Part I: The Dexter office
This was my first visit to the basement of our home. The house had been on the market 'for sale by owner' exactly 3 days when this photo was taken. I was documenting our walk through, in a very disorganized fashion, taking pictures of odds and ends, but rarely of complete rooms or spaces. It was with great delight that I found a good 'office end' of the basement photo to show you. The recessed area to the right was some sort of carpeted built in bench during the 70's. All I can think about when I hear 'carpeted bench' is 'roller rink'. Unfortunately, this room was not nostalgic, or fun. I cannot put into words how creepy it all was. The next image should ease your mind, I am not making the creepiness up.
This corner is like a crime scene from CSI, or a horrible ransom holding cell, or some other awful thing that I don't want to dwell on. That doll was seriously there, I did not {nor would} stage it. That would mean touching it. Ew.
We decided to section off that end of the room for an office, and had someone come in to do the framing, electrical and drywall. I was left with the job of finish work. This included sanding, applying texture, painting, trimming, built in bookcase building, trim installing, light finding....you get the idea. Over the last few weeks I have been chipping away at it, and this week we just decided to get it all done.
Here is what the bookshelf area looked like a few weeks ago, before any actual shelves were installed.
This is last weeks progress, shelves up, no trim.
Here they are with all their rough edges sanded, trim installed, and ready for books! I worked on the bookshelf trim, carpet, floor and door trim, and other little details late into the night on Tuesday. My husband worked much later, moving books in and arranging furniture. Everything is still mid-move, so final pictures will have to wait until next week. The good news is that one large project is off the list!
Part II: The bathroom knobs
Today, I finished replacing all the knobs in the bathroom. It might not seem like a beautiful or useful project, but if you look closely to the before photo, you will notice that some of the knobs aren't even there, making those drawers nearly impossible to open. How useful is that? Not very. Now they all work! I had to saw one of the old knobs off, because it was crusted on to the screw so badly that the whole thing just stripped. Thank goodness for my little english hack saw.
Part III: My sad, sad, sofa
I love this sofa. There was a period of time when it seemed like every week we had a different one. I would find something I thought would work out splendidly, bring it home, and decide that it wasn't the right thing at all. This went on for a while. I am not sure how many different seating options we went through before I found this one. It was built in the 1940's, and when I got it, it only had a tiny hole in one of the cushions. The frame was sound, the leather was a wonderful color, and the whole thing had stood up to years of wear without really showing it. I was sold. for $220, it was a steal. However, the last five years have given it a run for the money, and the cushions finally began to give up. I had frankenstein stitched them about a year ago, but after our move, the stitching began to fail too. I had to do something.
We had a leather upholstery shop give us a bid on rebuilding the three cushions, but it came in at close to $1400; too much for me. I began toying with the idea of just making new covers myself, but after the rocking chair, I was pretty certain I couldn't execute the level of accuracy required for piped box cushions, let alone in leather.
I ended up postponing the inevitable, but for now it is the best solution.
Instead of trying to do it myself, like I usually do, I decided to have a professional make us slipcovers for each cushion. They were wrapped in Dacron, and then covered with removable heavy duty velvet. The plan was to get dark brown velvet, but when I went in to the store, I fell in love with this other color, mostly because of the texture. It may have been the wrong choice, but it's ok because this is a temporary fix. {I do get all worked up about it though, they look wonderful in person, but in photos they are the cushion equivalent to an accent wall. If you know me at all, I would never choose such a thing. The dark brown piping is the only thing saving my sanity about it. Well, besides that the velvet is pretty wonderful, and in real life the whole thing works.}
My couch no longer looks like it came from the dump, and I didn't have to sweat it out late at night on my sewing machine, worrying if I would ruin the fabric I just bought. Peace of mind. No holes in the sofa. Beautiful.
Organizing the bathroom cupboards, Alice
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