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caroline94535

Two questions! Joining? and Calculating SF?

caroline94535
10 years ago

Hi, I'm Caroline, normally found at the KT. While I read here often, and have probably commented a few times, I'd like to know what is the protocol for "officially" joining the Small Homes forum. May I join? I don't want to be perceived as just a Butinski! LOL I am in north eastern North Dakota and live with one DH and two hunting dogs.

Second question - I know my house is small, Lordie, how I know it's small, but how do I officially calculate the square footage?

Do I include the full basement?

Do I include the tiny closets?

Do I include the one hall?

Do I include the "Sun Room/Porch" that has no heat or air, 10 single pane windows, and only a storm door. It does have electrical outlets, a finished ceiling, ceiling fan, a roof, vintage1970s paneled walls, and old, old, carpet. It also has an 11th window - that looks into our bedroom. LOL

Using only the main house dimensions I have

Main bedroom: 11' x 14'
(with one almost-5' x 2' closet)

Second bedroom (my sewing room): 12' x 12'
(with two 4' x 2' closets)

Third bedroom (den/library/DH's closet): 10' x 11'
(with one 8' x 2' closet)

Bathroom: 7' x 9' (remodeled to use every inch)

Funky living room: 11'4" x 21" (no closets)

Awkward kitchen/walk through: 13' x 14' (no closets)

Mudroom: 10' x 11'
(with one 3' x 2' closet)

Hallway: about 6' x 6' with a 3' x 6' appendage.

Not counting the closets, I think I have 1,025 SF.

See? I need the Small House forum.

Comments (41)

  • Shades_of_idaho
    10 years ago

    No one is ever a butinski. Every one welcome.

    I picked the SF of our house by multiplying the length by width. This includes all the encosed part we live in. We also have a covered front porch that is not enclosed so I did not count it in my SQ FT of 1375. If I did count it it would add another 208 SQ FT. There is no electrical out there except for porch light. We are on one level.

    I am not really sure how to measure as I believe it can be done differently in different areas across the country. Whatever.......... No one here is all that picky about it and there are even a few here that have larger houses then the stated 2000 SQ FT.

    I think for the most part we all share the love of trying to get the most out of our houses. Picking each others brains for ideas. What works for some would not work for others. So jump on in. We love pictures.

    Chris

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Oh the pictures of my house will have to be filed under "Comic Relief," or "Believe it or Not!" LOL But I will be posting some, and lots of questions.

    This is a floor plan I tried to draw when we first got the house. Layouts have changed, and the bathroom has been totally gutted, laid out differently, and rebuilt.

    I am pleased with the new layout, but I'll have to draw it later.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    The dimensions on the drawing are not all correct. The info in my first post is more current.

    The extra names on the bed are the pups!

    This post was edited by caroline on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 17:04

  • Shades_of_idaho
    10 years ago

    LOL on the pups. Cute foot prints too. Well I should have told you a tiny bit more of me but I did not want to scare you off. I am the crazy one of this group. Comic relief is mild compared to my house insanity. you know the old lady syndrome where we paint everything bright wild colors and think it looks wonderful. Well I use stained glass instead of paint. There is no going back. Hehehehehehe Working on mosaic wainscot for hallway that is 40 inches tall and 11 foot long. OH MY. I just finished around our master bath mirror. A project done in fits and spurts over the last three years. Mirror is 5 foot wide to get idea of scale.

    I like your floor plan. Looks like quite a bit of space to be creative in. Love your sun room. Our porch faces south and is so hot in the summer.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Master bath wall

  • desertsteph
    9 years ago

    I came up with about 1176 sf - not counting the sun porch

    look forward to seeing pics!

  • User
    9 years ago

    Hi Caroline, and glad to have you with us.

    I'm not sure how to measure square footage, because my adding up room dimensions comes to a different total than what the architect measured. Thinking he knows more than I do, I now go with his numbers describing our house.

    What I'd do with your house is measure that front square portion from the exterior walls corner to corner, and front to back. Then do the same for the other two rectangles. This would give you the upper level totals. BUT, keep the sunporch separate, because it is only seasonal. For the time being anyway. It would make a great space for a sitting area as an extension of your bedroom. Investigate whether the foundation is adequate for your zone, the insulation and then beef it up to become a big addition to full time living space. We did that with a small screened in porch, made it our sunporch, and now it is an important feature of our house. I truly love it.

