Lipstick on a Pig

Before we moved into our REO house that had sat vacant for over a year, we did a MASSIVE cleaning. John literally vacuumed an entire shop-vac full of dirt and dust off the carpeted floors, and I spent hours scrubbing toilets/showers/sinks/cabinets. We were so happy to be done with the cleaning push and then the move, that we didn't even think about decorating/painting. So for the last year, I've been living with paint colours that hurt my eyes, and no motivation to change things. Notice the GREEN walls.

Last April, I bought some paint when Home Depot was having a sale on Behr, including a mail-in-rebate. And just like to mail-in-rebate, I never got around to painting. Until last week. I taped off the downstairs bathroom, filled cracks/holes in the wall, and painted like a mad woman. Poor Josh had to ask to use the restroom. I decided to just paint the walls and deal with the molding/ceiling later (self-preservation).

I used Behr's Light French Gray (swatch can be found here: # 720E-2) on top of the sagey-green that was in the bathroom when we bought the house. Two coats of paint later, and it looks a bit like a baby-blue, and the cool paint colour is REALLY clashing with the warm undertones of the travertine and slate tiles. So I think I'll be repainting in the future, but not just yet. Maybe next year :o) I want a warmer gray, for sure. Slate blue/gray.

I also put up come of the 6-piece brushed nickle bathroom fixtures that John and I scored at Costco a few weeks ago for $30. I can't find them online, but for the $30, we got a large towel rod, a medium towel rod, a glass shelf, a 2-prong robe hook, a hanging towel loop, and a TP holder. Not too shabby! I bought two sets, so I'm going to mix and match them between the upstairs and downstairs bathroom.

I also got the hang the drawing I completed last week!

Click here for more before/afters of the bathroom.

Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Last April, I bought some paint. I was going to paint the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms, because the SAGEY green in the DS bath and the LEMONY yellow in the US bath were killing me. I'm more of a warm gray/blue kind of a person, and my eyes were telling me they were in pain.
Then, I lost the motivation (because there were other things to do), and the cans of paint sat in the spare bedroom, collecting dust in the corner.
This last weekend, I got off my butt and spackled the holes, filled in the dents and dings, and resolved that this week, after work, I would FINALLY paint the walls in the damned DS bath. It'll be my first painting project as an adult (I remember half-heartedly helping my mom as a kid, though I doubtlessly did more harm than good), and I'm nervous about it (chicken-heart!).
But, I'll give you before and after pictures, so you can ooooh and aaaaah about my madskillz.
In the meantime, this is the drawing I completed the put in the bathroom once it's all painted and purty.
It's based off a photograph I found years ago (and I cannot find the original source of the picture, but here's the image). The original artist took a photo, pushed the contrast up to 11, and then created a negative of the image.
And here's my interpretation:

I think I like the original better--the square orientation is great, and I love how the trees look all wild and yet strangely calm.
Regardless, it's so moooooody, and I think it'll match the lovely french grey I chose for the bathroom, and the sheer size of it will help to fill up the massive blank wall above the tub. I'll post piccies when it's in place.
Click for more flash-tastic pictures of the drawing.

A New Life, What I Wouldn't Give to Have a New Life!

The lyrics to "A New Life" from Jekyll and Hyde are rattling through my head, because I gave a New Life (hah!) to a sad little seat-less chair John and I found outside ReStore last Octoberish. You might remember the picture from my post back in November. That it's below. Cute, isn't it? As I remarked, I'm certain the chair was hand-crafted, and the person who made it just gave up on finishing it. There were glue drips on it, and it was missing the center spindle on the back, and there were pencil details where the person had planned on hand carving the arms. It was solid, supple wood, and I decided that I simplyhadtohave it, so I doled out the $10 and John and I stuff it into the back of the Prius.And it sat in our dining room for several weeks. Around Christmas, when I was getting the house cleaned up for hosting John's family for Christmas dinner at our house, it got stacked on top of the other rescue-chair and placed in the spare bedroom. Then in February, I got the itch to DOSOMETHING with it, so it went out to the garage.

I first set about sanding it. Stupid, I tried it by hand. Even with the 80-grit paper, I was getting no where. So I pulled out John's oscillating power sander and got to work sanding the sucker down. First 80, then 100, then 200.

After, oh, about 2-straight hours of sanding, I was satisfied that it was ready for staining.

