Holiday House Rules

I know it's been killing you.

You are just aching to be shown my organization exploits, aren't you? Well, consider this a gift:

The cutlery drawer before:

and after:

The junk drawer (there is no before, because I did this organizing with the help of a small child, and therefore, it was a very hands-on experience. If I'd left things unattended for even 2 minutes all hell would have broken loose. As it was, it was an hour of, "oh, yes, it would be great to keep the pens each in their own slot, yes, great idea...not let's just try it this way, too..."

And so, this after was really hard-fought. Enjoy it as such:

Same for the straw drawer. What? You have no straw drawer? You do not live.

I also did the Playmobil and the Lego and moved the trains to a smaller bin and snuck a full set of blocks out from under her nose.

Oh, I rocked this shit.

(For the products I bought to make this all happen, see here and here.)

Once started, you cannot stop me.

And, byt "once started" I mean, "once I have things in my online shopping cart, and therefore have to pull out the credit card anyway - I kind of just keep going."

This time? The Container Store got me. I was getting my handy cutlery drawer organizers and, well, why not tackle two or three other messy spots along the way. So I ordered a few more Bamboo Stackable drawer bobbies for the junk drawer (why the stackable? Why not? I ordered one extra piece to stack in the cutlery drawer, or maybe in this drawer, and I figure why not have all the same components so I can swap them around if/when my needs change):

and then I ordered this:

(The Container Store)

For the Bun's art supplies (right now there is a giant crappy plastic bin filled with all manner of marker, crayon, pencil, scissor and eraser). I suspect she will object to the change, but, dude, that bin is overflowing and just dirty. I'll try to snap a picture of it when we do the re-org.

And then, I bought these:

  

 

(The Contanier Store)

For the Lego. See, she now has "girl Lego" and "regular Lego" and will not allow the "girl Lego" to mix and mingle with the regular Lego. The good folks at Lego are trying to convince us all that the girl Lego will help bring girls into the Lego fold and inspire them to build, but no... By making the colors so different and the people so different (they do not lock in when seated! they have hips!) they sent a loud and clear message that this is "different" and my kid got the call. Girl Lego and regular Lego, to her, are as different as Lego and Playmobil. And, actually, Playmobil is pretty much what girl Lego is already. Playsets with lots of animals and little slightly bendy people. Yep. If I were Playmobil I'd be pissed.

But, anyway. Because I am a sorter by type and really just want the shit put away, I want the girl Lego to live in the same underbed bin as the rest. I think maybe I can nest the shoe box in the boot box and accomplish that? If it works I may do the same for the Playmobil and the "Christmas Playobil." Yep, you guessed it: "must be kept separate." This child will either be a genious or on Hoarders 2045.

Oh, the drama.

The excitement. 

 Yes, that is my cutlery drawer. Cutlery. What a funny word. 

Anywho, I bought the fancy red stuff months and months and months ago and, quite contrary to my usual way, it sat on the counter for, like, ever. The problem was, I knew it would not fit in the drawer. And it does not. Still, since I took the bold, bold move of unwrapping it and washing it (a 3-day snowed-in weekend will drive you to these things), I now need to solve this. 

Cue The Container Store! Hooray, hooray!

I mean, really, if The Container Store were closer to me, I'd probably need a 12-step program. Luckily, it's way over the other side of town in one of those Boston "can't get there from here" places. Well, you can get there, but you have to go a really weird way that involves both Harvard and Boston College. And, for some reason, passing both of those in the same trip just makes it seem really far. Toss in Mary Baker Eddy's house and you might as well be Amundsen.

More luck for me? I get the catalog. At work - thus saving it from JWH's frantic mail sort where he piles up all the good mail and the junk mail. Mind you, he does not take the good mail up to the office, or toss the bad mail or the empty envelopes into the recycling. But he does make 2, sometimes 3, piles spread out all over the kitchen island. So there is that great service he provides.

Back to the catalog. I find it a little uninspiring an clinical, frankly. I think they need a new photographer. One who can inject a little mood into the shots. Some shadow, some life. But, this time I stopped and actually considered my options, since, you know, I have the the cutlery situation to contend with. And, in the end, I found that the website is nice and informative and they have chat, which I always like. So I ordered these:

(The Container Store)

But, not before whipping out InDesign and doing up a little plan of attack:

Oh, don't be shocked. I warned you of the drama, the excitement...

Drapery wha?@?!??

