Home reno/redecorating support group

Like these. They're roman shades but aren't fabric, they're made from some kind of natural material. Our cat climbs curtains but he can't climb these. Cat hair doesn't stick to them either so they're much easier to keep clean.
 
My cats would totally think that is scratching post material! We have aluminum mini blinds on all our windows. As long as we remember to not let a few of them all the way down so the cats have a viewing area, they have held up really well for about ten years now.
 
quartz said:
My cats would totally think that is scratching post material! We have aluminum mini blinds on all our windows. As long as we remember to not let a few of them all the way down so the cats have a viewing area, they have held up really well for about ten years now.
Click to expand...

Cats! He leaves them alone. There's not much to get his claws into. We had blinds in the apartment we lived in before we bought our house and he ruined them by walking through them.
 
I could use some dog-proof shades, at least for the front hall window. My three-dog "delivery/activity alert" team has a habit of destroying shades.

We've needed a new shed for quite a while; current one is falling apart. Hopefully we'll get our act together and get something going in the next couple of weeks.

I have LOTS of painting to do this summer. Have had two cans sitting in the guest room, all ready to repaint, PLUS a nice curtain rod and fabric to make curtains, for, um, 2 years? I gotta get the front hall and kitchen done. When we got new floors last year it became mightily evident that walls didn't match new floors. Plus we haven't painted them at all since we moved in 11 years ago anyway.
 
Here is what I am currently working on, although we are making other plans too.
I am back to painting my new bedroom (my daughters old room, but it is the biggest bedroom and has a walk-in closet and a dormer window and sloped ceiling.) My husband has refinished the floor, and I am keeping my eye out for a couple of vintage dressers and we will purchase a new (queen size!) bed.
I have this thought in my head that as a completely un-artistic and un-talented person, I can some how paint every single wall and the ceiling too, as the night sky. As in all those gorgeous and fabulous galaxy photos from the Hubble telescope. Yep. So far it's looking like an 8 year old has been throwing paint on the walls, so I will have to figure out how to make this work. :wall:
 
Yeah, well, I actually don't embarrass easily, but now that I have decided I am going to have a galaxy inspired bedroom, I'm not letting my total lack of ability stop me. No siree. The husband is :rolleyes: all over the place which just makes me :p. Me and my cockamamie ideas.
 
My husband has spent last fall/winter gradually building a new fence around our yard. Still have a couple small sections to go, but it's looking great!

Meanwhile, he has also been demo-ing the ceiling and some walls in the unheated "back room" of our 150-year-old house. As a result of this, we've learned that what is now a room, of sorts, started out as a small lean-to addition to the back of our house. Someone later added a porch. Then the porch was walled in, and the two "half-rooms" (porch and lean-to) were jerry-rigged into a whole room (but a very ramshackle, unheated one with mismatched windows). It's all kind of interesting, but the bottom line is, it looks like we probably need a whole new roof on it, new windows on one side, and electrical & heating work, none of which we can afford right now. :wideeyes:
 
@clairecloutier, I love old homes. But you never quite know what you are going to discover when you start renovating. Often you find that others before you have "remuddled" rather than "remodeled". Have you found any treasures? Old bottles, postcards, coins etc as you work around your home?
 
quartz said:
@clairecloutier, I love old homes. But you never quite know what you are going to discover when you start renovating. Often you find that others before you have "remuddled" rather than "remodeled". Have you found any treasures? Old bottles, postcards, coins etc as you work around your home?
Click to expand...

"Remuddled" is the word. So often, you just wonder what people were thinking!! I'm afraid we haven't found too many treasures, either. If there ever were any, they must have been claimed by previous owners. All we've come across are some big ol' long nails in the yard and some 1940s newspapers used for stuffing cracks. :)
 
I have been commenting to my husband every now and then over the past year about our couch and loveseat. "Wow, these things are getting really hard to clean" "Geez, can you believe we've had this set for 16 years already??" "Man, the cats have really ripped the sides apart" "If we had a style without the giant rolled arms, we'd have more space in here" (just planting a seed in his head ;))
And he says but they are so comfy, :rolleyes: at me, and then goes fishing.

