Red...it's what makes me happy!

Ok...so does blue...BUT...Red is the color I chose for my accent in my kitchen!  and, after having to rip out the moulding to the stairway and desecrate my almost finished kitchen...the only real room in my house...I needed some consolation!

Remember in the last post that I told you I commandeered my upstairs for several projects? Well, my linen closet was on the top of my list of to do's...I was so tired of removing the door upstairs, fetching a light to shine in there...and ducking and hunching to get to the tote that held the clean sheets...dragging the tote out of the pitiful and dark cave and then having to put it all back...sooo...last fall, my Sweet School Teacher friend...who loves me...(the one that let's out the UUUUUGGHHHH! as big as her whole body? like when I try and scrounge old bath rugs...) came by and told me her brother was cleaning out her Mama's garage and basement and would I like to come over and see if there was anything I would like? UH...YES!

Her Mama has a very large basement...and there are 10 kids...and those kids were loading trailers...yes, whole trailers full of stuff...stuff I couldn't get to fast enough before they were driving away to the dump! However, during one of my frantic perusings of said trailers...I found this..

It's an old metal pharmacy cabinet...with doors...and the old metal caged glass...which I promptly broke..:(

This cabinet sat in my yard for a couple of months before my Honey had pity on me and carried it upstairs last week so I could paint it...I tried to get the old paint off...what did they paint these things with anyways? It didn't come off and I was so tired of scraping and brushing...phooey...I just primed over it finally! 

Then the spray painting began...6 cans of dollar spray paint..."several thin coats are better than one thick one"...what EVER! This cabinet can't get enough spray paint on it! Painting indoors with a window open in 12 degree weather...with a mask on your face and plastic on everything?  Um...I will never do it again...my ankles STILL have a red ring on them from the crocks and footies I was wearing while painting and my nostrils were glued shut for 3 days! 

I finally gave up...I will have to put more on in the summer when I can do it outside!  Well, my Muffin carried it down the stairs....and put it in it's new home...

All that time sanding...scraping...painting...wow...it looked terrible! almost like it was way to small for the wall...and...well...naked....I taped the curtain  in the window...I still need to get a curtain rod to hang it..it won't look so square...then...I think? Hopefully it will add some softness to it!

And when my Honey came home? he said nothing...he never does that any more...he always comments! Well, that says something along the lines of "if you can't say something nice...." after grilling him for 10 minutes on how it looked and him dancing around the subject...I made him help me  dress it up with all the things I have been collecting for it...he seemed to think that it was too much red and that all that red would look ridiculous...BUT...

It just started getting better and better!

I am really loving the 3D wall art...

My sweet Muffin Man did an awesome job dressing up this naked space! He promised to cut the backs for the picture frames this weekend and help me find two tiny rods to hang the curtain right...and  fix the moulding I destroyed, the wall upstairs, the banister...attach the moulding to the stair treads, put in a rod in my new closet...can you believe this guy still loves me? He has not one moment of peace....I, however, have stopped knocking on the bathroom door with questions...

Not too shabby for $10 bucks...and no more digging in the cave closet!

Buried Treasure...

I was so excited to get done with this project, sort pictures and get a post up that I have Blogger's block! I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to title this post!

Twenty years ago...digging in the dirt...my shovel hit something so hard it reverberated up my arms and into my neck totally making my head feel like a gong...I thought it was a rock...but no...it wasn't....

I dug...and dug...and dug.. to find that whatever it was...was really thin in diameter and really long! It was like digging out a fossil... Well, to my great surprise and my utter glee...it was this...

Wrought Iron Headboard

A cast iron headboard...it had scroll work in the middle but pieces were missing and the jagged ends were pointy where they had rusted apart...there were also several rust holes in it..big ones...I didn't realize at the time how big it was, I just kept digging...and I found two of these....

Two twin cast iron foot boards...or maybe one head board and one foot board..but the point is...I had three pieces to make one whole cast iron bed! a little more work and I unearthed, literally, two rails to attach them together!

 They sat for a very long time...just getting the dirt out of all the cracks was a major undertaking...not to mention finding someone willing to cut the two small ones apart and make one foot board...it seemed no one had any faith in the undertaking...but being the stubborn donkey that I am, I finally talked someone into doing it... making promises all the while that it really didn't matter if it worked or not...every man I talked to was convinced that they could not weld cast iron effectively...

