Archives For OUR HOME

The Dining Room Windows: The Roller Shades

March 31, 2011

Tools you will need (not shown, painters tape and scissors)

I have been so busy thinking about and working in the yard that I have not made as much progress on my Dining Room as I would have liked. I did manage to mostly finished the window treatments a little while ago. I thought I would give a quick rundown.

The Background:

Our old roman shades had been recalled from Ikea a while back because they were considered a choking hazard. We cut the cords on the back rather than taking them down, since we did not usually open them anyway. But they were still looking pretty dingy after many years of service (including when this room was our kitchen).

 

Shade taken apart for cutting. I used the self-healing cutting mat with a grid to help make a straight cut. Because the fabric is semi-sheer I could see the grid behind.

The Roller Shade:

I didn’t want to pay for custom roller shades so I looked at Ikea for options. I found the ENJE solar shade (semi-transparent) but of course it wasn’t the right size and I really wanted an inside mount fit so we wouldn’t cover the window molding. After a little searching online I found that several people have “hacked” the ENJE shade to custom sizes.  Check out Door Sixteen for her full details with lots of pictures (which she unfortunately didn’t post until after I had already cut mine).

 

The Install:

1. Buy ENJE shade in a width wider than what you need (for my 30″ windows I bought the 32″ wide for $24.99)
2. Figure out the width you want including the hardware.

Shade installed in first window.

I had to subtract about an 1 1/2″ from the clear width to the final fabric width to include the chain mechanism and the mounting hardware.
3. Carefully disassemble the shade. This includes taking off the bottom rail and the mounting hardware on the top with a wrench or screwdriver.
4. Cut the side of the shade fabric with an exacto or scissors (see picture).
5. Cut the lower rail with a hacksaw.
6. Cut the upper rod with a hacksaw (protect shade fabric with painters tape). I managed to gouge my finger doing this so be careful.
7. Reassemble.
8. Hang. (you will need wood screws for this since Ikea does not provide them).

The first one took me about an hour and a half. The rest took about 45 minutes. I have finished 4 windows and I am still debating whether to put shades on two of the smaller windows. i really like them. They are unobtrusive but provide a nice amount of privacy.

In -Dining Room, -Windows, OUR HOME
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Pillow Love

March 25, 2011

Dwell Pillow from Target, $25

 

I love a good pillow! So when I was at Target earlier this week I was pleasantly surprised to find this one from the Dwell line. I didn’t buy it yet, because I try not to purchase things the first time I see them, but I may have to go back and pick a couple of these up. I think they would look nice in the Living Room, with the many other pillows on the couch. I like that the pattern is embroidered rather than printed, although I am a little concerned that the kids might snag them. I was also pleasantly surprised at how soft it was. I might use these instead of the green patterned pillows, although recently the pillows spend more time on the floor as part of a fort then on the couch.

Our well loved couch

Typical daily use of couch

In -Living Room, FAMILY, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS
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The 45′ High Chimney

March 15, 2011

Chimney Pots (King Arthur)

Back of House with Chimney

Front of the House with Chimney

Lining the Chimney is the last item on the list from our home inspector 11 years ago (okay so there might be one or two smaller items still lingering)! We finally bit the expensive bullet and called in the chimney experts. They are scheduled to come out in the next week (weather permitting) with a 90′ crane! Fingers crossed all will go well and there won’t be any surprises!

Background:

When we bought our house the inspector told us that the 3 flues in our chimney were not lined. This included 1 for the oil boiler and 2 for the fireplaces. Well as the years went on, we didn’t dare use either of the fireplaces and even had a 1970s wood burning stove pulled out of the one in our kitchen and the flue for the boiler stayed pretty clean. About 4 1/2 years ago, just as the weather was getting chilly, the oil company condemned the oil tank in our basement. It did not have an obvious leak but overtime hairline cracks had formed in the bottom and if you got underneath (yuck!) you could smell oil. A bit unprepared, pregnant and worried about running out of oil, we quickly had a gas boiler installed to replace the 40+ year old oil boiler. Fast forward a couple of years, and suddenly the flue for the boiler was full of debris! So after putting this off for a bit, and having the flue cleaned frequently, we have decided to get it lined. In retrospect we should have gotten a more efficient boiler and had it vented out the side of the house.

The location of our chimney is in the middle of the house, making access difficult. After reviewing this with our contractor he said that there were 2 options, scaffolding and a crane/boom. Given the location and steep pitch (15:12) of our roof, he felt that a crane/boom was the only real option. Unfortunately they couldn’t access it from the front yard because of the overhead power lines, slope and hedge. So, after looking at the options he proposed coming in from the backyard (taking out some of the fence) and rolling a 90′ crane into the backyard for a week.

Options:

Since we knew we were going to have the crane, we then needed to review the options of what we were going to do in terms of lining the fireplaces and deciding on a cap for the chimney. We decided that we should make at least one of the fireplaces functional. We had them review the options with us. The fireplace in the Living Room has a flue straight up (good for drafting). The fireplace in the Kitchen has a big kink in it (bad for drafting). We quickly ruled out lining the one in the Kitchen. Then came the decision for the chimney cap. Currently we have a large ugly metal cap on the top of the chimney. It helps to keep water from coming in, but is not a pretty site. One option would be to put 2 smaller metal (copper or stainless steel) caps on top. Another option would be to put historically accurate chimney cap on top (2 in our case). Well, after careful deliberation, we decided that the chimney should get some beautiful caps. They weigh in at 140 lbs a piece but I think they are going to be stunning.

