Refreshing Stairway Overhaul

We finally tackled a project I've been itching to get to and I love how it came out! We have a storage space under the stairs that had an accordion door on it. For a while I just put a curtain there to hide the door. But we decided to cover the space with beadboard paneling. We had a good friend of ours help us with it this weekend. The door is held on by a roller catch in the inside. I think it really makes it look fresh and clean! Check out the before and after.

---

After........

CustomPetCreations Unleashes a New Item!

Bring your pet to the party! I'm proud to announce my newest addition to my CustomPetCeations etsy shop! I've started making hand sculpted wine charms featuring pet's faces.
Each wine charm has a distinguishing accessory sculpted from clay (i.e., different colored bowties, ribbon, or customer's suggestion). I modeled my first set of charms off of my dog Gary of course. I thought his polka dotted and solid colored bowties were perfect for him. Check it out! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23475358

Entryway Desk Area

Our front door entryway area in our living room is almost complete. We have a little nook by the stairs that we turned into a little desk area. It's a perfect spot for the laptop and storing new mail. It's not completely done yet because we have to come up with a solution for some kind of doors so we can have access to our storage that is under the stairs. Right now I just put up a curtain but I'd like to put beadboard paneling there.

New Magnetic Knife Rack

It was time for a trip to Ikea on Friday. Among a few other things, we bought the Grundtal magnetic knife rack ($8.99) to go with our other stainless steel accents in the kitchen. We put up some stainless steel knives and measuring cups.

Student Photo Project: "Pets.... and Their Owners"

We had the opportunity to be part of a friend of a friend's photo project for a class she's taking at a photography school in Boston. She came to our house and took photos of the three of us. Here's how they came out!

Great Deal on Parsons Chairs!

I scored two brand new wood and leather parsons style chairs the other day on clearance for only $24.99 for the pair!!

We put this chair at our new desk nook in the entryway area of the living room and the other chair is in a corner of our upstairs den.

I rarely go to Sears but I was there buying my first sewing machine and I saw these chairs up at the front of the store with clearance signs. They came as a pair in 1 box. They were very easy to put together. I love them!

Living Room Before and After

Our living room transformation is complete!
Here are the gross before pics.... I'm not quite sure when "safari chic" was ever in style.

Before - Believe it or not, the picture above was used in the property listing when it was up for sale.


Before

Before

Before - Yikes, yes, that's a Hawaiian grass skirt hanging over the opening in the wall. The previous owners used to have a fish tank in that space.

Before

---

Drumroll please.....
Here it is after!

After

After

After

After - Our existing couch ottoman and accent chairs. Someday I'd like to replace the couch with a nice dark leather sofa.

After

After

After - Click for a closer look! The black and white house drawings I made are in the black rectangle frame.

After

After

After

Here's a rundown of what we did to transform the room:

1. Flipped existing ceiling fan blades to the white side.
   
2. Primed and painted all the window frames.
3. Sanded, primed, and painted the unfinished wood beam on the ceiling.
   
4. Painted ceiling white (it used to be the same pink semi-gloss color as the walls).
5. Painted walls a light yellow.
6. Painted stairway walls and ceiling white.
   
7. Replaced eyeball recessed lights in the ceiling with plain inset recessed lights.
8. Ripped up all carpet on the floor and stairs.
9. Sanded, primed, and painted the stairs a glossy black.
10. Primed and painted all baseboards.
11. Hired professionals to install and stain unfinished white oak hardwood floor.
12. We then decorated the space with our existing couch and accent chairs as well as a few new furniture pieces and accessories.
    

• 4 pillows -$24, Kohls
• mirrored wall clock - $100, JCPenney
  
• black square mirror - $29, Pier One Imports
  
• vases - $24 Kohls and A.J. Wright
  
• vase adornments - $2, Michael's
  
• sisal rug - $29, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• sisal door mat - $10, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• 3 black square frames - $30, Target
  
• black rectangle frame - $7, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• black console table - $50, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• black end table - $40, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• black tv stand - $99, Christmas Tree Shops
  
• reading lamp - $50, Target.com

New Living Room Floor

Back in November, we finally dealt with our living room floor and ripped up the stained berber carpet and had a professional install white oak hardwood floor. Here's a look at the condition of the floor underneath the carpet.

