Small details matter, that is Lesson #1 of this post and it starts with something as mundane as vents! The ceilings of the lower level closet, family room and bathroom all had ceiling vents. The ugly industrial type, the type that makes you feel like you’re at the office – ick! Every time I entered one of these rooms, all I could see were ugly vents. Lesson #2 – if your eye immediately fixates on something in a room, don’t ignore it, it won’t just go away. And for sure these vent covers were not going away, unless I made them. But before I made that drastic decision I decided that perhaps cleaning 30 years of accumulated dust and grit might appease my eyes. So I asked my contractor to vacuum the vents with his Shop-Vac. Better, but still not great. Plus, the family room vent had packing tape over the slots which prevented the air circulation downstairs. It took me an entire day and a bottle of Goo Gone (my FAVORITE degunker) to get that vent in acceptable shape again.
While the cleaning certainly made a difference, it didn’t completely solve the problem. I decided to keep the family room vent which was made of mirror, it suited the space and without the packing accessory, actually blended into the space. Lesson#3 first try the least expensive/invasive problem solver, it just may work and save you time and money. Unfortunately, the two other vents needed a new cover. The good news, when I started looking for an alternative I found an infinite array of options – which begs the question, why would anyone settle for the obvious mundane choice? Perhaps it’s the contractor that made the decision, based on time and convenience. That’s when you must make sure that you are controlling the outcome on every detail, even one as small as a vent cover.
Back to the search for a new cover. Now that I was faced with a multitude of choices, I had to narrow it down to one, which was not easy for me! That’s when the light bulb went off -- I remembered that at the beach house we used Reggio Register covers for all the floor vents. Well, why couldn’t we do that for the ceiling vents in the apartment? Even though each dwelling had a different feel, both were similar vintage. Perfect solution and problem solved! Lesson #4 never settle, what you are looking for exists, it may even be right under your nose.
