Holiday House Rules

Faux of the Romans?

This photo reminded me of the quickie faux romans I saw a while back over at Tatertots & Jello. 

(Apartment Therapy)

You know I have always admired these shades for my nascent mudroom:

(Apartment Therapy)

And, somehow, now, these 2 idea just fused for me and I was all, like, duh! Amazing how, once you recalibrate your expectations, it all comes together! So, off I go to the Target for tension rods and the Fabric Corner for the fabric. I'll have to see how these suckers look from the back, too, since the mudroom exterior is right by the front door. I may need to tweak the T&J tutorial (originally from here) a bit to account for that. I think those ladies are in a McMansion somewhere, and that no one ever is within 20 feet of their exterior if not in a car in the driveway or delivering for UPS.

 

Like a whole new world opened up.

Yes, that's how awesome I found this website to be. It's called Totokaelo and it's just lovely, lovely stuff. 

Like these boots. Like my Hasbeens, but gray, and softer and a little more fem in the heel shape.

Or, this top. Just so drapey and nice and a great tunic length.

And this knit top. I mean, c-razy expensive, but I swear I have been dreaming of a shirt like this all my life. (slight exaggeration, but I have Googled "striped knit cardigan" more than is healthy)

 And this chiffon top? So unexpected and such nice details.

Lastly, i'll hit you with these sandals. The color, the shape. Oh! Just, oh!

Ugh, more things to covet. Oh well, first one of us to win the lottery takes all the others shopping. Deal?

How To: Build a Simple Indoor Swing (for winter) | Apartment Therapy

via www.apartmenttherapy.com

We went to Ikea this weekend. (I know, I know, again???) This trip, though, was more of a, "well, we are passing right by it...what do we need?" kinda thing. And the answer, it seems, was:

1. a larger drum shade for the mudroom
2. a wooden deck box for the Bun's sandbox toys
3. hooks of the type you see above you

Yes, I am thinking of installing a swing in the mudroom. Why the heck not, right? 

My plan could still fizzle, as it almost did when Ikea was out of the Ekorre swing...but the post I liked to above makes it seem like I can get this done for about $30 and a trip to the hardware store. So, we will see this weekend if JWH is up to the task. I could also just buy the Ikea one on eBay for $40. Still thinking on that...lazy versus frugal....hmmmm.

And, I'm also considering a less dramatic version of this, still using the hook, and still mounting a child-play thing to the ceiling. How about...

(Amazon)

A climbing rope?

This kind of plays right in to JWH's plan to make her a world class climber by age 8, so I would not be surprised if we go this way. But, we need to consider safety, too. You typically do not come crashing to the floor from a swing, but a rope is another story altogether.

Any opinions welcome.

 

And...my secret.

We snuck away to NYC for the weekend! So I'm afraid I have nothing to show you. Stand by, I promise to get my act together very soon and finish up the guest room curtains, the mudroom (and give a total cost breakdown of that project) and maybe even get outside to see how the yard looks this early spring!

Toodles for now!

Secret Flor style!

You may know that ever since I got the bullseye rug for the lving room, I have been surfing for Flor tiles to replace the Needlepoint Stripe in the front hall. The combo was just not working.

And, you may also know that I actually went and moved the Needlpoint Stripe into the mudroom a few weeks ago. 

So, the front hall is bare. And, while I know that it is suddenly summer around these parts, I suspect that we might have some more typical rainy spring days to come. Kind of a bounce-back to reality thing. I need a damned entry way rug is what I'm saying. 

But, due to the odd size of the area, a traditional runner won't work. Overstock and Rugs.com have been fully searched, and they have nothing for me. Neither do Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn or West Elm. So, back to Flor I went, for the millionth time. I ordered some samples in, well, basically every gray or taupe they had. I just wanted a slight texture and a neutral color. I got the samples...and every last one of them sucked. 

Well, that's not fair. They sucked - for me. For other people in other homes, they might be just the ticket.

I tell you, I was disheartened. We even had a dinner party with no rug. You know that killed me. People saw me in a state of un-done! I felt the way my  mother in law probably feels if anyone sees her without her make up. (Does not happen, btw.) But, really, what could I do? I had searched high a low. There was nothing for me. 

And then...

