Stuff 2

No, seriously! Where are we going to put all this stuff?

Here is the present tour of our house:









Yes, that is a flat screen tv in the bathroom and no the dogs can not find their way to their beds :)

Stuff

The final move has happened. We officially live together and all of our stuff is in one house.

Now, where do we put it all?

Curtain Details

In anticipation of wonderful guests from the great north country I decided to get curtains on the windows in my 2nd bedroom. I put green curtains on the beige wall and beige curtains on the green wall. And of course you have to have plants! I think my house plant count is up to 25 these days.



Isn't this curtain rod the cutest thing ever. I can't believe I love these cute little birdies so much but when I saw them I just knew I had to have them!

Finished Bathroom

What is missing from this beautiful new bathroom?

A SINK!

After waiting for over a month for the pedestel to my beautiful new pedestel sink to arrive, I decided to bail on the pedestel sink idea all together. I picked this beautiful top to a pedestal sink at Lowes but they didn't have the bottom part. After waiting 3 weeks (and calling every other day during those three weeks) I called every Lowes within 3 hours of my house and none of them had the pedestal part so I decided to move on.

Just at that moment I found a building surplus outlet only a few blocks from my house which had an array of beautiful little sinks. I want to kick myself for not finding this place earlier but thank goodness they have a lot of sink options.



YEAH for a finished and functional bathroom just in time for house guests in a week. Thanks dad for coming to do the plumbing and trim and electrical details! You will always be my #1 handyman :)

Bathroom Redo: Phase 4

Finally some of the fun stuff! Mirrors, Lights, and Colors!

I love that this medicine cabinet has the perfect arch to cover the tile.


After looking high and low for the perfect towels for the new bathroom, I finally found them at Target! I wanted something that had some of the green from the guest bedroom plus more fun tropical colors.


Clearly Leni and Lula approve of the bathtowels.

Bathroom: Phase 3

To add some light to the shower I decided to bust out the half wall that used to come down from ceiling. Thank goodness there wasn't any plumbing or electric wires hiding in there!



I also finally got all of the glue off of the tub from those silly shower traction flowers. The secret trick was.....the steamer!

Bathroom Redo: Phase 2

This is bathroom debut week! I ripped out the old bathroom decor in March and finally the bathroom is complete. Each phase took a while so you will see it as it has evolved.

The most expensive part was refinishing the floor. Originally there was carpet (yes padded carpet!) on the floor. I had ripped that up a long time ago and then covered the padding with backer board. My theory was that if I covered it up then I could just pretend it wasn't there.

Well, the wonderful handyman that I hired to tile the floor told me that wasn't so! Thus, he had to tear out the floor all the way down to the studs and rebuild the subfloor before he could even begin to tile. Thank goodness this didn't add too much time to the ticking clock.

What did add a ton of time was laying the tile. It is so delicate and intricate. Centering the rows and columns. Making sure the edges are even and cutting each end piece individually. Watching how the pattern turns the corner and interacts with the toilet and door frame and bath tub. Thank goodness I did not decide to attempt this project on my own!

So here is the tiling stage of the bathroom redo!

New Colors

The zesty orange of my bedroom just had to get toned down! I was inspired by the rug I purchased in India two years ago and the new orange is warm and comforting. You can also see little Leni is all grown up!

Project Weekend

I never knew just how much of a difference molding would make. It makes everything feel FINISHED! While dad broke his back crawling around on the floor, Mom was out in the rain running a million errands. I put together some new cabinets (stay tuned for that post) while bro-in-law made us fabulous meals. The best quote of the day came from my dad after I asked him for help with the cabinets. "You can never use one tool for everything!" This is why I love it when Dad arrives with his tool boxes :)

Bathroom corner as it has been for the last 2 years


Most important tool for this project:lazer angle mider saw


Back breaking work


Finished project (minus the puttying, sanding, and repainting that I will be doing this week)

Bathroom Redo Begins

Step 1 - scrape off the ugly flower traction stickers from the tub



Step 2 - scrape off the ugly flower wall paper

Doors, Doors, and more Doors

When the bathroom and kitchen were remodeled I ended up with 5 brand new doors. They were all raw wood doors which have been hanging in the original state for over a year. The biggest complaint I received from guests was that they didn't like the peep holes into the bathroom where the handles belonged. Here is a view of Lula on my bed taken through the peep hole from the toilet!



After 2 coats of stain and 3 coats of polyurethane the doors looked great! But they still needed handles. It took me 5 tries to get the first set of door knobs on but the 3 that followed went on without any problems. I then went back to the original door knob and realized that even after 5 tries it was still upside down!





These two bi-fold doors even had to be completely re-hinged, re-hung, and re-knobbed! So much work for two little doors.




If you need any doors refinished or door knobs changed give me a call. I'm currently an expert :)

New Rug

The living room is really coming together now that I rescued this huge rug from my parents basement. It is a perfect combo of greens, blues, reds, and purples to pull my multicolored house together.





You might also notice the crazy entertainment center over the mantel. I don't think I have posted about my new flat screen yet :) All are welcome for movie night any time.

Bedroom Decorations

Jessie and Meghan (my cousins) helped me put up some bedroom decorations this weekend.



The tapestries and sari are from India. The Sari I bought on my first trip with my family. The tapestries are a specific handicraft from the state of Orissa (where my soon to be brother in law was born and raised) which I bought with Martha is past January in Hyderabad.

Increasing Functionality

The rather large new "master" bath created last year during the complete redo is an awkward "L" shape. Thus making this space functional has been a challenge. Just this last weekend I finally committed to an organizational plan because I finally found the perfect cabinet. On top of slightly bizarre general measurements, this cabinet had at least 6 other very specific requirements and Crate and Barrel came through for me! I'm so happy to now have a very functional bathroom that even has storage!





I also found some sleek shelves to put all of my bathroom stuff on so that my small sink counter top can stay clean! And yes, I can actually reach all of these shelves :)

That darn fuse box

Ah Ha moments.....they are so wonderful. I have had many many many over the last year but that darn fuse box gives me the most trouble. Remember my first fuse box moment posted 7/18/08. Well one year later here is my second big lesson learned: (drum roll please) electricity comes in 110 and 220 (don't ask the values of those numbers because I have not figured that one out yet). The reason I learned that today is air conditioning.

About 2 weeks ago I went to turn on my wall mounted a/c unit in the dining room and it didn't turn on. I got an outlet tester from my dad and sure enough the outlet was dead. So, I went to Lowes and bought a new outlet. I went to the fuse box and turned off the electricity to the room and replaced the outlet (all by myself!!). I turned the electricity back on and it still didn't work :(

So, I called my expert home repair man (my dad) and he came down today to check it out. Well, it turns out that outlet is different then all rest in the house because it draws a 220 volt instead of a 110 in order to power the big a/c unit. Well my base board heat also uses 220 and thus that one outlet was connected to a different fuse in the fuse box. Being the energy conscious person I am, I had turned all of the fuses off to all of the baseboards because I definitely do not need any more heat.

Moral of the story....the fuse box always worked I had just had the fuse turned off!!!

New Shelves

These handcrafted shelves were made for me by craftsman Mark! Thank you Mark for your beautiful work and for endless amount of space to display my nicnacs!

Christmas Kitch

Becoming a home owner means you must start acquiring Christmas kitch...right?