It was never very effective...the welds kept breaking...my fix? copper tubing...where the welds were, I fitted copper tubing in between the two pieces and crimped it...it is still like that and I have never had someone notice it...it is very strong and paints well so it blends in beautifully!

While I was waiting for the foot board to be completed, I took a grinder and I ground off all the scroll work in the middle of the head board...I really didn't want to but so much of it was damaged that it would have been impossible to try and talk someone into fixing that! Next, I took it down to a local guy and he filled the rust holes with welding wire, ground it off smooth...it looked great!

I now had a complete bed...a gorgeous, cast iron, scrolly bed! the head board itself weighs approximately 200 pounds...I have...on numerous occasions...been knocked completely out by trying to load it into the bed of a pick up by myself...oh...and I had to have the rails lengthened...when I put the bed together? it was approximately 4foot 11 inches long...

This bed is one of the only things I kept when I decided to go thru my crisis...leave town and take off to Australia! (A little about my beginning, I think it is post number one, lol!) I just love it...I cannot imagine having another...so imagine my happiness when I land this "part time" job and get to have new mattresses to put on it? Well, I got them...my Honey went and got them day before yesterday and they sat in the living room until I finished painting the bed...when I went to take them upstairs? This...

I had to take my stairwell completely apart! The mattresses were so big, they were NOT going up there...big sigh...no moulding in the world is keeping me from sleeping on my new Comfortec bed...as frustrated as I was..at first I tried to be really careful...but the more I pulled off? the more that was revealed! This doorway had been added much later that the original building of the house! Underneath that icky doorway, which, I had planned on covering with more moulding? was a light source, the light from the kitchen going up the stairs was amazing...and more beadboard!

We have since decided? that we are keeping the high doorway and are going to mould it with something pretty!

It is so depressing going up those ugly stairs...they are next! I have finished all my painting projects...my upstairs looks like a bomb hit it...stuff everywhere!  I commandeered the West half of the upstairs to complete several projects this week...since it is so ugly...has no paint, is half torn apart and I don't care if something gets on the floor? it made an awesome work room!

I now have a bed! a nice bed! can't wait to do the bedding! I can't wait to throw that ugly bedspread out! I can't wait to paint up there and I can't wait to share it will all of you!

OH! I forgot to tell you...I am five foot 2 inches tall and this bed sits...can you say boobilies on here? well, it sits almost to there! My Honey is gonna have to build me a little stair cuz it's hard to get up there!

I know this is a decorating blog...BUT....

I went into work this morning...beautiful morning...It was approximately 45 minutes after I opened the door that I got my first customers...and I am thanking GOD ...profusely... for them...on this day...I was fulfilling their order when ..there was an explosion...and then one of them yelled... FIRE! RUN! EVERYONE GET OUT! IT'S a BIG ONE!

The stairway up to my bar was engulfed in flames as a result of an explosion on the first floor of the lodge and not 3 minutes later, ...the whole 2500 square foot game room next to my bar was in the same condition...the smoke was so dense you could hardly see...I went back thru the kitchen to retrieve my coat ( I just got it...black wool girly pea coat, it was so worth retrieving!) and came back out of the kitchen...I couldn't see so I hunched over and ran to the end of the bar and got my purse...when I stood up, I couldn't see anything and the smoke was burning my chest and lungs profusely...I thought about going thru the balcony door and jumping but it was too far across and the balcony door was in the game room...

I really couldn't tell you what happened next, I just remember someone pushing me down a stairwell and getting my keys stuck in the railing...he wanted me to drop my new purse! Not happening buster! afterall, it had an L on it...and it cost me 25cents at the thrift store!

I ran..with these customers...thru the main lodge where the explosion happened and into the lobby...there were tons of people in there...I started yelling fire...get out...you have to go now...leave your ski's! and they wouldn't...I am thinking they thought about their ski's how I felt about my coat and purse...they did run out, however, when they saw what was coming behind me...I also ran down another set of stairs and into the rental office...there were adults and children and employees in there too, totally unaware of what was behind me...

