five2eight

ikea, the wall, and dogs

2012-02-15T11:39:00.005-06:00

so we did it! a few weekends ago we rented a uhaul trailer, got up at 5am, and drove to chicago to pick up our cabinets.

we had our 4!! carts of boxes ready to be picked up by mid-afternoon. it took us some time to load up the trailer, but we were back home by 9pm. it was a long day, but i was glad we were able to get it all done in one day.

next, we removed the existing upper cabinets. and discovered that the existing wall had a lot of deflection in it. great... we were not planning on removing the drywall on this wall, but i did not feel comfortable hanging our new (much heavier) cabinets on a wall that had so much movement. all of our upper cabinets will be supported off of this wall. plus we needed to do some electrical work to re-arrange outlets, and get ready for the under cabinet lights and range hood. we decided it was best to remove the drywall, re-work the framing, and do the electrical work on the open wall.

i was worried that i would have a hard time covering that window back up after seeing it uncovered. it does bring more natural light in to the kitchen. and it does make the space seem a little bigger. but, the plaster around the wall is in bad shape and would require a lot of work if we wanted to keep the window. i also confirmed that the placement would be difficult to work around with the kitchen layout. i'm not happy about it, but i think i'll be ok to cover it back up. in the end, i think it is going to be more important to have a fully functioning kitchen (window or fridge??), and we do have another window and the back door has a window. plus, the door and window are on the south side so they at let in light all day. we did pull the original trim from the existing window just in case we need it somewhere else in the house.

we were able to access everything we needed for the electrical work, and i re-built the framing in a few areas to strengthen the wall.

i think i'm going to go ahead and add some blocking for the upper cabinets, but we're almost ready to put up new drywall and move on to the cabinets! we left our sink cabinet in place and have been working around it so far, we're hoping we can get the new uppers installed before removing our sink.

meanwhile, our dining room looks like this:

i strangely enjoy putting together ikea cabinets...

cooper has been surprisingly around during this whole process. he normally is afraid of anything different or loud, which means he spends the day upstairs hiding in the bathroom. or outside. but he's been brave and keeps coming down to check on us.

as for murphy, he's a curious little guy, so we have to attach his leash to something in the living room or else he'll be right in the middle of it all. i caught him trying to lick the drill the other day! he keeps sneaking up on to the couch when we're not paying attention. he's technically not supposed to be on the couch, but he looks so cute, we usually forgive him.

that's the update for now. we did find some interesting things written inside the wall once we removed the drywall, but i need to upload the pictures from my camera. let's just say that even though we didn't find a date, we think the kitchen was last remodeled in 1965...

kitchen design - the plan

2012-02-09T10:33:00.002-06:00

now that i've shared the process, i'm back with the final plan. i hesitate to use the word "final" since i'm sure that something will change once we actually start putting things together... but hopefully this is more or less what we'll end up with!

the biggest change that i've made is moving the cabinet space for the microwave. i had previously shown it between the hallway door and the bathroom door. i didn't love it in that location, but the island we had planned on purchasing from ikea was just wide enough that i thought that this was the only location it would fit. in effort to save money, we decided to build our own island using the butcher block top we already own. this means we can modify the size if needed when we rebuild the temporary island that we've been using.

this allowed us to move the microwave shelf to the opposite wall. as you can see, the cabinets here will only be 12" deep. borrowing an idea from chezerbey, i think that we're going to try to build a undercounter microwave shelf with dog food station underneath. right now the dog bowls just get kicked around the kitchen, and we have a giant 5 gallon water jug that takes up space. we're also hoping to build a custom trash pullout (not shown in this image) in one of the cabinets next to the microwave. by doing this configuration, we also gain additional counter space and will most likely keep the open shelves above that we have now to hold cookbooks and other accessories.

we did have to find 2 additional door/drawer fronts for this configuration (you may remember that i bought discontinued fronts from ikea months ago). good news is that i was able to locate what i needed on ebay. bad news is that they were being sold at a much higher price.

what i like about this is that we still have a clear view down the hallway and out the back door (in the plan above bottom left doorway is the hallway, top left is the back door), and there is direct access to the bathroom, which is admittedly awkwardly placed off of the kitchen (doorway on the bottom right).

the only downside to this layout is that we are really pushing the limits with the dimensions in every direction. it fits... on paper... just barely. now we're struggling to find the exact range hood and microwave that will fit into these tight spaces. and i'm still worried that we won't have enough width across the wall of built in cabinets... we're making progress though, and i'm hopeful that it will all work out.

counters take 2

2012-02-06T10:12:00.004-06:00

i'm back for an update on the counter.

i really did not think that picking counters would take this long. when we started we weren't even trying to select a specific slab, i just wanted to know what material we'd be getting so i could pick cabinet paint colors and other finishes... picking a "white" color for the cabinets is hard!

we wanted the marble to work - we performed some tests on the samples that we had of the carrara and the danby marble. the etching wasn't horrible, but we were worried about maintenance issues for future resale. we liked soapstone but were also worried about durability in a kitchen. the local soapstone also had a green tint that we did not care for. we decided to explore other options. mike was open to granite, but i had not found a granite that i liked. we moved on to man made products like quartz. we couldn't agree on color - i liked the more uniform gray quartz, mike liked the ones with more of a pattern.

so then i went to the most expensive counter top place in town. just to see... maybe extra money could buy us the perfect thing? and i saw the green slab of something that i actually really liked. except it was green. it was with the granite, but didn't look like granite. the salesperson informed me it was quartzite. quartzite tends to be much more subtle than most granites. it looked softer to me. and it wasn't all sparkly. i had asked a few places about quartzites at the beginning of our search but no one seemed to have them or have much experience with them. this salesperson didn't have any gray quartzites, but sent me the image below of a slab that she could get from nebraska:

the color is called "super white" - and i loved it. except it was in nebraska. and expensive. so i started over, going back to the biggest granite/marble distributer in town. turns out they had a few super white slabs in stock. i went to go see them a few weeks ago:

the color is perfect in person, it's a really nice earthy gray. but the slabs they had in stock were not as subtle as i would have liked. since we weren't in a hurry to get our countertop, i nicely asked the guy when they were getting another shipment. turns out they were scheduled for another shipment the following week, and he was able to show me this image from the new shipment:

we loved it! we put our name first on the list to get one of the new slabs, and when they came in last week we quickly made an appointment to see the new shipment.

and here it is, our new countertop...

we both love it, and i'm so excited to see it in our kitchen. we went ahead and put a deposit down so that they will hold that specific slab for us. i was also about to bring my paint samples and pick out a "white" for the cabinets, so it was a succesful trip!

the kitchen design

2012-01-22T17:00:00.000-06:00

you'd think, that since i've had so much time to work on the kitchen layout, i would have had this figured out a long time ago. not so much...

in order to see how i finally came to the final design, i thought it would be interesting to see some of the process. and sadly this is only a small portion of the process, i have so many cad plans, sketchup models...

in the beginning my number 1 goal was to expose the window that is currently behind the fridge.

the design above opened up the window and created a galley style kitchen. i decided that the layout was kind of odd in the room, and it really wouldn't be very functional for us since we are a two cook household.

then i looked at a similar layout, only with an island so that we could walk around the entire space. in reality, this design didn't have very much storage and no added counter space.

i gave up on the window. i really really really wanted to have that additional window and natural light, esp. since the existing window is in great shape. but trying to work around the 3 doorways and the additional window was limiting the design. since i couldn't move the doorways, i decided to see what i would gain if i left the window covered. the layout above is similar to what we currently have. an added bonus is that we wouldn't have to do any major plumbing work since i was only slightly shifting the sink and dishwasher.

or maybe white cabinets all the way to the ceiling with a built-in island?

look at all of that storage!

then i combined a few ideas and tried to keep a similar layout to what we have now, only with more cabinets. at this point i also put the design in the ikea kitchen planner and started using standard ikea kitchen sizes. luckily, the standard sizes fit nicely in the space, but it's going to be a tight fit.

this is the design that i took with me on my initial ikea trip.

during that trip i learned that the door style i wanted was discontinued - and 70% off. the store had a limited selection of doors and drawer fronts left. they did not have enough of the small doors for the upper cabinets. so i did some re-design while at the store and come up with the plan below.

the range hood helps to break up with wall of cabinets. i have all of the door and drawer fronts for this design. at the time i thought that this would be the final design, but after thinking about it...

i've already made a few revisions. i think that i have the design finalized now and mike and i will be traveling to chicago soon to get the cabinet boxes.

counters

2012-01-17T10:46:00.005-06:00

before i pick out the paint color (some shade of "white") for the cabinets, i wanted to get a general idea of what type of counter we'll be using. we've spent the last few weekends visiting showrooms, talking to stone fabricators, and getting estimates. when i started this whole process, i wanted marble counters. at some point i talked myself out of marble because of the maintenance requirements. then we went to look at counters, and now i want marble again.

granite is just too new and shiny, i don't think it will look right in our house. i also considered soapstone, and just recently removed it from the list. it is a little darker in color than i'd like, and i've not heard so good things from people who have had it installed. there are some quartz (silestone, cambria) counters that i think are ok, and could work, but i don't get excited about them.i am excited about marble. we were first drawn to carrara, and have actually found it to be less expensive than some of the other options. but some places won't even install it in a kitchen, and this has me worried.

then we saw a few slabs of danby marble. the slab above is mountain white, and below is mont clair. many people have recommended the danby over the carrara for kitchens, we've been told that it doesn't stain as easily and is harder than carrara. on all marble, it seems that the biggest problem is etching, and that a honed finish is recommended because the etch marks will not be as noticeable. luckily, i prefer the honed finish.
i've done research, i've read opinions on blogs and forums, i've talked to "stone experts". but i'm having a hard time getting options from real people who have installed marble in their real kitchen. so i thought i'd ask you all - anyone out there have marble counters? if so, what kind? honed or polished? do you seal your counters? have you had major issues with staining/etching?

i know that the marble will patina. i know it will age. i actually like the character of the material. i just don't want to have to worry about a giant noticable spot forming in the middle of the counter. i like to cook, and the counters will be well used.

any assistance would be appreciated!

a dog's dog

2012-01-05T17:03:00.003-06:00

murphy is a dog's dog. he thinks that cooper is the greatest thing ever. reese and cooper were always people obsessed, so it's fun to see how much murph wants to be around cooper. murphy seems to love us, but cooper is clearly his favorite.

appliances

2012-01-01T11:44:00.000-06:00

the appliances were supposed to be the very last thing we purchased for our kitchen. our plan all along has been to break up this renovation in to smaller, more manageable budgets. having the money available to renovate the entire kitchen seemed overwhelming - so instead we'd thought we'd focus on just the cabinets first. and then work our way through smaller budget goals as we work our way through the kitchen renovation process. we thought we would end with the appliances.

as you know, i already bought just the cabinet door and drawer fronts at ikea on a "kitchen information gathering" trip. meaning, i bought cabinet doors and drawers before finalizing the kitchen layout/plan. not ideal, but so far i've still been able to working within those limits with the design.

the next logical step would be to focus on finalizing the plan and then purchase the cabinet boxes.

a month ago we stopped by best buy so mike could buy a video game. while he was looking at the game options, i wandered over to the appliance area.

we left the store with 2 new appliances. so much for having a plan.

but look, they are so pretty...

samsung 33" refrigerator

samsung hybrid induction electric range

so here's the deal. i had been looking at the samsung fridge for a little while now. while not advertised (and therefore priced) as a counter depth fridge, it is only about 1" deeper than a counter depth fridge. i have looked at many other options, including the kitchenaid that would match our dishwasher. the kitchenaid is about twice the price. counter depth is esp. important in our kitchen because we are so tight on space. i also really wanted a french door fridge. so when i saw the samsung in the clearance section at best buy, i had to take a look. the fridge had been returned by a customer because of a small dent in the door and a very tiny scratch, neither of which are noticable unless you are looking for them. the fridge had been reduced to $900. it was never used.

sitting next to the fridge at the store was a samsung range. it was a discountinued floor model. nothing was wrong with the range, it was priced at $860. the range is an induction hybrid, and after doing some research, both mike and i were excited about the idea of an induction range.

so if you're keeping track, the retail price for both appliances is $3,200. they were marked down to $1,760. just for reference, i had $2,600 set aside in our kitchen budget for the range and fridge, hoping to get the appliances on sale. and most of that budget was for the fridge. the price difference was enough that mike and i started to seriously talk about making the purchase.

so we went to lunch, thought about it, and went back to best buy and told them we'd take both appliances if they would sell them to use for $1,550. we were fully planning on neogiating some with the price, but threw out what we thought was a low offer. and they accepted!

so we paid $1,550 for $3,200 worth of appliances, including free delievery - 48%!! and, we turned around and sold our old, but still functional, range on craigslist for $150, which we put directly back in to the kitchen budget.

everything was delivered right before thanksgiving and so far we are loving the new appliances. the fridge actually keeps things cold! and makes ice! i've noticed that our produce lasts much longer in this fridge, which is an unexpected plus. and the range is amazing - it's much nicer than what we had thought we'd end up with, but the induction cooktop is way cool, we've really been enjoying cooking on it.

hope you all are enjoying friends and families and the holidays. we had a great visit to ohio and have been enjoying relaxing at home the last few days.

more murphy

2011-12-13T08:59:00.002-06:00

just because he's cute and i have to share...

these are from a few weeks ago, he's grown so much!

i wish this one wasn't so blurry, i love how he is standing at the gate. of course now when he does that he is taller than the gate.

playing in the yard with cooper is one of his favorite things.

also blurry, but while in columbus for thanksgiving murphy got to meet our friends' new puppy adora. adora is almost 2 months older than murphy and he's already bigger than she is.

christmas puppy? love it.

he's getting so big!!

i think i'm putting the kitchen updates/thoughts/stress on hold until after christmas... hope you all are enjoying the holidays so far!

murphy

2011-11-21T09:39:00.001-06:00

1- we decided to keep the name murphy.

2- i think he's doubled in size in the last 2 weeks.

3- he likes to bite. a lot. we're trying to work on that, but it's not going very well. anyone have any recommendations? he has plenty of toys and bones, but he still seems to prefer to chew on cooper and people.

4- he and cooper are now best friends, it's really cute. he will follow cooper all over the house, which is nice because you can usually get murphy to come to you by calling to cooper.

5- he is this close to making through the entire night without have to go out. i am impressed with this because he is only 9 weeks old. i thought it would take months to get to this point.