Before - in the process of ripping up the carpet.

After we got rid of all the carpet, the flooring guys delivered the unfinished wood a couple days before they were going to actually install and finish it.

Before - subfloor with unfinished wood that was delivered.

They installed the wood, and put two coats of the stain on in one day. Then they came back the second day to put a final coat on the floor. Total cost was $1240 for our 260sq ft space. I got a few more estimates from other companies and they were just about double what this guy charged us. Here's how it turned out!

After

We went with the white oak because we wanted to try to match the other hardwood floor we have in the dining room and fireplace room. Since we already had a perfectly fine subfloor, we just had them put the new hardwood floor over it. The only downside to that was that the fireplace room floor is now a slight step down from the living room floor. The flooring guy did a great job of beveling the edge so that the height difference wouldn't be as obvious.

After - beveled edge next to old hardwood floor.

Christmas 2008

We had the right tree in the right spot this year in our newly re-floored living room!



Santa was good to us this year. We got a new stainless steel fridge! Ho ho ho!

Stairs - Before and After

I have an update on our stairs!!! I'm so pleased with the transformation! Goodbye carpet, hello paint. It might be hard to tell from the before picture but EVERYTHING (including the ceiling!!) in the room was painted with a glossy pinkish paint that was terrible. I painted the stairway walls with a flat white, the spindles and risers with a glossy crisp white, the stair treads with a high gloss black Glidden porch and floor paint and the other living room walls with a very light cream color.


Before - We took this picture at the walk-through the day before we closed on the house. Gross!

---

After - New painted stairs with the new hardwood floor!

We removed the radiator cover and added a new black mirror over it. I got an unbelievable deal on the mirror from Pier One Imports. It was $119 originally but it was dinged up in a few places. All it needed was a little touch-up with the black paint I used on the stairs and it was only $29!!!!!! It's a really heavy mirror too.

Did you notice the new recessed light? We replaced all of the eyeball style recessed lights with the new flush recessed lights. It really made a huge difference in the room and each light was only about $6!


After - Closeup of the stairs.

We still haven't decided if we're going to paint the newel post and banister. I'm not sure if we would stain it to match the front door which we still haven't figured out what to do with. Ideas are welcome!!

Update On Our Living Room Progress

Well, we've been moving forward with all the little living room projects. I tore up all the carpet on the stairs.....


After removing the carpet there were tons of staples that I had to take out. I also had to scrape each step to get the old glue off and then I used a palm sander to sand down the treads so they were smooth.
And then we primed the stair treads.....

We've also painted the walls and the window trim..... more pictures to come.
But lately I've been busy fulfilling custom sculpture/ornament orders from my etsy shop.
Here are a couple of the guys I've been working on.



I'm currently working on two Goldendoodle dogs named Molly and Abbie!

Our Staircase

I couldn't wait any longer to see what was underneath the carpet on our staircase. Right now I'm in the middle of lots of painting. I finished painting the ceiling and a wood beam that runs across the ceiling but we still have to paint the walls.

Before - Beam and ceiling unpainted.


After - Painted beam and ceiling.

So I started to peel back the carpet near the top of the stairs and I'm very excited about the condition of the stairs! We plan on painting the stairs and not refinishing. I found that the stair treads are painted and they used to have some kind of a glue on them probably to hold some kind of an old stair runner.

The glue comes off really easily because it's old and flaky. So I scraped it off with a scraper and here's how it looked....

Then I sanded it just a little and wiped off the debris and this is how it looked.....

Here's a look at the small landing after the first step.

