Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Clean Bar


This post is not only about my freshly cleaned bar area, but about what a difference a camera makes. Or what a different camera makes, or something like that. This is also about my bar which is not really a bar by the general meaning.
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When we bought the house, it had this wet bar against the wall there and then a dry bar next to it. I have no idea why. The former owners did not seem like the type of people that would hang out at a bar even in their own house. I hope they did not have people over and serve them lots of alcohol because the wallpaper that used to be in the bathroom next to this bar would have made them throw up. Or at least get very dizzy.
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Anyway, I particularly wanted to post this picture for myself because I finally cleaned the worst part of my house. See, I do not not use the bar as a bar. It is my craft area. I do all of my crafts on that bar with the barstools by it. I use that sink to clean my paintbrushes. If you need some perspective, that bar is just over my left shoulder as I type this. This is Texas and we don't have basements, but I guess if we did, this would be our basement. It has two corner computer desks, a TV and TV chair, the stereo and that bar and some other storage units (my Star Wars shelf included). It's really a random room, but I can't call it that because that's what I call the room with the treadmill, the rock tumbler and Mac computer.
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I am getting way off subject here but I have to explain some things. I have also mentioned our library many times, so it may sound like we have a great big house, but we have a decent sized house, it's just that we delegate rooms in an odd manner. The library is actually what would be a formal dining room, but we do not formally dine. Heck, we only eat at the kitchen table for Saturday and Sunday lunch. We eat dinner sitting on the floor around the "coffee" table, which is never used to serve coffee. The "random room," formerly known as "the cat room," would be called, by normal people, the third bedroom. This room that I am sitting in, which we call the computer room or bar room, is probably legally, the den.
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Okay, so I finally got that whole bar area cleaned and organized. It was bad. It was easy to let it go before because it is the craft area and crafts by nature are messy. It took a lot longer than you would think, because it was more about organizing than cleaning. You have to have a place for everything and that took some time. And now for the camera thing.
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And this is crazy. When I took that picture today and it came out so well, I remembered the picture I took in 1996 when I did a post about painting that wall behind the bar. And look how terrible that picture turned out: I know!! That deep "Deep Garnet" is black in the above picture. And in the original post, I wasn't totally clear in that I had to paint two coats of primer and three coats of the red. And it looks like such a little space. It was a bitch. And I realized that even the good picture doesn't do it justice. The painting I mean, not the cleaning. But that straw grass wallpaper stuff was the same color as the wood and it all blended together. The red makes the wood pop. You'd like it if you were here. Also here's the old 2006 picture of the "before."
I used to have my button collection stuck in that grass cloth wallpaper. Hey! Maybe that's why it was so hard to paint. But anyway, I'm glad it is all clean and I am still shocked at the difference in cameras. And I am wondering where my button collection is.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There sure are a lot of wine glasses and champagne flutes and sherry glasses in your "craft" room. I think it's most cool that you make the house work for you rather than the other way around. Believe it or not, most people I know force themselves to conform to the room designation as prescribed by the architect. Which is crazy if you think about it. For instance, they actually go buy a formal dining room suite because they now own a formal dining room -- whether or not they actually ever eat in it.

Jammie J. said...

Looks great. I like it and I like your rambling. I also like your button collection. I have my button collection on a pillow stuffed in the linen closet.

Scarlet said...

The first photo is my favorite, but all those buttons...where'd they go??

Your posts always make me want to redecorate. If you lived closer, my house would be a cozy home in no time (with your advice and input)...I just know it!!

geewits said...

Xup,
~~Yeah, I don't get that. If it's your house, make it your house. The reason all those glasses are in there is basically for storage. Why take up space n the kitchen? There are cabinets below both bars that contain all of my craft stuff.

Jammie,
~~You have buttons too? Cool beans. Mine would cover several pillows. And thanks! I am quite the rambler.

Scarlet,
~~Since you are such a great artist, instead of redecorating, you should do one really cool accent wall mural. Maybe of your family on the beach. How cool would that be?