My Newer Chair

This is my old chair that I bought probably over 12 years ago. It is a antique rosewood chair that I use as my chair at my computer desk. As you can see, the fabric on the seat has seen better days. I decided to redo it myself with some fabric I had found at Joann's.

Here's one of the fabrics. A Tommy Bahama fabric that is heavy-weight and I got for over 70% off. I used the wrong side because it matched better with the fabric I used on the top. I also used the wrong side of that fabric because the right side was too shiny.

I started on the top and back of the chair. I got the nailheads from eBay. I just took my time and worked each side so that it was equal and pinned it in place before I started so that it wouldn't move.

And here is the final product. It only took me most of the summer, because I started on the back and then got to doing other things... but now it is finally done!

Help!

We had a bit of a flood yesterday! We've had rain and storms pretty close to everyday for the past week. Yesterday it rained and poured. And this was the result. The little creek beside our house went over it's banks. That chair you see there is sitting on our bridge (hidden under the water) to the pasture on the other side.

Here's the shot up the creek. Normally this is maybe 3" deep and sometimes it even dries up in the summer.

Shot down the creek where it goes under the road. Normally there is a bank here that goes out about 4 feet from the bottom of the pines.

Here's where two parts of the creek come together.  Looks more like a pond!

Good thing our house was built was up on a hill away from this. But even though we are, our basement is quite damp due to the old stone basement and the fact that our dehumidifier just died. Anyone have a good suggestion for a new one?

The end of hockey

This was our last week of hockey. Hard to believe that 10 weeks have gone by! And they have improved so much. They can skate forward and backwards and even got to play in two scrimmages. A big thanks to the Penguins and Sidney Crosby. They really enjoyed themselves and got the opportunity to learn a new sport.

Here's a shot from the scrimmage this week. They had 3 games going at once, hence all the kids on the ice. Cade is the taller one in the middle of the photo.

We also had Crazy Hair Day. Cade's class has weekly spirit days, and last week it was time for crazy hair. I put plenty of hairspray on it and spiked it. It didn't last the whole day though. What a cutie.

And then there was this crazy guy. Everything is funny with him. Turning in to quite a character. Mr. Sarcastic.

In other news I got all the painting done in the dining room. I'll post photos once I get the crown moulding up. That is the final part of the project!

I also looked for a new point and shoot camera. I needed something other than my Canon Rebel that I could carry with me all the time. After a lot of research and then finally seeing the camera in person and checking out the features I chose this one:
 

  It's just been released. I really liked the touch screen and all the features. I'll give a review after I get it.

I've also been reading a lot. I just got this book

If you love L.M. Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables) you'll love this book. I think it is one of her best. It includes short stories and poems that in some way are related to the Blythes - considered to be the 9th book of the Anne series. This book is a little hard to find in the U.S. because it is a Canadian book, but it is well worth the hunt. I am also reading this one:


I just finished Pat of Silverbush last week (yes I am on a L.M. Montgomery marathon). I enjoyed this book -- especially Judy Plum. It makes me think of how my great grandparents would have spoken. Some have said that they thought that Pat was a little flat, but I didn't see it that way.

Now that the dining room is almost done, I may get my tutorial done for how I did the silver leaf on the fireplace.

Go Away H1N1

Since the last time I posted, Carrick got sick with the flu and didn't get to play in his last game. He still hasn't gotten over it, and it's been two weeks! Now it seems he has moved on to a sinus infection. I can commiserate with him since I have one too. Now Cade is sick with a back hacky cough and is in bed...so I have two home today. So much for going to JoAnn to use my 50% off coupons! It will just have to wait.

I've started a new obession -- knitting. I always wanted to do it, but never had luck figuring it out until now. I have knitted scarves for the boys and now I am working on dishcloths with a little more of a pattern. Still working on that purl stich. There are some great videos on YouTube. Here are my favorite... How To Knit . Make sure you watch the video...makes it easy to understand.

We had our first hard frost of the season this week. Most of the flowers are done now, with a few exceptions. The day after the frost, we had a big warm-up to 65 degress. And we got over-run by ladybugs and stinkbugs looking for a place to spend the winter. Take a look...you even get a peek at what the house looks like. See all the specks? They're the ladybugs!


Since I am showing off pictures of the house, here is one of the front door and porch. See the cute doggies at the window?
The pumpkin hanging and the green vase I bought at T.J Maxx (my favorite) for around $12 ea.. The crate was from a local antique store for $10. I got the owl many years ago at Cracker Barrel. The stuff around the door is grapevine from a wreath taken apart. I also have lights in it.

This past weekend we worked on moldings for the house. What a difference! That and the fact I don't have to keep tripping on them in the foyer, where we were storing them for the past 3 months before installation. I will take photos as I get them painted. I really hate painting trim. So much prep work (filling nail holes, caulking the corners and voids, taping,....ugh) to finally get to the finished project. Now we have to trim out all of the windows. Not such an easy job since most of the windows need extra extention since the walls of the house were thicker than the average house and we didn't realize that when we ordered them. So it is custom for each window! Ah, it will be so nice to have windowsills! Ha.

Have a good weekend!

Some Background to the Story

I thought that before I go any further, I would give a little background on how we came to buy the house that we now live in.

We moved out to Chicagoland right after finishing college. While it was a nice place to live, we still wanted to move back to the Pittsburgh area someday. We finally made that move in 2005, after living in the western suburbs of Chicago for 13 years. My dad had found the property for us--almost 23 acres and it was close to where I grew up, close to my parents and my brother. It was definitely a fixer-uper, but we had plans to build a new house on the property and just fix up the old house to be livable while we built it. HA.

After tearing into the house, it needed WAY more work than originally thought. 4 years later we are still working on it.

