How cute is this 1866 double shotgun in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans? And just in time for Christmas.
What makes this charming house so unusual is that only two colors are used. Here's what they did:
Siding, doors, shutters: Red
Quoins, door frames, window frames: Hunter green
Before the paint job, this house was extremely boring (photo below). When I saw it up for sale, I thought: Who would want such a boring house? Then, it got painted by the new owners and WOW! They had vision. Here's what they did (click on photo for larger view):
Brick exterior: Olive green
Fascia: Fuchsia
Windows: Yellow and orange
Door: Fuchsia and Yellow
Shutters: Deep blue
Ironwork: Purple
Picket fence: Butter yellow
Bravo! And thanks for brightening up the neighborhood!
In 1902, the hosting needs of President Theodore Roosevelt, who took office in 1901 after President William McKinley was assassinated, had outgrown the White House's existing State Dining Room (shown here).
And so plans were made to create a bigger State Dining Room in the famous East Room. This room would still be used for smaller gatherings, but it had to be renovated, and it especially had to be painted.
According to an article on April 17, 1902, in the Boston Morning Herald, the family found the yellow color scheme "obnoxious."
Here is the new stately State Dining Room in 1904. Notice the moose head over the fireplace, presumably provided by the president, an avid hunter.
Here is the same room in 1992, minus the moose.
And again in 2010. It can seat up to 140 for dinners.
Photos: White House Museum
This is one of the best budget kitchen remodels I've seen. While you can see a dramatic change from before (bottom) and after (top), notice that the cabinets are the same, the window is in the same place, all the appliances are in the same locations and the floor and ceiling are the same. So what's making this kitchen look so dramatically different?
Let us count the ways:
• Cabinets painted white
• New cabinet hardware
• New Ikea Numerar countertops
• New appliances (always a bonus)
• New backsplash of glass tile (yummy!)
• Upper cabinet on right replaced by Grundtal shelving from Ikea
• Green accent wall (that was inspired)
But the biggest deal in this kitchen is the new island, which I found featured on Ikea Hackers, a great website for discovering how you can mess around with basic Ikea products to create something totally awesome.
This is a Varde base cabinet ($249) from Ikea with an overhanging butcher block top and, most significantly, the owners covered the standard white Melamine on the front (actually the back, see below) with the same glass tile that was used on the backsplash.
With the three white stools, this is an Ikea hack extraordinaire! Congratulations to the genius homeowners who made this happen!
I admire the entrepreneurial spirit, and passion about one's work, and courage.
So when Steve Broujos, a painting contractor and educator in Wilmington, Del., asked if I'd like to see his new book, I thought: Why not?
The title is not exactly dynamic: "The Homeowner's Guide to Surface Preparation for Interior House Painting." But I'll tell you what: It's accurate.
This book sounded interesting because I've heard so many times that the trick to great house painting is preparing the surface. But that's usually all you hear. Surface prep is important. So how do you do it?
This book tells you how, along with giving you tips and tricks only a professional would know. For instance, use of a sanding block attached to a pole. It's known as a pole sander. I love the idea of sanding rough spots on walls and ceilings, but not at arm's reach from a ladder. Using a pole to reach up and out is much more my style.
There are plenty of photos in the book's 193 pages, all in black and white.
I think this is a useful book, in which you'll learn about setting up and lighting your work area, removing wallpaper paste residue, applying caulk, skim coating, repairing holes and many other topics. It's a sincere book by a real expert. If you're going to spend hundreds of dollars on paint and countless hours applying it, perhaps some extra thought to the surface preparation would be a good investment.
You can order it from Amazon.
Michelle Kolb of Nantucket, Mass., won Grand Prize in the DIY category of American Clay's Second Annual Makeover Contest. See her room before and after below:
After:
Before:
The judges for the competition included Mary Cordaro, president of Mary Cordaro Inc. a certified Bau-Biologist; Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, author, green building expert and principal of organicARCHITECT; Kelly LaPlante, eco-interior designer and founder of Standard Magazine; and Danny Lipford, home improvement expert and host and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated television showToday’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford. American Clay CEO Croft Elsaesser also participated as a judge.
