with my HCE Homemakers group. HCE stands for Home and Community Education. I jokingly say it's kind of like 4-H for Old Farm ladies! LOL

Various times throughout the year we meet with other HCE groups from around the county and work on volunteer projects. We call it "Stitches of Love". 

The two main projects we worked on this time were making fleece tied blankets that go to cancer chemo patients and other hospice related recipients. Also we sew little fabric book bags for a program called Books R4U that gives four-year-old Head Start children in our county story books, coloring books, crayons, pencils etc and a nice little fabric book bag to keep them in.

The day was filled with laughter and fun, and especially a nice feeling because we were doing something for someone else. Donors furnish us with the funds for the nicer quality fleece fabric as well as donations and sponsors for the supplies and fabric for the book bags. It's so nice to be back with my familiar ladies again. I had been a member of this group for 13 years before we moved away in 2012.

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We spent the rest of the evening assisting a family member in the hospital. It was a long evening and we didn't get home until after 11 p.m. Prayers are still greatly appreciated!

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This afternoon I had a little project of my own to work on. While Steve is still finishing up some of the electrical ceiling boxes with the new wiring, I felt it was time to give a little face-lift to the beautiful crystal chandelier that hangs in our bathroom. Today was the day, because he was going to be putting it back up soon. So if I was going to do anything to it, I better get my own butt in gear.

The chandelier is beautiful, and it's actually newer, but it is made to look old. I did not care for the aged distressed look on the surface of the metal. So my plan was to dress it up with a spray can of chrome metallic paint.

Before I started removing any of the crystals, I took very close photographs of which ones were located from which little hole in what part of the light fixture. There are six different configurations and shapes of crystals... some had three beads above the main crystal and other ones only had one bead above the main crystal. The crystals were three different shapes and three different sizes as well. I wanted to be sure that I was going to put it back together the same way that it came apart.

(wow... those crystals were dirty!)

There were 25 various strands hanging from the framework, and if you count even each little crystal bead of each strand, that means that there were 75 individual crystals in total. I didn't want to mess anything up.

My plan was to remove the crystals and then paint the frameworks silver. Everything else in our bathroom is silver and chrome. The legs on the clawfoot tub, the faucets on the sink, the other light fixture over the sink and the metal trim on the shower are all silver.

One hint I learned long ago, is that after you remove any of the glass shades (or crystals in this case), cover up the light sockets with pieces of tin foil crumpled up around them to make sure that none of the spray paint gets down inside of the light socket.

It didn't take me long to spritz spritz spritz and I had it covered from all directions with silver paint. I did that work down in the basement, away from anything that could get overspray on it.

While that was drying, I was able to clean all of the crystals in a vinegar and water solution and rinse them off after a little soak in Dawn dish soap as well. They came out gleaming, and I wiped each one to a pretty glistening finish.

The other part of the face-lift that I performed was on these 4 yellowish plastic faux candle sleeves that go over the sockets. They were an interesting vintagey looking color, but they were more yellow than what all of the trim in the bathroom. So out came my little paintbrush and dip-dab-dip-dab I had them all spruced up as well. Now they will harmonize a little better and look good against the silvery light fixture and glittery crystals.

Steve was working hard to finish installing the last few ceiling fixture boxes so the lights could be securely attached in proper fashion according to code. Of course, the old wiring was just two old wires stuck through the plaster ceiling. That is all non-functioning and safely removed.

Once the main chandelier fixture frame was dry, I carefully put back each little strand of crystals. Following my photographs from earlier, I was able to put everything back in place. Each little strand of crystals is attached by a thin fine keyring type circular metal band. They're very fine and tiny and you cannot pull too hard or they would bend out of shape. Soon the fixture was back together and Steve was on standby, anxiously waiting for me to hand it to him. As I held the chandelier up from below, he was up on the ladder above doing the proper connections. Soon it was back to its former glory, but with a nice face lift of glittering silver instead of the rusty and vintage distressed frame of before.

I think it made a nice improvement and looks much more feminine and elegant for my master bathroom!

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We are due for more snow again tonight. It started to snow right before supper. We made up a nice hot supper of chicken vegetable soup and crackers. Perfect for a snowy evening. It is even sticking to the windows. 

It's starting to get blustery and blowing and really coming down out there. They said only a few inches, but we will see what is what by morning.

Time now to settle in while he watches an old western or two, and I am going to sew on my quilt...  or soak in my tub and gaze up at my face-lifted chandelier! 

More House Prep and Steveio's "Man Cave"

We got a lot more done around the house this past weekend.

I cleared out the closet in the guest bedroom which had doubled as storage of my weaving and fiber supplies.  There were 16 rubbermaid totes in there.  I was able to condense, sort and repack so I only have 7 totes now.   That means NINE empty totes!!!!  Whew what an accomplishment!   I was so proud of myself I even Facebooked the announcement!

Then I painted the closet,  This room used to belong to our daughter Heather.  At one time, we had let her and two friends (Amanda and Jessica) help her paint the room BRIGHT turquoise.  They added this little bit of closet graffiti .... I almost hated to paint over it, it's been there for about 13 years.

Once Heather moved out after graduation in 2003, we repainted her room with a nice creamy beige but never had done the closet.  Thank you for decorating our home, Jessie and Manda! heh heh

Speaking of Heather, she and her husband Jesse, and our grandson Jameson went to Florida for a week to hang out with Micky Mouse.  Little Jameson told the ticket gal: "I AM GONNA DRIVE THE PLANE!"    heh heh.  He was even wearing his airplane sweatshirt -----  Here he is with his little cousin Scarlett, from Jesse's side of the family.  