6- he has his first vet appointment tomorrow, we're keeping our fingers crossed that he checks out ok (and that he doesn't bite the vet!)

i also have a few kitchen updates to share, check back later!

cuteness overload

2011-11-09T09:52:00.000-06:00

so yeah... that happened.

the picture above is the photo that had us driving 4.5 hours to tennessee last saturday to "look at" (get) a puppy. there were 3 puppies left when we arrived, and after playing with each of them for a few minutes, we picked out this guy and got back in the car and started home.

the drive home was much more entertaining than the drive down! the puppy did great in the car.

he is a 7 week old golden retriever. we're still working on picking out a name, right now we're leaning towards murphy.

he had been living outside so we were a little worried about the transition to being an indoor dog. so far he's been really good, only a few accidents in the house and he's quickly adapting to crate training.

he does like to chew on things so he needs constant supervision right now. his most favorite thing to chew on his cooper.

as for coop - the first few days with the puppy were hard on cooper. he didn't seem to like the little guy, and refused to acknowledge him when the puppy wanted to play. the only time cooper was nice to the puppy was at night. the puppy will start to cry when we put him in his crate to sleep (which is in our room) and cooper will go over to sleep right next to the crate. being next to cooper seems to comfort murphy and he'll fall asleep.

even though we've been paying extra attention to cooper, i was worried that he was mad at us for bringing the puppy home.

i think we had a turning point last night - after snapping at the puppy for biting his leg a little too hard, both cooper and the puppy seemed to understand their place in the house and i think they might actually be getting along.

cooper started to let the puppy chew on him, making sure to let the puppy know when he was playing too rough.

because really, how could you not love this face?

murphy has been getting along fine with the cats, he sniffs at them but mostly leaves them alone. he's a cuddly puppy and likes to be around us at all times. i swear he's doubled in size since saturday though, he's going to grow fast!

we were both so hesitant to make the decision to get another dog. even though it's only been a few days, we are so glad that we decided to get him. he's very sweet and playful, i think he's a good fit for us.

yeah, i think this is going to work out just fine.

misc. updates

2011-11-02T20:11:00.000-05:00

growing up in a football obsessed city (go buckeyes!), i was a little unsure at first about baseball. the pace of a baseball game is so very different from football. but, the first year we lived in st louis the cardinals won the world series, and mike and i found ourselves really enjoying the game. we usually go to a few games a year and always have a great time.

5 years later, and they did it again! yay cards! so proud of our team, it was exciting to be downtown for the final game and see the celebration.

a friend was in town for a work conference and just happen to have a room in the hotel overlooking the stadium. the photo above was the view from her room!

in other news, mike and i have both been battling a nasty cold. it's been two weeks and i'm just now starting to feel better. we've been spending a lot of time watching movies and lounging on the couch.

i hardly ever get sick, go figure than when i do i'm sick for two weeks. although it's been kind of nice to have an excuse for being lazy :-)

a few of our friends visited a couple of weeks ago. we had so much fun hanging out with them, and they brought their new puppy! mike and i have been thinking about getting another dog, so we were curious to see what cooper would do with the puppy. she was so cute and tiny, i think they were friends by the end of the weekend.

and we did catch them napping together...

i think that it was good for him to have a friend to play with. mike and i have been having many conversations about if/when we should get another dog. we got reese and cooper as puppies (from the same litter) and never regretted having 2 dogs. after reese died, we agreed to wait a while before rushing to get a second dog again. i think we've pretty much decided that if we do get a dog, we want a younger one. but, cooper is a super easy dog, very well behaved and relaxed. i'm a little worried about getting a younger dog that will be more hyper and require a lot more work!

we might be going to look at some golden puppies this weekend, and knowing us, if we decide to go look, we'll probably come home with one....

if we do decide to get a new dog, anyone have any advice about adding a new puppy in to a house with a 7 year old (spoiled) dog and 2 cats??

the kitchen: part 3, the island?

2011-10-16T10:16:00.001-05:00

as we've thought about our kitchen renovation for the last 2 years, we've kept coming back to a few "needs" that have remained unchanged. we would like more countertop space and more functional storage. and i have always thought it would be nice to have a place for people to sit in the kitchen.

i have our house plan in cad and in sketchup, and have been working on a new layout on and off since we bought the house. a few of the designs included a kitchen island. since we have lived with the open kitchen for so long, we weren't sure how we'd like having an island in the middle of the space. a few months ago, i took the ikea butcher block top that we had on the top of our old media cabinet, sanded it down, and spent less than $10 at the hardware store on some 2x2s to make a base. it's not pretty, but i just wanted something that i could put in the center of the kitchen for us to try out.

it's been a couple of months now, and the conclusion? i love have the extra countertop space. it's a little tight, but still workable.

i didn't realize how messy the kitchen was when i took these photos! woops. oh-well, just keeping it real...

hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

the kitchen: part 2

2011-10-05T08:39:00.001-05:00

now that you know what we're starting with, i'll move on to the why.

i'll admit, after typing up that last post and showing the before/now photos of the kitchen, i realized that you may be wondering why we're planning on doing a full gut reno. the last photo doesn't look all that bad... but the kitchen looks way better in the photo than it does in real life. i promise.

also, at some point recently, i decided that i actually like to cook and bake. i'm not saying i'm good at it, but i've found that i really enjoy looking up recipes, chopping vegetables, and preparing meals. mike and i tend to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so it would be nice to have one that is more functional. and prettier :-)

this is our current cabinet situation. while we do have a decent number of cabinets, the layout makes it difficult to organize. because of the corner sink cabinet i cannot reach anything in the last wall cabinet. there is not enough space for pantry items, cooking oils, baking things... we use our basement for overflow kitchen storage. we do not have much counter space, and the counter is stained and chipped, it never looks clean.

as for the actual cabinets - they are falling apart. paint really helped to make them look fresh, but the cabinets were probably a low quality cabinet when they were new... 30+ years ago. the shelves are all warped, some so badly that we can no longer use the shelf. the sink cabinet and the cabinet by the dishwasher have started to deteriorate from moisture. the end panel beside the dishwasher has to be pushed back in to place often or else the countertop starts to fall.

and the appliances - the only thing that works well is the dishwasher, which is the one appliance we replaced when we moved in. i'm honestly surprised that the fridge still keeps things cold, although the ice maker quit a while ago. the stove top only has one temperature - high.

so we are planning on replacing almost everything. we've been thinking about this for a long time and hopefully we will be able to start the process soon. before we made the final decision to replace so many things (and therefore spend the money needed for this type of project), we did discuss our ideas with a local realtor. we are not planning to sell this house right now, but we try to approach every project with re-sale in mind. we have a number in mind for the overall cost, and hopefully, if we can stick to that number (or even better, below that number!) we will be able to get a good portion of the cost back when we do sell. and in the meantime, we'll get to enjoy using the renovated space!

the kitchen: part 1

2011-09-21T19:48:00.001-05:00

so how did we end up with new cabinet doors and drawers? i'll start at the beginning:this is what our kitchen looked like when we moved in 3+ years ago.
lovely, right? mike and i spent a lot of time working on the kitchen in those first few months. we knew that someday we'd want to upgrade just about everything in the kitchen, but we also needed to get the kitchen to a point where it was usable for a few years. we removed the carpet, wallpaper, built-in table, and garbage compactor. we painted the cabinets and the walls. we updated the cabinet hardware and replaced the broken dishwasher. we put down a temporary wood floor. eventually it looked like this:

not perfect, but certainly better than what we started with. we kept the budget low for this project and tried to re-use as much as we could.

last fall, when we installed new hardwood floor throughout the first floor of the house, we decided to go ahead and install the same hardwood continuous into the kitchen.

we were very careful with how we dealt with the floor around the cabinets (it's not actually stapled in some areas) knowing that we'd probably revise the layout with the new kitchen, and we'd need to patch the floor under the existing cabinets.

trees

2011-09-13T19:23:00.002-05:00

on saturday mike played in 3 rugby games.

on sunday i asked him to go with me to costco to buy 5 emerald green arborvitae trees. and then help me plant them.

it's funny how your priorities change as a home owner. when we were looking at our house, one of the big things that we said we wanted to do right away was build a 6' tall wood fence. the house had a chain link fence but we wanted something nicer and something that made our backyard a little more private. then we moved in and started the renovation process. the privacy fence moved further and further down the priority list. and at some point over the last 3 years, it's actually been removed from the list.

on one side of the yard we do have various types of plants (weeds) growing along the fence. for the most part we just let the plants grow naturally and the fence is almost completely covered. on the other side, we have nothing. and that is the side of the yard where we need some type of screening. our neighbors have an above ground pool and several dogs that only live outside.

when we saw the arborvitae at costco a few weeks ago at a great price, we decided to plant a few. trees are a lot less expansive than a new fence.

please disregard the dead grass. and also how the weeds are eating our sidewalk. hmmm... maybe next year we'll work on the grass situation.

happenings

2011-09-12T19:56:00.002-05:00

after not having much to blog about for most of the summer, i'm back and have lots of things to post about! that's the good news.... the bad news is that blogger doesn't seem to be working with my new work computer. and honestly, i did most of my posting on my lunch hour. so now i need to blog at home. my evenings have been pretty fully lately, but i will try to get some updates in soon.

meanwhile, i hope you all have been enjoying the fantastic weather lately! fall is my most favorite season and i'm happy that it's finally here!

so it begins...

2011-09-01T20:27:00.001-05:00

i went to ikea in ohio to look at kitchen cabinet options and get some ideas... and ended up leaving with all of my cabinet doors and drawer fronts.

why? how? what????

the door style that i was thinking of using from ikea was discontinued a few months ago. i assumed i'd use a different style, but after seeing all the doors in person i still liked the discontinued style the best for our house. coincidentally, the ohio store still had some sizes in stock... at 70% off. for the cost savings, i kind of felt like i needed to at least try to make it work even though we had not planned on starting the kitchen renovation just yet.

i only bought the door and drawer fronts, it will probably be several months before we drive up to chicago to buy the cabinet boxes and remaining pieces.

so here's a sneak peak of what i was working on while at ikea:

i still need to take some measurements, draw up exact plans/elevations/etc. but i think i can make it work.

my trainer

2011-08-24T19:53:00.001-05:00

speaking of running... did you know that i now have a personal trainer to help me with running? ha!

let me back up - i am not a runner. never have been, probably never will be. but, i've found that i actually do enjoy running as a form of exercise, especially when i can run outside. when i first started running about 2 years ago i could barely make it down the block. i started going out in the mornings with the dogs, and slowly the 3 of us built up our endurance and distance.

after a few months, mike decided that he wanted to run too and so we started running at night, each taking a dog with us. by then the dogs had already developed very different approaches to running. cooper (our pretty dog) ran like he does everything else - very gracefully and elegantly. he knows he looks good running. and reese... well, reese tried. we often compared reese's movements to eeyore, he was just kind of slow, never in a big hurry. and since i also run ~~like eeyore~~ not so fast, it was kind of obvious that i would run with reese, and mike would run with cooper.

reese was my running buddy - when i thought that i needed to take a break, he was right there with me. i always felt that he thought that we were in it together, pushing ourselves to go further and go faster. we both kind of struggled, but in was ok. meanwhile, mike and cooper where off running miles upon miles at their super fast pace. (and looking good while doing it!)

after reese passed away earlier this year, the first couple of times out running this spring were weird. who got the dog? mike, being the nice husband that he is, seemed to understand that i needed a dog, and i started running with cooper while mike when off on his own.

and this is how i got a personal trainer. after running with me a few times, cooper quickly decided that he didn't like running with me. i am apparently too slow and am cramping his style. how is he supposed to look graceful and pretty when he can only manage to do this awkward run/walk while at my jogging pace? unacceptable. so he has taken it upon himself to "encourage" me to run faster. what does this mean exactly? this is what a typical outing is like:

- i do not get to warm up by walking a block, i do not get to stretch. we must start running the second i hit the bottom step of the porch. if i try to walk, cooper will start to freak out and run around me.

- once we start running, cooper will run out in front of me and yank on the leash, trying to get me to go faster. he's not really constantly pulling as much as he makes these very deliberate movements clearly telling me to go faster.

- if i still will not run at the pace that he would like, he will start to frantically bark at me.

- if he can see mike at any time, he will start whinning and barking at mike to come rescue him.

- if around other people, i tend to get embarrassed because it now appears that i am torturing this poor beautiful dog, because why else would he be all loud and freaking out??

- sometimes, we run in the park. the problem with running in the park is that cooper will try to find other (faster) people to run with instead of me. doesn't matter that he doesn't know them, if they run faster than me (and most people do), he will try to leave me to join them. he will actually turn around and run the other direction if these faster people run past me. he also tries to get their attention by barking at them. and if they are running faster with another dog?? game over. he becomes even more frantic.

- at this point i should note that if he runs with mike none of these things happen. or, if we are going for a walk, he does great! he knows how walk on a leash, he doesn't bark, he is so well behaved the rest of the time.

so what do i do? i start running faster. if i run faster, he doesn't bark at me as much and he doesn't try to leave me for other runners. of course, if i run faster that usually means i need to stop and walk every so often. this seems to be acceptable to cooper, but i only get about 30 seconds before he has decides that i've had enough of a break, and the barking starts all over again. it is really like he's my trainer. he yells at me and makes me feel bad about myself all in effort to keep me moving.

on the plus side, i've managed to cut about 2 minutes off my mile pace.

running thoughts

2011-08-11T09:28:00.004-05:00

yesterday something good happened. something that seemed so minor at first, but it just kept building and building, and left me smiling at the end of the day.

we live in the city, and with that, we get all of the challenges that come with living in a more urban area. when we first moved here, i was so excited about the idea of the city. i was so excited about the people we'd meet. i was looking forward to walking down the street to the local restaurants. i so badly wanted to renovate a house and be part of something. and our house was old! with so much original character! and pink! and it needed me!

lately, the reality of living in the city has started to get to me. in fact one (of many) recent incidents has left me with a hole in the door of my car where the lock was previously located. and, it's been hot. so very very hot. and humid. so very very humid. maybe it has just been the combination of the recent surge in unwanted activity and the heat, but for some reason, the last few weeks i've just felt kind of trapped in the house. but last night.... last night it was only 80*, with a slight breeze, and the humidity was low. so i decided to get out of the house and go for a run outside.

as cooper and i ran up and down our street, i passed people out walking their dogs, and neighbors sitting on their front porches. everyone smiled and waved, a few shouted words of encouragement about running. and i started to remember why i was so excited about living here, in this place. it all started with the people.

there are two kinds of households on our street - the first are the families who have lived here for 50+ years. most of these households are now just older couples, who sit outside on their rocking chairs and listen to the cardinals play baseball on the radio. the second type are the younger families, with their kids riding bikes and playing in the grassy boulevard. these are the people who define our street in the city. these are the people who look out for their neighbors and continue to be optimistic that this can be a good place to live.

i am one of those people and i am excited about living here. and last night i was grateful to my neighbors for helping me remember that.

typical

2011-08-09T20:43:00.002-05:00

the cat stealing the dog's bed. and yes, our cat likes to be upside down.

puerto rico

2011-08-08T09:46:00.004-05:00

are you tired of reading about my vacation yet? sorry for so many posts, i guess i shouldn't have broken it up by days... this will be the last one though, promise!

puerto rico was the departure/arrival port for our cruise. on the last day we had to leave the ship super early in the morning, but we all had afternoon flights home. at the last minute we decided to book one last excursion through the boat. the minimal expense to ride around on a bus tour of the city vs. sitting at the airport for extra hours seemed worth it.

it was so worth it! i didn't know why, but i had no expectations for puerto rico. not bad, not good, i just didn't know what to expect i guess. the city is very beautiful.

our tour included a stop at an old fort, not only was the fort full of interesting history, it also had some amazing views of the city.

and that's it!

i've been working on a few things for the house, i plan to share the details with you all soon. meanwhile, i hope that everyone is enjoying their summer! do you all have the same gross weather that we've been having? i'm so over the "feels like 100+ degree" days, gotta love st louis summers...

st. croix

2011-08-04T20:55:00.002-05:00

we had nothing planned for our stop in st. croix. we had heard that there would be buses that would take you to the other side of the island and to the beach, so that's what we did. got on a bus, drove for maybe 30 mins, and ended up here:

after walking for a few mins along a boardwalk, we saw this:

so we took a boat taxi to the island and spent the afternoon snorkeling, kayaking, and swimming.

not a bad way to spend the last full day of vacation.

not bad at all.

