Carrih's Profile

At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I believe almost all furniture made before 1960 is better than most of the furniture made today. One reason ikea cabinetry is so heavy is because it is made from manufactured wood products which weighs a ton but has little structural integrity.
Almost all my furniture ranges from antique to second hand and it doesn't fall apart, it can be refinished or reupholstered . One aspect of hunting for good used furniture is it takes a lot of time which is the thing many people don't have.
I think it would be useful if AT would have more articles about how to recognize quality furniture and where to buy it in all price ranges.

I saw a couple of houses with the fireplace at the bottom of the stairs when we were house hunting. I kept trying to figure out how to deal with this configuration and came to the conclusion you just have to ignore the fireplace and have a different focal point.
It seems like you might want to change the placement of the sliders and have some other type of window set-up. It looks odd the way it is. Are more windows possible in the blank wall? That would make everything work a lot better.

So I took the find your spot quiz and also found out that where I really belong is not beautiful N. California but Arkansas. Most of the places on "my list" were so off the mark, I would conclude the whole site is some kind of plot to get West coasters to move to Arkansas. I'm sure Arkansas is beautiful but I know so many reasons why I couldn't live there. Weird!

Could you remove the windows, make the supports look more like pillars, and add a built in dining nook? I think I have built in nooks on the brain. Whatever you do it will be visible when you take down the living room wall so maybe you will want some degree of separation between the two rooms.

The floors are beautiful and definitely worth the cost and effort. Looking good!

Marwencol! Yes! For all of us who find peace in creating our own special worlds. You can also get early 1950's Dragnet on streaming, which are all really crazy+early L.A. scenes.

Drywall is something I always hated doing and one of the first things I would pay someone else to do. It's both hard work and nitpicky tedious.
Cheers to youth and fortitude!

09kez, you have to do all the sanding, staining, and sealing before the Sheetrock so you don't mess the wall up. After everything else is done, including cabinets, you can touch up the floor and put on the final coats of sealer.

Is that fake fur on them now? Crazy. Recovering chairs like this is really simple. In fact it's so simple you can change out the fabric whenever you get tired of the last thing.

I'm with fixit chick. I just painted my 80's stained white cabinets two different blues and added several different types of brushed stainless pulls. Going from wood cabinets to painted is pretty shocking and makes a huge difference in how the kitchen looks. I cook everyday and so does my husband so I'm most concerned about how the kitchen functions. I still like my large, color in the clay , floor tile counter tops. They are completely impervious and have minimal dark grout lines. No maintence! The marmoleum floor is still fine and the only other things we replaced were the sink, faucet, and light fixture.
I'm always amazed at the lengths and expense some people go to to have the over-the-top kitchen. It's a work space that should look pleasant and no more.