Your new guest room looks like a hotel...beautiful!

We worked outside planting a few things, and cleaning the grill after a starling made a nest, hatched 8 babies, made a mess, and THEN left them to die.

After all that, we went to see "Night in the Museum" and had a dinner date.

Sweeby,

THOSE ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Not only are you a talented seamstress, but you have a real eye for color and design. I have shown some people your mosaic urn- that was something spectacular too!

Do you have a waterproof liner for the shower curtain? Also, how did you mount the cornice to the tile?

As for me, I worked in the gardens and cooked a really nice cake for DD's Bday. Lady Baltimore cake from the New Basics Cookbook. Not hard to make and delicious!

Thanks -- And Hubby spent his time in the garden as well. Younger DS worked with Hubby and older DS was "recovering from brain-fry syndrome" (graduating senior) and helped repair two computers.

To answer your question, there is a waterproof liner on the wet side, in addition to a liner for body on the aqua side. I'll post pictures of the finished suite as soon as it's all done -- a few days, probably.

Wow, those are some fine sewing skills sweeby! I love the gold trim on the bedskirt.

I removed ivy from a shed. It looked so charming, but the ivy was damaging the structure and ants were using the vines as a superhighway. Thousands of them. I dread putting the ivy vines into my mini-van to drive to the dump.

I love your bathroom Sweeby, it's perfection. Lovely sewing too! My mother loves loves loves to sew, but I never caught the bug, which I had!

Lucky us, we got to finish planting this ugly planter we have in the front yard...oh well, now at least it's done!

graywings--I feel for ya!
I filled the back end of my dodge dakota pickup with Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis).
I'd let it reseed with abandon in one end of the border for more than a few years! Phew! Did me in LOL

No real "decorating" but I did manage to tackle the chaos that is my mid-remodel kitchen and got it at least somewhat decluttered. I also did a bunch of cooking and cleaning.

Yesterday we went to Monterey and met a bunch of sea lions and cormorants.

Sweeby, that is beautiful. I love your work!

I got my sewing fix this weekend too. :) I also made DH go clothes shopping with all the sales going on. His 15-year HS reunion is in another week and I didn't want him looking like a hobo. :)

sweeby..how gorgeous!!!
graywings...that is a huge project- good for you!
I didn't see this thread and started my own- sorry about that! :(

I just did some yard work and puttered around the house. Nothing spectacular. But then, every day is a day off for me.

Sweeby, love the pillows, especially the Koi. Very nice, and the red pillows show it off. How did you do the bedskirt? Looks like pleats that aren't ironed in? What is it attached to? Did you do a decking, or something you can easily take off for laundering without wrestling the whole darned mattress?

Your shower curtain treatment is spectacular, with great attention to detail. Your color choices are the perfect compliment to that lovely tile job. So professional looking and deffinitely one of the most elegant bathroom curtain treatments I've ever seen.

Did you make the cornice yourself? How is it attached? How is the back side finished?

The trim on the cornice, how did you make that? How did you finish off the ends? Same with the trim on the tieback, it's the same, isn't it? I know how to make piping, but not the double piping look you did. How's that done? How did you finish off the ends? And how does the tieback holder stick to the tile? What kinds of fabric did you use? Sorry for so many questions but inquiring diy minds want to know... lol!

Graywings, bless your heart, you had to be brave to reach in there with ants crawling all over it. Did they get all over you? Stinging ones? Glad you got that icky job done.

Sweeby I am simply stunned at how gorgeous your projects look! Wow. I worked in the yard for 3 days- took off Friday too, it rained hard on Sunday afternoon. I was unable to garden at all last year so it felt really good. Nothing fancy, just digging, transplanting, clean up. Went to the Baltimore Herb Festival Saturdaymorning so I planted a bunch of herbs and a couple of perennialsin the afternoon.
Graywings- oh yeah I feel your pain!I pulled a whole lot of ivy out of my garden.

Sweeby
Oh, I am lusting after your lovely pillows, skirt and that shower curtain I couldn't wait to see, + your sewing accomplishments! - I'm trying...

