What I’ve Been Up To….

Momentum on the house has anything but lulled, just my diligence in bragging out it:) So in no particular order here’s some of the projects of the last few months…

After nearly a year and a half without a backyard and a weekend of major work, I finally got to trade this in

… for this:

I have never been happier to now have a weekly date with the lawn mower. The bright, shiny white deck was also a major overall project bringing that back to life.

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I also have managed to yet again over do it on jam making. Thought I was playing it safe with intending to only make one kind: triple berry. Wasn’t expecting 37 jars. Now I feel like I *have* to make apricot jam as well just so I don’t get absolutely sick of such a wonderful thing.

I’m sure pears and tomatoes will tempt me again later this summer, once the jams have been shelved away in the garage out of memory.

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After folding to the temptations of beautiful fall and winter store-bought wreaths, I was adamant I would make my own spring/summer wreath. I was quite happy when I was able to turn this quick stop at the craft store

…in to this:

 

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And lastly, I finally finished the for-now redo of the master bath. The white and teal ceramic tiles is staying for the time being, but the Hollywood lighting and sheet mirror had to do.

Here’s a before, before from move in:

Here’s the new light fixture and mirrors:

I’ll spare you the photo of the awesome new toilet :)

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I hope to finish organizing and setting up the garage, finally creating a *proper* guest bedroom, and re-stain the front door before summer is out.

Cheapest Makeover Yet

Alternate post titles include:

Why Did I Not Do This Sooner?
What Would I Do Without Target?
The Joys of Leftover Paint
From Ugly to Not Too Bad in Three Easy Steps

Stage One of Master Bathroom Redo: Option One is done. Thanks so some must-have stripped blue-green towels from Target, an almost entire gallon of soothing grey-green paint left over from another bathroom, two of the absolute cheapest yet fairly snazzy DIY projects I’ve come up with in recent months, and a few accessories I already had on hand I can honestly say it all came in well under $100 (with the towels being the massive bulk of it all).

Recap of the already mentioned towels and paint:

Inspired by the mighty classic subway tile (which sadly was not popular in circa 1990 suburban housing) and the absolute beauty of recent design choice of glass tile laid vertically,

   (taken from Apartment Therapy)

I created some “art”…

From the much underappreciated, humble paint chip.

I could have easily snipped the ends that out their original use, but they are so subtle you don’t even see the marking sunless up close, and I think it leads itself  to being a little quirky the way it is.

Super easy, this was. The wonderful Martha Stewart has the best chips- long, straight edges, great colors. I grabbed a few in several different greens, blues, and creams. I also used several from my stash at home. To alleviate the guilt, I tell myself over and over how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent there over the last year; that helps a little. Only took about an hour and a half to cut and glue all those strips into position. The frame came out of the crawl space, where it was waiting for a new purpose. So it came out to be….. free.

The window “treatment” also was about as easy as could be too.

I stole this basic white canvas valence (yes, Target striking again)from the laundry room (where I am thinking about finding some colorful, patterned fabric to sew my own valence anyway to make it more interesting down there). So besides the lightweight “cafe” curtain rod (from.. you guessed it!), it was only few bucks on a grey slate blue roll of ribbon to match the hand towels (no way I was going to match that bright teal in the tile work). Measure, pin, sew, hang.

Idea came from all the “hotel” stripped bed and bath linens:

Lastly, a few accessories already all on hand (of course, except the towels):

Glass jar with sage green bath salts, olive green vase (which eerily has the same vertical, glass tiling design), faux succulent, rolled towels, fresh candle all in a beachy basket.

Done and done.

Bathroom Makeover: Option One

Okay, okay. I know that the hall bathroom remodel isn’t more than a month over (after lasting nearly a year:), but my mind has been working on the final bathroom: the master. Now I swore I wouldn’t be touching that one myself and will dutifully save up the money to pay for someone else to do the full reno, and I have no desire go back on my word. However, that day will be years off, and probably will be the very last of the teal to leave this house.

Which calls for a mini,  live-with-what-you-got redo and I had an idea brewing for a little while. So I’m going with Option One: make it pretty on the cheap.

Option Two will most certainly have a stone countertop and tub deck, porcelain tub, tiled floor… the works.

But first, the before shots (which except for some towel bars, nothing new from move-in day):

 
Thanks to these towels from Target, I began having hope I could do some with those teal stripes:

Which got me thinking…. ya know what a great wall color would be? A pale, grey-ish, very cool green… a lot like the exact color I loved and put on the walls in the hall bathroom, Valspar’s Roasted Garlic. And… there was tons left over. Hello, free wall color.

