And now starting on a few of the finishing touches...

And yesterday I also put everything back on the mantle. It's very cute now! Want to see it?

In the center there is my mirror that I got on a garage sale a few years ago for only $2! I was very happy!! It's already distressed and everything.

I got this sign at Goodwill about a month ago. I thought the color would work in the livingroom and got it just in case it fit in anywhere. And it did!!

I bought the star after Christmas... 90% off, baby!! The empty picture frames were from an auction... Got those free! :o)

These are for the curtains... I saw them on clearence at Menards. They used to be 25-something... I got them 1$ for each pair! Whoohoo!

They were a very light oak color, but I spray painted them with cream. After it was dry, I decided that the cream was too stark, so I rubbed stain on it. What I wasn't expecting was for it to distress the areas when I rubbed the stain in harder. They turned out SUPER COOL!

Don'cha just love when that happens?! :o)

Another new experience!

All right... I was going to post what else I've been working on, but it wouldn't let me post any more last night! Silly thing!!

I've tiled the hearth in front of the fireplace as well as a new hearth pad in the corner for our new wood stove. It's been another new thing I've never done before... But tiling is really a LOT of fun!!! :o)

This is the hearth pad for the wood stove...

I was just laying them out to get an idea of how I wanted the tile to go.

My new wet saw for cutting tile... You know how I feel about saws, and this is no exception! I love this thing! It's totally cool!!!

This was the fireplace hearth... Those red things were so nice! they kept them spaced so well!!!

Finished laying the hearth pad tile...

Then a few days later came the grout... That was interesting!

And messy...

I'll post pics of the finished product soon!!!

The floors are done!!!

Hey!!!
I am still alive!! My camera cord was lost and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE! Have you ever noticed how things just seem to loose themselves when you're remodeling?!

Anyway... Now that I found it, there's an awful lot to catch up on! I am SO excited with how things are turning out!!

I finally got the wood floor installed...

And stained...

And finished!!!

It turned out BEAUTIFULLY! I am totally sold on wood floors now! Love 'em!

Of floors and cake...

Wondering what I've been up lately? Well... Near as Dad and I could figure out, I've been some weird cross between a "Becky Homecky" and a "Bob the Builder!" :o)

The floor is really coming along!! I'm about half done now!!

Was hoping to finish installing it today and have it all stained and varnished be Wednesday, however I caught a seriously nasty bug from Caleb and Mom and I'm out for a while... Bummer!!!

Isn't it looking nice?! I'm SO excited!!! I'm really sold on wood floors now!

And.... the Becky Homecky part! I made lots and lots of cake!!

This was the one for my Aunt and Uncle's 25th Anniversary party...

This one was for my Aunt Sheryl's 50th Birthday party!

This one was my favorite! It was super fun!

It looks kinda little girl-y, but that's what mom wanted for it! :o)

Anyhoo... That's what I've been up to!

I love my saws!

Okay... As I've been working on the livingroom... I've noticed how many saws I have. And really... I LOVE them all! Well.. most of them! :o)

Here's my miter saw... Between that and my radial arm saw, the ceiling was a breeze when it came to cutting the planks! I love my miter saw! Got it on ebay, brand spankin' new! Most girls get things like sewing machines on ebay? Me? I go for the saws, baby! :o)

Now... this circular saw has been around for a long time! About as long as I can remember, actually! So technically... I guess it isn't MY saw... but it's been a faithful 'ol thing! Our dogs always had a thing for chewing off the chord. I'm not sure why... Think it tasted like chicken, maybe? :o) Whatever the case, dad kept fixing the chord over and over till it was like 2 inches long! I kid you not!! Well.. it went several years before they touched it again. Last fall though, someone left it within reach of some hungry or just plain bored dogs and... You guessed it! They ate it again! So, it is now eqipped with a new chord and still works as good as ever!

My jigsaw... nothing impressive... don't even use it that much.. but... It's nice to have around! Just haven't used it enough to get attached to it or anything yet! :o) lol

Okay... So I really don't have any feelings for this one... I despise it, actually! Because whenever I have to use it, it means sore shoulders! But... I suppose it's a good thing to have around for those occations when none of the other saws will suffice!

I also have my radial arm saw which I absolutely adore!! I actually bought it from a thrift store of all places! It's been great! Can do almost anything! It does the job of both a miter saw and a table saw! I went to look and see how much they were at a Menards once... But when we asked where they were, the guy looked at us and said, "We don't sell those anymore... Too many people were cutting their arms off!" lol!

And mom... if you're reading this now... ummmm.... *cough cough* Don't worry! I'm very very cautious! :o) I mean... All saws are dangerous if you don't use them right. Even my hand saw!! Or the steak knife!! :o)

Anyhoo... better get to work... the floor is next! Yay!

The ceiling!!!

Okay ya'll...

Are you ready for this?!

Remember this pile??

Well.... Someone's been hard at work with me here!

And slooooowly.... It's taking shape!

Despite a few bad boards... and minor setbacks... it's really looking great! It gives so much character to the room! I'll be posting pics when it's done! Really done!! YAY!!!

