Our daughters' bedroom. We bought our "labor of love" fixer upper 2 years ago and never finished any bedrooms. So last weekend, DH primed and painted. The weekend before he finished all the window casings and crown moulding and baseboard moulding. Hoping to get all the trim painted by this weekend so we can move them back in. It's really tough getting them ready in the morning with their clothes in so many different places. Hoping to post pics next week.
On a side note: - a very dear friend of mine just gave birth last week to her first a product of IVF after 5 years of infertility. Wishing you the best!

Hubby and I started working on painting the hideous brick columns on the front of our hideous house. We got the power washing done and acquired the needed supplies last Saturday. Woke up bright and early Sunday morning to fix the cracks but it was too blasted cold and windy. Then Hubby got called over to Mom's house to deal with a crisis and the day was shot. Hopefully we'll get it done some time in the near future. I've been wanting to do this for about a year and a half now.

Here's what the house looked like before we painted the main part and installed new gutters:
{{!gwi}}From TheHouse

I'll get a more recent pic before we do the columns. The stucco part was painted yellow Nov 2007.

New curtains for the living room - will try hanging them tonight but they will probably have to be shortened. Also having new cushions made for two chairs, as soon as I find someone to make them; already have the fabric. Wood blind and curtains for the breakfast/TV room, matching the living room (it's the original dining room).

The rest is just tidying and organizing. I've applied for a refi and been advised not do do anything substantial until it closes, which is not imminent.

I've been stripping wallpaper from my kitchen and dining area and I am only about half way done. I am tired and ready to scream! :)

We have finally gotten around to painting the formal dining room in our 1902 Colonial Revival...ended up going with bm bennington gray (really kind of a mushroom - y neutral in this light). I'm a little anxious to see it all come together - hanging drapes, heavy mirror, art, et cetera. Have my fingers crossed that we'll be happy with the finished product! Fun thread, igloo - let's all get some pictures up!

I'm (re)planting three gardens this week and my house inside looks like someone stirred it with a stick! DS has graduated from grad school and is home for the summer. His stuff from his flat at college is stacked everywhere! We're trying to deal with that this week, too.
And, he's just told me that he's invited the head of one of the university's departments to come for a visit with us in a couple of weeks :~O (Sooooo, those are my projects for the next two weeks.
Lynn

I've been working on my new "cottage" garden for the past week. It's too big to call a flower bed. Here's a before picture taken after the new addition:

I still have about 30 plants to put in that are in flats on the porch, but this is what it looks like now. IF they grow, the whole areas will be flush with flowers. Which I'll take a picture of once they're all planted and have somewhat grown.

What's funny is the front now faces north so I thought I'd have to do shade gardening. Wrong. It gets full sun except the front porch, so I was really lucky in buying a lot of new plants I've never grown before. Not shown are the morning glory, four o'clock, Daylily and moonflowers growing all over the place. I keep them out of my garden though.

Left of the sidewalk, all baby plants:

Other side:

Igloo

I think I got "projected out" - minor things organizing - thinking about how to pull the sewing area together - , tennis (does that count?), and end of school year kiddie things

Thoughts and prayers are with you and yours for your successful IVF - God willing you will have a March baby! My first three were all March - 2 dd had same due dates 3 yrs apart - 2nd one was born on leap yr or they likely would share same b-day -
So wishing you the BEST project of all! Baby -
best to you

If I say it I'm afraid I'm going to jinx my progress/ energy!

I am going to work this weekend on the same projects I do every weekend. (The ones I didn't get done from the weekend before.)

3 porches to paint and the whole wall around the pool to patch and paint. Also got my order from Santa Rosa gardens tonight so have about 75 plants from them and the order from Brushwood is due in the next day or so...nope nothin' to do...I am alredy tired. oakley and lynn wanna share and help each other ???

igloo...all the good and positive thoughts in the world to you and your family...c

As promised, here's the "now" pics in all their scary wonder:

The colors are pretty true here (at least on my monitor):

This is how we wind up with our train wrecks...
I have always dreamed of a classic Victorian painted bright, clear yellow with a green roof, white trim and black accents. Hubby put an absolute veto on black so we wound up with red. The columns are on the way out so I decided to just have some fun with them. Besides, other than that there isn't much to "accent" on this house. We also knew the bricks would not be staying as they are so didn't bother adding them into the color equation. Many stalled projects and crises later, the bricks are still unchanged and the hideous arches remain. Maybe some day I'll get a little closer to what it is that I truly want. Until then I cringe every time I pull up to our house.

