Goodbye wall, hello windows!
Paul was on vacation last week… a relaxing span of days spent dismantling and then rebuilding the back wall of the addition to put windows where we used to have a bathroom.
If you’re new, you might want to see the kitchen the day we moved in, or get the full story of the (horrible) half-bath and why we took it out.
I wasn’t here for all of it – I had work, a new stray cat to wrangle, and circuses to protest (there were three in the last two weeks!)
I already wrote about why the circus makes me sad, but I am compelled to repeat: in the wild, tigers can travel up to 20 miles a day… In the circus, they live in tiny travel cages. The only time they are allowed out is to perform.
The unmitigated despair of this existence is horrifying to me.
I know you come here for entertainment, but I cannot handle this on my own anymore without having some kind of nervous breakdown.
So. Windows… I missed some steps, but I think the process is self-explanatory; hopefully you can imagine/follow along.
Fortunately I captured the important part: Elvis supervising the process.
I won’t bore you with the boring parts, ex: the way I found choosing window size to be agonizing… surely, a wrong-half-inch in either direction would have have ruined the entire thing.
How do you like our security system? It looks very… secure, no?
The back doors are salvaged from an old storefront in Philadelphia; they are super tall and I love them. BUT the hardware that was on them was generic, unappealing, and mismatched.
Just like the piano hardware quest, I’ve been looking for hardware for the back door… and it would SEEM that what I am shopping for is something broken. Because, so far, those are the only things that appeal to me.
As Paul was ripping plywood off the back of the house, I thought it would be a good time to show him some hardware options.
I could see in his face this thought: must everything be “special?” So just to appease him, I did look at some reproduction hardware. FYI: you can get some truly GIANT and super fancy and also incredibly shiny door accessories. (Which would also make impressive earrings.)
But it’s too late because I’m already attached to some broken, old, non-working knobs that are not really knobs. And have no lock. And also is not a set, because there is only one. And I need at least two, preferably four.
Not that any of that matters, because once I decide that something is “mine,” I become irrationally attached to it.
Now this post is over. I am not at all satisfied with it, but this turns out to be one of the rare occasions I have nothing more to say.
THE END.
June 1, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
Everybody knows bathrooms don’t belong in kitchens, except whoever built that one. I wonder if they read your blog. How amazed they’d be at how beautiful their old kitchen could have been.
June 1, 2016 @ 12:53 pm
I am enjoying your blog.
Do you have any feelings about slate countertops. I am messy and want low maintenance. And figure you have done real research.
Off topic but appreciate any thoughts.
June 1, 2016 @ 1:04 pm
I laughed myself right out of the chair when I read “Paul is on vacation…” Didn’t even have to finish the sentence. I mean honestly, we all know what that man does on “vacation” – he hauls GFT’s around East Jabib and takes apart BOT’s (Beautious Old Things) so they can fit in the car/hallway/up the stairs. Enjoy it Paul. It will all be worth it in the end…whenever that may be.
PS Still lookin’ good Elvis.
June 1, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
First, Elvis is adorable and so clearly appropriately named. Well done. And second – the windows look really, really nice. I am a huge fan of light 🙂 Also love the many different angles in the ceiling. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Bravo on your work for animal rights!
Cheers!
Katie
button-jar.com/blog
June 1, 2016 @ 1:59 pm
¡Felicitaciones! Ahora tu cocina tiene una espectacular vista hacia el jardín.
June 1, 2016 @ 2:05 pm
Those windows are wonderful. Garden view. (Yay!) Keep looking for the perfect hardware. It will appear.
June 1, 2016 @ 2:08 pm
Beautiful! Placement and size of windows diminish the oddity of the ceiling line created by the diagonal door placement. Well done!
June 1, 2016 @ 2:29 pm
I applaud your disgust at the circus prisons and their deplorable conditions, not to mention just the idea of them. I’ve felt this way since I was a very young youth. My mother could not understand my fervor for protesting being forced to attend field trips to the circus. I was pretty much dragged as a non-violent protestor, in a uniform, by my Catholic school nuns. I digress….
In order to contain my upset and feelings for such large scale issues, I have created what I call the “Polar Bear Bucket”. It’s not a real bucket, not made by or out of polar bears. But I figuratively, I place my tumultuous feelings for the grandiose problems of the world, of which I have no control, “into” it. When I have a platform, or ability to make a difference for my “issues” in my bucket, I do. But instead of trying to live in a constant state of turmoil, I have to take the emotion out of it. If I had t figured out how to do that, I was going to end up in Alaska saving drowning polar bears. Or in Darfur. Or in a Rainforest. Or saving “ALL the ANIMALS”.
Latest sweatshirt? “Never underestimate a woman who loves polar bears”. Truth.
June 1, 2016 @ 2:29 pm
Holy cow! What a difference a window makes! You must be soooo happy!
June 1, 2016 @ 2:45 pm
Can I just say that your Paul and my Honey would totally get along! They both married women who are a tad OCD and understand the same concept of “IF I see it and I want it then IT’S MINE! Make’s total sense to me! So it’s broken? It can be fixed! Paul can do it! Honey can do it! This is why God brought us together as a couple! God understood the concept! VEB I think your fantastic girl.
x-x
June 1, 2016 @ 3:20 pm
I just love everything. I even like the way you run out of words. All of it is great. The Windows are SO GREAT. That is all.
June 1, 2016 @ 3:55 pm
This post contains multiple reasons as to why you are utterly fantastic; from GFTs and hardware obsessions to circus anger and kitty surveyors. Love your blog!
June 1, 2016 @ 6:19 pm
I’m with you on the circus thing. My parents took me when I was a teenager, and I was old enough to realize what was being done for my entertainment.
My children have never been to a circus, and they understand why.
Rock on, sis!
June 1, 2016 @ 7:02 pm
Love the windows, but please tell me that Paul put in a huge header/beam above them and king studs on the sides. It’s not clear in the pics. Knowing (knowing?) Paul, he probably did, but my worry wort ways can’t help but picture the whole thing falling down until you put my mind at rest.
June 1, 2016 @ 7:14 pm
Wow! Looks fantastic!!! Paul did an amazing job, and while on “vacation” too!!! 🙂
June 1, 2016 @ 9:23 pm
Love the pic of Miss Elvis
Also, you probably already know this, but try google image search for some of these random 1 off things you find. It might help!
Also, both Portland and Settle have some great vintage fixture/ house parts stores. We are not as old as PA but we were way into recycling and reusing and not throwing GFT or TFT away before it became popular. maybe call them or email with a pic of the knob-like thing you want multiples of?
June 2, 2016 @ 1:40 am
Love your windows , love your Elvis…. and thanks for letting everyone know the truth about the mistreatment of circus animals.
June 2, 2016 @ 9:04 am
The original floor plan just looked so wrong. It felt very tense, wrong. They squeezed a bathroom in where there should not have been one. Now looking at the new space it just feels right. Calming, relaxing. It will be beautiful when done. It already is beautiful!
June 2, 2016 @ 12:26 pm
I was with you on the bathroom demo, but the windows are over the top wonderful. The room cried to be an open and light-filled space and you have accomplished that. Can’t wait to see the hanging light fixture you select!
Now for some over the top garage doors…….happy hunting!
June 2, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
Yay!!!! clap, clap, clap, clap!!!!! Just Right!!!!!!!