My Parent’s Mudroom Reveal

First, a little reminder that this is a continuation from their kitchen and bathroom remodel (which has rave reviews) and can be found here (and I know my links don’t show up a different color still so hover over the word ‘here’ to get there).

Also, to keep you in the loop, this is a picture from that post showing how they moved the door in the kitchen that went to the garage.

In order to gain more space and not have a random step in the one car garage, my dad rented a jackhammer.  I got a call that day about this event and couldn’t help but picture Wile E. Coyote-like antics.  Greg and I often express ourselves with the maturity of a Looney Tunes cartoon or Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

One, two, skip a few steps and here’s the framing portion of the project and I bet you know that door leads to the kitchen.  Well, you do now.  (That door comes out later to open up the room to the rest of the house.)

Would you like some scalloped potatoes with that ham?  What a ham for the camera.

Closet view…believe me the storage was needed and this makes a great entry to leave things behind before walking into the house…they also have a new front door, carpet throughout the house (as of earlier this week) and an entry landing instead of stepping onto carpet (we could use that).

Walls, insulation, door, beadboard all up and a glimpse into the kitchen.

Closet door and light added along with racks.  I don’t know why I’m telling you because you can see it.  What a maroon!

It got a wee bit messy in the garage.

But it was cleared out and their car can fit!  Mom said only the driver can get in but it’s progress.

That door leads to the patio/backyard which is their next project.

Putting the trim up, flooring is in.

Ready?  Shazam!

Just for a glimpse of the other side even though it’s a few steps back.

That was my grandpa’s hat.

That’s Lucky, Luck, the Luckster.

To think this space was the back of a garage with shelving and a counter for storage.  Amazing, right?  I can’t wait to see it in person.

Greg and I finished painting our master bedroom (minus the trim) and will show you that later.  The plans for this weekend are to reorganize and repair a few dressers (one will come upstairs in our spare room until we find a wardrobe) and the sideboard.  Both have drawer issues and need a lot of attention although you can’t tell in the pictures.  The door is falling off the sideboard and the top right drawer only has the drawer front on in this picture (I’m tricky).  But don’t get too excited, we’re not refinishing them fully.

Instead, we’re passing the two on to a craigslister to redecorate.  We really need the space to finish the rest of the house.  I’m going to miss these pieces.  My ideas will never come to be.  Sad face.  Nor will the upholstery jobs since the chair and loveseat found new homes.  Both have plans to be reupholstered and I was told I’d get a photo by both craigslisters.  Until next week!

Blogroll and Bangs

Over the weekend, I put my blogroll (the blogs and websites I love) on my sidebar.

blogroll

There it is.  Give it a look.  Discover new bloggers, share how you also enjoy so-and-so and/or tell me who’s or would be on your blogroll.

bangs

I also did this.  I’m not saying it’s magnificent.  They are bangs I cut myself using this tutorial from And Then We Saved.  I also watched a dozen videos and combed, re-combed and walked around holding my hair in front of my face for half an hour before I just went for it.  This from the person who is challenged doing anything with hair (and pretty much anything else).  This from the girl who lopped off Greg’s sideburn with clippers when she wasn’t even trying to trim those.

This fringe needs some tweaking but I’m just proud that I did it myself, that I took the plunge.  You may not grasp the difference since I don’t like to post photos of myself but believe me, my naturally thick, curly, bum length, ash blonde/light brown/some have called it gray hair feels better to me.

glasses

When I turned 30 in September I wanted a makeover.  The last 5 years of my life, since moving to Minnesota, I became someone on the side of style/fashion/etc. who didn’t do anything to herself or for herself.  Those who know me back home have a hard time believing that’s the way it went since I was almost the complete opposite growing up.  If I had the money to get new clothes, shoes, makeup, a new hairstyle and so on, it went towards furniture refinishing and house projects.  I felt like I had lost that part of me that wanted to put the best visual interpretation out in the world.

hair

This feels more like me.  This reach for the more contemporary, creative, just try it side.  I intend to do things like this and be her more often.

