Finally

Thanks for the kind messages in regards to yesterday's post!  I almost didn't hit "publish" on it - while the sentiment about finally living life for the first time is certainly true, it felt a little weird or braggy.  It also doesn't really fit into my whole "making a home" theme here on the blog.  I just couldn't look at that picture without feeling this profound sense of having arrived - of being in the life I'm meant to be (that's vocation for you, huh!?) - and I'm thankful for the gift not only of having arrived in this place in life, but also for the acute recognition of being here.

So anyway, speaking of having finally arrived somewhere, let's talk procrastination.  I've been hinting for weeks now that I'm finally going to show you some completed projects.  In fact, I had originally intended to show the first project on April 1st, with a list of the other projects I wanted to complete in April.  I'm only 20+ days behind schedule :)

When some good friends moved recently, it made me think about the inevitability of moving ourselves.  Given the weight I put in our home in my life, this definitely made me stop and think.  It also lit a fire under me, as I realized I didn't want to be in the position of finishing projects only so that the house would look good for potential buyers.

So, to quote Sherry from Young House Love (another favorite blog), I said to myself, "Dude, get on that already!"

I showed you a few of the other projects that I finally finished (painting the wreath on the back door, spray painting the laundry room chair)

I finally finished the curtains for the upstairs bathroom.  I had purchased a white sheer panel....oh, 18 months ago?....and needed to hem it to fit the window.  I hung the curtain rod way back then, and it's been looking sufficiently bland and awkward for 18 months.  With the panel, I also cut it in half so that there would be two panels that could open in the middle.  This sewing took me literally less than an hour (and that included figuring out how to do a new stitch type on my new serger).  Why I put this off an hour's worth (!) of work for 18 months (!) is not clear. 

It's also not clear why we have this situation going on:

About a month after Anna was born, we realized that having the light switch behind the door was a very annoying arrangement, so my talented husband moved it to the other side of the door.  The old junction box needs a plain face plate over it.  This "renovation" will take approximately 2 and a half minutes (I think we have one in the basement).  But I haven't done it for 6 months.

I was going to include a list of things I want to complete (compiled from the many handwritten lists scattered in various notebooks, backs of envelopes, and my Pinterest boards).  However, I'm going to stop here for the evening.  It's already later than the time by which I had hoped to be sewing.  And, given that this is a post about procrastination, I think I'd rather get started!  You can check back for completed projects - I'm sure that's more fun than a list, anyway!

Good lookin' nook

When people ask about the house these days, I usually tell them that it's "done."  (With quotation marks).  The living room is the only indoor surface that hasn't been redone (every other wall, floor, and ceiling has been sanded, refinished, repainted, spackled, drywalled, carpeted, or tiled).  So while Year 1: Construction has come to a close, Year 2: Decorating & Organizing is well underway.

Here was my weekend project:

In case you don't recognize the space, that's the inside of our bathroom closet.  It probably doesn't look all that exciting, because you didn't see the crazy mess that existed before.  Let me tell you, it was a consistently messy situation that resulted in us having 6 extra bottles of contact solution and no toothpaste.  Imagine everything you see on the shelves now jumbled in bags on the floor, tossed on random shelves, and falling off said shelves.  I didn't happen to take a picture of that "before," but believe me, it was bad.  This is one of only 2 (previously existing) closets in our house, so it definitely became a dumping ground as we slowly improved the "visible" spaces.  I'll admit, there were bags of miscellaneous toiletries that I had never unpacked from my move to New York last July (the one in 2010, not the one that just happened).  

At any rate, I'm so tickled that I can now find the washcloths that I'm sharing these pictures for the world to see.  You know those 1-hour projects that you put off for months, and then kick yourself for not doing it sooner once it's done?  Yep, that's this one!

Does anything about the above picture tell you that my hubby loves getting every last use out of things? ;)  On a similar note, does anyone know good techniques for forming soap scraps into usable bars?  Our little bucket is getting full!

While I applauding myself for this incredible before and after, I happened to look through our home inspection pictures.  Then I realized how far this space has really come!  I had forgotten how bad it looked before my run-in with super adhesive primer last winter.

Let me remind us both.  It wasn't somewhere I would have wanted to put my towels!

Here's another before & after (the closet door):

It's hard to believe that this time last year, the bathroom still looked like the befores!  Year 1: Construction was successful, for sure!  Stay tuned for updates on Year 2: Decorating & Organizing.

A pipe dream

I have been waiting to write a post titled "A pipe dream" for a very long time.  In fact, I started to make a list of future blog topics in November, and this was the first and only entry.  Obviously, I've been pretty excited about plumbing changes!  So excited, that I was so busy enjoying the updates (namely, the washer, which is currently running its 10th or 11th load in its short lifespan) that I didn't even post pictures!  Wait no longer!