    You have a great opportunity to take the north wall of that sunporch and make it a whole wall of closet floor to ceiling.

    You do not mention the basement, but you said "full basement" and do you mean it is fully finished as living space? Or, it is fully beneath the entire house? If so, is it also fully beneath the sunporch? That would be a big plus, because it would give you space to run all the power and plumbing you need in frostproof space.

    Interesting home. And YES, you meet the Smaller Homes initiation requirements. You live in a home with space issues, and that is good enough for everybody!

    Chime in on any thread, fresh faces and new ideas always welcome.

  • TxMarti
    9 years ago

    Welcome caroline! Shades that mirror mosaic is wonderful, as usual.

    Our local appraisal district measures the outside of the house for square footage, unless the owner lets them inside to measure, and few do. True living square footage would be inside measurements without the walls.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    "True living square footage would be inside measurements without the walls."

    YIKES Marti if this is the case then I need to do some deducting because we have 6 inch exterior walls on this house. This would give us 1295 interior SF FT . Give or take half a foot. LOL Even so this small house lives large.

  • TxMarti
    9 years ago

    We have six inch walls too. This is what the appraisal district told me when I questioned their number on my house.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Not doubting you at all Marti. I even forgot to count for the 6 inch thick wall going down the center of the house. so that wild take away another 42 foot. It is an extra thick wall because we have added weight bearing roof for the snow load we get here. This would bring us down to 1274. Even so the way we are laid out here the house lives pretty large. The sewing room/guest room is a small room at 9 by 13. The other rooms are good size with a 6 by 5 foot walk in closet in the master and a HUGE master bath at 8 by 12 1/2.

    I really love this house. good thing because it is my last house.

    I still wonder if the way to measure varies by area.

  • mushcreek
    9 years ago

    It's usually expressed as 'heated square footage', even though they usually measure the outside envelope of the house. My walls are a foot thick, so there is about 152 square feet lost. I intend to claim my inside dimensions, and invite them to measure it that way. The inside of my house is the 'heated square footage', not the outside! They don't deduct interior walls, and they only count the area of a staircase (if there is one) once.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    In some areas of the country, basements are not counted, even if they are finished with real walls, floors and ceilings. Hi Caroline, I am.... Nancy and I live in....Michigan in a 1675 sq ft house that I have not measured in any way, I am just taking the city's word on it. My only space problem right now is that I have a Gnome Garden that I am finishing up making in a big plastic bonsai planter, maybe 16 x 20. I have had a few plants in it since last fall that are well-established. I now have a cute cement cottage with a copper tray-like roof to plant with succulents. I also picked up a couple of little tree-like plants to finish off the garden around the gnome house, and I need to lay my stone wall and do other decorating in the world of the three little gnomes who live there. Then rig up the T5 under-the-counter light I have that will be the "sun" for this little world, since I have no real sun to offer them.

    My problem is that I don't have any place to put my Gnome Garden. It has been sitting on the desk in the kitchen, but it takes up a lot of room there and is not particularly attractive there, where the clutter likes to start. Maybe that is my problem. Clutter. Where can you put a Gnome Garden in a home with 7 windows and a clutter problem?

    That's me. Back to you. Caroline, I am not sure how long we can wait for pictures of those two hunting dogs. My heart went flippity flap when I saw them on your kitchen floor. Photos, please!

    Caroline, I see a major problem with your home. It is evidence to me that you are a younger person, pre-children. Not an older person with children grown and gone or a barren old dog mama like me. No, with this set-up, you must be young. Do you actually have to go out into the mud room, through the landing and kitchen, past the linen closet and into the big hall to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Or maybe you folks up in the Dakotas still use thunder mugs. Or maybe there is an outhouse just past that pretty flower garden between the two doors. If it were me, there would be a big hole in the closet wall so that I could climb into the tub and get to that toilet!

    Anyhow, I love your diagram. You look like you had a good time making it. Have you seen the picture of me and my spotted hound dog on my lap? If not, I will post it again for you. He is gone now, Casey had a brain tumor and the tumor or the meds to control it finally got to him. He was my big lover boy before all that happened to him.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Oh my gracious! You women have me roaring with laughter.

