a place of our own

New Window Treatments AT LAST

2011-06-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, this is really the only true BEFORE I have of the original, dirty, broken blinds that were in the master suite.

Lovely, right?

A little over a year ago, I got this great idea to make faux roman shades based on this tutorial at the Little Green Notebook (aka Pearl Street Interiors) and bought this material:

and then I let that sit around for another year...

In the meantime, this past February, we decided to finally replace the gross blinds we'd been living with and bought some inexpensive light-filtering mini blinds from Home Depot. Quick and easy to install, and SO much better looking than what we'd been living with, we couldn't figure out why we hadn't done it a year earlier.

At that same time, my dad came down to visit and help with a few projects -- biggest of all being the painting of our bedroom. Valspar Premium in Pale Cowslip 1. I love it. LOVE it. My husband is okay with it. The color makes me feel happy and sunny and warm, although you can't really see the color whatsoever in that last picture...

Anyway, jumping ahead to the month of June -- I finally ~~found~~ made the time to complete the actual window treatment I'd been intending to make all along. I like my room to be VERY dark when I sleep, so I knew I wanted to incorporate a lining into the shades (which was not included in the tutorial, so I hemmed and hawed over how to do it. In the end, I created a sort of slip cover and actually left all the mini blind veins intact. I used a button hole for the cord to come through and did all the sewing on my machine except for the closure at the bottom, which I sewed by hand.

(you can see the new paint MUCH better in these pictures: L-O-V-E, right?)

And for anyone wondering, they do open higher than I show in the picture. I just didn't.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are a few things I could have taken a little more time on and done a little better... maybe if I wasn't 9 months pregnant I would have. Haha

To Prune or Not to Prune

2011-05-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure my husband would preferred had I NOT pruned the Japanese maples out front, but the combination of overgrown shrubbery and pregnancy hormones were more than I could resist. It took a few weeks, three passes at it -- each more aggressive than the last, but they're finally a reasonable height. Come this next dormant season, and I'll be hacking away at them again...

The initial "before"

artistic "at work" shot taken by my son

After the initial round of cuts, where I focused mostly on removing dead branches and branches that were rubbing on each other:

And here is the pile of debris I began with...

Round 2, I spent a little more energy on branches crossing over into other "layers" if that makes sense. It did to me at the time.

and my growing pile of debris to be hauled off...

After a week or so, we made a trip to a nursery nearby to look for some new plants for the backyard. At that time, I took the opportunity to ask for a little pruning advice. Basically, she told me it would have been better had I started a little earlier, but she said to cut away, fertilize, and be prepared for the trees to look "a little funny" for a while. But she said to think of it this way -- there is an entire growing season for the trees to fill back in.

At this point, my husband may feel I became a little "overzealous." All the clippings in the next picture are only from the third round of pruning... and there probably would have been more had he not come home early.

and here is the final product of that day's work:

Pretty, right? But at least you can see the roof again...

Here it is now after a few weeks of new growth filling in:

and now a really dramatic before and after side by side:

So... the shaping still needs some work (like I said, I'm waiting for the next dormant season) and we need some fresh mulch, but I'm happy with it overall.

A good article I wish I would have read about pruning Japanese Maples A YEAR AGO:

http://www.thepruningschool.com/Articles/maples.htm

Our Window to the World

2011-04-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

aka the Living Room Window Finally Got Some New Blinds

I really had to dig to find some "before" pictures of our blinds because I got overly excited when the blinds arrived and didn't bother to take any pictures... so these are the best I could come up with... you can see in the first picture that there's a gap at the bottom because THEY COULD NOT CLOSE COMPLETELY

After Christmas, I started shopping around a little more seriously for new blinds and we ended up with the 2" premium wood blinds in deep mahogany from Blinds Galore, which is the same company I had ordered the blinds from for my son's room.

I took the opportunity to repaint the trim around the window... and the more dirty, white trim I paint in this house, the more I realize the white isn't paint. Someone went to the trouble of priming a lot of the woodwork around the house and left it at that. Needless to say, it looks a LOT better now.

out with the old, in with the new!

and the finished product!

my goofy husband demonstrating the relative ease with which we can now open and completely close our new blinds

I love them.

Master Bathroom Towels

2011-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

When we first moved in, the towel rack in the master bath was half falling out of the wall and refused to hold my towel. After a certain point, it was completely out of the wall and I had long since given up trying to keep my towel there. We had already installed a robe hook on the other side of the shower door which my husband was using for his towel, and we JUST replaced the towel bar. Originally, I was wanting all brushed nickel in our bathroom, but after using the oil rubbed bronze hardware on the cabinets, we decided it might be better just to head that direction completely.

So here are the new robe hook (the old-new one will go in the hall bathroom eventually), and the new towel bar:

and thanks in no small part to a generous birthday gift card to Macy's... we FINALLY have an all new set of luxuriously soft new bath towels. Trust me, these were a long time coming and worth the wait.

A New Pillow, or Four

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

The covers we've had on our throw pillows in the living room have been in our house since we were married, almost five years ago. I thought it was time for a change. Using the green fabric leftover from this project, along with some other coordinating fabrics I "happened" to pick up, combined with some inspiration photos from online, I have four new pillows on our couches. Well... they look brand new, at least. I can't ever get myself to buy new pillow forms while I still have perfectly good ones on the couch.

This first picture is from my sister-in-law's blog

and here is my version:

The last three inspiration pillows are all from Anthropologie

We like things a little off-center in our house...

and a close-up of the cummerbund pleats that took me WAY longer than they should have:

They all have envelope closures so they're 1. easier to clean and 2. easier to replace the covers when I get bored of them. I think they bring a little color and whimsy to the room, if that's not too cliche to say. Aren't we all ready for spring to really be here, though?

