Now, here we are in 2008. Not much has changed. The floors were refinished. The chestnut trim stripped and refinished, the grain in this room much darker than most other rooms, due to the purple paint that could not be picked out of every crevice, and therefore had to be dyed to blend in. A new, fancier ceiling fan. The walls were skim-coated to give them a bit of uniformity. The spot under the windows was repaired. We thought we fixed the water issue, but apparently we have not found the true source because the new plaster is effervescing there, just where the plywood was damp and damaged. Now we think it may be the flashing on the roof to the dining room window bump-out. Once we get that taken care of, we can repair the plaster and repaint the area. 
We were in the midst of cleaning when these pictures were taken, so the curtains were down for washing and the area rug was rolled up to clean the floor. 
It doesn’t really show in these pictures, but the walls are a soft, creamy white, and I have future intentions of painting that bitter-apple-green furniture in an antique black shade. I just love the high contrast between light and dark.
Sir-not-appearing in these photos: the spot where I am currently sitting. The computer table. I doubt I will ever photograph the mess that is the computer table, much less post it on the web for all to see, so just forget about it!
Tag: Bedroom
House Tour: Side Bedroom Before
Well, I guess most of the trouble with this room was merely cosmetic.
The chestnut trim in this room received its first coat of paint in the 70s- purple. Yup. I’ve spoken with two grown-up ladies who lived in this house as teenagers during that time, in fact their mother was the first to paint the woodwork, and they told me that this had been their room. So when their mom was in her painting frenzy, the girls got a purple bedroom. Well, purple and white are our school colors, you know. In fact, my aunts are about the same age, and they also shared a purple bedroom. Go figure.
I’d say, aside from the ugly ceiling fan, hideous curtains, and the bad stenciling, this room was in fairly decent shape. Oh, yeah. Except for under the windows. You see that strip of paint off the wall under the left window? Well, that paint has peel off, not off of plaster, as you might expect, but off of plywood. Yes. Plywood. Painted to blend with the rest of the room. Hardly noticeable. Only trouble is, hmm… why is there plywood under the windows? Could it be… a water problem? Ding, ding, ding! That’s right! A water problem. Now, P.O.s, why would you address the cause of the water problem, when you can just cover it over? Why go to the added expense? I’ll bet you already had that hunk of plywood lying around, too, didn’t you? Idiots.
And that little Wal-Mart gem of a carpet should look just fine in the basement someday.
Nice generous closet here, too. This one seems to be a bit bigger than the others, and has a bit more headroom, therefore, Lewis claimed this one for his own.
House Tour: Front Bedroom After
Now here we are, in September of 2008, five years after I bought the house.
I need to make tiebacks for the curtains, which are a beautiful shimmery dress fabric, it has this 1940s deco look to it, and just has the loveliest drape. I bought these way back when I worked at Penney’s, and I have them in several colors. I just loved the fabric so much, I snagged them when they went on clearance, packed them away in a bin, and hoped I would have a place to use them someday. It is kind of funny, really. I think I always knew I wanted a house that had multiple windows per room. And this house sure does!
I still need to stain the curtain rod (a someday project), which is pieced together with parts from different places. I snagged the eight-foot pole from the clearance bin at Linens-n-Things. I chose the brackets from Country Curtains because they have a second notch behind the big one, in case I ever want to hang a second layer. And I ordered the pineapple finials from VanDyke’s. They are a pretty close match to the finial on the four-post bed.
All of this beautiful furniture came from my Grandma Millie’s house. It is mahogany with a dark finish, and while they are not antiques, they are old. She got most of her furniture in the 40s, when she got married. I think my grandparents must have gone to the store and kitted out the living room, dining room, and bedroom all at once. The pieces are almost interchangeable, all the same wood and color, with similar styling. It certainly makes it easy to move things around. I intend to stick with the dark wood furniture, as you may have noticed from the recent yard sale buying frenzy.
Oliver makes himself comfortable in my bed, but when we get tired of each other, he often settles in his comfy chair by the window.
You may have noticed the elephant theme. You see, while I’m not too wild about the Early American Colonial style, and this furniture is undoubtedly Colonial Revival. Reproductions. I’m trying to give it a little twist, going for a British Colonial feel. Think British India. Hence the elephants. Yeah. It still needs some work.
As for the room itself, the floors refinished beautifully, with few repairs needed, and the chestnut trim was cleaned and hydrated with Formby’s Deep Cleansing Build-Up Remover, followed by Formby’s Lemon Oil Treatment, which I use on all my furniture. Never Pledge, which causes a cloudy build up. Yuck. Always the Formby’s products.
House Tour: Front Bedroom Before
Welcome to the front bedroom. This bedroom is the front “dormer” that you can see in pictures of the front of the house. 
This is the only room in the whole house whose trim work was never painted. The floors were in pretty good condition, too. Now, the curtains hiding that beautiful chestnut trim had to go. As well as the cheap and ugly ceiling fan.
Gotta love the basketball hoop attached to the back of the solid chestnut, five-panel door. And the commercial grade garcy strip shelving system. Neanderthals.
Someday I’ll get around to removing the paint from that brass collar on the glass knob. I can’t even figure out how it got painted, since that door is in original condition. P.O.s baffle me.
The attic access is through the closet, which is under the eaves. I’m really lucky to have such big closets in a house this old. It was definitely one of the selling points.
Green Bungalow Craftworks 