Ilean - Starting inside and painting the outside. - Oct 2011

I know I have been telling you about Ilean and I realized I hadn't shown you very many pictures of the inside. Well let me remedy that problem. THIS is Ilean!

The kitchen. Don't you just love the dark brown cabinets? Me neither.

Jules said that the kitchen was going to get much better in time. I know she has a way of seeing things when they are done, while looking at the starting point, but HOW do you fix this?

The living room. The little side room is what we call the goiter. Its just a spot that seems attached at random to the side of Ilean.

I really dig the linoleum and carpeted floor. Again, NOT!
I know it looks like its going to be a lot of work to get it looking nice. You clearly are very astute.

I wondered at the time what timeline Jules had for making Ilean nice. Maybe a year or two? I'm glad I didn't ask because the answer would have killed Norm and me. Norm jokes with Jules sometimes that she is a slave driver. I have to wonder now if he is sometimes serious when he says he is joking.

The hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom. Considering that Ilean is a 1969 mobile home explains why the hallway is more like a tunnel.




 





The bathroom was all done up in a nautical theme. Check out the stylish wallpaper and faux brickwork.
Lovely right? You got it - NOT!
I'm sure the decorating that was done before we bought Ilean worked for the other people. It just doesn't work for us. I'm glad Jules is going to be decorating Ilean.

 It was all that I could do to not scream when I realized the wallpaper was covering more wallpaper AND panelling. Who does that?

Time to get to work. I think Norm needs to start wearing a hat like I do. It'll cover up that follically challenged area.


That was what we started with on the inside.







Jules granted me special dispensation and said I can show you the changes to the outside now instead of waiting until Ilean is completely done!



Outside Ilean - Before



You remember what the outside looked like when we started. All hermetically sealed and nasty.

After opening up the patio area, Ilean's outside just sat for a while. When we finally got going on the outside again we started by scrubbing her down. Then Ilean got a new coat of white paint. Norm III does an excellent job with the sprayer. Even Rosie was impressed.

  

 

Everyone that knows us also would know that an all white house is not painted. It needs color. 

 We painted the trim next.

The purple is a tribute to Norm's mom. Purple was Joanne's signature color. Under the awning, after we started painting, Jules changed her mind. Instead of purple on the top and blue accents she reversed them for the rest of the house.

Blue for the top stripe all the way around.

I think Norm should have been up here painting but he was off building a flower box and shutters.

The awning had this really cool looking trim. When it was all white you didn't notice it. I really liked they way it turned out. Jules has an eye for things like that.

Under the awning had to get painted too. Norm III ran out of paint when he was spraying, which was a good thing or I wouldn't have had any before shots. The part behind me is what we started with.

With Jules its all about the details. Norm thought it was done when it was all painted white. I think he was WISHING Jules would feel the same way, but Jules doesn't care if we were tired of painting. She wanted the support brackets painted silver. This is how it turned out. (By the way, Jules painted most of the silver anyhow!)

After Norm built the shutters they were painted purple.

Of course when Norm makes shutters for Jules he has to put a heart in them because he loves her. I do like they way they look, I just don't want to tell Norm that.

The final step was adding the flower box. Norm copied the trim from the awning and added it to the front of the flower box.

Jules and Norm may be magical people, but the flowers did not grow instantly in the flower box. They're silk flowers. Jules said they look better longer and are a lot less work than real flowers. I couldn't agree more.


OK, drum roll please......

We are proud to present;  Ilean



Ilean Outside - After



Besides replacing a few broken windows that about covers what we did to the outside. I hope to be able to show you some inside changes soon. Maybe I can sneak in a few shots of what we were doing without giving away the final product. I'll have to discuss it with Jules.

Take care,

Travis