Blogging Break is Over

It's been a while.

I guess I just decided I needed a break from talking about and blogging about

Our Retro Bungalow

to read and do some other writing that'd been on my mind.

But, I'm back and there's a lot to catch up on,

so I'll touch lightly on just a few things

and hopefully get caught up in the next couple of weeks.

First - 

finish work is detailed and time consuming.

After building closet organizers, headers, trimming doors and windows and installing baseboards,

there's the nail setting, spackling, sanding, spackling again, sanding again, 

priming, sanding the primer, the caulking, applying the first coat of paint, 

and, finally, the second coat of paint.

Then...

there's the touch up.

Yeah.

All that takes a lot of time.

And I'm not exactly the fastest nail setter, spackler, sander, primer and painter in the west,
but the finish work in the basement is finally done.

Ya know what else takes a lot of time?

Figuring out and installing a boiler system.

It took Dean about a week and a half to get this baby up and running.

And boy, oh boy, was I ecstatic when we were able to finally hook up our 

washer and dryer and start doing our laundry here, at home.

There may have been a tear or two of jubilation.

I'm one of those gals that likes to wash sheets twice a week, 

so getting back to that 'normal' has been simply wonderful

and I'm very grateful.

And a quirky little bonus...
when assembled,

the boiler pipes, gauges, and valves have a steampunk appearance.

It'll look even more so when the rest is up and running for the 

radiant floor heat.

Kinda cool and fun, I think. 

And this is kind of a big deal.

Benjamin Moore's "Ivory Tusk".

Yes! 

I finally selected the paint color that will be throughout the interior.

This was an extremely important decision for me - one that I spent a lot 

of time, consideration and sampling on.
I really, really, really like the cottage white on white look, but absolutely knew
Dean would never go for that.
So...

I held fast in my mind a color that was a warm, soft, creamy yellow...

like the glow of a candle.

I bought several samples and finally hit on what I decided was just right.

And it is. 

Although, to this point, only the basement is painted.

In fact,

the basement is essentially complete with the exception of a few

very minor details and one big one -

the big one being carpet, which will wait for a little while longer.

More about that next week.

But, 

I'll give you a little peak at the basement linen closet.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I was looking forward to

lining the shelves, so I didn't wait.

I even bought ribbon and adhesive hooks

to hang a sachet envelope on the inside of the door
to complete this lovely little storage space.

Shouldn't all bath towels, quilts and clean sheets smell like Apple Spice & Cinnamon?

I think so.
Now we just need to get all those quilts, towels and sheets out of storage
and fill these shelves.
That'll be a few more weeks.

Moving outside,

we got the board and batten treatment on the garage bump-out up...

We went with traditional 10 inch spacing.

We had a foundation plasterer, recommended to us by Bubba,
come plaster the entire foundation...

He did a great job and it looks fantastic.

Also,

all the windows are mostly trimmed.
I say "mostly" because I decided that applying a frieze band across the top of the grouped
window sets on the north end of the house is what I wanted,
and that hasn't been put up yet.

But let me tell you a quick story about framing the windows...
okay, so maybe it's not really a quick story.
(those tendencies I have, you know)

THIS

is what I wanted to do for window framing on
Our Retro Bungalow.
I was absolutely positive.
And so,
Dean and I got to cutting, measuring and nailing trim up exactly like this.
It was late on a Saturday and we got just one window complete.
After the tools were put away and the debris cleaned up,
I stood back and studied and studied the finished product.
A glint of doubt caught me by complete surprise as I stood there studying.
I tried hard to suppress it.
That glint of doubt festered.
It grew bigger and bigger and bigger and my good husband knows me well enough
to sense something was bothering me.
I adamantly denied being bothered by anything.
He knew better, but let me alone about it.
We went to bed and I could not  sleep.
I could not believe that the window trim that
  I knew without a doubt

was what I wanted...
was completely wrong
 for our little bungalow.
It just was.
I couldn't deny it and the disappointment I felt only exacerbated
the anxiety that was nearing the point of unbearable.
Finally,
I woke him up.
I always worry about Dean getting enough rest and good sleep
and I felt terrible about waking him, but I  was so full of angst over this
that I desperately needed  to talk about it.
As simply and matter-of-factly as anything he's ever uttered,
he said,
"What's the big deal, honey? We'll just take it down and when you figure out
what's right for the house, that's what we'll do."
Suddenly everything was okay.
Our middle-of-the-night talk turned into a lengthy conversation
about regaining balance in our lives
and sometime in the wee hours of the morning we finally fell asleep.
Thank Heaven it was the Sabbath - the day rest...
and napping.

What turned out to be perfectly fitting window trim for
Our Retro Bungalow
was simplicity with a low-profile window sill
and I haven't lost a wink of sleep over it.

That's about all for now.
More to come...
much more.

We are still in the trailer, but not for long now.
In fact, in the next few days we'll be moving into the basement.
You may be wondering why we focused on finishing the basement first.
Honestly, it was just supposed to be the storage/utility room we were going to
focus on so we could get the boiler up and running and the washer and dryer hooked up.
It just kind of mushroomed into completing the entire basement.
We are both glad it happened that way,
because we've learned some important things that we'll apply to finishing the main level.
Funny how things just work out the way they're supposed to.

Thanks for stopping by.
We appreciate your love and support and encouragement;
seriously, it's HUGE to us.
Bless you all.