TV Room

OMG.  

I didn't realize I've been gone since February until my pal, Thirks,  let me know.   **Hi Thirks!**

What have you all been up to?  Livin' life?  

Me too.

Oh, and I'm on Pinterest alot.  Pinning things I should really be doing in real life, but I can't because I'm spending too much time Pinning.  You know how it goes, right?  It's a vicious cycle, is it not?

So, one thing I have been working on is Noodle's old bedroom.  It was (and still kind of is) a mess, but I will show you where I am right now.

But first, a little background: When we moved Noodle to her new room, I had planned on making her old room into my office and store some of her old toys in here for the little kiddos that come to visit occasionally.  So I got to work painting the woodwork and walls in the spring.  It went from Hot Mess to Cold,Unused Office: 

It looks better, right?  Please say yes.

Well, turns out, we don't use the office.
Like, at ALL.

And when One has a small house, One shouldn't have rooms that aren't in use, don't you agree?

One night, Zuddy came home from work after a long, hard day (He works at least 10-12 hours a day) and Noodle and her friend were camped in our small living room watching TV and gossiping and texting and Kik-ing and Instagram-ing and Snapchat-ing and all of those things that teenagers do on their iPhones. 

So Zuddy went upstairs to our bedroom to sit in the quiet.

I had been brainstorming about how to use the office and finally landed on using it as a small TV room.  I thought this was the perfect time to pitch my idea to Zuddy and you know what?

He totally went for it!

So now we've finished the closet.  It will be used to house all of our office stuff like files, the printer and laptop, games and movies for the new room.  

Wanna see it?  I think it's my favorite thing so far in this entire house.

Here is the before...do you remember how we ripped out the ugly closet system and "cedar paneling"?  When we took the paneling out, it took some plaster with it: 

 
Not good.

So, Zuddy put up some beadboard and we installed an elfa closet system from The Container Store.  So far, it's been life-changing.  There is more shelving in this teeny-tiny closet than I know what to do with!  See?

Now we have room for the vacuum cleaner and for visitors' coats.

My next task is to clean out the rest of the furniture and put it to use in the rest of the house.  The desk will be our new dining room table.

So that's where we are right now.  I will let you know my plans.  I'd like to do a little mood board for this room, even though I'm terrible at them :)

What have you been up to?

Update

Hale Navy

No.

Midnight Blue

Yes!

 I brought the Hale Navy home and I knew it would be too light.

So I asked Noodle what she thought and she agreed: we needed to go darker.

 I've got the first coat of Midnight Blue on the vanity and I think I LOVE IT!!!! 

Also, painting the medicine cabinet white has almost made the lightbulbs recede and become less noticeable.

Now I'm starting to rethink my shower curtain choice.  I wonder if white is a bad choice...will I have to wash Zuddy's filthy filthy man paw prints off of it all of the time?

Will it bug me?

Should I go for something like this instead?

pottery barn

The shower curtain I have now is kind of loud, so I'm ready for a change and didn't really want to go with a print.  

What do you think? 

Shades

Aaaahhhhh.  There's nothing like Sunday nights....watching Downton and blogging :)  Are you watching Downton Abbey?

Okay, so I haven't been able to work on the bathroom....but here's a photo of the shades I bought from Lowe's for the kitchen:

  

I know the photo kind of blows, but I had to take it with the Noodle's phone.

One thing I should have mentioned: the width is customizable, but the length is not.  Well, I should say: Lowe's won't alter the length for you, but it's easy to do yourself!  I did it under the watchful eye of my Mom, and if I can do it, so can you!  Maybe I'll do a little tutorial when I buy the shade for the bathroom.  All you need is a scissors, some Gorilla Glue and a couple of little clamps.

Anyway, I really like these shades.  I'm probably going to get some for other rooms in the house. I got a them with a liner, but you can get them with or without one.

Have a great week!  I'm working a lot these days (a good thing!), but I need to get my act together because I need to get going on my garden planning and winter seed sowing!