I'm so glad you asked
We have the good fortune of owning a cottage on the coast of Maine - dh's dad bought it when he was 5yrs old and they were living in an apartment in the Bronx! 4children mom & dad

Every year we open Memorial Day
or I should say I do -
It is an insurmountable feat - the winter was particularly rough & my lawn and gardens have taken a HUGE beating - wish I had before pics but I don't.... I was pulling away & rushed out to take these - not even noticing the box in the front garden!

Glad it is done!

Looking forward to getting back - & I'll bring my sewing machine, tile supplies, paints - and start more projects up there

I was afraid I'd get dragged into the garden if I didn't keep 'too busy' sewing! ;-) And it was hot and humid here, and we have 5 cubic yards of soil in the driveway that needs to be moved... (Thank goodness for boys!)

Oceanna - The Koi pillow is one I got at Pier One a few years ago, even though I didn't have exactly the right spot for it at the time. It was just one of those things that was just so "me" that I fell in love and knew it would find the perfect spot -- and it eventually did. I made the little russet side pillows after trying in vain to find ones that didn't clash with the gold spread (virtually everything in the gold family) or look wimpy as the aqua or minty ones did. So I picked up on the russet and just made the pillows small so they wouldn't overwhelm.

The bed skirt is out of a fabric that I think is Tencel -- very rayon-ish and unravelly, but also silky and cottony at the same time -- a lovely hand, and on sale for only $1.99/yd. Unironed pleats is exactly what I did, with a flat lining behind for added body. I don't know what to call the pieces, so I'll just do my best to try to explain: There's a flat 'platform' the same size as the box spring that rests on the box spring, and a 3-sided 18" long 'border' that covers the (ugly) sides of the box spring and forms the lining behind the pleated section. The soft-pleated part is stitched 6" from the top of the border, then flipped forward to hide the seam. The nasty part was hemming the pleated section by attaching the thin gold ribbon 3" up from the bottom and 1/4" or so down from the raw edge on the underside. Guess I could have stitched twice, but I'm seriously lazy! ;-)

The cornice was a joint project that Hubby and I did together. He did the woodworking, I did the sewing, and we did portions of the upholstery together. The cornice piece is a 5-sided box, with the front and side pieces arched and a straight back to hide the curtain pole and hooks from inside the tub. Hubby routered the edges of the arched cuts to keep the seams centered and soft-looking, and we upholstered each piece separately, then screwed them together through the front and back, pulling the aqua linen over the screws and stapling at the top and concealed sides. The visible parts are done in the same linen as the curtain, and the inside parts are done in a thin waterproof vinyl.

The double-piping is something I invented and wouldn't necessarily suggest anyone else try -- it was a PITA. Basically, I sewed a 'tube', then threaded two strips of piping at the same time I turned the tube. Then I separated the two piping cords and stitched through the middle with the seam on the back. One long knitting needle and two stiff drinks... I hand-stitched the piping onto the cornice front fabric through the batting to give it a bit more texture, removing the inner cording from the very ends of the piping so the start & end corner wouldn't be too bulky.

The shower curtain is pretty much your standard lined drape, though I didn't really know how to do it and made it up as I went along. 40 years of sewing, so I'm not afraid ;-) It seems I'm not especially careful either because I ended up with 13 pleats when I wanted 12! My plan was to hang the drape along with a water-resistant inner liner on standard shower curtain rings, but I ended up getting a separate set of 13 curtain rings to supplement the 12 for the liner and alternated drapery ring, shower curtain ring, drapery ring, shower curtain ring... (Thank goodness for the cornice that hides my stupidity.) I added a border stripe in the same taupe silk to reference the double-piping and made a tieback using a braid made from two-cords of piping (well, six altogether) with the ends turned back into loops, then hand-stitched to a band of the linen. Looks a lot more complicated than it actually was.

The cornice and tieback hardware is actually screwed through the tile and into the sheetrock and studs behind. Hubby is a professional remodeler, so he did the fabulous tile work and is capable of repairing it if we ended up hating it. But very fortunately, he likes it too --

Cool pictures guys! It rained all weekend here...we went hiking ....didn't get "any" projects done....
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Dh installed a subway tile backsplash. I just grouted it a couple of hours ago, so things are still a hot mess. Still have to chaulk, and seal the grout.

