The Complaint Department

Nagging Project Tackled

 

I've wanted to give this large, two-piece hutch a facelift for a while.  Tony's beautiful, mostly-white china with a fruit/vegetable motif, left to him by his mom, seemed to just disappear inside the hutch, with no contrast to really allow it all to stand out.

Too, the muted colors of the walls and furniture in nearby spaces needed something more thrown into the mix.  Something unexpected and dramatic.  A surprise!

 I chose this orangey-red, semi-gloss paint, called Aztec Red.

The color pulls out some orange tones from different corners of the viewable area, like a plant with some orange colors in the leaves and the design on a little, black-lacquered chest of drawers in the dining room.  Same with the decoration of the dishes.

Overall, I think I like it.

New Furniture

Even while I was settling in to the new routine of zookeeper during the late summer, I managed to make several trips to Botanica Home in Columbia, Md. to choose pieces of new furniture and undertake the time-consuming, angst-ridden selection of fabrics.

I should mention that I had a great shopping experience at Botanica Home, with Anne and Mark helping me at every turn.  When I wasn't happy with the pattern on one of the sofa cushions that wasn't matched up very well, the cushion cover was reordered, with corrections, at no cost to me, and I was able to keep the original cover, as well.  All with nary a niggle.  Superior service, in my book.

And the shop, itself, is something to behold.  Even if you're not in the market for furniture, you'll find it difficult to leave empty-handed, such are the temptations!

So, back to the furniture . . .

I wrote here about my desire to change-up the scratchy, berry-colored, heavily-upholstered, huge furniture in one or two of the living spaces.

We (really, just Tony) said goodbye to the old stuff and donated it to the local church thrift store.  And we (really, just me) anxiously awaited delivery of the new stuff.  So, here's what I settled on.

I love these brown velvet, club-style, swivel chairs.  So comfy.  And smaller.  And more modern, with clean lines.

I replaced the loveseat with these.  The color is a dark gold (like Gulden's Mustard), with a delicate, light gold, geometric pattern and small, brick-colored dots.  Very understated.  The exposed wood is burnished with an antique gold finish.  Kind of up in the air about the low arms--necessitates crossing arms across chest, folding hands demurely in lap, or letting arms hang down next to sides like ape.

And the berry-colored behemoth was replaced with a smaller, more formal and luxurious sofa.  (Pay no attention to the clashing, very scanty Christmas decorations.  Probably should have gone with my desire not to decorate at all, but Mom enjoyed the little tree while she was here for three days.)

It's hard to capture the details of the fabric patterns and colors--chocolate brown, gold, ivory, oxblood, brick, ecru and even a tiny bit of sage green--all very textured and rich-looking.  Click on the picture to enlarge for a closer look.

Very fond, too, of the visual interest the exterior wood sofa frame provides, especially along the back.

Honestly didn't see myself choosing a floral-patterned fabric, but the colors are pleasantly muted and I like the less-formal floral design--more like wildflowers and vines, with some fantastic, leaf/flower hybrids of some sort.

(Wow.  The flash really alters the true colors seen in natural light.  Here the sofa looks almost white.  I can assure you that it isn't.)

Overall, Tony declared the pieces more formal than he expected (and probably desired, but he's too wise to say as much), while I view them as an eclectic assortment of stuff which works for me.  I think he just needs to get on board with it, already.  Just sayin'.

Early in the summer, I purchased two small chests.  I like them both a lot, and I think they informed, to some degree, the furniture styles and fabrics I ended up choosing.  

Here's one . . .

And the other.

Neither is what you'd call fine furniture, but I think they're interesting to look at and functional, providing some storage and organizational possibilities.

So, there it is.

And, as always happens with these redecorating/updating projects, it suddenly occurs to me how a couple of area rugs would enhance things . . .

Okay. I'm just gonna get on here and write.

(Wringing hands)

Wow.  Where did the last seven-or-so months go?

I last checked in back in July, I think, as a major, home makeover was underway.  And which came to an abrupt halt one day when the AC failed.  A couple weeks later, with the AC restored, my momentum was gone.

But, ya know, nature abhors a vacuum and the void was filled in late July when a neighbor, only very slightly know to us, died unexpectedly following a brief hospitalization (62-year-old woman from late-stage cancer).

She left behind one grown, loser son who lives out of state, three dogs, 17 live cats and a dead one.  And all this.

And on and on.

Of course, I didn't know about all this when I offered to feed the cats until something could be done.  Actually, I didn't even know there were cats until Tony came home one day to relate the woman's health troubles to me.

After a couple of weeks visiting the house, with its flea infestation and awful stench, we moved the cats to our garage--easier said than done--where they were caged individually, but were clean, fed and treated for any obvious conditions.  Not ideal, I know.

The situation was improved somewhat when Tony built a spacious-by-comparison pen around the cat cages, so they could have a bit of freedom to walk around a little.

When the weather was fine in the fall, we opened the garage door so the cats could enjoy the fresh air fom the outdoors.  Tony also put in some heat lamps for warmth this winter which are working well.

I contacted lots of animal welfare organizations and wrote an article for a local online tabloid.  Two cats were adopted through Friends of Felines, a group that has also made occasional donations of food and cat litter.  A local pet store, Pepper's Pet Pantry, donated some food and towels.  Some have donated cash--especially my sister-in-law, Julie, who learned about the situation when Tony and I were in PA at Thanksgiving.  She's a godsend in so many, many ways.

I learned that older cats are very hard to find homes for; that down here in Calvert County, there are no places for these cats to go; that you never know what goes on behind closed doors; that one's supposed loved ones can be real assholes; and that I hope nobody will want to takes pictures of my mess after I'm dead.  I'm gonna be working on that last one.

We also have the two dogs.

Sigh.

And then it was fall.

Powder Room

 A few weeks ago, my home improvement/decluttering/painting project moved upstairs, to the guest room.  After a day or two, we lost the use of the air conditioning, and the project came to a standstill for a few days.  During that break, I started to consider what could be done with the first floor powder room.

It's a small, small room, not much larger than a closet, with just a toilet on one end and a vanity, sink, mirror and light fixture on the other, and measuring just 3' x 8.25'.

As is my custom, I neglected to take a before picture.  I did manage, however, to locate the items which were removed--except for the old sink hardware--and immortalize them with my camera in their current locations.

Here's the earliest picture I took--the mirror has been removed, the wall patched, the new sink hardware installed, the new vanity knobs put on, but the walls are still off white.

I may have alluded, in a past post, to a common problem area in all bathrooms in our house--the black, faux marble sinks.  Who has black sinks?

For a while, I wanted nothing more than to tear them all out and replace them with something else--anything else.  But, in the end, I decided to keep them and to do what I could to make them work, somehow.

The first thing Tony did for me was to replace the universal, hot-and-cold water hardware.  You know it--the one with the large, clear, round knob that you twist left and right, forward and back, until you've hit the right temperature and stream force.

We found a simple, clean-lined and inexpensive hardware set at Lowes, with separate hot and cold handles, that included replacement parts for the stopper area in the sink which was getting a little rusty and dull.

Very happy with that, as well as the four new, silver knobs for the vanity to replace the gold ones that were out of place among all the other silver-colored items, like the toilet paper holder, the hand towel ring, the towel rack over the toilet, the light fixture, etc.

I like the new knobs, with their unadorned, machine-age, Art Deco feel.

The original bathroom mirror--basically a very large sheet of glass that was glued to the area above the sink and stretched from wall to wall and from the top of the sink to the lighting fixture above--was removed to the garage.

I have nothing against these kinds of mirrors, I guess.  They're very plain and modern-looking, but as they age, little bits of mirror start flaking away around the edges of the glass, and they start to look worn and raggedy.  Also, never glue a mirror to a wall if there's even the slightest chance that you'll want a different mirror someday.  What a nightmare it was to take down!

Can you find the old mirror in the above photo?  It's leaning up against the glass table and reflecting some plastic storage containers.

And isn't this a sad picture?  It's the garage, where all the furniture banished from the living areas is piling up.  Once it's in the garage, it becomes Tony's problem, and he's having a hard time parting with it, I think.

And, hey!  Look!  It's all white!  Ugh, and that ghastly picture and those animal print pillows.  Oh, dear.  And that huge, white, lighted and mirrored monstrosity?  It used to go behind our bed.  I hate that piece of furniture with a passion.

Well, I could go on and on, but let's move forward, shall we?

Behind that old, rickety, dust-collecting entrance hall light is the old light fixture from the powder room.  Those six bulbs put out an awful lot of light in such a small space.  To make matters worse, the front of the fixture was mirrored, so double the fun.

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

Can you believe we have an extra set of kitchen cabinets and countertops in the garage?  I don't know why Tony accepted them when they were offered by his sister . . .

Anyway, there's another bunch of junk I pulled out from under the sink in the powder room--faded prints of fruit, old images of Roman gladiators and mythological figures, a brass container with kittens on the lid, a small basket jammed with seashells all glued together.

For the color, I chose a rich gray-blue--about the color of a very, very threatening thunder cloud at the beach.  Again, colors are so hard to capture in artificial light and with flashes, but it's safe to say that I see it above, nearer to the lighted areas than the corners.  Up there, you can see the new light fixture--it caught my eye on two separate occasions, so I knew it was the one for me.

The mirror is large and beveled, and the burnished-silver frame design resembles the beautiful tin artwork found in the Southwest, so I like that!

