I'm back--I think!

So, it's been a busy spring around the Wren House. Nothing new there, but this time, I have pictures of one of the projects. The rest of the stuff wasn't picture worthy!

For the 5 1/2 years that we've lived in this house, the biggest room was Johnnie's pool room. He had a pool table, a stereo, and a big bar table. The walls were decorated with a cow skull, a framed front page from when UT won the national championship, a display box of his pocket knife collection, and a gun rack that held bows, arrows, and bb guns.
No one ever went in there. Ok, that's not really true. When the grandkids were here, they would shoot a game of pool now and then. At Christmas, the kids hung out in here and shot pool. When it was just us here, the door was never opened.
The floor had burgundy carpet that came with the house. It was really pretty, and we meant to keep it. But, when we pulled up the carpet in other rooms and saw how filthy it was underneath, we couldn't stand to keep it.And, the dog didn't like it much either--or maybe she liked it too much. I think I may have someone lined up to refinish the floors, but until then, I have some ugly, cheapo carpet on it.

Now, let's roam into the back of the house, to the smallest room of the house. That's my office/craft/sewing/library. In there, I run my business, keep the piles of paperwork related to that business, store the overflow from the workroom (previously know as The Dining Room), have 5 bookcases of book, 3 of them for my BookCrossing hobby, and craft and sew. It's a disaster. I had almost given up sewing or crafting because it took so long to find, haul out, and put away anything I wanted to work on--it wasn't worth it unless I had the rare entire day to craft.

But, he's wanted a pool table his entire life, and I wasn't going to ask him to give that up. Just knowing it was there made him happy, and that made me happy.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend said that she was coming to visit. I was so excited--it had been 5 years since I'd seen her, so excited is probably not a big enough word. But, I have no guest room. While I was trying to figure out where we could put an air bed or something, Johnnie offered a shocking suggestion. He offered to sell his pool table and give me that room for my hobbies. After refusing for several days, I accepted, with guilt. And then excitement!

This is the result.



I kept the pool table and had a piece of plywood cut to fit. I then put 3 coats of raspberry chalkboard paint on it. So, I can cut fabric, craft, write shopping lists, and the kids can draw on it too. Lots of wins there. And if someone wants to shoot pool, it's no big deal to take off the plywood and lean it against the wall.

This is the fun part. I padded one end of the table for an ironing board. I can sew, and press seams without even getting out of my chair. Big happy grin!! And, I've already discovered how handy the large surface is for pressing yardage and tablecloths.


The storage part needs some work, but it's getting there! Of course, moving these two bookcases into the craft room left a lot of books with no place to live. Must start registering and releasing at BookCrossing more often!


Johnnie's bar table is pretty handy for the sewing machine, but the stools are really uncomfortable. I still have to work out the extension cord issue, so for now, I'm sewing without my foot pedal, using the stop/start button. This is my first modern machine, and the button thing is really hard to get use to, at least for me!

I don't know if you can tell, but the table and stools are really massive. The table has ball and claw feet that are bigger than both of my fists put together!



This is my handwork/reading corner. Nice and cozy, isn't it? You can see that Johnnie's knife collection is still there. I'm in no hurry to change the walls until I find exactly what I want. For now, things are fine.



And last, but not least, the guest room part of the deal-the humble futon. I was actually amazed at how comfortable it was--not fancy hotel standard, but better than a cot!

So, that's how I spent my winter weekends. And I will spend my spring and summer basking in the joy of my own sewing space!!

The Porch-The Finale

When I left you yesterday, we were talking about our awful porch, and I promised you a look at our semi-permanent solution.

We started with exterior grade 5/8" plywood.



Using these tools:



and a 1 x 4 as a guide, we cut out shallow grooves on the plywood to resemble the joints in a tongue and groove floor. The linoleum knife cut the grooves and the chisel widened them a bit. We took turns cutting, because it was hard work. Both men ended the day with gashed fingers. I didn't. ;-) Then, we used a regular pencil and ran it down the grooves to emphasize them a bit.



Finally, I stained it to match the rest of the porch. It doesn't look like a perfect match, but this is exactly what the first part looked like. I know, because I was heartbroken at the ugliness of it. Varnish completely turned it into a thing of beauty.



Once we put them in place, it was amazing how much they looked like the rest of the porch. From 2 feet away, you can't tell that it isn't tongue and groove all the way around. This picture doesn't look like it matches because the new stuff isn't varnished, but in person, it's amazing.

Can you tell?



