News

by Annie Posted on February 14, 2013

Sorry for my absence. I’ve been in that world of limbo, waiting for Wednesday February 13th to arrive.

You see that was the day Greg met with the CEO of his company to discuss our transferring to Seattle. As in this is actually happening. It’s not just talk, it’s not just wishing, hoping and blindly planning for the future. It recently became a reality with more details to come in summer.

It’s not Oregon like we hoped but it’s close, Kent, Washington (near Seattle) and we’ve been very open to “transplanting” ourselves west for years. We will have put in 6 years in Minnesota when the house goes on the market in spring of 2014 and while some of it has been, well, it’s been something, we’re ready to move on.

I couldn’t do much of anything the past few weeks without getting that meeting out of my head and I will be in a fog until we receive more info in the summer. It went a little something like this “hey, Annie, why don’t you write a post” and I’d be like “no, silly, I’m just gonna sit and contemplate how this meeting will go and accomplish next to nothing for a few weeks.”

We had to wait 3 weeks from when Greg asked to be transferred to schedule this meeting. He sent an email to the CEO after he came back from his last Kent visit and the CEO said “I would think that would be very possible. We’ll need to talk about the timing and mechanics and may need you to spend some time out there in the interim, but I see no reason why it can’t be worked out.” I know! We were jumping for joy with that message.

Just so happens the company’s facility near Seattle needs an engineer (and Greg is a very good one) and last time he was out he there he brought up the topic and then things just flowed. I kept thinking someone is going to take the rug out from under us. Again. But things continue to get better and more focused on the move. We’ve got A LOT to do beforehand.

We have a year to be in this house to avoid capital gains tax and to get months worth of work done (oy). When I mentioned the whole get the house done in a year thing before, we had no real timeline or knowledge of how we could legitimately achieve moving. It was more a “take the reigns and try to make it happen but you haven’t got a clue how” situation. Now we have support from his company.

It’s no secret that we love the Pacific Northwest and have been trying to get there for years, pretty much since 2007. Before we moved to Minnesota we were supposed to move to Eugene, Oregon where I found Greg a job utilizing his newly acquired degree. But that fell through after 8 months of preparing for the transition from our Indiana home. After selling, storing, packing our belongings and telling everyone we knew and saying some goodbyes. It was heartbreaking and induced the biggest panic attack I think we’ve ever had since the large sum of student loan payments were about to come calling and we didn’t have $500 to our names. We had to start the job search all over again after thinking we had job security for 8 months.

I had left my position a few months before in my field and moved back home with Greg so he could work for his dad’s construction business/find a job in his field somewhere in the U.S. that could potentially make 3x what I had been in social work then I could start a new job in my field. That was the idea. There was a job offer in Charlotte and a week after we came back home from there, an offer in Minnesota. Minnesota paid more (or so we thought) and away we went still reeling and upset about Oregon.

These two can’t wait to move across the country. I swear.

Somehow the struggle has transformed into the idea that maybe we were meant to go this route. Greg loves his job, we adore this house, we found our darling pups here, I look forward to writing on this blog and my food blog…that I started to deal with the fact that I couldn’t find a job-any job-and was quite lonely which was where I found out how much I enjoy writing (and being a foodie) and thus began this second blog where I talk to you nice folks. I felt/feel fulfilled finding passion in salvaging furniture with my husband and sharing our home renovations. We will move on as if that were how it would pan out all along.

Indeed it was here that we both discovered how much we enjoy refinishing furniture and where we discovered talents neither of us knew we had or thought were special enough to make a living. Sure it could have been anywhere but it has been here that we’ve found a bit of support and now we hope to find more when we move on.

Greg and I know that eventually we’d like this furniture salvaging to support us and a growing family. (Newsflash: Yeah, we’d like to get settled and have a family. I’m only 30…)

We bought this great house that we work on constantly and will hand over to someone we hope takes just as much care of it and possibly renovates the portions we couldn’t. It deserves that. We think it’s been wise financially. We’d like to improve another house but with a much longer stay, perhaps raise a family and definitely put more of our taste in there.