I was thinking of painting the stair treads, railing, and posts a glossy black and the stair risers and the spindles a glossy white. I love the way Anna at Door Sixteen's staircase looks and I think I might use that as inspiration.
I know this will take some effort to get them in shape to be painted but I can really see the potential and I'm very anxious to start the project!!

Getting Started on the Living Room

I'm finally starting to tackle the living room. I haven't gotten too far yet but I have made a little progress. One coat of primer is now on the trim around the windows! It's the beginning of a long project that will include painting the ceiling and walls, ripping out carpet and having hardwood floor put in, and ripping off the carpet on the stairs and painting them.

I haven't done much homework yet on the cost of having new hardwood floor installed. I'm considering Home Depot, Lowes, National Floors Direct etc. I did call a local company and told them the square footage of the area is about 200 sq ft and that we'd need red oak to match the existing floors on the first floor. He gave me a quote of about $1300. I'm going to check with the other places I mentioned above. Anyone have any feedback to share about hardwood floor installation and about how much you think it might cost for our 200sq ft space??

Hopefully I'll be making some progress this weekend and I'll have some progress pictures to post! My fiance (yes its official, we're engaged as of a couple weeks ago!) won't be much help today since he's filling in for a show tonight as the bassist for a country band he used to play in a couple years ago. He currently plays in a band called Silent Service.

Let the weekend projects begin!

A Little Bit of Green for the Fall

A few months ago I found these cute little ceramic pots for 19 cents a pop. About 2 weeks ago I planted some basil and parsley in them and I stuck them on one of the windowsills in our enclosed porch. It gets nice and warm in there during the day and pretty humid when its been raining outside. Perfect climate for my little experiment with the basil and parsley!

The day I planted them:

Take a look at them today! 2 weeks later and they've sprouted. It's fun to check on them every day and see how they're coming along.

Black and White House Sketches

Although we haven't been making much progress on our living room transformation plans, I've been busy drawing and creating new artwork of our house for the house.






I haven't decided where I'll put my new drawings but I found some cute little frames for them.

See You Next Year Summer

I can't believe how fast the summer went by! We've had so much rain this summer in MA that I feel like we barely got any great hot summer weekends to enjoy our pool. We already closed the pool last weekend :( Oh well, Fall is just around the corner and that means cozy nights with the fireplace and apple picking season! I can't wait to go apple picking and then make some yummy stuff!

Our morning glories finally decided to come out. We planted them a little late in the spring so we really weren't even sure if they would come out. We were pleasantly surprised when they came out!


Near the end of our driveway our Balloon Flowers came out too.

I guess we won't be seeing another dragonfly like this guy until next summer. We found him in the backyard last month.

I bought this little birdhouse/feeder last month for $2.99 at Christmas Tree Shops. I think it's so cute. The birds liked it too -for a while we had to keep refilling it every other day.

Our sunflowers are in bloom. We had to bring this one inside because it seems that a little critter or something is trying to eat them. Squirrels maybe?

New Azalea Bush for the Front

Last Saturday Tyler did a little landscaping in the front of our house. We had a holly bush on either side of our front walkway but we wanted to switch it up a little bit and add an Azalea bush. He moved one of the holly bushes to the left side with the other one. Then he planted the new Azalea bush on the right side. I can't wait for it to flower next year!


Azalea bush

Holly bushes

Gary's Outdoor Cabana

When I spotted this canopy dog bed from Pottery Barn I thought it would be perfect for our dog Gary. The price tag on this one ($199.99) is WAY too much though.


So Tyler decided to make his very own version of the canopy with some pieces of wood we had hanging around our basement! Then we bought a cushion that matches the others we have for our patio set.



Gary loves his cabana! Thanks Tyler!


I'm going to buy some material and make the roll-up shades for the top and sides to make it more like the canopy from PB.







And I might paint it brown to match our patio set.









Here's how Tyler whipped up the cabana in a night.


He started with a pile of wood and made a base that would fit the size of the cushion. Then he made a platform and added four posts. And lastly, he added the slats for the roof. Viola!

