The Red Berry's newest member

Hello there.  While the blog may seem quiet, the Red Berry is NOT.  We have been busy hammering, cutting, painting, grouting, yes grouting!!  But before I tell you about all of that, I would like you to meet the newest member of the Red Berry.

Meet Roxy.  She is a King Charles Cavelier and we just love her.  She is a great traveler and she loves going everywhere with us.  I was nervous about our first trip to the cottage, but she did great, even with all the noise.  She spent most of her time sleeping by the fire and chasing sticks and leaves.  She also wanted to help me paint.  By the time we left, she had paint on her wiskers and down her side! lol

Now onto business.  The past few weeks have been busy.  We put the flooring in the kitchen.  Ok, I'm not going to lie.  I'm not crazy about it.  I had something different in my head and we went the safe route.  Actually, we went typical Gary and Michelle route.  While I love flag stone, it's bluer than I thought it was going to be and there is a lot of rust in it.  It's just not that whimsical look I was going for.  Luckily, it didn't cost very much for the small space and I'm going to change it out next summer. But for now, it's great! It hides dirt which is probably better right now anyway.

Then we focused on the new countertop. We had never done tile before, but how hard could it be? We jumped right in. Superman let me do my thing. I placed the tile while he cut them.  The next morning, I grouted the tile.  It looks great! It's crisp white and simple; I love it!

The cabinets look green in this photo but they are actually creamy white.  I stenciled some queen bees on two of the doors.  Love love love.

Superman tore out what was left of the wall where the breakfast bar will go.  Then he built a new wall.  Instead of using a post or rough cut beam, I wanted a porch post.  A friend gave us this awesome porch post!  It looks so cool! I painted it and added a "buck" hook.  I was a little giddy this time too!

Here's a before and after:

Sooo, next time, we will finish the breakfast bar, put up the last couple pieces of trim and hook up my stove.  Then we ring in the new year.  2016, we head upstairs to start the bedrooms.

Christmas blessings to you.

Kitchen almost done!

I'm so excited to tell you that the kitchen is almost done.  Superman hung all the bead board and put the cabinets into place.  I painted and worked my magic to match the new cabinet with the old ones.  Superman hung my overhead cabinet last time, but this time, with the painting done, I was able to actually break out the dishes and decorate! I was totally giddy!! I'm not even joking.  This little cabinet makes me so happy.

Then Superman hung two shelves for me. I decorated them as well.

The checklist of things left to do are:
     1. install lighting
     2. countops
     3. trim
     4. flooring
Remember the table I sanded? Well I stained it and gave it a coat of low sheen polyurathane.  It's it just beautiful?!

Don't get too used to that paneling, it's flying!!

 We are so happy with how the place is shaping up.  We are looking forward to heading upstairs and working on the bedrooms.  But for now, we want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving day.  We are so very thankful for our family and for our Savior, Jesus.  My cup runneth over.  Blessings, michelle

It's like watching paint dry

Hi all, I know there has been a lag in posts.  That's because taking pictures of drywall is like, well, watching paint dry! Only that would be getting ahead of myself. Sigh.  Did you ever watch the construction of a building in fast forward motion? It seems to take forever then, bam, the building is done. Well, there is a lot into making sure that while we renovate, the house doesn't fall down.  Superman put in a new support beam so we can open up the breakfast bar. It was nerve wracking, I'm not gonna lie. I breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally in.  Superman had it all under control.

Here is the new beam in place and the breakfast bar opened up.  

We found this Carnation milk box in the kithen wall. The bottom of it says, "From Contented Cows". 

I did some sanding on the kitchen table. I still have some more to do then I will give it a light sheen to finish it off.  

I made these picture bases from boards we tore off the walls upstairs.  They are COOL!

Then it was time to hang some drywall. It didn't take long because we are putting bead board behind the cabinets.  Then last weekend, we had "wallboy" come finish our drywall for us.  He says we aren't allowed to do it ourselves.  He's a drywall perfectionist! So we let him to the finishing while Superman tried to hook up the new gas stove.  Wallboy jumped in to help with the stove, but we had to do some trouble shooting.

The above picture is actually a before and after picture. This is the same wall with the new door installed. I LOVE the new door. I watched deer out the back last time we were there.  

We had to cut this cabinet down to stand it up. I'm going to leave the cabinets open, except for where I put the old window. It fits perfectly! I nailed some salvaged boards of the side and I'm going to make a chalkboard out of it. Oh, I am having fun. 