According to American Clay, DIY winner Michele Kolb "renovated a historic 1747 Nantucket house, the first LEED (gold or silver, TBD) certified historic house renovation on Nantucket. She installed American Clay walls in Porcelina’s Sugarloaf White with a lime wash to resemble what the original 1747 walls may have looked like and to achieve LEED points for healthy air and recycled products. It was used in the living room, bath, stairway, and master and children’s bedrooms. Judge Kelly LaPlante selected a few shots of this house to publish in her debut issue of her new online publication, Standard Magazine."
According to Eric Corey Freed: “The winners showcased what I love about American Clay in the first place – a gorgeous, healthy finish that brings a room to life."
For the professional category, the winner was Selena Holt from Hayden, Idaho.
One day, when I wasn't looking, my once-charming front porch went from shabby chic to just plain disgusting. I waited for the crew from HGTV's Curb Appeal to show up. When they didn't come, I decided to take on the job.
Here's the porch I started with:
As you can see, I had many challenges: mold, mildew, baked-on grime, faded paint, cracks and rust stains. After I got the porch cleaned up and the cracks filled with concrete patch, I applied a coat of KILZ Clean Start Primer. I wanted to try out this product because it has no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Organic in the previous phrase always throws me off. These fumes that evaporate into our lungs could also be called "volatile chemical compounds." Sound scarier? This new product from KILZ was very pleasant to work with. It covered well, which what I have come to expect from KILZ, and I didn't have to hold my breath as I worked.
Here's what the porch looked like after the KILZ:
And here's what it looks like after one coat of paint:
In my opinion, this looks pretty darn great. And with a high-quality primer, this paint job will last much longer than if I had just added the top coat alone. I don't expect to paint this porch again for many years to come. See the whole story here.
Q: What's even better than blocking stains with KILZ primer-sealer?
A: Doing so without poisoning yourself.
I've been a fan of KILZ stain-blocking primer for years. It's one of those rare products that lives up to its hype. And now it come in a formulation with no volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. That word "organic" really throws people. Organic is good, right? In this case, it means that there is off-gassing from the paint. And where does that gaseous material go? Right into your body. You could rephrase VOC to VCC, or volatile chemical compounds. Does that get our attention better?
So I've got a gallon of KILZ Clean Start (which can be used indoor or outdoor) and I've got a stained front porch that needs some attention. Check back in a few weeks and I'll show you my results.
Check out this mural on an awkwardly shaped ceiling, which Kitty Bartholomew of HGTV fame had painted in her bedroom. Typically a tray ceiling is a real boost to a home's architecture. But in this 1930s Cape Cod home, it was out of place. The room had apparently been added on and the modern style of the ceiling didn't match the rest of the home. With this mural, the room takes on the feeling of a beautiful sanctuary under a blue sky.
Are you a fan of Consumer
Reports? I am. Totally. The nonprofit company's integrity and independence
remind me of the good old days of journalism.
In the May issue of the magazine, CR named the Best and
Worst in home fix-it-up products. The winners and losers
include:
Cordless tool kits
Porter-Cable PCL418C-2 and Skil 2887-16 cordless-tool kits
Porter-Cable PCL418C-2 and Skil 2887-16 cordless-tool
kits
Best: Combine a drill, reciprocating saw, and circular saw, and you have a cordless-tool kit. The Porter-Cable PCL418C-2, $300, at top, drove screws and sawed 2x12s almost as well as a $500 kit. Worst: Don't be tempted by the $230 price tag of the Skil 2887-16. It's mediocre overall, but worse, it has a short battery run time and will require frequent recharges.
