Renovation Tidbits

So, it's official. We have begun our One Room Per Weekend plan, in which we finish off the Niggling Bits (the ones that give me hives when I think about not having finished them ten years from now). I guess you could also call it our Mental Health Insurance plan.

This weekend is "The School Room". (If you remember the "before" pictures, it was the one with "Security by Georgia Pacific" in the captions.) Aside from baseboard, which will have to wait for another payday, the School Room will be c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y done by Sunday night. Zorak put up the trim around the door today. I figured out what to do with the window treatment for that door. The window and door trim gets painted tomorrow, curtains hung, shelving installed. We'll bring up the old kitchen table to use as a puzzle table/private workspace, and I'll do a little last minute tidying and sorting of the paperwork. Yay.

I'd still like to put some quotes on the walls, but am not sure what I'd like to use. There are so many good ones. I don't want anything serious, or somber. I really loved one that was shared on the boards this week:

Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid.

What a great quote. Zorak thinks that may be a John Wayne quote. Anybody know?

Oh, I'm glad there are others who love pocket doors! We do, too! We put them in the bathrooms, and WOW - nobody gets injured in the constant chaos that is a six-person-one-bath home! The master bath is so small, that the pocket door really saves a significant portion of the space in there, as well. (It'll be nice when we get that one finished.) We also put one in the laundry closet in the hallway - no bruised and battered foreheads for little guys bolting down the hall on laundry day! Yippee! We'd have put them in everywhere, if there'd been enough wall space to do so. And we did contemplate putting one there, at the end of the hall, even. When we bought the place, the hall had doors (standard, not pocket) closing off the sleeping quarters from both the living room and the foyer, but the house was so closed-in and creepy that we threw everything wide open. Now it feels a leetle nekky, so we've re-thought the door at the end of the hall. :-)

And yep, we're vaulting the ceiling in the living and dining areas. (Melora, I may take your suggestion and dub that phase the "Very Interesting Project" - that's code for "Really Bad Idea", isn't it?) The house has 8' ceilings. They feel somewhat cave-like and constricting after living in homes and apartments with 9' ceilings. It's stunning what a difference a foot makes. Because of the actual structure, we can't reasonably raise the entire roof, and it'd be cost prohibitive to add a second floor at this point (thus, raising the ceiling in the process!) So, with a little math, a little trusswork, and a lit-tle. more. patience, we can give the living space a better feel, make a clearer delineation between the living and kitchen spaces, and create some awesome architectural interest to the Basic Box. Plus, when we add the den, it'll tie the spaces together with a smoother transition, so the den won't look like an add-on.

But I try not to think about those things. They make me whiney and despondent. For now, I will think of The School Room - and how there are no more things to be done there this year. Or there will not be after this weekend. (Baseboard doesn't count, because of the bullnosed beading - it's all one continuous room, as far as the baseboard is concerned. Really. Just, go with me on that.)

It's very possible that we may finish this house soon enough that Smidge retains no permanent recollections of The Way It Was!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy