wonderment » this old house

We thought this day would never come

kelly — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:45:36 +0000

OK, that might be an exaggeration, but it really did seem like the parts we ordered to reassemble the grill would never show up. They finally arrived on Thursday (was it a whole month ago that we ordered those?), and we spent the evening reassembling the grill.

Here's the "Before" shot from last summer. You might not be able to see all the rust and flaking paint in this picture, but trust me, it's there. Also note the lack of a proper handle, the lack of any sort of markings on the knobs, and the thermometer that doesn't work.

Logically, this meant we needed to use the grill as much as possible. So, I did some research, and realized that I didn’t have any grill-worthy recipes for another Linkfest post. Why? Because I’ve had quite a few grilling Linkfest posts in the past, some quite recent: 5/20/08, 9/14/08, 10/9/9, and 4/21/10.

The whole thing needed to be sandblasted (to remove the flaking paint and rust) and repainted, so Prince Charming spent a month doing that. Even the inside had been painted, which you're not supposed to do, so it actually looks better in this picture than it used to. You might just have to trust me on that. Just about every part of the grill was replaced, as you can tell by this picture. That's the shiny new... reflector thingy. The gas comes in through a thing that goes on top of this (one of the original parts kept). Very technical, I know.

Halfway there! All of the hardware (nuts, bolts, screws, etc) was replaced with shiny new rust-proof stuff.

I settled on the only one I hadn’t already shared (it was the lone bookmark that was for grilled anything), Grilled Soy-Glazed Chicken and Scallions from The Kitchen Sink, mostly because it was the only one that I didn’t have to go to the grocery store to get additional ingredients (I was interested in the tequila-lime chicken, but we don’t have any tequila in the house, and it seemed like an important ingredient). OK, technically we didn’t have sherry, but I figured I could make a substitution on that without ruining the recipe.

New bricks to replace the completely disintegrated lava rock that used to be here. I think these serve as a heat retention unit. That's me, by the way.

Because logically, if you have to do a task like this, you ask the most OCD person in the house to do it. Voila! (No, let's not focus on the fact that there weren't enough for that last row. Let's not be too OCD.)

New handle, new knobs, new thermometer... lookin' good!

Even the back looks pretty (though it's missing a piece - we can't figure out how to put it back on or where it goes, and it doesn't seem to serve any function).

Glamor shot.

Oh, you wanted to know about the food too? Turned out great! I highly recommend Grilled Soy-Glazed Chicken and Scallions. No pictures – it was too yummy, and we ate it up before I could even think about getting a shot. Add corn on the cob and watermelon, and you have the perfect summer dinner!

Obligatory shot of grill in action.

All that hard work has really paid off! Grilling is on the menu several times this week, and we used the grill twice over the weekend. We really missed our grill and are glad it’s back!

(For those of you who are wondering why we did all that work, a new Broilmaster of the same series, which would arguably be a bit fancier, costs upwards of $1500. So, yeah, a couple hundred dollars and some manual labor? Totally worth it. Also, we will be buying a cover for it so that it will be protected from the elements, especially Minnesota’s harsh winters. That was too much work to let it sit out in the weather!)

Finding Taste

kelly — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:46:54 +0000

Now that I have a real house, it feels like any “new” furniture we get should be, well, real furniture. Or, at least, furniture we plan on having for a while. Not “this will do for now” furniture. There are exceptions, and arguably most things from Ikea may be considered “this will do for now.” However, their website is relatively easy to navigate and they have good pictures.

But here’s the thing: I have had a really hard time nailing down exactly what my personal “style” is. There are quite a few design blogs I read, and from those I have learned what I don’t like. Well, those and Craigslist.

