The Eldon desk

The “Eldon desk” is a little wooden desk that Don’s dad made for Sami. He had previously made one for each of his grandchildren. Sami really liked the desk’s simplicity so Eldon surprised her with one the next Christmas. The desks were made of scrounged material and Sami’s desk has a piece of wood on the underside that must have come from an old phonograph cabinet. Eldon painted around the 2x2½ inch RCA logo of Nipper the dog listening to “his master’s voice.” Of course the little picture will be preserved.

 

The Study

The room we call a “study” is continuing to get its face-lift. Twenty years ago, when we moved here, it was Carl’s bedroom. The walls were paneled in dark wood. After he moved, it acquired a hodge-podge of furniture; a hand-me-down futon from Emily, two file cabinets, two giant wood desks, both discards from our respective work places, two computer desks, cheap bookshelves and, on the walls, a variety of artwork and calendars. Somewhere along the way it got painted a bright blue. A while back, Don switched out his big oak desk for a small roll top desk that had been his father’s. As part of our remodel, to make the room more coordinated, we got Don a new computer desk and both of us new matching bookshelves. We have been wrestling with what color to paint the walls. We want a color that will help bring everything together and create a quite, calm mood. A tall order for a room that still has seven different oak tones (including furniture and floor), five different desks and two different filing cabinets, plus five different electric lights, and two big windows that cast all kinds of light and shadows on the grooved, angled, sloping walls. Oh yes, we want it to coordinate with the other rooms.

Obliterating the blue took two coats of white paint, using a narrow brush (because of the grooves). Here are three Benjamin Moore colors we are considering:

Rich cream – exactly what it sounds like

Amulet – a low-intensity, creamy gold

Dried Basil – a soft, dusty green, tending toward a khaki color

Everyone says the green is best, but my senses respond most positively toward the other two.

Progress

Slow... but we are making progress. Don spent much of the last five weeks recovering from a nasty flu. That slowed his garage cleaning down to a weak crawl. Instead we have been focused on our study. No actual remodel in there, but we have added a wardrobe, to fill-in for the big closet on the main floor that will be demolished and moved. We added new, bigger bookcases and a new computer desk for Don. All surfaces must now be cleaned and painted. Good-bye blue!

 Everything we do is inspected by Simon. He does not approve of changes in his house. We are thinking of giving him cat Valium to calm him down.

Daphne, on the other hand, is fine as long as the food dish remains full and her basket is kept warm.

Garage loft has been conquered!

With Sami mainly in the driver's seat, the garage loft has been transformed from a to-the-ceiling jig-locked traffic jam to a very tidy open space. The loft had been kind of (for me anyway) the place to toss things if no other logical or handy place existed. With an accumulation approaching 20 years, there was no fast way to deal with it. Sami largely went through it, 'nut and bolt' at a time, organizing and grouping things. As most of it was my stuff, I went through the organized version and did, in fact, finally let go of some things. The end result is shown in the pictures. Too bad we couldn't find the 'before' versions...the transformation would be more dramatic!

Hmmm...I can set up a train table in the northwest corner. By the way, the odd colors on the old dresser are the Southern Pacific RR colors for their old 'Black Widow' paint scheme on their diesels. I also added the hand railings, so that we wouldn't fall through the big hole in the floor where the pull-down ladder is.

I'm trying to duplicate Sami's effort in the main lower garage area. I'll add an entry when it reaches a similar 'show the world' state.

Don

BIG boxes and meatballs

We have been to IKEA both yesterday and today to get stuff needed for the “Plan, Clean, & Prep" phase of the remodel; storage shelves for the garage clean-up, and a wardrobe for the study, where I will relocate all of my hanging clothes that have been in the main floor closet. IKEA is definitely a BIG box store. Everything is packed flat and boxed up. We assemble the stuff at home. Today we had to deal with components of what we were after not being in stock and unsure when/if they would get in stock. Back and forth between two levels of the acres-large store, working with two very helpful employees. It all got worked out. As Don says, we had better get ready for a lot of the same thing during the project. We are tired. We have had our fair share of IKEA Swedish meatballs! They had a promotion on where the cost of your meal was deducted from the purchase of your items if you bill exceeds $100. No problem there.

Lists, and more lists

Christmas happened. Now we are ready to turn our attention more completely to the remodel. We continue to work our way through a forty-seven point to-do list called “Phase One – Plan, Clean, & Prep.”  It includes items such as, “weed all books,” “set up temporary kitchen in the basement,” and “consult with structural engineer.” The list also includes getting rid of furniture we no longer want or need. Does any one want a well-used and much-loved upright piano, or a single bed? Weeding our music collection is a tough one too. We have 78s RPM records, 33 & 1/3 LPs, audio cassettes, and CDs. Now that I play most of my music on my iPod touch sound system or with Pandora, do we need any of it? But we love all of it! Decisions, decisions, decisions!

We are also developing a gargantuan sequential list of all the tasks which make up the actual remodel. Its scary.

Plenty of stuff

"Before"

For the last several weeks, Don has been busy cleaning the garage. Over the years he has accumulated the inventory of a well-stocked hardware store, and never given himself the luxury of good storage, or the time to clean up after projects.

I have been sorting out and packing into boxes most of our kitchen and dining room things. Some go to the kids, some go into storage, and some will go into the temporary kitchen/dining room we will build in the basement. Twenty boxes so far for storage and another eight for charity. Lucky for us our son, Carl, and his wife, Angie, have extra storage space in their home, just two doors away. Better than renting a pod, or living with the boxes through the remodel.

Yup, its going to be a while before we actually start this project. But, we are making progress through our “Phase One” to-do list (everything that needs doing to get ready for the project).