(while kayaking around all of those boats, mike and i decided that we probably should get a large sailboat someday. could you imagine just spending your days sailing around these islands? so nice...)

st. maarten

2011-07-28T09:13:00.008-05:00

st. maarten was our adventure day. well, as adventurous as we get on vacation. we signed up for a bike tour of the city. riding along the boardwalk wasn't so bad (except when you were trying not to hit people and/or cars), but see those hills in the background? yeah... that was difficult.

speaking of difficult, do you know how hard it is to take pictures while riding a bike? this is why i only have pictures at the bottom of the hill, and then again at the top of the hill.

the island was beautiful, we only saw the dutch side, but i think we all agreed that this is an island we'd like to see more of.

we took a break on our way up the hill to take some pictures. it didn't rain while we were in st. maarten, it was just a little cloudy in the morning.

there's our ship, it looks so giant.

can you see the great bay salt pond in the distance?

we biked up to a fort, the view was beautiful.

i would highly recommend the bike tour, our guide was really knowledgable on the history of the city, and we were able to see many different things. after returning our bikes, we took a boat taxi (we could have walked, but a boat taxi just seemed fun) back to the beach. we had lunch on the beach, and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

i had to include the picture below - see the flag? ohio state fans are everywhere :-)

antigua

2011-07-26T13:25:00.004-05:00

on the 4th day of our cruise we were scheduled for a morning kayak and snorkel adventure in antigua. and when we woke up docked in antigua, it was storming. as in lighting, thunder, heavy rain storming. we decided to cancel our shore excursion (which ended up being canceled by the tour company anyway) and wait out the storm. we had a leisurely breakfast on the ship while we waited to see what was going to happen with the weather. after a little while, the thunder and lighting had stopped so we decide to brave the weather and go out on our own. but of course as soon as we left the ship it started raining even harder.

we found a map, and a cab, and had the driver take us to a nearby beach. it rained on and off while we were at the beach, but we still enjoyed walking along the shoreline, some swimming, and had lunch.

in the end we still had a nice time in antigua (hey, even vacation in the rain is still vacation!), but were all happy when it started to clear up towards the end of the day.

st. lucia

2011-07-21T08:38:00.004-05:00

day 3 of the cruise = st lucia. mike and i actually went to st. luica for our honeymoon, so we were excited to go back and see the island. we had signed up for a catamaran tour, sailing down the west coast to the grand pitons and back.

it rained, on and off, for the entire day. we found out it was hurricane season in the carribean, and while the rain and bad weather usually come later in the summer, they were getting some storms the week of our trip. while we were disappointed that we didn't see much of the sun that day, at least the rain wasn't that bad (mostly just sprinkled), and we were on a boat anyway.

the boat tour only had one stop - and it just happen to be in the same bay as the resort that we had stayed at during our honeymoon! we all got off the boat for a quick swim.

this is where we stayed on our honeymoon - ti kaye is the name of the resort, it's not very big but the cabins, staff, and the food were all amazing. i would highly recommend it! it was fun to see it again.

we continued on our tour until we reached the grand pitons. you can see how dark the sky was! after pausing for photos at the pitons, the catamaran turned around and went back up the coast. on the return trip they were able to use the sails.

even with the rain, it was still a great tour. st. lucia is a beautiful island.

next up, antigua!

barbados

2011-07-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

we took a much needed vacation to go on cruise in the caribbean with my family. it was so nice, it was difficult to come back to st louis! esp. since it's been so hot and humid here lately.

the cruise left from puerto rico. the first day was at sea - we spend the day eating, sitting by the pool, eating, more sitting by the pool (i think i took a nap in there somewhere) and then the first formal dinner. it was a very relaxing day, and a nice start to the vacation.

day 2 - barbados! we had signed up for a few shore excursions throughout our trip through the ship. our excursion in barbados was in the afternoon so we were able to spend a few hours in the morning walking around bridgetown, doing some shopping and sight seeing. that afternoon, we took a bus tour of the city that included a brewery tour and tour of a local rum distillery.

the tour guide was really good and we had a fun group.

the tour ended with a stop at the beach. after seeing many other beaches throughout the caribbean on this trip, the one on barbados had the finest, whitest sand. it was a beautiful beach.

next up, st. lucia! also know as the day we began to discover what "hurricane season" means in the caribbean.

woops!

2011-07-12T17:10:00.009-05:00

i thought it had been a while since the last post, i didn't realize it's been a month! we've been keeping busy with summer festivals, bike rides, and i've even been trying to learn how to golf. there has been very little house work so i guess i haven't had much to blog about... and it might be a little while still before we get back into house projects. in the meantime, i will try to do some other posts on what we've been up to, starting with this:

yep, we took a cruise last week. more pictures/details to come!

29, starting off right

2011-06-13T08:56:00.004-05:00

we started the weekend with a food truck round up in tower grove park on friday night,

although we didn't actually get any food from the food trucks because the lines were so long and they started to run out of food! next time we'll have to go earlier....

followed by a beer festival at forest park

beer tasting + giant pretzel + friends = good times

a lazy saturday morning on the couch with coffee while the husband played video games (and i caught up on blogs)

and cooper discovered that the marble tile was nice and cool

we spent the rest of the saturday shopping and finished the day with outdoor movie night at our friends house (empire records and city island if you're wondering)

sunday was my birthday, we finally bought bikes (!!) and rode 15 miles around forest park. it was beautiful. mike made me a delicious birthday dinner complete with a peanut butter jilly's cupcake.

**sorry, no pictures of biking at the park. it had been 10+ years since i'd been on a bike and i was just a little terrified. both hands were needed for biking. i didn't fall though! success!

***i joined instagram, kind of love it. anyone else on it?

the dining room

2011-06-08T08:57:00.004-05:00

now that we've completed the fireplace project, i think that i can finally say that we are done with the dining room.

i don't think that there is a surface in the room that we haven't touched. we started with removing the pink carpet, the wallpaper, and the drapes. we painted the ceiling, the walls, and the radiator. we removed the mirror above the fireplace and patched the wall. we lived with it for a little while and started to find furniture for the room. then we replaced the pink mini blinds and added curtains. we made our own light fixture. we added more furniture, art work, and accessories. we installed new flooring, and finally updated the fireplace.

yeah, it looks just a little different....

chair

2011-06-06T10:44:00.003-05:00

a while ago i bought a chair on craigslist. i'm a little embarrassed to even link to the original post because then you will know just how long this thing sat in my basement, but here it is.yes, it was almost 3 years ago... moving on. so we had this chair, i think i paid maybe $5 for it. after taking it home, i realized that there was a good chance that i would not be able to fix it, which is probably part of the reason why it sat in the basement for so long.

a few months ago my mom generously offered to make some cushions for the chair, and since my sewing skills are lacking, i decided to take her up on the offer. she started working on the cushions, which meant i had to do something about the chair.

the first picture was from the craigslist posting. it may look like the chair was in one piece, but it was not. the back was not really attached, and the legs were really wobbly. i removed the broken chair straps, took the chair apart, and then put it back together with wood glue in every joint. i also added a few screws in places where they would not be noticeable, which helped a lot. then i stained the chair with dark walnut stain, applied some oil to finish it, and stapled some new strapping to the seat frame.

it's now sitting in the corner of our dining room. i sat in it the other night and it didn't fall apart so i'm going to say that our repair work was a success! i had a hard time deciding on the fabric for the cushions, i wasn't sure about the stripes but now that it's done i really like it. i found the pillow the other day at world market, it is gray and yellow so of course i had to get it :-)

fireplace: complete

2011-05-24T09:03:00.004-05:00

as you probably guessed from the last post, we have been working on tiling the rest of the fireplace. we were planning on waiting a little while to start the next project, but we were so so close to being completely finished with the dining room/living room. and then we found the perfect fireplace grate. and then my mom came to visit and wanted to help with a project...

as a reminder, this is what we started with:

the fireplace is obviously non-functioning, but is still a focal point of our dining room. the bricks were not in the best condition and the floor tile was falling apart. when we decided to install the new hardwood floor, we started to also think about what we could do to the fireplace.

we ended up using 8"x24" carrara marble tiles for the hearth and installed the tiles when we worked on the hardwood floor.

we then we simply re-installed the mantel and left it at that.

a couple of months ago, while at our favorite local architectural salvage, we found the perfect fireplace grate. even better, it was a really good price. most of the antique grates that i had found were very ornate (and expensive - most were $300+). i was looking for something more simple so when i found one, and then saw the price tag ($75), i quickly bought it.

in order to install the grate we needed to tile around the rest of the fireplace.

first we built a frame for the backerboard and included a recessed area for the grate. attaching the studs to the crumbling brick was difficult.

next we installed the backerboard and a couple of pieces of scrap wood so that we could later install finish wood pieces on the sides. for some reason the sides of the mantel were hollow and we wanted to box them in so we could have a finished edge for the tile.

next was the fun part - tiling!!

i wanted to use the same cararra marble that we used on the floor, only in a smaller format. i was really excited when i found these 2"x8" tiles. first we installed the sides, and then had to wait a week before installing the rest. you can see how we were laying everything out first in the photo above. some of the tiles were more gray and i wanted to make sure they were evenly mixed in.

to bridge the gap over the area where the grate would go, we had to add a temporary support piece to hold up the tiles while they dried. looks a little strange, but it worked.

a few days later, i painted the recessed area black, we sealed the marble, and then we grouted.

we cut and stained 2 pieces of oak to close off the ends of the mantel. finally, we installed the antique grate. the grate was a little tricky because it actually is 2 pieces. we were able to hold the frame portion in place with some wire and screws, and then slide the grate right in.

final result - i love it. it is exactly what i was hoping for. we left the grate in the same condition as we bought it, so it is not perfect. i really like how the grate and the dark mantel look with the bright tile and the clean lines. i wanted something that was more modern but still went with the style of our house, and i think that the mix of the antique pieces with the format of the tile is a great combination.

and as soon as i clean the dining room, i'll make sure to take a few pictures so that you can see how the fireplaces fits in to the entire room.

misc.

2011-05-17T19:08:00.002-05:00

- in between lots of work (me) and rugby (mike) we've been doing some of this:

followed by some of this:

2 cardinal games in 2 weeks! and they won both games! (sorry for the iphone pics)

- oh, yeah - i finally got an iphone. and i already don't know how i lived so long without it.

- mike won tickets to a concert through work... what concert you ask? only the greatest concert ever! we're going to BON JOVI on sunday. i.can.not.wait!!

- our house turns 100 this year, and we've decided to throw our house a party. plus we said that we would have our house warming party after we fixed the floors... and that was 3 years ago. we're working on the details for the party, but i'm looking forward to spending time with our friends enjoying the house.

- even though we've been really busy, we've managed to find some time to work on a project. here's a preview, the rest of the pictures coming soon..

trouble

2011-05-11T18:15:00.000-05:00

trouble - also known as trevi:

i've written about our cat trevi before. don't let his innocent look in the picture trick you, he's always up to something...

i had to work late tonight, but mike made sure to call me with the latest trouble/trevi story. today, while we were at work, cooper and trevi decided to join forces.

sometimes we will gate cooper upstairs when we are gone during the day. today was one of those days. for whatever reason, cooper is really afraid of the baby gate. this is important to know because he would never try to jump the gate or anything like that. when we gate him in an area, he stays there.

today, cooper ate a loaf of bread.

a loaf of bread that was on top of the refrigerator when we left for work this morning. downstairs on the refrigerator.

are you following this? dog upstairs, bread downstairs, scary gate between.

trevi kind of really likes things in bags. specifially food in crinkly bags. i'm 100% sure that trevi got on top of the fridge, started playing with the loaf of bread, eventually carried it up the stairs, under the babygate, and gave it to cooper.

i can't really blame cooper for eating it, esp. after trevi went through all of the trouble of bringing it to him....

california

2011-04-29T14:43:00.002-05:00

mike and i had decided that instead of buying each other presents for christmas last year, we would take a long weekend trip. we looked into a few options, but quickly decided that we wanted to go to california. san francisco to be exact. my uncle lives there, we thought we would have a great time visiting him and seeing all of the sites. i had gone on a similar trip with my mom and grandma a few years ago, but mike had never been and i knew he would love it.

we went a few weeks ago and had a fantastic time. i knew that we'd have fun, but i was impressed with how much we were able to do/see in only 3.5 days, and yet i still felt like we had a relaxing trip.

we flew in on friday afternoon, which was nice because we had some time on friday to enjoy dinner at my uncle's house and relax after our flight.

on saturday we walked around palo alto and stanford's campus before going into the city for dinner. there is something about the energy on a college campus that i just love.

on sunday we drove up to sonoma for a day/night and were able to take a tour at one of the wineries. i'd never been on a tour before and thought it was so interesting and made me appreciate the wine even more.

monday morning we had a quick drive around downtown sonoma before heading back to san francisco.

but of course we got distracted by a few more wineries along the way. the views were so beautiful, it was hard not to stop!

mike looks extra tall in this photo. or maybe i just look extra short.

once back in san fran, we stopped at the golden gate bridge.

and took a boat out to alcatraz to take a tour.

we did the audio walking tour of alcatraz and we were both super impressed with the tour.

i didn't get a picture, but we also made sure to drive past the full house house before leaving the city. we're such tourists :-)

our plane left on tuesday morning and we were sad to leave, we had such a great time. i can't wait to go back!

bathroom budget

2011-04-14T18:48:00.001-05:00

surprisingly, our bathroom ended up coming in under budget! that never happens, so i thought that i'd share the breakdown with you. plus i like to have these things to reference later. per usual, we were on a tight budget (even more so since this project just sort of evolved from the original floor project). i was hoping to stay under $1k for the entire half bathroom remodel. and here's how we did:

toilet - kohler brand from lowes = $129

sink - american standard brand from lowes = $84

paint - quart of valspar, let me know if you want the color name and i'll look = $13

lights - alabax ceiling and truman sconce, from school house electric = $255

toilet paper holder - grundtal from ikea = $5

towel hook - blecka from ikea = $5

baseboards - from lowes = $26

mirror - made by us, glass and trim from lowes = $28

faucet - from overstock = $150

hardwood floor - ordered with the rest of our flooring, approx = $30

misc. plumbing parts - lowes, approx. = $25

grand total = $750

you can tell where my priorities are... light fixtures and faucets. we already had the trim paint, stain, poly, supplies to finish door, etc. the only other thing that we've bought for the bathroom is the poster. i saw this poster on door sixteen and followed the link to pop chart lab. i really liked the graphics of this poster and thought it would be a fun addition to the bathroom.

as i mentioned in the last post, i'm still looking for a few other bathroom accessories, but i am happy that the renovation portion is complete and that we were able to stick to our budget.

so what have we been doing since we finished with these two big projects? well, a lot of this:

(that's my spot down at the end between cooper and trevi)

and... we also took a vacation! pictures coming soon...

and the bathroom

2011-03-31T14:47:00.008-05:00

we finished the half bath the same day we finished the floors. we still need to get some other accessories, but i'm not really sure what i want so i'm just going to wait and see what i find. keep in mind, this bathroom was bright yellow when we moved in: (picture with previous owner's stuff)

after we moved in we painted the baseboards white, painted the vanity and replaced the hardware, and painted the walls light green.

we also started removing the yellow paint from the back of the door, but ended up hanging the door back up before we completed that project.

we can't forget about the lovely built-in medicine cabinet complete with lights.

the floors in the photo above don't look all that bad, but they were cheap laminate and we wanted to replace them with the same solid hardwood we used in the rest of the house. and since we would need to remove the toilet to replace the floor, we thought that we might as well replace the toilet with a new one (old toilet didn't work very well, and it wasn't white). and if we replaced the toilet, we should probably replace the vanity, and the lights... you know how these things go.

i kind of took a risk with this bathroom, but i am very pleased with how it turned out. like the rest of our projects, i wanted something that complimented the age of our house, but i also wanted something that was a more modern. the dark color might not be for everyone, but i really like it. i think the dark gray is a nice compliment to the (now darker) woodwork, as well as all of the white in the room.

and we finally finished the door! this is a difficult space to take pictures of, sorry that these are so awkward!

i wanted to get a few pictures including the new light fixtures but that didn't really work when the fixtures were turned on. i'm really happy i decided to go with the black fixtures, they are a little unexpected, but i think that's a big reason why i like them so much.

we replaced the vanity with a new pedestal sink that fits perfectly in the sink nook and got a nice simple faucet. we couldn't find a mirror that fit the measurements of the space that we had, so we had this mirror cut to size and made a frame for it.

now we can check one more room off of the "really finished" list. we have several that are still on the "slightly renovated in order to tolerate living here, but still in need of a real renovation someday" list.

