Well, we started to remodel our living room back in June after purchasing a pellet stove in April. Needless to say found walls without insulation, horsehair plaster and lath walls, 5 wallpaper and 4 paint layers (yep, total of 9 layers), enamel and probably lead paint on the old woodwork (that would cost an arm and leg to replace) some of it 5 layers thick. The best Sears & Roebuck carpet (35+ years old) had to come up to make way for the hearth. Surprise underneath that old carpet and way thick padding (still cleaned up like new even this old), brand new hardwood floors that were varnished and immediately covered with the best Sears had to offer. BTW, this house belonged to my cousin, built by my greatgrandfather in the 1930's and it came with the flower shop when my parents bought it in 1974.
We used a lye, cornstarch, & water recipe to take all the woodwork back to original wood - a 3 month project in itself waiting for warm weather to do it (make a paste, lay on the wood in the sun, let sit for about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs, then hose off - pressure washer worked great). Hubby had rotator cuff surgery in July so in September we finally got a corner of the floor stripped and polyed for the hearth, brought the stove in.
Last week, I looked around the room and found no room for our usual 8' fresh tree we usually put into the corner (would be across the room from the pellet stove where the TV now habitates). Dog's couch is way too big to move around anywhere and hubby won't move the TV or the chair. I said oh well no tree this year. Nope! So off we go to find a "small" tree. Well here it is (tis the saddest thing I've seen in a long time, but it's small enough to sit on the wall between the two doorways and not interfere with dog's couch, TV, or papa's chair. As you can tell, there is still some finishing work to do, hubby is slowly gaining strength in his shoulder and arm and still is doing little by little. We may get it totally done by next summer??
We used a lye, cornstarch, & water recipe to take all the woodwork back to original wood - a 3 month project in itself waiting for warm weather to do it (make a paste, lay on the wood in the sun, let sit for about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs, then hose off - pressure washer worked great). Hubby had rotator cuff surgery in July so in September we finally got a corner of the floor stripped and polyed for the hearth, brought the stove in.
Last week, I looked around the room and found no room for our usual 8' fresh tree we usually put into the corner (would be across the room from the pellet stove where the TV now habitates). Dog's couch is way too big to move around anywhere and hubby won't move the TV or the chair. I said oh well no tree this year. Nope! So off we go to find a "small" tree. Well here it is (tis the saddest thing I've seen in a long time, but it's small enough to sit on the wall between the two doorways and not interfere with dog's couch, TV, or papa's chair. As you can tell, there is still some finishing work to do, hubby is slowly gaining strength in his shoulder and arm and still is doing little by little. We may get it totally done by next summer??