So, a new paint color, sink hardware, vanity knobs, mirror and light fixture has created a very pleasing, fresh, updated look for this little room . . . now gray-blue, silver, black and white and with a whole lot of personality, especially with a cool, black sink top!

Next, it's back up to the partially-completed guest room and bath.

More Color Pictures and Other Random Stuff

 

Here are some more photos of the new, first floor color.  I mentioned in my last post that the color can look very different depending on the light conditions--and not just a different shade of green or a different shade of yellow, but either green or yellow or brown.

The above photo perfectly illustrates a problem I've been encountering repeatedly--that is, the off-white color of the sliding glass doors and windows.  Painting the trim around the doors and windows a bright white has only highlighted the actual cream white of the doors and windows, themselves.

I find that I rather like the effect, plus there's no way in hell I'm gonna paint those areas.  Well, except for the half-inch borders, which are barely visible above, around the glass on the doors.  Those I'll paint white, and I think they'll look kind of interesting.  So, imagine a narrow, white border around the glass . . .

I buy flowers once or twice a month.  I love them.  I wish I had an awesome flower garden, where I could gather them whenever, but it seems I don't want to put in the effort--not just now, anyway.

This morning I found this freakishly large blueberry--the size of a small cherry tomato--in among the others.  I couldn't wait to taste it but found it devoid of flavor and tang, just like those enormous strawberries or tomatoes that look so promising.

Tony was in Honduras last week and came home yesterday evening.  This morning he gave me these great earrings.  They're generously-sized (larger than quarters), red coral and sterling silver, mysteriously marked ".925 Havana."

Some people like bracelets, some multiple rings.  I'm an earring gal.  I wear them every day and feel naked without them, the same way some people feel without makeup.

I'm glad Tony was gone for the week, and I'm glad to have him home.

 

Some Painting Results

 A few of you readers know that I've been mulling over paint colors for several months, readying myself for an undertaking I've been considering for . . . years.  After settling on a single color for our open-spaced, first floor, work finally got underway in the middle of May!

Bit by bit, things are coming together, as you can see from these before-during-and-afters.

Above is the dining area before.  It's a vision in off-white.  Everything was off-white--the walls, the trim, the glass doors, the regular doors . . . even the furniture.  True, mostly, for the entire house.

A during shot.  The first wall I covered is that small one under the kitchen counter.  Frankly, I was skeptical about the color for a long while--almost until the very end.

After.  I still have a little work to do on the trim in the dining room, but it's all but done.  I rearranged a lot of the pictures and other, wall geegaws throughout.  It's also been difficult to describe the paint color I chose--it's a kind of color that seems to change from shades of green to shades of brown-yellow, depending on the time of day or weather conditions . . . but I do think it adds a bit of warmth, depth and tranquility, don't you?  It's just less harsh, ya know?

And because of the open floor plan, a single, neutral color was necessary.  I'm still toying with the idea of an accent wall or two, but, I don't know, it just feels risky.

Here's a before picture of one of the sitting areas.  I was trying to figure out what was up with the trashbags on the floor and the plants and concluded that we were getting ready for some hurricane-force weather event.  If you can ignore that mess, note the arrangement of the pieces of the sectional sofa.  I'm not crazy about sectional furniture, because it's rigid and awkward to work with--too few placement options.  Still, it wasn't working very well taken apart and pushed up against the walls, either.

After.  There's something about emptying a room of everything that allows the mind to wander in new directions, furniture placement-wise.  Moving the furniture into the center of the room, away from the walls, and reconfiguring the sectional's sections created a cozy sitting area, and, AND, allowed for large areas by the windows to accommodate some of my plant collection, the members of which have grown into unruly teenagers, with huge appetites for space.  Those windows don't get too much direct sunlight, so we'll see how it works out.

Did you notice that the windows aren't centrally placed along that wall?

After.  The window placement works out well because there's an extra foot or two there on the right side, leaving just enough room for Mom's hutch.  I like it because it sort of takes the edge off the leather-and-glass motif.  Same for Mom's hooked rug there on the wall.

When you marry later in life, as Tony and I did, the issue of what furniture to keep and what to dispose of often comes up.  Since I moved into a fully-furnished, masculine, bachelor residence, there was no place for the few sticks of beat up stuff I had.  But Tony's furniture, while nice, isn't necessarily to my own taste.  I sentimentally hung onto my old stuff, storing it in the basement where it became mildewed.

Little by little, over the years, I've been able to part with bits of it at a time, and I suspect that this will be the year when the last of it goes.

Anyway, the off-white (surprise, surprise), leather sectional came with the house, and Tony has a sentimental attachment to the set, so finding a way to work with it was very important.

That's not the case with the other stuff, though.

Before.  Here we are in the entrance hall as work gets underway.  Coming in the front door, those two doors (a closet and a powder room) would be on your left.  Note the lantern-style light fixture on the ceiling.

