Finally - a project years in the making!

Many years ago, in town far, far away (at least 10 years and Clairmont, Wyoming is a long way) I acquired a church pew. The old church needed new pews. We hauled new to them pews up in a trailer. The youth and workers cleaned and stained the pews and put them in the church. There were a few old pews from the church there. Parts to make two pews went home with us to Longview. It was one of those projects we planned to do, but never did. We hauled the pieces to El Paso. Again, it sat in the garage. We hauled it to Round Rock. I figured it would stay in the garage here. I was wrong!

I like foyers, welcoming foyers, that it is. This house doesn't have one. It has an area at the front door, but no real separation. A few weeks ago, Dean hung up the crosses and the Greenwood church memorabilia. Dean grew up in the Greenwood church. Before Joy Anna was born, he had the honor of designing their new (at the time) building.  We have a painting of the original building, a print we bought in Baton Rouge of the new building and a couple of commemorative plates. There are a few other things that are special to us in there, too. There is my prayer square from the Nicaragua mission trip, a Jesus Loves Me print a friend made me when Joy Anna was a baby and a scripture plate one of my Sunday School girls made me several years ago. The crosses in there all have meaning, too. Not just the obvious one - mission trips and gifts from special friends. When he was hanging them, he left room for a church pew under the crosses on one wall.  Because it had sat so long, I didn't really have a lot of hope to have it completed.

This morning, he suggested we work on the pews! Woohoo! I was so excited. We pulled all the pieces out, and I took a few 'before' pics.

 When I was working on the buffet, Dean had taken the ends out and cleaned them up.

 This is the back and the bottom. They look really, really bad.

This is spider's nest. It was one of several in the pew rack. I thought it was pretty cool.

So, have I mentioned I am married to a perfectionist? This pic below shows him figuring out how to get the exact measurements while figuring out the best places in the wood to get those exact measurements.

 Now, don't get me wrong, I know the measurements needed to be exact to make it fit right. So, finally he got all the pieces cut exactly like they needed to be.

Remember last week we had to buy a new sander for the buffet? He really likes that thing. He decided he would sand all the pieces and then we would stain them. This is where the perfectionism comes in. He likes old things, but he would rather them look a lot newer. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to seeing them with wonderful patina. I wanted to see the scratches and bruises. There is even a name carved in one of them! I can just imagine all the people sitting there, singing hymns, listening to the preacher, praying. Mamas and Daddies making those wiggling youngsters sit still. Yeah, patina seemed like a good thing to me.

I saw a link on Pinterest for making wood look great without refinishing. I was all for that. The link is: http://missmustardseed.com/2010/06/oil-vinegar-not-just-for-salads/ I thought this might be the perfect thing.
He wasn't crazy about the idea. He very grudgingly said to go ahead and if we need to refinish later, we can. I think we won't have to!

The 'recipe' calls for 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar. Any kind. I had some on hand, so I just used vegetable oil and apple cider vinegar. Best smelling furniture cleaner ever!



Here is what I learned. Only make one batch at a time (3/4 c oil to 1/4 cup vinegar) I had a lot of wood, so made double the first time. Not a good idea because as my rag got dirty, so did the mixture. A little goes a very long way. I went through 1/2 of the double batch and a single batch. I needed a little more, so I made another single batch just to get through. I knew I could use it to touch up if we needed it as we were putting the pieces together. I went through 4 cleaning rags. They were filthy! Just dip in and rub over the wood. If you make sure you get into the scratches and dents, it has a really nice depth to it.

Another thing - keep the dogs away for a bit. Mine were fascinated by the smell. We caught both of them sniffing it and trying to lick it. After it was dry, they lost the fascination. Dean kept mumbling we were going to have bugs. I read several more articles online during a break, and this seems to be tried and true method. I think if it was going to attract bugs, someone would have mentioned that.

I am not complaining about Dean! I love the fact that he is jumping right in and helping me on all these projects. I do get frustrated that my way is never the right way. If it is really important to me, I stand my ground - like black for the buffet. We really have had fun doing the projects.

Here is what the wood looked like before:

The wood was very thirsty. It soaked it up. I had figured I would need to wipe it on and then rub it off. Nope. Wipe it on, and it drinks it right in. I covered everything twice to make sure. There was minimal excess.

After I had all the pieces cleaned and refreshed. we got the fun job of putting them back together. This was a challenge. It took us a little bit of muscle, but we finally got all the pieces put back together.

We ran out of time on putting pew #2 together. We needed showers before the ball game. I don't know how hot it got today, but it was a real scorcher. Showers were necessary. Tomorrow, we will put pew #2 together and find a place to put it. We did them both the same length, so if we move where we can have them together, they will match.

