Summer - the season of construction

We're working to get the red gallery ready as a retail exhibit space. We've been shifting the furniture that was in the room temporarily while we remodeled up stairs, and now have cleared almost everything out.

We still have to repair the window panes of the bay window and replace the storms for all the windows. The ugly green shag carpeting was pulled out, accept for that which was mounted on the bay window wall, below the windows. That will soon be peeled off and discarded as well. (But its soooooo attractive! YUK!)



We have original wood flooring throughout the room which we will be sealing with a layer of paint (as was the historical way to deal with wood floors). Along the edge of the room, you can see the remnants of the green floor pain that had been painted onto the floor where the area carpet had not been. It was a common practice at the time. We will however be painting the entire floor and then place the area rug (see in photos) back into the room.



We're also working this weekend to create more custom steel shelving. Some will be pedestal styles similar to those in the photos and others will be glass topped shelving with steel framing. Hope to border most of the room with shelving that can display works of art & fine crafts.



The process is introducing me to whole new levels of frugal. Went to the Habitat Restore and found some interior paint. Not enough of any one color to compete the tasks at hand, but its helpful having an artist at home who knows what colors will be produced when we mix different colored paints!

We've also decided that we will be using the technique in which we rag a second layer (of a different color) over the top of a previous painted area. This allows us to use less of one color to coat an entire wall or room.

Next major scrounging will be for suitable wood to make custom trim. We've got the router and hope we're able to get the needed boards to make the older styled Mop boards which are far deeper & wider than modern trim boards. In so doing, we hope to create the look of the original era of the home. Only time will tell how successful we are.



Earlier in the spring we were able to install the needed wall heating furnace. Its visible in some of the images. Unfortunately the only wall we were able to place it on was the "Red wall" which was our accent wall. Unfortunate in that the ivory colored wall heater is a blatant soar, in my opinion, on the otherwise attractive accent wall. I've considered using some camo techniques and take and build a false mantel around it so that it looks less obtrusive. I've got the needed 2x4s and wainescotting that I could perhaps full it off. As well has having recently obtained some great looking rough sawn planks which would make a great mantel.