tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11046877210971996822024-03-05T09:42:52.538+00:00FOAM CORE FANTASYWe are building a house from foam core panels, which are also known as Structural Insulated Panels, or SIPs. We have done most of the work ourselves and it has been a very interesting experience with many twists and turns, and delays. For the longest time it seemed like it was just a foam core fantasy, but we have finally gotten it to the point where we can live there again at last.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-83675437710807421462014-01-02T19:38:00.000+00:002014-01-03T06:05:53.923+00:00Second Chance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Since I apparently think that I can do anything now, no expertise needed, I drew up some plans for a headboard and started pricing the materials. And discovered that the posts that I want to have on either side are EXPENSIVE, way too much for a worthwhile homemade project. If it's going to be homemade, it's not worth it unless it's cheap - that's my rule.</div>
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So I remembered hearing about this place in Baltimore called Second Chance. It's basically a huge warehouse stuffed full of parts that were rescued from torn down beautiful old houses and other construction projects. They have mantels, furniture, old lumber from back when a 2x4 measured 2x4, millions of doors, and all kinds of other amazing things. We could have saved a ton of money if I'd known about this place when we were building our house.</div>
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It's kind of an exciting place. I found the posts I needed, non-pressure-treated 4x4s. And they even have a top carved in which I could use instead of the round finials I was planning on. I have time to decide. For now I'm planning to wait on this headboard project until I get around to it. I was actually looking forward to taking a break from all of this messy stuff after I realized that I wasn't going to be able to afford to buy my posts from a regular lumber place. But that didn't work out, now that I have these posts. They were only twelve dollars each, so I've spent $24 on my new headboard so far. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsFVML_QtJpna3hQoaclrpUwZ4oAZ4n4U0pC44fe-a4mVkFi3tKEje6cpatpW1RQt-960bFBIp3E8y5O8j8o0AN1ezpBSECtZS6IbehP7mHARBTFwphJsybJ6vYovXMnY4bVUTENT0OyO/s1600/033blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsFVML_QtJpna3hQoaclrpUwZ4oAZ4n4U0pC44fe-a4mVkFi3tKEje6cpatpW1RQt-960bFBIp3E8y5O8j8o0AN1ezpBSECtZS6IbehP7mHARBTFwphJsybJ6vYovXMnY4bVUTENT0OyO/s320/033blog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Uh-oh! They had pickets with carved tops in the shorter length I was thinking about for a little picket fence out front between the sidewalk and the crape myrtles. Most of the things I think about, I don't actually want to do, so I put off doing anything about it until I can't take it anymore and need to suddenly jump in and do it. My little picket fence is definitely in that non-urgent category, but they had a bunch of brand new pickets that were probably leftovers from someone else's project and they were only a dollar each.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10N8hyjZoAyaIy0e-Blw16LMc5oSvycPfg1njEaXR42FJK2GHes25qc6CTj0dXISqs2GuwL9ELnp8nchRR56nIrg51N8meUbFuR7qYH-d-nLz0SOs30HzO2t3jvsfWKnREHowQ6WIf5ze/s1600/028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10N8hyjZoAyaIy0e-Blw16LMc5oSvycPfg1njEaXR42FJK2GHes25qc6CTj0dXISqs2GuwL9ELnp8nchRR56nIrg51N8meUbFuR7qYH-d-nLz0SOs30HzO2t3jvsfWKnREHowQ6WIf5ze/s320/028.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I didn't buy them the first day that we went, partly because there's a schedule of price reduction on the tag that says they'll be 50 cents each on March 16 and also because I don't NEED to have a picket fence out front, and also because I know from personal experience how annoying it is to me when there are construction materials lying around around all over the place. So I was, in fact, okay with not buying them yet.<br />
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However, when we went back the next day, I went off to grab my posts because there were a couple of guys looking at them with interest. Doug had gone off to get a cart, and when he didn't show up, I dragged the posts off in the general direction of Doug and the cart he was going to get, and there he was, loading pickets onto it. The exact person who had adamently said "I think you should wait" about the pickets. And it's a good thing, because there was a woman there who ended up taking most of the rest of them. I'll be glad I already have them when the time comes. They are neatly bundled and don't take up too much room. And since Doug made me buy all those pickets, he'll probably want to help me build the fence too, right?<br />
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The real reason we went back the second day was because we saw an amazing door surround that was in relatively excellent condition and would exactly fit the door opening between our foyer and the main part of the house.<br />
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Our foyer is a little added on section that I decided would be a good thing to have to soften the inside corner between the front gable section and the main part of our house. It sort of creates the effect of a closed-in porch and I had always envisioned that we would do something a little more grandiose with the trim on this one door leading into the main part of the house, so that it would perhaps look like it had at one time been an exterior door.<br />
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The one fun thing about building a house, for me, is planning it, mulling over ideas, and creating imaginery scenarios, which is easy to do when you love old houses and are trying to pay homage to the age, if nothing else, of your beloved former house. The main thing we've done in that direction is to copy the window and door trim style of our now-deceased house. Doug even got Smoot lumber to mill an exact copy of the crown moulding from our old house. It's all down in the basement waiting to be put on. I hope I live to see that eventually happen.<br />
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Anyway, we saw this amazingly intact door surround, measured it, took pictures, and went home to see if it would work. The overall shape was exactly right, even though it's in a somewhat different style than the rest of our trim. It's quite a bit frillier than what I'd had in mind, with the fluting and the scallops, but it's supposed to be the fancy doorway, so what the heck. And it was only $160 and we wouldn't have to do anything except for clean it up, paint it, and slap it up there on the wall.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTK4JbIgkWO8xngtJ-8g1R2YfrKAvWCrIka8BxrO8jRKIcml1ViHTg4PM4Y1pXfVBPELIj_p366GvfVeSdnMNzxVJi70xgpz4h5iISs3Vc2NBnGYL5e44eqsmXWO9Rcb50CfhCzeJqF2Mb/s1600/020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTK4JbIgkWO8xngtJ-8g1R2YfrKAvWCrIka8BxrO8jRKIcml1ViHTg4PM4Y1pXfVBPELIj_p366GvfVeSdnMNzxVJi70xgpz4h5iISs3Vc2NBnGYL5e44eqsmXWO9Rcb50CfhCzeJqF2Mb/s400/020.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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So we went home and took a look and decided it would work, and then went back the next day to get it, and the posts, and suddenly also the pickets. We spent all day outside with it yesterday, scraping and sanding and removing loose nails, and firming up the structure, and making it a tiny bit shorter to match our doorway.<br />
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When we took it in and propped it against the opening, it sort of took my breath away. I'd been thinking "I don't know about those scallops, they look a little silly" to myself the whole time when suddenly I noticed that the scallops on this door frame totally tie in with the scallops on all of our light fixtures and it all looks completely integrated and like it was planned that way. What a lucky accident! We weren't even looking for door trim. So now I'm excited.<br />
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It needs some work, but not too much. It's basically in great shape except for some nail holes and a few gouges here and there. But those are all on the flat parts so they'll be easy to fill in.<br />
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<img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz2RsalT6QoMfBQytK29XZ-4W6h_fd98tQGBMc9bQNRHmxN4x1ww53UgYp3Si4cy_B8sI7CK3xVZ0xqJnSfSyH9sLmnNgwDI098ERXN69Fzpgj68gxx0jAzyeL6RCYZm4sr-A5UE6BLKn/s400/039.JPG" width="400" /></div>
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I'm not thrilled to be doing another painting project in the living room, but this way I won't conveniently "forget" to work on it. I think I'll be able to get it all ready within a few days, and then if Doug is cooperative, we'll be able to install it pretty quickly after that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPNKU9EM6lEUPMJFpsRQ6yFsNQbNx6SvEJu1ovNWkf0p3gNg7ybO2jripkWTXVnwXQRc_7RNwO3oZRX1tHeWPxd0QXsA6hqxMwHbCiJTXf-mS_8EnKEZ8W72h8drGqExFd7jWb6XdS9CQ/s1600/038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPNKU9EM6lEUPMJFpsRQ6yFsNQbNx6SvEJu1ovNWkf0p3gNg7ybO2jripkWTXVnwXQRc_7RNwO3oZRX1tHeWPxd0QXsA6hqxMwHbCiJTXf-mS_8EnKEZ8W72h8drGqExFd7jWb6XdS9CQ/s400/038.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-46709101952559250952013-12-28T16:17:00.000+00:002014-01-02T16:20:27.996+00:00Night Stands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After I finished the armoire, the little IKEA nightstands we had gotten after the fire looked so puny and white, which is kind of strange for me to be saying since my go-to color for painted furniture has always been white. Although recently I've been painting stuff blue, so who knows anymore?</div>
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Anyway, we had a pair of unfinished chest-of-drawers that at one time were our night stands, and I was going to paint them white, but somehow that never happened. After we started our addition and had to cram our bed into the porch room, there was no longer room for these, and eventually they ended up being stored out in the unfinished addition, which meant that they were not in the fire.</div>
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So they've been sitting up in the purple room all this time since we've been back in our house, and now that we have a big old brown armoire in our temporary bedroom it seemed like the thing to do would be to stain these things to match. So I did. I used the General Finishes Gel Stain, started with "Georgian Cherry" so that it would have a red undercurrent like the armoire did, and then over top of that I put "Antique Walnut" followed by a few coats of satin finish wipe-on polyurethane, and here's how it turned out:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcoDT_ZGNuZGA_nilRaZwoxpaAQvNq_YLIb8BplodrvzRRPz80xf50bO-QiZSDU9rzn5wF2gqpmFFMRuPFyv02iAfqFqcPAs-FnozNVF-OUiyJ_Uqg2QWtnzzNx6kcsrO3ZjEnv7jWf3f8/s1600/043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcoDT_ZGNuZGA_nilRaZwoxpaAQvNq_YLIb8BplodrvzRRPz80xf50bO-QiZSDU9rzn5wF2gqpmFFMRuPFyv02iAfqFqcPAs-FnozNVF-OUiyJ_Uqg2QWtnzzNx6kcsrO3ZjEnv7jWf3f8/s400/043.JPG" width="283" /></a></div>
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I've been dying to use these handles that came with our kitchen cabinets (which we ended up not using) for something in our house, but everything else I've done recently looked better with knobs. You can't really see them in the photo above, so here's a close-up:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsLRXB3LjSddaUI3_Lq6nXjxoSinHN4yHH1e7nXu3lFmlN4IuYIcPcVICgVIbOWG8DHJ_qZ905ILYMnWJlYhGoUpYi1fXiFWQIbf4s1MkMKTwj5JTwzSy6n0g5Le379EjrPWYNoq9zgYF/s1600/046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsLRXB3LjSddaUI3_Lq6nXjxoSinHN4yHH1e7nXu3lFmlN4IuYIcPcVICgVIbOWG8DHJ_qZ905ILYMnWJlYhGoUpYi1fXiFWQIbf4s1MkMKTwj5JTwzSy6n0g5Le379EjrPWYNoq9zgYF/s200/046.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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This staining business has turned into a disease. Next I want to make a headboard and stain it, since apparently I'm actually capable of doing this sort of thing. Ughh..... I absolutely HATE getting all yucky and dirty and sanding things and getting stuff all over my hands - HATE IT!!! And yet I'm sitting here thinking of more things to do. Well it's fun to see the end product so hopefully my luck will hold out and I'll end up with a nice headboard too! Stay tuned...Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-74965031190827744042013-12-18T03:53:00.002+00:002015-10-04T03:33:48.701+01:00An Armoire!I had secretly been hoping, for several years, to eventually find an affordable antique armoire to use as a linen closet since we somehow neglected to include one in our house plans, probably because the house didn't have one before.<br />
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So about six weeks ago, one magically appeared in a thrift store for an extremely low price. Since that time it's been mostly out on the back porch where I have been working hard to sand all of the dirt and cooties and paint splatters off of it, and to let it air out. I also thoroughly cleaned it with mineral spirits. Old furniture sort of creeps me out because of the potential for old mildew smells and the smells of people I'm not related to, but I've always liked the idea of it, and I love how it looks. So I decided to suck it up and get over the ick factor and make this potentially beautiful piece of furniture my own. Fortunately it had no mildew smell whatsoever, and no cigarette smell either, and none emerged.<br />
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When it got cold we brought it inside and I've been busy refinishing it ever since. As I was working on it I started thinking about who might have owned it and how such a magnificent piece of furniture had ended up in a thrift store after all these years. I started concocting various scenarios based on what I smelled and what I saw as I was working on it. And now that it is back in a caring home I feel like I am a part of its history too.<br />
