I am an Only Daughter's Only Daughter's Only Daughter

Remodel Standstill

The Playroom remodel is at a standstill.

I'm not sure why exactly.  There are several reasons none of which are good ones and none of which I really have any control over but here we sit.  All the drywall is hung and that's as far as we've made it.  It rained for 3 weeks so we couldn't tape and bed.  Now it's been dry for a week and it seems that life is happening around us preventing us from moving forward.

None of the reasons include my new found obsession with Farm Town on Facebook.  Oh no, that shall not be considered an excuse at all.  Nope, no it's not.  Really Only Husband it's not!!!  Oh, sorry 'bout that... resume

I was upset now I've decided.... oh well.  It'll happen when it happens.  So for today I'll say Happy Memorial Weekend and just enjoy it and let it go and concentrate on other things.

• School is out for summer.  Yay!  My little Only First Grader is now poised to be an Only Second Grader.  I told her Second Graders are big girls and she informed me that No, First Graders are Babies, Second Graders are Little Girls and Third Graders are Big Girls.  Bless you honey, Mommy needs to know that you are still my Little Girl.

• AWANA is over.  Double Yay!  We had a great group of kids and it was lots of fun but I am glad to done for the year.  I will not resume my role as Commander next year and instead concentrate on serving on the State AWANA Ministry team.  I really believe the Lord is calling me to be in the Church Outreach service and I'm looking forward to it.

• Only Daughter has a busy summer planned.  She has a very busy agenda including  VBS, Theater Camp, swim lessons and a trip to Canton with Only Grammy & Only P-Pa to sell jelly.

• Only Husband and I are going to the Daytona 400!!!!  One on my subcontractors in Florida is flying us down and giving us tickets for all the races that weekend.  Another subcontractor in the Orlando area has invited us to stay 2 nights with them in their "Guest Suite".  So the whole trip is only costing us our car rental and 2 nights hotel.  O M G! So excited.

So lots of things to look forward to this summer.  I don't think I can possibly include anymore links in this post so I'll stop.  I am posting my "Summer of '09 Things to Do" list.  A little accountability is good for motivation.

Bless those who served and whom we remember this Memorial Weekend.  God bless the USA.

Playroom Remodel Part 6 - We have walls!

While the Playroom is undergoing a remodel so did my blog.  Thank you Shera @ Sweet'nSimple Design for my new look.  I LOVE it!  She IS sweet and is was simply a pleasure to work with her.  Go visit her site if you need a pretty new design for yours.

So when we left off last we had done some demolition of the creative carpentry and we had framed in the laundry/store closet.

Last Saturday the Professional Drywall Guys arrived at 8:30 and by 10:30 we had walls!

 

This would have taken Only Husband 2 days to do by himself and these literally did it in 2 hours.

The laundry closet will get bi-fold doors and an overhead cabinet and shelves.  The big dark rectangle is the fuse box and the big green box is the lawn sprinkler system.  I'm trying to think of a clever way to hide them but am hoping at the least to paint them to blend with the wall.  Any ideas??

The space on the left will not have doors. I think I will paint the inside a deeper color than the main walls.  The extra refrigerator and some type of shelving will be in this space.  It will be open so even though it's storage I want it to be pretty.

We still have to sheetrock the garage wall. The we can tape and bed and paint.  It rained almost every day for the past week so we couldn't have painted anyway.  HOPEFULLY we'll be painting by next weekend!  Keeping our fingers crossed.

Playroom Remodel Part 5 - Framed!

I've been a little behind this week on posting but I have good excuses!  Or excuses anyway, no these are good really.

We celebrated Only Husband's 46th Birthday on Tuesday.
Only Husband and one of my of my hero's husband share a love of the Moon Pie.
For his birthday cake he and Only Daughter shared a banana pie heated in the microwave.

Only Mother's birthday was the 29th but we have to wait for her to get home to have her celebration.  Happy Birthday Mom!!

Wednesday night was AWANA and Thursday night was just stuff.

Today, Only Daughter received the "Sensational Citizen" award for her 1st grade class.
We are so proud.

Finally Friday night and Only Husband got the laundry closet and the storage area framed in.

Professional drywall guys will be here at 9 am tomorrow morning to hang the sheetrock and tape and bed everything.  Oh my goodness, we could actually be painting next week!!  I'd better be deciding on a color!  I think I have it narrowed down to what I want.  Color theme and accessory details coming next.

Playroom Remodel Part 4 - Demolition Day!

