SIGNS

We live in a rural area with lots of log houses, vacation homes, and rental get-a-way cabins. We hadn’t lived here long before noticing that many of the folks had named their homesteads and placed signs at their driveways. Of course, we wanted to be a part of the local trend and right away, began thinking of a name of our own. We tried most everything we could think of but didn’t like any of it for one reason or another. Here’s a few from around the county. Some of these signs are very nice and must have been expensive. We weren’t willing to spend big money on any sign we were to come up with. In fact, we spent $0.00. (That’s a big dollar sign right there!) We liked this one, ….. because of the rust. And what a hill it is, very steep. Some are simple and to the point like this one about 3 miles from our house. This one is huge!! Around the corner from us. This one’s for sale. Big house, nice pond. This house came with a long range view as the sign states. So I’m about to show you what we came up with after mulling it over for more than 2 years. It’s not much, and not very sophisticated, but until another idea comes along, here it is. Jane did the painting of course. I picked up a limb from out of the woods, a scrap of treated 1x4, and the trunk of a small tree I had cut down last year. And there you go. Welcome to Mossy Point Cabin.

Stuff used as other stuff

A guy I used to work with, I'll call him "Dave" because that's his name,
gave me two old storm windows he didn't want. (For those of you
located in the South, storm windows go on in the Fall and off in the
Spring, providing extra protection from Winter wind and snow)
I put one of them to work as a divider in Janie's art room.



The other one I made into a door for this built-in cabinet. I had some
glass shelves cut to fit, installed a couple old hinges and small handle
I had laying around and presto, a curio cabinet is born.



One of the shelves has this picture of my dad and his sisters back in the day.
Dad's been gone since 1993 but my Aunts are still getting around. The little
picture is of Janie's Dad and Mom. The log cabin behind them was in the family
somewhere.



A little toy horse, sheigh and a painting Janie's Great Grandmother
did many years ago. She painted it on a hand mirror.



I wouldn't necessarily call this items antiques but they do have personal
significants to us. That's what your house should look like anyway. Not
what it dictated on some TV show somewhere, but what you like.



This is Janie's Grandmother. I don't remember much about it except
that Janie liked this sort of thing and spent time with her looking at
old things in trunks when she was little. I think that's the way it is with folks,
a person developes a taste for antiques early and tends to stay with it
for life.



This is likely the best example. The butter churn to the left in this picture,
taken from over the refrigerator, was my Grandmothers on my Mother's side.
She died when I was very young, leaving me with only a couple of memories of her.

Mom kept this churn in the basement and never displaying it. For reasons
I may never know, I liked it, wanted it and asked for it when I was 20.
I know full well that behavior like that isn't very manly, but I didn't
seem to care about it then, and I curtainly don't care now. You've either got the
bug for antiques or not. I started early as did Janie.



So, do you have the antique bug? Do you find yourself collecting
rusty junk? What do you collect?

The last of the Saturday pond pictures

Everything is blaaa in Week 44

Week 45

Week 46

There's a little ice on the pond in week 47

We'll have a white Christmas, week 48

Week 49

Warmed up a bit for Week 50

An astounding 61 degs during Week 51

Master Bathroom finishing touch

This month, the master bathroom and the work needed to put the finial
touches on it, came to the top of the list. Janie had struggled with what
it was going to look like. It's "Theme" if you will.
Our half bath is all about water spigots, the up stairs bath is all about
door knobs. (I'll show that some day.)

The thing that was holding up the decorating was this stained glass
over the "loo". This view is from the foyer, with the pottie just
on the other side.



The one thing she wanted from the start was a cabinet over the sink.
I had put up a mirror after she finished painting the bathroom, just
as a place holder until this project came to the top of the list.
So, last week I bought some nice clear pine and commenced to building.






Once that was finished and hung, Janie proposed framing several
little pieces of antique quilts she has had for years and years.
She wanted them framed with the same cedar wood as the
trim in the bathroom. There are 6 of'em.





So this was to be the theme, Quilts and more Quilts.
Janie already had a stack of them on the linen storage
cabinet anyway, and I thought it was an outstanding idea.





The patchwork mimics the stained glass. (There's a pane of
frosted glass added to this side of the window so it can't
be seen through.)



It also goes well with the quilt looking rugs and shower curtain.




The last thing to do was to paint the outside of the tub.
We had the inside re-finished in the Fall but the outside was
still white and needed to be toned down a bit.
Now it matches the color of both cabinets.





Up next? the kitchen island and more storage space !

Wife, Daughters, and other wildlife

As Winter sets in, we find ourselves with little to do but sit in
the house and wish for day light. It's dark by 5:30 now and the
hours we would spend outside doing things, or just watching
the pond, has given way to movies and a few inside projects.


Some folks like to bring in some green during the Winter.
Janie is one of them. She has hung and wrapped pine looking
deco under the shelves we have over our picture windows.




These little rusty stars are nice for the Christmas season.
Janie hung them with strips of cloth from the "rods" I cut
and secured at the top of the picture windows.



Here's the way she's finished it, with the tree branch, greenery
and stars all together. I like her country style.



DE lives in Califorina and is schooling in photography.
Last week she visited a ghost town named Calico and discovered
that the "Lanes" were a predoninant family in the town.
She is missed.



DC has taken to making jewelry and has had much success!
This piece below is one of her's. She makes earrings and every
sort of bangle. All pieces are made by hand, can you amagine
the hours it takes to put this together? She had an open-house
last week and sold lots of stuff. DC tends to take after her mother.



Oh, and Stetson says "Hay"

Befores and afters

In keeping with the "Before and After" idea. Here's a shot
taken when the floor was being finished in our laundry room.
Note the plain cabinet hanging there all alone. It was left
over from the kitchen because it was too big to fit over the
microwave. I hung it in here mostly to get it out of the way.
Finishing the laundry room finialy came to the top of the list
and we got to work on it.
This will serve as the before.



So now we're "done' with it. Doesn't it just make you want
to do laundry?


Here's what I spent part of this weekend making.
Aaah so cute. These are some relatively old cloths pins
with the wire and all. (Stuff used as other stuff)


Jane created this little laundry room scene some years ago in an antique
iron box. That is to say: a box designed to store your iron in.


.... and in this corner we have an old ironing board,
apron and Bissel sweeper. That's it. Hope you enjoyed
our laundry room tour.

Changes

I have become interested in other people's building projects
as they are posted here. I like seeing before and after shots.
Although we built new from the ground up, we are still able
to offer some before and afters. Here's a few.

If, for some reason you are interested in the entire log
building process, a slide show may be found here:
http://www.loghomeu.com/profile/MelandJaneLane




The same angle in '09.



I don't know if that does anything for you, but I like to see
before and after shots. This was one reason Jane and I used
to watch "Extreme Makeover Home Edition". This is the area
and angle where the barn now stands.


Again there has been more progress on this than I can how here.
We've painted the rest of the barn and only need doors and cement
to finish. This was the only picture I could find from the same
angle as the "before" shot.


From approximatily the same location, the next two show the front
of the house facing the pond. See the pines?


You can't really see but a little bit of the pines between the garage
and house. The porch roof and screen wasn't up yet.


So here's the area where the rear of the house will set. (Use the
the twin pine trees as a reference in both pictures)
You can see a little of the shack as it exisited when we first saw
the property in february 2008.

There's a little diference in angle but you can see from the

back of the pond towards the back of the house.
Please note if you will, that the weeds and grass are now cut as this
was taken last year before we began any real outdoor fixing up.