The Wall

Remember this wall?

I've hated this wall for a really long time. It was completely uncooperative in my attempts at wallpaper removal, stubbornly refused to accept any kind of paint, and flatly rejected any texture that I attempted to apply to it. What a jerk. Even when we finally figured out that we could use oil based primer to cover the entirety of its disgustingness, the remaining wallpaper decided to peel off in huge chunks - which was awesome - but also slightly annoying since it refused to budge with the numerous chemicals, steamers, heat guns, scoring tools, hammers, chisels, etc I had previously applied against the horrid thing.

See what I mean?

Kind of annoying.

We basically ended up painting the entire kitchen with a coat of primer, peeling off wallpaper, and then painting it again. But: the result is amazing and I wish I had done this months, nay, years sooner. Can you be in love with a wall?

As you can see, I still have to paint trim, but this little step toward progress makes me so happy - I think Eric was pretty proud of me, too, since I got a lot of it done by myself (not ALL - my mom helped by peeling wallpaper and distracting my child - but a lot).

AND: this lovely wall is now the perfect spot for my Stendig calendar. Sigh. Love it.

Hole-in-the-wall

We did it, we chopped another doorway in the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

The doorway is pretty nice.... it makes the kitchen much brighter and is a nice shortcut...  though it's not a vast improvement like some of the other changes we've made. I'm hoping it will inspire Eric to let us redo the rest of the kitchen post-haste!

Kitchen Phase 1 part b is complete! Now parts c-z and then Phases 3-10.... *sigh*

A Bookshelf for Bean

When we were last in Colorado, Eric's mom gave us a box of books that were his as a child. We sorted through them with Adam and Joe and, I must say, watching grown men get exited about children's books was a hoot. A lot of the books were too tall for the storage cube in Cora's room so some ended up on our bookshelf in the den and then, this weekend, we hung a few shelves in her room to display the rest. I think they're pretty cute.

I wanted shelves low enough that the Beanie-baby could pull herself up and, eventually, reach the books she wants to read. Plus, I think these shelves treat her books like the little pieces of artwork that they are.

Nursery Progress

This weekend, we pulled carpet out of the middle bedroom and moved in all the "kid" furniture. It doesn't sound like a lot, but removing carpet, cleaning and waxing the floor, getting rid of glue-on trim and then replacing it with real trim took the entire day Saturday. We still need to paint and install quarter-round, but the quarter-round will wait until we refinish floors and I'm sure I can rope my mom into helping paint the next time they come to visit. Right, Mom? :)

We really need better lighting in this room (floor lamp, night light, and a dimmer switch, am I right?) but other than that, I'm not sure how much accessorizing we will actually do.... I don't really want to buy a lot more stuff, especially since I like the pieces we have now. We love our rocking chair - it's sooooo comfy that Eric wants to keep it in the living room until the kid arrives - and that play mat - while a bit mature for an infant - was something that we both got excited about on our trip to Ikea. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up playing with it at some point! Though right now it's being used to protect the floor from our new favorite chair.

And our crib... cute, no? Eric's aunt scored us this beauty (so nice of her!!!!!) and I am quite excited about it. It is a really quality piece of furniture! And it was super easy to put together. I'm proud to say I did it all by myself!

This dresser was mine growing up and it will be perfect for our kiddo; we're planning on just throwing a changing pad on top instead of buying an entire changing table.

I think the only piece of furniture lacking is a bookshelf. This kid is going to read/be read to a lot so it would be nice to have something to store books and random small playthings. Eventually.

Eric also installed a new blind in our bathroom this weekend. I'd like to show you a nice picture of it, but I don't have one because it hates me and refuses to roll up for me. It loves Eric, it cooperates perfectly for him, but I have not yet mastered the skill.

 Haha! It will probably stay this way until Eric gets home tonight.

Looking forward to next weekend wherein we can tackle a few more projects. And the weeks to come. I think even Eric likes "nesting" a little.