Interesting Fact:

Our house did not originally have heat! Instead it had a kitchen stove that would have provided some minimal amount of heat and the 2 working fireplaces. In the early 1900s radiators were added and a coal boiler was put in the basement (and presumably the kitchen stove was changed out). In our case there is a cabinet from the 1910-1920s that was placed in front of the kitchen stove location. At some point 40-50 years ago the coal boiler was replaced with an oil boiler.

Good Info to Know:

-A furnace that is at least 90% efficient should be vented out the side of the house rather than up a chimney. This is because the exhaust is cooler and if it is vented out of a chimney the gases won’t make it all the way to the top because there is not enough heat to make the exhaust rise to the top of the chimney. The advantage is that if you have an old chimney just for this you can avoid lining/relining it. The bad news is that these units are more expensive. However if you are planning on staying in your home for a period of time the cost savings will more than make up for the cost.

-When switching from oil to gas, the built up residue on the walls of the flue are going to deteriorate the flue much more quickly (or in our case from coal, to oil to gas). The gas exhaust has water vapors in it which causes the oil residue that was previously absorbed into the flue to react. If you are switching fuel types, it is a good time to check your flue lining.

-There are several choices of flue liners: aluminum, stainless steel, concrete fill. I would definitely stay away from aluminum, it is not going to hold up!  We are going with stainless steel in our application. Also the flue liner for fireplace and a furnace are completely different. The liner for the furnace is smaller, round and more flexible (thinner gauge). The one for the fireplace is thick and shaped to optimize draft for the fireplace.

In -Fireplace, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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Dining Room Refresh: Part 1

March 2, 2011

Mood Board: New items include carpet, fabric for valance, and wall color

 

Dining Room circa 2007

Dining Room looking towards back of house

Looking from back stairs

 

2011-Dining Room (with splash mats)

2011-The piano as dumping ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Dining Room/ Study/ Piano Room is in need of a little love. We renovated the former kitchen, ice box room and back porch into the Dining Room 4 years ago (while I was pregnant). This included opening up the back of the room to the former ice box room and back porch, adding a “bay” for our desk, putting in french doors and replacing the wood floor. We had a contractor do the big stuff, but we designed and built the beadboard ceiling, we replaced missing wainscot, built a desk and we painted the room.  We were excited to have a functioning Dining Room again but never got around to making it everything we wanted. Now with 2 small kids, we needed to rethink the space.

Stats:
The “room” is actually 2 rooms divided by a large opening.
-Dining Room: 11’x10’6″
Uses: Dining, Arts & Crafts, Circulation, Storage
-Study/Piano Room: 7’x14’L
Uses: Desk, Piano Playing, Toys, Entrance to the driveway, Shoe Storage

Current Problems with the Space:
-Lack of cohesion between the Dining Space and the Study/Piano Space
-The Study/Piano Space is feeling cluttered, especially with the kids toys and shoe pile
-The rugs are looking pretty shabby (the floral sisal rug in the
dining room is 10 years old and is showing its age)
-The Ikea shades in the Dining Room are torn from the kids & cats. Plus we had to cut the cords on the back because of a recall.
-No shades in the desk area

Goals:
-Find a rug with an interesting pattern, that is continuous between the 2 spaces
-Repaint the walls a more saturated color
-Find a window shade solution, that minimizes the view to the
neighbors house but still lets in light. Use coordinating shades for
the desk area.
-Find more storage  for kids toys, arts & crafts & office related items
-Refresh the colors and artwork in the spaces

In -Dining Room, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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123 Years and Counting

February 28, 2011

(L to R) Circa 1900, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2006 Dan Bob Thompson Drawing

Built in 1888, our house is a Stick Style Victorian. We didn’t know that when we bought it (or for that matter very much about renovating an old home).

Back in 2000 when we were looking for a house, we weren’t sure what we were going to find. We were living in a small one bedroom apartment in Center City at the time. We needed to find a place closer to where my husband was working and thought it would be nice to find a house in an old established neighborhood in the suburbs. We spent a good bit of time looking online and having a realtor take us around. At first none of the houses seemed right, but then I found a listing for an interesting, albeit slight creepy looking, house. The outside was covered in mustard colored asbestos shingles with brown trim. It had been on the market for a year and a half (the owner was trying to sell it himself) and the price had been lowered 5 times. Our realtor wasn’t quite sure why we wanted to see the house.  The inside was covered with 1970s wallpaper but the layout was original and most of the original trim was there.  The house sat nice and tall. It had some good bones.  It needed LOTS  of work, but the price meant that we could afford to start working on it.  We made an offer.  After a little negotiations we agreed on a price. Then we had our house inspection and I cried. The repair list was LONG. We decided to move ahead anyway. Shortly after the house was ours. 10 1/2 years later we are still working on that list.

In -Victorian, OUR HOME
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