Here are a few pictures of what it currently looks like. Please ignore the ugly green padding, it is a remnant from my attempted hardwood flooring installation. The carpet men will be here tomorrow to measure!
It does not look like alot, but let me tell you, getting those doors installed was tough. I could not buy doors in the jambs, because of the chaos it would have created on the other side of the walls, which all have custom molding and wainscotting.
Did I mention that as I drilled the last hole, Home Depot called and said that the door that I had to special order for my bathroom is in? Maybe in a few weeks, I will tackle getting that thing chiseled and prepped for installation, but not this weekend. I'm fried!
GORGEOUS, Tess! What a lot of work you've put in...
I've missed a bit along the way. Did you have those doors refinished, or is that part of what you did yourself? Are they solid wood instead of hollow-core?
They look just great. I've wanted to replace all of our interior doors for YEARS, and it's always bumped back to the bottom of the "to do" list as something that can wait. Seeing yours reinspires me!
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Good one Brandon! It is a normal sized hallway, with three bedrooms and a bathroom off of it. I guess that we'll go with the optical allusion concept. I just went and doubled checked, and there are no zombies hiding behind the doors, although one room has an annoyed cat, who loves to attack unsuspecting dogs as they walk by!
The color of the wood and wainscotting is the same as in my kitchen, I have the same wainscotting, and the cabinets are also the same color. It all blends together nicely, I think...
Did you have those doors refinished, or is that part of what you did yourself? Are they solid wood instead of hollow-core?
They look just great. I've wanted to replace all of our interior doors for YEARS, and it's always bumped back to the bottom of the "to do" list as something that can wait. Seeing yours reinspires me!
They are new doors, solid pine. I purchased them for $65.00 each at Home Depot. I had hollow core luan, which I hated for years. They were also at the bottom of my list. I'm very sorry that I did not do it years ago, now that I see them up, and since I replaced the standard molding.
Moore, one thing I definitely recommend, is to purchase new door jambs if you can, when you get new doors. It adds around $100.00 to the price, but saves considerable time. The installation is MUCH easier, since everything is milled at the store. I did not have that option, because of alot of custom molding and wainscotting, inside the rooms, would have been damaged trying to remove the door jambs.
By the time I got to the third door I had it down to a science, and I was able to do the whole thing in a few hours, including planing the door down a tiny bit, because the old doors were a tiny bit smaller than the new doors.
I'm just really glad that it's done, heck I'm ready to go back to work to be able to relax....
The other benefit to having solid doors is that they're a much better barrier in the event of any home fire. And, they also give more privacy because they're not paper thin.
I have those hideous hollow core luan doors, and I despise them. I don't know why I've waited so long to buy new doors, but they seem like such an expense when there are always so many other things to be done.
Maybe I'll take some measurements! Again...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
There are deals out there to be had, because of the state of the economy, so I say go for it. When you are taking measurements, make sure to draw a little picture of the door, including where the knob is, and a what direction it opens.
Some things that are really inexpensive, and easy to install, which will dress-up the dreaded luan doors, are new hings ($1.19 each), and new door knobs ($4.99 each).
I could not believe how cruddy the old ones looked when I took them down, and how much cleaner and crisper the new ones look. Funny how we get used to the things that we consider at the bottom of the list.
Good luck! Today I have the measuring man coming, and then I will attempt to combat the heat and humidity by power washing the house.
Another thing I was really surprised about is the cost of carpeting, it is significantly less than I expected. I am getting a very thick, high quality, environmentally friendly new carpeting for three bedrooms and the hallway for around $2,000.00. Home Depot is running a "whole house" installation special for $199.00. I could have gone with lower quality rugs, and gotten the rugs and padding for half of the price.
What's great is that I checked out Lowe's prices, and they include moving furniture and removal, rip-up and haul away for the old rugs for free in their prices. Home Depot will match that. I was really beside myself at the thought of how do I get the furniture out of the rooms myself, but it's part of the latest packages being offered.
Our doors are hallow too, I'd like some solid ones. Our's are white. I didn't realize the difference until I went to a friends house and felt how heavy her doors were. I should put it on my long list too!
I had carpeting in my living room for years that I loved. It was a parchment color; not beige, not cream, but somewhere in between. Nothing showed on it!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
In the hallway I am putting in a berber that has brown, cream and a hint of gray. It is a high traffic area, and the berber that I used to have down, which was a gray and white, hid everything, so I am going the berber route in that area.
