New York Renovator

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Flood® Wood Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Once again, this will be the year that we skip any major overhauls and work on or finish up the multitudes of smaller projects. For starters, we have a LOT of interior trim work, shelving, and other small carpentry work to do. If you recall, last year we re-painted the living room, got new furniture, and built two glorious built-in bookcases. They turned out SO well. This was my first big carpentry project, and it looks pretty nice.

But it’s not completely done. I have yet to complete the trim work. I’m using a nice red oak for the units, and we re staining everything a pretty mahogany color. I really like it and it adds a formality to the room.

We also have plans to add a small deck on the back porch. Right now, it’s just a dilapidated stoop with fiberglass roof (ugh), but when I close my eyes I can see a wide deck large enough to hold all our Adirondack chairs! I’m not very familiar with outdoor wood staining so I’ll definitely be deferring to the easy-to-apply Flood® Wood Care. They have this cute guide widget called Staining Made Simple that make planning your project SO easy.

The guide leads you through the selection process, first by determining your project and leading you to the type of stain that best suits it. It even helps you find the store nearest you that carries your chosen Flood stain color and style! How’s that for simple??

In addition, you can enter a very nice sweepstakes to win some terrific Flood products, AND a $1,500 gift card! Sweet!! All you have to do is “like” Flood on Facebook to enter. Check out the Flood Better Backyard Sweepstakes here.

It’s nice to know that– despite all the projects we have planned — things are made a little easier. You can read more about Flood stain for your wood projects online at the website or check out their Facebook page.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States of America and (D.C.) 18 years and older. Ends 5/17/2013. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions visit www.facebook.com/flood. Void in Puerto Rico and where restricted or prohibited. This Sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to Sponsor and not to Facebook.

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Look at this beautiful Tabby-Point Siamese! His name is Hunter, and he lives with his owner in Italy. The resemblance to Livvy is simply amazing!

This is the *real* Livvy.

Uncanny!

I wish Livvy was able to have kittens. i would LOVE a houseful of these kitties.

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Just when I thought perhaps spring was set for an early arrival, arctic air from the north extends its chilly fingers over the land. That dumb groundhog doesn’t know what he’s talking about (lol). It has been in the single digits and by 10am — with the sun shining gloriously away — it was a meager 9 degrees outside. I am SO glad I insulated the downstairs of the house when we gutted the kitchen. I’ve seen a nice drop in our heating bills, although the upstairs of this house is still uninsulated and unrenovated. This past summer, we did manage to install new vinyl replacement windows in all but two bedrooms. This has improved things somewhat, but it’s still very cold up there especially on days like these. Once we insulate, I think it will be much more temperate.

I can’t even begin to imagine how insanely cold it must have been for the original occupants. In the 1850s, most people around here installed coal fireplaces for their houses, although the kitchen here still had a pot-bellied wood-burning stove until the 1960s! But as far as I have been able to tell, there were only four fireplaces in the house– one for the kitchen in the back addition, one for the parlor, one for the dining room, and ONE for all four bedrooms upstairs! It must have been agonizing up there. As a matter of fact, the original builder’s wife died of pneumonia in her icy-cold bedroom. Back then, they didn’t insulate (much) or even have luxuries like atrium windows reviews to find good windows at good deals. Can you believe the leaps and bounds we’ve made in modern home comforts since the 1850s? It’s pretty amazing, I think. Today, we have SO much at our disposal that the choices are dizzying and aggravating. Of course, we can access atrium windows reviews and building products to find out what’s best for our needs and climate, and I am thankful. I’m mainly self-taught by stuff like that.

So how’s your winter going where you are? In the Northeast, February tends to be the most difficult month. This is when the snow is brown, when the cold temperatures are biting instead of invigorating, the air is dry and we are sick of winter. We long for spring and green and soft air again. Many of my peers turn to their gardening catalogs about this time, too (I just got High Mowing Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalogs in the mail), but it’s too early for me to think of gardening, ugh. I’m still trying to keep warm so my thoughts go toward atrium windows reviews and fiberglass batting and furnace BTUs!

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