I love shabby chic, but I don’t want any of it in my home. Please stop distressing the edges of every single piece of furniture (furniture remodeling blogs, I’m talking to you).
French, modern, Victorian, country – I might like a few of the pieces (very, very few), but again, I don’t want them in my house. I do, however, like Mission style. They seem to have clean lines and square corners and not too much flourish. I want pieces to have personality, but not overbearing ones.
Sometimes, style opinions that I’ve had for a long time change, and sometimes they stay the same. I used to love cherry furniture. Still do, actually, but I find it incredibly formal, fussy, and fancy (the 3 Fs), which does not belong in my house which I want to be calm, comfortable, and classic. (Wow, I really worked the alliteration there, didn’t I?) I used to think that it was a good idea if all my furniture was painted white, because then it would be easy to quickly change the decor of a room just by painting the walls, and the furniture could all stay. I still hold to this opinion, though perhaps for different reasons. White looks clean, and it does coordinate with almost everything. I love cream and brown, but it is just too difficult to decorate with, and looks a little more dated than I wish.
Let’s talk about Honey Oak. I really don’t like this color, especially when there are heart cutouts or something else equally “cute.”
Painting furniture bright colors is really cool, and I am totally not brave enough to do this. I’ll stick with white or wood, thank you very much.

All that said, what I’ve really found is a lot of dislikes, without much guidance for actual likes. Bummer. This isn’t really a problem, since we have no immediate needs for furniture. I would like to have a general vision for the house, though, so that I have a goal to work towards.

To that end, I have quite a few pictures that I’ve printed out and put in a notebook. Since I did it that way, I can’t actually share them with you, because I have no idea where any of them come from. So instead, I’ll share with you my thoughts on some current Ikea furniture. Seem random? Perhaps, but I started this post two months ago, and after being in draft status that long, I can’t really remember what I meant to say. That happens sometimes.

Being in the process of refinishing some of the bedroom furniture (and I use that phrase “in process” very loosely), I’m drawn to dressers. I dream of the day when we have a headboard, and a cedar-lined chest at the end of the bed. Also, some day in the future (a long way in the future unless I find something fabulous for $25 on Craigslist), I would like a corner hutch for the dining room. Yes, we do have one whole corner in that room, and I have a plan for it (not everyone in the house agrees with me on this, but seeing as how this is a plan that won’t come to fruition for quite some time, that’s not really a problem).

(Clicking on the pictures will take you to the appropriate section of the Ikea site.)

Ikea Hemnes - I do like these. Of course, white doesn't work for our bed, and neither does the footboard, but the basic idea is nice. The dressers are clean with just a hint of personality, and I think I could easily vacuum under those (once you have two cats and hardwood floors, you understand how important this is).

Ikea Hemnes - I really, really wish this came in a color other than red. Alas, it does not. Wouldn't this look lovely holding all of the quilts I haven't made yet?

Ikea Edland - OK, not a fan of the black, but look at their pretty curved legs. Stylish without being ostentatious or frou-frou, I think. Again, nice clean lines, and vacuum-under possibilities.

So, to end this random, pieced-together post, I will not complain about the difficulties of figuring out one’s own style while having to negotiate a significant other’s [quite different] style, or muse about couches and how I don’t even want to think about the day when we have to pick one of those out together. Instead, I’ll say this: it’s a good thing there’s so much variety out there, even if it does make decisions* like these difficult. How boring would it be if we all had to decorate with Malm?

*By “difficult decisions” what I really mean is “first world” problems, or “rich people” problems. I mean, it’s not like we’re struggling to find food to eat or pay our mortgage. These are really quite petty things in the big picture. But, what else is one to talk about on one’s blog, if not petty things?

Weekend Activities

kelly — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:24:39 +0000

It was a typical Spring weekend: busy. Pardon the photo quality – these were taken with my iPhone, not our fancy camera.

Thursday night I noticed that the carpet in the spare bedroom (in the basement) was wet. Very wet. Conveniently nothing was damaged. Friday night we cleaned the room out, moved the server rack, and ‘s dad brought over a large fan to start the process of drying out.

You can't really tell, because it's carpet, but there's a lot of water there.

It's not supposed to be multi-colored.

The more it "dried," the more the carpet was stained. Joy.