A Shower Curtain for My Monkey

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I wrote here that I replaced the brown and blue shower curtain in the hall bath (my son's bathroom) with a plain white curtain... with the intention of adding some Curious George type embellishments. In the middle of February, I FINALLY did it. Instead of Curious George, though, I used the Monkeys from the shower curtain hooks I got from Target that hadn't been working out. I also used some green upholstery fabric to trim the edges of the curtain and add a little more color to the room.

One afternoon, while my son was napping, I laid the curtain out on my living room floor, tossed all 12 monkeys in place and sewed them on (you can see the thread where their arms and legs meet their little bodies)

And even though I think the brown on the walls is far less bleh with the addition of some color to the room, I think I'm pretty well decided on painting the lower portion Weathered Glass.

I also need to repaint all the white above the chair rail (we never did that because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do for paint in the room), and change out some of the fixtures, including a new fan. I also want a little more storage and I have a picture to hang, but then we'll finally be done with one of our rooms. I hope.

Just a Hutch

2011-04-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Pretty much from the time we got this house, I have been wanting a buffet with hutch and a sideboard for the dining room. It turns out, they don't generally appear on your doorstep for free. Back in November, my husband found this set on craigslist for under $100 and we jumped on it.

It pretty much sat in our dining room like this until the middle of February...

We took off all the hardware and I primed with 2 coats of kilz oil based primer

Then painted three thin coats of Olympic Premium no-voc paint in Ultra White

Lastly, I coated the back of the hutch with black contact paper

I reattached all the original hardware, which I actually think looks updated against the fresh white paint.

Now I just need to figure out what to fill it up with!

TV Bench

2011-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

After almost a year of our living room looking like this:

we finally picked up a tv bench from Ikea, transforming out living room to this:

We also got some bookcases to go on either side, but they still need anchored and then I'll rearrange all the things we have packed in them and post pictures.

New Take on a Gallery Wall

2011-03-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted anything about what we've been doing with the house, but I'll try to get caught up over the next couple weeks. We have a ton of things done and planned... mainly because we're working towards converting the guest room into a nursery! Unfortunately, it's not as simple as it sounds... We've had to work on organizing the shed, to organize the bonus/music/game room, to empty out the office, to move my crafts/sewing supplies. A lot of work. So anyway, back to the post at hand:

For Christmas, my son got these picture frames for his room:

We put pictures of friends and family and threw them up on the wall like taped up polaroids.

They come with these tacks you nail into the wall...

and the frames snap right in place.

It was a fun little project to add a little more personality to his room.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

For our first Christmas in our new house, we really wanted to make things special -- particularly with the sad state of affairs we were in last Christmas (three words: one bedroom apartment). We went out the Monday after Thanksgiving to get our tree and the decorating continued from there.

We decorated the mantle and hung our stockings with care

switched out the fall decor in the entryway for Christmas decorations

including our new advent calendar which Santa has been putting Hershey kisses in each night

a little craft project I did involving a wood plaque, scrapbook paper, and a lot of decoupage glue & sealer

a snow globe I gave my husband the first Christmas we were together

our giant tree that my camera fails to do justice for

and some of our favorite ornaments:

a picture from our wedding

a new ornament from Shore Acres (one of our favorite places to visit on the coast)

some random pictures my son and I thought were fun to stick in the tree

and of course -- Santa

and this is the tree we put up in our son's room

He started asking to have his own tree before Thanksgiving.

How could we say no?

Merry Christmas!

The New Dining Set

2010-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

You may or may not remember this post about reupholstering the old dining set shortly before giving it away. Well, it wasn't too long before I got to work on the new dining set. We found a nice table at Fred Meyer -- a size and style we both like. And then my husband found a dining set (aka set of chairs and a table that's now still sitting out on the back patio) at a garage sale. $35. Not bad. So here's a little play by play on who I got it all to match.

The before...

ahhh... back when the weather was nice enough to paint on the back patio instead of my dining room

I used a high gloss black spray paint by Krylon

Because the original cushions felt NON-EXISTENT, I bought some high density foam at Joann's, which unfortunately weren't quite the right size (but when is anything I ever use for reupholstering the right size?)

a little cut-to-fit and some spray adhesive...

then I followed the same steps as last time (staple opposite sides, pulling very tight, then stapling remaining sides, folding the corners like a present)

a close up of the upholstery fabric I got for 50% off at Joann's

a few of the chairs have seen better days, so before even painting them, I flipped them over and pounded the joints back together -- but not before applying a little wood glue to keep it all together

Unfortunately, some chairs were a little worse off than the others... this one is still sitting off to the side of the dining room waiting to be fixed...

the new replacement dowel is sitting in the dining room as we speak... just like it has been for the past month...

and a quick side-by-side comparison of the old and new cushions:

Of course, before reassembling the chairs, I made sure to do two nice, even coats of scotch guard on the chairs... because we're normal people and eat food while sitting on them and sometimes food spills. Especially for the two year old among us.

Voila! The finished product at last! Sort of.

Like I said, there's still one chair that still needs repaired, and then there's this great upholstered bench we have our eyes on at a shop downtown...

Bonus Room Update

2010-12-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

The wall repair was actually finished quite a few weeks ago, but I've been keeping so busy I haven't been able to post about anything, so here's a little update:

We (and by "we" I mean my husband) even finished repainting the entire room recently. I'll put up some pictures when he has it set up the way he'd like, but in the meantime, here's our inspiration photo:

and a picture of the swatches I didn't bother to color correct to actually look anything like the actual colors:

We used the new VOC-free paint by Olympic, color matched to these three colors by Behr. Almost Famous is the main color in the room, Fretwire is the ceiling and accent wall color, and Back Stage is what we used for all the trim and woodwork.

and a little video of my son helping out

From Halloween to Thanksgiving

2010-11-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

You might remember this post a few weeks ago where I shared about my little Halloween vignette in the living room.

