Catherine: I'm not a big fan of wallpaper, but I really like that one!
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Catherine: I'm not a big fan of wallpaper, but I really like that one!
Funny, but now that wallpaper is all over my FB newsfeed, but the pink version that IL favors.
Oh, shoot, sorry, rosa!!Quote:
Originally Posted by rosarugosa
I love wallpaper but haven’t done it in a long time. You need someone really good to hang it in order to look nice. I now use accent walls. I love the wallpaper Catherine.
Hanging wallpaper is in DH's DNA--his mother and grandmother wallpapered the house silly with all kinds of wallpaper. Mostly flocked because they lived in an old house with plaster walls. Of course, they made DH help, so he's had good training, and I'm not bad myself. This will be a piece of cake because we are not wallpapering a large area.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
For me, I've removed too much wall paper to ever want to hang any more. However, I do like the idea of wall murals.
All that said, I definitely do NOT have a "decorating" gene. :~)
Oh that wasn't a complaint, just an observation. It's pretty enough that I don't mind seeing it. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
I know, I’m so hesitant in adding wallpaper because it’s so hard to get off. But they do have the new peel and stick types so I might consider that type. Even landlords, at least some landlords,’s claim they don’t mind peel and stick wallpaper on their rental properties.Quote:
Originally Posted by happystuff
It is the combo of wallpaper and the latest versions of wallboards which make removal difficult, very very difficult. Did I say difficult enough times?
Oy, is that it?Quote:
Originally Posted by razz
i dunno, I remember my parents trying mightily to get wall paper off their plaster walls in the big house. Tons of wallpaper. They tried several methods and then, I believe, the end process that was most successful was to burn it off.
And they they turned around and—-put up wall paper! Haha. In the double parlor, a gorgeous room, they put up red flocked wallpaper, kinda reminiscent of Miss Kitty’s whorehouse.they made some bold decorating choices.
one time my dad painted a bathroom black and stenciled gold stars everywhere on walls. That was Out There. But we kids thought it was great.
That’s really funny IL!
That is funny!
In our NJ house, when we moved in in 1985 it was already on its way to becoming a vintage Brady Bunch house. There were shag wall-to-wall carpets. Metallic floral wallpaper. Dark brown cabinets and avocado tiled floor. Harvest gold appliances.
The room I designated for the boys' room was covered in a big daisy floral print wallpaper. We tried to remove it, and it was literally like trying to peel a sheet of paper apart into two sheets. We tried steaming, scraping, you name it. I finally papered over it with a textured wallpaper and it remains to this day.
IL, it must have been fun living in a brothel/planetarium!
DH is such a busy guy! He Just finished the marble backsplash in my condo, and then he went to Hermann this week to install kitchen cabinets in our Hermann house.
Here is a picture of progress so far:
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You are probably seeing the true color which is called “celery,” a light green. The countertops will be black granite with soft white streaks running through it. The stove will be red
, and I will have red small appliances and the cabinet handles/knobs will be black and red.
The cabinets look great!
Celery (or any light-to-sagey green) and red is one of my favorite color combinations!! And the black countertops will set it off so nicely!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Neat timeless colour of cabinets. This time I am seeing the celery colour.
Oh good! i’m glad you think it is timeless. I am shooting for a timeless, cottage look.Quote:
Originally Posted by razz
The backsplash I am planning is a soft green that varies from tile to tile because it is marble. It has a lovely natural look.
I think it is so cool you went with color, and absolutely great color.
That's really nice! I'm having a hard time picturing a black countertop, so am looking forward to seeing pics.
That celery and black combination is one I often imagine in my kitchen design pipe dreams. Good choice! :idea:
This seems too good to be true:
* granite countertops will be installed April 22
* dishwasher delivered 10 days after ordering it
* stove coming in June or July…9 months after ordering
We can operate without the dishwasher and new stove since we have a backup stove in the basement, probably two of them if I looked carefully. Hell we probably have a backup dishwasher squirred away somewhere, knowing DH.
but anyway, we need 3 things to move to Hermann:
1. functional kitchen
2. 1 functional bathroom
3. functional dog run area
Kitchen looks like it could be useable in less than one month.
Moving right along, IL!
I’m in Hermann for two days to attend to iris and lily beds and am watching too many HGTV shows. We have cable tv in Hermann. It struck me how cottage-y is our U-shaped kitchen. Our architect drew the kitchen this way, and it didn't occur to me to re-work it to have the modern “island” because the U shaped kitchen just seemed so natural to this house.
Now that I see the cabinets installed I can see that there really is room for an island thingy if the kitchen was arranged differently but I’ like the U!
My only concern is that it’s kind of a large center space and the “work triangle” is not tight so it’s not especially efficient.
You could invest in a wheeled work area/portable island--easy to stow away when unneeded.
UGH.. HGTV. "open concept.. big kitchen...white cabinets... lots of storage... big island.. " blecch!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Can you put one of those small butcher block carts in the center? Would it interrupt the workflow? Does it looks like it "needs" something in the middle or not? (Oops--I just read Jane's post--great minds think alike :)
Believe me I’ve already been thinking of all kinds of ways I can put an antique piece in the center of the little U kitchen, on wheels, because I love these looks pictured below. The problem is that this is not THAT big of a U-shaped kitchen, and I have plenty of counter space anyway. I don’t need a movable island for more workspace. I need the refrigerator as part of a tighter triangle. But it’s too late for that and I like the way the kitchen looks and for me that’s pretty important.
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Well, if you like it, that's all that's important! I'm sure it's beautiful!
Oh well 0F COURSE We have a spare dishwasher sitting around the basement in Hermann, I walked by it regularly, I just have blocked it out of my mind because I tried to block out the junk and besides everything is topsy turvy and nothing is where it’s going to be.