 

 

Second Bedroom Update

I’m going to start by saying happy belated 28th anniversary to my parents as of last Friday.  They have finished their mud room which I will tell you about later…after their amazing kitchen and bathroom renovations I shared awhile back.  It’s another thing of beauty.

Sorry I was gone last week and only popped up yesterday to say I’m choosing Bloglovin’ and Feedly to replace my Google Reader (what are you doing with that?).  The important thing is that I’m back with lots of pictures and ready to share what’s going on in our lives.

Our 3 season porch was full of things we’ve been removing like doors and trim (and furniture needing repaired, a giant dog crate, a tote full of garage sale items after cleaning out the kitchen, and some family dishes that belonged to Greg’s grandma carefully packed in bins).  I put the old hollow core doors on craigslist and had a gentleman pick them up for his sister-in-law who also refinishes furniture and is opening a store soon.  She’s going to decorate the doors and use them to divide the space.  How cool.  Just a small world.

It’s snowing again so close to spring’s arrival which is not my favorite.  Blowing and drifting kind of snow when my mind is on grilling, flowers, green grass and sweet sweet sunshine.  The weather impacts our ability to work on the house since we are outside shoveling and breaking ice on our free time.  Greg has been working late again so our time together seems better spent connecting, eating dinner together and holding hands than using every free minute to work on the house as we’ve tried during the weeks in the past.

What closet?

The light is new and if I’d known the shade was going to be so stark white I would have picked another light.  I’d go for more of a natural linen shade instead for this room.  But it’s nice, provides a good amount of light and will do well for resale.  I can always move it to the basement when we finish the bedroom down there.

The door will be painted white but I like the warm and cool tones together.

Good news is that we have the second bedroom painted after drywalling and mudding where the closet used to be, the new door is up (after a little shave off the bottom), and we have moved into that room (plans for it being my office and workout room are on hold).

Henry’s new hair cut (and this is his “I’m so bored” look and not him napping because this dog doesn’t sleep).  This bedspread (clearance at Target years ago) has seen better days and the fleece blanket is a must here in these cold months.  

That is a World Market dresser (we got on major sale when the stores closed in Minnesota years ago…to come back)-are you surprised that’s the dresser we have?  I love the simple shape and I went through a dark espresso phase that I still find myself drawn to.  HomeGoods lamp and laundry basket.  You know me, I got a good deal on those too.  

Eventually we’ll put a wardrobe in this room for guests and resale.  

In case you’re wondering, this is the nightstand that matched our first mid-century credenza and if you want to hate me, we got both for $60 and sold the credenza, receiving at least 6 times that for it alone.  It needs work but we can do that later.  You get a glimpse at the project we finished weeks ago behind Viv that I haven’t shared yet since the baseboard is not up and trim not fully painted.

The second bedroom is small with our queen mattress but we both really enjoy how cozy it feels and love the dark color on the walls-Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Gray.  We may not move out of it but will bring the full size bed back up for more space. I think I’m going to go with more dark shades in our next house I’m so in love with how they make me feel when I walk in.  And this restless lady seems to sleep better now.

Old school style 

The walls are being prepped and we’re removing the old trim in our bedroom for painting.

Tons of little boogers all over the walls (like all the other rooms) and someone thought tape was a substitute for spackle so we are scraping those spots off then we are mudding those areas since there is a noticeable dent left which is why all the rooms are taking longer to paint.  Lots of mudding with multiple coats and scraping then more mud and sanding.  Repeat.  The good part is that we can work on multiple things while it dries.  Like chipping ice and removing snow….

The top shade is Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl which is going in our bedroom.

The ceiling got a fresh coat of paint in a few rooms and the hall closet is painted in the leftover Paper White from Benjamin Moore.  Leftover because I thought I would use it for the trim until I realized it is definitely a shade of gray-white. We’re using Decorator’s White from Mr. Moore instead.

Shelves have been added in the hall closet and it just awaits trim and the new door (and the hardwood floor we hope to get in later). The hall is nearly ready for some paint after a delay with more mud needed in some areas (like above that closet up there since the old closet used to go all the way to the ceiling and we opted to make it as even as we can with the bedroom and bathroom doors for visual symmetry).

