Here we go!

Many of you may recall my New Years Resolutions' about a month ago.  If not, you can catch up on it here.  

To get a kick start on some of these items, I used my sweet persuasion skills to convince my best friends that what I wanted most in the whole world is a window framing lesson.  So when my Birthday came around last Monday, they came by with a 6-pack of hard apple cider (Did I mention they are my best friends?).

Off to our favorite Ace Hardware store to pick out some trim and buy supplies.  About a $100 later and a cart full of goodies we were ready to get started!

First, a "Before" pic:

And now an "In Progress":

And TA DA!

.....

Just kidding! We didn't finish that night.  Hey, I never said we were perfect!  

This was our learning curve window and some of the trim was cut too short and Ace had already closed for the evening.  Don't worry, I promise I will post a picture of it once we have it all completed.

Not to be discouraged, we decided to start Item # 8 on my list: remove the wood paneling from the wall in the living room.   The tricky part about this item is that I wanted to preserve the wood mantle in front of the fireplace.  

This is where I got a little scared.  Out comes the circular saw!  The plan was to cut just around the mantle and remove it carefully.  Then, we could pop the wood paneling pieces carefully from the mantle.  

It was loud!  And it made the room smell like burning wood.  Not to mention that sawdust went flying every where! 

"SW SW SW SW SW SW SW SW!!"

Look at how thick that paneling is!  Nice stuff, eh?  Hopefully it doesn't come back in style in about 10 years.

And now!

So where do we go from here?  We will continue removing the panels, baseboard, and molding.  Set some structural bracing for a TV over the fireplace.  Then run some electrical and low-voltage wires for the TV while the walls are open.  Last, we will sheetrock, tape, paint, and add some moulding.  We may or may not add some granite tiles over the brick.  We'll see how our pocketbooks feel when we get there. 

But the best part came at the end, when we found the treasures behind the mantle.  These are the little bonuses you get when you buy an old home.

A nail file, a button back, a fishing hook, and a business card

But the best treasure was this one.

This picture is dated 1954 a few years after our house was built.

Now, how cool is that?