House Interrupted

If you have ever moved into a new space you understand some balancing and rearranging is required. In our former house my son's room had this fabulous closet that we lined with spacious built in shelves, thus eliminating the need for a dresser. Now, I am down spacious built-in shelves and was in the market for a new dresser until recently.

I am a sucker for old, charming furniture and my husband is a glutton for a good refinish. So, I picked up this little beauty off of craigslist for $75 and figured I would use it, as is, for my daughter until a later date. This would free up the more masculine dresser for mister man. In theory, this was a great idea. Once we got it home however, we realized, the more than likely lead paint from the 30's was chipping mercilessly!

So, sorry but our regularly scheduled house remodel has been temporarily interrupted to bring you this dresser refinish.

The saddest part about this tale is that the little decorative details were cracked and disintegrated when we attempted to remove them. And so, along with fixtures, vanities, tile, and housewares. My list of things to find has grown by two decorative onlays! Looking for something floral and just as charming. Will keep you posted.

Formalizing the Foyer

Okay, the latest project is the foyer. The idea here is to visually separate this space from the living room by putting in two half walls and balancing them out with pillars, wainscot and two chandeliers. We will also make the space look larger with the use of thick vertical, 10 inch stripes on the walls. We will use a poly-urethane to make the wall feel monochromatic and elegant.

In addition, we will tile this floor with a through body porcelain and replace the existing front and closet doors as a part of the foyer remodel.

Here is what it looked like on Day 1

Here it is framed out

Here it is sheet-rocked

This is the fixture that is in there currently. The plan is to replace it, and add a duplicate at the opposite end of the foyer to achieve a visual balance, as well as equal illumination of the area. Plus, who doesn't love more twinkling lights welcoming them into a home?

I am trying to find something similar to this, but am not sold on anything yet.

Magic carpet

Carpets: Generic Carpet {Nanette}

503.297.8123

The carpet is in, the beds are set up. Life is good.

picking paint for master bed and bath

I have never tackled a transitional space before. To be honest it has been a bit daunting. Knowing a little about color, I know it's important for these rooms to really flow and visually fit together. I decided that the easiest way to approach it would be with a focal point in mind. Naturally, the bed! So, I purchased several different duvet options and then decided on this one. It is from Pottery Barn. Check out their catalog image below.

This was a perfect fit. I love this duvet and it already had colors in it I wanted to put on my walls. This gives me confidence, direction, and choices (without feeling overwhelmed!) I am pretty convinced on the master bath color. You can check out my inspiration for that here. The bedroom color I am still debating. Creamy taupe, or a pale golden wheat? I'd ask your opinion but I am buying paint tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Movin Walls & goin green

We were literally waiting by the phone with wrecking bars for word that our purchase had been officially recorded to jump on ripping out our first wall! You see it is this wall that was standing between me and my carpet going in. Which is basically the key to my life partially functioning again!

This is the master bath. We absorbed the vanity area and about 3 feet of the closet into what is now, in my opinion, a much better space. By the end of the day we had everything demoed, the new walls framed, and the sheet-rock screwed in and puttied. Additionally, we reused all the wood from the old construction to form the new walls and door frames. This was a major victory for the team and we could not be happier with the outcome!

if you need me...I'll be in the playroom

The last two weeks since we moved into the living project I like to call "house triage." From the moment this house became an actual living space, we have been meeting needs as they arise. Day one, two year old Dolly needed a nap. So, since her bed was sitting in the family room I threw her mattress on it, found a blanket and put her in it. Honestly, if the blanket hadn't been close I would have settled for a roll of paper towels!

Unpack a box. Bring Greg another tool.

Little man's hungry, I move on to the kitchen. No bread? Really?

Unpack a box. Wield shop vac like the construction clean-up diva that I am.

Dolly's awake, shop vac's too noisy. She's board. Little man's board too...Greg needs me to remove all the rusty nails from the beams he's recycling. Really, I am just one person. One person who love's my two darling toddlers, who are troopers. But any board child, in a sea of "don't touch" is frustrating for everyone. Especially if everyone does have a lot of demands today!

It was at this point I realized that we'd had enough babysitters and playdates, compromise and rearranging. Day one of living in the house I just didn't want to inconvenience them anymore. One day we are all living comfortably in our little cottage home, now we are sitting in a giant and often dangerous project where basically everything is off limits and nothing is functioning.

I went into a complete nesting rage, more like a panic and my hubby, being the good guy that he is, somehow had time to simultaneously build our house and get the kiddos out of it for a couple hours so I could stew. Stew and create a space where my children would feel at home. The wonderland of clean floors, dust free fixtures, pretend tools, books and freedom! The Playroom.

first door comes out...first colors on walls

Master Door

Nursery

Forest Found-Miller Paint

Office

________ mist- Miller Paint (I'll look it up later)

make-shift paint room

One of week two's projects was painting the doors. Greg used rooms in the house to set them up and paint. This created the perfect environment for things to cure quickly!

Week Two Progress Report

As we neared our move-in date and the close of week two the house was looking like this...

Before move in things were cleaned up substantially, and a fresh coat of heavy duty primer was slapped on the bare floors.