Progress Report Week 22: Still Floors!

Can you believe it has been 5 months!?! Boy, time sure flies..... And I thought I would be finished up by now. It isn't quite as fun working evenings at the Brick House when it is cold and dark as when it was warm and sunny. But progress is still being made! Just a little slower....

Mandy and I made lists for each room so we could keep track of what still needed to be done. Not too many left to check off!

Don't you love how sunny the living room is? Love all those big windows. It is always bright, even on a cloudy day.

We have been working on trim too. The corner trim (or back bend) on the window looks like it has always been there, doesn't it? Half of it has! We had to replace the top half as is was cut out to fit the cabinets at some point in history. 

The door to the deck also got corner trim added to it. There wasn't ever any there. Helps it to blend in more now. Luckily a local lumber yard had the trim in stock.

The bathroom is also getting new trim! There was tiny trim around the door, but no baseboard. Still working on the baseboard. There is a little more fitting involved with baseboard the door trim. I can't wait to paint it!

 I got a little tired of scrubbing floors and decided it was time to start shellacking them! This one is the front bedroom. So excited with how they are turning out!

I put the first coat on the back bedroom last night. You can hardly see the strip where there was glue stuck on. This is just the first coat. I will put on another one to two coats of shellac.

 Almost there with the middle bedroom! You can see I have the back third done and just of the front area around the doorway to do. It should be the easy part!

Progress Report Week 20: Shellac and Floors

This week I have spent a lot of time on y hands and knees scrubbing floors! But all that work is beginning to pay off, look how good the floors look! This is the back bedroom and it had a six inch wide swath of some sort of carpet glue stuck to the floor. A little elbow grease and denatured alcohol and wa-la!

The front bedroom has already been scrubbed and is waiting for a new coat (or two!) of shellac.

I ordered 5 lbs. of shellac "buttons" from shellac.net. Hopefully it will be enough! The buttons are kind of fun to handle. I weighed them out into 1/2 lb. baggies to make is easier to mix up a batch. You can mix the shellac and denatured alcohol in varying strengths, but a 1/2 lb. shellac to 1 quart alcohol is a standard starting point. The shellac will have to soak for 24-36 hours until completely dissolved. I am not sure if we will be ready to apply it this weekend, but I thought I would get a head start just in case!

 I just started washing down the middle bedroom and as you can see, it is in pretty rough shape!

One corner done! You can see the difference though; on the right- freshly scrubbed, left-unwashed. I use a scot-brite sponge with the green scrubby back and a small scraper for the thicker paint splatters (and the carpet glue!). 

 Other exciting progress, is the kitchen cabinet hardware! Mandy and I decided to give it a go last night. Love how nice it makes the cabinets look! (If you ever decide to add cabinet hardware, a template makes the hole drilling process go super fast! We used a piece of cardboard with the hole spacing marked on it, then we would line it up with the edge of the cupboard and drill.)

We also got the kitchen sink drain plumbed in! And doesn't the kitchen look immensely better with the white fridge? 

Progress Report Week 19: Floors and Snow

 We got our first snow this morning. Everything is covered in a fresh sparkly layer. I love how cozy houses look in the snow! Mandy and I stopped at the Brick House for a few photos on our way back from the hardware store (gathering a few more plumbing supplies).

 Aren't the trees gorgeous!

 This week has been a bit slower, still getting our energy back from all the festivies with the sister and nephews here. Plus the time change doesn't help, that always throws me off. I did get a good start by finishing off the painting on the last three windows Monday and on Tuesday got the front of the closet doors painted.

I have also been working on the floors. Instead of sanding and re-finishing them, I decided to rejuvenate them. First I am washing the floors down with denatured alcohol, then I will apply a couple of fresh coats of shellac. So far they are looking really good! This is the front bedroom freshly washed down with denatured alcohol.

The Brick House has hydronic heat (did I mention that before?). I love all the old radiators! This is a new type of heating for me, so I have been getting a crash course in boiler and radiator care. Did you know if a radiator is hot on the bottom, but cold on top it has air in it and needs to be bled? I now need to figure out how to fix one that is hot on top, but cold on bottom. From what I am finding out it might be sludge build up.

 Looking down into the back yard from the back bedroom. 

I love these shiny hooks all in a row! They were actually on the other wall in the entry, but that looked like an accident waiting to happen as the glass door opened against, so I moved them over here. The perfect place to hang coats!

Happy Annivarsary Little House!

Yesterday was a quintessential November day in southeast Wisconsin. Rainy, windy, gloomy. Leaves and rain whirling and swooshing. I enjoyed it! I don't think Mandy was quite as enthusiastic as she is suffering from a head cold right now. Kerri and I had fun though; feeling the wind in our faces, admiring the brilliant leaves against the dreary background (at lest I was! Kerri was just enjoying the plethora of good smells.)

 Last week was a bit chaotic as our sister and two nephews descended on us. It was late night spent chatting and busy days playing with kids. I did manage to seek in a couple of mornings painting windows at the Brick House, but other then that progress was at a standstill. But kids grow so fast, I couldn't miss an opportunity to snuggle the newest two month old nephew or read stories with the four year old. So fun!

 I can't believe we are already on to November! 

The end of October is the house anniversary of my cottage. I usually do a Have-Done-List post, but this year with working on Brick House and starting to run out of projects on the cottage I didn't really do anything. It feels a little weird to say that.....

 It always amazes me how far this little cottage has come! It has taught me so much! Not just how to do practical things, but how to get the job done, time management, make quicker decisions and that I can do anything I put my mind to!

I love remembering all the stages and progress. Want to remember with me?

All posts about the little house. (You can also go room by room using the tags on the right.)

Previous years Have-Done-Lists 

2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2013

Happy Anniversary Little House! And Happy November friends!