The day after Halloween, it was time to transition to some simple fall decorations.

We went to Wal-Mart where we spent $5 on these two sets of flowers and leaves.

Add to that same vase I had out for Halloween a little cord and fabric that I've had for about 10 years...

Then I stripped all the remaining leaves and hot glued them to some more cord to wrap around some white Christmas lights. And voila! My Halloween vignette is now my Thanksgiving vignette.

It's the small things that keep me going... :o)

The Storage Shed, at last

2010-11-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

We've always known we would need to create more storage for this house. For a long time, we planned on converting our carport into a garage. After much thought and deliberation, we realized it would be a lot of work for not enough storage space. So we moved on to plan B. A storage shed.

With an existing cement pad in the backyard, we already had an ideal place for the shed...

Peter drew up a rough sketch... but then after talking to my dad and his, we realized that a shed as nice as we were wanting to build was a little out of our budget.

So instead, we opted for a large metal shed that comes in this little box.

Fortunately, we'd already started putting the shed together by the time the whole plumbing fiasco happened out in the bonus room. Dealing with this huge mess definitely motivated us to get finished with the shed a little quicker, though.

the men, prepping the ground for the shed

Once the shed was built, it was time to measure and cut the plywood for the floor.

Once again, we were fortunate to have a very experienced foremen heading up the project.

And with everything all said and done, we now have a very nice sized storage shed that fits all the things that were crowding our bonus room and back patio.

Why My Allergies Wouldn't Quit

2010-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

I used to suffer from pretty serious seasonal allergies about twice a year (sometimes more often). All that miraculously stopped once I became pregnant with my son about 3 years ago. And then a few weeks ago, I started getting sick. I thought it was allergies, but I felt so bad I figured it had to be something else. And then I threw out some old, apparently moldy cushions from the dining chairs I've been working on (more on those later) and I started to feel better. But my allergies were definitely still acting up. And then one night while my husband and son were outside mowing the lawn, I walked through the bonus room barefoot and felt... wet carpet. Suddenly it dawned on me why our bonus room had started smelling the way it did before we bought the place aka before we ripped out and replaced the old carpet and padding. The main plumbing for our master bathroom shares an interior wall with the bonus room. That's right -- there was a leaking pipe. We set up fans and opened the doors to 1. air the room out and 2. dry out the carpet. My husband also cut into the wall to check for mold.

The section of drywall that was effected was so wet it pretty much just crumbled in his hands as he was cutting it out. And then, to add insult to injury, when he got that section of drywall out, he found siding. And not just any siding...

gross, wet, moldy siding.

We've been using this room for storage, but fortunately had just finished putting together our shed (again, something I'll talk more about later), so we had room to start moving everything out. At least enough to actually work on the problem at hand.

how the bonus room looked the first night after we discovered the leak

My poor husband had to crawl under the house about 7 times by himself...

The first time he wasn't actually alone... while I was taking these pictures, I noticed the little feet scampering through...

Tiger, exploring the crawl space while he has the opportunity

It took a LOT of coaxing to get that little guy to come back out. I have no idea what he thought was so great about being down there.

The good news was that the leaking pipe happened to be near a vent out to the carport. So even though Peter would have to crawl from the office all the way to the pipe every time, I could sit outside in the carport ready to hand him whatever tools or towels he needed.

the vent I pried open to access Peter in the crawlspace

Peter lying on his side, working on the pipe

prime photo op

our little guy passing tools to Peter through the vent

In total, we made two trips to Home Depot and had the water shut off for almost a day, but the leak is repaired and we have some new tools (literally and figuratively) for solving leaking pipes in the future. Repairing the wall in the bonus room is still a work in progress and I'll do an update on that when we get to that point. It's a good thing we were already planning on painting that room after we get all our things moved into the shed.

The Hillside Thanksgiving Wreath

2010-10-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Anyone who's been to our house has probably noticed the lack of decorations in every room except my son's room. And then I entered and won a giveaway at the Hillside Home. I was super excited to hang it on our front door... and then I did and realized just how ugly our front door is. So I set it on the table in our front entryway, added some little pumpkins Peter picked up at the store a while back.

I used my son's trick-or-treat bag to take up a little negative space while I figured things out

I eventually needed to hang the wreath (which, in reality, looks better anyway) because my cats kept getting on the table and chewing on it.

I found a bag of dried... plants? at the dollar store and threw them in a square vase I already owned. Then I added some more dried fruit and another vase which I'll eventually put some fall-ish flowers into. We found this string of Halloween lights while cleaning out the bonus room, so I draped them over the table to turn the whole fall theme into a Halloween theme.

For better pictures of what the actual wreath looks like, you can follow this link which comes complete with how-to instructions.

Master Bathroom Painted

2010-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Painting our bathroom turned out to be a lot more work than I was thinking (and I really don't know what I was thinking.), but I'm pretty sure it was worth it. I love how the green and yellow compliment each other, and how the green plays off the colors in the slate tiles. Seeing how the yellow turned out also gets me excited for painting our bedroom, which will be that same color. Unfortunately, since there is absolutely no natural light in the bathroom, these pictures only give you an general idea of how the colors turned out.

We still have a lot of little projects left like a new vanity light, new towel bars, and a light above the shower. Overall, I think it's already been a HUGE improvement from where we started.

