The year of the bathroom

Earlier this year (seemed like it went on forever) we remodeled two full bathrooms in our condo in Columbus.  Then this summer we decided the wall in our only bathroom at our cottage needed more repair and fixtures than we knew (i.e. my husband) how to repair and repaint.  So we hired this one done, too.  We bought this house in 1988 when we were 49 and 50 and a lot livelier, and for 12 straight week-ends we drove here to paint and repair things, redoing the entire house, including carpet, curtains, window blinds, and since it was all done in the same time period, everything was coordinated around the colors, blue, pink and cream. The previous owner, a widow, had done a few things after her husband died, like put in whole house air conditioning and triple track storm windows. We added a deck, eventually replaced the roof, the furnace and the AC.   In the last few years, the sink, cabinet, floor and toilet in the bathroom have been replaced, and finally, the damage from showers just had to be fixed.  The reason you see a window in the shower/tub area is that when this house was built (1944) very few homes had showers, so it was never a very good fit. The shower was added probably in the 80s, and we’d had some of it repaired a few years ago. So here’s the “new” color—sort of the shade of the sky this morning under the sun as it rose over Lake Erie and I was walking on the dock—it’s deeper and richer than what shows in the photo. It will get a second coat today—after rescheduling this 3 times due to a variety of reasons, we got the most humid week of the summer. Owning a home is never an “investment,” it’s always expensive.  But owning a second/vacation home has no  tax advantages at all, unless you rent it out, in which case you have even more repairs.

The guest room closet re-do

We’re remodeling the two upstairs bathrooms which has meant rearranging everything in the closets.  The guest room closet will now just hold out of season coats, the Christmas boxes, and some storage.  For the storage, I’ve purchased matching green boxes, the same color as the the guest bath walls.  Now, I’m repacking things into them.

Repacking the boxes of cards and letters saved over 50 years—now that’s a job.  I’ve done this before, and sent back to the writer, many letters.  But there are many notes and letters inside these cards.  For some reason I was writing little notes to my husband back in the 70s. I don't know the dates or situations (some sounded serious). I did find this written on the back of an envelope.

A young mother was trying to comfort her daughter when her pet kitten died, saying, "Remember, dear, Fluffy is up in heaven now with God." "But Mommy," the girl sobbed, "What in the world would God want with a dead cat?"

Remodeling the upstairs bathrooms

One thing we've learned while remodeling two bathrooms (other than it costs much more to remodel than to build new) is that the building trades are doing just fine--they are very busy here in Columbus. If they were sloppy or careless, the recession did them in (as it should--survival of the fittest). However, to avoid what Obama is doing to small businesses, they are running on very small crews and expecting a lot from their employees. I'm hoping deadlines can be met. We're expecting company in June, and I don't want to send them to the neighbors.

My husband was not fond of the wallpaper in the guest bath, but I sort of enjoyed it.  High end decorators with big price tags, two men, lived in here about 23 years ago—I think this reflects their taste.   The cabinets and doors are black.  The guest bedroom had black carpet, yellow walls (lightened by the next owner from a dark green), and black and forest green checkered fabric on the walls and ceiling, plus pink roses drapery fabric with forest green completely covering the window. My husband said it looked like a funeral home.

10 Tips For Downsizers With Too Much Stuff from Forbes Magazine

I did a little downsizing this week. Very little. It's tough to part with stuff! In putting away the laundry, I counted my husband's pj's--12--and eliminated 3. Found some lacy lingerie I'd never worn that went into the giveaway box, and some of my own pajamas that had moved from Champaign to Columbus in 1967--still looked good, but a bit smallish, so that went into the trash. Then I found a box with my mother's tablecloths. Wrong size, wrong colors, wrong era--I'll never use them--but they went back in the box. Too many memories. The entire New Testament on cassette tape went to the library sale along with dups from my magazine collection. I seem to have lost my little Walkman cassette player.

This Forbes article is mainly about selling; that's a hassle too, isn't it? In fact, it's against our condo rules to have a garage or yard sale, and I think for a tag sale you have to go off the grounds. Even carting off donations isn't easy--each place has its own rules and own drop off sites. I usually just take it to the church bins (if clothing) and let the sorters deal with it.

10 Tips For Downsizers With Too Much Stuff - Ashlea Ebeling - The Best Revenge - Forbes

But I did make headway on my magazine (first issue) collection, which if stacked would go floor to ceiling. We painted the upstairs hall and shelves earlier in the spring, and they all had to be moved. About 2/3 went into a wooden box, formerly the children's toy box from the late 1960s, then a box for old architectural drawings, then a box for old VHS tapes, and now the home of magazines tied up with ribbons by subject matter--life style, travel, minorities, animals, technology, wealth acquisition, women, families, children, cooking, and so forth.

This is what the hall shelving used to look like with my magazines leaning and lurching.

I had to wait about 2-3 weeks for the paint to really set before I could move anything back, but the new trim color really brightened the hall.

