by Maggie | Feb 14, 2013 | Dumb Stuff Old People Do, Home Renovation
People love to point out how “quirky” the floors in our house are — “This is so funny! They tiled linoleum around the remnant carpet?!”
Most of the house is pine covered in layers and layers on linoleum (we’re working on it). They’re impossible to clean and I live in constant fear of splinters. I hate them. Except for these. I really can’t argue for a better floor treatment than trompe l’oeil floral carpet pattern on roll out linoleum sheet. The wall color, however, had to go.
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by Maggie and Ed | Nov 13, 2012 | Dumb Stuff Old People Do, Home Renovation
So, the fireplace. Not really sure what the motivation of the previous owners was here. I was convinced the black had to go. I wasn’t sure what we could do about the fireplace itself. Did these ever look good? I dont know. Maggie suggested painting it white. I sort of tensed up. Paint? Stone?
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by Maggie and Ed | Nov 11, 2012 | Dumb Stuff Old People Do, Home Renovation
Our current lighting isn’t great. I’ll admit that. But despite our ceilings being fairly high, our living room always seemed heavy and dark. A few gems left from the previous owners play a major role in this.
The walls are a pale yellow that seems charming at first, but certainly doesn’t grow on you. In a showing of home town pride, they paired the yellow with black above our stone fireplace. They did not, unfortunately, leave behind the smiley face clock that pulled the whole room together. The transom above the one large window in the room has been covered in the plywood — from the inside — and painted to match the walls. The hardware for the heavy floral curtains was covered by a scalloped wooden panel that I threw in the trash the day we moved in. In retrospect I regret not getting a few pictures.
Luckily, the drilled through the window frame so that we can have this handy, and very safe, outdoor outlet. 
by Maggie and Ed | Nov 11, 2012 | Dumb Stuff Old People Do, Home Renovation
My grandmother lived on old money. She lived in one of those houses that you see in the movies. It was an old victorian fantasy land. She was also a little crazy. She didn’t like central heating or A/C DC. She said that it made us weak. So every chilly Christmas when we visited her, we built fires and heated rooms one at a time. We really used those pocket doors. I remember Rupert slamming his head into them over and over again before the brain damage. Those doors were solid. I always wished I had some pocket doors for my own children to torture themselves with.
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