Home improvement - my desk! Where the slash comes from :-)
It was my day off work today, but I've been busy like a blue-arsed fly since 7am. Because today the fantastic 40ies/50ies desk I've bought at the local thrift store has been delivered, yayness!
A lot of work was involved, I had to rearrange all furniture, throw half of it out and sort through tons of books, documents and disks, clean the desk, repair it, polish it - and all this with the help of two cats who had their paws and tails in everything. You'll see later on.
It was hellish, but so worth it! And because I'm a home-improvement enthusiast and specialist in "make the most of your budget, especially if you're broke", I thought I'll show you what it looks like now. That's where my Gillington comes from! :)
I fell in love with it right away, and the typewriter was a sign from the gods! ;) I knew I'd had a lot of cleaning, polishing and repairing to do, but that's half of the fun, isn't it?
My baby has arrived! Carried up the stairs by two really friendly gentlemen, of whom one looked like Woody Harrelson. Odd thing, that.
See that red thingy on the wall? That's the red hard-foam plate I used as a board for my notes. I didn't throw it away - "reusage" is the word if you're working on a budget!
First I had a lot (A LOT! AS IN - HOURS!) of cleaning to do. Fifty year old dirt can be stubborn. I used soapsuds - never go after dirt on old furniture with household cleaners! Household cleaners make old furniture cry. I let it dry first, then sandpapered nicks in the wood to avoid getting splinters in my fingers. I'm the splinter specialist. I always get them.
Once that was done, I treated the wood with olive oil and bee's wax. As computers were not used back in ye olden days, I cut an opening in the backboard for the cables of printer, scanner etc. As you can see on the very first picture, the backboard was very ugly, with holes and some odd white thingy which was probably used to hold a roll of household paper. There was no point in repairing it, so I customised the red hard-foam plate as a new backboard. Not only does this match the rest of my living room/study furniture, it also nicely hides the sharp edges of the wood.
And of COURSE Max had to claim the desk for himself. Cheeky git! Cleaning the mirror and the glass shelves and doors was a pest - there was some sticky, oily thingy smeared on them, and it took ages to clean it off. There are some scratches in the glass, but they are barely noticeable. So that's what my little beauty looked like once I was (almost) finished:
Tom Gillette, Admiral Nelson and Old Cuddy seem to like their new home.
The antique apothecary bottles are for candy (anybody surprised here? No? Heh!) The spider is made of glass - hand-made - and a present from Miss C. which she brought along for me from her latest visit to a glassworks in Thuringia. It's amazing, I'll have to take some pictures later on. Then there are the books I need for my original writing and for my fanfic. Plus some DVDs.
Norrington is aiming his pistol at Davy Jones, by the way, not at Will. Of course not! Will only tries to figure out why on earth they made him look like Angel from the Buffy series, not like Bloomsy. Meanwhile, mini!Norrington and mini!Will are flirting. Why is there no Gillette action figure, darn it?
Getting those friggin' glass doors back into their place was Not. Fun. I couldn't use too much force or I'd broken them, but there's no problem bee's wax couldn't solve! Last touch was fixing the lamp. The thingy dangling from it is James the frog - he's a christmas ornament, dressed in a fantasy 18th century navy uniform. Also, he has a pigtail. Don't ask. I'll replace the lamp soon with a 1940ies one, but for now, that will do.
It was hard work, and I'll fall into bed like a stone, but it was SO worth it! :-D
A lot of work was involved, I had to rearrange all furniture, throw half of it out and sort through tons of books, documents and disks, clean the desk, repair it, polish it - and all this with the help of two cats who had their paws and tails in everything. You'll see later on.
It was hellish, but so worth it! And because I'm a home-improvement enthusiast and specialist in "make the most of your budget, especially if you're broke", I thought I'll show you what it looks like now. That's where my Gillington comes from! :)
I fell in love with it right away, and the typewriter was a sign from the gods! ;) I knew I'd had a lot of cleaning, polishing and repairing to do, but that's half of the fun, isn't it?
My baby has arrived! Carried up the stairs by two really friendly gentlemen, of whom one looked like Woody Harrelson. Odd thing, that.
See that red thingy on the wall? That's the red hard-foam plate I used as a board for my notes. I didn't throw it away - "reusage" is the word if you're working on a budget!
First I had a lot (A LOT! AS IN - HOURS!) of cleaning to do. Fifty year old dirt can be stubborn. I used soapsuds - never go after dirt on old furniture with household cleaners! Household cleaners make old furniture cry. I let it dry first, then sandpapered nicks in the wood to avoid getting splinters in my fingers. I'm the splinter specialist. I always get them.
Once that was done, I treated the wood with olive oil and bee's wax. As computers were not used back in ye olden days, I cut an opening in the backboard for the cables of printer, scanner etc. As you can see on the very first picture, the backboard was very ugly, with holes and some odd white thingy which was probably used to hold a roll of household paper. There was no point in repairing it, so I customised the red hard-foam plate as a new backboard. Not only does this match the rest of my living room/study furniture, it also nicely hides the sharp edges of the wood.
And of COURSE Max had to claim the desk for himself. Cheeky git! Cleaning the mirror and the glass shelves and doors was a pest - there was some sticky, oily thingy smeared on them, and it took ages to clean it off. There are some scratches in the glass, but they are barely noticeable. So that's what my little beauty looked like once I was (almost) finished:
Tom Gillette, Admiral Nelson and Old Cuddy seem to like their new home.
The antique apothecary bottles are for candy (anybody surprised here? No? Heh!) The spider is made of glass - hand-made - and a present from Miss C. which she brought along for me from her latest visit to a glassworks in Thuringia. It's amazing, I'll have to take some pictures later on. Then there are the books I need for my original writing and for my fanfic. Plus some DVDs.
Norrington is aiming his pistol at Davy Jones, by the way, not at Will. Of course not! Will only tries to figure out why on earth they made him look like Angel from the Buffy series, not like Bloomsy. Meanwhile, mini!Norrington and mini!Will are flirting. Why is there no Gillette action figure, darn it?
Getting those friggin' glass doors back into their place was Not. Fun. I couldn't use too much force or I'd broken them, but there's no problem bee's wax couldn't solve! Last touch was fixing the lamp. The thingy dangling from it is James the frog - he's a christmas ornament, dressed in a fantasy 18th century navy uniform. Also, he has a pigtail. Don't ask. I'll replace the lamp soon with a 1940ies one, but for now, that will do.
It was hard work, and I'll fall into bed like a stone, but it was SO worth it! :-D