Flooring!

I ordered the vinyl flooring from Carpet Express on line.  It is a commercial grade vinyl and kind of retro looking.  It is much nicer than a photo will allow to show.

Derald prepped the floor while I was in the plein air event.  Fortunately most of the floor was in good shape.  Only one small corner with some water damage.

Derald, applying the glue.  It dried for about 30 minutes while we had lunch.  

Derald rolled out the flooring to cut to length and width.

The glue eventually was clear and oh my gosh, talk about STICKY.    Together we laid it.  But, lining up the door edge and the back edge (my area) was a booger.  When you let it touch it STUCK like crazy.  The roll was really heavy for me to try to raise it up to relocate the edge.  Finally we got it.  Trim will cover where I just could get it to move over.  :)  

Brand new floor!  Yeah!  Most of it will be all covered up with furniture!  So look at it now, before the shelves and cabinets and bed/couch goes in.

The floor has off white, grays and blue in it.  You can't really see any blue in this picture.

In Between….

In between working on Gracie and simple everyday stuff, a few events sneak in.  Parkville Plein Air was last week, with a wonderful workshop with Debra Joy Groesser.  She is one of the top female plein air painters, and I was fortunate to afford a workshop with her.  To make it just about perfect as you can get, the weather was great AND the workshop was small.  She is a very good teacher, and I had some AH HA moments, which I cherish.  Referring to Kevin Macpherson and his techniques, she drove some of the points home and a light came on for me.  Kevin is a very good teacher, but with a humongous crowd of students demanding his attention, it was limited the time you were allotted with his eye on your work and efforts. Debra had also done a workshop with him, so she was very in tuned to his methodology.

Parkville Plein Air show is currently at the Train Depot in Parkville MO.  It hangs through Nov. 12.

I did this sunset painting the first day/ evening of the plein air event.

Friday and Sat. was the workshop.  It was very convenient for Debra to have us all in one area to save time between critiques.  

In the throws of last week I decided to bit the bullet and get this puppy.  I had been searching the web and shelters for a rescue dog with no luck.  I visited a shelter, and it was so depressing I couldn't take another visit.  A friend suggested a poodle, and another friend suggested a Havanese.  I wanted a small dog, easy personality, no shedding and smart.  He fit the bill.  He will be nearly 10 weeks old when we pick him up next week.  I am reading up on Ceasars training techniques.  I sure did a poor job in the past being a 'pack leader'.  So this time I am going to try my best to do a better job.  He  will be home with us next week!  His current name is Maxxie.  It may stick, but I may have another name for him.  

The Airstream needed a little attention too!

Somewhere between home and NM this summer a bird pooped all over the front of the trailer.  It was really hot, and we were parked under the shade of a tree.  We didn't wash it off, which was a mistake.  That poo etched into the aluminum to the point it had to be polished.  So before we take her out for a fall outing, Derald wanted to clean her up.

New shelves were added last week too.  Before we had a hanging soft shelving unit.  It worked ok, but we were missing a lot of storage space.  Now with these shelves, I feel like I have more than I need!  I am SURE we will find things to fill it up.

I am painting in the Parkville Plein Air Event this week.  Also taking a workshop with Debra Joy Groesser, which I am thrilled about.  The workshop will be small, and that will be great.  Probably harder for Debra, but better for us.
This was last nights first event, the sunset quick paint.  9 x 12, oil.  I bumped up the color today and softened the back line of trees which pushed them back in space.  I'm happy with it now.  

Paint possibilities and wings

For such a little thing, there seems to be sooo many possible paint choices.  I found this photo below on the web.  Thank you to whoever it belongs to, but I really favor this paint job.  My original paint is the gold and white also.  This trailer below is an older model Shasta I think, and probably 12 ft.  Thus the window right of the door.  

The paint job I like.

Visualize that paint on Gracie!

I think you would have to see the difference before and after polishing on the wings to really appreciate Derald's work.  

But this photo of the edge is probably the best one to see how great they will look.

Close up after polish.

close up before polish

Renovation work is not for the faint of heart.

Derald