Day 10.6: A Tour of the Dining Room. (For my Blog Friends).

Ok. I've recounted the changes by each individual wall in separate posts. But, here it is, wall by wall, all in one place.

This is the short version:
Before:

And now:
And that concludes the short version. If you want to get a cuppa sumpin' and read the longer version below, you're more than welcome to!


The room is 10 feet wide by 11 feet deep with two doorways. Like this:


The dining room is on the left. Top is north. The kitchen is to the south, behind the dining room.
We'll start with the south-east corner, where you can see the two doors: the pine "french door" to the hallway and the doorway to the kitchen.
Before:


After:

Then, to the right: the desk and der wall. The desk is as big as my couch.
I'm so proud of this I could burst.
Before and After:
Continuing to the West wall:
You remember the infrastructure?


You know, my mom actually said she liked it. I guess to her, it looked like a good use of ratty old Ikea. When I set those pine units up in the kitchen temporarily, she liked them there too.
But I think there's no doubt, the grid rules!

My husband just commented that "this" meaning the Expedit, "doesn't stick out as far." Well, I told him, actually, physically, it sticks out farther. "It's the grid." I told him. "Your eye perceives the order and has a place to rest instead of trying to make sense of all that jumble."

And that is why I wanted it. That is why you can pack such a thing as this full--and it doesn't overwhelm. The unit has structure and it imposes order. Voila, rest and peace. (Do I hear a choir of angels singing?)

Moving on....

Then, in the north-east corner we have the china cabinet. It is dark. It's not my favourite piece of furniture, but it was a gift. I was worried when I decided to paint the room a lighter colour that it would stick out too much. It looks so right and so cosy right here.


But then, I reasoned, it just sits on that itty bit of wall. I was willing to live with it Standing Out for a brighter room.

But it's not too bad, is it? Note the table change. I'll get to that in a minute.

I actually took a few pains with the China Cabinet when I unpacked the boxes of stuff that goes into it. Remember those?

I took out some of my scrap paper to line the shelves--and settled on this blue and green just because I had enough sheets in these colours to do the job.
I was absurdly pleased. I'd weeded out a few things when I packed it up, and then I weeded out a few more when I unpacked. Yes, this is edited!


The biggest change to the room, though, took the least effort, and it it isn't something you can really see in the photos. It's the table. I forgot to adjust for the light coming through the window, so my photo of it nestled up to the window didn't turn out.

As I mentioned, once upon a time, we moved the kitchen table to the basement, and the old Ikea pine table, formerly of the dining room, took up residence in the kitchen. To stay. I had planned on painting it white and moving it back in but though it's a tight squeeze, I love having the room to spread out in the kitchen.

But that left us with a problem: no dining table for the dining room. I want to purchase a round table with leaves for this room but I don't want to rush into it. So, for the interim, (which you realise could be ten years!) I brought down another old Ikea table from my daughter's room. As you can see from the photos, it's white. And it has drop down leaves. It has been with me about as long as the desk units! And in about as many apartments. It's what we would call a "stalwart staple" piece of furniture. I only wish it was in better shape. (Note to young people out there: you really can't spend too much money on a versatile piece like this. Truly.)

The day of the photo shoot I sat down in the chair next to the China Cabinet. Just to see what it felt like.

My daughter quickly fashioned a "tea" of coffee, iced tea, chocolate cookies, m&m's and popcorn. I taught her to play Crazy Eights.

That evening, as I wrote up der wall post, my son and husband sat at the table behind me, ate their before bed snacks and read. Last night they played Quatro. This room has now already seen more use by other family members in the last two days than it had seen in ten years. It's amazing what a lot of light and a little space can do!

And so, to finish out tour. The newly re-painted book case between the two doors (also edited and outboxed):
So, in actual fact, this room has a couple of faux pas. (1) All the furniture is pushed against the walls and (2) there's a big empty space in the middle of the room.

We love it.

