This year, we’ve been working on turning the dining room into a den. We ripped out the carpeting and Esteban painted it (four coats, he has not let me forget) while I was on a trip (which gave the sloppy edges an extra level of bitter) and then we had new carpeting put in. We had the crown molding selected, purchased, sanded, painted and whatnot (and by “We” I mean Esteban and Ward and June did all the work, I just picked colors and paid for stuff) and then everything got stuck with the inability to put it up. Ward tried a few things and then used this bracing system, which worked great! Until it came to the corners, which were, well, impossible. The crown came back off and there it sat for months, looking exactly like this.
I originally wasn’t going to do any fancy stuff with the crown molding, because I like clean lines and Esteban was already annoyed that it was going to look too Victorian. But since coping the corners of the molding together was apparently turning everything into a nightmare, I compromised and suggested these finial things in the corners, to the relief of everyone. Then they had to be sanded, painted, blessed, annointed, etc.
On Saturday, the parents stopped by and tried it out. Our house was built in 1948, so there’s not a perfect 90 degree angle in the place, so the corners took some tweaking.
While Dad sanded and tried to fit the puzzle pieces into the room, Mom walked around fixing the Esteban’s very sloppy paint job. Five minutes after I took this picture, I leaned on that very same doorframe and ruined a pair of jeans AND a shirt.
That’s my office in the background. I took this next one as a process picture, but damn, they are so cute! I love my in-laws so much!
And finally, the project that was supposed to be a short little quick deal but took all of 2007? Mostly finished. This was taken leaning by leaning back in my desk chair and looking toward the kitchen. Don’t judge me for my messy microwave cart or the hibernating orchid.
Esteban just needs to replace all of the switches and outlets, our custom light fixture has to arrive and be installed, and then we must fill the thing with furniture. However, we predict this will greatly upset one resident of Casa Bix, as Tilly has decided that not only is this her room but that she’s weirdly territorial about it, to the point that she’d sit in the room watching Ward, even though he was using the air compressor and making a LOT of noise. We suspect there’s going to be a beat down of our asses when we try to hang out in there.
Ah well.
Esteban announced yesterday that he expects to have his office moved to the smallest room in the house by March so that we can move our bedroom into the second biggest room in the house and then prepare to rip the ever-loving shit out of the largest room in the house, our bedroom. Tear out all six sides of the cube, put in hardwood, dry wall, plaster, paint, build some new walls, put in some more electrical outlets and cable outlets and then move everything back into the room. He thinks this will be done during the month of April. Oh, you optimistic and adorable boy.
I’m horrified, because it’s receiving the same treatment as my office and that took, oh, forfuckingever. But at the same time, it will mean that we’re adding turning the entire end of one side of the room into an 11 foot wide closet and I swear to god, that makes me a little hot in my pants.
Seriously, though, the more things we do to this house, the more I love it. What happens when we finish renovating? We don’t plan on staying here and are just hanging out because the economy is so fucked up (Thanks W!) but what if I fix everything I hate the most about this house and don’t want to move?
