The Floors and Painting Are Finished...Yay!

Remember this?

Now it looks like this!! Isn't it just awesome? God makes some nice wood doesn't He? Ya baby!

While the floors were being refinished we ate a few meals in the back yard. I actually cooked two breakfasts. I don't do breakfasts very often so it was a special event when I cooked two days in a row. I have to say, it was good.

We also stayed in the back rooms or kitchen or out of the house while this process of floor refinishing was going on. Jack, our cat, basically lived in our bedroom. He was getting pretty fed up with it all. We let him out between coats of FloorFin whenever the floors were dry enough to walk on.

Now when the floor was finished & the painter showed up Jack was very curious. He kept an eye on that guy. Wondering what he was up to.

Jack watched for quite a while while A painted.

And he watched some more. Finally Jack was getting too close to the freshly painted walls & we had to put him back in our bedroom. Poor Jack. A really liked him too.

As well as many other things my hubs installed the base board. At first I was apprehensive because in the past, I'll just say, the work was less than what I had hoped for. Well he did a very good job this time and A followed him with caulking & sealed the top & covered nails. It looks very nice. I am smiling.

Nice eh!

A 52 year old floor uncovered after many years of abuse and carpet covering it.

For not really fixing any walls other than minor patching and covering up our old house turned out pretty nice.

It's me, Mocha Momma, very pleased and right before the 4th of July too. Now to bring in the old furniture and then the newer furniture.

We were anxious to bring the furniture in off of the deck and get everything back in order so we could relax and enjoy the Independence Day festivities.

But it had poured rain the entire day on July 2nd and when we pulled off the tarp there was our old furniture sitting in water on the tarp. Big oops! Shouldn't have put tarp under it or should have made sure the top tarp was tucked under the bottom one.

We spent a lot of time with a heat gun drying pieces so we could put the pads on the feet and set them in place.

The entertainment center, the piece we wanted to set up the most so we could get all the electronics back into it, was soaked about an inch and 1/2 to 2 inches.

This is the bottom of the back. Ugh!

And this is the oldest piece we have that came with the house. It has the most damage. It's a Secretary's Desk. It had some broken parts, but it had never been refinished so apparently it has more value that way. As it dried one of the claw feet cracked & part of it fell off.

This side is warped, cracking and the finish is gone now. We let it dry and then brought it in and put it back in service. Not much else to do unless we take the time and money to get her fixed. So much to do, so little money.

The whole project went very smoothly until the rain soaked things, but it's all okay. We're still very pleased and we even had some old friends over for the 4th. As always, God is good and shows us what's important.

I hope your Fourth of July was fun and festive. Hopefully I'll be back soon with more fun stuff we've been doing. God bless you all.

The Floor Project 2010

Back in May, my SIL moved back home with her mom. She gave us her livingroom furniture. I thought out loud, "Well it won't look good with this old, nasty carpet. We're going to have to do something with the floor now."

I said that in front of my, "I'll fix it. I'll take care of that for ya" husband and out went the old couches before I got home from work one Monday & here sat parts of the new stuff in pieces all bagged up on our floor.

Next day, MIL, SIL, hubby & kids tore out carpet and tack strip. I was at work so no pix of the whole crew at work.

What a man!! Be careful what ya say in front of Gary or he'll take care of business. I do love that about him as long as it is my idea, LOL!

That carpet was installed while I was pregnant with my son who will be fifteen next week. The paint as well. We are overdue.

Well actually here he is, he was born on time fifteen years ago. The refinishing is overdue. Just thought I'd clear that up. He has worked hard alongside his dad pulling out nails & staples and you name it.

Eventually the stuff had to go outside and the sun finally came out the day we moved most of our stuff onto the deck. It's covered cuz we're sure it'll rain at least once during this project.

Scraping old, sticky doublesided carpet tape & sanding.



Still finding nails & staples to pull.

So today at 0630 this guy comes in with this machine and sands for hours. Actually he works where my hubs works and he used to be a contractor. His name is Steve.

Look at that beautiful Oak floor! We never knew how nice it looked until today. It has a lot of character and we like it that way. We're very pleased with how things are going.

Apparently we've only just begun. Tomorrow & Sunday, Steve will return for more sanding. The first & second & third coats of Daly's Floorfin. If all goes well, the painter will be here next Wednesday. I'm excited to see the transformation.

To old things that can be made almost new again. Thanks be to God for family, friends and hard workers.

Something Broke

Last Saturday my husband was driving home on the freeway and his 1979 Toyota pick up just stopped running. He drove it for about nine years to and from work. It is rusty and the seats and floorboards are severely damaged, but it kept running with little maintenance for those years.

All good things must come to an end. This baby is no longer in service. ;(

We had no idea what to do. We didn't want another loan to pay off. My hubs told his mom what was going on and she graciously offered us a certain amount of money.

We still didn't know what to do until we found a replacement vehicle. We were hoping to borrow a car. No luck. We looked at renting. Too much even for a clunker.