Day 10.5 Der Wall

Someone mentioned in the comments section of an AT Fall Colour contest post that it is useful to "hear about the decision-making process" when decorating. And cqindc asked so nicely. So, I offer you this lengthy post. Please grab a cuppa and a cookie (or three)before you begin.



It started with the desk.

The computer desk to be precise.

It was red orange oak--and a fairly new acquisition. When it came into our lives it replaced this get-up:
(Judging from my daughter's size, I'm guessing this is probably 2003/4)

You can see why it might have taken me a while to realise it needed attention.

And so, deciding that sanding and re-staining was too much work, I simply re-stained it darker. To blend with the china cabinet, of course. This was in August, when I was thinking of purchasing the dark Expedit, as well.

But that was about as far as my thinking had got when the cure started.

I knew I wanted to lighten up this room. From May onwards I had considered probably every colour family under the sun. Finally, I appealed to the wisdom at AT in an open thread about painting the walls in a neutral.

And that's when Wende in phoenix changed my life.

"Dark furniture will stand out against light walls. Light furniture will stand out against dark walls," she said. I knew that. No, the life changing moment came when she said: "And we don't want furniture to stand out. We want it to play quietly."

We do?

Of course we do.

So back went the dark Expedit. I told you all about that. But I began to regret having stained this piece dark.

What would I do?

The Cure demands a style tray. As I love looking at pictures of interiors...this is not a problem for me. I had collected pictures of offices for months, chiefly for my mother so she could create a vision for hers, but I had saved a few in a file for me. I put those pictures together in a blog post.

Again, Wende. She said, "looks like you want white shelving" or words to that effect. Oooh yes. I'd already exchanged the dark Expedit for the white: that would definitely work.

Also, looking at the pictures, I really liked one plane of colour for the desk top, all 6'6" of it. So, I sanded the white paint off drawer support tops and stained them with a custom made mixture of "chocolate" and "brandy" until they were as close as plywood and oak will ever be.

(left is one sanded top, right is a stained one.)

But what to do with the drawer supports? You know, those things I made back in University as a temporary desk?

Constructed of "good one side" 3/4" plywood and dressed up with cardboard boxes for drawers, it had just lasted and lasted. I was sick of it. I appealed for help. Most of you said "wait and see" though a few pointed out that staining to match the desk would "contrast" with the walls nicely. Remember, I was having an epiphany about making furniture play nicely, so I still wasn't sure if that's what I wanted.

I sanded them anyway. Days and days of sanding. And in the end, that's what decided me. The "good one side" sanded fine. The other? Not so well. It would take a lot of sand paper to get all that paint off. When the frugal husband made a joke about how much money I was spending on sand paper, I knew I had to stop.
(Here are all the horizontal bits that make up the desk drawers, all ready to be re-painted.)
I am glad I did sand them though. They had suffered two bad paint jobs--and you know, I don't think they had ever been sanded. They were as close to new as they would ever be, and while I wasn't thrilled with them, I could tolerate them in my life again. (And they are just so d*mn useful!)

But that's not all.

Oh no. The story of this wall also includes the wall above the desk on which I planned to put back the same shelves, only a little differently.

After the walls were painted, I procrastinated putting up the shelves. The room was so open and fresh, if a little useless without the computer and the desk. But, I was enjoying this:


I had never seen that before! The shadow of the shaggy tree outside danced on the wall for a few days, but then it was time. Out came the drill, the ruler, and up went the shelf brackets and supports. When I was done, I put the pine shelves up and pushed what I had of the computer desk up against the wall...just to see.


And I liked it. The pine looked just fine against the wall, but I could see it wasn't going to play nicely with the computer desk at all. So, down they came and I marked them for cutting. The handy husband did that for me and then more days of painting followed. Between the trim in this room, the new! shiny! white! dresser, the drawer support units and these shelves, I went through a gallon plus one and a half quarts of Benjamin Moore's Cloud White Semi-gloss.

