This is what our remodel has been reduced to. Because of previous battles and total opposite styles in taste and décor, our never-ending long suffering remodel of this money pit called our home, Mitch is now consulting my opinion on even the minutest detail. Believe me when I say that when we first started this arduous journey, I didn’t think our marriage would survive. We argued constantly about everything. The biggest stumbling block to our relationship was the master bath. We totally gutted it down to the studs and started over from there. The only fixture that stayed in its original spot was the toilet. And that was only because of the difficulty in moving the drain. We, meaning Mitch doing the labor and me being the creative genius, have moved from room to room bringing this hodge podge house into some kind of homey updated house.
Now we are down to the last two bedrooms, laying bamboo floors and rebuilding the closets. We fought over the placement of the closets and we removed them because of poor original construction. People back then used whatever material was available and no building code was followed. I finally gave in to Mitch’s idea of dividing the one closet into two with a wall separating them and with doors opening into each room. Mitch had a genius idea of making them cedar closets which for those rooms is very practical as well as a unique idea. Those rooms are on the old side of the house, which was originally built in 1928 and added on to in 1934, which means that side of the house is not as tightly constructed leaving room for mustiness and the possibility of mold. So the cedar closet was a stroke of genius. The only thing left to argue about was what type of door to install for each closet, bi-fold or sliding, solid or louvered. Louvered bi-fold won (my idea). I bought wooden knobs thinking simple easy plain, no fuss, no muss. It wasn’t until Mitch opened the doors up to remove the hardware and prepare to be stained, that he found that each door had its own wooden knobs.
When it came down to the stain, that was another dilemma, the knotty pine planks are all eighty years old and I’m pretty sure that the stain used back then is long gone, even if we knew what the color was. Mitch went on the hunt buying about a dozen small cans of stain to try and come as close as possible to the original color. A friend suggested that we go to Sherwin Williams with a piece of one of the existing boards and have them create a matching color. Mitch stained the doors, the knobs (all four of them) and the trim. When it came down to putting the knobs on the closet doors, he called me in the make a decision, which knob did I want on the doors. I looked at the knobs and laughed out loud, they were so similar. The only difference was a slight rounded top on one and a flat top on the other. I asked if he was serious and said that he could pick, to which he said no way, I had to pick.
Which one do you think I should pick, you know they are so very different.
A woman's view of hunting...with men 
Oh no, they are both very different! One is a mushroom and the other is a flat button. The flat button model on the right is more contemporary in style but the mushroom model will feel better in your hand. I’m a door hardware designer importer/wholesaler in Australia and our trends are different down here but I’d go the flat button! Good luck!
Really, I had no idea that these were that different. I actually ending up choosing the flat top. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the piece. This has been the story of our remodeling adventure. What started out as knocking out our closet in the master bedroom to make a walk-in closet and has ended up with a total revamping of the house. it’s been a long 8 years. I’m surprised that Mitch has put up with me this long.
I have learned, never advise a woman on furniture 🙂 – are you still interested in wine? We had a great cab called “Layer Cake” which was under $15.00 the other day, and I thought of you.
– bw
Yes I’m still a wine geek. I just haven’t had a chance to write anything. Thanks I will look for a bottle of Layer Cake. I’m always on the lookout for a new wine.
susan
my sister from France sent over a bottle of champagne vintage 1980 – looking forward to tasting that 🙂
Lucky you I’m so jealous, Please let me know how you liked it.
Late in! I have over 400 unread blog emails, so I started searching my inbox for people I really wanted to catch up with! Yes, you are in the top five 🙂
Eight years?!? Wow, I’d have considered bur in the place down before I spent that much time! I think all we’ve done really is paint, and even then the bedroom isn’t done as we can’t decide on a colour. Well, we ripped out all the carpet and I sanded/stained the stairs, and we re floored the kitchen and anyplace the shitty carpet was. But seriously I don’t think my marriage would have made it this long if we tore out the potty!
I wasn’t sure it would either. That was the big one for us. If you have some time to waste, you should check back in my archives where I wrote about the Great Bathroom Remodel. About three years back.
