7am on Wednesday the 7th.

I haven't hurt this much in a loooooong time. Yesterday was another banner work day where we got a lot done.


Can you see the smile on my face? All of sudden, this cottage is coming together and I really like the outcome. It is completely different from the way I envisioned it looking when we bought it, but in an amazing way. The downstairs has become a very tranquil space. I wasn't quite sure about painting it all one color, but it works very well.


. The downstairs ceiling is finished, and looks incredible, gone is the peeling bright yellow ceiling in the kitchen as well as the bluish white ceiling in the old living room that had drips of what looked like nicotine staining the underside of the beams. In it's place is a pure white beamed ceiling that really unifies the space.

The stairs have come a long way and now all the treads and risers are cut out and placed. Today, Greg should screw everything down and then start on the banister.

I had lots of neighbors stop in yesterday to have a looksee. I have given over to self-guided tours because we need every second to get the house in some condition to be habitable for our friends and their kids who are coming next Tuesday. A really nice neighbor stopped by with warm fresh baked bread last night and I gotta tell ya, I like the ritual! We like lemonade, diet coke, and fruit too.....just sayin'.

Though I have no photos this am, I spent yesterday priming two sides of the first floor exterior and was all set to keep going when the flash rain storm started and kicked the humidity levels into high gear. I put my brushes down and took several hours off and then came back last night around 7pm and decided to paint some more window trim and prep and prime the kitchen floor for a top coat. You can see the primed floor in the last photo above. What I thought might take me an hour or so, took 3 and a half. I swept, vacuumed, and scrubbed the floor of all dirt. I then taped the outside of the floor and began by tinting the primer. The floor took a load of primer and the thick goopy primer filled in a lot of the floor's imperfections. I was amazed at what it covered. Of course, by this morning, the primer had settled between the boards in the floor and so the floor doesn't look as good as it did when the paint was fresh. I got done by 10:30 and made it home soon thereafter.