Another New Item

A month or so ago, I decided that I was going to buy myself a new refrigerator for my birthday.  I've never liked the refrigerator at New House (NH).  There is nothing wrong with the way it functions, and it looks nice and is in great condition.  However, it is a top freezer model.  That means that the refrigerator part was very low.  I found it difficult to get stuff out of the bottom bins, and it was necessary to practically crawl into the compartment to reach stuff in the back.  And then, invariably, I would hit my head on the freezer door while coming out after reaching something in the back.  After a year of putting up with all this, I finally decided I'd reached my limit.

Last Saturday I did a scouting mission to the local Sears Hardware, and then to Home Depot in search of a nice bottom freezer model.  I came home armed with information, and then I did more homework online.  (What did we do before the internet?  Oh yes, I remember, we went to the library and searched Consumer Reports Magazines!)  After thoroughly investigating our options, I decided on a Kenmore 69002 from Sears.

The new Fridge was delivered today around noon.  It fits perfectly in the space, and so far seems to be just what I wanted!  We have temporarily moved the old one to the garage.  We are going to be donating it to the Furniture Bank next week.

Here are some photos of the old Fridge.  It is a Whirlpool.

The empty space was quickly cleaned up after moving the old one:  

Delivery of the new model was amazing.  There were 3 workers.  They had a truck with a lift bed on the back, and unboxed the new fridge in the street.  Then, when we were ready, they carried it in.  Yes, I said "carried".  2 guys with wide straps over their shoulders and a strap under the fridge carried it up the driveway, through the front door, and put it in place in about a minute.  No dolly, no fuss !!  

Here it is in place:  

We didn't want an ice-maker because they take up valuable room, and we have no water access on that side of the kitchen, so that meant getting a side open door instead of a pull out freezer door, which is fine with us. This is very similar to the refrigerator we bought for Old House (OH) about 6 years ago.  The main difference is the freezer door handle which is smaller and closer to the edge on the OH one.  

The delivery guy said it will take about 4 hours to get the temp where we can safely put food in.  Here is another advantage of 2 houses:  A couple of days ago, in anticipation of this delivery, we started taking food to OH for storage in that fridge (mainly stuff from the freezer, but also some fridge stuff).  We took a load on Wed and another yesterday.  That left just enough here to get us through the morning, and it was easy to manage at the time of delivery.  

So, there we go !  Another successful purchase for NH !

Thanks for reading about this latest adventure, and don't forget to feed the fish!

:)Amy

Welcome to Spring in Ohio

Monday, March 25, 2013 - the first day of Spring Break for my school, and most of the schools in central Ohio.  Here is what we woke up to:

In spite of the 3-4" of snow around the feeder, we also saw this today:  

These 3 are Gary, Jerry and Larry.  

And then, there's Matilda and Hershal:  

Matilda and Hershal almost always visit together.  Sometimes one will be ahead of the other, but he keeps a pretty close eye on her.  She is a little more skittish than he is, but she seems to decide when it is time to eat and when it is time to leave.  All of these photos were taken from New House.  We are used to getting ducks at Old House in the spring, but so far we haven't seen them there yet - perhaps because of our proximity to the creek now?  

Well, that's it for today.  Thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!

:)Amy

The Remodeling Continues

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that last spring we did a major remodeling of our new house.  (Look back to my blog entries from April and May of 2012.)  We have now added one more "project" to the list of areas remodeled.  On Friday, February 22, we had a tub-to-shower conversion done in the master bathroom.  Today I am going to talk about and share photos of the process.

