Phew!

We survived our stint on the house tour!  There were 1100 people through our doors on the weekend and it doesn't seem any worse for the wear.  As participating members, we got a private tour of the houses on Sunday and it was fun to see inside some of the fancy houses of our town.

Ours is very much a work in progress, but people seem to enjoy seeing a mid-point project.  Many insisted we put it on again in the next few years so that they can see it accomplished, but we'll see if I recover from this one first!

While the house was tidy I took a few shots so that I could remember that it once looked like that.  Ha!

At long last, here are some pictures for you.  I'm calling it the Half-Way House.  All the buried and hidden stuff is done and now it's time for the pretty.

Here's where we're at:

 Formal Living room.  With porter's chairs!!

 Kitchen - west wall

 Kitchen - East wall

 Charley's room - I made him the 'bus blind' sign, as you'll see from the last stop on the list.

 Sam's room - Still haven't made it out to buy him a single mattress, so he doesn't have his big boy bed yet.

 Detail in Sam's room - Vintage, from Dad's childhood room!

 Closets, built by Chris, in progress in the master bedroom

Third floor library, with new stove in place.

Obviously, there's many rooms not shown here, but I thought I'd give you a small taste.  We're happy with the developments, but boy-oh-boy are we ready for a break from house stuff for a short while.  Nothing like 13 months of house renos to make you long to lie on the couch.  Very, very still.  Maybe with eyes closed.  zzzzzzzzz...

The princes get new thrones

Chris scampered off to an auction today with the sole purpose of acquiring a pair of rare porter chairs.  We have long admired them in the Restoration Hardware catalogue, but didn't have the stomach to spend $2000 on each.  (Who would?!)

After some patient waiting, he managed to get the pair of them for a reasonable amount.  They need some new upholstery (pink and yellow velvet!), but are otherwise is amazing shape.  They are certainly not for everyone, but when you have a Victorian house, built in the French tradition, sometimes you have to go with some drama pieces, y'know?

I'm sure I will have years ahead of me where people walk into the living room and either squeal in horror or delight.  (My mother has already declared "I really couldn't hate them any more.")

Let me say, though, that they seem the perfect chair for the autistic type.  Charley has declared them "the best chairs ever" and was quite happy sitting in their protective embrace.

A word about this child:

I spent the morning at the hospital yesterday, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with him.  The answer was not what I would have guess.  Not in a million years.

He has SCARLET FEVER!  Are you serious!?  Does that even exist anymore?  The answer is yes.  I thought he was looking a wee bit sunburned.  Easy to treat and no big deal, but it certainly sounds interesting.  I'm going to keep that in circulation for a while.

"Why was Charley off school for 3 days?" 

"Because he had freekin' SCARLET FEVER!"

I'm hoping the rouged rash stops with him, because although it's a novelty, I don't really want to deal with the Tyrant suffering through it as well.

Click for more after the jump.