Filling Trim Holes, Windows and Tape

We are slowly making progress towards our goal of completely finishing the dining room.  This week we are filling those little brad nail holes in the window trim.

You gotta do what you gotta do-

Progress list so far:

Fill and sand holes in trim - in progress

Paint window trim white

Paint window frames black-

Put up baseboard trim

Fill, sand and paint baseboard trim

Sand off stain on walkthrough boards (or are we replacing?)

Put up trim around walkthrough

Fill, sand and paint walkthrough trim

Make and install stair banister

Paint and install heater end plate

Make blinds or curtains - possibly have fabric choice!

It would be nice to have the windows complete and painted before the holidays but house updates will not be a priority in the coming weeks.
Did you notice the fake grills on the window?  Those are made of electrical tape and were helping us visualize what style grill to get on the newly ordered bay window.  What are your all's thoughts on these two styles?  4 pane grill or 6 pane grill?

The 6 pane grill looks better from the outside of the house since its more colonial.  I kind of like the 4 pane because it looks more 'open'.  For the bay window we went with a 4 pane grill on the two small side windows but that would match with any grill we go with on these full size windows.

Where you even able to see the windows through the tree stationed on our table?  This is our Giving Thanks Tree (not near as pretty as the inspiration, thanks Tori for sharing the idea with me).

We started it last night and each of us are adding a leaf each day with something we are thankful for written on it.  Can you guess whose this is?

I'm finding it to be a good activity for our almost 3yo who didn't fully understand thankful when we explained what it meant.  So this has helped him understand and even voice it.  While eating lunch today and looking at the tree he told me he was thankful for me (so sweet, made my day).... but then he threw his scrambled eggs in the floor.  He maybe changed his mind after I disciplined him for doing so.

Last I wanted to share our mad efforts towards cleaning the yard after two high wind storms.  Last Saturday was a great workout and my super human strength mom arms continue to amaze me. :)  Other moms know what I am talking about.  Throwing logs across the yard....  no problem <enter Xena princess warrior scream>.

My 13 mo weighs more than these, and how many hours a day am I carrying her around.

I feel like we racked up enough pine needles, sticks and leaves to build shelters for a small village (MacGyver could totally do it).  Thankful we have an easement area we can dump on instead of having to bag all this mess.

Jonathan likes chopping wood.... and I like watching him :)

He looks mad at that log.

I hope to post more about our farm and winterizing sometime later.  I have herbs that are still surviving out in the garden and hens whose food is getting swiped in the night.  That stuff interests me... maybe I am the only one. :)

Kind Of A Big Deal

I don't expect everyone to get as excited about this as me but......  one room's windows (our dinning room) have all been framed in!!  That means no exposed drywall around any windows in one room.  This is the first room in the house to achieve this status.

They still need to be painted like the one on the right.  Jonathan also made the stool and apron (the two most bottom pieces) different on the newer frames.  It's only slightly different so it is hard to see in the picture.

It has been a busy month at work for Jonathan but he has made time each evening to work on it-

Finishing these two windows has taken some time just due to normal daily business (mostly summer travels, yard work and starting a farm.... wait do we have kids?).  Here is Matthew helping last February with some progress (guess Jonathan prefers his gray sweat pants when working on trim)-

He likes his brad nailer.... makes the job soooo easy-

Did you notice we finally have something else hung on the wall (between the two newly framed windows)?  This was hung in celebration of hanging something else (I am serious).  This was our first piece of art purchased from a local pastel artist Kelly Milukas called Blue Barn-

It was hung in celebration of finally getting our second art piece and hanging it.  We bought this giclee of hers last weekend during the South Coast Artist Tour called Lavender Fields.

I like that you can see it from down the hall-

It helps balance out the dominant shelves-

I want to end with a honesty moment.  Before I straightened up the living room for the picture, this is the damage that my 11 month old had unleased on the room.

Tidiness is not her thing, but she does like a clean window-