Interior paints
Behr Premium Plus Ultra Satin Enamel and Sherwin-Williams
Duration Home Satin interior paints
Behr Premium Plus Ultra Satin Enamel
and Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Satin
Best: Low-luster paints, also known as eggshell or satin, are ideal for most rooms. And Behr Premium Plus Ultra Satin Enamel, $33, sold at Home Depot, had impressive one-coat hiding and stain resistance and doesn't need a primer. It's also low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Worst: But Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Satin, $47, was only so-so at hiding and stain resistance. Plus its sheen noticeably changed after scrubbing.
Own an older home? Beginning April 22, only contractors who have been trained in safe handling of lead-contaminated paint dust can legally work on your home. And that's a good thing for you.
If you've been keeping up with contractor-type news, you know that contractors are not happy at all with a soon-to-be enforced EPA law that requires extra precautions when dealing with lead contamination in homes.
Lead was routinely added to paint prior to 1978. When that lead-infused paint is sanded or cut into, dust is created that can be ingested. Lead poisoning has been proved conclusively to cause brain and neurological damage to children. That's what this law is all about, to protect the health of children. And I can tell you from personal experience, life is hard enough without the added burden of brain damage. Congress directed the EPA to enact these safety requirements nearly 20 years ago, and it's only now being done.
Some contractors say the financial burden of these safety precautions is too great. Some have turned it into a political issue and another reason to dislike President Obama and his administration.
The law requires that in order to work on houses built prior to 1978 (the year paint with lead in it was banned for residential construction), each contractor must take an 8-hour class that costs about $250 and pass a 25-question multiple-choice test. Then, the workers in the company must be trained on how to protect themselves from lead-contaminated paint dust, and how to protect the jobsite. This often requires plastic gloves, masks, plastic bags to collect the contaminated material, a HEPA vacuum, etc.
Times are tough right now for businesses and so many contractors are rebelling by saying they won't get certified and they simply won't take any remodeling jobs on houses built prior to 1978. Some companies report they will go out of business because of this new requirement.
What this means is more work for the companies who are certified to work with lead-contaminated paint dust. The EPA estimates some 125,000 certified contractors by the April 22 deadline, with companies continuing to be certified after that.
If you own a home built prior to 1978, the pool of contractors that you can choose from to do remodeling will not be bigger, but it will be better.
Certain companies have a special affinity for older homes and you will be more likely to choose such a company when others with less of a commitment to older homes drop out of the business. Plus, the companies who have taken the time and effort to become certified in the handling of lead-contaminated dust are the companies who have a demonstrated affinity for safety, both for their own workers and for the home's occupants.
There have always been people who resent the government stepping in to protect the safety of consumers. Drug companies really hate it. So do polluting industries. Yes, protecting consumers and workers does cost money. However, if a company is so close to financial ruin that a commitment of $1,000 for new safety training and equipment puts them over the edge, you have to assume that if it wasn't this new safety requirement then it would be something else that caused them to shut their doors, like a late-paying client or being turned down for a business loan from the bank.
I'm certainly sad when good contracting companies go out of business. These are really tough times for everyone. I'm even more sad about contaminants we expose young children to in this modern world.
Bottom line: When you as a homeowner of a house built prior to 1978 seek remodeling services in the future, the contractors who can legally work on your house, meaning they are certified to handle lead-polluted paint dust, will have demonstrated a level of solvency and commitment to safety that should give you some comfort.
I'll tell a word that really annoys me: Neutral. Could there be anything more boring? Yet you'll see people walking through a boring house and remarking: "Love the neutral colors." And I'm like: "What's to love?"
I guess I'm a little more radical than some. I like COLORS! This green kitchen rocks my world. And it's not just the paint that's green. It's the countertops and the backsplash tile as well. See a gorgeous slide show of the kitchen designed by Ken Kelly.
Oh, I can already hear the detractors. Here are the common arguments against a bold kitchen like this, and my answers to them:
Detractor: This color will look dated in a few years.
Kathy: It's green, for goodness sake. It's the color of nature. How could it get old? And really, we're losing so much of our green planet each day to corporate sins and overpopulation. I predict that green will continue to be a color we crave.