5 months later

2011-03-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

and the floors are finally complete.

it was a very slow process, and required a lot more prep work than first anticipated.

plus we are kind of perfectionists when it comes to our house and we wanted to make sure we were taking our time and not cutting any corners.

we ended up using 4 bags of liquid leveler to help level out the existing floor and about 20 sheets of 1/2" osb as underlayment for the new floor.

we installed 18 out of the 19 boxes of hardwood floor that we purchased, approx. 720 square feet of solid hardwood flooring.

it took a lot of careful planning, but we were able to install the new floors so that they are at the same level throughout the house. standing at the front door and seeing the floor continue all the way to the back door makes me happy.

i am really happy with how the new floors look, i think that the color, width, and type are perfect for our house. i am amazed at how different the house feels now - it seems brighter, cleaner, and just more complete. it's hard to believe that we lived with the old floors for so long, with the stains, splinters, and all of the dirt stuck between the boards. it was so nice to finally really clean the first floor of our house on sunday, and to put away the air compressor and tools after 5 months of using our dining table as a work bench.

i think i'm ready to take a little break from house projects and just live in the house for awhile!

behind the wall

2011-03-27T19:54:00.002-05:00

guess what i found? a window! ha, well, i already knew there was a window behind the fridge, but i had no idea what kind of condition the window was in.

(photo looking up)

the window has frosted glass and appears to be in great shape. surprisingly, the woodwork around the window is intact. none of the other doors or window in our kitchen have any type of frame so I was not expecting that.

(photo looking to the left)

unfortunately, it also looks like the wall was only recessed in the area around the window. so while it will be nice to have some extra space around the window, we won't really be able to gain any additional usable space in the kitchen. i have no idea why the wall would bump out in that location, but it looks like it's been there for a while so maybe i should just leave it alone...

meanwhile, while we were working on the house all day saturday, this is what was happening outside:

it should be noted that it was in the 80's in st louis last sunday-tuesday. and then we got 4" of snow on saturday. we've had some strange weather lately.

at least the neighbor kids got to build one last snowman.

i blame the refrigerator

2011-03-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

so the bathroom is done (except for the mirror, which we are in the progress of making, more on that later). but, i was being ambitious over the weekend and as soon as we complete the touch-up painting in the bathroom, i wanted to finish up with the floors in the kitchen. so we moved the fridge and the stove... directly in front of the bathroom door. we can still kind of access the bathroom if we squeeze behind the fridge, but i cannot take any pictures for you all just yet. woops. and, we had to do some floor leveling under the fridge prior to installing the new floor, so it will probably be another week before the floor is done. nothing is ever easy.

now that the fridge is out of the way, i think it might be time for another wall/window exploration... mike is less than excited about putting a hole in the wall, but i'd really like to figure out what is going on with the window behind the fridge (it is covered with drywall, but seems to be in good shape from the outside). plus based on my most recent discovery during the bathroom demo, it appears we might have some additional space in the wall that we could use in the future kitchen remodel. it would be nice to know that before starting any planning. and the fridge will be going back in the same spot for now, so it's not like you'll ever see the hole in the wall...

mike does have rugby practice tonight, i can't make any promises about what may or may not happen to the wall behind the fridge when he's gone.

kidding... kind of.

done with the bathroom floor

2011-03-07T10:21:00.002-06:00

we also installed the new baseboards, we just need to do the final coat of paint.

and installed the toilet! (we also installed the tank, i just forgot to take another picture)

we tried to install the sink but could not get it to sit level. we determined that the sink was not manufactured correctly. we exchanged it yesterday and the second sink appears to be much better. we ran into a few issues with plumbing the sink last night, but hopefully we can finish that up this week after we get some more supplies. we also decided to go ahead and refinish the bathroom door (it was painted yellow, we started striping it a couple of years ago but ended up hanging it back up without finishing it because we were having people over and needed a bathroom door). so now we have a working toilet, but no sink and no door. i'm still considering this to be significant progress though!

the last section of flooring we have to install is the portion that is under the fridge and stove. i guess that next weekend we'll be moving the appliances, we're so close!

bathroom progress

2011-03-01T14:46:00.001-06:00

it took us most of saturday and sunday to go from this:

to this:

i still need to do some touch up on the paint, but i'm really happy with the new wall color. we are so so close to being done with the floor. i was hoping to finish up the floor in the bathroom over the weekend so that we could at least install the toilet, but all of the bathroom prep work is just taking forever. i do not want to talk about how many hours i spent striping the wood shelf/ledge so that i could stain it the darker color. not seen in the picture, we also ran new wires for the sconce, finished the drywall work, painted new baseboard and striped the rest of the wood shelves.

but we're making progress!

ps - we also installed the new washer and dryer on saturday morning and then did 3!!!! loads of laundry in one afternoon. it was amazing.

what tax refund?

2011-02-23T17:00:00.000-06:00

the good news is that this year we actually get a tax refund, unlike last year when we ended up owing a bunch of money. after much debate, we decide to use our tax refund for something super fun and exciting (insert sarcasm) and buy a new washer and dryer.

our current washer and dryer came with the house. and they both work... kind of. the washer has some rust on the inside, so sometimes when doing laundry, you will find rust spots on your clothes. or, if you're lucky enough to make it through the wash cycle, it takes at least 2 full cycles in the dryer (or even 3 for large loads) before the clothes will be dry. and the dryer only likes to dry on high heat. so that means i have a huge amount of work clothes that i can't really put in the dryer. and both machines have actually ripped things before, we've lost a couple of sweatshirts, a few tank tops, and most recently, a new fitted sheet.

keep in mind that i write all of these things like i actually do laundry. but i can't lie, i don't really. mike does most of the laundry in our house. i blame it on the fact that i'm not coordinated enough to carry laundry baskets up and down the stairs (true) and that i'm afraid of the basement (only half true).

even though we were hoping to get a new fridge as our next appliance purchase, the washer/dryer quickly moved up on the list. we found a good deal at lowes over the weekend and decided to go for it. we went with a high efficiency top load washer and matching dryer. hopefully the new set will be much nicer on our clothes!
the best part is that lowes is offering free delivery right now so they can figure out how to get the new set into the basement. they will also be removing our old set and recycling it.

anyone else making any big purchases with their tax refund?

soft paws

2011-02-22T10:54:00.002-06:00

i'm writing about this because i know that a lot of you also have dogs and thought that this information might be helpful to someone else. feel free to skip this post if you don't have pets :-)

sooo.... here's the thing. even though we're still not done installing the new hardwood floors (i know, i know... we're working on it, i promise!), we quickly realized that we had a bit of a situation. you see, even though i had super researched flooring options, the pre-finished floor that we picked ended up being no match for the nails of a 75 pound golden retriever.

the first couple of scratches were no big deal. honestly, it was kind of nice to get rid of some of the "newness" that came with the brand new floor. plus, i'm a big believer that a house is meant to be lived in. i had picked a low gloss floor and that helped to hide some of the scratches, at least they were not as noticable. but then we started to see some pretty big scratches... and i started to panic.

i started to research my options. some people just deal with it and refinish their floors every so often. this is not really an option for us - not only is that expensive, but we also installed a thinner hardwood floor (for cost and installation reasons) and it cannot be sanded/refinished very many times. i was looking for things that we could do now that would help to reduce the amount of scratches. the first thing we did was order another area rug for the entryway, move the runner to the hallway, and add a small rug by the backdoor. these were the big problem areas because these were the high traffic spots. this helped, but it is not enough. so i decided to try out soft paws. soft paws are basically vinyl caps that you glue on to the pet's nails. i know a few people that have soft paws for their cats, but i didn't realize that you could also get them for your dog. we ordered a box just to see if it would help. at the time, we had the 2 dogs and one box was enough for both dogs.

we received the soft paws a few days after reese passed away (it is these kind of things that are still so difficult). we went ahead and put a set on cooper. the application was easy enough, and he didn't really seem to notice them. they are supposed to last 4-6 weeks. it's been about a month since we first put them on cooper, and he's lost about half of them since the first application. we did have to remove 2 a few weeks ago because we had put them on too far and they were bothering him (he was trying to get them off). we went ahead and replaced the ones that fell off. i'm not sure that they will last the 4-6 weeks that the website says, but cooper is also pretty active so i wasn't that surprised that we had to replace some.

so far i have been very happy with the results. since we started with the soft paws about the same time we went from 2 dogs to 1, it's difficult to say if the reduction in scratches is just from the soft paws, but i haven't really noticed any new scratches. we went with the clear caps, and you can barely notice them on the dog. the only downside so far (and it's not even that much of a negative) is that they are loud - cooper "clicks" as he walks around the house.

please focus on the dog and not on the amount of dog fur on the corner of the rug. gross...

i was trying to take a picture of his paws so you could see what the soft paws would look like, but he wasn't sitting still. this is as best i could do. again, focus on the cute dog, not the dog fur covered rug...

so that's my review of the soft paws after one month. this is the point where i should probably write something about talking to your vet before putting soft paws on your pet... we've been happy with them and i plan on continuing to use them. if anyone else out there has any experience with soft paws or other solutions for the hardwood floor scratches, i'd love to hear your thoughts!

bathroom lighting take 2

2011-02-11T10:37:00.000-06:00

why is it so difficult to find inexpensive but nicely designed lighting for bathrooms? i have been looking for months for a simple overhead light and a sconce that i like and can afford for our half bath - and i think that i finally found a good option! i was thinking that the fixtures seemed really familiar and then realized that it is the same combo that anna at door sixteen used in her downstairs bathroom.

i love love love anna's bathroom, so i was excited to see that she used the same fixtures. the only problem is that anna's bathroom is everything that mine is not - large with tall ceilings, has natural light, simple clean finishes and fixtures (matte black penny tiles on the floor!!!), the list could go on and on...

keep in mind that i am working with this:

a few weeks ago i posted this material board, trying to put together a few of the things that we are working with.
yeah, that light above is super expensive. even with my architect discount, still way out of my price range for just a single light. so to recap, we have a similar vanity, new white toilet, the faucet, and the hardwood floor. i'm still trying to talk mike into painting the walls a dark gray. i have the mirror pictured above (from ikea) but it will not fit in the space if we install a sconce beside the mirror. so i might be attempting to diy something similar... we'll see.

but back to the lighting - i found this:

it is the alabax surface light from school house electric.

paired with a truman sconce, also from school house electric.

i was instantly drawn to the alabax fixture in the black porcelain. i know that anna mixed finishes in her bathroom, using the black alabax fixture and the sconce in white porcelain. i think that my bathroom might be too small for that. but i can't decide which color i like better. for some reason i feel like the sconce should be white...

here is a picture of the alabax fixture in white:
so my question to you - would you mix finishes? should i just get them both in white? the ceiling will be painted white and i'm not planing on having anything else black in the room. would the black fixture be too much for such a small space? it's just so pretty....

i gave myself the deadline of today to make a decision, because we need to patch drywall and finish up the floors asap. and in order to patch drywall, i need to know if we're installing a sconce or a light above the mirror... decisions decisions.

bathroom demo and a discovery!

2011-02-01T20:14:00.001-06:00

first, thank you to all of you who left such kind comments on my last post, it really meant a lot to me. we're doing better, and cooper seems to be mostly back to his normal self.

we have actually been pretty busy the last few weeks, and i have several things i wanted to write about. most importantly, we are still making progress on the floors! i swear, this is the never ending project. it's funny that i thought we'd be done in only a few weeks when we started this before thanksgiving. 3 weeks... or 3 months... yeah...

the good news is that we're more than 1/2 way done with the kitchen floor. most of last weekend was spent on bathroom demo so that we can continue the new floor into the half bath, and then finish up with the kitchen floor. we're so close! well, close to being done with the floor, we will still need to put the bathroom back together. it's only been a few days but i really miss having a second bathroom already!

the old toilet came out with no big issues (other than removing a toilet is just gross), but removing the sink took longer than anticipated. the water shut off knobs had been broken off so we had to do some unexpected plumbing work just to remove the sink. it only took one trip to lowes, so i consider that to be a success.

but now we're all ready for the new sink!

in order to replace the valves, we had to remove a section of the drywall (you can see the middle section in the photo above) - and that meant i got to look inside of the wall! it's really sad how excited i get about looking into the wall, but i found a couple of interesting things. of course i took pictures!

looking to the right, you can see that they just left most of the trim for the old stairs. the stairs used to split and go into the entryway and into the kitchen, we already knew that they had closed off the stairs to the kitchen to put in the half bath. we need those trim pieces for our front stair repair, but there's really no way of removing them without doing significant demo/damage to the bathroom. oh-well. i did pull out a piece of newspaper that was stuffed into the debris in the wall, fun fact, it looks like the bathroom was built in 1989.

and this picture is looking to the left. it's difficult to tell what's going on, but the white in the middle is actually a tile wall in the kitchen. this is strange for several reasons - this means that they built a new wall in front of the original kitchen wall. we knew that there is a hidden window behind the fridge (that we are planning on uncovering at some point) but i didn't realize that the wall was built out too. and, based on some difficult measurements and math, i believe that the wall is actually a good 9" in front of the original kitchen wall. i have been working on the new kitchen layout for awhile now, and i could really use another 9" in width! i might need to move the fridge and do some more wall/window exploring at some point... just don't tell mike ;-)

and since i know that you all want a better look at the fantastic wallpaper, here ya go:

reese

2011-01-26T21:50:00.002-06:00

i've had this window open on my computer for days... i'll write a sentence or two, but it never seems to come out the way that i want it. i am struggling to find the right words. this is not an easy post to write, but i feel that i need to write something. perhaps it will help. but i will warn you now that this is going to be a sad one.

if you have been reading my blog for a little while, or if you know us in real life, you probably know how important our pets are to us. we got our 2 dogs and the 2 cats 6.5 years ago, and we consider them to be our family. we love them very much, and we've all been through a lot together.

