To understand why this is bizarre, you need to know that although we both now live in Utah County, I haven’t visited her home since she lived in Berkeley, CA  about a decade ago!  I don’t think she has ever been to my home either here or in Berkeley.  Apparently, she snapped the photo because she loves rainbows, but she had no idea that it was my home.  So,  we are Facebook and e-mail friends, yes, live at most a  few miles from each other, yes, but real-life house visiting friends? well–not yet.  (I’m  not opposed.  I’m  a regular reader of My Imaginary Blog because her children are beautiful, charming, and witty.  Not to mention Zina herself). 

So, er, if you are going to post pictures of someone else’s house, car, child etc., I recommend including with it a rainbow , a unicorn, or a puppy dog, NOT  disparaging remarks, because you know, it is a small world after all.

The oak table I hope to replace

Oak is the most durable choice, and undoubtedly what you should choose if you like the way it looks. Oak is also cheaper than many of the other choices. I saw a nice solid oak table that you could get with 10 chairs for $2000 at IM home. This weekend I visited my parents and admired their 25 year old oak table. They’ve refinished it a few times and now it looks almost as good as new. That table lasted through their children’s growing up years and now looks to be headed far beyond. It is proof that a good table could be a lifetime investment.

Maple is also very hard and is a great choice if you are going to have the furniture painted. It is not known for its beautiful grain and doesn’t take stain very well though. If you are looking for something to stain dark, you need to keep looking.

Alder is known for its beautiful grain. Unfortunately, Alder is the softest of the hardwoods and will mar comparatively easily. If you like the distressed look that is popular now, Alder works well for that. Alder also stains very nicely.

Cherry is my favorite. Cherry is softer than oak and maple but considerably harder than Alder. All woods darken with age–have you ever seen a light colored antique? But cherry is particularly known for this. It can darken dramatically with age, so beware if you are trying to match other pieces of furniture! A dark stain slows the color change, but UV rays will still penetrate. If you like dark wood, cherry takes a dark stain beautifully. To me, cherry says elegance.

There are other beautiful hard woods–walnut and mahogany for example–but I haven’t found a good place yet to buy a solid wood table made out of these.

One of the most important things I discovered is that it is possible to get a nice-looking solid wood dining table without veneers. However, as Robin said in response to my earlier post about dining room tables, they can do things with veneers that they can’t (or usually don’t) do with solid wood, so the veneered tables usually look fancier/more elegant/prettier.

What is your personal experience with these woods? Would you choose the wood your furniture is made out of again? Why or why not?

I  like the dark wood and it is just the right size:  74″ not extended, 108″ fully extended–which is just what we were looking for.  I didn’t seek out something quite so ornate, but if I were going to get something like that, this is the design I would pick.        

The chairs that match the table are HUGE.  They are really big, really wide, and really heavy.  They are also noticeably uncomfortable to sit in.  They wouldn’t offer any support while you were eating–they angle backwards.  And if you did lean back against the back of the chair, the pretty pattern turns out to be a pretty pain. 

I’m curious: Do you have dining chairs that look nice and are comfortable?  Or am I in search of a unicorn?    

Also, we have three youngish children.  1) Not only do the chairs not fit them (since none of us are tall they actually don’t fit any of us) but they would not even be able to scoot themselves in for the foreseeable future.  2) This table is mostly solid wood, but the top is a veneer.  Veneer = child does something awful, table is ruined.  We would prefer to get a table that was all solid wood (no veneer), but several salespeople have claimed that formal tables don’t come that way.  (You can get oak, but we don’t want oak).  My mother in law has a beautiful formal solid wood table, but it was made about 100 years ago.  Do they really not make them that way any more? 

In your opinion, how long is it worth it to look for or wait for the perfect table? I am frightened to have them come pick this back up because I am afraid that I will never see a table I like so much again. On the other hand, I am terrified not have them picking it up, because I know these chairs are a mistake!

The only problem with having my mom visit is that it reminds me of what a poor housekeeper I am (Despite some at times half-hearted, at times a lot more than half-hearted, efforts to be otherwise!). Somehow the neat and tidy gene that both my parents seem to have has skipped me. I inherited their desire for neat and tidy but not the make-it-happen part.

