The year 2018 will soon be half over and what a strange one it has been. It has not been a bad year at all. Let’s just say it has not panned out they way I was expecting it to when I was looking ahead back in 2017.
For starters, this was the year that I thought it might be possible to make two trips to Iceland — once in the late spring and again at the usual time in late autumn. Strangely enough there is some uncertainty as to whether I will get there once this year.
Time seems to be racing and I honestly cannot even recall what consumed most of my time for the first three months of the year. Work is a likely culprit.
April arrived and I decided it was time to do some landscaping improvements around the kitchen patio before the onslaught of summer’s relentless heat. I thought this project might take a week and I spent the entire month working on it whenever I had spare time. But hey, four weekends equals a week, right?
May was warmer than usual and I tried to turn my focus back to interior projects (and there are many of those on the list) but my motivation would never solidify and work was again mostly to blame. So I went shopping online. I spent the month ordering clothes, trying them on, deciding what to keep, ordering more, and so on. I took care of what few returns there were at the beginning of June and here I sit looking stylish as ever and wondering what the hell comes next.
One of my obsessions is making this house feel as Nordic as possible and this has been going on now for about three years. Progress is slow. I went through a phase of colourful walls and some wild vein-cut travertine tile installation in the common areas. While it was a huge improvement over what had been there since the late 1980s, I’m starting to realise I want simplicity and more muted contrasts.
It has been perhaps three years since I repainted the den and kitchen. The former was in two shades of sage green with a high accent wall being a shade darker than the other walls. For some reason this north facing room is naturally dark and the sage green was simply too much. I opted to go with a greyish white and it was a vast improvement.
The kitchen walls were a lemon yellow which in hindsight was absolutely atrocious with the vibrant and busy travertine flooring. So those walls got the same makeover as the den. Two years ago I continued by painting the living room and adjacent foyer in the same light grey shade. This was probably the most exciting transformation. The room is brighter and drenched in natural light in the afternoons. What a difference it makes not having a dark green on the wall to suck up all that gorgeous light. Even the art seems happier not having to fight with the wall to be seen and appreciated.
Last year marked the completion of two bathroom remodels which definitely took them in a Nordic direction, and I also changed out all the door hardware in the house, replacing traditional builder-grade bronze door knobs and hinges with polished chrome, and I also painted the doors white rather than the common yellowy off-white which is so pervasive in most homes.
May was the month I wanted to make significant progress continuing this trend elsewhere in the house, most notably in the room which was formerly my office and is now exclusively a cat den. It is a beautiful room with high ceilings and a wall of windows and is probably my favourite room in the house. Tis a pity it isn’t being used by humans.
When the house was built that room was an artist studio with built in cabinets for canvases and a sink for rinsing brushes. With the natural light filling the room it was likely an artist’s dream studio. While I did paint the walls a decade or so ago — in a lovely margarita lime green! — it is the only room in the house that has escaped any other renovation. The ugly vinyl flooring is filthy and peeling, and in some areas pulled up by cat claws.
After considering hardwood, bamboo, and even cork, I think what is going to make the most sense is something extremely cat-friendly: ceramic tiles. They will be tiles resembling weathered wood planks but I think I want to keep the look simple by avoiding the more rustic looks which include things like cracks in the wood. Just a plain and simple wood plank look without all the extra rough features.
If it was as simple as ordering the tiles and having someone install them, this project would likely be underway by now. Unfortunately it is complicated somewhat by other factors. There is the issue of the built-in cabinets. I toyed with the idea of keeping them. However, they aren’t particularly nice, and the one at the back of the room designed for canvas storage really serves no other purpose. It has to go. The other one at the opposite side of the room next to the entry door is more of a traditional deep bookshelf and happens to be great for vinyl record storage. I think it also has to go. I would rather replace it with floating wall shelving as the need arises.
The idea of starting with a clean and open rectangular room is exciting. The sink was removed last year during the bathroom renovations leaving behind a huge hole in the wall with exposed plumbing. No doubt the removal of the built-ins is likely to cause other minor wall damage requiring drywall repairs, and I’d rather get all of that dirty work done at the same time.
The room also functions now as a guest bedroom. Overnight guests are a rare event here but it is nice to have a room handy for a guest and we are expecting a guest in August. While it is not essential that I have this project done by then, it would be really nice after 20 years of living here to finally have a clean and comfortable dedicated room for this purpose.
Additionally, it is a large enough space that I could return to using it as a second office space when I need to close a door, or a place to go sit and read a book. My living room currently functions as all of these things: entertainment room, audio room, reading room, and my office desk tucked into a corner, and all freely accessible to a Siamese cat. Sometimes additional options are nice, like when you actually need to work without straddling an oversized cat.
Now the pressure is starting to hit me. I need to get going on this. None of it is a major renovation and it shouldn’t take more than a few days. It will probably take a day for me to move out what is in there, and the worst is an office desk which seems to weigh as much as a car and is almost as difficult to get through a doorway. If I can just get that much done by the first of July that leaves me with an entire month to complete this and move on to the other projects which are not such a high priority.
Not many people obsess about things like cream yellow electric outlets and light switches and the ugly accompanying faceplates. I am that person. And yes, that is on my list. I want every light switch converted to a paddle switch in white with matching white faceplates, and every electric outlet converted to white. This is a big item on my agenda because when I look at an otherwise beautiful grey room the stark presence of ugliness is jolting.
Then the master bedroom work needs to commence. It’s minor: new paint (I also went with a dark sage green in there many years ago and I hate it) and the carpet needs to be replaced. The master bedroom is also a cat apartment for my ancient, nearly deaf and senile polydactyl tortie and I’m not keen on disrupting her golden years.
Therefore, that project will get done when it gets done. No pressure there, except for those damned light switches and electric outlets. Those have to go and soon.
One thing I have learned from all this is that it’s good for me to take my time and thoroughly evaluate everything and not make any quick decisions. The polished chrome doorknobs are a great example. I am now wishing I had gone with a simple chrome lever instead of a knob. I’ve got one arriving tomorrow to see how it looks.
Hey, this could be a June project! I have almost 2 weeks left in the month!
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