I’m on the lookout for a new floor lamp.  Vivi, our Corgi pup, chewed the cord.  My little bundle of joy.  It is an Ikea lamp so we’re not out much but it was the main source of light in the living room.  I see this as a time to find something more my style.  Any floor lamps you’d recommend?

Doorway Update

Wrote a post for you guys about my dreaming of pedestal sinks yesterday. A post with a bunch of photos from Houzz.com, using their embed feature, when not a photo showed up here as it’s supposed to and an hour wasted. So, I scratched that and am bringing you updated photos of the door that I talked about in the last post.

 Before the electrical was moved.

From the hall

New view of the bathroom (believe me, it’s much nicer to walk in) and don’t mind the paint swatches (none of which are the color I’m doing).

New closet space (another project for a later time).

After the electrical box was moved (see green arrow).

Then we had this (a lot of this…)

Some snow from part of the roof (it’s March 6th btw).

I shoveled this while Greg attacked the roof.

Fat Guy In a Little Coat Feeling

Now to show you things that have happened but my yap has been shut for the past 2, 3 or more weeks about…

Hehe uh crooked and no, that’s not how our house is.

This doorway and wall became this…

The doorway went from 24″ to 30″…I called it my fat guy in a little coat feeling.  Yep, that’s the hall closet across the way that got a little jamb/door love too.

We did end up taking the second bedroom closet and giving the space to the bathroom which is somewhat of the space you see in the picture. If we must have a closet in that bedroom it will get the old Ikea treatment.

View from the second bedroom where the closet used to be.  Drywall has since gone up to cover this.  

The best part is that we don’t have a door up yet in the bathroom. Greg was sick Monday and we ran out of time Sunday evening. We just make sure to have the curtains in the living room closed since you can see into the bathroom if you tried hard enough. That should be going up tonight with one of our new solid wood doors we picked up a few months ago.  8 solid doors for $500!  We have to paint the bathroom door yet.

Speaking of doors, master bedroom closet doors are up with hardware. I had some problems (it never ceases) finding large enough knobs-not wanting to go the expensive doorknob route-and ordered a few more modern round crystal knobs in a size I thought would work. They arrived and both were not as big as the website said and now I’m playing the “when will my refund show up” game.

Does this look like it’s 1 3/4″?  

The best part of this is that back before the doors were even up, I picked up some bar pulls at Menards I thought would work then changed my mind to the round knobs, had problems with 2 sets of those then resorted to using the bar pulls that were in the nightstand drawer all along. Weeks after the doors were up (we couldn’t close them) and I was fretting over the tiny detail of the hardware. Dur.

There are a few more projects going on I’m purposely leaving out.  Why? I’m feeling uncomfortable sharing things that are not finished right now because I know that when they are done, they’ll have that “ooooohhhhh ahhhhhhh” moment with before shots (if I can find those). You know, in place of the bleh reactions of boring (the type of posts I usually do…), unfinished, “here’s the process” posts.  And I’ve noticed that is how other bloggers do it unless they are so big they can’t fail. The ones who could paint a pile of turds in gold and put it on their bookshelf with other knick knacks and people would ask specifics about the poop decor. Where did you get it? Is it from a dog? Would this look good in a brassy shade? Is there a certain diet I should follow to achieve this? With other comments about one’s love for the pile and the persons’s ability to repurpose. That’s when you know you are too big to fail.

New thermostat cover.  Riveting.  

More lights arrived for the bedrooms but are not going up until the ceiling gets a fresh coat of paint and walls are sanded of their flaws (much like the living room but we don’t intend to take as long).  We have orange peel ceilings throughout most of the house and have patched a few areas so paint should be going up soon.  The goal this coming weekend is to finish the hall and do some more drywall work.  Both of us have been under the weather but we’re going to force ourselves onward.

