A most magnificent mantle

It's finally here, it's finally done and I am so, SO excited!  After the search for the wood, all the searching for a carpenter, and the long wait, my fireplace mantle is finally finished!  Would you like to see it?

First, a reminder of what the fireplace looked like before:

Here is the big, beautiful fireplace; it's just missing something...

The giant cedar plank I found on craigslist.  Someone was selling the planks for $100 each.

I had the plank for over a year before we found someone to make the mantle.

And now, after a three day creation/installation process, here is the result:

Isn't it incredible?

So, after the final coat of shellac was applied to the mantle wood yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours cleaning the floor on my hands and knees, to get all the installation dust and dirt up.  Once the floor was clean, my son and I went down to the garage and (finally!) brought a rug in, then moved the final furniture into place.  (We carried up a sofa and two chairs that have been in the garage for the past two years, just waiting for the messy projects to be completed to be brought in.)

After two years of living in a living room project-in-process, it finally looks like a living room! I still have to hang pictures on the walls and do a few small things to get the room absolutely complete, but it's probably 90% there now, and it feels great!

This is the first room completed to the point that we've brought in a rug, and somehow the addition of a rug just makes a room feel finished to me.

So enough talk, here are a few more pics of the new mantle:

We had a big storm last night, and it just felt so cozy in the living room with all the candles lit.

I splurged on this great vintage blow mold duck I found at a consignment store for $16.

Then I ordered a light from Amazon so I could light him up.

I think he's the perfect lake house mascot.

My son gave me these beautiful flowers last week for my birthday.

The vases and vintage fairy lamp are from Goodwill and antique stores.

I have been a bit enthusiastic with my lake house duck theme, but I tried to keep it to an appropriate level...

Everything on my mantle was purchased secondhand and inexpensively.

The wooden duck is from an antique store, the duck vase (can't wait to fill it with flowers!) was from a thrift store and little duck candleholder came from an estate sale.

Note the beautiful worm holes in this mantle wood.  

Here are my candleholder and bunny from Goodwill, the vintage egg vase is from an estate sale.

The daffodils and forsythia are from my yard.

Happy spring!

So there you have it.  All done.  I was so happy with my beautiful finished mantle I even forgave my contractor, who did a wonderful job and gave me exactly what I wanted in the end.

And now I have the perfect focal point for the room, a giant mantle with plenty of space for photos, candles and flowers.  It's so much nicer than what we have back at the home/house.

It's just absolutely perfect.

Incidentally, my husband is not here this week.  He's coming tomorrow night, and I have not shown him any photos of the finished mantle (or room) and he's not allowed to see this blog either.  I really cannot wait to see his reaction.

Thank you, God.  With this room almost complete, I am super motivated to get all the others finished quickly.  Now on to the next one!

How hard is it really?

In a post a couple of months ago I mentioned our struggle in finding contractors to help us out with the house here in west Tennessee.  After peeling wallpaper in the hallway last March, we had small portions of the walls that were damaged, necessitating wall repair.  By May I had exhausted every possible resource I could find: multiple contractors ignored my inquiries for an estimate, one told me I lived too far away, one came and gave me and estimate and then never showed up or returned my calls.

So my husband and son ended up refacing the walls themselves, and I have to say, they did a perfect job.

That experience confirmed that we never want to work with contractors again around here unless we absolutely have to.

The problem is, now we have to.

I guess technically, we don't have to, but one thing I've wanted since we bought the house was a mantle for the giant stone fireplace in the center of the living room.  It just feels kind of naked without one, and I really want a place for candles, flowers and photos.

So I bought a long, thick slab of cedar wood from someone on craigslist and began to search for a carpenter who could form and install the mantle.

I hit all the same roadblocks that I did with the walls, and was stuck.  That is until the house next door to us sold and a new neighbor moved in.  He just happens to be a contractor.  "Do you know a carpenter who could make us a mantle?" I asked when we first met.

He let me know that he would love the project and could do it over the winter.  (This was last fall.)  In February I knocked on his door and asked if he was still interested.  He said he was, and he could come give an estimate between 10am and noon on Saturday.  At 1:30pm he showed up and gave us an estimate.

"I can do it next week," he informed me.

The problem was, we all had to leave the next day.  It was Saturday, and my husband was having a knee replacement on Monday.  There was no way I could be here.  I won't be back for two weeks, I told him.

"Ok," but if it's not Wednesday I can't promise when it will be," he said.

I let him know that when I came back in two weeks, I'd be here for a long time, and would be very flexible to work around.

So two weeks later I came back.  And I was here for four weeks.  I didn't hear anything about the mantle.  After the third week, my husband texted him, would he be able to do the project soon?

