or more precisely

[kaigou]

this...



is now



Moulding still to be done, but otherwise? Yeah.

Comments

[kathmandu]

So is the doorway in the second pic one of the doorways in the first pic? How does the vantage point of the second pic relate to the vantage point of the first?

[kaigou]

I didn't have an original picture from the same juncture, and the bed was in the way of a straight-on picture to duplicate the first... so it's a little awkward, sorry. Basically, where the half-way sticks out (on the left) is now full-wall, and where the opening is (to where you can see into the alcove and the closet and bathroom) is now covered by the pocket door. Also, the original shows dreaded popcorn ceiling, which is now gone (in all but the bathroom, which will be the final step).

[kathmandu]

Very nice work.

[kaigou]

Eheh, thanks. All day, I've kept wandering back into the bedroom and wondering why it feels so much BIGGER.

[okaasan59]

Love the color and the pocket door.

[kaigou]

The color is rather odd -- it looked like mostly gray on paper, and on the wall in the foyer, it looks a medium gray -- but in the bedroom, it shifts from a light gray to a soft blue as the day changes. I've grown to really like that about a lot of the valspar paints -- the brand uses so much pigment in a lot of its paints, it adds a natural complexity. (Plus the paint on the pocket-door wall is the new scrubbable -- really scrubbable, like with comet! -- paint, which has an additive to make it scrubbable, but also tends to increase its reflectivity when it comes to natural light.)

[branchandroot]

Sweet!

[kaigou]

Eheheh, I'd be even more proud of myself if I'd also managed to arrange an in-home massage therapy visit to recover. Because sheesh, it would've done me some good today...

[trickster_tree]

Ooh, I love a good pocket door.

Also, you certainly weren't lying about the original lights. Youch.

[kaigou]

Yeeeeeeah... they're very, uh, retro. Or maybe it's just that they're old enough they've come back around in coolness again, or so I've been told. But then again, the two people who liked them -- the architect who gave us a lot of the first ideas for the house -- and my sister -- are both rather, shall we say, quirky people, anyway. Artists, y'know.

[ticktocktober]

I had to google pocket doors, but now that I know what it is, have two thumbs up and a 'Fuck yeah!'. :D

Also, that's really neat about the complexity of the color- I'll have to keep valspar in mind.

[kaigou]

Considering Valspar is sold at Lowe's -- the cheaper of the big boxes -- you wouldn't expect it to be such a quality paint, but it is. Then again, I've also found it really does help to prime the wall before you paint. Cheaper by contrast, yet it makes the more expensive tinted final coat paint go on easier and evenly, reducing the need for multiple coats of the expensive stuff.

[ticktocktober]

Yeah, my dad has always been rather... 'adamant' about priming before painting, and about painting properly overall. I was fifteen before he let me pick up a brush to help him with the porch, and that was after a lengthy lecture about how to use it. As in, he spent twenty minutes explaining different techniques for different situations, and then started demonstrating. :)

[irrelevant]

Oh wow, those original lights...

I like the lighting effect you've achieved with the blue, and more houses ought to come with pocket doors. Great work.

Also, I just went to comment on one of your locked posts on LJ and found I couldn't because for one reason or another, neither of us gave the other access over here on DW. Oh well, long boring comment was long and boring. Anyway. *accessorizes you* *snerk*

[kaigou]

ahah! *accessiblorizes you in return*

Yeah, the original lights are, uhm, original. Honestly, if it didn't require ripping out a 30" section of wall to the side of any door (which usually also means redoing the electrical), I'd probably replace just about every door in the house with pocket doors. Much more space-efficient, really. A hassle when it comes to the spatial relationships of getting it all square, plumb, and level at the same time, but once you're over that stage, the rest is relatively easy. (Except for hanging the actual door, which was the only mandatory-two-person part of the entire project.)

[ningyo]

Love the sliding door--great touch. Nice work overall, too.

[kaigou]

I look at what I did when I started renovating the house, and what I can do now, and I am totally like, I have come a long way! ...and wow, I still have a much longer way to go. Though I'm hoping if I moan loud enough, I might be able to talk someone in the family into giving me a biscuit joiner at year's end. I could really use one of those.

[ningyo]

You picked a kick-ass shade of blue, that's for sure. I can smell the salt air just by looking at it.