My new West Elm lamp (on sale now)

Exciting news (to us) or more exciting news I should say, we discovered another DIY blogging couple who updated their kitchen on the cheap and think we’re going to go the same route.  Pure genius!   The kitchen was the last room I had to figure out how to renovate and now it’s starting to come together in my mind.  Definitely going to have to keep to a small budget there.  The bathroom (besides the basement) is getting the star treatment…even though it’s still being done under $2500.

What We’d Like and Not Like To See In Our Next House

*Sorry but this post contains more of my amazing depictions with stick figures. Don’t be jealous of my skills.

I’ve been checking out real estate near Seattle-I know, rather early since we have a year or so before the move-and noticing trends I see here in the MN Midwest and out there in the Pacific Northwest.

It seems the things I value in a home (open concept, simple design, taking advantage of the view and space, etc.) can be found more often than not in a Seattle home-even in what we consider the more rural areas outside of the city. Not that I think finding a new place will be easy.   We (or I because Greg is even busier working with yet another new position given to him recently to delve into the specifics) have some requests for our new place. Some are requests, some are hopes and not required but would be awesome.

One thing we won’t bend on is a decent lot, nice size of land for urban living or at least a backyard where our pups can run and future kids can play. We have about a third of an acre (not shabby) here with a small house which makes it seem bigger and will be something we’ll miss (especially since we worked on the yard for 6 months to get it to this nicer state). The more sparse and “clean slate” the yard the better. If it were fenced in already that’d be a bonus.

Hardwood floors must be present. I don’t need them perfect and carpet can be on top, just as long as we can reveal those babies and refinish them if needed. Our current house does not have hardwood floors and it’s surprised a number of people since most homes of this age have them.

No more galley kitchen or if it is considered “galley,” then a better layout than our current place. When we update the kitchen in our current house we won’t be doing much. The stove is next to the refrigerator without cabinet space in there and the cabinets are up too high for any use and too low to really stick anything underneath that would be useful. Our budget is not big enough to do what it needs which is a big reno. Maybe have the new house come with some nice appliances (gas range would rock for this homecooking enthusiast) or have the potential (and in our budget) to be updated without major work.

Of course, it needs to be very sound structurally and no signs of water damage. Windows, roof, furnace, etc. fairly new and in no need of replacing off the bat. I would love to find a house with a ceiling like ours here, coved. No need for crown molding and having other simple details that add character would be nice.

No doubt we’re going to need a garage or some kind of space where we can refinish furniture. We’re looking for a place no more than 30 minutes from Seattle and no more than 15 minutes from Greg’s job. Being 40 plus minutes from the Twin Cities with the furniture business has proven annoying since most of our things are sold locally and the Twin Cities seems to be most of our demographic. I can’t tell you how many people are interested/love one of our pieces but will not drive to get it or want us to bend over backwards to deliver…not that delivery alone is bending, it’s usually paired with the person not wanting to pay for delivery. The closer we can be to Seattle (ideally in a popular neighborhood but we probably can’t afford that) the better to avoid those pitfalls we have encountered in Minnesota. Greg doesn’t want to drive as far to work. 15 minutes or less would be a dream.

I’m on board with a fireplace if this is involved in its maintenance.  

Another thing I see out there that differs from the Midwest are fireplaces. They have been in almost every single house I’ve looked at online near Seattle and not so much in the Midwest. Some are quite hideous or placed in weird locations. I don’t know about their maintenance and if that is a pain as I’ve heard or what.

Actual photo from real estate listing-look at that view. Just look at it.

Also, many of the power lines are not buried out there. I can’t tell you how many pictures have been of the view and include power lines ruining the whole thing the realtor was going for in my opinion. Coming from the Midwest and being used to no view, I know how nice it will be to have one regardless of those. No, I don’t think every place will have a view either. Guess those lines will be something to get used to.

Speaking of view, Seattle places seem to be very close to one another. I’ve seen a number of houses where it’d be easy to gaze into someone’s bedroom, office, bath and kitchen. I’d like a little more privacy and seclusion (I know this could be difficult).

