Irony, HGTV and the Arch

Aaron's recap of work done today:
1) the hallway molding
2) archway
3) bedrooms sanded

Today I was at a friend's house watching HGTV. This room they were about to makeover had sliding mirrored closet doors. My friend says, "What a decorating faux-pas." The irony here is just four days ago I thought it would be the coolest thing to have these doors. Needless to say, the decorators on the show did not like the same doors I just dropped a couple hundred dollars on. But in my room they solved some serious space issues. Every square inch is precious in a master bedroom that is a mere 12 ft by 11.5 ft. My closet doors take no extra space to open, and the mirrors make my room look bigger. So they work for me.

Now, about the arch. First, let me explain something about my house. There is this wall that goes through the breakfast area into the kitchen and down the hallway. There is no place your eye, or the paint color, stops. I always thought there needed to be some sort of break. I had some ideas, but nothing ever seemed right. When I stopped by the house Saturday I asked David if he thought an arch or something would look good there. His response was that he had built arches before. That was the end of the conversation. Today I called the house and Aaron tells me that David is building the arch and it looks great. I got home tonight and guess what- it does look great!!

It is such a great feeling to have a vision and in a short amount of time it is a reality. The arch is exactly what needed to go there.

Tommorow the drywall guys should be done. When I look back over the work that happened in one week I am blown away. I am really getting excited about my house.


Piles of dust have invaded.



A completly sanded wall - ready for primer
My new arch, isn't it lovely?
view from the kitchen
view from the hall

Pressure Cooker

Tonight I feel like a pressure cooker. If you keep it going the right amount of time then you have wonderful food. Keep it cooking to long and the lid blows off. I think I need sleep or my lid is going to blow off.

I made a bad descion today. Aaron and David had a "molding meeting" this morning. I thought it was a good idea to salvage the crown molding for three reasons: 1) we worked hard on taking them off without ruining them, 2) they are original to the house and I thought that meant something, and 3) I thought we would save money. Well, David had a pretty tough time getting them back up. He does AMAZING work and I don't want him to hate working at our house.

David is a friend of ours and I am so grateful that we have access to his talent at home renovations. I can't wait to see everything when it is finished.

My closet doors are on. They make the room look so much bigger. And all the moldings are on in the bedrooms.

Here are some pics:

My new sliding mirrored doors



They had to build out the window frames because the wall is 3/8" thicker now

New baseboards

and old crown moldingIn other news, I'm trying to pick out paint for my new walls. I went to Home Depot today and there are tons of different whites. I want a paint that says "neutral, but flattering and comfortable." My trim is Behr ultra pure white. Any suggestions?

New to-do list

I have to stay focused. Things that need to be done before we move furniture back in those rooms:
1) paint ceilings, trim and walls
2)clean carpet
3)design closet space


I am so excited, I think I will get mirrored sliding doors on my closet. I thought they would be super expensive because they had to be custom made, but our brillant drywall guy is going to make the opening fit a prefabricated one.

"I don't know why you say good-bye, I say hello"

Tonight we say good-bye to a few things: 1971 botched paneling, my purple bedroom and Rosie's orange room. We also said good-bye to all our moldings and doors, although they will reappear in a few days. And oh yes, I can say good-bye to my closet being in the hallway!

Tommorow we can say hello to David our drywall guy. And pretty soon we can say hello to walls, yea for walls.

I am getting a good idea of what this place used to look like. I found a bit of shag green carpet under a molding in our room. In the hall there was some green and yellow fake rock looking vinyl. Add the paneling and you've got yourself a pretty dark house. It was probably cool back in the day and it will probably be cool again. I can just image in 50 years someone tearing down our expensive drywall and saying "Why would anyone want to cover this up?"

Here are some photos. The before pics are stuck in our phone, but really, just imagine white moldings everywhere there is brown.


Rosie's orange room


purple room

This one is hard to see, but it's green shag carpet

. . .and the green and yellow vinyl.

no doors and no moldings.

Here we go!!

This week we are going to start making our house not only livable, but also lovable. We have a list of projects to complete this summer that range from major to minor. I hope you enjoy this online journal of our work in progress.
Here are some immediate goals:
1) drywall in hall, master bedroom, and Rosie's room.
2) change closets, make ours bigger and take one out of the hallway
3)new floors in living room, eating area, hall and playroom
4) redecorate Rachel's room
5) new bed

This is a broad list. I have to start with the big picture and then add details.