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The first smell that emerged as I was sanding it was kind of a perfumey rose scent. It was pretty disgusting. When we bought it I told Doug that if it ended up smelling any kind of way that I found to be intolerable, we were going to have to get rid of it. I'm really sensitive to certain odors and it's kind of a random assortment - I never know what's going to set me off. So when I first got a whiff of the rosy smell I immediately thought that someone had sprayed something in there to mask some other more icky smell. That didn't turn out to be the case, so I moved on to the idea that it was the perfume in the clothes of some nice old lady from the 1930s or 40s who was using the armoire to store things, rather than as an active day-to-day closet. And I was okay with that. I imagined that she lived in a nice old house in a pleasant neighborhood. I think I was definitely tilting in the direction of my <a href="http://photo-cyn-thesis.blogspot.com/2009/06/silver-spring-avenue-then-and-now.html" target="_blank">grandmother's house</a> in my various imaginings.<br />
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There were tiny white paint spatters all over the outside, as if somebody had been painting their ceiling with a roller and hadn't bothered to cover it up the armoire to protect it from the paint. I thought maybe it had been passed along to an unappreciative daughter or son, or grandchild, who didn't care whether it got messed up. And later they couldn't sell it because it was so beat up and had those paint spatters on it, and then it was so huge that it wouldn't fit in the next place they moved to, so they just dropped it off at the thrift store.<br />
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By that time I was feeling really sorry for it, with its sad history of abuse and neglect. And I was also becoming more attached to it as I attempted to bring it back to its former glory, hoping that it would feel better after I finished making it look good. There's something about grooming an old piece of furniture or an old instrument or an old anything - once you start taking care of something you start to care about it more than you otherwise might.<br />
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I got one additional whiff of something or other when I started polyurethaning the inside, in my attempt to seal in all the cooties, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the germs of a stranger anymore. It had stopped smelling at all, so I was feeling really hopeful that it would work out for me. Suddenly, I guess from the wetness of the polyurethane, another kind of sweet smell emerged that sort of reminded me of unsmoked pipe tobacco. So there was a husband using this armoire too! He probably hung his suits in there after smoking his pipe down in the parlour, maybe with a packet of pipe tobacco still in his jacket pocket. He was probably using it before his wife did, because her scent went away with the first sanding, and his got activated afterwards by the polyurethane.<br />
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And now there's no more smell because the polyurethane has dried and sealed everything in. That's kind of sad in a way, but now I'll be able to enjoy this beautiful and useful piece of furniture for the rest of my life.<br />
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I forgot to take a "before" picture, so all you'll get to see is how it looks now. It was a lighter color, more reddish, and really beat up. I used the leftover stain from my parents kitchen cabinets to get it to the color I wanted and then gave it two coats of polyurethane, so it will stay looking good for a long time. Doug did a few little structural repairs and now it is as good as new!<br />
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Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-89691763001406546462013-12-14T13:48:00.000+00:002013-12-18T05:20:59.333+00:00Framing Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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It's arts and crafts time here in Foam Core Fantasyland! I figured I might as well do something to make my house look more like a home while I'm waiting for basic things like window and door frames, baseboards, doorknobs, etc. to happen. I discovered that hanging pictures is very therapeutic and makes the house look a lot more "done" even with all the ragged wallboard edges everywhere. Sometimes you have to put the cart before the horse I guess.</div>
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I'd previously had some fun <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/just-call-me-ms-moulding.html" target="_blank">adding squares of moulding</a> to some rather plain doors, which really perked them up quite a bit. So I decided to try the same thing with some plain picture frames from Michael's.</div>
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For my first one, which I did back in January, I glued the moulding around the perimeter and painted it with some black Polyshades that was left over from our <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html" target="_blank">desk projects</a> to match the black frame. Then I smeared Rub'n'Buff all over it and buffed it until it was shiny. I had to be careful to not get too much of the gold caught in the crevices because that would destroy the effect of the black. It worked out okay on the frame below. I used Grecian Gold, which is a browner and less bright color than the bright gold you often see on frames. I love the way it makes the frame look old, especially with the added moulding.<a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html" target="_blank"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gKjwKTzIj-7SE0tqRmsw72KrXUgoHuQnRi7uVc5KoZaF8ed2JCt1L1TP_d7x7du_JJsyQQMQeq6xDz5H1zBFM7KrbPVidshbt-iZK1rxhhaURyuXQuN5-OVlctnRt86hFWOieLmVrrOi/s1600/0001blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gKjwKTzIj-7SE0tqRmsw72KrXUgoHuQnRi7uVc5KoZaF8ed2JCt1L1TP_d7x7du_JJsyQQMQeq6xDz5H1zBFM7KrbPVidshbt-iZK1rxhhaURyuXQuN5-OVlctnRt86hFWOieLmVrrOi/s320/0001blog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The picture below is actually a photo of the Renoir painting "<a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mirabellartdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/renoir-by-the-seashore.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mirabellart.com/2012/11/17/pierre-auguste-renoir/&h=252&w=200&sz=1&tbnid=NavQC_ditY-mTM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=126&zoom=1&usg=__6LfKImLmID7b8x3x7aEedm7ef1I=&docid=IgfhgqWQ6v-N6M&itg=1&sa=X&ei=cumwUujdBbbNsQTUs4GYBw&ved=0CHkQ_B0wCg" target="_blank">By the Seashore</a>" which was printed on a piece of canvas to make it look like a real painting. Cheesy, I know, but it looks great in our back hallway, especially after I made a frame for it. I picked up this "painting" at an estate sale - it was in somebody's basement and it was FILTHY! It only cost me 50 cents. You can't beat that. So the frame below is made out of a piece of moulding called "picture frame" and I got it at Home Depot. I painted it black with the Polyshades and rubbed on the Grecian Gold Rub'n'Buff. I think you can see where I accidentally got too much caught in the crevices on this frame.<br />
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Fast forward to Thanksgiving weekend. It was too cold to work outside anymore and I had some posters and and a few newly acquired watercolor paintings that I wanted to frame, and it just so happened that Michael's was having a crazy sale on frames - 3 frames for the price of one, plus 25% off your entire purchase. It was time to make my move and throw myself into getting it all done. I bought a ton of frames for an unbelievable price, and I've used them all.<br />
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I actually wasn't able to get started until a few days later. It took awhile to plan everything, and once I got started, I didn't want to stop. So it was a huge marathon of making frames fancier, inserting the pictures, and hanging them up, and it took several days to complete because of the quantity. I think you could actually do one or two frames all in one day pretty easily.<br />
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First I assembled my materials:<br />
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I decided to try a different approach this time, so I started by spray-painting several of the big frames. I wouldn't recommend doing this indoors, and after getting some residual paint spray on my face and in my mouth I WOULD definitely recommend wearing a dust mask and goggles. I was in too much of a hurry to fool with that though. I brought them inside to dry (in my living room) because it was so cold outside.<br />
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I used a Rustoleum "paint and primer in one" product in a hammered finish in a greenish silvery gold color called "Rosemary" for two of the frames, and did two more in a more normal gold color. I like the hammered finish because it has some color variation and leaves an interesting textured finish for the next things I was planning to do.<br />
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This time, instead of having a black base, I decided to use the Polyshades to get a glazed effect. I discovered that you must wipe it off immediately because it dries really fast. I like the way some of the black got caught in the texture of the spray paint, in addition to the crevices. I didn't move fast enough on this first one so more black paint was left behind than I actually wanted.<br />
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I didn't have to add mouldings to these frames because they already had a nice shape. After the spray painting and the glazing with Polyshades, I brightened them up with some Rub'n'Buff in "Goldleaf" which I thought would look better with the greenish yellow walls in my living room.<br />
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My friend Jennifer's mother gave me those beautiful watercolors this past summer. She had inherited a ton of paintings, many more than she could do anything with, and I am really enjoying them now that they are up. They look perfect in the room and I like knowing where they came from. Thank you Edna! I was very happy to find a frame size that worked without a mat, because I think a mat would detract from these particular paintings.<br />
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For the next painting I wanted to use a plain black frame with some moulding around the outside, so first it was cut and glued on. I got the moulding at Home Depot for less than ten dollars - it might have been five.<br />
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Then I spray painted it with the Rosemary colored hammered Rustoleum.<br />
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And then I smeared and wiped the black Polyshades in the cracks<br />
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After that I decided it needed to be browner to complement the trees in the painting, so I used Grecian Gold Rub'n'Buff.<br />
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And then I put the picture in and hung it in my bathroom where it perfectly matches the wall. The lighting caused this picture to look weirdly bright. The walls and the painting are actually a much softer and lighter version of the color you see below.<br />
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The next big thing to frame was a poster that I picked up at the National Gallery of Art earlier this year. I decided to use a tiny beaded moulding to go around the outside of this one.<br />
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So here it is, spray painted, glazed with black, Rub'n'buffed, and ready to go.<br />
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And now it's hanging in my foyer. And yes that is a well used bass flight case, also in my foyer because the garage is packed too full of Doug's stuff for it to fit in there. Needless to say, there are no cars in the garage either. And yes, that is a raw edge of wallboard on the side of this photo, typical of what you'll see throughout our house. But there are now lots of pretty pictures on the walls so who cares, right?<br />
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I think it's important to have a "fun" bathroom, so I have a tiny powder room that is packed full of framed old cat-themed sheet music and some music-themed pictures from the book "Pre-Raphaelite Cats" by Susan Herbert. I go (and "go") in that room when I need a laugh.<br />
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I bought this framed print on the Eastern shore. It was old and decripid. I cleaned it up and replaced the paper on the back, which was DISGUSTING and gave the frame a little dab of Grecian Gold. I think I've seen this picture in the National Gallery of Art but I don't know what the name of it is.<br />
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I bought this print for $3.00 last summer, thinking I would use the frame for a different picture and just toss the print because it was in really horrible shape. But then I decided that I really liked the print, so I painted the frame and got a mat cut for it. It looks a million times better now.<br />
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Last year Doug had a cruise gig and I got to go along, which was great, because I got to live in the lap of luxury on the same ship where I had formerly worked as a crew musician. So I took full advantage of all of the various activities, one of which was a daily afternoon art class. It was really fun, and I even talked Doug into coming with me one of the days. This is what he painted. I smile whenever I see it, thinking about him doing that art class with me because that's not really his thing at all.<br />
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I had a leftover mat that came with a frame I had used for something else. It has "fancy" metallic plastic beading going around it, so I took a cheap frame, mixed some gold and silver Rub'n'Buff together in a cup to get a color that matches the pale gold beading, and here's how it came out:<br />