Saturday morning, we went to the previously-mentioned turf care [free] seminar at Bachman’s. Very cool. Only six people showed up, so we basically got our own personalized recommendations. We picked up some lawn care products (and purple fountain grass for ), and then stopped to rent a carpet cleaner on the way home.

After lunch, we decided to get some yard work done. We got the back yard raked (the north side, not the south garden), met our new neighbors (very nice, young couple like us, no kids, and they’re not flipping it), and cleaned out the gutters on that side of the house. While around the corner (towards the front of the house), I noticed that the downspout was not actually connected to the gutter, and it was clogged. This happens to be right above the flooded room.

fixed the downspout (a temporary fix until we get new gutters, which are a tad pricey, though they come with a lifetime guarantee), and then he realized something. Last summer, as we dug up rocks from the numerous gardens, we dumped them in front of the house where some ugly bushes used to be (those got ripped out early on). Perhaps, he thought, the pile of rocks, sitting the way it was, provided a nice conduit for rainwater to go towards the house, instead of away.

So, he got to digging.

Lots and lots of digging. Many wheelbarrows of rocks. (I contributed by carting the rocks to the new storage spot. And by taking these pictures. And providing moral support.)

Until finally the ground sloped down, away from the house. A level was used to be sure.

It is not fun to realize that you may have contributed to the flooding of your own basement. But, on the bright side, we won’t make that mistake again. (The rocks were piled up on the driveway this time, far away from the house.)

While we were outside, I decided to take a picture of Cornelius, our rooster statue. What, don't you have a rooster statue? Prince Charming's dad gave him to us, and we love him. We find the idea of roosters (used as decoration) incredibly humorous. This guy stands over two feet high, and has his own pedastal! He might be cooler than our neighbor's griffins (yes, plural).

There's no rest for the weary. Before taking a break, we had to get started on that carpet situation (the cleaner had to be returned by noon Sunday).

Prince Charming did the whole flooded area once with just plain water, which helped a great deal. Then the fan went back on.

Later that night, we cleared the hallway and floors in the rest of the basement, and cleaned the carpet (with product this time, not straight water) in the whole basement. When you’ve paid for a steam cleaner, you might as well get your money out of it.

I did a lot of homework on Sunday. That back one is the "big" paper for my ELL class that's due in two weeks. Then my case study, and two copies of my strategy log (which were finished Friday, but weren't bound until Sunday).

Sunday I also got seeds started for our vegetable garden, and ‘s dad helped him hang the cabinet in his office (one step closer to being finished). After dinner I made two batches of lemon bars: one with the “ultimate” recipe I linked to on Friday, and one straight out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (but I used lime juice and zest instead of lemon*).

I bought books for the summer semester today. There are no traditional (read: expensive) textbooks, so the bookstore price was $63-66 (only one was available used) total. However, I don’t buy my textbooks from the school bookstore (unless I have to). My Amazon total, with shipping, for the four books (all used) was $36.24. That makes me happy. Hopefully I will plan my fall semester far enough in advance to have those books delivered well before the start of classes (though there’s no announcement as to when that course data will be uploaded to the bookstore website).

After tonight’s class, I should know exactly how much homework I have left for the semester. I think it’s just lesson plans and an end of semester reflection, but it might be that I have to prepare a presentation on my bilingualism paper. The professor hasn’t talked about that at all yet, so… who knows what will happen. I’m just glad the paper is done. It’s quite boring, so I’m not sure what I’ll do if I have to give a presentation on it.

That means I can make plans with friends! Oh my! And I’ve promised myself that I’ll be homework-free in California, which should work out unless my professor assigns any homework next Monday (since I fly out less than 12 hours after class ends, and don’t return until about 24 hours before the next, and final, class).

*Note: lime juice doesn’t color the bars green – they stay yellow. Plus, the lime zest turns a bit brown in the baking, so it looks like I made an herbed egg bake. However, they taste absolutely divine. I haven’t tasted the ultimate lemon ones yet, since they still had to cool and it was time to go to bed. I’ll update you later on that, but I will note now that I had difficulty making the lemon curd.