I’m looking forward to finding another house. Believe me, I wish we could pick this place up and take it with us. This first house feels like family. This has been a struggle-filled era but I will just look back and appreciate the challenges because it has made us even more resourceful. We’ve relied on the kindness of strangers for help, welcomed craiglisters into our home and lives, and did most projects without a vehicle larger than a Subaru Forester (uh hello moving a few couches with the hatch up, mattress on the roof, interior doors taking up most of the car so that I had to ride squeezed in behind Greg for an hour, etc.) in a place we didn’t know anyone for much assistance (except moving, some friends helped out there-thank you). We got creative, more efficient, focused, wiser.

I’d like to find an older house next. There are things I want to avoid and things I will look for. I know that it may not be avoidable but I’d like to never rent again. Ever. I’ve been checking out rentals in the Seattle area along with houses and I just can’t get on board with renting again after 13 leases in 9 or so years before our house came along.

This process will be stressful, time-consuming, nerve-racking and we have a lot to do to get this house to a point we’d be pleased to put it up for sale. Update both bathrooms, finish the basement better, update the kitchen and a bunch of other projects over a year’s worth of weekends, evenings, and vacation time. Any advice on how to handle this?

Emma

by Annie Posted on February 7, 2013

I can’t believe it but this little girl is 1 today.  She’s our niece Emma and soooo cute, right?

Aunt Annie and Uncle Greg wish you a happy birthday, sweet girl, and also wish we could be with you. We send lots of love and will try to come see you guys as soon as we can!

Satin Nickel Unicorn and Other Things For Our Renos

by Annie Posted on January 31, 2013

As I said on our facebook page not much is being accomplished recently (except for cooking some awesome/easy/no-knead bread).

Well, that’s not true.  Things are happenin’ but it’s the kind of work that will be better shown when completely finished.

We’ve been working on the bedroom closet doors and the living room closet door. The living room closet was painted so our coats, gear, Greg’s trumpet, my sewing machine and all the other stuff we shove in there will be going back in soon.

We bought the casing (the above is for the “stairs to nowhere” project) and baseboard I picked out weeks ago at Menards which should be dropped off this weekend.

We found a hall closet door that matches our new bedroom/bathroom doors and one for the kitchen. Bringing the interior door total (since the basement doors are nearly identical to the ones we picked upstairs and just need some paint) to $500 for 8 doors (the majority are solid wood) with the help of the outlet store.  The only doors left are exterior. Of course, we found them at one of our new favorite places, Building Materials Outlet.

With the whole flooring fiasco weeks ago (by the way, they did refund us all but $200 for shipping so maybe they weren’t so bad after all), Greg and I decided that maybe we could get unfinished hardwood flooring so we and others in the future can finish/refinish it.  While zipping through the outlet (we got there late and it closes at 2 on Saturday), we spotted wide plank, unfinished, walnut flooring that we both fell in love with. Greg says it was there the last time we were but I don’t remember. Probably due to being on board for engineered hardwood flooring instead. Though we have dogs puppies who like to run through the house so being able to refinish the floor before we put it on the market would be a good idea and engineered just doesn’t seem the wisest choice with our corgi and sheepdog.

However, someone posted maple flooring from a gym on craigslist. 800 sq ft for $300! But I’ve contacted the person twice and no message and we’ve been to the town where it’s at for that bookcase we put wallpaper in and know it’s pretty darn far from us and we’d have to rent a truck. But it seems worth it…if only that person would contact us. Otherwise, I love that walnut but even at a discounted price ($3.95/sq ft I think) and the 20% premium added, we’re still looking at about $1300 for our tiny kitchen and dining room. (We decided we could do the kitchen and dining room at 270 sq ft-with 15% added- instead of most of the upstairs for 600 sq ft.) I just don’t know if we can take the plunge.

 

We picked up a bathroom vanity at Home Depot, and since it was the last one and damaged, we got it for $125. The basin, cabinet and mirror were included and I liked the faucet they paired with the sample so I picked it up. That will go in the basement bathroom. We had to fix the base and drawer which took no time at all. The hardware included must have fallen out of the hole in the box where the damage was done. That’s dandy with me because I plan on picking new hardware out anyway.  That’s a real drawer on top which is handy since they are usually faux. The only problem I didn’t think of, since I was way too excited about the price, while I was there is that I picked out dark espresso vinyl plank flooring for the basement which will most likely clash with the vanity. So now we’re considering putting in a vinyl tile or actual tile. It’s only 50 sq ft of space but we’re trying to keep it cheap and attractive down there. Any suggestions?

