Before and After- Salem House Bedroom: Seven Gables

Are these B&A's fun? I love them.

Each bedroom in Salem House got a name of a famous place in historical Salem Mass. The larger upstairs room is called "Seven Gables" . It doesn't have 7 gables, but it does have a lot of angles and slopes!

 I will show just a few "Before" pictures.
The room has sloped ceilings and knee walls with built-in drawers into one wall and a large closet opposite. At the back is a nook area formed by the closet and HVAC.

The floors are wood, but soft pine with lots of pet stains and deep gouges and grooves.

A set of double windows let in light.

The previous owners decorated with white-ish walls, black accent trim and one scarlet wall- not unusual this close to a University with a scarlet and gray color scheme. Not a friendly, or inviting room currently, but with potential!

 Behind the door is a little built-in shelf.

 The little nook at the back of the room.

I kept the room structurally the same. Someone had previously placed a heavy window unit air conditioner in the window and did a lot of damage to the plaster under the windows. After repairing the plaster, it was a guess as to how many coats of "Paint with Primer" it would take to tame the red wall. It turned out to be 4. The rest of the room whitened and brightened more easily.

 January 2014. This became......

January 2015...This!

The hall is Bedford Gray and white, and the floors of Seven Gables are 2x2 squares of white and dove gray.

 This became...

This...

I repeat a favorite from Alexandra Stoddard and paint the ceiling cheery sky blue- actually the same color used in the kitchen, living room and hallway on the main floor. It's a Lowe's  color called "La Fonda Mirage". 

 This became...

This....

First of all, this Blogger program is not always user friendly. There is no gap between the pictures on my work screen but when I preview the product there is a gulf. Can't fix.

The closet doors closed the room up and made it feel smaller, so they were removed in favor of sheer cotton panels that add texture and interest, veiling the clothes in the closet. The panels were longer than the closet opening, so, they are folded over, leaving the crenellated pattern of a castle wall. The pennant banner made with antique music lengthens the wall visually.

 This became...

 This...






The bed frame is an antique brass bed with a peeling blue paint. One of the problems with antique frames is they are often not the size of currently manufactured mattresses. There are options- so don't pass a beauty like this one by! One option is to have a custom mattress and box spring made by a mattress manufacturer. I have a family heirloom rope bed that has a custom mattress. It wasn't as expensive as I had expected. Another option? Make it work. This twin bed was way too narrow for the frame, which left an opportunity. The kid loves books. So, I just shelved out the extra on the side and- instant book shelf!

 This became...

A quiet nook for a desk.

 And this became....

This... a cozy corner for an armchair and a surface for study materials. 

Still a lot of Salem House to see! I'll get back there with a camera again soon. 

Before and Afters- Salem House, a step up.

So, in our travels through time for little Salem House, you've seen the kitchen, the main floor bath, and the living room. Time to go upstairs!
The stairs to the second story were best navigated without thinking too much about it. They were carpeted in very old, brown shag, and there were 4 or five different textures to the walls. Dark and depressing, at some point the walls had been a flat white above the level of the Fleach.  It didn't make it brighter or more inviting.

 At the top of the stairs is a closet with sliding doors. It isn't pretty. But, with a little house, storage space is premium, and I'm not willing to lose a closet, even an ugly one.

 Looking down the stairs gives you an idea of the many different decisions in this small space.

 Using the ugly shag brown ick as dropcloth meant I could paint the walls and ceiling without worrying about paint falling. So the entire space received a good scrubbing, followed by two coats of Bedford Gray in a semi gloss, so any light that comes from above or below will reflect a bit. Plus, the gray will make the white trim look brighter. I also commenced putting layers of white paint on the closet sliding doors, and any extra white left in my rolling pan was put to good use in the closet. New trim and a coat of shiny white paint in the closet and on the shelves means it is not scary anymore.



Next, a face mask and goggles and gloves to find out what is under the dirt(y) brown carpet. 