Finally when they were all done and back on the wall, I got serious about purchasing the final fourth shelf for my plan. I couldn't find one as wide as the others. (Nominal 8" is only 7 1/4" as it turns out) but, in the spirit of flexibility I decided it wouldn't matter. And so, I bought an 8 foot board, had it cut to 6'6", primed and painted and put it up.

As you all know, unpacking those final boxes to put on the shelves was a bit of an underwhelm. Where had everything gone? But I decided to leave them uncluttered and "bare." Yes, this is "bare" to me.

(ps. I just discovered you can click on this picture (and a few others) and see it larger.)

And so there it is. (You can see the curve of a "new" chair ever so faintly in front of the desk. It's dark. I like it.)

From the left to the right in more days than I even want to count.

I think everyone is getting along just fine.

Day 10.4 Graduation

(Tableware Trophy designed by emiko oki from cups, saucers, etc. Image from design track.)


I am done.

I put the last coat of paint on a piece of furniture today (a homemade plum on the base for the little round table. Thanks Zooza!) and, so, ta da, I declare my home cured.

I have been living in this t-shirt for the last ten weeks. It is, in Wardrobe Therapy speak, what we would call a Really Real T-shirt.



I'll be glad to retire this t-shirt, but I am sad the Cure is over.

Can I thank you all now, in this brief valedictorian speech? I read over most of the blog today, and I think it reflects the ups and downs of the process pretty well...and the wonderful, awesome support I got from every one of you who commented. When I needed encouragement, I got it. When I needed help and advice, you were there. I couldn't have done all this without you and I am deeply grateful. All of you made up my "curing community" and I wish I could invite you all for a party.

I have a bit of tidying and things left to do like scraping a few globs of paint up off the floor, and wax off of candlesticks and furniture, but I do plan on taking "after pictures" and putting together a slideshow at flickr. I may even have a few more Cure blog entries once I have the pictures done (but not many more).

So congrats to all. Whether we accomplished a lot or a little doesn't matter, what matters is that we all engaged in a process that makes us mindful of the place we call home.

Day 10.2 The Dresser

(I have to confess some impatience with this post, aren't we supposed to be done all this already? This is so yesterday. But I did just get a batch of photos developed and the story has not yet been told....)

A long, long time ago, back around the time of the Big Bang (if the Big Bang even happened), this dresser was primed. Primed and ready, it sat and waited. A child was born. It waited. Clothes entered and exited, and it waited. It waited a long time.


You see, it was a motley dresser. Part of its mahogany veneer had fallen off. The primer had been applied without respect for it's unique hybrid condition. After a few years, the primer started to chip off of the remaining veneered parts. And still it waited.

Finally, something was done.
But it was a disaster.
The problem was the veneer. Once genteel and handsome, (if a bit shabby) great chunks of it had detached itself during the prep from merely primed to fully painted. But other bits seemed to be glued like hydrogen is to two oxygens. Now noticeably disfigured, it needed to be disguised and camouflaged. And indeed it was. But "gray barnboard" wouldn't do.
Vinegar was added to hot, hot water, and lo, more veneer came off--as well as half the horrid paint job. And once sanded, almost no veneer remained.
Once primed, twice painted and subjected to two coats of semi-gloss varnish, beauty was restored.

Shiny and happy, now it stands ready to receive both those clothes which pass the brutal Wardrobe Therapy tests and those perfect ones yet to be found.
It is waiting, again.

Day 9.7 Just a few bits left....

