The guest room is shaping up!

When we discovered our banjo picking buddy, Lowell, from the weekly bluegrass jams has his family in Minnesota, we invited him over on a Saturday to help out in exchange for a good meal and a good jam! Lowell's extra hands made it possible to go ahead with changing out the window in the guest room right after we'd gotten everything out and before painting and flooring it. It was nice to able to make and clean up that dusty mess before the rest was finished!

Now, the walls & ceiling are painted pale yellow, the hickory flooring is all laid and the first coat of stain has been applied to the wooden double-hung window pair. We have alder enough for the window trim but the floor trim for this room and the rest of the house will have to wait for another trip to Seattle. The furnishings are arranged in a whole new way since the extra clothing rod is gone so the room has a lighter, spacier feel than previously. My sewing machine, cutting table and fabric cabinet are still in there, but not my desk, books or filing cabinet.

It's been a nice change to stop with major construction for a while, changing gears into finishing up some places and decorating the rooms that have new wood floors. Dennis found a great new sofa at an estate sale store price to go in our living room-- looks great with one of the new rugs. We had originally planned to get Arthur's room refloored now too, but since it is just 3 weeks till we go to NYC, we decided to do his room and ours later in the summer. That way we'll be able to get the windows done in each room first, like we did with the guest room.

We've been going through a major transition at Artmil with two staff members leaving and one new one coming on at the start of April. I've picked up a few more responsibilities and different hours, while Dennis and ChrisB and Andy are dividing most of the tasks Kathy used to do. Christian handed off the web work to Derek, who is also able to do regular graphic design work.