 

from Kohler

Speaking of bathrooms, guess who changed her mind about building a vanity for the main bath upstairs? This girl. Mostly because I don’t see Greg having time to make a vanity and I fell back into like with the idea of a pedestal sink with all its space underneath even though they tend to run a bit too deep for our narrow bathroom space. I think it will work. And I’m pretty sure I can find one on craigslist.

Forgot to mention the tub/shower faucet kit arrived last week. And I know I don’t talk about getting these things or include you sometimes in my decision-making process but when I see a good deal on something we need I act and since it’s more for broad resale appeal and not so much my numero uno choice. We went with the Moen 90 Degree Moentrol in brushed nickel for $162 on Amazon to go with the Fresca Versa sink faucet.

They look nice together but if we have to, we’ll return the sink faucet and go with whatever Moen has to match. The Ikea sink will be going back soon. The Gatco Latitude wall sconces I ordered for the upstairs bathroom, sigh, one was broken (the box I didn’t open for a month) and I returned it (after a confusing chat with an Amazon rep), ordered a replacement and ta da, replacement arrived broken the other day. So, I sent that one back and await another. I’m not giving up on these. Unless this next one arrives broken then only one sconce will be placed on the wall like a unicorn. A satin nickel unicorn.

Let’s see…hmmm…what else is going on? We put up the Urban Outfitters tiered shade a few weeks ago in the dining room. Not really because we thought it went well but because the old chandelier was bugging me with its unattractiveness. With the grey walls, warm brassy tone of the shade and cove ceiling, I am in love. If I could add a bit of black (perhaps the door) I would have the look I adore for a little while before changing the house for resale.

It’s not the best for lighting the room because we paired it with one of those light kits for single bulbs. We sure love it though. It casts such beautiful shadows. I’ve picked out a replacement chandelier that I think will suit the style I’m going for for that broad appeal. I’m waiting for this chandelier to show up on the market much cheaper than it currently is. I’ve contemplated making my own but that would involve spray paint in negative temps and braving the icy hell that is our yard, sidewalk and driveway. Then once I get all the parts to do the thing it could end up costing just as much as if I had bought it and there’s no guarantee I will like the thing. So, for once I will not be DIY-ing a light.

I’ve been playing around with the app that is giving my Instagram a run for its money-Camera+. Highly recommend it. I rarely pull out my Canon Powershot (I really should sometimes, huh?) and rely on my iphone (like millions of others). The awesome stylist Emily Henderson recommended a magnificent app from Benjamin Moore called Color Capture which lets you snap something and it tells you the Ben Moore paint color. Sweet sweetness.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to deal with the company I ordered the closet knobs from since I ordered them a week ago and the status still says pending. How’s a person supposed to open a door without a knob? (A screwdriver.)

DIY Vent Cover, Weekend Finds and More

by Annie Posted on January 16, 2013

You know at the beginning of Glee how they do a recap of things going on or things you’ve missed? (Or used to, I haven’t seen that show in awhile.) That’s how today is going to go down.

Here’s the credenza we picked up at Find Furnish a few weekends ago.  Looks very similar to our old one but is the perfect size-eventually we’ll repair him but he’s definitely all ours.

The honed hexagon marble tile for the bathroom floor arrived (packed very well with foam) and I love it.

This flooring is no longer blocking our way. Went back on the truck on its pallet last night. And the company wasn’t so awful and decided to give us all but $200 back.

Too bad half of it was unusable because the good pieces were beautiful.

My awesome mom made this reusable bag out of plastic bags and sent me one.

The dogs are as adorable as ever and Vivi is basically her adult size even though she’s not quite 6 months old.

Sigh, they grow so fast.


Here’s the vent cover (I guess I couldn’t be bothered that day to get a decent picture but I’ll try again when the room is in order) made with decorative sheet metal from Home Depot and some scrap lumber.  By the way, we decided to change the trim from Paper White to Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore which is going on this door below.