I happened over to CB2 one day, and found this:

 

(Flor Bah Bah in Graphite, from CB2)

Yes, they have secret CB2-only floor tiles. In gray, with a slight texture. Holy crap, where have you been all my life?

Front hall problem - solved!

 

Here birdie, birdie!

The Bun might just be getting into my head, sine I'm kind of digging this mailbox.

(Pottery Barn)

Our current mailbox is a sorry old thing, on a rotting wood post that sways if you are not super careful when retrieving the mail. Last summer we bought a simple Home Depot wall mount one with thoughts of taking the current one out and putting it out of it's misery. But now I see this. Just a tad cuter, right? It can be mounted on the house, too, but nestling a post back in the bushes seems kind of the right way to go all of a sudden. Must be the birdies.

Pouf goes Young House Love

via www.younghouselove.com

So, you know I have bee trolling for an ottoman/seat for a while now. For the family room. Here, by the radiator:

I have moved the round stool/side table to the other side of the sofa, and the square leather ottoman is still there, but the Bun can't move it. Lord, though, does she try. So, I want one extra seat in there. Even if just for the kid. I have kvetched about this here, and here, and got oh-so-close to buying one here. But, I think I now might be ready to bite the bullet. 

Will I diy one using the tutorial on YHL? Doubtful. I know my limits. But I just might ask and etsy person to do it for me. Save my explorations into sewing for my faux roman shades for the mudroom. 

I dunno, something about this shape just seems right. It's not trying to be Moroccan or look like more than it is. It's kind of perfect, right? Hmmm, stay tuned.  Or, if you know any etsy folks making these, let me know!

A hole in one.

No longer.

Yeah, it took almost a year, but the hole is gone!

Yes, that is my unmade bed. I was not going to use this picture because of the mess...but then I remembered that I had never shown you the orange Serena & Lily sheets in action. So, yeah, call this a two-fer.

The patch job was something I really dreaded doing. I had decided to just have the plaster guy do it when he re-did the two popcorn ceilings downstairs, but since he never called back last fall, and then we had a lot of plumbing debacles to pay for...weeeeelll, let's just say diy is where we netted out.

And it was not that bad. It was a lot of sanding and I really had my doubts it would work - I had fears of forever seeing the bad patch job in certain lighting conditions - but it turned out really well. Even the paint was a perfect match!

Yay for me!

Controlling my heat.

More on the Nest situation. The new one has arrived (yay!) and JWH installed it last week. And I sent the defective one back as promised. But, I think I have never shared how utterly cool this little jobby is. So let me do that.

Here is what the website looks like when I log in:

See that little round thing that says "58" - that is my Nest. See how it also very handily tells me the outside temp? Small thing. But cool.

Anyway, if I click my Nest, I get this:

And, here my friends, is where the magic happens. I can click that little arrow (or mouse over to the top to get an up arrow) and change the temperature in my house. I can do this from the iPhone if I'm on my way home and want a cozy house, or I can do it from work if I know the Bun is not coming home as planned. 

As planned, you say? Yes, as planned. Since the Nest has the easiest and most intuitive scheduler I have ever seen on the thermostat. Sure, it's hyped as "learning" so you do not have to program it. And, yes, that does work. But I'm type A, so I like to see it and tweak it. Like so:

This last screen grab was taken n daytime. Cute how it changes to reflect current conditions, huh? Anyway, to change a schedule, all you do is mouse over and move the orange balls. If you click on an orange ball, you get arrows by which you can change the temp up or down. Really, it's that simple. A chimp could do it. 

Who are you calling a chimp?

Anyway, this thing is not cheap, but I really like it, and I do think it will save energy over the long haul, since I am better able to control my temps. I plan to get another one for the 3rd floor one of these days. I like it that much.

 

A little sumpin' sumpin'.

I'm talking about curtains. Of course. You knew that. Or at least you could have made a reasonable guess that it was the case, I suppose.

So, anyway, I didn't get my ribbon-edged project (inspiration here) done this week, due to 2 small problems in planning:

1) I did not get quite enough ribbon

2) I went to Sharla's class last Saturday morning, following what could only be regarded as a very, very light workout schedule since I got pneumonia diagnoses #1 in November, #2 in December and, yes, # 3 in February.

