Before and After: The Baths

I don't know quite what it is, but I love 'before and after' shots.  Of rooms, hair-do's, make-up, furniture .. you name it, I seem to get a kick out of watching something change.  I'm not far enough along to have a bunch of before and after shots, but here are a couple.  Decorating is finished in two baths, but not in the other rooms.
I'll start with the guest bath.  There was little to do here because I had repainted for my step-Mom a few years ago, and while I may change this room later on, it was one that I didn't have to do a whole make-over on just now.

The way I had done it for my step-Mother.

I wish that I had photoed the light fixture which was too high above the medicine cabinet to be attractive.  So this just got a cleaning and a bit of redecorating.  Including switching out the light for a fixture that fill's in the space above the cabinet a bit better, I think.

It isn't a huge change, just a bit of "fluffing".  At this point I was glad just to have a room that didn't require a huge amount of effort.  The biggest challenge will be cleaning the aluminum door and door frame that leads to the walk-in shower.  I've gotten a little bit of the shine back, but it will take more effort.  Also installed a new shower head in place of the original one which now flopped all over the place so that one had to chase the water instead of being able to place it were it was wanted.  



The next bath got a greater change.  The front bedroom has a half-bath.  This had been my room since my brother was born and was moved into the 'child' room next to my Mother and Father's bedroom.  My step-Mom at some point decided to move from the master bedroom into what had once been 'my' room, and this is where she had been sleeping for many years and the half-bath was her personal bathroom. 
The 'before' of the half-bath.

I have to include the strangeness of the upside-down light fixture.  I keep asking myself why, if someone bought a fixture and brought it home then realized that it didn't fit in the space ... why not take it back and chose one that did?  But no.  Someone just said, "What the heck?  We'll just turn it upside down!!"  Can you see how difficult it was to change a bulb?  And there is no relation to the cabinet below.  A lose/lose situation, if you ask me.

This bath got a ceiling to tile re-do.  Painted all the woodwork a pure white as it had been an ivory tone which looked a bit dingy to me.  Painted the ceiling just to clean it, removed the old paper and put up new.  Changed out the light fixture. And, voila!  I am quite pleased with the final result!

The hall bath is considered the "main" bath.  The one most frequently used by visitors since it opens off the hallway and not off a bedroom as the others do.  I confess that I had sponge painted the woodwork for my step-Mother sometime in the 80's I think it was.  Whenever that sponge-painting madness began.  I somehow thought that it would calm down the Bollywood-disco style wallpaper which I found a tiny bit overpowering.  A tiny bit.

This bath was a challenge in many areas.  To start, I made an amazingly dumb choice of paint for the woodwork.  I wanted to cover my sponge paint mess (sorry that you can't really see that but it might be just as well.) and go back to a gloss-white.  I bought Sherwin-Williams Cashmere paint (THEY recommended it!) and it was the "Paint From Hell". Worst paint I have ever used!  The worst!  Stay away, People!!!!!!  

That horror was followed by trying to remove the wall paper which had been put on over paint, which was over the original wallpaper!  All of it had to come off, down to the plaster. If my Sister-In-Law, Sally, had not come up for a couple of days to help, and if my cousin had not loaned me "R2D2" the steamer, I'd NEVER have gotten this done.  It was a bitch!

One of the chrome legs of the sink had been removed and a stool set in it's place to hold 'stuff'.  I got lucky and found the leg in the basement and was able to clean and replace it.

The shower head (my first shower-head replacement!!!) had been removed and a hand shower attached in it's place.  Threw all that out and bought a super showerhead at Wal-Mart which has a removable hand shower in the center of it allowing you to use it three ways -- just the shower ring, shower ring and hand shower or just the hand shower.  Makes a lot more sense to me.  

Next was a bit of cracked plaster in the ceiling to repair and then paint the ceiling, install wallpaper and last of all change the light fixture.  The original fixture had a shade that was open at the ends and so coming into the bath with the light on, one just saw the glare of light bulbs.  I made sure that the new fixture had a closed side so that the person entering is not blinded by bulbs!

