2010 Photobook

One more thing I can check off the ol' list. Each year, Josh and I have been compiling our favorite photographs of the year into books. Our First one from 2007 was a collection from the wedding. 2008 and 2009 were mostly California adventures and this last year was a lot of house projects.

We have tons of pictures but we narrow them down to fit in about 30 pages, and everything gets labeled. It's nice to flip through and see some of the highlights from each year.

Privacy Please!

Saturday, I drove down to Clarks Grove to learn to sew. Shelby was home for the weekend and has a machine that I could use. She showed me how to use it and I made these panels for our side door. I got the fabric from IKEA and we had some brackets attached to the woodwork by our french doors in back that we that we repurposed to hang them.

This is the look from the outside. We're glad to have some privacy. You can also see that new lock we installed, I don't think we ever took a final picture of that. Apparently the door used to be yellow (wish it still was!).

Winter Projects Update

We are on a roll with these projects. Josh usually takes the week between Christmas and the New Year off (use it or lose it by Dec 31), so during that time he got some things done around the house including a couple things off the list.

First, he was able to bring our closet light fixture into Michael's for repair. Left you can see it dangling on the day we moved in. I know right, six months to get that squared away. When the bulb finally burnt out, we knew we didn't have anymore excuses. Michael's is a great little shop on Xerxes and 50th that sells lamps and repairs both lamps and light fixtures. For $35 they rewired and soldered it back together, and we love keeping original details in our house!

Secondly, Josh got our doorbell in working order. The chime has been up for a while with wires attached down to the basement where our transformer is, but everything wasn't connected and our new button hadn't been installed. We were finally able to take the "please knock, doorbell not working" sign off our front door.

Then this weekend we started tackling two items off the list simultaneously—removing paint, and restoring the woodwork downstairs on the stairs. We are using Goof Off to remove unwanted paint and Restor-a-Finish in dark oak to bring it back to life.

We've only tackled the bottom step (I just wanted to try the Restor-a-Finish so bad!), so we have quite a ways to go (on the stairs alone), but we'll post updates as we go.

Items listed...

I got one more small thing crossed off my list! I just finished posting all my miscellaneous items on eBay including a lock and knob that I ordered for the side door before changing my mind on the finish, and a harness for Lucy that ended up not fitting. Here's hoping they sell so I can recoup my cash!

Winter Projects

Since we're on the theme of lists, this is what I'd love to be able to accomplish over the winter. I started this list before Christmas so I've gotten a few things crossed off already. It's quite ambitious, so it may spill into the summer, but here it goes:

Remove paint from lower level woodwork.

Restore lower level woodwork.

Refinish the glass cabinet we got out at the farm.

Finish scanning photos (no way this gets done over the winter).

Create our 2010 photo book. Done!

Strip paper in the office.

Wall paper the office.

Get a library card. Done!

Make grain sack (also from the farm) pillows.

Measure closets for organizers. Done!

Decide on a plan for the closets.

Strip woodwork upstairs.

Paint woodwork upstairs.

Paint walls upstairs. Started.

Strip papers in closets.

Wallpaper downstairs coat closet.

Finish installing the doorbell. Done!

Repair the light in our closet. Done!

Organize all my fonts.

Redo kitchen caulk. Started.

List items on eBay. Done!

Phew! That will keep us pretty busy for awhile. Look forward to some posts as we finish them.