More Beavers At Work

Daisy and I were walking around my office around lunch time, when we came across a little tree that appeared to have been attacked by a beaver the previous night. There are many trees surrounding this one that have been nibbled on here and there, but this one looked like it was nibbled in determination.

This was the tree Wednesday, March 10th.
I went back to check on it on Thursday (even though it was pouring down rain) and it looked like there was a little bit of activity.

Friday afternoon (below) we went back to check it again. This time I thought it may be the last time; I expected the tree down on the ground (or drug away by beavers) by Monday. I was pretty excited that I got to capture this beaver at work.

We were pleasantly surprised when we went to check on it Monday!!!!

The beaver must have chewed and chewed with all of his might. Unfortunately, once the beaver got through the tree, the top of the tree hung up in the surrounding branches from other trees. All of that work..........and the tree didn't fall.

The picture below is from a different angle, you can really see how thin the connections are!

As of this afternoon, the tree still hasn't fallen down. I can only assume that the beaver has moved on to another tree.....but I am sure not very far.

Just another reason why I have the best office ever!!

Another happy ending with a hand-me-down dresser!

This dresser was graciously given to us by my mom. Before that, it was my dad's dad's piece of furniture. Not sure when it was painted, but the light teal had to go.

We learned from the wood flooring experience, that paint stripper can be wonderful if you use it right. So we thought first we would try that.

It worked pretty good. The plastic scrapper on the top left is the best thing ever. The plastic is better at being gentle with the wood. The edges of the scraper also keep from spilling the scrapped paint. I like it a lot better than putty knives, which is what we used during the flooring project.

The wood on the actual drawers didn't turn out to be the prettiest (plywood looking). So instead of spending a ton of time sanding each speck of paint off only to have average looking finished wood underneath, we decided to paint it.

We got new knobs at wal mart, and we decided on a round style to match the other dresser in our room. The color we matched with our window trim.

I am very happy with the way it turned out!

Strawberry Hill

Today we took a break from typical housework and went to the beach! It had been a long time...and the agates sure missed us!
We stopped south of Cape Perpetua at Strawberry Hill. There were seals lounging on the rocks, and people playing on the sand.

Not the most friendly beach access we have seen, but nothing we couldn't handle, even Daisy.

Jered started finding agates as soon as we hit the beach.

We found a beach with agates and tidepools, it doesn't get much better than this!

Found some crazy red rock.

Daisy was wet!

Daisy had to stop for break on the way back up.

Seals were still there when we left.

It was a really nice day to take a break from the house project. We found a chunky bag full of agates, and that seemed like a project in itself!

First Outdoor Plants for the House

Today we stopped by the rhododendron nursery in Waldport and picked up our first outdoor plants.
The two smaller ones are the same. They should have a light pink bloom that will fade into white.

The larger one should smell really good, and is also pink to start, and should gradually fade to white. Neither have bloomed yet for the spring, so we are really excited to see how they look.

Not sure where to plant them yet, but will figure it out soon if the weather stays like this!! Wonderful!

Baseboard

The baseboard was the next project. None of the house had baseboard (except the bathroom but it is the most awful blue!!) so we got to choose all new stuff. The bedroom baseboard had a simple, yet awesome design to it. And the baseboard for the living room and hallway we used just straight boards (I think they were 1 by 5s). It took like a million coats of paint to get them to match the wall color!!

In the spare bedroom, where the carpet meets the wood, there is quite a down step. It seemed to be a challenge with the baseboard, but I think Jered handled it just great. This picture is before we filled the nail holes and stuff, so it looks even better now!We liked the baseboard in the bedroom so much, we just bought some more to use in the spare bedroom. That will be a whole other project.....

Below is in the main bedroom.

This corner is right outside the bedroom in the hallway.

Below is coming out of the hallway into the living room.

This is the straight board toward the front door.

This is the same hallway one that goes into the living room. The wood trim goes around the hearth. The bottom of the hearth had a gap on the bottom (so it would have been even with the couple of layers of carpet that once resided in here), so we put some quarter-round around the bottom. It worked out okay, we are a little disappointed that it didn't match the floors better.

I am very proud of this project, even though I didn't do much myself after the painting. I love how it really brings the house together, I really had no idea how much it would until now. Now that all of the walls are painted and the baseboard is done, it will be easier to move more stuff in permanent positions.

Another project off the list......onto the spare bedroom!

Bedroom with Carpet

After the living room floors were done, we decided to tackle the main bedroom. The floors in there were nice, but I wanted to have some soft, warm carpet to put my feet on in the morning. The picture below is after we sanded the floors, and painted the trim and walls.
We used polyurethane and finished about three feet in, where you would first walk when you would enter the bedroom.

There was a strange little seam or something there, so we thought it would be a great place to start the carpet.

Then the padding came, and it was quite pretty.

Then the carpet came in. It looked quite brown when we were at the store, but it changed into a brown purple by the time it was installed. It took a few minutes to get used to, but we love it now. Where the carpet ended, we put a carpet reducer. It looks like wood, but I am pretty sure it is wood coated plastic or something.

And there you go, the carpet ends, there is a little walkway, and it is wood inside the closet. I love it!!

Daisy does too, there is a lot of wood flooring around, and she really likes something soft to lay on (since apparently her bed isn't soft enough).

As soon as the carpet was in, we moved the bed up. The basement was really fun for a week or so, but we were excited to get our room going and to begin feeling comfortable in our new space.