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So there are all kinds of different ways to get a pleasant variety of framing effects, without spending a fortune on it. That Rub'n'Buff is amazing stuff!Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-42940157640167706102013-12-08T23:30:00.000+00:002013-12-18T05:22:29.580+00:00Fall Projects 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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WARNING: If I sound cranky, it's because I'm exhausted. This is a blog - an online diary where I pour out my innermost thoughts for all to read, so I am generously sharing all of my house-related innermost thoughts with all of you now. I hope you at least feel lucky you're not me, hahaha. And on a more cheerful note, I'm actually looking forward to my least favorite time of year - winter, because it'll be too cold to work out in the yard for a few short months.</div>
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"So......how's the house coming along?" That's the question that people who perhaps get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of seeing my personna immediately transform from moderately cheerful to bitter and depressed seem to like to ask me. I know some of them don't mean it, but the same ones always ask, so what am I to think? Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, nothing significant beside <a href="http://www.foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/gutters-finished.html" target="_blank">getting gutters</a> has happened in the 3+ years since we've been back in our house. We are still without baseboards and window and door trim throughout the majority of the house. Those things have not been worked on at all.</div>
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I have been focusing my energy on the outside of the house because it's less expensive and a better match for my skill set. Eventually I might have to break down and learn how to do finish carpentry and finish destroying my hands, knees, and back that way, but for now I am going to enjoy damaging my poor fragile self with activities that take place out in the fresh air and sunshine.</div>
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Sometime in August, I gave up on the weeds on the liriope hill and decided that the peeling front steps were starting to be a much greater source of embarassment, so I redirected my energy towards getting them painted. Now these peeling risers were supposed to have been covered with Azek a long time ago so that they would never need to be painted. That was the plan. I don't know why that didn't happen.</div>
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Anyway, with that in mind (them being covered with Azek) I figured that a coating of primer would be sufficient until the Azek happened, supposedly within a few weeks at the most, especially since they were primed and ready to go, right? So five years later the primer-only coating is peeling, and it looks horrible. If I'd done a topcoat, which would have been wasteful considering the imminent covering of the risers with Azek, there would be no peeling paint for at least another few years.</div>
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So as I get down to work scraping it down to bare wood in preparation for painting it right this time, somebody says to me "Maybe we can put the Azek on there this fall." Maybe, as in yeah, right. So I said "I'm just going to paint it so that it doesn't look ugly any more and you can take as much time as you need to put the Azek on and I won't have to worry about when you're going to do it, and in the meantime the steps will look nice instead of ugly."</div>
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I am now completely tired of this topic. The steps are painted and they look great, at least from the front. Doug was extremely helpful (probably due to guilt) as the fall progressed and I am once again hopeful that his intentions will become reality next spring. Here's the before picture, actually the "year before" picture, and I don't have an after picture, because, big deal, they just look like normal painted steps that aren't peeling.</div>
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Sometime in there some chatter occured about the eventual under-the-porch lattice. Sometimes, but not always, the best way to get help from Doug is to ask for advice about something I plan to undertake myself. I was figuring that we'd just have the same kind of lattice everyone else has, except I wanted the square openings instead of the diamond shaped ones because it would be a better match for our porch trim. So it comes in 4x8 foot plastic sheets that never need painting and you figure out what shape of frame will work best with the contour of the ground and cut the lattice sheets to fit the frame.</div>
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Now previously, sometime during the more than several years I had available to spend time looking forward to eventually having lattice under my porches, I saw a porch somewhere that had wide vertical slats instead of lattice and I thought that looked pretty cool. But I realized that it would be a lot more work, and they'd have to be painted and maintained, so I decided it would be better to just admire the lattice on that one house and be more practical with mine. Because what's wrong with having the same kind of lattice that everyone else has? Normal lattice is perfectly nice. I'd been wishing I had some good old normal lattice under my porches for years.</div>
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So in August I went out of town for a few days with my roommate from college. Sometimes Doug fixates on some of my not-that-weird ideas and finds a way to make them weirder. This has happened <a href="http://www.foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2008/10/making-our-house-beautiful.html" target="_blank">several times during the course of building our house</a>. And he seems to enjoy conducting these experiments when I'm away. This time while I was gone he suddenly decided to present me with his own design, based on what he thought I had in mind, and he included a special little touch of his own. Apparently he had forgotten, or chose to ignore, the fact that I had bagged the idea of vertical strips and wanted to just have normal lattice. So surprise surprise, he emails me this picture:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoHpggrIEHHtjw-1PKvHTy_TARm0RnxfT8_5edbWD6OCS5uBA-JN-3xVElGWrN1yh8nOcPl43QG4HxKHKvAsXTb-dRsyUt9gbyAWPhyphenhyphen6aPrSKOb61wyhxUlTqk6kCTrArZ9x7XvGydOSa0/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoHpggrIEHHtjw-1PKvHTy_TARm0RnxfT8_5edbWD6OCS5uBA-JN-3xVElGWrN1yh8nOcPl43QG4HxKHKvAsXTb-dRsyUt9gbyAWPhyphenhyphen6aPrSKOb61wyhxUlTqk6kCTrArZ9x7XvGydOSa0/s640/002.jpg" width="345" /></a></div>
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And this one below - look how cute it is with the little picket tops. Except the strips he got are really skinny and that picket top business is kind of strange looking. And why in the world is he suddenly so interested in porch lattice when I'm not even there? But I did appreciate the gesture and was able to successfully (this time) encourage him to follow up on his good intentions. There was still a lot of waiting involved, but we actually got some significant work done for a change.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyeMy6sy3SZVs69Ge3nqbiIIvKH3SkUA1X_EBd0tbryLiWL3_N7Cbl8L7paxGX7AiYQaHFtNyW5lTmqkoYASxXTgXrAfXwgrrivFFnTeSZJcxS9RSQvLXAYLd6P0_0_U_dyVfRoYNEA5t/s1600/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyeMy6sy3SZVs69Ge3nqbiIIvKH3SkUA1X_EBd0tbryLiWL3_N7Cbl8L7paxGX7AiYQaHFtNyW5lTmqkoYASxXTgXrAfXwgrrivFFnTeSZJcxS9RSQvLXAYLd6P0_0_U_dyVfRoYNEA5t/s320/003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So he talked me into the much more labor-intensive, but way cooler looking vertical lattice, instead of the low-maintanence, easy to assemble, plastic stuff. But I told him that it needed to look the way I wanted it to look, and those pickets needed to be wider and not have pointy tops.<br />
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Doug put up some framing and I did an initial calculation of how many of the wider pickets we'd need and started painting them. And then Doug went on tour so it looked like this for a while:<br />
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And now it's time for me to bitch and moan about the cinderblock. It looks a whole lot better since I had a chance to borrow a power washer this summer and clean all of the disgusting brown mud splash stains off the front of our house that happened as a result of not having gutters for several years. It's still pretty ugly though. If the long ago promised stone veneer doesn't happen pretty soon after the last bit of lattice is finished, I AM going to paint it. It's ugly.<br />
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This is the back porch before anything got started. My friend JoAnn's beautiful hydrangea bush, which got split into four sections, is doing very well, except for the fact that the flowers have switched over to pink in my soil.<br />
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I bought a bag of soil acidifier but I haven't gotten around to using it yet. I don't really want to mess with nature too much, but I DO want those hydrangeas to be blue again, so I'm kind of torn. Maybe I'll sprinkle some of this stuff around them the next time it's warm and see what happens.<br />
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So back to the pickets - he put up the supports for the eventual pickets. Meanwhile I spent all of my spare time painting and painting and painting and painting. It was unbelievably tedious and took absolutely forever.<br />
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Doug actually ended up doing all of the cutting and attaching. But that only took about a quarter of the time the painting took. And then I had to wait for the paint to dry so that I could put on another coat, and another - one coat of primer and two top coats.<br />
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Since I had time to kill in between coats of paint I decided to paint the hideously ugly charred bookcase that had been in the fire. It was the only other piece of furniture besides our dining room table that wasn't completely destroyed. I don't know why Doug saved this bookcase - it was a homemade yardsale bookcase and it was all burned and filthy, but the structure of the wood was still there, so I guess he figured it was worth saving. It's been sitting out on the back porch with all of the other junk we don't need. Anyway, between the three coats of paint and the many batches of pickets, I managed to get it painted and it's all clean and white and shiny now. You'd never know that it was once in a fire. It's in the house now, and it's MINE.<br />
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Our back porch stretches for most of the length of the back of our house, so towards the top of the hill there were many short pieces to cut. This section reminded me of a marimba, especially with the unpainted pieces. I did all of the initial painting while they weren't attached, so that the coverage would be thorough. Doug was just checking to make sure all the lengths are correct before he took them down to be painted.<br />
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Finally, you can see the finished product in the back. Well almost - hopefully we'll do the sides in the spring. But in the meantime I am thrilled at how this turned out. It's a nice clean look - and not nearly as fussy as the regular lattice would have been.<br />
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There was lots more time to kill in between coats of paint after I got that bookcase painted. It's always a problem when you're outside, all dirty and sweaty, with maybe some partially dried paint in unknown places on your paint-spattered painting clothes. I can't bring myself to go inside and sit down and potentially mess up my house with dirty, sweaty, wet paint-spattered clothes, so it makes sense to keep painting other things while waiting for the main stuff to dry.<br />
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So next up was another item that Doug had saved. He saves EVERTHING. Originally this old cabinet was in the laundry room of our old house before we started the addition. Then it was hanging out in the basement, serving no purpose whatsoever when the fire happened. Of course it didn't get tossed. So I decided that it would be really nice to have a cabinet to store all of the smaller gardening stuff in. Eventually I would like my back porch to actually be attractive instead of ugly and trashy. So I painted it the same color as the back door, and now I can hide all of that gardening clutter inside it. WIN!<br />
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It started getting to be too cold at night to leave it outside to dry between coats, so I ended up putting some tarps down in the living room and painting part of it inside.<br />
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I had time for one last little painting project in between the pickets. This little chest of drawers was in the as-is section of IKEA. I paid a grand total of $17.00 for it. It's all wood except for the masonite drawer bottoms. I put new knobs on it and painted it blue and now it looks cute.<br />
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<span id="goog_128537574"></span><span id="goog_128537575"></span><br />Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-91393075071826879742013-05-18T06:25:00.000+01:002013-12-18T03:54:38.132+00:00Scilla Spring Beauty<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These flowers are called Scilla Spring Beauty and they are the largest of the Scillas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year they bloomed about two weeks later than usual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our two rhododendron bushes will not bloom this year because the deer ate all the buds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far the roses have not bloomed, but the bushes grew quite a bit over the winter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The crape myrtles have all leafed out earlier than usual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's all I've got for now.</span>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-90148982102387385532012-06-24T23:32:00.000+01:002013-01-23T23:38:13.775+00:00Hydrangea ReportI've been very excited to see how my new hydrangeas would survive the winter, especially since they were <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2011/09/hydrangea-heaven.html" target="_blank">transplanted, divided, and pruned</a> late last summer, which is exactly when you aren't supposed to be doing any of those things to hydrangeas.<br />