Flashback

kelly — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:06:06 +0000

A year ago today, we fell in love with our house. Is it silly to celebrate such an anniversary? Probably. But, if you look back in the archives, it was a HUGE DEAL and all I talked about for weeks (or so it seemed): the second tour, putting in an offer, waiting, waiting, waiting, and the big email.

Good to know – we still love our house. Even after all the work we’ve done, the long list of projects we’d like to do, and the weird things we’ve found, we certainly don’t regret our choice. I’m still telling people we’d like to live here for the rest of our lives, and can wax poetically about the many things we love about our house and its location. For a major investment like this, it is certainly good to feel this positive about it.

Love!

Edging Towards Zen

kelly — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:06:11 +0000

I spent part of Spring Break trying to bring some calm into my office. I didn’t really take before photos, but there are these two on Flickr of the two bookshelves, here and here. The tall bookshelf was next to my desk, and the short one on the wall between the door and the closet (both shelves are 47 1/4″ wide, which just fits in that space, allowing me to open the door almost all the way). They had been in that location ever since we installed the cutting table, and quite frankly there are very few furniture arrangements that are possible in that room. But, after thinking about it, doing some math (I only learned afterward that Ikea has a build-your-own function on their website that would have made it so much easier – check out the link tag on Tumblr), I had a plan. This plan was brilliant because it used both frames, all four drawers, and both doors that we already owned, and only required the purchase of five more doors and a rail (and, as later discovered, some handles for the doors).

The short bookshelf and the tall bookshelf traded spots, which has been a lovely change. It totally makes the part of the room I spent the most time in feel more open.

Most of my time is spent sitting in that chair, facing either the computer or the sewing machine. Sometimes, I'm standing up in front of the bookshelf ironing. Glamorous, I know.

The four drawers that were previously on the short bookshelf were moved to the tall bookshelf, and the doors were moved up to accommodate them. Four more doors were required to completely cover the height, which means that all the “clutter” (organized clutter, but clutter nonetheless) is now hidden, and I can breathe a bit deeper.

Ah, much better. Also, obligatory cat in photo.

The fifth door is a sliding door that goes on the shorter bookshelf, and while I was able to purchase the mounting rails, the door itself is out of stock, with no estimated delivery date. It will be the beech/frosted glass like the top ones on the tall bookshelf.

I also got around to hanging up some of the mini quilts I’ve received in swaps. I had been stalling because hanging them on the walls felt like it would only add to the clutter and claustrophobic feel of the room.

The closet door seemed like the perfect place to hang these two primary color-themed ones, since they don't exactly match the room but I love them so much.

I also hung the first quilt I made in the hallway outside my office, across from my bathroom.

I have another pink quilt to hang above the circle one, but I ran out of clips. (Target didn't have any either! Walgreens to the rescue!)

I have several more mini quilts to hang up as well, including this one that has both the turquoise and the green in it, so it might get placed somewhere prominent. This one is going on the door above the pink circles, and don’t know what to do with these two yet.

While we were picking up paint samples for the master bedroom, I picked some up for my office.

The one on the left is Glidden, and I picked it up on a whim. The other two are Behr. The far right one was shown in a photo on ApartmentTherapy and I loved it, but was afraid it might be too dark. I was right. The middle one, just a step paler, is what I've decided to go with. I'm also going to paint the trim in this room white - a hideous task, but it's all so beat up and dirty and gross, and I think the white will really freshen/brighten up the room. My backpack hangs on that hook when I'm not getting ready for class.

(You can see the Behr paint “in action” in this post on ApartmentTherapy.)

On Sunday while I was at Michael’s, I picked up some trinkets to decorate with, all at 40-50% off.

Gorgeous, no? So cute! I'm thinking that I'll paint the wall behind these guys (on the short bookshelf) a lime-asparagus-avocado-ish color (somewhere in that broad range) as an accent wall, since Prince Charming despises accent walls and it's probably the only room I can have one in without too much argument.

