Before and After Three

Lots of things will be installed this week, so more before and afters should be coming later in the week. Today I am going to show you our bedroom although there are a few things still to be done.

The previous owner was a big fan of lavender. I think she was actually planning to paint her next bedroom the exact same color. People who have known me since junior high might recognize the color of the "before" as I think it was the same color as the bedroom I shared with Judy back in the day. The previous homeowner had the foot of the bed toward the windows, which meant the head of the bed would be next to the hall and in order the reach the far side of the bed one would have to walk all the way around the bed. There was a television bracket mounted on the wall between the windows. There was also a mirror mounted over the head of the bed. Window treatments were lace valances and mini blinds.

The biggest change we made was to pull up the carpet and put in bamboo flooring. The next most noticeable change was to paint the room a rich medium grey. We moved the bed to the window wall because I did not want my head to be in the hall, and put the dresser under the existing mirror. Long lined linen drapes went on all of the windows, with the drapes carried over between the windows behind the bed.

There are still a few things to be finished. We will be putting some kind of frame around the mirror and adding some art to this wall. There is currently a gigantic brown ceiling fan over the bed which will be replaced by a sweet white wrought iron chandelier with sparkly crystal drops. We had hoped to have the chandelier installed already, but the fan is hardwired in without being attached to a wall switch and that is not going to work. We'll have to have an actual electrician out to make that installation. I need to finish painting the baseboards, and we are looking for a vintage runner or dresser scarf in white embroidery or crochet for the dresser. We have not yet decided the fate of the night stands. They are kind of pretty, but walnut. I am thinking of painting them white and changing out the hardware for something with a little more sparkle.

The last picture is a detail of our bedroom lamps: vintage beauties that fall somewhere in between gorgeous and hilarious. I'm afraid the pictures might be a little grainy and dark, but I was trying not to use the flash.

Have You Had Your Memes Today?

In case you have not met your meme quote for the week:

The Gloves Are Off

If you had any doubt about ow the world works today you need to watch this:

Crawling Around on the Cape

This weekend was the first, and I hope annual, Cape Cod Yarn Crawl.  Six yarn shops ended up participating and it was a blast! We printed out our passports form the Internet here, and visited all of the stores to have them stamped. Full passports were dropped off at our last stop to be eligible for prize drawings. I had not intended to go because I had visited a nice shop the previous weekend in an field trip with my knitting group, but when Pat suggested she'd like to go I agreed and I was glad I did. It's a measure of how successful the promotion was that everywhere I went it was just too crowded to take pictures, so you'll just have my general impressions.

I had to go to work at 4:00 pm so I left the house in my work clothes and we drove out to the farthest shop first. That was  the Yarn Basket in Eastham, which shares a building with a hardware store. The Yarn Basket is a smallish shop in area, but their stock is fairly comprehensive and the owner is super helpful (even when the throngs were there!). Their selection of sock yarn is very good - I couldn't resist some Regia Blitzcolor that looked exactly like Virginia Tech colors.

We proceeded on to A Stitch in Thyme in Orleans. This is a beautiful shop, with some really stunning special yarns. Their classroom was especially appealing.  I bought an Interweave publication about traditional crochet and resisted the siren song of some gorgeous yarns. By this time the knitters were beginning to recognize each other and a party atmosphere was taking hold.

Next stop was Adventures in Knitting in Harwich Port. They have a great selection of Noro and Frogtree yarns and some really lovely samples on display. This is where our paths crossed with some knitters from our very own Stitch & Bitch of Cape Cod (hilarity ensued!).  They also have a good selection of knitting books, so if you've been thinking about a book purchase this would be a good place to get a first hand look at the one you want.

We pressed on to Ladybug Knitting shop in Dennis. After  brief stop for lunch we popped in to check it out. I think Ladybug has the best pattern selection on the Cape. They not only stock loads of books but also have a fabulous selection of single patterns (including the famous Lobster Sweater) This store is also the source of the popular yarn magnet for your car.  Here I picked up a set of Addi Turbos to replace the second set destroyed by The Worst Dog Ever. Ladybug Knitting also has a super selection of reduced price yarns if you are budget minded.

