Just In Time for the Weather to Change

Well maybe not just yet, although this weekend was pretty chilly and we did get the fireplace running. The projects this weekend seemed to take much longer than anticipated. I was gone last week so the bed hasn't been progressing very fast. Maybe I can get it finished by next weekend. I got half into the fireplace last weekend and figured that needed to get done as much as anything else.

The old "realistic" gas log.

Our old valve was very sticky and hard to turn. I plumbed in a new one. There are some spacers under cement board to raise the floor.
And the new fireglass setup, pretty cool.

Three of the four Salvador Dali's got framed. Sam is going to post more on them when we get the last one back from the frame shop.

It also was a big weekend for stuff getting delivered. I ran from home on Saturday morning so I could be close when the furniture delivery guys called.

Nera checking out the loveseat. It is charcoal grey and pulls out into a twin bed. You can see it is pulled away from the wall, we fought trim all weekend too.Finally a dining table. It easily seats 8, 10 with the leaf in.

I installed trim and Sam got the not fun job of caulking my gaps. Really, it is the crooked walls.

We ordered some very cool patio furniture this evening. Well at least chairs and a small table. They should arrive in a couple weeks. This is starting to look like a house.

Thomas Edison would be so proud

The weather this weekend was gorgeous. The humidity was low and temps were is the low 80's. We opened up the house and spent as much time outside as possible. We put in a few miles Saturday morning and then worked, worked, worked. Saturday night (starting on Thursday) I made pulled pork and hung out with friends. It is nice having the kitchen and dining room into usable conditions. Sam installed and caulked lots of trim and did a bunch of paint touch ups.

I finished sanding the bed and started putting on polyurethane. I have to go to Louisiana, but that should be done this week.

Sam and Nera both enjoy looking out through the skylights.
Hey look another cool thing that has been packed away for years. This is one of the Murano glass lights from Italy we bought on our honeymoon.

The original version of this one broke in shipping and it took forever for the master to make another. We have three more that will get mounted over the kitchen table.

Wait is that? Yep another light. We have only been in the house a year without a front light. Now we won't fall over the flamingo when coming home.

Is there a hole in my pocket? No! It's a Homes Tour!

With the KC Modern Homes Tour fast approaching, we finally bit the bullet and made some furniture purchases we've been putting off. Add that to the Salvador Dali prints we just took in to be framed and the fireplace glass we ordered, out pocketbook feels pretty light. It's a sacrifice we're willing to make to have real furniture in our rooms and our artwork on the walls instead of in the closet.

Here's the dining room table we ordered. Studio Build is making a set of chairs for us. Now if we have people over for dinner, they don't have to sit on folding chairs and eat off a card table! We're so high class.


We also purchased a love seat that I'm really excited about. It's European sized, so only 4' long, but it also has a pull-out twin bed. Just one more option for visiting family, or guests who may have imbibed too much at one of the Roe Circle shindigs.


John continues to work on the bed and I have been toiling away painting and touching up the paint. Trim is this weekend, followed by more touching up. The front door light needs to be installed and one kitchen light changed out. The art should be ready in another week. The fireplace glass should show up anytime after Saturday and the furniture should be here in a week or two. If we can get the trim installed, caulked and painted, the house will almost be complete!

Checking Some Things off the List

Like any good German we can answer how relaxing a weekend was by the amount of work accomplished. By those standards this was a very relaxing weekend. Friday night Sam made an excellent version of Unos All-American pizza, or at least what we remember from undergrad in Platteville, WI. Saturday I ran 15 miles in the morning and mowed the yard in 8 minutes using our neighbor Eric's new 48-inch stand-up mower, which was awesome. Some trim got installed in the hallway and bathroom, oooooo. Sam got the fireglass ordered for the fireplace and took the Dalis in to get framed. Real artwork is expensive. Sunday we got cinnamon rolls at Dolce and got the kitchen painted. I even managed to cook a citrus chicken with pasta sauce using tomatoes and herbs from the garden.

I borrowed a pocket screw jig from Jerad to put together the bed. The pocket screws are strong and perfect when you can hide them.

Both halves of the bed are together and need to be finished this week. I just set the hairpin legs on to see how they look.
A craigslist purchase. The tulip base will be turned into some sort of table for the patio, more to come later.

I finally got our entryway light put together. We got an industrial shade and built everything else to match the other house lights.

Hey check that out. The white is primer and will get painted the house color, the orange stays. Like our collection of license plates.

While I was working in the garage Sam got the exciting job of cutting in for priming and painting the kitchen, not really.

All the wall are grey except for this one, which needs a second coat but you get the picture.

Look no more beige. The berm and the trees and in full-coverage. You can't see anything from our kitchen right now.

In my spare time I got the drawer fronts mounted on the bathroom vanity. Some work is left to get the straight and flush, but now you can't see our toothbrushes. Since the bathroom was pretty gross I took a couple hours on Sunday and scrubbed it down too.

And we managed to drink a little wine with dinner tonight and catch up on a few old Mad Men episodes. All in all it was a pretty good weekend.

Some Cool Stuff

Work is furiously happening next door. Not even a full day of trenching in the heat and rain could keep work from going late into the night.

The Shag got framed, yippee!
The Tiki man and the Shag fit in well.

Jerad helped me push the desk into place. I only had to pull it out once for fine tuning.

A little touch up paint and we are done with this project......

Dog Days

Wow, it was HOT this weekend. Saturday morning Sam ran 18 miles. I was a wimp and slept in a came out later and managed 12. Some college friends were in town and we had Oklahoma Joe's for lunch. We also went a saw GI Joe at the cine-dine theater in downtown KC. That is really the way to go. Big leather seats with speakers in them and waiters for food and beer. Today I spent the entire day in the garage sweating. It was in the 90's in the garage and I probably lost 10 pounds.

Sam picked up new pulls for the kitchen.

Before.

After
I finished polishing and sealing the desk.

This week all of the bed pieces were glued together to get a double thickness. I routed the edge pieces and the headboard.

Is That A, Kitchen?

Talk about a productive week. We actually started cleaning out the kitchen. Those boxes have only sat there a year. Got the doors put on the buffet. It is 80% finished . The open section will be our wine rack.

How civil, we don't have to eat in the living room.

Buffet Progress

I started assembling the buffet tonight, pretty easy. I had to put one door on just to see what they look like.

Welcome to August

It is hard to believe summer is winding down. School starts in 3 weeks. That means the push is on to get as much finished before the homes tour as possible.

All of the IKEA cabinets are together. Here is a shot with one of the doors with some of the protective film pulled back. The top and bottom pieces are almost finished and most of this should get installed this week. The top of this will be concrete (of course) with the broken red murano glass pieces in the surface and fiber optics. I am such a nerd, the concrete top will have a power unit. This is a much needed item for our house. The buffet will free up cabinet space by holding all of the wine, liquor, and barware. It will also give the cats someplace to sit and look out the back windows other than the kitchen counters. We don't let them up but surprisingly cat footprints end up on the stove nightly.

The desk top has been ground and filled. It will have to hang out a week or so to get hard enough to polish. The white concrete with the green and blue glass looks really good.
Jerad helped me rip down the baltic birch pieces for the bed. Big thanks to him for being my left hand and keeping me from doing too much. All the cuts are made and I have started gluing the pieces together.
The stainless steel hairpin pegs and headboard support for the bed. Everything came from hairpinlegs.com