Back to work here. Steve and I laid the carpeting in the guest bedroom downstairs.  This was the piece leftover from half of the loft.  We cleared out the room, laid the carpeting ourselves and then put everything back in the room.  Whew! But we needed mop board trim to go around the room, so it's kinda undone yet.   

That meant a trip to Menards.  (for those not in the midwest, it's a chain similar to Home Depot or Lowes) By the time we got outta there, it was close to $100, but we picked up a lot of things for the final touches on the house. New shelving boards for the closets and laundry area, the trim boards, some new outlet and switch-plate covers etc.  Plus we have a little grout job to do around the edges of the fireplace hearth, so we found some matching grout for that too.

On Saturday our Galaxy tablet did a new update on it's own, which functions as our router hub to bring the internet signal into our home.  Now Steve's older laptop with network USB device won't hook up right.  I struggled with the settings for over 2 hours.  I suggested he just get a new computer, since our income tax refund came.  I know our daughter Heather wanted a laptop because she and her husband share one.   Ya ever share a laptop with a spouse?  It's HARD to do!!!    We will give Steve's old one to her because it will work fine on their DSL line.  This is the same laptop we got from Jim and Dee of http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/   So it will live on, still being a part of our family.   

Steve knew of a student who was selling a netbook because he needed a Mac computer for his schooling.   The young man brought it over, showed it to us, hooked it up and it works just fine on the new-fangled connection of the Galaxy tablet.   It's a Asus Eee Netbook, smaller than a laptop, 10" size, and it's only about a year old.  New it was $400, and he sold it us for $125.  Good deal! 

It runs on Windows 7, and has everything he needs, including Office and even Skype with a camera for talking to the grandkids.  The keyboard is a tiny bit smaller, but it will be a nice device to have along in the motorhome.  He only plays Hearts on Yahoo or MSN, and browses Ebay and Craigslist.  That is the extent of his computering. 

Now that he got to buy something from the income tax refund, I get to buy something too!  Not sure what yet, but thinking... thinking...  We also splurged on a new hitch for the back of the Tracker, so that was our "together" purchase.  Our other Tracker had a nice hitch on the back, and twice now we found ourselves wishing the new Tracker had one too.  The rest of the refund will go in the bank.  No trips this year.

By the time Saturday night rolled around, we were pooped and I was aching sore and feeling yucky.  So I filled up the big whirlpool tub and soaked till I was wrinkled up like a prune!   

This is one thing I am gonna really miss about this house.  My tub!    I do have a tub in the motorhome, but it's not nearly this big.  Heeeeee heeeeee.

Sunday morning was another day full of tasks around the house again.  The spring on the dishwasher door broke so Steve fixed that.  I cleaned out the coat closet.  We installed new carpeting in the bottom and I think I threw out more stuff than what got put back in.  So I call that a success.   

After lunch, Steve and I sorted some more items in the basement storage area of the house and he carried out about 5 huge "body bags"  errr heavy contractor bags to the garage.  Destination St. Vincent De Paul's Thrift Store!  

I was planning to hostess a meeting on Monday evening for my Homemakers group, called HCE Home and Community Education.  It's kinda like 4H for little old ladies. LOL     

I needed to set up for 12 ladies to come and eat a late evening luncheon and have a meeting.  I had Steve haul in our extra folding table from the motorhome (we carry it in the basement of the motorhome for those times when we are boondocking without a picnic table).   Borrowed a half dozen folding chairs from Erin and we were good to go!  

Did I ever post a pic of my freshly painted kitchen? 

(excuse the clutter on the countertops while cooking) 

Lots of room for cooking for parties, just not so much dining area room. We put Steve's chair over by the fireplace by mine, to make room for the meeting table.

I baked up a banana bread in a bundt pan (I double the recipe) and had a little leftover batter, enough to bake a separate loaf (no nuts in that one)   Oh, I add a dollop of vanilla to my banana bread, and sprinkle brown sugar on the top to get a coffee-cake tasting crust.  When cooled, I inverted it onto a platter and drizzled on icing.   

The other thing I planned for little luncheon meal was something I enjoy making for the grandkids.  Our meal is just supposed to be a little snack for our meetings, not a big full meal.   These fun little piggies in the blankets are made from tiny smokie sausages, and crescent dough cut into strips, and extra diagonals with a pizza cutter.  Wrap up each little piggie and bake for about 10 minutes until done.  I use parchment paper so they don't stick from the cooking sausages.  

Now, here is the part where the "Man Cave" comes into play.  See, with all these elderly gals coming here, in the darkness, we felt it was probably best to NOT have the motorhome sitting in our driveway.  Not only would it make more room for the parking cars, but avoids the problem of someone possibly backing into it or creasing down the side as they are trying to maneuver in the dark from an unfamiliar driveway.   

We decided that Steveio would load up the dogs, some take-out chicken, and a few beers.  He drove our rig over to the neighbor's driveway!!!  Heh heh it became a haven to escape the clucking hens who overtook his house for the evening.  He had his little netbook, and a tv, heat, lights, and two doggers to keep him company.  What a great "Man Cave"!!!

Charlotte, my co-hostess made veggie pizza and Valentine sugar cut-out cookies. 

Along with some candy dishes, coffee and laughter, we had a great meeting! 

Once the meeting was over at 9:30, I walked across the yard and knocked on the motorhome door. Ahhh my man let me enter his "Man Cave" and we relaxed together inside for a while, pretending we were somewhere other than a driveway in Wisconsin in the Winter.   Soon it was 10 pm and the news came on the tv.  I got out and guided him over into our own driveway, he backed into it's own space again, and we went back in the house for the night.  

Our motorhome was a little disappointed, as were the dogs.  They all thought we were going SOMEWHERE!    

Soon, little motorhome... soon....  

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