A finished fireplace!

Okay.... Remember the fireplace?

Love it! It turned out so pretty!!!

And remember the molding on the mantle I added and was going to distress?

I LOVE IT!!! The picture just doesn't show it very well... It's just SO cool!

And she said... Let there be light!

Okay... so you know how some livingrooms are? The kind that have no lights in the ceiling? I'm not sure if they expect everyone who lives there to be blind and therefore not mind the darkness that comes every evening.... or to keep so many lamps plugged in around the room, it takes fully 5 minutes to go around and turn them all on!

Don't get me wrong! I love lamps! There's nothing much better than curling up on the couch with a book, reading in the peace and quiet, with only the soft glow of a lamp! *sigh*

But if I need light... I want LIGHT!!! :o)

Whatever the case... I figured as long as we were redoing the ceiling... Otherwise known as punching holes, cutting and otherwise mangling the previous double-thick drywall substances... We might as well add some light, baby!

I know you can't tell it now... But soon 2 beautiful light fixtures will be mounted in the middle of the room where they will live forever after, shedding their glorious light, and brightening our hearts because we will no longer be stumbling around in the hazy darkness that has graced this particular livingroom for many years!

Stay tuned to see pictures of those lovely finished light fixtures!

The transformation of a fireplace...

Okay... want to see just a bit of progress??

Okay... So I didn't get a good before shot of the fireplace but I did happen to have this, so it'll have to do. You can kind of see it there... I just didn't like it though. It was too dark and didn't really "go" in there. So... here's the transformation of a fireplace! :o)

First, the gold... *sigh* Can't someone help me out here? What on earth is it called?!?! lol! Still can't remember. *sigh*

You know what I mean, anyway! It's black now and it looks so much better! I love how it looks!

Next, the entire brick and mantle were primed. I was intending to paint 2 coats of cream on the brick. However, after getting this far, I think I'm going to leave it.

The mortar all stayed white, but the brick behind shows through just a bit and I LOVE it!!!

And now the mantle is red... I still need one more coat on it, then I'm going to distress it. Should be REALLY neat! I added molding around the top to throw some more detail into the mix. So the distressing will really bring that out! Love it!

Anyway... It's really coming along and looking just how I want things to look! Yay!

It's SO fun seeing one's visions and plans coming into reality!

I'm in love!!!

Yes... Yes... You heard me! I'm in love! L-O-V-E!

This new paint in the livingroom is beautiful! Absolutely and completely perfect!

I had a hard time getting pictures as we hadn't had a lot of natural light lately... But... It's kind of a light sage green. Very pretty!

We'll have cream woodwork, so I think it'll really pop in there! That gold fireplace thingy.. what do you call it?! Temporary mind block... Ummmm.... Okay.... Now I'm just sounding silly! But... yeah. That gold fireplace thingy is being painted black as we speak! Yay! I have something against shiny gold "house bling." I prefer the rust, puter, ect... patina. (Aren't you impressed that I not only knew that word... But I also knew what it meant? And even used it in the right context? Nice, huh?)

Look! Look! It's my human stud-finder! I mean... My cousin!

Kristin-my-cousin-who-goes-to-college-far-away-in-MO-but-is-home-on-Christmas-break came to stay a few days with me, and I of course, talked her into helping me out with the livingroom for a bit.

I'm planning on putting in tongue and groove planks like Kim did at One Woman's Cottage Life. I loved how it turned out, so decided to give it a go too! :o)

But what is Kristin doing up there? Well... It seems our studfinder wasn't doing a very reliable job at figuring out where the studs were. So we had to intervene. In other words, we had to cut through the ceiling from one end of the room to the other. Whew! I'm wiring in 2 lights anyway, so it all worked out. But out shoulders were SORE! :o)

Anyhoo... I know it seems I'm running about 4 days behind in blogging! Ahhhh! Before... I didn't blog because I had nothing to blog about. Now I don't blog because I'm to busy to blog! There's no winning about it, is there? lol!

Well... Whatever the case... I'll try to be more faithful in my bloggin'! :o)

I'm ali-i-i-i-ive!

Hello Ya'll!!

Yes! I am still alive!

I know you haven't heard from me since last year... But it is only January, so that's okay! ;o) lol


The reason I haven't blogged? Well... I just haven't done any blog-worthy "stuff" lately! But finally, I am! Are you ready for the news? The really, really, really exciting news?

**DRUMROLL PLEASE**

See all this stuff?? It's going to be used very shortly! How exciting!

These are the chosen colors! Sage green walls... Cream woodwork... and red accents!

I've been planning this room ever so long! Now the wallpaper boarder is coming off! Caleb's such a good helper!

The almost 60-year old carpet is torn up... Yes, I did say almost 60-year old carpet. And let me tell you... it was horrifically disgusting! Wait... that would be an understatement! Revolting? Repulsive? Sickening? Filthy? Nauseating? You know... I don't think there's even a word for it in the English language as we know it! Let's just stick with, "it was GROSS!!!"

