Progress report on dining room restoration, post-Hilary
This morning (at 11) we started getting our dining room furniture back from storage, now that the walls, ceiling, and roof have been repaired. The good thing about this is that we were able to get new color in this room, as I never liked the orange color it had before. However, I did learn that the orange color on the walls was enhanced by the light bulbs in the recessed lighting that were old and orange appearing, not to mention the orange shades on the fixture above the dining table.
Here are some photos of how it looks now - still a work in progress:
We moved the elliptical machine from the living room, since we will not be reinstalling Kevin's huge drafting table, which he now wants to sell.
View from the living room - the boxes contain books that we have not unpacked yet.
We are very happy with the dark color that I chose for this room. Initially, I had planned to paint this room a very pastel shade of the same hue, but I am glad that we waited and chose the darker version.
I installed the new pendant a couple of days ago and spent quite some time deciding exactly what length I wanted each pendant to be, and I am very pleased with the results. The previous pendant hung down way too low, and I was constantly hitting my head with it while working on sewing projects in this room. I am much happier now that it is not in my way. The bottom pendant is 36" above the dining table.
More photos to follow.
Comments (43)
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Some progress (finally!) on my kitchen
Comments (27)Oh, Becky. You actually make me chuckle. How could I have possibly forgotten you!! You should only know how much I treasured our conversations on vintage stoves and what to do about rescuing my kitchen layout when my Smoothtop stove -- the "grand old dame" --involuntarily retired mid-reno. LOL! Luckily, though, some reno disaster stories really do have good endings. And I've got one of those. Truth is, I totally adore my Aga!! She's everything I could have wanted in a modern day replacement for a vintage range: great period looks matched by contemporary pro style performance. As such, I'm very, very happy! Meanwhile, my beloved Smoothtop is sitting, disassembled in my basement. I didn't have the heart to trash her but I also haven't summoned the heart to try to sell her either. She's priceless (even if she needs total restoration at this point)! My hope is that one day, I'll coincidentally meet up with an antique stove lover in the area who will be more than pleased to adopt her as a major project. In the meantime, as she sits in my basement, she serves as a nostalgic reminder of her glory days when she used to hold court in the old kitchen. And, honestly, I do send her a loving wink each time I pass by her. Sigh. But getting back to you. . . these additional photos of your kitchen are even more striking than the first batch! Without a doubt the room comes off as warm, cozy and inviting. Even better, it looks downright authentic as a real family kitchen with loads of personality! No over-designed and/or puzzling design statements going on there. And I love it! (Love that yellow paint too -- it's similar to what I chose for my own kitchen walls.) Lastly, I just have to give you a special thumbs up on the DIY work. Most of us can put together a lovely kitchen design with enough money to buy things and rely on the sage advice of the GW community and/or hire experts to do so and to put it all together for us. But far fewer of us have the time, patience and competent DIY skills to actually pull off the kinds of kitchens we would want to live in, work in and show off to others. So, whenever that happens, my thinking is that the DIYers deserve an extra bow. In short, Becky, I'm thinking you should get ready for that extra bow because, from what I'm seeing, you and DH are deserving of big applause on this one!...See MoreOur progress
Comments (14)One more update! We fulfilled the requirements of our rehab loan, so the first part of our journey is officially over. Every room in my house is now useful! Here's the back bedroom's transformation. It will soon be furnished as a guest room. From Rear Bedroom From Rear Bedroom And the other back bedroom is now our junk room, for the time being: From Future 2nd Lav From Future 2nd Lav The porch is painted: From Exterior The original crown is back up in the living room: From Living Room The dining room has real curtains: From Dining Room Our bedroom walls and wood trim are repaired: From Our Bedroom From Our Bedroom And there is officially no more bird wall paper in the foyer/hallway! From Foyer I'm so happy this week!...See MoreLook what we did today! (Hovel Thread progress)
Comments (28)Sarchlos: Your buffet looks stunning! I discovered Restor-A-Finish for the first time this year and I'm hooked. I'm constantly recommending it to people. I didn't know they made Restor-A-Shine?!? I feel like I've been living in a cave (paint/hell cave) LOL. I'm going out tomorrow and asking my local Ace Hardware where is the Restor-A-Shine stuff. I thought I had to live with a dull finish. Thanks for enlightening me and once more your buffet is beautiful. I'm so glad to see you're making progress and you don't seem so despondent. Happy improvements!! Sincerely from your So. Cal (orange County) GW friend, Ann. BTW, I need to know your DH's secret to getting the Wii Fit. I've been trying to buy it for the last month and still nothing!!...See MoreHilariously Honest Confession...Anyone Care to Share Yours?
Comments (46)SJHockey, your tale had me LOL. The main thing that is driving me nuts is wall to wall carpet in our bedroom areas. We replaced carpet with new 7 years ago and shortly thereafter it started to pull away from the tack strips leaving us with crumpled carpet. When I was renovating the kitchen I had the LR carpet ripped out to continue the hardwood in the kitchen/breakfast area into the living room but we were leaving the carpet in the bedrooms. I asked our flooring man to have a crew come out to re-stretch the carpet. DH insisted that they didn't have to send a special crew out so the stretching didn't get done. Now all it would have taken was another phone call but did I? No..... it's been almost 2 years and we still have the crumpled carpet. I'm so disgusted with the carpet that I decided we are having it ripped out and installing hardwood instead. Our downstairs bathroom that DH uses is a nightmare. When we had it completed our handy man used the cheapest fixtures he could find. I promised myself that I would promptly have everything replaced but it's 19 years later and the only change is my DSIL put a Pergo floor in for DH. If we ever sell I will have to have the whole thing ripped out and redone because it's an embarrassment. =-qwa...See MoreLars
6 months agolast modified: 6 months ago
Here it is with the light turned on.The picture is a double self portrait that my brother painted.
Lars
6 months agolast modified: 6 months ago
View of the elliptical machine - it has to go somewhere. Portrait of me on the left by my roommate in San Francisco 1982, and self portrait of Kevin on the right.
Painting in the hall
View of the buffet with Kevin's double self portrait (titled "Double Solitaire") above
View of the desk
Similar view without pendantLars
6 months agoI have velvet drapes that will go back on the sliding glass door, but we have to find the bracket that holds the curtain rod. We haven't decided on window treatment for the window above the desk yet - we might just leave the blinds as they are. Before, I had orange art deco drapes on that window:
We do not want drapes going to the floor behind the desk, however.
Islay Corbel
6 months ago
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoLars thanked dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o mLars
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoWe hung the old drapes again - here's one side:
I made these some time ago, and I just barely had enough fabric. If I had had more fabric, I would have made them longer and hung them a bit higher. At least the color works okay in this room, and the velvet does a good job of block the intense sunlight. The patio doors face southwest.
Kevin has gotten fully moved into his office here, but there is still a lot that he is going to need to store in a filing cabinet in the garage. I emptied one out last weekend - it had files that were over 20 years old, and so I don't need them anymore.
I finally got the books arranged in the bookcase in the hall:
Lars
5 months ago
amykath