Dancing on the Ceiling

I'm imagining a coffered ceiling in the dining room of Pennethorne Manor.  As usual, the manor is speaking to me and she says she wants one.  Like this . . .

HA!  Dream on sister!  In reality, it will probably end up looking something like this . . .

Or this . . .

I just love making more work for myself (she says with a sarcastic tone).  But when I get something in my head I can't let it go.  Now to figure out how to accomplish such a monumental task . . .

Floor Score and . . .

Yesterday I got the dining room wallpapered and it was no easy task.  The wallpaper was "wafer" thin and very delicate to work with.  The finish scraped off if I wasn't careful.  Because the walls in the dining room were so rough I elected to paste the wallpaper to poster board and then apply it to the walls.  I'll never install windows before papering again!  It was a nightmare to get the paper around the windows and trim, but somehow I managed to get it done without it looking too much like a horrible mess.

Keep on Keepin' On

Progress has been slow, but steady, on the manor.  Most of the trim is painted, except for the top trim around the mansard roof.  I have dedicated Friday as a "house day", so I'm hoping to get the trim painted and the shingles stained so Brian can shingle the roof on the weekend.  Fingers crossed!  The clapboard siding has arrived, so that will be painted as well and then installed.

I was all set to wallpaper the dining room, but decided that the wallpaper wasn't vibrant enough, so I ordered something different.  I'm much happier with the new paper.  It's a gorgeous red with gold peacocks.

New paper on top of old . . .

Slow and Steady Progress

My mom has been visiting from Canada so I've been sneaking in an hour here or there to work on the manor.  After the weekend with my friend Tracy, who did most of the electrical for me, I managed to install a few more lights and replaced the simple bedroom light with a three armed chandelier.

Electrical wires soldered to tape wire and labelled . . .

Let There be Light

I had a wonderful weekend with my dear friend Tracy who came up to install lights in the manor.  She is a true light master!  I learned a lot and feel confident enough to move forward installing the rest of the lights and the chandeliers when they arrive.

We only encountered a few hiccups which were easily resolved.  I am in awe of how detailed Tracy does her wiring . . . look at this.  Braided wires!  How pretty is that?

Tracy hard at work . . .