We have a friend who is a builder, he did most of the work on Willie Nelson's new truckstop/restaurant/theater in Central Texas. So, he knows his way around building things. When he came by, we were showing him the new floor, and he didn't realize that it wasn't tongue-and-groove. Go us!!!

We don't expect it to last forever. We don't even expect it to last more than a few years, but by then, we will have fresh funds to do it properly. This is our 3rd old house restoration, so we have learned much about baby steps and making do until the time is right.

Isn't my husband brilliant? ;-)

Ok, enough about the house for now. I'll move on to a new topic tomorrow, I promise.

The Porch-The Finale

When last we met, I was going to tell you how we save a ton of money finishing up our wrap-around porch. We know this isn't permanent, but since we've spent all of our house restoration funds painting the outside, this will be functional and pretty until we are ready to invest more money in the porch. I'm figuring on 5 years, maybe a bit more.

We started with exterior grade 5/8" plywood.



Using these tools:



and a 1 x 4 as a guide, we cut out shallow grooves on the plywood to resemble the joints in a tongue and groove floor. The linoleum knife cut the grooves and the chisel widened them a bit. We took turns cutting, because it was hard work. Both men ended the day with gashed fingers. I didn't. ;-) Then, we used a regular pencil and ran it down the grooves to emphasise them a bit.



Finally, I stained it to match the rest of the porch. I'm abot 99% sure it will be a perfect match when it's varnished, because the original floor was this awful when it was stained. Varnish is an amazing thing!!



Once we put them in place, it was amazing how much they looked like the rest of the porch. From 2 feet away, you can't tell that it isn't tongue and groove all the way around. This picture doesn't look like it matches because the new stuff isn't varnished, but in person, it's amazing.

Can you tell?




Isn't my husband brilliant? ;-)

Ok, so that's how I spent my summer vacation--did I mention painting all of the outside too?

Now, we are taking a break from house restoration to enjoy the fall and winter. After Christmas, we will pick our next project--which may be rebuilding rails around the porch. One of us wants rails and one doesn't. So, I've agreed to live a few months without rails before we make a decision.

So, tomorrow, I will move into something a bit more crafty or doggy or whatever else strikes my fance.

Today’s Definition-Mixed Emotions

I was planning to varnish the new porch tomorrow, but it rained tonight and now, they are soaking wet.  On the one hand, it’s been over a month, and we haven’t had enough dry days in a row to do it so far, and I’m worried that they will discolor or warp or something.   On the other hand, if I can’t varnish, I have 3 whole days off to do things that are much more fun!!!   Mixed emotions.

Once upon a time, there was a house.  This house had once been fine and stately and beloved.  Then, it became a rental property and was mightily unloved.  For many years. 

Then came the Wren Family, who fell in love with the house and bought it.  That was 5 years ago.  We’ve spent the last 5 years working on the inside, as time and money allowed.   Still a long way to go on that, but we just call it character and let it go at that.

Last fall, we started on the outside.  Our house has a lovely wrap around porch, or, as we call it in these parts, a veranda.  Ok, fine.  No one but realtors call them veranda, but isn’t it a lovely word?  The floors of the porch were made up of pieces of tin, rotted boards, and gaping holes.  Since we wanted to use the porch swing at the end of the porch, we slapped some plywood over the worst of it and warned guests to step carefully. 

Our first outside project to was replace the floor.  We chose to use tongue-and-groove pine, and then paint it a really exotic color.  But, when he put the boards down, they were so gorgeous, and they had such wonderful grain, that we couldn’t paint them.  So, we stained and varnished them.

Before:

 

And after:

Please ignore the rotted porch posts.  That was Stage II.  At the top left of the picture, you may have noticed that the new porch did not extend down the side of the house.  It remained a patchwork of old plywood until last month. 

Ok, here’s the thing.  This nice tongue-and-groove flooring is expensive.  We had this old Victorian painted this summer.  Current house restoration budget is currently somewhere below zero.  But, the house looked so nice, and the side of the porch looked so ugly. Then, my husband had a scathingly brilliant idea.

Here, look and see if you can see what we did.

The section on the left is the new section, the one on the right is the old.  Ignore the dirt, it had been walked on all morning with muddy shoes.  I actually mop this floor, did I mention that?  Me.  Who is allergic to all things related to housework.  Somehow, mopping outside is much more pleasant than mopping inside.  But, I digress.

The new boards on the left have been stained but not varnished.  They should blend in perfectly when I get them varnished.  But wait, these are not tongue-and-groove floor boards.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how we made them.  We floored about 84 square feet for under $50. 