Hell, what's a biscuit joiner? Quit making me learn, you... (trudges off to find out)

[ningyo]

Okay, so... biscuit joiners. They look sickeningly expensive. I'll cross my fingers that you'll be able to find one at a decent price--that, or get one from Santa.

[leorising]

Wow! That was a lot of work, obviously. No wonder you're a little sore! I love the pocket door and think you did a great job with the ceiling and walls. Cool color on the walls, too, and it's interesting to know that about valspar paint.

I think you're allowed to sprain your elbow patting yourself on the back for this one (not that you are, but you could if you wanted to,) yes indeed. Well done!

[kaigou]

I do my best to sprain myself regularly anytime I come within a mile of actually FINISHING something. It's a pretty rare concept, when you measure everything up. I'll have to stop with the congratulating if I can't get the moulding up in the next few days -- because CP will start to get that shifty look of "oh, no, another unfinished project" -- which kinda takes the bloom off, y'know?

[sharibet]

Gorgeous! I love blue, and the pocket door with the multiple panes and natural wood frame is perfect.

[kaigou]

Once I discovered the ease of shellac, there was NO GOING BACK. It sounds so intimidating, but it's the easiest stuff to work with, and incredibly forgiving. Do a coat, sand lightly, wipe, do another coat, repeat until you get bored, and it dries between coats in like an hour -- perfect for a short-attention span like mine, that would lose interest if it took five days to do three coats.

Now I just have to drill for the pull-out thingie, and figure out whether I'll even do insets for handles on the side (to close from when it's fully open). Not sure whether I'll bother, really, because it slides so smoothly.

oh and apropos of nothing, I have the next chapter of KmO about 80% done...

[jena13.livejournal.com]

Ooh exciting news all around. ^-^

I love love love pocket doors. My house has them on almost all interior doors, and it's fantastic. You don't really realize how much space doors take up until you don't have to worry about it anymore. Of course, you also lose the door as a space to hang things from (hooks in the bathroom for robes, for example), but it's so worth it.

Pocket doors also make the house much more accessible for limited mobility folks, which is why my house has them - the house was built with my father-in-law in mind, who had really bad arthritis and was in and out of a wheelchair for the last 10 years or so of his life. So we have pocket doors, no stairs, and extra wide doorways, all of which are completely awesome.

My rambling aside, great choices on your part, and it looks gorgeous! :)

[sharibet]

I love natural woods--my own kitchen is done almost entirely in pale oak (cabinets and hardwood floor) with pale green walls and a malachite-green Silestone countertop. The rest of my teeny condo is accented with honey-colored oak (all of my cabinets and stair railings).

I'm not nearly as handy as you are, though. I'll paint and/or varnish if I have to, but a chore rather than a pleasure.

> oh and apropos of nothing, I have the next chapter of KmO about 80% done...

Oooh! Yay!

I wasn't going to push, because I know how it is trying to write when there's no inspiration, but I'll be very happy to get the chance to see what happens next. (Love your Raymond Chandler quote icon, BTW!)

I haven't been writing lately, other than what's required for work--the events of this summer really silenced the voices in my head, and they haven't really come back yet. I've opened the files for my work-in-progress a few times out of a sense of obligation (I'm a writer, therefore I should be writig!) but realized I hate everything I've written for this first draft, and so have closed the files again, waiting for another time.

[ivoryandhorn]

That's such a gorgeous shade of blue, and the pocket door is so cool.

[kaigou]

I admit it, my inner five-year-old did nothing but swing the door open and closed about twenty times after I installed it. Weeeeeeeeeeee.

[snarp]

Nice! I add my voice to many praising the color.

[kaigou]

Oi, it was total luck. (More like, I've made good friends with the folks in my local hardware store's paint department, and I depend on them to do major color-picking for me.) It looked more gray on the original chip, and I was really worried it was going to be a repeat of the color my mom had picked for the living room -- that caused a friend to walk in and tell us if we'd only told him, he could've picked up several gallons of the color real cheap at the city's navy yard. *eyeroll* ...which ruined gray for me, as wall color, for years.

[whatistigerbalm]

I have blue walls too! \o/ Gorgeous.

[littlerhymes]

Wow, I love the colour!

[dejla]

Very nice!

[sothcweden]

Wow! And I love the pocket door.

[dragonhand]

Ooooh, pretty. Pigment packed paints are awesome. I love that it changes in different light. Several colors for the price of one. Nice. And playing with the door for the win. Get that moulding up so I can say congratulations! XD