Holiday House Rules

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. 

The mudroom: what it cost.

So, you all know I had big mudroom dreams. But my mudroom reality was far more modest. I'm cool with it. I think it came out wonderfully and it was certainly a low cost way to enter into mudroom-ness. I might even this this lower point of entry is better. We can use the space for a few years and see what works. And we can tweak it without feeling like we are wasting money. 

So, the rundown:

1. Ikea Hemnes media unit/bench $225
2. Ikea Hemnes wall unit $100
3. Ikea Grej handles $14
4. Three Ikea Trofast bins $9
5. Ikea lampshade $20
6. Cord set for light - had on hand, so free! (also available at Ikea for $4)
7. Extension cord with flat plug $7.50
8. Four additional Flor tiles to go with those I had on hand $52
9. New Flor tiles for the front hall, since I stole those for the mudroom $120
10. Hooks $5
11. Paint  - had the bulk of it, but needed the spray paint for the hooks and some extra wall paint for touch ups, so let's say $15
12. Cushion $39
13. Tension rods $20
14. Fabric for curtains $0 (unused curtains from our last house)
15. Storm windows ...this is the big unknown, I'll get bids this summer/fall/before it gets cold again!

Total out of pocket (windows pending - oh, and SWING pending): $606.50

Total time: about 20 hours for the room and then another 4 for the curtains.

Okay, okay, I sucked. Mea culpa.

Last week I really did suck at blogging. And I'm sorry. I had no time for the prior 2 weekends to do any projects... and work has been busy... and my knee hurts. Might as well blame solar flares in there, too. And Republicans.

Yeah!

The good news? This past weekend was "dude, get something done" weekend.

And I had a whole pile of stuff ready to get cracking on. And I did some actual projects, and then I also photographed them and I plan to tell you all about it. Really, that's what I do here...normally. 

See? That's my pile. Oh...you thought I was being metaphorical? Nope. There was a real pile of stuff. See if you can puzzle out what went down and check in tomorrow to see the first part of the results show! 

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!

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!

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.

Step one of many.

So, yesterday I hinted about what we were up to all weekend. Yeah. we hit the Ikea. And then we tore up the sunroom. 2012 may not be the year I call a contractor and get a mac-daddy mudroom with built-in benches and cubbies, but it still is year of the mudroom, damnit!

See, I had a flash of inspiration. The big hold up on the sunroom-to-mudroom conversion is the fact that the sunroom is cold. Very cold. So cold that all my plants died this winter. And it has been a very mild winter. You see, it's the windows. They are single pane (who installs single-pane windows? Really??!?!!) Anyway, due to new cars, a not so great visit to the tax man, and, oh, the 2 new water heaters we just got? No money for new windows right now. Yeah, yeah, poor me.

But, it did put a wrinkle in my plans. And then? The flash. Of inspiration. Storm windows! Dude, other people with drafty windows don't call Andersen Renewal and drop 10k. Nooo, they put up storms. Yeah! So we are going to look into that. And maybe blow-in insulation, if that's needed. I'm not sure if it is. I'm going to call for an energy audit to get to the bottom of it.

But, that said, I had hope! Hope that I could have a functioning sunroom this summer (hey, drafty windows don't matter then!) and into next winter. The boot tray will finally have a home! My excitement was uncontainable. Truly. It was infectious too, since I managed to get JWH to agree to go to Ikea and measure stuff and carry stuff. At Ikea we dropped some high-for-Ikea bucks on 2 things: a bench and a wall unit. Both hard wood, no MDF or particleboard, please.

The rest of the stuff we put in this room we had: the light fixture, the hooks, the baskets, the rug. Yeah, it was kind of magical the way it came together. Not that we are done. Nope, I have to hit this place with the paint. And then we have to cut the Flor tiles to make them look like wall-to-wall. And I do need 4 more Flor tiles, oh, and new tiles for the front hall, since I stole those for in here.

Details, details.

We are just 25% done with this space, but I can already see where it's going. And I like it. I mean, really, snowshoes off the floor - what's not to love?

The puppy-tushy hook? Ikea. Got it for the kid. She has her own hook that she can reach. Oh, yes, she is excited! A dork like her mom, she is.

Uncle, uncle!

I cry for mercy! This has not been the best of months at Holiday House. First world problems, to be sure, but as I said on Facebook last week, "I haz poltergeist."

And he does not like electronics, or machines, or maybe it's just me he dislikes...

First it was the tv. Kaput. Then it was the washing machine. ( I may have called The Poltergeist's attention to the washer's frailty when I mentioned it in my "I hate Samsung" post. Darnit.) Then it was the garbage disposal. And then, wait for it...both water heaters. 

"Why do you have two?" you ask. Hell if I know. I just turn the tap and shimmy in the hot water, I ask not where it comes from. 

Until that hot water is orange. Then I start asking questions. 

Sooo, silly me had a plumber come. $700 later I had a working master bath faucet (hooray, that only took 6 months), another pressure valve thingy (the banging pipes are gone again, but, yeah, I'll withhold judgement for a few months before I call it "fixed"), and a diagnosis of "water heater(s) gone all to hell." Cue plumbers number two and three and a bill that hovers near the laughably large. In some ways it's a relief that it's so big that I don't even have to think about paying it out of my personal checking account, you know? Like if it was just $700 I'd feel guilty tapping into the savings account. Hah! Tap away, tap away.

As we drove to work, leaving plumbers 2 and 3 (kind of a young Ben Affleck type, actually) to do their thing, JWH says to me, "there goes your sunroom." Indeed. So, the list I shared with you in January is already crap. This time, crossing off means "not gonna happen" rather than done-dealio. Oh, the pain!

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 - DONE
12. Sunroom to mudroom conversion Hahahaha, maybe I can get the windows replaced as a starting volley. Maybe....
13. Re-tile the 2 bathtub surrounds
14. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
15. Replace the window in the dining room

Might as well revise it now and deal with reality. Much in the way that JWH did when he called of plans for his new BMW and decided to rock the Volkswagen. 

Holiday House: known for thrift.

 

The new, new thing?

We have all seen kitchens with painted cabinets and a contrasting island, and we have seen kitchens with upper and lower cabinets painted different colors. But is this new, the one "accent cabinet?"