Anyway, one of the truly helpful things she did while she was here was to organize our games closet which had fallen into a state of entropy so complete that some of us doubted it could ever be restored. Et voila!

The Pfamily Game Closet: What a difference a grandma makes!

I was so inspired by the transformation that on Monday I tackled my own clothing closet and completely cleaned it out. Take that, entropy!

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This post is about entropy and grandma appreciation. Come back tomorrow for a discussion of which games are good/fun and why. I’d love to hear what’s in your games closet!

Next, we needed a new door. I love natural light. One of the very best things about our house of many flaws are the huge windows and large sliding glass doors. Our home is filled with light, but the entrance was a noticeable exception. The old dark brown door sucked up all the light like a black hole. The white paint-splashed pink sidelite did let in a little light, but pink light in a yellow room?

I knew that decorative glass was something I was interested in. I did my research and discovered that decorative glass doors are triple paned so they are more energy efficient than you might initially guess. Also, I wasn’t swayed by the security concerns that some people mentioned. Yes, in theory a burglar could shatter my triple paned door to get into the house, but he could also do the same to the large window in the room next to the door. Privacy was the final concern mentioned by the friends and family I surveyed. I understand why this is an issue for some. The most beautiful glass doors usually do have some transparent pieces, but most designs also make use of many different textured glasses to obscure the view. And, alas, I am the woman who has gone without front window coverings for 3 1/2 years. [Yes, dear neighbor, I do plan to get window coverings. It was on the list right after that peeling green carpet. No, I haven't ordered any yet.] It would appear that privacy is not my highest value. I gathered every catalog with decorative door glass that I could get my hands on and fell in love with the Renfield pattern from Western Reflections.

View from Inside

View from Outside

Because of the difficulty of opening our old door, I was particularly concerned about ease of getting in to the new one. I don’t ever want to be locked out of the house. I don’t ever want my children locked out of the house. I lose things. So, buying a front entry keypad lock from Schlage was the right decision for us. I was afraid that it would look too utilitarian, but I am quite pleased with the result. What do you think?

Front Entry Keypad Handleset and Lock

Finally, Pdad was keen on getting an awning. Our front steps were entirely uncovered so it was possible to get quite wet while waiting for the door to open. Now, I am not sure what you think of when you hear “awning,” but I was imagining something a little downtown shop would have, some sort of sunshade made out of canvas. I was concerned that it might cut off the light to my beautiful door. I was also concerned that it would obscure the view of my beautiful door from the street [because all of you were going to drive by all day, oohing and ahhing over it, right?]

Awning

It turns out that in this case an awning is a small aluminum roof. People often order these as patio covers. I kept worrying that the top of the awning would look funny because it wouldn’t match the title on our roof. The salesman was right; you can’t see it, it isn’t a problem. I can see the top of the awning from Duncan’s bedroom window, but even there it looks fine.

We had our choice of installing a chocolate brown awning or a white one. I am so glad that we chose white. Since our entire house has brown trim and a brown tile roof, choosing white for the door and the awning was a scary decision. I was nervous that it would look ridiculous or make our off white brick look dirty. But actually, I am thrilled with the result. I think as we replace and repaint the gutters and roof trim we will want these to be white as well. Dark brown trim and offwhite bricks shouts “late Seventies!” And while I am under no illusion that we can make our house shout “built yesterday” (would we even want it to?) changing the color of the trim updates it quite nicely.

Old Front Door

So, this is what our porch looked like when we moved in. When we bought the house we said that the peeling green carpet on the stairs had to go–immediately. It seems that for us, immediately is 3 1/2 years. The front door had a lot of character, too much character. Although it must have been beautiful when brand new, its best days were well behind it when we moved in. “Weatherbeaten” is far too kind. Also, energy efficiency? Daylight was visible around each edge of the door. Sometime in the last year the hardware gave out. This was a fun one for making our guests feel like prisoners. No one could leave our house without our say so because only four earthlings knew the trick for opening that door. Entering the house was also a tad embarrassing. By the end, it was necessary to actually turn around and give the door a great mule kick to get it open. This picture doesn’t showcase it well, but on the right hand side there was a pink/red marbled plastic sidelite. High decor.