Keep in mind we do not have a fence in our backyard now. Five of the surrounding houses/neighbors to the back and side of us can see everything we’re doing at any time whether it be in our yard or in the house thanks to all the windows. One of those houses is full of students renting (it can supposedly house 8!) and there have been issues. Their backyard faces the side of our house and yard. Living most of my years in the country, this feels awkward. Still don’t know the etiquette. If someone is outside do you acknowledge them every single time? What do you talk about? Are you to invite them to a gathering in your backyard? How do you handle trash or unruly limbs/twigs coming onto your side from their property? I just don’t know.

This is what the scene looked like as they ran through our yard…only dark out.

We’ve had problems with some of the renters…don’t get me started. Let’s just say twice one of the football playing, private college renters thought he’d just walk around our yard (and scared the bejesus out of me when he showed up in front of my kitchen sink window waving…he also said our dog’s aura called to him). When their “don’t end until 4AM” parties were busted (by some “Annie-ymous” person calling the cops), the 20 to 30 underagers went running and hid in our yard and the neighbors. Crouching in bushes, behind vehicles, leaving behind beer cans and one neighbor told us she found 2 girls sitting and chatting on her patio after they fled. Guessing from the way the new next door renters came over and introduced themselves and asked us to contact them if they were too loud, Greg and I must have a reputation. That makes me laugh. Their party wasn’t pumpin’ and we didn’t notice at all unlike every party the previous 8 football players had.

Someone flipped this house too hard.  Hardy har har.  

The houses are also appealing to flippers but most of their “touches” don’t tickle my fancy. I’ll see an ideal house often with a nice yard-not too big nor too small as we wish-then the interior is finished but not at all attractive in my eyes. Then there are the houses that have been updated but even the updates look like they are from the late 80’s-early 90’s. Our favorite is when someone says something has been updated in a modern way and it has those stereotypical, ugly touches that somehow a lot of people think are modern but people who actually like contemporary would never choose those things. We’ve seen that a lot in the Midwest.

I can’t wait to find our next fixer-upper.

Things I’m looking forward to having/adding in a new house:

Creating a dreamy outdoor space-we love being outdoors.

With that, a garden. Maybe chickens.

An awesome entryway-we are lacking any sort of entry in this house.

banquette

From Simo Design 

A banquette/nook for comfortable dining and relaxing-I love to play board games and cards and have always pictured the spot for that.

Accents like a chalkboard wall or stripes or wood or anything else that wouldn’t appeal to everyone but completely make me happy.

Already having decent trim in white-we are in the process of replacing and painting all the trim in this house and I don’t really want to go through it again if we can avoid it.

More time to accomplish these updates-not this 2 years stuff.

Things I don’t understand (perhaps yet):

Double sinks -we think we only need one…but blogs and tv shows continue to tell me the trend is 2.

Granite countertops-I’m just not a fan.

Warm tones everywhere-the walls, the floor, the trim, the accents.

Greg despises corner windows, the cheap, shoddy-looking ones and I don’t get windows you can’t see out of because they are placed so far up the wall. I like big windows (and I cannot lie) like the front one we have in this house. The dogs enjoy looking out it and the amount of natural light is wonderful.

So much landscaping that you have “lost” your yard and free time because you have to maintain said yard. Guess you could find yourself an Edward Scissorhands.

Minnesota is big on this-no deck. We play count the “no decks” game on our way through the metro and suburbs. Newer house with patio doors on the top level without a deck. Huh? It isn’t like that in Indiana so probably some ridiculous regulation of sorts at hand. Watch out for that first step…it’s a doozy.

Kitchen cabinets that block what would be an open area with cabinet space underneath and a peekaboo section in the middle. To pop your head under (or knock your head on) to say hello to your guests (otherwise is that the cabinet speaking to me) but then they can go back to looking at your chest while you stand prepping something. Just don’t get ’em.  Those kind of cabinets, not breasts.

Not that I don’t understand these but hot tubs and pools (especially when they take up your yard or deck). In certain states I can see the benefit but in Seattle? No.

If you were looking for a house what would you want or not want?