I used Minwax Poly Oil in Red Mahogany, because that's what I had on-hand at the time, and I tend to prefer darker woods with red undertones (no oak for me!).I applied the stain using a sponge brush, and it worked out quite well. After letting it set for 20 minutes, I removed the excess stain with a rag. And it looked blotchy as hell. I was disheartened, and appealed to John's vast knowledge base of woodworking techniques. A second coat, he recommended.
And Boy oh Boy, did the second coat make a difference! Didn't it look much better?
A few days later, I was ready to apply the clear coat. I used a matte-finish Minwax Poly that worked with the oil stain.
I applied three coats, because that's what's recommended by the manufacturer. There are some slight imperfections in the coats, but I was alright with them and decided to stop futzing--after all, it doesn't have to be PERFECT.

Next I set about making the seat. This was a pain in the butt. First, I cut out a square from a sheet of crappy 3/4" plywood we had sitting around (NOT furniture grade, just the cheap stuff from Home Depot that we had originally purchased to make a work bench and never got around to using). I then cut out a large piece of clear plastic bag, and taped it to the seat of the chair. Using a marker, I traced out the seat-ridge on the chair, so I'd have a template to apply the the plywood. I cut the plastic to size, and then traced it onto the plywood. I started out using the band saw, but there's something up with the blade because it kept going off at weird angles. John wasn't around to help figure out what was wrong with it, so I just soldiered through. I also tried using the jig saw to cut it, but I think I was using the wrong kind of blade because it kept CHEWING up the wood without REALLY cutting it. I managed to whittle away enough wood to get it to sit correctly on the seat, so I was happy. The wood bottom for the seat looks HORRIBLE, but I figured that since it'll be covered with fabric, who cares? I (smartly) didn't take any pictures of the horribly ugly seat, so I will spare you the sight.

I then took the chair and seat into the house, and attached the fabric in the same way I did with the other chairs I reupholstered.

I bought a 2" foam pad, and once I got the fabric on, I decided I didn't like it much--it resembled a mushroom, and wasn't the sleek look I had in my mind. So at SOME point in the future (who knows when?), I'll redo it. But for now, I'm happy with it. I think the chair looks lovely, and I'll ignore the puffy set with the off-center pattern, and enjoy the new seat in the living room.

Click here to see more pictures of the process (no commentary, just pictures). All in all, I think I probably spent, oh, 6 hours working on the chair. Here's the budget breakdown.

Chair: $10

Fabric: $10

Stain: Already had

Clear Coat: $5

Sandpaper: Already had

Foam Pad: $12

(Mostly) Finished Product: Priceless

I'm going to start working on the other chair we bought at the same time, sometime soon.

Wreath

For Christmas this year, my lovely sister made me some lovely wreaths. She thought I could use them either as wreaths or as table pieces with votive candle holders in the center. I decided to use it as a replacement for the bulb wreath I made for Christmas, and finally got off my butt to put it up on the front door.

I think they're cute! They're made out of grapevines, and the "flowers" are made out of painted wood. So Pretty! Excuse the picture--it was taken last night in pitch darkness, so I couldn't see except when blinded by the flash. Click to see a few more pictures.

The Year of the Tiger

In typical RACHEL FASHION, it's the middle of February, and I'm just now thinking of the new year. I'll cover my butt by saying I didn't get to this sooner because I was waiting for Tết.

Inspired by this post at YoungHouseLove.com, I decided to make my own deliciously simple wall calendar. Now, I'm not clever enough to come up with "in jokes" so instead, I used random quotes from some of my favourite Neruda poems (because, you know, I adore the man's work). There's very little rhyme and reason to the inclusion of specific lines, except that I like them and they felt right. I also created it using my mad Excel skillz, so please forgive the limited colour palette.

Click to download the PDF, if you wanna print up your own. It should print 2-months to a page, for a total of six pages. Just cut down the centerline.

We've Got Mail!

One of the items on The List is to replace our current mailbox. As I stated, there was no mailbox when we moved in. Before we bought the house, we were in love with a pretty 100-year old Craftsman in a seedier section of town. The mailbox on this house was wall-mount, and pretty shabby, so in my delirious enthusiasm for the pretty 100-year old Craftsman, I bought a replacement wall-mount mailbox. Now, prior to this, I had never bought a mailbox, and I had NO idea they were so freaking expensive. So I thought this solid brass number was a steal, and that once it had tarnished, it'd look smashing on the pretty 100-year old Craftsman.