So, while I was all gung-ho to cut the ribbon – and discover I was a tad short – I did not have the strength to do the actual project. And by "did not have the strength," I mean simply that my ass was hurting. As were my arms, hamstrings and calves. I did clip the long bits of ribbon up, though, to see if I was going to like the final effect.

I do like it. Looking forward to getting this done!

Things that are not as pretty as I'd like.

In order to wrap up the mudroom project, ar at least this current iteration of the mudroom project, I have three remaining to-dos:

1. saw the legs off the bench
2. paint the coat rack
3. get a cushion for the bench

The order above is actually reversed, since the cushion color will partially inform the coat rack color and the sawing of legs will, to some degree, relate to the height of that eventual cushion...  So, first step is really the hunt for a cushion to go on my Ikea Hemnes media stand hacked as a bench. It's 58.375" long and 18.5" deep. Should not be too hard, right?

Right.

Cushions are actually pretty easy to find in all shapes and sizes, but, well...cushion makers of th world seem united in their mandate to use floral patterns waaaay more than is strictly necessary. It's a nauseating sea of Bahamian palm fronds, azaleas and a few things that could actually have been remade from Amy Donegan's bridesmaid dresses circa 1996.

Still, I did find a few that I liked the look of at West Elm. Where else? They are kind of plain and modern, as far as a tufted cushion can really be either of those two things:

 (West Elm)

This is a the Carroll Farm bench cushion. But, alas, the 58" is sold out...and it's too narrow anyway (15" not 18"). Same dealio for this one, even though I'm loving the gray/coal color:

(West Elm)

So I looked further. These folks had the value prop hands down ($38!). But the fabrics? Ugh. Just ugh. The striped ones were okay, if that is your sort of thing, but not what I needed. And the sea of floral choices I was subject to in surfing this site nearly burned my retinas beyond repair.

(Viva Paradise)

Nearly defeated at this point, I went back to an old reliable favorite in the outdoor category: Plow & Hearth. They had a slew of sizes, and I thought the chocolate brown might be okay...but I have some suspicion that the outdoor fabric might be plastic-y and kind of cheap looking? Crudballs.

(Plow & Hearth)

So, I keep going back to the West Elm on up top. That is the line I'm looking for. The tufting, the knife edge with piping, the natural feeling fabric (although I'd prefer it in gray). Sigh. I may have to hit up the etsy and have one made just for me. None of this outdoor fabric stuff is really going to make me happy, now is it? 

It's just not as pretty as I'd like. 

Coinky-dinks.

This is the week of coincidences at Holiday House. Or, really, just in my own head...but whatever. The lines are blurred.

So, first up we have the coincidence if children's television. It went down like this: I read this blog post on Strollerderby and actually took notes. I have been needing a new set of shows to DVR for the Bun for a while. She has outgrown Wonder Pets and we have seen every episode of Little Bear ad nauseum. But what to record? We spent a frustrating 10 minutes the Saturday morning of the mudroom painting, searching in vain for something of a cartoon nature that did not make me gag. It was all such loud, flashy, CGI junk. Ugh. We landed on Backyardigans, as you may remember. She loved it, but, for me, it was not a long term solution. I'm cool with her watching a little tv now and then, but, by god, it will be well crafted tv! So, my notes. I wrote, on a little yellow sticky: Word Girl, Phineas & Ferb, Wild Kratz.

And then I went home and took that little yellow sticky out of my back jeans pocket (yes, that is my system, iPhone and all) and put it on my dresser. 

Next day I settled in the sofa to read a little New Yorker back issue-age. (I have decided to clear the pile of, oh, 6 months worth of New Yorkers off my bedside shelf.) And, as I closed out on the February 13 issue and scanned the back sections on movies, theater and television, what did I see? This article telling me that Phineas & Ferb is the goddamned second coming. The creator of Wonder Pets was even quoted. 

So I set te DVR. And we will just see about that. 

