TWEAKS+inspiration : The Devil is in the Details

As you may have noticed, this is the year to refresh my house. After all, P always called it "my play house." I've been lucky to have great people doing the work so far. But beside the big projects, there are little details to complete. Seems like devil is in the details. Hard to believe it's been 23 years since we moved in. That's 23 year-old interior paint and 23 year-old floors and practically everything else. The kitchen was redone in 2006 but it could use some updating, including the counters I replaced in February. Let's see what else has happened.

Back in January, I ordered a chair and ottoman for the living room. I choose the same fabric as other upholstered pieces on the main floor. Performance Classic Blend in bone. As you may have experienced, there are long lead times for custom furniture this past two years. The wait was 12 weeks so they just arrived last week. While the chair is perfect (top photo), the ottoman arrived a bit funky as you can see with seams in odd places and an off centered top - Bassett Furniture is replacing, but that's another 8 to 12 weeks.

With new chair (on left) and ottoman (on right), upholstered pieces are just waiting for colorful accessories and an area rug.

Before the new floors were installed, I ordered raw oak vent covers that could be stained to match the new floors. They arrived and I thought, there must be something more interesting. For just a few dollars more, black cast aluminum vents seem like a little jewelry for the room. And they are silent, unlike the wood ones we had. P would have loved that.

George, P's communications guy, came over and pulled all wiring that wasn't needed, including 12 hardware phone outlets (above) and cable wiring which had been attached to the huge 6' satellite disk in the yard. We asked the seller to remove disk prior to us moving in but the wiring was still in every room. The painters will retexture and paint all these outlets.

In the basement, the ceiling was covered with a lattice of wires. George figured out which basement wires were for the HVAC and alarm systems and removed all the others. The exterior wires were actually crunchy. We filled a big garbage can with outdated wires.

Last week, the cords on one of the blinds over the front door broke. Steven from Blooming' Blinds came to restring. Turns out, there was a loose grommet which eventually caused the break. Restringing is sure more affordable than buying a new blind.

The plastic cleats for the blind cords for windows over the front door just look cheap.

I ordered black iron cleats which will be installed after walls are painted. $10 for four. Another little piece of jewelry for my rooms.

Another small thing was to have Handyman Tim attach casters to this IKEA cabinet. So nice to be able to move the TV around. (BTW, have you watched Restored? Super good house restoration series on the Magnolia Network.)

I've always wanted to get rid of the "travel trailer" window in the main floor bathroom. Ordered a matching slimline Milgard window from Lowe's. Hopefully, it will be here on the promised May 19 date when contractors start exterior dry rot repair and painting that side of the house. An affordable time to replace a window.

And finally, I got two quotes for interior painting. The most fun during these tweaks was hiring a color expert to guide me but that's a story for another Sunday. I do have sample paint squares in the kitchen. Can you see them? More on that once the painting starts but I'm now certain the devil is in the details. In the meantime, Happy Mother's Day everyone!