Projects – 2008 in Review

I was sitting around trying to think about what we did all year.  It seems like 2008 was a slow year for us as far as the DIY scene was concerned.  In the early part of the year, around March, we spent a lot of time getting construction bids and filling out mountains of paperwork for our construction loan, only for the subprime mortgage crisis to hit and, in the end, we ended up scratching the whole deal.  I had to go back through my pictures to see what exactly we DID accomplish this year.  I was glad to find proof that our year was not wasted.  Here is a pictorial review of our year:

January:

Finished the rent house (Hallelujah!) and took our three year old employee to Chuck-E-Cheese.  Hey, we had to pay her somehow for all that painting she did!

February:

We celebrated our five year anniversary

March:

My birthday!  Ahem….anyway.  In 8 hours, I cleaned, primed and put two coats of paint on the living room walls.  It wouldn’t have taken me 8 hours normally except that I: 1) painted alone; 2) pushed a very heavy 10 foot ladder around the room 8 times while I painted the middle and top of the room …twice! I have 13 feet ceilings.  [is it 13 foot, or 13 feet?]

April:

In April, I redid an ugly 80’s dresser for Vivian’s room and, for storage, we revamped an old shelf my brother made many years ago by adding crown moulding to it and painting it.

May:

We took down the ugly drop ceiling in the attic.   We also painted the Master Bedroom.

June:

I sanded, repainted and recovered an old chair I bought for $5.00 at a junk store.  I also managed to tick off the entire Ratcliff family and get called a potstirrer.   Hahaha….that’s definitely a new one for me!

July:

I started this blog. Yay!  I pulled a metal tray on wheels out of the garbage and remade it into a plant stand for my porch.  Click here for the details and pictures.  Even my husband could not believe I wanted something this ugly.  But it turned out well.

My new plant stand

August:

We went to the Philippines.  What a life changing experience!  Click here to see more photos of the trip.  In case you cannot figure out who I am, I am the very white girl in the middle!

handumanan

September:

Vivian’s Birthday.   Hurricane Gustav hit Cenla.  That was very interesting.  It took us about a month to recover and get all of the debris cleared and everything back to normal.  I can’t complain though, we did not endure anything like New Orleans did.  Click the link above to see pictures of that fun.

October:

Was definitely not a project month.  I was caught up watching the media and reading the news regarding  local and national politics.  I did get a call from the Louisiana Historic Preservation Office in Baton Rouge telling me that they want to put my street on the National Register.  Which reminds me…..I need to give her a call.  That nomination is supposed to be sent to Washington in April.  I am definitely going to help make sure that happens!

Precious!

November:

I repainted and reappointed the guest room and stripped a fireplace mantel.

December:

We worked on the attic/loft area so we can add another bathroom upstairs.  Steven put up two porch lights in the back.  Steven stripped a door and a transom down to the bare wood.  We also stripped some paint in the hall that was caked on to the wainscoting.  Click here for December’s project pictures.

I guess all in all it was not a bad year.  We did not get as much as we wanted accomplished.  We didn’t nearly come close to the amount of work we did in 2007.  Oh well, put it on the list!  It will get done eventually!

Andrea

Yay! New Furniture!

Yay!  My mother-in-law and father-in-law (Kathy and Danny) brought down the bedroom set that Steven’s aunt sold us.  She sold her bed and breakfast and needed to get rid of some extra furniture since she was downsizing to a two bedroom apartment.  Steven was going to go up to Natchitoches (an hour away) to meet them and help take it apart and pack it onto a trailer.  Kathy and Danny, who are retired, said they could handle taking it down and bringing it to us.  No prob for me!  On the way out of the house, Kathy fell down the steps and thought she broke her ankle.  She is OK!  Thank goodness!  I felt terrible and knew that we should have went up there to help them.

We received a call early this morning, they were on their way to deliver the bedroom set and Kathy only had a sprained ankle…not broken!  Thank God.  They arrived and the bedroom set was more beautiful than I remembered.  I am glad we decided to keep it in our room and put our stuff in the spare bedroom.  The bedroom set is heavily carved.  It is not exactly Eastlake, it is more Victorian.  It has some Eastlake tendencies though.  Here are a few pics.  I could not take a good picture of the bed because: 1) It was not made up; 2) Steven was already in bed.  I am very excited!  It looks great in our room!  Once I get everything pieced together and make the bed up, I will post a better picture.

Everything in our bedroom is done except: 1) crown molding; 2) ripping up the ugly blue carpet and sanding and refinishing the wood floors.  The wood floors are in great preserved condition because of the carpet.  One day when we are done scraping and painting the exterior of the house and updating the plumbing, I am going to sand and refinish the floor.

If I do not post anything between now and then, Have A Happy Thanksgiving!!!