fix up my house

In the before entry, I pointed out that we probably shouldn’t have done this project yet, but here they are. The new fangled system for raising and lowering the shades is really amazing to work with. And, it does the job of allowing us to watch television in the daytime—nice for those noon cooking shows on PBS!

Hmmm. I forgot to put the picture in my last entry and it won’t let me now. Here it is.

The before picture doesn’t really show the problem we were trying to solve—too much glare in the sunroom meant we weren’t utilizing it as much as we wanted.

We never pull all of the shades down at once as this after picture shows—only the ones we need to shade the sun. It’s all working beautifully and it’s a pure delight to spend more time in this room in the morning on sunny days.

This turned out to be an ill-advised project.

Lesson One: Never contract for window treatments, particularly shades, until you’re absolutely sure that you don’t want to replace the windows.

Lesson Two: One project at a time! Two at once means we rush decisions.

We’re getting new light blocking shades (the TV is on the opposite wall) on these four windows and crossing our fingers that between our window guy and the new siding guy that he recommended, we can stop the leaks without having to replace the windows.

This is a favorite room, but it’s often unusable in the morning because the sun’s glare is too bright. Our window treatment guy recommended roller shades of a not-quite opaque fabric that lets in light but not glare. The two funny shaped windows on the south side of the room will get fixed permanent treatments of that fabric.

The shades will be installed tomorrow. They will make templates at the time for the covers for the funny shaped windows.

The before picture is here. Replacing the HVAC (the whole system, not just these heat pumps), took two guys working more than 6 days. And, enough money that we’re putting off a whole bunch of other projects right now. But the new system is noticeably more comfortable and it’s much more efficient and environmentally friendly than the ancient one we replaced.

Here’s a picture of the heat pumps (taken spring 2007). During Earth Hour, March 2008, we decided the single best thing we could do for the environment was replace the oldest of these, about 30 years old! As these things go, we’re also replacing the other one and the accompanying indoor stuff—so, basically, an entirely new HVAC system. The guys will be here Monday!

This will be the first real remodeling project in the house. I’ve been trying for months to make progress on the house, but it feels like this might really work. Apparently, I needed to start with a small space! Which makes a ton of sense, since it’s the first.

Obviously, the fixtures are original to this mid-70s house. I’ll be replacing them with white ones. At the moment, I’m thinking we’ll paint the walls, replace the tile and trim, and get a new smaller cabinet and probably a new mirror. That’s about it. Although, it’s still a lot of decisions and tasks to coordinate.

So far, I’ve got a stack of books from the library, started a notebook on My Deco File, and made a list of stores to browse for fixtures, tile, and cabinets. I intend to devote much of next week actually looking at the books and stores.

It’s not a big project, but R points out that the reason I think we never get anything done on the house is that I don’t pay attention to the small things. So, here it is, our shiny and neat new phone (see the before picture)

Here’s a before picture of our phone set up with phone, caller id box, answering machine, and power strip to plug them all in. I think we’ll have a much neater after picture in the next week or two.