These colorful boxes only hold some of the magazines, most of which are now in the family room in the former toy/drawing/vhs box/coffee table. The color doesn't look very good because I took it with my cell phone which doesn't have a flash.

Edward Bernays and Wallpaper

Glenn Beck did a program tonight on the original spin doctor, Edward Bernays, a double nephew of Sigmund Freud. He's the guy who decided the word propaganda needed to be changed to "public relations." He's the guy who invented a healthy breakfast for a company that wanted to sell more bacon and got us eating bacon for breakfast (which is odd since he was a Jew). He helped President Woodrow Wilson gin up the public sentiment for WWI (after being against war in his campaign).

So I think his followers must be working for HGTV, one of my favorite cable channels. Virtually every home buyer or apartment hunter on their "reality" shows 1) hates wall paper, 2) hates formica counter tops, 3) hates wall to wall carpeting, and 4) wants to have hard wood floors and granite counters. And the comments are suspiciously consistent in every show. If there are nice hard wood floors they rave; if there is carpet, they talk about the cost of replacement with wood. If there is wallpaper in the kitchen or bath, it's "Oh yuk, this is so dated."

Today I stopped at Lowes which used to have a fabulous wall paper department with a huge selection of books, and at least some in stock, particularly borders. No longer. The section is now tiny--I had to ask how to find it--maybe 20 books. I happen to like wallpaper, and carpeting. I think tile and hardwood floors are cold and difficult to keep clean with a pet (carpets get dirty too, but you just don't see the dust bunnies).

Think of all the self-employed guys who used to lay carpet or clean carpets or hang wallpaper, now out of business.

The American public didn't decide on their own that they preferred wood floors to carpeting--it came about through decorating and women's magazines, and TV shows like we see on HGTV. Someone has already picked out the popular colors for 2015--we just don't know it yet. Dark woods are coming back for kitchen cabinets after about 20 years of popularity of white and blonde. Afterall, how else would they convince people to remodel and replace perfectly good cabinetry?

Happy New Year!

Originally, I had 13 New Year's Resolutions finished for Thursday Thirteen, which upon rereading them, sounded about as interesting as "I promise to clip my toe nails," and "I will brush the cat twice a year." So I deleted the entire post (after printing it and putting it in my desk drawer). But I will share #5, as it was just about the most interesting, plus I told the group at Bill and Joyce's party last night, so they'll probably all ask us about it.

5. Buy a floor lamp for the living room.

Back story: About 25 years ago, my sweet, non-critical mother said on one of her visits, "Don't you think it's a little dim in here?" For 48 years I've lived in poorly lit spaces as some sort of concession to living with an architect, and we have different tastes in decor. The result of this is, if we don't both fall in love with something, we don't buy it. Look through any decorating or architectural magazine and you might see table lamps, but rarely floor lamps. If you want to know why, try googling the term "floor lamps" and then click on "images." Ugly your name is floor lamp. I want one or two like the 1930s style my parents had--a center bulb in an open globe with three naked side light blubs, all gently enfolded in a nice silky shade--preferably with cellophane to protect from dust.

Floor lamps spread and diffuse light--they don't throw and bounce it. Designers love track lights, floods, and buried can lights, all of which I hate, hate, hate. We also are cheap--keep what comes with the house, which is why we had funny glass baubles ca. 1940 over the 1960's modern dining room table on Abington, and why we have its first cousin from Woolworth in our hall here at the condo. Jim Tuthill, the carpet cleaner, commented on the hall fixture when he was here on Tuesday. He had something similar in his house rescued from an old theater in downtown Columbus when he worked there as a janitor. The previous owner took her fixture with her, and I think this one was in the basement.

Anyway, I'm getting too old to sit in the dark and squint to read. The older you get, the better light you need, even if it shows your wrinkles. Which may be why my Mom waited until her 60s to say anything. With my new glasses and better lighting, I may be able to keep resolution #2 which is to read one chapter a day in my 10 volume Westminster Pulpit, a collection of the sermons from 1906-1916 of G. Cambell Morgan. I got a set for Christmas.

Ready for Christmas

My son-in-law and his father decorated the house and yard, and my daughter got out the creche and the Christmas dishes--and even managed to slip out for a little "black Friday" shopping. Then we enjoyed an evening of football and left overs. Lenox is retiring this pattern of the crèche, China Jewels, so I asked if I could buy a small item (the hen and rooster are about $30--within my price range), but she said if it wasn't in the original story, she wasn't collecting it.






The silver tea/coffee set in her cabinet was our wedding gift (1960), but it spent a lot of time in a box. Looks much nicer at her house.

Friday Family Photo

Here it is. The new bed, with the new bedspread, and the new wall color. Not quite finished yet. The bathrooms still have some work now that the carpenters are finished (try to get that done before you paint). I'm hoping this will be the last bed. We've had a problem with that.