I was still yelling....OUT! OUT! FIRE! FIRE!  and these people were looking at me like I was a nut...

When I got out the main doors of the rental place, I ran back into the lodge and took a last look around for people...there wasn't anyone in there...so I ran down the stairs again... I started helping my employers with their belongings and the items they were carrying...paychecks...computers...purses, shoes...and helped them to get to their cars...then I helped the maintenance guy with the items he was carrying and examined his arms..they were burned pretty good...and then I remembered...my Tahoe was parked directly in front of the Snowflake Bar where I was working...I started running...I got half way there...and BOOM! my boss' car exploded...it was parked right next to the building and and had been swallowed by flames...it looked like a big ball of fire..15 feet away from mine....I ducked...when I got up, I started running again and got to my Tahoe...the metal was hot to the touch and I was afraid to start it...but I did...and I went as fast as I could...in reverse...spun a cookie...and roared off to the parking lot across the street...that's when the shaking started...if it hadn't been for the man that stayed to make sure I could find my way down the back stairs...I would have been trapped up there...with a choice to break and go out a second story window or brave the game room door...that door is really hard for me to open and get closed, I NEVER unlock it unless it is mandatory...but today...it bugged me til I went and unlocked it...think someone was trying to tell me something?   The chimney sticking up in the video? that is where I was...it took less than 8 minutes for the fire to completely encompass the entire South end of that building...which is about 20,000 square feet...

Louis Gheller built this resort over 60 years ago...it has been a landmark and a source of revenue for my town ever since...it was sold off and divided in the last couple of years...and the new owners were trying to make the best of everything for their customers...Louis' Granddaughter is the only Gheller that still works there...she was standing in the middle of the road...sobbing...she was utterly devastated at the loss of her GrandDad's hard work...the grief that was on her face...the sobbing... and the fact that she was walking back and forth, with cars going every which way around her...haunts me...

It was a devastating day...not just the danger...but the loss of a heritage...I will miss it very much...

I am now unemployed...which will be the tale of many after today...in the UP...

Thank you so much for listening...I needed to get that off my chest and work thru the details...

Stair runners...

I have so many ideas for these stairs you guys! I can imagine that you would not want to cover up your stair risers after painting stars on them Vintage Whimsy!! I HAVE TO SEE  them! Oh...here they are...

http://chicmagnifique.blogspot.com

Aren't they darling? Love them Vintage Whimsy!



  I, too...have come rolling down the stairs in socks...only to end up on my left butt cheek...and my lil buns can't take too many spills like that! Rudy...my smallest Muffin...seems to sometimes take two stairs at a time trying to keep from skittering down head first!

My lil Scruffalupagus...

 So...to save my hiney...and Rudy's nose...I have been researching options and deliberating with my little Sister...who knits...crochet's and crafts like no one else I have ever seen...to make something inexpensive that would NOT cover up the whole tread or the risers but would offer some degree of softness and skid resistance...and I found these....

 You could even braid them like the rug I am making for the living room....and with some furniture tacks...nail the hummers to the stair treads! I did that on my back porch...a runner from the curb, of course! it was brand new...but it is Hooooomely!  but it does catch the dirt from the farm yard... Anyways...they are easy to remove if washing is required and they could cover as much or as little as you want!

You girls just make me excited to do everything!

Stairway to...heaven? NOT!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year celebration!

Up the stairs...

I thought I would start the new year off with the part of my house that is NEW to you...the second level of the hut...

This charming and and..uhhh...vintage... room...is the Master Bedroom..this is what it looked like the day I got the house....the water damage was extensive..BUT!  to my utter glee...that rain had literally washed off a lot of the BLUE PAPER! YAAAAY!  We all....from previous rants....know exactly how Lisa feels about all of the blue paper in this house...stuck on with something akin to hide glue...that scrapes off..but only scrapes off in little, bitty pieces....but then becomes attached to whatever it falls on...including your hair....and the bottom of your shoe...and you find it in everything...even your soup...and you find it days later too....even when you double checked to make sure you got it all...even when you went over the walls and the floor with Super Clean and a scraper... again......it was worse...and you all  know that this was a very traumatic experience for me...it was worse than picking white paint....that BLUE PAPER almost cost me hundreds of dollars in therapy...

