Fan Re-Do

This project took way too long!  But I am in the mood to finish up some of my UFO's (Un-Finished Objects), because I want the space back.  This fan project started with a box fan that I had inherited from my Great-Aunt Marie.  It worked well, but over time the plastic grating on the front and back began to disintegrate leaving openings large enough for little fingers or dog noses.

The fan is probably from the late 70's judging by the font on the dial plate.  I took it all apart.

You can see from the pictures that there was a lot of scratched up paint.  I took a picture of the fan motor, so I would remember the correct order for the wires.

I sanded, primed, and then sprayed the entire metal case bright orange which I did not take a picture of.... so moving on.  I chose a 1/2" hardware cloth for the new protective screening.  I folded under about 2" all the way around.

I had to crimp each wire individually to get a flat fold.

I attached the screen to the fan box using sheet metal screws that were longer than the original screws.  The screws go through these cool large washers and then through a felt washer that I made out of wool felt.  I thought there might be some vibration problems, so I added the felt washers.  Maybe overkill, but it works well and is quiet.

The I had to replace the handle, as the original plastic handle disintegrated.  I used the heavy belt webbing.  I tried initially to use rivets through a set of the big washers.  The spouse assisted with this part.

Unfortunately the rivets were too small and pulled through the belt webbing.  So I switched to machine screws and these capped nuts.

 

Ta da!  The finished fan... in all its blowing glory!

Handkerchief Curtain

Reloved magazine had a great shot of a pieced curtain in their Spring 2013 issue.  

And Mollie Makes featured the book Vintage Home in their issue 28 which also had a pieced curtain but made of vintage scarves.  Both magazines got me thinking about my excessive collection of vintage hankies.  They were originally upcycled into fanciful skirts for toddler girls.  The line was called Patache... hence the reason for starting this blog in the first place.  But that was a long time ago, and I have moved onto other things, but still have lots of hankies.  So I pieced them altogether into a sheer curtain.

The curtain hangs from brass upholstery tacks that are not hammered in all the way.

And what would a home project be without some sort of error or mishap?  It wouldn't be a home project!  I measured and calculated, but missed the mark.  There are two extra holes in the window frame that need filling and touching up.

Overall the end result is colorful and airy and works in the stairway.

57 Buttonholes Later...

I took a break (again) from the dress project to finish up the bedroom project.  We installed floor to ceiling curtains across the closet wall using hospital style ceiling track which is in a word AWESOME!!!

The pictures did not turn out well.  I will try again this evening and turn on other lights.

The curtain panels were purchased at Fred Meyer during a sale.  The cost was much lower than making them myself.  Originally we wanted a warm, french grey, but the dark brown works really well against the wall color and with the furniture.

They open very easily and glide smoothly.  I need to find some other places to install this stuff.  You can also get curved sections to go around corners too!

You can see what the closet looked like before the curtain in this post.

Stairway Carpet

The striped runner is finished!  We have learned A LOT about carpet runners, padding, and stripes.  There are some issues that are not what we initially wanted, but we are mostly pleased with the results.

There is some unusual mitering going on at the landing.  We are going with it.  There are several issues here:  the stripe pattern is not centered in the runner, the stair widths are not the same on the upper and lower stairs, and the walls may not be perfectly square... since very few things in this house are square, plumb, or at right angles to one another.

There is more touching up to do on the trim and then maybe we can get the paint cans out of the dining room.

Plaster Walls and Shelving

I love plaster walls.  However there are some challenges when drilling into them to hang shelving.  Such as when you drill the screw holes 1/8" too close together and then you have to remove not only the screw but the screw anchor as well.

We now have craters in the wall.

We are patching and will be painting.  But the room's occupant loves to dig in the filling material.  As soon as it is dry, we find evidence of mining going on and have to refill.  I am trying to fill and paint today before the miner gets home.  

Carpet, carpet, carpet

The new carpet is very soft, very quiet, and most of all VERY CLEAN.  You can lay on it and roll around and play on it without wondering what germs, dirt, and bugs might be hiding in it.  The last of the main plush carpet was installed yesterday upstairs.

The front of the carpet has been wrapped over the edge of the floor.  The wood part will be covered by the striped stair carpet.

Mister e's new room color.  The picture makes it look lighter and more turquoise than it actually is.  It is more like a stormy sea.  We are going to put up shelves for the Star Wars ships.  e has requested that the shelves be the same color as the walls, so it looks like the ships are flying in space.  Genius and simple solution!