Anyways.....

We called a floor guy in to give us an estimate on refinishing our hardwood living and dining room floors. They are in good shape with no cracks or splinters, but the finish is non-existent and so every single drop of anything leaves a mark. They look horrible. The husband was expecting a quote of $2500, but it was only $1100! :cheer2:

So I say, you know, since we have to totally empty these rooms for the floors, that is also the time to repaint the walls and ceiling (which were done ten years ago). The husband mumbles and grumbles and natters on about how much extra work that is and how much more time we will be inconvenienced yadayadayada. And I reply about how much LESS time it takes to paint when a room is totally empty. And he :rolleyes: at me, and then goes fishing.

This conversation was about a week ago, and not discussed again.
Last night he says to me, "well, if we are going to repaint then I guess we should get new livingroom furniture too".
Haha! :D
 
Yeah. If it's my idea, it's :rolleyes:. If I can make him think it's HIS idea it's :respec:.

Now I have to figure out how to get built in bookshelves for the dining room.....
 
Last edited:
Painting my galaxy themed bedroom. You people here need to talk me out of trying such hare-brained ideas. This will take forever. And ever. And ever. And ever.......:wall:


Errr.....I guess that suits the theme! :D
 
I finally did the last of my condo renos - got wood blinds for my office and a new chandelier* for the dining room. Just in time for me to want to buy a house :rofl:

* Anyone know why a new light fixture would flicker? It's mostly when the a/c turns on and off, but occasionally it will dim a little bit. It has fewer bulbs and wattage as the old chandelier. Says it can take 100w but I only put in 40w. My dad installed it and while he's very handy, he's no electrician. Googling gives me a wide variety of results from "it's totally normal" to "imminent fire hazard" :eek:
 
Sometime in the next six weeks we are having all of our windows and external doors replaced on our home :cheer2:

My fear is that this will finally kick off all of the work we want to do on the house and I'm not ready for that level of mess and fuss all over the house. I have been looking at tiles for the bathroom on and off for about a year. I think i should wait until the window trauma puts me off having more work done than is necessary :lol:
 
You do know, of course, @antmanb, that any home improvement project aways has a domino effect. :D
We are refinishing floors. Which is leading to re-painting, new couch and love seat, new area rug, and other furniture re-location. At least thats what the husband knows so far.....I am planning on how to finagle built in bookshelves in the dining-room, new floor in the foyer and new tile around the fireplace as well. Haha....I shall use my Woman with a capital W skills to get what I want. :grope: :saint:
 
I have not been able to figure out our kitchen backsplash yet and it's making me crazy. It's a very large wall with no upper cabinets, just the hood over the cooktop. Whatever we pick needs to look good both up close and from far away, as you can see it right after walking in the front door.

On the other hand, our new dining room table is almost done! We found a custom woodworker who has amazing, interesting pieces of wood and chose one for the main part of the table. It looks a lot like http://ohiowoodlands.com/assets/images/q-120-1.jpg Then ordered a glass top to go over it, and metal legs from someone on Etsy. When we have all the pieces and get it assembled I'll post pictures. The next piece will be finding fabric to reupholster the chairs; luckily the wood tones coordinate so I don't have to replace the chairs, but the current fabric has to go.
 
Omgosh, @flyingsit, that table will be amazing!!
What sort of tile are you thinking of? Traditional, modern, artsy? Do you want to make a statement or be more subtle?
I think the problem with tile is there are 700 million choices and every time you think you've got it figured out, you see another, and another and another and then you are completely overwhelmed with all the possibilities.
 
I know it will - i'm been avoiding this particular slippery slope. Mr antmanb wants to redecorate the lounge and he wants hard wood floors in there. I currently like the carpets and thing it makes the room feel more snug, whereas having wooden floors and leather sofas, i think, would make the room feel too cold especially as it is quite a cold room. His response is that we could buy new sofas in a material other than leather, but I think the leather has been very durable given that our dogs have free reign of the sofas....and the debate continues.
 
