flyingsaucer's Profile

I've given up on meeting/making friends in Seattle (now I actually live in Issaquah). I'm just too busy with kids, work, school and my new condo (!!!). Maybe when I'm in my late-40's and the kids are grown and my education is finished I'll be able to join some recreational groups. That's nearly 15 years away though :(

Just recently we bought a condo that has a medium brown carpet and nearly all the walls are painted a different version of a beige-brown too. I was struggling with paint chips until I realized that many of a particular Martha Stewart collection (the leaf one) are *perfect* color matches with the walls. Which is interesting, as I don't believe many of the rooms have been updated since 2001. It is a completely different line than what I was trying for (blues and brights) but honestly the other colors (not the browns!) look really nice with the carpet and seem to flow with the overall mood of the house. We're going to paint every room with off-white, white trim and just one accent wall in a saturated color from the collection (plum in the extra bedroom, bay leaf in the dinning/kitchen, Chayanne in the living room, blue in the master, etc...). It only came together after considering the carpet.

Yep, we're living it now :) We are in a pseudo-Arts and Crafts style house built in 1908. It's so lovely... $1850 for 3 bed, 3 bath+extra small bedroom, plus french doors of dining room lead to large deck and another set of living room lead to mud room/entry way... not bad for close to U district of Seattle...

I had to take a leap of faith when I signed the contract because I had only seen 7 photos on Craig's list and it was an expedited move across the country (5 weeks). Even if we had seen it before, I think we would make the same choice, because of price and proximity to everything. BUT...1 bathroom has a claw-foot tub that is extremely old with profuse peeling (just doesn't seem healthy for my kids and their developing brains)... the second, pristine bathroom is downstairs in the otherwise moldy basement (we were instructed to NOT spend much time down there, HA!)...So really, we have 1.5 bathrooms, not 3.

The french doors are great... for now... but you can see rays of sunlight seeping in between the doors, which means I'm going to have a cold house come October! (which I'll remedy with plastic and drapes).

All the appliances were from 1980's or earlier (but my landlady was a real sport and replaced the stove last month after 2 burners went out.).

And get this... there are only 3 vent ducts from the furnace to the entire house...seriously! No vents in the kitchen, bathrooms or upstairs, just one per bedroom and one in the living room. Earlier this spring when we moved here we had to use the heat for a few mornings and heat would BLAST into the bedroom (the room is right above the furnace). It's pretty funny.

But to me the best part is how much the house sinks. Most rooms of the house have a slant in one direction or another. The kitchen is so bad that when my sons play with marbles, they keep rolling and when a liquid falls, it runs. Most days I contemplate earthquakes because I'm confident that if the "big one" hits, this whole house will collapse upon us. But no doubt it is super cute!

Love. LOVE! the colors and choice of furnishings... they love their collection -gotta respect that- but WOW! dusting would be a real drag.

I think for a FAMILY house, this is absolutely GREAT. I imagine lots of comfort and comfortable conversations...a real gathering place for friends and loved ones (reminds me so much of my friend's 6 bd rm farm house here in EL MI, she hosts a First Friday every other month for the university community. I love your pink room. Pink is not the easiest color to work with and I would find it a seasonal challenge, but certainly I would be enjoying it during these spring months.

I'm green with envy over the Lance Wyman's 1968 Olympics art. How and where did you pick it up? My husband is from Mexico City and we've dreamed of creating a display of his Mexico City subway decals... your place is lovely...

I agree with Polly about the pulls...

As many of your suggestions seem possible I think you first have to decide how you want your space to be used. I would personally want the option of having more privacy so I would probably take down the drywall wall for some type of movable wall... like heavy duty accordion screen...

I saw a great basement in a house recently where they have left the ceiling fully exposed and painted everything a dark brown...then they painted the walls a golden yellow...which worked very nicely in the late 1920's early 1930's home. They had wall-to-wall carpet because the room served as a playroom.

I encountered this problem many years ago when I lived in my first apartment. My brother-in-law, who at the time was in grad school for architecture, also suggested I put it in the corner.... but upside down and suspended from the ceiling :) I didn't follow his advice and I put it in my bedroom, which was nice to sleep next to. Though this past summer I was in a Christmas store in Gatlinberg, TN and they did have an upside down tree suspended from the ceiling. It was kinda neat, but I'm definitely a Christmas traditionalist.