lindsclou's Profile

vintageallison THANK YOU for the link!!!! I had to bookmark it it is that great of a source! Hera Ma.. you can definitely do this! I've learned that the best thing with upholstery and refinishing wood is that it is better to learn as you go and work everything like a jigsaw puzzle and keep organized. If you can pull it off first without harming another part, it will be the last thing to go back on. Use original stuff as templates for the new stuff. And I agree with other posters to use some kind of oil first to revamp the wood and bring it back to its original glory. If you don't like it after that, you can always go back and strip it. Good Luck and show us the after pics!

I have a small kitchen in our new house and fortunately some of the ideas we've already used AND one of the previous owners in the past was thoughtful enough to use the height of the ceilings in the room by custom building the upper cabinets in the kitchen all the way to the ceiling. The only problem with that is that they only put them on one wall (think galley kitchen) AND put the stove and refrigerator on the opposite wall WITH NO cabinets on that wall and no dishwasher. The first thing we did upon moving in was place a new lower cabinet and counter top in between the stove and fridge. So far it is working out nicely but the mismatch in cabinets is tweaking my OCD a bit LOL. Later down the road we have to decide whether we want upper cabinets on the wall with the appliances to go with the wall-hung self-venting microwave, or open shelving. We know we are keeping the cabinets on the opposite wall and just getting new doors and refinishing the built-in parts that are already there. Lots of work to do over the years! I'll be referencing this article for a while!

My husband and I sleep in the same room even with his sleep apnea and CPAP machine! Most of the other reasons we seem to be compatible with each other on. Neither of us really move; he's the Human Torch while I'm the Ice Queen; neither of us mind the dogs or the cat sleeping with us (however all of the animals sleep on my side so I'm extra toasty most nights LOL); and we usually are smashed together all night anyway and roll away from each other when needed. But I could definitely understand sleeping in different beds if we weren't so compatible!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my library card catalog!!! and there are lots of uses for it! I currently use it for all those pesky accessories like scarves, mittens, jewelry, keys, pens etc etc etc (aka almost anything you would find in a junk drawer or mud room. When we move to our new house here in 2 weeks it will go into the kitchen as a spice and utensil holder until the kitchen can be redone, then it will find a new life as craft storage! Now granted, at its current stage of life, I cannot seem to fill all the drawers, but I know I will have no problem when it becomes part of the kitchen and then the craft storage!! I've also seen people use it for wine storage. I've put a few bottles of wine in mine and they fit amazingly well!

Tequila Red... you read my mind!!! I think the kitchens in the last link Tequila posted are brilliant, especially photo 5!!! I think I drooled some when I saw that kitchen! I do REALLY like the idea of the ladder and cabinets to the ceilings, but I can see the practicality of maybe doing a mix of to-the-ceiling-cabinets and 8ft cabinets like other posters have suggested. Maybe choosing only one wall to have the cabinets to the ceiling, making it a feature wall, and then the other walls you could have any upper cabinets at the 8ft mark, even choosing to have one wall have no upper cabinets at all (like the wall with the sink?). A sketch of the layout of the kitchen might help out even more!

I was completely impressed with my grandparent's house! It was a "basement" built into the side of a hill for a REALLY long time. Their furniture was always more comfortable, they always had tons of "old" ladies over for ceramic classes that would dote all over me, pinch my cheeks and tell me that they had known me since I was a tiny baby and they couldn't believe how big I had gotten, ALL THE CERAMICS, the massive amounts of books...especially the Audubon's Bird Book! My grandfather's chair that was off limits, the woods, the chicken coup, the massively huge yard, the glass carafe coffee maker that my grandmother would put on the stove every morning, her "dippy" eggs that of course came from her chickens. And then we would go to "camp" which was a log cabin only 10miles away where you would have to pass over "the narrows" that was a tiny strip of land just wide enough for one car that had steep sides leading into the water on both sides. The river we would swim in and get our hair washed in right in the front yard of camp. Camp itself was so cool because it had an outhouse and a HUGE stone fireplace outside that we would roast marshmallows and hot dogs at. The huge table rock that we would jump off of into the water. Going to my Great Aunt's house right up the road from camp and playing on the spiral staircase. To this day I still would rather swim in a lake or river than a pool, I still want a spiral staircase in my house, still love getting fresh eggs from the chickens and hope that one day I can have my own chickens, I want to steal the glass carafe from my grandma's house even though you can't find the stems that like to break anymore :(, the stone outdoor fireplace will be put in at our new house this summer, and I am LOVING the fact that our new house has a full basement!!! This was by far the BEST post EVER! Thanks for sharing and allowing us to all share our wonderful memories too!!

Everyone seems very concerned about the brick archway....when I am more impressed with the carpeting you ripped out LOL. I just walked into a house we were considering buying that looked a LOT like that and had to walk right out, because it's our first time and we just aren't ready for a full gut style reno. Kudos to you guys! Did you use architectural plans to knock down all those walls? Or did you have an engineer come in and tell you what could go and what had to stay or be replaced? AMAZING job on the concrete floors!!!! it is my dream too to have polished concrete floors somewhere in my home and yours just solidifies that dream even more!

The previous owners of our house used this stuff in the kitchen on the tile back splash. I'm not sure how hard it was for them to put on (they only got 2 drip/run spots that aren't really noticeable unless you are the one scrubbing it clean) or how long they let it cure before they started using the kitchen again, but I can tell you that it stands up to scrubbing VERY well. I've used the green scotch pads, wash clothes and even a magic eraser to scrub the back splash whenever it is dirty and I've never had any of it come off. I know it has been there for approx. 2 years now at the very least and it is still going strong! I'm not sure about a bathroom cleaner and how well it would stand up to some of them since they are more caustic than soapy water, but seeing as I scrub at least one part of the tile each day with one of the above materials, I would think it would stand up to a bathroom cleaner once a week. Hope that helps!

I would definitely do more research... AND DO NOT BELIEVE THE PROPERTY MANAGER!!!! They will usually just try to sell the apartment whether it is good or bad or your neighbors are good or bad. So I completely agree with everyone else... do some more research!

I know if my grandmother gave me one of her prized possessions like her silver or her china she would expect me to use it and take immaculate care of it just like she had. Now not saying that she wouldn't mind me putting them in a shadow box as long as I could take them out when I host a dinner party kinda thing. (That and polish them because Grandma always took great care of the stuff she had). So I guess where I'm going with this is think of what your Grandmother's wishes would be and maybe make a compromise. and IMO I would never take a family heirloom/antique and bend them into hooks! If you have ANY family members that would know that that was Grandma's silver all bent out of shape they might just have a heart attack or go ballistic on you. I know a few in my family that would go ballistic on me LOL!