Just a little votive holder. It reminded me of the green color I was thinking of using as an accent, and it was so springy that I just had to take it home. (I think it was $3, which is hard to argue with.)

I’m feeling better about the room now, and having a plan, even if I don’t have time to execute it, helps me hate it less. Conveniently, I don’t have nearly as much homework the second half of the semester, so I have a bit more free time. My professors like to front-load courses (plus one of my classes ended, so that helps), and with only 4-6 weeks of the semester left, it’s almost over! I have virtually no homework the last two weeks of classes (assuming I don’t procrastinate on big projects, which I don’t really do anymore – all nighters ceased being fun a long time ago).

Paint!

kelly — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:56:56 +0000

Well, today I was smart enough to bring the memory card with me. Fancy that.

When we bought this house – no, wait, before we bought this house – I knew the first thing I wanted to paint was the bedroom. It was dark red. Now then, the room is 21′ x 15′, so it can totally handle a dark color. But red? Um, no. Blech. Unfortunately, it took us a really long time to make up our minds and decide on a color scheme. In the meantime, we have painted both offices, and picked out paint colors for several other rooms (at least, I’ve picked out the paint colors, and I’m assuming that my choices won’t be vetoed).

A few weeks ago, I stopped in at Hancock Fabrics on a Friday night and discovered they were having a sale on decorator fabrics. This is a fantastic thing, since decorator fabrics are pricey. I grabbed a sample (love the samples! whoever had this idea was a genius!), brought it home, and got the OK from . I showed him my example pictures of orange and blue rooms, and we were a go. The next day I promptly went back to Hancock and bought 6 yards of lovely 108″ wide sheer blueish greenish fabric (I really need to come up with a name for that color), and then hung it up with the curtain clips already holding up the existing sheers (which were hideous and felt horrid). We lived like that for about two weeks until it was time to paint, and then the new fabric was removed from the room.

In the meantime, we went round and round over color. As you can see in the picture below, we painted several swatches in three different places in the room. If you look in that far right photo, the top right was my first choice, and it looked lovely on my computer screen. Far too orange in person, though. The next step over was, unfortunately, too brown (seen right below it). Those two are Behr, Iced Tea and Earth Tone. Then we went to Menards, which had one or two good options in the Pittsburgh Paints line, but no samples, so no go. Then we took the long drive to Lowes (seriously, it’s a good half hour drive), and looked at the hundreds of Valspar colors. It’s really hard to find a decent orange paint! The three on the left are what we took home (again in that far right picture). We finally settled on the bottom one, Mesabi Copper, about ten minutes before left to buy the paint. Sidenote: both Valspar calculators said we would need 2 gallons per coat, so we bought 4, and ended up using one and a third gallons total. We’re trying to decide what other rooms in the house can be painted Mesabi Copper. The downstairs bedroom, perhaps? Serious boo on that calculation.

L to R: next to the trim, the sunny spot, and the dark spot which is also next to the fireplace

I had taken Thursday and Friday off of work to get this project started. On Thursday, it took me four and a half hours (!) to do all the cutting in with primer. Three of the walls are painted wood paneling, and all the grooves between the fake panels have to be done with a brush. Boo. Friday, the same task took me two and a half hours.

Saturday morning, and came over and helped paint. came over for lunch and provided the entertainment (her children). It took quite a long time to get the first coat of paint done, but the second time we didn’t cut-in on the grooves in the paneling, so we were done by 4. Sidenote: Valspar thinks that one coat of this paint might be sufficient. They are seriously wrong. I was thinking for a bit that we might have to do a third coat. Thankfully, we did not.

So, step by step, I took pictures from the four corners of the room so you can “watch” the transformation. The order, in case you can’t tell, is primer cut in coat one, primer cut in coat two, primer rolled, and completed paint job. (If the pictures are too small to see clearly, clicking on them will take you to Flickr where you can see much larger versions.)