Finally we come to the bath which is off the master bedroom.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this bedroom was created after my Father and step-Mother were married.  I was already away from home and my brother was on his way to college, so the "child's" bedroom was no longer a necessity.  My Dad removed the wall and made the two rooms one.  On one end he added a wall of closets and shelving and on the other end he created a bathroom.  As I mentioned earlier my step-Mom had moved out of this room, and it was now her main guest room.  A few years ago ... maybe in the 90's (?) I painted the bedroom and bath for her, and put up a new light fixture in the bath.  Since we are just looking at bathrooms in this blog, I'll stick to just showing that.  As you see, it is a long, narrow rectangle of a bath.  (Apologies for the underline.  The blog seems to like it and refuses to let me remove it.  C'est la vie.)

The window and closet were part of the original master bedroom.  The tub is just a joke as it is only about 12" deep!  Someday I would LOVE to remove it and put in a Slipper tub.  Maybe  someday.  Fortunately the tub in the main bath is great, so for the moment I settled for repairing cracks in the ceiling plaster and re-painting everything.  I decided on a whim to use a Martha Steward metallic paint on the ceiling molding and on the top of the baseboard molding. I had used metallic paint before, so I knew what to expect.  I love the effect, but be ready to paint over, and over, and over if you chose a metallic. I also tried 4 different pinks for the walls before I found the one for which I was searching.  I wanted a softer, more 1930's nude pink than the pink that was on the walls.  I also did all the trim a "vintage" white ... not in love with the color, but it works ok.  Painted the vanity all white as it had pink trim before.

Next I brought a painted cabinet that I had in my current house put it over the wading-pool-tub to help break up that long, narrow feel.

So, that is pretty much "it" on my bathroom transformations.  Bits and bobs will still be added as time goes on I am sure, but I'm off to a good start and have paint, paper and lights all in place.  "Whew".  

Acquiring Another Skill Set I Never Wanted

Working on this house has taught me a lot.

 Oddly enough, it wasn't information that I wanted to need.  Truth be told, I am not a DIY (Do It Yourself) fanatic.  I'm more of a LADIEM (Let Anyone  Do It Except Me) type of gal.  I would happily flaunt my supervisory skills as my minions toiled away doing all the things I don't want to do, but that does not seem to be the way this has played out.

My newest skill set came about through no fault of my own.  Really.  I thought I had a former acting student of mine who is also an electrical engineer all lined up, but due to things taking so much longer than I had thought or hoped, by the time I contacted him, he had gotten a big contract in Myrtle Beach and was wildly busy for the next six weeks!  So.  Search for another electrician or DIY?  I decided I'd take a shot ... I have several lights and a chandelier and a ceiling fan not to mention an outdoor light to change, so I figured that I should save money where I could and try to do the smaller lights myself.  No way am I attempting the chandelier!!!  Or the fan, for that matter.

I've now installed 3 bathroom lights and it has been an experience. Not an experience that I necessarily wanted .... but, an experience. The process is not as difficult as I  had imagined, but you really do need to be able to grow a third hand.  The thing, other than only having only two hands, that has proved the most daunting is trying to understand the directions that come with the lights!  Some are much worse than others!  On the first light I did, the directions simply left out a step which was terribly important unless you wanted the light to be crooked on the wall.  You'd think that they would have mentioned this ... but no.  I figured it out, but it meant I had to take the light down and readjust the gull-wing bar and put it up again.  But now I've learned.  The second light was one I moved from a half bath where it was upside-down to the guest bath where in fit nicely ... and right side up.  It was a small fixture and terribly simple, so no directions were really needed beyond what I had Googled on line -- "How to install a light fixture."  Thank goodness for the internet!

Here is the 'before' shot in it's old home.

Here in it's new home where there was enough distance between the light box and the top of the medicine cabinet for the fixture to hang properly and show off it's new more Art Deco shades.  It's not a beauty, but it works and I saved some $$.

Taking the place of this fixture is a new light for the half bath which took me forever to find!  I had so hated the upside-down fixture and the way that it had no relation to the medicine cabinet (or anything else really), that I wanted to be sure that I found something that would give good light while looking a bit more appropriate in the space.  I found a Hinkley fixture which had been discontinued, but was still in stock and I ordered!  It came, I loved it, and while I had expected it to be terrible to install, the directions were clear and made sense, and the fixture went in wonderfully well.  