Using the Breakfast Bar

2010-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

We've taken a slight detour from our master bath these last two weeks. First, I was sick AND preparing for my first 10k. Then, Luke finally moved into his apartment and we had to part with our 4 only fully functioning (read, safe) dining chairs. So our meals were temporarily moved to the breakfast bar while I painted, picked out fabric, and reupholstered our "new" chairs.

As you may or may not be able to tell, my son is enjoying being able to see the television while he eats his meals...

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to have picked up these bar-stools from my father-in-law earlier this summer, so we had a real place to sit. They're still waiting on some new paint of their own and maybe some custom cushions/covers if I'm feeling really industrious.

Another Master Bath Update

2010-09-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just a little update on the work we've been doing on the bathroom:

my dining room converted to a workspace while I prep and paint the cabinet doors

I've been getting a lot of painting done -- the ceiling and all the woodwork. Right now, I'm just finishing up some touch up work and the remaining cabinet doors.

new handles for cabinets

And we even installed a dual flush converter.

From the time we first moved into this house, we both noticed the EXTREME amount of water the toilet in our master bathroom uses when you flush. We kept talking about different things we could do to solve the problem, and then I read this post at Young House Love a while back and we had our answer. We ordered our dual flush conversion kit off Amazon for less than $20 and anxiously awaited its arrival (or pushed it to the backs of our minds and then remembered we ordered it when I opened the front door the other day and saw it sitting on the doorstep). My husband installed it one day while I was finishing up dinner, it was that easy. So far, we haven't had any problems and it's saving us a LOT of water. Hooray for all the eco-friendly/DIY-friendly/easy-on-your-wallet-friendly gadgets people are coming up with these days.

I'm getting very close to done with this bathroom and then on to our next project: a shed in the backyard! Having a place to store things like yard tools, Christmas decorations, camping equipment and the like is going to free up SO much space in the house... we can hardly wait.

Good Luck, Chuck

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I mean, good luck trying to get ready in this mess of a bathroom...

We've had a slight change of plans and have decided to finish up the bathroom before heading back into the bedroom... for obvious reasons.

The Trouble with Morning Sand

2010-09-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, I painted the WC the same color I used on the lower half of my dining room. Valspar Morning Sand in satin. I loved it. So I went ahead and painted the rest of the master bath with that color, with the intention of painting the ceilings to match the master bedroom. With the extreme difference in lighting, Morning Sand looked more like Pea Soup in our bathroom, and not in a good way. (Could that be in a good way?) After letting it soak in for a few days, I've decided I don't hate the color. With the combination of the great shower door, the woodwork, the pink tile, and the hardware on the cabinets, it just sort of lends itself to a... dated look. It's not really in our budget (time or financial) to redo all the pink tile the previous owners apparently thought would be timeless. I do, however, already have new hardware for the cabinets. I also have white paint in a semi-gloss finish...

our newly green bathroom:

the fantastically awful contrast of pink tile and Morning Sand

natural woodwork (which really didn't look bad before I painted...)

a cheesy (or AWESOME) photo-shopped "after" to give us all a sigh of relief that things really will look better once I paint those cabinets...

Now I just need to finish with the 10 projects I have left in the actual bedroom before I finish up in the bathroom... Anyone free this weekend?

Lights!

2010-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Almost a month ago, my son and I went out of town for my family reunion. While we were gone, my husband worked around the yard and in our bedroom. You may or may not remember this lovely light fixture:

The thing hung down so far that I, in all my 5 feet and 4 inches, would hit it while getting dressed. So he pulled it out and started hacking away at the ceiling -- taking out huge chunks of fire-rated drywall and laying the groundwork for some recessed lighting.

Because we decided not to fork over the money for the specific bit to quickly and efficiently cut out the circles we needed, here is our initial technique: drilling holes, and then sawing away with a drywall saw.

When I got home, I was drafted into holding the vacuum up to the work area to try and minimize the mess...

Later on, my husband took the idea to saw from above, and this proved to be a much easier and quicker method.

holes in the ceiling

To go along with the new lighting scheme, we also decide to install a dimmer, which apparently is a pretty easy fix.

even though it looks here like it was the greatest challenge of all time to ever overcome...

We bought the UtiliTech brand cans made for remodels (they have clips that hold them in place, so you don't have to worry about attaching to joists) and we used 6" white baffle trim.
light fixture without trim or bulb

with trim and bulb

Hooray for having lights in our bedroom again! And it only took three weeks...

The new lights really make the room feel a lot more warm and inviting. The hole in the center (covered with blue tape) is where the original light fixture was, and we're still playing around with the idea of putting in a new ceiling fan... otherwise we'll probably just patch it up. The next project for this room will be paint... good thing Valspar has a rebate going on this week!

One Thing at a Time

2010-08-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

This summer, we really haven't gotten much done in the house, what with people visiting and us traveling, and just enjoying the nice weather in general. We decided if we're going to get anything done, we need a better plan then me deciding on a project I like, heading out to the store, buying materials, thinking of another project, heading out to the store, buying materials, repeat, and then finally start working on one random project. Instead, now we've decided to focus on one room at a time, one project at a time. I came up with a work list, and we're starting in the master bedroom and working our way out through the house.

For the last week, my husband has been devoting his free time to installing new lighting in our bedroom (he's finishing up as I type). While I'm waiting to paint the bedroom, I started painting our bathroom. I've got the first coat on in the WC and I've got the blue walls (as opposed to the white walls) primed. I'm hoping to have the bathroom completely painted by the end of the weekend. I'm doing the walls Valspar's Morning Sand in satin (I had over half a gallon leftover from doing the lower half of the dining room). Then, I'll paint the ceiling Valspar's Pale Cowslip 1, which will be the paint in the bedroom when I get to that.