Then we drove down 6A to Black Purls in Sandwich, which I had visited last week. I succumbed to a beautiful skein of blue sock yarn here. Black Purls has gorgeous yarn, and a particularly tempting assortment of laceweight and fingering weight yarns. My opinion is that you get more knitting fun for your money with these finer yarns, but of course YMMV.

I was unable to go on the Sage in Falmouth - I just barely made it to work on time, but Pat took my passport to be validated and I'll be visiting there soon. It was the first yarn store I ever visited on the Cape and I stop in there every time I go to downtown Falmouth.

In all I think the crawl was a great success. The knitter were in a festive mood and the owners were happy and friendly. If you've never visited a particular store or you'd heard they were unfriendly this would put that idea to rest. The weather was perfect, the drives scenic - couldn't be better.



My finished sock picture is the Schoppel Wolle Zauberball socks that have been going to Stitch and Bitch with me lately. I'm hoping they end up on my own feet because the last pair of Zauberball socks I knit ended up as a gift.

My Energy Audit

Long before we moved in Shana had made an appointment for an energy audit from Cape Light Compact. It's a pretty general organization which does all kinds of things to help in energy issues for consumers on the Cape: energy audits, consumer advocacy, information. We had a team of two engineers come out at no cost to us to look around and see what we could do to control our energy costs.  Roxy was thrilled because not only were there two men to sniff around, but they came with lots of bags and equipment she could investigate.

They set up equipment to see how tight our house is; our house is nice and tight due to good modern windows and appropriate sealing of openings. They went all around the attic recommending additional insulation on the floor if we did not need to use the attic for storage and pointing out the need for more air circulation in the attic in the form of soffit vents.

 They tested our refrigerator for energy efficiency and pointed out that there are government rebates for the purchase of energy efficient units. A new refrigerator would save us enough energy to pay for itself in 10+ years. I think we'll keep our unit for a while. There were also other recommendations: raise the dehumidifier up at least 12 inches, add window treatments and use the microwave as much as possible. In addition to that they replaced every single one of my incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, including good looking spots that will work with dimmers,  and 3 way bulbs for lamps. I probably got a good $50.00 in free light bulbs guaranteed for 1 year.

They left me with loads of information about energy conservation and an estimate to put in soffit vents, additional insulation, programmable thermostats for a very reasonable cost. If our income had been only a little smaller they would have offered to make the improvements for free. It's a great program that everyone living on the Cape whether rents or homeowners can benefit from.

Before and After Two

Our remodel is not complete yet, but I'm pretty close in some rooms. The guest room in particular is within "spittin' distance" of being finished because the only thing it lacks is window treatments. I'll be making roman shades for that room, probably next week. I wanted to buy them (lazy me) but could not find them for the next to nothing price I wanted to spend.  The plan is to make simple denim blue shades. The art is two seaside watercolor prints on one side and a Leroy Neiman "Moby Dick" print on the facing wall. Just enough color without being overwhelming. The picture on the dresser/nightstand is (I think) a watercolor of the Capri Market where we used to get our emergency snacks when we vacationed in Florida.

This room was originally quite obviously the boy's room. The most urgent need in this room aside from appropriate furniture was simply several coats of paint. The window in the "before" picture is the same on in the "after" shot. I think the general look turned out to be simple and restful. I can vouch for the beds being reasonably comfortable because we have slept in them several times. We did leave the ceiling fan in this room because it is rather small and white. The room is quite small and I think that guests might like the option of a fan.

Enjoy! as always, click on the pictures to enlarge and esc or back arrow to return.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day I'd like to offer a video:



a link

and a joke:

Pirate walks into a bar, and the bartender notices he's got a steering wheel fixed right over his groin. Bertender asks him, "Hey buddy, whats with the steering wheel?" Pirate says "AARGH IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!"