Where Have I Been?!

Shortly after my last post in December 2012, my home computer died. Totally & completely done. And my camera died, too. My apologies now for all the cell phone pics. Next was an emergency appendectomy with a readmit to the hospital for 3 days and weeks of regaining strength. Then my son, grandson and grandson's mother moved back from Florida and in with me and I gained an adorable, super curious, non-stop talking 3-now-4-year-old shadow ... Every.Waking.Moment. This is very much a blessing, but also exhausting! Then said son was the passenger in an automobile accident and healing spanned almost 7 months just to get him back to work part time. (He's doing fine now.) THEN grandson's mother decided she was exiting the relationship. Throw in a couple bouts of viruses and colds, additional major family crises,  and then a brief, but much needed vacation in 2013 for a few days and that's been my life! I now spend my time split between my full time day job and trying to keep up with my grandson (I call him "Nipo" - short for "nipote" which is grandson in Italian) and fitting DIY projects in as I can ... which is most often in my dreams! So I decided to do a quick catch up while I have a small window of alone time!

Back Hall Board N' Batten

First up!   My back hall received a board and batten treatment and am loving the hooks! The wall color was changed from Builder Beige to Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray and what a beautiful contrast came into existence! I brought this color straight down the wall to the opposite side of the house where I ran out of paint.This pic was taken at night - can't locate a daylight pic anywhere. The horizontal boards are pine and the vertical battens are MDF. It was a learning experience and there are a few things I'll do differently in the future.





Next up was adding trim to the wide opening between my living room and dining room. That is still Mindful Grey on the wall - different end of the house, different light. Love it!

This is the first time I attempted trim of any kind excluding the board and batten. A learning experience for sure and, as with the board and batten, there are things I would do differently next time. I certainly learned to appear confident to my occasional helpers when I had no clue what the right way was to do something! This trim makes the ceilings feel higher and therefore the rooms feel bigger. Since my house totals 1280 s.f. over two floors that is a huge plus! I can't wait to do my doors & windows!

Those were the two big projects accomplished. The minor ongoing one when life does not intrude is organizing my kitchen drawers. Simple fixes make me very happy!

 
Then my dear cousin wanted to redo her dining room set and have it ready for Easter dinner. Yes, that is serious snow on the ground and we are outside in below 15 degree weather sanding away! It was frigid here in New England this past winter! Good thing I brought a power sander!

We found new chairs, reupholstered & painted them. (Okay...we allowed her boyfriend to paint the chairs. He LIKES to paint spindly things.) Quite the eye-catching set she has now! It is interesting that we went to the fabric store with a certain color in mind and it was not orange! Orange was never brought up...never on the list...never on our radar. But when we held this over one of the seats we brought with us, the die was cast! Truly an amazing transformation that will work for all holidays for her!

There are a couple more completed projects to share, but I'm going to stop here for now. Beautiful weather outside, no chance of frostbite...time to head out and enjoy it. One last photo of last year's June vacation though!

 I really do get out occasionally and I think I need another vacation!

Here's to a great week!

Ciao!

Guerrina