22 August 2013

Midway Renovations

The week we went camping, the drywallers finished mudding our new walls and Steve painted the living room. The room is still not actually done, because there's a big bookcase that takes up most of the back wall that needs to be painted and until we move that in, we're not putting anything on the walls. Still, we're very pleased to have a bit of renovation progress on the main floor.

BEFORE.  Things to note: pink walls, border, pine panelling, piano window on the back (right hand side in this picture) wall.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION.  Things to note: The Bairn likes to play the piano but is deeply unsettled that his play area is in disarray.  Asks daily about his kitchen, which was stored in the basement.

ALMOST AFTER. Things to note: 'Corinthian pillar' walls, no border, no pine, piano window (which you couldn't see in this shot anyway) has been drywalled over.

I took this shot earlier in the day.  The room looks really yellow because of all the natural light, but it's really more the color of the photo above.  Also, you can see in this picture that the arm chair is up against a wall that didn't exist before.

3 comments:

CSIowa said...

I have never heard the term "piano window." I couldn't find a definition, just a couple of mentions in other blogs. I have heard of "transom window." A transom is "the term given to a transverse horizontal structural beam or bar." It doesn't seem to be necessarily above a door. Wikipedia also offered these interesting tidbits:

Idiomatic usage
The phrase over the transom refers to works submitted for publication without being solicited. The image evoked is of a writer tossing a manuscript through the open window over the door of the publisher's office.
Similarly, the phrase is used to describe the means by which confidential documents, information or tips were delivered anonymously to someone who is not officially supposed to have them.
"Like pushing a piano through a transom" is a folk idiom used to describe something exceedingly difficult; its application to childbirth (and possibly its origin) has been attributed to Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Fannie Brice.

Could this last be the origin of the name "piano window?" The other origin that occurs to me is the more obvious one of a window high enough to clear the top of an upright piano. If anyone knows the etymology, do tell.

MBC said...

I hadn't heard the term until I moved to Canada and here it seems to be used colloquially as a high window that is, in fact, meant to clear a piano. Our piano was underneath ours. It's pretty rubbish without a piano, because it's just a high window not centered over or between anything.

Anonymous said...

Looking good!

Love

Dad

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