It's Busy around Here!

Yesterday sure was a busy day!! My do-it-all guy was here finishing up Jillian's swingset and then he put a door on my master bathroom! yay! A door! I can finally use that room now. I painted it last week and I'm still working on sprucing it up with decor. I have a punched tin light to put up and still some blank spots on the walls. I'll post pics soon. Anyway, since we needed a door on that room and my budget is sooo low right now, we opted to take the door off of the laundry room, which is down the hall two steps from the kitchen. I wasn't sure how I'd like that...but it has given me a TON of ideas. I can see into that room from the kitchen table...and I got to thinking, what a neat butt'ry that would be! Sooooo of course I had to email my do-it-all guy, which I should rename "Genie in a Bottle" since he just seems to be able to build me whatever I want (yippeee).....and told him about my ideas. I have a stacking washer/dryer in there and a second stove, since in the kitchen I have an 1875 reproduction stove with a small oven. I am too addicted to the convection feature of my modern oven so I have that to use for baking and bigger meals. Anyway, my idea is to swap the washer and the stove in the laundry room so the stove is closer to the doorway...and then have a beadboard cupboard built around the stacking washer so it kind of could be hidden or at least "prim'd up" as I like to say. Across from the wall of appliances there are built in cupboards which are white formica type doors over oak. I'm thinking of taking off the upper doors and painting the whole thing a deep burgundy/reddish color. Filling it up with prim goodies...canned food, pantry cakes, sacks of who-knows-what, ya know. But what am I talking about?? I haven't even finished my bathroom yet.
It's crazy when one project seems to spark another!!! I have more ideas than money. That's the sad part. I need to work harder at selling on craigslist.
Last night I had two women come over to hear the hammered dulcimer. Ann's daughter is getting married in August and they are considering live music. What a hoot! The two of them were hilarious. It was Ann and her neighbor, Deb. They finished eachother's sentences and the three of us laughed our heads off. Well they had never seen such a primitive home before...they said they thought they were in a museum! It was so sweet. I normally would never take a stranger on a house tour, especially when I have projects undone and the dust is an inch thick, but with those two ooohing and aaaahing as soon as they walked in the door, I couldn't resist. And it was a fun tour. They had a good chuckle over all the instant relatives I have hanging about.....and they walked around petting my antiques. It's so fun to have someone around who appreciates the history in my home. So fun! The other hilarious thing is that Ann knows everyone. She was a waitress in my hometown for 20+ years. Her chiropractor was my husband's father. She waited on my uncle at the restaurant who actually was the one who told her I play dulcimer. She even knew the girls I used to work with at Cracker Barrel. She has a farm full of animals that Jillian is going to flip over when I take her to visit. Anyway, they loved the dulcimer and were entranced by the music.

Today my Genie (ha) is coming over to do the trim around the bathroom door and to measure a wall for yet ANOTHER brilliant idea I have had. I picked up an electric fireplace for $30 on craigslist for the living room, and on top of it sits our LCD flat screen TV. Sounds tacky. But it works. Anyway, I got this brilliant idea to have a false wall placed over the fireplace, to make it look like a huge built-in. That way, the TV will have doors to close it off, I'll have shelves built in for books and more prims, the fireplace will appear as if it was born there. Sort of like this:
Now, granted the fireplace will be centered and also that I don't have a door there....BUT...I think it will look awesome in that room. I love the idea of being able to hide the TV and the boxes/dvd/crap that all goes with it. There a few shows I enjoy (like American Pickers and the new Obsessed about anxiety and OCD...LOL) but when it's not on, I don't want to see it. Like at midnight when the family is sleeping. That's about the only time a TV isn't on in this house. Wonder why I'm always tired? I have to stay up till everyone is asleep to walk around my finally-quiet house and enjoy the peace!

In other news, I was raiding craigslist ads yet AGAIN and I found an antique doctor's scale for only $10...I have to go pick it up this afternoon. It will be PERFECT for the family bathroom, which is decorated with antique medicines and advertisements from the late 1800's for healing potions and such. I'm so excited! I also found leftover fake barnwood shed siding on freecycle. I'm going to get that too...Not sure where it will end up but anything that says "barnwood" and "free" had to come home with me. LOL

Speaking of barnwood....A while back I took some time to visit my grandparents' farm which has all collapsed and grown over. My Genie went with me and managed to free a couple of windows that were in the barn pile. One of which now hangs in the master bath. It's missing mullions and the glass is gone, and it's so chippy and faded that I'm not sure what color it was originally...but it's wonderful and I love it. It still looks a little out of place, I need to find a twiggy wreath or something to hang on it. Not sure yet...But I stare at that window and think about my grandparents who stared out the same window...I think of my dad and my aunts and uncles who ran around that farm...my great grandparents who I never met from the old countries (Germany and Romania) who also stared out that window...and it's like I somehow remain connected to all of them. It makes me so sad that no one in the family took care of the farm, they just let it go to rack and ruin. My aunt who ended up with the property just passed away last month....she told me a few weeks before when I called that I could take anything I wanted from the farm. I had promised her pictures of whatever I built or used for decorating, but it's too late now. And at this point, I'm not even sure who now owns the farm. I know it was in her will, but no one has told me. That side of the family is so distant from one another in most cases. It's no surprise that I don't know what's going on with anything. Oh well. I have a window.
I guess I should get moving today so I can get something done! Now that there is a door on my master bath, I can officially move into it. hehe All of my stuff is in the family bathroom. But, it just occurred to me, there is no vanity lighting in the master bath. Hmmm. That will be a problem for when I put my face on every morning. (ha). Oh well, my Genie will be here today. I'll take it up with him!
Have a great day wherever you might be!