So, I was telling a friend about my new drapery hooks. Yeah, I do go on in real life about curtain hardware, just like I do here...

Anyway, she was quite honest in her admission that she had no idea what the hell a drapery hook was. So, dear friends, in case you did not know how to make the 'ol switch from clip rings (or pole pocket or whatever) to real-legit drapes on rings, here ya go:

1: get rings that have either a fixed perpendicular ring, like these (called eyelet rings):

Or, if you are made of cash and want to go all Pottery Barn, get these:

2: get some Drapery Hooks - a whopping $1.99 for 14 at BB&B. This is a drapery hook:

3: watch this YouTube video on how to put it all together

4: rehang your drapes to look like this:

not this:

 

And there you go. Probably my advice is 80% correct, and there are people who may know what certain hooks and rings are best for certain things. Pinch-pleats, for instance, get a different hook. But, whatever, dudes, my goal here is just to help y'all make the most of the drapes you've got. Now, go forth and hook.

Ha! When was the last time someone told you to do that?!?!

Happy New Year peeps!

Yes, I am fully aware that is mid-month. I've been a tad busy at work. I helped throw a party. And it was (now pretend you are Barney Stinson and say it with me)...Legen...dary. 525 people dancing, screaming, throwing moss ball. "Moss balls" is fun to say, no? Let's just say it involved ordering 40' of astroturf, a headless horseman ice luge and costumes. JHW said it was like going to a "party like they show on tv and you scoff and say, 'no parties look like that in real life.'" Oh, yeah!

Anyhow...

I shared a things-I-want-to-get-done list with you in 2011. And then in 2012 I came clean on my, overall pretty good, completion rate. And then there was the 2012 list in that post, too. Here it is again:

1. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
2. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
3. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
4. Repaint the ceilings in the LR, DR, stair landing, and kitchen (this is kind of an obvious follow up to the items above)
5. Refinish the antique desk
6. Fix the gutters (we had them looked at, and they need minimal work, but I'd like to get it done!)
7. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house (again, we have a quote, just waiting for spring!)
8. Replace the mailbox
9. Add landscape lighting to the walkway
10. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
11. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
12. Sunroom to mudroom conversion
13. Re-tile the 2 bathtub surrounds
14. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
15. Replace the window in the dining room

And then, you may remember this post...(if you don't feel like clicking, let me just tell you it was about the poltergeist that ran through my home on 2012 and cost us shitloads of money.) At the time of the post I was wailing about the 2 plumber visits for the master bath and the tv and the water heaters. At that point I revised the list to:

1. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
2. Fix the gutters 
3. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house 
4. Replace the mailbox
5. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
6. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
7. Replace the window in the dining room

Well, let me tell you, that early in the year poltergeist stuck around. 2012 was the year of broken shit. The plumber was called back again when water was actually dripping from the 2nd floor landing light fixture, and the gutter thing mentioned so casually as number 6 above? Ha! And number 7? Ha, again! The fascia board was rotted full out around the house and had to be replaced with engineered wood and repainted. And the gutters? Dear lord, the gutters...that was a battle. It ended well, with lot's of shiny new wood...and an empty savings account. Oh, gotta love the projects that have to be done but not one person can actually see or notice that they have been done. Trust me, no one stands on the stairs to the 3rd floor and look lovingly out at the new wood in the mud room gutters and sighs resignedly. No one except me, that is...

So, here is what actually got done:

1. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
2. Fix the gutters
3. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house 
4. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
5. Sunroom to mudroom conversion (here, here, here, here and again here)

I actually did a lot of other things, too, but this is about accounting, not about patting myself on the back. And now, on to 2013. A year when I will just take it as it comes and if I get any of this done I will say hurrah to that and pour myself a drink.

1. Trim the trees (this has to be done to protect the damned gutters!)
2. Replace the windows in the sun room (this is a must do, second priority to the trees)
3. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
4. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
5. Replace the mailbox
6. Add more landscape lighting to the walkway
7. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
8. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
9. Refresh the kid's room
10. Refresh the dining room (maybe with paint or a new light fixture. I'm just not loving it right now)
11. Paint stripes in the other front hall closet. I only did one in October. The other one is still sad and grey.

I honestly know this all will not happen. Lack of proper funding and lack of enough hours in the day. But here's to dreaming and doing a little bit here and there when I can. 

I know it's past Thanksgiving.