The closet doors will be hung soon in our bedroom. Yes, the basement still looks like a dungeon. Only not really.

We ordered a few more schoolhouse lights for around the house. Here’s the one in the kitchen (a bigger version of the one in the hall)…with the screwy background where the previous owners attached the old blinds to 2 x 4s and tried to make it look like the window casing. (It’s like that in the bedrooms too…a later fix.) The kitchen is possibly the ugliest room in here but I’ll think about the renovation plans later.

Over the weekend, we picked up this piece of art…that I’ve had my eye on the last 3 times we’ve gone into my favorite shop in town, the Local Joint. Finally just picked it up for $24. I love the colors and the frame shape (even though it has a few chips).  It’s on top of the credenza, leaning against the wall.  Looks great with the gray. I’ll fix and place it with the other pieces I’ve yet to collect and put them in a collage.

Then the best find EVER in my books, an aggravation board. As in the game I played with my grandpa. This one has a 4 player version on one side and 6 on the other. Woot woot! I bought some marbles and dice. Now to teach the dogs to play…which didn’t go so well for euchre. Greg and I lost. Damn smart dogs.

Flooring Hell

by Annie Posted on January 8, 2013

Intsead of showing you the new credenza (we are keeping it for ourselves-it’s absolutely perfect for our space, needs some work but who cares) we picked up from some of my favorite people at Find Furnish (have been following them for a while and finally got to go to their place of biz), I’m going to tell you about a lesson we learned.

Warning: If you are an amazing business and do great work I will shout it to the world but if you are horrid I will exhaust all of my options so that others are aware and aren’t harmed by your practices. I will tell it straight to my pals that come check on us here at the Wits. Today is that day.

I don’t even like to call it a lesson. It’s a story about a horrible business called floorstoyourhome.com that came with awesome reviews, recommendations and showcases an Angie’s list and BBB high rating on their website. They did ship it out fast and seemed friendly enough until we received the walnut flooring. But their material is absolutely horrible and below cabin grade, as in trash bin grade. Greg is responsible for and knowledgable about wood quality-it’s part of his job as a restaurant furniture designer/builder-we’re not oblivious-and he declared that there was nothing you could do with the quality they sent. The rep tried to tell us we could fix the knots (which we expected and most of those weren’t really the issue) with epoxy (that in itself has problems) but some of the knots were through the finish and veneer to the core and no amount of anything would fix that. The clicking mechanisms were broken on a number of them and some of the edges were cut crooked making their claim that all was “installable” a bunch of bologna.

Some of the good stuff...

Yep, the floors I was ecstatic to get in my post last week…the majority were below “cabin grade,” below the pallet quality it arrived on and the business was not helpful. Now we’re out over $400 (the cost to ship it back and the restocking fee) plus all that time trying to sort through the material to find anything usable.

I called immediately before the truck left to say the first box we checked was awful and that we’d like to return it-having no idea if we were to put it back on the truck or what-the rep said open some more boxes and see what we think. While the rep said this, I watched the truck driver we asked to stay drive away. It’s winter in Minnesota so we took the 27 boxes inside and began evaluating a few more boxes. Once we opened those, 3 of 7 were chock full o’ pieces in absolutely horrible condition. Mohawk should have tossed these. Greg called back this time since he came home from work to help unload and the rep said they don’t typically take back opened boxes. The best part is that Greg thinks it was the same rep I talked to who had not even 30 minutes before told us to open more boxes. Two boxes were damaged in shipping and you couldn’t see it until the cardboard corners placed for “protection” were taken off. Our concerns weren’t addressed at all with that issue.

Once the guy told us how much we’d be out to ship it back we thought we’d go through the boxes and try to get enough flooring to get the job done, perhaps buying the better quality version to finish it off. After 12 boxes of the 27 being opened and sorted, that’s when we realized more than half of it was not usable which equates to almost 160 sq ft of flooring only good for the trash which is about $400 worth. Who knows what the remaining 15 held?