Rug pads that are trod upon for 30 years lose the "pad" part and just become stuck on grunge.  I have an indispensable tool that I use for many, many applications. It is a 1 1/2" putty knife, and it has that perfect amount of wear for scraping without gouging. It is the second one I have created, as it takes years to perfect. The first one I had not guarded well enough, and someone snapped it in half using it to pry something up. I tried not to cry, bought a new one, and 8 years later, it is just right.

My handy scraper helped eliminate the pounds of melted padding.

One of the jobs that I don't mind because I can totally think about other things is the pulling up of all the carpet staples and old carpet tacks. You have to run your hands over everything to make sure there aren't any little pieces of sharp metal poking out to hurt bare feet. But, be patient, thorough. It's just time.

After a thorough scrubbing, I got to have some real fun!

 I painted the stairs (more on that in a minute) then, made Eldest give me a hand.
The railing is a nice old one, but it was covered with so much grime that it was sticky. So we inserted elbow grease into the equation.






You can see where the newly clean part meets the yet to be tackled bit.

Then, clean, fresh and painted. 

The stairs are ombre. The bottom riser (out of the shot) is a dark grape, and the topmost is a whisper of bare lavender. Each stair riser gets one more shade lighter as you go up. This is how getting home should feel. By the middle of the stairs, the color is just like the lilacs from the back yard. The treads are the original color. I loved them! They are a milk paint cream color that when scrubbed up look warm and solid. They look slightly disheveled in that "used but loved" way.

The upstairs, after it was finished was filled with charm, but getting there is half the fun.

Bringing Holland Home- a teaminder of our family in Holland

One of the joys of my 2014 year was the trip Huz and I took to The Netherlands. Without a doubt, the best part of the trip was seeing my dear friend ReRe, (see blog entry 9/10/14; Double Dutch) and being able to spend time with Huz' extended family. We saw Tante Agaath and Oom Hans, who hosted us at their lovely apartment in Oegstgeest. Tante Agaath made the most delicious fish stew! Maybe I should experiment and see if I can make something as delicious. They are a pleasure to be with, interesting and fun, with wonderful humor.

 Tante Jeanne is Opa's youngest sister, and she was wonderful help to us in organizing and enjoying our visit to Holland. Jeanne set us up with mass transit cards so we could hop right onto the amazing train system in the country. When we arrived in Leiden, she met us at the station and walked us to the B&B run by her friends, where we had a lovely place to stay. Het Vogelhuis (The Bird House) on Blauwe Vogelweg (Blue Bird Way) was homebase for a few days. Tante Jeanne is a treasure trove of information and energy. She is speedy! A great tour guide.  She and Oom Klass also live in Oegstgeest, near Leiden. And we were able to spend some time with them both.

 We also briefly (too brief!) got a visit in with Huz's cousin, Jacobien, who is a PR specialist for the Rijksmuseum. She met us for coffee at the museum, hosting us with tickets, and aiming us in the best direction to see the incredible treasures there.

Family, dear friends, new friends (shout out to Christine! )....

We were so very fortunate in our Dutch trip. I will probably keep popping up with blogs about it, as I think of it often. Since coming home, I have had little moments of memory and pleasure with repeating a favorite treat I happened upon on our first day in Utrecht. Mint tea. Okay, doesn't' sound revolutionary, but it is just fresh mint sprigs piled in a glass and steeped in hot water. It's fantastic. And in front of me now. Until the weather got cold I used the mint down by our creek, but now it is from the produce section of the grocery, a bunch of mint in a glass of water in my fridge, that becomes heaven in hot water.

I may not be able to bring home ReRe and the Tantes, Ooms, and nieuwe vrienden, but I have mint tea.

Before and After- Salem House Living Room

Entryway door, into living room.