Onward.....

To the bathroom!

I didn't take true before photos because I'm a bad blogger.

BUT?  Here is a photo after a coat of primer is on the trim.

Helloooooo 1989!

There used to be a wood blind with black ladder tape. I think that was one of mine and Zuddy's many early marital disagreements because I spent $200 on a bathroom blind and that was a lot of money for us back then.....actually, it still kind of is.  But I know better now.  I'm going to go to Lowe's and get some bamboo shades this time.  I got some for the kitchen and I love them! Plus, did you know that you can get them cut to order?  That saves a lot of money for us because all of our windows are special-order sizes. 

A word about this room....we are dying to gut it, but we don't have another bathroom and neither of us can imagine having it under construction without a backup bathroom.  And given our track record of finishing our home projects.......let's just say it:  we aren't Young House Love over here. So.....facelift it is.  But it's kind of like putting lipstick on a pig because of the walls.  You see, the previous owner did a DIY stucco job.  We once had a drywall guy working on our attic bedroom and he very accurately said that it looked like he gave his 5 year old a quarter to stucco our bathroom for us.  Here's a photo where you can kind of see it:

So this is my latest project. I started it in October and then had to start my part time job, so It's waiting for me to finish it.  Here's what I have left to do: 

• Prime and paint the vanity (deep Navy blue, I think).
• Prime and paint the medicine cabinet (Behr Swiss Coffee, like the trim)
• Paint the walls (Valspar Sesame, like the walls in the hallway)
• New bamboo roman shades.
• New cabinet hardware (not sure what yet)
• New shower curtain....something plain.
• More plain white towels....I've been getting them at Sam's Club.

I think the hardest part of this job is the fact that I need a pretty large chunk of time to get the vanity and medicine cabinet painted.  Plus?  I need to take it apart and put it back together after a couple of hours of drying because we use it daily.  It's going to take a bit of time.  I'm going to buy a new can of primer tomorrow and get to it!  Wish me luck!    

Antelope!

Well, I'm not at all opposed to jumping on a bandwagon.....and if I were working more, this is the one I'd hop right on: 

Karastan  Aberdale Antelope Carpeting

 I would kill for rug made out of this.  Wouldn't it look great in my soon to be painted living room?  

I could get some fun pillows for the sofa.......pillows that would surely end up in a heap on the floor, but still.  I need to figure out some new window treatments, too.  I don't want to spend much because who knows how long I'll be able to stand them?

Anyhoo, I digress...the rug.  I saw on My Favorite and My Best 
that it costs $5.85/sq. foot.  Ouch. I guess its better than what the Stark Antelope carpeting costs.  Someone commented on this post that they thought the Stark would cost at least $100/sq. foot. 

What the WHAT?!?

via google imagaes

Well, now I'm just sad.  That would be about 10k for an 8x10 rug (but you'd have to buy and 8x12 piece).  By the way, the wall color in the photo above is pretty much exactly what I'm planning on for my living room...dang, that's a cute room, isn't it?

Okay, then.  I've started painting the bathroom woodwork and I've been really slacking on painting the doors.  BUT?  I've painted the walls in the hallway, which I will show you later this week.  

Or sooner.  

Or later.

Progress!

I know this is taking forever, but I've kind of been taking my time with this painting-all-of-the-woodwork-in-this-house project. 

I've got maybe two more coats to go on all of the trim before I can call it done.  
The doors are waiting for the Zudster to sand them. 

And they're starting to get antsy.  

Because they are envisioning 5 coats on themselves and they know it's going to take a while.  

Clearly, the doors in this house are very advanced thinkers. Moreso than other doors, I think. And they are almost 100 years old, so that's probably why they are so wise......not to brag.

Here's a "before" shot:

And a "during" shot (same angle):

And the opposite direction: 

And the linen closet area (And, no - I didn't 'style' the closet.  I'm not that kind of blogger. Sorry.):

 

 
I think it definitely looks brighter....I didn't even realize it until I looked at the photos.  When I look at it in person, all I can see is that the walls need painting and I'm constantly fighting the desire to paint them!  ARGH!!  But I need to just finish the wood work.