Detractor: Not everybody likes this color and it will hurt your resale value.
Kathy: True. But not everybody will be buying your house. You only need one buyer to like it. And how long do you plan to live there? The housing market will take years, maybe decades to recover. So where are you going? If you're staying put, make your house the way you like it. Life is short.
Detractor: You may tire of this color in a few years and want something quieter.
Kathy: And? So you redo the kitchen. Big wow! We all have changing tastes. We all mature, and then regress. What are we supposed to do, sit on our hands until the day of our funeral? No, live now people! This is your time.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2009
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is marking National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by announcing several actions the agency proposes to take to prevent lead poisoning. Lead poisoning may cause a variety of adverse health effects, including brain and nervous system disorders, high blood pressure, and hypertension. Children six years old and under are most at risk.
EPA has issued a proposed rule to expand the coverage of the 2008 Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule. The new rule proposes to eliminate a provision that exempted some housing from the rule’s requirement that contractors be trained and certified and use lead-safe work practices when renovating, repairing or painting a pre-1978 home.
via yosemite.epa.gov
Do you have a room that stinks? If so, I suggest you do the following:
Question: I have hated my brick fireplace since day one of living in my otherwise-fabulous home. I have considered removing the brick altogether and creating a brand-new one by placing stucco over it with a mantle, or painting the brick white and adding a rich, dark wooden mantle on top. Actually, a Williams-Sonoma home store was my inspiration; it has the same painted white fireplace. It seems to be the most cost-effective. Do you recommend painting a brick fireplace white? How would you do this? What kind of paint? Some say oil, other say latex. Just curious to hear your thoughts. — Brianna
Answer: Brianna, I also like the look of a painted-brick fireplace. In fact, I wish I had brick on my fireplace instead of my big faux lava rocks that aren't so easily transformed with paint or plaster.
I asked the advice of Dan Gallagher of Gallagher's Decorative Painting & Design in Sierra Madre. Dan's a decorative and home painter who has been featured in this blog here, here and here, and in the newspaper's Home section. Check that out here.
Dan says:
All your ideas are good and doable. If a painted look is the course of action (either decorative or straight paint), the most important thing is that oil-base primer should be used, at least two coats. It's best that the oil-base primer is a long-drying for maximum strength. Your usage of the fireplace should help to determine the type of paint -- oil-base or water-base -- for the finish. If the fireplace is used a lot, go with an oil-base paint. For low usage, like two or three times a year, go with water-base paint. Mark the can and store it for touch-ups in the future. Remember, removing paint from brick and mortar can be done, but it is extremely expensive.
If you were to go with a stucco or masonry-type finish, you might consider adding a relief design. It will add interest and personalize it to your home and decor.
For more insights, Dan can be reached at his website.
Also, Brianna, check out this absolutely gorgeous transformation of a brick fireplace in Manhattan Beach.
(Photo: Sunset)
Progress is being made on Joni's condo kitchen remodel.
See Joni and her nurse-friend Patti in their scrubs working on the kitchen.
See the kitchen before any work was done.
So far, the overhead cabinet that blocked the natural light has come down, and a fun s-curve track light has gone up. The boring wood cabinets have been sanded, painted brown, glazed green and coated with polyurethane.
Plus, the backsplash tile (right) has been chosen, ordered and paid for. It comes to a whopping $641 out of the $1,000 budget. "We were found to have very expensive taste," Patti noted.The latest indecision revolves around the wall color, which surprised Patti: "I thought the wall color would be pretty easy to chose," she said. "Well, it's not!"
As you see in the photos (click to enlarge), a coating of a terra cotta/mocha color went up on the wall (center left photo) and Joni loves it.
Patti, though, feels it takes away from the excitement of the green cabinets and of the very expensive glass tile for the backsplash. So Patti found some cream-colored paint that Joni had used in her hallway and brushed some on to see if it worked better (center right photo). She leaned a sample of the tile up there to see how it looks.Me? I like the lighter wall color. I think it sets off the tile better.