Here's a little peak at what I've gotten done so far...

I really feel like the darker color warms up the space quite a bit. It plays off the colors in the slate really well, too. It makes me excited for how the main part of the bathroom is going to look once that gets painted.

Luke's Dining Set

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

My dad bought me this dining set about 8 years ago from Wal-Mart. It's served its purpose pretty well to this point, but now we're in need of something a little bigger... something that can accommodate more than just the people in our little family.

Before buying our new dining set (which I'll post pictures of later, because that is still a work in progress), I decided it would probably be a good idea to re-upholster the chairs... the fabric is a little worn and stained (especially since a certain member of this family started eating at the table and not in his booster seat). We were originally planning on selling our old set on craigslist once we replaced it, but then a friend of ours (Luke) decided to get his first apartment and we thought we could donate the set to him instead. Since I had already bought the fabric, my husband and I both agreed that he would appreciate the gift more if I went ahead with recovering the seats instead of giving him the stained chairs as-is. (The picture above shows them to be deceptively white... trust me, they're filthy.)

Mistake #41 I did not take apart the chair FIRST to measure the size of the fabric I would need to cover the seats... I made an estimate and bought the fabric... and then took a chair apart, and found out the fabric wasn't quite large enough. I underestimated the depth of the cushion...

With a little creative cutting and sewing, I made it stretch and the chairs with patch work mirror each other, so I think it worked out okay.
The fabric is indoor/outdoor upholstery fabric, and I found it for 50% off! Thanks to Kathryn for chasing my little guy around the store so I could treasure hunt.

My tools:

My $11 staple gun from Michael's... which says "heavy duty" and yet couldn't push the staples all the way through even at the highest tension. It was a pretty easy fix, though. I just gently tapped down all the staples with a hammer (they were almost all the way in) once I finished stapling each seat all the way around.
(for actually fully dismantling the "pattern" chair, I used a screwdriver to pull up the staples and then pliers to yank them out completely)

Here, I've centered the seat over top of the fabric and I'm getting ready to staple it down. Because I'm not having to replace the actual cushions, I left the other seats intact which made it a LOT easier to get the new fabric on.

Staple opposite sides first, then tuck the corners in like a present, reattach to the chair frame and voila!

and you can barely tell where the seams from my patch job are (in my opinion)

Hopefully, Luke likes it as much as I do. Either way, it was good practice for reupholstering the new dining set... which I haven't even come close to starting yet. Note to self: buy at least half a yard of extra fabric for the next project...

Simple Storage Solution

2010-08-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

When there's something I've been needing and I find it for under $5, I am all about buying it and bringing it home. For months, now, I've been meaning to find some kind of storage for all the random rolls of wrapping paper scattered throughout the house. While at Ross today, I came across this metal waste bin:

with this price tag:

and now begins my wrapping paper round up...

(This will eventually find its home in my guest/craft room, along with the tape and ribbons.)

WC Mini-Update

2010-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, my husband came to me with a bit of a complaint about the view in the master bathroom water closet (and I do call it a WC sometimes because the only thing in there is the toilet). Anyway, this is what he had to look at: some air freshener, comet, and a dirty old sponge. I guess I can't blame the guy for wanting some improved scenery.

I already have plans for new paint and hardware throughout the bathroom, but I won't have time for at least a couple weeks, so I did this in the meantime:
(pictures of one of my cats... my husband wasn't amused)

I finally got around to hitting the dollar store and picked up these frames to go with some pictures I had printed from a recent trip to the coast.

and voila!

I guess I could have stuck the air freshener back in the cupboard, but it seems to like hanging out on the shelf...

Obviously, there's still a lot of work left to do, but I am a big believer that pictures can make a house a home, and I truly believe these went a long way toward making our bathroom a cozier place.

Me + Power Tools = Better Night's Sleep?

2010-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

With the onset of summer has been longer days... meaning later evenings and earlier mornings. When I say this, what I really mean is, our little guy cannot tell time and when the sun is up, he finds no rational reason (unless he is completely wiped out) to be asleep.

To curb his 5am mornings, we were forced to tape tin foil to his windows until we could get something a little more permanent.

Pretty classy, right?

So I ended up ordering some custom 2" wood blinds in white from Blinds Galore that only took a couple weeks to arrive. And so I set to work. Here is the end result:
a huge mess

the bit I used to pre-drill the holes for the bracket screws holding up the blinds

the finished product - up

temporary solution for keeping the cords out of my son's reach

the finished product - down

So at least that's one more project I can mark off the to-do list.

Sewing Table

2010-06-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our guest room will double as my craft and sewing room. We found a table a few weeks ago and I finally got around to assembling it the other day with some assistance.

(my assistant took this picture of me hard at work - pretty impressively in focus and centered, I think)

This next picture is to show how an assistant can sometimes be more of a distraction than a help... (the drawer railing on the left is upside down)

When my husband came home for lunch, he helped me to dismantle and reassemble the table.

Now all I need is a chair.

I need a garage...

2010-06-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

for obvious reasons.

This room is supposed to be my husband's music room - a space for him to keep and play his guitars, electric piano, etc. Unfortunately, we're lacking sufficient storage for all the piles of boxes, baby paraphernalia, Christmas decorations and such. We're working on getting the permits to enclose the carport... and hopefully we'll get it started soon.

My small compensation is that I finally got some curtains up in the bonus room.

I already had the curtains from another house we lived in, I just needed a curtain rod... and in following my dad's advice to wander the aisles of Lowe's and Home Depot for clearance items, I found this steal of a deal:
(no idea why this picture refuses to post upright)

Now I'm just waiting for the chandelier I want to drop in price like this!