(Apartment Therapy)

Or is it old hat and I jut never noticed it? 

Either way, I'm kind of smitten. My kitchen is dark, so I need lighter cabinets, but the idea of a little contrast is nice. A little "pop," a little "wow." Hmmmm, file this under: food for thought.

Nesting.

No, not like that....like this:

Woot! We are the proud owners of a Nest Thermostat. See there on the website where it says they are sold out? Yeahhhh, we got one. Chalk it up to old fashioned net savvy-ness on my part. See, back in early November, Apartment Therapy Unplugged did a post on how these suckers were so popular that they flew of the shelves and the company had stopped taking orders. Wow, I thought, really? 

The thing is, I had totally, completely missed the hype about them in the first place. So when I saw the story that they were sold out, and read about what it was exactly that was old out...well, I wanted one. So, I did what any web-surfing-ninja would do. I read the notice on the homepage about how "Best Buy orders will be fulfilled....blah, blah, blah." And I went over to BestBuy.com and ordered one. Yeah, it was that hard. 

Ha!

So, I'm not sure if it was sloppy reporting* on the Apartment Therapy bloggers' part (it's hard for me to remember sometimes that bloggers are not journalists, so they sometimes just throw crap out there, yes, I'm talking about you Strollerderby) or if it was a miraculously effective marketing plant by the Nest peeps. You know, "they are sold out! Gosh, I simply must have one!" Worked on me...

So, back to the Nest. It's lovely, for starters. How does it work? Well, since it learns your routine, and we have been home more than normal, we will have to see if it adapts to our back-to-school selves. I will keep you posted...

Oh, and why does it look like hell? Because the 1975-era thermostat that this one replaced was installed prior to walls being skim-coated, it seems, so, yeah, rough plaster under there. So I spackled. And then I painted...and, um, the "Stonington Gray" I have in the basement seems not to be at all the same as what is on the walls. So I spackled some more and that, my dears, is how things now stand. I have been busy with the vanity project. Sue me.

Oh, and what is that other thermostat? That one is just for the alarms system, which will alert us if the house ever falls into pipes freezing type circumstances. Fancy, I know.

*I lean toward this theory since that day they disabled comments on the post. Typically a sign of a whoops! And it does not show up in their search, the only way to find the post is via the comments people made. 

What did I do with a whole week off?

I struggled. I mean, really struggled, to complete the semi-secret bathroom vanity project. It's not done yet...but I might as well share some progress so the week does not feel like a total loss.

The idea, which you might remember, came from an Anna White tutorial. I have dreamed of building a step into the vanity ever since my fantasy of getting a console sink (so a stool could just tuck under it) died*. I have to work with what I have. A stunning (not) MDF vanity with an aftermarket granite top.

Okay, so back to Anna White. Her vanity had a larger toe kick, I think. But, regardless, I needed more step. My peanut is, well, a peanut. She needs a good 12" leg up to reach the faucet. And will, well, for a few more years. Let's just say she's not rocketing up the growth curve. Anyway, the project...I decided to take the cabinet part of the vanity and replace it with drawers, the bottom one being built to hold 50+ lbs and have a closed top; i.e., a step.

The way we tackled this is to have my dad build a box at home (where his tools live). The box would slide into our cabinet opening, but be only as deep as the plumbing junk would allow. Behold the box during install (day 1):

Why the box? Beyond being easier to build and fit the drawers in all in his shop, my dad thought the drawer holding the step would be sturdier if screwed into real wood, rather than just the MDF wall of the existing cabinet. Smart man.

After installation of the box and a dry fit of the drawers, I removed all the faces and went to the basement to prime and paint. My bathroom looked like this for a few days:

How did I paint: I first deglossed, then primed, then put 3 light coats of Benjamin Moore Matte finish paint (Iron Gate is the color), sanding between coats. I put a satin varnish on the top of the step only, but if the matte finish paint fails to hold up, I can always seal the whole shebang. I'm kind of in love with the matte finish, though, so fingers are crossed it cures well and is durable.

Here's where we stand now.

Stunning, right? Yeah. And will totally rock once we manage to get the drawer fronts cut to the right size. Install Day 2 was us discovering that the first batch, which I lovingly painted, was too short. Install Day 3 was us discovering that the second batch, which I also lovingly painted, was too thick.

Yeah, we are thinking that we will do a dry fit on batch 3 before I, um, lovingly paint.

*I can't find the link where I may have mentioned this, but the hall bath is held together with chewing gum and baling wire, it seems. Greg, my former contractor, let me know that it would be very unwise to go removing things like mirrors or vanities or floors or wainscoting without the budget to go down to the studs and back up again. Ummm? No. So, that's why the hall bath renovation dreams of 2010 became the hall bath refresh of 2011. You get what you get and you don't complain.

Listy McLister II.

Well, hello! And happy new year! As you may remember, last year I put a list out there, for all to see, of the things I wanted to get done in 2011. Here it is with not as many items crossed off as I expected.

1. New rug for under the kitchen table
2. Paint the woodwork and doors in the upstairs hall
3. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
4. Spackle and paint the ceiling at the stair landing
5. Re-do the guest room
6. Replace the light fixture in the office and put that one in the hall
7. New mulch for the whole dang yard
8. Finish the fireplace mantel
9. Get the heat stains off the 2 stricken tables
10. Refinish the antique desk
11. Fix the gutters
12. Touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house
13. Replace the mailbox
14. Replace the hatchway cover
15. Get the area rugs cleaned
16. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
17. Add landscape lighting to the walkway
18. Get new panels for the side exterior lantern
19. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
20. Renovate the hall bath, or at the very least get a new blind or curtain in there...

To my credit, #3 nd #16 have been attempted. Really. It's just that the guy never shows up...And #2? It's too fraught with disagreement to actually happen. 

And, I'm giving myself half credit on #20 since I made great progress in there. But, it's not done. So, we have some carry over to this year, as well as some new stuff.

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

See? Shorter than last year! Hooray! And I have to say, up front, that I do not expect to get it all done. The tile? Sheesh, that would be a miracle. As we all know, the best laid plans are crap. Stuff comes up. Like the giant plumbing incident we had in this fall, or redoing the kids' room in pink (!), or re-upholstering cat-damaged chairs. All things that take time and cost money. 

