Today is our last day here, in St. Charles, for this visit. We fly back to Tucson this evening, and into a whole other home improvement construction zone!
Yesterday, being the last day to work on the house (laundry and packing today), Maj was here and ready to put newly painted windows in place. That took some puzzle solving skills (lots of pieces of trim to go up and hold the sashes in place), but we successfully completed that task without much difficulty. After the windows were up we pulled out something that I had been saving for this house for the past 3 years. Shutters! In case you haven't shopped for indoor, wooden, shutters lately (not custom made) - they just don't exist anymore. Not that they've gone out of fashion, but you just can't find them at the local hardware store anymore! Shutters, in fact, have been known to increase the value of a house (when on the market for sale) drastically. They add a warm and cozy feeling to a room, and provide privacy as well. This house was just screaming for shutters when I moved in - back in February '06! Since I couldn't find them in the stores, and generally they are too expensive when found in garage sales, I turned to eBay for my search! I lucked out on these. I got
them for a very reasonable price, the guy selling them lived about 100 miles from here (so I could pick them up and not pay shipping), and he was taking them out of his 100 year old house! These shutters aren't 100 years old, but they are probably a good 40 years old and in decent condition. I picked them up, brought them home, and they have been stored - waiting for the right time to put them up. Completing the new bedroom told me that it was time to put up the sets for that room! After a fair amount of creative engineering, Maj and I were able to find the best way to mount them on our windows - and (as they say) viola! We couldn't have asked for a better match in color to the wood, they fit really well (no trimming involved), and give the room the exact feeling that I was working toward. I'm hoping we can get the flooring down on the next trip so we can then start moving furniture into the room. I'm taking home fabric samples from the two comforter sets that will work in there, a paint chip, and measurements to make valances for the windows while we're in Tucson. While I
almost hate to see this project end, it's exciting to think of the next rooms to be done! The possibilities are endless and we are only limited by what we imagine that we can't do.
Yesterday, being the last day to work on the house (laundry and packing today), Maj was here and ready to put newly painted windows in place. That took some puzzle solving skills (lots of pieces of trim to go up and hold the sashes in place), but we successfully completed that task without much difficulty. After the windows were up we pulled out something that I had been saving for this house for the past 3 years. Shutters! In case you haven't shopped for indoor, wooden, shutters lately (not custom made) - they just don't exist anymore. Not that they've gone out of fashion, but you just can't find them at the local hardware store anymore! Shutters, in fact, have been known to increase the value of a house (when on the market for sale) drastically. They add a warm and cozy feeling to a room, and provide privacy as well. This house was just screaming for shutters when I moved in - back in February '06! Since I couldn't find them in the stores, and generally they are too expensive when found in garage sales, I turned to eBay for my search! I lucked out on these. I got 
them for a very reasonable price, the guy selling them lived about 100 miles from here (so I could pick them up and not pay shipping), and he was taking them out of his 100 year old house! These shutters aren't 100 years old, but they are probably a good 40 years old and in decent condition. I picked them up, brought them home, and they have been stored - waiting for the right time to put them up. Completing the new bedroom told me that it was time to put up the sets for that room! After a fair amount of creative engineering, Maj and I were able to find the best way to mount them on our windows - and (as they say) viola! We couldn't have asked for a better match in color to the wood, they fit really well (no trimming involved), and give the room the exact feeling that I was working toward. I'm hoping we can get the flooring down on the next trip so we can then start moving furniture into the room. I'm taking home fabric samples from the two comforter sets that will work in there, a paint chip, and measurements to make valances for the windows while we're in Tucson. While I 
almost hate to see this project end, it's exciting to think of the next rooms to be done! The possibilities are endless and we are only limited by what we imagine that we can't do.
you ladies just rock! Move over Joanne Lieberman... the next generation has arrived :D
ReplyDeleteoh and btw the shutters are just perfect
oops, looks like i spelled her name wrong, maybe y'all knew who i meant though, eh?
ReplyDeletemove over "JoAnn Liebeler" the final hometime generation has arrived.
see also: http://www.pbs.org/hometime/about/faq2.htm