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.

Week 10.1 Last Week: Electrical, This Week: Plumbing.

Handy husband went to snake out the drain in the bathroom sink this evening. It always gives us trouble. In trying to get off a plastic nut which bridged the pipe coming out of the wall (of one old fashioned never-to-be-found-again size) with another bit of pipe (of the ubiquitous black plastic in the "modern" size) which together make up the piece called the "drain extension" (see the above illustration), he snapped it.

It was on very tightly. The plumber who installed it told us to "call him" if we ever wanted to take it off because "it was so d*mn tight." As he'd brought his girlfriend as his plumbing assistant and had had to run to Home Despot because he "had the wrong size" of whatever--while he was installing the taps, I promptly lost his card (if he even had one.)

I want chrome underneath that sink. I want all those bits named in the above diagram, in pretty, shiny, period appropriate chrome. The husband says no. Categorically, foot stance and mouth set in the fighting position: No. He says he'll need "special wrenches" and "they'll get all dinged up" and then...and then (in the manner of that infernal segue married couples make when they're fighting)...the taps I picked out are leaking. Where's the documentation? Who did we buy them from? How do we fix these washerless taps I picked out?

I don't know.
When did plumbing become personal?

By the by, we're talking about this bathroom.

Update #1: I did some on-line research and of the four kinds of faucets (or taps) available, we most likely have the kind called "cartridge" which can leak either because a) the "o" ring needs replacing or b) the whole cartridge needs replacing. If it's (b) and we cannot find the exact same cartridge, we may have to get new taps for the bathroom. (sigh)). They are 12" on centre. Not your standard size.

As far as the drain pipes go, in order to avoid the problems of attaching old sizes to new (see first paragraph above), handy husband and I are discussing replacing the old pipes with new fittings. The basement is totally accessible and he's done the bath tub drain, so we can tackle this. We suspect there's an elbow pipe in the wall though, so we're just trying to figure out how to get the old pipe out with as little damage to the wall as possible. (Still, no chrome.)

Update #2: (12:50am) re: dripping faucet. As I was surfing the web looking for a replacement, I found very similar ones to ours on-line. For some reason, I went and actually looked at the taps...and there on the little plate between the tap and the sink was engraved "Danze LM80906" So, I've e-mailed Danze and asked for their help to identify it.

But, oh my, did I see some drop dead beautiful faucet sets at Restoration Hardware. Maybe I'll post the pics tomorrow. Can an 8" "widespread" faucet set be adapted to 12"? I can't see why not.....Zooza--do you know?

(And do you think I can talk him into a $499.00 faucet set and chrome drains? Of course, it's $499 US....)

Day 2.7 Pamper Me Pretty, Please.

I may have gone a bit overboard in the pampering department this evening. My day was extremely frustrating. A late night trip to Safeway to buy something I'd promised to get my daughter, netted, get this, a jar of Oil of Olay "day and night" moisturizer.

I have been sucked in!

After all those years of resisting all those "you can't be pretty without a product" messages, I succumbed. That photo I posted yesterday was from a few years ago--and you know what? Those lines on my forehead haven't gone anywhere. (So, I have to guess I really didn't have my face screwed up funny when it was taken.) And I was thinking about my comment that I have dry skin and don't wash my face. So, tonight I washed my face and put on the new lotion. You know what?

It felt wonderful.

But that's not all. Oh no.

Across the street from the Safeway is an all night drugstore. My daughter needed nail polish remover (favourite past-time of girls at seven: applying nail polish to the ends of their fingers, in a sort of Indian dance henna style). What do I do? Buy nail polish. I actually stood there and debated the merits of a pale brown "neutral" polish and a pinkier whitish "neutral" polish. I bought the pink. By the way, applying nail polish is NOT like learning to ride a bike. You do forget how to get it right.

But wait.
There's more.

I got into the bath with the nail basket, intending to do my nails in the tub--and what do I espy? The tweezers. I had a hand mirror. As I am so short sighted the mirror must be no more than 2 inches away in order for me to see, I'm never plucking in the bath-tub again....but what did I do? I plucked eyebrow hairs never before plucked. Yes, I thinned them out. Heck, even Brooke Shields plucked hers out years ago. There is now no eyebrow hair peaking out from under my glasses.

I can see my face--and my eyes--so much better I scurried upstairs to wash my face, put on the miracle cream and wait for the puffy bits to recede. They have somewhat. (I find myself wishing I'd bought the night time eyecream too). But there's so much skin between my brow and my eye that I'm thinking--oh, so that's why they put shadow up there. Everything looks so, well, so n*ked. You do understand that I am describing my emotional reaction more than the reality. They are not too thin....but hey, the husband did notice with only a little prompting.

So, I
--put on nail polish with colour
--plucked away the gorrilla brows
--washed and moisturized my face (and neck) with a product that cost more than I was willing to spend on a t-shirt.

all in one day.

OK, ladies, what are you going to have me doing next?

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.

Feeling Fine.

Smallcitybeth says she wants to establish some "I feel pretty" routines. I could do a bit of that. I tend to look at the Big Picture, first, and sometimes, it's overwhelming. I don't want to be overwhelmed by this, so I'm not entirely sure how to proceed.

I once made my whole body change from dumpy and blah to fit and fabulous in nine months with a self-directed weight watchers plan (someone photocopied all the materials for me and gave them to me) and lots of low-impact aerobics. I even (gasp) became a fitness instructor! So, I'm familiar with Big Change and I like to feel like I'm actually doing something and not just poking about. But, life has changed. I'm not sure I can handle "everything-all-at-once" anymore.

And we're focusing on being pretty--not a major lifestyle change, at least not at this moment.

So:

1) Take a shower or bath at least every other day. I'm not sure how often I should wash my hair. Isn't that awful? It's so long --it comes down to about the bottom of the wide band on the bra at the back. (Pssst Beth--that's where the support ought to come from). It is impractical to wash it every day. I've never had hair this long before (and I'm not sure how long it will last--I really don't like it much). Question: Can a greying 40ish something with a high forehead, thick (but shaped) eyebrows and glasses wear bangs (tyhat would be a "fringe" to you, Zooza)? A forehead like this? (Might hide the wrinkles starting--or it may look foolish or too top-heavy.)


(yep, that's me, or rather, my forehead.)

2) Wear lipstick instead of chapstick. I have become bad at this since the the company I bought it from discontinued my perfect--where--have--you--been--all--my--life shade. As good lipstick is pricey (and it's false economy to buy this cheaply) I haven't taken the time to find another "perfect" shade.

3) Spritz on my body splash when I get dressed--every morning. Maybe some day I can move up to toilet water (perfumes are too heavy for me). For now, my "Cassis Rose" body mist from the Body Shop will do just fine!

What will you do to feel pretty?