Tag Archives: pull shades

This Old House

27 Apr

I read an article a day or so back, listing things that made a house seem dated. Paneling, wallpaper, brass chandeliers, pull shades, and drapes with tie backs.

Well, there you go, folks.  When we moved in, every single room on the ground floor was paneled. I felt as if I was living in a coffin! Not only that, but the paneling in the bathroom splintered when it got wet! Who thought that was a good idea? We did get that covered over – with wallpaper – about ten years after we moved in, but it took me for-bloody-ever to convince The Squire we needed to Do Something with the living room. Even at that, I had to agree to leave the fireplace wall uncovered, although the dear man did finally admit we should have done it years ago.  The chandeliers in the dining room are brass, and it is both wainscoted and papered. We have pull shades in the bedrooms; light and airy doesn’t cut it if you want to sleep past 4 AM around here.  As a matter of fact, we also have pull shades in the living room, but they are all the way up out of sight. We only use them when we have company spend the night.

The problem is that my taste in decorating pretty much begins and ends with Federal style furniture. Williamsburg is my ideal. The guest room, which we redid in the spring of 2016, is more-or-less “country” style but other than the kitchen, that’s the most modern room in the house. I do draw the line at cooking with a wood stove.

So – it’s dated.  Nothing in the house is orange or avocado, we don’t have any shag rugs, and I don’t have a slew of magnets on the fridge.

Deal with it.

 

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The Perversity of Inanimate Objects

29 Nov

Maybe it’s only at our house.

I have written often – and with great feeling – about the fluorescent lights that hang around our house. The one in the den only worked once every six months, and woe betide the person who turned it off by sheer force of habit. We were often reduced to using the computer by the glow of a kerosene lamp. Talk about irony! The one in the bathroom just took its own sweet time. Generally, it waited until you had done whatever it was you came in to do, and smiled at you as you walked out the door. I’ve showered by candlelight more than once.

After changing the bulbs, to no avail, The Squire bought new switches for both rooms. Both lights have worked perfectly ever since. The one in the bathroom did stumble slightly, but The Squire shook his fist at the ceiling and snarled, “You an be replaced, you know!” The light came on immediately. (I’m perfectly serious.)

The smoke detector in the kitchen is hyperactive. We have a self-cleaning oven (Woot! Woot!) so I am reasonably sure there’s nothing burnt on it there, but every time I turn it on the smoke alarm goes off. Really? Setting it on 100° F to put bread on to rise is dangerous?  Boiling water will make the thing start shrieking!  Yeesh!

Sunday night, I glanced into the kitchen as I headed up to bed, and the room was flooded! The dishwasher had decided that draining was too much trouble. Fill, yes. Drain, no.  Luckily, our friend Mac has a wet-vac, so I drove over there to grab it.  Worked a treat!

A few weeks ago the pull-shade on my side of the bed stopped working. I think the spring has died, but I’m not sure. I spent a couple of days reaching under the drapes to roll and unroll the thing by hand. The Squire suggested I switch it with the one over the window a/c (duh!) which I did. As I slotted it into position, the bloody thing unrolled  completely, all the way down to the floor! Arrgh!

And what’s with the thermostat? We have programmed it to remain at 68 during the day, and drop to 62 at 9 PM.  Every morning it has hiked itself back up to 70. Turn it down, and it will stay there until about 3 in the afternoon, and those hot flashes I keep having are not because my hormones are out of whack.

The water heater much prefers to be set at 130°, never mind what we want.

As I said, maybe it’s just at The Rice Paddy.

 

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