Zuddy is still working on Noodle's bed.  It's proving to be a total bee-yotch.  I may have to take it to a professional.

How's your summer going?  It's hot here!  It got up to 100 degrees yesterday!

The Hallway And A Gardening Question....

Okay, I didn't end up priming or painting the hallway yesterday.  Instead, I edged the lawn and helped my neighbor move some rocks for a little project she was working on.

Here's photographic evidence of my edging.  It looks so neat and tidy now!

 

I wonder if anybody knows anything about Lilac trees?  I'm having an issue with one of mine.  I've asked someone who has never seen the issue, and I didn't like her answer (ha!).  So I'm going to ask you all about it.  Here's a photo of the problem: 

See the tree to the right of the steps?  Now look at the one to the left of the steps.....see how sad the one on the right is?  Any ideas why it's like this?  They're dwarf Korean lilac trees and have been here for 10 years.  I would say for the last 3 to 5 years the one on the right has been looking stunted and spindly.  What say you?

Okay....Now you can see photos of the hallway I will be embarking on: 

 

There are a whopping 6 doorways in this tiny little hallway!!  And I've got to tell you....I had all of the doors closed while I photographed this spot and it was pitch dark.  The door that's already painted white is Noodle's bedroom.  As you can imagine, painting these doors is going to take FOREVAH!

Are you having a fun summer so far?  What are you doing?

Closet #2

Oh, my sweet, sweet friends.....this is not pretty.  I have no pretty pretty pictures for you today.  No sir.

But you know what I DO have for you?  Pictures! (They're just not pretty "after" pictures :)  My brother and sister gave me their old camera!  And for a 10 year old camera it takes great pictures, I must say. 

So, I'm starting in on the office closet.  When we last talked about it, I had tried to remove the old shelving and fixtures and the "cedar paneling".  There was swearing.

It looked like a freaking hamster cage in there.  My camera pooped out, so I have no actual photographic evidence of this, but trust me.

I did find a photo on Google of what the "cedar paneling" looked like.  Feast your eyes:

I was taking care of my favorite baby one night and Zuddy surprised me by doing a demo job on my fugly closet.  He didn't even tell me he was going to do it!  I went in the room the next day to do a stare-down with the closet and plan my attack when I saw this: 

Sweet.
Baby.
Jesus.

Need I talk about the emotions that stirred inside of me?  I was giddy with happiness because the paneling and fixtures were gone, yet pissed off that it still looked so bad.  Oh, the confusion!

I sat on these emotions for a week and tried to come up with a plan of how I was going to get that glue off.  Sand it?  Messy.  Skim coat it?  Messy and it will never get done because I still have a whole kitchen that needs to be skim coated.


Last week I got together with my dear friend, Hilary and showed her the closet and she suggested putting up bead board instead of trying to get off all of the glue and patch all of the holes.  Genius!  I love that girl!

So, save for the bead board and the hanging rods, I'm going to finish the closet just like the Noodle's - with shelving floor to ceiling on both sides of the closet.  Here's a shot of the sides: 

Here are some shots of Noodle's closet.  The side with the shelves (we still need a few more of these): 

  

And the side for hanging clothes: 

 

Incidentally, my favorite baby?  She's 7 months old now!  Feast your eyes: 

I love her.  So do Zuddy and Noodle.  I'm lobbying to be her nanny.  

Michelle is getting sick of me lobbying to be her nanny. 

She's very happy with her going to her cousin's home daycare and being cared for by her granny and cousin. 

Whatever.  I'm not going to stop trying.  She's my baby, dammit.

Moving.

Ha!  That's a scary title, isn't it?No...we're not moving, but Noodle is!  Into her new room! 

Is it finished?

Nope. 

