Study This......

In addition to the laundry room we had custom cabinets made for my husband's study.  We sold a set of Cherry bookcases, which we brought from our former home in Tennessee.  H&S Cabinets designed a safe cabinet, along with a cabinet console, complete with file drawers.  We had another stand alone cabinet built to place the printer, router, neat receipt and all the other sundry technological gadgets.

Here are the before pictures of the wall..........

And the after.....  Please note they came out a little red, it was due in part to the room lighting and the back flash of color from our Sundried Tomato wall cover.

We still have some tweaking to do, but it is coming along!  It will finally look like something other than a giant storage lot for a garage sale, now that my hubby has decided to get on board and get it decorated! 

Handyman's Centerfold

Ok, I am pretty sure this is a dangerous way to 'hold' down a board.  All types of thoughts ran through my head as I saw this, however my sister captured it best when she said " I think you are watching a emergency room visit in the making.  So, here is how that conversation would sound like at the ER with the technician..it would go a little like this.

Laurel & Hardy Handymen:  Can you assist us, we have a little emergency
ER Tech:  What seems to be the problem?
Hardy:  My buddy had a slight altercation with a skill saw
ER Tech:  Slight huh?  There is a blade up his butt!
Hardy:  Yep, that would be it, can't hide the obvious from your keen eye!
ER Tech:  How did that possibly happen?
Hardy: All we can say about this is this is what you get when you try and bring "sexy back" to home improvement!

Pantry Progress

 

The pantry make-over is still a work-in-progress.  I am telling you this will be one strong pantry, I am convinced an F5 would not be able to blow these shelves down!  Here is the photo series of where we are to date. 

 

Support strips for the wrap around shelves.  Holes in the back were patched were the previous shelves were attached.

 

Check out how secure these boogers are...no less than (10) screws per strip.  My nephew said I would be able to climb up the fronts of these bad boys when he is done!  He also said, I had better like it because these suckers are not coming down anytime soon! 

 

Primer and putty over the gazillion screw holes and it is one to test fitting the shelves 

The guys are using the drill press to drill the holes for the screws - nice touch!

 

Chef Bacon....aka (Hardy the handyman)...this guy is a MASTER of all things ladies! 

 

Test fitting to get the necessary measurements - I can't wait for these bad boys to be stained and ready for stocking.  Did you notices the corners are even mitered....sweet!

 

These guys are not working in the most ideal conditions.  It is 32 degrees outside with 25 mph wind gust.  It is as cold in the garage as it is outside.  They have on jackets, gloves, hats and their noses are still beet red.  Guess I am going to have to do something extra special for dinner to make up for it all.  Gotta run...I need to call Papa John's ( ha!)

 

Pals in the Pantry

Well, work continues on the pantry expansion.  The fellas have marked the walls, plastered where the old shelves use to be and have begun to hang the support strips.  While I was up decorating at all hours of the morning, BT spent his time mudding and sanding, and mudding and sanding and mudding ...wait, Charlie said "Dude, you keep sanding off what you are putting on!" 

Must have been a lack of sleep.  We decided to put an end to the madness and put ourselves to bed.  Here are some pictures of the progress.

BT supporting his college colors!

Chef Bacon overseeing his handyman's work

If the dust is flying, BT is trying!

It takes "2" to get it level

They will be finishing up the installation of the support strips tonight.  More pictures on the progress tomorrow!

Rolling Rolling Rolling

Thank goodness my nephew is here to supervise the painting of our garage ceiling.  He is a tall fella so he is a good foot closer to the ceiling.  It is amazing how pink the ceiling looks when you start to apply ceiling white over it. 

Once the ceiling has been painted they plan on installing new florescent lights!  I know that is a good thing, but it means we will be able to see that awful mess that we have in that garage under spot beams.  Great, just have to pace ourselves one project at a time.

Ode to Paul Bunyan

Well today they arrived to start taking down the 100 – 120ft pine trees in our front yard.  They were tall things with very few limbs and getting fewer with each passing wind storm.  The only living thing that enjoyed those trees was the red headed woodpecker because he could depend on a pounding out a beetle feast nearly every day.

So today, Cuz arrived with his side kick in hand.  They decided due to the enormous height of these trees to rent a bucket lift vs. simply climbing them.  The only problem, the lift didn’t reach high enough, so whats a fella to do?  Climb up out of the lift and into the tree of course!

My Mom was home to watch all of this action first hand and to snap photos as the action progressed.  So far, there have been very few incidents.  They did break a sprinkler head, which will have to be fixed but that is what happens when you are working in tight quarters.  Not too bad given at any given time we had a full size dump truck, bulldozer, bucket lift and several trucks in our yard.

So a big thank you to Ricky Isbell for clearing the trees once they were down.  It was a lot of work and it took a coordinated effort of (5) guys to get it done in one days time! Here is the photo show I put together so you can mark the progress with us!

New Desk and Chair....

For Miss “Thing” to do her make-up and hair!  About (2) months ago we made a trip to Story and Lee, a furniture store out in the MIDDLE of nowhere Pulaski TN.  It reminded us of our beloved Feagan’s, which we use to frequent while living in TN and that was located in Ferdonia KY.  Story and Lee is about the same distance for us to drive, but the upside is they offer free delivery and lower sales tax can you say woo hoo!