Saddest Before & After EVER

I really don't like exercising. And in my current condition, I find it to be even more excruciating than normal. Any extra…. jiggling…. is not exactly comfortable and twisting and bending become nearly impossible when you DONT HAVE A WAISTLINE. This has made my usual routine of a short jog or laid-back yoga session obsolete. I've been trying to walk a couple of miles in the mornings, but let's be honest, when you're already tired and feel like a whale, the only thing you want to do is sleep and eat cereal while watching Seinfeld re-runs. Am I right? All this complaining is to proudly say, I didn't exercise this morning! Instead, I traipsed up and down the basement stairs about forty times carrying such things as a nightstand, mattress, lamp, box spring, bed frame, side chair, etc…. I tell you what, moving furniture is SO MUCH BETTER THAN WALKING ON A STINKING TREADMILL. I worked up quite a sweat, let me tell you! So why was I carrying all this stuff downstairs? We are finally emptying out one of the guest bedrooms so as to begin furnishing a nursery. Yes. We are finally preparing for the little creature that is going to take over our lives and middle bedroom in LESS THAN THREE MONTHS. Terrifying. 

Anyway…In preparation for The Invader, we also had to find another make-shift guest bedroom. But the only space that would really work was in the Dungeon Room (we literally call it that, not even kidding). I'm about to show you some before and after pictures, but they're so depressing, I don't even want to. This is not a real renovation. Taking a nasty room and slapping a coat of paint on it does not a remodel make. Like putting lipstick on a $5 hooker - it only draws attention to the fact that she doesn't have any teeth. Ha! Whatever. Back to the story. 

So imagine a room with no windows in the back corner of someone's spider-infested basement and add the grossest brown shag you have ever seen in your life along with some weird shelving and a few cobwebs. Basically a dungeon. This is the room with which we began. I don't have a picture of it with the shag. Just imagine it. 

So here is us slapping paint on it. We sealed the floors somewhere in there too. 

And then here it is with furniture from the spare room. 

So sad. 

We'll put a rug in there to homey-fy it at some point, but folks, it's not going to get much better than this (at least not for a loooong while). So come on over, stay a while, why don't you? We'll put you up in our sparest of spare rooms….

Back Stairs

Our back stairs are (mostly) complete!

Whoop! Whoop! Eric let me cut and measure all the boards while he attached them. Having stairs is quite convenient..... I don't know how we lived so long without them!

Back Step Beginnings

We got started on our back steps last night!! Well, Eric did. I'm kind of useless. I mostly took pictures of shiny things and played with flashing scraps.

First step complete! Hoping to get them framed in tonight and finished by next Tuesday...

Siding & Windows

I've totally been neglecting our house news! Our windows and siding are finally done (and have been for over a week)!!

Boom. Dang shizzle. I really like it. Still need stairs and we're looking to get a patio set, but one step at a time, am I right?

Only regrets - we agree that we should have made the bedroom window (the farthest right window) taller, but oh well, now we know for the front of the house. Secondly, definitely not a huge fan of the window wrap thing. Though trying to explain what I wanted to a husband and contractor when I don't even know what words to use made it difficult.... But whatever. This is obviously one million times better than what we had. Hallelujah!

Home Renovation on Steroids

I came across the Olive Green Window blog today and it makes our renovation projects look.... kind of pitiful.

It probably doesn't hurt that they started out with a home like this...

From lovely, to totally amazing....

They've found and refinished a lot of their furniture on auction sites, but it's all period, it's all authentic, and it's all designer. Fancy.

Even though this is home renovation on a completely different scale, it's fun to see what other people are up to. It looks like they enjoy their projects almost as much as we do!

(This will be me in a year :))

Over the Weekend: Stair Demolition

Since we're getting new siding (and boarding up our current back door for a new sliding one), the old concrete stairs had to go.

Eric was super excited to use a jackhammer.

But sometime between hour three and six, jackhammering ceased to be fun.

Poor guy. It was a loooot of work. Sometimes I wish I had manlier muscles so I could help with things like this. 

I took this picture this morning. We've hauled a bit of the bigger pieces back to the alley (waiting for a truck to magically appear and take them away) but the smaller ones we will probably sneakily distribute into the back dumpsters.

Step one of our backyard makeover (almost) complete!

Over the Weekend: Little Changes

A while back I ordered some new drawer pulls for the little dresser we have in the dining room; they arrived last week and Eric installed them this weekend. I really like them. They look much better than the cheap plastic-y ones that were on there before.

