A day off!!

I'm actually taking a day off for me!! A mental health day, if you will. Really though, it's a physical health day, I'm not kidding! I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and itchy eyes!
Today, I'm feeling like shit! I had planned on working in the bathroom again today, but the fact that the neighbor - sweetheart of a guy - is over and working on finishing up the plumbing. No way can I be in there working too!! I'd asked Nancy a couple of weeks ago to ask him if he'd give her a pointer or two on finishing up the shower surround, and next thing we knew, he was taking the plumbing apart and putting in new! Yeeeah Haaaaaw!!! I doubted she would be able to figure it out on her own! LOL!

I simply adore this woman though! No one can hold a candle up to her! She isn't all that handy - is all... she is willing and able and learning stuff all around here though, and that is a good thing for all of us! Curt helping is a good thing! She is learning so much just by hanging out with him! After they are done, the bathroom will be good to go! No more mold and no more plastic duct-taped over the hole in the wall!

So anyway, it's a "no go" for me to be painting in there today, while he is soldering copper! No way! It's way too freaking small in there!

Now, I could have gone up to see what Mom is up to.......

but she has a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 3:30. I plan on leaving right after I get done work tomorrow to go up to her place. I'm anxious about this appointment tomorrow and I know she is too!

........ I didn't go up though today, I chose to stay home and lay on the freaking couch - all - day - long, and do abso-freakin'-nothing!!

--- NOTHING TODAY ---



except rest and bead!!

YIPPEE SKIPPEE!!!!!








These are two faux turquoise cabochons I made months ago!

I recently started beading a seed bead flower-like bezel around these two large ones. I also have a bunch of smaller cabs that will, along with these finished two, be incorporated in to a much larger, elaborate collar.

I haven't been able to bead or clay for months and months now due to my TWO shoulders enduring torn rotator cuffs! BOTH where bad, bad tears! I had to wear the large pillow sling for a total of at least six weeks! On BOTH sides! Not to mention that my bicep on my right arm was hanging on by a thread!! Last summer/ fall I was so lame for so long! It was easily Christmas time before I was able to lift my right arm over my head, pain free! My surgery was July 18th last year. This years surgery on my left arm was April 23rd. Today is July 28th, 10 weeks after surgery - I can pinwheel my arm and shoulder, pain free! Yes, PAIN FREE!!! It's amazing how much quicker my left arm is healing compared to the mess of my right, last summer!

WOW!

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

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Thanks!! Connie

Trudging along.....

Kind of a neat picture of a guy trudging along on wet sand in this "flickr find" I found -

Mom has been sick and not getting better for a few weeks now. We went to a "quick care" place a week ago, she had all sorts of tests and internal pictures done with no releif from the scripts he gave! *sigh* Then, Tuesday we went to her regular doctor, except he was on vacation, so we saw a PAC and Dr. who was on call... had more tests done and another ex ray done! Yesterday I was expecting some news from this doc on call and found that NOTHING was conclusive about her diagnoses! OY! So we now have another appointment on Tuesday afternoon to see her regular doctor who knows her! *SIGH* She is, among other things, having trouble breathing. Could it possibly have anything to do with decades of smoking!!?? Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder...

Nancy and I've been working so hard to get the bathroom done so we can move her down here! It seems as if we are the guy in that picture trudging through wet sand! Akk! It just seems to be the project that is taking FOREVER to finish!!! AKK!!! All I want to do is get her, her bed, her recliner and her TV down here so I can take car of of her!! I'm worried sick about her being alone when she isn't feeling well!

So, Monday I was off and I worked on the fauxing of the bathroom walls again. I got a good chunk of it finished. This morning I worked in there for a bit too. Here's a pic of the unpainted interior door with some of my faux work.

I have been scheduled for over 30 hours this week and will get probably get close to that many next week too! Covering other folks vacations. Good for my wallet, bad for my time to work on the bathroom!









I REALLY like the richness of the look on the walls!! I plan on waxing and buffing the walls as a final step in my process. Nancy is having a difficult time picturing what the final room will look like.

I've decided that the woodwork and trim is going to be yellow.... so I played with the last picture in my photo editing program to give her and all you blog readers an idea of what the cabinet and trim will look like in yellow.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, the you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Bathroom update.

Yesterday I finished up painting the walls in the bathroom. I still have to do the faux work and then paint the second coat of the wood work. After that is done all the painting in there will be finished.

Tomorrow and Saturday Nancy will work on the shower surround.

We still have to pick out fabric for the shower curtain topper, a sink "skirt" and a valence, I'll be making these.

I'll also make some pieces of art for the small walls behind and next to the toilet.

I'll also have to fabricate some kind of light fixture shades.

Colors?? Patterns??? Decisions we'll both have to make!

