The Guest Room is Ready

I've been talking about getting the guest room ready for quite a while. It was the last room in the house to get organized and set up for "action".  My goal was to have it ready in time for Thanksgiving, just in case someone gets a big dose of turkey "tryptophan" and needs to take a nap after dinner (or decides to spend the night rather than drive home in the dark...)

If you've known me for a while, you've probably already seen this little sign from  an earlier guest room, or also from our more recent home and guest room, which I called the "Bear Crossing B & B":

and I've been rather anxious to hang it up again in our new home and be ready to welcome any guests who may want to come and stay. 

If you could have seen this room before I finally got it set up, you would appreciate it even more today.

Yes, there are still a few boxes stacked up here and there. And yes, there is a lot of furniture in this little room... But honestly...It's come a lonnnng way, baby!!  You should have seen it before I went through all the boxes of photos and condensed them into containers in that lovely cedar cabinet below: 

And then, once all those boxes were removed, there was the matter of setting up the bed... When we moved into the house this room became the catch-all room for anything and everything that didn't have a definite place to go.  So there was no room to set up the bed. And only the frame and box springs were brought into the house. Someone had the bright idea to put the mattress in the storage shed, way in the farthest back corner, behind two heavy file cabinets and boxed in by other shelves and boxes and tools...so that the only way to get the mattress out of the shed was to practically remove everything else from out of the way first! 

Well friends, I've been asking and asking the men of the family to please bring in that mattress so I could finish setting up the guest room.  My requests were usually met with, "Okay, when you have the rest of the room ready we will get it...", and then when I said I was ready, it became, "It'll have to wait until someone can help me get it out of the shed...", or "When I get home from work one night I'll do it" (from #3 son who lives here), but then when he gets home it is already dark and he's exhausted and needs a shower, etc., etc., etc.  and then hubby got sick with this cough/fever bug that's going around (and I had it all last week, except no fever for me...just lots of coughing...) and the clock keeps ticking away with just a few days left until Thanksgiving...and my goal was to have it ready by Thanksgiving by hook or by crook!

So today I quit asking and just went out to that shed and started moving things out of the way, one box of tools, one chair, two sets of plastic shelving that had boxes on them, more boxes, etc., etc., and then when I could finally get to the mattress, it was so well wedged in between the very heavy file cabinets and the wall of the shed I was ready to give up.  But I kept wiggling and tugging and pulling and working at it until presto!  The mattress was out from behind the file cabinet.  At this point I decided to call my married son who lives a mile away and ask him if he had a few minutes to come help me get it into the house (remember, hubby is still sick and not supposed to lift anything anyway, even if he was feeling good.)  Thankfully, #1 son was available within a few minutes, and between the two of us we managed to pull and push it up the deck steps and into the house and finally on top of the box springs on the bed in guest room!!! Sorry, no pictures of this wild frenzy of activity...just the final results!  Now I am resting...(I actually laid down on the guest bed and took a brief nap just to be sure it was comfy after all that work!)

I actually worked on a few more projects over the past couple of days.
Do you remember when I first got this lovely lady? You can re-read about it HERE

Well, after we brought her to our last house, a strange phenomenon began to take place. I don't think I have any pictures to show you, but little by little this lovely lady started to change color, until her whole face and hair looked like someone had painted her silver. I tried everything to clean her while living in our last house, but nothing would remove what appeared to be a kind of tarnish. This happened to some other painted items and anything silver (all my silver jewelry turned black) in our house, and we decided it was because of the sulfur water, which gives off hydrogen sulfide gas, which causes corrosion and other issues. I am thinking this lovely lady is probably painted with lead paint, and that may be why she turned silver.  Anyway, I'm still alive, so don't get panicky.  Since moving to our new home, where we now have city water, I noticed that this lovely lady was starting to look a little more normal again. So I got busy yesterday and washed her with some Dawn dish liquid, and then also used some silver polish cream on her, and all the "tarnish" disappeared!

The next project was this lamp:

Likewise, all of the brass on the base of this lamp had turned black with corrosion. I originally wanted to use this lamp in the guest room, but it needed some work. Not only was the brass black, but the light switch no longer worked and there was no way to turn the lamp on.  So, today I was determined to fix this lovely, very fragile antique porcelain hand painted lamp so I could put it in the guest room.  First I had to find a new electrical cord and switch/light bulb base. I decide to remove the cord/switch set from another old lamp that I wasn't using, but it did work, and put it into this lamp. Figuring out how to take it all apart and rewire it was the first task...but before I could do that I had to clean the brass base. So I got busy with some brasso cleaner and cleaned the brass. You should have seen it before...amazing what brasso and elbow grease can do!  Once that was done, I had to figure out how to do the rewiring. That was tricky, but I finally got it all back together again, put in a new light bulb, and "Voila!" It worked!  That is, until I tried to turn it off.  The new (used) switch that I put into this lamp turned it on automatically, but could not turn it off. I don't know why...it worked fine on the other lamp...so in order to turn off the light, you have to unplug it!  Well, that would never do for a guest room. I can't be asking my guests to unplug a lamp to turn it off! How inconvenient! 

So, I put it in our bedroom, next to our bed on my side: (Oh, there's Baby Elva! Yes, that is where she's been hiding ever since we moved here...)  Anyway...I will purchase a NEW electrical set for this lamp and redo it eventually, but not today. I'm tired.

I realize this is a long post for a Saturday night. I do apologize. But I wanted to get all this down in writing for my own remembrance as well as for your entertainment.  And now that the guest room is ready...I wonder who the first guest will be to actually use this little room?

I am very tired and getting ready for bed now, but before I do, let me read a few portions from Psalm 16:

Psalm 16

1.  "Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust."

5.  O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup.

You maintain my lot.

6.  The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;

Yes, I have a good inheritance.

7.  I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;

My heart also instructs me in the night seasons

8.  I have set the Lord always before me;

 Because He is at my right hand 

I shall not be moved.

9.  Therefore my heart is glad,

and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will rest in hope.

10.  For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

11.  You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Thank You, Lord, for Your kindness and love.  Yes, "You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup."   "I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel."Yes, You have shown me the path of life and "in Your presence is fullness of joy!"   Praise the Lord!!  Amen.

Good Night!!