5 Little Monkeys

2010-06-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Even though I have things to work on like putting crown molding in the guest room, painting closet doors, installing window treatments, etc. my main focus lately has been putting more personality into my son's room.

One of his favorite books is Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree and he also loves the video CullensABCs has on YouTube. I thought it would be fun to find a way to incorporate this into his room. Because he has an alligator that was a gift from his Aunt Margie and a monkey that was a gift from my mother-in-law, I thought it would also be a great way to memorialize those special gifts for when he gets older.

First, we waited patiently for a day when the sun would come out, then took our friends to the front yard.

Then we took our time posing them in the tree and taking pictures:

This is one of my favorite shots, even though I didn't end up using it. Here are the pictures I did end up using:
Here is the picture frame I used:

and the final project:

I still need to hang it, but I'm waiting to finish one other project for that section of the wall. I'll post a picture when I finally get it all up. I also finally placed the order for blinds for my son's room. Hopefully, my next post will include them, along with the window treatments I'm planning for my own room... or one of about 100 other projects we have planned...

The Family Calendar

2010-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Every winter, one of my sister-in-laws puts together a family calendar that includes pictures of everyone in the family and gives them out as gifts. In all the time that we've been married, and in all the places we've lived, we've never really had a good place to hang ours. Now that I have space to put something together, I finally did something about it.

1-12"x24" foam core board
2-12"x12" adhesive backed corkboard tiles
thumbtacks
stickers
ribbon and fabric leftover from previous projects

the fabric is just a simple linen

I stuck the tiles to the corkboard

then flipped it over and started gluing the edges of the fabric to the backside

a little helper assisted in lining up the cut ribbons

like so:

I tacked the edges down on the front with thumbtacks, then flipped the board over and hot glued the ribbon in place

I bought these hangers for a different project (and then figured out I wouldn't actually need them for that project)

since the nails would be too long for the depth of my memo board, I just used some more hot glue to stick it in place

then I used these stickers ("flair") that look more like buttons but have not-well-centered adhesive patches on the back

and stuck them onto some plain thumbtacks

I centered my decorative thumbtacks where the ribbons intersected

and then hung it on the wall in my kitchen next to the fridge

Running Water

2010-05-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Before we were even close to closing on our house, I purchased all new hardware and a new faucet for the kitchen. We haven't done anything with the hardware yet, but my husband finally found the time to install the faucet I picked out.

I'd say it's an improvement. The oiled bronze fits better with the feel of the kitchen than the stainless steel. Aside from the color, I think the style is a little more elegant also. Eventually, I think I'd like to get a few bar stools for the breakfast bar, and maybe a small kitchen cart for the oasis that is my kitchen.

On a somewhat related note, my husband also replaced some pipes on the water heater which were breaking down and shooting black rubber bits into the tub, sinks, etc. Somehow, I feel like changing the pipes made the whole water heater work more efficiently. I can take a 10 minute shower now without running out of hot water! Ah, the luxuries of owning your own home.

The Challenge

2010-05-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law and his family came down to help with the lawn.

That brown patch is where they dug up the giant section of weeds that had replaced grass.

We were finally able to get the lawnmower out to even everything out (it was looking pretty shabby with the existing grass being so tall and the new grass coming in).

We call it "franken-grass" because of the mixture of existing grass, new seed, and sod that went into the yard. It's still a little patchy in spots and we're still fighting weeds, but it looks SO much better now.

In the meantime, we've sort of been ignoring the backyard, hoping it would resolve its issues on its own... here's a little glimpse to let you see what became of it:

We decided the least we should do is mow, so out my husband went...

We still need to do something with the remaining raised flower bed (with no flowers) and the huge compost pile that has developed in the corner. In the end, we might till the whole backyard and start from scratch, adding a little garden and a play area.

One thing is certain, the back gate needs repaired... (it doesn't open or shut properly)

On a side note, I think it might be appropriate to point out what a friend to the environment I am... or not. These are the empty spray cans from the painting projects I've been working on in the last couple months...

At Long Last

2010-04-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of finally owning our own home has been to upgrade to a King size bed. The master suite is huge, but the bedroom itself is average if not on the smaller side, so I really wanted to find a platform bed with some storage, so we could get away with just one dresser (which I'm thinking I still haven't posted a picture of yet, but I love it.).

Peter found this on craigslist:
it came with a mattress, but I'm not comfortable buying used mattresses or upholstered furniture... you just never know.

Anyway, we separated all the pieces on the back patio and started sanding...

The previous owner bought it used and had it in their teenaged son's room, so there were some scratches to work out.

I filled in some of the deeper cracks with wood putty.

Then everything got two coats of Krylon primer in White before getting painted with some more satin finish Krylon paint in "Clean White"

My husband set up these boards for me to use for working on the headboard and footboard (and then was nice enough to actually do some of the work on them).

Once the paint was dry, I took some fine grain sand paper (150 grit, I think) and roughed up the edges a little for more of a vintage feel.

The day the mattress was supposed to be delivered, I started putting the bed together and realized the difference between a king size water bed, a regular king mattress, and a California king. This was a water bed frame that had been made to accommodate a California King... which is not what I was told. We cut some press board we had in the carport and were able to adjust the platform for our new bed (which is wider and shorter than a California King). Our only problem now is that the headboard and footboard don't actually attach... I'm still going back and forth on whether or not to rig something or to just put the headboard and footboard back on craigslist... (okay, I'm selling it, I just like to pretend I could make it work)

I just really like how the pieces turned out... if only they'd fit.

