Home Improvement

We bought our first house exactly 15 months ago. What fun we've been having ever since. It was built in 1941, and we are the honored third owners. The man who lived here before was here over half a century and kept it in tip top shape...until he went blind 15 years ago. Then he had to rely on his gardener who, I'm told, was a little bit nuts. So here we are with a neat old woman of a house who just needs a bath and some make-up. I'm in my element with this sort of thing, not that I ever worked in a nursing home and not that I'm so good at home improvement, but my mom did teach me a couple things about electrical sockets and paint (though I'll never be as good at it as she is.) Sometimes I lie in bed at night brainstorming with myself about projects I'd like to do, as soon as we plant our money tree. I do have some rules I've had to give myself: Only one project at a time. Complete it completely before moving on to the next; only one medium-sized project per month, or one large one per quarter, etc. I'm prone to tunnel vision, you see. I start something and before you know it the family has had scrambled eggs for a month, the babies are in 2-day old diapers, and they are referring to the Sword in the Stone movie as Mother. Not good. Not a house of order, or cleanliness, or anything (though that paint job sure looks nice!). Here are some before/after pictures of room renovations we've done so far (let's see if I can figure out this picture thing):


Dining room before and after carpet removal, panelling (a fun project for Michael and me, for real!), paint and new light (Spanish antique that was hanging in some lady's garage!). We have yet to do the crown molding though.

The old owners were into monochroma, let's just say. A little color goes a long way, we've found. Here is the boys' room. We had fun ripping out carpet because underneath was this ancient rubber padding lined with old 1956 news paper. Halfway through Michael and I stopped and had a good laugh at some of the articles and advertisements. "...If your name is drawn you win a 5-minute phone call with Rock Hudson!!" Several civil rights articles that were interesting, too. The sponging made a big difference. Add some new drapes and you've got yourself a boys' room!