So, I consider 2011 a success overall. Onward!

 

Tile.

As remedy to entirely flubbing the whole holiday-decor thing I decided to return to my roots: macking on curtains or, as the case may be, tile. (Curtain blathering to follow tomorrow.)

My 2012 plan may involve tile, as money permits, so I have been thinking about options. We all know the hall bath is simply not 100% renovate-able, so I have updated it as much as possible and I'm really quite pleased with the progress. I'd still like to do more, and one of that "more"is updating the tile. It's clean and tidy now, no complaints, but it's dated and, worse yet, it goes to the ceiling. Why is that bad? Because it means the crown molding has weird little "ends" where it meets the tile. It's just odd. 

So, if I re-tile, I will have a little wall re-instated up there. I think it will make the room feel bigger, too, to not have the crown molding just crapping out mid wall...

Anyway, back to tile. I think white subway is the way to go. It's classic and goes with the room. But, it's kind of dull. Still, I am very wary of a banded accent. It ties me to a color. It ties me to a style, it is very easily dated, thereby killing the whole timelessness of white subway tile thing. 

And then I saw this. 

(Decorati Access)

Bang. It's an accent, but it's only one wall, i.e., easily hidden by a curtain if you so desire. No more puling out my curtain to hide the ends of the current black band, thank you very much! I also love that it's thick and kind of 1920's feeling. I'm also a little jealous that their square white tile does not look as lame as mine does.

And just so you don;t think I'm all complainey-Janey for ne reason, behold both problems (the crown-meets-tile weirdness and the black tile band peeking out) in one somewhat older photo. 

See? I'm totally not nuts.

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: the hall bath (the interim edition).

I still have a major vanity project up my sleeve. Don't you worry, it'll knock your socks off. But, all in all, the hall bath I hated has come a long way.

The total "before." Before I switched out the shade for window film, which was huuuuge.

Then, the middle before. With the window film...but, oh so cold and stark and just somehow incohesive and blah.

The "after"? Oh, lala!

What did I do?

The window film ($14), taking out the trim on the top window ($0), the roman shade ($171), the frame for the mirror ($20), the paint ($20, it's Manchester Tan, btw), the light ($150), the shower curtain ($58). The day of repair ($0).

No, it's not the hall bath reno I dreamed of, but it's way more in line with the rest of the house now and I don't cringe when I'm in there. 

Just wait till I show you the coup de grace on this whole shebang. It's in process, and it's why I did this whole thing anyway. A hint? The IKEA stool is going, going, gone!

 

*And yes, I know I have varied above from lights off to lights on and then back. But, really, the thing getting me all grill cheesed about this bathroom is how much brighter and warmer it is with the lights off - which is how I usually see it anyway. I'll do another post soon on the lighting switch to show y'all the difference that made.

This project was also a part of Thrifty Decor Chick's November Before and After Party. Hooray!

Rethinking my kitchen (yes, again, but this time I'm actually getting real).

I shared a little love for how far we have come together here. But I hae been fantasizing for years now about ripping out the cabinets and starting over. I have wild dreams of banquets and marble counter tops and such. 

But, truth is, my kitchen works. It works well, in fact.

So, perhaps I need a new direction. A way to think about just tweaking it to get it to the next level. So I pondered, I mean seriously pondered, what really needed to change:

1. the upper cabinet doors are warped
2. the weeny upper cabinets next to the sink are weird
3. the wall with the open shelving is a hack and it shows - I'd prefer concealed storage for the appliances and that the dishes live nearer the sink/dishwasher
4. the back hall (where we ripped out a bathroom) I'd like to see as a pantry
5. the room is dark, lighter cabinets will help fix that

Well, see, that is not a huge list now it it? Certainly less overwhelming that a full kitchen renovation. Could I work with the bones of hat I have, and add to it? Well, while pondering that, I saw this picture:

(bliss)

And, just like that I saw what was possible. See those lower cabinets? I have those. Mine are just 1980s cherry. I could make them gray - I really could! Gray and cream, oh I have new and delightful visions! And no new island or counter tops would be needed. Oh hail the cost savings!

Here's my new thought:

• paint the lowers gray (like the above, see here for more painted cabinet photos)
• replace just the uppers with some that go to the ceiling and are off white/Vanilla Ice Cream (like my trim and island)

            

(Apartment Therapy and Decorpad)

• replace the wall unit with a some cohesive enclosed appliance storage - like this:

(Oh, I will find the link to this image, I know I will...)

• have shallow matching cabinets made for the back hall, to frame the window in there and give us space to store food and cleaning supplies
• replace the cabinets next to the sink with open shelves for mugs and glasses, potentially getting rid of the set to the right of the sink to allow for a wider fridge down the road
• frame in the pipes that run up behind the door to the back hall
• potentially get rid of the door to the back hall so the new "pantry" seems integrated
• potentially remove the closet next to the table, replacing it with shallow cabinets or built in banquet seating (this can be phase 2)

I think I just saved myself $50,000. Just like that. I think I need a kitchen designer, stat.

Bathroom lighting resolution.

Again, I will slam the gods of bathroom lighting for being so damned boring. Really, it's a sea of sameness. But, let's just say that JWH was up on a ladder in the hall bath this weekend and even he said, "God, that's a really ugly light." So, yeah time to make a change. 

I posted here about what I was thinking in terms of a good replacement light. And then I went ahead and put some favorites in the handy dandy Lightingdirect.com "compare" light box. That process led me to this little summary. Which was nice.

And then I went home to measure and eyeball it. Meaning I stood in the bathroom doorway with a print out of the above light box and squinted a lot. Totally worked. The winner? This one:

(Lightingdirect.com)

Well, not so fast. The fabulous "compare" lightbox also noted the sizes, and for some crazy reason the light above, the Alico Madison light bar...yeah, it's 17" long. How is that possible when all it's compatriots are more like 24" - 27" long. Crap. Yes, I said crap. It's just too weeny.