With all this focus on Wardrobe Therapy, I've sort of lagged behind on my Apartment Therapy tasks. There's just a little bit left to do and this post is to remind me in the morning to get up off the computer and just do them! I don't have the car today, so any errands that need to be run have to wait until tomorrow. Updates on Sunday in purple. Monday
A.
1. Cut curtain pole with hacksaw.
Wow. That worked. And it didn't cry or anything! Looks like it'll be a tight fit, but that's OK.2. Mount bracket hardware for curtain rod.
Ran into a problem with this. The screw in the bracket which holds in the rod is stuck into it and I can't get it out. May have to run to Ikea for another bracket. That'll have to be tomorrow. I called, fortunately they will be open. (Sunday is Remembrance Day here). Husband came home and fixed it. Done.3. Hang curtains. Done. Of course, I'm not finished with them. Looking at them closely I noticed they have a french seam up the very middle. Looking closer, I noticed I can take out that seam very easily and create two panels. I just need to find my seam ripper, put a table in here and do a side seam. And iron them.
B.
1. Prime board, both sides.
1st side done, 10:30 am, 2nd side done, 1:15 pm.2. Paint board, 2 coats each side.
1st side, 1st coat: 2:15pm. (made a mess of my manicure). 2nd coat: 10:30pm
2nd side: 1st coat: 10:30am. 2nd side: LAST COAT!!!! 10:00 pm .
C.
1. Put books on shelves in dining room.
This is interesting. Well, to me, at any rate. The books are hardly taking up any space at all. In fact, there's so much "open" space on these shelves I'm not sure what to do. Leave it open? Fill it up with bric-brac and totchkes? I love having this problem. I may just leave it open for now.2. Style shelves while paint dries.
see above.
D.
1. Cover desk drawers with "almond" contact paper.
Changed my mind. White will look better. Fortunately, I have some! But I didn't have enough. I got 5 of the 7 drawers done. Done. 7/7. Done, done, done. (because, of course, I did a quick weed through of the contents of each and culled as I went.)
E.
1. Move the white table from daughter's room into dining room. Done.
F.
1. Take pic of the desk and "wall of shelves."
2. Take pic of kitchen shelf.
3. Create flickr slideshow.

There's a few more things on my list in the side-bar, but as soon as the above is completed, I will have done as much (and more) as I wanted to get done this cure!

The end is near. I wish it were here.

Day 9.5 Boom Da Da Boom. And some advice (again) please.

I got the final coat of paint on the set of three shelves that go above the desk done this morning. I bought the fourth shelf last night, so I'll prime and paint it over the next few days and the Dining Room will be done!

The little round table project is almost done too. I just have to decide whether the base is getting another coat of stain or if I'll give up and paint it.

What you you paint the base of a small pedestal table with the top stained dark? (PS, back when this thing was supposed to go into the kitchen and I was really into the country look, I stained the top "golden oak" and painted the base and legs white. I changed my mind and stained the top dark.
Dark like this:


I've tried using a water based "chocolate" stain over the white painted base, but it looks terrible. What I need to do is stain it--but that requires sanding and it is now too cold for that! So, paint it shall have to be.
Black seems "cheap," white too countryish, brown too much like a "near miss" and any other colour too attention getting. It's going into the living room in front of the window with the dark chocolate brown drapes.
Here's a rough idea of what the thing should look like all assembled:
I'm all out of creative ideas for this. Help?

Day 8.7 Joyous Colours.

Last fall, I fell in love with this picture:


All summer I played around with colour schemes involving orange and yellow. I dearly love both colours. Orange, Green and Violet is a beautiful triad and show up in my scrap pages regularly. But I wasn't sure I wanted my house in that colour scheme! And is that colour above blue? or violet? Well, a violet-blue would do--but have you seen anything--anything--violet-blue lately? (Well, maybe lately--very lately--and I predict there will soon be more.) But yellow is the opposite (or complementary colour) of violet. And it's cheerier to boot. Not only that, but my kitchen is already yellow and I love it.
Checking out books from the library on colour and decorating, I discovered Susan Sargent. Checking out her website and products I discovered these draperies. At $300.00 a panel, they were so completely out of my price range it hurt.
During this cure, I took down some curtain panels in the living room to make way for the brown drapes I have up now, and found they fit perfectly in this space, my "library landing," if you will----created during the first week of the cure.
But they just. don't. work. Too dark, too long, and I hated them.