Last but not least is the light with the bad directions.  I am very happy with the light, but putting it up was more of a challenge than it needed to be.  And, this fixture is all one piece so you are juggling the entire thing while attaching your wiring.  Yeah, good balance is a necessity!  

More lights to install, and I'm sure that each one will have new and different challenges ... they always do.  At least I can now say "Let there be light!" and there IS!

Bon Bricolage!

The French say, "Bon bricolage" to wish you "Happy home improvement".  I am starting to wonder if there is such a thing.  Most certainly there is the happiness of the final result, but the on-going process leaves much to be desired.

Let's talk about replacing a floor.

My Daddy let me add what I called a "Florida" room on to the back of the house, replacing a small screened-in back porch.  While visiting my cousin Dotti in Winter Park, FL. I was quite taken with what she called "Florida" rooms.  In any of the other 49 states I think they would be called a sun-room or simply an enclosed porch.  I don't remember the year this was done, but I think it was in the early 60's.  It was a great room ... like being outside, but without mosquitoes!

The room is 14'6" by 11'6" with louvered windows on 3 sides and a fireplace which is backed on the outside by an outdoor fireplace.  Originally there were draw-drapes which came to just below the window sill and could offer privacy or defense from too much sunlight.  There were two small window seat/book shelves on either side of the fireplace which can still be seen in the photo below.  After removing the floor, I decided that the window seat/bookcases would not return.  A poorly done repair had also left the paneling on one side in a mess.  It had seemingly been replace with something the contractor had thrown in the back of his truck and bore no relation at all to the paneling in the rest of the room.  I decided to just remove the wood on either side of the fireplace and insert sheetrock which I would then paint.  At least both sides would match again.

Sadly, as the years went by the Florida room became simply a junk room.  The above photo was taken after MUCH cleaning, throwing out, and the removal of several large pieces of furniture .... I consider this the beginning of the room's return to life.  What you can't see in this photo (aside from lots of dirt!) is the freezer which sat in the corner near the kitchen door.  ... And which was never defrosted.  That means that year after year the water was running under the flooring and rotting away the wood down the right-hand side of the room.  The floor was destroyed. Below you can see my Maltese inspecting what appears to be a crack in his universe.

This called for drastic measures.

Upon pulling up the old flooring, it became obvious that the whole thing would have to be replaced.  This called for a pro.  Billy Edwards took on the job as this was far beyond my small 'skill set'.  

Here we are.  Starting fresh.

Since this room is the most often used access to the backyard for my dog and for myself, I plan to put down a sheet vinyl flooring as I've decided that it will be the best thing to handle wet dog and human feet and the tracking in of all sorts of yard debris.  My search for some sort of "fun 50's linoleum floor kinda thing" did not produce the results I had expected.  AT ALL.  If you read the blog about choosing wallpaper, you probably have an idea where this is going.  Gone are the wild designs which brightened rooms and were such fun.  There was a time in the 30's when you could even buy linoleum that replicated a carpet!

Above is a wonderful example of the great patterns that used to be offered.  

Now you can choose faux wood, faux tile, faux stone or faux bricks.  And I swear that every company offers the same patterns in the same colors!  Brown, tan, grey.  That's it.  It is almost hard to believe.  So, here I was, faced with spending my cold, hard cash on a floor that I didn't actually like.  Not a happy camper, folks.  After much research, I did find a company that still offers colors, but the price sent the floor through the roof, and to get a very basic design you had to revert to tiles rather than sheet.  Not what I wanted at all.  I have at last found a pattern (sort of a faux tile look) that will blend with the colors of the room and will be inoffensive.  Best I could do. 

I spent many hours working of the louver windows.  Not only were they caked with years of dirt and grime, most did not open and close anymore.  Some had screens and some glass.  At one time each window had a screen insert and a glass insert, but for 30 years or more, the last inserts had just been left in place.  Thanks to a WD-40 product that is designed to release rust (and it WORKS like a charm!!) I now have every louver window working. ( No more dirt dauber nests which will make some bugs very unhappy this summer.  Tough.)  I was even lucky enough to find a couple of the missing screen/glass inserts.  That was a thrill and means that the room will be warmer in the winter now.  A couple of the louvers still will not close as tightly as I would like, so those will most likely keep a glass insert year round.  I am hoping that next week will see the sheet vinyl installed and then the room will truly be back in business.  As you see below, the end panels have been replaced and half the windows had been cleaned in this shot.  

