A slight detour

A few weeks ago we told you we were going to start on the bathroom remodel. Well, we sorta lied...stretched the truth...bit off more than we could chew. See, we had also planned to start redoing our fireplace at the same time. We thought we could tackle both, or at least the tile guy told us the fireplace would be a "simple project." That's where the experts at Home Depot come in. The guy at the tile store said we could slap 10 pound tiles directly to drywall without a problem, which made the tile experts at Home Depot cringe...this is where our story begins... The fireplace the day we bought it... We had some major cleaning to do. We tried our best to protect our lungs. We had to tear out the wall the fireplace was on to safely hang tile on the wall. Then fill it in with cement board. The first tiles going up were scary. Chris rocked the tile saw and the mixing of the thinset. Safety first!! Up close of our brushed basalt tile. The finished product! We still have to seal the grout and add back the baseboards, but it's almost complete and we are thrilled with the results.

The Bathroom Remodel Begins

We have begun the official planning stages of the bathroom remodel! We plan to take you along for the ride, but figure it's going to be a few months before it's done. Here's the inspiration for our bathroom. You absolutely must go check out the blog that this photo belongs to. Chezerbey.com is complete modern eye candy.

A Great Find!

I came across this home tour on Apartment Therapy a while back and knew it would serve as major inspiration for our home. I especially loved the bedroom. I got right to work searching for two matching nightstands that would fit in our guest bedroom. I've been all over Craigslist and the mid century stores in Portland, but no luck. Today, while checking out all of the antique stores in wine country, with our good friends Rob and Amy (by the way, you must check out Amy's blog here), we found them!! Two matching nightstands. They're a little beat up, but solid wood, so it makes it super easy to clean up. They were originally $39 per piece, but we talked her down to $60 for both. Now all we need is some accessories and to make an upholstered headboard and we're all set!!

Dining Room Update

We have begun the very long tedious progress of finishing the living/dining room combo. This will be one of our biggest painting projects. Normally the accessorizing is saved to the end, but I just couldn't pass this guy up. I've been saving my groupons to Pistils Nursery on N. Mississippi Ave for awhile. I was hoping I could use the coupons to get me a few baby chicks, but I've lost that battle. Not only does Chris not want chickens, he pointed out the rules of our neighborhood says no farm animals. I'm still going to try my persuasive techniques though. Instead of live chicks, I went the live plant route and picked me up a nice big air plant. I figured we could use a little oxygen cleansing dude in our house and we came home with this... His name is T. Xerographica and he's a monster of an air plant. Generally you only have to mist them, but this one has to be soaked twice monthly. We put him in this cute tray that I stained, added some gray rocks, and he's done. I can breathe better already. And here's a shot of our half completed dining room. We have a number of things to finish:

1. paint the trim on the window (you can's see it, but it's still ugly brown)
2. hang floor to ceiling white curtain panels on the windows.
3. replace the white table top with a larger wood one to give some contrast to all the white.
4. hang a huge piece of artwork on the wall.
5. replace that horrifyingly ugly chandelier with this one:

Well, not this one exactly, since it retails for over $1100!!! But we have major plans for a DIY version that we'll post as soon as we tackle it. P.S. Isn't the photograph of the room gorgeous??!! That was shot from my amazingly talented hubby and there's almost no photoshop done to the photo...AMAZING!!

And It's Up!!

I am so proud that Chris' new website is up and running! Go check it out.

Its snowing!

This is the first time we have seen the house in the snow, I like it very much.

the kids have a snow day and are out having a snowball fight

This is our donkey. The previous owners were kind enough to leave him here for us, note the peg leg in the front.

Green!!

Town Meeting

We're those homeowners now. Yep the ones that go to town meetings. When you get an invitation in the mail that look like this how can you not? The fine print actually reads: You are receiving this open house invitation because your property has been included in the inventory as containing at least a portion of a tree grove. Surely you must believe we felt special, chosen if you will. We decided that since trees are overgrowing our property we should maybe find out what the Tree Grove Preservation Program was all about. You know, making sure if we cut one down we won't be thrown in jail...or maybe a tax incentive to keep the trees. So we headed down to City Hall planning for an entertaining night of arguments between loggers and tree huggers. We were quickly disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm shown by all. Turns out, nobody really seems to care about a tree unless you're subdividing the land. Thankfully we're not in the construction business so our trees are safe for now. They are currently looking pretty ugly... I have been told by the neighbors these are all producing fruit trees. We'll see...otherwise I'm getting out the axe! It's just too bad our town meetings are not more like this one

Jonathan Adler On a Budget

I love Jonathan Adler designs. His clean, modern home accessories makes my heart go pitter patter. Unfortunately, I cannot afford most (if any) of his stuff. Here's a few things I'm pining over currently: This beautiful table setting...at $70 a settingThis mirror...at $395 This adorable soap dish is actually in my price range...at $20I'm really wanting this white, clean lined, yet beautifully curvaceous lamp...at $695 I had resigned myself to only having Jonathan Adler lighting in my dreams, so went to the next best option: Goodwill of course. I wandered in there and found two of these hiding on the shelf for $6.99 a piece. Hmmm, I thought...clean lines, check....curvaceous, check....white, no check. What's a girl to do when she's almost got a Jonathan Adler impersonator in her midst? Spray paint it of course!!! And add a cheap-o IKEA shade for another $6. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Product Spotlight: Electrolux Ergorapido Stick Vac