Eric also let me get another plant. It's a fiddle leaf fig. 

I'm thrilled with it! I've been looking for one for a while, but none of the plant stores on our side of town had one. We finally made it up to Gainan's in the heights and voila! They had a couple! And they were on sale! So gorgeous. I think I need to get a stool for it to sit on, though; right now it's a bit hidden behind our couch and I want everyone to see it the instant they walk through the door. :)

Weekend: Type Chest Complete!

Eric has spent quite a few week nights (and weekends) revamping the type chest his aunt gave us. I really appreciate all his hard work; removing each individual type compartment ended up being a lot of work.

Our previously useless type chest now has four drawers just waiting to be jammed with my art junk. My sewing machine even has its own drawer!

Even the cat approves.

Weekend: And There Was Light

I hate daylight savings. It's wretched. Everything's dark all the time. I think I may need to invest in one of those "don't be depressed, spring will come again" lights that ward off craziness and boredom. What are they called? SAD lights? I may need one.

This weekend, we gave our hallway light. Partly because of the daylight savings doldrums, and partly because Eric has been champing at the bit, begging for projects to do.

We now have three lights in our abnormally long hallway instead of one measly one.

Boom.

Eric is pretty much a stud. We got everything in, he flipped the switch, and "ta da!" There was light! He told me to take a picture of him looking amazed....

I think he looks more like someone on "Touched by an Angel."


The only hiccup in an otherwise perfect installation - we wanted to center the first light over the doorway into the hall, but there was a beam in the way. We had to put it a bit off-center, but I don't think you can really tell.

Next project: front bathroom remodel!

My First Upholstery Project EVER

A couple of months ago, Hanna asked me if I'd like to help her reupholster a little children's chair. I'm fairly certain I just asked a lot of questions and got in the way, but I learned so much. Working with Hanna helped me to realize that I can totally upholster stuff. As far as I can tell, you just jam a lot of staples where people can't see them and use the fabric you're upholstering with to cover 'em up. Piece of cake!

Following are a few snapshots from our efforts.

Our lovely chair model:

The chair in question:

Taking it apart:

Hanna getting crazy! :)

Covering it back up:

We nearly finished that evening, but then decided we were tired and that the arms could wait for another time. It was so much fun. It's crazy what this little project did to bolster my upholstery confidence. :)

A Successful Weekend

I love having a house and weekends in which to putter around it. It's so relaxing and fun. Even doing laundry is enjoyable when you get to do it in your own home. Besides doing laundry this weekend, I rearranged my little terrarium thing (again), watched both seasons of Downton Abby (have you seen this show?! so amazing and addicting!!), and finished my chairs (finally!)!!!

But I think I'm going to have to get rid of them because.....

I got a new dining set.

Eight chairs, a table (with the slide out leaves I wanted!), and a hutch.

They're teak, they're Danish, and I love them all so, so much!

Eric hates the hutch. For some reason he's afraid that I'll fill it with Precious Moments figurines or Dale Earnhardt Junior commemorative plates. I have to admit that I wasn't too fond of the hutch at first either, but it's slowly growing on me. One good thing is that it is two pieces, and if we ever wanted, we could pull off the top and have a lovely credenza to put in the den with a little tv on it. Perfecto.

Eric also hates the chairs. He didn't tell me until we got home and, knowing that now, I'm really surprised he even let me buy this stuff. He mentioned that he would rather use the chairs I just refinished, but these Danish ones are, quite frankly, much more comfortable and much better quality. Solid wood. All the same kind of wood. Not bits and bobs of walnut veneer and oak like the others.

We'll talk about it.

I think it's mostly the fabric that he dislikes (which I totally agree with), so I think if I change that, it will help him like them more...

I have some linen lying around that I could use. It's pretty much grey, but I think it has enough cream-colored fibers in it that it won't clash with the warm tones of the teak. Though it's possible that I just made that part up.

On the left is the fabric color now (it totally looks purple in our house!!!!), and on the right is the linen I have that I could use. Up close it has a lot more beige in it, I must say.

If I recover them now, should I refinish then while I have them pulled apart? They're not in bad shape, just normal dings and dents from 20+ years of use and wear.

Enough thinking about what to do to these things. I just want to enjoy them for now!!!