Ideas for the Living Room

Our living room is the one part of the house we haven't done much too. Besides moving in the furniture we already owned and tearing down some ugly curtains, we really haven't done a whole lot with this room yet. Here are some pictures of our living room in its current state.


I've come up with my own moodboard for the living room complete with color choices, furniture options, and accessories. See below for an explanation of the numbered items.

1. I like the idea of a buttery cream color for the walls and white for the trim and baseboards. I think a pop of red will be a good accent color. And the greenish/grayish color is a color we already have in our sofa.
2. We currently have Berber carpet throughout the living room. After a little investigation, I discovered that there is hardwood floor underneath the carpet in the entryway area but not in the bigger area. If its in the budget, I'd like to have hardwood flooring put in that matches the rest of the hardwood floor. If we can't swing that, we might consider exposing the hardwood in the entryway/front door area and then re-carpet the rest of the bigger area with sisal carpeting.
3. We currently have faux wood blinds in a tan color. Rather than replace them, we'd like to keep them since they are a custom fit for the windows. All of our trim is currently a pine color. The picture in #3 above shows a room with the same blinds we have with white trim and yellow walls. This is how I'd like our windows to look.
4. The fan in #4 is the fan that came with the house. It's not my favorite, but I think it still works ok in the room. I just have to flip the blades over to the white side.
   
5. I'd love a leather loveseat like the one above. I think it would go well with the current sofa we have. JCPenney Everett Loveseat $479 63x38½x34¾"H
   
6. This tv stand would be a great addition to the rest of the furniture. Walmart.com Sauder Vinegate TV Stand, Antiqued Paint $129.94 43.54 x 19.88 x 24.21
   
7. I'd love to find one corner next to a chair or sofa where we could fit this end table in. Walmart.com Genoa End Table With Glass Top $63.88 18.47 x 18.47 x 22.56
   
8. The starburst mirror and the framed artwork represent some wall decor options. Walmart.com Metal Wall Decor, Starburst $19.96 & Target.com Tercet Frame $9.99 4x6
   
9. This lamp would add that pop of red to the room and it would look great on the end table. Pier 1 Fluted Teardrop Lamp $49.98
   
10. The pillows and vase represent some options for additional accessories that would complete the room. The pillows tie in the yellows, whites and darker shades throughout the space and the red vase adds more of that red element found in the lamp. Walmart.com Ceramic Vase, Sedona Red Glaze $19.97 & Pier 1 East End Floral Pillow - Sand $20
    
    

Our first step will be to prime and paint all the trim and baseboards. In the meantime, I'll just have to shop around to find the best deals for the stuff I like for the living room!

My First Painting of Our House

I decided to make a painting of our house on canvas and here's how it came out...

House Tour: My Brother's House

My brother and sister-in-law, who live just a mile away from us, own a gorgeous Dutch Colonial house built in 1907. All of the moldings, doors, and hardwood floors are original to the home. It has 6 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. My sister-in-law definitely has an eye for design as you can see in the pictures below. Enjoy the house tour!

Julia over at Hooked on Houses had a fun idea to have one big open house tour on August 5th all over the blogosphere! I joined in by posting the house tour above. Check out more house tours at the Hooked on House Tours: Blog Party Headquarters.

For a house tour of our own house, check out my before and after posts or check out the photos and slideshows on the right sidebar.

Front Door Dilemma

Our front door is quite unique and it's definitely a part of the house I want to keep. However, it's in need of a little makeover. I think the door used to be painted or it had some kind of stain on it that the previous owners stripped off. So right now the bare door either needs a wood stain or paint. Here's what the door currently looks like.

Front door of our house - bare wood with no stain or paint.

Last Fall we installed a white Anderson storm door with brushed nickel hardware. It's the type of door that has a retractable screen that you can pull down like a window for when you want a little fresh air or you can leave it as a full glass door. We were going to have to special order a door because our frame wasn't one of the standard sizes but we really got lucky when we found this door in the marked down returned merchandise at Home Depot! We paid a lot less than what we would have!

