We thought it was a good idea...

....to save the antique french doors that were original to our 1930 cottage. Originally, they lead from the very large dining room to the front room, which was used as the living room. We got the bright idea to turn the large dining room into our living room, open up the wall between the two, move the french doors to that wall.

Easy, right? Not so much.

After months of cutting holes in walls, reframing them, patching, wallboarding, texturing, floating, sanding, painting, etc. we were finally able to get the doors back in today. After Rudy found the hinge pins, that is. :-)

The thing is, those doors were custom made for the original opening. Nothing in that house is plumb, square or true, and neither was that door opening. When we bought the house, the doors would shut, but barely. And of course, houses like that one shift when there's rain, or a bit of wind, or a bit of sun. LOL

Anyway, we have a bit of "tweaking" to do, which probably will mean that the hinges will have to be removed, shimmed, moved again, holes filled, doors repainted, etc. Hopefully, then the doors will shut. We shall see.

Happy trails!

bobbi c.

Doors doors doors!

One of the issues with having lots of cats is how to keep them in one part of the house while you're working in another. I know many Realtors thought I was nuts when walking through potential homes because one of the things I made sure to check was the location and number of doors. Like many old houses, our new/old house has LOTS of doors, and since we added a closet, expanded the pantry and added a hallway, we had lots of doors to deal with. Rudy had a lot of fun figuring out which doors to move where, and surprisingly enough, it worked out well. We even have one door left over.

One of the main milestones in our remodeling project in this 1930 cottage was to add a walk-in shower with glass doors. After months of dealing with the plumbing, removing the old tub (which is still sitting in the back yard), adding backerboard and tile, we were finally ready for the local glass company (Floyd's Glass in Taylor) to come install doors. They had them in pronto and were finished in about an hour (as well as repairing a piece of broken window glass). Well, let me just say that I'm tickled pink!

This photo shows the shower doors as you walk into the bathroom. The glass is called "Rain" and looks just like rain streaking down a window. Hmmm, did I subconsciously choose that because of the drought we're in? I see a theme here. LOL

This is the left-hand side of the doors.

And the middle and right-hand side bottom. I was skeptical how the white shower pan would look, but it actually looks pretty good. Now, after we add the baseboards back in and paint and install the chair railing trim (which will cover the line between the green and tan paint) the bathroom will be finished.

Another door we had to add back on was the linen closet door in the bathroom. Most of the doors had to be removed when we put in the floor tile. Also, now that the house has an AC, we had to cut a few inches off each door for air flow -- something that is critical and that not a lot of people seem to do.

Here's the utility room door from the inside.

And the same door from inside the dining room. You can see the pantry door to the right. Ironically enough, my father built a corner cabinet out of pine the year I was born and my mother decorated it with those fruity decals that were so popular then. If I measured correctly, it will fit right there in that back corner -- the ONLY corner in the whole house that's not filled with a window. Over the past 55+ years, that cabinet has always been in one dining room or another and I cannot wait to move it over here!

And to the left you can see the back door. Lots of doors, I told ya!

And since I can't help myself, I had to hang something up on that blank wall. Here's a handmade spring floral wreath I made last year for the front door. Purty, ain't it?

So, we still need to install the door frame and door for the AC closet, and the BIG door project, which is to replace the antique french doors that came out of the former living room (we switched rooms around). We're moving them one room over so that they'll be the opening between the kitchen and the living room.

Once that's done, the house will be cat-proof and we won't have any other excuses not to move in! Well, other than the fact that we haven't packed much of anything. :-D

Happy trails!

bobbi c.

Big big progress!

I've been a bit lax about posting photos. First of all, I had a major fall in the garage here and although I'm OK, I've been taking it easy with the climbing the ladder, painting and scraping thing. Rule One -- If a stray bird gets into a very crowded workshop garage, just leave it there! Stupid bird made me fall. But I digress.

Husband's been very busy working on the shower. Since the original planks were in the walls, and were very wavy, we had to put in a layer of backerboard over wooden cleats to level them. Over that went the field tile, then the mosaics, then more field tile, and then the trim. Note to Self -- Next time, do all the field tile THEN put in the mosaic bits.

Here's the new posh Jacuzzi toilet which I hope will cut down on the time it takes to clean. No more cleaning of that "wormy thingy at the bottom." Rudy is SO good to me! LOL. My friend Gloria wonders if pioneer women were as excited when they got a new three-seater in the outhouse. Probably! :-)

Here's the medicine cabinet that has a nifty hidden electrical outlet in the bottom behind the doors (customized by us) so we have a place to hide away the electric toothbrush, R's shaver, etc. The plan is to paint the frame of the mirror brown. The sink is a high-end Kohler that I found on clearance at Lowe's. Score!!

And here's the shower with the finished tile (not grouted yet) -- left-hand side:

And right-hand side:

The friendly fellow from locally-owned Floyd's Glass came out today to measure for the shower doors. Those should be installed in about a week. Yay!

And, I'd like to introduce my pet squirrel, which I have fondly named "Basil" -- as in the British pronunciation (baa-zill). He's quite the character, and has been trained to only eat from his little dish. AHAHAHAHAHA! Liar liar pants on fire. Oh well, maybe with a little coaxing, I can keep him out of the birdfeeder. As if.

More later!

Happy trails from Texas!

bobbi c.