Today’s Definition-Mixed Emotions

I was planning to varnish the new porch tomorrow, but it rained tonight and now, they are soaking wet.  On the one hand, it’s been over a month, and we haven’t had enough dry days in a row to do it so far, and I’m worried that they will discolor or warp or something.   On the other hand, if I can’t varnish, I have 3 whole days off to do things that are much more fun!!!   Mixed emotions.

Once upon a time, there was a house.  This house had once been fine and stately and beloved.  Then, it became a rental property and was mightily unloved.  For many years. 

Then came the Wren Family, who fell in love with the house and bought it.  That was 5 years ago.  We’ve spent the last 5 years working on the inside, as time and money allowed.   Still a long way to go on that, but we just call it character and let it go at that.

Last fall, we started on the outside.  Our house has a lovely wrap around porch, or, as we call it in these parts, a veranda.  Ok, fine.  No one but realtors call them veranda, but isn’t it a lovely word?  The floors of the porch were made up of pieces of tin, rotted boards, and gaping holes.  Since we wanted to use the porch swing at the end of the porch, we slapped some plywood over the worst of it and warned guests to step carefully. 

Our first outside project to was replace the floor.  We chose to use tongue-and-groove pine, and then paint it a really exotic color.  But, when he put the boards down, they were so gorgeous, and they had such wonderful grain, that we couldn’t paint them.  So, we stained and varnished them.

Before:

 

And after:

Please ignore the rotted porch posts.  That was Stage II.  At the top left of the picture, you may have noticed that the new porch did not extend down the side of the house.  It remained a patchwork of old plywood until last month. 

Ok, here’s the thing.  This nice tongue-and-groove flooring is expensive.  We had this old Victorian painted this summer.  Current house restoration budget is currently somewhere below zero.  But, the house looked so nice, and the side of the porch looked so ugly. Then, my husband had a scathingly brilliant idea.

Here, look and see if you can see what we did.

The section on the left is the new section, the one on the right is the old.  Ignore the dirt, it had been walked on all morning with muddy shoes.  I actually mop this floor, did I mention that?  Me.  Who is allergic to all things related to housework.  Somehow, mopping outside is much more pleasant than mopping inside.  But, I digress.

The new boards on the left have been stained but not varnished.  They should blend in perfectly when I get them varnished.  But wait, these are not tongue-and-groove floor boards.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how we made them.  We floored about 84 square feet for under $50. 

Today’s Definition-Mixed Emotions

I was planning to varnish the new porch tomorrow, but it rained tonight and now, they are soaking wet.  On the one hand, it’s been over a month, and we haven’t had enough dry days in a row to do it so far, and I’m worried that they will discolor or warp or something.   On the other hand, if I can’t varnish, I have 3 whole days off to do things that are much more fun!!!   Mixed emotions.

Once upon a time, there was a house.  This house had once been fine and stately and beloved.  Then, it became a rental property and was mightily unloved.  For many years. 

Then came the Wren Family, who fell in love with the house and bought it.  That was 5 years ago.  We’ve spent the last 5 years working on the inside, as time and money allowed.   Still a long way to go on that, but we just call it character and let it go at that.

Last fall, we started on the outside.  Our house has a lovely wrap around porch, or, as we call it in these parts, a veranda.  Ok, fine.  No one but realtors call them veranda, but isn’t it a lovely word?  The floors of the porch were made up of pieces of tin, rotted boards, and gaping holes.  Since we wanted to use the porch swing at the end of the porch, we slapped some plywood over the worst of it and warned guests to step carefully. 

Our first outside project to was replace the floor.  We chose to use tongue-and-groove pine, and then paint it a really exotic color.  But, when he put the boards down, they were so gorgeous, and they had such wonderful grain, that we couldn’t paint them.  So, we stained and varnished them.

Before:

 

And after:

Please ignore the rotted porch posts.  That was Stage II.  At the top left of the picture, you may have noticed that the new porch did not extend down the side of the house.  It remained a patchwork of old plywood until last month. 

Ok, here’s the thing.  This nice tongue-and-groove flooring is expensive.  We had this old Victorian painted this summer.  Current house restoration budget is currently somewhere below zero.  But, the house looked so nice, and the side of the porch looked so ugly. Then, my husband had a scathingly brilliant idea.

Here, look and see if you can see what we did.

The section on the left is the new section, the one on the right is the old.  Ignore the dirt, it had been walked on all morning with muddy shoes.  I actually mop this floor, did I mention that?  Me.  Who is allergic to all things related to housework.  Somehow, mopping outside is much more pleasant than mopping inside.  But, I digress.

