For Older People with Sense

Hi ladies!

Just wanted to pop in and say goodnight.  Had a busy few days.  I will catch up with all of you soon!  I'm off to chemo early in the morning, so must get to bed.  Hoping you all have a restful night.

Hugs,  lilyrose

Hugs to you, Aly, I KNOW pain. And we are NOT friends.

mac, that is incredible design you are putting in that gem!!! What advice has the builder given you about the ceiling? If it`s a small space you might want to just white-wash them....and, if the floor is too dark in there it might look too modern.....how dark are you going and did you want an eclectic look? (LOVE eclectic!) HATE the floor colours that are like gymnasiums or Ikea stores, or the orange-y oak look. It`s a fine-line to make me happy with floor stain, but we found a reddish medium tone that we absolutely love. Our new place has natural aged pine which is just stunning. What colour are the walls going to be, mac? Again, a light colour?? Buttermilk yellow? Pale aqua?? Celadon green? Vanilla white? Will the trim be white??

I shoulda been a decorator...sigh....but that`s a hard market to crack without a lot of advertising dollars - like any artistic field. Until you can live off referrals that is.

barbe, I want you to decorate this place, too. My DD has definite tastes. This was a project to help her get through her surgery and rehab. We decided on a "cedar grove" (grayish green) for the roof deck ceiling. She does not do "trendy".

This morning we picked a lambskin for the walls through out the whole place. Then the antique heart of pine floors will be stained walnut (the painter is going to make samples) and the beams in the ceiling walnut to match. Plus the fir on the trim will be stained walnut, too. I hope it is not too dark. Then we will add color with art and accessories. So she is agonizing about the color of the ceiling boards between the beams. We are using a very nice painter and he is using Benjamin Moore paint. Wait until you see the mosaic bathroom tile! 

Barbe, you impress me as highly creative and talented in decorating.  I would probably be embarrassed for you to come to my house! 

The vertigo is not entirely gone.  I am able to carry on my activities but I feel slightly drunk!  When I return to Louisiana, I'll ask my PC dr. to write me a prescription for a med. to have on hand when vertigo strikes. 

Mac, your house will be wonderful.  The grayish green sounds great for your area.  What really matters is that the people living in a house love the way it looks. 

I am one of the 99% barbe...

Alyson, you KNOW I love your room, as I saw it in pics years ago. A very traditional and classic style but I understand your desire to update it. I, too, LOVE William Morris prints an am glad to know you are keeping the chairs. If you are keeping the chairs, I trust you are keeping the drapes and the other furniture? I will go on that. You are used to a dark ceiling so I am going to throw two options out there. IF you keep the trim the creamy colour it is (and what a bitch it would be to paint it all, anyway!!!) then you could pull a warm medium gray out of the carpet (LOVE it!!) and then paint the walls up to the rail in that gray. Then, take the curtain colour and wrap it up and over the ceiling and down to that same rail. Your artwork will just POP off those gray walls!!

You are re-doing the walls, so I don`t know if you are keeping the rails but your ceilings are SO high you really need to bring them down. So even if you don`t keep the rails, a darker ceiling will keep the feeling you love in that room.

Instead of gray, you could pull a green-y gray out of the carpet and do the same treatment up to the rails with the burnt orange (are they?) drape colour on the top part. You may want to paint out the wall at the fireplace to be the same trim colour, thus stopping the break in colour as it is now with the wallpaper filling in the wall parts. So that entire wall would be the creamy trim colour. 

Lower your artwork when you re-hang it. It does not have to be between the ceiling and the floor evenly as your ceilings are so high. The centre of the picture should be at EYE LEVEL when you stand in front of it! Group some more pictures together to make a dramatic vignette on the wall as you have the space to fill. In that case, some prints can go higher, but you`ll also have prints lower.

Take away the basket by the TV and just keep the one to the left of the fireplace. Symmetrical placement is too obvious. Break up the books on the left by spreading them to the right and putting the vases and other pieces in-between. Lay some books on their side and put some smaller vases or pieces on them to make different height levels. You have some vases that look really packed in there... Consider taking a smaller print and hanging it off the SHELF. Yep, either by a ribbon from the top of the bookcase or just a nail in the shelf, but a print will also break up the horizontal look and add interest. Consider painting the BACK face of the bookcase the same accent paint colour you use in the room (ceiling or wall) to add dimension and take the white bowl off the mantle into the bookcase and it will pop off the new colour. Too much stuff on the mantle, you don`t need to fill it up but you can use those pieces to break up the books. Don`t put anything on top of the bookcases because it makes it look like you don`t have enough room.

