BUILDING PROJECT... MY GIFT TO MY GRAND KIDS...

I love artwork that is called "Trump O Leil"....translation: "To fool the eye". I prefer large wall murals that make you think you could walk right into them.

This is what I had planned for my painting of the kids room, play area and stairwell.

The building progress took quite a long time and the kids had to live with sleeping in one room downstairs while it was being done. PoD was working nights at the local mart and I babysat [Trebor works out of town] the kids while she was out. We both worked during the day at my business so the evening work was taking it's toll on the both of us! While I babysat I spent most of the time painting upstairs...thankfully the kids didn't need constant attention. While I was painting the kids weren't able to see my work until I had progressed far enough for them to get the idea of what I was doing.

All of this sounds so easy to say but the building took about 8 months to complete [remember...we did this part-time because of our work schedule] and painting took about 16 months! The kids were able to move into their rooms after I had finished painting them but still had to be careful and not play upstairs until I was done.

I think it was well worth it!

The kids got their own rooms, platform beds with a "safe" stairway to access them, cubby space under their stairs for toys, a desk that had a built-in cubbies & shelves for nick-knacks and lots of closet space/dressers for their clothes.

They just love their rooms! All of their friends want to come over and play in them because the theme takes them back in time....

I started with JD's room first and used one style and changed the style when I did AJ's. Both have a huge tree and flowers in their room. The play area has a smaller tree with a "Koi Pond" and a place to hang their own artwork/school stuff. PoD and the kids both share the storage space with a place they can put their books in.

I call this project my "Castle in the Air"....The tour starts at the downstairs entrance way...

The next ones are of the stairwell and storage space to the right...

Maxi just had to get into the shot...he too missed being able to come upstairs to hang out. These shots are of the entrance way to the play area and the kids rooms....

The first bedroom is JD's...he is a "Harry Potter" fan and the add-in's are just stickers that he can move around in his room. He has since changed his obsession to "Ninja Turtles"....

These ones are of AJ's room...her's had to be more girly so I change the wall design and added more flowers. JD wanted flowers too so I added just a few around the tree...I didn't want him hating me when he got older or have his friends call him "girly"....

All in all I think we made a nice area for thee kids to spend time.

If they don't like the upstairs [which is not the case] it's still a great resale addition to the house, not to mention a great time spent with my daughter and a learning experience for all!

Do I want to do it again.....NO!

It took too much out of me and I did it just for my kids!

More Building/Painting Photos...

PoD did all of the crack filling [Trebor helped a bit] and priming after our building was done. Both kids were asked what color they wanted to see in their room. JD picked blue and AJ wanted a hot pink. This was going to be the color painted on the platform beds, stairway, cubby holes under the stairs and their desk area. Notice the storage hole access in JD's closet space and what it looks like after I finished doing my painting.

This is JD's room before painting: PoD and Trebor were pretty tired after all of the building and they lost all of their energy to finish the crack filling properly...but that didn't matter as I was planning something very special for the kid's rooms. I have photos of the blue color being added to his room but they also show my special idea and I want it to be a surprize for the next blog.

These next photos are of AJ's room. Her room also has a storage access door and we hid it by recessing her dresser into this hole. Her dresser is moveable and can be removed to access this storage space. Putting it in the wall also gave her more floor space. PoD painted AJ's side and I painted JD's side.

This photo is of their play area

BUILDING PROJECT....

PHOTOS

These ones are of both rooms and new stairwell. The stair well was enclosed in and the platform included in it was made to house the kid's TV, VCR and video games. We also added another shelf above it to hold PoD's 3-D puzzles when they're completed.

The right side of the stair well is for storage and a place for her books. The left side is the kids play area and seating for the TV, etc.

This was also my first time installing doors. The doors were recovered from the old farm house where PoD grew up in and were a perfect size for the kids room. Due to the door's old hardware [knob] AJ's door opens the wrong way for my plan for her room...but "oh well"...it still works!

SOME OF MY JILL ABILITIES.... and I have been training PoD to use hers!