The new boards on the left have been stained but not varnished.  They should blend in perfectly when I get them varnished.  But wait, these are not tongue-and-groove floor boards.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how we made them.  We floored about 84 square feet for under $50. 

Today’s Definition-Mixed Emotions

I was planning to varnish the new porch tomorrow, but it rained tonight and now, they are soaking wet.  On the one hand, it’s been over a month, and we haven’t had enough dry days in a row to do it so far, and I’m worried that they will discolor or warp or something.   On the other hand, if I can’t varnish, I have 3 whole days off to do things that are much more fun!!!   Mixed emotions.

Once upon a time, there was a house.  This house had once been fine and stately and beloved.  Then, it became a rental property and was mightily unloved.  For many years. 

Then came the Wren Family, who fell in love with the house and bought it.  That was 5 years ago.  We’ve spent the last 5 years working on the inside, as time and money allowed.   Still a long way to go on that, but we just call it character and let it go at that.

Last fall, we started on the outside.  Our house has a lovely wrap around porch, or, as we call it in these parts, a veranda.  Ok, fine.  No one but realtors call them veranda, but isn’t it a lovely word?  The floors of the porch were made up of pieces of tin, rotted boards, and gaping holes.  Since we wanted to use the porch swing at the end of the porch, we slapped some plywood over the worst of it and warned guests to step carefully. 

Our first outside project to was replace the floor.  We chose to use tongue-and-groove pine, and then paint it a really exotic color.  But, when he put the boards down, they were so gorgeous, and they had such wonderful grain, that we couldn’t paint them.  So, we stained and varnished them.

Before:

 

And after:

Please ignore the rotted porch posts.  That was Stage II.  At the top left of the picture, you may have noticed that the new porch did not extend down the side of the house.  It remained a patchwork of old plywood until last month. 

Ok, here’s the thing.  This nice tongue-and-groove flooring is expensive.  We had this old Victorian painted this summer.  Current house restoration budget is currently somewhere below zero.  But, the house looked so nice, and the side of the porch looked so ugly. Then, my husband had a scathingly brilliant idea.

Here, look and see if you can see what we did.

The section on the left is the new section, the one on the right is the old.  Ignore the dirt, it had been walked on all morning with muddy shoes.  I actually mop this floor, did I mention that?  Me.  Who is allergic to all things related to housework.  Somehow, mopping outside is much more pleasant than mopping inside.  But, I digress.

The new boards on the left have been stained but not varnished.  They should blend in perfectly when I get them varnished.  But wait, these are not tongue-and-groove floor boards.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how we made them.  We floored about 84 square feet for under $50. 

Today’s Definition-Mixed Emotions

I was planning to varnish the new porch tomorrow, but it rained tonight and now, they are soaking wet.  On the one hand, it’s been over a month, and we haven’t had enough dry days in a row to do it so far, and I’m worried that they will discolor or warp or something.   On the other hand, if I can’t varnish, I have 3 whole days off to do things that are much more fun!!!   Mixed emotions.

Once upon a time, there was a house.  This house had once been fine and stately and beloved.  Then, it became a rental property and was mightily unloved.  For many years. 

Then came the Wren Family, who fell in love with the house and bought it.  That was 5 years ago.  We’ve spent the last 5 years working on the inside, as time and money allowed.   Still a long way to go on that, but we just call it character and let it go at that.

Last fall, we started on the outside.  Our house has a lovely wrap around porch, or, as we call it in these parts, a veranda.  Ok, fine.  No one but realtors call them veranda, but isn’t it a lovely word?  The floors of the porch were made up of pieces of tin, rotted boards, and gaping holes.  Since we wanted to use the porch swing at the end of the porch, we slapped some plywood over the worst of it and warned guests to step carefully. 

Our first outside project to was replace the floor.  We chose to use tongue-and-groove pine, and then paint it a really exotic color.  But, when he put the boards down, they were so gorgeous, and they had such wonderful grain, that we couldn’t paint them.  So, we stained and varnished them.

Before:

 

And after:

Please ignore the rotted porch posts.  That was Stage II.  At the top left of the picture, you may have noticed that the new porch did not extend down the side of the house.  It remained a patchwork of old plywood until last month. 

Ok, here’s the thing.  This nice tongue-and-groove flooring is expensive.  We had this old Victorian painted this summer.  Current house restoration budget is currently somewhere below zero.  But, the house looked so nice, and the side of the porch looked so ugly. Then, my husband had a scathingly brilliant idea.

