Another Chair Affair

I found this chair on Craigslist over the winter and thought the lines were pretty in addition to the price being right. I didn't care for the upholstery but planed to change it. Yesterday was that day. 

The worst part, as in the previous chair, was the removal of the old upholstery and staples, which took up most of the morning and early afternoon. First the back and arm pads were replaced:

I thought I might stop there and finish the next day, but once a project is begun I have a difficult time putting it aside. The seat went more quickly, possibly because I had a system down. I'm happy with the finished product and like the colors so much more than the original, which looked very blah in our bedroom. Now we have a perfect reading chair!

Chair Part Two

The next step after removing all the old upholstery and batting was to replace the underpinning fabric. I decided to encase all the padding in unbleached muslin in order to hold everything in place. The cushions were then stapled back on the chair, and on the seat base, they had to be hand sewn with a fish-hook like needle. 

Then for the fun part: cutting out the new fabric! I chose this linen because it tied the color of the walls and rug together well. 

The back has been covered here and the base is being sewn together and applied.

Everything finished but the cushion. Turns out I saved the most difficult piece for last. After several attempts at a zipper it's finally finished- thank goodness the zipper is in the back, where nobody can see it!

I wonder what my grandmother would think of her chair now? 

Chair Affair

Anyone familiar with the children's story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie will understand why, now that the living room has been painted, it is necessary to change the curtains, artwork and also the upholstery on my grandmother's chair. Once one thing changes it's like a domino effect; everything else looks drab and dull in comparison and on it goes. The curtains were easy and I'm sure we have enough pictures around the house that we can shuffle them around and find some that complement our new decor.

My grandmother's chair was the biggest hurdle. Not wanting to pay several hundred dollars (or wait a month) to have a professional re-upholster it, I decided to give it a try. From what I'd read it's a pain in the neck but with a little elbow grease, some sewing skills and ingenuity along with a screwdriver, staple gun and new fabric shouldn't be something I can't can't handle.

First, the undressing of the chair frame:

Cushion removed to show the base of the chair.
Gracie getting one last scratch on the old fabric.

Evidence of a few other scratches, but nobody was willing to claim responsibility. We won't be having any more of that on the new chair, girls!

*insert striptease music here*

I wanted to take a lot of photos during the removal process so I'd remember in what order to put things back together. I had to be careful taking off the old upholstery so I didn't rip it because I was going to use pieces as templates from which to cut the new fabric.

The demolition only took one afternoon. There were about 10,000 tacks holding all the batting and fabric in place, but finally they were all out. Now the fun begins!

Labor of Love

In my empty-nest-burst-of-painting-enthusiasm this year I've painted only 2 closet interiors in the 14 days since Wilson moved back to school. 'Til now. We have tackled the largest, most daunting project to date: the living room. Wallpaper with at least 2 coats of paint on it. Not quite the Everest of painting projects, but certainly our biggest one yet.

Surprisingly, the wallpaper, even though painted at least twice, came off pretty easily. What was left behind was a turquoise-colored wall with lots of holes, some badly patched, some not at all. First on the list was to patch the holes and spackle the uneven spots. Then, paint the ceiling, do a bit of hole-filling on the oak trim, sand and urethane. Next comes sanding the walls, priming them and finally, painting. About a weeks worth of work with both of us laboring on it.

One end of the room is taken up entirely by oak bookshelves and the fireplace; no painting needed there, only a bit of light sanding and urethane.

I painted the radiators a few weeks ago while I was doing the trim in the closets. The wall has a few paint samples in addition to a lot of pockmarks from all the spackling.

Today Joe will be sanding the walls one last time. Tomorrow: priming and then the final 2 coats of paint. Once this is completed, a quick coat of fresh paint in the kitchen and the entire house will be finished. What on earth will I do then?

Gracie and Millie will be very happy to have things put back together.

Long Time Coming

When I look at the date of my last post, I'm shocked to see it is from the beginning of February. Nearly 2 months! It isn't that there haven't been things, both good and bad, that have been going on. There has been plenty of material about which to write, but for some unknown reason, I haven't been able to put anything down. I'll use the Reader's Digest format to update life events to the present.

Bathroom Renovation: Done!

New vanity and linen tower. Oh, the storage!

Toilet nook.

Millie enjoying the radiator heat. Shower to the left, toilet behind the door.

The bathroom is completed, exactly 5 weeks after starting the project. I'm thrilled with the results; we have so much more useable storage, a more spacious floor plan, larger shower and far prettier room with more light. Morning and evening rituals are now a pleasure to be enjoyed rather than necessities to be rushed through as quickly as possible. Hopefully this will be the last home renovation we need to do for quite some time.

Health

After limping through most of the fall and winter not feeling 100%, I was finally unwell enough to realize I needed a hospitalization. Well, actually, it took my docs to point that out to me, as usual. Even after being admitted, I told Joe: "I really don't think I need to be here".

