Red Ribbon Day

We have finally finished the Master Bed Room and Ensuite.  It has been a very, very long time coming. 

When we moved in, in August 2007, this room as part of the upstairs apartment.   The largest room was the "living room" and the kitchen off from that room.  Now, as it was originally 159 years ago, it is the masters bedroom and the only bedroom of the manor.  The little room (10'x8") off of this room was a walk in closet or storage room.  There were definite signs of this room having the beaded boards with pegs, nails or hooks mounted on the walls to the right and the left.  Now we have a four piece ensuite.

The bathroom went in a year ago when we had the other two bathrooms installed at the same time.  This was hubby's way of doing all the plumbing at one time.  This is the most practical way for a contractor to work and plan construction, however not the most practical way for a family living in the construction zone.  I remember a time when I had to escape the mess and visited my aunt in the states.  In the three weeks that I was away, I assumed that hubby would have everything completed upon my arrival home.

He promised that I would have plumbing that worked.  It worked alright, however it was one step past using a chamber pot...and I didnt even have the bed yet to put one under.  When I arrived home, he was so proud to get the project advanced to the stage it was at.  However, I was not amused to find out that, although there was a toilet, there was nothing else working.  Water was not hooked up yet.  There were two buckets of water sitting by the edge of the thrown. One was for gravity flushing and the other for washing my hands.  Not trusting how clean the water actually was by the end of the day, and at times it was just an empty bucket used for the last flush.  I had bottles of water sitting on the tank with paper towelling, just in case.  The guys could have cared less, afterall, the trees in the backyard were just as useful to them.

We still had the "Carriage House" next door and that was a saving grace especially for showering.  We had a busy B&B season too.  So I had a great routine.  Guests would not arrive till mid to late after noon and would leave by no later than 11am.  So that gave me a window time of approximately 4 to 5 hours to clean the apartment and take a shower while cleaning that room.  However it became a bit awkward when our guests were booked in for more that just one night.  When more that three days, I would have to use the  Riverlane Suite.  We had plan 'C' as there was always a shower in "the Shop".  Not the most ideal conditions as this was an auto shop and not a very clean one, but nevertheless, a place with running water.

So when it came time to complete the rooms and install fixtures, I had the assignment to wallpaper, paint and complete the room's decor before toilet, tub and vanity were set in place.   The floor actually took the most time as some of the floor boards had to be replaced, then stripped and sanded.  We painted, caulked and painted twice more.  The floor was sealed and finshed.  The room was complete.  The plumber was called in for installations.

That was exactly one year ago this week.  It was like 100 years ago in my mind now remembering the day that Hubby and I arrived home from work at 5:30...opening the front door and finding our son standing on the stairs saying , "I shut every down.  It just exploded".   Looking to the left into the Parlor was a "rain forest"  The far corner of the room was 'raining' through the ceiling.  With quick reaction, we grabbed every bowl, pot, towel and covererd the electronics, floor furnishings.  I grabbed the mob and soaked the water drops from the ceiling cracks.  Within half and hour, all was ok.  The tub pipe burst.  It was a freak accident that should not have happened, but it did and thank goodness it happened this way and not at a time we were away for hours or days.  The water source is temporarily turned off now and only to be used when tub is used.  We anticipate that this will turn out to be a laundry hamper for the most part!

Now one year later, I am please to say it is the Red Ribbon Day.  The master room is painted, wallpapers, furnished and the TV works!  I love sleeping a my own bed.  The past years we have slept in every guest bed from here to the Riverlane Suite.  Sometimes on rare occasions sleeping on the sofa in the Parlor, or on a mattress on the floor in the master room or library when we had a full house B&B booking. 

Actually we could have moved in much earlier, however, I had this vision of the perfect floor cloth to complete my historic decorating.  This meant stapling a painters canvas 12'x14' to the centre of my newly stripped pine floor.  The project was going really well until I decided I didnt like the first pattern and decided to paint over and start again.  This was the first week.  The second week we had another set back when there was another freak accident and the rain entered in through an outside wall that was missing a facial board (carpenter didnt think this would happen, but it did)  The wall was soaked from attic to cellar.  I removed four strips of wallpaper, sash window and waited for the wall to dry and Hubby to fix the window.  The floor was soaked in an area too and had to unstaple part of the floor cloth and put a heater down to heat up the room. 

So floor cloth was on hold...and I cried for two days.  Floor dried quickly and started again on the cloth.  I had rolls of masking tape to grid off my pattern.  This took three weeks to paint my stencil on...and it was magnificant!  The day to verathane and then the bed to come in...very excited time for me.  At 10am the first coat of covering.  Ran out!  The paint store said it would give me enough to coat it twice.  I couldnt even get 2/3 covered.  I headed out quickly to the hardware store...and boxing day.  Picked up a gallon of something that was promised to be the same stuff.  Got home and finished the first coat.  Five hours later, put on coat number two.  I read the instructions (after the fact) and decided everything was as it should be.  It mentioned to put on liberaly and with a brush.  That seemed to be time consuming and I took the short cut of using a roller and smoothing it out with the brush.  The instructions said it would go on a bit 'milky' in colour...and it did.  Two hours later, it was still 'milky' and making me a bit nervous.  By morning, it was a mess.  Dried hard as rock and nothing clear about it. 

I had ruined my floor cloth.  How could this be?  I had to wait to call in the morning to the manufacturer.  Monique was quite nice and very knowleged.  She suggested that I put it on too thick and with the extra heat in the room, dried the top to quickly for the under part to dry.  She assured me that it would eventually dry...maybe in a month or so.  I didnt want to hear that.  She suggested I sand off the top to "crack" the top layer and get air to the under coat.  After days of watching, adding more heat, and crying some more, I decided to do a reverse stencil and at least see the red of the under coat.  That took another three days.

I used the same product and brushed on a top coat.  I used the brush and scrubbed in on until it was almost dry and not milky.   It is fabulous.  Not as good as the original but definitely an aged look...perhaps better...after the fact.

Hubby unfortunately has only shared the room for the weekend.  I have a nasty cold and kicked him out.  But he comes in at 7:00 and turns on Canada AM for me...and all is well  :)

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