Ahhh, domestic debates. We have a seagrass rug in our living room. It has a wide, coarse weave and is rather rough on bare feet. But it's so plain, durable, and beautiful, with a banded trim. I love it, and now I want another one in the foyer. My husband doesn't love it and is opposed--but hasn't suggested an alternative. Standoff...
 
clairecloutier said:
Ahhh, domestic debates. We have a seagrass rug in our living room. It has a wide, coarse weave and is rather rough on bare feet. But it's so plain, durable, and beautiful, with a banded trim. I love it, and now I want another one in the foyer. My husband doesn't love it and is opposed--but hasn't suggested an alternative. Standoff...
Click to expand...
My husband doesn't really care about actual design choices or color themes or any of that. He generally says, "pick whatever you want" and then goes fishing.
I didn't even ask about doing our bedroom in a galaxy theme. I just started doing it and now that it's far enough along so that you can actually get an idea of what I have in mind, he says, "hmmm, I like it!" He's really only concerned about the bed anyways......
 
quartz said:
What sort of tile are you thinking of? Traditional, modern, artsy? Do you want to make a statement or be more subtle?
I think the problem with tile is there are 700 million choices and every time you think you've got it figured out, you see another, and another and another and then you are completely overwhelmed with all the possibilities.
Click to expand...

My problem isn't being overwhelmed with choices; every time I bring samples home they don't have nearly the impact I'm looking for. The main area we need to cover is 9 feet wide and 6 feet high (all the way to the ceiling), with a side wall of 9 feet wide and 18 inches tall. You can see the main wall from just inside the front door which is probably 30 feet away, so it needs to make an impact from there while still looking good up close. I don't want to just cover it with something basic just for the sake of doing it; it's gotta be special.

The house is modern, so the tile should definitely be modern, or theoretically transitional. Far, far from traditional. Most likely glass or metal, or a combination thereof; potentially porcelain but definitely not stone/travertine/marble.
 
I love glass and metal tile. Have you considered a mural of some sort on the 9 x 6 section. Like a peacock or a unicorn or a rainbow or a giant pair of purple skates? :D
 
quartz said:
Painting my galaxy themed bedroom. You people here need to talk me out of trying such hare-brained ideas. This will take forever. And ever. And ever. And ever.......:wall:


Errr.....I guess that suits the theme! :D
Click to expand...

One of my friends stenciled a few rooms in her house. At first, it was just a few vines in the sun room by the bird cages, but then she moved on to the upstairs hallway into the master bedroom - the stencil there was of large bricks like that of a castle wall. It's pretty impressive and looks great, but wow, the work!
 
I finally have the tile for both upstairs bathrooms and now need to schedule the installation/plumbing repair. Once I get most of the stuff we want to keep packed and in storage so our house is relatively clear, we can get our drywall repairs done and then decide on color choices for the walls and carpets for the basement and bedrooms.

After looking at so many tiles for the bathrooms, I am now looking at the kitchen floor and trying to decide whether we should replace that, too. We plan to put in a new counter top in the kitchen.

We don't want to invest a fortune in upgrading our house since we're putting it on the market this fall, but we do want it to look nice. I spent a bit more than originally planned for the bathroom tiles, but I think it was a smart decision. The colors are neutral without being boring because of the trim I selected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 21 (members: 0, guests: 21)

Similar threads

Matryeshka
Part-Time Work From Home Ideas?
2
Replies
49
Views
7K
Aussie Willy
Aussie Willy
TAHbKA
Bagriantseva's interview with Kvitelashvili
Replies
25
Views
7K
airgelaal
airgelaal
TAHbKA
Vaytsekhovskaya's interview with Samarin
Replies
0
Views
3K
TAHbKA
TAHbKA
TAHbKA
Samokhvalov's interview with Buyanova
Replies
8
Views
4K
rfisher
rfisher
TAHbKA
Ermolina/Flade's interview with Zagitova
Replies
10
Views
4K
Scott512
Scott512
Back
Top
Do Not Sell My Personal Information