For the bedrooms, I am going with a color very much like the parchment that you described. It is light and warm, but looks like it will hold up well to the dogs, cat and myself. It is also very neutral, and should really showcase my furniture well. My bedroom set is a natural cherry wood that is really becoming a beautiful color as the years go on. The other two bedrooms have darker cherry wood bedroom sets. One of the rooms has the set that I picked up at the Ethan Allan auction last summer. I can't wait to get rid of my easter egg colored rugs. I don't know what I was thinking seven years ago when I had them installed. What a brutal expense to have to incur because of not liking the colors. The rugs are in great shape, but the sea foam green and light lilac have to go.
I am going to have a yard sale in a few weeks to try to declutter the house, and get rid of stuff in the basement. I am into a minimalist mode right now, and I literally have 19 years worth of different decorating phases down in the basement, along with televisions entertainment centers, a bedroom set, coffee tables and an tons of other stuff that is in good shape, and really needs to find new homes. I was keeping alot of it for my daughter, but she has her own stuff now, so I need to get it out of the house.
Would you believe I have four televisions in the house, that all work, and were purchased within this decade? I will keep two. I really just want to get rid of everything, so I'll put very low prices on the stuff to get it moving. Worst case scenario, I'll rent a mini-van and try to take it to the Salvation Army.
You should have heard my mother earlier, when I told her that out of my 15 coach pocketbooks, that five have seen better days, and that I'll put them out for a few dollars. She is taking the pocketbooks! She also told me that she will take all of the clothes, and what she does not want, she will take it to the Salvation Army for me. We are the same size...
I made the same mistakes with my carpets when we first moved into this house. (And, by the way, I'm not going to tell you what's in my basement! It's no huge leap of faith for me to believe that you have four working TV sets in your house.)
We had wall-to-wall carpet everywhere (now all gone), and I wanted every room to have its own personality. This was translated to mean that every room needed to have its own color scheme. That would have been fine IF I'd chosen the same shade of carpet throughout all of the upstairs bedrooms, but NO...!!! I had parchment in the hallway, pale yellow in our bedroom, royal blue in what began as my husband's study, sky blue in the guest room, and I forget now what was in the fourth bedroom. In other words, the upstairs hallway and bedrooms looked like a patchwork quilt! YIKES...!!!
I also have boxes of stuff that I've been "keeping for the children". However, no one can use it right now, so I imagine that those boxes will remain in their current state for many more years.
I thought that my grandmother was nuts when she began wanting to purge her stuff. Of course, that all happened at a time when I was still trying to ACQUIRE stuff, so there was a disconnect. NOW I understand it...
It sounds to me like you're making great progress, Tess!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Tess, the doors are lovely. Good choice. Hollow core doors are a bane and should be eliminated as soon as possible.
Colour schemes - ah, my specialty. Take one colour and use it throughout the house as a main theme - say sage green. Then add another colour in one room, drag it into the next, add a colour there, and so on, so at the end, every room hangs together with a common colour theme. Bedrooms can take on a different note if they're isolated, but it does help a lot to have the ability to move a chair from here to there if necessary. Use a new colour three times in a room to avoid the look that it was accidental. And always include a bit of black. It anchors a space. I have a penchant for black lamp shades - just me, but I love them.
I've used the living room Tabriz rug as my jumping off place for this house and it's worked very well. If you have a favourite plate or painting, use that. Hang it all together.
We had wall-to-wall carpet everywhere (now all gone), and I wanted every room to have its own personality. This was translated to mean that every room needed to have its own color scheme. That would have been fine IF I'd chosen the same shade of carpet throughout all of the upstairs bedrooms, but NO...!!! I had parchment in the hallway, pale yellow in our bedroom, royal blue in what began as my husband's study, sky blue in the guest room, and I forget now what was in the fourth bedroom. In other words, the upstairs hallway and bedrooms looked like a patchwork quilt! YIKES...!!!
I love it, patchwork quilt! Can I ever relate!!! I realized that I had the easter egg theme going on when I went to look at a house last winter. The house was spectacular from the outside, it even had a pond in the front yard. There was a farmer's porch and everything that I could have ever wanted from the outside. The driveway was long and curved, with light posts going down it. The first time I drove by it, I had visions of my grandchildren ice skating on the pond. The house was brand new, it was a foreclosure. It was listed at around $350,000.00. More than half of what similar houses were selling at. Did I mention that it had four full bathrooms?
