Things I Like #6

Once again, in a post inspired by, or stolen from, Mistress Maddie, here are some things I like that are around the house.

One of the things I like best about the house is how it’s changed from when we bought it, to how it looks today. When we bought the house, the crown molding, chair rails,  window trim, French doors, and baseboards were wood, but stained a hideous brown, and the living room walls were light blue above the chair rail, and a whisk broom painted effect in a darker blue below.

I hated it.

I painted three walls a gray, and one longer wall a darker gray; I removed the chair rail, and then painted the crown molding  and baseboards an ivory. I had a friend whose home had no such moldings and she painted “moldings” on the walls. I thought for a moment, and thought how to make our crown and base look a bit more dramatic, and the solution was to paint a stripe, in the same ivory, below the crown molding and just above the baseboards all around the room.

I like it.

I also—after much debate with Carlos, painted the mantel in white, and once that was done, we opted to switch out our Old—emphasis on old—west ceiling fans for something cooler … like a wooden airplane propeller. There are two in the living room and they look great and circulate the air better than those four-paddled monstrosities of yore.

More to come …

Look What Happens When You Slap Some Paint On It ....

Since we're out of town for a bit, I thought I'd share some more 'house' with you. See, sometimes the biggest changes are made with a can of paint and an idea …

That’s what Casa Bob y Carlos looked like the day we moved it. I loved all the trees, though I’ve come to hate all the leaves, but I wasn’t keen on the color; a little too battleship blue-gray for me. So, we switched it up, and went showy, with a nice greenish-yellow for the body of the house and a splash of red on the inside of the front porch, and on the outside of the sunroom out back.

We used to tell people we lived in the blue house, now we just say ‘Look for the red porch.’

Take a small tour, after the jump …

Goodby Cruel Chair Rail.......

Finally! The living room painting project is complete, and I think it looks mah-velous. We changed our paint choices about four times before settling on Rugged Suede and Grey. The first brown was too dark, though I liked it, and the first gray has too much green in it. This brown is lovely, and the gray has more blue in it, and they work so well together.

As I'm apt to do, I wanted something different. So, as I was painting out the trim, from brown to ivory, I brought the trim color down from the crown moldings about two inches and up from the baseboards the same amount. Then, with my trusty ruler, I measured down from the crown about and inch-and-a-half, and taped a half-inch piece of painters tape all the way around the room leaving a half-inch gap between the crown and the tape. i did the same to the baseboards, only the gap was three-quarters of an inch.

Then the painting began. The long wall, er, the art wall, as that's where our watercolors will go, went Rugged Suede, while the other three walls went Gray. And the results, i think, are beautiful, and more importantly, Carlos likes it, too.
Now.....to the hallway and beyond!

Painter Man

Semi-Sweet and Cathedral Stone

It's hot. And sticky. And I hate it when I get all hot and sticky...well, some of the time.
The weekend is over and it seemingly just started. One minute there was a Friday night cocktail, and then it was Monday morning. In the old days that would have been the sign of a really fun weekend, but nowadays it's just a sign of Old Days. But I digress.
I'm on yet another painting binge at Casa Smallville. This time it's the living room. When we moved it, it was painted a very delicate shade of light blue, above a chair rail--do not get me started on chair rails--and then there was some sort of painting technique applied to the wall below the rail. I swear to Ellen, the people who lived here before we bought this house never met a hideous color, or an outdated painting technique, that they didn't slather from stem to stern of the house.
Navy blue sponge-painted kitchen? Yes, we had that.
A flesh colored dining room? Check!

Chair rail and stripes! Ack!