In defeat I took to my trusty MacBook and sought out new pastures. It was less of a browse this time, since it was 11 pm on a school night and I had also narrowed my wishlist by this point:

• 23" - 27" long
• chrome
• rounded back plate or other rounded details to tie in with the other accessories in the room
• white shades
• takes incandescent bulbs, preferably in 75w or 100w
• flutes with a slight taper (transitional, not modern)
• preferably up-light (no bare bulbs facing down since I think that will be harsh, but a light that could go both ways would be great because I could then fiddle with it at install)

All of that led me to this, the Hinkley Avon Bath Bar, which hits on most of the above points: 

(LightingDirect.com)

Bam. Ordered. Pictures to come (along with some other lighting updates, I'm kind of on a roll).

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.)

More ideas for the hall bath.

Okay, you may have figured out by now that I'm not going to be renovating the hall bath any time soon. So I have been freshening it up a little bit at a time. First, there was the little repair-fest, the frosted window, the roman shade, and the shower curtain, then the art, and finally the frame around the mirror. And paint. Oh yes, paint. That's coming next.

Still, though, the one thing that all this freshening up is not helping with is the damned Ikea stool that is always in the way. The kiddo needs it to get at the sink. I understand. She's small. (And at this rate, likely to need a leg up to brush her teeth until she's 12. Sigh.) So, you can anticipate my utter and complete delight upon seeing this:

(Ohdeedoh)

Wow. Just wow. It's a hack. With a DIY tutorial here. My vanity is an MDF piece-o-junkeroo. (Yeah, lady, I see beyond the fancy marble top and right to your crappy quality core.) The good news about that? No harm in effing it up. I saw we go for it! JWH, you in?

Bathroom vanity lighting (is boring).

Really, I have looked and looked, and looked. And I just can't seem to whittle up an opinion. Sure, there is some ugly stuff...but there is also this vast, vast middle. Stuff that is "fine." 

It's all kind of brushed nickel and frosted glassy. And, all. the. same. They call it "traditional" if the shades taper toward the base. They call it "transitional" if the shades are cylindrical or it's shiny. And the category they call "contemporary" seems to contain all of "transitional" plus some weird shit. Anyway... I shopped transitional, since I'm really not trying to make a statement here. Just trying to right a wrong and freshen things up a bit. Oh, and also trying to stay in the chrome or polished nickel family since I don't intend to change out the other stuff. And staying in the basic theme of "round" on the other fixtures*, so no square shades and no blocky-block mounting plates.

Without those limitations, I may well have ended up around here:

 

(From Lamps Plus: Kichler Cylinder)

But, with my narrowed search parameters, I found these options:

 

(From Lowes: Allen + Roth 4-light Polished Chrome (I liked the apparent warm glow of these). From Lamps Plus: Hinkley Zoe Collection, Forecast Town and Country. From Lighting Direct**: Kichler Berwick Collection, Alico Madison Collection, Alico Oxford Collection)***

Oh, and for a spot of fun. I also will share this:

(Lamps Plus)

That's right. I went there.

 

*Yes, I just called my fixture theme "round." Laugh away. I know it's absurd.

**Lighting Direct has by far the better search mechanism. Hooray digital folks at LD.

 ***Of the "collection" names I came across, my fave was the "Pour Le Bain" collection. You know, in case you thought about hanging one of these over your dinging room table or something.

More bathroom tile.

Just some pictures that made me drool. This one because the wall texture is just so lovely and timeless. It will look good long after that sink screams "2010." Also loving that little basket on stilts. 

(Small Space Style)

Oh, and speaking of timeless...If I ever do get to renovate the hall bath, this is certainly something to consider. Both the pattern and the color. (And, you know I waffle between this sink and the Porcher console with the china legs.) 

(Decorati Access)

Then there is this tiny vintage bath with just great use of tile and a half wall. The little shower nook looks so fresh, and with no shower curtain, the light comes flowing in! 

(Small Space Style)

And, a totally unrealistic but glorious example of what would be JWH's dream bathroom, if he dreamt of bathrooms, that is. (Currently, his dreams go more along these lines.) But, really, isn't this awesome?

(Decorati Access)

Lastly, although my firm desire is to have a bath that is not trendy, I might be convinced to use just a touch of this Dwell tile by Heath Ceramics. Just as an accent or a little surprise. 

(Heath Ceramics)

Mmmmmm, tile.

After. (Admittedly, not the sexiest of projects.)

But, it's done. And in the world of projects, that's all that really matters.

Behold my "new" hatchway cover.

And, the stair.

For those who need to know, the handyman part of this little before and after cost me a whopping $135. And then I spent a solid 2 hours on the paint and finish work (mostly because it had to be done in stages, not because it was particularly hard).

Not too shabby. I'm not at all sure we could have done it all ourselves. Well, we could have. We are smart and such. But, we may well have ended up divorced. $135 is a lot cheaper than marriage counseling!

Window idea number 1.

Kitchen idea number 472. As you know, I often fantasize about redoing my kitchen. Main complaints are: lack of light, old warped cabinets,and no good place to keep the microwave or toaster oven. (I hate having them on the counter.) I've explored ideas here, here, and here. 

Well, when I had the friend-of-a-friend architect over to look at the mudroom, she also looked at the kitchen. Just as a by-the-by. She agreed that it works well the way it is. The layout is good and the flow is good, so she would not recommend moving things around too much. So, perhaps just better storage and adding a pantry in the back hall? Solid advice. 

But, then I saw this.

(Honey + Fitz)

Specifically, the wall of windows. See, the current set up has these itty bitty and awkward cabinets on either side of the sink. Why not open it up with all windows from the pantry/hall all the way to the fridge. (Picture my fridge where the door is above.) Hmmm, would need a place to keep the cups and glasses near the fridge, but that should certainly be surmountable...these wheels, they keep on turnin'.

The mudroom. An update.

The update is...nothing.

While we await a response and/or sketches from the architect/friend of a friend who looked at the space a few weeks ago, I thought I'd share the pics I took for her. Gives you an idea of what I have now and how much potential there is there for something fabulous (and useful).

First, the exterior. The sun room is everything to the right of the door. Well, there is a closet between the door and the window. Looking at it from this perspective you can see how big it really is...

Then, the view of it from just inside the living room, looking back toward the front door. You can see how sunny it is, and how important the glass door is for light. The door is needed because the room is not insulated. Maybe the walls are, but the windows are single pane. Who does that?

