The Door Fix

After I posted about the door last week two readers wrote to me to suggest I purchase an ODL Add-On Blind for the door. So I checked it out and found it at Home Depot. It wasn't in stock in either of the stores near me, so I ordered it online and had it delivered.

I had watched the installation video so I had a pretty good idea what to do.

It took less than 20 minutes to install, and I did it in my nightgown, before I even had breakfast.

The mini blinds are behind the glass, so they won't get dusty or dirty. On one side is a slider that raises and lowers the blinds.

On the other side is a slider that opens and closes them.

I am a happy camper.

I had forgotten I ordered this decorative window film as an option for the studio door. So I put it on the small window in the "water closet" part of my bathroom.

This whole project opened my eyes to window films. I did not realize that some window films could protect UV rays from fading fabrics inside the house, or to keep hot sun out in summer and hold the heat in in the winter. I ordered some to put in the skylight in my entrance hallway, where my Quick Brown Fox hangs. I am pretty sure it does affect the color of the light that comes into the house, so that makes it a definite maybe not for use in the windows in the studio, but I'll keep looking. Many of these films look like a mirror on the outside during the day, giving lots of privacy. I have three skylights so I'll be putting the film on the other two, but I don't have to worry about privacy there. If somebody is on my roof looking in I have bigger problems.

BTW, this post was written with the "Legacy" Blogger. I have done nothing to my pictures. It will be interesting to see if they are just as bad or better than the pictures in yesterday's post.

I have one more window to wash, and that's behind my sofa, so that will happen this weekend. The mechanism to swing the windows down to wash the outside of the windows is broken so that one may be a quick job. I might have to wash it from outside, and that entirely depends on my energy level and the height of my ladder!

The Stash Gets Organized

I went into the studio yesterday morning and shuffled some fabric around.

Of course, you have to figure out what you're going to do before you do it, but fortunately, I had that part already figured out.

I wanted the top shelf to be white or light fabrics. I store my WOWs together, then whites with colored patterns, then creams and black or gray, then creams with colors and then black on white. I didn't get it done before I had to go to work, but that was fine.

After work, I went in there and finished the top shelf and then organized the browns on the bottom.

(Am I crazy or is the photo quality of the new blogger terrible? I have noticed that if you click the pictures to open them up separately, the photo is in crisp, clear focus, but when you look at it normally, it's lousy. Have I got rocks in my head?)

So this is it finished. It looks good. I adjusted the height of two of the shelves to make it more functional.

I have some fabric I need to iron and put away.

And I have some fabric I have decide if I want to keep or where it should go. I have a lot of pieces that are too small, and I found a lot of stuff I really don't care for. That stuff will go.

And the solution for the door has arrived. I'll install it tomorrow. It's an over the window enclosed mini blind. What started as a fourteen dollar fix has escalated. I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it a lot better.

Window Solution

This is the door without the curtain. Yes it is nice to see outside and all, but this door is at the back of my house. It's kind of secluded back there, and as such it is somewhat a security hazard, so I don't want a wide open view into my house.

DOROTHY! OMG, you were right on the money, except I don't want to permanently block the view, so I decided to use some of that window film you can get at the hardware store. I have some on the window in my dining room so I don't have to look out on the trash (or my neighbor mowing the lawn shirtless with his beer gut hanging over his belt.)

It was the perfect solution for the back door. I went online, ordered the stuff (one roll = 15USD) and drove to the hardware store after work to pick it up. After dinner (and btw, Melissa Clark's Dinner is worth every cent.) I went into the studio and washed the windows on the door and measured the lights.

First one, OK, second and third one ok too. I decided I wanted the pattern on the film to continue pane to pane so I had to pay attention to how I cut it.

Of course I cut the second row way too big, which meant I didn't have enough for the top row. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

But I had used a more plain film to cover one of the skylights in my house, so I used that for the top row. Here's what it looks like from outside. It's OK. I'll have to see it in daylight to see how much it bugs me, because if I rip a quilt apart because I don't like the way it looks, there's no way this is staying like it is now.

And I have to say it's kind of plain. There are some with colors, so I'll have to look around.