Primer, Grout, and Draperies OUT

We're busy here at That Old House.
It is just 12 days until our daughter's wedding.
The reception won't be here at the house, but the After Party will be.

It's best bib and tucker time.

Although if you looked at the house today,

you might think otherwise:

That's Danny, painter extraordinaire, starting to prime the old clapboards.

(Me 'n Danny, we love that oily smell.)

He was kneeling in the grass; he may have been praying.

This is one big project to finish in a week, even with a crew of four.

It took one or two workers 3 days to scrape loose paint off the house, and they're still doing that on the other side.

Please ignore the painters' schmutz on the translucent ceiling, and MY mess on the table -- it's all mess around here this week!

Luckily, no one expects 182-year old siding to be perfectly smooth.  Certainly not me.  (I?)

Inside the house, it's my show.

Howard took down the dining room draperies for me last night; I'll turn their fabric into seat covers

for our oddball collection of dining room chairs, and hang something new at the windows in the next day or so.

It's funny, but the room seems smaller without the drapery panels.

Why is that?

You can spy ladders and paint cans and painter stuff out on the grass of the side yard.

*********************************

"Hey, Hon, you want some chocolate mousse?"

 Well who knew -- certainly not I -- that dirt-colored tile grout looks unnervingly like chocolate mousse?
Lesson learned -- don't grout while hungry.

And there you have it, in one concise collage, my grouting of the kitchen sink backsplash.

Now I only have to install it, and run a bit of thin molding along the bottom, and . . . .

I'll get back to you.  -- Cass

Link Parties!

At The House In The Roses, it's Show Off Your Cottage Monday.  Click thee here!

At Mary's Little Red House, it's Mosaic Monday.  Clicken Sie hier!

And at Between Naps On The Porch, check out Metamorphosis Monday.  Clickst du hier!

Dining Rooms and Draperies and Decisions, Oh My!

Once upon a time we bought an old house; among its charms was a dining room of gracious proportions and great possibilities. That was eleven months ago, and the dining room is still an unfinished work.

Below, early days. Walls a sort of pinky-beige, overprinted with a stamped design, with deep maroon woodwork and heavy curtains. There's a patch of test paint; I really wanted this room yellow, but the room just wouldn't cooperate.

It insisted on being painted red. I chose Benjamin Moore "Tuscan Red," blissfully unaware that the color is actually "Tucson Red" (#1300) until daughter Anne told me.

Kids are useful. They are very good at pointing out our mistakes.

Painting progress, below. Tinted oil primer, and lots of plaster wounds being repaired. We used professional painters, first time ever, and they were good. Bless their hearts.

Jump ahead a couple of months, to May of 2008, and we are moving in: boxes everywhere,
and swatches of possible drapery fabrics blue-taped up on the window moldings.

The room's breakfront is an Ebay find, and I learned a valuable lesson -- never bid on two similar things at once, no matter how much you need furniture, because you may end up with One Breakfront Too Many.

The former chandelier was perfectly fine -- a rusty finish and opalescent glass shades --
but the room said it wanted crystal. Swarovski crystal (well, I wanted Swarovski; it's so sparkly).
As usual, I obeyed the house.

I found this crystal chandelier online, and am still somewhat startled by its size and brilliance when lit, but it's become a member of the family. The old fixture is looking for a new home.

A few months ago, and things still all a mish-mash, the front hall and parlor still full of boxes. That's an old buffet (above) -- a Craigslist treasure -- with a lovely old marble top. It critically needed refinishing and repair, and again I used a pro. Getting lazy in my old age.
No rug, no curtains. But progress goes on....
Voila! A rug, switched from our study, and what appear to be draperies. Ha. Fooled you. We installed drapery rods and, the night before Thanksgiving, my girls and I cut 9-foot lengths of fabric and lining and just clipped the raw fabric to the curtain rings.
I blush to admit that the fabric panels are still there. No proper draperies yet. And I can't make up my mind. . . .

I have the gold-colored "faux" silk (budget doesn't run to the real stuff!), which is hanging there temporarily and goes well with the rug (which is reds and olives and golds), but I also have the same fabric in a beautiful red which is a spot-on match for the walls of Tucson Red.
We are having a House Blessing party on March 14, and I want something at my windows by then, so (left) is a picture of both colors of fabric. I am leaning toward using the red, perhaps because I am so tickled that it is such a good match to the paint. Annie says the gold is best, for a bit of contrast.

(The red fabric is still uncut, and is just tossed over the drapery rod!)

Which color?
What do you think?

My sewing machine awaits!