Friday Five: HGTV Edition

RevGalBlogPal Will Smama tells us: 

As some of you may know I am in the midst of my first home purchase. It is a new-build and so some of the fun was picking out upgrades and major decor items to my taste rather than walking into a previously owned home that needed to be upgraded room by room (pink and teal tiles in the bathroom, anyone?). As much as decorating is not my thing, I did try to embrace the moment because just how many times do you get to have a do-over on kitchen cabinets/floors/countertops?

And so, my questions to you this fine Friday involve your home past, present or future...

1) If you could, what room in the place you are currently living would you redo first?
The dining room/sunroom. It's a wonderful room in many ways, but since it also serves as the main entrance, some sort of clever rearrangement is needed. This is more a matter of "an eye" which I don't have, rather than money.
2) What is the most hideous feature/color/decor item you have ever seen in a home?
Too many to count, but to stick with one of my own homes -- our previous house had 2 layers of brown plaid wallpaper in the kitchen (sort of a glen plaid, therefore quite dense, not much white or cream in it. That kitchen had seven windows but always seemed dark until we got rid of that wallpaper. (The people from whom we bought the house seemed to like brown.  A lot.)
3) What feature do you most covet? Do you have it? If not, is it within reach?
At least a 1/2 bath on the second floor, for guests, and it would be nice for us too. We'd have to give up some of the extensive closet space but it would be doable, were it not that adding a bathroom costs way too much money.
4) Your kitchen - love it or hate it? Why?
Love, love, love it! Even the aqua tiles with purple trim (so 50s! You can see it in the picture above.) I love the spaciousness, the light, and the counter space and good number of cabinets.  I might like new flooring someday but even that is OK. 
5) Here is $10,000 and you HAVE to spend it on the place you are living now. What do you do?

If I could do that 1/2 bath for that (which might be possible given this economy), I would. Otherwise I might buy some furniture and replace at least one room of carpet with hardwood flooring.

BONUS: Why do you think there was such a surplus of ugly bathroom tile colors showcased in all homes built from the 1950's right through the early 80's?

Different tastes? Our house was built in 1951, and we have the aforementioned tiles in the kitchen, which I think are nicely funky. Then in the bathroom we have salmon and black. Not pink and black, salmon, which is very hard to decorate around as far as towel colors go. The floor tile there is shades of pink or salmon and blue, just to complicate things further. On second thought I might spend some of the $10,000 replacing that floor, which is not in tip-top condition anyway.

Another SonShineIn Project

Here's another project that SonShineIn completed, with a little help from Onkel Hankie Pants and Mr. World Domination (my nephew). One of the many places we pay property taxes is Harpswell, on this little shack and a tiny bit of land around it that we inherited. We call it Chudleigh Hall. Here it is in the 1970s:
It's a long story, believe me, you don't want to read it right now. Anyway, on this property Brother #2 had left a pile of granite and marble remnants he had come by in his work as a house painter. And they needed to come off the property. The Herbalist had a plan for some of them in the woods (I don't know the plan) but I called one scrap for a pastry slab. SSI, OHP and MWD went down to Harpswell, manhandled the slabs into the car, and got them to Bowdoinham, and SonShineIn chose the smallest and best conditioned for me, brought it home (it must weigh at least 50 lbs.), cleaned it up, bought some pads for the bottom, and voila! I was able to make a rhubarb pie to thank him. Here it is:
Now we're going to go upstairs
and watch Gone Baby Gone.

A happy cat and happier books

Just a quick post to show two of SonShineIn's projects. The first was to protect our excess books, which were stored on plastic shelving units in the basement, from the depredations caused by the cat's climbing and the dog's jumping. The idea was from Onkel Hankie Pants but most of the execution was from our own briefly-resident carpenter. Here it is:
Rusty is in the picture, trying to track the cat, who (he thinks) has disappeared. If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see the nice handles for opening; what you can't see is a caster that helps the fencing swing smoothly.
Why has the cat disappeared? SonShineIn also built her a wonderful cat tower so she can escape the dog and look out the window. I have not yet completed my task of stapling carpet on it, but she has found her special perch. Here she is:
The perch in which she's sitting (look for a round fluffy calico object, that's Heidi) was once part of a rather odd little seat that pulled out from our kitchen peninsula, probably for a small child to sit on. We now use that portion for our kitchen wastebasket. Another of the perches was a drawer front from a deceased file cabinet. I love when we can reuse things this way. Thanks again, SonShineIn!