When PoD & Trebor moved to Dodge they bought Wilma and Puffy Kracker's old house. This one of the oldest homes in Dodge but in good structural shape with a large backyard for her kids to be safe in.

One late August evening in 2004 PoD had expressed the possibility of having two rooms upstairs for the kids bedrooms.

As it was the kids slept downstairs in separate rooms and PoD & Trebor slept upstairs, which consisted of 1 bedroom, an exposed toilet/sink, a double closet and all was accessed by an open stairwell with a rickety rail surrounding it. All of those things were not great for two active and curious kids.

Still fresh from her "Intruder Nightmare" she wanted sleep on the main floor and be able to hear any noise so she could protect her kids when Trebor is not home!

I used to be a set designer/builder for our theatre group and figured if I could do that why not for real in PoD's place.

So I came up with a brilliant idea that involved our splitting up the main bedroom into two rooms with platform beds accessed by stairs that housed storage space, with a work/play station under the platform and outside of their rooms I would create a play area/TV stand by enclosing the stairwell for safety reasons. Pod also would get a place for her books, 3-D puzzles and tote container storage.

Sounds massive doesn't it...well it was!

So in early Nov., PoD and Trebor removed the toilet, sink and gutted the whole upstairs so all we had left was and empty hole that looked like this....

Our first major chore was to supply heat to both rooms. The drawback was there was only one vent but thankfully it was in the middle of the room. With some heavy thinking I came up with an idea about having the vents located under the bottom step of the kid's stairway to their platform beds. So with some measuring, cutting and fudging we ended up with something that looked like this....

We were lucky that the windows were centered in the main bedroom so each kid got their own window.

Next came the division of the room into two rooms. This included the building of the platform beds. It sounds easy to say it but it was harder to put up!

Remember...measure twice...cut once!

Here are some photos to show the progress....

Take note of some of the photos have "Orbs" in them. To those of you who think they are "dust motes"...how come there aren't millions of them because it was pretty dusty up there...that's where we did all of the sawing!

The whole time we were building I had this feeling that we were being watched and sometimes I felt these were childish like spirits! I always felt they were happy with what we were doing. It did make me feel uncomfortable at the time!

Will be sending more pictures on the building process....

Got to get to work....

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Was surfing the net yesterday and came across this endangered cat...I never even knew it existed let alone find out that it is on the endangered list!

The Pallas Cat or Manul Cat

This wild cat inhabits the rocky steppes of the Caspian Sea area, Iran, China, Russia, Mongolia, Tibet & Kazakhstan. Living in the rocky crevices or small caves, they make their dens in inaccessible areas to avoid predatory animals and humans. They hunt mostly at night and live off of Pikas and small rodents.

This wild cat is about the size of an average house cat and resembles a long haired grey tabby Persian cat, but it is not related to the domestic Persian! It has a short broad head [to fit in between rock crevasses], small round ears that are set down on the sides of the head [helps to make it hear rodents better] and large yellow eyes [excellent for seeing in the dark]. The body is heavy and supported on stocky legs...it's heavy claws aid in the climbing of the rocks. Their coat is the longest of any species of wild cat and consists of two heavy layers helping it to adapt to the coldest of winters. They have small black spots all over their body & head, and have 2 black bars on the sides of their face. They emit warning noises and mating calls that sounds like dogs barking.

The reason these wild cats are endangered are because of their fur coats and the fat from their bodies is used to treat upset stomachs and skin problems!

These cats are hard to catch and making a long coat requires about 25 pelts. This makes the coat very valuable and highly prized to wear one...not to mention keeping the wearer very warm.

These animals aid in keeping the rodent population down and are helpful in that area...so why must they be killed because of their fat and fur value? I guess one has to live in that area to understand why it is now being hunted to extinction! We don't even have very many in zoos around the world because of their small numbers and ease of being captured...thankfully there are people out there who are trying to save this animal!

Don't they look cute?

CAT POETRY

Gentle eyes

that see so much,

paws that have

the quiet touch.

Purrs to signal

"all is well"

and show more love

than words can tell.

Graceful movements

touched with pride.

a calming presence

by our side.

A friendship

that will last and grow -

small wonder

why we love them so.

Author Unknown