On Sunday we still had no idea what we were going to do. I was starting my job on the following Tuesday. Banks were closed for the holiday. My hubs was feverishly looking on the Internet for a vehicle. He went to see a couple and was getting excited about the thought of a newer truck.

He found this one at a nearby city dealership. They made arrangements for him to borrow the money on Labor Day and the next day he and his mom got the cash from her bank and payed off the loan.

We brought the 1990 Toyota home on Labor Day and sold the non-running 1979 truck for $10.00 on Tuesday.

My hubs loves the newer pick-up. It gets great mileage and drives smooth (not like the tank feeling of the older one). It's just been a blessing to see how this all turned out and in time for both of us to go to work.

With God all things are possible. Thank you my Lord and Savior!

A Walk Down Memory Lane With Dubb Dubb

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

This is a post for "Memory Lane" over at Erica's blog, Scottsville. This is my first attempt so here goes.

This picture isn't old and neither am I (Ha), but the seal sculpture brings back memories of my childhood.

This sculpture is of Dubb Dubb the seal who used to live at the zoo. We recently went to the zoo for a visit and this sculpture caught my attention.

You see, Dubb Dubb was every child's favorite seal when I was a kid. He was huge. This sculpture doesn't show him life size. I'm talkin' he was huge. Overfed is more like it. People could buy fish and feed Dubb Dubb all day long.

He would do tricks and really try to get your attention. He would also catch the fish real well. If someone wanted to feed the other seals, Dubb Dubb would crowd the other seals and get the fish anyway.

I loved standing by the open tank watching Dubb Dubb go through his antics of clapping his fins, waving and twirling in the water. All of the children would get so excited to see Dubb Dubb the seal perform for food.

Oldies, But Goodies

I always like to start with a flower these days. This is a Golden Chain Tree from that yard I visited
three or four weeks ago.
I love it and want to get some, but we'll see.


This is kind of a silly blog about the really old kitchen stuff I have and still use all of the time. We're kind of a "If it's not broken don't fix it" kind of a family.

Speaking of broken, now that my hubby has finished replacing the radiator in our Jeep, our dryer broke the other day. He found the problem today, got the part and fixed it already.

Now if we had to get a repairman, I think I'd be waiting for two to three weeks for my dryer to be fixed. I'm spoiled by the talents my hubby has been blessed with. Thank God for this because it saves us a lot of money, not to mention time and frustration.

On with the oldies, but goodies...

First up is our twenty nine year old Revere Ware. I received it for Christmas shortly before my first marriage. Funny thing is, my current hubby had some pieces of his own so we combined our sets when we got married fifteen years ago and have lived happily ever after.

Same vintage year here. Got this from my former SIL who was selling Tupperware at the time of my first marriage. Notice the dark brown plunger thingy. I lost the original down the garbage disposal. I had never had a GD before and didn't even know what happened to my plunger thingy. They were out of the tan color so I accepted the brown one. We use this everyday.

This one came with this house when my hubby bought it nineteen years ago. He bought it as a fixer upper house and for $2,000 more he got everything in the house. There were some really cool things in the house, but we just couldn't keep it all.

I love this bowl for popcorn. It doesn't have it's lid anymore, but we don't need it. I wonder how old it is?

This is the prettiest Tupperware I have. It has a blue ladle too. I use it for popcorn too and colorful salads. I think it's about fourteen years old.


Sterlite and Rubbermaide storage containers have been my friends for many years. There were many sizes and shapes in the Rubbermaide set. Just two Sterlite pieces. Some pieces have gone by the wayside, but I use what I have a lot.

I just had to have the set on the left. There were different sizes and they all stacked nicely and fit great in the cupboard. I had a set with blue lids and one with red lids. Don't know why the red set is gone. Probably a yard sale item. I don't even have the whole blue set anymore. Impulse buy back in the 90's I think.

I have a canister set of the white one. They are full of sugar, flour, brown sugar and tea bags. I love this set.

Now these babies are priceless. Do these spoons belong to you? Leftovers from pot locks a long time ago. Couldn't find the owners so they are now our serving spoons used every day.

The knife was my mom and dad's. I think it was in their camper. When they sold their camper we got the contents for our fifth wheel. Nice deal. I think the grater was in that group too.

There's a story with the grater. I guess I'm not very old fashioned cuz I love this old thing. It requires a little TLC. I do not put it in the dishwasher or let it stay wet. It gets rusty fast.

I bought a very expensive, fancy mandolin style grater once and found it cumbersome, too big to store and a pain to use. I actually gave it away. What an expensive waste. I had saved my very old grater so I brought it out of moth balls and re-commissioned it.
Now this puppy is my very old sports bottle that I fill with ice water every night and put on my night stand. I drink most of it with my popcorn every night. Yes, popcorn every night! I love popcorn!! I don't know how many more trips through the dishwasher this baby can handle. One thing I know, I have some Tupperware straws I can replace this straw with.

So there's your trip down memory lane whether you wanted it or not. It was fun! Glad you stopped by.