South-west corner (Poang corner)

South-east corner (fireplace corner)

North-west corner (doorway to master bath)

North-east corner (Prince Charming's dresser)

I thought I’d also do up some before and afters. The befores aren’t particularly fair, since they were taken shortly after moving in, many of them in the dark, and the afters were taken with a clean (freshly washed floor) room on a sunny day. Oh well. You know how color is on computer monitors anyway – some of these before and afters don’t look that different, but really, the color change is amazing. The orange brightened and lightened up the room so much.

South-east corner (fireplace corner). I still haven't re-arranged the stuff on the fireplace ledge, and need to do so.

South-west corner (Poang corner). The color doesn't look that different in this one, but if you compare the quilt, which is the same, you can see that the exposure is quite a bit different. I love this little corner, and sometimes do homework here. I didn't hang the curtain rod back up because the one that came with the house is insufficient and looks silly (it's less than 1/2" in diameter, which for a patio door that is 100" wide is ridiculous), and I refuse to install it only to have to patch and paint holes when we get a new rod. Obviously, getting a new rod is a priority right now. Unfortunately, so very many curtain rods are hideous.

North-east corner (Prince Charming's dresser). I have finally figured out a window treatment option for that weird wide window, which I'll make out of the leftover fabric from the sheers, hopefully.

North-west corner (door to the master bath). I'm thinking that matching dresser scarves (and I use those words in a non-grandmotherly doily-like way) are a good idea. Embroidered or quilted - thoughts?

My next project is to paint the trim white (even though the ceiling is cream, I’ve decided to not care about that). I was thinking Polar Bear or Swan White by Behr, but we still have some Lowes coupons, so it might be Valspar again.

Then, it’s time to finally take care of these embarrassing dressers. For the record, I am incredibly grateful for these dressers, as picked them up at a garage sale back when I lived in Michigan, the pair for $40, I think. (For quite a while, I was really living the high life, with three dressers and all of the closet space to myself. Ah, memories. The one dresser is on permanent loan to .) However, they’ve been abused quite a bit over the last few years. The tops in particular are in bad shape, since the fish tank lived atop one dresser, and the veneer is chipping/peeling away.

Three different styles of drawer pulls in three different finishes (I did that, btw). The design on the right one has been filled in (it is going away), but not on the left one. The right dresser also has several large screw holes on the exterior from trying to fix the drawer conversion I tried, and those need to be filled.

I have been meaning to paint these dressers white since… and I lived together, which was 2005-ish. I finally have space that lends itself well to this project (though I’m not blaming my inability to complete this on that), and the motivation. I’ve got the nightstand that I bought at a garage sale (for less than $10 I think) that is already primed, and it will coordinate with these two nicely. Hopefully ‘s dresser, which is remaining wood, won’t stick out too bad. I think it will be OK, since the bed, the other nightstand, and the Poang (chair from Ikea) are all very dark wood.

If you’re tired just reading about it all, think of how we feel!

Alison sent these pictures Saturday night of Joey at 6:45 pm.

And to think, he didn't even paint!

Spring Break!

kelly — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:37:20 +0000

Well, Spring Break officially starts Friday, but I have no more classes this week, so I’m calling it. Some homework tonight and tomorrow should leave me homework-free next week. Additionally, I took off both Thursday and Friday next week, to sleep in and then paint the bedroom, and maybe get an estimate on new gutters. So exciting, I know.

I do have to share with you the picture I promised on Monday. Warning, it’s not that interesting, but it’s got a story, so that’s something.

Remember last week when I showed you our empty humidifier? We finally remedied that situation, but it took more work than just replacing a few parts.

Replacing the guts was fairly easy, even though nothing was labeled. But, when we turned the water (and everything else) on, nothing happened.

figured out that the humidistat upstairs was not communicating with downstairs stuff. In the end, after lots of pulling on wires and looking inside the walls and thinking, he decided to run new wiring from the thermostat and humidistat down to the furnace and humidifier. Guess what happened after that?

It worked! I don't know if you can tell, but there's water coming out of that spout.