Our process actually began in about 2009 or 2010, the first time I was seriously considering having knee replacement surgery.  This was long before we even thought about having a new house.  The first company we contacted shall remain nameless, but it is a company that advertises on TV a great deal and is known for their tub-to-shower conversions.  It is probably the first name you think of on this topic.  I called and asked about a ball-park figure for this conversion.  The person on the phone refused to give me anything more than a broad range and said that they would have to look at our site before they could really give an estimate.  So, I scheduled a "free estimate".  That "free estimate" cost us 2 hours of our lives that we will never get back, but I suppose we did learn some things.  That estimate experience also turned us off to the entire job until January of this year when I decided to "go there again".  The worst part of that estimate process was the high-pressure expectation by the salesman.  Towards the end of the conversation, when he was trying to seal the deal, we said we would think about it, and we wanted to get more estimates.  (Obviously, this is an expensive decision and not one to be taken lightly.)  He turned on us when we said that. He went from being very nice and funny and friendly to being surly and almost mean.  He let us know that he would not get a commission if we made our decision after he left the house (what kind of company does THAT to their salesmen?).  That was the turn-off.  Any company that discourages their potential customers from getting other estimates and expects them to make snap decisions without even seeing a real sample of the product is very fishy.  And so, we stopped looking.  About a month or so after that estimate, a man called from the company asking if we had made a decision.  I was very honest with him about what turned us off.  He thanked me for my comments, but I have no idea if it made any difference to them at all.

In December 2012, my right knee went out on me.  For about a month, I was heavily dependent on Hubs to help me get in and out of the shower.  While we now have 4 bathrooms in the 2 houses, the showers are all the same: 1970s style standard tubs.  When we remodeled the new house, I did have a grab bar installed in the hall bath that I use most often, and that is very helpful, but I still needed help getting in and out after my knee went out.  So, for me, a big part of the need for the tub-to-shower conversion was about safety and independence.  The fact is, both my knees are unstable, and even after my first surgery, the other one is still going to be unstable.  The other issue during that recovery period was my inability to stand long enough to take my shower and wash my hair, so for about 2 weeks, I had to get my hair washed at a salon.  While that can be a nice luxury, it was hard for me to spend $ on something that I was used to doing myself.

In January, I started talking about this job again.  Hubs was hesitant, but I persisted.  I did a lot of online research, and I came up with 3 companies that I wanted to get estimates from.  2 companies only do bathroom remodeling and the 3rd is a general contractor who specializes in remodeling, especially bathrooms.

Our first estimate was from the general contractor.  The sales woman was very good - we liked her, and we were impressed by the products she showed us.  She introduced us to a product called The Onyx Collection.  It is a company in Kansas that manufactures the product used for the shower base, walls, sinks, etc...  She also offered us an acrylic material which is very common in shower installations.  If you have ever stayed in a hotel that has remodeled the bathrooms, then you have probably seen an acrylic product.  With her we picked out an acrylic color that we liked - she suggested that as a lower cost alternative to the Onyx.  She gave us a lot of good information, and when she left we had an estimate written on the back of a business card.  She also gave us info about having the entire bathroom redone, including the vanity and flooring (we did ask about it - this wasn't her idea), and we had looked at some flooring options.  We are going to need at least 1 bathroom done in the old house before we ever try to sell it, so that is why we asked about the whole bathroom job.

Our second estimate was by a local company that only does bathroom remodeling called SimpleBath (used with permission).  The company is owned by a married couple, Dick Ransom and Mary Rubin, and it is not a franchise of something bigger.  Dick came do our estimate, and we really liked him.  In addition to being very informative, he was also very personable and very "real".  We felt we could really trust him.  Throughout our estimate process, he filled out a formal estimate sheet.  Without knowing the first estimate we got, he gave us an estimate that was less than the first - and it was for an all-Onyx unit, where as the first estimate was an Onyx base and acrylic walls.  He also encouraged us to come to his showroom to see the products in person.  A couple of days later, we visited the showroom, and as soon as I saw the complete Onyx unit, I was sold.  There we spoke to Mary, who looked at our estimate and gave us more information.  She also offered us a discount if we could have the job done on one of 3 days in February that they didn't have any installations on the calendar.  (Their installers are on salary, not paid hourly or by the job.)

Once we left the showroom, the decision was really a no-brainer.  We had had to cancel the 3rd estimate because of a meeting at school, and after seeing the samples in the showroom, we decided to go with the 2nd company without even getting a 3rd estimate.  We contacted our man and set the date for Feb 22.  We had to pay 1/2 when we scheduled and 1/2 when the job was done.

Our 2 installers arrived about 9:45 on a very icy morning (ironically, all the schools in the area were closed!).  While Mike got started on demo, Chaz went to a nearby hardware store to get some salt because the driveway was a skating rink.

