Off and Running in 2008

OSHA Babe in Dining Room Oct, 2006
OB in Dining Room in Jan, 2008. Notice any differences?


See the Poor Man's Sconce that is connected directly to electrical wiring? It is not quite as nice as ...
The new Sconce that actually matches the fixture in the entry way
This vanity stand has a story














Bethany - our overnight cowgirl visitor













As of January 13, 2008

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Four more doors rolled off the production line at Bo's Door Refinishing. The grain in the wood is showing through nicely and the doors look great! Three of the doors are to rooms off of the Landing Area at the top of the stairs. The fourth door is to the closet in the Master Bedroom. Before hanging the doors in their openings, I need to scrape, sand, and paint the door frames. It is tedious but will look so much better than the blue paint that is currently on the doors.
.....In narrative form, this is really pretty boring. So, we included "Before" and "After" (B&A)pictures of the pocket doors in the Dining Room. (Technically, you won't see any doors in the before picture because they had been taken down in the mid-1990's and were on the floor in a back room when we bought the place.) OSHA Babe expanded her resume by helping with the installation of the doors this past week. Seeing the difference between B&A gets me through the mundane message of "we got more doors finished."

2. You will also notice another set of B&A pictures that shows what a difference a light fixture makes. Although I had grown quite fond of the single bulb wire nutted on the end of a piece of romex electrical wiring, I must admit that the new sconce really looks nice. Check out our blog entry from December and you will notice that the sconce matches the new fixture that is in the Entry Way. Hmm - what a coincidence.

3. The piece of cabinetry pictured above is the vanity stand for the Master Bathroom. This is no ordinary vanity stand. This one has a story.
.....Once upon a time, OB saw a picture of this in a magazine and we decided that it would look good in our bathroom. Back in September, we received a proposal from "Cabinet Guy #1" (who had done a great job custom building our kitchen cabinets) and paid him $450 up front "for materials" to build this vanity stand and one other item. Guess who took the money and ran? Yep, you guessed it. (I do have a Small Claim complaint in process against him but am not particularly hopeful.)
.....There is more to this story but you will have to get the rest in person. As a post script, we did make arrangements with "Cabinet Guy #2" to build the vanity. After we get a granite top fabricated, the vanity painted, and the lavatory installed and connected to the plumbing, this story will have a happy ending and we will live happily ever after.


4. We had a western theme to our visitors this week. The cowgirl in the picture is our overnight guest, Bethany. As background, OB works with "Young Lives," a national program that reaches out to teenage mothers. Bethany's mom was asked to tell her story at the national meeting of Young Lives in Orlando, FL and needed places for her three children to stay. We were blessed to have Bethany stay with us. What a joy to have a precocious, happy, little girl stay with us. Incidentally, for the record, we need to include Bethany's Mom, Yvette, and her Young Lives mentor, Terry, as visitors also.
.....With Bethany, Emory, and Maddie having stayed with us within the last month, maybe God is getting this grumpy old man ready for a granddaughter. Did we tell you recently that our oldest, Buck, and his wife, Katy, are blessing both her family and ours with a first grandchild who is due in late April? They have a doctor's appointment this week for another sonogram to look for evidence (or not) of Baby being a boy or girl. At the December doctor's visit, Baby would only "moon" the camera. We're not sure if Baby is bashful or strong-willed. We will find out soon.
.....Saturday morning, we ended up with Frank the floor man, Andy the plumber, and Steve, Terri, and son Shea, friends from Mexico City days, all here at the same time. Andy and I were fixing a water leak out near the meter when Frank drove up with a sample of longleaf pine flooring that he found near San Marcos. Steve, Terri, and Shea stopped by to pick up a book and get the tour. You loyal blog followers have seen a picture of Terri before but this was Steve and Shea's first time. Guys, sorry we didn't get a picture so you also can star in the Tobin Hill Blog. You'll have to come back for the photo op.
.....Additionally, Phil and Joyce, church friends from here in San Antonio, came by on Saturday evening and took the tour before we went out for Italian food and the Art Garfunkel performance at the Majestic Theater.

NEXT STEPS:

1. Frank is buying about 130 square feet of long leaf pine for the Master Closet floor. (Did you know that longleaf pine was used to make telephone poles in the early part of the 20th century? The supplier of this flooring is actually milling the tongue and groove flooring out of old telephone poles.) Frank has run into some problems on the job in Austin and won't be able to start on the remaining floors in our house for another 10 days.

2. Charlie the carpenter is scheduled to be here on Tuesday. We need to finish some window and door trim and enclose the HVAC unit that is in the corner of the Dining Room. Charlie may end up helping get started on the two rooms that were added onto the original house. There are several windows that need sills replaced.

3. Did I mention that there are still doors to refinish? We still have eight doors that we know need to be refinished and still need to find four or five doors to hang up. Before you get too discouraged, remember that we have finished about fifteen doors already. We're getting there.