The King's Throneroom

2010-04-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I never got around to posting pictures of our master bath/closet. We've done a LOT of work in this area, but we still have a few more projects left...

some before's:
notice the carpet throughout...

we took out the closet doors and got to work pulling up the carpet and putting in some cement boards for tile

my dad and husband working to install the tile I insisted on buying for this room (which turned out to make a lot more work than we'd anticipated... tip #1. buy extra tiles because natural stone is more brittle than ceramic and you never know when one might decide to break into a million pieces when you're cutting across the grain, and tip #2 wash the slate before you even get started and it will make things a LOT easier later on)

progress

we washed (and washed and washed) then sealed the tile once before even starting on the grout
this is what the tile looked like after being grouted and then cleaned 3 times with clean water and sponges...

and this is what it looked like after it dried:

this toothbrush and I spent a lot of time together over the next few days, scrubbing the floor over and over and over and over...

Once I was finally satisfied with my cleaning job, I applied two coats of a high gloss sealer on the tile. (Apparently, with slate you get to reapply this sealer 1-2 times yearly.)
We just put the closet doors back on and the mirrors make the room feel so much bigger and brighter.

We also got a new toilet seat (the old one was broken)

and toilet paper holder (it's never been explained to me why, but the old one was removed in the first week we were in the house... no idea why it took so many months to replace it either)

We still need some new/more towel racks in here, and I might paint the cupboards when I paint the rest of the bathroom. We did install a new faucet in here, though (the same as the one we put in the hall bathroom).

Overall, I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

a place to sit and work

2010-04-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

We got this table and chair from my father-in-law a few months back and I just finally got around to refinishing them while my cousin was here for spring break.

I lightly sanded both pieces, removed all the stickers, and filled in some gouges in the tabletop with some wood putty. Then I spray painted both first with Krylon white primer. I painted the chair with Rustoleum American Accents in "Summer Squash"

I painted the table top with the same "Green Apple" that I used for my son's smaller bookcase.

Once that was completely dry, I taped off the top and flipped it over to paint the rest "Summer Squash" like the chair.

I still have a few more projects left in my son's room (including painting the matching chair & one more bookcase, and re-finishing his toy box) and then I'll figure out how to situate everything so it's not so crowded. It's not too bad for now, though.

Book Case for the Baby Books

2010-04-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

One of the little projects I worked on over spring break...

before:

after
(a couple coats of Krylon white primer, and then some Rustoleum Home Accents spray paint in Green Apple)

The Living Room

2010-03-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I never got around to posting updated pictures of my living room... so here they are:

the befores... with orange and brown paint on the walls...
Peter installing flagstone tiles in the entryway
everything primed in bulls eye again
and done...
The walls are painted with Valspar paint in Natural and the carpet is the same as in my little boy's room.

We obviously still need to finish our furniture shopping for this room, but the couches are brand new along with the console table by the front door. Eventually, we'll get some kind of entertainment/ media console and some storage. We're also planning on eventually redoing all the lighting (replacing the ceiling fan, adding some recessed lighting, etc.).

What a Difference a Day Makes

2010-03-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since we had our big work day in the yard. I finally got around to taking some "after" shots last night while Peter worked on the yard a little more.

the two men of the house building our wheelbarrow

We got a LOT done, but there is still a lot left to do. We (and by "we" I mean my husband) decided to kick things off by cutting down and digging out all the absolutely dead plants in the yard. No small feat.

Meanwhile, I worked on cutting back the roses and rhododendrons...

We also got some of the leaves raked up.

the backyard is pretty clean now but still needs a face-lift.
and it probably didn't help that that's where we piled all our clippings for now.
Last night, Peter broke out the power tools and tackled the hedges...
backyard before:
backyard after

This weekend, we're hoping to get a lot more work done on the lawn (let's hope the weather clears up again), and then my cousin is coming down to stay a few nights. I'm taking advantage of her spring break to help me watch the little guy so I can finish a few projects that are cluttering the carport and back patio...

Help Wanted

2010-03-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, we tackle the yard.
I've been trying to get a head start by pruning some of the roses... (yes, I know that bush on the right is not a rose bush)

It maybe not look like I've done much, but they were actually taller than me before I started hacking away.

the clippings just from the first two rose bushes in the front yard...
right at the feet of these desperately overgrown trees with all the dead leaves piled on the ground around them...
It's a great house on a great lot, but every plant here is either overgrown:
(an arborvitae on the side of our carport)

(more roses, outside the dining room window)
(another arborvitae, on the other side of the house)
(rhododendron, also outside the dining room window)
(hedges taller than the house)
or they're dead:
(we think someone may have sprayed some with poison because... I've never seen plants as black as some of these)
(beautiful tree surrounded by gross dead shrubs)
(pretty bad, right?)
or, I just plain don't know what they are or what I'm supposed to do with them:
(this one especially has me interested... what is it?)
and then there's the lawn. We need more grass and less... weeds & bare patches.

Our loan shining star for the moment is this planter my mother-in-law gave me as a housewarming gift.

We bought a lawn mower today and tomorrow morning we're heading out for a new wheel barrow among other lawn care necessities so we can really get to work. I'm excited for the results.

Making Progress...

2010-03-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

Ever so slowly, we're making progress...

I really do try to unpack at least a box a day, and yet the bonus room is still not usable...

We did finally get the base trim up in the laundry room. This is another room where we replaced carpet with tile. You might also recognize this tile from our bathroom...

(still needs a little more organization, especially since the cats spend their evenings in here)

The base trim is up in the bathroom, too, along with the new toilet seat...
I figured you'd rather see a picture of this plain wall and trim than the inside of my toilet.

and more trim... (my son's room)

We finally got the closet doors back on, too.