Hoping everything goes well on the 19th! Don't overdo!
Our big project should start this weekend. Painting the new garage we had built this spring. The builder just has the siding on the dormer to finish. Hopefully that gets done before the weekend.
Picture taken tonight. The board you see on the left side is where a 8x16 deck/porch will be built. But probably not until fall.
{{gwi:684947}}
These are the colors. I painted a scrap piece of siding. The green will be the body color, the straw will be the trim and the rust will be the detail. The inset piece is a metal sample for the lights we are considering(the metal piece scanned brighter than it really is)
{{gwi:684948}}

Thanks for the kind thoughts all :) I spoke with the embryologist today and he was more than positive...he's really expecting this to work so I hope we don't disapoint him LOL

DS was sick sick sick today so I didn't get much garage clearing done :( He's been clingy with a high fever, and when that happens all of the world stops LOL If I see another Thomas video I'm gonna scream!

PB did I ever tell you...I like the arches LOL

And thanks for fun pics! I'll post some tomorrow. The nanny is back to work tomorrow so I can work again. One of the biddie's from up the hill is already complaining that the conex is ruining her view (she does not have one...she's a block away and her windows are blocked by trees...you can't see the freaking top of my unit from heres LOL) DH being the mental midget he can be on rare occasions...told the association it will be gone in a week? WHAT????? The 19th darling...for gads sake. Grrr He's wonderful normally, but he expects me to work at pre-sickbaby pace, in my current, broken wrist (I'm still only 30% of the stregnth I had)sickbaby world. Things take five times as long unfortunately!

Oh well we'll see how it goes LOL I may be a busy girl on the 19th LOL

Ypu can have them if you want to come get them - as long as I get some of the "salvage" from that Victorian ;).

The arches aren't terrible in and of themselves, but with the stupid brick columns and no other "Spanish" feature they look just like what they are - a pitiful attempt to make a cheaply=built tract home look "unique". Bleh.

We'll definitely be sending lots of positive thoughts your way.

Wow, lots of very cool projects going on.

What's a conex? Iggy, best of luck on the 19th and take it easy after that. Don't you have a move coming up? Hey, will you soon be Iggy Sulaiman? ;o) Please tell us all 14 of them will be redheads and as cute as the little heartbreaker you already have. One look at that kid of yours and I was head over heels.

I'm in a RED mood.

Yesterday I painted a tray, a bucket and a breadbox red. I intend to paint designs on them and they'll go in my kitchen.

Today I painted the front door red. It was a comedy of errors and I wasn't sure if it worked out or not -- it ended up kind of looking like a wood-grained red door. A neighbor lady just came over and said it looked awesome, and my son dropped by and said the same thing. Woohoo!!! Now all I have to do is polyurethane it and it needs new door knobs and dead bolt.

I also painted two planters red to match the front door. I'll do decorative painting on them too, then spar varnish them, then plant junipers in them and put them at the corners of my garage.

Now I get to start the decorative painting.

Still need to get my garden weeded and planted, and have more weeding to do in the back yard, then once the planters are painted I'll plant the junipers.

I am packing up and going on vacation on Saturday. But, before I go I have to finish my kitchen project I started a few weeks ago. So today and tomorrow I will be painting the trim and caulking. If all goes well I will be done by Friday so I can then pack---LOL.

Good luck to you with your IVF.

LOL Oceanna you need to wear a mask :oP Those fumes are getting to you heh heh

We are only implanting two for an 82% chance of success...if we were any more successful we'd have to reduce the pregnancy and I don't want to have to do that! And we will only implant the ones with red hair LOL cuz I want another little cutie with curly red hair heh heh With my luck we'll get some freaking blond giant gene that creeped up from ten million years of genetic family history :oP But if the little giant blond is healthy :) We'll take it!

A conex is the container you see on the back of a semi truck. They set on top of the trailor of the semi, or you often see them on railroad cars. I'll take some pics today :) It's big! I'm almosted tempted to host a dinner party in it just for fun LOL

Pb I have some green trim we'll be removing from the victorian and you can have all of the purple carpet you want :oP

Ava...honey hurry and get it done...I need you over here for the same project LOL

Igloochic - good luck with the IVF. Are you doing PGD? DD is an IVF/PGD baby. I only had 2 "normal" embies out of 12 each round (2 rounds). Since you've already done 1 round this one will be successful!

How did you break your wrist? Hope that is better soon - are you in a cast for a while?

Iggy, hehehe! Yep I've probably breathed a lot of paint fumes in the last few days. I wish you the healthiest, happiest, prettiest baby GIRL! Think pink!

Oh yeah, I got a conex when I moved, and filled it too, all 15' long of it. I just never heard it called that. When did you break your wrist, and how? Why don't you hire a strong teenager or two to pitch things in that conex for you? All you'll have to do is point your delicate little pointer finger and say "take that, and that, and that..."

