That pot really tied the room together

- Ali Burtt

It’s been a busy couple of days. Seriously, stuff just kept breaking. We had intended to have a fun and relaxing weekend, with a trip to a friend’s house for pipe smoking and good conversation for Doug and a trip to a few thrift stores and an estate sale or two for me.

Instead we got this.

And this.

And this.

So, 7 hours and $2250 later, we now have a new air conditioner.

The HOA paid for the heat pump outside so I’m not sure what the replacement cost was, but the furnace inside was our responsibility. Guys, we did not try to DIY this. A thermostat, maybe. The entire heating and air conditioning system? No.

The good news is that the new system is under warranty for 15 years, and being stuck at home let me make some progress in the office. The even better good news is that we had funds saved up for just this sort of problem so we were able to pay cash for the repair.

Now, on to bigger and better things (or at least more fun ones). We’re still making office progress, slowly but surely. If you’ll recall, we last left it here:

The walls were painted, but we still had the trim and ceiling to paint. Here’s the full list again.

  • declutter the space so we can see what we’re working with
  • knock out a few projects that are in the way (take apart the radio, sell or donate the old games and childhood memorabilia, figure out what to do with a big box of old trophies)
  • paint the walls, trim & ceiling
  • bring in different shelving, sell off current mismatched shelving
  • paint the “tool shed”
  • hang some curtains 
  • hang art on the walls
  • install a new light fixture
  • do something about the awful mirrored closet doors
  • add accessories that are currently in storage
  • add an area rug
So last week, we banged out the trim and ceiling painting and it looked like this:


We took the white ceiling and…painted it white. In fairness, the old ceiling was a little creamier than the crisp white I was aiming for and the trim had taken a real beating. Even a Magic Eraser wasn’t getting all the scuffs and grime off them. Now they are bright and white!
And then the following evening, we put together our new Expedit.


I think I can safely say that I have never been so excited in my life about a piece of IKEA furniture. Remember how this wall looked before?


With the two smaller mismatched Expedits? 


And the 2×2 cubby Expedit tucked there under the window? We sold all three on Craigslist, recouping about $75 toward the rest of the project.


Yeah, this is so much better. 
We also had one other accomplishment this weekend while the HVAC guys were here, but I’ll wait until tomorrow to share that one. I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with “tapes”.

Oh, one more thing. I had a sad little accident on Friday. I was ironing something for the next step of our office makeover, and the air conditioning was broken so I had the windows open. However, if you’re a local, you may recall that the end of last weekend was particularly, annoyingly, unusually windy. 

Anyway, remember this nice pot?


Well, the Wiinblad serigraph was propped up against the wall ready to be hung and a gust of wind blew it over. In blowing over and falling off the dresser, it knocked the pot off the dresser with it. The pot hit the edge of the ironing board and shattered into about a million tiny pieces.

Waaaaa. Picture me crying here. Okay, so I didn’t actually cry, but I felt like I could. It’s vintage so it’s not like I can just go out and buy another one. I definitely mourned. 

That pot really tied the room together.

So now I will be on the lookout for a similar accessory to put near the Bjorn Wiinblad serigraph.
And now for the round-up of where we are now.
  • declutter the space so we can see what we’re working with
  • knock out a few projects that are in the way (take apart the radio, sell or donate the old games and childhood memorabilia, figure out what to do with a big box of old trophies)
  • paint the walls, trim & ceiling
  • bring in different shelving, sell off current mismatched shelving
  • paint the “tool shed”
  • hang some curtains 
  • hang art on the walls
  • install a new light fixture
  • do something about the awful mirrored closet doors
  • add accessories that are currently in storage
  • add an area rug
So what did you do this weekend? Any major home repairs putting a cramp in your style?
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