Ye Olde Red Brick House

This took 2 days... Got one square completed. Painted the box beams on one side.

When I first started this adventure, I had grand visions of stripping all of the wood.  After many Sundays spent stripping the wainscoting, plate rails and window frames... that gradually changed. It has taken me years to get to where I am.  So, I changed plans...  and decided not to strip the box beam ceiling.  The main reason is that I would like to have a functioning dining room this year.  Everything is piled in the center of the room.  Table, chairs, hutch, china cabinet, etc.  It will be nice to actually eat at the dining room table. What the dining room looked like during my walk-through.  All the walls, windows, wainscoting and plate rails  are now stripped of paint.  The plan is to sand all the wood down,  and use an oil to bring it back to life.  I would love to shellac it,  but that would probably cost a fortune.  After I paint, it is going to look similar to this.  I am going to distress the beams, so...

Wow, it has been 6 months since I blogged. I took the winter off from taking care of my lawn.  Regretting it now.  My daughter and I still raked the gazillion leaves during Fall, but I did not put down any weed preventer before winter.  I have no more grass. Seriously,  the weeds choked the life out it.  This little weed is the evil culprit that has made my back ache this month. I have pulled 100's of them.  Yet, they keep multiplying.  I am not the only house fighting the weed invasion though... every house on my block has a yard that looks like mine; except their yards are not as large.  My daughter and I got the lawn mowed yesterday.  Then I sprayed quite a few weeds with Roundup.  There is no way I would be able to spray the entire yard...  so I have a bright idea... I am going to spread all of these wildflower seeds in my lawn.  If I have to have weeds, they might as well be pretty ones.  California is in a major drou...