Today I wandered into Value Village (a second hand shop with items of dubious quality but copious quantities of them) and scored these:

Oh happy day! They are the colour scheme I've been dreaming of. They are the right "vintage" (whatever it may be) to please me. I also bought a dark rust orange sheet to lengthen them if I want, but I don't think I do. It's as if they were tailored to the length of that window.

Being "old fashioned" they do require metal prong inserts for the pleats--and thus a curtain ring which will accept it. I've looked almost everywhere I can think of--and nada. zip. zilch.

Nevertheless, I'm thrilled.
PS. These "Joyous Colours" are not wardrobe candiates. They do funny things to my skin!

Day 8.5 Just A Little More....

Painting.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Day 8.4: Boom Da Da Boom

The computer is now back in the dining room! Of course, I don't have any pictures of this accomplishment, so, as a sorry substitute, I present to you the bookcase.

Here it is in its green incarnation, in the red room:

I painted it with melamine paint while the room was still red. Instructions here. And, many, many days later, we have this:
I just love these before and afters:
(I can be so silly, sometimes.)

Day 8.2 What Hubby Did on His Vacation

I didn't think it would happen.

It was worn out, cracked, rusted. When flylady admonished me to "shine my sink" the thing would disintegrate even further, leaving me with rusty bits everywhere. It was demoralising.

But it worked just fine.


Yes. The faucet.



(By the by, by the time we actually replaced the faucet set, these two little rust spots had morphed into Great Spots of Rot. The back was nearly gone.)

Hope against hope, I scouted around and found to my happy surprise there were a few in our price range. I even managed to convince the frugal husband to spend a teeny bit more than he'd want when I found the one I really, really wanted.

But, it isn't ever a matter of simply replacing a faucet. No. In this house, every project is somehow very complicated.


I prepared: I got a Big Home Repair Book (with lots and lots of pictures) from the library...before we even bought the faucet. We looked at flyers and even went to the store on the last day of the "sale" even though we didn't get the faucet on sale. Then, we discussed what we needed to do. Discussed it again. Looked at the pictures in the book. Took the faucet out of the box. Looked at the instructions. Realised Ikea isn't the only one who writes instructions for the illiterate. Realised they'd be useless.


The next day we went back to the store to get our supplies.

We asked the helpful folks at the store for a shut off valve for copper pipe. After much fiddling, a fellow comes back and presents us with this thing about six inches long and costing about $20. My husband begins to argue with the guy, saying that's not what we need. Instead of walking out on my husband (which I was tempted to do) I went around the corner to the other aisle and picked up the box with the faucet we had purchased inside. I told him, "We want to connect this to copper pipe and have shut off valves."
Oh.
"With transparent handles," my husband adds.
Oh.
OK. Turns out it was all a misunderstanding and the shut off valves (with the transparent handles) actually come with the compression valves we need to fit on the copper pipe. A little flexible hose, a tube of plumbers putty and we're in business.


This is what it looked like under the sink.
In case you've never looked before: those long vertical white things on either side of the drain pipe are (painted) copper pipes. They're soldered to the (mostly unpainted) faucet copper pipes above. That white thing underneath the pipes is our water filter. It's connected to a separate tap with the hose you see there. It's attached to the cold water supply with something called a "saddle valve." (It merely pierces the copper pipe and then retracts to let the water flow through). Our goal throughout the project was to keep that hose connected to the tap above. We did not want to have to figure out how to re-install it.

A hacksaw took care of separating the pipes. And then it was a very simple matter of applying a bit of plumbing putty (or even plumbers tape which the husband swears by) around the edges and screwing in to place. See them? Right there, peaking out from behind the drain pipe. Of course, with transparent handles, they're easy to miss!