After: new color is light gold with some green undertones, flipping the wall and trim colors from the guest room, looks good with the wood tones. Coverlet is cream, gold, green and blue. Bed is from Amish Vault in Bucyrus, OH.
Before: with dark blue faux glaze that was awful to try to cover. Every room in the house was either faux glazed or wallpapered, but this one seemed to have an impenetrable glaze over the glaze--and was actually lighter than most of the other rooms, so we did it last.
Still a bit of work to do
Have you seen that ad on TV where the guy starts flipping the wall switch asking his wife in the next room what it is for? She has no idea. Meanwhile, down the street a garage door is going up and down on a car hood, "Life comes at you fast," is the voice over as it crashes onto a bewildered woman inside the car. We'd forgotten that switch that shows above the dresser top because it was faux painted too. No idea what it goes to, but if a garage door starts moving. . .

Thursday Thirteen--We're painting the master bedroom

Banner by EmilyThat's a "royal we." I don't paint. I just wring my hands, give advice and worry. But this time, my husband isn't painting either, although until we moved here, he always did for 40 years. Two years ago I decided I could at least strip wallpaper to save money, and before the painters came to do my office, I nearly killed myself and had a sore back for months. Don't do that. Here's some tips learned and relearned along the way.

1. We decided to flip the colors from the guest room painted two years ago. This idea worked really well with the dining room and living room.
2. We discovered we didn't have a drop of the wall color left--not even a stir stick.
3. This painter uses a different brand, and even with two of us eyeballing those little paint strips and both being artists, do you think we could find an exact match? My advice is, always keep a little paint even if you have to buy an extra quart you don't use.
4. It takes two people (one of them preferably another man--your son-in-law) to move a queen size mattress and box springs into the hall.
5. No matter where you decide to move things, something will be in the way. With the mattresses being in the hall, all the paintings and art work had to be moved, and most space was already taken with the paintings from the room to be painted.
6. Faux glaze has a texture and requires sanding and a special primer to cover. That increases your cost and the dust factor, so cover everything in the closets.
7. If your dressers were on hard wood floors in the last house, you've probably forgotten that there are levelers on the legs, and they will snag the carpet in the new place.
8. Mirrors on dressers are much heavier than you remember (and you are much older) when you try to remove them.
9. Always have the carpenter come before the painters. Somehow I missed that by having my husband make all the arrangements for putting a soffit in the bathroom. That is going to be oodles of touch up, plus if I remember this guy, he doesn't show up when scheduled.
10. If possible, don't schedule a meeting at your house while you're painting. We messed up on that, too. I just may have to close some doors, since we've moved a lot of stuff to where ever we have space. I think Thursdays are bad too, because if they don't finish, and have a Monday conflict, you're stuck until the following Tuesday.
11. Cover the cable connection/outlet with tape. We found it had been painted over in the guest room when we moved our TV this week.
12. When we removed one of our paintings, we found the intercom system. We'd forgotten there was one. Nothing works in an intercom that is 30 years old. Don't even install one. Just shout or use your cell phone.
13. Try to agree before all the tools have been put away what exactly is being removed from the walls. "Why didn't you take down the lamps?" "What? You want the lamps (with about 10 screws each) removed?"

So I'm down here in my office blogging like it's just another day, trying not to think of another 13 things I can add next Thursday.

But who will ever see it?

I asked when I discovered my husband had ordered a mirror for his bathroom from the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio in Oak Park, IL. "I will. Every morning. And I'll love it," he replied matter of factly.



Lots of popcorn packing

The cat had to inspect everything

3680

Here we go again!

We're closing in on the last room of the home we moved into five years ago. The gay decorators who lived here in the 90s were fabulous and successful, I'm sure, but the brown living room, orange dining room, red family room, and dark hunter green and black guest room (all with a faux glaze with ceilings to match the walls) were a bit over the top for us, especially with enough yards of heavy drapes at the windows to canopy Scioto Downs. Now we're about to tackle the master bedroom which is dark blue with a lighter comb glaze, or maybe it is gray with a dark blue glaze.

This is the new bedspread--sort of a blue and creamy ivory and pale green
It's never easy, is it? There are light fixtures that should be replaced, holes in the walls that will need to be patched from the removed drapery rods, a medicine cabinet that must have cost all of $10 when new, and bathroom marble tile that won't exactly work with the paint I've picked out. I'm guessing the patching and light fixtures and new mirror will run us $1,000, and that's before we even buy the primer. To make matters more complicated, the comb faux glaze has a texture that may not cover properly.

When the painter (recommended by a friend) came by to give us an estimate, he brought his tiny, preemy baby (I weighed more than he does when I was born). Originally, he and his wife were in this business together, but now she has a "regular" job and the baby was a surprise. Then the mother-in-law from out of state to help out until July, but she got sick and was hospitalized and is now in a local nursing home.

Goodness. I guess funny wall colors isn't much of a problem to have, is it?