Some Decorating

With the assistance of some doorbuster coupons from the fabric store, we got a bunch of material for curtains. I got out the ole Singer, and hemmed up the fabric for some curtains. First up was Brent's studio. It's so bright in there he can hardly use his computer during the morning or afternoon. He picked out a heavy navy blue pattern. Here's what his sliding doors look like now:



And here's a detail of the fabric pattern. It's darker than shown, but has a shiny pattern, so it gives you an idea of what that pattern looks like.



Next up, I started on our bedroom. The door came first, as it's much shorter than the window. Unfortunately, there was a mistake in measuring which led me to change my design and add a contrasting panel. Once I did that, I realized it needed a tie, so I went and got a tie that matched the trim I had purchased for the window. Here's my door curtain masterpiece:



I then started work on a roman-style shade for the window. It does seem like it's going to raise and lower as expected once we get it installed. But first, brent's staining the window it goes in:



I'm now working on some panels to go in front of the shade for more layers and light blockage as necessary. You can see how they'll go together here as I've laid them out from the mantle. The striped shade will be inside the window box, and the green will be outside of the trim and hang to the floor. I've still got to make the other green panel, though it's already cut out.

It's good to make some progress

After acquiring a heat gun a couple weeks ago, Brent and I have been slowly but surely scraping paint off the woodwork in the upstairs living room. We've got most of the panels under the windows all clear now. They look like this now:



We're still working on the baseboards. The existing ones are painted with graining patterns and we still need to dig up more from the basement to put back in the rest of the way around the room. I like me some baseboards.

After estimating the cost of having all the wood-graining completed I decided to put an interim solution in place. I'm staining and shellacking all the woodwork to approximately the same color range as our desired graining will be. I know we'll cover this later when we hire someone to add the oak graining, but for now, it's going to give us a much more finished-looking house. I'm using a dark walnut stain and amber-colored shellac. I've got one door done so far, though it needs some more shellac. It's very annoying to have to use a tall stepladder to do this job though. It's one time when I wish our ceilings were lower. Anyway, here are some pictures:





Also, Brent investigated some electrical issues today. Our ceiling fan and light quit working in the living room. He couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring, and I researched the switch. Apparently it's run by some fancy circuit board and switch, and seems likely that something on that circuitry is hosed. We're going to look into getting a new fan and light. Neither of us really like this one that much anyway.

He did, however, successfully fix both the light in the back hallway and in the laundry room. Yay! We have an awful lot of lights in the hall area now, but I'm pleased as punch since I've really needed that laundry room light.

Big day, courtesy of the brain

I had today off today and we got to go shopping at Home Depot with a $500 gift card from my company. Yay!

We knew from the start that a new garbage disposal topped the list for today. Not exciting, but definitely needed. After picking up a $99 3/4HP Badger, we headed back to the light fixture area. Finally, we found one that should help brighten up the kitchen! From there we moved on to the appliances to look at wine refrigerators. There was one for $199 that included a nifty corkscrew. We pondered over why it was so cheap for a while, then decided to get it.

After we checked out I looked at our receipt. The chandelier was $20 cheaper than listed and the wine fridge was $30 less than the marked price. Woo hoo!

Picture fun:

The new garbage disposal after being installed by Brent:



As he started pulling things from under the sink, he noticed they were wet. We found a surprise leak as the drain from one of the sinks had completely detached. Here you can see it after Brent reattached it. No leaks now!



All the items under the sink are sitting out to dry off now before we put things back in.



Here's what the kitchen light looked like before. It was ugly, beat up, and really really dark for the room. I hated it.



And here's the new light as assembled by Carrie and hung by Brent. It feels much higher than the old one, though it's really about the same height. I like it a lot. One of the included light bulbs didn't work though, so we have to go pick up a replacement.



And though it doesn't have much to do with the house itself, it's still fun to show off. Here's our 45 bottle wine fridge!



And here are the contents of said fridge. Hmm...not much in there. I think we need more!