Retail Therapy
It's been a gorgeous weekend here. We had a cold front go through Thursday morning that resulted in overnight lows in the high teens (C), the days warmed up in the high 20's and the humidity is ultra-low. I've had to resort to lip balm. A was down for the weekend and that's been nice as well. ;)
Saturday we went out furniture shopping and I found a bunch of stuff that I really like at Eurway. After a day of running around looking at other stores and ending up at Cantoni (where we found an ottoman idential to one that we'd seen at Eurway for $500 more), I returned to Eurway today to purchase a leather sofa, a couple of leather club chairs in *red*, and a couple of Wassily chairs (but in a natural tan colour that's been discontinued so I got $25/off). The club chairs are on order, I'm waiting for the Wassily chairs to come from the Dallas store but I got to take home the sofa and it looks brilliant in the living room. A and I transferred the 'barca-lounger sofa' that was there to the guest/computer/tv room upstairs.
Things are starting to fall together and we've figured out a colour scheme to follow: I'm going to paint the dining room above the lowered chair rail in the same Eddie Bauer cabin red that the entry way and accent wall in the living room are painted. The upstairs TV room will likely be painted in almond oil (currently used in the kitchen bar area) or pine needle green. The master bedroom, hallway and staircase walls will be painted in rope (or woodsmoke, oatmeal or vintage gray -- sort of like lambswool that I've seen used other places; need to test for a colour match against the sponge painted base colour in the master bath) and the guest bedroom will be a sort of terra cotta type colour (thinking suede, sienna or mulling spices). We've decided to make the TV room our heritage room with tartan curtain panels on the sides of the window (still deciding between A's clan and my namesake clan to see which colours we like best. Either should go well with the pine needle green or, possibly, almond oil on the walls. We'll put up clan regalia, and other UK related decorations. I've a print of a collie finding a lost lamb in a snowstorm, a poster-sized print of a colour satellite photo of Aberdeen and a signed, numbered print of an Eric Auld watercolour of the northern lights over the Granite City. It should end up stylish; not kitschy.
We bought a hanging basket bougainvillea and a potted purple fountain grass for the patio to add interest, colour and texture. It turned out well and matched the brilliant weather perfectly.
I've got to start looking for a replacement for the sliding glass door -- I want a french door with dual pane glass inset (the cross bars on the inside, please ... I want aesthetics, not a masochistic glass cleaning job). Once I get that done then I can put down the laminate on the ground floor. The carpet will just have to hold till then and then is likely next year.
It's been fun dreaming and I can start to see the house take shape in my mind. We've got lots of painting to do over the Christmas holidays but JP said he'd be willing to help out with that so I might have him, S and T come down the week before Christmas and have a combination press-gang and mini-vacation.
Saturday we went out furniture shopping and I found a bunch of stuff that I really like at Eurway. After a day of running around looking at other stores and ending up at Cantoni (where we found an ottoman idential to one that we'd seen at Eurway for $500 more), I returned to Eurway today to purchase a leather sofa, a couple of leather club chairs in *red*, and a couple of Wassily chairs (but in a natural tan colour that's been discontinued so I got $25/off). The club chairs are on order, I'm waiting for the Wassily chairs to come from the Dallas store but I got to take home the sofa and it looks brilliant in the living room. A and I transferred the 'barca-lounger sofa' that was there to the guest/computer/tv room upstairs.
Things are starting to fall together and we've figured out a colour scheme to follow: I'm going to paint the dining room above the lowered chair rail in the same Eddie Bauer cabin red that the entry way and accent wall in the living room are painted. The upstairs TV room will likely be painted in almond oil (currently used in the kitchen bar area) or pine needle green. The master bedroom, hallway and staircase walls will be painted in rope (or woodsmoke, oatmeal or vintage gray -- sort of like lambswool that I've seen used other places; need to test for a colour match against the sponge painted base colour in the master bath) and the guest bedroom will be a sort of terra cotta type colour (thinking suede, sienna or mulling spices). We've decided to make the TV room our heritage room with tartan curtain panels on the sides of the window (still deciding between A's clan and my namesake clan to see which colours we like best. Either should go well with the pine needle green or, possibly, almond oil on the walls. We'll put up clan regalia, and other UK related decorations. I've a print of a collie finding a lost lamb in a snowstorm, a poster-sized print of a colour satellite photo of Aberdeen and a signed, numbered print of an Eric Auld watercolour of the northern lights over the Granite City. It should end up stylish; not kitschy.
We bought a hanging basket bougainvillea and a potted purple fountain grass for the patio to add interest, colour and texture. It turned out well and matched the brilliant weather perfectly.
I've got to start looking for a replacement for the sliding glass door -- I want a french door with dual pane glass inset (the cross bars on the inside, please ... I want aesthetics, not a masochistic glass cleaning job). Once I get that done then I can put down the laminate on the ground floor. The carpet will just have to hold till then and then is likely next year.
It's been fun dreaming and I can start to see the house take shape in my mind. We've got lots of painting to do over the Christmas holidays but JP said he'd be willing to help out with that so I might have him, S and T come down the week before Christmas and have a combination press-gang and mini-vacation.