Monthly Archives: January 2014

  • master paneling

    We’ve been tackling some master bedroom projects, which I’ll need to spread over a few posts. With no need to insulate, we skipped ahead to restoring (yet more) wood paneling. We actually started this a while back, before we’d painted the ceiling beams gray. We planned to restore this wall from the start. It faces …

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  • walnut creek

    Just before Christmas, we took a trip to Walnut Creek, to check out Rancho San Miguel –home to about 375 Eichlers, built from 1955-59 …

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  • master plan

    Sorting our guest room created a ripple effect. It gave us somewhere to store our books, meaning we could remove an unsightly built-in bookcase. This led us to restore the living-room paneling. It also gave us somewhere to sleep, allowing us to tackle our master bedroom. This is, naturally, our largest bedroom, at about 16 …

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  • ready. set. strip.

    Our paneling quest has resumed, prompted by another delivery. Ready Strip Pro is, apparently, amazing at removing multiple layers of paint. But, despite being described as “environmentally friendly” by the manufacturer, it does contain some harmful chemicals. And it’s almost impossible to buy in California. We managed to get some shipped, and promised to be …

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  • the right gray

    As you may remember, we weren’t too happy with the blueish gray we picked (Benjamin Moore 2121-20 Steel Wool) for the large wall of siding, in our living area. Though you probably won’t detect a difference, I had to let you know that we Karen repainted it. Now it’s a much purer shade gray (Sherwin Williams’ …

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  • colored cord

    Guess you’d call this a tease. An exciting (for us) delivery the other day –these colored cord samples relate to a series of future projects we’re plotting…or, more accurately, Karen is plotting. We need some wall-mounted lighting in a few areas. If money was no object, we’d buy Nelson sconces –but it is. So we’re …

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  • picking flooring

    We plan on replacing our flooring room-by-room, to phase the cost. We’ll be installing Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) throughout. We already have some very beige VCT in our living area, as shown below, behind some new samples we picked out. We rejected many more than these, and eventually settled on the center sample, Soft Warm …

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  • the bookcase

    The bookcase on the right was added by the original owners, a long time ago. This pic is when we just moved in, as I didn’t take a ‘before’ shot for this post. Anyway, while useful, it interrupts the flow, conflicts with the design, and narrows the space by our entrance. It had to go. …

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  • spraying bullets

    No, not those kind of bullets. These are wall-mounted exterior lights –original mid-century, and fitting for an Eichler. We bought them from a neighbor just after we moved in. They’ve been sat in the garage since then, but it’s time to fix them up. They were in pretty poor shape, all scuffed and scratched. I …

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