BTW, that corner looks jacked up. It's just got a wad of tape and trash bag stuck to it. Yep, it's sort of stuck and he's working to get it all out :) :)

Oh I so admire people that can sew, pretty pillows you have and I love cornices.

I went to my niece's house in Chattanooga and we went to some antique shops and I bought a silver dome. I have been searching for one for years. It is Victorian and from the early 1900's.

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Sweeby, That is just beautiful, you are very talented and love your use of blue. You ladies put me to shame, I was thinking about the projects I needed to get done, the majority of them out in the yard. I did get the lawn trimmed and moved some plants.

Sweeby, that koi pillow makes my heart go pitter patter! Everything you've done is just perfect, wonderful job!

No project were completed here over the weekend, even though I still have the inside of the potting shed left to do. My DH is away for 2 weeks for work, he'll be home for a couple days for the end of school ceremonies with the girls, then back on the job for 2 more weeks. So my mission is to keep the girls busy, so the time Dad's gone goes by fast for them. So we stayed super busy over the weekend doing fun stuff .. movies, roller skating, pool, shopping, etc.

I am seriously impressed with your double piping, Sweetby! It really adds something.

Everyone here was so ambitious. I spent my weekend eating watermellon(s), spray painting a photo frame, and polishing flatware. DH was getting into enough for both of us. :o)

"It seems I'm not especially careful either because I ended up with 13 pleats when I wanted 12!"

Hmmm...I think the reason for the error in counting is because of "One long knitting needle and two stiff drinks..."

Beautifully done!

newdawn: I have serious, serious envy for those gorgeous items. They're just my style. Congrats on the great find!

Pbrisjar: Thank you so much you made my day.

That's DH on Saturday morning, beginning the demolition of the front porch floor after removing the old wainscoting. He took this week off to work on it and I don't think we're going to finish it by Sunday. Saturday afternoon he cut the the floorboards to size - the porch is the same width all around, which makes it easier - and sanded them while I organized tools and materials. Sunday and Monday we stained nearly 250 boards, both sides, tongues and grooves. We're using an opaque stain product instead of paint so we don't get that peeling/chipping problem so common to painted porch floors. I was in so much pain Sunday and Monday nights between a bad sunburn (even though I was diligent with the sunscreen!) and overstrain - that brush was in my hand for seven hours on Sunday and almost six on Monday - that even with my very strong pain meds it was not a pretty sight around here. But the work had to be done because we were racing the weather and none of our friends were around to help.

Tuesday I supervised the rest of the demolition, pulled nails (really cool old square cut nails - we've saved every good one), and planned out how to address some really, REALLY ugly structural issues we discovered. Let's just say it's a good thing we tore this puppy apart now because within a couple of years we would have had two sections completely collapse. :-/ Today it is cold and rainy so except for an occasional trek outside to solve some logistical problems I have been ordered to rest while he works on the structural repairs per my instructions because I am still in bad shape. This will be a very, very strong porch when he is done with it though we both wish we hadn't had to lose a day and a half to it!

We expect that to be finished today and tomorrow we can start putting down the floorboards. We know we are going to need more of the flooring because the [bleep] lumberyard sent us some real garbage that we didn't find until we opened the bundles but we won't know exactly what we need until what we have is down (kind of a long explanation I won't go into), which will need to be cut, sanded, and stained one coat before it can be laid. We hope once DH gets the hang of the nailer we can get at least most of the boards we do have ready down on Thursday; if we order the rest of the wood on Thursday it should be delivered Friday while DH is finishing up installing the flooring and we put the last coat of stain on the parts that are done. That means we can get the rest of the material stained Saturday and Sunday (Friday is expected to rain off and on and we have very little covered work space) and ready to install the next weekend. I HOPE that by then we have the permit for the new porch stairs in hand so I can order the railing parts from Vintage Woodworks. I don't dare place the order until I have the permit because it would be just my luck for the city to disapprove the plan after I'd spent the $$$ on all the parts!