The aforementioned striping below the chair rail--which really just looks like the paint ran, and they called it art. Indeed!
A pineapple wallpaper border in the master bedroom that wasn't actually applied to the wall, but was, instead, stapled, top and bottom, all the way around the room!
Yes, I know you feel my pain.
But, back to the living room. The chair rail was removed, and the walls patched. The crown molding and the baseboards have been sanded and primed, and mostly painted a lovely shade of ivory. Now, comes the time for picking a wall color. And this is where the trouble starts.
Carlos and I never agree on color. I like something a little unusual, a little dramatic. I see the room as a whole; the paint, the art, the furniture. Carlos sees just the color of the wall. And, to be fair, he likes the freaky. He, and I'm biting my tongue here to save you all from a slew of curse words, was thinking of painting the living room lavender.
I know!
La-ven-der.
Oh-em-gee.
Luckily, I was able to persuade him that lavender wasn't really the right color for the room. You know, I said, the furnishings are mostly earth tones, in greens, golds, browns, so lavender would stick out like a sore gay thumb. And it may have been the eloquence of my anti-lavender argument, or it may have been the hammer I kept swinging in my right hand, but the idea of lavender was shelved. Lavender! I mean, we're gay, not queer. I kid. We're queer, too.

The recently painted mantle will soon match all the trim.
Chair rail down, but note the chair rail in the hall!
In The Hall!!!!

I explained that I wanted the neutrality of gray. Gray, with my ivory trim would be lovely, especially when we install carbonized bamboo flooring. But, I also I wanted an accent wall, and I wanted a darker shade of gray there. So we researched grays. Grays with blue. Grays with green. Grays with with brown. Even grays with a hint of purple, that looked, yes, lavender, Those I hid from Carlos.
And we settled on a gray with some blue in it. For about five minutes, and then it was back to the paint store for more samples. And I found it.
Gray. or, as the paint store called it, Cathedral Stone. And the accent wall in Semi-Sweet. it's like a church for chocolate. I bought sample-sized cans and came home and painted splotches on the walls. Carlos, who was working in the yard, came inside, saw the splotches, and promptly made a gurgling, hissing noise and fainted dead away, while muttering, 'Too dark....too dark....too.....'
But I think, on the one wall, covered with our collection of watercolors, the Semi-Sweet is gonna look All-The-Way-Fabulous. I even brought out some of the paintings and held them against the wall.; Gorgeous. I showed him different colors and how they looked against the gray. Wonderful. I even promised that his antique writing desk would look fabulous against a Semi-Sweet wall. But, I also promised to live with it for a few days. 
The first day, I changed my mind, and agreed with Carlos.
Too dark.
Now, I'm not so sure....I could switch the Semi-Sweet for Rugged Suede, which is a shade lighter, and then switch out the Cathedral Stone for something which might be lighter, too. Or, I could go with my gut. or i could go all Rugged Suede Cathedral Stone.
What to do.....what to do.
I hope the room is done before Christmas.
Our tree would look amazing in the Chocolate Church.

It's A Paint-A-Thon

Casa Smallville--Before

Casa Smallville--After

Well, another painting project down, and still a few more on the horizon.

As I've said before, when we bought Casa Smallville, we loved the house. We did not, however, love the choice of paint colors used by the former owners. The kitchen was dark blue......sponge paint. I know! And the master bedroom; ah, what a thing of beauty. The bottom six feet of the walls were painted a deep dark, murky blue, while the top two  feet were painted a shade of blue I will call battleship. Bridging the gap between hideous and hideous'er, was a wallpaper border with pineapples and fruit cornucopia on it.


 

The Hannibal Lecter Dining Room

I.Know!

The day we moved in the house, I decided to see how much trouble it might be to removed the pineapple border. I saw one edge, near the door, had lifted up, so I gave it a tug. Imagine my surprise, when the border began pulling away from the wall with ease. It pulled away from the wall all the way around the room.

Why. you may ask? 

The former owners had simply stapled the border to the wall.

I.Know!


The Nursery Dining Room


The dining room, well, it was flesh colored, with some sixties, or early seventies, brass-and-glass light fixture in it. And since I am neither Hannibal Lecter or a Time Traveler from the past, I opted to make that my second painting job--after ridding the kitchen of the Navy blue sponge paint. 