last wednesday, one of our dogs, reese, passed away very suddenly.

reese was our happy dog, he loved everyone and everything. i can remember the day that we got reese and cooper - there were over a dozen puppies in the litter and right away reese picked out mike. while we looked at and played with all of the puppies, reese just kept following mike around. he was devoted from the very beginning. we ended up taking home 2 puppies that day, and it was one of the best things we've ever done. even though they were very different, reese and cooper were inseparable, and we couldn't have asked for better dogs.

we always referred to reese as our "perfect golden". he had the best smile, and would always give you puppy-dog eyes if he wanted something. he loved belly rubs, peanut butter, and stealing toys away from cooper. even as he got older he would still bounce around the house in excitement when we came home from work, or if we mentioned the word "walk". he gave lots of kisses, and he would sit for hours with his head in your lap, just waiting for you to pet him.

i'd like to think that we gave him a great life. our dogs have gone on vacation with us and always travel with us for family visits. one of the big reasons why we bought our house was because we wanted to give the dogs a yard to play in. when reese had shoulder issues a few years ago (his only prior health problem) we didn't think twice before emptying our savings to pay for his surgery.

we do not know what happened last wednesday, and i don't think we'll ever know for sure. i came home from work and everything was normal. i let the dogs out in the backyard just as mike was arriving home from work. reese was standing on the deck between us. he was fine, and then he was not, and then he was gone. mike and i rushed him to the emergency vet but there was nothing that they could do. they tell us it was probably a heart attack or a blood clot. there were no warnings, no signs. i do take comfort in the fact that mike and i were both there with him, and that i don't think he really suffered.

i am amazed at how much your life can change in just 30 seconds.

the last week has been very difficult, but we're starting to do a little better. our house seems empty, it is strange. we've been trying to keep busy and that helps. cooper has been calm and mellow, i think that he really misses reese. we've been spending extra time with him and giving him extra love. honestly i think that trying to be strong for cooper is also helping me.

we were so lucky and so blessed to have reese in our lives, even if our time with him was cut short. we will always love him, and he will never be forgotten.

thrift store finds

2011-01-17T20:57:00.004-06:00

this post is about 3 weeks late, but it's taken me that long to kind of clean up the house enough that i could take a few pictures. and to clean up the house enough to find my camera...

the day after christmas i went shopping with my mom. i wasn't planning on buying anything because we had limited packing space in the car. but then i found a new store... a vintage store... in the mall.

the store was an interesting concept. they mixed vintage furniture and accessories with some new decor items. anything marked with a "v" on the price tag was vintage. they had a decent collection of mid century furniture. and, the day that i went, everything in the entire store was 50% off. it's probably a good thing i was limited on packing space!! but don't worry, i did buy a few smaller things, i haven't had a chance to take a picture of everything i bought, but here are a few of my favorite finds:

the candlesticks were the first things i picked up. i was already excited about them, and then i spotted the teapot. i may or may not have run across the room. isn't it fantastic??

right now the teapot and candlesticks are on the buffet, along with the gray tray from west elm that my mom got me for christmas. (the white candle holder on the corner of the mantel was also from the same vintage store).

the vintage decanter and the cocktail glasses were a gift from my uncle, and the wine decanter was a gift from my brother-in-law. i don't know if i will keep everything on top of the buffet, but for now it is one of the few clean surfaces in the house.

i bought a few other things at the vintage store, but they are still packed away. i'll post a few more pictures once i start to put the house back together!

and before anyone asks, yes, we are still working on the floors. we didn't get anything done over the weekend (but we did enjoy a lazy weekend!!) - i hope to have more progress photos to post soon.

entryway floors

2011-01-07T08:48:00.002-06:00

we're still working away on the floors, last weekend we were able to finish up the entry.
ugh, that door....

yep, the new toilet is still hanging out by the front door. is it bad that i don't even notice it anymore?

we'll fix the baseboards when we fix the stairs, but it's already a huge improvement from the plywood patch job that we've been living with for the last 2.5 years.

now we just need to finish the kitchen and the bathroom. and then super clean....

downstairs half bath ideas

2011-01-06T17:40:00.003-06:00

i am quickly running out of time to "think" about what new finishes i'd like for the half bath, we would like to be able to put it back together as soon as the floors are done. i need to make some final decisions!

just trying to put my ideas together...

thoughts?

the materials that i already have:
a similar sink
a new white toilet
the mirror from ikea (in a darker color, and i will probably stain differently or paint frame)
the new floors!
i've ordered that faucet

what i need:
lighting (ceiling and wall)
paint color
stain/paint decision on woodwork
accessories

and we have a very small budget. and i have the amazing ability to only like/pick the most expensive lighting...

2010 in review: part 2

2010-12-31T10:55:00.002-06:00

i'll finish up the year in review today with the second half of the year, see part 1 here.

july:

i started off july by taking my third architectural registration exam, and found out a few weeks later that i had passed.

we also looked at hardware options for the buffet, and thought about painting it, again.

we also painted some picture frames white, framed a few of our favorite vacation photos, and hung them in the guest room.

august:

in august my parents found and bought me two bertoia chairs, and we traveled to detroit for our friends' wedding.

and got to spend some time with our bestest friends.

a few weeks after that, we traveled to cincinnati for another wedding, stopping in french lick, indiana along the way for a quick vacation.

we finished up the busy month by finally finishing our thrift store dresser project.

september:

in september i found out that i had passed my 4th architectural registration exam, i am more than half way done! we also started cleaning out and painting our basement, participated in the neighborhood yard sale, and found a great mirror for the entryway.

we also finally finished the buffet.

mike also joined a rugby team and had is first rugby injury the same weekend our friends came to visit.

october:

the bertoia chairs from my parents finally made it to our house, and they look great!

mike ran a half marathon,

we bought new sconces for our room,

and we begin looking for new finishes for our fireplace.

at the end of the month, we decided that it was finally time to order new hardwood flooring for the entire first floor of our house.

and then we started to panic...

november:

the month of november was all about the floors. we started the demo,

started working on leveling the floor,

the flooring arrived and we kept working on leveling,

and installing the underlayment.

then we started to put things back together, starting with tiling the fireplace.

by mid november we were able to start installing the new flooring.

we were able to get most of the new flooring installed in the living room and dining room before taking a break for thanksgiving.

december:

after celebrating thanksgiving with our families, we started working on the floor project again. we continued to level and put down underlayment in the hallway and entry.

we also got our christmas tree and did some decorating (around the construction).

mid month it snowed, and i took a break from working on the floors to play with the dogs.

we begin looking for new toilets, sinks, and finishes for the half bath.

we had to fix our air compressor,

and were able to install new flooring in the hallway, and start the kitchen and entry.

and that's where we are today!

hope you enjoyed the recap, happy new year to you all!

2010 in review: part 1

2010-12-30T11:50:00.000-06:00

over the last few days, a few other bloggers have been posting a recap of the last year. i wanted to do something similar, it's nice to have reminder of what all was accomplished. last year i did a series of "best of" posts, but this year i think that i will break it down by month.

january:
i started off january by finishing up a crochet project that i had been working on - a blanket for the guest room.

we also (finally!) finished the baseboards in the office and installed the curtains that had been in our dining room.

at the end of the month, we debated paint samples and started painting the den.

february:
i debated and debated what to do with the den.

we got a lot of snow, which had me dreaming of maui.

we also worked on one of my favorite projects, a diy light for the dining room.

march:
in march i posted a tutorial on how we made our dining room light fixture, part 1 and part 2.

we custom cut and installed 3 roller blinds

we traveled to chicago for saint patrick's day and to eureka springs for a friends' wedding.

and, i finally started taking my architectural registration exams! i took the first one at the beginning of march, and found out that i had passed only a few weeks later. march was a busy month!

april:
in april we organized our guest room and extra closet... just in time for a visit from my parents.

while visiting, my mom helped me make a cushion for the bench in our entryway

and then my parents helped us finish up our shelf project in the den.

in april i also ran a 5k and traveled to cleveland to visit a good friend.

may:
the weather got nicer, i kept running, and started planting a few flowers outside.

i bought a buffet on craigslist
and and thought about painting it. a lot.

i finished making another blanket for a friend who had a baby.

i spent a lot of time working or studying...

i organized some of my books by color, like a rainbow.

and ended the month with a real rainbow.

june:
in june we did very little work on the house. instead, we traveled to ohio for mike's brother's high school graduation,
looked at some new hardware for the buffet, spent some time at the pool, and i bought myself a new netbook.

i also took and passed my second architectural registration exam.

i think i'll divide this up into 2 posts and do the second half of the year tomorrow. when i started writing this i wasn't sure that i would have enough to break it up by month, but we did a lot at the beginning of the year!

instead of making christmas cookies:

2010-12-21T14:22:00.000-06:00

we kept working on the floor! it's probably for the best since our kitchen doesn't really have a floor right now and also is serving as a holding area for the many floor tools. no one wants contstruction dust in their christmas cookies... don't let this picture trick you though, the progress ends with what you see. we have a few more boards left to install in front of the basement door before the hallways is done, and then we will finish up the entry, and end with the kitchen and half bath. we're getting there... slowly...

the picture above was taken from the entry - it is so so nice to have a continuous floor that runs from the front of the house to the back. please note that we did not install a transition at the kitchen door - we were able to get it to be level and run the floor through. this makes me happy.

in other news, we bought a sink and a toilet on sunday. most people go christmas shopping the few weeks before christmas, we go toilet shopping :-) at least i didn't let mike put the toilet under the tree! it's bad enough we now have a toilet in the entryway.

i wrote a post on sunday about the bathroom sink. we actually had a coupon for lowes that we had to use by sunday, so we went ahead and bought the toilet and the pedestal sink. all of you seemed to like the idea of the pedestal sink, and i liked the price and the fact that i wouldn't have to find/make a vanity.

i still can't find a picture of the sink online, but here is a picture of the picture on the box. yep, that's the best i can do.

it's a simple pedestal, so hopefully it will still look ok with a more modern faucet. i'm going to have to go back and rethink some of the other finishes in the room (lighting, mirror, paint, etc) but i am going to have to make some decisions pretty quickly, hopefully we will be working on the bathroom soon after the first of the year!

maybe i should put a big red bow on the toilet box. you know, since we're decorating around the construction and all.

minor set back part 2

2010-12-20T16:45:00.000-06:00

in addition to our air compressor issue, we ran into another small problem a few weeks ago when installing the floor around the radiator. we were working in the kitchen, and for some reason, we could not get the flooring to slide under the radiator - something was in the way. it is difficult to see under/behind the radiators, but after several mins of trying to reach the object, we determined it was made of metal. and after several more minutes, we decided it was a kitchen knife. it must have fallen behind the radiator at some point and was completely wedged between the radiator, the floor, and the wall. i will not admit to how long we worked on getting the knife out... we could have just left it alone but we would have had to notch the new floor to fit around it. it became almost silly really, we were determine to get it out. finally, success!

i wonder how long it's been there?

and while i'm writing about small things that have taken way to much time in the floor project, let me give you an update on the air compressor. as promised, the part arrived from bostitch mid week. but, it was not as simple as unscrewing the old knob and replacing with the new. we actually had to take the compressor apart to install the new knob. this would have not been a big deal except that we could not figure out how to get the cover off. we ended up having to buy a special socket wrench extender. then, once the cover was off, we still had to take a lot of it apart just to access the piece that needed to be replaced. this required more special tools and a lot of muscle. it took us half a day and many trips to lowes, but we got it working again.

and lastly, here is the other thing that is taking time away from the project: reese.

reese has decided that he does not like the amount of time we've been spending on the floors. he wants attention. he's been super needy lately and will try to sit in your lap whenever you are on the floor - which is often when installing new floors. so of course you have to take a break to play with him for a little while.

it's ok though, he's super cute so i will forgive him.

the bathroom sink

2010-12-19T11:49:00.000-06:00

as part of our floor project, we will be replacing the laminate wood floor that is currently in the downstairs half bath with the same hardwood that we are using throughout the first floor. since we are replacing the floor, we have decided to go ahead and replace the toilet and the sink. when we moved in we painted the vanity white and replaced the hardware, but it is still dated and the faucet doesn't work very well. the toilet is actually off white and i would like a white toilet - it also doesn't work very well. as a reminder, this is what we started with:

and this is how it current looks:

yep, still haven't finished the back of the bathroom door...

sorry, it's difficult to take pictures of such a small room... we will be updated the baseboard to something more substantial when we replace the floor. we are planning on still using white painted baseboards.

the sink is in a little nook, the space is an odd size which has made finding a new sink difficult.

the mirror and lighting will also be replaced.

awhile ago, i found this sink on overstock and have been planning on using it in our bathroom remodel.

i saw this photo on another blog the other day, the sink/vanity very similar to what i had been planning to do in our bathroom. i even have a similar mirror from ikea (our mirror is currently a much lighter brown/orange stain but i would like to stain it to be darker or paint it). i really like the dark wood/white combo and this look would work well with the rest of the house. i have been using this combo in our house already to help offset all of the dark woodwork.

because the bathroom is off of the kitchen, i would like the bathroom to sort of set a standard for the future kitchen aesthetic. one big issue with the sink above is that i would still need some kind of vanity to put it on. and with the odd sized space, it would probably have to be something custom made. i have a few ideas on how to make such a vanity, but i haven't made any final decisions.

but yesterday we were at lowes, and i saw a pedestal sink that is actually the right size to fit into the space. it is not the sink in the picture below (i couldn't find an image online) but it is something similar. the top is rectangular, but the sink at lowes is even more simple.

the pros? this would be easy... as in purchased and done. the overstock sink would still require extra effort to design and make a vanity. the pedestal it is also less expensive. while this is not what i would pick for our forever house, it is a neutral/simple pedestal sink and i could probably work with it. i think i could make it look a little less traditional with a simple, more modern faucet and with the mirror and other accessories.

the cons? it is not what i originally had in mind. and as i mentioned before, i am trying to set a standard with the bathroom remodel for the future kitchen - and while the kitchen design will not be super modern by any means, i think that the pedestal is a little more traditional than what i am planning to do with the kitchen.

i am a little nervous that the overstock sink might not be something that future buyers will like. will it look dated in a few years?

am i just trying to talk myself into the pedestal because i am being lazy and i'm ready to have my house back together?

opinions please! i need help...

minor set back

2010-12-14T08:40:00.002-06:00

are you tired of reading about the floors yet? cause i'm getting tired of working on them... :-)

we were super motivated to make some substantial progress on the floors over the weekend. we were able to (mostly) install the floors around the remaining 2 radiators, as well as work out some of the more complicated transition points between the dining/entry and living/hallway. the complicated part is that these two runs of flooring needed to meet up again in the hallway. we also had a lot of detail cutting to do around doorways. on sunday afternoon we were finally getting to the point where we were starting to be able to install full, uncut boards. this makes the process so much quicker... and then the air compressor broke.

the threads on the pressure regulator knob (at least that is what i've been calling it?) apparently stripped, which means that it cannot be tightened and it will not stay on the compressor tank if there is any kind of air pressure in the tank. if the knob is not on the tank, the tank will not hold air. we cannot install any flooring without the stapler/air compressor.

