Time To Get Blinded

In the last post I said that if I had gotten rid of the cornices, I would have regretted it. Let me explain why. I knew that I wanted white 2" wood blinds on the windows in here. I love the look of them but I had 3 required marks that needed to be met.
1. They had to be room-darkening because I need absolute, complete darkness to sleep.
2. They had to be the right size because these windows have odd dimensions.
3. They couldn't be too expensive which is something I feared given the odd dimensions, I thought I might have to get custom made ones.

Fortunately I found ones that met all the requirements at Walmart. I picked up four 39" Better Homes and Gardens White 2" Faux Wood Blinds for a total of $120. Not bad.

I was all ready to hang them when I realized that they couldn't be mounted inside the window frame as planned. The windows are side-sliding privacy windows and the can be removed to clean them or replace the screen/storm windows. I wouldn't be able to take out the windows with the blinds mounted inside the window frame. I would have to mount them outside the window on the trim above but another problem, I had already put the cornices back up and I didn't want to take them down and rehang them not to mention make holes in the trim. I decided to mount the blinds right to the underside of the cornice.

These windows are very short so there were a couple inches of unused slats resting on the window sill. Once they were mounted, I followed the directions to remove the extras, something I've never done before. It really makes a big difference and it's nice that when they are down, you don't have to worry about making sure each end is straight or keeping the excess from falling off the window sill.

A happy accident, the blinds mounted to the cornice completely cover the air conditioner and look completely normal when closed. No bulging. Normally blinds mounted outside the frame are supposed to extend past the window and cover all of the window trim on the sides. Grandma picked up some great curtain panels that I actually like which will go on the ends and in the middle and cover the gaps. The room is starting to come together.

A New Bedroom With All The Trimmings

After my Adventure in Electrical was over, I turned my attention back to the trim. I had already sanded and deglossed all the existing trim so that was ready for paint. Grandma and I mutually agreed that the doors and windows shouldn't be painted. I didn't ask her what her reason for that decision was but for me, I just didn't want to do all the extra sanding and painting. I also like the look of stained wood doors with white trim and it worked well here because it's a similar tone to the wood furniture I garbage picked inherited.

I carefully taped the walls around all the windows and removed the door and the hinges  I broke out the can of semigloss Monterey White and got to work.

I gave all the trim 2 coats. While I was at it, I painted the cornices I took down before. I personally don't want them but I have to choose my battles here and I know grandma would insist they be put back up. At least she allowed me to paint them.

After the trim and cornices were dry, I rehung them above the windows. Not bad and I'd soon come to realize I'd regret getting rid of them if I did.

By this time I was ready to turn my attention to the molding separating the lower and upper walls. I used pre-primed lattice strips. They’re nice because they are thin, light weight, and cheap! I measured and cut the strips using the miter saw dad gave me when he got a new one. Then I applied a nice squiggle of adhesive caulk to the back of each piece and stuck it to the wall. Once they were stuck up and straightened out with a level, I used my air nailer to completely mangle their nice smooth surfaces. (I'm covering the good, the bad and the ugly here) Turns out that they really don't work well with lath and plaster/cement walls and I should have just used liquid nails to glue them up. I did the same sort of surface marring destruction to the crown molding and spent an extra day caulking all the holes and dents and making them look pretty again. This is a learning experience and I definitely learned here. Once all the edges and corners and cracks and holes were caulked, smooth, and dry, I taped and painted them with the semigloss white. I also replaced the scalloped trim above the closet door with a wider piece of the lattice trim.

This is the only photo I have that shows the existing trim, chair rail, and the crown molding. I really need to get better at remembering to take more "progress" photos. More to come on the bedroom so stay tuned.

House Tour - Kitchen, Bathroom & Master Bedroom

Did you look into the kitchen in the last post? I told you to save that so-sweet-it's-sour eye candy for a dedicated post and here it is. Behold the kitchen in all it's pink glory!

The kitchen cabinets were a wedding gift to my grandma from her mother.

I'm not sure why the oven is open and the light is on...

