Eh, there is a cause and effect, even if not direct. We live in a house built by my wife’s great grandfather, furnished (at least in part) with stuff that her family had acquired over 150 years or so, lovingly restored first by her father, then by me. Could we afford to do what we have done lacking that? Maybe, but it would have hurt. Generational wealth is a very real thing. And certainly a chunk of why our kids are living an easier life than either of us did. It is certainly also true that we make a good bit more than the average citizen, but the generational accumulation amounts to a very not insignificant chunk of our total market value, so to speak.
16 Likes
10 Likes
Every tool can be a hammer though. 
9 Likes
“Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. people paint over solid wood. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.”
–Monty Python, Holy Grail. Probably.
At the instruction of our realtor prior to our listing of this joint, I am burying yes burying solid red oak (and honey oak) cabinets in layers upon layers of oil-based primer and a specific cabinet and trim [water-based] paint that sells, at least in Austin, for $90/gallon.
So I am painting, gritting my teeth, trying to focus on readying this place for market.
I am on a mission. Yes. I must complete the mission.
“We will bury you.… in layers of white paint.”
–La Femme Nikita Kruschev Stewart, interior decorator. Probably.
20 Likes
Yeah, make everything a vanilla off-white. Sigh, I’ve heard that advice before. No accounting for taste, I guess. Aim for the lowest common denominator.
14 Likes
The Joanna-Gaines-ifying of the central Texas housing market is an overwhelming force. Painted furniture. A lot of painted furniture.
I have lost count of the real and virtual paperbags I need to breathe into.
Maybe her couches suck less now that they (and she) are featured in Architectural Digest.
12 Likes
Ikea products come in a variety of materials and price points. There’s not just one carboard or particle board or solid wood type. The Product Details and Materials link on the web site will tell you exactly what each product is, they’re not trying to hide it. That’s one of the nice things about Ikea not a drawback. It’s up to the buyer to decide if the price or material is more important.
I’ve had Ikea stuff that wouldn’t or barely survived a move that was super cheap. I’ve also had sturdy more expensive Ikea stuff that’s been through multiple moves just fine. Products purchased at different times of life and with different goals.
11 Likes
I’m with you about 90% of the way. When I moved into my current residence, the deck was painted a strange fleshy color. When it wore down and needed refinishing, I was expecting pressure-treated wood but found cedar instead. Needless to say, that deck was never painted again!
That said, there is a lot of wood furniture with filler or just unattractive wood that I have no problem with painting. Poplar is often a sickly green color that is, IMO, improved with a nice coat of paint. But I do rage when I see oak or cherry painted over.
17 Likes
Much of the trim in my house is not very pretty when stripped, so I repainted it once I had the layers of old crap off. A lot of antique furniture was also painted when it was built, because a finish meant you had the money to not have everything look like you made it yourself. Remember, even back then, most people were capable of many things but not very good at them. Maybe they could build a table that didn’t rock, but that doesn’t meant it was necessarily pretty. I have learnt this about my DIY skills over many years and many almost functional repairs.
6 Likes
This happened to me in an Air BnB in Killington, Vt, except it was the metal hinge bracket that bent. I bent it back as best I could; it was really flimsy and bent just with hand pressure. Contacted the owner to let them know and they were similarly gracious about it.
5 Likes
While couch shopping, I visited some insane website that had a $5000 concrete couch. A hideous rectangular concrete thing made of two thick slabs at a right angle, with a couple foam slabs stuck on the seat and back. I did not check out what the shipping cost was for that bit of high class elegance. My BF said it would be perfect for a concrete brutalist building.
Mom bought an Ashley couch & loveseat set less than ten yrs ago. It was one of their less expensive ones, and she found it on sale cheap - around $1000 - at a place Down South who had two men truck it up here and assemble it. Two of the drilled holes for the feet were so badly misplaced, all three of them were shocked. One of the guys said to mom, “The way they did that, it’s as if they were really mad at you.” A power drill was among their weaponry, and all was eventually well. She gave them V nice tips.
Both pieces needed replacing years ago. The feet and the wood trim on the front, on the rolled arms and bottom, are very pretty and nicely carved, but the cushions and backs are/were hopeless. The couch made mom’s hip hurt for quite some time before she passed. Our tossing the couch in favor of the lightly-used loveseat offered only brief respite before it began hurting my BF & me. Very disappointed by the lack of durability.