so now we're taking a forced break on the floor project while we wait for bostitch to send us a replacement part. luckily bostitch has been very helpful about the whole thing and are sending us the part for free, plus they put a "rush" on it since we are mid project. it is supposed to get here this week.

now we can focus on finishing up the christmas shopping and present wrapping, and i might even find some time to make some christmas cookies... anyone have a favorite cookie recipe that they'd like to share? i usually make the same kinds of cookies every year, but i think i might try a few new ones this year!

snow

2010-12-12T08:44:00.002-06:00

we woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. the dogs were excited to go out and play.

they love to roll around in the snow, and always try to eat it. when they come back inside they always leave little puddles around the house as the snow melts off their fur. it's ok though, it's nice to see that they can still act like puppies sometimes.

anyone else have snow?

still here

2010-12-06T11:45:00.002-06:00

yikes, i didn't realize that it had been over 2 weeks since the last post!

the quick update - i was out of town for the entire week of thanksgiving so no progress was made on the floor that week. and then i was super busy with work last week, so again, no floor progress. but now we're back and ready to continue working! i'm very much ready for this project to be done.

once we realized just how long the floor installation was going to take, i contacted the place where we had rented the floor stapler. i was able to work a deal with them and we are now the proud owners of the floor stapler. it really ended up being much more cost effective to not have to worry about the rental fees, plus now we have the flexibilty to work on the floors on our own schedule. we got a discounted price on the stapler because it was "used" and they applied our rental fee towards the purchase price. it ended up working out nicely.

i do have some progress photos to share:

over the weekend we worked on re-installing the mantel. we had installed a new piece of drywall above the mantel way back when because we had to cover up the crumbling plaster after we removed the mirror that was above the fireplace. since we had the edge of the drywall sitting on top of the mantel, we had to shorten the mantel in order to make it fit under the drywall. this seemed easier than having to do any more drywall work. the new tile floor is slightly higher than the old floor. also, please ignore mike's hair in the photo above, and don't make fun of my smiley face blanket... blue and yellow were our high school colors and this was my football game blanket. :-)

we did some minor floor leveling and installed the rest of the osb:

do you like the missing piece of baseboard in the corner of the entry? this was hidden behind furniture when we bought the house so we didn't know that it was missing until closing. actually, the entire baseboard along that wall and below the stained glass window is in horrible shape and needs to be repaired/replaced.

there is still some (hopefully) minimal floor prep left to be done with the kitchen floor and the half bath, but we are now ready to move forward with the floor installation.

we also found time in our busy weekend to buy our christmas tree (i insist on a real tree), do some christmas decorating, and get a good start on our christmas shopping.

please observe the carefully cropped photo of the tree. yes, i decorated around all of the random furniture, boxes of hardwood floor, and large assortment of tools. i will try to post a few more pictures of our decorations once some of the mess is cleared out.

have i mentioned how much i love christmas?

more progress

2010-11-17T08:09:00.002-06:00

on monday we were able to finish the flooring in the living room.

we also finished staining the shoe molding and installed most of the molding in the living room. after doing a price comparision i decided to try to stain unfinished oak molding myself instead of buying the prefinished molding offered by the hardwood floor manufacturer. i feel like i got a good stain match and this saved us some money. we wanted to get this done before moving the larger pieces of furniture back.

at the end of the day on monday we just had a few rows left to do in the dining room, but they are the most complicated because we have another radiator to go around.

last night i had to work late, but mike was able to start installing the floor around the radiator. hopefully tonight we will be able to finish that up and install the rest of the shoe molding in the living room and dining room. and then move some furniture back!

next up, the entry way, kitchen, and 1/2 bath...

progress

2010-11-15T08:45:00.004-06:00

by then end of the day friday, we had the flooring complete around the fireplace:

by the end of saturday we had completed portions of the dining room and living room and had started on the long runs of flooring that go through both rooms. highlight of the day is when the floor in the two rooms actually met up. yay math skills and laser levels.

i do not want to talk about how much time was spent trying to lay the flooring around the radiator...

(it looks good, i didn't purposely try to hide it with the box in the photo) one radiator done, only 3 more to go.

on saturday we also did more floor prep in the living room (liquid leveler and osb) and put grout on the fireplace tiles. note how the tile and the floor are the same level, also glad that worked out. i made a "frame" for the tiles out of the wood flooring, but i guess it's difficult to see in this photo.

we made good progress on sunday, it goes so much faster when we just have to install long runs without many cuts.

i also bought and stained a bunch of shoe molding, i decided that we might as well get that installed behind some of the larger/heavier pieces of furniture before we start putting things back in place.

we'll see how much progress is made today (took the day off of work). i'm hoping to have the flooring done in both of these rooms, and possibly some shoe molding installed.

overall thoughts on this project so far:

- i wish we would have looked into the price of just buying a floor stapler. i have a feeling that when we're done with this, we will have paid more in rental fees than if we would have just bought one ourselves.

- my body hurts. i didn't realize how much hard physical work this would be. i'm getting old.

- i'm excited that the flooring is in, and is looking good, and is in great condition. i think the type, color, and board width look great in the house. i am really happy with that decision. but it is kind of bittersweet... i wish we would have been able to save the original floors. these floors just look so, well, new, and i like the character of old floors in old houses. i'm sure it will make a difference though once the furniture is in and we're not just focusing on the floors. these rooms will finally be done, and i'm looking forward to feeling like the house is actually clean. with the old floors, the house never felt clean to me because of all of the dirt, stains, and wood splinters that we had. it also didn't help that we could see into the basement in several places...

tiling the fireplace

2010-11-10T16:17:00.002-06:00

we're making progress - we tiled the fireplace hearth.
i spent way too much time deciding the perfect layout for the marble tiles.

i discovered that cutting marble tile is a lot more difficult than cutting ceramic tile. the tiles kept breaking. good thing i only had to make a few cuts.

laser levels and chalk lines are you friends when tiling.

we might need to move tiling the rest of the fireplace higher up on our project to-do list...

all we have left to do is grout!

floor prep: part 2

2010-11-07T21:25:00.002-06:00

what i learned today:

- it is easy to get caught up in project planning/supply buying at the hardware store and leave your purse behind on a pile of osb.

- there are still nice people in the world who will find your purse and then look around the store until they find the woman with a cart of osb, and no purse. thank you nice guy in the green striped sweater. you made my day.

- hardwood floor boxes are heavy. next time, we should try to have all of the prep work done before bringing the floor boxes into the house. we've had to move them from room to room multiple times already and i swear that they are just getting heavier.

- liquid leveler is amazing. we should have just started with the liquid leveler and not the floor patch.

- we really under estimated how long it would take us to prep the floor for the underlayment, and then install the underlayment. i was hoping to be mostly done with this by the end of the weekend. we only have the dining room done. but, the dining room is the most complicated room. and we did get the backerboard cut and down and ready for the tile. hopefully we can continue to make progress on the flattening/leveling and the underlayment this week so that we can start to install the flooring next weekend.

- and lastly, a cat, given the chance, will indeed play with a mouse. note to self, stop buying cat toys that look like mice. because it might take a little while to realize that the toy mouse that the cat is playing with is not really a toy...

it's here!

2010-11-05T20:59:00.003-05:00

the floor arrived today! since we ordered it online, it arrived by freight. i have to say, i have been very impressed with this entire process - i had to contact both the store and a few different freight companies (it changed hands a few times to get here) earlier in the week to figure out the delivery day so i could schedule to be off work in advance. everyone was very nice and helpful. the truck was supposed to arrive between 12 and 3 today, but the driver ended up calling me at 9am (i was at work) and said that he would prefer to either do our delivery first or last because the rest of his deliveries for the day were out of town. i ended up leaving work at 12 anyway just to be safe, and he called me several times throughout the afternoon giving me an update on his schedule. he didn't end up at our house until 5:30, but it actually worked out perfectly because mike was home from work by then. originally the plan was that i would have to move all of the boxes of flooring into the house myself (19 boxes at approx. 50 lbs each, um yeah...) because mike doesn't have any extra pto this year. i did help to unload the truck, but i don't think i would have made it unloading all of the boxes on my own. the driver technically isn't supposed to help move the boxes, they are only responsible for curb side delivery. although, the nice driver did tell me that if i had been the only one home he would have helped me get everything at least closer to the house.

one of the boxes had come open in transport and the driver made sure to point this out and write up a claim form for us. it doesn't look like anything is damaged or missing, but i feel better knowing that if we do need to get the box replaced, we shouldn't have any trouble.

i, of course, went ahead and started to lay out some of the floor from the open box just to see what it will look like. while the new hardwood doesn't have the same variation of the existing, i think it will look so nice when it's installed.

the color is a good match, can you spot the new floor in the photo? you can also see our first attempt at floor patch. we actually ended up going back to liquid leveler to fill out the dip. we went to lowes originally to get the liquid leveler but the person working in the flooring department talked us into this floor patch instead. while it is less expensive, we were having a hard time using it to feather out the edge of the osb, so we decided to use liquid leveler instead. we've already put down a couple of bags of it (this photo was taken earlier in the evening) and it is working much better.

by the end of the weekend we hope to be done with the leveling/flattening and potentially even be done with installing the osb underlayment. wish us luck! it is also mike's last home rugby game of the season, so we will need to take a break from floor work for that. hope you all have a good weekend!

floor prep: part 1

2010-11-03T13:41:00.002-05:00

last night we started the floor flattening/leveling process. we put some nails into the floor along the outside edges of the dining room and ran some strings between the nails to see where the floor started to dip. we are using 1/2" osb to build up the floor in the worst spot and will be feathering out the egdes of the osb with floor patch. the floor will still not be perfect, but this should make it good enough to install our underlayment followed by the new hardwood.

and if you're ever looking for a fun game to play with the cat, i highly recommend nailing string to the floor. this will provide hours of entertainment for both you and the cat. i'm pretty sure trevi hates me now.

the demo begins

2010-11-02T16:08:00.000-05:00

over the weekend we started the prep work process. first, we started to move some of our smaller pieces of furniture upstairs and put away some of the misc. decor items. our plan is to just move the larger furniture (table, couch, tv stand) around the first floor as we work on the floor. then we started some demo:

we removed the mantel since it was sitting on the tile. strangly the mantel was only attached with 2 screws that both went into very loose anchors. i think we will be finding a better way to attach it when we reinstall. the tile demo was fairly easy. i actually enjoy demo work...

next up - leveling and making the floor flat(ish). we live in a 99 year old house - let's be real - it is not going to be perfectly level. but, there is s slight dip in the middle of the dining room that is noticeable when you walk through the room. there is also a pretty significant slope at the back of the living room. we are hoping that we can get the floor to be within the recommended tolerance from the floor manufacturer. something that i'm having a hard time with is the difference between "level" and "flat". but we've come up with a complicated grid of strings and are using a 4' level (more as a straight edge and less as a level), and i think we have a plan that just might work. i am hoping to get this done by saturday.

after flattening the floor, we will be installing osb underlayment on top of the original hardwood. we have debated this so many times, but if we want to install the new floor in the same direction as the existing floor (which would be the long way of the room, and is how i want to install it) we need to either remove all of the original hardwood or install an underlayment before installing the new floor. things to consider - we are going to have to work around 4 radiators, the kitchen floor is already built up higher, and we will be living in the house with our pets during this project. due to those reasons, we have decided to go with the underlayment approach. this will also help us even out some of the smaller imperfections before installing the new floor. we hope to have this done by the end of next week.

at the same time, we will also need to do the floor tile at the fireplace. before we tile, we will need to do some prep work to the area under the tile. we will also be removing the birch ply that we put down in our kitchen. (the reason why we have birch ply can be seen here, installation pictures are here and here, and the final pictures are here.) it seems kind of silly to remove something that we spent so much time on just 2 years ago, but removing the birch allows us to install a thinner underlayment throughout the rest of the house because i want the new hardwood floor to run right into the kitchen at the same level. and by the way, the birch ply has not held up at all with the dogs. it scratches so easily and most of the finish has come off at this point. it was a decent/inexpensive temporary solution though, and much better than carpet! since we will be installing the new floor in the kitchen and won't be doing any other kitchen upgrades for awhile yet, we are going to have to be creative with how we install the floor so that we can work around it in the future. lastly, we will be also installing the hardwood in the half bath off of the kitchen so we will be removing the toilet and vanity. good news is that we are just going to replace the toilet and vanity with something new, so we'll have another fun project to work on as soon as we're done with the floors! wait... is it sad that i think installing a new toilet is good news??

the hardwood floors should be here by the end of the week and the tile should be in at the beginning of next week. we will need to let the new floors acclimate to the house. if we can keep on schedule, we're hoping to start installing the new floors next weekend. my father-in-law may be coming out to help with the installation, which would be nice because with mike's work and rugby schedule, there is a good chance i will be on my own at some points during the installation process.

i'm realizing that this is a really long post and probably not at all interesting to most of you. so in conclusion, we will be installing new floors in all of these areas:

floor decisions

2010-10-31T21:11:00.000-05:00

a little bit of background on our floors:

when we bought our house every room had carpet. even the kitchen had carpet. when looking at the house i pulled up a corner of carpet downstairs and saw hardwood floors underneath. they appeared to be in good shape. the first thing we did when we got the house was to go through

and remove all of the carpet - it was really dirty and smelled bad. and the biggest reason? most of the carpet on the first floor was pink.

upstairs we found the hardwood floors to be in good shape. we eventually were able to sand and refinish and they look great. the downstairs floors, not so much. the biggest problem is that they were splintering. we had several hardwood floor experts out to look at the floors and every one had the same opinion - the floors were too thin to sand again, and even if sanded, they were splintering so badly (the top tongue of the tongue and groove flooring was coming off) that they were beyond repair. it is really unfortunate because i feel like the original wood would be beautiful if we could just refinish it. really our only option was to replace the floors.

here is just an example of the condition of our floors. you can see how the splintering is actually now causing the floors to start to separate. this has just gotten worse as we've been walking on the floors for the last 2+ years.

we have had a lot of time to think about and debated all of our options. did we want unfinished or prefinished? could we do it ourselves? do we put hardwood in the kitchen? what do we do around the radiators?

we decided to go with a prefinished oak 2 1/4" wide floor. we picked a gunstock, low gloss finish. we wanted to go with something that looked similar to what we have upstairs and what is existing. we went with a prefinished floor because we want to install it ourselves. installing the floors prefinished will allow us to work around our furniture and live on the floors as soon as they are installed. plus, it seems that the finish on the prefinished floors can actually be more durable than finished in place floors. and with our dogs, we need all of the durability help when can get.

once we had decided on the kind of floor, we went to many different flooring stores including lowes, home depot, and several discount stores to check out all of the options. we kept coming back to a bruce floor. one thing that i really liked about the bruce floor is that it had square edges. most prefinished floors have beveled or eased edges to allow for some installation tolerances between boards. i prefer the smooth look of finished in place floors (they do not need these built in tolerances since they are sanded smooth after installation) - so i was happy to find a prefinished floor that will still have the smooth transitions between boards. we actually found the best price for the bruce floor online. i was nervous about ordering our floors online but the company had great reviews and was highly rated by the better business bureau. the flooring is supposed to be delivered this coming week, i will let you know how the online experience turns out.

we had a busy weekend so we weren't able to get as much done as i had hoped, but i will keep you updated on the progress. hope you all had a happy halloween!

are we crazy?