    ~ Nancy in Mich; we're almost neighbors. I am in northeastern North Dakota. I hate to say it but your statement "It is evidence to me that you are a younger person, pre-children. Not an older person...' had me bustin' a gut. I am an old, grey, childless, tired, full of aches-and-pains, diabetic, 58-year-old dog mama. My joints hurt; my skin is dry; and I'll probably freeze to death in North Dakota. DH thinks I'm silly; he says the climate is perfect.

    The bedroom-to-bathroom distance looks much longer on the diagram than it is in real live. Yes, I do have to ..." go into the mud room, through the landing and kitchen, past the linen closet and into the big hall to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night..."

    From being seated on the Throne, to my far side of the bed is exactly 30 steps - with my short, chubby legs. The "landing" is only 44" square, the "Big Hall" is 7 feet from the edge of the kitchen pantry to the center of the bathroom door.

    I have considered switching our bedroom and the Sewing Room, but the Sewing Room/Ladies Parlour is so beautiful with the Lilac Vapor paint, white trim, and sunny windows it seems a shame to waste it with sleeping. The bedroom is bigger (slightly) and has a smaller closet. It's dark and shaded at all times and I can't see me being "creative" in there. And, if I switched the rooms I'd have to repaint to have the "new" sewing room the Lilac Vapor color.

    No chamber pots; if I had one I'd probably drill holes in it and plant African Violets. I am blessed, I very seldom have to get up in the night. I have a strong bladder with an overnight capacity! LOL How's that for too much information!

    ~ MoccasinLanding; I feel as though I "know" you; I follow your posts as often as I can. We do intend to make the sunroom into a four-season room; I'll be picking your brain for that project!

    The "full basement" does not go under the sun porch, but it is on a regular, sturdy foundation with crawlspace. The basement is under the rest of the house, including the 1970s addition of the mudroom and bedroom.

    One room, is finished with paneled walls, drop ceiling, and smooth concrete floor is directly under the bedroom and mudroom. There was 1970s carpet there, but I yanked that bad boy out. We added an egress window to the north wall.

    There is a 3/4 shower, a "finished" bedroom, a storage room, and a Utility Room. The utility room runs the width of the kitchen and all the way from the front of the house to the mudroom.

    ~ Desert Steph. Thanks for the calculaltions. I need to check with the county and see what they are taxing us at.

    Here is Harry the Perfect (left), and Sam the Not!

  • TxMarti
    9 years ago

    Those are gorgeous dogs. My bil had a german shorthair and that dog was a retrieving fanatic. She would walk around with a tennis ball in her mouth begging people to throw it somewhere.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    Okay, I guess I will never make it as a TV detective.
    I am 55 and I never make it through the night!
    My first husband was from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. His father's family came from Thief River Falls. His grandmother did not refer to going to the grocery store as "shopping." No, she called it, "trading." They went every few months, back in the old days. They hunted most of their meat when my ex-father-in-law was young. I have never been to either of the Dakotas, yet. Maybe someday!

    You haven't met Loretta yet. I cannot remember her screen name, darn it! She painted the upper half of her bedroom a luscious purple or lavender, and the lower half a beautiful green (or do I have it backward?). Silver is her accent color, and it makes it look so classy! We all drooled over it. I am thinking of copying it for one wall in my hall. I can certainly appreciate a sunny lavender room! I googled your paint color name and ended up seeing a post of yours from Decorating from 2010 when you were painting it. You are serious about your African Violets, I see.

    Since you didn't cry off on having already seen my Casey, here he is, cuddling up on my lap at the end of his Grandpa's bed a few years ago, reading posts in THS with me. Casey was likely an English Setter/hound mix. He taught my Toby to howl and the two would sound off at just about anything. Toby misses that. Casey was as soft as velvet and loved to nuzzle my neck. I miss that! He was about as bad as a dog can get without tearing things of value up or defecating in the house. He could reach almost all the counter space, so you had to be perfect and not leave any food out anywhere. He could open the oven in the old range. He could open the garbage pull-out if you did not have the shock mat on underneath it. He could open the lever-handle door knobs I installed to help my father-in-law and myself enter rooms with less pain. After dad was bed-bound, Casey would wait until the aide made lunch, then bark like crazy at the front door, so the aide would leave Dad's room to answer it. Then he would dash back to Dad's room, open the door, and steal Dad's lunch off his table before the aide could get back. I had to return Dad's knob to a round one to defeat Casey!