Anderson storm door with the front door.

Because of the retractable screen, it has a white horizontal line across the middle of the storm door. That makes me wonder if it would be best to paint the door white to make that line blend in. Since our house has black shutters I've thought about the door being black but I'm worried it would look too dark.


Our house - Light blue with black shutters.

What do you think - Paint it? Stain it? Anyone have input on the color or stain I should paint the front door with?

Deal of the Day

One of my favorite parts of our kitchen is our spice shelf. I chose these tiny jars for spices because they have no visible labels on them (we have hidden labels on the bottom). The clear glass jars with the chrome tops give the kitchen a clean and organized look and they work great as colorful accessories to the room too.


The shelf ($29.99) is part of the Ikea Varde series and the spice jars are also from Ikea.

While on Pottery Barn's website one day I came across jars that are almost identical to the Ikea Rajtan jars! And how much more do you think those were at Pottery Barn? Check out the side by side comparison....



I don't know about you but I'd rather spend 75 cents a jar rather than nearly $5 a jar! I love deals like that. Just goes to show how it pays off to shop around!

A Memento of the Old Kitchen

When we started tackling our kitchen last year, one of the first changes we had to make was to take down the ugly ivy border below the crown molding. The border was actually contact shelf liner paper (who does that??) so it was pretty easy to peel off. Underneath that border we revealed a vegetable themed wallpaper border that a previous owner of the house had put up who knows when.
Here's a reminder of what the old ivy border looked like in the kitchen:

Before - Our kitchen before with the green ivy border.


Border we uncovered after taking down the top layer of border.



Before peeling off that border, we decided to take a few pictures of it. Then we had an idea...we decided to print out those pictures and frame them as artwork to display on the walls in our "new" kitchen.

So now we have a little memento of what the old kitchen used to look like back in the day!



After - Border painted blue and framed artwork on wall.

As a border we would have never picked the vegetable theme, but as framed mementos in our new kitchen I think it works just fine!

Lazy Dog Days of Summer

Gary was tired last Sunday from a full weekend of hot weather. Here he is sprawled out on the patio chair.

New Range Hood!

We finally installed our range hood in our kitchen! First we had to figure out the placement of the range hood on the wall with a template that was provided with the instructions and then we had to take down a section of trim and crown molding so that we could make space for the chimney.

Left - Tyler cutting the trim. Right - Me cutting the crown molding.

After cutting the trim, we discovered that the wall below it is actually paneling. The previous owners filled all the lines in with something and smoothed the walls over to make it look like they're regular walls. In order to put up the bracket for the chimney we had to put a new piece of paneling up above the trim to match the depth of the wall below it.

The area above the stove didn't have any wiring that we could use to hook it up so we had to have the electrician come out and work his magic. The electrician made the connection to the hood and even helped Tyler mount the bottom part of the hood to the wall. We had to pay the electrician $68 for the hour it took him to hook it up. Then we were able to put up the chimney for the range hood. Here it is!




It has 2 lights underneath it and 3 fan speeds. It's made by Whirlpool for Ikea. At the store it's $499 but my dad bought it on Ebay for my birthday. It was brand new and still in all the packaging and including shipping he paid $250! Half the price! Gotta love Ebay!

Our Transformation Costs

How much have we spent on each room transformation? Well, I've decided to update some of my "before and after" posts to include a breakdown of the total cost in each room. We've made the transformations to each room over the course of 1 year. We spend a little here and there and do stuff to the house only when we can afford it so we're never in debt! Here's a quick update on the transformation totals: (for a breakdown of costs, click on the links below to go to the actual before and after post)

Master Bedroom - $1355
Kitchen - $1768
Pantry - $672
Downstairs Full Bathroom - $203
Office - $944
Guest Bedroom - $26
Upstairs Den - $510
Fireplace Room - $584
Dining Room - $65

Total = $6,127

(I don't think the total cost is too bad considering just a kitchen renovation alone these days far exceeds that total!)

