No rest for the weary......

The day after getting back from Ireland, Mike was back at work on the house.  Me..... I was in bed getting over jet lag. 

 

Mike set up the tile saw in the new master bedroom and

started work on tiling the master bathroom shower.

Thankfully we haven't put in the carpet yet.

 

 

White subway tile for the shower.

 

 

White bead board for the lower walls.

 

 

A real pretty grey porcelain tile for the floor.

 

 

 

 

My job was painting the old red brick on the family

room fireplace.  I was going to paint each

brick individually and leave the grey grout  but didn't like the

 look too much so just painted the whole thing a medium camel color.

 

 

 

Below is finished job.

 

 

 

 

Back upstairs to paint the old doors white.  Lots and lots

of white paint to cover those dark doors.

 

 

Meanwhile, Mike was building a shelving

unit for the new walk-in master closet.

 

 

 

 

Friday, the new carpet will be laid in the master bedroom.

 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! 

We will be spending it with

Mike's Mom and my parents.

And a very, very happy birthday to Linda. 

 Hope the party was a wonderful surprise. 

 Wish we could have spent it with you. 

 

Valerie

Ireland........sea of green

Recently, we spent two glorious weeks in Ireland.  It truly is the Emerald Isle. 

The countryside is such a beautiful shade of green.

We took a tour with our friends Linda and Larry Bell and saw quite a bit of both coasts of Ireland. 

 

 

The Ring of Kerry, (the Atlantic side of Ireland.)

 

 

 

Valerie, Mike, Linda and Larry.

 

 

One of the many old churches.

 

 

Castle oustide of Donnegal where we spent two nights.

 

 

Our room in the castle.

 

Visit to the Guinness brewery in Dublin where we learned

 how they brew their famous beer.

 

 

It rained a lot while we were in Dublin.

 

 

Old, abandoned church in the highlands.

 

 

St. Pattricks Cathedral in Dublin.

 

There's always a McDonalds!!

 

 

Every meal came with carrots.  I guess they are easy to grow in Ireland.

 

 

We had a wonderful time.  The Irish people were so friendly and their country so beautiful.

Hope you can visit Ireland someday.

Valerie

 

 

What color to paint?

The new master bedroom addition is really coming along.  The contractor has been here all week.

So have the heating and air guys. So have the dry wall guys
(boy, were they messy!!!!)

 By tomorrow we should have a new bedroom and air-conditioning.

Now we have to paint and look at flooring....carpeting or wood?

What color to paint?

So many decisions, so little time.

 

 

 

Bedroom with dry wall up.

 

 

View of closet

 

So many colors.

 

The winner.  Tan for the walls and blue

for the curtains and bedding.

 

What have you been up to this week?

 

Valerie

More Progress

This has been a really productive week. 

 Once again a lot of hammering and sawing going on.

Below is what the back and side of the house look like. 

Actually they finished putting up the siding today.

The big hole with blue tarp on the side of the house is a large window.

 

 

In order to get the dry wall up to the second floor they brought in

a big crane.  And then lifted the dry wall through the window

and into the new bedroom.

This was a really big deal because now that the dry wall is in,

they can put in the new window.  That means no birds

getting into the upstairs and Mike doesn't have to

scare them out at night.  Like birds, but not in the house!!

 

 

 

Below is what Mike has been working on this week.

I dragged these two old corbels home from a junk shop several years ago.

Of course, Mike always says "and what are you going to do with those?"

He knows it always means more work for him.  But we found a place for them

around the french doors leading into the family room.

He added the moulding across the top.

 

 

 

This is the fireplace in the family room.  It was incredibly dirty and ugly.

Kyle was the one who figured out what the big black metal objects on the side

were for.  You pull them out to let more heat escape. But we are

going to put in gas logs so now the metal pieces are gone.

So what to do with the four large holes?!!

 

 

Mike added wood around the fireplace and added

more moulding around the bookshelves.

 

 

I will paint the bricks a lighter color and then paint

the shelves and fireplace mouldings white.

 

 

Check back to see how it comes out. 

Hope you are all having a good week.

 

Valerie

 

 

What to do with all that Zucchini!!

 

Every year we always grow more zucchini than we can eat.  Here are two great recipes, one to eat now and one to savor in the winter when you are dreaming of summer.

 

Zucchini Casserole

 Yummy!!

 

 

 

2 cups minced zucchini,  I use a food grater

1 cup minced carrots

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/3 - 2/3 cups milk

1/2 stick of butter, melted

1 box chicken flavored stuffing mix, I use "Stove Top"

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Grated medium cheddar cheese (I use about 1- 1/2 cups but you can use more or less)

1/2 can French's Fried Onions

 

 

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine butter and stuffing mix in medium size bowl. 

Stir in zucchini, carrots, soup, onion powder, pepper, milk

(may have to adjust how much if it looks too dry)

 and seasoning packet from stuffing mix, if there is one.

Pour into buttered 9x9 inch glass baking dish.

Bake 30-40 minutes

Add cheese and French's Fried Onions

Bake until cheese melts and onions are browned.

 

 

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Great to freeze and serve during the winter.

 

 

 

1/2 cup butter softened

1-1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 Tablespoon lemon zest (1 lemon)

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

1.   Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy duty electric stand mixer until creamy.  Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time beating just until blended after each addition.

 

2.  Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda.  Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture.   Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.  Stir in zucchini and next 2 ingredients.  Spoon batter into bread loaf pan.

Makes about 2-2/3 cups batter

3.  Bake 325 degrees for an hour and then check with a wooden pick in center comes out clean. You may have to bake another 10 to 15 minutes depending on your oven.  Cool pan on wire rack for ten minutes, remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely.

To freeze, make sure bread is completely cool.  Wrap in Saran wrap.  Wrap again in tin foil, place in zip lock bag and label.

 

Enjoy!!        Valerie

 

 

A Little Black Chest

Since we are kind of home bound at the moment, waiting while all the workmen do their thing, I started a furniture project.  Mike found me an old china cabinet at a junk store, he cut off the top glass door portion, and then got it ready for me to paint.  Wish I had taken a "before" picture.  I painted it black then did a stencil treatment on the two bottom doors. 

 It was a lot of fun and didn't really take me much time.

 

 

 

Stencilling the doors 

 

 

Completed project.

 

 

A closer look at the stencil.

 

 

The mirror over the chest comes from "Our House" a teen boys home in Olney, Maryland.

Mike and several of the boys worked on antique mirrors donated to the boy's home.

This is one the boys cleaned up and repaired.  We are so glad to have it in our home.  A lovely reminder of some wonderful youth struggling to make their way in the world.

 

 

Have a great week.  Valerie

Men Working

The new addition got off to a great start a little over two weeks ago. WOW, a lot got done in those two weeks. Men working everywhere........hammers, saws, cranes, oh my!! Monday through Friday seven a.m. sharp they got us up and going.

This is what the back of the house used to look like.  The addition

 is going over the top of the room with the three windows.

 

 

This is what it looked like with the old tar roof still on.

 

 

Things starting to take shape!!

 

 

They had to use a crane to lift materials over the top of the house and

onto the addition.  Lots of cars and neighbors stopped by to take a look.

 

I have lots more pictures.  They have actually put up most of the siding

but can't seem to upload my pictures onto the blog.  Blogging is such a challenge for the

technically illiterate!!

 

More.........later.    Valerie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should have......

I should have added pictures of the bath before the remodel so you could see the difference.

So here's our 1950's bath in all it's green and gold glory!!