First, our washer and dryer.  The "before" actually looks a little better in this case, because there's a bit of drywall work to do, not to mention the room hasn't been painted yet.  I can easily look beyond that for the joy of doing laundry at home! 

Before:

After:

We chose a smaller pedestal sink for the other side of the room (on a previously empty wall) to allow for the laundry machines.  The old, large vanity, was sold via our friend Craig (as in Craigslist) for $100!

That will also look better post-drywall patching, painting, and laundry!



The upstairs had a more dramatic change.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Not too shabby, eh?  I'm excited to tackle the small remaining projects (like putting on the switch plates, painting the vents, cleaning the mirror, etc) to reach the picture-perfect "after" I have in my mind. 

After all of this work, we could not have been more pleased with our plumbers!  I think we're on a first-name basis now after our sewage disaster, all of the upgrades, and....did I mention?...they'll be back tomorrow.  The hot water heater pilot light unexpectedly decided to stop staying lit today!  At least my cold shower will have nice fixtures ;)  I'm the unabashed optimist when it comes to our old house ~ and the "after" pictures above are certainly enough of a bright side to keep me happy for quite some time, cold water and all!

A long awaited status report

I hope none of you were holding your breath waiting for the status report I promised last Friday.  Even crossing your fingers for a new post would have resulted in stiff fingers, given how long I kept you waiting!

And so, without further ado, the progress report.  As you remember, I listed 8 goals for last weekend.  Part of the delay in posting a status report was the fact that I was still working on this list today...

1) Find the kitchen table. - CHECK!  See how much better it looks when it is set for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner instead of being piled high with stuff!

2) Do some laundry.  CHECK - sheets, towels, underwear and socks all washed!  Everything else can wait until Tuesday when I can do laundry IN MY OWN HOUSE.  Not that I'm excited or anything.  LAUNDRY!  HERE!  AHH!

3) Paint the stairwell.  CHECK - including the trim & hand rail

4) Hang the crown moulding in the sewing room. CHECK - just needs finishing touches (sanding the wood filler in the nail holes and touching up the paint)

Don't worry, the corners aren't a mistake.  We used corner crown moulding blocks from Lowes - they look sort of like the little sister to this one they have online:

Of course, these are decorative, and have nothing to do with our ability to master the geometry of cutting crown moulding inside corners ;) 

5) Paint the trim in both bedrooms.  HALF CHECK - sewing room is done (aside from the crown moulding touch-ups, but the master bedroom hasn't been done yet)

6) Install the vinyl floor tiles in the upstairs bathroom (bonus points for installing them in the downstairs bathroom, too) - CHECK - and one of my favorite projects to date!

7) Install the towel racks in the upstairs bathroom.  I realized this really wasn't an urgent project (aka, something that has to be done pre-plumbing and pre-carpet) and postponed...

8) Re-caulk the tub. CHECK!

Bonus points:  I had forgotten when I made my to-do list that both closets needed to be painted, so we took care of that, too! 

Looking ahead, we will be working on the finishing touches for upstairs.  The big moving day is less than 2 weeks away!  (Moving upstairs, that is!)  Oh, and did I mention that THE WASHER AND DRYER will be installed this week?  Exciting times....!

In terms of the blog, I'm looking forward to some room-by-room "before and after" posts!  Stay tuned!

Life is good

The sun is shining, it's warm enough to have a window open, and the hubby is planning to cook dinner tonight.  What better conditions than to immerse myself, with great sing-along tunes, in finishing the floor in the bathroom?  That was rhetorical, but the answer is - there are not better conditions.  I seriously love this stuff.  Sticky tiles are fun no matter what, and the awesome weather / not having to worry about dinner are just icing on the cake!

Here's a sneak preview of the progress to date:

I know, this project was supposed to be completed last weekend.  I also know that I owe you the big status report I promised last Friday.  Soon.  But for right now, I'm going to bask in the perfect afternoon.  Anybody else find crawling around the bathroom floor even remotely appealing??

$5.81 saves the day

Yesterday, I had a particularly bad day at work.  When I say "particularly," it makes it sound like all of my days at work are bad.  Which is definitely not true.  It's just that this one day was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (just like Alexander).  Not like a "ehh I'm tired day."  A full-out presentation-to-the-city-mayor-goes-poorly, clients-say-personally-mean-things, director-thinks-your-reports-are-wrong kind of a day.  What could possibly turn around such a train-wreck of a day?  Retail therapy.

Perhaps you've never heard the term.  Perhaps you're male and can't comprehend the term (or are wondering if I don't really mean therapy FROM retail).  Allow me to explain.  I'm definitely NOT the kind of person who thinks that money can buy happiness.  True joy does not come from money or from anything money can buy.  But, I will admit that there are certain days when a little shopping trip can be a pick-me-up.  I think it's more the distraction than anything else.  And that, my friends, is retail therapy. 