 Next week is the anniversary of the closing on Salem House. I thought it was time to start posting a few more Before and Afters in honor of showing how time has been passed for this can-do gal. Starting in the first room you come to, I thought to show the Befores together, bringing me back to January 2014, then contrast the B&A.
 For those of you who haven't been following Salem, it is the name we gave to the little house near campus for Eldest and a few housemates. I have been renovating the little place to make it cute and fun to inhabit. I have already shown B&As of the kitchen and main floor bath and hall.
Definition refresher:
Fleach: the curious color chosen for the main floor, it is a tired, very dirty color reminiscent of the old Crayola color "Flesh" that was (duh) deemed racial discriminatory in the 1950s and changed to 'Peach". Salem House's version was very depressing. Fortunately, the seller's realtor made the seller pull out all the pink carpet that had been there since 1983 before we began our refresh.
Bah-gan: things that are beyond a good price. They are better than a bargain.

 The living room was Fleach, with these awful window treatments...perfect for Miss Havisham if she were a 1980's gynocologist. The good news about the floors being carpeted since it was built in the 1940s is the floors were in decent shape. The bad news? Whomever painted the rooms in the past figured drop cloths were overrated, and just let the splotches hit the wood floors. Not wanting to refinish all the floors yet- overkill, and loss of wood thickness- I patiently hand sanded off all splotches and then worked lemon oil into the floors and polished with bees wax.

This room isn't getting any prettier....yet.

Front door and behind that the staircase to the upstairs rooms.
And the"When Mondrian came to Ohio" divider, complete with small planting box at the bottom...presumably never successful as there is no natural light hitting the staircase.

 The large blank wall facing the front door. Blank but for the white bar toggle bolted to this wall and the one opposite. The girls and I speculated about what in the world you would need those large anchored bars to do...we decided it was for a set of monkey bars so you didn't have to walk through the living room. A man pointed out that they were probably for large surround sound speakers. Huh? In a little room like this? My face has a LOT of forehead wrinkles when I contemplate this. Also note the roll of paper for covering the floors, protecting them- this time.

 Alrighty- Living Room Salem House- 

BEFORE AND AFTER

 Paint. Paint. Paint. Always. The ceiling is painted with a semi-gloss. I don't do ceiling white, and I don't do flat paint. I'm not sure how that came to be the "norm". I love light, and the more it bounces around the room, the happier I am! I kept the Mid Century Modern front door. I gave it a coat of paint and decided to try to like it.

When you do a super budget concious reno, and you are trying to furnish it, you are on the constant look out for bah-gans. To me, free is a bah-gan.
So, when I needed a couch for the living room, and a neighbor was giving this one away (okay, it might have been in their trash pile) it was perfect timing! Strangely, it is the first thing I have ever tried to shove in my Odyssey that didn't fit. The camel back just didn't work. Plus it is a rather substantial, fine piece of furniture. So, I worked a third of it into the back of the Honda, and may have, possibly, had my son hold onto it the rest of the way home.

I felt, strongly, that a house, particularly a house in the cold climes of Ohio, needs a fireplace. There is something restorative and happy and grounding about this feature. Salem House did not have a fireplace. It does now. It may be purely decorative. That matters less than the fact that it is there, as a focal point and a place to hang your stockings.

When it came down to it, I couldn't leave Mondrian in the stair. I tried to like it. I tried to think it was original and should stay. But, it was a dirt catcher, and so cheap looking, I just couldn't convince myself to leave it be.
It went.
The placement of the furniture on this wall had to have two considerations. One was the clearance for walking through the doorway to the hall and kitchen, the other was the wall outlet the previous owner had attached to the baseboard (for the 6' screen TV- thus the surround sound anchors in the wall- big eye roll). The whole box sticking out. Painful, but although I rid the house of MILES of cable, I did not want to do rewiring. So, the outlet stayed, and the furniture accommodated.


 This is the living room, one year later. I shall leave other rooms for other days.....wait for it!

Taking Stock! The making of a stock tie.