Next up, we have the coincidence, in 2 parts, of the "tonight" song. See, I decided last week that I needed some fresh tracks. Yeah, I just said that. I'm so cool it rolls right off the tongue. Okay, anyway..the music. I had heard a snazzy tune on the radio that went "toniiiiight" and liked it. So I googled it and found this. Yeah, that seemed familiar, so I bought it. I liked it, but somehow I doubted it was the exact right "toniiiiight." Then, today - this very morning - the real "toniiiiight" song came on the radio as I drove in to the office. I hit the 'ol Shazam button on my iPhone and it took me to a band called Fun. Bought it. Have yet to listen to it, but am so utterly confident that my "toniiiiight" itch will be scratched on the ride home, well...tonight. 

And the?!?!? I read Slate, like usual, and I see this story. Man-oh-man, and I just wired for pop culture relevance this week or what?

Anyway, here, for you, are the two toniiiights! Happy weekend.

 

 

 

Love, then, hate, then back to love: the Nest.

So, when I get good customer service, I like to shout it out. And when I get bad service, I like to shout. 

So, let me do both here. Se, my beloved Nest started having a hard time. A little red line appeared on the display. See?

So I emailed Nest. They politely emailed back asking for a picture. I sent it and they immediately owned up to it being a manufacturing error. Holla! That never hapens! And, then, even better, they emailed to say that they'd happily replace it. All I had to do was call and they'd ship me a new one overnight. Ah-mazing.

So I did. Called that is. And the customer service guy was nice as pie, he even walked me through how I could access my serial number online (while I was at it I turned down the heat since the Bun was at a playdate...ahhhh, Nest!).

But then, things went  a tad sour. After he had the serial number and my address and all that, my friend at Nest said he could not find my order. Well, I said, that's because I bought it through Best Buy. Ohhhh, he said, then you have to do the exchange with them. My heart sank just thinking about entering a Best Buy. And then I remembered that when I bought the Nest, the only way I could have done so was through Best Buy, Nest itself was not shipping them and their website was what led me to Best Buy in the first place. So I mentioned that. 

No sympathy.

So I clicked over to Best Buy to see what their return policy was. And? And?!?! They have no Nest thermostats in stock. So, I say to my guy, "they have none to exchange it with!" And he's all like, "Oh, I know, Best Buy will not be restocked until we ship to those on our waiting list here." Oh, so you knew they had none but you just told me to go get a new one from them? 

Right.

Well, he said, I'm sure they will give you something in the meantime, so that you are "not without heating and cooling." Oh, sure, Best Buy, those scions of customer care will give me what, a Honeywell thermostat to use for a few months until they can send me a new Nest? Sure they will, buddy, sure they will...if this were the land of milk and honey and not reality where Best Buy will maybe take my Nest back and tell me I'm welcome to buy a toaster for all they care about my "heating and cooling."

Sheesh.

So, flash of insight - I say, "Hey, guy, why not just sell me a new one, send it out and I'll then take the crappy one back to Best Buy?' Sure he says, that will work. But, we do have a waiting list for the product that is several weeks long. 

?!?!?

At the beginning of this little convo, you may remember, they were going to send one to me overnight. What gives? Well, he says, we have some units for existing customers with problems, but in this case you'd be a "new customer." Head slap to forehead. Really. Are you not looking at the picture of my Nest right now? Are we not both logged in to my Nest right now. Could you not, actually, change the temperature in my house right now should you have the urge?

Supervisor, please. (And here I should note that I was super polite, although late for dinner and increasingly incredulous.)

Cue a 10 minute wait on hold. Ten.

ANd then? My pal comes back on to tell me that he's sending me over to "Tier 2 Technical Support" where they will arrange for my new Nest to be sent overnight. Yay! Logic prevails! In my head I imagine that when the customer service guy actually had to step back and explain to his supervisor what was happening, he saw the light. 

Or maybe he just had to pee and wanted me off the phone. Whatever. I got me a new Nest!

(I have some pictures of the Nest online control site in action, too, I'll share that soon.)

Contrasting window sashes?

Hmmm, so I shared my thinking about the mudroom windows on Friday. It's Monday now, so, of course, I have more thoughts. And more pictures. 

But first, let's do a little vocab review, so we all know what we are talking about:

(Katy's Remodeling Blog)

Nice, huh? So now I can say things like, "I painted the casing front, but not the stiles, channels, rails or jambs" and you know what I mean. Right? Right?!?!

So, yeah, that's what I did. And I think that, at the minimum I need to continue the cream colored paint to the side of the casing piece. But...maybe also the jamb? Not sure. So let's look at some photos to see what we like, shall we?

