My talented wife has started to paint the rest of the ceiling panels for the drawing room. Here are the designs that are on the panels.

And this is what the finished panels will look like.

Since the weather is warmer I have tried my artistic talents outside. The brick on the lower part of the porch fell apart so I have tried my hand at laying bricks. I have three layers to deal with. I'm glad that the middle layer does not show.

But this layer does so I spent more time on trying to make it look good.

I also have started to repair some of the cracks in the wall by doing tuckpointing.

Well, there you have it. Life at Lake Wobegon.

Sconces anyone?

We have found some interesting sconces that we plan on using. As you can see we used one in the drawing room.


We found two in a drawer of the sideboard. However, we will need to get some shades, the condition they are in right now could be a shocking experience.
(The fingers are optional)

We also cleaned the sideboard and started to put some of our stemware in it.

It doesn't matter how slow you go, only the end result counts

That is my new motto for now. It appears that things move slowly at times, of course small interruptions do not help. However we did finish the cooktop.


And my very talented wife made the brackets for the spice racks using the scroll saw and the dremel. These are two separate racks put together, painted, hung and "tahdah" one larger rack. We have adopted the slogan "fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without out." (Well at least that is what we are trying to do. However, there are times when that does not work.)


Then we tackled the need for more storage. Yes a bookshelf on a table made from scrap lumber works fine for the storage of our canned tomatoes.


And another shelf for storage of other ingredients.


Last but certainly not least is the counter. I made the shelving that is above the counter. The end shelves are covered with oak and ready to be stained. Just a few more touches and my work in the kitchen is finished and my talented wife will complete the final touches.

Progress on the Drawing Room

Work on the house slowed for a while. We were out of town picking up our daughter and grandson for a visit. Then we had to take them home a few weeks later. Soooo, here is where we are now:

We decided to put fabric on the upper part of the drawing room walls. Chris and Marie (our daughter) did the work, and this is what it looks like.


We also decided to make individual panels for the ceiling. We only have one up so far. Chris and Marie painted the panels. (The design was developed by Marie and Chris painted it). I installed the ceiling fan, yeah for me, I actually did some work.