Here are some "before shots".

Mike started by using a box-cutter to score around the outside edge of the tile, then he use a putty knife to pry off the outside edge of tiles.  Bye-Bye Blue Tile !!!

I grabbed one souvenir piece of that edge.  All the rest went into the tub.  I have to add here that both workers were extremely tolerant of me and my camera.  I'm sure there were times when I was in their way, but they never complained (at least not to me).

Once the outer edge was off, he started taking down large sections of the tile walls.  Some of it was chipped off into the tub, but he also cut out large sections of wall-board.    

Once the walls were off, I was thrilled to see how clean things were inside.  No mold, no mouse-droppings, no little critters running around, etc...  

After cleaning up the tile mess, they took the tub out.  I'm not sure exactly how they did it, but the process was VERY loud and the floor shook at times.  I never saw them carry the tub out, but I did see it on the truck later.  Once the tub was out, I could see the tub in the other bathroom through the wall, and the cement slab that the house is built on was exposed.  

Next, came the plumbing work.  After turning off the water, Chaz went to work taking out the old pipes and putting in new pipes and fittings.  There is no need for the old bathtub nozzle, and all its parts.   Here is the new fitting for the shower valve.

While Chaz was doing plumbing, Mike was working in the garage on the new pieces of Onyx.  Here is the shower pan.  

He also had to trim the wall pieces to fit exactly in the space.  Once the shower pan was in place, they next worked on getting the largest wall piece into place.  That was their biggest struggle of the day.  To get it through the bedroom and bathroom doors, they had to turn it 90 degrees from its upright-installation direction, and then they had to turn it back once they got it in the room.  They caught the corner on the ceiling twice and made a couple of small gouges.  Then they decided to take the bathroom door off.  I left at that point because I was sure they weren't appreciating my watching their struggle.  It took awhile, but they finally got it turned and in.  On the walls where there was to be a grab bar and a seat installed, they reinforced the wall behind the Onyx with plywood and also 2x6 blocks, so they would have more to drill into.  

The Onyx color/pattern we chose is called Tiramisu and is the most popular color.  (All the color options can be seen on the website I linked to above.)  One of the things we liked about this product was how solid it is. The acrylic product is thinner and flimsier.  This feels like a piece of stone.  There is a slight flexibility to it before installation, but it doesn't really bend like acrylic does.    

Next, the front wall went in and then the fixtures when on.  Last was the back wall.  At that point, they asked me to come in and tell them where I wanted all the bars, the corner shelf and the seat.  They put marks on the walls based on my requests and then they put those items in.  

Lastly, they caulked all the seams.  

Ok... are you ready for the big final reveal???  Here we go.....

There is MUCH about this new unit that I am impressed with, but probably the biggest thing is how solid and sturdy it all feels.  It is BIGGER than the old shower unit.  Many customers have glass doors put on this, but we chose the shower-curtain option.  Glass doors can always be added later, but they can't be taken off.  

The only negative we experienced was the odor left by the adhesive they used and/or the caulk.  That odor was very strong for the first few days.  We had to open bedroom windows and have a fan blowing in the bathroom for the first 2 days. It was tolerable to sleep in the bedroom, but only when the bathroom door was closed.   After a week, we can still smell it when we walk in the house, but it is very faint.  

The first time I used the shower, I didn't even want to get out - so I just washed everything 2 or 3 times to have an excuse to stay in!!!!   :)

So that's it for today!  As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!

:)Amy

Yard Trash or Found Art?

One morning a week or so ago, I went out my front door to pick up my morning paper, and something caught my eye.  Off to the side of my sidewalk on the mulch around the plantings was something that didn't belong there.  Trash - I thought.  I went over to pick it up, and thought it looked like a playing card, face-down in the mulch.   Although a little bigger than a standard playing card, the back still looked like a standard deck.  When I turned it over, I realized it wasn't from a standard deck of playing cards.  At first, I thought it was from a deck of Tarot cards, but after having searched images of Tarot cards online, I can't find anything even remotely similar to this.  So, now I am guessing it is a card from some board game that I'm not familiar with.

I am posting the images here in the hopes that one of my readers will be able to enlighten me.  The character sort of looks like Jekyll / Hyde...  ???