Sometimes you're walking through a (large big box bed and bath) store and you see an item you just have to have. Sure, you went to said store with all intentions of looking for said item, but didn't really think you'd come across it. Then the most amazing thing happens in said store...you are drawn to a lovely little creature whose sole purpose in life (or so the label says) is to pick up all those stray dog hairs, human hairs (since I shed more than our pooch), dirt, and all those other nasty things that accumulate on hardwood floors. Could it be, you think to yourself that this little device is the answer to all your hardwood floor woes? And then it gets better...you show this little creature to your husband, who is never swayed at all by labels, colors, or any other marketing gimmick that his wife is drawn to...and he also thinks it's the coolest thing he's ever seen (really only because it's orange). The wonderful husband he is agrees to take it home that day. But only if it were that easy. This big box store is all out of stock...others have fallen for this orange creature. Nothing a quick traipse across town can't fix. And what's better? A 20% off coupon of course. Creature gets put back in the back of the car and taken to it's new home, where it turns out, he's not only handsome, but very, very useful. The moral of this story? Electrolux Ergorapido is pretty cool. Okay, okay, a little over the top, but believe me when I say this thing is wonderful. Not only is it a stick vacuum, but you can take the handle off and use it as a dust buster as well. The only problem was where to store this guy. We are lucky to have a cousin who loves us (and is an electrician) who installed an outlet, wait who taught my hubby how to install an outlet in our hall closet. So now this guy is easily accessible and always fully charged. Want one for yourself? Check out this link.

hanging of the door

So here is a before (or rather middle, you see there was a slider, we took it out) and after photo for you.before

after

Here is a short video of Caitlin and I hanging the new closet door that is replacing the old sliding glass door that went between the office and the family room.

My Craft Space

I have a space and it is all mine!! We converted the guest bedroom closet into a space for me to sew and craft.

A blow dryer, a hanger, a turkey baster, and pajamas

Oh yes, they actually do have something in common. Last weekend we noticed that our freezer was collecting a sheet of ice on the bottom of it, which was then causing water to leak into our refrigerator. I wouldn't be that sad about it, but the kitchen demo isn't scheduled for a year and I was not in the mood to drop $1500+ on a refrigerator. Enter Google...I figured out the problem, but knew it was going to take an entire weekend day to thaw the fridge. We started the process, then decided we didn't have the time, (we did have a major laundry room overhaul on our hands) and that the freezer was going to have to stay broken for another week.... ...until we learned that our fridge wasn't cold anymore. Here's where the pajamas come in. Yep, it was 11pm on a Sunday night and I was determined not to loose all the groceries we just bought. Enter Google again, this time for the solution. After a trip to WINCO for a turkey baster (thank you for being open 24 hours), a long run with the blowdryer, and some boiling water we had unthawed the drainpipe to our freezer. Thanks to Google again we have the solution to our problem. Our refrigerator should last until the day next year we kick it to the curb (or sell it on Craigslist) for a nice shiny new one to complement the rest of the new kitchen!Take that Maytag repair man!

The laundry room transformation...well it's just about done

This is what our laundry room looked like on closing day. Yep, pretty much the nastiest room in our house. The previous homeowners had done a semi homemade job of framing out a room off of the garage, but never finished the walls or the floors. This lovely washer/dryer came with the house...lucky us. It actually flooded the first day we tried to do laundry. Our realtor had requested a home warranty on the house prior to us buying it, which amazingly allowed us to get a brand new washer and dryer to replace the rusty, flooding machine. However, the new machines in all their white, water saving, electrical saving, and eco friendly glory sat in the garage for a few weeks while the room was prepped. We demoed out all of the existing shelves and fixtures. We hired plumbers to put all of the plumbing back inside the walls. There was a minor setback having to pump water out of the crawl space before the plumbers would go under the house. Laying the subfloor was the first project. Chris and his dad took this project on and had to get pretty creative working around the crawl space entrance.Hiring sheetrockers was the best $350 we could have spent!! Isn't the room looking pretty? Next came paint (a lovely shade of gray) and laying the peel and stick vinyl tiles. Which were the easiest projects in the room. Caitlin's dad came over to help put in the washer and dryer. What you don't see is the other side of the room with the furnace and water heater, which we had to pull out to finish laying the floor. Thanks dad for the help! Notice the hardly noticeable crawl space entrance. The finished (almost) room!!! We have a few final details to finish. We need a few more shelves, but they're on back order, a rug, finish up some trim, and put the door back. Not bad for our first major reno!

this week at the house

So here is what the house looks like this week.

We moved the office furniture into the family room because we are painting the office. My dad (that is him) came over to help me do some flooring in the laundry room and pick up a door for the office. It is a sliding closet door. You see that big entry way in the center of the photo, yeah there used to be a sliding glass door there. After my dad and I finished the floor, and picked up the door, he suggested that we just put the door in real quick. Well, really it was more like lets take the door our and then stop. The sheetrockers are coming out tomorrow. THEN, I can put in the new door.

Today, my cousin, an electrician came over and did a panel change for us. We used to have a super old panel called a pushmatic. I guess we needed another one. So between the sears repair man and the sheetrocker guy (coming over to give an estimate) I helped him.

And here, well, I just thought the light was cool.