Here is the original inspiration photo, where it looks like they used the contrast color on the sashes, but not the jambs.

(Cococozy)

Here we see another green window that is, suspiciously, just the same...

(Houzz)

And here, some sliders in the same vein yet again.

(Remodelista)

These nice folks have the full monty all painted out, the trim, the sashes, the jambs.

(An American Girl Settles in the South)

And here we have a nice blue where they have, again, matched the jambs to the trim.

 (Slumber Designs)

Anyone else noticing all the green and the blue? Maybe a little "bringing the outdoors in" thing going on here?

(decorica)

But, really, what I want to know is if anyone has both the sashes and the jambs in the contrast color? Turns out, the answer is yes, but usually in black or a dark color.

(Remodeling Guy)

(Sanctuary Homes)

I'm thinking all the dark colors being like this is a way of giving an interior space more of an exterior feel? After all, this contrast technique is very common on the outside of homes...

(Andersen Windows)

Anyway, so much to think about, and I was nearly blind from squinting at photos, trying to see what, exactly, they had painted the accent color versus the trim color. And then, I saw this - and it's actually also a sunroom...so kind of perfect, right?

(Abode Love)

I mean, come on, it's practically my room. Give or take, oh, 800 square feet!

The mudroom windows.

Sooo, what is up with my wacky paint job? You know...this one?

Or, more up close and personal...this one?

Well, here's the thing: A) It was intentional, and B) I'm not done yet. You see, the windows are gonna have something done to them. I'm not sure what. Replaced? Storms? Interior storms? Dunno. Something to keep that room warmer. So, since painting windows is a total pain...I figured I'd just wait to see what happens next. And, I was kind of trying out this kind of dealio that I shared a while back:

I think this room could really use that kind of pop. And, in any other room I would be loathe to touch the glorious paint on the sashes. Not here. These orange-y messes are, well, a mess. So, it's a perfect place to try this technique. 

Stay tuned as I sort out my options!

Pretty things, an update.

So, I mentioned yesterday that I returned all my J. Crew stuff. Yeah, it was a huge wop-wop fail. And not for the usual reasons. It was all fit. And it was all too big. 

Now, before you think I'm going all "yay for me I'm skinny" on you, just stop. Stop and hold out your left hand. Imagine in that left hand the 5 lbs I have been carrying around since Christmas. Only they are not in your hand. They are on my hips. There. Now you know the state of the state. 

So, I was not expecting the J. Crew size 8 to be big. I expected snug. I have been a 8 since the dawn of time. But, the world? It has a-changed. I'm taking size-inflation. I'm willing to think that sometimes it's about a cut or fit of a certain garment, but a whole box of clothes that sags off my (fat) ass? Attention, J. Crew, stop messing with my head.

So, I actually ordered a few things that I liked (the chambray tunic and the polka-dot shirt) in smaller sizes, and then I took the rest of it all back to the store. While there I bought a new skirt, too, this one:

In a 6. I have not bee a size 6 since...well...maybe I was for like 10 minutes when I was 25. So, you know, eons ago And I have long since made peace with being an 8. 

And now they are fucking with me.

*note, the photo above shows the tunic and the skirt together. I will not go there. Mostly because this photo obviously involved a bit of photoshoot trickery of the pinning and cutting kind. This tunic is HUGE. I mean seriously enormous. It comes nearly to the knee in a large. To get the look above you would have to be wearing an extra small tunic, cut to about half it's length, and a size 10 skirt. And I highly doubt J. Crew hires models who wear a 10. Especially the new size 10, which is a like a 14 from 1990. Okay, end size rant. Now.

More on step four: the mudroom Flor.

The Flor tiles. They look familiar, no?

To use a very bloggy word, I "repurposed" them. I had the 8 in the hall, and you may remember from my guest appearance on The Waffler that I had bought 12 more at once point when they were on clearance. But then I decided they really did not go very well with the new bulls eye rug in the living room. Not that I had done anything about that. It just was kind of the situation.

So, when the mudroom bug hit me last week I put the extra tiles in there as a test. It worked. Covering up that floor was like fresh spring breeze. And, no, it was not perfect, since that tile is hardly level or even, but until I can re-tile the room more to my liking? It's cool.

