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I finished the ceiling lights this morning. They are on 4 different switches . . .Kitchen, Dining/desk area, living room and hallway to utility room where the dog dishes are. They are all on dimmers except the one single light in the hallway to the utility/laundry room. The next project will be to install LVP in the Livingroom to match the kitchen/dining area.

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Nice! Your house is beautiful and the dogs are adorable. Love the markings on the one that sort of has stripes. Is that called brindled?
 
the dogs are adorable. Love the markings on the one that sort of has stripes. Is that called brindled?
Yes, Maggie is brindle in color. She is a Dutch Shepard. We got her from the animal shelter where we used to live. All our dogs are rescue dogs from some situation or other. They seem to be very interested in home improvement projects!
 
I like your use of moldings and interior decorating talent. I find myself wishing I could get a tour of your house. It would have made for a good before and after magazine article. Thanks for sharing your progress with us.
 
I like your use of moldings and interior decorating talent. I find myself wishing I could get a tour of your house. It would have made for a good before and after magazine article. Thanks for sharing your progress with us.

Thanks Eddie. That’s a very nice compliment. I don’t know where you live but if you’re ever near Lake Guntersville in Northern Alabama, stop by!
 
I like your use of moldings and interior decorating talent.

All the decorating and color choices is my wife Ruby. She does a good job although she's not done yet. When I finish my end then she'll take over.

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When we bought the house, 2 years ago, the stone wall in the back of the room was very dark. Ruby and her mom painted it. Ruby also hated the lights above the fireplace, so we changed them. There was ventless gas logs in all three of the fireplaces which I consider a health risk so we had Travis-Lopi Emberglo Inserts installed which are vented to the outside.


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New Fireplace before wall stones were painted white.
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Originally, There was a sliding glass door leading out to the laundry/utility room but the space where the slider was wasn't really wide enough and the slider couldn't close completely. It was drafty and not energy efficient. Also, to have a dog door, I had to install one of those glass panel inserts with a dog door in the bottom which was really a hassle and it really didn't seal properly either creating a problem for heating and cooling. I removed the slider and built a wall with a door in it and then I could also install a dog door.
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New door. This dog door gets them into the utility room and another door gets them into their dog run.
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The sun and moon thing reminds me of some Indonesian art. The masks have what mirrors some of the batik designs they do in Indonesia.
 
I found this picture of the kitchen when we first looked at the house. The realtor must have thought we were crazy when we said, "Yeah, we'll just remove this peninsula and upper cabinets, change all the counters and cabinets, cut the wall out to make an open concept, and redo the floors!" The realtor was probably thinking, Yeah, right . . .keep dreaming! The woman that originally lived here said her grandfather made these kitchen cabinets in 1970.

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Current kitchen from the same angle...

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The change is dramatic and it's great that you and Ruby can partner in it. My wife did much of the design of our house, especially the kitchen.

The hinged door with the dog door was a clever idea (and looks great) plus egress is actually much easier with a hinged door rather than tugging at a heavy sliding glass door. I kinda wish I had installed a French door from our den to the patio.
 
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The sun and moon thing reminds me of some Indonesian art. The masks have what mirrors some of the batik designs they do in Indonesia.
Before Covid, Ruby and I used to go to Hawaii on a semi-regular basis. Then, I was working in the South Pacific for a year and a half and one time, when I was returning home, Ruby met me in Fiji for a week. That was awesome. Anyway, Ruby loves the tropical look. The Fijians, seem to like the turtles. . .so does Ruby! We actually have turtles in the lake that come up into our yard to lay eggs. Ruby puts a little fence around their eggs to protect them.

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That's so cool! A first cousin had a box turtle that she would feed. I saw it when I was at her 90th BD party in Kaw, OK. Someone said Alice there's Charlie. She kept calling his name and he would stick his head up to sight in on her and came right to her. By that time someone had gone into the house and brought her some pieces of raw beef to feed him. Another cousin (on her husband's side) said the turtle had been coming over 16 years.