Here is the table with one of the chairs that I'll be refinishing to go into my son's room. Big thanks to my father-in-law for giving them to us.
(They look a little more worn in this picture because they're covered in sawdust from all the trim we were cutting.)

Where We Eat

2010-03-02T09:00:00.001-08:00

Another unfinished project: our dining room. It's come a long way from when we first bought it. You can see all the splotches of "touch up" paint done with non-matching paint. Classy, right? (the door you see leads to what will be Peter's office, along with space for some dry food storage)

lots of Bulls Eye primer, especially to cover the bottom half

the finished project (still taped up, but painted)
The top half is the same color we used in the kitchen and living room, Valspar Natural. The bottom half is Valspar Morning Sand. Both are in a Satin finish. We left the chair rail and trim unpainted to better match the existing flooring.
I just wanted to point out that someone had at some point painted this breaker box white...

I think it blends in MUCH better now that it's painted to match the walls. We still need to figure out something for the latch. Lowe's and Home Depot didn't seem to have a solution so I'll be scouring the internet later. The guy at Lowe's literally told me to "McGuyver it."

and the dining room in action just in time for my son's 2nd birthday

We still need a new light fixture in here, a window scarf, and some new furniture (table, chairs, buffet, sideboard). Other than that, I think this room is done.

Settling In

2010-02-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

I realized that in my first post I had put up a picture of my doorknob. I figured I should let everyone know that the very first project I did (and I did do it myself) was to change out the doorknobs and deadbolts. Doesn't it look nicer?

As for getting settled in... still working on it. This is a picture of our bonus room, aka where we unloaded our entire storage unit. I promise, I really have made a huge dent in this room. You can tell because not all the piles of boxes are as high as the ones in that far left corner... lots of work to do, lots of work to do... Eventually, this will be the room where Peter can store and play all his music equipment.

On a side note, I thought it would also be appropriate to interject here and say that our dads came down right away for the the first week or so we owned the house and spearheaded a lot of our larger projects. If it weren't for them, we probably wouldn't have been ready for the carpet in time, and who knows where we'd be at this point. Big thanks to them! Also, a big thanks to my mom for watching my son the first few days at her hotel room so I could actually help out and get even more work done.

Carpet and My Son's Room

2010-02-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

Thanks carpet-installers-who-took-three-days-to-install-my-new-carpet-when-it-only-should-have-taken-one for all the little reminders of why it was so much cheaper to get our carpet at Lowe's and have you put it in.

thanks for reminding me my work is never done...

but we do love the carpet, and having new carpet in general.

Here is a before of my son's room... I got a little excited when we got the keys and forgot to take pictures before we ripped the carpet out. To get the full effect of what this room was like, you have to imagine the dark red carpet is still on the floor...

my husband hard at work removing yet another old heat registerand here it is all patched up like it was never therethis is the only before picture of the closet doors... I don't have an after yet, but we removed them and now they're sitting on the back patio drying. I decided to spray paint the gold trim white to better match the rest of the roomZinsser Bulls Eye Primer -- for obvious reasons
We decided to use these child-safety outlet covers in my son's room because he really can't plug anything into these (he can pull the standard safety plugs out... they just slow him down). These covers automatically slide over when not in use. Because they cost about 800% more than normal outlet covers, we only put them in the one room.
The trim and ceilings throughout the house are painted with Valspar's "Clean White." The walls in this room and the spare bedroom are painted with Valspar's "Sky's the Limit" in a satin finish. I actually wanted a different color, but the woman at the counter accidentally scanned the wrong barcode. I could have had her mix up the right color... but did you know Lowe's will sell you the gallon of wrong color paint for only $5?!! Who can say no to that? Obviously not me, and I think it worked out pretty well.

You can see we still need to put the base trim up and order some blinds for this room. The curtains I got on clearance from Target and I really like how they contrast the lighter blue on the walls. Like I said before, we still need to re-install the closet doors. I also want to refinish the two book cases you see here. I need to get a dresser, find all his hangers, and possibly build a toy box, too

Hall Bathroom

2010-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

So here is my general disclaimer that EVERYTHING is still a work in progress, but I figured I should probably start posting some of our projects.

This is our main bathroom/ hall bathroom/ my son's bathroom...

after we tore the carpet out and started cleaning up the dry rot

we (my dad) also took out the sliding glass shower door to install a shower curtain (and make things easier at bath time)new flooring starting to go in (these particular tiles were donated by my parents -- leftover from their own home projects)

you can see where we removed a dead heat register on the right and my father-in-law patched the giant hole it left behind

amazingly, three strips of masking tape were enough to keep my 2 year old out of the bathroom and off the freshly laid tilesgrouted and ready to be sealedI actually liked the green that was in the bathroom when we moved in, but had to repaint to cover the patchwork on the wall. We found this brown paint left in a cupboard from the contractors the bank had hired to fix the place up and decided to use it.
FYI I've already switched out this shower curtain to a white one that works better.We also installed this new faucet.Projects left in this room: touch up paint, install new base trim, new shower head, new toilet seat, possible new lighting
We also still need some new accessories and decorations to finish it all off. Inspired by this little cup/ toothbrush holder, we're planning on a sort of Curious George theme.

We did it!

2010-01-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

After going through the house-hunting/ house-buying process for about 8 months, we finally signed for a house yesterday and should be getting keys any time now... As soon as we do, I have LOTS of little (and some big) projects in mind. Since we can't actually get into the house yet, I'm just posting a few pictures to give you an idea of what we're up against.

our welcoming front door

classy lowered ceiling in the guest room

the master bath... complete with a filthy shower and wall to wall carpeting

a lovely ceiling fan to keep the air circulating while on the back porch

and a little taste of the existing color scheme...