Here, look and see if you can see what we did.

The section on the left is the new section, the one on the right is the old.  Ignore the dirt, it had been walked on all morning with muddy shoes.  I actually mop this floor, did I mention that?  Me.  Who is allergic to all things related to housework.  Somehow, mopping outside is much more pleasant than mopping inside.  But, I digress.

The new boards on the left have been stained but not varnished.  They should blend in perfectly when I get them varnished.  But wait, these are not tongue-and-groove floor boards.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how we made them.  We floored about 84 square feet for under $50. 

Welcome to Blogtoberfest!

I have shamefully neglected my blog this summer, but I have a whole array of excuses. Painting the outside of the house, rebuilding a porch, lack of time for sewing or crafts, a strong dislike for WordPress, which makes everything unpleasant.  However, I couldn't figure out how to make Blogger the home page on my website, so, here I am. Please ignore the weird, disorganized appearance.  Someday, I'll conquer WP.

Anyway, I've done the one post per day thing over on my Live Journal.  There, I talk about my house, my grandkids, my husband, my dog, the weather, my business, and anything else that I feel like discussing.  This was meant to be my craft blog.  In light of the fact that I haven't posted in two months, maybe this will become a public version of my LJ.  We will see.

So, to introduce myself, I'm all of those things in the box on the sidebar.  I am a BookCrosser.  We register books and leave them in public places for people to find and enjoy.  With luck, they journal them and we can track their journey.  I've had books travel from Texas to Central America, through Cuba, and on to Canada. We lost track there, but it may surface at any time.  One of my books was journaled almost  years after I released it.  It's a lot of fun, and there is a wonderful community there, so you might want to check it out.  I'm TexasWren there too.

So, what have I been crafting lately? 
I made a puppet theater for my granddaughter.  I sort of combined the pictures from several places and put my own spin on it, and this was the result.

She has been using the curtain as a permanent part of her door, so that’s been fun.

Mostly, I’ve been working on the outside of the house.  We hired someone to paint it, but there were still a million things to do besides the paint.  Our house is over 100 years old, and I don’t think it had been painted in several decades.  It went from this:

To this:

There is still a ton of work to do-repairs (see that window frame?) and finishing the verandah. We have stained and varnished floors on the wrap-around porch, instead of painting them.  They are gorgeous, but I’m thinking they aren’t going to wear well.  If they don’t, we can always paint them.

So, that’s how I spent my summer.  How about you?

Welcome to Blogtoberfest!

I have shamefully neglected my blog this summer, but I have a whole array of excuses. Painting the outside of the house, rebuilding a porch, lack of time for sewing or crafts, a strong dislike for WordPress, which makes everything unpleasant.  However, I couldn't figure out how to make Blogger the home page on my website, so, here I am. Please ignore the weird, disorganized appearance.  Someday, I'll conquer WP.

Anyway, I've done the one post per day thing over on my Live Journal.  There, I talk about my house, my grandkids, my husband, my dog, the weather, my business, and anything else that I feel like discussing.  This was meant to be my craft blog.  In light of the fact that I haven't posted in two months, maybe this will become a public version of my LJ.  We will see.

So, to introduce myself, I'm all of those things in the box on the sidebar.  I am a BookCrosser.  We register books and leave them in public places for people to find and enjoy.  With luck, they journal them and we can track their journey.  I've had books travel from Texas to Central America, through Cuba, and on to Canada. We lost track there, but it may surface at any time.  One of my books was journaled almost  years after I released it.  It's a lot of fun, and there is a wonderful community there, so you might want to check it out.  I'm TexasWren there too. I don't have an etsy store, I don't sell anything, I don't design cool things. I just relax and enjoy making things that those more creative folks invent. And I thank them daily for sharing the instructions!

So, what have I been crafting lately? 
I made a puppet theater for my granddaughter.  I sort of combined the pictures from several places and put my own spin on it, and this was the result.

She has been using the curtain as a permanent part of her door, so that’s been fun.

Mostly, I’ve been working on the outside of the house.  We hired someone to paint it, but there were still a million things to do besides the paint.  Our house is over 100 years old, and I don’t think it had been painted in several decades.  It went from this:

To this:

There is still a ton of work to do-repairs (see that window frame?) and finishing the verandah. We have stained and varnished floors on the wrap-around porch, instead of painting them.  They are gorgeous, but I’m thinking they aren’t going to wear well.  If they don’t, we can always paint them.

So, that’s how I spent my summer.  How about you?