And here you see Jimmy and Rick from Triple A Carpets putting down the new sheet vinyl.  They did a great job, and I'm quite pleased with it  ... even if it isn't turquoise with pink flamingos.

 Stay tuned and you'll get to see the completed room before long.

Decorating Becomes Non-Decorative!

Before starting this particular undertaking, I had not wallpapered in several years.  The last thing I did was the bathroom at my current house, and I honestly can't remember when that was done.  Maybe around the turn of the millennium?  At any rate, the point I'm struggling to reach, is that at that time I found so many wallpapers that I wanted to use that making a final choice was terribly hard.  I went with a paper that I enjoy every single time I look at it.

As you see, it is composed of Saturday Evening Post covers from the turn of the century to about 1945.

While I understand that not everyone would love and adore this, I do.  And more importantly for this blog ... somebody MADE this paper and many more that were unique, well-done, and great fun.  I found several other papers in the book that contained this one that I wanted to use.  "If only I had a room to put this in!" became my mantra.

Those days have passed, little Decorating Buddies.  Gone.  Buh-bye.  Au revoir.  Ta, ta.

My search this time yielded an amazing number of papers that I wouldn't have used if they had been handing them out free on the street corner.  

For my design ethic, wallpaper is used to give a more ornamental presentation in a room than just plain paint.  So I have little to no interest in paper that replicates a painted wall.  Or a textured painted wall.  Or even silk on a wall.  If I want paper, I want drama!  Design!  Something I can't do with a can of paint!  Considering the cost, I have to LOVE it.

To be fair, I did find some papers that I loved.  Sadly, they were in the $200 a roll grouping and the idea of wasting a quarter inch would turn me into a driveling fool.  And here's the next bit of the horror show.  You can't actually SEE most of these in person.  Oh, the internet sites will sell you a sample.  It's about the size of your computer screen (or smaller if you used something larger than a laptop) and that makes it pretty much useless.   There are only a couple of stores in my area that even carry in-house wallpaper for sale.  That too was a big change.  Yes, there are books to look through, but I found that the styles of the papers were almost mind-numingly repetitive.  You are going to hear this very same complaint when I talk about choosing a floor for my Florida room.  Individuality seems to be a thing of the past.  All the little baa-lambs are following along nicely to death-by-bordom. 

I did find papers though.  For my dining room, I found an in-house paper and while I love the end result, this was one of the most difficult papers to work with I have ever used.  Honestly, if I'd not wallpapered before, I would probably have committed hari-kari.  But I am happy with the end result.  Someone just said, "It's very 'Southern'."  Correct.  I agree.

As you can see, I cut out extra birds to group over the kitchen door.  After all, it's just paper and you can play with it!

At the same store I found another in-house paper which worked out well for one of my baths.  It was by the same manufacturer, but worked a bit better than this paper did.  It still was a PIA and I will really try to avoid working with York papers in the future.  They had some nice designs, but just did not hang well.

Leaving behind the former paper which was perfect for a Bollywood disco, I selected a soft paper to compliment the original 1949 tile.

The bath is not completed yet, but I was pleased with the paper. Pleased also that I found the chrome sink leg that had been removed and was able to replace it!

The next paper I chose was pure luck all the way around!  There is a small half-bath off the front bedroom and it has it's original blue tile which I wanted to compliment.  Previously my Step-Mom had used a striped paper which made the room look much too tall and skinny for my taste.

I'm afraid that the upside-down light fixture over the medicine cabinet didn't help matters any.

I had thought that I would use a paper I found on line the theme of which was faux movie posters.  The theme appealed because of my acting background, and the colors worked very well with the tile.  But something just didn't quite 'click' for me.  So I kept looking.  At my cousin Faye's suggestion I tried a store in Greensboro called Smart'n Up ( I think that was the name).  Turned out that they were closing and everything in stock was 50% off.  Hot diggity dog!  I went through those papers like a poodle looking for a chicken bone.  And, in the back room where discontinued stock was kept .... I found it!  One look just told me this was THE paper.  I got all the rolls I needed for $10!  It was the best paper I used because it worked like a dream!  If only the dining room paper had been this easy to install.

