A Working Weekend At The Beach

Howard and I spent the weekend at the
family beach house, out on eastern Long Island.

It was a work weekend.

I didn't even take many pictures!

We took down old wallpaper below a kitchen chair rail.

And -- with the supervision of the dog in the lower left corner -- put up beadboard paper.

It's not painted yet; it needs to cure until my sister gets out there and paints it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We also painted -- or more accurately -- primed some furniture.

We'll be back in two weeks to finish those jobs.

And we covered two old red-pink club chairs with striped slipcovers.

Taken with my phone.  Too tired by then to go get the camera!

The slipcovers are vastly too big for the chairs -- next time out,

I bring my sewing machine and get to work tucking and shrinking the slips!

But bit by bit, we're giving the beach house that beachy look.

Now if I could only find some plastic lobsters . . . .

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And speaking of changes -- what a difference a year makes.

My twin great-nephews, last October:

Calvin and Luke with Grandma Peggy

And this October:

Happy first birthday, boys!

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday.  Click here!

And I'm off now to join a blogging friend for lunch, in Connecticut!

-- Cass

Beach House Blues and Jersey Reds

(Wednesday, September 28, 2011)
Last week I shared with you an "inspiration photo"
for our ongoing beach house renewal.

My sister Peggy found the picture:

The house shown, above, is a rental in North Carolina's Outer Banks,

and is bigger and snazzier

and (trust me!) fancier than our beach house out on Long Island.

It works well for inspiration, because our house shares that natural trim

and big casement windows.  We also love the big brilliant swaths of blues and whites.

We're going boldly blue, friends.

Today, I've begun painting this $15 Craigslist buy

-- a butler's tray table -- 

with a Sherwin Williams color called Hyper Blue.  And it is hyper!

We're throwing many shades of blue into our beach house mix.

The UPS man punted a box with two slipcovers up onto our porch Tuesday.

($29.99 each, free shipping, brand new -- eBay.)

Picture taken with my phone -- sorry about the quality.
The colors in real life range from a beautiful royal to a denim to a deep, deep teal.
The creamy white sets it all off just right.

Nautical stripes in blues and white,

for two club chairs already out at the house.

If these slipcovers work, I'll order white ones for the sofa and loveseat.

Blue and white -- it never fails, does it?

Hmm . . . wish we had a fireplace!

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Meanwhile, back here at That Old House, it is another rainy day.

But that doesn't mean Dion and I don't sneak outside between the drops.

We should come up with something different for outside our sunroom door.

Inspire me!  A wet scarecrow isn't terribly glamorous.

 Below, top of the stone retaining wall behind the house -- Husband Howard's potted mums,

and a pot of summer geraniums valiantly blooming away.  And, natch, a pumpkin.   Haha, a pumpkin natch. 

 This must be a special new hybrid -- a menopausal pumpkin.

It's sweating.

On the outside table, atop the lace cloth -- which is really vinyl but ssshhhh -- don't tell! -- is another mum.

Mums, below, getting cozy with Autumn Joy sedum.  I love mums.  Sedum?  Not so crazy about them.

They are goofy looking.  Oh -- there's a nice selection of weeds in there, too.

And what I first thought were wet maple leaves stuck onto the white clapboard siding

of That Old House turned out to be leaves caught in a small spider web.

That is going to be one bitterly disappointed spider.

Back to painting the butler's tray table.

Worst part?  Removing 64 teeny screws to get the 8 hinges off.

Maybe Howard will put them all back for me!  -- Cass

Link parties.

Laura at Decor To Adore sponsors Fall In Love With Your Home ... Click here!

Susan at A Southern Daydreamer sponsors Outdoor Wednesday ...  Click here!

Kathleen at Faded Charm is the hostess for White Wednesday ... Click here!

Sue at It's A Very Cherry World sponsors Today Is Rednesday ... Click here!

Out Of The Funk And Into The Fire

To any of you who read my hissy fit post
of yesterday . . . sorry.
Ugh.  We all have those days.  At least that's what I tell myself.

But today is a new day.  Thursday, in fact.

Tomorrow I'll tell you which of the Craigslist items I showed you a week ago

actually landed here at That Old House, and why.

But speaking of furniture, now that Autumn officially arrives tomorrow,

it's time to start compiling the dreaded annual T.B.D.B.T. List.

(To Be Done By Thanksgiving.)

These chairs will be on that list:

Yes, the picture is of one chair, but there are two of them.  Twins.

They are lolling chairs, larger versions of Martha Washington chairs, that we

picked up at a consignment shop in Williamsburg, Virginia, last spring.

They are lovely, but their upholstery is dated and -- much more importantly -- worn.

I was going to have them reupholstered, but this Fall's budget is not going to stretch to that.

So I'm thinking slipcovers.  I found some pictures online:

This is an Ethan Allen slipcover on that company's Martha W. chair.
Not too sure I like the ties sticking out all over the place;
looks a little goofy to me, like the chair is having a bad hair day.
It might look okay in muslin or duck,  for summer slips, but not in this elegant home dec fabric.

This slipcover was made by a professional.
I even like the weeping willow fabric, although I don't think I'd use it.  Too fiddly to work with.

I couldn't do as good a job as this professional did, but I should be able

to do something that won't send people running screaming from the room.

Mine won't be finished off neatly with custom cording --

more likely it will be held tightly on with staples and strategically placed duct tape.

Don't look too closely.

Thinking cap time:  Any suggestions as to fabric for these chairs?

Any good online sources to share?

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Now that I have a working mouse for the desktop computer again

(thank you, Dr. Howard) I can retrieve pictures that are stored on this computer, and not on my laptop.

Like this shot:

On the left in this picture are Howard's parents, Irene and Milt,

sitting outside the reception hall on their

granddaughter's wedding day back in late June.

Why am I showing you this picture?

Because earlier this week, on Tuesday, Irene and Milt

celebrated their 63rd Wedding Anniversary.

Grandparents who have been happily married for 63 years.

Parents who have been happily married for 33 years.

Our daughter's got some long marriages in her family background;

it's been 3 months for Alida and Josh and so far, so good!

Happy Anniversary, Bobi and Zaide.

Link Party!

Leigh at Bloggeritaville -- it's Thrifty Thursday.  Click here!

Happy Thursday ... see you on the morrow!  -- Cass