Not Much Happening Lately

Hello All,

I know I haven't posted about anything in quite some time, but unfortunately not a whole lot of interesting things have been happening with us lately. I don't want the faithful few who check our blog from time to time to think I've abandoned the blog, though. I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures lately, either. Hence the lack of new posts on the Eaton Perspective. We got a new DSLR camera, though.

Cass and I wanted to take a fall vacation up to Northern Michigan at the peak of color but that fell through for other plans we're making. ^_^

With the Christmas season fast approaching, I want to wish everyone a merry time with family and friends and don't ever forget what we celebrate on the 25th of December. I promise we'll have more to blog about after the holiday season.

New Shed Doors!

Well, you might imagine that since I didn't post about the mantle in June, that we didn't do the mantle yet. Well I'm proud to say that you'd be wrong......no wait, you're right. We didn't do the mantle. We decided that there were a few other things that were more important maintenance type things to get done on the house before we build the mantle. The doors on our shed were just about as close to falling off the shed as doors could be. The hinges on the old doors were attached to completely rotted wood such that every time I opened the shed, I braced myself for the impact of the doors falling off.

So we decided it was time. I didn't want to use the shed in fear anymore! While we got most everything done on Saturday, I started the entire project on Thursday evening with building some saw horses. There was no way whatsoever I could have done this job without saw horses, so I hammered a couple of those out Thursday and then on Friday evening I cut the doors out of the plywood. I have a battery powered circular saw with two batteries so I thought surely I'd be able to get these cut out. Sure enough...I didn't. It was a combination of low battery capacity and my stupidity. I didn't charge the battery I'd been using in my drill so that was only half way charged up and the other battery hadn't been charged for months, but I figured that since I hadn't used it, it should still be fully charged. I got through 2 cuts and both batteries were dead! D'OH! Thankfully, we live close enough to some good friends who lent us their corded circular saw so I could finish cutting out the doors. (THANK YOU JOHN!)

On Saturday, I started (relatively) bright and early on getting the old doors removed and building the trim for around the door opening. Since we had AT&T coming out to install new internet service, I had to take a break from the doors for a little while to attend to that, but I promptly got back to working on the doors after cutting down our hibiscus tree so the tech could reach our network interface box. So I got cracking on making the frames for the doors and getting them glued 'n screwed to the plywood door panels. I had all that done a little after lunch time at which point Cass helped with painting the doors. The rest of the day was basically painting, waiting, painting again, waiting again, and repeat as necessary. It made for a nice long day of just working outside! Thankfully, we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was in the high 70s and only partly cloudy!

We got everything painted and ready to hang, called it a day, and went to O'Charleys for Dinner! Mmmmmm O'Charleeeys. So, the shed remained doorless for a night, but we're able to lock our privacy fenced in yard, so I wasn't too worried about that. Sunday after church we finished the job by hanging the doors and putting on the rest of the hardware. The doors swing open nice. We're quite happy with the results. Now I don't have to worry about being conked in the head whenever I open the shed.

Hey, The Bathroom Looks Different.

A few weeks ago, Cass and I (mainly Cass though) decided it was time to do something about the half-bathroom downstairs by the fireplace room. We were tired of the butterfly wallpaper border around the room separating the boring two-tone beige color. We forgot to take a picture of the wallpaper before we tore it off. Also, we had removed the folding panel doors a while ago that used to cover up the washer and dryer because they were real flimsy and annoying for a front loading washer and dryer.

Overall, it only took us about 3 days total (but it stretched across two weekends) to finish with the changes we made. We still have more plans for it, like replacing the vanity, replacing the overhead light, and hanging a shelf and some pictures, but we're going to finish more of the fireplace room before we dump any more money into the bathroom. We found this bold green color that we really like. It's a little on the bright side when the fluorescent lights are warmed up in there, but the overhead light we're going to replace that with should fix that problem.