  • desertsteph
    9 years ago

    I do have to ..." go into the mud room, through the landing and kitchen, past the linen closet and into the big hall to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night..."

    yikes!!! I'd be extending the bathroom wall into that lower right corner of the mudroom and put in a door to the bathroom. my bladder wouldn't survive that hike at night.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Caroline,

    We had a house where it was a long trek to let the pups out at night. The master bathroom was close but the back door was up one side of the house and down the other and back again to the middle for me to pee while pups did then back to end of house again to let them in then back through both sides of the house to bed. I forget now how long it really was I did figure it out one time. LOL you do get used to what you have and deal with it.

    Soooooooooooooo at this house we put a door in our master bath out to the dogs yard. It simplified my life and has helped me to get more sleep.

    LOLing at your Lavender room. I have two of them here. One is also my sewing room and once in awhile a guest is allowed to stay in it. Then my studio is also lavender or periwinkle. Both rooms inspire joy in me when I walk into them. Love the color.

    Again at last house I had a dark room I used as my office and craft room. It was my favorite mint green. I painted it a lighter version of the mint green and still was not happy so I went with the lavender/periwinkle and it was so amazing how it lightened the room. Even though the green and the lavender were the same intensity of color. I did change the room from office to guest room and took over the lighter room but it was still great to have the lavender in there.

    Some day I will finish painting the hallway in my light mint green to match the master bedroom and living room. The kitchen is a cream color off white. I still have laundry room and two bathrooms to paint. UGH. this is the longest we have ever lived in a house and the longest it has taken me to get it painted.

    Picture is sewing room/guest room and it is tiny. Perfect for sewing. I do not want my company to be too comfortable and stsy too long. LOL

  • TxMarti
    9 years ago

    I wish Loretta still posted. I'd like to see what she has done lately. Nancy, I think Casey outgrew "lapdog" and turned into a "full-body-dog" or something like that. I had to laugh at her stealing your dad's lunch though.

    Our Mandy, Gordon setter, knew she wasn't allowed to jump up and put her paws on the kitchen counter, so she would walk through the kitchen on her hind legs so she could see if there was anything on the counter she wanted. Then she'd walk over and grab it with her mouth, never touching the counter.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    OMG, Marti, I think I would pay to see your Mandy do that! What a good girl she was, and she knew the rules and obeyed them precisely! I wish I was physically fit enough to have a setter of any kind again. Smart dogs will be the death of you, but they are so very lovable.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Nancy, Casey is such a sweet looking puppy and just the right size for a "lap puppy!" I know she was your joy!

    Here's Harry sitting with DH, Wes.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Shades of Idaho...Here's my lavender room, with Harry test driving the newly refinished floor.

    The room was not yet furnished, so it looks far roomier than its 12x12 dimensions really are.

    I so wanted a French door in this room, but Wes nixed the idea. I put in a tall window instead. I have to be able to watch the bird feeders while I sew.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I have lace curtains, too! Gotta have all that light coming in. I've got to get around and take some better photos.

    I have aluminum (color and material) mini blinds for the two windows in this room. I keep them raised all the way up, or snapped out of their brackets and stored in the closet unless I have company.

    The crown is not crooked; the camera does that to the straight lines for some reason.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    Pretty room, pretty dog! Wes and Harry share the same coloring. Does Wes take the dogs out hunting?

  • desertsteph
    9 years ago

    'I wish Loretta still posted. I'd like to see what she has done lately. '

    me too - and MG, she's always up to something...

    my old girl didn't mess much w/my food until she got sick. one day I walked into my bdroom to have dinner (only place to sit down in front of tv) and as I walked in with my dinner she jumped up off of the bed (a leap) and snatched my sandwich from the plate! the little dickens... her 'sick' made her extra extra hungry so she wasn't waiting to see what mom had left over or was willing to share with her.

    my girl now loves to look out the window too. I'm gonna have Jed move a chair into my bdrm in front of the window for her. He tried wks ago but that chair was too big and he couldn't fit it thru the doorway. Which was weird - it was just a wingback chair. I'm gonna have him try one of the barrel chairs. It is surely smaller - at least easier. I know the legs come off because I have 1 or 2 of them in a drawer somewhere!