BTW I worked a short time in Huntsville and rode a motorcycle to my hometown (Robbinsville, NC) a few times via Chattanooga and Murphy.
 
I love box turtles! We used to rescue them. They liked to eat grubs we found as well as figs. They loved figs and blackberries. Fiji looks like a beautiful place. I always wanted to visit. My wood shop teacher apparently went to Fiji a few times and loved it there. I lived on some other tropical islands though and they were nice. Singapore is more of a big city and the ocean isn't as pretty but its very green and nice. Guam is beautiful but way far behind Singapore. It's very much like Hawaii from what I've heard (only stopped at the airport in Hawaii). I'm glad you were able to travel.
 
The Tennessee River is quite a river, some 652 mies long. As a kid I lived near the Cheoah River which ran into the Little Tennessee just below Fontana and Tapoca dams. Now I live near the French Broad River which may be the longest tributary (218 miles) in the formation of the Tennessee River. So we are connected by water.
 
I lived on some other tropical islands though and they were nice. Singapore is more of a big city and the ocean isn't as pretty but its very green and nice. Guam is beautiful but way far behind Singapore. It's very much like Hawaii from what I've heard (only stopped at the airport in Hawaii). I'm glad you were able to travel.
I didn't make it to Guam. I was stationed in Western Samoa but we flew all over the South Pacific. I was in Palau for a while, which is pretty close to Guam. It was beautiful there. One of the guys I flew with lived on Guam but he moved to Houston, Tx.
 
The Tennessee River is quite a river, some 652 mies long. As a kid I lived near the Cheoah River which ran into the Little Tennessee just below Fontana and Tapoca dams. Now I live near the French Broad River which may be the longest tributary (218 miles) in the formation of the Tennessee River. So we are connected by water.
That's awesome! I see the French Broad River is really long! So you live in Tennessee? That's a real nice State! I thought we were going to move to Tennessee. Ruby was looking at houses on the Tennessee River (or a reservoir) and she found one but it was in Alabama!
 
I finished the LVP in the living room today. Before I start the next phase, Ruby and I are going to NY to help her brother move to Guntersville. We're flying to Syracuse and driving to Niagara Falls for a couple of days first. Should be fun! I'll be driving a 26' UHaul back.

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That's awesome! I see the French Broad River is really long! So you live in Tennessee? That's a real nice State! I thought we were going to move to Tennessee. Ruby was looking at houses on the Tennessee River (or a reservoir) and she found one but it was in Alabama!
WNC (not TN) I am near the origin of the French Broad River. I had wanted to move to TN after I retired but life didn't work out that way.
 
I made this little video when I was working in Palau. I am wearing the Black Ball Cap.




This one is when Ruby and her mother, Linda, met me in Fiji. We took a tour boat, the "Cruisin Fiji," out to Castaway Island where they filmed the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks. The video is long but at 9:50, we are at the castaway island.

 
I love how happy you look in the Palau video. I chuckle about the name of Palau because its literally the Indonesian word for "Island". There were some islands around Singapore that were named things like "Palau Ubin" and "Palau Pawai". And there you have just Palau. Looks a lot like Guam. The tall stones are similar to the ones on Guam used for house supports by the natives.

Looks like you had a great time on that Fiji cruise as well. Love the underwater filming. Reminds me a lot of Guam as well. My dad loved diving and we always loved the ocean. I was a big fan of Jacques Cousteau as a kid.

The wooded part reminds me a lot of Guam and a bit of Bukit Timah nature reserve in Singapore. More of Guam though I think. The path away from the beach reminded me of the path to Lost Pond near Tanguissen beach in Guam. The "Help Me" with the rocks cracked me up.

Thank you for sharing those!

I was so excited with the videos I forgot to comment on the floor. Looks great! Nice layout.
 
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