You have some beautiful but delicate legged tables, consider grouping a couple together for an eclectic coffee table or get another piece from somewhere in your home to beef-up and ground the soft pieces (sofa, chairs, etc).

Hope some of this makes sense, but even if you didn`t do a thing to this room I LOVE it, still!!!!

Barbe, I absolutely love the house you're selling!  You really have such a knowledge of decorating and color and it shows.  I fear I'm among the 99% too,  and DH knows a lot more than I do.  Every time I wanted to paint something white, for example, he'd say what kind of white---now I can see the differences between a cool white and a warm white, a white with bluish undertones, etc.  Still can't decorate worth a darn though.

Nancy, re the porch ceiling, a light blue ceiling isn't just trendy, it's historical.  In Charleston, for example, porch ceilings were often painted a light blue to ward off evil spirits.  This blue even had a name, haint blue.  The spirits were called haints, which I suppose is a colloquial form of haunt.  You can even find the color sometimes.  The house is looking great and I look forward to more "in progress" pics.  

Lisa, love the orangutan and baby!

Chrissy, I'm getting excited about your new camera too.  Of course you can be frugal.  Just look at all the money you saved on this one purchase!  

Carole, hope the vertigo continues to get better and hope your doc can give you something that will help.

I know there're others I wanted to respond to but if I go back I'll lose this.  So, for now, good night ladies!

Kathy

Thanks lilyrose, I would gladly travel to all my bco sisters places and help them out!!! I had compression stockings years ago and had too much trouble pulling them up! Even with rubber gloves on. I had to have my DH take them off. I have muscular (large) calves though I have petite ankles (no shankles here) so it was an awkward fit. 

I get vertigo with this eye issue as well so I can relate to what poor carole is going through. I have used up 4 boxes of Gravol in a month! I need to see a sub-specialist and the doc I saw put ASAP on the referral, but we just had a long weekend here and everyone seems to slow down.

I don`t SEE the colour combos, I just instinctively seem to know what works. A big, big tip for y`all is to just take the colours out of a patterned fabric, carpet or whatever that you love. The manufacturer wouldn`t have produced the item unless it worked, so any of those colours go together!

Oh dear Wilsie!! Of course your family is in my prayers. How very, very scary for you all. Hugs all around, sweetie!

My goodness Wilsie, prayers for you and your family.  I so hope things will improve very soon for him.

Lilyrose, glad you're approaching the end of the taxol.  I didn't have chemo but certainly sympathize with those who go through it.  You sound good and I hope this one treats you kindly!

Barbe, I'm anxious to hear what your sub-specialist says about your eyes.  You've been through so much with this and I'd imagine the double vision is maddening.  Can you drive or are you grounded from it?  Just be careful, dear one.  

We got sad news yesterday--one of DD's lifelong friends was pregnant with twin girls and she learned that one had died.  They did a c-section yesterday and the surviving twin is fine, thankfully.  The actual delivery was planned for later this month so both weighed over 5 lbs already.  Such a very sad thing to happen, but in this case at least there's a baby to take home.  The mother and DD have been friends since 3rd grade and roomed together at college, so we've always known her.

After two weeks of kindergarten, DGS #1 is having a sleep-over here tonight.  All snug and sleeping now, but without his bedraggled, beloved Spot, his lovey.  I told him everybody needed a vacation sometimes and this was Spot's vacation, and so far so good.

Kathy

Kathy how very wise of you to bring up vacation time for lovey!! Only one of my grandsons has a `baby` and it`s that plastic giraffe that costs about $30 and is the rage for teething. It will be interesting to see when his little brother uses it for teething as the older boy is over 3 now.

Wilsie, it occurred to me that your son will feel SO much better just having you near! I fell badly on my bike once in school when I was about 13. I went home and told my siblings to call Mom at work for me. They asked if I was badly hurt, and I said no, I just wanted her to know! I just remembered that while thinking about your situation. Prayers still coming your way. Please keep us updated.

Chrissy, when I got my new digital after years of film I was kind of overwhelmed by it all and I know I still don`t use most of the features. I had years off that I could have sat down and really learned the thing, but being on pain-meds just isn`t conducive to deeper learning...if you know what I mean! Can`t wait to hear all the great features you get with this new toy.

just wanted to say hi and to everyone who needs it a big warm hug