Friday Five: HGTV Edition

Rev Gal wil smama is redecorating her newly-built and recently-purchased home. She says "Some of the fun was picking out upgrades and major decor items to my taste rather than walking into a previously owned home that needed to be upgraded room by room (pink and teal tiles in the bathroom, anyone?)...how many times do you get to have a do-over on kitchen cabinets/floors/countertops? And so, my questions to you this fine Friday involve your home past, present or future..."

1) If you could, what room in the place you are currently living would you redo first?

Our bedroom. It is just too small, especially since we have a king-sized bed. I love my bedroom furniture, but it really fills up the room. "Redo" in this case woudl mean knock out a wall and extend the room out back about three square feet.

2) What is the most hideous feature/color/decor item you have ever seen in a home?

Well, I don't know if it qualifies as the worst, however the one that comes to mind right away is a lamp. The home we owned before this one was a nice, older, sound little house, but it was a 70s nightmare. I mean, we all know that the 70s was not a high point in decorating, but even for the 70s this entire house was decorated in very bad taste. The thing that made us laugh out loud, however, was a lampshade in the master bedroom. The wallpaper was red and black flocked, and in the center of the room hung a ceiling lamp on a chain covered with a bright red, fringed lampshade with plastic beads around the edge. The room looked like seventies bordello. It was so hideous it was hilarious.

3) What feature do you most covet? Do you have it? If not, is it within reach?

A hot tub in a glassed in sun porch. Alas, it is not within reach.

4) Your kitchen - love it or hate it? Why?

I love it and I hate it. It has a breakfast bar at one end that I like, a lovely view out the window over the sink, nice counters. However, it is a galley kitchen. Yuck. Much too small.

5) Here is $10,000 and you HAVE to spend it on the place you are living now. What do you do?

I put on a nice front porch, with pillars and a roof. A suitable porch for a hanging swing, playing with dolls, sipping lemonade.

BONUS: Why do you think there was such a surplus of ugly bathroom tile colors showcased in all homes built from the 1950's right through the early 80's?

Perhaps an unknown side affect of early birth control pills was a large number of babies born with just a slight degree of color blindness? Or maybe it was an undiscovered consequence of watching too much black and white television.