2010-10-29T09:25:00.001-05:00

early last week mike and i started talking about our downstairs floors. it seems that every few months for the last 2+ years we keep getting to the point where we are this close to making the floor purchase, and then something happens. the dog needs surgery. we have an unexpected car repair. all of our friends get married in the same month in 4 different states. mike has to go to urgent care during the one month ever that we don't have health insurance coverage because he just switched jobs. you know how it goes.

we've been trying to be extra careful with the budget lately and as a result, we found ourselves almost ready to make the floor purchase. and i want the floors to be done so so badly. it's kind of embarrassing to have people over and have to caution them not to walk in certain areas of the dining room. or, to constantly get the heels on my shoes stuck between the separated pieces of floor.

after i wrote the post on the fireplace surround on tuesday, mike and i decide to go to a tile store just to look. we ended up putting down a deposit and ordering tile for the floor in front of the fireplace. it was the most impulsive decision i think i've made about the house yet, but i feel good about it. we realized that if we really wanted to get started on the hardwood floor project, we needed to know what we were doing by the fireplace. the tile shop had 8"x20" format carrara marble tiles. carrara marble is what i had been looking at. since we cannot afford a single slab of marble, i think that the tiles will be a good compromise. they are a step above basic 12x12 and i think will look more purposeful (and not just like we wanted marble but could only afford 12x12). plus, i picked out 2"x8" carrara tiles that i'd like to use for the fireplace surround, and i like that the overall look will be more uniform, just a different scale for the floor vs wall. i think it will also look like a more modern interpretation of what might have been there originally, which will fit in nicely with what we've been doing in the rest of our house.

so to recap:
last week: maybe we should look into this floor thing?
weekend: discussed in length with the in-laws when they were visiting, went to price marble
monday: started to research other fireplace tile options
tuesday: went to tile store, bought tile
wednesday: panic
thursday: decide to just jump in and WE BOUGHT THE HARDWOOD FLOOR!!!!!!! ALL 760 SQUARE FEET OF IT!

AHHH! MORE PANIC!

seriously though, this is the most expensive house purchase yet. and so impulsive (i'm horrible at making decisions). and i'm still freaking out.

oh yeah, and the punch line? this entire thing needs to be done before the first week of december. i am giving us that deadline because christmas is my favorite holiday, i must have a tree, and we always have a christmas party. can't really have a party without floors.

it's getting exciting around here and i will try my best to keep you all updated on the progress. up next, a list of everything we need to do, a tentative schedule, and a little more information about the floor we purchased.

i'm trying to be organized ;-)

fireplace

2010-10-26T16:59:00.003-05:00

so i don't want to jinx it, but it seems like we might actually be really close to purchasing our floors. we will be installing new hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor of our house. unfortunately, our existing hardwood floors are worn and damaged beyond repair. we've only been talking/thinking about this project for the last 2 years, i cannot wait until it is done. part of the final stages of preparation is deciding what we are going to do with the fireplace. right now, it looks like this:

it is obviously no longer a working fireplace, but it is still a focal point of the dining room. the brick wall has been patched a few times and the floor tiles are loose. as part of the new floor project, i would like to start fixing up the fireplace by replacing the floor tiles. i would like to install something that would be flush with the new hardwood floor, which is why i need to figure out what i am using asap. what i really wanted was a thin slab of carrara marble. i went to price this over the weekend and quickly realized that even the discount remnant slabs are way out of my price range. now i am leaning towards carrara marble tiles, probably in 12x12 format. i would like to eventually tile the back of the fireplace with some kind of smaller format tile (perhaps subway tile) and install an antique grate.

for fireplace inspiration, i turned to my favorite source - local real estate listings. this may seem like a strange source, but whenever i am trying to make a decision on the house that could impact resale and/or i am curious what would have been original to the house, i turn to local houses. i found some great images today:

many of our neighbors actually have similar green toned glazed tiles around their fireplaces still. i love the original look, but don't think that i should try to replicate it with new material.

the next two images look like they include a combination of old and newer materials:
(those shelves are kind of fun on either side of the fireplace) - this image has an antique fireplace cover similar to what i've found at local salavage stores. only they only have the surround, not the actual cover. we'd get both.
i like the colors used in this image, the light tones of the floor tile and the surround look nice with the woodwork and the floors. i don't really care for the type of tile they used on the floor, and if i did 12x12 tiles, i'd use a much smaller grout joint.

this is more like what i was thinking for the fireplace surround, again, i like the lighter colors with the woodwork and floors. i really am not a fan of red painted walls...

i think i am going to try to go to a few local tile stores and see what i can find. i will leave you with this image, which you may recognize from the inspiration images i posted awhile ago.

**edit: i guess i should add that i am not trying to replicate what would have been around the fireplace originally, i am trying to find a simple (and inexpensive) solution that still works with the rest of the house. i do like to mix in some new modern items (our light fixtures are a good example) but i do not think the fireplace is where i want to make a big modern statement.

repost: dining room light

2010-10-19T10:54:00.002-05:00

i had a question the other day about my dining room light fixture. i also have not had much time lately to write anything new or interesting for the blog. and i've noticed that i've gotten some new readers (hi new readers!!). so given all of that, i've decided to do a repost today on the dining room light fixture.

reposted from february:

as i mentioned in my last post, (and over the summer in this post) mike and i have been thinking about/working on our dining room light for awhile now. i had it designed in my head, and we actually starting buying parts for it over a year ago... and then everything just sat in our basement. our only excuse was that we weren't sure how to do the electrical portion, and, we were having a hard time finding the last couple of necessary pieces. but friday night we were able to find everything we needed, and we decided to just jump in and see what happened. by the end of sunday night, we had this:

i love how it turned out. love it. and hopefully i can use it as motivation to continue to work on the dining room - we still need to get new blinds (going to ikea in march, can't wait!) and i'd like to get some kind of buffet or other storage furniture for the room. right now the room only has the table, chairs, and large mirror. i also need to get some more art on the walls but i'm having a hard time finding something that does not compete with the painting. oh, and the floors... someday.

for the tutorial, see part 1 and part 2.

8 months later and we are still loving the light fixture. we've gotten a lot of compliments on it when we have visitors. it adds a nice touch of modern to our old house. i do have to dust it every once in awhile because the glass does get a little dusty. the fun part is when you dust it the entire thing always shifts a little and it will look just a little different.

fyi - i also noticed that both z gallerie and west elm have recently starting selling something similar.

i hope to be back posting more regularly soon, thanks for sticking with me!

fall

2010-10-16T14:46:00.003-05:00

last saturday we had the perfect fall morning. mike and i got up, went to starbucks for pumpkin spice lattes (favorite fall drink ever!) and then went to the farmers market. we bought a small bag of the mini donuts from the vendor, and then walked around enjoying our breakfast of coffee and homemade donuts, buying the usual fruits and vegetables. we also got some pumpkins and fresh flowers. i bought white pumpkins from the market last year and i was excited to see that they had them again this year.

i do not typically decorate much for the season (except for christmas of course!) but i do love the put out some pumpkins. lately i've also been trying to have fresh flowers around the house. i've been loving all of the yellow, orange, and dark red flower options lately!

i haven't bought any larger pumpkins for the front porch, i've been trying to decide if i should. i can't remember the last time i carved a pumpkin, but maybe i'll give it a shot this year.

work work work

2010-10-14T09:03:00.002-05:00

all day long...

hi friends! sorry it's been so quite here lately. the project that i have been working on at work is going out to bid next tuesday (translation - i've been working a lot). i've been working on this project for the last 2+ years so i am so happy to see it finally go out.

i'll be back soon, hope you all are having a good week :-)

hinge sconce

2010-10-06T22:50:00.001-05:00

a few weeks ago i finally ordered 2 hinge sconces from cb2. i had found them a few months ago and really wanted to get them for our bedroom.

6+ years ago i bought 2 lamps with paper shades from ikea. when i bought the lamps, i assumed they would be somewhat temporary until i found something i liked better. strangely, these lamps have survived through 4 moves.

the good thing about these lamps is that they give off a soft enough light that i can read at night in bed without bothering mike. the bad thing is that over the last 6 years, trevi had decided that he likes to sometimes eat the paper shades.

while some people might have paid extra for the planetarium effect that the lights had, i didn't really care for it. plus, ever since we decided to use non-matching bedside tables, the fact that the lights were at different heights bothered me. i didn't mind the fact that the tables were at different heights, but i thought it looked strange at night when the lights were on. i thought that the sconces were a good solution.

i ordered the sconces online a couple of weeks ago and they quickly arrived a few days later. when i opened the box i noticed that the connection between the sconce arm and the box that should be mounted to the wall was off. it had not been assembled correctly. i opened the second sconce and found the same thing. they would have been crooked if i would have hung them on the wall. i called customer service and they were really nice, but said that several people have had the same problem. maybe they got a bad batch of sconces? they offered to send replacements, so i gave it a second try. the second pair of sconces arrived equally as quickly (they even shipped them before they had received the first pair back from me), but they still were not quite right. luckily, the second pair was only slightly off and i was able to twist them a little to make them straight. overall, i was happy with the customer service from cb2, but i was/am frustrated with the quality of the sconces. the installation directions were not correct (they tell you to install the bracket vertically when you clearly need to install it horizontally), and i was annoyed that i had to do a little tweaking to make it straight. they are also advertised as having a black finish, and the finish definitely has a slight brown tint. i liked the look of the sconces though and hadn't found anything else i liked better, so i decided to move forward with installation.

(side note, whenever we start getting out tools, cooper gets scared and always runs to hide in the bathroom. for some reason he thinks the bathroom is a safe place. and he always takes his stuffed toy. i don't know what he'll do when we eventually renovate the bathroom!)

we had much better luck with the sconce installation once we disregarded the instructions. who really needs instructions anyway... and i am happy to say that i love the way that they look now that they are installed.

(trevi, on the other hand, always comes running to us when we start getting out tools because he thinks there is a chance we might have the laser level. the laser level is his favorite thing ever.)

(i also just realized that we have 3 different pillow cases on the pillows. yep, just keeping it real...)

i still need to buy the little u-shaped nail cord fasteners to help control the cord issue. but i like the fact that the sconces are just plug in. i think once the cord is attached to the wall and straight, it will look fine.

better, right?

we installed the sconces over the weekend and i am happy to report that they are perfect for night time reading. plus they can be angled away for even more indirect light.

i'm glad that this room in finally starting to come together!

he did it!

2010-10-04T08:47:00.002-05:00

yesterday morning mike ran in his first half marathon! the race was held in st charles, the finish line was near old town st charles along the river.

mike has been training for this half marathon since we ran the 5k back in april.

he ran the 13.1 miles in approx. 2 hours and 8 mins. his official time should be posted some time this week.

our friend erik also ran the half marathon. i am super proud of them both!

i think that mike enjoyed running the race, but now that he's also playing rugby (did you notice the giant bandaid over his eye??), he said that he wants to cut back on the long distance running so he can focus on lifting again.

who knows though, maybe he'll run another one at some point in the future. he's already mentioned that he might sign up for a 10k or two, so i guess he's not totally over the long distance thing :-)

bertoia chairs

2010-10-02T14:22:00.003-05:00

our friends brought out the bertoia chairs when they came to visit last weekend. thanks again to mom and dad, the chairs look great in our dining room.

and once we get new bases for our eames chairs, they will all fit around the table.

that purple shirt really brings out the purple in your eye

2010-09-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

did i mention that mike has joined a rugby team?

on saturday he had his first rugby related injury. it was the 3rd game of the season. he's been coming home from practice all summer with random bruises, and sore muscles, but saturday was the first time that i really questioned why he even wants to play rugby. i am unclear on the details (i was busy trying to understand what was even happening in the game), but i think the short version is that he tried to tackle someone with his head. next thing i know, mike's on the sidelines with a nasty looking split in his head along his eyebrow line. there was lots of blood.

after much debate, we ended up going to urgent care. we had friends visiting from out of town and i felt bad ruining their visit with an urgent care trip. i'm glad that we went though, he ended up getting 9 stitches and by the end of the night his eye was so swollen that i really don't see how the butterfly bandaids we had used to stop the bleeding would have held together.

i have a picture, but i'm just going to go ahead and assume you all would rather have a picture free blog post :-)

he's doing much better now, and the swelling has gone down enough that he can see again, but his eye is a lovely shade of purple. luckily, he was already planning on missing the game this weekend because he is running a half marathon on sunday morning. yes, he's crazy.

and he did wear a purple shirt to work yesterday. it matched his eye.

buffet - done

2010-09-27T12:42:00.004-05:00

so i bought the buffet back in may. and then i had several posts about possible paint colors. i think the latest post on the buffet was asking your opinion about hardware. i am happy to say that the buffet is finally done!

i had decided after much debate that i wanted to try to keep the natural wood finish on the buffet. but the top was in really bad shape - lots of paint, scratches, and the finish was already coming off.

so i spent a lot of time sanding down the top until the finish was removed and most of the stains were gone.

based on a recommendation from one of you, i decided to go ahead and try to use a tung oil finish on the wood - and it worked wonderfully! i think i ended up putting 4 coats on, with a light sanding with fine steel wool between each coat. the top is not perfect, there are still some deep scratches, but i am ok with that. it is an old piece of furniture that has obviously been through a lot. i actually prefer it with some character.

i do want to point out a few other things in this photo.
1. i ended up picking my first choice for the new knobs. many of you commented on that post and actually prefered some of the other options (thank you for the comments!!), but in the end i went with the one that was the most simple. i also liked the chrome finish.
2. we had to cut out the bottom center portion of the buffet because it was sitting on top of the air conditioning vent. we tried to leave it alone but it was blocking too much cool air. we still need to finish the cut edges, but it's not super noticable.
3. did you notice the cocktail shaker?? my uncle sent that to me cause he thought i'd like it! he was right, i love it :-)
4. we also got a new lamp. and by new lamp, i mean i bought a not so good looking super sale lamp from homegoods:

and painted it. sorry for the out of focus picture. the lamp base was baby blue, and has some black marks on it. i thought the shape was fun, so i painted it high gloss white. and then i bought a plain white lampshade instead of the brown shade.

i really like having another piece of furniture in the dining room. the lamp also gives off great light, i've been turning it on at night even though we usually are sitting in the living room. it somehow makes both rooms seem much more warm and inviting.

do i need another one?

2010-09-21T15:47:00.004-05:00

you all may remember a few weeks ago when i posted about how my parents had found/bought 2 white bertoia chairs for me:
the chairs are still in ohio but may be coming out this weekend if i can figure out how to fit 2 into a honda civic. anyway, last week my coworker (the one who owns several chrome bertoia chairs that i had been trying to buy for the last 2 years with no luck) finally offered to sell me his chairs. he actually has 3. i do not need 3 more chairs. i was planning on putting the 2 white chairs from my parents in our dining room, mixing them with my gray eames chairs.**

question is - should i go ahead and buy 1 of his chrome chairs for the den? he would give me a good deal on the price... i ended up putting my old dining table (small table that expands, from ikea) in the den so that i would have a larger work surface. right now i have a random old desk chair at the table. but i could replace the desk chair with a chrome bertoia.... and it could look really nice with my shelves...

maybe another question should be - how many chairs can i own before people start to wonder about me??