Igloochic- Best of Luck on the 19th!!!

I have two old windows to paint and add flower boxes to- these will go on the privacy fence we are in the process of installing.

Finish planting my flowers/plants- I have about 40 to get in the ground.

Paint the trim in DD's room and it will be finished- well except the fireplace and I believe I will need help from the creative people on this forum.

Reorganize the storage shed.

Getting all unneeded items out of the house for a yard sale at the end of the month.

Well this is the list that should keep me busy until Sunday- then DH will be home and we will start working on installing the privacy fence again.

I'm spending the week recovering from last week's overexertions and soaking the scabs off the very nasty sunburn I got Memorial Day weekend. Bleah. This weekend we're finishing the porch floor installation, sanding down and repriming the wonky corner where the floorboards meet at right angles at two different tilts and the board corners stick up, and epoxy-consolidating two column supports that couldn't be replaced. I also need to get in touch with Sikkens about how to clean the primed floor in order to put the second coat of opaque stain on (it poured for four days last week and the flooring got muddy during installation) and put in the order for railing parts at Vintage Woodworks since we finally got the building permit to replace the porch stairs.

Not a big project but I'm dusting off my 40 year old sewing machine for the first time in years and making a square topper for a round table. If this works out I have lots of plans for WT, chair covers, and bedskirts.

Judging by this thread, y'all should be posting a whole lot of before and after pictures soon, right?

Outside of a little planting, I don't have any plans for a project this summer. Too busy making guest list for parties, and the wedding. My daughter gets married at the end of September. Lots more to do. I am starting to panic!

No big projects in the works for me this year...except for DD2's wedding in October. But I do have a lot of little ones to finish up.

In fact, I'm taking a week of vacation next week to get caught up on some of them. One is to remove this STUPID ledge in my LR bay window. It's too small to be a seat, but not quite deep enough to be a good plant shelf. It's just annoying. So I want it gone then I can finally hem the sheers for that window. I should also finally tile the hearth for the LR fireplace. But we never use the LR, so those projects tend to get put off.

After reading about all your incredibly fatiguing projects I had an attack of extreme weakness and will have to rest for the remainder of the week. Thanks a lot everyone!

I'm painting my formica kitchen cabinets white. I'm using UMA for a bonder & so far it's working great. I spent an hour today trying to find the nicest handles for the best price. I'm redoing my kitchen on a tight budget. I can splurge a little in one area & I think that'll be my granite countertops. So if I can get my cabinets painted by next week, I'll be pleased.
Igloo,
Good luck w/ IVF...I have wonderful 3 year old twins that have blessed my life tremendously. I call them my little lifesavers. Blessings to you!

Good luck on the 19th! (I'm with you on the red heads!!) I often babysit for two IVF babies who are now 9 and 7. They are normal double trouble, but very sweet!
My projects are curtains for almost every window in my house and kitchen curtains for DS and DIL! I have already done most of the outside work, as we installed a new patio and none of the existing garden stuff looked right.
I'm also planning a midsummer party and a bit later Camp Grandma week. I'm tired already!!

Good luck Igloo.82% sounds pretty darn good to me. The main project is to put in a patio with the 1880s bricks I scored for free from CL a couple of years ago. Tired having a stack of bricks behind the garage and tired of not having a patio. We are taking vacation 3rd week of June to do it. Well, someone has to supervise, right? I can't do much of the work anymore.

good luck on the 19th Igloo....counting on you to bring us 2 little red head girls. Maybe a little bit less sassy than their mom LOL (I don't think this world can handle 3 of you) :-D

We were planning on finishing off the staining of our exterior rough-sawn timber window trim this weekend, but with the rainy weather we've been having for the last few weeks that's not going to happen. Since our house is being appraised Monday for our refi I'll probably just be cleaning and organizing instead.

Good luck with the IVF and try not to work too hard!

I will be out working in the yard; if this rain ever
lets up.

None for me - busy with my IVF baby :) Best of luck to you, it's such a roller coaster!

Igloo, I am sending out huge positive vibes for a successful pregnancy. So glad they finally came up with a better term than they used when we went through the process of trying to have a 'test tube baby'.

Moved into my new closet and refinished the outside of the tub. Got the feet back from the sandblaster. Tomorrow I'm heading to Sacramento to 'Mac, the antique plumber' store to procure fixtures and fittings for it. Been mowing our 2 acres between (unseasonal) rains.

Leaving for a week's vacation at our beloved cabin on the lake in the Sierra's on the 13. No cell phones, no TV, no computers. Just a kayak and lots of unread books. But I'll be busy next week getting everything ready.