Thursday, August 4, 2011

well color me terrific

Just a warning that I might fill this post with words but yet say nothing of importance.  I’m pretty good at that.  Can I just start off by saying thanks for reading me through another move… this might be our last military move as my husband may retire out of this assignment.  Surely I just jinxed that. But we mustn’t dwell on the what ifs, only the what-is and the what-is is exactly what I want to write about.

This house we bought has equal parts good and bad, it would be easy to just blog about the good and never let you know about the blue floors and such.  Maybe it will help you think your house isn’t so bad. 

027

The good:  open and airy front entry

The bad: um…smurfy floor

032

033

Of course I’m a sucker for any room with bookcases, and I can even overlook their blueness but what stinks (and I mean stinks) is the whole room.  It smells like dogs really bad.   I have scrubbed and mopped and sprayed and just when it seems to smell better we will have a dark rainy day day and the smell comes eeking back in.  It overpowers the old book smell (good smell) and zings our nostrils with wet dirty dog smell (bad smell).

035

The good: big vintage bathroom

The bad: big vintage bathroom

A woman recently stopped by, she was raised here.  She said they are same bathroom fixtures from the 1940’s.  She thought this was great.  Me? Not so much.

036

 

038

The good:  There is a great room added by the last owners, it is huge and sunny.

The bad:  The only entry to this room is through another 1940’s bathroom.  And like you couldn’t guess the color of the carpet.

040

It is so silly to me that they did all that work and you have to go through the bathroom to get there.

There is a long list of stuff we need to do but I think we are up to the challenge.  The big stuff has been done like all new windows, septic and heating system.  The bathrooms are at the top of our list, and trust me I can’t wait!

Did you learn anything today? 

025

Good: peaches

Bad: blue countertops

Got some house quirks of your own?  Please share!

6 comments:

Jemm said...

I LOVE your blue floor. I thought, when I saw the photo, that you were going to blog about it's loveliness. Embrace that painted wood floor, it is enviable.

My #1 house quirk--There is but one room in our entire house whose walls are not covered with wallpaper or wood paneling of some sort therefore making them completely unpaintable, and we stripped off the 3 layers of wall paper in that room. OH! And #2 is all of the foot wide window sills on the first floor are covered in formica, as in like a counter top. My husband's grandma was really into permanent decorating and practical cleaning-formica is easy to clean and cheap.

i cant decide said...

The bathroom/hallway reminds me of the house I grew up in. The house was built before bathrooms so the hallway was converted into one later. Oh, it connected the kitchen and family room.

I love your old house! I have a newer house with quirks and I think and old house with quirks would be so much better. Best of luck with the dog smell.

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

I lived in an old house that was over 100 years old when I first moved to NC...so I know about floors and funky smells. I think after you've cleaned as much as you can, you should just put the plug ins that smell good and some candles. There's not much you can do about old wood smell. It's always a challenge when the rooms are not square and the floor is not level, too! But I better not get started! lol Looks like a nice big house that you will enjoy living in! ♥ And thanks for the sweet comment today...I can always count on you for the best! ♥

Unknown said...

I kinda like the blue floor but don't know that I'd want to live with it. Perhaps a runner to tone it down? Or maybe it needs scuffed up--distressed! Get your boys to work on that! :) In spite of the challenges, I love your house!

Barbara said...

Even if the bathroom entry to the great room is a little unusual, there's a lot to love in that house.

Leila said...

That bathroom access to the addition is one of those "you lost your bearings" renovations, isn't it? They probably moved off and then were like, "Yeah, wonder why we did that?"

That blue floor is NOT smurfy, it's beautiful, or your camera is lying. If you got the right rug your job in there would be done.

And then you could tackle the rest...

which all seems so fantastic!

At our house we had wallpaper the scale of which might have been suited to a doll's house (our ceilings are 9 1/2') -- bright red wall-to-wall, plastic paneling, plastic faux stained glass interior window, your typical 70s stuff.

And we are NOT really up to the challenge... :)