On my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I first stopped at the Salvation Army store to see if there was anything cool for the house.  There was not.  So I wandered around Michael's craft store for a while and tried to forget about the presentation and the angry client and the confusing numbers.  Crafty things tend to do that for me.  I won't run you through the whole aisle-for-aisle affair (after all, it was my therapy session), but I will show you what I brought home:

It didn't look like that when I brought it home (c'mon, it was a craft store!)  I actually just bought the white frame and one grayish-blue piece of scrapbook paper.  The best part (the turning point for the bad day) was when I got to the register and found out the frame was 50% off!!!  Oh happy surprise!

I already had the image - it was something I ripped out of a Real Simple magazine.

I could hardly call it a craft project, since I only took 5 minutes with my paper-cutter to stick that baby in the frame (and an extra 2 minutes to windex both sides of the glass, just to make my mom proud).

The image stuck out to me when I flipped through my magazine.  I think it's because I remember my parents "jumping" me as we walked along.  And because it reminds me of the way I hope Justin and I will parent someday - side by side, taking time to enjoy the simple joys of our family and everyday life. 

So although nothing about this picture shouts "bathroom," it does perfectly match the new paint.  And I'm hoping it will bring a smile while we're brushing our teeth.  Even on bad days.  Maybe five dollars and eighty one cents CAN buy a little slice of happiness.

***Update: While literally mid-word in writing this post last night, Justin discovered a sewage leak in our basement.  Yeah, it's possible for a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day to get worse!  At least I had one bright spot :)  Today has been spent managing the phones between the plumber, the sewage clean-up crew, our insurance company, etc.  My outlook has improved over night (despite the sleeplessness that inevitably comes from having toilet paper swimming downstairs) and I'm able to count the blessings in this situation - our insurance is covering most of it, it wasn't upstairs, our basement is a lot cleaner and more organized post-flood, the leak occurred on the side of the basement where 99% of the stuff was in rubbermaid bins, we learned which plumber will be good for our upcoming washer/dryer and bathroom renovations, etc., etc., etc. 

Fair warning, this weekend's upstairs renovation progress may be slowed given the repercussions of this leak - but such is the joy homeownership :)  I'll do my best to continue to keep you posted.

So fresh and so clean

When I looked back through my files, it appears that I neglected to take good "before" pictures of several rooms in the house.  Unfortunately, the bathroom fell into this category.  So, all I have to show for the ugly old white room with dripping red paint on the woodwork is a few close up photos:

These don't really do it justice in terms of showing just how yucky it was.  I happen to be of the decorating opinion that all woodwork should be a nice crisp white, so the red paint was a little hard for me to handle.  And, really, if you're going to have dripping paint, isn't red the worst color??  I mean, it looked like the walls were bleeding.  Yuck.

But no worries.  The bathroom looks much more crisp and clean after this weekend's activities (and, yes, as a follow-up,  I still have paint stuck on my arms, although it's mostly off my hands and hair).  I'm much better at taking "after" pictures than "before."  (Perhaps because now I can stand to look at the walls for more than 30 seconds).

The color is a silvery-grey-blue that was selected to match a piece of fabric I bought on clearance last May.  In fact, that piece of fabric (which will be our future shower curtain) was the first thing I bought for our house!  The following images are my attempts at showing you my vision for the bathroom:

The left-most image is a picture of the aforementioned shower curtain fabric.  It's iridescent blue with silver, grey, and blue detail stitching.  When I saw it, I thought it was reminiscent of water, and therefore perfect for bathroom decor!  I'm pretty set on this vanity from Lowes, as well as a matching medicine cabinet.  We already own these towels from Bed Bath and Beyond thanks to our generous family and friends who chose them from our Wedding Registry.  This faucet is a little pricier than I'd like, but it shows you the general style I'll go for - we're replacing both the sink and tub/shower fixtures.  Also, I'm definitely looking for a curved shower rod such as this one for a big, luxurious feel in an otherwise average bathtub.

The blue vase pictured above was found online to represent a similar (but far prettier) planter/urn we received as a wedding gift (thanks, Jillian & Travis!). The window you see in the picture above gets lots of afternoon sun, so we figure that sunny window in a semi-humid location (the bathroom) will be perfect for growing some plants!


After looking at the picture of the newly painted bathroom, I realized that there's lots of wall space.  Besides the necessary addition of a towel rack, I'll also need some art.  I started looking online for ideas.  Since I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go, I just started clicking around on http://www.allposters.com/.  As I looked at the various images, I started to narrow down my interests.  I found myself drawn to the black and white photography, particularly of the nature scenes.  I ended up most interested in waterfall pictures such as this one (shown above).  I probably won't actually buy that, though.  Why would we display generic waterfalls when we could take pictures of our own?  For example, both of these pictures were taken at two of the many beautiful locations in Ithaca - each only 10 minutes from our house.

 Are those pictures enough to entice visitors this summer?  The bathroom will be finished by then, too, so you can see all of our design choices in action (although I promise to share them online, too!)