  • User
    9 years ago

    Nancy, I am cracking up here! That picture is tremendous!

    Thank heaven for LITTLE girls. My two girl doxies are b&t. Dixie is the older one, who just about freaked out when her buddie the maltese MoonPie died, so I got another girl doxie born 2 days before Moon was laid to rest. She is adorable, although today she ate one of my NEW HOSTA! Then up chucked it, looked like an egg roll.

    Dolly is the younger dog. When I brought her home, my male African grey parrot announced, "It's a girl." And that is what he's called her ever since. I did NOT tell him she was a girl. How did he know!

    But here is Dolly in her favorite position, watching the street out the study window.

    Dixie is overweight, her papa feeds her from the table.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Caroline I love tour wall color. It seems a bit more purple. I am going to look it up or maybe you can send me the information on it. I really should repaint the studio. It has been almost 6 years since I painted it.

    I did have an interesting read when I googled Lilac Vapor paint. your room picture turned up right off but there were some other funny comments not at all relating to the color or your room. google can be very fun.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    ML, I post that photo so often that I can't believe you haven't seen it. Casey Jones was my lover boy. He would take off halfway across the room and land on my lap and I swear it never hurt. I always said he had anti-gravity motors in his feet. Once I was with him on the patio and all of a sudden, he was standing on the top of the wrought iron patio table. I did not see the launch. He just levitated, I think. For such a graceful guy to get clumsy and semi-blind at times as the brain tumor affected him, was such a shame. He got violent toward the shaggy black and tan girl dog we adopted who was afraid of everything. And he quit wanting to sit with me. I think the floor felt solid and safer. I remember the weight of him, his heavy warmth, the soft velvet of his ears, the deep brown eyes. Dogs don't sweat, so they are so much more comfortable to cuddle with than humans are!

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    ML, so Dolly has not figured out how to beg as well as Dixie yet? Your DH really plays favorites! Poor Dixie will be uncomfortable in the heat, won't she? I cut back on both Toby and Lizzy's food and we switched their snack after dinner to frozen vegetables. You would think we were feeding them frozen kidneys and livers, they love them so much. Toby, who has never instigated a fight with anyone, actually defended his veggies last night when Lizzy tried to take a few. He will not defend his dinner from her at all! Lizzy is down to 11.6 lbs, and Toby is 35.5 lbs. That is such an accomplishment for a Beagle mix. Poor Lizzy was up to 14 lbs last summer. Their vet said they had to go down because they are both too old and have arthritis. Lizzy is 12 or so, Toby is 14 and a half. In the picture above, which was around five years ago, his hair was much shorter. His hair has been growing longer, and this year became really long and thick. I wondered if it meant we were going to have a hard winter, and I guess it did. We did break our snowfall record from 1880 - 1881 on Monday night. We have had 94.8 inches of snow at the Detroit Metro Airport. The old record was 93.6. I still have a little snow on the north side of the hedge that did not melt today! My early tulips started blooming a few days ago and so did the tiny mini irises that appeared when the red Japanese Maple got cut back a few years ago. Buds on the trees are fatter, but no green haze in the treetops yet. When that shows, spring is really here. I fear we will have baby Robins before the snow is done! Robins have been here since February. Our Canada geese even left the area for the first time in many years this year. Usually they winter right here in the suburbs near little lakes and ponds. This year, they got the message and left town.

    I will have to rent out Toby as a weather predictor to a local TV station! Oh, the black dog in the picture above is Bina. I will see if I can find another current pic of Lizzie and Toby.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I love all the sweet puppy pictures! My boys love veggies, too. Harry especially; he goes wild for bell pepper, broccoli, apples, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. Sam eats them, too, but only because Harry does. Harry sits close beside me while I chop veggies. He knows he'll get several treats during the process.

    Shades of Idaho; I was shocked. I Googled images for Lilac Vapor paint and was surprised to see the guest/sewing room in the house when we still lived on the Grand Forks Air Force base! (It has a fake Tiffany lamp and matelasse (sp?) bedspread.). And my little dining / living room area. And a corner of the old living room with a bouquet of real lilacs, too. That was five years ago when we lived there and even longer ago when I posted the photos. I guess the 'net never dies.