You know how carpets have like... shag? This one didn't. It was just the mat. I mean, it got so bad... That when our vacume cleaner gave up the ghost last year, we've taken to sweeping it! And get this... It actually worked!

Halelujah!

I love progress!!!

The cracks... are all puttied... Just a bit of sanding and we're good to go!

The ceiling is ready to be redone...

Have you guessed which room I'm working on now?!

Yay!!! The livingroom!!! Oh joy!

I am going to resume work on Monday... So come back soon for updates!

YAY!!!

Remember my lamps??

Hey ya'll!

Remember the really cool lamps minus the lampshades that I got a couple weeks ago? Check out what I did!

Gave this one to mom for Mother's Day (Along with a really cool tall lamp that I got at my favorite Thrift Store. It still had the tag on it! It was a VERY expensive lamp!!! Got it for 30-something!!! Yeah!) I LOVE how it turned out! I'm having mom get another lampshade like it at Wal-Mart today so that I can do the other one! (The lampshades that I'm using are the beige faux suade ones) It's just an ordinary lampshade that I added the beaded trim to. (I had the trim beads on hand that I had grabbed out of the bargin bin in the fabric section a year or so ago.) It was REALLY easy! I'm making the other one for myself. I'm excited!!!

YAY!

A Tribute to our Couch:

A Tribute to our Couch:
It’s a sad day here at the Wissmann home. Our faithful couch is gone forever. It stood the test of time. Looking back… It seems like only yesterday it arrived at our house out on the dairy farm, proudly perched and tied down to the back of the old pickup. In reality, it was over 12 years ago. We were delighted! Mom and Dad had gone to the Leavenworth KS garage sales for the day. We’ve been through a lot together. I have many fond memories linked to that couch. Ones that I will cherish forever. It will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Now seriously… lol :o) We got a new couch!!! Yay! Okay, so it’s not brand new, but it’s new to us! It’s really nice! It’s bigger than the last one, isn’t so lumpy, and you don’t sink halfway to the floor when you sit down in it! ;o) lol

We like it!

I'm "cool" now! I have a blog!

Well… My first question is:
Can you believe I have a BLOG?!? LOL I never thought I would… But I’d really like to have a place where I just post my latest projects and ideas! Mostly my Interior Decorating/Trash to Treasure escapades! :) You just never know what I might be working on next!

What plans do I have now? Well… Mom and I were pondering over what to do with our living room. It’s awful! To start out with, we have one of those lovely “cottage cheese ceilings!” ICKY! And on top of all that, it’s cracked down the middle. I think it’s from a shifting chimney which has since been fixed, leaving, of course, that crack. And… we had a leak from the upstairs bathroom tub (bad pipes) when we moved in, so we had to cut some of the ceiling out for that. AND… The roof leaked when we moved in, it’s all brown on one side. Not a pretty ceiling! lol Time for it to go!

I was cruising the blog of a very amazing woman. A girl after my own heart! She also had “cottage cheese” ceilings. Her house is ADORABLE! Anyway… she tore out the offending ceilings and replaced with tongue ‘n groove boards. I LOVE IT! I think I got mom talked into it too! Yeah baby! We’re going to re-do the living room!

Why am I so excited to redo the livingroom? It’s the sore-spot of the house as opposed to what it’s supposed to be! Cozy… Homey… A place where we spend time together…

The poor couch is sagging. We got it about 10-12 years ago on a garage sale. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great couch! It’s held up well, surviving all 3 of us kids tearing around and jumping on it. But it’s time for it to die, rotting in some landfill! (Dosen’t that sound morbid?!) So a “new” couch is in the plans. (Okay… New for us! We’ll probably scour the goodwills, craigslist, ect… lol)

I’m on the lookout for an armoire for our TV. I prefer a very old, beat-up barely alive one. One that I can turn into TREASURE! Yeah!

We’ve got plank flooring under our 60+ year old carpet (Betcha didn’t know carpet could last that long, did you? It doesn’t! lol There’s no shag left. We can sweep it now. It’s bad!) But because of the dogs we don’t want to put new carpet in. It just dosen’t work for us! So I’d like to sand the dickens out of it and paint it! (Also an idea from my latest heroine of a woman! You’ve got to look at her blog!) Adorable! Mom’s kind of hard to convince on this one though. We’ll see.

I want to paint the brick on the chimney. It’s brown that clashes with the mantel something fierce! Nasty! I don’t like to gold either… But it’ll have to do! I don’t want to paint that too.

And last of all, everything is just kind of mumble-jumbled around. Furniture stashed here and there. There’s a stand that I want to tear apart for its spindles. (Muahaahaa!) And there are 2 ugly brown upholstered chairs that will find a temporary home in our dumpster before taking up permanent residence with our couch in a landwill somewhere. (Don’t worry… If I consider them trash, they must be something truly awful!

So yeah! Ideas… Just ideas at this point. Mom likes to stop and think about things for a while before we start.

Me?
I’m itchin’ to go start tearing out some cottage cheese ceiling! lol