The new light fixture is waiting to be added, but this room came together really well.

Only the hallway remains to be papered.  I am now removing the original paper that my Mother had chosen.  When I removed my step-Mother's choice, I discovered that it had been put over the original paper.  I wish I could have saved it, but the years, and having been over-papered had done too much damage.  

I am so sorry to see this go, but I'll keep a bit just to remember.

I've not ordered the new hall paper yet as this has been another difficult decision.  However, I think I will go with this paper found on-line.  ... Unless I get very lucky again. 

Stay Tuned!!

Feels So Good!

La dee da de dah-h-h!  I just took up the very last of the unspeakable carpet.   ... And the staples, ... and the Tackless evil zombie strips.  All gone.  Doing a small dance of celebration.

I had planned to leave the hall carpeted till I did my wallpaper job there with my idea being to use the carpet as my drop-cloth.  My brother suggested that I go ahead and get it all up so that I have a better idea of what needs to be done.  I took his suggestion.  Let's all hope he was not talking through his hat!

The hall floor looks great.  The only place I have any dark spots which need to be removed is in the living room.  Have to see what I can do about those.  But right now .... I'm making merry!

How to Remove Carpet in One Easy Lesson ... NOT.

It's not really hard, but it is far from easy on the hands, shoulders, knees,  well, pretty much the whole body.

The house has hardwood floors all through, and the ones in the living room, dining room and hallway have never been exposed.  Wall-to-wall carpet was put down the house was built in 1949 and have been down since.  At some point, and I would imagine this happened when the master bedroom was converted from two smaller bedrooms, the carpet there was removed and not replaced.  For some reason the carpet in the front bedroom, which was mine when I was still living at home was removed also.

I decided that since hardwood floors are terribly trendy now, and since it is easier to clean up doggy piddle and kitty throw-up from wood than it is from carpet, that I'd remove the extremely dirty carpet and give the hardwood a chance to shine.

I started in the dining room.  Having never done this before,
I just took a leap of faith ( or experienced a psychotic moment, your choice), and started by pulling an edge loose.  Carpet is attached all around the edge of the room to something called a 'Tackless' strip.  Named by someone with a skewed sense of humor (or absolutely no sense of reality ... your choice again) this strip of wood is filled with tiny tacks.  Beware.  They are sharp and they are waiting for you.   Think of them a little flat, wooden Zombies who want to eat your flesh if at all possible.  This is your only warning to be careful when pulling up the carpet edges.
Once I got a piece loose, I took a matt knife and cut the carpet into a manageable strip.  It's just cloth when you get right down to it, and is not really difficult to cut.  In fact, if you are going in the right direction, you can rip it evenly along a crosswise thread once you've started your cut.  Once I've cut a strip, I roll it and used some strapping tape that I had to secure the roll.  Duct tape works also, I just happened to have the other handy.

Under the carpet you'll have some sort of padding.  This is stapled to the wood where a sheet of the padding ends.  You'll be pulling up lots of staples, but this is actually the easiest part of the job.  Some of my staples had rotted and to get the bits out of the floor, I used a small tool called a "nipper".  Very handy.  If you have , as I did when removing those Tackless strips mentioned earlier, nails that are so old the heads rip off when the strip is pulled up, you can grab the body of the nail with the nipper and use that tool as a sort of plier to pull the nail up and out!

Removing the Tackless strips is a bigger job.  I think that's why I actually enjoyed the staple removal!  These strips must all be pulled up as gently as possible to avoid damaging the wood floor.  I  have a wonderful tool that looks a bit like a screw-driver with a pry head.  I happened to buy it years ago for some strange reason and had never had a use for it till now.  "Packratness" runs in my family genes, and for once this was a very good trait to have inherited.  You need a very thin pry to get the wood strip up enough to insert your larger pry-bar.  This is going to take several things: (a) the right tools, (b) sore hands from using those tools, (c) sore shoulders, (d) blood.  But you can do it!

Now your lovely hardwood floors have a chance to shine again!

Here's the dining room right after I got the carpet up.  I'm hoping to have the floors re-waxed.  Waxing was used when the house was built, and I love the look of it.  That will come soon.

If It Doesn't Move, PAINT IT!

It seems that this might be a good time to talk a bit about paint.  The good, the bad, and the truly horrible.