Since we had sorted the ok from the awful we thought maybe they would take back the 15 unopened, 6 of the bad and we could keep the remaining 6 boxes we deemed worthwhile and just get a refund (minus shipping and the restocking fee) but it’s either we return all or nothing they told us. This requires us packing it in the boxes, putting it back on the pallet and wrapping it for shipping. A large pain in the bum and we’re still out flooring, $400 and the time it took to sort. And what they should do when they get this back is throw it away because whoever buys it next will not be pleased either. We told them this and marked the boxes but I highly doubt they will be that human and decent.

Yeah, both Mohawk and Floors To Your Home should be ashamed of themselves.

Bottom line: we expected some bad and took it into account in our calculations but did not expect more than half of our order to be unusable AND we did not expect a company to behave as poorly as this one. I guess flooring is going to be a big issue in this house with the tile mess for the bathroom and now this. We’re avoiding Mohawk flooring for their shoddy “factory seconds” practices and are once again looking for hardwood flooring.

By the way, Greg made it back from Seattle safe and sound. He believes he’ll be back there in the coming months and I plan on being by his side. He loved the kind people, culture and dining with the natural beauty of the land and water. Just as he remembered.

Before and After: Modern White Lacquer and Dark Walnut Dresser

by Annie Posted on January 5, 2013

Where to begin on this…

It’s the same dresser.  The free dresser we got from our friend whose daughter used it in college.  I think it could also be used as a credenza.

We wanted to take it in a more modern direction.  White lacquer with dark stained walnut (beautiful grain pattern) and a matte finish.  Sleek and contemporary new legs and bar pulls in brushed steel.

One obvious difference would be the addition of the steel legs which meant taking off the old base and filling the gaps in the top drawers with wood putty.

What you may not be able to see is that the veneer was chipped and marred on the drawer fronts but not so much the body.  Finally a piece we could stain instead of paint (partially)!

To get a smooth lacquer finish, we sanded our bums off, smoothed them out with wood putty, a coat of primer and several light coats of lacquer until we got the finish we were looking for (that took a few weekends of spraying in the garage during a cold Minnesota winter with time to cure in between in the basement).

We also decided to buy new veneer that was as close to the grain pattern as we could get for the body.  Most of what you see stained dark on the front is new veneer we cut, shaped and glued on.

It was not as structurally sturdy so it got the “Greg treatment” to get rid of the wobbles.

Ha, that is the face I love.

Parts were added and taken away to achieve better support.  These kinds of pieces tend to sag if they are not properly designed.  Drawer stops were put into their proper place to allow the drawer to slide in and out without scraping the sides or damaging the body as you often see in these older pieces.

The sides of the drawers extended a bit beyond the body and we wanted the clean, modern look so they were chiseled, scraped and sanded to be even with the body.

The stained strip down the front of the dresser, besides eventually getting new veneer, was hand planed to get rid of the rounded look in place of a smooth, flat front.

Originally I wanted to do the opposite and lacquer the body and stain the drawer fronts because of their beautiful pattern but their condition didn’t make that possible.

I think the finished look is glorious though but that could be the plan for a future piece.  The high contrast between glossy lacquer and dark matte wood appeals to me. Always been a fan.

A few coats of gel stain (love the gel version) and a few coats of matte poly finish (also love), legs attached, finished glossy lacquer drawers added, hardware added, a sigh of relief that it’s finally finished and that it was just as we envisioned.

A different style from what we’ve done in the past (for the most part) but something a bit closer and truer to our hearts and own style.  This piece stands as an example of design we adore creating in our quest to show our versatility as furniture salvagers.

Renovations

by Annie Posted on January 4, 2013

What We Recently Purchased

 

1) Matte white subway tile from Lowes for the tub shower
6) Mohawk Brookedale engineered hardwood flooring in natural walnut …update: this company is horrible and more than half the order cannot be used nor can we return it (trying to recoup expenses now)

A little Polyvore board going on up in here today. I sometimes create those with Picasa or Polvore but then don’t share. Shrugs shoulders.

I was thrilled with the price of the marble tile (55 sqft for $580…although there’s a story here you read about at the end of this post) but then we got an even better deal on the engineered hardwood. Ah-mazing I tell you! I was ready to gush about this hexagon tile then the wood flooring floored me. Ha.