Sometimes I’m still not sure how we’ve made it this long, must be tenacity on our part.
I know what you mean about being behind. I have fallen way behind on reading my special blogs, yours being one too. I need to make more time for myself and it sounds like you do too,
At this point, the next time I have a chance to read back will be in 2019!
Lucky for you, I barely post lately, So I think you’re caught up!
Well I hope you’re busy with stuff you want to be busy with and not work stuff.
Neither, just behind on life. Been trying desperately to find something to get me out of my rut, but so far no luck!
I’m sorry. I’ve felt like that before, kind of like a huge wave of water was washing over me stopping me from moving forward. I hope you find something to give you some zest again. Maybe you can to the US sometime and we can get in trouble together.
How much fun could we have!
I need to win the lottery 🙂 I’d love to visit you! So much of the world to see and experience and I’m planted in front of my fireplace on the Internet. First time I’ve felt like interacting in a while, so that’s good, I hope.
So very disappointed my firewalking was cancelled! Going to have to go back to artsy stuff to make something new in my life. Oh, did you see I’m trying to make wine? I don’t even drink it! Ha!
Is everything alright? Is it just the change in seasons or something else? I’m sorry the fire walking got canceled but I’m glad you didn’t end up with charcoal broiled feet. I wish I was financially able to travel about I’d come and visit you. How is the wine making coming?
I’m on happy pills, but I drink too much so it kinda cancels it out. It’s just… A town of 1500 people and everyone knows everyone since birth, so they don’t think of me when something fun is going on. All my girlfriends here are also not Irish and don’t have kids, which is dammed rare! I just need to get out of my head (hence the lack of blogging lately) and DO something! Very hard here in the winter, as if the summer is any better.
I have not one clue how the wine is – I was given damsons (tiny plums) and apples, so I made one batch just damson and one with both. Apple/damson is bubbling away at the moment but it kinda looks like dog vomit. A dog on a bad day, at that.
I understand how you feel. The town we live in has a population of 254 I think and everyone is in everyone else’s business. Luckily the town we live in is surrounded by many major cities, Kansas City being the largest with many distractions, but not a lot of things I’m interested in.
I wish there was something I could do or say to help you. Maybe you could focus on your photography. You take very good photos. Even stark winter pictures are pretty cool in black and white. You should take some and I’ll take some then we’ll swap them and put them on each other’s blog and totally confuse all of our followers.
I’ve not had much winter yet! Stupid azalea in bloom, and rose buds everywhere.
But, yes – one of the things I want to do involves something I saw on another blog, doing gel transfers of photos to canvas or wood or whatever! And getting back into painting 3-D stuff, too. Again it’s the small town thing, I have to buy it online and (confession) I have barely bought anything by myself but smokes and petrol since I moved here. An occasional grocery shop when I want to bake something mad. I just do not spend any money. So this week my new thing was making sure I knew how to buy stuff online.
Wish you could come visit! By the time your house is done and you have some extra travelling cash, that damson wine might be drinkable!
And I would drink it too. I’m always up for new wines of any kind.
It sounds like something very cool. You have a great deal of artistic talent. The hell with your neighbors do what makes you happy. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I hope you get everything you need to create something awesome!
Funny you said to hell with my neighbours – on both sides they have fancy glassed in conservatories. I’m about to have a pile of hospital quality shower screens delivered to my house for free, so I can make my own greenhouse! That’s a big FU to both sides 🙂
Thanks for saying I’m artistic – my life hasn’t allowed me to play much. I would love to do more but… as you know, making the bills is always on top! Seems so silly sometimes.
So true, life and responsibility gets in the way all the time. Me too. I didn’t mean to hell with your neighbors so much as don’t worry about what they think. It took me a long time to get past that too. I think hospital shower curtains for a greenhouse sounds very artistic and crafty. Not something I would have thought of.
Cool I would love pictures after you get it built.
They are actually glass – and free! I have no clue what to do, but once they are mine I will have a smallish idea 🙂
cool