The pew finished! Doesn't the wood look great? This is the one where there is a name carved - they tried but it is not very deep, so it is hard to read. I didn't see it all in the dry wood. It showed up after I added the oil. You can see where legs rubbed against the seat where it is raised slightly. The arm rests are worn more. Lots of hands rested there.

And my foyer finished!

Thinking I need a rug there. Maybe move the the green pot? I have a few more hymnals I need to stack on the pew.  I think it is very welcoming. I like looking at the different pieces in there and thinking about the memories and friends and family they bring to mind.

Laundry Room Organization

I am not an organized person when it comes to the house. I can organize a project. I an organize things in my head just great - just not always in real life. Last week, I posted my pantry. It is working great! It is so simple, it had to work.

Next up to organize was the laundry room.

I have been doing really well since we got here at keeping the laundry up to date- even folding socks! That is a huge thing for me. To make it easy, I used laundry baskets for different loads of clothes. I put the baskets in a shelving unit. Dean has been great about sorting his laundry into the baskets, too. When a basket is full, it gets washed. Very simple!

I have a shelf over the washer and dryer. It allows me to hang clothes right out of the dryer. of course, there were things stored there. I didn't like the jumbled look. The laundry room is in the front of the house. The only nice window in the front is in the laundry room! Odd, huh?

I have quite a few empty boxes. I found 4 that were the same size and shape. They each held 6 gallons of milk or tea and came from Super One in Longview. I cut the flaps off and covered them with brown paper> the paper was left over from the movers. It was wrapped around a large frame.

I made tags for all the boxes and the baskets. I mounted the tags on brown paper left over from a recent wedding. Because I used found items, the whole makeover cost me 6.00 for the rings and the glue stick.

Because we don't have a lot of linen storage, I am using baskets to store extra towels, sheets, and various other items. It helps to know what is in each basket. Once I get a buffet that will hold my punch bowl, I will have even more space in the laundry room.

Below is my pic for July 6th

Pantry do-over

I still need to blog about the wedding - I am going to soon. I just need to take plenty of time to do that. Ashley & Eric did an amazing job on the photos.

For now, I am just trying to keep my head above water. Unpacking is an ordeal. It is fun, but there are times it is a real emotional roller coaster. I like to keep things because I am sentimental. Lots of memories being unpacked. Good memories. It just makes me a little sad that the kids are now grown up, married and moved on.

Anyway, I am starting some redos at the house. I have been doing some browsing on Pinterest and found a few things. We are doing some re-purposing. We are starting in the kitchen and the master bedroom.

I spent the weekend redoing my pantry. After years of selling Tupperware, I have an abundance. When we used in Longview, I used the modular mates a lot. I didn't in El Paso, because I had no pantry. It just didn't work right there.
 

I moved the two softsided coolers and about half of the grocery bags (white bag to the left) to the garage. Everything else stayed and I added so much more! I have almost the whole floor empty now.

 I added 2 boxes of cookbooks to the shelf on the left. I added pitchers to the top shelf. There are extra Tupperware pieces in there. I even added my cast iron cookware to the bottom shelf where it is easier to get out than under the cabinet.

I saw a pin on pinterest where a blogger used adhesive tiles on wire shelves. I don't really have a problem with them except under my cookbooks and under the cookware (because I didn't want the iron to scratch the shelves)  I didn't want to use the adhesive as we are renting. I didn't want to have to clean the adhesive off the shelves. We bought .68 cent tiles that were just flat (Dean says they are called VCT -vinyl composition tiles). I used them under my cookbooks and one under my cookware. Worked great! Everything is organized and neat. I have so much more room in there.

Oh, I don't usually keep a stuffed animal in my pantry, but the photo challenge this month is to take a photo with the same prop every day. I am using the little bear. He is resting against the basmati rice.

I have completed a couple of small projects in my bedroom. I am going to wait until a few more are complete to post. I will work on more tomorrow.

There are a few pieces we still need to acquire. I need an island for my kitchen. I have been looking at some different options where I can remake an island from another piece of furniture. I need a buffet for my dining room - again repurposing might be an option. Also on my list is bench and a rug for our bedroom and a desk and a floor cloth for a craft room - after we decide where the craft room is going to be. The loft gives me the option of seeing the television and sort of being in the room with Dean. That also leaves the other bedroom open for a studio. However, a craft room in the bedroom will allow the door to be closed. Hmmm. Lots to think about, but I need to finish unpacking the loft before we can really make the call. Tomorrow, I will work on the loft and a few more bedroom projects. I love being creative and getting to make the house into a home.