Pretty Much Done

The Summer '10 Project is done.  Mostly.  The dust it caused has not been completely wiped down...but the construction and painting are finished.  A few pictures of the Before....the During....and the After.

Before

A gate made out of plywood to keep the dogs in the kitchen while we're away.  It started out as 2 pieces of plywood until the day we got home and one of the dogs had tried to dig a hole out of the wall to escape.  Then the third piece of plywood was added to cover the wall to the left of the door...although the damage had been done.  The look?  Not so great. Think. Think. Think. 

There's the attempt at digging a hole.....not a hole yet...but beyond easy repair because we only have a very small piece of leftover wallpaper.  Not nearly enough to patch these 2 places.

  Think.  Think.  Think.

 We lived with this for 2 years.  Yep. 

That's alot of thinking....about how to fix this problem.  Which I should clarify was only a problem to me.  It certainly didn't bother anyone else in this house.

The culprit.  Scared to death of thunderstorms and us leaving.  She hears the blow dryer and she goes into hiding.  She hears a thunderstorm and she crawls up our necks ....if we're home.  If we're not at home, she claws walls to get out.

Some of you would say get rid of the dog.  The Hackneys keep the dog and take on cats.

Think. Think. Think. 

After hours and hours of looking at blogs...I jumped on the beadboard wagon.  Sadly, I let go of the beautiful plywood gate and we found an antique door for the opening.

During

Chuck's part of the project. Poor thing had to buy a nail gun for this project.  Luckily it counted for Father's Day.   

My part of the project.

After

I sanded almost all of the paint off of this side of the door.  I like the look...for now.  The opposite side still has a little more paint on it.  But it's old and flaky and requiring a little more vacuuming than I'm willing to do....so I may get the sander back out.

  That would be one problem with getting an antique door. 

Since I was in the kitchen with the camera, I took a picture of this vase.  For years, I collected Mary Engelbreit ornaments.  They are now in this vase with a few other favorite things and buttons. I love glancing at the things in this vase. 

 I call these "happies."                   

There's that adorable black & white pumpkin that my good friend, Karen, painted for me....no way that's going in a closet until fall. 

The good news at the end of this project?  The door works.