Surprise! I did. It was actually a good thing. Lots of diagnostics, specialists and time to rest sorted a few things out. The IV antibiotics did their job and my lungs are now in better shape than they were prior to going in. The new medication, Revatio, the pulmonary hypertension specialist started me on back in January seems to have kicked in; I'm less short of breath with activity. A cardiologist ordered an echo and 24 hour heart monitor (both results still pending) but was able to explain the seemingly unexplainable test I had last August. Short version: it seems that I have some new abnormality with my vasculature in which the vessels don't dilate as they should when I exercise, causing my blood pressure to skyrocket. This, in turn, puts pressure on my heart, which is pumping against abnormally high resistance and causes the left ventricular dysfunction (cardiomyopathy). In addition, the vessels between the heart and lungs have a much higher than normal pressure when I exercise, also known as exercise induced pulmonary hypertension - EIPH for short. Now it all makes sense and I feel that there is a good team of docs in place who are able to treat these interrelated issues. Unfortunately, no one specialist covers all 3 things so there is a pulmonologist to treat the lung disease, one to treat the pulmonary hypertension and then a cardiologist to treat the systemic hypertension and cardiomyopathy. Bring them on, the more the merrier, I say.

The good news is that 2 weeks after discharge, I'm able to exercise closer to my previous baseline than I had been in the past 6 months. There has been an enormous amount of deconditioning which will take months to recover, but at least I have the energy and ability to do it now. Weights 4 days a week, yoga once a week and treadmill/walk at least 5 times a week- without fail. Time to get in touch with my inner drill sargent!

Garden

While I was in MGH all the snow melted, something I wouldn't have believed could happen in a 2 week period. Miracles never cease to amaze me. We were treated to several 50-70 degree days in which I was able to clean up about 1/2 the yard's leaves that had been buried all winter. The temps have turned colder this week and we've had flurries several days so no yard work this week; fortunately these things will keep.

I had planted a tray of seeds prior to being admitted and Joe dutifully watered them while I was away; I have broccoli, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and lettuce to look forward to planting out in a few weeks! He also treated me to a tumbling composter as a welcome home gift- which is now loaded up with the leaves and kitchen scraps from the past 2 weeks. More black gold for the garden, there's never too much of a good thing.

The crocus are very late in blooming this year due to the late departure of all the snow. We actually have snowdrops out now- at least a month later than usual- but no less welcome. I'll take any sign of spring no matter how delayed at this point. Next week is supposed to be a tad warmer (40s) so I'll be sure to get out and photograph what is going on in the gardens. It's good to be back.

Under Construction

And now for some photos of the progress. It has been 9 days since the bathroom was demolished and although it doesn't look like much has been done, there have been plumbers, electricians and carpenters here all day every weekday.

This wall, where the shower used to be on the right and the pedestal sink on the left will be the home of the new 4' vanity and linen tower.

Cats do NOT like construction. Or any disruption in their home or routine, for that matter.

Millie checks out the new shower base.

This wall seems solid and plumb. Excellent for scratching!

Shower valve.

Caution: no shower here yet.

This is where the new dual-flush toilet will go. For those who are not familiar- a smaller amount of water is used for liquid waste and..... well, you get the idea. There is going to be a storage cabinet above the toilet in the eave space and the shower is to the right.

This last photo was 2 storms ago. You get the idea.

Groundhog Day

Today we receive another 10 inches of snow, this winter I could probably copy and paste my last post each week and it would be true. I was never able to watch the entire Bill Murray movie Groundhog Daybecause I found it entirely too annoying to watch them repeating the same day over and over. I realize I was missing the "bigger message" of the movie, but there it is. And now, in a way I don't need to watch it; although the plot differs, we're living it out this winter.

Each week has provided its own significant snowfall. I've actually lost track if we are on our 3rd or 4th blizzard. Does it really matter? We've run out of places to put the snow and this year I do think that plow drivers are intrinsically evil people. I'm convinced they wait around the corner to see when we finish shoveling or snow-blowing before coming down the street again and dumping a fresh mountain at the end of the driveway. On the news they said one town actually has police escorts for the plow drivers to protect them from irate homeowners. Imagine!

On a brighter note, the upstairs bathroom is progressing well. I have to hand it to the workmen; they show up and work despite the weather.

This is the bathroom before the demolition started:

Love the knotty pine!

Joe's closet on the left and the catch-all closet on the right. Ripping this area out will give us much more space in the bathroom.

View from in the closet. Toilet at the left, small pedestal sink and the is shower on the right.

Our little shower - 32x34". The new one is going to feel so spacious!!! No more bruised elbows.

This is the view into the bathroom from the hallway. The old shower is behind the wall on the right. It has always been impossible to have more than one person in the room at one time due to the layout. Now it will be that much bigger and easier to share the space. I'm a bit sad to see the wallpaper go, it's a Waverly print that I got on sale because it had been discontinued (just before my 30th birthday.... yep, it's been up for 16 years!) I love the colors and pattern as much as I did the day we put it up, but I know saying goodbye to it will be totally worth it.

Before the Fall

Each year around this time I try to remember to get a photo of the Japanese Maple in front of our house, and each year the leaves have fallen before I get around to it. But not this year, this year is different; yesterday I grabbed the camera after a woman walking by with her dog commented on the great color and I was able to catch the image before the first fiery red leaf fell off.

In the spring the tree produces lovely reddish-maroon leaves, they're pretty but not stunning. During the last week of October, on cue, the leaves go from "nice" to an amazing fiery red before the leaves curl up and fall off.

We also have our outdoor lights up and functioning after 8 weeks of no lighting-- just in time for Halloween and the trick-or-treaters. I'm so happy with how the house looks and the Japanese Maple is the icing on the cake.