Dining Room....ready for a feast!

So, as promised, the dining room area is complete just in time for Thanksgiving...."thank" goodness! The slate put up, cracks caulked, walls and molding touched up, vent painted,....and even the thermostat painted to blend!

Here's an overall look..........

Here's a closer angle. Note, the goldish thermostat on the slate. It was bright white so I spray painted it to be less conspicuous. When I got done with that, the only thing Dustin said was, "I think we'll be the only ones with a gold thermostat cover." I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good thing........


I must add a bit about this piece. This antique was my grandma's who had very fine taste in her day.....she only bought the best. We believe she bought this back in the 30's and it might have been an antique THEN! Not sure about that. The only thing it has on the back is an old sticker that says "Made in France". I should do some research on that. Anyway, it's on loan while my parents serve as missionaries for a couple of years. Thanks Mom!


So, what do you think? Did we make a mistake doing this slate project? I guess there's no going back now but we'd love to hear some comments!!!! Thanks so much.

Dust Makes More Dust!

Yes, Dust....meaning my hubby Dustin....is making more dust! I didn't mind so much this time (even though I had spent a few hours cleaning earlier this week) because we haven't done anything for awhile and I'm excited about this new endeavor!

So, we had an ugly corner of our living room with walls built up to cover the recently added heating & air duct work. When I say "recently", I mean within the last decade or two. Before that, I imagine they heated this place with space heaters. And even before that, they heated it up using the two fireplaces that are now covered up.

We decided awhile back to conceal this vent wall with some kind of tile or stone. One of our clever designer friends, Kristi Mower, gave us the idea of making the wall an architectural element of the house....like a feature that had always been there, possibly an old chimney. She suggested covering it with slate tiles. We weren't quite sure about slate....we were leaning more toward an old brick or even river rock to match the walls in the front yard.

Well, in the end, we found a great deal on some beautiful slate, felt good about it, and decided to go for it.

For reminder's sake, here's what it looked like during the move in. The little red room was an office area where they dropped kids off at the daycare/preschool. They covered the corner unit walls with super bumpy drywall mud and painted it black. At the bottom, (I should have taken a picture of this) was a painted picture of a fire burning in a fireplace.......


Here's Dustin taking off that bumpy drywall. When we re-textured the walls, we tried to even out all the deep grooves. We didn't know we'd end up just taking it down anyway.......


After we got it down to the main plywood, Dustin put up the cement board......

And then started tiling.....

Pretty good for an afternoon/evenings work.....

Per some requests, I'm posting this now without the "after" pictures because Dustin had to go out of town this weekend and wants to finish the grouting when he gets back. Stay tuned for next weeks blog to see the whole dining area completed!

Privacy Issues

Something happened this last week. Something that finally prompted me to want to blog about it....maybe for therapy after the trauma (ha ha). This wasn't the first time this has happened, and it certainly wasn't even the boldest, but I guess this is the price you pay when you live in a building that was formerly a commercial building.

A lady walked into our home while I was cooking dinner, yelled out "hello", but was already to my kitchen before I could respond. There was no apologies for walking right on in (without ringing the doorbell) and after realizing this was a home.

Evidently she had taught here for many years when this was a school and wanted to come back and check it out.

She was pleasant enough, even telling me how things used to be way back when (a couple of doorways that we didn't know about had been covered up, etc.). But it was difficult to be my open, nice self with this disconcerting feeling of being violated......especially after she started peeking her head in to rooms and trying doorknobs of closed doors!

The funny thing was Dustin had just gotten out of the shower and locked the door of our master bedroom when she tried the knob to peek in. I didn't find this out until later because I was still trying to check on dinner. When Dustin told me that he had heard the knob, I wish so badly she would have walked in on him, birthday suit and all...maybe then she would be embarrassed and apologize!

This has actually happened a few times....the worst one being a Middle Eastern man coming right into my bedroom as I was hanging up my clean clothes (fully clothed thank goodness). He came right in with his young daughter and the only thing I could understand through his thick accent was "school". As if that wasn't bad enough, he wouldn't leave out of my bedroom....apparently, he wanted to drop his daughter off whether this was a school or not.

I think it's time to get a sign that says something along the lines of "Simpson Residence".

So, even aside from that, being on a busy intersection has been one of the hardest things about moving here. I've gone through what I call my "fishbowl syndrome".....I very much dislike being looked at or the feeling of being watched.

I think I've had a pretty good attitude about it though....especially considering how far I've come. It was mortifying for me to have everyone who drove by watch us move in. It's embarrassing to admit I would wait until it was dark to move things in. I would even wait until cars went by to hurry into my house so I wouldn't be seen.

We've always lived in places where we could walk around in our underwear if we wanted to. I could go outside in the yard without feeling like I needed to put on my make-up or brush my hair. Now, living here, the chances of walking out to our car without being seen are very slim. But, like I said, I've come a long way. I actually go to the mailbox now without a stitch of mascara on. And, I don't really think about it as cars go by and I'm balancing my purse, gym bag, phone at my ear, and stuffing breakfast in my face as I'm walking down the flight of stairs to my car.

Here's a picture I took in the spring of our yard and our busy intersection....


We talked about getting a new front door some day but I sure like the light that comes in what would otherwise be a dark entryway. My solution was to put up some cute, thick drapes to close when it gets dark and the lights are on......


I can't tell you what a nice cozy feeling it is to be able to walk around now without feeling like we're living in a fish bowl.....



Here's a close-up. I think they are really cute and match perfectly......

I think they'll also be great in the summer as the heat of the sun blazes in on some of those extra hot summer mornings.

Our favorite view (and luckily private too!) is all the farm land behind and to the side of us. This summer they grew potatoes and it was so pretty. We love the view of the old farmhouse too....

Oh, and BTW, the kids gleaned the fields after the harvest and we have potatoes coming out our ears.

Some benefits of living on a busy corner is 1) getting rid of stuff. We've been able to set lots of junk out with a "free" sign and it's usually gone within a few hours. 2) We get lots of waves and honks...even friends pulling over to say hi.....makes us feel popular. hee hee 3)Selling stuff. We had a big garage sell without even advertising. The kids also made good $ selling lemonade and cookies. Here they are with a friend selling their goods....