Lastly, peeking in the door. Yes, that is an air compressor on the floor, and an open tape measure and the old hallway light fixture - I am all class. World's sunniest junk room, at your service!

During. (Putting the rotting wood behind me.)

Well, we are now officially rot-free. At least as far as we know. We had a handyman come, and he:

1. Scraped all the soft wood out of the back step riser, and then filled it with Bondo. Yep. Bondo.
2. Sanded that patch down all nice and flush.
3. Replaced 10 boards on the hatch cover with new tongue and groove boards. 
4. Re caulked the board along the side of the house.
5. Made a lot of obscure comments about which direction the "z" brace on the back of the doors should face and that z's role in any subsequent sagging...

Yep, the hatchway and back step are back in fine fettle. Now they just need some paint...

Here's the bondo-rific step:

Now, "prime it!" (In quotes because I say it using my Zoolander voice):

And the hatch, partially primed (you don't want to rush these things):

And, fully primed and ready to hit it with the paint:

And, in case you needed proof that this job had to be done...the pile of rotted wood:

Now, on to the paint. Just need a day without a thunderstorm...

Before. (The rotting wood version.)

Home decor blogger love to show "before and after" pictorials of nifty upholstery projects or thrift-store makeovers. Yeah, that's cool. But the story of this summer at HH is that we are striving for, saving for, and struggling through "afters" that are decidedly un-sexy. I'll start with the before shots.

For one, the hole in the back step. Not bugs. Mildew, Yeah, it's been that kind of spring.

For two, the hatch cover. Years of benign neglect. 

How d'ya like me now?

Tile switcheroo.

Last week I posted about a basket I that I think might solve my back entry winter gear woes. But in looking at the photo of that back entry, well, it brought me back to some dark days. Dark orange days, to be specific.

See, about a year ago I got a slice of that area in a photo. And, despite the cute kid, the photo shook me to my core. It was the tile. Yeah, I had rationalized it in person: not that terrible, innocuous, really... But when faced with it in print, the orange was blindingly bad.

So, in a wholly impractical move, we retiled it. Ripped out perfectly good tile and put in something a little more our speed. Less 1984, if you will.

So, our kitchen is by no means a showplace, but the little things do make a difference.

Mirror Mate from Young House Love

So, sometimes it just happens that you have an idea percolating and then, wham-o, a solution hits you in the face. I kind of had that the other day. After a long, long, long few weeks at work, I was catching up with my friend Google Reader and I came across this: Fab Freebie: Here’s Looking At You, Mate | Young House Love.

Yeah, I missed the actual giveaway by a mile. But, I had been thinking about framing out the mirror in the hall bath. I'm liking the more natural tones in there (brought in by the roman shade and the shower curtain) and thought a wood frame might just help it along on it's way from crappy to snappy.

I was contemplating asking JWH to whip something up with his mitre box. But, that kind of project takes mucho wife-points, and I fear I'm a little low in that account. So then I though, as any girl does...Dad? So, back of my mind was to approach the oldster on making a frame. But how to attach it?? See, the mirror goes all the way to the corner. No wall space in which to drill. And, my (miss-you-so-much-please-come-back) contractor has told me that the mirror was put up to cover a world of sins. The wall is apparently made of toothpicks and Mod Podge. 

(Hmm, side thought that maybe trusted contractor only scared me off this whole bathroom remodel because he was going to be busy for a long while. Perhaps when he's ready to come back he'll be like, "Psyche! It's all good, there are no weird plumbing issues or bowed floors! Now let's rip out this vanity and retile this puppy!" Probably not...sigh.)

So, anyway, back to Young House Love. Their style is not my style and while I typically don't aspire to add MDF to my house....well, sometimes a frame that can be mounted with adhesive right onto the glass? Well, that just kind of make sense. The folks at Mirror Mate seem to have figured out how to handle any and all mirror placement problems. See?

How do they do that? Seems to have something to do with their super high-tech installation:

Anyway. I'm all over this. Just gotta measure and balance the 'ol checkbook. I may or may not have recently gone on a MiniBoden spree...

 

(For an update, go here.)

(images from mirrormate.com)

Still loving the kitchen peninsula idea.

Ok, so last week I shared my kitchen fantasies. And, after a false start, I think I might be onto something good. Today I spied this:

(Honey + Fitz)

Not only is it a bonanza of storage, but the wood top meeting the solid surface counter in the corner? The windows on the far side? It's like a sign, I tell you! 

I would not put the cook top on the peninsula, though. I see a lot of people with cook tops on the island, but as a non-cook, it just seems like messing up perfectly good space to me. A nice big, uninterrupted surface is what I'm after!

Tile! Oh gosh, it's so pretty.

You all know I'm a little kitchen obsessed right now (and I need to step away from the hall bath debacle). So I have been spying back splashes. And while there is nothing inherently "Moroccan" about Holiday House...well, that didn't stop Mariah Carey so it's not gonna stop me.

(Cococozy)

(Apartment Therapy)

Unimagining a new kitchen.

Okay, so I'm not brilliant. I'm deluded. But my kitchen folly did at least lead me to challenge some existing assumptions. Namely, that the table had to face the window to the back yard. See, while I stood in the kitchen this past weekend I said to myself, for the millionth time, "Gosh, I wish the neighbors could stand here for a few minutes and see that I really get the a$$-end view of their deck. Why can't they plant a few boxwoods or something?"

See, my lovely, lovely neighbors have a deck. And that deck is the view from the window over my sink. And, though they have a lovely yard, my edge of the deck is their "utility corner." It's where they stack the extra mulch, leave the grill and the charcoal bags...in short, it's the piece they can't see from their kitchen. So, why should I have to see it? I spend far more time at the sink than I do lounging at the table (weekend mornings notwithstanding). Maybe I should move my sink to the nice view spot? 

So the wheels were turning. And they turned to include a powder room (the mudroom/powder room sunroom project is moving slowly and is still on the table, I promise a full report when there are known knowns...). The shaded area at the top is where I'd put that powder room. Finally, a way to put a bathroom in the kitchen without the door seeming to open to the table - hello!

What do you think? We are a while off from a kitchen reno, I had said seven years from move-in (to justify the spending on the counters at that point) and we are at year 3...but still, always good to have a plan!

