Big Plans

We have made good progress on the fascia. Matt is, as we speak, banging the new bits above the front porch, and I spent all yesterday painting the effing things. (And, once again, I have paint in my hair. This is yet another inconvenience attendant upon having frizzy hair. Stupid DNA.)

So we're getting quite close to being done--Matt may finish it up today, even. That just leaves the purchase and installation of the gutters themselves--surely that can't be more annoying than the demolition, painting, and installation of fascia?

Study Curtains
So we can turn our attention to other house projects. Matt wants us to focus on the interior for a while, and Mom has generously pledged to lead the study curtain initiative, so that will be our next big thing.

Here's what they'll look like, more or less. Velvet/velvetine/velour/chenille brown panels on the sides, the same material over the rods, and central panels made of opaque blue embroidered "silk" on the bottom and super-sheer brown gauze at the top.


Details:

• All to be hung on the same rod
• The brown panels to overlap the blue panels slightly (by an inch or so?)
• To be lined (to help with insulation)
  
• The south-facing window to have a second rod with an opaque sheet hung on it that can be pulled behind the brown-and-blue for extra insulation/sun-blocking in the summer--probably to be made of same brown velvet/velour/chenille
• To hang with about 1/2" clearance above window seat--to keep them out of cats' way
• blue panels to hang flat; brown to be more crunched
• 3 windows need curtains in the above pattern; door window to have a sheet stretched over 2 u-rods. Not sure if I meant for this to be brown or blue. Brown probly the better choice.
  

That's all the details I can think of, though Mom will undoubtedly have many more technical questions.

Still need to procure:

• brown fuzzy fabric--2.5 x the width of east side panels 10” of brown per side—consider ultrasuede. Maybe 8” per side for the side panels on south window
• sheer brown gauze
• lining fabric - confer with someone at Calico Corner
• rod for south window
• u-rods for window in door
• thread for all
• other curtain-related items I know not of?

Blue fabric sample

Update: Mom's Questions:
For the south side door and window-

• Are we doing the same treatment with the 2 sheers on both of these windows? WINDOW ONLY—for door, use gathered door curtain
• What fabric are you planning to use for the rod pocket for the south side? I am asking this because your drawing for the east side shows the brown fabric being used for the rod pocket. YES

For the east side window-

• Your blog for today says that the side brown panels will slightly overlap the center, sheer panel. I don't know how we can accomplish that since they are both on the same rod. SEW THEM OVER EACH OTHER 1-2 inches just over the rod pocket
• I am trying to remember the top sheer fabric. Is it the one that is a coordinate fabric to the blue fabric on the bottom? TOP FABRIC WILL BE SHEER BROWN; BENEATH IS BLUE.

To Do:

• Email a picture of the curtain rod you have as well as the fabric you have bought?
• Measure the 2 fabrics and tell me how much we bought?

Other Projects

We're also ramping up for more baseboard work. Somehow, we never finished the quarter-round in the dining room or living room. Matt bought some romex to wire in a couple more outlets in the den, and I bought and painted some quarter-round to go over it.

We're also looking at getting the first round of door hangings done in mid-May, which means increased work on the stripping front, starting tomorrow night. TEDIOUS. But necessary. The paint is really stubborn about coming out of those little crevices--every coat takes forever to process.

Once that's done, we're going to enlarge the pond, whose cracked plastic liner needs to be replaced anyway. We'll yank the ligustrum (which ate the pond liner in the first place) and dig a very, very, very big hole (see projection below.)


We went to a pond store in Austin for their advice on how to carry this project out (two layers of carpet remnants topped by 45mL rubber liner) and I was inspired. We may have to make the pond a wee bit larger than even in the picture above. The bigger the pond, the more powerful the effect. Little ponds aren't nearly so magically transformative. Plus, if it were more visible from the kitchen patio, we'd get even more pleasure from it.

While at the pond store, I impulse bought this nifty little spotted fellow: Drimiopsis maculata, a South African member of the hyacinth family (see the write-up at YuccaDo) I was reassured to find the plant at YuccaDo--I trust them to sell things that actually grow here. That pond store, on the other hand, was bursting with Japanese maples, fuschias (fuschias! I ask you!), and even those neat contorted filberts. I've never heard of growing filberts down here, but they had the face to charge $150 for a 5-gal! So I'm not entirely confident of their plant expertise, but the little Drimiopsis was just too cute. And the pot also held a stowaway palmetto, which is a nice bonus. I popped the two into the shade garden and am looking forward to seeing how they do.

Drimiopsis maculata ("spotted little soldiers")

Baby palmetto