I started this project knowing that I would be using a lot of paint and wallpaper ... I just didn't have a clear idea of how much paint and wallpaper I would actually need .... or how much it had changed since the last time I had done either.  And change, as we all know, is not always for the better no matter how the spin doctors try to sell it.  This is terribly true in the case of the current state of wallpaper, but I will save that for a later post.  For now, let's just talk paint.

Oil? Latex? Let me say right off the bat that neither will come off clothing and both cling well to skin and hair.  Now that we have established that fact, how do they stay on walls or woodwork?  Some do well and others are complete horror shows and make you want to throw in the brush/pad/roller and just give up.  For me, paint has one job.  To cover something.  That's it.  Cover and stay on.  You'd think, wouldn't you, that all paint would do that simple thing?  Well, allow me to disabuse you of that theory right here and now!  All paints are not created equal, and there is at least one that I have found which I would suggest avoiding much as you would try to avoid standing on a train track with the 5:40 hurtling toward you.

In the course of this project, I have now used most of the major brands of paint available in the area.  Olympic, Valspar, Benjamin Moore, Bher, Glidden, Better Homes and Sherwin Williams (both the SW Cashmere and their HGTV brands).  Yep.  I've used that many.

Let's start with the Good as I shall try to maintain a positive approach to all this.  (Oh, let's get real .. THAT'S not gonna happen.)   Pittsburg paint is my favorite.  Having said that, I had no idea that during my non-painting years Pittsburg had been dropped by Pfaffs in Winston-Salem where I had counted on buying it.  Panic!  The closest place to get it was a store in Burlington which is 50 or so miles distant. With this as a given, I just could not justify the time/gas/money to drive such a distance every time I needed a new paint ... in some ways I wish I had, but hindsight is always 20/20.  So I had to decide on "next best".  I did a bit of research and found that PPG, also owns Olympic paint ... and that is sold a Lowes which is 1 mile away!  But would it be as good?

Not quite, but it is a good paint.  In fact, it has become my paint-of-choice for walls.  I also liked the HGTV brand sold at Sherwin Williams, but the Olympic One is a bit cheaper and does every bit as well.  All in all I've been quite pleased with it.  It does give one coat coverage as advertised.  I will usually go back and touch up spots after it dries because I like to use a paint pad, and now and then you'll see a spot that didn't quite get solid coverage.  I think this is probably the fault of the painter and not the paint.  So for me the winner is Olympic One followed by HGTV.

Third place would go to Bher flat which I used in my dining room.  Now the coverage was good in this paint, and it went on the wall really well and touches up well, but it did have a bit of tendency to drip ... not badly.  It is good paint and I would use it again.  But if you factor in cost-per-gallon, then for my money Olympic One is the clear winner.  Now these were latex.  Oil is a different story.

I decided to use oil based paints on my wood trim as I felt that oil had probably been used the last time the trim was painted which was probably in the early 70's.  At any rate, I felt it would be more durable on the mantle and around windows etc.  So ... I used oil on all my woodwork.  Ready?  My candidate for Worst Paint In The World?  Sherwin Williams Cashmere !!!!!!!!!!!!  I HATE this paint.  It will not stay on the wall.  It drips, runs and is generally a big ole hot mess!  And it costs about $60 a gallon!  LOSER!

I also used white oil based paint from Bher, Olympic One and Benjamin Moore ... I'd give B.M. the top place, but honestly they were all about the same.  B.M. had a better coverage, I think, so it gets top place.

Those are my takes on paint for what they are worth.  The good news?  Expensive is not always better.

What to do? What to do?

For many months of this this project I found myself relegated to either collecting and organizing items which my step-brother and his wife would need to make final dispersal choices about, or looking for small projects that I could do without disturbing the "off site storage".

One thing that I had to do a.s.a.p. for my own sanity was to paint over the ceiling in the den.  It was yellow.  A rather bright yellow.  Not something that appealed to me. As soon as enough furniture was removed I had to start.  Off I went to Sherwin Williams to choose a white that I thought would compliment the wood paneling of the room.  I chose a shade called "Snowbound" and bought the HGTV brand of paint.  Why, I hear you ask, did I not just go buy ceiling paint?   The truth is, I didn't think of it.  Also, I wanted shading to the white that I chose so I used a regular flat paint.