But it's just done enough for her to live in.  We finally put up her curtains last night.  Zuddy put up the curtain rods with much teeth gnashing and swearing.  Poor guy.

Here's what we still need to do:
crown moulding
light fixture
full size bed
paint head and foot board (silver is the plan, but I think gold may be an option)
lamps
finish closet (it needs four more shelves and maybe a light)
new bedding
new nightstand

But?  It's looking a lot better than where we started:

Closet: Before

Closet:Not Quite After

We are having a couple of issues with the lighting.  Mainly that I can't seem to get exactly what I want for a decent price. 
The IKEA fixtures we liked don't put out enough light:

so we are scrapping that idea.


I want to make my own drum shade pendant, but I need to find something like this:

It's called a "Do It Yourself Shade Pendant Hardware Kit" from Shades of Light.  It's perfect....except just this little kit is $50!  I know this sucker doesn't need to cost $50, so I'm trying to find it for less, except I can't!  The thing that makes this little fixture perfect is that little knob on the bottom....it's for attatching an acrylic diffuser so the lighbulbs are concealed:

This is $35.  I just think that's nuts, too.  There's no way this thing needs to cost this much.


Then we will need to get a cute canopy and down rod:

Go to the blog Dittle Dattle for some amazing tutorials...that's where I found a way to make these pendants, but unfortunately, I can't get the amount of light or a diffuser using her tutorial.  But I can use the pieces of this pendant kit to gussy up my fixture!


Anyway....we chose some fun fabrics possibilities to cover the drum shade:


<><><><><><> <><><><><><> <><><><><><>

chipper

<><><><><><> <><><><><><> <><><><><><>

lulu stripe

I found these at fabric.com.

Gallery Wall, part 2

Here it is...I had to wait until dark to take the photo or else I get more light than my camera can handle!

See those silver platters?  I got them from my Mom.  That crazy kook had them sitting in a closet!  Alone!  Unattended!  Mwwwaaaaha-ha-ha-haaaaa!!!  

They were begging to be slapped with one of these:

Have you ever used these before? 

I tried to find a plate hanger at Michaels, but there wasn't anything to hold platters as big as my 2 silver foxes.  I know we've all seen these disc hangers advertised on blogs, so I bought a couple. 

They're awesome and inexpensive and the website can help you determine what size disc you need for the item you're hanging.  My platters are heavy, so I got the largest discs.

So, does the wall look okay?

Front Door

Another thing I've done......painted the front door. 

It was a creamy color, just like the body color of the house:

 Now?  Well?  It's not:

And me no likey.
I wanted something that was unexpected - in a good way.

 But, ummmm....me no likey.  I think I need to start by painting that little bit of brown trim around the door opening and make it the creamy color of the exterior.

Help me. 

Suggestions?

Gallery Wall

So, now that I have the power to download my photos from our cruddy little point and shoot camera, I realize there have been a few things I haven't blogged about.

Probably because..... who cares, right?

Right. 

Well, anyway.  Here are the 'befores' of the gallery wall I did behind the sofa.  I started out with the two black and white prints with the navy matting (they're the ones hanging on the wall).  I got them from my friend Kirsten.  I still really like them, but that wall needed a little something more dramatic.

So I went around the house and gathered all of the art I had. Almost all of it is hand-me-down......much of it from Kirsten.

Anyway, I stacked it against the sofa to get an overall feeling of how it would look:

 
Did you know most of what I own is a hand-me-down?  It's true.  Sad, but true.



Anyway, I selected the pieces I was going to use and then I layed them on the floor to mock up an arrangement:

Then I traced the pictures on some art paper that I borrowed from the Noodle and taped everything on  the wall.

Then?
I stacked up the pictures all over the house and left them there for months and months until I got tired of moving them around when I had to clean.

Then?
I washed my slipcover.  And decided the window treatments needed to be raised:

Then?
I waited another month or two before I asked Zuddy to help me hang everything. 

And then?
I never took a photo.

And I will do it tomorrow after I'm finished washing windows :)