new shades

Bob put new shades in the kitchen window! They look great. They match the other bamboo-type shades he put in the eating area before our trip. Now he is getting ready to finish painting the trim in Shawn's room. He will be hanging a new shade in the dining room, too.

New window shades

I'm so excited, Bob hung new window shades in the kitchen. Back in 2004 he took out the big window we had, and added two small windows and a door and the deck off the door. We never put window treatments on the windows because we love the view out to the back yard of the flowers, trees, and little animals. But, the late afternoon sun is terrible. So, today he bought 3 of the bamboo type shades and put them on the windows and door. It will be perfect to block some of the sun, but it won't wreck the view since we can still see out the shades.

When we put new curtains on our bedroom windows, he took the old blinds off and set them aside. They are nice blinds. Not wood, but kind of a wood look and they are sheer. They help block the sun, but let in lots of light. We didn't throw the blinds away since they are so nice. So, now we found some use for them. We had three windows in our room. Bob put one of the shades on Shawn's new window. He's going to put another on the window over the sink to help with the sun problem. The last blind will go in here, in the dining room. Once we get them all up, it will have more of a uniform look between the rooms out here.

I love making little changes to the house. And, it's nice to be able to use things you already have. There's something about little changes that lift your spirits.

Another change we want to make are the stools at the kitchen table. The ones we have are pretty. However, none of us anticipated that the hooky things that hang over the back would be "dangerous." By that I mean they hook your clothes as you try to walk away. They make it harder to walk around the room.

In the garage we have some old bar stools we had in one of our other houses. I told Bob he should just fix them up--repair the rungs--and so on and we can use those. They are nice stools and it would be a shame to buy more if we already have some we can use.

Painting Shawn's room

As I write this, Bob has moved Shawn's furniture to the middle of the room and will begin painting the ceiling shortly. I believe he has gone to get his supplies. I can't wait. I love the smell of fresh paint and am anxious to start making that room look like a nice room for Shawn/guests. Shawn is going to be doing some house sitting for us while we are on vacation. He will be surprised when he gets here and his room is at least started and the blinds are up.

Once the painting is done we will be able to start working on the rest of it. I'm really looking forward to shopping for the trunks and the rest of it.

8/17/08---the ceiling is done!

Shawn's room gets a new window

As I write this, Bob is installing a new window in Shawn's room. Finally the old, hard to open window is gone and in it's place is a new one that matches the others in the house. It's the kind that is energy efficient, you can flip the windows down in front for easy cleaning and it is easy to open. I could never open the old one myself. It was always stuck shut. Bob or Shawn had to pry it open. And once it was opened, it wouldn't stay that way without being propped open.

Once the window is installed, Bob can hang the blinds we already have for it.

The next step in Shawn's room is to paint it. We already have the paint. Once we get it painted, we can move on to finding trunks I want to put on either side of the bed. I want to store Shawn's stuff in the trunks and use the tops of them for end tables. We also want to get a new bed. Right now we just have an air matress on top of a futon matress. I'd like to keep those for company, but, I want a real bed in the room.

A few months ago we found a dresser at the flea market. It was in good shape and only $20.00
We bought that and put it in the garage for now. It is in good shape, but has some scratches in the wood. Bob wants to take those out. Then we can put the dresser in Shawn's room. Again, I want to use it for storage. I want to put a TV/DVD player on top for Shawn/guests.

The final thing we want to find for his room is a bench that opens. I can store blankets, etc. inside and the bench will be a great seat or place for company to set suitcases.

We have a lot of plastic bins in there now with Shawn's stuff. I want to get those out of there. Eventually I hope he gets his stuff out. But, in the meantime, at least we will have better looking storage stuff in the room and it will be a good looking room for Shawn/guests.

Once he sorts through and moves his stuff, the storage space will be good for me. I can save some of the drawers for guests. I will be able to put all the Christmas overflow in there instead of having it stashed all over the house. I will also be able to put some of the older photo albums in there, pictures and so on.

Once we get it done, I will post some pictures.