Perhaps this was fortuitous because not only did this paint do a great job of covering on a textured plaster ceiling, it was also a good paint with which to work.
Here you see the room as I began to clear it out.  For some reason the ceiling didn't show quite as yellow in color as it was to the eye.
NOW you can see it.  I'm sure the original thought was that the yellow would give the impression of sunshine.  For my eye, it just added to the darkness of the wood.  Originally, this den was a breezeway between the garage and the house.  As a child I loved it because the floor was smooth cement and I used it as my own private skating rink!  I can still remember rollerskating in an arabesque position while singing "Bippity-Boppoty-Boo" from Disney's "Cinderella".

Here is the new light fixture I found at Lowes to replace the original fixture from around 1960.

The First Step Isn't Always The Hardest.

Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I have a tendency to approach a new project with the willingness to suspend reason and believe that all will go well.  I also forget that I am (a) no longer a lithe and limber 25 year old, (b) paint and wallpaper were put on this earth to torment DIY humans, and (c) doing one project spawns the birth of a minimum of 20 other projects.

My step-mother had lived in this house for the last 40-some years and made an abrupt decision to move to a retirement apartment.  No clearing out had been done, so early projects were difficult or delayed while the house was used as an off-site storage facility.  I began by doing some small changes outside.  First painting the trim on the shutters and the doors, and next by changing the outside lighting.

The side door is used most often because of it's relation to the drive, and the light there drove me mad!
For reasons I don't understand, the light was actually put on upside down.  Not only did it look strange and give no useful light on the entry, it was a horror show to change the bulb as one had to get a ladder, and open the fixture from the top and then reach down inside to switch bulbs.

I found a lantern-style light at Lowes  which I loved.  Easy access to change the bulb, a pine-cone motif which I found appropriate for North Carolina and, ta-daaah, it actually lights the house number and the door!  Win-win.  I put the same fixture at the front door and a slightly smaller version at the side entrance to the guest room.

You can go home again, but no one said it was EASY!

Thomas Wolfe, a North Carolinian, as I am, wrote a beautiful book called, "You Can't Go Home Again".  While that may be true in the sense of returning to a time of childhood which is held, now, only in a time capsule of memory, you actually can still return to your home, ... and with a generous permission from my brother after my step-mother's decision to move to a retirement home, I am moving back into the house in which I grew up.  

This photo was taken on a foggy morning several months after the process of re-claiming my one-time home had begun. In this photo, I had already changed the outdoor lights and painted the trim band on the shutters and doors.  The large trees in the front yard got a banding of pavers to give them a more 'finished' look.  I am doing the work myself whenever possible, and since my friends and family have heard months of agonizing about my DYI trials and tribulations, I decided to do a blog and record some of my "adventures".

A much needed new roof was put on before I knew that I would move back into the house.
Here's the old roof with the small eco-system that was developing there.


 Had I known that I would get to move back into the house when making the selection of shingles, I would have chosen differently.  But, the roof is there and is fine.   The shingles, which proved to be a slightly different color in reality from the way the samples looked, led me to decide that I would paint the trim on the shutters and highlight the doors to give the house a stronger relationship to the roof color.

I used a Sherwin-Williams shade called "Mink" to add to the already existing dark green of the shutters.  Many, many years ago, my Father decided to put siding on the house.  A decision I understand, but regret.  However, for the time being (and possibly forever!) the siding will remain as is.

Other changes occurred over the years.  The driveway still ends at what was in the beginning a garage.  Years ago, this was turned into a bedroom for my Dad when my Grandmother, Gagee, came to live with the family and help with my brother and myself after the death of my Mother.  So the garage became a bedroom, and the screened porch (breeze-way as we called it in the 50's) became a den.  In the 60's, after a visit to my cousin Dottie's house in Florida, I begged my Dad to turn the small back porch off the kitchen into a "Florida Room".  I had been enchanted with this idea upon seeing these rooms which were all louvered windows and allowed the outside in but kept mosquitos out!  Daddy was generous and agreed to let me create it.  When my father re-married, he decided to turn the master bedroom and the youngest child bedroom, which were next to each other, into a master suite with a bath.  Those are the only changes made to the original structure of the house which was built in 1949.