Master Fireplace

At long last we finally have the new marble surround on the master fireplace.

When we moved in, the subway tile on the floor in front of the fireplace was in sad shape. The surround on the face of the fireplace was just a sheet of 1/4-inch plywood.

Quite a while go, I'd removed the tile along the floor. More recently, I removed the plywood surround and discovered that some of the subway tile had been removed from the face. But only up to the top of the firebox. Removing the rest was a pain. Very few of the tiles came off in one piece...

Due to lack of time, I decided not to do the tiling; rather we'd hire someone to do it. However, the floor in front of the fireplace was uneven and the tile guy said to save a bit of money I should use some "self-leveling" mix to create a solid, smooth base.

Right.

The "self-leveling" mix didn't. And so he had to chip it out and pour more before installing the tile. So much for saving a few bucks...

But the new marble looks fabulous!

Little Big Man

When we first moved in he was looking for something elaborate. But it's been so long, he's not into knights and castles any more.

After some talking about what the theme would be, he settled on no theme. He picked out the bedding and the colors - "Yosemite Sand" and "Eucalyptus Leaf".

And I painted this week.

There's still a bit of sanding & painting to do inside the closet before I install the shelving. And the roman shades I tried to install yesterday need to be remade - they were mis-measured and are 3 inched too narrow.

She Who Must be Obeyed, Jr

Not everything can or will be painted with historic colors.

SWMBO, Jr was allowed to choose. She picked "Valentines Day" and "Lilly Lavender".

And I spent all day yesterday painting.

The chair rail (link contains before photo) is new and was installed last November.

The upper cabinet doors had been painted shut. Luke and his guys found lots of the previous owners' stuff in there when he prep'd for painting the woodwork.

Look Mom - No Wires!

No more wires from the utility pole over the carriage house roof, through the tree branches, and finally attached to the porch.

The cable guy was here last night to tie-off the cable directly to the side of the carriage house. From there it runs underground to the main house and into the distribution panel.

The tech did a fine job once he arrived and understood what he needed to do. Sadly, life imitates art - "the tech will be there sometime between 8am and 7pm."

It's a good thing I spent the entire day (8am - 9:30pm) painting, so I wasn't just waiting for him. More on that later...

Painted Sitting Room

Wow!

This color is rich. I spent all day painting this room today. This is the room where "we" removed an old closet shortly after we moved in. This picture is of the same corner where the closet was. There also was an extra door into the bathroom.

Now we can finalize the rug color, get some window treatments, get the bookshelves/entertainment cabinets, and this room is done.... ;-)

Painted Master

I finished painting the master bedroom last weekend. The color is a neutral, historic color. It changes tone quite a bit depending on the time of day and type of light. At times it has a tan or taupe undertone; at others it has a green or olive note.

Throughout the week I've been re-installing the roman shades, drapes, furniture, etc. Compare to the pictures from a previous post. We recently found the chest of drawers at a local antique shop. It's a lot of fun to find things one at a time. Then everything has a story and some history.

The bench and chaise we had before and we had them re-upholstered. They look fantastic!

Connections

Some might remember the TV series Connections with James Burke. The one where he connects seemingly random events - sort of like the Challenger disaster being related to the width of two horses' behinds in ancient Rome.

Likewise, I finished painting the master bedroom this weekend. Naturally, it involved doing some demolition in a pantry closet in the kitchen...

So I wanted to paint the master bedroom this weekend. I filled the minor holes and cracks in the plaster and did other prep work. Then I remembered(!) that the cable TV enters the house through and outside wall in the master bedroom. Yup, just like the old phone lines, the CATV is run from the pole to the outside of the house. The splitter is on the exterior and the various lines run along the outside until they reach the room where they're needed. Then they drilled through the brick and let the end of the cable dangle into the room.

The main one comes in near the ceiling in the master and has about 40 feet of extra cable. The loose cable runs along the master bedroom floor and into the room next to the master bedroom...

Needless to say I wanted to do this right by running the cable through the wall cavity and having proper CATV outlets so that I could patch the existing holes before I painted. I also wanted to get the CATV run from a real main distribution point, just like the new phone lines.

So up in the attic I go to find a way to chase the cable down to the basement. I found the plumbing stack that runs from the attic through the master bathroom and through the kitchen on the way to the basement. However, the stack is hidden behind some plywood in the back corner of a pantry cabinet in the kitchen. It's nothing a little sledge hammer won't cure. ;-)

As I'm demolishing, my father-in-law calls. He asks She Who Must Be Obeyed, "What's all that noise? I thought you were painting the master bedroom?"

She nonchalantly replies, "We are. And to do it we need to tear some stuff out of that pantry in the kitchen."

He mumbles acknowledgment, but knows better than to ask for clarification...

So I ran the cable down the chase and fished a cable down into the wall in the sitting room. I hooked everything up and...

Static.

I should have known that we'd get interference from the power feed to the electrical sub-panel in the attic. You can't run high and low voltage close together and parallel to each other.

After a little head scratching, I remembered that we chased PEX up from the basement for the laundry room. I re-cut some of those holes, chased the CATV up through those walls, hooked everything up, and...

STATIC!

More head scratching and a little figuring. Oh yeah, this run is on the long side. So off to the home center to get a signal amplifier.

Works like a charm.

And then I could fill the old holes and paint the master bedroom.