Master Bedroom - Before and After

Brace yourself for some pictures of our bedroom when we first moved in!
Obviously this room needed some help if we were actually planning on transforming it from a teenager's bedroom to a master bedroom. At least it had a few good things we could work with including the cathedral ceiling and 2 good sized closets with adjustable shelving. Here's what it looked like before.......


Before - Yes, that is bamboo around the closet and clouds painted on the cathedral ceiling!


Before - The tropical scene was some kind of wallpaper/poster that was glued to the wall.


Before - Nasty green shag carpeting!


Before - That black contraption on the wall was a tv mount for a big tv (not a flat screen).

---

Here's a rundown of what we did to the room to to transform it to our bedroom:

• Removed tropical wallpaper and every single piece of bamboo that was nailed to the wall around the closet.
• Added two pieces of molding where the ceiling and walls meet.
  
• Removed the carpet and baseboards and installed new laminate flooring ($1.69 sq ft at Home Depot)and baseboards.
  
• Painted the ceiling a neutral color and painted 3 of the walls a warm green and 1 wall a light green accent color.
  
• Removed the accordion closet doors and had my Dad replace them with bi-folding doors from home depot and new trim. It sounds like it would be an easy project but it wasn't! The closet frame was crooked so the doorway had to be framed out correctly before the door could be installed.
• Removed the radiator cover.
  
• Mounted a flat screen tv ( I got a deal on the tv at the Circuit City Black Friday sale back in November :) ).
  
• Mounted a shelf for the dvd player.
  
• Added new curtain rods and drapes. Curtain rods - Christmas Tree Shops Drapes - JCPenney

Here's what it looks like now:


After - We bought the bed from Overstock.com for $370


After


After - The bedside shelves are from JCPenney.com. We bought one of these and used some of the parts to make the shelves.


After - Someday I hope to either get rid of the dresser or get a new one but for now it will have to do!

Kitchen - Before and After

Our kitchen needed a makeover badly when we moved in. Aside from the hideous decor choices (i.e., hunter green painted trim??!!), the kitchen really was just a waste of space. Basically the only thing they had in the kitchen was the refrigerator, microwave, and a couple shelves. The stove wasn't even in this area because that was tucked away in the pantry for some reason. Here are some before pictures:

Before - This was one of the pictures in the mls listing for the house before we bought it.

Before - This was another one of the pictures in the mls listing for the house before we bought it.


Before

---

And now onto the after pictures. I don't know what we would have done without Ikea!! There was just no way we could spend thousands of dollars to redo the kitchen so we bought some free standing pieces from the Varde collection at Ikea. Check out the initial virtual plans we came up with by using the Ikea Kitchen Planner tool. We also had to move the stove from the pantry to this room which required the only help we've hired in our entire house transformation (we had to hire the electrician to move the outlet).

After


After


After

As you can see, we redid the floor with these vinyl tiles from Lowes and carried them into the pantry and downstairs bathroom.

After - For a closer look at the shelves, check out the previous post I made here.


After

We carried the blue and white that we used in the pantry into the border and trim of this room and used a neutral beige for the walls that I think works great with all the stainless steel. We changed out the ceiling fan in the room to the new light fixture you see above the stove and butcher block countertops. This light was a perfect fit for the room since it has directional lights and two arms that you can position in any way you want. We also added a ceiling fan where a regular light used to be. We absolutely love the stainless steel cabinet. We use this for all of our plates and bowls and the drawers are so smooth when you open and close them.

Right now the area above the stove is a little empty and its just asking for a range hood. Well, that will be fixed soon! I got this awesome range hood from my parents for my birthday!! So check back soon for updated pictures after we get that puppy installed. I really think it will look so sleek in the kitchen and not to mention the functionality of it!


