Back at Zelda

Most people around here head to the beach for Memorial Weekend, but we will head to Zelda. Our goals for the weekend, include grouting the master bath shower, finish all trim painting downstairs, install tile on keeping room fires place and touch up painting outside.

Hoping everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend. Also remember those men and women who lost their lives defending our freedom and thank a living veteran for their service.

New Addition

Today we welcomed Stella Marie to our family at 11:05 am (CST) weighing in at 7 lbs, 4 oz. She was welcomed by her big sister, Gran, GG and Mom.

Stella and Mom are doing great. We hear that Stella has working lungs and has exercised them loudly.

Congrats to Dad who played a small part.

Stella getting her first look at Mom.

Big sister checking out Stella.

Gran with her chance to rock Stella.

GG holding her newest Great Grandchild.

The Master Bath Shower and the STAIRS

After taking last weekend off, we arrived at Zelda late Thursday night ready for a three (3) day weekend.  First order of business, Brent needed to tile the master bathroom shower and Lynn was to continue to work the STAIRS.  Jennifer and Jessica made the trip down and so did Cookie.

We started Friday morning off with a trip to Lowes and Home Depot for supplies.  We purchase the tile and some additional mortar and a few other paint supplies.  After a great lunch at Loves's Fish Box in Kings Mountain, NC, Brent started the tile while Lynn and the girls attacked the dreaded STAIRS.  Brent first installed a ledger board off the bottom on the shower floor to have a level surface to start tiling.  He was able to get about 50% of the work completed on Friday by working to about 9:00 pm. 

Lynn and girls wrestled with the painting of the stairs and were nearly complete on Friday evening.  The handrail was repainted many times as everyone kept grabbing it as ascending and descending the stairs.  Brent then finished the shower on Saturday with the exception of the bottom row, which was completed on Sunday.  We only now will need to finish around the tub and the master bathroom will be completed.

The stairs were painted again on Saturday and then the remaining unpainted interior doors and facings were attacked.  Next weekend we will clean the mortar from between the tiles and start grouting while the girls will continue to finish painting the interior.

Ready for the grout.

Cookie is ready for a shower.

The attack on the STAIRS

What a transformation.

Another view of the stairs.

Almost finished but need to touch-up the spindles.

No Trip This Weekend

Brent drove down to Zelda from Maryland on Friday and Lynn and the girls drove over from Gatlinburg, TN on Saturday.  Jennifer and Jessica finished all their tests at UT on Friday and now are rising juniors in college.  Wow we are getting old.

Brent installed all the wood supports in all the closets for the shelves and also in the bath room linen closet.  Brent then continued with painting the crown molding trim work while the girls painted the window trim in the library, dining room and keeping room.  Jennifer cleaned and painted the two (2) doors in the keeping room and Lynn attacked her favorite project.  The STAIRS.

The floors still looked great and we have a few pictures of the final results versus the intermediate results shown earlier.  Our stray cat Socks always seems to shows up when we arrive and begs for a meal.

Lynn's mom has flown to Maryland from Louisiana this week so we will not be going to Zelda this weekend, but we will be going the next weekends.  We will enjoy Annapolis and Washington DC this weekend, but we made the pilgrimage to G&M for crab cakes on Thursday.

Maw Maw with her crab cake.

The top of the staircase.

Looking from the front right bedroom into the upstairs hall.

The upstairs hall way looking from the bathroom.

Looking down the upstairs hall towards the bathroom.

Looking from the master sitting room into the hallway.

Another view of upstairs hall finished floor.

Inside Painting

We again fought through the Washington DC traffic around noon on Friday and we made it to Zelda about 9:00 pm.  We still have not decided on the tile for the master bathroom shower, so Brent continued with the caulking and painting of the downstairs crown molding.  He did not complain too much of repeatedly going up and down the ladder to reach the 11.5 foot high crown molding.  He was able to finish the keeping room, the kitchen, the laundry room, the bathroom and the library.  That leaves the pantry, Murphy room and the foyer to finish.  Lynn was not feeling well but managed to continue with work on the stairs.  Cookie mainly supervised the two of us this weekend.

The upstairs floors were completed since our last visit and received the final coat of poly and a buff out.  They look great.  We will be back this weekend to continue work..  It may be a stretch, but we are hoping to get Zelda on the market before the end of the month.

The crown molding in the keeping room.

Another view of the keeping room.

Crown molding in the kitchen.