Take off your Spurs and Stay awhile...

Our guest bedroom was fussy with blue and white porcelain with light yellow walls.  Very traditional and feminine.

  When we started our remodel I decided I was going with a Western  theme.  We had discarded our headboard when we got a King bed and I decided to resurrect it with hair on hide and nailhead trim and use it for the guest room.   I made a paper pattern to cut the hide to size and attached it with Barge glue.  Since the headboard was pressed wood with a veneer over it I had to rethink my just nailing....I had to actually drill every hole for the tacks because the nails would just bend and not go in.  It was a very time consuming process but worth the outcome.

The semi finished project,  I still have to make a cover for the window seat and a Roman Shade for the window.  I have a few more things to hang on the wall, but I am happy so far.  Notice in the top photo there was a door where the window seat is now. I have prints on the wall you can't see here that are a cherished gift from my dear "TrainWreck" over at Cowboys, Kids, and Sunsets blog.  
I am lucky to have several ultra talented artist friends, makes me feel so inadequate but we all have our strengths I guess, just don't know where mine are yet....!!!! 


Oh heck,
I will show you that wall so you can see what a great artist she is.

deligated back to the basement

Jackie enjoying herself in the new chair...........my domain she says!

The window treatments aren't figured out yet and the walls don't have any decoration yet, the divan came in with a broken arm, but they are replacing it soon ( that is why the tags are still hanging). We plan on buying a custom rug, but I was just wanting you to see the new seating!

My office space is almost back together and this is what I have been waiting so long to get done. I am so excited to be back to some sense of a normal function! I love my new desks and my new little area of the remodeled room! I want to thank my husband for putting so much work into doing this project for me and for putting up with all the whining.

The patio is beautiful, the siding is not done yet, our contractor has about 5 more weeks before he comes back to finish up with all the other projects. The basement bedroom is getting a little face lift also and that comes then also.

Can't wait to shop for patio furniture..............poor hubby!

Getting Close!

We will be getting the furniture moved down on Wednesday!

The Sound Board

We have the sound board up in the basement so the sheet rock will be up over it soon! It sure looks dark and gloomy with a dark ceiling! The original ceiling was painted this dark when the house was first build. I always thought that was weird, but different strokes for different folks as they say. I am going to have to make a decision on my wall color soon! You can't tell but this room is 16 feet wide by 24 feet long.

Other older posts of the basement are here if you want to check it

http://ktsparks.blogspot.com/2008/11/tale-of-3-houses.html

http://ktsparks.blogspot.com/2009/01/oh-poor-lowly-basement.html

http://ktsparks.blogspot.com/2008/11/saga-of-basement-remodel.html

Saga of the Basement Remodel

For the floor I chose 20 inch tile on the diagonal. It is pretty and the installer was really good, we would use him again if the need were to arise. I was going to use travertine at first, but we cut back and used ceramic instead. I think for a basement application the tile is a good answer for us. The carpet was nice and warm but this will be easier to keep clean. I will put down large area rugs and that will help with the sound and acoustics. I am using upholstered sofas instead of leather to help with that also.

We have to get the new ceiling lights figured out and then we can start on the ceiling. I really would like to put up a tongue and groove pine ceiling, but I don't think the budget will let us. The stock market has caused us to re-think the original plans for the remodel. We are cutting back on a lot of the plans, but we are going to replace the sliding doors to the outside. Those doors are 12 foot long! We will install 2 stationary windows and 1 set of french doors that are energy efficient and it will save enough on energy bills to make it worth the added cost. We will have the same amount of light just not such a huge hole in the wall! When they built the house in 1960 the idea for the original owners was to entertain in the basement with the doors wide open........that doesn't fit Oklahoma....too many bugs and mosquito's in summer! Actually I wanted to stop and not go ahead with this project, but we decided we needed to do it. My husband thinks I have no faith..but I do, I just like to be safe and not sorry later. You should have saw this place when we first looked at it! The basement was this old guys practice band room...it had orange shag carpet half way up the walls....with dark cork above it with a little gold foil wallpaper here and there for good measure....that was way back in 1986! We did not buy it then...we got it in '92. So I did not have to be the one to tear that out. Hey, one day I will tell you about the master bedroom..........