And I didn't want a red dining room because it's been done. So, I opted for blue. I selected a gray blue, called Oxford Blue, because it looked far different from the kitchen paint I'd just hidden away, and I instantly painted the dining room Oxford Blue.

And it looked plain.

So, I taped off stripes, and purchased some Oxford Blue in a satin finish, and went at the dining room again. I painted the wall below the chair rail the same color as the trim, so it might look better. And it did....until that first family dinner.


Aaaah, Green!

I sat at the head of the table, looking at my Oxford Blue, matte and satin striped walls, and thought, Hmmm, we need to get a changing table and a crib in here.

Yes, it looked nursery.

Time for a change.

I went from Oxford Blue to a deep dark Forest Green, and when we bought the new dining table and chairs--in a color called Ginger--along with a new lamp, it looked beautiful, except....

Tape It Off.

I missed the stripes.

So, rather than buy a gallon of Forest Green in satin, I did some research and discovered I could use something akin to Polyurethane, called PolyCrylic, which came in satin, to achieve my matte-and-satin stripe-age.

Well, furniture was removed, measurements were taken, pencil lines drawn, tape applied, and then i hit it with the PolyCrylic; two coats. It gave every other strip a slight sheen, and gave some added detail to walls I already loved, because they were no longer flesh colored, or looked like a Little Boy Blue room.

Aaaaah, now on to the living room.

Now, to be fair, Carlos had his own painting project.

Shortly after we moved in, we had pot lights installed in the kitchen, a new fixture over the island, and one over the kitchen table.

With the removal of the old fixtures, the ceiling had to be repaired, and Carlos took that on. It had to be re-textured and then repainted. He did the re-texturing in record time....about six months.

The repainting? Well, that took a bit longer.

Three.Years.

Then, this past Sunday, out of the blue, he got out a ladder, some sponge brushes and paint, and painted the kitchen ceiling.

Three.Years.Later.

I couldn't figure out why he decided to do the ceiling, until I leaned the next day at Post Apocalyptic Bohemian--thanks Stephen--that Sunday was Michelangelo's birthday.

Now it all made sense.

Musings

What a weekend! We looked at toilets. I know! Fun, right?

But we want to redo the guest bathroom so we headed to Lowe's and looked at Dual Flush Toilets--one button for Number 1, one button for Number 2. Ain't science grand! We also found a lovely pedestal sink so we can dismantle, and perhaps burn, the hideous vanity that's taking up too much space in an already small space.

We also checked out tile, and this is where the disagreements start. I saw some lovely muted beige and grey tumbled stone tines, that would look lovely with a band of glass tiles around the edge. Carlos saw some, well, for lack of a better word, horrifying blue tiles. Horrifying. It looked like it used to be in Hef's Grotto at the Mansion, if you get my meaning. But, I think I was able to dissuade him from that particular choice.

We spotted some new lamps for the exterior of the house, sort of Asian/Frank Lloyd Wright inspired, and very cheap--and by very cheap, I mean one margarita cheap. Which is good since we'll need four of them. Carlos pointed out a floor lamp he liked, while I wondered why anyone, who isn't living in a 1950s TV show, would want a floor lamp. i just don't get floor lamps.

We looked at tubs and showers and mirrors and fixtures and closet organizers, and then made out way to the exit where we remembered that we'd forgotten to pick up some Polycrylic for the dining room.

When we bought Casa Smallville, the dining room was flesh colored, and since I'm not Hannibal Lector, eating in a flesh colored room was not appealing. So, I tackled that room, opting to stay as far away from the traditional red--it seems nearly everyone in Smallville has a red dining room--as I could.

I picked a very beautiful light blue, and purchased it in matte and satin finishes. I painted the entire room in the matte, and then taped off sections and painted vertical stripes all around the room in the satin finish.

It was beautiful.

