a heart is captive

a heart is captive

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Spring Projects

It is nice weather and I need to continue fixing this house. I am on to a small major project. I am creating an office/play room for me and turning the current are used for the office space into a peaceful shrine area. The hall way to nowhere is now the office it is 37 inches wide and 10 feel long. Anyone who knows me knows it is a snug fit. It is DARK since there is a storm door over the front door and all manner of padded stuff to block the the wind since the storm door is a joke. Once I get a real glass door to go over the antique door then some light will get in there. I am painting the downstairs entry hall ( which is the same place BTW) A yellow color called Wildflowers. My BFF loves yellow and I always fell wonderful in her house so I love yellow too. Anything to add some warmth and humanity to that black space of doom. Since I have a whole house of Nellie furniture I need to use it where it fits. I have my mother's old desk which I will paint and make beautiful in the hall office/entry/stairwell place now. It fits at the end of the narrows.

Since the creep who had this house before me cheated and put fake phone jacks and fake electrical outlets all over; I need to get new jacks and outlets. So this "room" has the phone jack and the plug for fax, printer, computer and the like.

However the downstairs almost guest room has outlet and working jack. So I am moving the office into the guestroom. I need to keep the huge heavy ship bed in the room. good thing it is a twin. As soon as I can I paint that oak! I hate the look of OAK. But anyway I need to move the moveables from the hall/office/entry. Then paint the far wall and side walls wildflower. I will move a Chinese looking red and yellow chest of aunties there (it will fit with space); move the Chinese looking black chest of auntie's into the living room where the red chest is now and then the desk will fit in the little room that will be the office and play room. I need to paint that room, too.

It will have 2 wall deep reddish orange-ish and two wall in a color called Mother Earth. Mother Earth will also be in the living room and day room. The Day room also will have the same red on the bay window wall. I have the curtains already and it will look nice. The office will have the same curtains. A silk taupe/ brown/cream-gold plaid..... they are beautiful. The new playroom has sun all day from morning to night is the warmest room and 2 windows and a great view for each window.

I am also starting a new garden hobby indoors..... Terrariums! Auntie has these giant jars and we have cats who munch plants so terrariums are the perfect answer...plants under glass! All the first stuff is ordered and it will be fun.

So the new projects will begin today first cleaning the area out so I can get to the walls it will be an easy
(FLW?) painting job since it is a small area. The cat Buddha is on order, the picture of my saint( FDR) is ready to be hung and the incense is ready to go. As I find other dead people pictures they will go up on the ancestor wall and have their incense too. It will look good.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Kitchen Quest

I have always designed kitchens. I started as a teen when I became interested in interior design. I loved to cook and still do. However my quest has always been for a simple functional kitchen that is not a monument to monument materials and taking up so much space. Over the years I have kept notebooks with the details of what I loved, liked, and hated about every kitchen I saw or lived with. I have clipping from magazines since 1960s on of kitchens. I lived with a refugee kitchen for 5 years and now know what is important and what is useless for me to function in. I do not need a huge stove. I use at the very most two burners and only to boil pasta or the Aunty's eggs. I used to just use the tea kettle for hard cooked eggs, but soft cooked is another story. So all I need is 2 burners (really only one). I do need an oven since I rather bake my own bread. I could try the toaster oven to bake the bread but I have not as yet and have not baked in a few months. I would like an oven that has a side opening door and at a non back breaking height. Bending over to lift something from an oven is hard and dangerous with cats and easy to burn my knees. The racks pull best from the front and then I need to bend over the open door and reach in to pull the rack...NOT designed by anyone who cooks.

The refrigerator is another problem. I hate the one I am forced to use. I can not reach to the back of the 2 top shelves. The pull out bottom freezer is not as handy as I once thought a bottom freezer would be. The french door is a nightmare and I hate the refrigerator over all. Not a handy or useful feature I would keep from it. I do not need a big refrigerator and this one is best for a large family, not me and an Old lady or just the sweetie and me.
so it needs to go.

The sink is a double sink with no useable space larger than a saucer at the bottom. The faucet/tap does not stick out far enough to fill a kettle, nor is the section in the middle useful or appreciated. One sink with a tap that can service a kettle or large pot is desired.

I find I rather use an electric skillet to cook in rather than the open flame of the stove. The open gas flame is a nuisance and I hate the idea of setting the pot holder or cat on fire.

Counter space is just another word for a place to junk up and cats to lay on. The ones I have here looks generous but were installed by a moron and they tilt forward just enough so things can roll off. Plus they are too high. I decent work table will let me do all manner of cooking, bakin, and crafting when the mood strikes me.

So what I want and need is a work counter to plug in the various electric things I want and have....skillet, rice cooker. food processor, crock pot, toaster oven, microwave, coffee pot, tea kettle. However I do not want them all in the same place. I want a coffee/tea area with toaster oven, and microwave to warm my milk for my coffee( Maine is cold and I like warmed milk) maybe a small fridge for the milk butter jam bread.
Then I need an area to wash up the dishes, plug in the skillet, crock pot food processor waffle iron (whatever is needed for the meal in question). A work table can be the eating at table. And a pantry to hold the food, appliances, and dishes. Some drawers for the towels and flatware. One junk drawer and I an set.
Everything thing is big and bigger and biggest.

My room to accommodate all this is also the main entrance to the house so this room must look nice all the time. I have many ideas and am radical enough to do it my way~