But, travel with me back to Halloween. And the hurricane that hit just beforehand. Many, many people were inconvenienced by the storm - I was not. They cancelled work, they cancelled school, and we had not even enough wind to get the leaves off the trees for raking. We did lose power for a bit - just long enough for the Bun to be delighted by her first candle-lit dining experience (mac and cheese, we still had gas).

So, what did I do with a day off? 

I painted one of the hall closets. See, we have two that flank the front door. (The spider is awesome, no?)

The doors are lovely. The interiors? Meh. One has hooks:

One has a a rather droopy rod:

And, now, one has stripes!

Next up, the other one gets the stripey treatment. And then, someday I'm going to take off the hooks and paint them bright orange. Not kidding. The droopy rod will also be addressed. It bugs me. Gotta love projects that no one ever sees...

Sometimes you just can't win for trying.

This post, dated July 8th 2011 shows a hole in my wall:

This post, dated February 22, 2012, shows me fixing the hole (finally):

This post, dated today, shows the wall in it's current state:

Do the internets allow swearing? They do? Then, fuuuuuck. 

Oh, and let's actually double that curse word in strength and intensity because, well, see here?

That's an acorn. Several of them, to be more specific. Under my tub. These were not there back in February, so we have a critter. 

Fabulous.

I have a day off.

And I swore I was not going to do anything terribly productive. Yesterday I was all chatting with my pal in the coffee line about how I would just "lay on the steamer chair on the porch and read a magazine." 

And then I hit up Facebook to see about a friend in the midst of a terrible health crisis (yes, he seems to be playing it out on Facebook, but who the hell am I to judge, never having been in his shoes and all that), and I saw a little Pinterest post from another pal:

I admit, it was the quote below the photo that grabbed me. Best ever? Reallllllyyyy? Hmmm. I have been planning, subconsciously of course, to paint my mater bath. See, once I rip out the fishy tiles, I have some idea that the blue tiles left behind will be somehow less bad and more complementary to other colors. Like grey. Like this:

 
(Young House Love)

Or even this:

 
(The Decorologist's post about "Bossy tile" oh, so appropriate!)

Next thing you know, I had a post-it on my desk with the words "Revere Pewter, Rockport Gray, Semi Gloss" on it. So, on my day off I might just be buying the supplies to rip out that damned fishy tile and perhaps buying a tin of paint.

Don't judge me, just love me.

Small. Boring. Almost unnoticeable even.

But expensive. 

The worst kind of house expense, really. But, caring for a home is like that. You have to do stuff to protect the bigger asset, you know? And sometimes those things involve clearing a sewage line or some such. I will not show you pictures of that particular action, however - though it did recently occur here at Holiday House. I will, instead, show you the new frame we got for the painting in the family room.

To-da! 

Right, like you never noticed before that it was unframed. I mean, why would you? 

Sadly, we only noticed when the canvas started to bow a bit. So we had to truck this sucker out to the framery. And, you all know what that's like. They hem and haw and show you options and you pick one and then they add it up and you are like "whaaaaa?!?!" How does like 7 linear feet of wood equal $600? Not sure. 

Ugh. But, has to be done to protect the asset, as it were. And in that case the least you can do is admire the nice wood grain with me.

I'm really trying to resist re-titling this blog "Holiday House Woes," but we need to catch a serious break soon. And by "break" I mean that shit has got to stop breaking, rotting, or clogging.

I learned to sew.

Take a minute to absorb that. 

...

Now, let's say it again. I, the least domestic of all domestics - she who cannot reliably use a toaster without risk of fire - learned to sew.

This is related to the mudroom curtains. I has planned a no-sew approach. I had some no-sew tutorials around and whatnot. And the demo panel I did, here, was no-sew. It was iron-on hem tape. And it was a pain in the ass. And just not sexy. One side was sewn (the existing edge of the West Elm curtain panels I was re-purposing) and the hem-tape edge (on the right) was just kind of not cutting it.

I posted that picture on April 19th. Then, as you may remember, I was felled by a long illness. The kind where my ironing board and hem tape and West Elm curtain panel remnants sat in the middle of my living room for weeks. Weeks. ANd then I managed to muster the strength to put them away in a closet. Not to finis the job, mind you, but to at least pretend I was a normal functioning adult who puts shit away. 