The complicated part came when we realised we'd have to remove the sink in order to remove the old faucet set. Not only were the rusted out bolts right behind the sink (and he really did try to remove them, keeping the sink in place. Got every single ratchet wrench we own, too. None of which "ever" work, of course.) But. There's this:
I had known we'd have to take the sink out. I had even mentioned it casually the night before. That way, when the husband realised it for himself, it wouldn't be such a Big Unpleasant Surprise and he was able to take it in stride a little more easily. And so, the sink is removed.
(I'm not going to talk about how disgusting and awful the whole job was. We cleaned up as we went along. Steel wool is wonderful.)

(weird brief interlude) Just as my husband was putting putty back on our nice clean counter and I was holding the sink, the doorbell rang. As our daughter rushed to answer the door, we told her to tell whomever it was that we were busy and couldn't come to the door.

"Oh, you're parents say they're too busy, eh?"

And just the way it was said alerted both of us. My husband went to the door. Disappeared. I saw him reappear with a police officer in our backyard. They went into the garage. They went to the bike shed. Meanwhile, I'm still holding the sink, praying they'd be done quickly.


Turns out, our neighbour's garage had been broken into the night before and the officer was just having a look around. He advised us to lock the bikes in the shed and remove any valuable from the garage.

Fortunately, the interlude didn't take long.
And then the husband realised that the new faucet is to be attached underneath the sink with a gizmo that came in the box. Out came the sink. Gizmo and faucet attached. And then it was a simple matter of attaching the pipes from the floor to the pipes in the faucet with the flexible hose (and of course I don't have a picture! But believe me, it's just a mess of hoses down there now) reattaching the drain, setting the sink back in (and it is in staraight now, gol dang it!) and voila: our shiny new faucet set.
The irony is, of course, we couldn't use the sink for another day. But thanks to the shut off valves, we could turn the water back on. That was terrific. The great long screws used to hold the sink in place were completely rusted out. The husband went to the store to replace them and found out "they don't attach sinks like that anymore." So, he soaked them in something overnight and, somehow, they worked well enough the next day.

Another irony: the hose to the water filter tap had to remain connected to the solid copper pipe: which means it is below the shut-off valve. So, replacing the water filter--which I do about once a year--means I have to shut off the water to the house.

Nonetheless, I'm a happy wife.

Day 8.1 Little Things

One of the things I love about the Cure is all the little things I finally get around to doing. Oh sure, installing taps and painting rooms and furniture might not get done without it, but neither do all those little annoying things that need to be done which seem to get neglected in the day-to-day operation of life. They bring a sense of satisfaction all out of proportion to the amount of effort required.

In the cure Fall 06, I replaced the broken dimmer switch in the dining room. It had a huge impact on my day to day life. No longer did I have to search for a pencil to shove in the hole to turn out the light.

This cure, I

(1) threw out my old "toast" sized plates and replaced them with a matching set. It's easier not because they match: but because stacking them back into the cupboard is no longer a mensa test in spatial organization.

2) Replaced five black and white dinner plates with five in blue willow China. OK, this one was purely for pleasure.

3) This one is a test: can you see the difference between these two pictures?

This one will actually make a difference to my marriage. No longer will I have to nag my husband to turn out the light. It used to shine right at my eyes sitting at the table and I hated it. I've known about this lampshade for about a year. In fact, I even have another one in the hallway upstairs. I'm a grown woman--why do I need permission from some author/web guy in New York to get rid of the glare? Of course, it did cost $24.95.

4) hung the matching drapery panel in the living room. (I don't seem to have a picture. I'll remedy that!)

5) installed knobs on the cabinet in the front entry way.

6) put a pull-thingy back on the pull cord on the overhead fan.

7) replaced the thin, mean hooks on the back of the door to our bedroom with thick, beefy ones.


This will save my sleeping T-shirts.

So, as we trundle through this last week, I strongly encourage you to look after the "little things." You might change your life (or at least save that favourite T-Shirt)!