I also tried it with the range and fridge switching places, since the range would then go in what is now a closet and I could do this cool little spice rack along the side...kid of cosy right? 

Here's how that would look (and I even added the door to the loo, so that would be clearer...the floor plan above shows the door where it is now).

I'd have to get a kitchen designer to advise me on which was is best for the 'ol work triangle. But I see real potential in the long peninsula for storage or the microwave, etc. If the fridge was by the sink I'd have the wall shelving there be open storage for plates and glasses, like we have now. If the stove went there I'd likely have to change the pantry cabinet (the thin one parallel to the peninsula) to include that kind of open shelving. We are open shelving peeps - but never near the stove. That's just gross.

Okay, consider this idea recorded for future reference. And, I fully admit that in another week I may come back and decide that I am again, quite deluded. I'm ok with that.

Imagining a new kitchen.

The kitchen at Holiday House is a little rough. We are kind of in fake-it-till-you-make-it mode. So, we put in a new, smaller island and new appliances and counter tops. That made it functional. Okay, technically the old appliances were functional, but they were from 1984 and I just could not face scraping 25 years of someone else's grime off them upon moving in. And, appliances can, and should, outlast any renovation we do down the line.

But, what I'm finding is that the kitchen is actually really good space to use. It's cozy and works pretty well. The few exceptions to this are: no place for the microwave, and gosh it would be nice to have a larger fridge. So I start thinking about how it could be reconfigured. And that's where I get stuck. Until this week. I had a facepalm moment when I saw this:

(Apartment Therapy)

Of course! See, the problem with any redesign I imagine in our kitchen is that the table needs to face the windows. And that, alone with the issues of doorways and chimney placement, really kills anything that changes the flow. But, to get more fridge space, the fridge must move, and the flow, well it must change. I'm really excited about seeing if something like this might work. I need to measure and whip out a floor plan to see if I'm off my rocker or if I'm brilliant, just brilliant!

Full disclosure? I also fully intend to steal this idea from the same AT post:

And the fantasy continues.

Last week I posted about my new big idea: the conversion of our sun room into a powder room and mudroom. I shared some pictures of what I had in mind for the mudroom part. But, really, is a bathroom that small even possible? Advisable? I present my evidence.

(Elle Decor via Knotting Hill Interiors)

That sink's name and manufacturer still elude me, but some others might work, too.

 

And as far as placement of the sink in the "standing" space of the toilet - there seems to be some precedent that this is ok. (I do have facts and figures as to the space required by code, btw. I fully intend to break out the tape and tape it off before I go calling an architect.)

(top photo: unknown, middle: HGTV, bottom photo: Design*Sponge)

So, I'm totally on to something here, right?

Oh, and what would that mudroom look like?

On Wednesday I posted about the possibility of putting a powder room and a mudroom in where my sun room is now. It's a bold, bold idea. And doing it would take some planning and some cash and some stepping waaaay outside my comfort zone. So, today, I retreat to within my comfort zone...daydreaming about how that mudroom with look!

I'm not thinking locker-style. That's too Pottery Barn for me. I'm liking these ideas:

These drawers feel kind of age-appropriate to the house.

(Trikeenan Tileworks)

But this picture does a nice job of conveying the shape and pleasant bench area I'm going for.

(Elle Decor via CocoCozy)

As does this one, with another storage option:

(via Our Castle)

Hmm, not digging the dividers, though. So there's this one.

(Integrity Custom Carpentry)

For the wall area, since I don't want to block the way to the bench, or take up any floor space at all, actually. So I was thinking shelves. But with all-important storage for gloves, hats, and general small items.

(JCS Carpentry & Woodworking)

(Benchmark Custom Interiors)

Since several of the floor plans I have include a wall of hooks under a transom window, perhaps board and batten is appropriate?

(One Nutty Girl)

And these folks show hooks and cubbies together (I'd have to forgo the bench, and my cubbies would be way less deep...Are you seeing it yet? My vision, I mean.

(My Greenbrae Cottage)

I want a mudroom!

Okay, so I'm not competitive by nature...but my friend Val is getting a mudroom and I want one, too!

Yeah. I know, she's putting on an actual (very cool) addition to get her mudroom needs fulfilled. I am not suggesting we do that at HH. (JWH can let out the giant breath he just sucked in.) But still, we have this sun room...

JWH still has fantasies about sitting in there and reading peacefully while taking in the fabulous views of the Boston skyline. Yeah, it's been 3 years buddy, and it's a wasteland. So, inspired by Val, (see, no hints of jealousy) I got to thinking. Why not make it a mudroom. And a powder room. Yeah, I upped the ante tight there. Just like that.

Here is kind of what I had in mind in terms of layout. Certain key facts need to be stated, though, before you go thinking there are better ways to do this:

1. The current location and type of sun room door are key - it is a glass door and lets in a ton of light. Putting a solid wall there would make the living room darker by a fair margin.
2. The 3 windows at the end of the sun room have a money view. Do not obscure or the angels will cry.
3. The plumbing for the laundry room currently goes up through the coat closet in front of the sun room. Rather not open that can of worms...
4. The walls that make up the inside edge of the 2 closets contains a 125 year old pocket door. It stays. End of story. 
5. The walls that mark the end of the foyer/into the living room? Also decorative, old, and not changing.

This pic illustrates numbers 5 and 6 above. Sunroom door is opposite the black buffet you see there.

So, some ideas...

 
 
And, now I ask...are there better ways to do this? 

Monday. Or why I hate the hall bath.

Okay, last Monday I shared my window frosting jobby. This week, I'm going to share my shame, i.e. why I hate that bathroom. People say, "It's fine." No, not fine, let me count the ways.

1. The door. It does not open all the way. It hits a little piece of molding that caps the wainscoting. Really.

 

2. The silly molding around the tub. I will not zoom in. It suffices to say that the wood is rotted, and yucky. I mean, it's wood trim, around the base of a tub that a 4 year old bathes in. 

 

3. The vanity. It's not made of real wood. And its too big for the space. They actually cut 115 year old molding to fit the granite on there. They cut it!

4. The vanity part 2. Since the sucker was not meant to fit there anyway, you get the handy side-effect of not being able to open the top drawer. The doorknob is in the way. Umm, classy.

