Spring snow at the "shire", 2013

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WHAT?!!!!  It's been 6 months since I last wrote.  It's a busy life, with not much time for writing in a blog.  So, I finally got pictures off of my phone and will get more off of my camera soon.  What I will be posting first are the pictures of the upstairs bathroom transformation that was completed almost 6 months ago.  BTW, did I forget to mention that we finally moved into the Flagg House in April?

Close up of original wallpaper.

This was a wall of the hall closet abutting into the bathroom about 18 inches.  Behind the designer cardboard and duct tape was a hole that we could not figure the purpose of.  The small electric heater was non-functional. 

Old wall tile, sink and vanity.  Equally old and ugly light fixtures and glued-on-the-wall mirror.

Old tub and faucet.  There was no shower in this bathroom.

Never did figure out what these holes were for.  Perhaps a towel bar instead of a toilet???

Almost impossible to add a roll of TP to this holder.

The bathroom in the master bedroom.  The toilet was the only thing we didn't replace because it was pretty new and a good brand--Toto.

More bathroom in the master bedroom.

The wall that was intruding into the bathroom was demolished and pushed back where it belonged.  This is the new wall as seen from inside the closet.

Here is the new wall from inside the bathroom.  Pushing that wall back sure added a lot of space to this bathroom.   New double lightswitch for lighting and exhaust fan.                                

      

View of hall closet next to bathroom.

The old tub is out.  It was a cast-iron tub and the wall was built around it.  The walls had to be partially demolished and the tub was sledgehammered in half for removal.  The new tub JUST FIT into the space!  It is an Ehler's jet tub with heater from Menard's.  The new wallboard, wall tile, and accents were all purchased at Menard's.  I got the 12x12 tile on sale.

Newly skimmed walls and new electrical box for new over-the-mirror light fixture.

Richard's wet saw for cutting tile.

More supplies needed by Richard, the carpenter who did the work.  He worked for Hannibal Hayes, owner of Economy Carpentry and Concrete.  Hannibal had done work for us before:  bathroom and kitchen update as well as the sunroom construction in our other house.  Excellent work!  Highly recommend!

And we jump to the finished product!  Paint color is "Rain" from Sherwin-Williams.

Tub faucet and shower kit is either Moen or Delta.  Can't remember.  Towel bars purchased at Menard's.

Since this is an old Kansas house in the Flint Hills, I am trying to keep with a local theme.  Shower curtain of waving grass from Zulilly.com.  Towels from Lands' End (landsend.com).

Light over the mirror from Menard's.  Overhead light from Overstock.com.

I do enjoy the windows in this house!  They're huge! Existing window shutters kept.  Grass roll-up blind for extra privacy from Pier One.

This little vanity and sink were very inexpensive at Menard's.  Mirror also from Menard's.

Pfister faucet.  Menard's.

Barbed-wire accents.

A little ambience for the winter with the wood stove and good company from Nuggles.

That's roughly how the upstairs bathroom project went.  Just so you know, most of that ugly wallpaper is actually still in that room!  Richard told us about sealing wallpaper with Zinser's BIN.  The BIN seals and tightens the wallpaper against the wall.  After sealing, priming, and painting, you can't even see the seams! 

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Snow fell during the night;  after a coating of rain turned into ice!  I tried to get my kids to school this AM but with the slipping and sliding all over the road within a mile of my current home (the one that's NOT the Flagg House), and then finding a traffic backup on the main thoroughfare, I decided to turn around and go home.  We just stayed in all day.  I had to cancel some appointments and complete work from home, but I made it all work.  Better than risking slippery roads and stupid drivers (Oh, like the person who stopped in the road for some unknown reason after only moving along about 4mph anyway!)
I've decided I'm going to get moving on posting some of my pictures.  It may take a bit of a learning curve for me, so please be patient.  Once I "get it", I'll be posting pics of EVERYTHING.  Hmmmm, maybe not.  I don't do all that well on Facebook with getting pics posted.

Well, here goes:
Okay.  Never mind.  It's already gotten too complicated.  I'll come back once I've got it all figured out.  AAARRRRRRRGGGGGHH!!!!!!#@*^

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Well, it's like this:  Either work on the house or work on the blog.  I don't seem to be able to manage both.  And now that the semester has started, I have to focus on my paying job.  I must say that we are making progress though.  The upstairs bath that had been torn up for several weeks is now finished.  The carpenter on the job was great and he provided some good advice.  He worked on historic buildings in Denver at one time and shared some of the "tricks of the trade" that are really going to save us time.  One of the things he told us was to use Zissner's BIN on the wallpaper instead of struggling with tearing it down.  BIN is a stainblocker, it has shellac in it, so it seals stains or, in our case, the wallpaper.  We tried it in the dining room downstairs.  Two coats of BIN over a couple of hours.  Next a coat of latex primer, followed eventually by two coats of Sherwin-Williams Duration paint.  I'll have to get back to you with the color and the number.  It turned out great!  We finally moved our dining room table and chairs and now have Sunday dinners at the Flagg House where we have more room than the Purcells house.
As an aside, I had left out my Christmas lights.  They consisted of two of those light up reindeer, a doe and a stage, from WalMart along with a rope light tree from Menards.  Since Christmas is long past now, I called them my "winter lights", since they're really not Christmas specific in their presence.  As  I said previously, the semester has started and that means the college kids are all back in force.  As I was walking around my yard today and came upon my humble winter enhancements, it appeared that since the college kids came back, the little stag decided to "hump" the little doe.  Yes, someone had taken the stag and put him in a compromising position with the doe.  I figured it was finally time to put my "winter lights away after all.  Luckily the weather was nice today which made it a pleasant chore. 

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WOW!  I've been AWOL for nearly two months.  Time flies when you're having fun--or just very busy.  But, when you don't even have an audience, is it such a big deal?  The Flagg House and the holidays certainly kept us busy over the past two months.  But, honestly, I must confess:  whenever I get on the computer, I get overtaken by the urge to play solitaire.  I am trying to get over the 60% hump I've been sitting at for a while.  I am determined to get up to at least 61%.  I think the computer cheats.

Back to the progress of the work on the Flagg house.  I have taken some pictures, but they're on my phone so I'll be working to pull those off and get them on the blog with captions and narrative.  I will probably add a little to each new entry, as I don't want to overwhelm any readers (at least the non-existant ones) with entries that are too long.  Be back tomorrow.

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