So, away I painted. 

Now, I’m working on some wall art and a window valence to help make the make all the colors feel more deliberant… not just like I bought some towels to try to desperately “go” with the permanent teal accents. (How did this happen? I swore February was going to be the month I focused on just my quilt and not succumb to Crafty ADD)

In the next few months, I hope to find a pair of mirrors, install a new light, and swap out the light switches to crisp white.

This bathroom and I might actually start to become friends with the way this mini redo is going.

And…… Done.

About a month after we moved in we began “experimenting” with removing the tile in hall bathroom… which turned into an entire down-t0-the-studs remodel. We did the demo and the finishing touches ourselves, but had a family member hang the new drywall and tile the tub surround and floor. Exhausted with this never ending project, we dragged out the final steps (caulking, fixture installation, grout sealing) over the last few months.

Finally, ten months later our second bathroom remodel is complete!

At move-in

White and teal tile ceramic tile, blue-ish vinyl floor, hard water-stained and grungy claustrophobic shower doors, teal linoleum countertop, builder grade fixtures, crappy (pun convenient, but not intended) toilet.

 

Now

Sandy tan subway-laid, to-the-ceiling tiled tub/shower, satin nickel fixtures, marble counter top with under-mount sink, dual flush toilet, diagonally laid tile floor, gray-ish green wall color (Valspar’s Roasted Garlic).

Making this space feel as spacious as possible was key since this is about the smallest “main” bathroom I’ve ever seen (our oversized master bathroom, I suppose, makes up for it) which made design decisions a snap. It helped that I genuinely love the tricks “they”  say help in spacious-ness: built-in storage (bathtub shelf), drawing the eye up (to-the-ceiling tile), under-mount sink to maximize counterspace, double towel rack (no room for two!), and giant diagonal tile floor (love, love, love).

The big splurges in here were the tub features- tiling to the ceiling, the glass and marble tile accent, and built-in shelf. The niche was a must; I honestly can’t believe that they don’t and haven’t always come standard. Where else are your bottles and such suppose to go??

The whole color scheme was determined from falling in love with these accent tiles and for the extra hundred bucks, they were sooooo worth it.

As much as I dislike our master bathroom, it is definitely going to be awhile before we tackle that job. We will definitely be hiring out for the tiling, but that is low on the priority list since the bathroom is completely functional currently.  Later this year (okay, who am I kidding, maybe this spring), I would like to do a mini remodel because we haven’t done anything to it yet and we’ve at least got to embrace the white and teal tile for the time being. Definitely paint, change out the mirror and light, new towels, etc.

2010 Reflection, 2011 Plans

We have done an unbelievable amount of work to our House of Turquoise since we moved in Valentine's Day Weekend 2010:

• Replaced downstairs carpet with dog-and eye-friendly Pergo, tiled the laundry room and hall bathroom
• Completed a light remodel of the half bathroom and total gut-job remodel of the guest bathroom (looks like I still need to do an official “after” post)
• Painted the entire downstairs, even the two-story high living room
• Torn out the 60 arborvitae bushes, overgrown rhododendron, and two trees from the front yard and planted grass (neighbors LOVED this)
• Replaced nearly all the light fixtures
• Took down and replaced all the fugly curtains left with the house
• Built a wall of custom shelving, painted, and installed an attic ladder in the garage (looks like another needed official “after” post)
• Refinished a thrift store pedestal table to replace the behemoth kitchen table set left with the house
• Have a somewhat put-together craft room/office

I am very proud that we not only did a considerable amount of this ourselves, but that we paid for it all in cash. The remaining items will likely be over the next couple of years as we now are more settled in and have our eyes on other financial goals (new car, a long-overdue vacation). Plus, we’re a little burnt out on doing “house projects” every.single.weekend.

However, there are still several bigger things left

• Buy a couch and accent chairs for the family room
• Replace upstairs carpet with a neutral tan carpet
• Paint master bedroom and bathroom (still only about half decided on what colors)
• Paint husband’s game room/office
• Tackle the backyard by planting grass and pressure washing and painting the existing deck (short term fix), eventually replacing deck, tear out bushes and plant grass in side yard
• Re-stain front door
• Replace kitchen countertops, and eventually replace the refrigerator and stove with stainless steel models
• Tile kitchen floor (eventually)
• Replace white blinds throughout house with matchstick bamboo roller shades
• Replace roof (least interesting one of the bunch, and of course the most expensive. Boo.)