And then we ate dinner in there and I couldn't help but think there should have been a  crib and a changing table in it. it was that color blue. So, in a flash, the blue was gone, replaced by forest green, which I love, but I still missed the stripes. Which is where the aforementioned Polycrylic, in a satin finish, comes in. It will add the much needed stripe-age to the room.

Then we returned home, where Carlos used his Christmas gift, a molcajete--mortar and pestle--of lava rock, to make a delicious ancho chile, tomato and garlic salsa for some grilled pork. I didn't know how much more inventive he'd be on his nights to cook with a molcajete because, had I known, I would have gifted him a molcajete ten years ago!

Plus, I do so love saying molcajete! 

After dinner, we watched The Social Network On-Demand, and I was pleasantly surprised how much more I liked it than I thought I would. When it came out, I thought, A movie about Facebook? No. But it was really good, with really good performances, and a dual performance by my new man crush six-foot-five-inch hunk Armie Hammer. He played twins, so it was double My Pleasure, Double My Fun.

Then something called the Superbowl was on, and I flicked back-and-forth between a Law & Order: SVU marathon and the game, hoping to just hit the commercials. I wasn't so successful.

I missed Christina Aguilera's rendition of the National Anthem, so I missed her bungling of the words. i always thought they sang to a track, so things like this wouldn't happen? I mean, how embarrassing. I also missed Cameron Diaz feeding A-Rod. I mean, how embarrassing.

I also missed Bill O'Reilly's "interview" with the President. Who set that up? And why do an interview with an illiterate raging ape instead of an actual news anchor? If that's the case, the White House could have sent Obama down to Smallville to talk with one of the guys who lives under the bridge. It would have been just as interesting. And where does O'Reilly get off asking Obama what he thinks of the "people that hate" him? When Obama said something about the people that "don't like me," O'Reilly piped up,. "No, they hate you." How fucking unprofessional. He really needs his own room in Douchebag Hell.

Thanks to
John abuzz
for the photo

And, so, finally, speaking of Douchebags.....Ronald Reagan, the GOP's Great White Hope. The one they all aspire to emulate. He turned 100. Whoop-de-freaking-do. The problems of today, with debt, and the rich getting richer, are directly tied to Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan who never said a word about AIDS until it was fiver years too late, and then did little about it.

St Ronald? Gimme a break.

I think he'd be a Number Two flush.

And, so, how was your weekend?

Foyer: Done......To The Living Room And Beyond

The foyer is done, at last. Painted, rugged, dressed, staged, relit.
It went from a hideous red to a gorgeous midnight blue, and then I repainted an old secretary green, with gold accents, to showcase some of Carlos' favorite teapots.
It makes such a nice entry into Casa Smallville.

Sung To The Tune Of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?"

Once I had a foyer, painted red.
How it made my skin blush.
Once I had a foyer, painted red.
Brother, can you spare a brush?


I hated that red.
Hated it!
And so, I cajoled and tickled and nudged Carlos to the dark side, and now, it's in the midst of turning from God-Awful-Red to Fabulous-Midnight-Blue! And when we take an old secretary, and paint it lime green and red--yes, I said lime green and red--it's gonna be beyond fabulous!

It Oughta Be On Curb Appeal

We had a busy week at Chez Smallville last week. No DDBW antics for us; it was more homebody, than homo bodies, but that's okay. For now.

We settled on a painter and we took our house from this:

To this:

And this:

Followed by this:

And this:

I do think it turned out quite nicely. We had originally wanted to go with a sage green, but then with the red it seemed a little too somber, and, well, we ain't somber here at the House Of Smallville. So we picked a very bright green-yellow, which allows the red to stand out.

And stand out it does.

The denizens of Smallville, who've been by to witness the transformation, have all had nice things to say.....to our faces. I'm sure behind our backs it was, "Homos and their damned paint choices!"

But that's okay.

My favorite response was from a woman with whom I work, who shall remain nameless....oh hell no....it's Kelly, who said, "I love it, but I don't get the red."

Kelly? Honey? You don't have to get it. Just love it!

We do!