Demolition Day.  We started about noon and finished about 7.  I am exhausted but so pleased with our progress.

The curtains, closet doors and crazy hanging boards are gone.

The tacky beadboard and mismatched trim are gone

The siding and the vent and the garage door opener are gone, gone and gone!!!

It was a good day.  And we had helpers!  Here's a shot of Only Husband's handy helpers hard at work.

Kitten The Cat supervised while Hannah The Blue Heeler and Bubba The Puppy took a much needed break.

Only Husband hit The Home Depot early this morning and bought all the stuff need to frame in the washer/dryer closet and fix other areas that need attention.  He'll start framing Sunday after church.
Sheetrock should start Monday.  Stay tuned!

Playroom Remodel Part 3 - More Creative Carpentry

Today we'll continue the tour of the interesting obstacles we face that prevent us from a quick easy fix to our remodeled Playroom.

We left off last time with the first view of Mr. Miller's creative carpentry.

Let's see a few more examples of what Only Husband referred to as "what the #@%%?".

We made it down the laundry/closet/rabbit sink/storage wall.  Now we'll work our way across the north wall and then back down the west wall that leads out to the rest of the garage.

I've mentioned this was the Rabbit Room in it's previous life.  Most of the walls have 4 ft. beadboard on them.  This is where the rabbit cages were lined up.  Problem is Mr. Miller put it up rather haphazardly.

Exhibit # 1 - Beadboard on the north wall.  If you look closely you'll notice it doesn't come quite to edge of the board.  Of course that board actually serves no purpose so.....

Exhibit # 2 - The north wall also has Only Daughter's toy shelves and the television. 
Side-note # 1 - The TV stand is the base from  my Grandmother's pedal Singer sewing machine.

Side-note # 2 - The entire room only has 2 electrical plugs, hence the wad of cords you see in bottom of the pic.

Exhibit # 3 - Turning the corner to the west or partition wall (this is the wall that was added to divide the space in the original garage).  Here we have our extra refrigerator and our antique Hoosier cabinet.  I use the cabinet for holiday linens and craft supplies.  Oh and obviously as a place to pile stuff.

Now comes the really interesting part.  Only half of this wall is drywall/beadboard.  The rest of the wall going south to the  kitchen wall is actually brown siding trimmed in a variety of wood pieces, none of which were cut to fix exactly and don't match any other trim in the room.

Exhibit # 4 - close up of the transition from drywall/beadboard to siding.

Exhibit # 5 - The door into the garage.  Of course you're seeing the lovely siding and trim but what is that in the middle above the door you ask?

Exhibits # 6, 7, 8 and 9 - Why it's a garage door opener and a vent!!  Because when you are Mr. Miller you wouldn't be bothered to take down the garage door opener.  You would simply erect a door around it and you certainly wouldn' t install the siding around it properly, oh no you would stick some pieces up there that don't really show.  And then you would stuff a rug in the back side of the vent to keep the air from coming in!!!

Please don't think I'm picking on poor Mr. Miller.  He is a very dear, sweet man.  However, you have to understand the legacy he left us with as we go through this process.  Plus, he now lives in a travel trailer in another part of town, doesn't have Internet access and I know he'll never read this.

Actual photos of demolition coming soon!!

The Playroom - Part 2 - Creative Carpentry

I'll take you on a visual journey through Mr. Miller's  handy work so you can get a good idea of exactly what we're up against.

Now remember I said I was showing you my mess and all so just ignore all the clutter please.

Here's another view of the entire room from the north wall looking back to the kitchen door

 

To the left you'll notice a bi-fold door standing open. Behind this is the alcove for the washer and dryer.  The alcove runs all the way along this wall 14 ft. long by 3 ft. deep.

Here's a shot looking at the washer/dryer area with the doors closed

And one with the doors open

 

Moving down the wall past the washer & dryer we find The Rabbit Sink. Oh and all of Only Daughter's outgrown clothes I'm storing for the consignment sale.

There is a plastic sink in that wooden contraption that is actually hooked up to drain into the washer drain.  We believe Mr. Miller used the sink to wash the rabbits.  We kept the litter box in there for awhile and then it became a place to pile stuff.

When we first moved in there were vertical blinds hanging here.  I eventually replaced them with curtains. (Actually 2 queen size sheets I bought at Ross for $6)  Anything was better than looking at the junk stashed back there.

Now comes the reason why my aforementioned simple idea of new drywall and some paint wouldn't work.  Behind curtain No. 1 we have some of Mr. Miller's handwork.