Before these appliances, there were avocado green ones but I'm not sure what was there before that.

There was a stainless steel sink before this one. More Precious Moments on the shelves here. The door on the left leads to the back yard.

The lower cabinets have pull-out slider shelves. Very ahead of the times! The narrow cabinet on the right has a slide-out towel bar.

Grandma intentionally had the soffit made shorter than the cabinets. She definitely had a vision. She used an old wooden cream cheese box like the one below and covered it with wallpaper to use as a built-in planter.
This room was rewallpapered on 10/27/1978 with the paper you see here. Before this was a geometric 3D square patterned paper. 

She's a fan of Raggedy Ann and Andy and this is just where SOME of the collection lives.

This side of the kitchen next to the fridge has more slide out lower cabinets. The center cabinet has a shelf that swings out and up & locks at counter height which holds the mixer. I forgot to take a photo of the insides of the lower cabinets. 

She has an interesting way of storing her dishware. but she doesn't use it much so it's not inconvenient to keep it this way.

Some more Raggedy Ann stuff and her handpainted eggs. She did a lot of ceramic work and was very skilled with a paintbrush.

She had always wanted a range hood but grandpa installed this exhaust fan instead. She hates it. She kept the circular cutout from this fan which is what I scanned to to make the background of this blog so look to the left or right to see the countertop and backsplash detail. The door on the right of the fridge leads to the basement.

The floor is standard linoleum floor tiles and the star was custom inlaid from larger pieces of the same kind of tiles.

Now we can head back down the hallway and check out the bathroom.

While I'm not fond of the colors in here, I do love this bathroom. I think the tub is so cool and the room is large for a 50s bathroom. 

Two of the things I hate most about this room are the lighting and the mirror but the mirror is probably what makes the room feel so much more spacious. I hate fluorescent lighting with a passion along with the weird floating soffit that contains the light.  

The built in linen storage is great. The bottom cabinet has a laundry chute on one side.

Now the last room on this floor, the master bedroom.

SO...MUCH...PINK.

The Case between the door and the closet is Grandma's dollhouse. She made it in the 70s. I'll post pictures of that someday.

Hope you enjoyed the first floor phase of the house tour! I still have to take photos of the basement where grandma lives now and the second floor bedroom and attic space which is currently a mess.

House Tour - Bedroom #1

The house has 3 bedrooms, the master bedroom, the back bedroom or bedroom #1, and the upstairs bedroom or bedroom #2. The back bedroom was my father's room for the first 7 years of his life. It was originally a deep blue. Grandma had painted glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and had a sky theme with a sun lamp and cloud cornices on the windows. When he was a little older it was shifted to an outer space theme. She made a lampshade from a  costume astronaut's helmet and had a red white and blue color scheme. When my aunt was born grandpa and grandma finished half of the attic space as a second bedroom and dad moved up there. Then the room was painted a soft yellow, followed by avocado green, and a peachy pink. When my aunt moved out of the house (I think I was about 8 years old) grandma had the room painted the minty green you'll see below.

When this was my father's room there was a desk near the door which prevented it from being opened so the door was replaced with this sliding door.

The closet in this room and the master bedroom are cedar lined. and have lights that come on when you open the door.

This is also the first room that I'll be redoing. It's going to look a lot different.

The original blue that my dad had when he was little. 1958 was the last time this outlet cover was removed.

The switch plate grandma put up. I'm replacing all the outlets and switches with new white ones.

This headboard and nightstand and mirror (not pictured) belonged to grandma's nephew. He was throwing it out when he moved. Grandma took them and they've been sitting in the garage. My mom had the same bedroom set and was getting rid of hers at the same time. Luckily, out of pure laziness, we hadn't thrown out one of her nightstands yet so I'll have a matching set of furniture for free. 

The windows are all wood original side sliders. 

Found the door in the attic. So glad to have a real door.

The walls have been cleaned, the cracks have been filled and the trim has been sanded and wiped down with liquid deglosser. I'm ready to paint!