Our two previous couches/couch &LS set had lasted far longer, and only one set was expensive. It was semi-custom, with extra padding on the rolled arms.
We got this green velvet couch from amazOMG a coupla weeks ago.
for $700. It has rolled arms. The chaise involves a storage ottoman and is reversible, the cushions can be switched around, and the cushion covers come off & are machine washable. The feet are ugly and made of plastic, as a bonus. It’s nice & firm; it feels like the cushions’ll last way longer than the last ones. It’s also massive - about 7 ft long - but it’s in front of a wall that’s probably close to 3X its length in its entirety. It’s suitably old fashioned for this Edwardian home. Two old friends came over & got it assembled with much laughter and ribbing and silliness in around 45 mins. They like it as much as we do. It’s comfortable and looks great.
He also ordered a pretty green velvet loveseat with rolled arms and a lovely arched back from amazOMG for not much over $500,
but now we don’t know when TF they’ll ship it.
Its color swatch is super close to the one for our couch.
Given the experience of the posters above re: their friends’ and the air b&b convertible couches, I don’t think we’ll frequently use the underseat storage it offers, if at all.
8 Likes
Oh yes, don’t get me wrong. I’m just saying having money to start with is a very useful step in building wealth. And people without that money struggle to build it because they can’t get ahead for systemic reasons. My husband wasn’t born wealthy (and I grew up even poorer than he did). His father was an immigrant who had to work very hard to create the solidly middle class base that gave his children the opportunities they have now. Luck was a huge part of it, though, without going into all the details. Neither of us thinks this system is fair, we’re just relatively fortunate.
11 Likes
Our 1910 Queen Anne with gorgeous bare oak everywhere - including the leaded beveled glass pocket door between the living and dining rooms and matching swinging doors by the entry hall - has entered the chat
Fuck painting pretty wood. Crap wood, who cares? Sexy oak, mahogany, etc, fuck that!
If idiots who want white painted woodwork and all gray walls buy yr place, let them ruin it themselves. You shouldn’t have that on your soul, dearest.
15 Likes
One of the first things we did when we took possession of the 1890 homeplace was rip out the crappy (once nice, but old and tattered) carpet to find old solid oak plank flooring, strip the paint from the gorgeous oak and hickory doors and refinish the old mahogany sleigh beds. Still work to do. The mahogany dining table (which stretches to 10 ft long!) needs help, but one job at a time. Not even sure you could find stuff like this currently, aside from custom made stuff.
17 Likes
Mahogany and teak timber is really difficult to source in the size needed to make large furniture anymore (which is probably a good thing given the ecological and socioeconomic impact of harvesting those woods). For teak it’s easier to buy the cheap but poorly-built furniture made from it, tear it down, and rebuild it as you want than to raid 5 states worth of Woodcraft stores to get the necessary 100-ish board feet…
11 Likes
Just so long as it isn’t someone coming by and actually shitting on my couch.
6 Likes
6 Likes
That table sounds divine, and like a lotta work. The beds, too. Wow!
I love old houses so much; the ugly ticky tacky crap ones depress me no end. I prefer plaster to “walls” a toddler could put a fist through…and the places with hardly any interior walls.
We’re having a whole new (small) back porch installed as I type. The contractor’s fixing up a sexy old home a coupla block N of us.
I think the leaking roof comes next…
Thank fuck my BF tapped his completely-forgotten-about so-called retirement fund, and for the federal, state, and Historic District funding available to our neighborhood’s residents. The latter paid for our desperately needed new front porch steps this past Autumn, whose predecessors had been described as “a hot mess” by the funding lady
Oh, and Young Topaz has decided the old loveseat is His. He sleeps on it and uses it as a jungle gym. He knows better than to behave that way with the new couch. Both cats were pretty freaked out by the arrival of the three huge boxes, then the Two Loud Guys putting the couch together a few hours later, and the couch itself. Young Topaz finally flirted with it - tail straight up, back feets on tiptoe, arched his back, and rubbed a hip against a corner of the coffee table while gazing upon it - before walking over, giving it a brief sniff, and heading right underneath it 
The first 3-4 days, he spent far more time under than on it. I’m on my machine at one end, and he’s currently sound asleep at the other.
11 Likes
Hands you a drain unblocker.
3 Likes
