Art and ideas for creative living
Although we do more "living" in the rest of the house, this largest of our rooms is where our grandest Christmas tree and more over-the-top decorations live in this winter holiday season. The colors of our majolica collection in this room give a jumping off point for some unusual Christmas color themes, always, however, coordinating… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of places. PART THREE: the Living Room and hall
8:00PM on the final night of completion. Remodeling a house is a metaphor for life. It starts, it ends and in between are all sorts of lessons to be learned; "think outside the box", "let of go of that plan to try another" and "let your spouse have their own way!" It was 74 days… Continue reading Old House rehab; final photos and surviving a remodel (with your spouse!)
The once inside, then outside, then inside again room in this old house contained the most history and was the room that needed the most help. It's laundry facilities were battered and out of code draining into main pipes that were leaking and the 40" apart floor joists let the tile floor sag and crack. So it… Continue reading Old House rehab 8; the laundry and new half bath
At first look the cheery yellow kitchen in our old house had it's merrits—bright and sunny with solid wood cabinets—but upon closer inspection it needed some work. The cabinets needed rearranging for better use of the space, the paint everywhere was patchy and the floor was sagging. So we tore into it. The initial plan was to move… Continue reading Old house rehab 7; the kitchen re-do
Color changes everything. And when I have helped people choose colors for a room, the first question I ask is "how do you want to feel?" there. In a bathroom where we start and end our day we want to feel restful and serene. It's a place where we gather ourselves together, thusly, quiet colors without… Continue reading Old House rehab 6; the bathroom make-over
Carpeting is never a good idea in a rental property. Think; potty training, pets and exuberant beer drinking on game day. It all gets wicked away to settle down in the pad—yuk—and when it's not our own home... So in removing the carpet from our old house we had yet another opportunity to uncover some of its… Continue reading Old House rehab 5; reinventing the floors
It's hard to choose interior paint color for a multi-windowed open-concept house when each area has a different light exposure. The color changes in each direction. We were fortunate that the previous owners of our old house had freshly painted most of the walls a lively cream color with touches of red, yellow and blue undertones making… Continue reading Old House rehab 4; choosing interior colors
They say "if walls could talk"...ours sure did!!! We have spent most of our creative energies this past month tearing out the damaged layers of floors and opening up walls for repairs on our old-house rehab project. The surprises we found unveiled the story of the house and the people who lived there by the details they left behind.… Continue reading Old House rehab 3; uncovering the layers
Through stops and starts working against mother nature's autumn time clock, the exterior of our little house project is completed. That before & after computer mock-up I did really helped me plan my colors with the plant material, purchasing at the end of the season while trying to imagine their blooms at other times of the year. Except for… Continue reading Old House rehab 2; completing the exterior
Creativity expresses itself in many ways and one of the ways that David and I have expressed ourselves over the years is in rehabilitating houses; old ones in particular. We are drawn to their stories, love reinforcing the layers of history they contain, are excited with the creative how-to problem solving - AND it's something fun… Continue reading Old house rehab; part 1