After.  Not a good picture of the new wall color (see how each panel looks like a different color?), but the doors have been painted a crisp, white semi-gloss, with the exception of the front door, which looks very dull by comparison.  A new, hanging boob-style light has replaced the lantern.

This is a before shot of the opposite wall of the entrance hall.  Over the years, those two paintings were joined by two or three others, hung in a random fashion.  I've had a love-hate relationship with the off-white swans, alternately loving them for their kitsch value and hating them for their kitschiness.  And while I'm thinking about it, can I just sing the praises of glass in terms of keeping it clean.  Easy peasy.

After.  The swans are on my good side, after receiving a new coat of bright, white paint.  A single, sentimentally-valuable, seascape painting of the North Carolina Atlantic beach takes the place of the earlier mess, and the painting of the old Norwegian homestead--painted by my great Aunt Louise--now hangs on the wall at the bottom of the stairs.  On the swan table is a photograph of Dupont Circle during a snowstorm, which has been artistically manipulated to give it an ultra-dreamy quality.  While I adore the photo/artwork, I hate the frame.  My plan is to have it reframed with extra-large matting, for a more substantial piece, and I'm looking at the powder room wall for placement.  Maybe.  The bathrooms will have to be addressed in another post, each of which has the same problem area.

I'm not really ready to show you the kitchen.  While the painting is finished, it just needs the tiniest bit of tidying up.

The other stuff.  I can't tell you how much I hate this furniture--this gentleman's-library-in-the-manor-house, gigantic, heavy, dark, overstuffed, overly-upholstered stuff.

You feel me?

There are these two enormous chairs--which make even the sturdiest adult feel like a toddler when they sit down (a la Lily Tomlin, remember?)--a huge, pillowed sofa and a loveseat, also substantial.  Aside from the sheer size, other issues I have with this set include the rough, rigid fabric and the fraying edges and corners--courtesy of the cats.

Can't you just see an elegant chaise where those two chairs are?  (What is it about the chaise to women?  All I can say is that the chaise is in the same category as the tiara, where gals are concerned, I think.)

So, I'm on the hunt for a sofa, a chaise/loveseat and two, smaller-scaled, less-puffy and cleaner-lined chairs.  And because I expect to live with whatever I purchase for the rest of my days, the search will be long and well-considered.

Overlook any typos, please.  I'm having trouble with spell check.

Tulip Poplar Tulip

 

Takoma Park House and Garden Tour

 

I tagged along with Pam and Susan today, when they visited Takoma Park for the annual house and garden tour.  Thirteen homes/studios were featured, and it took about four hours for us to drift in and out of the homes and around the gardens.  The weather was ideal, with some cloud cover and mild temperatures.

So, here's a picture story, with images of the homes we visited and some of homes or features not on the tour, but just interesting to me, as we strolled along.  As I reviewed my photos when I got home, I realized that it was the homes' exteriors which most held my attention--the colors, the windows, the porches and so forth.

It was a completely enjoyable afternoon!

 

Refrigerator Love

I went over to Lowes last week to look at paint samples, and I came home as the owner of a new refrigerator.  The $50 check from our power company to turn in an older-but-still-working, energy-inefficient model and the $150 rebate from the power company for purchasing a new, super-efficient unit provided powerful incentive to make the purchase that day.

Another incentive, too, was my sheer hatred of the design of the old fridge, with its freezer on the left, from top to bottom, and the refrigerator portion on the right.  The tall, narrow, awkward compartments presented, er, challenges to staying organized.

I love the new fridge, with its roll-out, freezer drawer on the bottom.

The top rack rolls out all the way, and there is an ice-maker up there, too.  The bottom bin is deep and spacious, and items are easily seen at a glance.

The upper refrigerator accomodates so much more than the old fridge and is spacious, with numerous, adjustable shelves and door compartments.

Another major plus for me is the absence of those ice and water dispensers on the front door--a nightmare to keep clean outwardly, never mind the hoses and such.  I appreciate the less-moving-parts quality of that unfeature.

Another major purchase this month was a set of new, everyday dishes for eight.  We have a nice set of china for special occasions, but our daily dishes were kind of a Frankenstein's monster, hodge-podge of various sets we've had over the years--and some of them just really bad mistakes.

The place settings include large and small plates, wide, shallow bowls and cups and saucers.  The set came with a large, serving plate, a medium-sized serving bowl and a cream/sugar set.

As the dishes are an ivory white and un-embellished, except for a delicate floral-and-ridge mold motif, there will be no issues about clashing with our dark green countertops.  They're lightweight, but generously-sized, and just feel good in the hand, ya know?

I liked another design by Mikasa, called Swirl, as well, but it was contemporary, and, in the end, I decided to go with the more classic Italian Countryside design.  A feature of aging, I think.

Yard in Spring