On the other hand, why not get the tile installed and then play around with the wall color?What do you think?
The spending so far:
Sanding sponge: $5.38
Track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $71.60
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane & brush: $36.61
Foam board for paint testing: $2.80
Sandpaper: $15.19
Drop cloth (plastic): $3.21
Glaze (2nd can): $8.57
Paint application tools: $5.87
Flat polyurethane (satin was too shiny): $18.31
Staining pads: $2.67
Coolest backsplash tile ever (Patti's words): $641
(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson)
I'd like to think I played some small part in the fabulous success being enjoyed by Dan Gallagher, a young, hardworking and extremely courteous decorative painter from Sierra Madre.
One day he's featured in the Pardon Our Dust Blog (here, here and here), and the next thing you know, he and his work are featured in print, in the Home Section of the Los Angeles Times.
Above you see, clockwise from top left, Dan admiring the 300-square-foot mural he painted, Dan and mural installer Michael Baughman putting up the mural, Michael applying the adhesive, and another room where Dan applied metallic Venetian plaster.
With this kind of talent, he should go far. And I'm taking some of the credit!
(Photos: David Sprague / For The Times)
Hi, Patti here, with an update.
My friend Joni and I have decided to paint all of her cabinets green but leave some chocolate brown (base color) for relief on the kick plates and in a couple of mid-sections on the top cabinets.
Painting the bottom cabinets first gave us a feel for how the green would settle on Joni's eyes. As it turns out, we love, love, love it!
We fortunately have a short workday tomorrow, which will afford us some quality sanding time on the top cabinets, maybe get the primer on and then go shopping for backsplash tile.
Joni saw some tile in a small shop that she really likes and wants my input on. She's attracted to stone. It will be interesting. I think stone sort of dates the kitchen, but ya' know what? It's HER kitchen. If she loves it, that's what's important
Hopefully, I'll be able to post our prime choices for you.
Thanks for checking in on us!
The project so far:
1. Watch a video of Patti explaining the remodel goals
2. Check out Joni's lighting choices
3. See a slide show of the track light going up and the cabinet coming down
4. Choosing cabinet color and backsplash tile
5. Getting started on the painting
The budget so far:
Budget: $1,000
Expenditures:
Sanding sponge: $5.38
OSH track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $48.44
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane and brush: $36.61
Sandpaper: $11.45
Balance left to spend: $837.45
Joni and her friend Patti, nurses in the same surgical clinic, are making good progress on Joni's condo kitchen makeover. They have sanded the sheen off the lower cabinets and painted on a brown primer. Here, Joni brushes on a brown paint/glaze combination, and Patti is coming behind her and wiping it with a sport sock turned inside out. Patti got the sock tip from Rick down at the paint store, who is know by his colleagues as Rick-casso, as in Picasso.
After this coat dries, the team will apply a coat of green paint mixed with glaze. Joni got a little worried about "all that green" in her kitchen, and she saw a kitchen in a book with green bottom cabinets and off-white top cabinets. So it was Patti's idea to go ahead and do the base cabinets with the full green treatment, and then decide what to do on the uppers. That beats holding up the project until the decision on the upper cabinets is made.
A big decision is coming up on the hardware. Patti thinks it should definitely be replaced with something nickel-looking to match the new S track light. Joni could go either way. She likes the original hardware, but could go for something more modern-looking. However, she plans on retaining the bronze-toned hinges either way.
I, on the other hand, think the hardware should not be replaced. I think it will really go with the new colors.
What would you do? Update the cabinet pulls? Update the hinges, as well? Or keep all the originals?
