Catching my breath!

It has been a very busy week around the house , it always is who am I kidding.

 I only work part time and the rest of the time I really work. I would love to invite anyone who thinks I don't work to join me for a couple weeks to see just how hard I do in fact work. When I used to work out of the house part time it didn't allow me to do all of the things I love like all the projects and of course family stuff and chores were really hard to keep up on. 

For our family and to support my husband challenging work and travel schedule it was best I not work a "real" pt job , I am so much happier , it takes the pressure off me and allows less pressure on my husband to pick up the slack after he gets home late in the evenings and now the kids are supervised and we are all better off. 

Back to the busy week. Well Wednesday was bring your kid to work day , and I am sure my daughter would have loved to go to work with her dad and see what goes into making cartoons but he wasn't around , he headed out to California, lucky. So Mason was stuck with good old mom , she had the pleasure of learning some carpentry skills. I gave her a choice of two projects . #1 we could add a frame to her bathroom mirror 

and paint her bathroom vanity as well as add furniture feet to it or #2 we could add a chair rail to the family room .To my shock she chose #2...she didn't want me to mess up her bathroom especially since I had just "messed" it up the week earlier by organizing it and getting rid of the junk. I wish someone would , mess up my spaces like that for me!

I cut down MDF board to 4"x8' lengths. We add a cove at the bottom and a quarter round at the top and a 1.5" pice of MDF to finish it off. Mason learned how to use a laser level , stud finder, nail gun and pinner. She also with guidance used my compound miter , that was a little scary for her and I understand that. It was nice to share with her what I do, she got bored though.

 I was inspired by an image on Pinterest on building a chair rail. It's so much nicer than the pre-made chair rails I think. Now to chose a wall colour.
 Oh see the tin foil covered paint tray , that's so helpful. Don't know what I didn't try it before.

 I painted out the chair rail in the same semi gloss as the trim as well as the lower part of the wall got the same semi gloss. I will add trim to the bottom, I am just deciding which design to chose.
I have not decorated the family can I just point out , the carpet is going to go in the new year and we will be getting a new sofa eventually.

I am finally getting into the holiday season , I even tackled two planters for the porch. This house is very symmetrical unlike our last house so that means twice the decorating...$$

At the grocery store they had lots of variety of greens at a great price so I stocked up and hoped I 

could pull together a cute planter. They had lovely birch branches for $5 each , I had seen them at Lowe's for WAY more , I cut them down so they were a bargain. I had the pots from the summer so my winter look cost $30 each , not bad right.

These are my first from scratch holiday planters , I love them and will do this again . 

 I am finally done painting all the doors in the house black and changing all the hardware to bronze , what a huge difference this makes.

I decided to use this small hall way to feature some hanging art , you can consider hanging your art by using a new clever system by AS picture hanging systems, I think that this system using these special hangers for trim to hang your art is rather brilliant , I can see myself using this in the near future .

 I have been finishing lots of little touch ups and details. Got the sink hooked up and functional , so happy about that . Today I grouted, I hate grouting although today's job went pretty smoothly. I picked up a plastic table cloth from the dollar store to protect the counter and to make for easier clean up.

 I am so grateful that is done, all I need to do in the laundry room is hang a curtain and perhaps a valance .

I am getting ready for a photo shoot on Tuesday (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say more so I will keep it a secret) and that always puts the pressure on to get things done. I am looking forward to a clean house and a nice break for the Christmas season as working in the winter is not easy for wood working.
I am really pooped right now but it will all be worth it....soon.