**Update**
New range hood installation is complete! Check out my post about the new range hood here.

Mini Makeover

We're lucky enough to have a little laundry nook on the second floor of our house which makes it so convenient to just haul our dirty clothes down the hallway instead of down to the basement. The washer and dryer are tucked away in a louvered closet in the hallway. The only downside to the space was the dark wood doors that just didn't match the rest of the house. So I decided to paint it all!

Before

---

After

I also added a white cabinet that matches the louvered doors to the closet and changed out the knobs on everything.

Kitchen Pantry - Before and After

The kitchen and pantry have gone through some major changes over the past year. In fact, the pantry renovation was our very first project in the house. I started the day after we closed on the house! We did lots and lots of scrubbing and painting. Here's a look at the pantry and all its wood lodge glory.


Before

I have no idea why the stove was in the pantry. It made it so hard to cook, especially when it came to clean up since we didn't have a dishwasher.


Before


Before

---

Overall, painting, lighting and the new flooring did wonders for this space.
Here's a rundown of what we did in the pantry:

• Cleaned, sanded, primed, and painted the inside and outside of the cabinets and the paneled walls.
  
• Added knobs and shelf liners from Ikea and hinges from Home Depot.
• Changed out the ceiling light to the Basisk light from Ikea and the over the sink hidden fluorescent light to these pendant lights from Ikea. We also added an undercabinet light above the dishwasher.
  
• Installed thick vinyl floor tiles we got from Lowes.
  
• Had a dishwasher and cabinet installed (thanks mom and dad!).
• Tiled the top of the dishwasher countertop space with marble tiles from Lowes.
  
• Added accessories from Ikea and other stores here and there like one of my favorite hit or miss stores, Ocean State Job Lot.

After


After


After


After

Downstairs Bathroom - Before and After

The downstairs bathroom needed a little tlc to make it into something presentable. We worked on the bathroom in bits and pieces but we finished it up in February '08.
Here's what it looked like before:

Before

The barn yard red cabinet needed paint, the floor was gross (dirty) vinyl tiles, the toilet had a soft seat, gross!!, the stuff used for the baseboards was the type of industrial rubber you would see in an office building, the faucet was ugly and old, and the shower head just wasn't going to cut it to be able to give Gary a bath!


Before

---

Here's what it looks like now......


After

We were going for a spa type serene feel in here. There were a few things we encountered when tackling the bathroom projects bit by bit.

1. After removing the medicine cabinet from the wall, I discovered a hole and live wires that used to connect to an over the sink light fixture, which coincidentally don't connect to the light switch in the bathroom. We found that out the hard way when we thought the power was off and T got zapped! Oops!
2. After removing the rubber baseboards, we found that part of the wall had come off with the sticky stuff stuck to it. Which is why we opted for some really nice and high baseboards from Home Depot.
   

After

Notice the new pivoting mirror I scored at Job Lot of all places. Not bad for $20! The faucet and light are from Home Depot. We had to settle for that light since I couldn't find another light fixture with a twist on/off base that had two lights on it. I'll keep my eyes open for another good one that doesn't cost a ton like the other one i've blogged about. I bought the shelf from Christmas Tree Shop and the white vase and bamboo plant from Ikea.


After - Here's a closer look at the baseboards Tyler put in.

Our Office - Before and After

Here's an update on the work we've done in our office upstairs.

Check out the pictures of what the office used to look like:

Before


Before


Before

---

And this is what we've done to the office. We completed this in April 08. We had to paint two coats of primer over the bright blue and multi-colored walls. We bought a nice new ceiling fan with directional lights from lowes.com to replace the ugly fan, or "circus fan" as I like to call it, that used to be there. Most of the workspace items on the left, my craft/work area, are from Ikea. The tall white stereo cabinet is something Tyler and Phil made out of mdf wood. Its secured to the wall so that the record player doesn't skip as much.

After


After

The shelves you see in the picture below are salvaged from another project Phil and Tyler worked on for a wall shelving unit that housed all of Tyler's CDs when we lived in Chelsea.