Flash forward a few weeks, and we'd abandoned the pretty 100-year old Craftsman in favour of our less than 10-years old haunted style-defying house. But we still had the brass mailbox, and it was too late to return it. So we put up the garish mailbox, and I hoped that it would quickly tarnish and stop being so garrrsh darned BRIGHT. I was wrong, and nearly a year later, it's still a beacon of BRIGHT BRASS at the end of our drive way. I fear the neighbours think we're equally garish and that the house is decorated with gold lame' curtains, turquoise painted walls, and oooooooodles of white furniture (not that there anything wrong with that, if, you know, you're into that sort of thing). As my mom pointed out, most people WANT to keep their brass from tarnishing, but I'm not one of those people, and I'm too lazy/unmotivated research how to remove the protective coating on the brass.

Yesterday, I was browsing a post on a blog about Craftsman-style outdoor decor, and I saw this sconce and had an epiphany! With all my new-found wood working skills acquired through a semester of wood working offered through the local community college, I could build my own mailbox! And so I set about drawing a mock-up of what the finished product will look like. It should be obvious/noted that the design is not the scale and not set in stone.
The front of the box will have our street address, and the right and left sides will have some sort of design—I’m thinking ginkgo leaves because I’ve always really like their shape, and they’re a relatively neutral motif common to the Arts & Craft movement without really screaming “WILLIAMMORRISOMG!!!!” and potentially clash with the style-defying house. I’ll use some sort of weather proof wood (cedar, perhaps) for the frame, top, and the numbers and design. To more fully emulate the sconce design, I’ll use acrylic or Plexiglas panels behind the cut numbers/design. The top of the box will be hinged, so the mail carrier can easily drop off mail, and we can easily retrieve it. Maybe I’ll incorporate some sort of security measure (a locked box with just a mail slot?). And, if I decide to get REALLY industrious, I could attach a small solar panel to the top of the box, and insert some LED lighting so at night, the box will GLOW (ooooooooh). We shall see.

I’m excited about this, so I’ll hopefully get off my butt and get some plans drawn up. Stay tuned!

With List in Hand, We Embark on a Journey!

So, one of the main reasons I decided to start this blog was that I thought it would give me motivation to continue doing home renovation projects. It's a lofty goal, and one I hope to continue to work towards.

So, I thought that as extra motivation (because I need it!), I would post the REALLY BIG list of things John and I want to accomplish with this house, from the tiny (switch out the light and outlet plates to all WHITE, instead of a mish-mash) to the huge (pop-the-top on the second story and do a complete gut job of the bedrooms/bathroom/laundry room). And (!) I'll cross things off as we complete them (because, you know, I REALLY love to cross things off lists--so much so that I'll even add things I've already done when I'm writing a list just so I can cross them off------in my defense, I only add things that are directly related to the list, and not just mundane stuff like "wake up" and "brush teeth" and "pet the cat.")

Here's the list. Click the links to see pictures of what I'm talking about. Note that the pictures, unless otherwise noted, are from before we moved in. That's why it's so dirty!

YARDS
Backyard
Build retaining wall at back of yard
Build retaining wall at front of yard
Build walled steps to the leveled backyard
Fill in backyard
Create patio area
Create seating area
Seed with fescue

Front Yard
Patch concrete driveway
Replace concrete driveway
Replace mailbox
Remove spindly coniferous tree from the island and replace with a fast-growing deciduous tree
Create steps from the center of the parking pad up to the porch (right now, you have to walk all the way to either side of the property to walk up to the house—not that big of a deal, unless you’re carrying an armful of groceries in the rain or a screeching howling scratching writhing cat that DIDNOTENJOYTHEVETVISIT!)
Landscape/ xeriscape

Lighting/Electrical
Change out light fixture in DS hallway
Change out light fixture in bonus room
Change out light fixture in DS master and replace with a ceiling fan
Correctly ground all power outlets
Replace standard toggle light switches with more modern, square toggle light switches
Replace standard rounded power outlets with more modern, square power outlets

Painting (Requires wall prep before hand--patching drywall, sealing crown molding)
Paint DS bathroom Check!
Paint dining room
Paint kitchen
Paint foyer
Paint living room
Paint stair well
Paint office
Paint US master
Paint US bathroom

DOWNSTAIRS
All over DS
Replace carpeting with bamboo flooring
Add molding around window frames
Create and install screens to all windows