  

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to feed the fish!  

:) Amy

Holidays At Home

We are enjoying our new home for the holiday season.  I am attaching here some photos of the fresh tree we put on the porch.  It is a 6' Frasier Fir and is the perfect size for the space.  I bought new LED lights for it.  They are more "blue" compared to the old lights, even though they are advertised as "white".  I'm not totally thrilled with that, but I can live with it considering the energy efficiency.

Now that we have some space to work, I got out all the Xmas decorations, and we weeded before we decorated, so I now have a box for the next garage sale.  When I un-decorate, I am going to reorganize and relabel all the holiday storage.  It will feel good to finally be more organized.

That's it for today!  Thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!

:) Amy

The Shame of Not Posting

Oh goodness!  Shame on me for not posting for more than 3 months.  *sigh*  Ok, I'm over it - and you should be too.  The fact is that life has been very stable, so I really haven't had much to talk about.

School began again in mid-August, and we've pretty much been living in the new house about 80% of the time.  We sleep here, and until it got too cold and dark to continue to hang out on the porch in the early evening, we were eating here as well.

In early November, we moved the table and chairs into the dining room and started closing the porch door at night.  It really does get cold out there.  It has been in the 40s on some mornings when it is in the 20s outside.  The good news is that it doesn't take long to heat it up into the 60s with the small space heater that we have. Yes, there is a built-in wall heater, but we really don't trust it.

Other changes:  We had AT&T Uverse installed in late July - bundle of phone, cable and internet.  That has not been without some minor technical glitches at times, but overall, we are pleased with it.  In August, we bought a desk for the dining room, and I moved my computer over because I knew I was going to need it once school started.  Once we moved the dining table into the dining room, we moved my desk and computer to my sewing room.  It is quite comfy working there.  I honestly now have very little reason to go to the other house... except to deal with clothes.

Clothes.  That seems to be the only sticky wicket I've had to deal with.  Transitioning from summer clothes in the new closet to fall/winter has been a challenge.  More than once, I've wanted something that was at the other house, when I thought it was already here.  The good part of this is that I'm only bringing the stuff here that I REALLY like, so by next summer, I should have a very clear picture of what I can get rid of without missing it.

Now that it has turned colder and gets dark earlier, we don't feel as compelled to eat dinner here.  Lately, we've been going back to the old house around sunset for dinner.  We hang out for a few hours, and then come "home" for the rest of the evening.  We still do laundry over there, and Hubs usually spends the night there once every couple of weeks - just to kind of make sure things are ok.

So, the 2 house lifestyle continues to work for us.  Tentatively I am planning on just decorating New House for the holidays.  I want to get a fresh tree for the porch - we haven't had a fresh tree in several years, so I'm looking forward to it.

I did a little decorating at Halloween.  Thanks to Pinterest, I got some pumpkin ideas.  Here are some photos of what I did:

I have also invested in some new holiday greenery for the front windowsills.  It should last for years, and has battery powered LED lights that are on a timer to be on for 6 hours each evening.

So, that's the November update.  I'll try to post more about the holiday decs in the next few weeks.  Thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!

A New Lifestyle

We took possession of New House on March 23.  The remodeling phase was mostly done by the end of April, and by the end of May we had enough furniture in to live fairly comfortably.  The rest of the furniture arrived by the end of June.

We had accumulated enough kitchen "stuff" over the 30 years we've been together to set up the kitchen without having to buy a lot of new stuff.  We did buy some new items, just because we wanted to and not because we really had to.  This bring us to one advantage of the 2-house-lifestyle:  We were able to declutter the Old kitchen to furnish the New kitchen - a benefit to both houses.

Another advantage is something I alluded to in my last post.  With the New 2 car garage, we were able to close out the storage unit that we'd been renting for 2 years.  Most of what was in there was stuff we kept from my parent's house, and most of that stuff just needs to be gone through.  We had boxes and boxes of financial and medical papers.  Some needed to be shredded and some can just be tossed, but it all had to be gone through.  When all the boxes were in a storage unit, it just wasn't convenient to get a box, haul it home and go through it - so we didn't.  Just in the last month, we've been working at a rate of about a box a day and have managed to get rid of almost a dozen boxes so far.