I’m happy that many of these remaining items either will be professionally done (carpet, countertop, roof) or aren’t DIY at all (couch, appliances). It’s funny to look back on the almost year we’ve lived here and see that we totally picked the DIY-intensive projects to do first. Clearly, we were eager first-time home buyers.

For 2011, the house priorities are:

• Winter- buying a couch(chairs can wait)
• Spring/Sumer- working on the backyard and side yard; paint  master bedroom, bathroom, husband’s office; re-stain front door
• Next fall/winter- replacing the carpet or kitchen countertops

Focusing less on house projects, I think, will be refreshing as I will have the time to work on small projects that just seem to stay on my someday wish list, which includes several sewing projects, scrapbooking/cataloging photographs, and other paper crafts.

Happy New Years!

Guest Bathroom Update

It’s been forever since we began our journey of bathroom remodels. Our hall / guest / future kid’s bathroom has really done us in and taught us never to underestimate the skills needed to gut and tile a bathroom. Never.

We honestly thought this bathroom would be a great “learning experiment” for the master bathroom which we also desperately want to tackle. Yeah…. that’s gonna take a few years to gather the strength and the savings, cuz we’re going professional that time around :)

Here’s how it looked at purchase:

 

Crummy, gross shower. Yucky toilet. Teal countertops. Builder grade tile, mirror, light.

We had a family member help with do the tiling, while my husband did the demo and reinstall of the molding, fixtures. I proudly can say I grouted and agonized over tile and paint choices.

As you can see, the shower fixtures and vanity top are still MIA, hopefully to appear sometime this week. But in the meantime I want to show off my purdy tile .

 

The subway tile and inset niche shelf were automatic givens. The strip of accent tile was love at first sight. Mix of light sage green glass and creamy natural stones. Wall color is Valspar’s “Roasted Garlic”- love, love, love.

Also a given: giant diagonal floor tiles in a creamy stone.

  

Vanity, mirror and lights will be the same as our half bath:

We Have (Some More) Pergo!

Ack! It’s taken two solid weeks to eradicate our house of the construction dust that seemed to blanket everything for the previous month. Yesterday, I got my formal rooms after-picture worthy, and today finally our real living space- the kitchen / family room is reveal worthy.

I don’t think I’ve taken updated photos of these rooms in quite some time, and we did quite a bit over the summer, most of the DIY stuff. So I’ll give ya’ the quick tour. There’s (of course) a list still to be done :)

So here’s our (current-state) kitchen and family room:

Love, love, love our eat-in kitchen set. What started out as a steal of a deal, turned into a DIY fail: in itty bitty text at the bottom of my receipt for the cross-backed chairs that I bought in May was a backorder notice for two months out. Needless to say, the very day the chairs came in in July, I custom-matched a quart of paint and went to town on that table. In all for the four chairs, table, and paint supplies, the set came in around $400.

I like to call this one “Where’s Otis?”:

I’d call this one “Where’s Ginger?” but she just really doesn’t play as well:

Plans left for the kitchen: new countertops (something light, like beach sand-y colored), new light pendant, giant diagonally-laid tile flooring (top of next summer’s list), and in the far-off future stainless fridge and stove (ugh, why must backless stoves be crazy expensive??).

On to the family room.

We love, love, love the paint color we chose after some paint sample speed dating (I have quite the collection of little tubs of green-grays and blue-grays): Dusty Miller by Glidden. Matches the unique, but kinda cool blue-y brick fireplace and calms the warm wood cabinets and floors. All the drapes, valences, and rods are from Target.

 

Only thing (major) left to do: buy a new couch and accent chair. We’re thinking dark brown leather. Once we do that (hopefully this winter), both this room and our front formal room will be complete as this couch will move there. That will be a glorious day.

Some crazy before photo that always lift my spirits when I keep whining thinking “we still have so much to do!”:

  

Sometimes I’m even shocked how much I was able to see past those curtains and teal, teal, teal carpet….

We Have Pergo!

It took forever, but we finally pulled the trigger and tackled the big DIY project of Pergo-ing the downstairs of our house. Having two little four-leggers running around made laminate flooring a no-brainer. Our entry hallway is a honey oak hardwood so we simply matched that. We went with Pergo’s Goldenrod Hickory from Lowe’s, which had the foam underlayment attached. As hoped, it really matches up well to the already installed hardwood. We did our front formal room, dining room, and family room.

It’s so cliché, but the lighter flooring really does make the rooms look more spacious and airy. We couldn’t be happier with the results.

Here’s a reminder of what we started with:

Yikes. I know, right?