No response.

After three days, my husband went over and knocked on the door.  When he returned, he said our neighbor could do it "probably Thursday or Friday."  (This was the Saturday before.)

Great!  I was finally going to get my mantle!  This was great news, as I was planning to drive home again for the weekend Friday evening (which is now today.)  My birthday is Monday, and I don't really want to spend it here at the house alone.  I'll be at the home/house for a few days, since I haven't been there in a month, to take care of some things there before I come back.

"I told him you would reach out to him on Wednesday, the night before," my husband said.

So on Wednesday I sent a text.  "This is your neighbor, just checking in regarding the mantle.  My husband said you might do it Thursday or Friday?"

No response.

(Something "funny:" when my husband gave me his number to put in my phone, and I went to reach out to him, my phone showed I had texted him before.  Apparently he was one of the contractors I had reached out to requesting an estimate for the walls.  I never had a response to that text either.)

Thursday night I got a text.  "Doesn't look good for tomorrow.  I'll try for Monday."

*Sigh.*

I responded, telling him I had to leave town Friday evening.

"I'll try to do it Friday.  Try." was his answer.

Ok.  So maybe I would get the mantle today?

If I was getting a mantle, I had no idea what time he MIGHT be coming to do it.  So I set my alarm for 6:30am, just to be ready.

Well, to wrap this up, it is now 2pm on Friday.  I have been sitting at my kitchen table all day, killing time all day waiting to hear something about a mantle that is apparently not happening today.

No text, no call, no knock on the door or anything.  (He does live just next door.)

So I decided posting about my frustration was something I could do to kill some time.

But really, what is the chance that I was here for four weeks straight and it couldn't get done?  Or that he FINALLY gave us dates and then couldn't do those either?  Or that he would reschedule to do it on my birthday?  (Absolutely no way would I stay here on my birthday waiting for it to happen, to potentially spend another day just waiting for a text!)

But more than him being busy, the frustration is regarding the lack of communication.  I mean, how hard is it to send a one line text?  When you have to wait days for a response that requires you planning your schedule around, it would be nice to hear something, even if it's not the response you're hoping for.

Even now I'm not sure if I leave, I might get a text that he wants to get started.  (Unlikely I know, but Murphy's Law almost guarantees it.)

The worst part of it?  This is one project that neither my husband or myself want him to do.  This mantle will need to be drilled into a stone fireplace, and there's just no room for error.

Being dependent on people that don't treat you respectfully is frustrating.  But here we are.

There are so many worse problems, I know.  At least I'm not in Ukraine.

I'll end with a couple of photos.  Like I said, it was a hard week to show progress in photos of projects completed, but this helps show why.  Here is our living room a week ago:

Amidst some furniture that got dumped there awhile back, when I came back from my thrifting and estate sale-ing weekend I had stuff all over the place.  I had to sort and clean everything I bought, as well as figure out where it was going.

But here is the living room, as of Wednesday (I had to clear it out so the mantle could be installed - or so I thought):

A bit different, no?

The yet-to-be mantle at least inspired me to deal with some things that had been piled up for a while.  So I guess it wasn't all bad...I guess.

But a response to a text on the day that it's sent - even if it's super short - it would be nice.

I mean, how hard is it really?

"Small" changes

For the last two weeks I've been working on some projects in the house that are not particularly exciting, and that didn't provide any very interesting pics to share.

I finished painting the very last (!😄!) sections of dark molding in the house (deglossing first, then five coats of white paint): inside a closet, part of the entrance hall and a bathroom window.  I told you; exciting!

I also brought some furniture out of the garage - some sanded-but-yet-unpainted-shelves, a daybed that still needs to be put together, and a cabinet that's waiting to be cleaned and filled with games.  No photos there, either (yet!).

I finished painting the bathroom walls, but still need to caulk the molding, touch up paint the molding, clean the vanity hardware, reinstall the vanity cabinet doors and work on a little wall paint project I've got in mind.  So no pics there either (yet!).

So, since none of those efforts are ready for their close ups, I thought I'd share a few "small" changes of late.  (The "small" is in quotation marks because, while these may appear to be small changes to others, they were BIG in their psychological impact on me!  Sometimes when you're working on what feels like an endless project - and it's hard to see progress - the little changes mean a lot.  They are what keep you going through all the tasks that lack obvious payoffs.)

Anyway, here goes:

Small change #1:

Here is my husband's former "office."

When we first moved in, he needed a desk so he could work from home while here.  He borrowed this kitchen table from the garage (we found the desk chair at an estate sale) and made this bedroom a workspace, surrounded by house project boxes (of course).