Pretend is the key word. It honestly took me 6 weeks to feel semi-normal. I went back to the gym 8 weeks post pneumonia. And then I did some yard work and took some additional naps. But, then...then I was finally re-bitten by the get-shit-done bug and I was even compelled to SEW. I had this mini, micro super-beginner sewing machine that was brand new in the box. Why did I have this? Long story, but it was given to me by someone moving away. And now I was determined to learn to use it. I went for thread, sat down in the guest room and figured that thing out. Took me about an hour to thread it and practice it and then? Bang. 2 hours later I had sewn 5 panels. I did the 3 remaining the next day. 

I rocked it. 

It was easy. 

And I'm delighted with the result.  But, before I reveal it (this project took me 4 months, the least you can do is play along and read a long post about it), I'll tell you how it was done.

1) I measured the windows and cut the existing curtains horizontally into strips, leaving 4" extra on each cut. The existing panels had 2" hems on the top and bottom, and that's how I decided on the 4" extra- 2" each edge, so I could re-use their factory sewing on a few cuts and save some effort (on the strips at top and bottom I left 2" on the one cut I made).

2) I cut the 7 panels out.

3) I folded the 2 edges, leaving 2" overlap on each side, and ironed them down. 

4) The existing side hem of the curtain panels (about 1 centimeter) became my top and bottom hems, the 2" hems were my "sides."

5) I used a ruler and a colored pencil to lightly mark my "sew here" line.

6) I sewed along that line.

7) Then I hung the resulting rectangles over tension rods, you can't see it here too well, but it's 2-ply, hanging so middle is over the rod and the 2 thin hems meet at the bottom:      

 

 

8) Then I pinched both front and back pieces, about 6" up from the 2 loose ends, and took that fold up about 5".

9 ) Then I put a safety pin in where my index finger was:  

 

I know this is not looking all that sexy right here, but drop the flap and....        

Not impressed yet? Here:

Oh, and because I'm so in love, I went back and took more pictures later in the day. 

And, as one last tooting of my own horn, I will show you the before:

Oh, and the inspiration photo. 

Okay, done tooting. Exept this - click here, here, here and here to see the full list of projects I did to make this space usable!

Go big or go home.

Results #1a.

From this:

to this:

Yep, I replaced the smallish drum shade in the mudroom with it's larger cousin. Much better.

Results 1b will be when I put the smaller one up in the guest room next weekend. I've been in that room a lot lately tending to my pile of crap-to-do and it's too damned dim in there. I would have liked to have both parts done this weekend, but I am only human.

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!

Weekend gettin' it done.

So, this weekend we kind of kicked off a big project. And, like I do, in the middle of that big project I did a little one. See, I went to get a light bulb. And as I dug around and found that I had 5 opened packages of 60 watt bulbs, I thought, "there is a problem here."

And by "here" I meant here:

This is my kitchen closet. I'd call it a "pantry," I guess, if I was from the South or Midwest. But, as a New Englander, I have never had a "pantry" I have just had "kitchen closets."

And it was a steaming mess. The picture above is after I took out a basket of light bulbs and a tangle of extension cords the size of an armchair. So, mid-other-project, I pulled everything out and rearranged. All the light bulbs together now! All the foodstuffs! All the mixer parts! And, there is even room for the coffee delivery that should be coming soon. That is a first - usually it comes and we kind of toss the boxes in there and close the door really quickly. When Erwin comes to clean (the mop bucket and cleaning solutions basket locations did not change - that is where Erwin likes his stuff. Who am I to mess with that?), he probably opens the door and gets whacked in the head with Sumatran Reserve. Not this time, though!

Oh, and the vaccuum is not in the "after" pic. It was in full swing in the other room. We made what could only be described as a "colossal mess" in the sunroom this weekend. Yes, that's a hint!

 

To sum it all up. (I can't get enough of this!)

The hall bath, the real before:

The hall bath semi-before (wider shot, post window-cling, but before any real plan had taken shape):

The hall bath, after:

Paint. Window Cling. Door Fix. Shade. Shower curtain. Mirror frame. Lighting. Vanity hack. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Crossing it off my list! (And moving on now, I swear!)

Bathroom vanity conversion.

The reveal, take two.

Okay, so after some minor, and annoying, problems with basic math, we have installed the drawer fronts, and pulls, and we have a fully functioning mac-daddy bathroom vanity hack.

To review, we started with this, a builder-basic MDF vanity, topped with an after-market granite top.

The goal? To get that $&@*@ Ikea stool off the floor, while still enabling the small person to access the sink. We do, after all, value cleanliness. The Anna White tutorial provided the inspiration, but we took it a different place. We built a shallow box to slide into the cabinet area (making this easy to "undo" btw, if you are in a rental).