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Originally this was one huge bush that inadvertantly got split into four smaller bushes when my friend JoAnn decided to dig it up to make way for some new landscaping in her yard. I decided to go ahead and prune them rather severely because I figured what was left of the root ball(s) would have a hard time supporting the plants if left as is. I knew that I'd be removing most of the pre-formed flower buds but figured it would be worth it for the eventual health of the plants.<br />
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I got exactly three blooms on two of the four bushes. I guess that's a lot better than nothing. And instead of the regular solid hydrangea blue, they were sort of a variegated lavender. Maybe the cement piers under the porch are making the soil more alkaline? Anyway it will be interesting to see how many blooms I get next summer and what color they'll be. So here is this year's batch of blooms:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbeDWdVInaGO2MEJxr3S7sESQnti2WBDY4I-h0oRdBFb4XVaIb9zgrH0QGaCL4dncXUy5xRqiaiZN_9mO4Wd3WzzZeUjWBQJCd-Cze-t_tcerOXQqtHzbL38luA0nZWENxDt6FLELoTsq/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbeDWdVInaGO2MEJxr3S7sESQnti2WBDY4I-h0oRdBFb4XVaIb9zgrH0QGaCL4dncXUy5xRqiaiZN_9mO4Wd3WzzZeUjWBQJCd-Cze-t_tcerOXQqtHzbL38luA0nZWENxDt6FLELoTsq/s400/004.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hydrangea Bloom #1</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfFwOOOynipYfsaph2l3YXJKp_5Uy3H4PNEUaFV-cfXVsoc3JLkGnZhK_OzeuYTmPEWIai2GVHnnYr34uULwkv8-ZrLahO2bECMmXchni0gCGzBhCo0SyEq5YR2BRZACA0t2bTJdKLScj/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfFwOOOynipYfsaph2l3YXJKp_5Uy3H4PNEUaFV-cfXVsoc3JLkGnZhK_OzeuYTmPEWIai2GVHnnYr34uULwkv8-ZrLahO2bECMmXchni0gCGzBhCo0SyEq5YR2BRZACA0t2bTJdKLScj/s400/005.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hydrangea Bloom #2</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsGUqQxMHZEwpbviHlIgJcbl6K1CarDCvxErxw_lpLTl8170Z3lt154ye1OqQy3R5Kl0Ff1eapfVc6HzzvTiOX-N7r8BRbEOCCM6-KTdCfX-OupLZHwwwq4BBHGDl-26d5X1cVSKBq8F0a/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsGUqQxMHZEwpbviHlIgJcbl6K1CarDCvxErxw_lpLTl8170Z3lt154ye1OqQy3R5Kl0Ff1eapfVc6HzzvTiOX-N7r8BRbEOCCM6-KTdCfX-OupLZHwwwq4BBHGDl-26d5X1cVSKBq8F0a/s400/006.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And on the other bush, Hydrangea Bloom #3</div>
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Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-67660194644320078862012-05-05T10:52:00.000+01:002013-01-27T07:20:26.107+00:00Foundation Plantings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Last fall we saw some plants on sale for cheap at Home Depot and decided to go ahead and get a little bit of foundation planting happening, now that we finally have gutters. These were sort of impulse purchases and we'll move them somewhere else if they don't seem suitable in a few years. We have to start somewhere though so we might as well put in some pretty ones.</div>
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I can't remember the name of the rhododendron on the left, but it has the potential to become rather large, which I think will look okay at the corner of the house.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjw85zFSLOJoeaB7sYKjifQ9MHwg69QEO8M-R9iDHbOE_VcjaLVsOh5IfMfXTeMkyJybj2MwKOjfTyBTXGBJ1DvQV0uiAmjnMWppAi9_kBL3cncVlL-vIgDHqLzFUuFfCA-FEnxgg8bKZ/s1600/044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjw85zFSLOJoeaB7sYKjifQ9MHwg69QEO8M-R9iDHbOE_VcjaLVsOh5IfMfXTeMkyJybj2MwKOjfTyBTXGBJ1DvQV0uiAmjnMWppAi9_kBL3cncVlL-vIgDHqLzFUuFfCA-FEnxgg8bKZ/s400/044.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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In the middle we have three knockout roses in the pale "Blushing" pink color which will hopefully grow together into one large mass. They are supposed to bloom all summer long. I think the pale pink looks nice against our gray siding.</div>
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Doug saw the rhododendron below and on the right in the upper picture and he just had to have it. It's a very pale pink with darker pink edges. It will hopefully stay on the smallish side - it's supposed to be a dwarf variety. We'll see.</div>
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So far they've survived without the deer munching on them. But we did use deer spray over the winter.</div>
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The hill by the fence used to have a retaining wall instead of a hill. We planted a nice row of azaleas that were mostly in the shade of our former house. Then the house got torn down, the retaining wall got taken out, the liriope got planted, we got busy building the new house ourselves, and the hillside got completely overgrown with weeds and vines and the azaleas have suffered from a combination of too much sun and strangulation by weeds. I've been pruning the dead wood to see if they'll perk up, but I'm not too hopeful. They look pretty sad. I guess I'll leave them in for now and see how they do now that the weed situation is lessening. I can't wait for the liriope to finally take over! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6WI9DcYvR_Kq6a5vli8KgW_RCf-MDkwzJ5TAd18u9CfbESZuXobWN75ycJ43o8KkD1Ch8u1gVV2S06jLlQOvuTYk4tYlDHGquNIEmoXisAiWCClFWTQv2-wCTD6c5JOdpqUdqhjw21x6/s1600/045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6WI9DcYvR_Kq6a5vli8KgW_RCf-MDkwzJ5TAd18u9CfbESZuXobWN75ycJ43o8KkD1Ch8u1gVV2S06jLlQOvuTYk4tYlDHGquNIEmoXisAiWCClFWTQv2-wCTD6c5JOdpqUdqhjw21x6/s400/045.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm sure I'll be pruning them some more, but I think I need to do it in stages for now.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-66697849616984687532012-04-22T19:26:00.000+01:002013-01-23T22:42:54.379+00:00Liriope - AprilI've made good headway on the liriope hill this spring - it's all trimmed, mulched, and ready to go. And that's a far cry from where it was when I started clearing out the 2-3 foot high weeds last summer. I'm really ready for this liriope to fill in and beat the weeds. We'll see how that goes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhw1ZPOw-4sBa9eF8MWIL3eR7s4yB-Tcub4MtXpovKxhx52VO7DK9wiuc6P3iwkpRovztLV98shApP65ejfvoJWQOnKN8lp3-Jizn1-_DA7ys9Sf-5Ib-hJtvwVMpPdgw87o6jgYvsFYtM/s1600/046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhw1ZPOw-4sBa9eF8MWIL3eR7s4yB-Tcub4MtXpovKxhx52VO7DK9wiuc6P3iwkpRovztLV98shApP65ejfvoJWQOnKN8lp3-Jizn1-_DA7ys9Sf-5Ib-hJtvwVMpPdgw87o6jgYvsFYtM/s400/046.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-65103583351094383062012-03-13T09:57:00.000+00:002013-01-24T23:01:39.948+00:00A little bit of decorating...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22bJlKRbIITMuGXKLKY_p4b0_bJPzxX5Z0y9rg543WtZZbyorBuSoR4KMoMn1QDRkSB7qb1F0dZJEonDYiSILSgsNngN8ErcsxQbdFApGxKtMWzN_KSR8LMjTbVtNw-3jzrqKStQ2t6i3/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22bJlKRbIITMuGXKLKY_p4b0_bJPzxX5Z0y9rg543WtZZbyorBuSoR4KMoMn1QDRkSB7qb1F0dZJEonDYiSILSgsNngN8ErcsxQbdFApGxKtMWzN_KSR8LMjTbVtNw-3jzrqKStQ2t6i3/s640/022.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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I haven't done any blogging in a L O N G time, much longer than it might seem by the date of this post (because I post-dated it). I have spent so much time these past several years totally focused on construction stuff that when it stopped happening I became rather frustrated and discouraged and annoyed and I really didn't want to share all of that negativity here. The ever-present well-intended question "So how's the house coming along?" with its subsequent non-answer from me would inevitably bring on a temporary bout of depression.<br />
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So to review, the last thing that has happened with the house, construction-wise, was when I stained and polyurethaned Doug's <a href="http://www.foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2011/03/basement-steps.html" target="_blank">basement steps</a> while he was out on tour in early 2011. Although to be fair, other things have happened since then, on the outside of the house. We put in a little wall by the front steps, and Doug FINALLY put all the gutters on the house (after five years of not having them) and <a href="http://www.foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/no-more-giant-tree-stump.html" target="_blank">took down that ugly tree stump.</a> We planted my friend JoAnn's hydrangeas by the back porch, and I started the still unfinished process of getting the long-neglected liriope under control.<br />
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Inside, I wander around, looking at all of the raw edges of wallboard around all of the door and window openings and ask myself "When is this ever going to get done?" That's one of the reasons I've been spending more time working outside than in. Most of what needs to be done inside requires Doug's skills and participation, in addition to my own.<br />
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Even though I don't really consider myself a do-it-yourselfer, I guess I've become one of those people. It's really true that anybody can do just about anything if they put their mind to it. So I suppose I'm going to eventually have to teach myself how to do finish carpentry if I ever want my house to be finished. But this wasn't how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to have a builder do this work. It was supposed to take (OMG, how awful! people would say) a whole entire year. So after the five+ years went by, I am especially grateful that we finally got to the point where we were allowed to move back in.<br />
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In spite of all this griping, I'm not as depressed as I was during the really awful (dirty, physically grueling, injurious to the hands) parts of the construction process - all that sanding, vacuuming, nailing, installing insulation, sweeping, lifting absurdly heavy things, wallboarding, painting, flooring, etc. I'll do it, but I'm not someone who likes getting dirty. So spending time not doing messy work is actually kind of uplifting. And this year I can honestly say that I felt happy most of the time!<br />
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Anyway, we spent a few days at my friend Jennifer's house in Connecticut, both before and after our China tour in December and January, and it felt absolutely wonderful to be there in her beautiful home. She has spent years and years combing antique stores and junk stores and auctions for fantastic bargains. Her house is so tastefully decorated, yet fully of personal flair and pizzaz, and just about everything in it is a gorgeous antique that she got for practically nothing.<br />
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Since this is something she loves to do, she took Doug and I along to one of her favorite places and whenever I admired anything she would of course say "You should buy that!" So I bought some things - a few pictures and other odds and ends. Since my mind had been on other things for so long and I lost pretty much everything in the fire, I really didn't have much stuff of my own to work with, physically or mentally. And in case you can't tell by now, I'm sort of a first things first kind of person, so decorating an unfinished house had been kind of the last thing on my mind. I still haven't unpacked most of my boxes of books for that very reason. But those two paintings and a print that I picked up while I was up there pretty much got me started and I've been decorating my walls ever since! It makes a huge difference to be able to live in pleasant surroundings instead of bareness or clutter.<br />
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So when I got home I got busy. I finally decided that I wanted to hang that leaded glass thing <a href="http://www.foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/two-more-projects.html" target="_blank">that I doctored up</a> over the TV instead of in the stairwell. I think it makes the TV a lot less noticeable. I painted the bench behind the couch a slightly darker color to match the fuzzies of the couch fabric. The rocking chair and those other two chairs under the window will eventually live out on the back porch when it stops being a lumber storage area. The two pictures on the right are oil paintings that I got for a good price at a "vintage" store when I was visiting Jennifer.<br />
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What I especially like about my living/dining room is that I can easily shove the bench and couch towards the TV to make plenty of room for larger chamber music groups. I've had as many as nine in here at one time and it's fine. And people have mentioned that the sound is good in here too. It's really great to be able to have people over to play after all this time.<br />
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Between the couch and the kitchen is this rather unattractive wall (below) with the pass through to the kitchen. It will look good one day. The two blue areas are supposed to have built-in bookcases, but that hasn't happened yet. As I said before, I have not unpacked most of my books yet. I figure that the longer they stay in boxes, the easier it will be for me to get rid of most of them, since I apparently don't really need any of the stuff in there.<br />
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However, the longer they stay in boxes in that location, the easier it will be to not do anything about getting those bookcases finished. So I guess I need to do something about that. At least the majority of the room looks halfway decent now.<br />