PHEW!!


The cutting in of the top of the walls.


The wall color before fauxing.


Wall color after fauxing.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, this site is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

More home improvement pictures

The whole reason we've been painting and redoing portions of the house is in preparation for Mom to move in, she's been having some difficulties living alone in her apartment. So in order to give me some peace of mind, and get the house ready for the market (once the economy turns around again) so we can can get what the house is worth, or at least what Nancy paid for it, we've been working our way around the house.

These pictures are of the fully completed (painted) double living rooms. As I mentioned in an earlier post, "P" came over last weekend - the 4th of July - and did the majority of the work in these two rooms. She is a GREAT painter and did a wonderful job! Nancy also did a great job patching two rather big holes in the plaster walls. There's so much trim in these rooms, 4 archways, crown molding, a chair rail, base boards and 4 windows! LOT'S and LOT'S of painters caulk was used!! Prep work, prep work, prep work! You can NEVER do too much prep work when painting out rooms!! Especially in a 100 plus year old house!


This is a shot of the second living room with the new paint color! The top is a terracotta and the bottom is pumpkin-y, and the trim is a sage green. We had the drapes and furniture, which go beautifly with the new colors! We still have to Kirby the area rug that will go in this room and a chair or two of Mom's will go in here too. To the right you can see the "key hole" arch leading in to what will be her bedroom.


I'm standing in the "front" or "first" living room here. You can see the "key hole" arch and on into what will become her bedroom. We will wash down the walls and perhaps repaint the trim in there, but the wallpaper stays. It's difficult to see in this shot but the orange-y reds in the paper really look good against the pumpkin and terracotta walls. I have to find or make a drape that will match to hang in the arch so she has some privacy in her bedroom.


Here's the front room. That love seat will go against the front windows and her green recliner will go in that corner. As you might or might not know, Mom is legally blind and sun and glare bother her terribly. The windows and front door (yep thats a piece of Kathi's stained glass art on the front door!) face east, so the sun comes in the front windows in the morning quite strongly. In the afternoon, the sun is in the west and the house across the street is white so sun reflects off it terribly through the front windows again! So, because the glare from the windows is so strong, in order for to see her TV, it will go opposite her chair, on the southern or driveway side of the house instead of in the front corner like we had it.

Here, I'm standing where her TV will go, next to the arm of the large couch you see in the first picture. This is looking in to the dining room. That's our 20 gallon high goldfish aquarium in the corner.





This shot is taken from inside Mom's bedroom, looking east out into the living rooms. You can also see into the dining room. That little built in houses my Great Grandmothers mantle clock. The chimney runs up through this portion of the wall.




My focus today will be to finish my portion of the downstairs bathroom. I finished texturing the walls with joint compound and I painters caulked all the cracks in the trim work the other day. Today, I'm painting out the ceiling in a light blue and then painting all the walls and trim a light sandy color. After that dries, I'll do a faux technique, wiping on and then off with a darker sandy color. The darker color will seep into the cracks and crevices I made with the joint compound and give an over all stucco, sandstone-y look. You can see the entrance to the bathroom to the left in the shot above. Nancy will then finish out the shower surround next weekend.

After the bathroom is complete, I'll finish up settling my new studio space. Then we'll take a bit of a break from painting while we pack up and move Mom out of her apartment and into our house. We hope to have her moved in by August. In the fall, we'll start painting out our living room (media room) upstairs. After that, it'll be the front hall and stairs (which we'll hire out due to the need of scaffolding and such) then perhaps early spring or even late winter, definitely by next summer -!!- we'll tackle the kitchen! Phew!!

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

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Thanks!! Connie

New Studio space!!!

These are shots of my (EMPTY!!! ) new studio. This is looking east, towards the front of the house. This is the entrance door leading out to the hallway. I'll put a new-to-the-studio bookcase on that portion of the wall behind the door and next to the window. I've run out of places to store my book's and magazines thus, the need for more book case storage! Perhaps there needs to be some weeding of the mags??? Ak!!!



Empty room, yes... but smelling oh-so-clean of freshly shampooed carpet!

These sports hats of Nancy's won't be staying.

I'll probably set up my sewing machine and fabric stash in this area. (That's the door leading to the hallway.)

Yeah... that's Dilly's dog crate, not positive yet where her "room" will end up in the new upstairs layout. Probably in the dressing room??

This is looking west, towards the back of the house. In the first picture I was standing in this doorway, it leads into our new bedroom. I'll put a large shelf cabinet here with the VCR and television on it. It'll be on a swivel stand so we can watch TV from the bed if we so choose. This doorway will be blocked by this cabinet and the TV.

That concludes todays little tour of the new studio - as I set it up!

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, this site is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie