Week 2: The Entryway.

(I was with the daughter at Emergency last night for 3 1/2 hours only to be told they aren't testing for H1N1 unless the patient is having severe breathing problems or has "other" conditions as well. Fortunately she has neither. She'd been sick all day and we panicked when her fever spiked at 103.9 F at 1:00 am. She now has a free pass to drink ginger ale and watch TV for the rest of the week. Poor kid.)

The Hallway.

It is an "ell" shape, to the left. An upside down "L." It's just wide enough in both its legs to accept a piece of furniture and it's just narrow enough for that piece of furniture to make it feel crowded. I'd love to get rid of the cabinet in the first part of the hallway, but it is too useful.

Here's a tour.

This is the view of the hall as you come in the front door. The dining room/office is to the right and the living room to the left. The hall continues to the left behind it.



Standing at the stairs looking back to the door.



And this is as close a "close up" as you can get of the cabinet and wall arrangement I want to change.


I need dog resistant storage for boots and other consumables like hats, mittens and scarves. The basket in the cubby worked well until hubby made it "dog proof." Anything which replaces it also needs to store everything already there and be handy for the library books on their way out.

Turning the corner, we have two closets and a dresser and lots of doorways.


The closet you can see in this picture needs a serious cleaning out.

I took this shot in July, planning to do a thorough clean. I never got to it which is part of the reason why I'm doing the Cure, now.

The drawers of the dresser also need a serious cleaning out. I'd like to replace the dresser completely: the top is damaged, but it isn't in the budget. I can replace the art work, though, and that might help. This is the mail sorting center and an "overflow" grooming station from the bathroom behind it.



Also opposite the dresser (and beside the bathroom) is the coat closet. It's also the broom, mop, and vacuum closet as this is the only place to put them.



To Do List:

1a. Get new rug for front door.
1. Clean out cleaning closet
2. Clean out coat closet
3. Clean out dresser drawers
4. Clear off dresser top
5. Paint dresser top or replace dresser
6. Replace artwork in both parts of the hallway
7. Solve mitten/hat/scarf storage problem
8. Fix boot storage problem (if possible)
9. Paint up closet door trim
10. Clear stairs.

It'll be a challenge.

Kitchen Wrap Up.

It was a week.

Here is a collage of the befores, originally posted here


















And how much better it is.

It is hard to describe how I feel in this kitchen. I will be putting the map back up, but that's it. The long shelf that was above the stove isn't being replaced and the wall above the books will stay bare. The "white space" truly does feel like breathing room. Somehow, I really do feel freer. Maybe it's simple. Maybe it's because there isn't something vying for my attention at the corner of my eye. Oddly enough, I also feel like something has been removed from me: guilt, or shame, or something. I'm guessing...but this scrubbed and denuded kitchen feels fantastic.

First Cure Project

As most of you know, I cannot resist little projects as they come up during the Cure. This one was really very simple and because of that, kind of fun.

So, the steps to any project are:

1) Identify the problem:


Ugliness!

And, the "wall" behind the spice rack is actually our chimney flue. Thus, screws put into the "wall" (which is a piece of plasterboard, about 3/8" thick) aren't in there very deeply. So, I have an engineering problem as well as an aesthetic one.

2) Find a solution.

I considered actually trying to create a series of shelves from threaded rods, nuts, bolts and drilled wood and running it from ceiling to floor somehow, but it was just exhausting. In my search for "spice rack" however, google coughed up these:



3) Assemble the bits:

I found the spice jars at Wally World and the steel plate at Home Despot. Then, I found mirror mounting tape. (I had been going to use mirror clips but this is much, much better. It's what I used to call "foam squares" in my former scrapbooking days.) The package reassured me it would hold weight. (One inch of tape for every 1/8th of a pound. The jars and steel plate weighed 2 lbs altogether according to my food scale.) I "over-engineered" it.



And so here we are, the first project complete.


disclaimers: I'm not sure it entirely "goes with" my style statement of "classical whimsey" or whatever two word string I'm using this week. Now that it is done, I think it may be a tad "too industrial" for the quaint jar and shelf arrangement adjacent to it. But then maybe the juxtaposition is precisely "my style." I don't know. The husband really likes it. That's something.

(Another kitchen project is also complete. But as it involved verathaning the school book shelf, there aren't any exciting visuals.)

I'll have the "entryway "before" photos and the kitchen "after" post soon, I hope.

Further Research

After I posted yesterday's picture of the aqua kitchen, I kept hunting. I discovered that this kitchen--and other vintage 50's kitchens--were actually constructed out of metal. Metal cabinets. Who knew? I hadn't known. Metal cabinets never made it out here.

The second thing I learned was that toekicks were apparently painted black. Always. It helped the cabinets look as if they were floating.

I also discovered that two-tone kitchens were featured in magazines. I don't know how popular or "fashion forward" they were. This slide show of 1950s kitchens from the archives of House Beautiful doesn't feature any.

But here are a few I managed to find:

The cheerfulness of the primary colours (plus white) is almost overwhelming to a curmudgeon like me. And yet, it appeals. Like a cartoon.

The wall paper in this one reminds me of Curtis of old AT.

This illustration from Retro Renovation is fascinating to me. I could study it a long time.


And here is a current interpretation:



So, if I want that aqua--and a change--badly enough--there is precedent to painting just the bottom cabinets a lovely darkish aqua.

I'm still contemplating. I have no idea whether it would balance the ginormous top heavy cabinetry--or just look silly.



(Cleaning these inside--and out--is today's task.

My Dream Illustrated.

This is very weird. Very, very weird.

I decided to go image hunting for retro designs and found Pam's Fabulous blog.
And then I found her kitchen.


Remember when I said I had dreamt of gray walls and aqua cabinets?



Strange but true.

Cleaning walls 101

Wende asked me how I clean my walls.

She asked me to break it to her gently, if elbow grease was involved.
I'll try to be gentle: but when you take pride in shooting from the hip, it can seem as though "gentleness" exists in another universe. (And preferably one without grease and dust and other unpleasantness.)

The most important thing when cleaning is what you cleaning. Not the dirt: but the surface underneath the dirt. That's why door and window trim is panted in gloss and semi-gloss paint: the shinier the surface, the easier it is to clean. It's also why I don't use flat paint on any of my walls and why I should have used oil paint on the kitchen cupboards instead of latex. (The latex has worn and chipped over the years with repeated swipes. Enamel would have stayed out).

Tools needed:

rubber gloves
Hot, hot water
bucket or bowl for the water
Cloth
step ladder
a cleaner, preferably in a spray bottle, if possible.

The most thorough way to wash the walls is to wash them as though you were going to paint them. TSP is a fantastic cleaner, in my opinion and I may need it, yet. You can find it wherever you find painting supplies. (Except New York City. I believe it has been banned there. I don't know why.)

I am merely washing my walls to clean them, however, so I'm using Method's all purpose cleaner in the spray bottle. Spray it on, work from the top down (to catch those pesky drip runs) and remove with a hot damp cloth. Rinse. spray. repeat.

For the tops of the doors and doorways (a particularly greasy, dusty mess) I am using dish soap. I just squirt it directly from the bottle onto the surface, then I take a nylon scrubber and have at it until it's clean.

My son went through a disgusting period of picking his nose and then wiping his hand on the wall. Most of it is gone: but it took me a while to figure out how to remove it. When I finally tackled it, it was years old. What finally removed it? WD40. Spray it. Leave it to sit for a bit. Get a paint scraper and remove it. Wash as usual.

If the problem is uric acid, as it may be when your toilet is too close to your wall, use vinegar for your first effort. I had a very anal boyfriend once who would fasten sheets of plexiglass to these walls in every apartment he moved into just so they would be easier to clean. I have got to the point with respect the the upstairs bathroom where I'm strongly considering it. (I suppose that's why bathrooms have tiled walls.)

I hope that helps.
And I hope I was gentle.

Doctor of Quitology

I love these certificates.



Isn't it silly how something so frivolous can be so rewarding? A certificate generated by a computer--but created by someone likely toiling earnestly in a government public health office, who knows where, but with that rarest of qualities: a sense of humour, and the wherewithal to get his or her sense of whimsy to prevail through the bureaucracy. An achievement almost as difficult as quitting smoking--and staying quit.

For one whole year.
I love it.

(I'll love it even more next year when our life insurance premiums are lowered).