This is what I did....this is our only storage in this 1890 house. It was added when we converted the attic to living space in 2002. It is under the upstairs eves. I opened every box and made a give away stack and repacked things in new storage boxes. It feels good to open the door now LOL.

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Went to a wine tasting dinner Friday night.
Recovered Saturday morning just in time to go to the farmers' market.
Did nothing useful until friends came to dinner Monday. Blissful, lazy, movie-watching, book-reading nothing.

Sweeby, thank you for the fabulous descriptions you gave for all of your processes. I was able to follow along well in my mind and understand everything. I think you are immensely clever and deserve to take several bows to thunderous applause!

Momto4 your backsplash looks great. Almost done! It will last a looooong time, and be easy to clean.

Newdawn, I love the silver dome -- just like in the movies! That clock is really a trip and your other items look wonderful too. I love antiques.

Sunday and Monday we stained nearly 250 boards, both sides, tongues and grooves.

Mari, ugh! And a sunburn to boot. I can't wait to see the finished pics from all the hard work from you and DH both. He's a cutie, btw.

Trailrunner, good for you! I need to do a lot of that kind of thing around here, sort and purge.

Oh my it was a busy week around our home and the holiday weekend was busy with home projects. See pics on my blog of my husband hard at work. www.alwaysnesting.blogspot.com

My DH finished the window casings and patch/plaster/ sanding job in my daughters' room. Now it's ready for paint, can't wait to get this bedroom done so we can get started on the baby's room. Only 4 weeks left before he makes his debut!

Sweeby - I don't think I've ever seen your bathroom. Beautiful! I'm impressed by your sewing skills - I didn't understand a word of your instructions!

Lots of hardworking people here. 200 boards?!

I didn't do anything til Tuesday. SILs left Sat after brunch, we stopped by Goodwill on the way home and bought a 2x4 Bauhaus microfiber ottoman for $100. Had my parents over to eat the 14 pieces of chicken I had taken out for Friday but was still frozen then. Sunday cleaned the fridge (removed all the glass shelves and bins, washed everything), washed DD's sheets again (turned out 1 aunt wore some body fragrance that made DD stuff up - didn't bother her in person, we aired out her room Sat night and I sniffed pillows, she had her favorite pillow in my room the w/e but had spare on bed, DD was stuffy as soon as I put her in bed but I figured it was a cold since I didn't smell anything. Sun AM she woke up really stuffed up, I smelled sheets and pad and there it was). Also some more laundry. DS got stung by some insect 5 times (it flew up his shorts and stayed there when he cam inside for ice, stung him the last couple of times after he pulled his shorts back up after icing area). The rest of Sunday is a blur. Monday was parade, cookout at friends' house, then bring kids to grandparents to spend night (were supposed to on Friday but had aunts here). Too many late nights. Tues dentist (said I have to stop grinding/clenching since I'm building bone where I don't need it, losing it and loosening ligaments, getting deeper pockets just in past 4 months), then dug up 1 young maple and about 9 lilacs from my parents' house (overgrown) and planted them here, spread 6 bags of mulch.

oceanna, the porch is going to be an all-summer project so there won't be pictures for quite a long time. DH is STILL working on the structural issues since one rotten area went a lot further than we thought it did once we started cutting the sill apart. DH drained four batteries for the Sawzall! Next we put down the floor in two stages as above. After that's done we start on replacing the beadboard wainscot - that's cut a couple of hundred boards, prime all sides, install, paint. (We haven't liked any of the exterior sheet products we've seen that we could afford. The Azek cellular-PVC beadboard is pretty awesome but hoooooo-eeee, the price!) Then strip the upper half of the porch, repair the many places necessary and repaint. Cut, prime, install and paint trim at top and bottom of wainscot. THEN refinish the front door. Mind you, I HATE painting! I have promised DH one weekend a month of no house stuff so we don't burn out.

Wow, Mari, I'm burned out just listening to you! Hopefully you'll have a nice new porch to sit on by Labor Day. I could never get DH to tackle something like that - either I do it myself, or hire somebody. Can't you find at least pre-primed beadboard to save yourself a step?

