Time To Make The Changes!

The painter, Danny, stopped by the house the other day
to take a walk around and see what needs doin' before That Old House
gets her own fancy white dress before Alida's wedding.

Surprisingly, not too much carpentry work is needed.
The old gal is holding up pretty well, and so is the house. (Ba-dum-bum.)

The thorny issue: what to do about the shutters,

which by now are pretty much held together with good wishes and little else.  

This pair is one of the good ones.

 Fixing the existing shutters -- and many no longer exist -- would be a time consuming

and costly endeavor, and with such old and damaged wood, might not last long.

Shutters on front of the house; none on the west side.  Only their hardware remains.

These louvered shutters are the right style for this simple Greek Revival house, and they may or may not be original equipment.  They are operable, with moveable louvers, and I love them dearly.

But I have to be a little bit practical; costly as it is to replace them with reproduction wood

shutters, it's probably the best course.  I wouldn't patch together broken glass in a window. 

Well, actually, yes, I would and have done, but that's beside the point.

First floor in the back -- shutters.  Upper floors -- shutter hardware is empty, no shutters left.

 We are researching wood shutter manufacturers who can duplicate what we currently have.

Only, not broken.  We may be only able to do the front of the house this year,

and each year add a few more windows, because this is also a costly endeavor.  Any suggestions?

Tomorrow, the house will be gently powerwashed, in preparation for hand scraping and sanding.

She's looking forward to the spa treatment -- it's exfoliation, after all.  

Shabby shutter on the right has blown off -- twice -- in Nor'Easters.

And then new makeup -- rather Kabuki-like.  White clapboards and trim, with Charleston Green for the shutters, a green so dark that unless you look at it with your eyes crossed and in the sunlight, it looks black.  Porch ceiling  -- light blue to fool the bugs, and the porch floor a dark porch gray.

Front door?  That's the lipstick, and I haven't decided that yet.  Something with pizazz.

Schiaparelli pink?  Screaming Yellow Zonkers yellow?  Tiffany blue?  Royal purple?  Something with zing.

Danny the painter approves of the white and black color scheme.  He says the house will have real WOW power when it's done.  It's good to have your painter on your side.

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I have my own transformation work to do, inside the house.

Three years ago, when we moved here, I hastily sewed draperies for the three dining room

windows in the bay.   Practical, but not well done and never my faves.

A little too much puddling there.  It's also called "too lazy to hem."

 

Meh.

The fabric never thrilled me.

I am a fabric-a-holic, and I want to be thrilled by it.

A couple of months ago -- if by "a couple of months" we

mean "last Fall" -- I ordered a bolt of fabric that does thrill me.

 Oh baby, come to Mama.

 The red background is as close to an exact match to the red walls as fabric can match paint.

And the stylized pineapple motif?  Perfect for a dining room where you do your hospitalitizing.

(New word.  If people can say "off load" for "unload" then I can hospitalitize.)

 

I swoon.

And now that I have a nifty new sewing machine, featured in yesterday's blog post,
I am going to tackle this fabric and wrestle it into draperies. And then maybe recycle the fabric of the first curtains into seat covers for all the oddball dining room chairs we have.  Stay tuned! 
 -- Cass