But since we are on the topic, I will take you on a tour of all extra kitchen appliances we have sitting in the basement in Hermann house, and isn’t even all of them. There’s a couple out in the bunker.
this dishwasher I vaguely remembered but walked by this morning is black, so that means it’s from my city condo. It had black appliances. Why we moved it here is beyond me.
The stove next to the bed is unconnected, is old stove from our city house. It is filthy. Doesn’t everyone need a filthy unused stove sitting next to their bed? Is this the trailer trash way to live or what?
The giant French door black refrigerator is from our friends who moved to Arizona. The white standing freezer next to it is from another neighbor who moved.
The normal size black refrigerator is from our city condo which replaced the refrigerator that we bought in the Hermann house that went kaput. So this was a useful appliance and I’m gonna move it upstairs to my Hermann renovated kitchen where it will serve us for a while until we get a permanent refrigerator.
Please do not ask me about what is sitting in the bunker because I don’t remember sure but it’s at least one appliance and maybe two.
All this is of course reflecting DH’s need to hoard items. I will give him credit though —-that a couple days ago I observed him here in Hermann negotiating with a neighbor on buying one of our sheds. I want the sheds gone, they are ugly and stupid, and I’m really proud of DH that he’s able to let go of them.
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I couldn’t open any of those. It said invalid link. You are a much more patient woman than me. I would be calling a junk removal company when he was out of town.
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That said, Dishwashers make good parts washers, if your husband does any wrenching. (and it keeps the wife happy, because he is not using the one in the kitchen)
Old stoves are great for curing powder coating, heat treating parts, boiling water for stuff, etc.
And both can be scrap metaled when done with them.
Old fridge, working, beer/soda fridge for the shop. Not working, disquiseable storage (gun safe, paint can, etc).
You aren’t missing anything by not seeing these old crappy appliances.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
The basement is DHS exclusive domain and if he wants to pile a bunch of old appliances in it, that’s his deal. The refrigerator will be useful. One stove might be useful even. I don’t need a dishwasher so I’m not gonna have that dishwasher hold upstairs and hooked up, or I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I come to Herman and find that it’s already in place.
this is a bit off-topic but didn't want to start a whole thread. I just saw this picture on CheapOldHouses of a Victorian in St Louis and wondered if anything about it looked familiar--
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcEkKwuM-kE/
That neighborhood is kind of tough, but it’s not totally awful. It’s a few neighborhoods over from mine. The house has lots of good stuff in it. Many houses in my neighborhood were like that when we moved here. My house was much worse because it had been stripped everything including the plaster on the walls.
The listing agent on this house is my neighbor, Bob Austermann.
Interesting! The house has so much potential if someone would be willing to invest in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
I really love checking out those Instagram posts from CheapOldHouses. It's fun! Makes me realize that there are some great deals out there and beautiful old houses--even though they rarely post any in the Northeast or West Coast.
There are lovely old houses on the West Coast--not as old as those farther east, of course, but nothing that would qualify as cheap. I looked at a nice condo in my old complex that would have gone for 325K a year ago--for sale for 425K. The mind reels...Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
A problem is that a house this big takes a lot of money to renovate and even in this market, in that neighborhood I doubt that it would be economically viable.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
One nice thing about doing the finish work ourselves is that we can talk through door placement. We’ve already changed pocket doors the architect drew. Architects like pocket doors. Theoretically I like them because you don’t need to plan space for a door swing. But – the contractor doesn’t like pocket doors because they’re trickier to build and as a user it seems to me they get stuck on their track and are not reliable.
So we are changing the swing of the French doors because they currently swing into into an area that will be quite crowded. We’re changing the swing of the door into the sunroom so that it will be swinging into an unused wall.
Since DH is installing all door trim, he can determine where the doors will go. The last two changes have saved a lot of future irritation.
Yeah, that's the message I was getting when you said it's an "OK" neighborhood. Too bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
On a side note and unrelated, the other day I was watching one of those gawdawful HGTV shows and the designer was renovating a 70s ranch house that was left to the client from someone in the family. So she wanted to "maintain character" and in that effort she asked the carpenter to make Craftsman-style trim around the windows for some "old-time character". But this was a mid-century modern home--not a Craftsman at all. These designers are so clueless.
The other thing she did for "character" was to throw up some 1x4s in a pattern to make an accent wall. Of course she had already removed all the true mid-century modern character. These decisions by designers on HGTV remind me of how industrial bakers remove all the nutrients from flour when making white bread and then they add in nutrients later, calling the final product "enriched", but what they really did is take out what was great and replace it with something inferior.
We just visited some Frank Lloyd Wright houses and then were watching some Youtube videos. Someone bought one and wanted to demolish it. Someone else painted over all his specially created wood finish.
Of course, some of his ideas were crazy. 21 inch wide hallways, kitchens tiny and some ceilings 6 feet tall. Storage eliminated so people would not accumulate clutter.
The 21" hallways were part of his principle of "compression and release" (I learned this from the tour guide in a tour of Taliesan West--amazing tour.). Here is a description:Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetana3
"Wright abided by a design principle he referred to as “compression and release.” In his structures, before entering an open, spacious area, one must first pass through a narrow, constricting one. This idea is most apparent in moving from the former drafting room in his home to the children’s playroom.Source
The drafting room, once an open, sunlit space, is divided by a 3/4 wall in the center, halving the square footage. From this smaller space one transitions into a long, dim hallway with an arched ceiling. At the very end there is a bright light, and upon stepping out, the playroom blossoms before you, vaulted ceiling and bands of windows creating an illuminating and inviting atmosphere.
The change is so abrupt and surprising that you might blink, temporarily blinded by the difference in space and brightness. Then, a moment of relief, as if escaping a nightmare."