Feeling Better and Ready to Get Back to Work!

I'm healing quickly and feeling anxious to get back to work downstairs on my sewing room! Sugarplum and I are tired of working puzzles.

 Just before the accident, I found these two end tables at a local thrift shop. I think that with a little work, I can turn them into an island for the downstairs kitchen. My husband is "dubious", so now I have to wow him with what I do! I will post a picture when I finish unless it is a big failure. I have a plan in my mind! (The boxes behind them are cabinets for my sewing room. I can't put them together until the floor is down in there because there is no place to store them in the meantime.)

 Speaking of thrift shops, I found something totally unexpected just Saturday. I was taking my time looking over the shelves and saw a big rock in a zip-loc bag.  I recognized it as a fossilized bone. 

 One person thinks it may be a whale bone. If any of you out there have any other ideas, let me know. Any paleontologists out there? It is very definitely fossilized and weighs about 2 pounds. The minerals in it look like the flint we have here among the limestone. Because this area of the hill country is a retirement area, there are all kinds of interesting things in the thrift shops. This could have come from anywhere in the world, although this part of Texas is known for it's fossils. There are dinosaur tracks not far from here, although I'm not saying this is a dinosaur vertebrae. If it is whale, it was brought here from elsewhere, which is probably the case.

I have not been able to go downstairs these last few weeks, but the underlayment is down, new air conditioning ducts and vents are in, and we are getting closer to being able to put down the flooring.

We're still enjoying the wildlife and it appears they are having fun at our expense!

We heard a noise in the garage and when we opened the door, this doe ran out! She found the deer corn and managed to get a new, unopened bag off a shelf and partially opened!

She just stood a distance away to see if we would feed her.

I hope to post pictures of my sewing room soon. I am SO ready for progress! 

Until then.....

 

July 2015 Update on the Hill Country House

My flowers are doing well in the back patio area! They are protected from the deer.

That's a good thing, because the deer have been here in large groups. The bucks still have their velvet. This photo is taken through the dining room window, where we can watch them while we eat.

After these guys left, another visitor came along. A gray fox!

My oldest son was here all week, so we were busy having a good time. We did manage to get some things done, though.

 We got the rug down in the office. 

 We started organizing the pantry. (I don't have it stocked with many cans yet.)

 My son talked us into getting a P-Touch label maker to help with the job! I love it!

 I managed to create a temporary guest bedroom out of a 12' x 6/5' closet! It had wallpaper in it along with shelves, so I stripped them out and repainted tan over the dark maroon. I added a twin sized bed, a $5 thrift shop table, a lamp, and a rattan chair that I bought months ago for $4. The ottoman I had already along with the lamp and coral. The bedspread was an estate sale find for $5. I made the pillow by sewing a rectangle of burlap to a pillow I made from a canvas drop cloth. I hand painted the word "beach" on it. Later, some of these items will go in the beach bedroom I hope to create so I can showcase the large watercolor my sister did of my granddaughter and I on the beach.

A new Goodwill store opened in Kerrville and I bought this coffee table to replace the one I was using (and didn't like.) I touched up some dings with stain on a Q-tip!

 

We found these playing cards under one drawer.

I'll save another find for another day. I think it will bring back memories for a lot of you!

 

 

Rush Hour is Coming!! And a Hill Country Update

                                                       

Yes, Rush Hour is coming and my day will be Wednesday! Please join us! 

In the meantime, my rush has lasted much longer than an hour! This is an extremely busy time at the hill country house. After being on a three and a half week waiting list for our countertops, we spent last Monday at the house while they were put in. 

I know it's hard to tell what the kitchen will be like at this point, but my countertops are almost in. (More on that in a moment!)

We chose quartz over granite because this seems to be the upcoming trend. Quartz needs no resealing and doesn't "etch" like granite. I want something that I can enjoy without worries. The plastic wrap is still on these countertops at this point. They are a bronze color. The half wall you see above and all the walls without wall board will have limestone.

Here is the prep sink. We chose a trough style sink because it is under the window and seemed to fill the space better. 

After 7 hours of installation, there was a seam that just didn't lay flush. It will have to be fixed and it seems that the countertop has to go back to the shop for that! It also appears we are back on the waiting list! The shop has not returned our calls and the counters have not been removed to be repaired. This is a highly recommended business.   (I may mention their name if they don't do something soon!) We are beginning to think we may have done better to just have one of the big box stores do our countertops! (I am more than a little distressed by this.) Businesses in the hill country have more business than they can handle!

The stone people have had us on a list too and are supposed to come next week. If the countertops are not in they will not come and we will be back to square one with them, too! In the meantime, the flooring will be delivered on Wednesday and the stone has to be in before it can be installed! (Another waiting list!)

I did get a lot of painting done! I painted last week, but when the countertops were put in my gray looked more olive green! (I do have a little color blindness unfortunately. I have to have help with subtle greens because they look gray to me.) I finally chose a great soft gray called Gray Mist. I love Behr paint and it didn't disappoint! (I'm not an affiliate.) I spent Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday getting everything repainted! Unfortunately, we were so RUSHED I didn't get a photo! 

I did manage to get this quick, but grainy, photo with my phone!  It is a blackbuck antelope. We have been seeing them roaming free near our hill country house. They have long corkscrew horns (not antlers) and seem to keep themselves in the open grazing areas. It is strange to see an exotic animal, native to India, wild in Texas! My brother in law used to raise them for exotic game farms and restaurants that served exotic meats. I'm assuming that since many of the hunting ranches around this area often have blackbuck, some of them have escaped into the wild. I've been seeing them since last winter here. It could also be that someone has released them into the wild.

 These are very skittish animals and they can run 50 mph!

Well, I hope to see you Wednesday! I will probably be in the hill country accepting the shipment of flooring. I also hope to have a photo of the completed countertops and stonework SOON!