An Inside Job

We'll get the important news out of the way first.  Lulu Belle is adjusting nicely.  She and Sammie have had their ups and downs.  At worst they tolerate each, meaning that Sammie wants to be BFFs and Lulu Belle either isn't interested or gives a grumpy, "get away from me" growl while Sammie slinks away dejected.  Most times they're fine.  Sometimes it's just a quick sniff between them, which Sammie takes as a sign of being buddies and is happy to no end.  A few times Lulu Belle has even given her a sniff and a lick despite Sammie's excitedly wagging tail smacking her in the face.  But when it's time to "go outside", they bound out the door together like kids heading to the playground.  They're figuring out.

Moving on to the house...

The trim work has started!  What?!!!  Already?!!!  Yeah...that's what I thought.  I figured that came last, but it doesn't.  It's got to be in place before the painters move in.  So all of our interior doors and their accompanying trim have been installed.

For the upstairs we stayed with the standard trim that comes with the doors and also added it around the windows.  Standard baseboards as well.  Downstairs we wanted a little more "farm house" look and feel.  We also decided to go with a non-standard, five-panel door throughout the house.  You used to see them a long time ago, but you don't see them much any more.   We love the old-fashioned look.

Plain trim for downstairs.  Four inches wide on the sides
and six inches across the top with a slight overhang.

One of the kitchen windows with added trim for the overhead lights.
Same as the doors, but with eight inch wide trim on the bottom.

Another part of the trim is the wall of reclaimed wood that we mentioned a few posts back.  The big barn was built out of cypress that was milled locally...a long time ago...and the loft was built with plenty of long, straight planks of it.  All we had to do was pull it up and get it down.

Long story, short... Working with my crowbar and hammer in the loft of the barn, under a metal roof in the hot Georgia sun, I not only managed to "reclaim" about 400 board feet of cypress planks, I also reclaimed every bit of dust and dirt (from thousands of critters over the years) up there because I was soaked in sweat.  Funny how the sweat runs off of you, but the dirt doesn't.  Lucky for you, there are no pics...that I'm allowing.  But here are some pics of the "reclaiming operation".

We were going to leave the nails, but the underside of the boards were better looking.

Removing the nails.  First time using our carport for something!!!

Using the drill with a plastic brush to get the dirt off.

The man of the hour!

The (mostly) finished product!

Along with the trim moving along, the bricklayers showed back up.  After the beautiful job they did around the house, I was looking forward to seeing what they would do with the front steps.

Ta dah!!!

Nice and wide!

And that's not all...

Our step out from the mud/laundry room.

But wait...there's more!

Stone, bricks and shiplap!
Chip and Joanna Gaines would be so proud!

There you have it so far.  As you can see, things are coming together.  We've got more reclaimed wood that we've been cleaning up for the dining room doorway frame and the fireplace mantle. That'll have to wait for another blog entry.