Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Changes In The Hallway

Maybe it is just me...


I will confess to having an advanced case of Feng Shui Disorder.
But I think even people without the disorder would find all these different door knobs in one hallway disturbing.
I need every design detail of my house to be "right".
It just bugged the heck out of me every time I had to walk through the hallway and see a different style door knob on each door that I passed.

I mean serious...what were the previous owners thinking?
Did they decide that the house would be more interesting if the door knobs didn't match?
You know...so when they had people come over they could show them the latest style door knob that they had bought?  



Enter my handy hubby hero, who has now installed matching door knobs.
Soon the hinges will be installed that will match the oil rubbed bronzed knobs.


I will feel so much better when everything is perfectly matched.
But wait!
There's more hallway changes to report!

Two years ago when we were remodeling our house, we purchased wide oak wood work, custom milled, because we had to replace the old white painted wood trim in the living room.
We purchased enough wood to also do the hallway, but as the remodel dragged on and on and on...we frankly ran out of nerves due to people messing up our house all the time, and also out of budget for that final bit of work.
The last of the wood trim has been up in the garage rafters waiting for a time when our nerves were steady and our dollars had been restored.





















Finish carpenter Brent was called in to make a bid on the job.
He didn't expect that he would also need to have an official Orange Cat interview while he was taking measurements for the bid.
The dollars came in right, and Brent also got a tail flagged up from Tate.
 We awarded him the job without any further hesitations.
Above picture is in the hallway while it still had the white trim...


White trim off...looking back into living room.


Trim off looking into the kitchen.


Trim off, looking down the hall into the guest room.
(Am I boring you? Hang in there...it gets better.)


Looking into our bedroom and around the hallway cabinet.


Tate snoopervising....


And gives his approval of the deconstruction part of the project.


(You can see that the shiny brass hinges are still in place.  I am breathing deeply and trying not to let that bother me...)


Bernie actually took these construction pictures. I don't quite understand why this view was significant enough to warrant a picture, but then again, I have never worked in the construction industry.
Maybe it has something to do with the shim? 
Shim: the little piece of wood jammed in to make something level.
See?  I have picked up a little bit of woodworking lingo over the years. 


Notice how wide the white stripes are at the floor level?
The new woodwork had to be wider than the old wood work because with years of paint there had become a small ledge formed above the old wood work.
It actually was more cost effective to get wider wood than attempt to delete the paint layers evenly.

There was quite a bit of plaster dust in the air, but Tate stayed on the job snoopervising despite that hardship.


It was really exciting when the new wood started to go up!


View to guest room with door casing installed.


Bathroom door and hall closet doors done.


Our bedroom...


The hallway looking back to living room.
(I wish the floors had been vacuumed before these pictures with taken, seeing the construction dust on the floors is stirring up my Feng Shui disorder again.)


Top of the stairs.  The white trim just narrow enough that there was a gap between the top of the stairs moulding and the living room door moulding.


And a look up from down stairs.

The whole job only took two days, one man and one cat to complete.
On time and under budget too!

(Thanks to everyone who was involved with making this project happen!)

7 comments:

RoeH said...

Looks very nice! I've always wanted to buy one of those great homes in the Avenues and then start finding treasures. I have a great-great-etc uncle that built one on H Street. I think it's 175 H street or something like that without looking it up. The new owner found my history blog and contacted me wanting to know about the history of the house. There is a little that's interesting.

ellen b. said...

Ahh yes it does look a lot better. How nice to find a handy good worker to do it for you! We have 2 doors and trim down...2 to go!

Pondside said...

You are not alone! Door knobs, trim, flooring - I can't bear bad Feng Shui. We've lived in so many houses over the years and some have been really, really bad with jarring notes at every sight-line.
Your hardware and trim are beautiful, calming - just right!

Judy said...

It's all looking lovely over there, Jill. Funny...I never noticed the mis-matched knobs when I walked down the hall...but I love the new ones.

Lovella ♥ said...

Looks good. I can still remember when everyone took off wood and added painted white to brighten up the homes. . and now. . .warmth has returned to homes.
It took us quite a few years to replace the odd door knobs in the house. Not everyone who lived here with me thought it was important. My oldest son and I did the job when the husband was at work.

Vicki said...

It looks great! I love the ORB knobs, too. FOCIT Tate did an outstanding job of seeing that this was done right.

I, too, have issues with mismatched hardware in our house. I'm still chomping at the bit about having the polished brass knobs, pulls, and light fixtures out of here! ORB will be replacing as much of it all as possible. My one regret: in our bathrooms, we chose polished chrome...and my gut kept saying, "ORB...ORB..." but the other occupant of this house was very hesitant!

(Pssst...don't hit "Delete. LOL!)

L&D said...

It does look lovely. And lively!!!
I dig the door knobs. Good choice.