A 3rd advantage has presented itself twice so far - What happens when the power goes out?  So far, the power has gone out at each house once, and each time for an extended period.  We were able to load up the stuff from the "dark" refrigerator and take all that food to the working fridge and not lose anything.  We were also able to sleep in the house with power so we could still have A/C and/or fans, and I could still sleep with my CPAP machine.  (Without which I have to sleep sitting up in a recliner.)  It turns out that even though the houses are close to each other, they are on different power circuits.  So far, they have not both been out at the same time.

As soon as school was out, we started sleeping at New House.  We love being here in the mornings.  The porch is glorious in the morning sun.  The schedule we've developed has sort of evolved, partly because we don't yet have TV service at New House.  We like to watch the evening news, so it has made sense to spend the day at New House and then go to Old House around 5-6ish p.m. and then spend the evening there doing laundry and watching our favorite shows on TV.  Then we come "home" at the end of the evening to go to bed.  We have developed a transition routine for each trip back and forth.  We have a place where we put stuff that goes to the other house, and we are usually hauling clothes, food, paper tidbits from one house to the other.  So far that has been fairly easy to manage.

Both Hubs and I have our computers (with regular internet service) and offices at Old House, so we do our "work' there.  I do have a laptop with a wireless internet connection at New House, but I don't use that for financial things.   At New House, I play the piano, work on sewing projects, read, play computer games - it is sort of a "vacation house" for me.

I'm sure the routine will change once school is back in session, but for now, this 2-house-lifestyle is working for us.

The Great Experiment!

One of my reasons for starting this blog was to share the remodeling process of our new house with family and friends who live far away, and who probably won't be able to visit in person.  Well, that remodeling process is pretty much done now, except for decorating with artwork, etc...  So, that brings me to the next purpose of this blog: to chronicle the experience of having and actively living in two houses.

For those of you who may not remember how this whole adventure started, let me refresh your memory.  After looking for a new house for 2 years - one that we planned to fully move in to, and then sell the old house - we finally came to the realization that the odds of finding our dream house were slim to none.  We came the closest with a 2400 sq ft home that would have required a 40 min. drive each way to work, which was a deal-killer.  One of the prime features of this "almost" purchase was that it was on a slab.  Not only was it the largest slab home we found in our search, it was the ONLY slab home we found.  I asked our realtor very directly if he thought we could find a house that large on a slab closer to work.  He said no.

We found lots and lots of ranch homes with basements.  One thing I had never realized before is that whenever you have a house with a basement, there are also going to be steps up into the main level because traditional basements are not fully sunken underground, so there will be steps up to the front door, the back door, the garage into the house, etc...   Many of these ranch homes with basements also had some room inside that was sunken - typically a living room or family room.  I guess that was "in" at some point in the '50s or '60s?  The bottom line is that we had to have a house with no steps because of my bad knees.  Realistically, many people are eventually going to need to live in a home with no steps as the aging population falls prey to arthritis and joint injuries.  I guess I expected there to be more no-steps-houses out there, for that reason.  Well, that's not the case in this area.  At least not within an easy drive of my school.  Of course, it is possible to retro-fit existing homes with chairs that carry a person up the steps or with elevators, but both options are expensive and less than perfect.

Now, interestingly enough our old house is a slab home, in a large neighborhood of slab homes.  These houses are Huber Homes - built in the '70s by a man named Charles Huber.  He developed large communities of these small well-built brick ranches throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s.  (In fact, here in Ohio there is an entire city of Huber Homes called Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton.)  However, one drawback of the Huber Homes in this area is that they are fairly small.  The smallest is less than 1200 sq ft with a one car garage and virtually no storage space besides regular closets.  There are several models, and they vary somewhat in size.  Most are 3 bedroom, and they typically have either 1 1/2 bathrooms or 2 bathrooms.   In our initial search, we didn't even consider another Huber because we wanted more space.  We were already in a mid-sized 3 bed, 2 bath Huber with a 1-car garage that is just over 1200 sq ft.  Our whole reason for moving was to get more space.

