Overdue update

It's been too long since I posted, but I have been quite worn out and the thought of sitting at the computer in the evening simply more than I could take. :) Here I am now, at least!
On the weekend, I got some of the walls coated with verathane, which actually makes the wood look quite warm and a bit shiny. I've used a satin finish water based verathane over the Watco Danish Oil finish and it seems to work out well. Once the verathane is on the walls, I can do some of the final 'finishing' work: in the kitchen I put up some additional shelves by the fridge, and found a wooden peg rack I'd picked up on one of my many Ikea trips, so that got stained and mounted as a place to display my prettiest and most frequently used kitchen implements. I have a lovely copper and cast iron ladle that Union Guy found for me, and a hand operated egg beater that my mother owned since I was a little girl ... I like being able to see them all the time, and I actually use them, too.


Sitting at the kitchen table and looking out the window at the pile of lumber that used to be the 'barn' (or livestock shed, or whatever it was before my parents knocked it down in the interests of public safety), I thought to myself "that looks like a free supply of lovely aged wood". I wandered across the field and found several nice looking boards, beautifully weathered, which I decided to use as trim around a couple of the windows. The bathroom and The Boy's room now have barn board window trim ... I am not entirely sure that I like the look, but I think I do. When I consider the price, I generally decide that I like it a whole lot.


Union Guy came out this weekend and helped immensely with all the work that had to be done. We did a lot of the 'high work' in the living room, so the front wall is about 3/4 covered now. We also finished the north loft wall (the wall in The Boy's room that goes all the way up to the peak of the house): all the boards are up and stained, and the trim is mounted around the window. Union Guy also did a bunch of electrical work and got lights mounted on the south wall (the big living room wall with all the windows). They look quite warm, and I really like them.

We've been having some fireplace troubles (it pours out smoke into the house, even with the door shut and the fire buring low), the air exchange controller has stopped listening to instructions (it runs all the time whether you want it to or not), and the shower still has hot and cold set up backwards. Plumber Man is coming this week to see if we can sort out these details. I sure hope so, I miss having a fire. :)