Project: Windows

Something I've been wanting to do to our house since we moved into this house was put trim around our windows and get new blinds.  Both of which are items I put on my 101 list.  The blinds that came with the house were crappy, dirty, broken, un-matching, ugly mini-blinds.  Since I couldn't decide on curtains for the living room (or whether I wanted them at all) I just left the windows as bare as they were the day we moved in.  I hated the way the windows made the living/dining room look but I preferred the unfinished look to settling for something I didn't like.  FINALLY, 2 and 1/2 years later, we started Project Windows.  I picked out the trim I wanted, I painted it, I measured the windows, I made 90% of the cuts, Kevin nailed them in, and we both gave the trim additional coats of paint.  Since the trim was wider than the existing window sills, we got all new window sills.  Kevin took care of those.  Once we were totally done painting I got some faux wood blinds custom cut for our windows.  I believe our new windows have totally transformed our living room, and I love them!

before

before

after

after

christmas lights

have you ever tried taking a picture of your house in the evening when its all light up with christmas lights

I tried. I failed.

new living room

Alicia Asks: so the hardwoods are going in! Which is so exciting! I first of all can not wait to see pictures and hear all about your adventure through re-doing your living room! Even more so, I can't wait to see the finished results in person! But on with the question. I'm sure that working on your main living space has impacted Trent in more ways than one! Tell us about how play time for Trent has been impacted. What are you plans now that the hardwoods are in, will Trent have an area rug to play on? Personally we have put an area rug on our hardwoods and I'm having a hard time deciding if the rug on the hardwoods are cleaner/better for him to play on...In addition to telling us all about Trent's play time, feel free to tell us any stories or details about the room's progress!



Answer: Most of you don't even know what this is all about. Kevin and I have ripped up our carpet in our living & dining area and are in the process of laying new flooring. Bamboo flooring, to be exact. We ripped up our carpet in stages. First we got rid of the carpet in the dining room Then some of the living room. Then more of the living room. Then some more. Then the rest of it. Poor poor Trent - his play/crawl space got smaller - and smaller - and smaller. Of course we didn't want him crawling on the plywood (where there was padding chunks, staples, tack strips) so we had to make sure he was constantly on his carpet patch, no matter how small it was. Towards the end, when there was very little carpet, I spent alot of time with Trent upstairs in his room. Once all the carpet was ripped up (staples removed, tack strips removed) Kevin laid this black paper that covered the plywood. We let Trent crawl all over this. His clothes would get filthy (a mixture of the black material, dog hair, and eventually dirt that we'd track in [and couldn't exactly sweep/vacuum]) but it washed off, no biggie. Trent loved being in his walker on the black paper, as he was able to really cruise around.



Once the laying of the floor started we tried to keep Trent confined to the wood surface, but again, we didn't/don't mind him crawling on the black paper.



One of the biggest annoyances we're dealing with is the MESS! We have living room stuff and dining room stuff(furniture, decor, etc) everywhere. We have shoes laying around (since we cant use our closet right now), we're eating at the coffee table (which is now an arms reach for Trent), we have the flat screen TV standing on the floor right now, Kevin's tools here and there (out of reach most of the time, but still there). It's a disaster area - Trent definitely has very little freedom right now. We're constantly picking him up to put him back in the "safe zone". I didn't really realize how much freedom he DIDN'T have until we went to grandmoms house and Trent was free to roam basically wherever he wanted- and that's exactly what he did. He roamed right into the laundry room to the dog bowls, back behind the couch to the lamp cord....all over. It was great for him.



We have every intention of buying a couple area rugs once the floor is down, but for now Trent just plays on the wood floors. He doesn't seem to mind at all. Once we get rug(s) I doubt we will "confine" Trent to the rug (I doubt we'll be able to confine him to any one place) but we will definitely encourage him to play in the rug vs. the wood (cold?) floor.



So, more about the living space in general, for those who don't know: We (Kevin) started by building a half-wall to separate the dining and living room. It looks great (in our opinion). Then we painted the room(s) a nice "Milk Chocolate". Again, we think it looks great. It's dark, but the room is big enough to pull it off. The painting stage is not 100% done. We have some touching up to do, and some window sills to paint, but nothing big. Kevin worked on the floors all of Labor Day weekend and plans to continue them this upcoming weekend (taking this past weekend off). Once they are complete I doubt we'll be able to afford to do much more right away but eventually we'll get rugs, new blinds, put trim around the windows, buy some new furniture pieces and rearrange the furniture layout. It's a work in progress, that's for sure - but hey, we have 29 more years to get it right.

I'll post pictures after this weekend!

is your mom or dad home?

The houses in my neighborhood are 20 years old (some are older). This is the perfect age for replacing roofs, windows, etc. Since the beginning of Spring, we've been getting knocks on the door from salesmen and estimators from companies that are "doing work in the neighborhood and would love to give a free estimate". They all have the same shpeal. They all offer the same services. They are all annoying. In the beginning Kevin actually accepted one guys offer and made an appt to get an estimate on siding. We knew we wouldn't be replacing anything anytime soon, but he figured it would be nice to get an idea of how much it will cost us. Well, this company (who will remain nameless *ahem* PJFitzpatrick) proceeded to call Kevin at least once every day for about a week. Kevin finally got so fed up that he basically told them to shove off. Needless to say, we never went thru with our appointment


So, the other day *knock knock knock*. I answered the door and knew immediately that these guys were here to offer us an estimate on something...or they were Jehova's Witnesses (their snazzy apparel threw me off). One of them spoke up (i got the impression the second guy was in training) and assured me that they weren't here to sell anything or change my religion (phew). Then he asks, "if your mom or dad home". When I told him I was the homeowner he went on to say - with much enthusiasm - "ohhhh shoooot. I thought you was like 17 or something".

Mistake #1: me saying "nope, I'm the homeowner". If I told him my mommy and daddy weren't home he would have gone away. (would he have come back later?)


Mistake #2: letting him continue his shpeal.

Though it wasn't long (a minute tops) I should have just said "I'm the owner and I'm not interested". Instead, when I told him we weren't planning to do any renovations *ever* (that's what you have to tell them to make them go away) he slapped a frown on his face and quickly walked away....like I was one wasting HIS time.

The nerve.