Stripes for the stairs

This is the amazing hospitality carpet with stripes!  The pile is very dense and low.  Some of the stripes are raised.  We get to keep all the left over carpet and had a small piece of the stripe.  So we unrolled it in the hallway to get a feel for the stripe.  Love it!  I really wish the piece were longer so we could do a runner for the hall.

The stair carpet has been cut and is off to the binder to have the edges bound.  The guys will be back next week to put it in.  That will be almost three weeks of carpet laying.  Irving (our dog) can barely stand having people in the house especially people he can't see running up and down the stairs and pounding on the floor.  He is so worn out from not barking yesterday that he is sleeping all day today.

How are we getting all these projects done?  We have turned the dining room into a temporary paint station/command central.  The boxes hold the tools, brushes, outlet plates, painter's caulk, etc.  All the various cans of paint and primer are on the floor.  After the carpet install, there has been a lot of touching up.  This is faster than putting everything back down in the basement and having to run up and down two flights of stairs.  This way, we only have to run up and down one flight of stairs.  Good thing we have a dine-in kitchen.

Stairs

We removed the carpet from the stairs.  Our plan is to paint the treads and put down a striped runner thus making it easier to clean the corners of each stair and only paying for the carpet where you actually used it.  Besides, striped runners on white stairs look very cool.

Fir stairs that squeak if you breathe on them

Most of the carpet is out.  You can still see the
original grey carpet on the upper set of stairs.

However finding striped carpet was challenging.  We asked our carpet guy and he kept showing us subtle sort-of stripes in non-contrasting colors.  They were more "stripe wanna be's" than actual stripes.  We wanted this kind of look:

We finally had to show the carpet guy a picture on the iPhone.  Then he got it.  The type of carpet we wanted was called "hospitality carpet" (think bad casino carpet).  If you do a web search for hospitality carpet, you will find a gold mine of patterns, swirls, optical illusions, tapestries, etc!  Fortunately our carpet guy also does hotel and industrial installs and had an entire room of hospitality carpet swatch books.  We settled on a fabulous black with multi-color stripes.  I can't wait to see it on the stairs!

In the meantime, we have pulled staples, sanded the edges of the each tread and riser, primed, and painted 3 coats of paint on the staircase.

Upstairs Repaint-Recarpet-Cleaning Extravaganza

After jury duty I was seized with the overwhelming desire to get going on painting projects.  So I came  home and opened a can of paint and forced my family to assist.

Our original bedroom color is similar to the color of computers in the 90's sort of a UV tainted plastic putty.  It is not an attractive color at all.  And to make things worse, I spent several days selecting this color the first time we painted our bedroom 12 years ago.  I wanted to bedroom to be a sanctuary with a little boudoir thrown in and the putty wasn't cutting it.  Also it didn't really show off the color of the wood furniture.

The warm putty color and the previous closet situation.

Choosing the right dusky lavender orchid amongst
the piles of stuff.

At about this point, I decided that we weren't under enough pressure to finish, so we ordered carpet and scheduled a install date a couple of weeks out.  That would allow us to focus more acutely on painting Ewan's room, the hallway, and the stairs.  Nothing like a deadline to get things done!

In progress

We decided to change the center alcove into a double hung closet space and move the high boy dresser into one of the closets.  The high boy was originally in a location in the room that allowed for frequent banging of elbows, shoulders and heads (depending on the growth spurt).  Needless to say, the family is much happier with the new location and enjoying fewer bruises.

The closet fully loaded.  I did clean and reduce,
but I am nuts about vintage clothing
so can't reduce the closet contents by much.

The other direction

I will post more pictures with it cleaned up and decorated.  We also have some of the new carpet installed!!  The old carpet came with the house 17 years ago.  It was old, felted, and not comfortable.  The new carpet is posh and makes the upstairs very quiet.

On a completely unrelated note, I discovered my son "gaming the system" while playing Wii Fit.  He figured out a way to hold completely still for the meditation game.

Pillow Project

Miss E had a birthday party a few weeks ago.  We needed some clever project.  She found Alicia Paulson's book that had a family tree wall hanging in it.  Using this as a departure point, we decided to make small pillow covers using beautiful fabrics, appliques and LOTS of wonder under.

This is Mister e's.  He did not want to be left out of the fun.