Cass and I wanted to put in thick base boards and nobody seems to make any bigger than 4" so I decided I'd have to make them myself. We bought some 1x6 pine (which is actually only 3/4"x5 1/2") and used that. Dad had recently given me a router and some decorative edge bits to use with it. So I routed the decorative edge on the base boards and we painted them brown.

To replace the flimsy doors and sort of separate the loo from the laundry, we hung curtains that matched the green and brown theme. They also go well with the trash bin that we got from BB&B. I think Cass did a great job of getting coordinating stuff. Our decision to redo the bathroom actually stemmed from Cass finding this trash bin and wanting to buy it for the bathroom, but we thought it would look stupid in there without redecorating the bathroom.

Finally, we also replaced the medicine cabinet/mirror that used to be in there. I mean, why would you need a medicine cabinet in that kind of bathroom? So, we went to HomeGoods and found this cool looking mirror, and it wasn't very expensive. So, that's what's new. Like I've said before (I think), we're going to be starting the mantle for the fireplace this month, so I'll post about that when we get going on it.

Almost Finished Product

Ok! Here it is. Cass and I, over the winter, did some work to the fireplace room that made some big changes to how the room looks now.

We bought some moulding to wrap the sliding door with. Since I had received a miter saw for Christmas, I decided there really was no good reason that I shouldn't finish that door so we could hang up some curtains and hopefully stop some of the warm air in the house from escaping through the great big glass wall in the family room. We painted the moulding the same color as the wall since it was mostly going to be covered by the curtains anyway. But wow, when we got that installed, it was amazing the difference. The room instantly looked and felt closer to being finished. I was really happy with how the miters turned out, too. Since I'd never done a mitered corner, I wasn't sure how they would turn out.

Cass and I used some of our Christmas gift money to buy some new curtains and a new rug for the room that went well with the colors we picked out for the fireplace wall which is a smoky blue and khaki for the other walls. We installed the curtains on a dual curtain rod setup so the blue panels and the brown panels are on separate curtain rods. That way they can retract farther to the right which makes using the sliding door a lot easier. It was awesome how similar the blue of the curtains was to the blue on our wall. Plus, it matched the blue in the awesome area rug we found. So, here's a good look at how the room looks now. We haven't installed the mantle, base boards, or crown moulding yet but we'll be starting those soon.

Still Working on the Fireplace

Well, Cass and I took a break from working on the fireplace room for a while, but I also forgot to blog about it. We got the Fireplace installed as you saw from my last post from November last year. Right after installing it, I had my Dad (Eaton) come over to help tile around the fireplace. We found this tile edge that you can use as a transition between carpet and tile since we wanted to have a foot wide hearth. So, I had to get hack saw to cut that stuff and boy was it scary cutting out that chunk of carpet. That was another "no turning back" moment!

Dad, my master tile installer, pretty much handled the tile installation while I helped when he needed a hand and he showed me how it works. I think it'd be cool to tile the Kitchen someday! Who knows? The tiling job seemed to go well, no major trouble. The biggest obstacle we faced was finding a way to hold up the tiles that were put in right above the fireplace itself. We didn't have any tiles below to support it, so we taped them to the wall and let them dry. It worked out good. Thankfully, it doesn't take too long for the mortar to dry, so we were able to continue. Cass and I picked out a special decorative tile to dress up the row of tile directly above the fireplace. Once we get the mantle up, it should look real nice. the hard part has actually been DOING the mantle. We haven't even started making it yet. I just recently got all the tools I think I'll need to do it, so we should be starting that soon. I'll try to blog about that a little sooner than it took me to get around to this, though!

Here's a few more pics from the day we installed the tile. I also put in a light fixture and Cass started priming the walls.








I'll post another entry soon showing everything we've done up to date on the room.

Happy Home Anniversary (to us!)

Can y'all believe it? Today marks the one year anniversary from the day we closed on our house. This year went by so quick, it's all a blur. I'm so glad I blogged about some of it.