We have done ALL of the work ourselves. The only paid help we had is with the install of all the heating, plumbing and wiring. Other than that, the only help we have had in this project has been family. Lots of man hours. We did have lots of experience in doing the work ourselves. We did a lot of rehab on the last house we owned in Oswego, IL. It was stuck in the '70s when we bought it and totally updated it.

So that's how we came to where we are. Just so you don't think we haven't gone off our rockers, he is a photo of what the house looks like today:
Still a little rough around the edges, but most of the hard work is done.

Floor One - Before Work

We'll start our tour here. This is the front porch that had been enclosed at some point in time. It was rather dirty and had no heat except for the hole in the wall that lead from the living room. We designated this the area for the kids to play in and stay out of our hair while we worked. On the top photo, you can see the doors on the left that did not open (at least easily) and how much the floor sloped away from the house.


Here we are in the living room looking at the foyer and the stairs that lead upstairs. Just look at all that wood paneling. Yuck. And notice the dirt by the registers. The house was heated by coal. That's right. When we started demolishing, we found coal dust everywhere. Everything was filthy. The door way in the middle (where you can see the door) led to the kitchen and also outside.

Look at this kitchen. Stuck in the 70s. Gold counter tops and bad linoleum on the floor.

A photo of the dining room. Note the all the paneling again. And the brown shag carpet. And that cool light fixture. And the built-in!


In the foyer, looking into the living room. Just look at that fireplace!

We are beginning the deconstruction phase. Removing the paneling. Notice the original wallpaper underneath. The carpet is gone too, but the wood floors underneath were not good enough to salvage.

Removed paneling in the dining room reveals the same wallpaper. And patched wood floors.

See the hole were the stove pipe went through? There was a chimney there that we totally removed. The doorway to the right goes to the kitchen.
Here my dad is getting into the nitty gritty of the tear-out. We tore every bit of wallboard and nasty blown-in insulation out. What a mess. We were black every time we did work there from the coal dust and insulation.

Wall in the living room, bordering the dining room and kitchen.


Wall in the living room along the front of the house. Notice the balloon framing (runs from roof to floor). We did find several of the boards marked from Sears (as in kit house) but I am not sure if it is one or they just used left overs for part of the house. We are close to the railroad (Freedom) so it could be a possiblity.
The fireplace in the living room with all the stuff removed. I tore off the brick too and maybe someday will have a fireplace that looks like a fireplace in this area.

This photo shows the old knob and tube wiring and the gas lines for lighting. We had a gas well on the property at one time, so that must be where the gas came from. We have no gas now. All electric.
This was a disaster area. After we look all the wall materials off, we found out the bump-out was sinking quite a bit. We found out the problem was whoever built it did not install any foundation, just laid stone and block on the ground. We tore the whole thing off, made a new block foundation, and rebuilt it.
This is a view from the kitchen to the dining and living rooms. Note the floral wallpaper.


This was another disaster we had to rip out. The sewage and water to the 2nd floor bathroom. It was leaking and we wanted it out of that wall.

Here is a shot from the kitchen to the foyer. More paneling. We tore this room down to the studs too as we did with all the rooms in the house.

Next time I will tell you about these two disasters.

What I have been working on for the past 4 years...

This is what we have been working on for the past 4 years. These are the BEFORE photos. I am going to be adding photos every couple of days -- since I have a lot. The house was built around 1905. We have found boards labeled with Sears shipping labels, but I don't think that it was a Sears house.


This is a photo of what the house used to look like. Pretty bland. Ugly front porch that had been enclosed somewhere along the way. Front doors that don't open. Old aluminum siding. Overgrown vegetation. And it hadn't been lived in for years by humans (but had been by animals).

A shot of the garage (still looks about the same today). That red building had an unknown purpose. It was pretty gross on the inside. Smelled. Held old bags of dog food and miss-matched office furniture. Needless to say we tore it down and also removed that nasty black walnut tree (they must be the dirtiest tree on earth).



Shot of the front yard looking to the right side. There is a creek down there in the weeds. On the other side is land that used to be a pasture for cows. It is pretty flat, but can stay wet.


This is the view to the left of the house. Quite a steep hill that used to be a pasture for sheep. The hill is pretty overgrown with brambles and scrub trees. I need a DR Brush Mower for cheap!



This is a shot of the backyard behind the house. To the right is the back porch that had no real foundation so it had sunk. We removed that and put on an addition. We also added a deck off of that.
To the left is an old screened in porch (attached to the garage) that was no longer screened in. It was used as a place to store firewood by the previous owner. The squirrels used it as a storehouse for their food. We tore this down. It is now just a cement pad that we plan on tiling with slate. The hot tub currently resides here.


This is the view up the back from the house. There used to be a barn on the right and the red building up there used to house the farm equipment. Now it is just falling down. It will be burnt down sometime in the future.
The area is not as grown over now. I have trimmed it back, but there is still plenty more to do. Behind the building, to the right is another pasture.
Over the hill to the right of the building is a mine of some sort, closed off by a previous owner, and a spring that runs most of the year.


This is the view from the top of the hill to the left of the house. Quite a hike. We plan on building a new log home here in the future....the far off future! We currently own 22 acres. There is another piece for sale at the back of our property that we would like to buy. It would add another 20 acres.


This is the view in the opposite direction on top of the hill.


Ok, one more. This is the view from where the barn used to be. This is the creek and the pasture on the other side. It is not as over-grown now, but I need a bigger tractor to keep all this cut!
The pasture is to be the future place of a dirt bike track. I'm sure the neighbors will love that.



Stay tuned for new photos in the next week. I will take you on a tour of the house before we started work.