That was Sunday night, and of course by Monday morning it wasn’t working again. replaced the valve (the only part not already replaced, other than the big plastic box it all sits in), and we were in business again. Hopefully the floors and the piano will once again be happy (and then I can call a piano tuner, because right now my beautiful upright grand sounds like a high school choir room junker).

It has been quite warm here the last few days, and will supposedly continue on through the weekend (though snow is predicted for next Monday). Of course, by warm, I mean mid to upper 30s, and supposedly we’ll hit 40* today or tomorrow.

All that said, it doesn’t exactly look like Spring around here. I took these this morning before leaving for work (since someone on Facebook had asked me if it was Spring-like here).

The deck. It's an eastern exposure and boxed in on all four sides, so the snow doesn't have anywhere to go. We just shovel/sweep the part between the door and the grill (which has two new knobs, all shiny!) and call it good.

This is the roof that we never see, at least not in the winter. It's over the backyard, which is a northern exposure, with big trees back there, so it never gets any sun. Most of ice has melted off the rest of the roof, but this corner is staying strong.

We’ve been having enough sunlight lately to warrant opening the blinds in the bedroom before I leave for work, which is a wonderful thing. I’m hoping to take the plastic off the windows in there before we paint next weekend (for a window that was painted shut and the crank stripped, one of the windows in our bedroom is quite leaky; the one that is nailed shut from the outside, however, is quite well sealed, go figure). Spring will come soon enough! We really need some fresh air in the house.

Happy Wednesday!

All in a weekend

kelly — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:44:47 +0000

Last week I mentioned that we were getting ready to paint ‘s office. Well, here’s the photo update on that project (and a separate project at the very end). The captions tell the story – if you’re using a reader, the captions are the text below each picture (I know it shows up differently depending on the service you’re using).

Here's how it looked on Wednesday before we primed. We got one coat of primer done on Wednesday night, and a second coat just on the edges (brushwork) on Thursday night. One of the best things about this particular painting project is that there is no trim, so no taping, and there's no ceiling, so the only place you can't get paint is on the carpeting.

About 5 minutes after we started painting on Friday night, we remembered to take shots of the room all primed.

See? We'd already started. Crummy light, but that will be fixed eventually (need a ceiling first).

Two coats of paint later, and here's the room. (Surprisingly, it's about the same color as the kitchen, which was completely unintentional. Prince Charming noted that I probably wanted to repaint the kitchen anyway, and he was right. That's a project that will have to wait until we refinish the cabinets, though.)

Prince Charming spent most of Sunday re-installing the electrical outlets and working on the wall mounts for the monitors. Of course, nothing can get tightened down until the paint cures (4 weeks!), but progress is being made. There are a lot of other wires to run, which will keep him busy for a while.

If you want to see the whole remodeling set, here it is.

When we moved into this house, we knew that the humidifier was not working. This was mainly due to the fact that there were no internal parts for the humidifier.

The appliance repair store didn't believe me when I said it was empty. All I did for this photo was remove the cover.

What I wanted to be able to show you next was a picture of the humidifier with all its parts, in working order. We got a replacement kit that had everything we needed to re-create the inner workings, and managed to figure out how it all goes together. Unfortunately, after turning the power on, the water on, and playing around with the humidistat and thermostat, we still can’t get it working. has a few more ideas to try before we have to call in some help.

Aren’t old houses fun? (Answer: yes, yes they are. I am, however, quite glad that there were only two previous owners. I can only imagine if there had been five families who had lived here for ten years each, instead of one family for 50 years. The horror.)

More inspiration

kelly — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:05:10 +0000

I have more inspiration to share with you today. I think my brain goes into a “find pretty colors” phase mid-February, surrounded by all the grey and dullness (though it’s been surprisingly sunny here this week). It never fails, ever time I read someone’s blog post about Anthropologie, I have to go visit their site (and I forget that they exist the rest of the time). And I always find things that I love, but would never own. Does that make sense? It’s not just the price tag, but… something. That would be true for most of the things in this mosaic – love, don’t want to own. My only rule was that when I looked at the pictures, they had to make me smile.