Inside the box we put drawer slides. The bottom slides were capable of holding 50+ lbs.

 Then we put in some homemade drawers, the bottom of which has a lid, making it a handy step.

Oh, and I painted it too, for detail on that process see here. 

Anyone need an Ikea step stool, main talent: always being in the way? It's yours, free. Just come by and pick it up off the lawn below the window I chucked it out of.

 (I'm sharing this project over at Thrifty Decor Chick's party, too, come on over!)

The big reveal!

The bun's pink room is ready for prime time! The Wild Aster color has sunk in, and I can now honestly say I love it.

Here you go:

What did I do (beyond struggle to get decent pictures of this space)

1. I replaced the white frames between the windows with wood ones with new, smaller art (yes, of an owl, mouse and whatnot)
2. I hung some pretty garland
3. I got an owl pillow and made the bed using some pale pink bedding I had on hand
4. oh, and I just kind of chilled the heck out

Yeah, it's pink. But it's pale, and kind of lovely. I do miss the green...

But, it's not my room!

 To see more pics and sources, see here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (Yes, I spent a great deal of time on this ;)

Before and after (the mural version).

Yep, going back to the previous house again. Just because our Lukin mural deserves a fresh round of love.

I mean really, if you have a problem area (or one, as in this case, screams "ghetto tenement") consider a mural!

Penny round tile.

Dana over at House*Tweaking is in the midst of a housing down-size. Yeah, she's got a great idea there...but really what caught my eye was her choice of tile for her master bath. It's the same tile I have in my laundry room/nook/closet. 

And then I realized I have never taken any pictures of my laundry area. Harumph. Wonder why not? It was the first, and biggest yet, renovation we undertook at HH. And one that truly makes my life worth living. It was not cheap, mind you, but I really thing it was a value-ad, both in terms of livability of the house and for resale value. No 4-bedroom 3-storey house should rely on a tiny Ansko stack-able washer in a kitchen closet. You had to move the kitchen chairs aside to get at it! And as for folding, storage, drying space? Zero. Zero. Zero.

So, here's what we did. The staircase going to our third floor master was carved out of what had been a small bedroom. The closet from that bedroom remained - and it was deep one, tucked into the eave of the front of the house. It was large enough for a stack-able washer and dryer, and a bit of shelving. Fine. Perfect. Not having to move the kitchen chairs, being able to get a larger machine (it wold have to be a smaller stack-able, but not as small as the Ansko, which seriously did not hold on full set of bed linens at one time...) I was totally up for a "moderately better situation."

And then Greg came over. Yes, Greg. Sigh. My beloved ex-contractor. And he said, "No, you need full size machines and a folding counter and we can take a foot from the kid's closet and get you all that and a large opening with a pocket door that looks like to came with the house in 1898." You see why I love him now don't you?

Well, actually, it was not as easy as that, we had a lot of problem solving to do about pluming vents and what not, but he really was adamant about going to full size machines. The man has something against stack-ables, I guess. So, we went for it!

Here we have the ripped out closet mid-process, you can see how it's in the eaves, and the Bun's closet it to the right of those new 2x4s:

And here are the GlamourShots of the laundry room. 

See how wide that door is? When it's open you can access the whole space. And, Greg was totally right, there is plenty of space to stand in there and fold or sort things.

The paint is Moonshine by Benjamin Moore, the penny tile is for Tile Showcase in Watertown, MA and the whole of it is fantastico!

 

The bath lighting (alright, already, it's over).

I waxed on here and here about a new light for the hall bath. And here you saw the newbie. But, well, I have a teeny bit more to say on the subject. And when I say "say" I really mean show.

See, while the new light is not perfection, it is an improvement. It's brighter and less, ummm, gross. Allow me a little side by side.

 

On the old one, the light was just aimed at the wall, and it was kinda weeny for the big vanity and mirror area. The new one, I think, makes the room look bigger and emphasizes the high ceilings. And it kicks out a ton of light. It's like the surface of the sun in there with three 75w bulbs. I came down to 60w, but I really might even try 50's. (The old one was 2 75s, but, again, it basically lit up little circles on the wall. See?

You may note that in ordering this fixture I liked that it cold be hung facing down or up. Yeah, I made poor JWH try it both ways. Down was, as I feared, weird, due to the position of the wiring in relation to the mirror. It just overlapped in an odd-feeling way.

