Air Conditioner Grilling Trouble

I'm not sure why builders do this but, it always seems like those huge air conditioner or heater intakes are in the most visible places in homes with the ugliest cover over them. In my house, our grill is down a flight of stairs in direct line of sight when entering through my front door. I have always thought that was so ugly and my husband will not let me cover it because, well, it is the intake for the heating and air conditioner.

I have finally found a potential solution that may be acceptable to both of us. Pattern Cut will cut any shape pattern into wood that you can use to cover your unsightly vent. An idea I had was to have to identical vent covers made and hang them symmetrically on the wall, one to cover the air vent and the other to make it look more like a display of art. Maybe paint them interesting colors or something.

I am still playing with the idea but I'm really excited about the solution for finally hiding that unsightly eye sore.

Exterior Painting Again!

We have not painted the exterior of our home in about eight years so the time is coming that we will have to decide what to do and when. As you probably have noted, I like to research our options regarding various projects prior to jumping in with both feet. So, while looking for ideas about color for our home's exterior I found this website for something called the Coolwall system for exterior painting. Apparently the paint has some sort of special reflective properties to it that causes your home to not absorb the solar heat. I'm not sure how or if it works but it sounds pretty cool. In addition, it is billed out as a green (environmentally friendly) product and has some backing from the Department of Energy.

The product comes in some 570 colors so there must be at least one for everyone. The colors seem to range from neutral to bright and most everything in between. And, if you have any CCRs, like we do, I'm sure there are some colors that would earn approval from your neighbors and the board.

We have not tried this Coolwall system paint so I cannot say whether its claims are true about heat reflectivity that reduces energy usage but when I was explaining it to my husband he seemed intrigued, and that's saying something!

Shutter - What's Next?

I am often in the quandary when deciding which design or decorating project to take on next, there are so many I want to tackle but so little time. So after taking a long break from making any changes to our home, an almost seven year break because I made changes up until the time our twins were born then I ran out of energy for a while, I'm back!

This year I decided I am going to tackle our dining room and living room. I have a checklist a mile long, a wandering eye that points out to me so many changes in other parts of the home that I think should be made and one half year left to accomplish my task. So far, in the dining room, I have been successful in adding some paint to one wall (actually full credit goes to my husband for the paint job), rearranging the furniture (my husband moved the furniture, also), and adding tie-backs to the draperies that have been hanging there limply for, you guessed it, seven years. That's the dining room, it still needs a few more tweaks but since it's attached to the living room I'm oscillating between the two.

In the living room I finally ordered a shutter for a large arched window. About the shutter, I looked but could not find exactly what I wanted for a couple of years. I was looking for an interior raised panel shutter (that's means no slats), do you realize how difficult these are to find, and in a custom arch shape to boot? I thought I was going to have to resort to purchasing an exterior shutter and mounting it interiorly (like my new word?). But, eureka! I found this awesome local company when I was perusing Angie's List one day, they were the highest ranked company in my area and they can order exactly what I want. Wow, what a find! (I'll save a discussion of Angie's List for another day.)

So, the owner of the company came to my home and took measurements. Right now we are in the color matching phase. The company that makes the shutter will custom match any color and it provides a nice array of standard colors, to boot. But I chose to match my existing trim color. As soon as we can get a complete color match, my shutter will be delivered and installed. That will be the first new element in my living room in the past seven years.

Then the design and decor can really begin!