Greg and I didn’t plan on figuring out the floor predicament for awhile. We were even considering keeping the beige carpet since we’d like to put the house on the market in about a year and are trying to avoid unnecessary spending. There’s a plan in place to fix up the house for about a third of what we originally thought it would take.  Now to find time and fit it in the budget. *Update: received the flooring and more than half cannot be used nor can we return the opened boxes and we are in charge of shipping it back on top of restocking fees so we’re left with all of it and out all that money.  Floorstoyourhome.com is a horrible company.  Be warned!*

Since taxes went back up, that debt we worked really hard to pay off recently, working hard to meet our goal to free up another $130/month by throwing ALL the money we could at it for years while living on a slim budget?  Yeah, that went out the window because what do you know, $100 is gone from Greg’s paycheck now.  Whoopie $30.  That seems to happen when we get some debt paid down- something out of our immediate control increases.  So, we’re nearly in the same situation.  Like millions of others not able to make enough progress to help.  It makes getting this house finished a bigger priority than before which means less furniture refinishing more updating the house.  We’d like to start a family someday and I think being able to afford health insurance is a big help and necessary (understatement) but we can’t.  There’s my rather small-compared-to-my-emotions-on-this-topic spiel.

With the carpet being newer (minus potty training 2 puppies) but ugly (hate carpet) it will work. We’ve all seen worse.

Then we found the exact flooring I talked about on here a few months ago for $2.24/sq ft when everywhere else was between $4.50 and $4.89/sq ft. Sold and no wasted time resolving that issue for less than $1400. Not the one from Home Depot because I just couldn’t take the plunge with it like I could with the wide walnut planks in the Mohawk Brookedale collection. We did decide to keep the carpet in the 2 bedrooms upstairs and re-use the living room carpet for the bedroom downstairs. A little give, a little get.

So, 500 sq ft for the living and dining rooms, hallway and kitchen with 100 extra sq ft (total of 600) as recommended (20% more). It’s “factory seconds/cabin grade” which neither of us have an issue with and it will still be much farther down the line when we get to actually put it in.

Of course, I wouldn’t be getting all of this unless we got some impressive deals (like I said, no budget progress with the tax increase…a big middle finger). Free shipping, discounts, sales, promo codes, a gift card. Checked all of those boxes. We’re also kind of lucky that our house is on the small side because that allows for a mix of high and low material without the higher end items wiping out the budget. Carrara marble and walnut flooring with Ikea and less expensive brand items.

We’re looking at a pretty big bath remodel for $2,500. Infact, we’re going to try to come out hundreds less. We still have items to gather which was the plan since we don’t have a definite timeline on this bath reno. The tub needs refinished which will take 3 days to cure alone and we’re keeping the toilet (finding a round, smaller scale, affordable toilet has proven difficult). Needs some help though. I cringe when I think about it. Then we have to find time to build the vanity. Those suckers are expensive and we have to fit our small sink perfectly with just the right amount of storage which means make it ourselves. We have to tear out a wall to gain storage which means we lose the teensy closet in the small second bedroom and the bathroom doorway must be made bigger.

While this renovating happens we’ll be forced to use the basement shower stall and you wouldn’t believe me if you saw it. Besides being the cheapest kit you can get at the store, it’s surrounded by cobwebs, the ceiling is missing, there’s exposed pipe and electrical, and we tore out the tile when we gutted the basement last winter and let (ahem Greg did) things get nasty while stirring drywall mud and whatnot, slopping it all over (ahem Greg). Not that it was a gem before. It was used for renters, student renters. Not the pickiest lot.

Lots to do for prep.

The story with the tile goes a little somethin’ like this. Ordered it from the Tile Shop (as I told you about last week), had to cancel when they didn’t have it and claimed to be in contact with me but hadn’t, ordered from another company on Amazon, a week later (last Friday) they emailed to say they didn’t have it and I would have to cancel or get the bigger, polished version (not my 1″ honed), tried to contact them to cancel then tried to cancel it on Amazon (finally received an email that it was), ordered it from another Amazon seller ($30 more but still the cheapest I could find and a good deal), they shipped it and I still await its arrival. 3 companies. At least I didn’t need it right away.

I’ll show you the dresser we finished over the weekend later.  The one I kept talking about that was a really big undertaking.  I’ve already shared it on our facebook page and my personal facebook page and people couldn’t believe it was the same one.