Well, almost cool. I was short a few tiles. Even when I dragged in the filthy, filthy, oh how did I never notice how filthy, tiles from the front hall. Still short maybe 3 or 4 tiles. So I called Flor. They really do have lovely and helpful customer service. The nice man confirmed that Needlepoint Stripe was out of commission, but told me that Line, Please was "virtually" the same. Cool! I ordered 5 tiles, just to be safe. 

They came Friday and I did not crack the box until Sunday night: install time. Weeeell, it turns out that "virtually" is not the same as "actually" when it comes to sameness. They are the same color, sure, but not the ame texture really. The new ones have stripes that are a little fatter, a little less tight. Crap. 

But, we went with it. JWH suggested that if we parquet-in (is that a verb?) the new tiles, making them all run the same direction perhaps it'll look like variation is just due to direction. I think he's right. Hardly noticeable. And for the cost of buying 5 tiles versus 23*? Deal.

*We had 2 extra after the install. 2 very dirty tiles. We hid the other dirtiest ones under the bench and the 2 dirty-gerties who had to hit the prime time? I washed them in the sink, with dish soap. They are still a tad mangier than the new ones, but at least I am not so squicked out about touching them. 

Steps two, three and four and a half.

The mudroom...(see how I did that? I did not call it the sunroom, or the soon-to-be mudroom, because it is now a mudroom, dammit.) So, anyway, the mudroom took up pretty much our whole weekend. I would have shared picture of it yesterday, but it was dark when we laid the rug and I wanted glorious sunlight photos.

And so now here is where I apologize for the photos that I just made you wait a whole extra day to see. They are not great. I took them in the 5 minutes between being ready to leave for work/school and leaving for work/school. And JWH was out having a networking breakfast (He does that. At breakfast. Crazy.) so the kid was all mine. All this boils down to a few rushed shots, no time to "style" the space at all. And, well, several shots taken with the kid in frame, just out of frame, or, very sweetly, actually, hugging my legs while I took the photo.

So, with that, here is the mudroom!

See the painted trim? Vanilla ice cream in oil based satin, just like the rest of the house. I mixed it with the Flood no-brush-stroke stuff and it's like glass. Really. And it was quick to do, the prep work and primer took me, measured in Backyardigans time, 2 episodes. Once of which, called "Who" was apparently just out-of-the-box amazingly "silly." Yeah, so if you happen to be reading this and happen to be on the writing staff at Backyardigans, nice work. You had my kid fully yelling at the tv. It was that amazeballs. The second episode, about garbage eating aliens? Not so silly, but acceptable all the same. Anyway. The primer went up so fast that I decided, after an hour of dry time, to just proceed with the first coat of paint. Also quick. An then I let that dry 24 hours. While it set and hardened I did the walls. Yeah, I'm nuts like that. I never stop, just keep on keepin' on. It's a sickness, really. The walls are Manchester Tan like the living room and hall. I figured neutral was best, just to see where this room went, and I can always switch it up, right? Wrong. The wall painting portion of this endeavor was a total PITA. Unexpected.

Cue final coat of trim paint, a trip to the mall to return all the J. Crew clothes I bought here (okay, I did keep the polky shirt), and home to lay the Flor tiles. More on that tomorrow. I'm tired now. My wrists are still fatigued from all that brushwork.

Oh, but lastly? since JWH asked for it? The before an after side by side:

But, those really do not due the transformation justice, since the transformation had more to due with how this space relates to the rest of our house and to our lifestyle...rather than just looking at it objectively as a room. Oh, and because in neither of those shots can you see the bike trainer, the treadmill, the random desk chair and side table...the crap that lived in that room day in and day out.

Trust me, it wa a glorified, 1980's themed closet. Now it's a mudroom. Hooray!

Cold Blooded Old Times.

So, I can't be the only one who occasionally scrolls through old pictures in iPhoto and look for ones where I look skinny, right? I Also have bouts where I scroll through and look at pictures of my late cat. She was a very nice cat. And, of course, I also scroll through to try to pinpoint when the Bun went from looking like a miniature version of my mother -in-law to looking liker her own self. About 18 months is that answer.