Only 4 weeks left before he makes his debut!

Oh my, happy baby to you, Polly! :o)

Mari, your post is a good reminder of the tons of work that can go in behind the outward beauty of a project. It's so often work nobody sees or compliments us on, but it's pricey, labor-intensive, and necessary. All that structural stuff, plus wiring and plumbing come to mind. Ick. Sorry you hate to paint. I find it quite restful, almost meditative. Hang in there! This too shall pass.

We finished installing our closet shelves, drawers and hanging rods. It was a real puzzle. Had to order one extra shelf for the tower but it looks great.

Wanted to share our Memorial Day weekend project...

Our sons are 4 (as of Wednesday!) and almost 3. Their birthdays are about a month apart, so my husband decided to build them one great, big birthday present. He's a great Dad!

We're not done yet, but it's lookin' pretty good! My husband did almost everything by himself, but I DID dig the holes for the footings! We found the windows and slide on craigslist and had some Trex left over from our own deck. We splurged on the siding :). I'll post some interior shots when we finish!

ajsmama, we're aiming for being done by Halloween. :-) We would MUCH rather have hired the work out but the materials alone are busting our budget enough. We ARE hiring out the stairs because the math is just too much for me and I'm shaking in my boots waiting to find out how much the labor on that is going to cost. I haven't found any preprimed exterior-appropriate beadboard in the local lumberyards.

We got about 8 feet of floor laid this morning, we're having issues with the flooring nailer - the flooring nails don't want to go into the hard-as-a-rock 108yo joists (which we think are hemlock, which gets incredibly hard as it ages) so every single nail needs a final setting by hand. DH has gone off to order more of the flooring so I get to rest a bit and warm up - it's barely 50 and STILL raining! Thank goodness the porch has a roof! If he can get the flooring today or early tomorrow and it's reasonably dry weather I'll put the first coat of stain on the new boards while DH and our friend Tim (who has promised to help this weekend come h*ll or high water, since he had to back out last weekend) lay the remaining flooring we have already stained. I think (hope) they'll finish with that quickly enough to come help me with staining the wood to be installed Sunday. We'll still have an open corner to piece together, which is going to be nasty fiddly work and can wait until next weekend.

oceanna, I think it was someone over on the Old House forum who coined the phrase "socks and underwear work" - the not-fun but very necessary work that needs to be done before you can get to the pretty stuff everyone notices. Kind of like getting socks and underwear for Christmas, y'know? :-) I just don't have steady enough hands to paint well and I get frustrated out of my little head with the splodges and lap marks and suchlike. At least this stain (Sikkens Rubbol Solid Dek) doesn't show lap marks but we're going to be using "real paint" for the rest of the project. Feh and phooey.

Danielle, very impressive!

What a fabulous playhouse Danielle! Wish I'd seen something similar when mine were littler. Of course, Hubby's got to be glad I didn't ;-)

And Mari - WOW! What a project. It'll be great when it's done.

Jejvtr - I love your cottage! And your plantings look perfect. What a wonderful place to summer...

Wow lot's of worker bees here! Inovative & creative

Sweeby thanks for the compliment - it is a cherished place we love to summer - life just slows down, and children have many new found freedoms - Wish you lived around the corner & could come and help me with my sewing trials - I keep trying though - you are sew talented!

Mari - bless you & dh for the porch undertaking - quite a feat
Danielle - you built a child's dream house what a wonderful B-day gift.
new dawn - 2 yrs looking paid off - lovely dome
Mom 2 4 - nice subway - thank goodness for dh's that can do this (mine doesn't!)
gray - I have ivy envy sans the ants! sounds like a fun job!

We replaced all the interior doors in our house.
New door on the right

All new hinges and hardware too. Can not believe how much difference new doors make.

Wow Sweeby I am in awe over your sewing skills your work is beautiful! We started our backsplash.

I did this for my son out of an old mirror from This End Up he had since he was little. He recently moved into a townhome with a friend (his first "own" place)
Started with:

He loved it and it was an easy fun project.