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I sort of chose my wall colors by feel. First I picked colors that I knew would make me feel happy to be amongst, and then I tried to make it so that you could see a different color through each doorway. And then somehow I ended up with pictures that had colors from the preceding room in them. It was sort of a happy accident, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. There's still a lot of makeshift stuff going on, like that Aerobed in the front foyer, because it's the darkest and most private room in the house for an overnight guest in the morning. Although it doesn't have curtains, the windows are high enough that no one can look in. And there is a door between the foyer and the living room.<br />
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This picture in the foyer is an old print from an antique store in Connecticut. It has some of the same yellow-green that's in the living room.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcedG9G3PfXtLLy3wuV_DjucY57dMBC6yriGRUKJeob5qfjdyVJ36ebZr_TDVtAsk48EzUGtSITcLnFmaWgG2-iDlwQvxxS51eXE1eZPGboJfbiWMP4rot6gENT6IgjuR6lXOhZqpvh-2/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcedG9G3PfXtLLy3wuV_DjucY57dMBC6yriGRUKJeob5qfjdyVJ36ebZr_TDVtAsk48EzUGtSITcLnFmaWgG2-iDlwQvxxS51eXE1eZPGboJfbiWMP4rot6gENT6IgjuR6lXOhZqpvh-2/s400/010.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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I picked up this print of an etching of St. Cecilia at Savage Mill. It was really nicely framed and in excellent condition. The naked cherub doubling as a music stand is a nice touch. I looked it up a while back and found out that the original oil painting was done in 1620 by Domenichino Zampieri, and 100 years or more later someone in France did the black and white etching of it. And mine is a print of that so I guess it's kind of a third hand version of the original. And that's just fine with me.<br />
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So things are looking up. Who knew what a difference a little interior decorating would make? It's nice to be pleased by your surroundings. I highly recommend it!</div>
Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-74501263886238449062011-11-04T08:00:00.005+00:002011-11-10T08:06:58.817+00:00finished the slipcover!Almost. It's far enough along that it looks finished to the casual observer and that's good enough for now. I want to do something with tabs and buttonholes and covered buttons so that the band around the circumference will be more fitted. Then I want to get some firmer foam for the seat cushions and cover them in a more tailored way. I also want to make some throw pillows with the leftover bits of fabric. In my spare time. <br />
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Here's the original pattern. As I mentioned before, I had to do something different with the skirt because I didn't have quite enough fabric in the $3.00/yard remnant to follow the pattern exactly. That's how it ended up getting all fancy.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3EjJOOD8qgwhxiZFKLT2LzSrGisD67Y__KdHg8H_E24XPZfwI8XS7WgnzDZa59HOJReKeCp5iEBSZWQo7opESiJIGrLxFSNXkS-UnBkDrBdAMJ1N0mk9bEfS-ECwv3kQabcBDW-wUWfj/s1600/butterick+slipcover+pattern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3EjJOOD8qgwhxiZFKLT2LzSrGisD67Y__KdHg8H_E24XPZfwI8XS7WgnzDZa59HOJReKeCp5iEBSZWQo7opESiJIGrLxFSNXkS-UnBkDrBdAMJ1N0mk9bEfS-ECwv3kQabcBDW-wUWfj/s320/butterick+slipcover+pattern.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br />
Here's the end result and a couple of other views. I'm not sure why I didn't take a full picture from the front. Maybe I didn't feel like moving the coffee table.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-Q7yd5RifhLYYGY-UWvNfltQegksLLz3C1c3m4xbXhMqKXrkzB9pxZDOYTJPURjiCnJBf8RajeGBlS9V6fdKdTRlRTlFxMtEeKH-S3Gc5IbJHbEVnTt64Ncegb4I6Aov0mxmi9KTnVqC/s1600/016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-Q7yd5RifhLYYGY-UWvNfltQegksLLz3C1c3m4xbXhMqKXrkzB9pxZDOYTJPURjiCnJBf8RajeGBlS9V6fdKdTRlRTlFxMtEeKH-S3Gc5IbJHbEVnTt64Ncegb4I6Aov0mxmi9KTnVqC/s320/016.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Although the appearance of this couch has been vastly improved, over all I'm not that impressed with the whole idea of slipcovers, now that I've done one, or at least I'm not impressed with the drape and tie variety. It's kind of makeshift, even if it doesn't look that way. Actually it sort of does look makeshift, but I can live with it for now. I sort of want to see if I can figure out how to actually reupholster the couch properly one of these years. We'll see.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-45193125590245776922011-09-29T16:19:00.009+01:002011-11-11T03:07:34.755+00:00Hydrangea HeavenI have always loved hydrangeas. We used to have a huge old Pee Gee hydrangea growing right outside by the corner of our bedroom but sadly it went away along with the <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2006/08/today-is-day-that-our-house-is-going.html" target="_blank">rest of the old part of our house.</a> I've been wanting another one ever since, but have hesitated because of all the deer that we have running around here, <a href="http://photo-cyn-thesis.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-that-time-of-year-again.html" target="_blank">eating everything in sight.</a> <br />
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Finally I broke down and bought myself a pair of Endless Summer hydrangeas and some deer spray, which actually seems to work quite well. It stinks when you first spray it on, but then the smell goes away. Apparently the deer can still smell it for about 3 months afterwards, so it's a pretty easy solution as long as it works.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmiKypR2hLkYIAmbOVO7_998d9s-D1ucuCowci94XvTVbi9t5zjsxjVmI0LLXyDdYadA0SPGDfh-qld4490d85xQdrNSM8IHTSrj_wMpeSFWZWtf1zD6LobxYAfeDxwrKTcp3wlrKxlX0v/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmiKypR2hLkYIAmbOVO7_998d9s-D1ucuCowci94XvTVbi9t5zjsxjVmI0LLXyDdYadA0SPGDfh-qld4490d85xQdrNSM8IHTSrj_wMpeSFWZWtf1zD6LobxYAfeDxwrKTcp3wlrKxlX0v/s320/005.JPG" width="254" /></a></div><br />
The one we planted by our front steps is doing really well, but I neglected to plant the other one for about a week and it got dry and droopy a couple of times and died shortly after I planted it. That'll teach me.<br />
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Then suddenly my friend JoAnn had a hydrangea that she needed to move. It was enormous - about 4 or 5 feet across, with absolutely gorgeous blue flowers. I had spent the summer admiring it, full of hope that one day my own little hydrangea would get that big and healthy. It was so huge, and she couldn't figure out where else in her yard to put it, and then when it broke into four pieces while she was digging it up, she decided to offer them to me!<br />
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So I am now the proud owner of four(!) offspring of this lovely bush which are now gracing the hillside outside of my not-yet-screened-in back porch with their glorious beauty. I can hardly wait to see them bloom and grow next summer. And I like the fact that they remind me of JoAnn whenever I park my car in the back, which is pretty much every single day.<br />
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After we planted them I gave them a pretty hard pruning so that the root systems could establish themselves in their new location without having to work too hard to feed so many leaves and flowers. The deer gave me some further assistance later that evening:<br />
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So we got right on spraying them with the deer spray after that. Although hydrangeas are not the most practical choice for our location because of the deer, the fact that they'll get morning sun and afternoon shade is ideal. I really want them to thrive.<br />
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Another less than ideal situation is the fact that they were divided and transplanted at the end of the summer when it was still quite hot. Hydrangeas can apparently be a little delicate and sensitive during warm weather, so Doug rigged up a couple of screens to give them more shade while they adapt. We took them down about a month later after the weather got cooler.<br />
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So now I'm just waiting and waiting and waiting until next summer to see how they do. I'm absolutely thrilled to have ended up with an entire row of blue hydrangeas!Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-67260695369483065662011-08-30T06:43:00.000+01:002011-08-30T06:43:32.246+01:00August Home ImprovementsWe've made a little progress on our house this month. Nothing major - just a few little cosmetic improvements to make our house an even more pleasant place to live. The first thing we did was to pick out and install the glass for the tops of our cabinets. After all this time we finally got around to it - because we discovered that there's a <a href="http://www.weisserglass.com/" target="_blank">really cool glass store</a> in Kensington that has all kinds of different glass textures. I wanted something slightly wavy and I found exactly the style I had in mind.<br />
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You might notice that the sample moulding piece I made way back in <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2009/10/possible-mouldings-for-our-kitchen.html">October of 2009</a> is still languishing up there on top of the cabinet as are the actual lengths of moulding that I painted and got all ready to go in March of 2010. I have I feeling I'm going to have to do it myself if I want to ever get it installed. All that's left to do in the kitchen, besides the door trim and the baseboards is this top of the cabinet moulding and the shoe moulding around the floor. That's it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>After I get everything else done, hahaha, I want to take a class at the glass studio and learn how to do this:<br />
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I stole that picture from <a href="http://www.weisserglass.com/" target="_blank">their website</a> so I'm assuming they will teach people how to do leaded glass. If you look around my house (or this blog) you'll see that I have a thing for clear leaded glass (as opposed to stained glass).<br />
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Considering how I had to live for five years of my life, I guess you could say I'm fairly adaptable and tolerant of things not looking the way they ought to. I was absolutely horrified at myself when I first hung this construction paper over the bottom halves of the windows in the living room a few months ago to keep people on the street from looking in and being tempted by our new TV.<br />
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Doug has in the meantime informed me that if someone wanted to steal a TV they'd be going after a much bigger one than what we have. What do I know? I didn't even have a TV for six years after the fire and I think the one we got recently is huge. <br />
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Anyway, after a while I sort of got used to the construction paper on the windows and it wasn't until a couple of my good friends gently reminded me that this really isn't a good look for the living room that I decided to buckle down and make some curtains. I've them on four windows on the main floor and four windows upstairs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdLE4LMEuUX6n65MS0fFTxW2LAI-sWb4iDnwI2C_jOuK227c8ZA0m3EcFFoNkWuPpIitRzyHyLtX9ACOvDyu9b8wNqhGy672FMIKt-iqyYD1bKT39d2KBgE6JXauxukIz1tF3k4bJujDz/s1600/026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdLE4LMEuUX6n65MS0fFTxW2LAI-sWb4iDnwI2C_jOuK227c8ZA0m3EcFFoNkWuPpIitRzyHyLtX9ACOvDyu9b8wNqhGy672FMIKt-iqyYD1bKT39d2KBgE6JXauxukIz1tF3k4bJujDz/s320/026.JPG" width="235" xaa="true" /></a></div><div align="left"><br />
I think it's a big improvement, marred only by the fact that there is no window trim or baseboards there yet. But you can't have everything now can you? So why not put up curtains before the window trim is finished? After all. we've got to keep the order of doing things UNUSUAL in order to maintain any kind of consistency around here.<br />
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When I was in South Carolina I bought a coffee table at an antique store for 75 dollars which I think is a pretty good deal. It's very cute. Check it out:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yJBF1KLVaPsxuafZbeGYO4I5MFiABruFXawxo3ufsKD5LyCPIrkGbzVsAyTazANrNkPSVl0mh00UaJLFJMJNjVbOPsxZjPzGISPBctggczYDwGAl4ujBOCJJPfAbDBiObBpXfmXn-xWE/s1600/016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yJBF1KLVaPsxuafZbeGYO4I5MFiABruFXawxo3ufsKD5LyCPIrkGbzVsAyTazANrNkPSVl0mh00UaJLFJMJNjVbOPsxZjPzGISPBctggczYDwGAl4ujBOCJJPfAbDBiObBpXfmXn-xWE/s320/016.JPG" width="210" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
The table is oval with a glass top. It's exactly the right size to go in front of the couch. And if I get tired of it in the living room, it's metal, so I can paint it with rustoleum and put it out in the not-yet-screened-in back porch.<br />
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Next up is finishing <a href="http://photo-cyn-thesis.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-hate-sewing.html" target="_blank">the damn slipcover</a> for the couch. It has been languishing upstairs by the sewing machine for over a month. I lost my momentum due to the sheer tediousness of sewing all of those long seams and then it got interrupted by curtain making and a dress. (A dress!!!) But now it's time to get back to it. Sigh. Here's what it looks like so far:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lYXq357z6GSec_RKFCr6LWVxR96YclnFCAWvGPEY-QpTbO25Iy5TUcYuFmSFztPsnpBVtsw2e803bgUDPZF1XaFXpGaepsBBx_NqmTnNb0DSMvXc6A4yHItg49NotKzx-jbFdx-P-UdN/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lYXq357z6GSec_RKFCr6LWVxR96YclnFCAWvGPEY-QpTbO25Iy5TUcYuFmSFztPsnpBVtsw2e803bgUDPZF1XaFXpGaepsBBx_NqmTnNb0DSMvXc6A4yHItg49NotKzx-jbFdx-P-UdN/s320/007.JPG" width="320" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
