Monday, March 2, 2009

Before and After

This is our house in Fort Davis, Texas.
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I know I've rambled a lot about this house, and about Fort Davis, but we were there this time last year, and I've been thinking about it a lot, and I miss it.

We bought the house in 2003, but we hadn't lived in in for any extended length of time until last winter - January 2008 - when our tenants moved out.

Our tenants had a lot of stuff, and covered every wall and surface, but when they moved out, it looked barren. And shabby. What it needed was a paint job, and quick. So, much to Mistah's dismay, we undertook that project. Painted every ceiling, every wall, every piece of molding, baseboard, trim, cabinet. Every closet. And actually, miraculously, agreed on all most of the colors we chose.

This is the "dining area" - the kitchen is over there on the right:

This room faces east and is full of light in the morning . . .

. . . especially after we painted it mystic maize. After that we called it the Sunshine Room.

A different angle, with a peek into the kitchen. This was taken before Handy Dad came out to visit (with, naturally, Mom), and changed out all our overhead light fixtures.

We painted the kitchen, too, even though it's boring ol' off-white. Whitewash, actually. And we also painted that wall - on the right, between the oven and the fridge in the foreground - mystic maize, just like the dining room.

The "old" loo got a splashy couple of coats of sombrero. Also known - to us, anyway - as Texas Longhorns Orange. "Hook 'em, Horns". I don't usually like orange, but I love this, and I love how it makes the white trim pop. I also painted the vanity, but can't remember the name of that color.

This was the "library", before.
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And here's the library after a nice treatment of pink free spirit. This is right before we moved out. It's really too bad we don't have a photo of the room after painting, while we were still living there, because it looked lovely. It was full of books (and lots of cheap bookcases we'd amassed), a nice wood table borrowed from our friend Elizabeth, and cool chairs borrowed from our friends Lonn and Dedie. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

Here's the dung heap clothes room.
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And here it is with a couple of coats of pink sand dune. I don't have an "after" photo until this pre-moving-out one, either. This room was always kind of a mess, though, because we had no dressers, so we just draped clothes on the motley crew of chairs we'd accumulated.

It's called a "shot-gun" house: the rooms all line up, one after another, in a straight line. So you can shoot a shotgun straight through it, should the need arise. It's also a total of about 36 square feet, but has 12 doors. And 12 doorways. With 2 sides each. That's a hell of a lot of trim.

And this is the front room, the addition, the room built years after the rest of the house, which has a high ceiling and a concrete floor, and one of the outside brick walls as its inside wall. It's our living room-slash-bedroom.
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It faces west, and is a beautiful place to be in the afternoon, especially once its walls got coated with chameleon.

Lok at that. That is a lot of doorways. That open door straight ahead is the "new" loo, but the walls are covered with what showers walls are covered with, so we couldn't paint it.

I really love that brick wall. Every night I lied down on my futon in this room, and every night I said, "I love this color." We nailed it.

And that's it. We painted the outside of the addition when we bought the place in 2003 - it was gray cement, so we painted it pink San Juan Hill.

That agave was just a pup when we got him. Isn't he handsome? He never needs painting, but he does need some weeding from time to time.


And Sleeping Lion Mountain, in all its perfection, never needs a thing.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering about the floors. I love the idea of concrete floors - so easy, so cheap, so durable. What's in the rest of the place? Are those vinyl tiles? Or lino? You've done a great job with the colours

Unknown said...

Isn't that a great feeling? When you can look at something and go, "Love It!" every single time? That happened to me and our Ikea bookshelves. I miss them.

Anonymous said...

Yep... that chameleon color is poifect!

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

Anonymous said...

That is an insane number of doors! You guys really transformed it with the colors. You'll get back there Ellie. Is there something you can paint in CT? And, even though it may not look like it this morning, a beautiful Spring is coming. xo

Captain Dumbass said...

That painting was night and day for those rooms. Could you and Mistah make a road trip out to Western Canada? I'll buy the beer. And the paint.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Just yesterday I was talking about how our next house project needs to be interior paint. I had a margarita in my hand at the time though, and it seemed a lot more doable.

You'd think I would get some perks for having a color and trim genius in my family!

Jacquie

Debbie said...

I love the colors of your rooms! So warm and inviting.

The Stiletto Mom said...

Are you living there again? I just ADORE all the colors. I have almost the same green in my house and have a bathroom I'm about to wallpaper in an orange and green pattern...it's so warm and welcoming!

KG said...

I have to admit, i don't normally dig yellow as a wall color but it makes a HUGE difference in those first pictures. It looks like a fun house with a lot of character.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Chameleon rules! I'm a sucker for green, although I haven't had a green room in my home for years.

Thinking.....which room could I do green?...And when are you and Mistah coming back to SD?

You did such a fabulous painting job last time you were here, even if it was just white.

Beth

Imperatrix said...

Wow! You guys picked great colors. Now, did you roller the paint on, or did you use a sprayer? I love the idea of painting, but I hate doing it (I've only rollered it on -- a thicker coat is better, yeah?). And trim is SO not my friend.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

K. So. The floor are cheap, stick-on vinyl tiles, over old lino. Our tenant did them for us. They hide dirt *and* paint splatters.

NO. No, there is nothing here in New London for us to paint, Jane Z. Mistah Schleckah is very, very happy about this. Actually, come spring (year, right, as if it will ever arrive) we'll go back outside and redo the deck floor, and tackle the front porch. Bill's good at painting, but he hates it.

Speaking of which, Imperatrix: Rollers. Only rollers. Heavy coats, and lots of them. See Mistah Schleckah being a painting genius, above.

Beth: When in San Diego? I don't know. Cpt'n Dumbass: you're on. At least for the beer.

And Jacquie? Puh-lease. Perks? The perk is being my sibling. People all over the world wish they could be my sibling. Consider yourself duly blessed and honored. And if you had trim on your person, I would paint it.

Ellie

Lola said...

Nice picks! I love to pick paint colors, but I'll be damned if I will ever try to do the actual painting ever again.

It's my least favorite thing to do!