The project so far:
1. Watch a video of Patti explaining the remodel goals
2. Check out Joni's lighting choices
3. See a slide show of the track light going up and the cabinet coming down
4. Choosing cabinet color and backsplash tile
The budget so far:
Budget: $1,000
Expenditures:
Sanding sponge: $5.38
OSH track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $48.44
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane and brush: $36.61
Sandpaper: $11.45
Balance left to spend: $837.45
So I asked the guys at my local paint store about no-VOC and low-VOC paints. As you may know, VOC stands for volatile organic compounds, but you could also call them volatile chemical compounds. They are emitted as gases from paints and glues and sealants and other products and make people sick. Or, as the EPA puts it, VOCs cause adverse health effects.
I wanted none of that in the paint for my kitchen.
The paint guys kind of stammered a little and then told me all paints in California are low-VOC, and don't worry about it, the smell goes away in just a few days or weeks.
Well, honestly, it's not so much the smell I'm worried about. It's the toxic chemicals that regular paints and other standard building materials emit into the air. All things considered, and especially because my doctor wants me to strengthen my immune system, I'd rather not expose my body to any more toxins than I have to.
So that's why it was such a pleasant experience when I asked the tatooed young woman at OSH about no-VOC paint and she immediately directed me to the Dutch Boy paints that not only have no VOCs (see label above) but are verified by Green Seal, a highly respected third-party verification standard for green products.
Other paints verified by Green Seal include: Benjamin Moore's EcoSpec Interior line, Frazee Paint's EnviroKote Interior Low Odor Acrylic Interior line and Olympic Paint and Stain's Zero-VOC Olympic Premium Interior line.
I've been lucky enough to meet two amazing TV decorators: Amanda Pays from Fine Living's "Breathing Room," and Kitty Bartholomew from HGTV's "You're Home: Kitty Bartholomew." (Kitty and I later wrote a book together, now out of print).
Amanda and Kitty shared with me two golden nuggets of decorating wisdom.
But really, those nuggets never really clicked until now, as I've begun to navigate my own whole-house upgrade.
Here's what Kitty told me about choosing colors: Start with one item you love — a painting, a rug, a piece of patterned wallpaper, patterned upholstery or whatever — and choose your colors from that. If those colors look good all together in that painting, for instance, they will work together as a decorating scheme. In Kitty's own house, she used a painting as a starting point.
Here's what Amanda told me about choosing colors: Pick five colors (includes woods and metals) and run with those throughout the whole house. For instance, you might choose nickel (metal), ash (wood) and three colors. Then your house will have a flow. And Amanda's house really did feel serene and pulled together.
I knew all this. But it didn't seem to apply to me somehow. Until tonight, that is, when I was sitting in the living room and gazing upon the stained-glass lamp you see here. It hangs above my dining room table. The lamp is kind of a pain, really. It's too small for the space I'm asking it to fill. The way it flares out makes it easy to bump your head on it. And if you're a short person sitting at the dining room table, the bulb in the lamp shines right in your eyes.
But here's the one thing it has going for it: I love the colors so much I could eat them.
And then it hit me: These are my colors! These are my five! Can I get a "duh"?
Now it all makes sense: The yellow I've painted some walls. The green laminate counters I see no need to replace. The dark metal bathroom faucet I've already bought. The RED of my exterior. Hello? And when I add the cedar wood that is all over my house, I've got it covered.
So these are my five: 1) brick red, 2) sage green, 3) butter yellow, 4) dark metal, 5) cedar.
Now, as I shop or decide or ponder, I'll ask myself: How would this fit into my five?
Do you have five? What are they?
The new kitchen? It's '100% us'
A Glassell Park couple get personal in their latest redo -- down to the cat-feeding station.
As Kristina Johnson and David Franke discovered while remodeling their Glassell Park kitchen, taking charge of the job -- drawing the plans, buying materials, supervising contractors for some work and doing a portion of it themselves -- can not only save money, but it can also lead to a highly personalized result.
"The kitchen is 100% us," Johnson said of the room, which features a granite-covered windowsill and backsplash to accommodate pots of orchids, a cat-feeding station notched out of a bottom cabinet, and three subtly different shades of sage green paint.
