A Wee Bit of Progress

With only a week and a half to go before we move ourselves, Ingemar and Morpheus*, and everything thing we own and then some (because we keep buying new stuff) into the new house, we still haven't finished painting or any of the major projects.  We will get it done this week, we just needed a rest.  It's funny how holistic home improvement is.  You can't really get a project done without having to conjure up another project first, everything seems to be linked.  Replacing a few things in our kitchen, like the sink, counters and window, has led us down the path toward a complete kitchen remodel.

If you're an Old House purist, you may want to look away for the next paragraph or two. 

We went to IKEA.  Yeah I know.  We'd love to be building our own cabinets or hunting down something old and restorable but we lack the skills at this point.  Mass-produced Swedish Modern/Modular and Jazz Age Restoration don't seem to belong in the same neighborhood, but we can sort of afford it now.  And I think it'll look relatively good.  Our current kitchen was put together by monkeys.  Monkeys are pretty good with tools, but the lack of an opposable thumb makes it harder for them to do things like use a router properly, or set tile well, or cut cabinet facings or shelves so that they are actually flush against adjacent walls.  So rather than try to strip the ugly plywood and fiberboard doors and facings and stain them, we decided replacing everything with Modular MDF plus Veneer in a stain color we like was an affordable alternative to Fugly and Poorly Constructed.  Sorry, monkeys!  Actually, I suppose I should reserve judgement of the monkeys until after it's done, because we're going to be installing it ourselves to save some money.

We're going with the Adel in the medium brown stain, with shaker style framing, and glass panels in the upper cabinet doors.  We'll be using reproduction glass hardware rather than the more modern IKEA stuff.  Our counters will be Oak wood butcher block style, and we're going with their new Farmhouse sink.  Eventually we'll replace our horrid ceiling light fixture with something fabulous from Rejuvenation. 

We did just paint the kitchen green, but it's not quite the color that was in my head.  In fact, it was SO not the color that was in my head, when it came time to paint the bathroom with the same paint, I decided to do a little alchemy and I mixed the green kitchen paint and the living room aqua paint and got a lovely herb green for the bathroom.  And it matches the fabric that I had already picked out for the curtain in there.

Which leads me to the bathroom story.  We've mentioned that our goal for all of the white trim in the house is to strip it and stain it.  We decided to start with the trim in the bathroom.  With a heat gun, I managed to strip off enough paint to see the lovely wood grain, though 75 years of paint had certainly left its imprint.  Then I decided to see if I could get the trim off of the wall intact.  Not so much.  You could see evidence of termites and likely rotting from being in the humid bathroom, and the wood was pieced and puttied together in spots.  The main part of the trim, the 4 1/2 inch wide sides, were in fine condition.  The wood is a lovely auburn color, and I don't know if that's original or if it has become that color with age. 

But we now have a portable piece of the decorative moulding to take with us to the local lumber stores to match it up.  I'll start cleaning it and sanding it this weekend.  We may have to match and replace some of the existing trim, but it would be nice if the trim in the rest of the house was in better condition.  We shall see!

I also hauled my sewing machine over to Chez English so I could sew curtains to replace all of the old window coverings.  The first to go were the red Roman shades on the sidelights in the living room.  It looks so much better (I haven't attached the lower hardware on the right panel yet)! 

 

If you're handy with a sewing machine, it's much cheaper to make your own curtains; you'll usually have the color and fabric you want, and if you prewash before you sew, you never have to worry about your store-bought curtains shrinking.  Knowing I'd want sheers on nearly every window and door, I bought a bolt of cotton voile from Dharma Trading Co.  It's even nicer to have a big empty room to lay it out for cutting!

If you remember, we are also Jacuzzi owners.  We're not very good at it so far.  We haven't done anything at all other than to lift the cover a couple of times and comment on the growing number of bugs floating in the water.  We made a half-hearted attempt to do something about it this weekend, but apparently Pool & Spa stores are not open on Sundays.  So, like any geek worth her gigabytes, I Googled a bit, then ordered some things online. By the end of the week, we'll have the Jacuzzi cleaned up, filtered, and bubbling away, sans dead bugs.

*We have a new kitten!  Ingemar is a little less than thrilled.  Gee, I bet he'll be thrilled about moving, too.  It's just not his month.

Comments

[Nancy]

It looks fantastic! I like the color scheme a lot - very mellow and cooling.

[Anna]

I LOVE your house! You've done so well with it!

We have an Ikea kitchen in a Victorian House and it looks fine, I went for a 30's/40's style as it looks better than something really modern. It was cheapest about and looks really good, FIL fit it!

Enjoy moving in and finding room for all your things!

[lynetter]

You have great choice in colours, and I totally agree about making your own curtains - at least the easy ones! When we built our conservatory we were quoted thousands to get custom-fitted blinds for the roof. So, instead I used some sheer green silk I'd splashed out on for another project (don't ask) that'd been sitting in the cupboard for years. That plus some bamboo for strengthening and we had lovely ceiling screens that I love. It's amazing what you can do with a little ingenuity.

Glad also to see that the bathroom tiles have had a reprieve, even if just a short one. You might surprise yourself by growing to love them too!