Here is his new "office."

Once the foster kids went home and I painted the room they stayed in, I put this marble table (found on craigslist) in the corner to become the new "office" or workspace for any future guests who rent the place and need a comfortable spot to work.

I'm a huge fan of marble tops - because of their elegance and ability to withstand hot laptops/hot coffee cups/cold water glasses, etc. - so I bought this table that was not designed to be a desk.

(I also liked that it took up a little less real estate than most desks.  Most people working on a laptop don't need an enormous desk.)

Since the table wasn't intended to function as a desk, I ordered some clear risers to put under the legs to give it a little more height.

This is the clean, elegant look I was hoping for.  And practical, too!

Small change #2:

Curtains!

This window molding went from having dark stain to white paint, and I found the perfect curtains at WalMart.  They are floral and cheerful and just what I wanted.

I 💗 these little colored glass swans I found at a thrift store.

(They are perfect 1970's colors too!)

The kitchen window sill (sadly) isn't deep enough for plants, but my little swans fit perfectly.

It's the little details that make a house feel like a home.

The dining area got new WalMart curtains too, and it's closer to looking finished.

WalMart just happened to have curtains (well, a valance) in exactly the colors and style I was looking for.  (And of course at the right price.)  When does that ever happen?

Since I want to celebrate the vintage style of this 1970's house, I've tried to collect some vintage things to style it with.

I found this wonderful "Bible" at Goodwill and it was perfect - there will be a lot of scriptures on the walls of this house!

I just stuck this on the wall temporarily (on a nail that was already there), but I think it's going to stay here.  What perfect verses for these crazy times.

So a few "small" changes; but they filled me with hope that more and bigger are just around the corner!

And of course my husband and son rolled into town last weekend and made numerous trips through the kitchen without noticing anything had changed.  When I finally asked if they noticed anything new, they both looked around the room(s) puzzled.

"Curtains?"  My husband tentatively ventured.

*Sigh.*

Well, maybe it was more important for me than for them, and that's ok.  As my son observed, "There is a lot of stuff everywhere Mom.  It's kind of hard to notice in this mess."  He had a point.

All of these boxes of stuff will soon be organized.  The big changes are on their way!

Who knew?

Full disclosure: this post has absolutely nothing to do with any topic even remotely related to this blog.  But because I'm in the midst of finishing some projects, and on the cusp of having LOTS of progress to post (though nothing at the moment), I figured I'd share something curious that has kept me entertained.

Over the past few months, while I was home (not The House of Goodwill), I observed something I've never seen before.

I was reading one morning in December, sitting in my living room, when I noticed my dog was fixated on something going on outside the window.  What was it?

Shiloh was watching a blue jay on the patio.

If it's hard to tell what the blue jay is doing in this pic, it's eating.

And while this may appear to be a small birdfeeder, it's not.

This is a bowl of...cat food.

Did you know blue jays like cat food?  I didn't.

Here's the blue jay again in February.  He's a regular at the cat food dish; in fact I often see multiple blue jays around the bowl.

I guess the cat must be sleeping.

Is it just me, or this a bit of a surprise?  And this isn't just regular cat food, this is special (expensive!) cat food created to help cats who suffer from urinary tract problems.  (The reason the cat mostly lives and eats outdoors.)  My guess?  That it wouldn't be as tasty as the grocery store, byproduct-filler-variety cat food, as it's more of a "food as medicine" type of kibble.

But what do I know?  I'm not a cat.  Or a blue jay.

And it seems the blue jay likes it even more than the cat.

So we have to place the cat food bowl in the center of the patio table, so the dogs can't reach it.  (Apparently ALL animals love this urinary tract problem-fixing food.)  If it's anywhere on the ground, it becomes dog food.  But if it's anywhere higher, now it's bird food.  (And there is an actual birdfeeder full of seed just a few feet from this dish; where the blue jays USED to eat.  Now they mostly ignore it in favor of the cat bowl.)

Now that I think about it, the only creatures I haven't seen in the bowl are the squirrels.  And that's definitely good, as the squirrels are always eating the food for the birds.

*Sigh.*  And this is not cheap, as the cat's food must be purchased from the vet's office, since it's a prescription food.  These blue jays are costing me a small fortune!

Oh well.  At least they're keeping me entertained.  And the dogs too.

As to the cat, well, let's just say if cats had their own feline police, mine would never make the force.

And if this little anecdote has a moral, I guess it's that many animals seem to highly prefer food designed for other animals.  So I guess animals and people really aren't all that different.

And urinary tract problem-fixing cat food is extremely appealing to blue jays.  You can wow someone with that little factoid at your next party.  

You're welcome.