    Now we live in Larimore in an old house. Not "old, historic, and interesting" but "old and tired and clumsy and needy." I recently painted this living room the same sagey green as the base living room. It's "Key Lime Pie" and it makes me smile everytime I walk in the room.

    When I first discovered the decorating forums there was a gold buff paint that seemed to be the "it" color; then Baby Turtle stormed in, now the Greys seem to be invading. Through it all I've stuck with my happy, calming Key Lime Pie. I had the paint guy mix one can at 50% strength for the dark hallway. It's perfect too.

    I've never been stylish; I don't change my likes very often. I'll probably have the Key Lime Pie livingroom until the sagey greens are cool again!

    It looks perfect with all the purple/plum shades, too!

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    I LOVE that when you walk into your rooms they make you smile. Me too here. I so understand that. Some people are horrified with the glass work I have done in our house. And my ,as they call them, PURPLE rooms. I do not give a hoot I did not do well at the decorating forums at all. I guess I can not see their way any more than they can see mine and that is fine. I am NOT into the IN things. I do my own thing and it is pretty crappy. Still it is my thing and if some one does not like it then they do not have to come here.

    I painted our master bedroom last summer while hubby was in the hospital a soft mint green. This is a calming color to me. Several people have come into the bedroom and all say the same thing. "Oh this is such a pretty room." I like it but it is a mish mash of furniture as is all of the house.

    Clancy early morning not happy with the neighbors cows. LOL Picture is kind of dark because the sun was just coming up.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Here is Clancy and Tillie. Waiting for something to drop in the kitchen at our last house. LOL

  • User
    9 years ago

    Love the dog pics too. So relaxing.

    Shades, one of your dogs, the one in back, is SMILING...showing teeth.

    Is Tillie the one in front? Those front feet perfectly placed in a pos, so precise, and the intent gaze......FEED ME. I'm CUTE.

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    More setters, you are breaking my heart!

    My Megan used to smile like your Tillie is smiling in the picture, but she was coy about it. If a black dog could blush, she would have! I did not notice she was smiling, a kennel she stayed at when we were at vacation told us about it, then we started to see it all the time. She would do it when we came home and walked in the front door. As she walked along beside you as you crossed the room, she would turn her head to the side and if you looked at the right angle, you could catch a glimpse of her smile.

    My friend had a hellish little terrier mix who looked like a tiny black mustang. He was a growler and a biter. So when he started smiling, I thought he was barring his teeth at me and I pushed him off the footstool and onto the floor and called him bad! When she told me that he had learned to smile, boy was I sheepish! He was not a coy smiler, he was a grinner!

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    How about a laughing puppy? Here's my Harry stopping a rollicking game of fetch to laugh at me. He is about age 2 in this photo.

    Shades of Idaho - I was looking at your lilac room again and noticed the hanging Christmas cactus; it is gorgeous! What direction does your window face? My CC has grown and bloomed non-stop this winter. I've rooted nine cuttings from it. When/if Spring arrived I will repot it and all the new cuttings to the large pot. I want to hang it from the ceiling in front of the 55" square south window in the living room/breakfast nook.

    How do you have your suspended? Also, is the sewing machine case (?) under the white table a purple color? Too cute!

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    ML Tillie is the smiling one in back. Believe me Clancy is a clutz. If his feet were posed just so it is by total accident. LOL they are both border collie mixes. This is as close into the kitchen as they are allowed. The very edge of the end of the counter.

    Caroline I never noticed the CC in the picture looks like it has no visible means of support. It is suspended by a hanger screwed to the wall in the center of the window. The window faces south west. there is a steep hill outside that window that blocks the setting sun. I am not sure this house sits true to the world. It might be skewed just a bit.

    I know it is important the CC only have natural daylight so when the sun goes down they should not have any more light. This keeps them blooming. This one used to be in my studio and I moved it to the sewing room because I tend to spend some evenings in my studio. I have an off shoot in the kitchen and it only blooms if i keep moving it back into the sewing room. We leave the small dinning room table light on low all night so it is messing up the lighting for it. I will move it back today.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I've learned something new today about the Christmas Cactus. I will keep that in mind.

    Oh, you asked about the Lilac Vapor paint. It is (gasp!) a Dutch Boy paint. I know this is not a brand that is touted too much on other forums, but I've had very good luck with it.

    It's not too expensive; it goes on so smoothly, and in my experience, it wears like iron. I have never had a problem with washing it, either. What more could you want from a paint?

    I have it mixed at Menard's (a northern chain similar to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.) in their "Dimensions" base in a satin finish. I may have used egg shell on the AF Base.

    The label says the base is "Designer White, DB 676-03

    The colorant is OZ 48, E PH Blue 9, and V Magenta 12. I can take a photo of the label if you like.

    It also says DC024 Lilac Vapor (Old).

    The formula must have changed slightly since 2004. I had the old 2004 chip when I ordered new paint in 2008. I looked at one of the new "Lilac Vapor" chips and saw the numbers were different, so he used my old chip to mix the paint.

    I love it.

    I used Benjamin Moore's "Cotton Balls" for the white trim in that room. It's not a bad paint; but it didn't go on, wear, or wash any better than the Dutch Boy.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Ha Caroline,. I am not a paint brand snob. LOL I use or was using the walmart brand. I think it was Color Palace or some thing like that. Now they are adding an extra $3.00 a gallon for paint fumes or some thing, in Oregon where our closest walmart is, so I tend to shop around. When I painted the bedroom my mint green It was spur of the moment 6PM when I got the room emptied, except for the bed, for new flooring. I had brain storm to paint while room was empty. I looked on paint shelf in closet and grabbed all the white paints and green paints I had on hand and my big stainless canning kettle and mixed them all together. This is inside paint and outside paint semi gloss and gloss. As long as it was a light green or white it went into the pot. I was lucky enough to finish the whole 14 1/2 by 12 1/2 foot room with one cup of paint left over. I finished second coat at 2AM.

    Flooring guy was there late the next morning giving me time to get showered and the bed moved out of the bedroom. I dozed in my chair all day. He probably thought I was slug for just sitting around. I was grateful my husband was still in the hospital then and being cared for. All the commotion would have been too hard for him fresh out of surgery.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Sounds to me like you were living the "re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle" theory to get your paint! And you saved a trip to town. Well done.

    Did your canner survive?

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    Well saving that trip to town meant I was able to paint. If I had to go to town it would have been too much for me. Trip= 85 miles round trip. And I had already spent the day clearing out the room and walk in closet. I was tired before I started painting. In our smaller house it was a trick to clear the space and still have walk through room to get into the room with the flooring. I was lucky we do have a large master bath. All the larger furniture went into that room. All the smaller things including the clothes from the closet filled the sewing room. I could not put the bed back the night of flooring day so I slept in my recliner. I was able to get the dogs in and out through all the stuff in the master bath to their yard.

    i was not sure what kind of finish I would get because I used some flat paint in the mix too. The semi gloss and gloss over took the flat so the walls are washable. We are all electric here unless power goes out and then we have to use the propane. the walls stay pretty clean except where the dogs make the corners through doorways. Always wiping those corners.

    The canning kettle is great. I used the smooth stainless steel one so it was easy to clean it.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    9 years ago

    ACK got so excited about talking dogs I forgot to thank you for the paint information. I am going to look for this. considering it for the guest bath and laundry room. Thanks so much.

    I also tend to have the paint store mix the strength to half. It keeps the same color but seems to stop the intense darkening when the color gets on all four walls.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Oh, I agree with Shades 100% about having a place to get your stuff out of the way. I've packed up stuff and hauled it to the Teahouse. If we had not done the restoration of the Teahouse first, we'd be up a creek with the remodel.

    Yeah, we are replacing the floors throughout the house, and adding tall mop boards as DH calls them. Base boards to us in the south. There will be the final clearing of the house though, because there will be a need to rework the wiring, the front entry area, and rip off the back porch and knock down at least two walls and knock a bigger hole in another (currently) outside wall from our bedroom to the sitting area. and building a new deck wider but only a foot beyond the present deck's footprint. Whew, it is such a job. I don't know how Shades has the stamina, but perhaps when Joe was in the hospital she was running on raw nerves. That keeps you going some times.