I'd almost rather pull weeds than work on this slipcover, so wish me luck!!!</div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-91115785444657254212011-07-31T15:36:00.000+01:002011-07-31T15:36:22.353+01:00Gutters Finished!I'm happy to report that Doug has finished installing the gutters. He did a beautiful job on them and is now I'm sure feeling quite relieved to have finally finished something that he'd been putting off for a long time. I am happy about the water no longer hitting and wearing out the porch roofs from the roof above, no more lack-of-gutter induced erosion around our house, and no more sprained ankles caused by these grass-covered areas of erosion for me! And there won't be huge amounts of water pouring all over me and my bass whenever I go to or from my car during a rainstorm. Not anymore. Yaaay Doug! <br />
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Here are some photos of his excellent handiwork:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEick1lJGpixBoH4e6lH4E5mt2nUUmbGHyvtcoDHBV-gULovKYSkC6LB4XXFj5tVEYLjX8BPZrUUEifuhqJ7TIas7ttyf9GBC_pENGyesGfnKIOFre5hqF3v7ksCugwYFAnw5l98C1PbmYtR/s1600/019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEick1lJGpixBoH4e6lH4E5mt2nUUmbGHyvtcoDHBV-gULovKYSkC6LB4XXFj5tVEYLjX8BPZrUUEifuhqJ7TIas7ttyf9GBC_pENGyesGfnKIOFre5hqF3v7ksCugwYFAnw5l98C1PbmYtR/s400/019.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I think the house looks a little more finished now with the gutters on. And now we'll be able to do some foundation planting too.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdk5su5Av5L6TiWs3_1-UR5aK2p9OuMOIxn2i7r-O-VBpktsYK5y2fV_ocnQIzknCSe877setA83bK6NJhkBQUTIG8JJjGgROF6KMVeJW71XGQIQc0SzMfemivH9vZ31FnOGTeTTwYN3B5/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdk5su5Av5L6TiWs3_1-UR5aK2p9OuMOIxn2i7r-O-VBpktsYK5y2fV_ocnQIzknCSe877setA83bK6NJhkBQUTIG8JJjGgROF6KMVeJW71XGQIQc0SzMfemivH9vZ31FnOGTeTTwYN3B5/s400/017.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I like the way he's got the downspout from the gable gutter on the right heading directly into the porch gutter. And the porch gutter's downspout goes into an underground pipe so there will be no erosion on that hill<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_9qk3jYOoFYl1T8uOye1OM9qaBEuo0G8_FA8b8noHc3UmU1WYV7F_ZHVSRpikjGgvu9pvlzRboL1jZasbigwaUatR48Djg_AvGlvWUrSORwRtmvWVbeAGPEXrltDjOSvmbjhr7ZBRk_HZ/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_9qk3jYOoFYl1T8uOye1OM9qaBEuo0G8_FA8b8noHc3UmU1WYV7F_ZHVSRpikjGgvu9pvlzRboL1jZasbigwaUatR48Djg_AvGlvWUrSORwRtmvWVbeAGPEXrltDjOSvmbjhr7ZBRk_HZ/s400/022.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Doug decided to use brackets to attach the gutters to the house instead of the big long screws that go across the gutter. He thinks those are more prone to coming loose. Hopefully ours will be less prone to coming loose because I think this was a lot more work. But sturdy is good, especially with gutters.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1QDrUM6lPWOGdMPXjS73jZdmXxS6-bdNHpihrI8R-tQW2XmX40xUQdMM9NMCaZEuN7o9ZnJbC4g7D5a3GsHrmD2Dww9eYXMnuid-cMPUKs5POogJcHr87koTtQSm5UlcHt80ZbGVAA0q/s1600/014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1QDrUM6lPWOGdMPXjS73jZdmXxS6-bdNHpihrI8R-tQW2XmX40xUQdMM9NMCaZEuN7o9ZnJbC4g7D5a3GsHrmD2Dww9eYXMnuid-cMPUKs5POogJcHr87koTtQSm5UlcHt80ZbGVAA0q/s400/014.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
He spent a lot of time relocating and declogging these pipes which come out on the other side of the driveway. He installed these pipes under the driveway about 15 years ago and they just sat there in a state of neglect. I'm glad they are finally being used for their intended purpose.<br />
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Now I'm actually looking forward to getting some rain so that we can enjoy the greatness of his gutters.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-33901932423078357852011-07-17T23:36:00.003+01:002011-07-18T05:25:57.047+01:00our new crape myrtles are blooming!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YnCt1ziMCC5rq5OH6gXJjxCRCBEThHymLP5aCjeqXbL01omA31Ivg8dmayF3ISQ8J1GcBBN-RVrnB3oEiTHTaEPhH005GtU6h87ZJJbtXAMYGCb8qUuMYX0NaRFLPivX1YtTChAv1Tnf/s1600/021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YnCt1ziMCC5rq5OH6gXJjxCRCBEThHymLP5aCjeqXbL01omA31Ivg8dmayF3ISQ8J1GcBBN-RVrnB3oEiTHTaEPhH005GtU6h87ZJJbtXAMYGCb8qUuMYX0NaRFLPivX1YtTChAv1Tnf/s400/021.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
We are so excited at how well our five crape myrtles are doing. For a while we thought maybe they wouldn't bloom during the first year after we planted them (last fall). But they are now in full bloom and they look extremely happy out there all along the front sidewalk. Our crape myrtles are called "Muskogee" and they are supposed to grow into medium sized trees that will stop growing just before they get to the power lines.<br />
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We are ever so slightly disappointed at how pink they are - it seems like they were less pink and more purple when we bought them last fall. They almost matched the front door. I guess I'm just going to have to go for a blending of various shades of blue and purple now. That will probably look better than the matchy-matchy effect anyway. I wonder if our soil has slightly affected the crape myrtle color? It makes a huge difference for hydrangeas. I also wonder whether our new hydrangea will eventually switch over to being pink in its new location. I guess we'll have to wait and see!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK02tFnyal8oxosj198FEg_RDse7dISUnf94PEhE0gZjfOMcWXAfP9Tkqr_E_DUwz35I4-YdotSJKeJ1sPdESZ19FhNVUv0UzNRJDAr0gf41Rxb50_I2JwCOJGMS0jcefgwkCWoB5tBW8w/s1600/012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK02tFnyal8oxosj198FEg_RDse7dISUnf94PEhE0gZjfOMcWXAfP9Tkqr_E_DUwz35I4-YdotSJKeJ1sPdESZ19FhNVUv0UzNRJDAr0gf41Rxb50_I2JwCOJGMS0jcefgwkCWoB5tBW8w/s400/012.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-63706394667321459942011-07-15T21:47:00.001+01:002011-07-16T04:14:04.769+01:00Ladder RackWe are working on a bunch of different outdoor projects here in Foam Core Fantasyland and we've even managed to finish some of them, and almost finish some others.<br />
<ul><li>The <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/t-i-m-b-e-r.html">World's Biggest Tree Stump</a> is long gone and tomorrow we will be covering the area with sod so it will be as if it had never been there.</li>
<li>We put weed fabric behind our new retaining wall and backfilled it with topsoil. Tomorrow we will also top that soil with sod.</li>
<li>Doug has been working to find and de-clog the drain pipes he installed under the driveway about 15 years ago so that we can hook them up to the gutters and not have a lake in our driveway every time it rains.</li>
<li>I cleared out a space for the other hydrangea we bought on impulse about a week ago and it is now planted near the back door. It looked pretty sad and wilted so Doug pruned it back quite a bit.</li>
<li>Doug built a ladder rack so the ladders will no longer be piled up in the dirt. They look very tidy now and he also figured out a way to make rollers so they are much easier to put away. And they can be locked so no one will be able to steal them.</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKnV6HQa2mgIZw_AkAiK4Hd0emwAMtEUwcsHomp0JB14CHBDWdXyjcVvEEM0JiI3tc8QXFv7d7jSIHNj_4loigpsJNUi3sGZd72JjG9NIFc2uSoon2aTdutaPHE-GFSXTphtjWlxhMJCb/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKnV6HQa2mgIZw_AkAiK4Hd0emwAMtEUwcsHomp0JB14CHBDWdXyjcVvEEM0JiI3tc8QXFv7d7jSIHNj_4loigpsJNUi3sGZd72JjG9NIFc2uSoon2aTdutaPHE-GFSXTphtjWlxhMJCb/s640/022.JPG" width="524" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLt0liGglEsDbfcoqqWJ2yWIUCU7RRcF4EyTEvOeCk0yL73DjQh75R6scvHo1f1uIO3NjMAay9XZ73pcEwPwbBmYWx2YLQS0DHdf7V2NodVHUxPlcJ4AQVzs2hDS0SfEMdpQldgmMUsSfG/s1600/023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLt0liGglEsDbfcoqqWJ2yWIUCU7RRcF4EyTEvOeCk0yL73DjQh75R6scvHo1f1uIO3NjMAay9XZ73pcEwPwbBmYWx2YLQS0DHdf7V2NodVHUxPlcJ4AQVzs2hDS0SfEMdpQldgmMUsSfG/s400/023.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-53707673280084174152011-07-12T11:31:00.001+01:002011-07-13T05:21:54.807+01:00gutter madnessThe delightful flurry of activity continues, with Doug finally being in the mood to put gutters on our house after six long years of not having them. However, the past two days' attempts to buy what we need so that we can finally have these gutters has been less than delightful.<br />
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Yesterday I drove all the way up to the Gaithersburg Roof Center to pick up some gutter hanging brackets and clips. Doug had called ahead to make sure they had what we needed so I thought it would be a relatively short and simple errand. Wrong. For starters, somebody misinterpreted something Doug said so they had to look up the number of the proper part, which took just about forever.<br />
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Finally they said they had those in stock, so I paid for them, got my ticket and went out to the warehouse pickup area to get them. The first guy came out, looked for them for about five minutes, came back, shrugged his shoulders, and said "We don't have them." That's it. The second guy was sure he'd be able to find them and spent a lot of time conducting a thorough search, but still came up empty-handed.<br />
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He escorted me back to the service center where I watched them all act is if the fact that the inventory was showing something that the warehouse didn't have was the main area of concern. After they finished discussing that highly improbable situation amongst themselves and got over their indignation at the realization that an error had occured, they finally realized that I was still standing there waiting patiently, apparently for nothing, and they said "Now we're going to have to credit this back to your card" like it was my fault that they had sold me something they didn't have in stock that I had driven all the way up there to buy, based on inaccurate information they'd given out over the phone. There was not a single word of apology or regret over the situation. The only impression I got about how they felt about it was that I had inconvenienced them in some way and that they were doubly annoyed because they had to deal with the existence of their own incompetence.<br />
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I didn't say anything - I've been in plenty of situations that have been far more challenging to my patience than this one was. There are plenty of people out there who will not take responsibility for any errors and that lack of caring is what causes sloppy work to happen and also eliminates any perceived need to apologize for the sloppy work. That kind of attitude makes it impossible for those kinds of people to be conscientious in any way.<br />
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So no apology for that mess. I will give him credit for offering to call the other Roof Centers to see if they had what we needed in stock. He found out that I could get the parts I needed if I went to two other stores, so I left feeling momentarily hopeful that I would be able to get this taken care of relatively quickly the next day.<br />
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Unfortunately Doug's phone calls this morning to the two individual stores to verify that they really did have what we needed resulted in us temporarily going back to square one because they actually didn't have everything after all.<br />
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So we decided to give up on the Roof Center and try our luck with Seamless Gutters. They said they had everything we needed so I went on up to their store in Gaithersburg and bought the brackets and the clips and took them home, happy that there'd been such an easy solution to the previous day's frustrations.<br />
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No such luck. They entered the order correctly but put 6" brackets in the box instead of the 5" ones we needed. They weren't labeled in any way and although I looked to make sure they were the kind we needed, I did not notice that they were an inch too big. The size difference is not noticeable when there are 40 of them piled inside a cardboard box, but they need to be the right size and they weren't.<br />
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After lunch I took them back and was full of hope that this would be an easy and simple exchange. No such luck. And of course they didn't have what we needed, and I again received a refund and no apology. So that was two wasted trips to the Seamless Gutter place in one day.<br />
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I don't know what tomorrow has in store. I have managed to maintain my usual veneer of calm over an undercurrent of mild annoyance at the huge amounts of my time that have been wasted. The fact that I can take pride in my ability to remain calm in the face of rudeness and incompetence has kept me from losing it so far. And I think any tendencies that I previously might have had to become frustrated in these kinds of situations have been severely dulled as a result of my experiences over the past six years. It's either so constantly present that I don't even notice it, or I'm unable to feel it because what would be the point? Or I'm now completely immune to frustration - who knows? Maybe I'm just too tired to care.<br />
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Doug, on the other hand, is livid. He plans to go up there and let them have it tomorrow. I am worried that he will cause some sort of scene and they'll beat him up or have him thrown in jail. He is very frustrated. I don't know whether to accompany him in a show of support or not. I don't like to see him acting the way he's going to act and sometimes my efforts to calm him down just make things worse. So wish us luck!<br />