The paneling doesn't go all the way to end.  Notice his creative carpentry?  We're not sure what purpose the board hanging down about 2 feet serves other than to crack your head into when you're trying to get something out of there.  Not that we've ever done that of course!!

More roadblocks and things that made us go "huh?" to come......

We interupt this remodel....

to introduce the New Puppy!!

"Bubba" - we no longer have an "Only Dog".  I guess he'll have to be "Only Puppy".

Only Daughter is one happy little girl.

The two cats, the hamster, the fish and the other dog remain undecided.

Playroom Remodel Part 1 - The Overview

To borrow the words of my favorite fellow Okie blogger PW I'm gonna keep it real here folks.  You'll see the Playroom transformation from the beginning with pictures of the room "as-is".  In other words - I didn't clean up before I took the following pictures.  This is what the room looked like last week when I started this story - dust, dirt, junk, clutter, mess and all.

We bought this house from a sweet little widower, Mr. Miller.  Mr. Miller is about 78 and very short (the short part becomes important later in the story).  He had a rabbit store for years in our city and after he sold the store he sold rabbits from his home,  Now our home.  The Rabbit room is now our Playroom.  Mr. Miller's carpentry skills were apparently lacking and his design was defiantly function over form and fashion.  The bead board you see on most of the walls is where the rabbit cages were.  Great for rabbits - not so great for us.

The project started out with the plan of simply painting, adding some new trim and putting down a new floor.  After careful contemplation we've decided that paint and trim and flooring won't be enough.  It's going to take demolition and drywall.  And more time than I originally had Only Husband committed to but I know it will all be worth it in the end.

A History of the Playroom

We're kind of like the Three Bears.  We moved into our current home 2 1/2 years ago.  It's a great house, not new, not big, not fancy.  But for the 3 of us it's just right.

One thing we loved about the house was the "Playroom".  The back half of the original two-car garage is finished out and gives us an extra 300 sq ft. of space.  I say "finished out" cautiously because, yes it is finished out but finished out rather poorly.  It's taken this long to get the courage, time and money to really fix it up.

Let's go back to Sept. 24, 2006.  We were to meet at 3:30 pm to close on the house.  About noon Only Husband got a call from our Realtor saying there was a small problem.  Seems the plumber who was there to fix the faucet in main bathroom has somehow not put the faucets back on when the City came by and turned the water on.  Water spewed from bathtub pipes for 5 hours before it was discovered.  House was flooded.  Might need a carpet dryer.  Do we still want to close?

Let's see, the house we were renting was entirely packed, we planned on sleeping in the new house that night.  We had a week to be out.  Just a carpet dryer? 

This is what we saw when we pulled up to the house.  NOT a good sign.

 We met, we closed with the agreement that we'd get new carpet in the entire house.  All was fine....  except we wouldn't have carpet for 3 weeks.  We could use the bathrooms, kitchen and The Playroom.  Thank goodness for The Playroom.  If we hadn't had that room we would not have been able to move in.  So for the first month in our new home The Playroom was the Living Room, The Bedroom, The Computer Room and The Office.

The sleeper sofa was pulled out every night.

The vertical blinds and the sink came with the house.

 

My dining room table made a perfect computer desk.

 The Garage (which is an enclosed carport) became our closet and storage area.

Everything worked out, 4 weeks later we had carpet and finally actually moved into the house. 

Only Daughter celebrated having her very own Playroom by throwing a Tea Party for some of her very best friends.

Now it's Spring 2009 and we're going to do it!  We're actually going to remodel, repaint, redo The Playroom.  I invite you to join me in the process.  I welcome your comments, feedback and advice on anything and everything through the process. LET'S PLAY!!

Peanut Buttery Goodness

In my opinion - The. Best. Lipstick.

Stays on through anything - you can swim in it, sleep in it, eat anything in it.  It. Stays. On.

Did I say eat anything?  Let me modify that.  I just found out that 

 Creamy Peanut Butter will remove The. Best. Lipstick.

I find this out as I'm sitting at my desk having a little spoonful or three for my afternoon snack.

The lipstick that never comes off?  Slid off my lips slicker'n the cheap-o lipgloss in Only Daughter's keychain from the lame-o prize machine at CiCi's Pizza. 

I guess it's all in the greasy goodness.  I'm gonna let these folks that I have discovered # 11!!

Now - tell me about your favorite lipstick and your favorite peanut butter tip.