I understand this post is equicentric. I suppose you could look at it as a Fashion Blog entry...for the horsey crowd. Or it is a Craft Blog How-To...but in any case, unless your fashion sense veers towards the 18th century, you are employed by Ralph Lauren, or your kid's ball team is manning a craft table at Equine Affaire, this blog is probably for Horse People.
My kids are part of an excellent, active Pony Club. If you are a regular reader, you will have seen a bazillion pictures of them at various Pony Club events. I, too, am a graduate B of the United States Pony Club, lucky me! And, each year, my kid's PC hosts a Winter Camp. This is an unmounted weekend when the club gets together for a sleepover and learning extravaganza. It is fun, yes, but also packed full of learning opportunities. One of the activities at Winter Camp 2014 was teaching the Pony Clubbers how to properly tie a "stock tie".
I found, way back when, that a properly tied stock tie is a badge of sorts. Those who "know", notice, and certain assumptions are instantly made. The same happens, but in reverse if your stock tie is sloppily tied. Pony Club graduates of a certain level definitely know. You are assessed, horse, rider and tack every competition in a "formal inspection" before you ride. If you are of a level where you are sporting formal attire, and therefore a stock tie, your tie will be inspected and found to meet standard, or....not. In which case a penalty may be assessed. Of course, not just the stock tie is inspected but all the bits and pieces that make up the horse, rider and tack. So, there are a lot of opportunities for missteps- a stock tie shouldn't be one!

 The higher level PC'ers demonstrate proper tying of the stock tie to the rest of the group.

 Winter Camp 2014

Showing the proper knot and "bunny ear" style. 

The plain stock pin will go horizontally, and through the knot itself.

Stock ties are worn in English riding competitions, mostly the disciplines of dressage and fox hunting. But, you will also see them in show jumping competition. They heritage of the stock tie is long- and maybe this is why it is so closely guarded. They were not originally worn just for riding, but when they became popular, in the first half of the 1700's, certainly riding was the common form of transportation. I mean, from the chariot of Mesopotamia to the coach of Queen Victoria, horses pulled the most wealthy, and the rest of the people rode or walked. And, the fabric around your neck kept it warm, or absorbed your sweat. It also said something about your wealth and status. Your neck covering could be plain or lacy, depending on your income. 

The stock tie has changed little since the 1740s. It's always been white (military uniforms excepted) and the structure hasn't changed much. There are two accepted methods of  tying the stock tie, one is British Hunting style, and the other is the one we use in the U.S.- with the "bunny ears" in the picture above. The reason they have stayed as expected parts of formal attire is they are useful. The stock pin is akin to a kilt pin, very strong and pretty sharp, and the stock tie is 6- 8 feet long, and 8-10" wide. Thus, if one is out galloping about the countryside, and tumbles off their horse, or whacks into a tree( not too uncommon), the stock tie is an instant sling for a broken bone, or wrap for cracked ribs. (Yup, I've seen it used for both.) It can also be used to wrap an injured horse limb (hunt horse caught in barbed wire, circa 1978?) and the injured party can make it to more suitable help. Admittedly, there is little need for this in dressage competition, and so is pretty much there for tradition, and good looks.

José Campeche, Dama a caballo (Lady on Horseback), last two decades of the 18th century

One of the world's top event riders at the Rolex Grand Slam Event, 2014. There are a few changes in the past 300 years.

Which brings me to the craft portion of today's musings. Last year at Winter Camp, I brought both my stock ties. One, which I acquired, most certainly second hand, in the very early 1980s, is manufactured, contoured and has a pass through hole for where the tie crosses at the back of the neck, allowing it to lie flat. 

The other, more recent and less used, is a hand crafted more straight forward version. As the Pony Clubbers practiced their tying, it occurred to one of our fearless leaders, that making stock ties could be a project at Winter Camp 2015. Brilliant idea, I thought, and was volun-asked to assess the viability of the project.

Well, it's winter. 2015.