But, anyway...due to a hard drive failure a few years back, and a subsequent (expensive) restoration of our photos, our timeline is bit messed up. A causal observer would think we had time-travel powers, but really, it just changed the date to all the restored photos to September 8th, 2009.

This basically means that when I play the scrolling game, there are a lot of non sequiturs to deal with. Ohhh, look at that, our old house...oh, Jeanne's bridal shower...oh, the Bun!...oh, back to the bridal shower...France trip 2002!....Maine 2005!...bridal shower. It could be a drinking game, really.

This time I wa aimlessly scrolling, though, and I came to this picture.

It's the "dressing room" we had across the hall from our closet-less bedroom in our last condo. It later became the Bun's room. And, see that picture above the dresser? Yeah, I bought it at a biz school charity auction of some sort. It was painted (or maybe "drawn" is a better word?) by the sister of the wife of one of JWH's classmates. And I liked it, and we had decided to play along and buy something, so why not this? Only later did I find out that the sister/artist was also the girlfriend of an old pal of mine. So, karma. Good karma.

So where was that picture now??? I kind of wanted to resurrect it. But, very unlike me, I had no idea where it was. The hunt was on!

Took about a minute of thinking to come up with the 2-3 likely spots. And then a solid week to get off my fanny and look. And, them, oh, about 48 more hours to "hang" it.

I told you I was kind of stymied lately. And dull. But perhaps this happy little picture will help with that.

Miles to go.

So, the mudroom. As you know, it's in progress. This weekend we went at it a bit, but the list, it is long. We have to:

1. Prime the woodwork - I'm painting it Vanilla Ice Cream to match the trim in the rest of the house. I plan to leave the door, door frame, and window interiors the color they are now. For the moment anyway. Windows are a pain to paint, and since I don't know where we will land on storm windows yet, why get into it? I am also not painting the tongue and groove ceiling at this point.
2. Paint the woodwork. As described above.
3. Paint the coat hooks. Not sure what color. Really not sure. Will be a gametime decision.
4. Buy 4 more Flor tiles. In Needlepoint strip if available. If not, something coordinating that can hide under the bench or be an accent or a border.
5. Install the Flor tiles. The ceramic tile underneath is kind of bumpy, so it's not a final solution. But, as I have all but 4 tiles on hand, it's a good stopgap measure until I can tile the floor in something more my style.
6. Get a bigger lampshade for the pendant. Again, the pendant is temporary, someday we could hire an electrician to put in a hardwired light. But, it's not urgent as long as I can manage/hide the cord for the plug-in light. 
7. Cut the legs down on the bench. It's actually a media stand, so it's a little tall for the Bun. 
8. Get a cushion for the top of the bench. You know, to make it seem even more bench-y.

Soooo, a long way to go. But, I can see it. I really can. And it will be so nice to claim this room as usable space. Usable beyond a storage room. Who needs a storage room with a view of the Boston skyline?

Oh, and just because I'm not sure you believe me about how utterly unused this space was, let me remind you that this door was always closed. And often blocked by a boot tray.

And just because you may not believe me about how ugly the tile is*? Or how the room just had random stuff in it, like a treadmill, plastic bins full of bike shoes, and whatever crap we had on hand?

Who doesn't want to greet their guests with all that? "Here, let me take your coat. Oh, yes, that is a nice view of the city. Yes, just there on the other side of the old light fixture on the scratched up table...yeah, that's the Hancock Building. Nice huh? Careful not to trip on the air compressor there by the door..."

Classy.

So, remember this when you see the upcoming photos. We have a lot to do, but it's gonna be great!

 

*Okay, stopping here to admit that the tile, and the room in general, is not all that hideous. It's more that it really, really, does not match the rest of the house. I mean, it's an 1898 Victorian. What on earth is this Mexican tile doing here? And this orange wood? It's just really odd. I need this room to feel like it came with the house. Because it did. The foundation under it is just as old as the rest. It's just that, somewhere along the line, someone went all Arizona 1986 in here.

Anndddd...back to cute.

Last week I told you about IKKS. Their juniors department (ages 8-16) had me at hello. But, really, you know, their little twerp stuff was also quite charming. The define twerps as age 2-14. I love that there is overlap in the categories. Kids come in all shapes and sizes after all.

 
 
 

(Images from IKKS)