love letter to our house: living room

Whoopsie!  I showed you the before and after versions of the outside of our house, then completely dropped the ball on the rest of it.  Moving will do that to you, apparently.

So I'd mentioned in passing that there was some orange shag carpet when The Awesome Husband closed on the house and first clutched the keys in his very own hands.  That doesn't fully convey the amount of 1960s-ness that had to be eradicated from the premises.   Not only was there orange shag carpet covering every square inch of the floor other than the kitchen and bathroom, but there was wall paneling everywhere.  And it covered up wallpaper.  Which covered more wallpaper.  

There were also some pretty sweet window treatments. 

We tackled the walls ourselves with some help from friends and family, and once we gave the orange shag the boot, we paid to have the hardwood floors refinished.  We could have given it the ol' college try, but it wouldn't have looked as good and it sure wouldn't have been done in a weekend.  Best $700 we ever spent.

And then, you know, we put furniture in it and stuff.  Take a look! 

Before 

During

After!

Here I Am

Oh, what a neglectful blogger I've been. T'sk, t'sk at myself.

I finished knitting that sleeveless top, Blush, in bamboo yarn. It's soft and cute... and clings to every imperfection of my torso. If I get my tookus in gear and actually go to the gym regularly ever again, it'll probably be one of my favorite shirts. Partially because I might lose a couple pounds. Partially because I might get less squishy in the torso region. Partially because when I'm active I'm less likely to give a flying fig whether my torso looks the way (other people think) it "should."

Anyway, here it is on a hanger:



I'm also working dutifully on Buttony, the pink variegated cotton cardigan I posted about previously. I tried to find something else to cast on so I could procrastinate, I really did, but I couldn't find anything in the stash that lent itself to a new project appropriate for summer. (I've got a bunch of fine gauge wool lined up for Thermal from Knitty, as well as some dk weight wool that's destined for this cardigan I found on Ravelry that intrigues me, but they're both longsleeved and, ya know, wool.) The Giant Tupperware Bin of Stash Yarn was only offering up a bulky mohair that was given to me and a bunch of skeins of bulky white cotton ribbon yarn (whyyyy did I buy that stuff?), and since I've been on this kick lately where I don't like any patterns at a gauge larger than 5 stitches per inch, I'm stuck with Buttony for a while longer.

Oh, also: Attic Renovation 2008 is thoroughly, officially, 100% complete. Pictures in a photoset here, but here's one representative shot:

Paint the town red...

... or at least a very small bathroom.

It needed to be done. Badly. The TeenyTinyBathroom was hideous. See?


Ew. That's a whole lot of wallpaper backing goin' on. When I moved in, there was actual wallpaper, so it didn't look *quite* this bad. Sadly, though, "in construction" status lasted for a looooong time.

But I've had a couple weeks off, and that combined with the knowledge that I'll have guests soon motivated me to paint the darn TeenyTinyBathroom once and for all. And by "motivated," I mean "instilled in me the fear of major embarassment."

I used a gallon of red paint I picked up a while ago at the ol' Housing and Building Materials Exchange for all of five bucks. And bonus, I didn't have to choose a color out of all the paint chip options at a regular store. (It would have taken hours. Seriously.) Besides, I figured if I hated it, big deal, it was only five bucks and few hours of time invested.

But I don't hate it! I lurrrve it! It came out wonderfully, and the bathroom is now ALL ONE COLOR! With no exposed plaster! Huzzah!




I *heart* my clawfoot tub. Even if it is only inches away from... oh, everything else in the room.