After we decided that our "almost" purchase wasn't going to happen, we felt very defeated and out of options.  Then Hubby had a brainstorm!  He said let's buy the house around the corner... and keep this one... and live in both.  WHAT?  SERIOUSLY?  He had crunched the numbers and had a very long list of positives, and after we discussed it, we really couldn't find any downside to the plan.  And so, here we are with 2 Huber Homes within sight of each other!!

The two houses have the same basic floor plan, but there are 3 major differences that were selling points for us:  1. New House has a 2 car garage which has allowed us to close out the storage unit we were paying $100/month for.  2. New House has a large storage room behind the second half of the 2 car garage which Old House doesn't have.  3. New House has a very large and very well-built 3-season room which is something we had seriously considered putting on Old House.

Previously, every time we had talked about adding on or remodeling Old House, we always came back to the issue that we really didn't want to live in remodeling dust and debris and noise and smell, etc...  Nor did we want to half-way "move out" during the remodeling.  With New House, we didn't have to do any of that. We were able to remodel from a distance without having to "live" in it, yet we were close enough to keep an eye on things on a daily basis.  The 3 season room didn't need any remodeling, so we were able to set up that room comfortably for our visits and then close the sliding door to keep out the dust.

With buying this 2nd house, we've gained 1200 sq ft of living space.  I now have a place for my baby grand piano.  Hubby now has a nice workshop area that is well lit and has plenty of space for his workbench, tools, and an area to spread out in.  I also now have a craft/sewing room where I can leave projects out that I am working on (I used to have to work on the kitchen table.)  We now have a good storage space that is temperature controlled and insect free.  We have a lovely 3 season room where we can enjoy the sunlight without excessive heat/cold and bugs/varmits.  If we would have purchased the "almost" house, we would have 2400 sq ft of space, but we would have actually had to "move" to it, and sell Old House.  Now we have 2400 sq ft of space without having to move or sell anything.   "Almost" house had 3 bedrooms - we now have 6.  "Almost" house had 2 garage spaces - we now have 3.

In the days ahead, I plan to talk more about the pros (and cons, although there aren't many, yet) of living in 2 neighboring houses.  So, stay tuned.  You might find that this idea could work for YOU!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!  :)

More Fads and Silliness, Part II

So, the next fad (or trend) on my list to complain about is curtains - draperies - window treatments!  Without exception, dressing the windows in our new house gave us the biggest headaches and led to the most stress and drama of anything we did in this remodeling process.  We have lived in 7 different homes in our married life (soon to be 30 years - woo hoo!), and never before have we had such trouble finding window treatments that we wanted!

Issue #1:  Our new house, which was built in the early '70s has replacement windows that were installed probably sometime in the last 10 years.  They are very nice, and were a definite selling point for us.  Old House, which was built about the same time as New House, has NOT had replacement windows installed.  It still has the original aluminum windows.  The old windows are set toward the outside of the window opening, allowing room within the window frame for mini-blinds to be hung within the opening.  This is quite convenient because the mini-blinds don't interfere at all with any curtains.  However, the new replacement windows have been set farther to the inside of the window opening, leaving no room for mini-blinds inside the window frame.  This was something we didn't discover until after we'd purchased the house (not that it would have been a deal-killer anyway, but it was just a revelation to us because we didn't expect this difference).  

Originally, my thinking was that I didn't want any mini-blinds in New House.  We have them at Old House, and I wanted to try to do as many things as differently as possible, especially since the floor-plans are the same.  However, once we got to working regularly at NH, we started to think that we were really going to need blinds both for privacy and for light control.  The house faces south, and while the wide roof-overhang prevents much direct sunlight in the heat of the day, it is still very bright in the living room and both front bedrooms.  We also have very close neighbors on the west side - also exposed to the front corner bedroom and the back master bedroom.  Again - west facing windows = direct sunlight and heat.  The first time I tried to work in my sewing room with the afternoon sun bearing in, I realized I had to have mini-blinds no matter how much I didn't want them.

Ok - now, no room inside the window frame for blinds means they have to be hung on the wall outside of the window opening, which means their thickness impacts the hanging of curtains.  Most curtain mounting hardware does not extend far enough to clear mini-blinds and still leave plenty of room for free movement of curtains.  Hhhmmm.... problem.