So anyway, more photos of this room (earlier in the day, on a sunny day, perhaps) to come once I finish my mac-daddy vanity project. Stay tuned.

Before and after (family and dining).

Once again, I show you the state of Holiday House under previous management,* and under my benevolent reign. 

The Family Room:

 

The Dining Room:

 
 
For you paint color enthusiasts, the colore here are:

Before: Benjamin Moore White Dove with Benjamin Moore Vanilla Ice Cream trim

After: Family Room is Benjamin Moore Wickham Gray, Dining Room is either Benjamin Moore Vellum or Barley, I am forever confused about which one I chose... trim remains the same.

*No insult intended or implied to the previous owner. She did some damned nice stuff. The understair storage gets her 50 bonus points, alone. Subtract the horrid paint choice demerits and she's still up by about 30 points.

Before and after (this may be a series).

My  Moroccan Room post  and  kitchen post  got me thinking about sharing some more before and afters. Before, in this case, being how things were when we bought the place, and after being once we tweaked it to what I'll call "stage 1." Meaning no major do-wops, just making it mine.

First, the master bedroom and hall at current Holiday House. This is the old owners stuff, not terrible, but for a childless, grown woman, she had a lot of stuffed animals about the place and a very "playful" style of decorating. And I found the yellow, in real life, to be a bit overpowering with the blond wood everywhere.

My stage 1 tweaks:

 


Oh, and the hall, side by side before and after:

The color I used, as you may well know is Gray Horse. Love, love, love it. Warm, greenish gray. And I think it makes the wood warmer, too, with the yellow it had a kind of "pickled" feel.

Before and after (a kitchen refresh).

Holiday House came into our hands as a finely renovated masterpiece, really. We know that. We thank our lucky stars all the time for the glory that is good windows, nice floors, and fine craftsmanship. But, and there always is a but, unlike most people fixing up a home to sell, the previous owner lady skipped the usual kitchen and bath fixeroos. 

So, I have been hacking away at the hall bath for eons. But the kitchen? We went at that with a more concentrated fervor. Not a reno, mind you, but a refresh. 

Before:

After:

 

What did we actually do?

1. new appliances (dw, stove and fridge)
2. removed some cabinet doors (not really into the shaker thing)
3. new cabinet knobs
4. ripped out the island (aka "the aircraft carrier")
5. put in a smaller island
6. new countertops
7. refinished the floors (necessary after removal of the aircraft carrier)
8. moved the washer and dryer out
9. replaced the undercounter lights
10. painted
11. new sink and faucet
12. window treatment and rug

Total cost. Sigh, I dunno. Maybe $15-17k? Certainly a lot less than a full kitchen renovation, that's for darned sure. Do I wise I had bright white cabinets and marble countertops? Yes. But, really, it's a nice kitchen and fully functional. So, it stays.

(Also linking this post up to the lovely Thrifty Decor Chick party, see more here.)

The Moroccan Room.

Have I never mentioned this? 

This is the previous Holiday House, call it Holiday Condo #2 or Holiday half-a-house. Whatever. It was a wonderful abode in a great location. We'd still be there if it weren't for a certain Boston Globe article highlighting a few nearby homes - one of which happened to catch JWH's eye. Anyway, the peeps who sold us the house had this little landing alcove set up as a "Moroccan Room." No, they were not from Morocco. I think they were from Lexington. Maybe even Bedford.

We know they called it this, though, because at the walk through (the day of closing, when they should have technically been moved out? Yeah, not so much.) they were on hand to offer to sell us the contents of "The Moroccan Room." You will be glad to know that JWH and I remained calm and politely declined. 

Those stripes you see? Metallic. Yep. Whole hog is what they went in there. You will be glad to know, we painted the room a nice, soothing gray. Yeah, we are more Pottery Barn than Morocco. And we are totally okay with that, too.

Some other fancy paint jobs they left us to, um, immediately de-saturate? Yes, yes, that bottom paint is actually florescent. You are not incorrect.

Was every wall in the kitchen a different color? Yes. Was the wainscoting on the walls a different color than the wainscotting on the cabinets? Yes. Was the green trim the same on the cabinets as on the windows? No. It practically made me itch.

Props to JWH for seeing the potential, or, actually, turning to me and saying, "If you tell me it can be made okay, then I will believe you."

Oh, another thing to note? The "before" pics were how they represented the house for sale in their listing. The "afters" were how I marketed it. Amazing what a little cleaning will do to a sale price, people!