Thanks Oceanna!

I am in awe of all the multi-talented people on this forum. And I am so glad to know DH and I are not alone in the constant DIY projects. I often wonder what it would be like to finally be done and have nothing to do on a weekend. (Are you ever really done??)

Definitely did a "socks and underwear" project last weekend....and it will be continuing the next few weekends, too. We are switching around our living room with our very small dining room. After moving out and packing up all the china, crystal, platters, etc, we lugged the huge china cabinet and dining table out. Next came the awful job of scraping off and sanding away the popcorn ceiling. During this past week, I am now painting the ceiling, and hopefully the new light will be up by tomorrow. It is a very tedious job, and nothing to display like the beautiful pictures posted above.

...a "socks and underwear" project
Huh? I'd love to know that that is!

Rdsso -- WOW! What a transformation those new doors make! There's a store near us called 'The Interior Door Store' (clever, huh?) and they need that picture in their window. It changes the whole feel of your home --

And great mirror Remodelfla. I've wondered about doing that, but Hubby dissuaded me.

Mari - I'm surprised lumberyard doesn't have exterior beadboard - thought a lot of people would use it for porch ceilings? Where do you live? I could come help stain if your DH would help me with my projects later LOL! Would predrilling be easier than setting nails? Or you'd have to set anyway?

marybeth and remodelfla - nice mosaics!

danielle - your DH is SuperDaddy! I can't let me kids see pics or they'll want one (and I'd have to build it since my DH is a software guy, I'm the hardware person!). Happy Birthday to the boys!

Well, doesn't count since it's the end of the week, but it was raining today so carpenter cousin got off early from landscaping job (he's looking for different part-time job so he can do more carpentry, or a FT carpentry job again since he got laid off in Jan). I had taped off the counters to caulk, started marking studs to get shoe mold up when he called so I finished marking studs, taped off the lower island countertop edges too, then had to pick up our kids at school. He came over and was caulking and putting up shoe when we got home, then put up trim on sides of island (even though I wasn't happy with my finish job and would have liked to have done a final sanding)while the kids played, and cut the 12ft length of crown sitting in my DR to length. Brought me the mitred returns for cabinets on each side of corner and the center bay stool(sill) cut to proper depth but not notched. I've got lots of sanding and staining to do!

Actually, putting crown on the kitchen cabinets was a winter make-work job for him that he didn't get to in March, so I told him my next priority is finishing that bay window stool and all the FR/kitchen door and window casings, and getting the baseboard (finished) nailed up. Hopefully I'll get the fiberglas pulled out from around the windows and slider, and low-expanding foam put in, then the next rainy day (or next w/e?) he'll come over and join up some casings with biscuit joiner, and maybe fit the new stool (3 pieces) so I can stain and finish that. I'd love to get the FR windows and slider trim finished and up by 4th of July, and if I can get tile issues resolved I can get kitchen door casings and then the last bit of baseboard in FR (runs into kitchen) and the small pieces of kitchen baseboard in (they're all finished) by Labor Day. It would be nice to have all the trim in the house finished 2 years after moving in, but I don't know if we can do the foyer, LR, half bath, and mudroom by then as well, since I haven't stained any of it yet and I have to do doors and window sashes this summer while I can set up sawhorses in the garage - short pieces of baseboard can wait til fall/winter, I finish them in the Master Bath (which will be finished in oh, 5 years). But maybe I can stain/finish and he can put up the crown by Thanksgiving so I can get it off my DR floor?

Sweeby, thanks. I should have also posted I love your guest room and bath. I also sew but am not nearly at talented as you are. I love to see sewing projects. Great job!!!

Sweeby: I stole the phrase "socks and underwear" work from johnmari's post. She noted that it's the nitty-gritty stuff you have to do before you get to the work that picture-worthy (like your gorgeous bath...congrats!).

I like Mari's term-socks and underwear jobs are BIG on my summer project list, and it's all I accomplished last Memorial Day weekend as well.