5. The floor. Somebody had a burst pipe. I heard all the gory details from the contractor who did not fix it, but likes to criticize the guys who did fix it. They cut the boards and put back a wobbly little hatch to nowhere. I'm told those same yahoos are responsible for numbers 2, 3, and 4 above, too.

6. The wainscoting. I hate it. Wainscoting in a bathroom is the worst idea ever. Steam, heat, cold, wait for it...crack! Yep. You can caulk and paint all you want, it just keeps happening.

 

6. The wainscoting part 2. I will let this picture, of where the toilet lid and wainscoting trim meet, speak for itself.

 

There are other things I'd like to change, too, of course (the tub is tiny and I'd prefer a built in medicine cabinet...and I'd love a non-Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa radiator, ya know?), but they are non-starters due to actual physical constraints, so why dwell, right?

So I'm going to do what I can and work on loving the one I'm with. 

Viola! And I'm in love again.

Okay, so now that my contractor has left the biz...(yes, pause a moment and cry with me) a kitchen renovation seems so, so far off. I can't even imagine how I will do the hall bath without him, so a kitchen reno seems just crazy talk at this point.

But, still, though my heart is broken, it's not dead just yet, and it fluttered a bit when I saw this photo. 

I mean, really, right? So gorgeous. Not over the top modern, but the accent shelving? Wow!

Here's another one.

And, since many of you don't go for painted cupboards, there's this.

Things I love?

1. The knobs. I'm so tired of the long stainless bar=modern kitchen look.
2. The mixture of detailed cabinet fronts with plain-front drawers. That's what we have now and I think it's a good fit for an 1898 house. 
3. The use of open shelving. All their designs incorporate it and since JWH and I have always ripped doors off existing cabinets to have open shelving, well, it just feel like these folks know where we are coming from. 

Love it. See more at the Viola Park website. (They even include pricing. Very handy.)

Same old images. But look closer, please.

 

 

 

 

 
What am I getting at? Grout. The thing you like to ignore. The thing that you hope is clean and not moldy and that no one ever notices. But, I ask you to stop and notice. What do you think of gray grout? Or off white grout? I'm loving it. Gives the tile a pop. I know I want white subway tile (in the shower at least) and I know I want gray hex flooring, the "tile or wainscoting" on the rest of the walls debate rages on...but, grout. Hmm. I'm liking the contrast.

(photos: Katy Elliot, E. Peuralis, The Nest, GardenWeb, Re-Nest)

Listy McLister.

I like a list. I swear I'd be a much more creative person if I did not perpetually have 32 different running lists in my head.  Even at yoga, while the others are doing Shavasana, I'm mentally reviewing my lists. When the others rouse themselves and say, "great meditation!" I simply try to stop mouthing the words "toothpaste, birthday card, charge my cell phone" so as to not arouse suspicion. And so they don't think I'm insane.

So, since in the land of yoga, they tell you to "acknowledge" and "look at" your thoughts (before supposedly clearing them away, but, yeah, whatever) here is my project list for this still new year:

1. New rug for under the kitchen table
2. Paint the woodwork and doors in the upstairs hall
3. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
4. Spackle and paint the ceiling at the stair landing
5. Re-do the guest room
6. Replace the light fixture in the office and put that one in the hall
7. New mulch for the whole dang yard
8. Finish the fireplace mantel
9. Get the heat stains off the 2 stricken tables
10. Refinish the antique desk
11. Fix the gutters
12. Touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house
13. Replace the mailbox
14. Replace the hatchway cover
15. Get the area rugs cleaned
16. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
17. Add landscape lighting to the walkway
18. Get new panels for the side exterior lantern
19. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
20. Renovate the hall bath, or at the very least get a new blind or curtain in there...

I know some of these sound sooo sexy. But trust me, it's all good. Hope you'll stick around to see the before and after pics as I get it all done!*

*No one is to tell JWH of the existence of this list. It will scare the living bejeezus out of him.

(Photo is something I got from etsy. It hangs over a light switch and makes me smile.)

 

Light a fire!

It's done. Finis. Or, I guess I should say...voila!

The fireplace mantel. I did it! Over the holidays I finally put on my getting-messy pants and got down to the basement. In this order I tackled the less glamorous parts of the finish work:

1. put wood filler in the nail holes
2. sanded
3. primed
4. spackled every little imperfection I could find
5. sanded
6. mixed latex paint with this magical stuff (more on that later)
7. coat of paint
8. sanded, filled yet more imperfections
9. coat of paint
10. hauled it up the hatchway and into the house (okay I did not do this part)
11. went to Lowes to buy a nail gun and trim
12. discovered nail gun did not fit adapter to dad's compressor
13. fixed dad's nail gun
14. nailed this sucker in
15. cut trim to many little piece and angles to fill gaps along top and sides
16. more wood filler
17. last coat of paint
18. remove blue painters tape that has been on my dining room floor since sumer 2009...

Hooray!!!

Let's look again at the whole, um, 18 months...First, the before:

Then the during:

And a little behind-the-scenes:

 

And, then the after:

 

Whew!

And now, about that miracle product...

Flood paint additive has a friend in me. See, the woodwork at Holiday House was spray painted (during renovations, when no one lived there). So it's really hard and uniform and perfect. Every time I try to mimic it or touch it up, I get a very rough (literally) approximation. Until now. This paint additive gave me a glass-like finish. I plan to use it for every single project I ever do, forever and ever and ever.

 

Country kitchens?

I recently clicked through to a blog by a woman who lives in my same town. I kind of half expected to know what I'd find, you know? Local mom, blogging about homeschooling and holiday decorating. I mean, I have looked inside of a lot of local houses over the course of my 3 house hunts...so I was shocked to find this perfect little piece of country living:

 

I mean, really, really sticking to her theme, right? And totally cute. So I started wondering why I have never thought about red as a kitchen color. Could I do the country-kitchen look?

I started daydreaming here:

 

And drifted along to here:

 

Which, eventually led me here:

I guess you are who you are, right? (But many thanks to Sara for sending me down a whole new road!)

(Photos: shinyredhouses x 5, the sweetest occasion, country living, hote-is, dream design house, laquered life)

Oh, and 4 years ago today I went to the hospital. Twice. The second trip was far more, um, productive. ;)

A new year. Time to look back!