After

We decided we needed a tv in the office for when I do my crafts and ornaments and for whenever. I like to have it on in the background. We thought about changing the floor to match the laminate wood floors in the den, hallway, and master bedroom but after considering how much it would cost and the time it would take us to do it, we decided to keep the carpet. I think the blue kind of disappears with all the changes we made anyway and I think it goes well with the light gray we have on the walls.

After


After - This is the narrow closet in the office. It used to be dark paneling but we painted it. We added a bunch of shelves for extra storage.

Guest Bedroom - Before and After

Well, the guest bedroom wasn't in too bad of shape as far as major changes we were going to make to it. This bedroom was far down on our list of rooms to change since we had bigger fish to fry with the kitchen, master bedroom, office, dining room.....just to name a few. Here's a look at what the room looked like before......

Before

Note the ugly "window treatments", dark wood trim, and feather technique painting on some of the walls. Let's take a closer look at the feather technique shall we? gag...

Closeup of ugly walls before.



Before

The dark wood trim and door were TOO dark for this space. Luckily they had a pretty cool fan in there. I found the instructional manual in the basement and its a
Minka Aire Concept II fan and after a quick search online I found that its really expensive! It retails for about $250. Maybe they got it as a gift or something because I sure wouldn't spend that much on a ceiling fan!


Before

---

And now onto the good stuff. The after shots....

After


After


After


After

This room might have been the cheapest fix so far. I painted the walls with the same paint as the rest of the walls. The paint was still left in the basement from the previous owners. Total cost of paint $0! My favorite! I also primed all the dark wood trim and door and then painted them with a white semigloss I picked up at Walmart. I changed out the hardware on the door and bought some roman blinds from Ikea and some inexpensive curtains from the Christmas Tree Shop. Voila! Guest bedroom transformed into something presentable for our guests!

In the progress of transforming the space, I also cleaned out and reorganized the closet in the room so I could fit my elliptical machine and all my exercise stuff in there for when I want to drag it out and actually work out.

Backyard Progression

Backyard Now in June with grass and trees filled in.


Here's a closer look at the patch of grass we grew and the hostas we planted back in October.


Here's a picture of our pool and favorite trees we hope will grow grow grow!


Here's our patio set and new brick patio, grill, and lounge chairs.


A closer look at the awesome patio Tyler made....


A closer look at the patio set and the cute little flower bed in the patio.....


Here's a shot of the pool and the geraniums...


Here's a look at some of the flowers in the front. At some point I'd like to replace the wrought iron with wood columns and railings but that project won't happen for a while.

Den - Before and After

Here's what our upstairs den looked like before. The blue carpeting is the same carpet that's in the office except the carpet in the den smelled like cat pee!!


Before


Before


Before


Before


Before

---

And here it is now. Just a few of the things we did...we took out the carpet and put in a laminate floor, painted the walls, switched out the ceiling fan for the one that used to be in our porch, bought a new floor lamp and put our existing couch and tv from our old apartment. We completed this project in September '07.


After


After


After

New Kitchen Shelves

Our Fireplace Room - Before and After

This room had some pretty ugly stuff going on. Fake wood paneling, a 70's fireplace enclosure, flowery window valences, a pinkish paint color on the walls and the columns, and some ugly brass sconces.


Before - The picture above is from the handout they gave to interested buyers. Lovely representation of this room right? Gross!


Before - The musical notes above the piano were left by the previous owners and I got rid of it the first day we were there.


Before


Before - The cutout in the wall is where they used to have a fishtank. The cabinet below the cutout is where the pump for the fishtank was.

---

Here are the after pictures.


After

We decided to paint the paneling a beige color. Someday we'd like to take the paneling down but I think for now the painted effect works. We also darkened up the mantel with some dark stain and removed the fireplace enclosure.



After


After


After


After - This is the view of the dining room from the fireplace room.