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Although my dealings with these people have been unsuccessful so far, I still believe that if you want people to help you, you've got to make sure they want to help you. In other words, treat them with respect even if they don't deserve it. Maybe that's my whole problem.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-20731002425783032702011-07-11T21:42:00.000+01:002011-07-11T21:42:09.172+01:00A New WallOur front porch area is starting to finally look rather civilized, between all the <a href="http://photo-cyn-thesis.blogspot.com/2011/07/weeds.html">weeding</a> and us putting in the little retaining wall last week. We even put our very first foundation plant - the lovely hydrangea you can see in the picture below. Isn't it pretty? I hope it likes it there. And the wall is a perfect height for sitting.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7k_m-CL9lHayl1rl36dm0XWmZa22wPMQFdlGoSKSKLnPUGz5xyZfPPSC-D86pTlYXKup7T4NmnwhFjXb7hzcXTJPJxN1ELeUVcFULEbFkJ3R2ZKw9rFePI1Hi0hg9MykZomcs08ci1hH/s1600/001+for+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7k_m-CL9lHayl1rl36dm0XWmZa22wPMQFdlGoSKSKLnPUGz5xyZfPPSC-D86pTlYXKup7T4NmnwhFjXb7hzcXTJPJxN1ELeUVcFULEbFkJ3R2ZKw9rFePI1Hi0hg9MykZomcs08ci1hH/s400/001+for+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I've started attacking the weeds next to the fence and have made some good progress. It's going to take forever to get it completely under control after so many years of neglect. I pruned those two azalea bushes to about half of their former size because vines had killed many of the branches. That'll teach me. Hopefully if I manage to get all of the weeds out and throw down some mulch it will be easier to deal with in the future. All that liriope I planted had better hurry up and spread the way it is supposed to.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_veTeP8gC33kQfrrCDwuXL4aI-DVhYpXNurRBfuehCh2Zhwz9BSttnPywB0Hic_9dd5erYlcq4Guq2lH3gkrP8uoAWWu8ov1N29qGcMdjlG4BnJ0eUH_F4cEb7i0EwI0ZamoYl-sw2M_/s1600/002+for+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_veTeP8gC33kQfrrCDwuXL4aI-DVhYpXNurRBfuehCh2Zhwz9BSttnPywB0Hic_9dd5erYlcq4Guq2lH3gkrP8uoAWWu8ov1N29qGcMdjlG4BnJ0eUH_F4cEb7i0EwI0ZamoYl-sw2M_/s400/002+for+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-88630169617029872312011-07-07T22:00:00.000+01:002011-07-08T04:02:48.494+01:00no more giant tree stump!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NSSVeG6T3hAzgG17FqFpLwVATh2yDFqWTb5JrVL-gF3In5BUa4c1TB5ZiGvG2rmbR62b3ml0DutFLlkqmwntqQSjjDerQxSwgrk-MXvYdNekV9hRVLwpZniddXFjRfCKOY7JUIp2SItE/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NSSVeG6T3hAzgG17FqFpLwVATh2yDFqWTb5JrVL-gF3In5BUa4c1TB5ZiGvG2rmbR62b3ml0DutFLlkqmwntqQSjjDerQxSwgrk-MXvYdNekV9hRVLwpZniddXFjRfCKOY7JUIp2SItE/s400/007.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
I've been on a roll lately with getting things happening around here. There's been an unexpected and completely delightful spirit of cooperation in the air that has caused many good things to happen recently. Doug's brother came over with his chain saw the next day after we pulled down the stump and he chopped it into manageable pieces. I was able to take about a third of it to the dump. Doug put the rest of it out by the street, hoping someone would help themselves, and about an hour after I got home the rest of it disappeared. So that was easy.<br />
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Also this week we've been building a wall near the front steps. Between all the weeding of the liriope and this cute little wall, our front yard is starting to look pretty spiffy!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6QRAWeAFgaT_BtmH7pOTqMVLC8XM7lB7hjVf-b1fnYIOzdobfFvRHacMkhnNqgngyN5NvAzenCuxhS7HpVBRuF0QKcRlSyAhr3oFjA1ys7tM81mAgPJ44bsyBeRckkJUQgjA0KG0Cv37/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6QRAWeAFgaT_BtmH7pOTqMVLC8XM7lB7hjVf-b1fnYIOzdobfFvRHacMkhnNqgngyN5NvAzenCuxhS7HpVBRuF0QKcRlSyAhr3oFjA1ys7tM81mAgPJ44bsyBeRckkJUQgjA0KG0Cv37/s320/006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-5431254528155824922011-07-04T23:55:00.002+01:002011-07-05T06:23:28.579+01:00T I M B E R ! ! !We have had a really ugly looking 20 foot tall Norway Spruce stump adorning our front yard for <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html">almost four years</a> . It has been irritating me every single time I've had to look at it, so that's been almost 2000 different times during the years since the electric company cut the top off of it. Although I've mentioned it a few times, I'm apparently really really patient and I don't like to nag, so nothing has ever come of it - until today.<br />
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Every time I mentioned getting a chain saw and just cutting it down myself, Doug has said that I should wait because he wanted to pull it out of the ground so that there would be no tree stump. I'm not sure how this happened, but all of a sudden Doug responded to my most recent threat of chopping it down myself and today was the day we finally got it down. Doug did most of the work, but I sawed most of the tree roots so that it would come out of the ground easily.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjjdKh7z1Dmj8jE9e51tRzA_nQdqXV1qML0xFmcSmOvw5vj4zQYDO2f2jTdSVNdgWuBlFqo5g9_HXHYdZVMNoj3guWnDlXJGgG1pJiTiYS1L0uPvqo4BpwoxQ3sSGkf-kCQC3LpgD-1BM/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjjdKh7z1Dmj8jE9e51tRzA_nQdqXV1qML0xFmcSmOvw5vj4zQYDO2f2jTdSVNdgWuBlFqo5g9_HXHYdZVMNoj3guWnDlXJGgG1pJiTiYS1L0uPvqo4BpwoxQ3sSGkf-kCQC3LpgD-1BM/s400/006.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Isn't it hideous? I think it is a real eyesore.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsNP39J0qNka-77liQroo0lWOX9zqz3tKdV4N0qa-5lwUX-VVOSxGjkM-cx4p4Wl0H2Vmnhgbpl27SuBn1rrve1VxxzQvGkqRytTI87BbaRlg_MveCfmY9nNcPpRtUVwwEIpdT4xdz_T8/s1600/008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsNP39J0qNka-77liQroo0lWOX9zqz3tKdV4N0qa-5lwUX-VVOSxGjkM-cx4p4Wl0H2Vmnhgbpl27SuBn1rrve1VxxzQvGkqRytTI87BbaRlg_MveCfmY9nNcPpRtUVwwEIpdT4xdz_T8/s320/008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
At first Doug toyed with the notion of attaching it to his car and pulling it down that way. Fortunately he changed his mind. I guess he didn't want to end up in one of those Darwin Awards videos.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDlD-ejQhPNDugsP_qjgwY3nN0tlqCCCigY-j4ZPuZBxF5W-4fWItpv4rQrsS-fhRInUZsYfAZrgiMdrS26nqLdljK7_Bo7mLDEWc1dr3_0LaHGnZscybxBxObPmS1TPnQBol1-QRKyEt/s1600/012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDlD-ejQhPNDugsP_qjgwY3nN0tlqCCCigY-j4ZPuZBxF5W-4fWItpv4rQrsS-fhRInUZsYfAZrgiMdrS26nqLdljK7_Bo7mLDEWc1dr3_0LaHGnZscybxBxObPmS1TPnQBol1-QRKyEt/s320/012.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
He decided instead to use his magic pulley. This is the same pulley that Doug used to lift the all of the foam core panels up to build the roof of our house and that we later used to build the front section and <a href="http://foamcorefantasy.blogspot.com/2006/05/building-front-porch-part-two-roof-is.html">the front porch.</a> This pulley has amazing powers! It will lift or pull hundreds of pounds, maybe even a thousand. He attached it to an unused concrete pier near our foundation at one end and to the top of the tree at the other end.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRwmJyAA3CO2pM2mPe5SmFpiYfPqNAhW06rMO4ikQT-LtNoMzsPtCnhBM4sv6gqpDz-bJ90RsTgwxn0KemVvY_EWFsFoxyDVLPd8fH63U5rRpbblAY0gQCb39L4tyFO6ZqM6YVAzEGrHkl/s1600/021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRwmJyAA3CO2pM2mPe5SmFpiYfPqNAhW06rMO4ikQT-LtNoMzsPtCnhBM4sv6gqpDz-bJ90RsTgwxn0KemVvY_EWFsFoxyDVLPd8fH63U5rRpbblAY0gQCb39L4tyFO6ZqM6YVAzEGrHkl/s320/021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">After the rope broke he used a chain around the trunk instead.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKKF-PBr-ads2JIgy50kyPFKHW_Mt-j6dWf6Q5IJxWq57EPArRCPJAHP3G3W82038ZYPyKQBL8Z6lqQvfjeHDteolN3rJLy19smYGGAbvQOyWsFn9vLbCxYXo-5Z1OEa8BPqEFdpLVhRm/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKKF-PBr-ads2JIgy50kyPFKHW_Mt-j6dWf6Q5IJxWq57EPArRCPJAHP3G3W82038ZYPyKQBL8Z6lqQvfjeHDteolN3rJLy19smYGGAbvQOyWsFn9vLbCxYXo-5Z1OEa8BPqEFdpLVhRm/s320/022.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">We also decided to cut most of the big outer roots with a Saws-All.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiFQniVXiJwIN8o0OBMyK9a4CVdMu4iXN78V0yP3M8SyCueFopr87B7mAajY-9VJyul3ajcxxZDS5rTUAV6P9F0cbEAumQ2ofhoxX6GHJ4JqmRfhyphenhypheniXOsAgiNOtGUyJLnr1f0P6QvTUI0/s1600/035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiFQniVXiJwIN8o0OBMyK9a4CVdMu4iXN78V0yP3M8SyCueFopr87B7mAajY-9VJyul3ajcxxZDS5rTUAV6P9F0cbEAumQ2ofhoxX6GHJ4JqmRfhyphenhypheniXOsAgiNOtGUyJLnr1f0P6QvTUI0/s320/035.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Now we're making some progress!</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy3SjW0SLkm3X2cALQ-tvHAfDtj84s9F3d6bhb2QvrA2lq_7VhyetDO58za6Q6TQYtgFWZYQugOtam7x2JSYg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Watch it come down in this exciting video!</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AlQakSJC0n9ndWQMmxg0hc3oaOy95VdZSUmghqgSMNSkj3d8jNuV243CutxMqdteLEUzjOE2vcxxhdgKDfVC-umoequXT8mIu_iieViTsFVcctRVZNoLMkTik2EDwiRIdf2NOJDiOfOi/s1600/039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AlQakSJC0n9ndWQMmxg0hc3oaOy95VdZSUmghqgSMNSkj3d8jNuV243CutxMqdteLEUzjOE2vcxxhdgKDfVC-umoequXT8mIu_iieViTsFVcctRVZNoLMkTik2EDwiRIdf2NOJDiOfOi/s320/039.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Yaaay! It's down at last! Now all we have to do is chop it up and take it to the dump. And that WILL be happening tomorrow! Yaay Doug!Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-76384526162205991472011-05-05T20:32:00.003+01:002011-05-05T20:35:26.296+01:00Powder Room Finished<div>The powder room is finished! It really really is! It even has a door knob - the first interior door knob in our entire house. Doug installed it and the shoe moulding so that I could finally get this room finished.</div><br />
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCzNGwyYaOKbV2aekxaQBn-GK33dQB1iWE1dNsdRtsmixhYifubWGJC-QPKlAbAjRdoSyfJT4bgzRcHOHegDhXls93VVrlaeYcfKwziydAssmBG7Ip6QwePbB4T2EYIadXUXfX4-Jcekk/s1600/001.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603275060775514130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCzNGwyYaOKbV2aekxaQBn-GK33dQB1iWE1dNsdRtsmixhYifubWGJC-QPKlAbAjRdoSyfJT4bgzRcHOHegDhXls93VVrlaeYcfKwziydAssmBG7Ip6QwePbB4T2EYIadXUXfX4-Jcekk/s400/001.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
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The hallway moulding, on the other hand, is not finished. But the door has its final coat of paint now. Here's a shot of the mirror over the sink, the cubbyhole over the toilet and the medicine cabinet over the toilet.</div><br />
<div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYZs4f_C2RpUjt_7WvnXhR5ctbzeZwymxXZMU388uhB4GIV3hwcLyu8JCQb2gmhcGr_pytaWnGFnfU-XLjnHG-UsbH_thR1JD6GWYLPtH6DHf1QU0foepT0psJs11NEREPtT0Pt93qIWG/s1600/004.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603275056610763794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYZs4f_C2RpUjt_7WvnXhR5ctbzeZwymxXZMU388uhB4GIV3hwcLyu8JCQb2gmhcGr_pytaWnGFnfU-XLjnHG-UsbH_thR1JD6GWYLPtH6DHf1QU0foepT0psJs11NEREPtT0Pt93qIWG/s400/004.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
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We even have a door stop so that the door knob won't smash a hole into the drywall. And Doug finally put in the shoe moulding so that I could finish painting the baseboards.<br />
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<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmEf8CRImLJNhzaemd0wcA_Xv8-A0arQEIDJEUTfzDob7BxYjcYg3t8QQSVCI_7QBonPI2pszsjzWhnH_BjQEpfq3bV8Yu3JraASabpyAEzHMhkkxe6ZTQljOUcwv5AdrfLayF89CCirj/s1600/005.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603275050024175234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmEf8CRImLJNhzaemd0wcA_Xv8-A0arQEIDJEUTfzDob7BxYjcYg3t8QQSVCI_7QBonPI2pszsjzWhnH_BjQEpfq3bV8Yu3JraASabpyAEzHMhkkxe6ZTQljOUcwv5AdrfLayF89CCirj/s400/005.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Here's a toilet's-eye view of the sink and the towel bar:</div><div><br />
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxlaoVubIz0iQ6Ykovg85YRpXZC76LVDYLzWCcPCKVbocIOiKlJ6XQcwBgf1NF2GHFk1PnQNnEyh95Jz7iUbqKEOPpWxL7Uf-ekYN0Goo5oMJa7RV_8-v6m_w6uCdQmHird4dd1VgKt-5/s1600/010.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603275045346445218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxlaoVubIz0iQ6Ykovg85YRpXZC76LVDYLzWCcPCKVbocIOiKlJ6XQcwBgf1NF2GHFk1PnQNnEyh95Jz7iUbqKEOPpWxL7Uf-ekYN0Goo5oMJa7RV_8-v6m_w6uCdQmHird4dd1VgKt-5/s400/010.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a> </div><br />
And here's our very first interior door knob. After almost a year of living here, it's really great to be able to use something other than a wadded up paper towel stuffed in the hole to open and close the door.<br />
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<div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufOvTubfPfZ2arqe1qeS_45hl5zJ_5JH232b-VQdXCsjux7WCJLTL1nMCbBhbcC-2hIYC-r_jcocvwEp4ATZ7DyXaVjWNlwdEIuw_Nu5t0vha9bS0856q27RWq7WWk6VH6vP2gdwFJRqG/s1600/006.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603275044218113698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufOvTubfPfZ2arqe1qeS_45hl5zJ_5JH232b-VQdXCsjux7WCJLTL1nMCbBhbcC-2hIYC-r_jcocvwEp4ATZ7DyXaVjWNlwdEIuw_Nu5t0vha9bS0856q27RWq7WWk6VH6vP2gdwFJRqG/s400/006.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a> </div><br />
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It feels so good to have one small room completely finished. Once I get door knobs and door stops for the piano room, it will be the second room in that category.<br />
One room at a time!</div></div></div></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-72948323871977302682011-03-08T15:25:00.266+00:002015-12-31T16:42:38.039+00:00Basement Steps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqfPcJtWtT96P2eqPRjA9Rm4rY2yf0GEvPbfVqx5Sb9YKzFm3_nFtPnH2OkzoNYljg2qjgKFqMXp0Znzch9P2fcWNLEO5T4uSQLviEOA-HW2-21AkXfpiY-HqXeqtNUsjifndDPGtAF8sI/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqfPcJtWtT96P2eqPRjA9Rm4rY2yf0GEvPbfVqx5Sb9YKzFm3_nFtPnH2OkzoNYljg2qjgKFqMXp0Znzch9P2fcWNLEO5T4uSQLviEOA-HW2-21AkXfpiY-HqXeqtNUsjifndDPGtAF8sI/s320/022.JPG" width="254" /></a></div>