I cleaned my blinds :). We have 2" wood blinds on the French doors leading from our DR to the back patio. The morning sun hits them in a way that really highlighted the dust on the blinds and the smudges on the glass. I first used the vacuum brush attachment, then a wipe on each slat with a damp sponge and a bit of Soft Scrub. On the outside (patio) side I vacuumed off the bug debris, and Soft Scrubbed the wood muntins and side panels-it's all painted white so that made it look nice and fresh. Finally pulled up the blinds and Windexed the glass panels. It really looks so much better!

As for the rest of the house...since I put my full kitchen remodel on hold I'm counting on doing a S&U project in there: have my son install crown molding, repaint the cabinets and put on some new hardware and scrape/regrout the tile countertops. Oh and paint the walls as well. He already laid some wood look laminate so the floors look better. Have to sort through/declutter all the cabinets too.

That will be my theme this summer: sorting and decluttering the house. I am spending what would be house project on some very much needed travel/vacation time so clearing out the junk and cleaning what's left is going to be my goal. Oh, and my son is on tap to pay off a loan to visit his girlfriend in Alaska (and we live in Miami so you can do the airline ticket cost math!) by installing crown molding through the bedrooms and bathroom which will make the entire house 'moldy'.

Whew, one small task done. Four hundred more pairs of socks and underwear to go....

Ann

ajsmama, I can get plenty of exterior-appropriate beadboard, in both individual boards and sheets, just not pre-primed. The only pre-primed stuff I can find is for inside. (I live in eastern NH.) We were able to save the original fir beadboard porch ceiling, although I know if we ever try to take it down it'll shatter the same way the wainscot did. We predrill for the nails that have to be put in the floorboards by hand, at the ends of the boards against the wall where the nailer won't fit, but even those require spending quality time with the nail set to get the nails in deep enough for the tongue and groove to fit together nicely.

DH is such a dear, he's working so hard trying to learn how to do this just from verbal instructions from me and the lumberyard guy and the occasional picture book ;-) - he never learned how to do any of this when he was young and we're sort of low on handy friends and family members to show him how to do things. When he rebuilt one section of rotted sill you would have thought he'd just won the Nobel prize, he was so proud of himself. I told him flat out when we decided we were going to buy an older house, which HE also really wanted, that he was going to have to suck it up and learn how to DIY because we can't afford to hire people unless we're really, really out of our depth - his previous attitude had been "I don't expect a plumber to design a database infrastructure, don't expect me to install a toilet." (He's a software engineer.)

Mari - I'm really surprised you can't find it preprimed. Oh well, have fun - NH is a bit of a drive for me to come help! I can't wait to see pics when you're done!

My DH is a SW engineer too, we've been through the toilet thing. We remodeled master bath in old house in 1997, no problem putting in new toilet (not relocated) but I learned not to let him do new drywall. I did plumbing and electrical, hired out carpentry and tile.

New house we didn't have much to do (modular) except finishing, but I'm the one to do all that. We did have to set the toilets, he did two, my uncle came and reset one that was rocking a bit, the other had a terrible smell but wasn't leaking, plumber came out and just said it was a bad seal but didn't pull it out, DH pulled it and found tile installer had gotten some thinset under part of the closet flange and when DH put the toilet in it looked/felt like it was level but something slipped enough to cause air (not water) leak so it was just like a drain with a dry trap. So uncle to the rescue again, he, I, and his 7 yr old put it in a third time when we still had the smell after DH had leveled the closet flange and it *still* smelled after he set it using extender ring. So DH has sworn off all plumbing now!

I have to say, DH has gotten very good at building stone walls. I made him take down the ring he built around the well since I was worried about kids climbing on it. But itsure was pretty. I went to HD and bought landscape block adhesive for when he rebuilds it. He built some nice retaining walls and stairs I'll have to post pics of sometime - as long as it's backfilled dry stacking is OK. And he spent all day today "reorganizing" the pile of rubble left from doing our septic into something resembling an old stone wall - some of the boulders were so huge he couldn't really move them, but shifted them a bit and piled smaller ones around, cleared out a lot of dirt that was piled in with them and used it to fill a drop-off.

We're still trying to figure out the best way to do a walkway with some of the flatter pieces of ledge we have lying around.