"We didn't build it with an eye for resale or with anyone else in mind."
The couple, both 39, took on the remodel in the summer of 2006 after a string of other successful upgrades, including updating the exterior, landscaping the backyard and redoing the lone bathroom.
Their overriding goal for the kitchen, as well as the adjacent service porch and dining room, was the same as it had been for the tiled bathroom: to add modern conveniences while retaining the character and craftsmanship of the 1941 home. (See old kitchen)
After months of planning, the couple got an equity loan and set a $30,000 budget. Summer was chosen because that's when David, a teacher at Eagle Rock Elementary, had time to tackle what would be the couple's biggest project so far.
Thanks for all the advice on my exterior paint. I feel much better about the weird green trim. And by that I mean: I know I can change it and it's not the end of the world. I appreciate your kindness!
Here's what I did right:
• Contractor: I hired a painting contractor who was referred by a trusted person (my son-in-law) and who is someone I like personally. This is most important for me: a trusted guy with a reputation and history in the community.
• Cost: We got a budget-priced job ($2,000), partly by letting the contractor know that we are not picky people and aren't looking for the paint job of the century. Bill wants to replace the siding some day, so this paint won't be on here forever.
• Research: I found a house whose colors I love. I put a lot of time into finding the right color. That paid off, as I love the house color! It's not for everyone, but it's for me. My family loves it too.
• Landscaping: Or rather, lack of it. I deliberately did not tune up the landscaping close to the house before the painting crews arrived. And it's a good thing! When guys are working fast to get your budget job done, they're not being super careful with your shrubbery. The higher-priced guys do that.
• Timing: My goal was to get the house painted before Thanksgiving. And that happened!
Here's what I did wrong:
• Color testing: I already knew green was a difficult color, but I forgot! I was so wrapped up in the red house color that I spaced out on the green. If I had it to do over again, I would get some small cans of the various greens I was considering, paint some large cardboard pieces with the colors and observe them for a few days. (Again, I knew this.)
The way it happened, the contractor showed up on the day the job started with a can of green paint for me to approve. He didn't pressure me at all, one way or the other. But approving a color out on the driveway when I'd been running around all morning to get the house ready was not the right method for me. I make my best decisions in quiet, in contemplation, with time.
The good news is that I ABSOLUTELY love my red walls. And I have time to do exactly what I should have done in the first place to choose my trim color. I may wait until Bill replaces the windows (part of our grand plan), and adds the thicker moldings we want. And then, I'll haul out the ladders and redo the trim myself.
Until then, I joked to Bill, let's just start referring to it as "The Christmas House."
Inspired dad really turns on the charm - Los Angeles
Whatever you say, dear - Westchester
Den of festivity - Hollywood
Finding his inner chef - Mar Vista
If you can stand the heat, totally redo the kitchen - Los Angeles
Avant-garde housing in Long Beach's East Village - Long Beach
A retake for '20s home - Los Angeles / Whitley Heights
The right ingredients - Venice
A Victorian victory - Pasadena
A fixer becomes a keeper - Hollywood Hills
A bright idea, it turns out - Lake Arrowhead
A marriage of two styles - Newport Beach
The second time around - Los Angeles
A family's journey to inner space - Mar Vista
Old charm anew - Hidden Hills
Following in her blueprints - South Pasadena
A clean break with the past - Westlake Village
Mission statement - North Hollywood
Making quick work of remodel- Corona
Modest kitchen remodel is top drawer - North Hollywood
Making the place sing - Silver Lake
Architecture students consider all the angles - Los Angeles / West Adams
They had a plan, then reality intruded - Palm Springs
Projects on Homestore.com
A Low-cost Cajun Kitchen,Shreveport, Louisiana
An Avid Cook Gets Her Kitchen, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Making Floor Plan Work for You, Charlotte, North Carolina
From Gross to Graceful,Bethesda, Maryland
Down to the Basement, Dayton, Ohio
Mexican-style Makeover, Playa del Rey, California
