They say … the devil is in the details. But those details also make the whole project work. So, while tedious, and often times problematic, they are usually my favorite part. I think big picture, but when it’s time, I delve into the details and sometimes obsess over the littlest pieces. But, the secret? The littlest pieces are what make everything work – they pull it all together. Just a few old hinges or un-hemmed curtains or the wrong size wall hanging, can throw a whole room off. And, while a lot of buyers (or people, I guess) maybe wouldn’t be able to pinpoint exactly what or why the house didn’t work for them … it’s usually not ONE thing, but all these little things. I like the little things. They put the finishing touch on all of our hard work … and make things pretty. (Even if people don’t realize why it’s pretty. 😉)
So, I’m back with what I think will be my last details post before taking down all the holiday decorations and diving into the big 1-year before-and-after post (which I’m super excited about!).
I finally hemmed* the patio door curtains. *By folding over the top of the panels and adding another 3” strip of stiff header using fabric glue – it was very advanced. It also did not work. The length was perfect, just skimming the floor … but the headers were too heavy, stiff, and fell forward and pulled the hooks right out of the rod. So, there are no more short-cuts here. I have to actually hem the curtains … that’s going to wait until well into the new year.
In the meantime, I pulled off the extra strip of header and hung them back up exactly as they were. There are no changes. See, they look exactly as they did before. (This whole patio-door-window-coverings-curtain ordeal is the devil, for real.)
We hung more art! This time in the den and in the foyer. It makes a big difference (big surprise!). And, the paintings in the foyer are 2 of our favorite paintings ever (painted by a friend of mine). Also, finally got my cow bell hung. 😊
The upstairs hallway got a make-over. It was kind of an empty space and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it? Too small for much, but big enough that it seemed like it needed something. We knew for sure we were going to hang another canvas print up there to tie the main level up to the 2nd floor … but what else? Well, we moved the black library bookshelf up there, along with one of my favorite lamps ever, and they work really well. We had also made the decision to use a black version of the frame upstairs, just to differentiate it a little bit – and, well, that ties the black into the shelf and lamp. It was completely unplanned … and it worked out really well.
Oh, and we hung the hallway light. It’s literally the exact same light as the kitchen, but in a smaller size. And, we centered it at the top of the stairway – it looks better from the main level, and it distributes the light much better upstairs. (The old one was just a small, flush-mount right outside the guest bedroom doors; and virtually no light streamed over to the bathroom/office side of the hallway because of the old positioning.)
The office is cleaned! The closets are organized! (One of them is still a staging closet full of boxes of books and tools – since I’m still renovating up there, but it’s still progress!) Also, the curtains are hung (although, they need to be hemmed … and since they are grommet top, this too will have to be done the old-fashioned way, via sewing). [Excuse the bed in there – we’re having guests over. 🙂 ]
The master bedroom has 2 new bedside lights; and we hung art & a mirror. I wanted wall-mounted light fixtures, but the lamp shades that came with these were incredibly cheap and horrible (which make sense because the lights were from Ikea, and they were SUPER cheap … so the shades were accordion-tapered-style, stiff, yellowish-color) … so I took back our old bedside lamp shades from our old bedroom lights, and just bought new shades for those. (Since they are now just in the guest bedroom; and it was much easier finding new shades for the actual lamps than it was turning out to be finding them for the wall-mounted lights.)
We’re both parking indoors!!! This is so exciting!!! Habitat for Humanity came and took all of the big item, household goods. We dropped the rest of the items off at a local Goodwill. And, well, it still needs to be cleaned out (and majorly downsize the amount of stuff out there), but it is good enough for both of our cars until the spring. This one makes us both SO happy. (And just in time for the first “major” snowfall of the year … which for us means 2”-4” … which makes me very sad to label that as “major.” ☹)
And, because I’m apparently obsessed … here’s another picture of our neighborhood deer. This fall and into the winter, we’ve had 6 of them coming around, feeding in our yard in the early evening. It’s cool – but we’re definitely not feeding them or encouraging it; they just really like or need the acorns right now!?
Welcome to our home ... our second attempt at a fixer-upper. 