So, this weekend, I made a stock tie, then instructed Middlest through making one- 40 minutes start to finish. Middlest does have some experience at the sewing machine (4-H projects), but has not sewn for a few years. To that matter, I haven't either! But, this is an easy project!

First step was a trip to the fabric store. As I said, stock ties are usually white, and so I shopped for a bottom weight cotton. I found one with a faint stripe to it, and snapped it up, as straight lines in the fabric help straight lines in the sewing machine. I bought 2 yards, the length of the finished tie. 

The next step is to wash and dry the fabric. I hate this step, as I'm not a patient girl when it comes to tackling a project, but it's necessary, especially with a cotton. You want to minimize shrinkage after you complete the sewing and wash it the first time!
Next I cut a 10 inch wide strip down the whole long length of the fabric. So you have a piece 10 inches by two yards long.

See the white lines on the white fabric.

Then, to the ironing board! Press the fabric in half, length wise, so you have a 5" by 2 yard long piece, doubled over.

Pin, (I'm super lazy, and often don't for this basic of a project- blasphemy!) and sew a tight seam- by this I mean as close to the edge as practical. I made it the width of the sewing foot on my machine. You don't want extra bulk here, and I want the finished tie to be wide-ish. Sew down the long side, then across one end.

Snip the corner of the seam, to make the corner lie flat:

Iron the seams open and flat. This makes the edge crisp. Then, pull the whole thing over your hand and arm and turn it right side out. Outside out?  And, press it again. This project is more ironing and less sewing. Now you have a long sleeve, with one open end and one closed end. To close the 2nd end, you patiently turn the raw ends of the fabric to the inside until it looks pretty and square, pin it, and then sew right on top of the seam. This seam will be visible. But, the end of the stock tie won't be visible, it is under your coat, and doesn't bother me one whit. If it bothers you, (you sewing perfectionist- were you in 4-H?) turn the seam and hand sew it closed with a hidden stitch. Inverted mattress is my favorite, but that is just my latent surgeon.

 In this photo you can see the 2nd, open end, that Middlest folded inside and top stitched.

Last step is just more starch and more pressing. Fold the 5 inch piece in half once more, press. And, you have a stock tie. Finished length ~2 yards, and finished width ~5 inches, but folded and pressed into 2.5 inches.

Well, I guess it isn't worth much unless you can tie it. So, here are some instructions. I chose to use a pink shirt so that you could see the white tie. In reality, your shirt would be white.

Find the middle of the tie, and move about 6 inches to one side. Place it in the center of the front of your neck and wrap the ends around your neck and back to the front.

Then, aiming one side up to your chin tie the beginning throw of a square knot, making sure the top arm of the tie comes prettily vertical.

 Keep it there and wrap the end around the bottom end in the second tie of the square knot.

 Arrange the knot so it looks nice and boxy and vertical.

Then, simply take the loose ends and fold them up into the bunny ears, tight to the knot, small and symmetrical. Your stock pin should be sturdy, 2.5" long and unadorned- serviceable. Place it through one side of the bunny ear, through the middle of the knot and through the other bunny ear. This takes some doing. But do it anyway. If you don't get the pin through the knot, the whole she-bang will loosen up and become sloppy!

The last bit is to use safety pins to pin the loose long ends of the tie to your shirt. It wouldn't do for them to come loose and flap about the outside of your coat! 

To demonstrate the dashing look of a finished stock tie, I employed Youngest. Plus, an informal stock I made from suiting. This tie could be used in the informal Hunt Season, but, not with the black coat I have on Youngest. Black coat= formal, but not white stock = informal. I am mixing things up! Naughty girl.  Still, looks great, and will hold up with jeans and a sweater for me outside of the riding arena. You know, equestrian looks are eternally fashionable. Ralph Lauren has made a fortune proving that point!

 

 

 

Simply Dashing!

Now, for our fearless leaders to decide if Winter Camp 2015 will include the making of stock ties....