First row: Sheets, Drawer Pull, Felt Tulip Pendant Light, Kitchen towel. Second row: Chair, Rug, Apron, Bench. Third row: Doorknob, Kitchen Towels, Rug, Drawer Pull. Fourth row: Napkins, Shelf Bracket, Bird Cage, Sheets. (The exceptions to the "I wouldn't own" rule are the sheets, and maybe that pretty shelf bracket.)

And this one I found,via ApartmentTherapy, at Dabney Lee.

I'm trying to picture how to make this work with our monogram (the one we used on our wedding stuff), and where. But very cool idea!

So, there you have it. Nothing worth talking about in my life, so some pretty pictures to help you make it through a Thursday.

On finding inspiration

kelly — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:30:25 +0000

If you remember that angsty post from last week, I’ve been re-thinking my decorating thoughts in regards to my office. Since then, I have had several clear, helpful thoughts about decorating.

First of all, were I decorating our house only for myself and not taking into account anyone else’s opinion (which is definitely not the case, but it’s good to know regardless), the two words that I would want to describe it would be: warm, and happy. If those two words were nixed, my second choices are: peaceful, and cozy.

My office is none of those things.

I thought I would be happy with neutrals. After all, aren’t they kind of peaceful and cozy? Alas, as I was perusing the Better Homes & Gardens website this morning, looking through an article on neutral decorating schemes, I was completely bored by every picture. That is how I feel about neutrals. They have a time and a place, and can be a very smart choice, but, to be honest, they’re boring. (Khaki pants, while a great wardrobe staple, are really nothing to talk about.)

When I wrote that post last week, I got started thinking about how you should really have a point of inspiration to pick paint colors from, and I had been dwelling on fabric. My thinking was that if I could pick out a piece of fabric that I love (from my stash, which holds many patterns that fit the bill, and quite a few in the color scheme I’m thinking of), I could pick out paint from that. But I haven’t really had the time to look at fabric, and then there was the probability that I wouldn’t end up using said fabric in room (where? couldn’t come up with anything – I want the window treatments to be solid, not print, as I have discovered since making the current ones)….

This afternoon at work I was talking with a co-worker, and she liked my earrings. I said they make me happy.

They're a bit more aqua (greener) in real life, but not much. And I heart them.

Lightbulb!

My earrings make me happy. Couldn’t I use them as the inspiration for decorating my office? These earrings, plus the little statue (which I may just have to buy myself as a “you made it to Spring Break!” reward), start to form an idea of what to do.

Those birds just shout "happy" ! And the blue, in both the birds and the earrings above, can be classified as "warm."

See, now, if I put my mind to it, I bet I could figure this one out.

I just knew you were waiting for a peaceful resolution to all that angst. Of course, I don’t actually have the time to re-paint right now. We’re priming ‘s office tonight, and hopefully painting this weekend (at least, I think that’s the plan). But maybe I could squeeze in painting over Spring Break? I’d be down to two classes by then….

And just to throw more wood on the fire, I thought I’d share with you some pictures I’ve collected for my inspiration file for other parts of our house. You know, parts that we don’t plan on updating for months, years, “sometime.” I’m pretty sure that they’re all from the Better Homes & Gardens website.

Potential color scheme for the master bedroom. What do you think?

I've got nine-ish months to figure out a plan for built-in bookcases in the family room (the current plan is to drywall that room next winter). I'd been thinking about using beadboard for the backdrop, and here's an excellent picture of that (not the green, though - no avocado green in a basement that we're trying to get *out* of the 70s). I have another picture where the beadboard motif is repeated on the cabinet doors, and it looks quite smart.

Not much inspiring here, but the ceiling looks just like our living room ceiling, and this picture is a nice blank slate.

I found this one just today, and saved it because you can clearly see the trim, painted white, right up next to the hardwood floor (you can in the above picture too, I just realized). My mind has been stuck on the idea, but couldn't figure out if it would look OK or not. I'm going to go ahead and say Yes to that idea.

Where have you found inspiration to decorate your home? Or inspiration for anything?