With a whole year of projects coming in the year ahead, I thought it would be fun to look back on my very first renovation. Oh, the innocence! Not mine, of course, but my poor husband who was convinced to undertake this task. He's older and wiser now, and makes me hire a professional. But, it was kind of fun...

Come with me, back to the year 2003. We were bought our first condo. It was a gem. Well, really it was cubic zirconia glued to a tin foil ring. This was the kitchen:

This alcove held the wet part, and across the room was the stove:

It was charming, really. Until you looked a little closer and realized that the cabinets were made of painted plywood and the counter top was surplus marble floor tile. We won't even get into the fact that all the black and white tile that lined the room was plastic. Pink plastic that had been painted. It does not get better than that.

So, we tackled what we could and decided to get some actual cabinets in the alcove. Demo and putting up new wallboard took one loooong Saturday.

We found this really sweet wallpaper under there, too!

Then we had a week where we waited for the plumbers to move the pipes, which had been in a pipe chase next to the sink, back into the wall.

Once that was done, the next Saturday it was cabinet time!

That corner lazy susan there sent me to the ER, but no, really, I'm fine now.

Then it was time for the trim work and the counter tops. We went for soapstone, our big splurge. I'm glad we did, since we got to discover how much we hated it. (Wet spots! There were always wet spots in various stages of drying out!) We put the old sink back in and the old knobs back on. And, bob's your uncle, a respectable kitchen was born!

 

Total time, 3 weekend days. If you don't count the follow-up work of painting and adding crown molding and oiling the soapstone. Total cost? I think it was around $4,000.

 

Tub or shower? Tub or shower? Tub or shower?!?!?

The hall bath. Blargh. Being home for a week between the holidays, it's really gnawing at me that I can't just get started. But I also have a huge decision to make. See, the space is small, and the current tub is a tiny little thing. It's 50" long and 29" wide and cast iron. It's perfect for bathing the bun, and actually quite appreciated by The Old Folks for it's low barrier to entry. We have a huge soaker in the master, so this tubby need not be a soaker.

In the interest of space and light, should I rip it out and put in a shower, or will that kill the resale? There are 3 bedrooms (or 2+office) on this floor, so, chances are good that a family with kids will reside in it going forward. Or, since the casa is already kind of kid unfriendly (ugh, the stairs!) do I wager that only an older, fully stair-and-shower-capable, family will buy it anyway?

Let me illustrate, and remember, this is 1898 so it's not all McMansion huge. It's small. Really small. 7'3" long by 6'8" wide to be exact. The floor plan:

The plan may be confusing, but suffice to say, it's tight. From the door it kind of resembles this (in terms of placement of items, just flop the linen closet to behind the door and put in a long vanity from sink to doorway. The space between toilet and tub looks about right here, as well.).

I'd love to know what type of tub they have in there. I can't see what goes on at the end behind the door, though. The tub I fantasize about is rounded on that end, so that the door opens (preferably, fully) and there is a sense of space.  This kind of tub is called a "double apron," and thus far cannot be located in a 52" length. Sigh.

So, if the double apron remains elusive, should I get a low barrier shower? The room just might seem enormous!

(Double apron tubs: Lineatub.com and Waterworks.com)

Teeny Tiny.

My parents were just here for Thanksgiving. And, again, they expressed their deep desire for me to install a lavatory on the first floor. I'd love to, thanks. But where? There is no obvious place. But I still have been scoping out teeny bathroom options.

All lovely ways to get a bath into a small or narrow space. My fave is the first one with all the tile. That tile is just to die for, no? And the color is so soothing. I find the closet one a bit odd. I mean, once you close that door you are really in the dark, right? Perhaps reconfiguring the door to a single panel would help you forget you are in a closet? Or paint the room a color other than the one of the main room (I mean, do they leave the doors open like that?) Or a faux window or transom? Yeah, I think a transom above the door(s) would do wonders. But, still, props for fitting it in there...now, up I trudge to my second floor bath...darnit!

As I peer out my window...

I see a house that is decidedly un-cool. It's a cold, pale blue, and brick, with air conditioners hanging out all the windows and gauzy curtains and brass light fixtures, and they have paved most of the front yard. Do I even need to get into the use of plastic flowers and pinwheels as landscaping elements? I'm talking about the house across the street from mine. In some ways, its curb appeal is more important than even what my own house looks like, in that I look at it from all my windows. All. Day. Long. So, I fantasize: maybe someone will buy it and go all super-freak on it!

And, now it's for sale. It's not getting much traction, for reasons stated above, and for a very, ahem, optimistic price. I want to sneak over at an open house and staple these pictures to the back of the MLS listing sheet:

 

Cute, right? Dan Davis Design in Michigan did this work, and the details can be found at Design Sponge. I think it pretty much proves that there is hope for even the most bland of exteriors. Hey, Dan, want to move to my block?

(photos: Design Sponge)

Someday this will be my kitchen.

It's only a 4.5 million dollar penthouse in Harvard Square so what's the big deal?

Perhaps I should aim a little lower and just try to bring some of the elements into my future (ground floor) kitchen.

To match that expansive storage, how about a wall of appliance-hiding cabinets?

Or, some cabinets with the little glass-front mini-cabinets above?

Or, just a little nook for a microwave would ne nice, too.

(photos: Inspiration for Decoration. apartmenttherapy and beyond)

My current obession. The hall bath.

I know I babble on about paint below, but really the one post I'm really ready to shout out with all the available pieces and parts, is my future hall bath renovation. Now, I have not yet decided what to do, but I have ideas, oh, do I have ideas. Let me show you some inspiration and tell you that the number 1 goal in this bathroom is to have the !@$# kid's stool no longer be in the doorway 24/7. I want to forgo the vanity and get myself a console sink. Call me crazy, but I want it, I want it, I want it. This, specifically.

See, it's clean, it's small (like my bath), but there is a clear, IKEA-stool-free path.

 

All nice choices, but I think the winner is:

Cute girlie just reinforces that this may well work in Holiday House!

What do you think, am I crazy to give up the counter space, or will lack of counter space just help keep down the clutter (how many Pooh toothbrushes does one kid need, anyway)?