This is "wallboy". He also happens to be my uncle. :) 

If all goes well, my next post will be pictures of the painted kitchen with the cabinets in place. Yahoo!! So exciting!! Happy harvest.

Runnin' on empty

This particular weekend, Superman and I were at the Red Berry all by ourselves. The kitchen floor was completely torn out the week before. The weeks were starting to run together and we were starting to run out of steam but we pushed forward. I don't know what I'm doing but I can take instructions. I can hammer a nail with the best of them now. We started putting the floor joists in. It was well past bedtime but we only had two more to go. We did it! We celebrated with a victory picture.

The next morning after breakfast, we hit the ground running. I cut and hung insulation boards while Superman starting cutting plywood. We had a real system going. Before you knew it, the floor was done! It doesn't shimmy when you walk on it anymore.

One last project before we left was taking out part of the wall to open it up to the dining area. We will need to put a support beam in, then we can cut those 2 by's out and make a cute breakfast bar. I'm over the top excited; it's all coming together!

The following weekend was a flurry of activity.  On Saturday, Superman painted the kitchen cieling white. I was upstairs sanding the one wall in the hallway. Between the two of us, we had dirt and overspray on EVERYTHING!

In the evening, we headed up to our room. In a previous post I mentioned that we talked about making two rooms a master suite. We decided that it would be a better use of space to keep two rooms. So here's the compromise........french doors! Superman started to install the french doors. One door down, one to go. It's going to look so nice. When we have guests in the other room, we'll close the doors and slide some curtains over them. I'm  really excited about our room.

The next day, we had surprise visitors, well, I knew they were coming up.  Lady bug and her mama and sister, AJ, came up to surprise Superman for his birthday. They also came to help. Superman was busy cutting a hole in the kitchen wall to install a new door out the back. AJ and and Lady bug's mamma helped.

Later, we headed upstairs again. This time it was girl power! We were tearing boards off of the walls to prepare for insulation.

Our friend, Randy, made a returen visit. This time, he ran some wires for the kitchen. Oh the kitchen is so close!

If the barn needs paintin'

     It's been a long time joke at our house; Superman says, "If the barn needs paintin' ", referring to me wearing makeup!  lol Well this time it was the porch that needed paintin'.  Ladybug and her mama came up to help. And "Uncle" came for the weekend! We got busy on the porch while Superman and Randy tore up the kitchen floor; literally.

We had a lot of fun. Ladybug found out the hard way that you should never stand  under mama when she is painting! We thought it was funny but she didn't find it funny at all.

Uncle made it his project to tear off the remaining siding from under the porch. You can't imagine how many nails were used for the tar paper.  He finally got all shingles, tar paper and nails removed. It looks awesome.  We discovered that there was a door on the East side of the porch that had been covered up.  Some of the boards need to be replaced. We thought it would look cool to keep the original boards exposed and finish them.  Now we have some other ideas. We haven't decided yet so the porch will be continued.

Superman and Randy tore out the floor boards to see what needed to be replaced. The kitchen floor shimmied when you walked on it. It turned out that we had to replace all four support beams. The kitchen just has a crawl space under it.

While Superman and Randy ran to Lowes (not a quick trip like at home), I tore the boards and rocks away from the exterior of the kitchen wall. I have been wanting to do that since day 1! It drove me crazy.  There were random boards, grills, and rocks stacked up to TRY to keep critters out. It looked terrible and it didn't keep anything out! You should have seen the gaping holes underneath.

On Sunday, Ladybug helped her "Boo" secure things up with some cement. That got rid of the gaping holes and secured everything in place. A firm foundation is key. (I'm sure there's a Sunday school lesson in there somewhere! ) Ladybug had a blast.  She also helped "Boo" meausure the boards.

When it was time to place the last support, Uncle helped muscle it in. But when they cleared some stone and dirt away to put the new support in, look what they found!

At first we thought it was a toy because it's so small. After looking closer, Superman confirmed that it is real. It cleaned up really nicely.  We will keep this with all our other "treasures" we've found along the way.

A couple last minute projects before we left......
     Superman found these cool leaded glass windows for me. I thought they would look great on the porch. I was right! They look so pretty. Then Superman trimmed out the front door.  What a nice finished look.

She's starting to really come together!