Door from Master bedroom into 2nd bedroom

And this? is the other bedroom...I know...it looks like something out of a Scary Potter Movie....and it was...along with the bedding, clothes, garbage and other debris? There were six...yep...six....full to the top...overflowing...petrified...duh...duh...DUM!   Cat boxes...

of all the things I cleaned in this house, these rooms made me the most sad...their were children in here...with all that filth...their toys and clothes and crayons were everywhere...anyways...the beds up here were so soaked with urine and cat feces we dressed in plastic rain gear to get them down the stairs...

I can soooo hear the collective...EWWWWWW! Coming from all of you...hee hee!

I put this pic in here so you could see how dark it was up there

old linoleum

and how light it was after curtain removal

yes, those are cat turds...

light...aaaah....

This second bedroom...was my treasure room for a long time...I spent an entire weekend reading the walls in this room...underneath all the wall paper...perfectly preserved... were hundreds and hundreds of newspaper articles from 1919...they were incredible and lot's of them were in Finnish and Norwegian...there were also 1950's newspapers under the linoleum....now, I hear a lot of expressions relating to the "good ole days"...well, I don't think the papers today? can come close to the grisly, murderous, daily goings on of the year 1919 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan... from what I could tell...people were beating the tar outta each other, their wives, children and neighbors...daily! but the agricultural news held vast information about what a large farming community this was and after reading for awhile... I completely understand where Michigan's right to farm laws came from and why they are so perfectly preserved and stringent today! and I am so very pleased that they are! 

After yanking down the curtains and washing the walls and floors of these rooms, we installed a bed in the treasure room...the weekend we were supposed to "camp" here...(and I refused to leave, a bed...a toilet? what else do you need? lol!) there was so much light as the Master bedroom window faces East and the little bedroom window faces West...the morning sun streams thru both rooms and then again in the afternoon, it is all lit up...It is one of my most favorite features of this house! It was built to capture every spec of available light from every direction...well, as long as you don't have a kook covering up every inch of glass with sheets, towels and ugly curtains! oh...and dirt...you should prolly wash the grime off too...;)

One day I was rearranging treasures and I started seriously looking around at these two rooms...hmmmm....they would make an incredible Master Suite with a little rearranging...and since I do not plan on moving for a very long time...and there is only the two of us...why not make one large room? and the closets? wow...they ran the entire length of the house with little, tiny doors to access them...the one at the top of the stairs was the worst! you had to bend over at the top of the stairs to actually get in the room...my Honey is 6ft 4inches tall...a chiropractor would seriously be in his future...the closets were lined with mildewed cardboard that kept the blown in insulation in tact...they were nasty! and I was NOT sticking anything I owned in them anyways! 

Top of the stairs where the closet used to be...

I went and got a hammer and crow bar and started prying the boards off...I finally got  all the boards off...ripped off that nasty cardboard and stuffed every inch of that insulation down into the living room wall with a broom...called my Muffin and asked him to pick up a large roll of insulation and re insulated the wall...I cleaned out 9 bees nests and 50,000 spiders...next came the wall at the top of the stairs that separated the staircase from the little bedroom...

This is how many nails were in those boards...

the only place I couldn't reach that danged paper! I did end up screwing a 2x4 to the wall in the stairway and laying  a plank from the floor to the 2x4 to use as scaffolding...my Honey was not happy about my doing this..he was convinced that I would succumb to death... by stairwell....but hey! not everyone has the advantage of having legs as long as a giraffe! AND I got ALL the paper! When this wall came down the light down the stairs and into the kitchen was amazing!

This looks alot like my upstairs!

There were quite a few treasures amassed from up here...the closets were stuffed full of hunting gear, old dishes, antique snow shoes...a tiger eye maple dresser with the mirror and the keys to the drawers!

When I get to paint the upstairs I am going to paint it the same color as the kitchen and living room...my dilemma is this: What do I do with the stairs? I tried to get the paint off but wow...it is so thick and stuck in the grain...I am afraid I will have to sand off half the tread to get it off...soooooo...

What do you think of these?

I just loved the painted stair runners...my sweet school teacher friend has thousands of stencils I could use...and the paint would tie my kitchen in with the stairs...Any suggestions?