Issue #2:  Have you shopped for curtains lately?  If you have, you've probably noticed that the "popular" models involve curtains with big grommets in the top which are meant to be hung directly on rods.  Second to these are curtains with loops, or those with large pockets which go directly over the rod.  Only in the very back corner of the display room might there be the very rare display of curtains for traverse rods.  Remember traverse rods from your mother's and grandmother's house?  Remember traverse rods that held curtains which could easily be opened and closed by pulling a cord at one end?  Remember how neatly curtains hung on traverse rods?  How nice they looked hanging there?  Yes, well... let me tell you... some designer in some tower somewhere decided that traverse rods and their neatly hanging curtains were "so last decade" and banished them to the back room of stores.  Just try to find curtains for traverse rods now - go ahead, LOOK - I DARE YOU!!!  I am convinced that grommet curtains were designed by some 22 year-old with a nearly bare apartment who was obsessed with change for the sake of change - with doing everything differently from the way Mom did, regardless of how annoyingly impractical the change might be!
Seriously, if you have used grommet curtains, you know what I mean.  In order to open and close the curtains, you have to physically hold the curtain fabric and pull it in the intended direction.  Now, how long do we think the curtain fabric is going to continue to look good, hold its shape and hang nicely after being tugged at in 2 directions at least twice a day?  My mother's traverse curtains still looked good after hanging there and being opened and closed every day for 35 years!  Are grommet curtains going to last for 35 years and still look good?   Perhaps if the opener/closer is tall enough to reach the top of the curtains, some of this fabric-tugging can be avoided, but I can tell you that at 5'2" I need a step-stool to reach the top.

Then, let's put a piece of furniture in front of that window, shall we?  At Old House, I have a large antique dresser in front of one of the windows in the master bedroom.  On that dresser is an antique lamp - it was an old lamp that was converted from gas to electricity - you know, the kind with the big hand painted glass globes...  Anyway, behind this large dresser and lamp hangs a set of grommet curtains - because they were the only things we could find when we wanted new curtains.  Opening and closing those curtains is a nightmare for me.  I have to reach over and around that fragile antique lamp, and every time I do it, I am scared to death that the lamp is going to go crashing to the floor.  Would this be an issue with traverse curtains????  NO!!!  So, I don't open them - they stay closed unless Hubby feels brave and risks smashing my lamp.   At New House, we decided to put the couch in front of the living room window, which has grommet curtains because they were the best we could find.  The only way I can open and close them is to move the couch out.  Hubs uses a yard stick to move the curtains along the rod at the top.  A yard stick!  Yes, I could have put the couch somewhere else, but I am NOT letting the curtains dictate the room arrangement.  How frickin' annoying is this?!  This problem could be solved with traverse curtains!!!


The most annoying thing about all of this is that once again - the fad or trend has dictated what is available for purchase.  In every single case with every single window in New House, we had to compromise and settle for less than what we wanted.  I predict that people are going to realize how impractical grommet curtains are, and they will complain enough, and the trend will revert back.  5 years - that's how long I give this.  In 2017 check the stores and see if grommet curtains are still "in".  I predict they will be OUT  and I will be the first one to be redoing all my windows!!!

Of Fads and Other Such Silliness, Part I

Fads.  I think they've been around as long as there have been people.  Fads happen in most aspects of our cultural life:  in clothing/shoes, hair styles, home decorating, garden design, architecture, art, music, etc...  Some fads seem to be a function of change for the sake of change - the younger generation wants to do something different than their parents did, so they create a fad that goes in a different direction.  Some fads seem to come about because someone of notoriety does something a certain way and others feel they have to follow (Justin Beeber's hairstyles are an example of this).  I also believe that some fads are created by industries in order to sell new products.  

According to the "fad" entry on Wikipedia,  "The behavior will normally fade quickly once the perception of novelty is gone."  Also according to Wikipedia, a "fad" is not to be confused with a "trend" which can often lead to more permanence.   Today I'm here to talk about  - perhaps even complain about - some fads or trends that I've seen in home decorating throughout my last few months of doing just that.  