Our daughter has this niche in her bathroom, well actually it use to be a laundry area, don’t get me started it was one of (3) in this house.  I like doing laundry (strange I know) but that is a bit many even for me…but I digress. 

We (insert Brother-in-law and husband here) capped off the plumbing and electrical and put up new drywall and paint to make it function.  B removed the sliding doors and hung her silver beaded chandelier from her room in TN.  We decided to make it into a dressing area (with plans of renovating it to a functional space many years and dollars later hee hee!)

So, while at Story and Lee, we settled upon a black writing desk because it was the right height and was made by a solid manufacturer.  We custom ordered a slipper chair with a black and white daisy print with dots of yellow (which she picked out) to bring a splash of color to the niche. 

We got a call on Monday that it was finally in and would be delivered today…and here it is!

So now we have to purchase a rug to go underneath.  We agreed on the style shag, but we still have to agree on the color yellow or black and white.  The next task will be to have Mom make some custom curtains to frame the area, and a matching valence for the window. 

Then, I plan to call Armando (the guy who did our outside columns) to get him to pull up the iridescent tiles and place black to clear glass tiles in their place.  I have an idea for creating a glass border around her mirror to frame it in, but I am still researching that option.

In the meantime it is a step in the right direction and everything is so expensive even the little ‘do it yourself’ fixes, remember the 100+ dollars for new drawer pulls – plz!

So stay tuned as this is definitely a work in progress.  It is fun to watch it transform in front of our eyes!  Now, if I only had a magic wand for the rest of the house!

Back Porch Beauty

They finished adding the columns to our back porch on Sunday afternoon.  I don't know what we had envisioned with respect to how the columns would be installed, but I can tell you we had no idea there was this much work and art involved in the process.  We are thrilled with the results!  Hopefully, once you watch the photo show you will be as impressed as we are!  Thanks to Armando and his crew they did a fantastic job!

Check out the new awning

BEFORE PICTURE

About 8 years ago we purchased an awning for our back french door. I had the green and creme stripe to the left installed and it has fared very well despite being beat up by Mother Nature.

Well, we decided to update the look of the awning, since we added the privacy film and retractable screen on the door. So, Mom and I took a trip over to a local awning company and picked out new one.

We decided to go with rust tones, as we re-roofed with brown dimensional shingles vs. the flat black, which was on the house when we purchased it. The new awning is both wider and deeper and it looks great upside the house and in contrast with the brick.

AFTER PICTURE

The dogs even enjoy it as they can both fit under the awning at one time and stay dry when it is raining, a great plus given the fact it has rained for almost 40 days and nights without stopping!

So if you are local and in need of a awning for the front or back of your home or windows, give me a call, I would gladly recommend this company!

Check out the new screen thing!

We just had a new retractable screen door installed on our back french doors and I LOVE IT! We ran into TJ of TJ Enterprises at the Nashville Home show we attended a few weeks back. I have been looking to replace our older screen door, which sat on a track and wheel system and did not work worth a hoot!

Woo Hoo to the folks of Mirage Screen Systems, who manufacture a retractable screen door. This thing is the bomb, it slides open and shut like a window shade. Get this the screen is not attached to the top of bottom of the door in the traditional way with a groove and spline system. This works great with the dogs, especially our over exuberant Airedale who has been known to jump up on the door when wanting in the house. The screen "gives" when pushed on the result no more torn screens...yipee!

It is held to the frame by a strong magnet, one which can be adjusted. Why would you want to adjust it you ask? Well, get this TJ fixed the magnet so it would release when the door was hit. This resulted in a "bang" when the door returned to the original position. Our Airedale hit it one time and one time only. The sound coupled with the speed sent her running and we now have no more issues with her wanting to jump on the screen door!

If you are in need of a screen door, my money is on the Mirage Retractable System. I have included the link to the company's website within the blog title. Check it out I am sure it will peak your interested. Oh and don't forget to contact TJ of TJ Enterprises (Smyrna) for installation. He is on time, fast and customer oriented.

Project - Home Renovation

Ever notice how many things need to be "spruced" up when you start looking around your home with an eagle eye? As a result of a very candid walk through, we have decided to embark on a few over due home renovation projects.

I have assigned the task of Chief Project Manager and Scheduler to my mother. She is in charge of calling the contractors, arranging bids/quotes and walk throughs, reviewing bids and awarding contracts...oh yes and lets not forget supervising the crews ( whew! what a job).

We started with our french doors, which we felt needed some type of privacy film. We met a vendor who is out of Nashville at last years home show held in Nashville. ECO Shield Energy Company is the company name and Woody is the owner...he is terrific!

We decided on a 3M rice paper product, which we had installed on the french doors, as well as the side lights and transom over the front door. In addition, we had him add UV protected film on the windows in the family room and bonus room as the sun can do a number on any piece of furniture you place in these areas.

The doors and windows look fantastic. He was in and out in about an hour and did the entire job at a price that didn't send my wallet screaming!

I really like the new found sense of privacy the rice paper provides on these outward facing doors! The only draw back, I didn't realize the "peep" hole on our front door was installed at "MAN" level. This will now require another line be added to our "to do list" which will state...."install peep hole on front door at my level!"