We have gotten the ceiling out and the mess cleaned up! Actually that has been done for a week but we have been shopping for the furniture and found a good deal on a wall unit for our TV that we don't have yet... :) Oh well details, details....Originally we were going to build custom wall units in. We found we can buy pre-built cheaper than building it in and in this economy we went that route. We will just have to store it until the basement is done. Right now is a good time to be buying furniture if you can, things are tight for them and they are offering some substantial discounts.

The one I wanted was way too tall for our basement ceilings.......oh but it was so beautiful, but it was 10 ft tall and our basement ceiling is only 8 ft tall..........! It is this one and I wanted in black....and it did have 2 more extensions on each side that this one did not show, oh well I could not cut the top off could I? So we settled on this one hubby wanted....and it fit, so what can I say....

Don't you just hate it when what you want doesn't work out and the one your husband likes does? Oh well, I think this one will suit us well and it has tons of storage. It matches my other old things and it will blend in well with my other pieces of furniture.

Later I am going to show you what I want to do to the fireplace. I am sick, sick I tell you, of that ugly ORANGE tile fireplace! Don't you love the fireplace storage I have? :) I swear I will take that out before I build a fire! he he

3 houses........

We have been spending most of 2.5 years remodeling a house for my mom to move into across the street from us, pictured above. My husband retired and we got that great idea when the elderly neighbor's house came up for sale about that same time. It was a huge job and actually we still are still not totally done on it. You know you always have little things to do, but the interior is done. It takes forever to get things just the way you want them, and we are slow and feeling older by the minute! :) During that little endeavor I had 2 carpel tunnel surgeries, my hubby had a knee surgery, and while he was still recovering and also working on the house...he broke his foot....Finally we got her moved in late summer a year ago, but we still had to get all of her 54 years of accumulation sorted out ,what you want and that that needs to go bye bye, and moved to the new house....then work on her house to sell it(pictured upper right). We haven't even started that yet... I am just about ready to start on the house I grew up in then......guess what........

WAIT A NEW YORK MINUTE!

Hubby jumps in and starts on our basement remodel! Hey we gotta get it going for our company to have a place to stay!

Okay, send me right on to the nut house will ya!

We are gutting it and starting over to give me some extra storage for my office and hobbies. It is very 1960's ugly and has the potential to be really neat. For months my husband would try to talk to me about making decisions on what I wanted to do and I would cry and say I don't know....boo hoo! I was just too overwhelmed! I have always dreamt of the perfect room for myself, but when it came time to do it....I just wanted to run! The basement has always been our guest quarters, it has a bedroom, bath, and a huge family room with a fireplace with a large window wall, but the main function of it's use is it is my work room + office. We are getting new furniture and will also use it as a media room. I am a gal of many interests, I sew, paint, scrapbook, make jewelry, upholster, on and on... it takes tons of storage just for my "stuff". I am totally misplaced now I don't know where anything is...at least my computer came up to the bedroom for now. Well we started tearing out the ceiling yesterday and just like always with a remodel, you never know what you are going to get into..... that is just a given! What seems easy turns out to be hard and what seems hard is usually easy. Well no one ever told us about this sort of a surprise......

Yes, that is hubby in his anti dust garb....who ever knew that a ceiling would be filled with tons and tons of sawdust! I mean tons and tons right on top of your head every time a piece of sheet rock comes down! Could you believe just how much first fell out when hubs pulled down that first sheet? No wonder I could never keep the house from being dusty! I guess when they built our house they would just sweep the sawdust from the sub floor installation down on top of the basement ceiling sheet rock....oh and there was mortar in it too from the upstairs fireplace... Now I know why you have to watch ever little thing when they are building a new house, I guess contractors thought why clean up when you can just hide it! So that has been hiding between our upstairs floor and the basement floor for 48 years! They must have been calling it insulation! So I am going to be vaccuming for the next 48 years to get it all out of the house!

to be continued................. :)