Kitchen
Add hardware to all cabinets and drawers
Create and install glass shelves in the window alcove/opening above the sink
Create and install floating cabinet above freezer to house bulk items, cook books and display
Add pull-out cabinet organizer to pots/pan lid cabinet
Install shelf dividers in cabinet above fridge
Build new base for oven/range so the surface is flush with counters
Install baseboard and toe kick underneath the dish washer
Buy and install a new sink
Add medallions around light fixtures
Replace dinky light above sink
Add task lighting underneath cabinets
Install bar to hang commonly used utensils from
Replace sliding glass door with French doors
Install new screen door
Extend cabinetry to the right of the fridge and create a kitchen island with more storage/counter space and a breakfast bar
Vent the oven to the outside--cover duct work with a soffit the runs the length of the cabinets

DS Bathroom
Dry-wall over existing door from DS master into bathroom
Move existing door from hallway into bathroom over three feet so it's centered on the wall
Create and install built-in cabinetry on new wall
Remove existing mirror
Add new mirror
Install a new light above the vanity (with its own separate switch)
Install vent fan above shower
Replace backsplash on vanity so it no longer clashes with granite of the countertop
Change height of pendant light
Remove and replace block of tiles on the shower deck that do not match the finish of the surrounding tiles

DS Master
Replace closet doors (mirrored doors just ain't cutting it)
Remove large mirror above fire place

Dining Room
Change height of pendant light
Create and add built-in closet to right of window
Create and add built-in cabinetry to left of window (with an open area for the fish tank to slide into)
Create and add window seat between new built in cabinetry
Dry-wall over existing side light windows into the bonus room
Dry-wall over existing door opening into the bonus room

Bonus Room
Dry-wall over existing side light windows into the dining room
Dry-wall over existing door opening into the dining room
Replace paned door from the hallway with a solid door
Frame in a closet

Living Room
Add air ducting and register to living room
Remove existing fireplace and mantle
Replace fireplace with a gas-insert unit
Create and add new fireplace mantel
Create and add built-in cabinetry on both sides of fireplace, including a closet
Add molding to create a coffered ceiling in the living room and dining room (to hide all the unevenness in the drywall!)
Rewire lights so they work independently of one another and replace light switch with a switch bank
Remove columns that lead into the kitchen--frame out and dry wall over
Remove columns that lead into the dining room--frame out and dry wall over

UPSTAIRS
Stairs
Patch hole in drywall
Replace stairway and make the incline more gradual.
Add internal closet under stairway (the existing closet is on the OUTside of the house)
Replace single-paned window in stair well with a double-paned window
Replace cheap-looking balusters and rails with something more in line with the overall look of the house

Master
Fix the leaky dormers
Organize walk-in closet

Office
Replace desk
Add more bookshelves for storage
Create and install pegboard for material organization
Fix the leaky dormers
Add permanent shelving storage to closet

Laundry Room
Add a removable shelf above washer/dryer that spans the length of the room and the width of the machines to prevent stuff from falling behind the appliances!!!
Properly vent the dryer
Replace carpeting with tile/vinyl/anythingbutcarpet
Install room spanning bar to air-dry clothing

Furniture Projects
Refinish the vintage Henredon bedroom furniture set I scored at ReStore
Refinish mid-century arm chair, upholster seat
Refinish both wood chairs, upholster seat/back
Complete the console table for the foyer
Make a sofa table
Make a large work table/drafting table for office
Make a laptop stand (John’s project!)
Refinish headboard from our first sleigh bed (it’s rather cheap, and the “finish” is starting to chip like crazy)
Build side tables for around the couch

POP THE TOP (the biggest dream of all time!)
Replace 5 tiny gabled dormers at the front of the house with two larger gabled dormers (one in the master, one in the new bedroom)
Add two more large gabled dormers (one in the master and the other in the new bathroom) with a bridge spanning the two (where the new master bath will be!). Similar (but much larger) to this.
Divide up the current large walk-through “bedroom” and separate laundry room into a third bath/laundry room, hallway, and actual bedroom
Add a balcony to master bedroom at backside of the house (new large gabled dormer would have doors that leads to the balcony)
Change opening into walk-in closet from the master bedroom
Replace current French doors and Juliet balcony in the master with windows
Add ceiling! Vent the attic! Add an attic fan! COOL THE UPSTAIRS!!!!!!!