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We've been back in our house for almost a year and there are still many big projects left to tackle. For those who ask how the house is coming along, the answer is either "slowly" or "it's not," depending on my mood and how recently any work has taken place.<br />
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Near the end of February Doug went off on another vacation, oops, tour (but to me it's very much like a vacation when you get to go to a warm location, make less money than you would if you'd stayed home, and spend all day relaxing on the bus). So I decided it was time to do the finishing of the basement steps since he wouldn't be here running up and down them twenty five times a day.<br />
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They were starting to show some wear and tear after a year of use in their unfinished state and the newel post had gotten a few large cracks in it that I needed to repair first. I guess that's proof that we have a really dry basement, so thank goodness for that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpB0FWcPK_cR43Or3AoPYLFeYpl02t0QFJbQnL5iQjB1-LYqRvNYblmnmOCrb9GPO0l_6S-0DqnU_9G9iXeDuojmIR9jSTIvWOV4ncpd5fcAicZfGNouIWpUHlCGVf18Lc0PLqYizOH73B/s1600/030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpB0FWcPK_cR43Or3AoPYLFeYpl02t0QFJbQnL5iQjB1-LYqRvNYblmnmOCrb9GPO0l_6S-0DqnU_9G9iXeDuojmIR9jSTIvWOV4ncpd5fcAicZfGNouIWpUHlCGVf18Lc0PLqYizOH73B/s320/030.JPG" width="255" /></a></div>
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It's not very visible on the picture below, but there were many black heel marks on all of the risers just from one year of use. That made me start to rethink the practicality of having white risers and stringers and stained treads. That is the look I want to have for the upstairs steps and Doug wanted the basement steps to match. Before he left he had moved over to the idea of staining everything to match the flooring, but with a darker banister and newel post.<br />
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Once I got all of those obnoxious heel marks sanded off, actually while I was sanding them, probably in a inhaled sawdust fueled combination of delirium, anger, and resentment, I started imagining other possibilities for these steps. I've never been someone who enjoys any activity that involves getting dirty, and there I was, once again, covered in dust and thinking "I don't ever want to do this again and I don't ever want to ever again see heel marks on something I've gone to the trouble to make look so nice."<br />
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Staining the risers the same color as the treads would help, but since we'd been planning on painting those risers, the stair place had made them out of poplar and the grain pattern was kind of unattractive, which wouldn't have mattered since they were going to be painted. If I used the same stain that I used for the oak treads, it might look pretty bad with all those dark stripes in the wood.<br />
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Since the inevitable return of the black heel marks was just making me nuts as I sanded them off, I decided to follow through on that mood (nuts) and do something totally bizarre. This is not my style at all, but I thought Doug might actually like it because he often likes unusual things and the non-tradition style would call more attention to the overly fancy and expensive basement staircase that he just had to have.<br />
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So what in the world at 3:30 in the morning was I thinking I might do to solve all of my various issues with these steps? Stain the stringers and risers the same color as the banister, of course! They'd match and it would look all coordinated and hide the heel marks! I'm sure I was on the edge of hallucinating when I decided this, but somehow I decided to follow through and actually do it.</div>
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The taping was a huge amount of work, but pleasant enough because there was no dust involved and I could do it sitting down. Because I'm so lazy.</div>
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I tried a few stain colors out on a sample piece of oak, to decide which colors to use. That didn't pan out too well because the grain on the newel post took the color very differently than the tread sample. The banister was different too. The Jacobean stain color that looked so nice on the sample was scary dark on the newel post. Fortunately, however, it did a fantastic job of hiding the weirdly slanted grain patterns on the risers.</div>
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I had to do something about how horrifyingly blackish the newel post looked, so I sanded it some and did some more reading on the internet about the various colors, considered how things would look against the background wall color, and then selected Red Mahogany for the second coat of stain. Of course I then felt compelled to lessen the effect of the very dark Jacobean stain with even more sanding. Sanding is very hard on a person's wrists. I hate sanding!<br />
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So I put on the Red Mahogany over the sanded Jacobean. What a huge relief! The color is actually halfway decent! Then I removed all of the tape, and kind of thought uh-oh about how it looked, but it was too far gone for me to permit myself too much remorse so I continued. The "natural" colored stain that I used on the treads is actually darker than our flooring material over all but it kind of blends in with the darkest parts so I guess it's okay.<br />
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I'm actually pretty pleased with the color on the newel post now. It almost looks like an antique. For about a week I went back and forth between horror at what I'd done to Doug's staircase and thinking that it sort of looked interesting and okay.<br />
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I plan to paint the sides of the steps white to match the balusters, but I'm not going to do that until all of the trim is up. Doug wants to make cubby holes under the steps and it makes more sense to do all of the painting in that area at the same time. I hate to leave it unfinished, but that's the way it often goes around here.<br />
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Doug was extremely surprised when he got home and saw what I had done because it was so completely out of the blue and not like anything we had discussed. It's not quite as dark as it looks in the picture above. He didn't love it at first (probably because it wasn't his idea) but he definitely wasn't horrified the way I was. Now he likes it and I do too. I've actually grown slightly fond of it because it definitely has personality and I might as well like it since I did it.<br />
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Putting on the three coats of polyurethane really dressed it up. The stairs have a sort of furniture-ish look about them now.<br />
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And if you use your imagination, you can see that the newel post looks sort of resembles a trumpet mouthpiece with a very large shank. Right? Which is somehow appropriate for heading down into mouthpiece land. Or maybe I'm still hallucinating from all of that dust I inhaled.</div>
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I learned a lot from this experience and I have a much better idea of what I will do for the upstairs steps. They are the ones that really need to be done correctly so that they'll look good and now I am not afraid. I think I know what I am doing and I know that I can make them look good, with no surprises. I'll definitely be sticking to plan A up there.</div>
Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-25760844213789880192011-01-27T04:47:00.001+00:002011-02-20T23:43:39.071+00:00The Piano Room is Finished<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The piano room is completely finished! Everything is done. All of the baseboards all of the shoe moulding, all of the thresholds, all of the window trim, all of the window handles, all of the lights, all of the painting, all of the staining, EVERYTHING! This is the first room in our house that is completely and totally finished. Now I can finally start making it into a real room instead of a storage room for unpacked things.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The thresholds that Doug made turned out really nice. We got some <a href="http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flooring/msg0123493328520.html" target="_blank">great advice</a> about screwing them down and filling in the holes with plugs made out of the same wood. They are nearly invisible.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jQe73os74R3Kx7WjQha2Whf6J_zW3TIR53hqhrVZngNwgfjPZjWms7stY3ekZKb8o1LiUhsG38TwW0T9Vlrf3JeyjX6ZOjjH0Vug2gq-W-T0EjoXkVvEsVWQ2Ny0fce89wDddsKLRd6v/s1600/018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jQe73os74R3Kx7WjQha2Whf6J_zW3TIR53hqhrVZngNwgfjPZjWms7stY3ekZKb8o1LiUhsG38TwW0T9Vlrf3JeyjX6ZOjjH0Vug2gq-W-T0EjoXkVvEsVWQ2Ny0fce89wDddsKLRd6v/s400/018.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I messed around with a few different colors of stain and managed to somewhat disguise the fact that the thresholds are red oak while the floors are white oak. It's impossible to hide the grain, but the red did get somewhat subdued by the different stains I used. The threshold doesn't match the floor exactly, but it's a compatible shade so it blends in pretty well.<br />
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The Minwax stain colors I used were Provincial, which is a kind of neutral medium dark brown, and Driftwood, which looks like it has gray paint added to it. I wiped the Provincial off almost immediately but I let the Driftwood sit on there for about ten minutes before wiping. Then I put on three coats of oil-based semigloss polyurethane that we already had on hand and that made it a little shinier than I wanted it to be. But I'm sure it will get scuffed up soon enough and look more normal. I'll get some satin next time.<br />
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Here's the completely finished room. Look at those cute sconces on the sides of the windows! I am really going to enjoy spending time in here. <br />
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Damn! I just noticed it's not completely finished yet - we don't have doorknobs! Sheesh, it's always something. Okay, the doorknobs are next! I've grown so accustomed to not having doorknobs that I didn't even notice they were missing. But at least I can start unpacking everything now.Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-64239813815797689942011-01-10T03:54:00.003+00:002011-01-10T04:32:02.865+00:00Thresholds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUBWodgacQzu9RyIwyvtD4MDJ2hNGR3cqVulxg_MzFkxOaGIMDoDiVpDNs9cjp1KjpyVDjBGpUXs6hlhG4nh8YSLPy4iAwWVB55_fzULIAVs8bvL7hkkS-htyVeCejUx3LmUkWQaOFdBE/s1600/011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUBWodgacQzu9RyIwyvtD4MDJ2hNGR3cqVulxg_MzFkxOaGIMDoDiVpDNs9cjp1KjpyVDjBGpUXs6hlhG4nh8YSLPy4iAwWVB55_fzULIAVs8bvL7hkkS-htyVeCejUx3LmUkWQaOFdBE/s320/011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Doug has spent the past two days making custom thresholds for the piano room. They are very wide because the walls into this room are so thick. We left a pretty big space between the two different flooring materials partly so that we could use a wide threshold to make the slight height differences seem less noticeable. It's a pretty smooth transition and although it looks kind of ridiculous in the picture, it looks great in the room. The top photo is the doorway from the piano room into the back hallway.<br />
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This threshold is between the piano room and the foyer. The piano room floor is slightly higher than the foyer and both floors are floating so the threshold here is going to function as a giant T-moulding. It's pretty massive, but it's very smooth to walk on or over from one room to the next.<br />
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I'm probably going to stain it to match the darker parts of the white oak flooring to make it less noticeable that the thresholds are red oak. They don't seem to sell white oak boards at Home Depot.<br />
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We are trying to get this room completely finished as soon as possible. Doug did a fantastic job with the door trim and baseboards, don't you think? It turned out exactly the way I was hoping it would. Now I have to paint all of that fancy trimwork plus a pair of french doors - the kind with millions of window panes. Fun, Fun, Fun!Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104687721097199682.post-51727972415441365722010-09-16T23:45:00.002+01:002010-09-16T23:54:55.765+01:00Basement Office<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk2i5Kw6KIuWn6jJNL4xmHIKl3nLVtzrWD-yewC3VzihPK4t2JYOEgFpgEyGopz0SEF8e3qlQ9I_DzPM94zzieY9lp_VFCMVB5c8Vss3EFf9wGY2nRaKKoO24SkJ6QTm3-AzXkTGLRfLIf/s1600/012.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517646544107389474" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk2i5Kw6KIuWn6jJNL4xmHIKl3nLVtzrWD-yewC3VzihPK4t2JYOEgFpgEyGopz0SEF8e3qlQ9I_DzPM94zzieY9lp_VFCMVB5c8Vss3EFf9wGY2nRaKKoO24SkJ6QTm3-AzXkTGLRfLIf/s400/012.JPG" /></a><br />Doug's office area is shaping up pretty nicely so far. It's a new setup that will hopefully work well for him without taking up too much space. He's got a shiny new black table top that was made out of a door by him, and stained and polyurethaned by me, and he just put up the shelf that we both collaborated on. It's looking good!<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqhNRKHGZofMzYcADSO9s6hOJe-GB0ThYYKmxIG0CkyXQS2JFNnJsqOc009YRpztOjckoOnyVP0amLrb5x3_v0zxgSeQH5_30XIjpX3qFgcfykyS26RSq3xnAZpCdFnzdogGElOtTGhLY/s1600/019.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517646540194185106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqhNRKHGZofMzYcADSO9s6hOJe-GB0ThYYKmxIG0CkyXQS2JFNnJsqOc009YRpztOjckoOnyVP0amLrb5x3_v0zxgSeQH5_30XIjpX3qFgcfykyS26RSq3xnAZpCdFnzdogGElOtTGhLY/s400/019.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div></div></div>Cyndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787927933858782267noreply@blogger.com6