Home Improvement News

We're currently back in Illinois (yes, we know it is the middle of winter), and as is normal, we're doing more work on our 80-year-old fixer-upper of a cottage.  Those of you who follow our improvements, our last trip in Chicago we were working on our guest room.  We did a lot of priming and painting, and pretty much finished out the room except for the floor (flooring lumber is what is under the tarp in the room center).  the pics show our progress in that week. 

Also as normal, soon after we left in December,  sister-in-law Maj set up shop in our living room and as her schedule permitted, started staining and polyeurethaning our floor and installed it, and when we arrived Wednesday night, the room was REALLY finished out.  The floor was spectacular, as per usual when referring to Maj's efforts.  Unfortunately, the next morning I went out for a New York Times and a walk, and didn't get a picture of the empty room.  Melinda and Maj had gotten busy and I returned to a fully furnished and decorated guest room!  At least I was able to catch a bit of floor here at left.

The women were concerned that it was "too girly", but I told them they could do what they wanted, and besides, I've got no taste in those sorts of things.  Today, after the bulk of photos were taken, we worked on getting shutters and curtains installed.  Melinda found the shutters on E-bay a few weeks after moving into the house in February of 2006, hoping someday to install them.  Well, they fit the windows perfectly, didn't need any staining or work, and look perfect in both our bedrooms. While Maj and I worked on the shutters, Melinda worked her sewing magic and finished the sheers, and finally finished up the room a little before dark this evening.  All that is left is a little trim work in the closet and the guestroom is officially finished!

Tomorrow we've got an electrician coming to chase down some wiring gremlins in the kitchen.  Unfortunately we had to take down some of our new bead board ceiling to expose the wiring, but hopefully we can get that squared away and the ceiling replaced this trip.   Look for an update as we leave in a few days!