The sun room is a little sunnier, now

The Sun room is done.

This weekend, rather than socialize watching a baseball game, concerts, airshows and fireworks at Thunder over Louisville (the biggest fireworks display in the US and the kickoff for 2 weeks of Kentucky Derby-mania) we stayed home and busted our butts to finish the sun room. After 5-plus months of tools, dirt, dust and paint cans everywhere, it all came together in one day. The rug looks great, the weird pink upholstery of the settee and chair fit it really well, the furniture fit just where we planned and all the stained-glass lamps I wanted in the room really dont feel excessive.

The bluestone wall color is receiving compliments, but its still a bit off for me. One day I might have to mix up a glaze and fix it (it needs to be a bit more dirty-green) It will make me nuts, but Ill live with it since other things are more important. One of those things is the back entrance. When you walk in the back door of the house, you are in what used to be the back porch - now the sunroom and a small, 6x6 vestibule area. I still need to cut and install the beedboard around the back door in the vestibule area, prime, paint, caulk - you get the picture. That shouldnt be a long term job - I know, make no assumptions.

Once that little area is finished its on to the next big project - the master bed room. It will be great, once its done, to no longer breath in plaster dust while we sleep. Oh, and to have a light in the room (yup, took out the ceiling fan/light last spring and havent put anything up since, just wires hangin g out of the ceiling). Since all the heavy work was done in there last spring/summer, we should be faced with just some electrical adjustment (4 of the outlets and the light switch need to be replaced - I hate electrical since there is still active Knob-and-Tube in the house and am terminally fearful of screwing it up and setting the house on fire), a lot of caulking and paint. OH, and sanding, crazy sanding and scraping. Evidently the PO's (previous owners) painted all the trim in a rush and did zero prep - the uber-bleach-white paint is peeling off in sheets exposing the buff and earth colors underneath (the buff-colored paint is oil so its probably from the 70's or so?). Mentally, I already started on the room, I am toiling over Farrow and Ball's paint book, debating inside my own head what will be the best paint application for the bed room.

For now, we revel in the completed sun room - and wonder if there is a better name for it than "sun room".

The Beauty of Blue

I am not usually much for overused literature, but i can assuredly say this is "the best of times, and the worst of times" at the Shively House. If you check out the last 2 entries, you can see the Sunroom has been the focus for the past 4 months. in between deconstructing and reconstructing it we had 2 major storms that tore up the trees in the yard. lost 7 in total (these are big treees, 40 plus feet tall) and the street light three doors down now brightly shines into out unprotected back yard. Maybe that's why it took so long to get ahead on this room.

After 3 failed attempts (and 3 gallons of paint) we went with a bluestone color for the walls, straw for the ceiling and that wonderful Sherwin Williams Ivoire for the trim. Ivoire is the perfect ivory color for me, just enough yellow to keep it warm, and enough grey to age it nicely. Check it out sometime. Blue is not a natural color for me, but its good in this situation - it was not objectionable to either of us.

It's crazy how much time we have spent on this tiny (6 x 18 foot) room. But now, unfortunately, I have alot more time to spend restoring this room. Like so many in this Depression (yeah, call a spade a spade) I lost my job and am one of many standing in soup lines and crying to employers for work. I have had the pleasure, though, in between bouts of severely depressing job searches, to meticulously paint the walls and trim.

So many little things have taken so long. Merely edging each siding board took me over 8 hours (over 3 days) and just getting the right ceiling bracket for the huge stained glass light pushed me out to Home Depot 2 times so far.

Maybe its my lack of knowledge, or my insistance that it be "historic" that contributes to these delays. In the end I think its worth it, even when assulted by all those "just paint it, no one will ever notice" comments. I notice. So, at least for now, I have the time to patiently make the room perfect for me (it is off the Dining room, where we will do 99% of our entertaining, so it really will be a central part of the house, and looks out to the Japanese Garden (albeit, without trees, now) so it will have a lovely view (someday)). And the added pleasure of completing it wihtin a few weeks (god help me if I hit another snag ...)