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.

39th week on the pond

39th Week and Fall is set-in.

Week number 40

Week 41 brings a little trimming.

Week 42 and hardly a leaf on a tree. Most of them are on the pond.

There's nothing spooky-pooky about this, the 43rd Saturday morning of 2010 Go to January 2011 to finish

On the campus

In July of this year, I wrote about touring the Wylie House Musuem, and I
mentioned that a barn was under construction to the rear of the main house.
Well, it's finished and about to be opened to the public. Jo the Director
met Janie and I on Saturday for a personal tour of the barn.




To the left of the main entry you'll see this super nice stainless
steal mail box.




From the entry, I have a tendency to look up at the vast openess of the barn.
Beams! give me old wooden beams.




There is an open space which will be utilized for special events and so on.
Art will soon fill the walls.

As you go up the stairs to the second story you see old
things as art, like this barn pulley.

What a desk! The second level is full of outstanding
pieces, put together nicely to make a working office
with the feel of history.

This room is dressed out as a library for books owned by the
Wylie family.

Books with age.

Those shelves, those books, that funiture, .... it's like going back in time.

A close-up of a 1700's era desk used by the Wylie family up to the
point it was donated to IU.

This office is somewhat longer and shows off lots of old barn wood.
It sure beats the office i'm in every day.

I enjoy details with whimsy, like this inside window looking into an upper story office from the balcony. It surely wasn't needed, but it adds much.

Back on the outside we see the attention to detail continues with these nice
eyebrow windows. A nice source for natural light and a nice look too.

The shadow of a nearby tree falls on the East side of the barn.

Thanks Jo, for the personal tour.

Low water level

Due to a lack of any real rain the last three months, the ponds
in our area have lost a lot of their volume. Our's was no exception.
What we thought was a bad thing, turned out to be a blessing.
The low water levels have made it easy to accomplish
a couple of repairs to the pond. The first was to find and
fix a leak that became apparent in the Fall of '08. We found
it at the overflow pipe. (Can you see how sad the pond looks?)



First we dug out around the pipe and built the forms to
shape the concrete.





Next pour the forms.

Here's the finished product. Now you know what 800#'s of

concrete looks like.
(Please note the date: 10-10-10, very cool)

Another advantage of the low water this Fall was
having the pond dug deeper in sections. We had a guy
come and remove dirt (mud) from three areas that had
gotten shallow over the life of the pond. When the water
level returns to normal, the pond should appear very
much larger.



You can see here how wide the new bridge is as it spans
the East arm of our little pond. We expect enough room
to be able to glide under the bridge while feeding the fish.




The West side was made deeper as well. Perhaps a nice place
to dock the canoe.