I walked into my dream home, and very quickly it became my nightmare home. Whoever attempted to decorate it, should be working in a preschool art program. Every room glowed in easter egg colors, with the bathrooms in the same hideous colors, and the cheapest tile you have ever seen in the easter egg colors. The quality of the work inside the house was extremely poor. Even when I managed to get beyond the colors, there were serious structural integrity questions about the house. The bathrooms had all of the fixtures ripped out. It would have taken over $100,000.00 to make the house livable. The huge cracks in the foundation had me running, along with over a foot of open area in the attic to outside.
I dubbed th house the easter egg house. Imagine my horror when I got home to my little house, and spotted two bedrooms with the same colors that I had just called horrid in the easter egg house. Hence the need to go neutral, and my cringing at those darn rugs that I thought were so beautiful and trendy.
KaEll, I actually have a color theme going on, and I did not realize it until I read your post! My living room has gray trim (including chair rail, shadow boxes and custom molding), with walls that the color is called arctic white. It has a hint of gray, but is bright and warm. My couch and chaise are black leather, and my lamps are black, and my decorative accents are black also. I have burgandy in there to warm it up, with it in candles, curtains and throw pillows. The coffee table, entertainment center, and curio cabinets are cherry wood. If I do say so myself, it is a beautiful room. The kitchen has white appliances, oak cabinets and wainscotting, white tile backsplash, white tile floor, a gray counter, and gray grout for all of the tile. The kitchen is off of the living room, with a half wall between them, so they flow very nicely with the gray. In the kitchen I have my old country rose dish pattern for color, and the curtains are balloon valances that I made from table cloths in the same pattern as the dishes. The dishes are in a china cabinet, and I have accent pieces in the room.
The house is also gray. Anyway, I better go find some motivation to mow the lawn, and put the last of the tools from my projects into the basement, and out of the shed.
I love to purge! We have alot of stuff in our basement that we could easily give to Goodwill or trash it, but my plan is to get a new family room set and move the current one to the basement, then purge all the hand me down pieces of furniture that people keep giving us!
I'm leaning towards ripping my carpet out, it very neutral, but with the new puppy, it's taking a beating.
Tina, any chance in getting some baby gates to block rooms off from the puppy while you are trying to train?
I have two which keep my girls in the kitchen when I am not at home. I have them stained to match the wood in the rooms that they block off. I have had them for years. Even though they are house trained, it keeps them from creating havoc while I'm out. Dorie is in a crate while I'm at work. She gets bored, and chews...... I have a dog walker come in the middle of the day to get them out.
I have a baby gate too, and I know that KaeEll has doggie barriers. Sometimes, depending upon the pooch (but certainly where puppies are concerned), they're necessary.
My other dogs were well behaved in our house, but Lucy is completely untrustworthy! So, we went back to the baby gate. HOWEVER, she's a Border Collie which means that she figured out how to OPEN it!!! Normally she'll ignore it, and not try to escape, but if there's something that upsets her (like a thunderstorm), she knock it open with her nose. If we're not quick to notice, she'll choose the worst possible location to go relieve her stress! In those situations, we have to barracade the barracade...
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 12:10, 2008-07-20
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Oh yeah, we have barriers up all over the place. We call them Wubbie boards, from our late pooch Candy, nicknamed the Wubs because of her waddle. They're foam core things from presentations made by architects when the CBC Broadcast Centre was getting built and Ted was on the team selecting the winner. They were sitting around in the archives, so he asked if we could have a bunch. They've come in handy as sample paint colour boards, so some of them match the rooms they block. Some, not all, lol.
Tina, I've had dogs all my life, and never have I ever had one that LOVES to pee in the house as much as this Maltese we acquires 6 years ago from a friend who BEGGED me to take him from her. She paper trained him in her laundry room. We got him just after he turned one, and the training was set in stone, it seems. Gah. She also let him sit on her lap when she drove, another miserable habit he still wants to pursue. Our poodle very seldom has an accident, but this Maltese is terrible! Early training sticks!
Shortly after we got this pooch, he decided that his old laundry room corresponded to the knee hole under Ted's desk downstairs. On one of those first mornings, I heard Ted bellow a series of curses as he sat barefoot at this desk to check e mail. We now have a gate at the top of the stairs, wubbie boards blocking the dining room, living room and the spare bedroom where Chloe sleeps and where we put the dogs when there are workers inside, or the grandkids are here - d-i-l isn't a doggie person at all. I gave all (except the Tabriz) of my beautiful Persian area rugs to Mike and Nick to cover up nasty parquet floors in their respective apartments. It had cost me almost as much to clean the damn things three times a year as I paid for then in the first place. Giving away the silk ones nearly broke my heart, but I love my doggies, lol. I must be crazy.