Hubby and I have spent a lot of time watching home decorating shows on TV over the last few years.  There are many such shows on HGTV.  In addition to the decorating shows, there are shows like House Hunters where each episode features a new family in search of a home - and they usually evaluate and pick from 3 options in the course of the 30 min show.  During their inspections of the options, a lot is said about their interests/needs/tastes in home decorating.  Hubs and I have definitely noticed some "trends" in what many buyers seem to be looking for and wanting in a new home.  This has been confirmed by what we've seen on some decorating shows as well.  

One trend is that many people seem to be shunning carpet in favor of hardwood flooring.  Hardwood floors were popular "back in the day" before carpet and sweepers were both inexpensive and good quality.  Then there seem to be a trend away from wood floors as being "old fashioned", and carpet became the desirable option for those wanting to get away from what their parents had.  It seems to me that in the '60s and '70s in Middle America, there was a huge trend away from hardwood floors and toward carpet.  I know that my family fell into this trend.  Grandma's house, built in the 1920s, had hardwood floors, but Mom wanted wall to wall carpet in her new house in the '60s.  She even bought large rugs that could be cut to fit around bathroom fixtures so that the bathroom could have wall-to-wall carpeting.   All of the homes I was in during my childhood that were built from the '50s on had wall-to-wall carpet.  (With the possible exception of kitchens, although our house had it in the kitchen as well.)  Now, when we watch House Hunters, many new home owners moan when they see carpet and immediately declare THAT will have to go and be replaced with hardwood.  Some indicate a need for a low-allergy environment, or for cleanliness, and others just seem to be speaking the language of the trend.  During our remodeling process, a friend seemed surprised that we were not taking advantage of this opportunity to put in hardwood instead of replacing old carpet with new carpet.  My answer was short and simple:  "I'm not going to spend my life chasing dust bunnies!"   Hubby and I had hardwood floors in the bedrooms of an apartment that we lived in in the '80's, and it was most labor-intensive floor I've ever lived with!  I could dust the floor and 5 minutes later there would be another dust bunny that I had "missed".   Keeping those floors clean was a Sisyphean struggle!  I certainly don't mind running a sweeper over carpet once a week or so, but as far as I'm concerned, wood floors are just too high-maintenance.  Then there is the issue of walking with bare feet - which I do most of the time - carpet = warm, cozy, cushy and nice for the feets - wood = hard, cold, splintery.  NO THANKS!  I love my new carpet, and I plan to hang on to it as long as I can.  I'm sure there are situations where it is more practical not to have carpet, but to me this "trend" is impractical for most homes.  For those of you who have wood floors and love them:  I'm happy for you, and I certainly mean no disrespect.  Please call me to socialize if you have time between dustings!

Trend #2:  The kitchen MUST have stainless steel appliances  in order to be "in".  Ok, seriously, stainless steel appliances?  I'm not sure where this "fad" came from, (and I'm calling it a fad because I think it is going to fade when the novelty wears off), but I have a feeling it has something to do with all the cooking shows on TV, and people seeing that professional chefs have stainless steel appliances - therefore, if you want to have a professional looking kitchen, that's the way to go.  Also, they're more expensive, so they must be "better", right?  Here is another high-maintenance item: fingerprints, scratches, and then there is that sound when you scrape your fingernail on it!!  ARGH!!!  We inherited a stainless steel sink in the kitchen of our new house.  It is a nightmare to keep clean - much more labor-intensive than the old ceramic sink at the old house.  As with the dust-bunnies, the sink always has water spots.  No matter how long and hard I work, there are ALWAYS water spots!!!  

Trend #3:  Vessel sinks on bathroom vanities.  Talk about impractical!  I can see them perhaps in a fancy powder room that is only used very occasionally by a guest, but to have them in a bathroom that is used by the family for everyday tooth-brushing, etc... Totally impractical.   I make a prediction that within 5 years these will be "out" and people who buy houses with them in will be removing them or complaining about them.  I'm not sure where this trend came from - perhaps some wealthy mansion in Europe started it?  Well, you mark my words - by 2017, these will be "so last year".  

Ok, for those of you who are not mad at me and want to keep reading, stay tuned to the next entry for more of my whining and complaining about fads and trends that I've seen recently!