My mom and dad are here for the weekend – and you know what that means!

Projects! 🙂

Mom has been playing games with the kids, at the sewing machine with Angel Girl making quilt squares for a 4H quilt and playing in the kitchen with Dagmar and I.

I wish you could be here for tea time – we’re having fresh cinnamon swirls!

Meanwhile – we locked Dad in the bathroom.

Not really. 🙂 But he has been finishing up a project that I’m very excited about!

When you’re dealing with an older house, you walk a fine line between renovating and remodeling, between character and function.

And you save everything – like the cabinet doors from the built-in cupboards we ripped out of the kitchen.

Our downstairs bathroom is built under the stair steps, giving it some unique angles.  My Dad studied the lay-out for awhile and came up with a plan to build a big storage closet under the stairs using 2 of the doors.

Then he tucked a linen closet for towels in another of the angles using a smaller door.

Finally, he built a medicine cabinet right into the wall of the bathroom – and used another door.

It took a while for me to get the doors and the trim stripped, sanded, stained, and varnished. Then we had to wait for the snow to let up for Dad to get down here again to install everything.

But the wait was worth it! We now have a built in medicine cabinet, a deep and functional storage area and a linen closet that are beautiful and new to the house – but look as if they have always been there!

The best part is that we not only saved the character – but we added function!

Happy!  Happy!  Happy!  🙂