Progess!

Despite the fact that the laminate floor elves failed to show up to finish the installation of the laminate flooring, Larry and I did finish it up yesterday. And it's beautiful. It was also a lot of hard work, hence our wish that elves would sneak into our home in the dead of night and finish the job for us. However, I'm pretty sure we would do this again, as long as we don't wait until we've gotten too much older. In fact, I'm eager to do the rest of the rooms in the house.

We still need to finish up installing the closet doors and the built-in shelves, but we've decided to wait on that until Mike is free to help us. There's a limit to our skill level. Today we're going to reinstall the venetian blinds and put up the new curtains I found at Ikea. I had planned to sew net curtains, but when I was at Ikea earlier this week, I found these wonderful net curtains, which were exactly what I wanted, for only $5.00. Yes, $5.00 total.

We're heading back to Ikea today to buy the shelving unit I want for the room. We will also be making a stop at Lowe's to get wood for the shelves and more white paint (so I can paint the shelves). So, more photos to come soon!

In the meantime, here's how the room currently looks:

Weekend Plans

Instead of going to the Rodeo Cook-off like every other person in Houston, I will be in my studio priming and painting the ceiling and walls tonight. I need to get this done so we can move on to other jobs that need to be done in order to finish my studio space. Like finishing the closet and shelves construction and installing the laminate flooring. So, off I go to buy primer and paint.

Construction has Started

Thanks to my friends Sara and Mike, my husband Larry, and my son Michael, construction started today on the renovation of Michael's former room which is my future studio. Here's what the room looked like before:

Here's the loom with paint color samples. None of them made the final cut.

This the the room looking toward the window. None of those colors made the final cut either.

This is the closet. With one tiny door and almost 3 feet of closet space on either side of the door.

This is the closet now, with an opening wide enough for 2 30" doors.

This is the closet now looking through the opening in the short wall which will become a built-in book shelf. That's Michael moving lumber so he can take out the rest of the carpet.

I wish I could say I was a major help in the demo work, but really the credit goes to our friend Mike. He came in, measured and started sawing through the sheetrock and taking out 2"x4"s. And then he reused the 2x4s he had removed to brace the new opening. He also came up with a great solution on how to build the bookshelves. We're planning on reusing other materials from the closet. The clothes rod will be cut down and put back and we'll use the old shelf as well. Larry did his bit hauling stuff out, setting up a fan to blow the dust out the window, tearing down sheetrock, and whatever else needed to be done. You've earned your couch time tonight sweetie. Sara was right in there too, hauling stuff and occasionally annoying Mike w/ remarks like, "Are you sure that line is level?"

Major praise also to Michael who removed all of the carpet, padding and furring strips himself while Mike and Larry were at Home Depot picking up molding and other supplies for the project. He's not totally off the hook for the mess he left in that room when he moved out of the house, but he's definitely making progress.

Sara and Mike will be back next weekend to help finish up the construction. In the meantime, I need to start patching the sheetrock and painting. After buying enough paint samples to paint the room in a rainbow of colors, I've finally decided on a color. It's called Coral Brick. It's a much deeper, richer color than I thought I wanted in this room, but I really like it. Now if I could only get my painting helpers (yes, I'm talking to you Sara, Emily, and Maddy), but they are all away at college. So, it's just up to me. But I may break out the painting music mix cd Maddy made back when we painted the kitchen and the den.

Time to Relax

On Friday, I sent to print the winter issue of the magazine I produce twice a year and then promptly collapsed. All my plans to be productive this weekend just withered. But I do not consider this weekend to be a loss. I slept. I read. I puttered around and managed to get things put away where they belong. I got paint samples and painted small sections of different colors I'm considering for my studio so I can make a final color decision. I sang at church. I cooked a wonderful supper for tonight, which we shared with my son and his wife. Made enough to send them home with leftovers and we still have leftovers for later this week. So, no. This weekend was not a loss. It was much needed. As I told Larry when he asked me what my plans were for this weekend, "No, I really don't have any plans. I just need to not need to do anything.