Breaking The Dining Room In

Our first time using the dining room since we redid it

Light Up The Corners

We walked up to the street in front of our subdivision to watch the runners passing for the Light Up The Corners road race

Pool

Adam playing with some friends at the pool. Helen and I were there for BBQ night. Derek didn't bother, but wanted us to bring some home for him.

Blinds

About 5 years ago I ordered blinds for all the windows from blinds.com. First, I did a test order for just a few windows to see how the blinds looked. You can order the blinds to be cut for an inside mount or an outside mount. I chose the inside mount for the test order, but decided the outside mount would work better because you get a nice mitered valence for a more finished look and went with the outside mount for the rest of the house.

I put the inside mount blinds in the windows with drapes so it didn't really matter that they didn't have the nice mitered valences. However, we recently removed the drapes when we refinished the dining room and now the inside mount valences are showing.

I called blinds.com and told them about my issue. They said it was no problem and that they would send me the new valences for a small fee. I also said that one of the blinds wasn't opening and closing properly. They sent me a part at no charge. It's so nice, and unusual, these days to have such a pleasant customer service experience.

Tech Support

The fan in our computer was wearing out and starting to get noisy, so I ordered a new one. When the package arrived Derek got excited and said he wanted to install it. It's so nice to have eager in-house tech support.

Watch Me Grow

Adam is now 5 ft tall and has grown an inch since the beginning of the year

Derek is a little over 5 ft 10 inches and has always been about a year ahead of Adam's growth rate, but he's only grown a quarter of an inch this year so Adam could catch him

Just Kind A Tired

All this school stuff is making Derek "just kind a tired". He was laying on the love seat talking to Helen and Adam, who were in the kitchen, when he stopped talking and fell asleep.

The River

Before school started Helen got the boys to agree to go to the river and have a picnic lunch...just like when they were little

Dining Room

In January 2013 Helen decided she couldn't stand the dining room wallpaper any longer. I had just refinished the kitchen cabinets and a bunch of other work and wasn't very motivated to start another big project, but she said she would handle it. Now, in August 2014, we are almost to what I like to refer to around here as "done done".

 

Working last summer

We should probably refinish the woodwork too

Helen lined up the chairs so she could walk across them in order to put the urethane on the molding

 

Starting again this summer

The boys helped out a little

Didn't like the original paint color (on the left), so went back and got the darker color (on the right)

Not sure we love the darker shade either. The dark trim limits the paint color options. One day we'll probably paint all the trim...one day.

Prepping for the new mirror

Derek helping mom bring in the new chairs

Derek assembling the barn star

Got a new mirror...didn't like it...too contemporary. Decorating is a sink hole. I just want it "done done" and out of my head.

Got another mirror...liked the shape but not the color. Tried a few different colors.

New chairs

 

Refinishing the table top

We may add some airy sheer drape panels on the side windows if we can find some we like, but other than that it's done