**why yes, 2 people do need 8 chairs at their dining room table. in my defense, trevi always seems to get his own chair. plus we have people over for dinner... sometimes.

mirror and yard sale

2010-09-20T12:30:00.002-05:00

i realized i never posted a photo of the mirror that my mom and i found on sale at homegoods:

it's different, but that's why i like it. i was surprised to see something so unique at homegoods. it's hanging in our entryway, the shape looks really nice with our vintage light fixture.

... and i realized that i did not take a photo with the light fixture and the mirror. i really need to put the zoom lens back on the camera. but here's an old photo of our light fixture:
and in case you are wondering, this is what our entryway table actually looks like:

and this is "clean"... those baskets are for shoes and extra bags, and also to hide the fact that we are missing a section of baseboard in that area. and of course we still have our plywood patched floor. someday we will get new floors.... meanwhile i will just try to distract guests with mirrors and lights and shiney things. we just bought that little lamp from ikea, i like to have something that we can leave on at night so that our house is not completely dark. i had a really hard time finding a small lamp that wasn't super ugly. this one is not perfect, but it does the job.

we participated in the neighborhood yard sale on saturday. the garage sale was part of our basement cleanout plan, it was nice to sell many of our unused items and clear out some space in the basement. i was even able to sell some of the light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and misc. items that we've removed from the house while doing the renovations, including this half plastic/half stained glass fruit light fixture:

mike and i had a deal - if i could make enough money at the garage sale to cover the cost of 2 hinge light sconces, i could order them for our bedroom. we did pretty well at the sale so now there are 2 sconces on their way to me! i'm excited!

4/7ths architect

2010-09-15T19:19:00.001-05:00

i found out on saturday that i passed my 4th architectural registration exam - site planning! now i am officially more than half way done.

unfortunately, i don't think i'm going to be able to make my original deadline of being done by the end of the year. realistically i need at least 3 weeks to study for each exam, and i do not want to take one in december because i am always really busy between tgiving and christmas. plus i've already been taking a little break from studying for the last few weeks...

i need to keep the motivation up though, i'm ready to be registered and done!

although, if i took one 3 weeks from now, and then one 3 weeks after that, and then the last one 3 weeks after that, i could potentially be done before thanksgiving. but only if i pass them all on the first try. and had no life.

compromise

2010-09-11T09:52:00.002-05:00

marriage is all about compromise.

i wanted an ohio state flag, mike wanted a michigan flag. this is what we ended up with.

happy saturday everyone, enjoy the weekend!

(go bucks!!!)

happenings

2010-09-09T19:40:00.003-05:00

- many of the projects mentioned in the last post are underway, but i don't have any pictures to show you yet. i could take a picture of what our gross basement looks like with everything piled in the corner so we can work on the other half, but no one really wants to see that. we spent a lot of our labor day weekend working on the basement.

- football started last week and i am so so excited!

- can't remember if i told you all this or not, but mike has decided to join a rugby team. he practiced all summer and they have their first game on sunday. i'm looking forward to seeing him play, but i hope that there will be someone else on the sidelines that can help me figure out what is going on. i'm also hoping that this new hobby does not cause him any injuries, he already comes home from practice with some giant bruises.

- i took my 4th architectural registration exam a few weeks ago and am waiting on the results. i'm quickly losing my motivation to keep taking exams and studying...

- mike's new job is going really well and he seems to be enjoying it so far.

- the weather has been fantastic here lately and we've been grilling out a lot. i'm hoping that this weather stays around for a little while.

anyone have big plans for the weekend? i think we're are going to try to finish up a few house projects (so i have some pictures to share!). our neighbors have also invited us over for a cookout, i'm looking forward to that. we are friendly with our neighbors and always will chat when we see them outside, but this will be the first planned thing that we do with them. i think that there are several families/houses coming, hopefully we will meet some new people!

in 7 weeks

2010-08-30T11:33:00.003-05:00

mike's parents are coming to visit us in 7 weeks. we are super excited, but i am also feeling some pressure. you see, mike's parents have not yet been able to visit us in our house. my parents were actually visiting us when we first looked at this house with our realtor, so they know how far we've come. my parents are able to come visit us enough that i feel that they can see our progress even though there are many things left to do. the "now" is a little more explainable if you know the "before". but since this is mike's parents first visit, i would really like our house to look its best (well, the best that it can). mostly it would just be nice to finish all of our half started projects. lately i seem to be really good at starting something and just not having the time to complete it. typically i work a little better with a deadline...

so with that in mind, over the next 7 weeks, i hope to finish the following projects:

- super clean the basement. it's starting to smell funny and is just really dirty. we are having a garage sale in a few weeks anyway and will need to go through everything for that. i'd like to paint the walls in the basement and possibly paint the floor. we haven't done anything to the basement since we moved in (except fill it with all of our stuff) and it would be nice to just freshen it up. the stairs going down to the basement are bright bright blue, it would also be nice to paint the stairs. we went to lowes over the weekend and bought a random assortment of basement supplies, including some organization containers, commercial strength cleaner, some new insulation, and new ducts so that we can finally properly vent the dryer. exciting, i know.

- finish the buffet. we need to have it done so we can gain the much needed storage space. we've tried to fix the top of the buffet without sanding it, but it just wasn't working. so we're back to sanding, and it is taking forever...

- finish the guest bedroom projects, including finishing up painting the closet. right now we are using the guest bed as a temporary linen closet. which means the cats are loving sleeping on all of the clean towels and sheets, and now i will have to do a bunch of laundry to wash everything again before putting it all away.

- remove the last of the wallpaper in our stairwell, paint, and install our new light fixture. we bought the light fixture months ago and have everything we need... except for a tall ladder. so we need to just go out and rent a ladder and then not be afraid of climbing a ladder over the stairs. this might be mike's job....

i wish that i could add installing the floors downstairs to that list, but i just don't see how that can happen. along with house projects, we also have a lot of other things going on in the next couple of months. plus football is starting, and we can't miss that!

favorite $10 purchase

2010-08-25T08:45:00.002-05:00

awhile ago i was reading one of my favorite blogs, chezerbey, and saw a picture of a clock that they had in their bathroom. i really liked the clock and was excited to see that the clock was from ikea and was only $10.

i have been to ikea several times since and have looked for the clock but could never find it. then it disappeared from ikea's website so i assumed that they no longer were carrying it.

when we went to ikea in cinci, guess what i found?? the clock!

the only working clock on the first floor of the house was the one on the coffee maker, so i'm really excited that i can now know what time it is when i'm in the living room. we had to do a little rearranging, but it is now part of our photo wall:

and, the clock is now back on the ikea website. what do you think? i still can't believe it was only $10!

thrift store find

2010-08-23T14:30:00.003-05:00

i have been waiting to do the final reveal of the dresser in our room until i was able to take some better photos. but after 2 weeks and still not remembering to take photos in the daylight, i give up. plus our room is super messy right now and the trick of only cleaning the area that you're taking a photo of does not work when the photo will include a giant mirror. hello unmade bed... our room is no where near done anyway, i'm sure that the dresser will appear again in better photos in the future.

as i hinted in this post, when my mom and brother were visiting last month we started a few projects around the house. my mom was staying in the guest room and mentioned that the giant armoire that was in the room made it difficult to move around. i completely agreed with her but was hoping she wouldn't notice :-) when we were arranging our existing furniture in this house we ended up not having a good place for the armoire. it is a nice solid piece of furniture and provids a ton of storage, so we decided to try it in the guest room. our reasoning was that we could use it for linens for the 11 months out of the year when no one was in our guest room. this worked out fine, until someone actually tried to stay in the room and had to squeeze past it anytime they wanted to move around in the room. plus, because it was so tall, it didn't even provide a surface for a guest to put their things on. i was not against finding something new for the guest room, but per usual, didn't want to spend much money on it.

mom said she'd help out with the cost, and after looking through craigslist and even considering some of the furniture stores in the area, i decided that we would go thrifting. really, we only take our guests to the best of places.

we went to an area with several stores that i have driven by a few times but had yet to visit. we had no luck at the first couple of stores. then we went to the last store and right away i spotted this:

at which point we reached a problem. you see, the guest room is small. and this dresser is not so small. so that's when i decided that instead of getting a dresser for our guest room, we would be getting a dresser for our bedroom. and the smaller dresser that was in our bedroom would just move the the guest room. problem solved. plus, this dresser would actually work better with the other furniture in our bedroom.

at this point i should tell you that this dresser was actually part of a set. the store had the dresser, a queen size headboard, 2 large nightstands, and a mirror. i seriously thought about buying the entire set, but didn't really have a need for everything else. and i generally don't like rooms with furniture sets. so we talked to the woman at the store and she said she'd sell us just the dresser for $40. and throw in the mirror for free since it went with the dresser. sold.

i should also mentioned that 2 other groups of people also wanted to buy this dresser while we were waiting to load it up, good thing we got there when we did. i know that this campaign style of furniture has been floating around the blogs and while i didn't set out looking for it, i was excited about the find. while i love my other mid-century modern furniture finds, i was hoping to find some other unique pieces that would mix well with the mcm - i didn't want to keep buying the same thing. i thought that this piece, with the brass detailing and cool hardware and clean lines would look nice with our other furniture.

once we brought the dresser home we started to really look at it. overall it was in good condition but the veneer was scratched in a few places on the dresser and the mirror seemed like it had a slightly different finish. and this finish looked strange with the wood tone of the other furniture in our room. so i decided to paint it.

first we took off all of the brass hardware and cleaned and polished it with a brass cleaner we found at lowes. i can't remember the name, but it worked great. once all of the hardware was removed, we sanded, primed, and then painted. i decided to go with a medium gray. i thought about something bright and fun, but in the end, i went with a color that i know i could use anywhere in the house. it's funny, i've been trying to decide for months if i should paint the buffet, and if painted, what color. but for the dresser i decided to paint it and had the color picked out and the paint bought within an hour.

so anyway, not sure why this post turned out to be so long.... here's the before (with the dresser that will now be moved to the guest room):

and the after:

as i mentioned before, our room still needs a lot of work but i'm really happy with out this turned out. i love the gray color with the brass hardware and i think that the gray is a nice addition to the blue color that is already in the room. as always, it's a work in progress...

vacation

2010-08-20T15:18:00.004-05:00

last weekend mike and i had a wedding to go to in cincinnati. once we realized mike was going to be off of work for the week, we started looking into extending our trip to cinci with some kind of quick vacation. we decided to stop for 2 nights in french lick, indiana.

we stayed at the french lick resort, which is a historic hotel. i didn't really know what to expect when we booked it, but the hotel had been recently restored and was really nice.

we had a great time and it was exactly what i needed for a relaxing trip.

we left for french lick (does anyone else find the name funny or is it just me?) wednesday morning and stopping for lunch along the way. we arrived at the resort mid afternoon and spent some time exploring the hotel and the town before grabbing dinner at one of the resorts many restaurants.

on thursday morning we got up to go golfing. actually, mike went golfing and i drove the cart. i had never been on a golf course before, but have been to the driving range a couple of times. i own one golf club :-)

i decided that next time i need to find some more clubs because i want to give it a try. the course was really nice, the only downside was that it was hot. really hot.

see that? we looked at mike's phone when we went back to the car after golfing. feels like 117*? and that was at 11:30 in the morning, it just got worse later in the day.

after golfing we went to the french lick winery for wine tasting and a leisurely lunch. then we spent some time at the pool before heading over to the other resort (there are two historic hotels 1 mile apart owned by the some company) for a nice dinner.

the west baden resort has a beautiful atrium space. i didn't have the right lens on my camera to get a good picture of the entire space.

after a delicious dinner at a restaurant at west baden, we decided to sit in the atrium space and get coffee and dessert.

at night they light up the top of the dome and we really enjoyed spending time sitting in the atrium, watching all of the people.

on friday morning we slept in late and then grabbed a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to french lick to continue on to cinci. we spent the rest of friday and all of saturday with the wedding - one of mike's fraturnity brothers got married and mike was in the wedding.

it was great to be able to see our friends from college, i wish we were able to get together more often. and i loved their bridesmaid dresses, they were perfect for the hot weather!

on sunday we spent a few hours at the ikea in cinci before driving back home.

so that's it! our mini-vacation. i wish we could have taken a long vacation this year but the budget and work would not allow it. at least we got those few days, we had such a great time and i really needed a break, even if only for a little while.

have you met trevi?

2010-08-16T14:43:00.003-05:00

so we have this cat. his name is trevi.

let me tell you a little bit about trevi - when he was a kitten i thought his neediness was cute. he would follow me around my apartment and when he couldn't see me, he'd meow, looking for me. he liked to play fetch and would always bring me random toys so i could play with him. he could do this one trick where he'd jump high up in the air and do back flips trying to catch a string. he was super friendly and loved any kind of attention. all of my friends thought he was the coolest cat ever and would threaten to steal him away.

fast forward 6 years and not much has changed. except now he is a giant cat. and he thinks he is in charge - of everyone, including the dogs. and he seems to lose me in our house, which results in him wandering around meowing as loud as he can (which is really loud) until i respond to him. this will go on and on until he "finds" me. it's like the marco polo game, only no one is a winner.

he also does not like it when we leave him for long weekends away. and to prove this to me, when we arrived home last night after being away for 5 days, he meowed at me. all. night. long. i'm not really sure how he lost me, especially since he was sleeping on my face.

so i'm really excited (sarcasm) that he seems to have a new thing. because for the last few weeks, this is where he has been every morning while i'm getting ready for work. he jumps out of bed when my alarm goes off and runs to the bathroom...

to sit on the back of the the toilet. and meow at me.

what's new?

2010-08-15T20:24:00.003-05:00

i'm sorry that i keep beginning posts on random projects (the guest room, the dresser, the buffet..) and then not finishing them! if it helps any, the projects aren't finished either :-)

besides the normal busy of working and studying, we've also been busy with 2 out of town weddings in the last 3 weeks, a last minute mini-vacation last week, and exciting news - mike is in the process of transitioning into a new job! mike's last day at his old job was a week ago, and he still has another week before he starts his new job. i'm super jealous of his time off!

i'm hoping to have some time over the next few weeks to finish up some of the house projects. i think we are done traveling for a little while, so that will help! i'll also do a post on our trip last week as soon as i download the photos.

hope you all had a great weekend!!

sneak peak

2010-08-09T15:00:00.001-05:00

after much debate, i have decided that i am not going to paint the buffet gray just yet.

why you ask? well reason no. 1, i am just having a hard time committing to painting it. i think that i am going to try to sand the top and see if i can stain it to match. overall the buffet is in great shape, and the color/grain of the wood looks fine with our table. plus we already have gray curtains and gray chairs. if the sanding/staining does not go well i might come back to painting it, but for now, i'm moving forward with leaving it unpainted.

and reason no. 2? i found something else to paint instead. here's a sneak peak:

after photos to be posted soon.

dear friends,

2010-08-07T10:58:00.002-05:00

thank you for last weekend in detroit. jacob and laurie got married! and i am so happy that we were all able to share the weekend with all of you.

the ceremony was filled with friendship and love, it was perfectly fitting.

dear jacob and laurie,

thank you for having so much laughter in your relationship. i know that your marriage will be forever filled with joy.

dear michigan,

what did you expect? we're buckeyes, we had to.

dear husband,

you are cute. orange may be your color.

and dear friends,

thank you for humoring me with the partridge family style photo pose. i still stand behind my statement that the slide was not in danger of breaking.

i miss you, i love you, i can't wait to see you again soon.

-katie

it's like they know me

2010-08-04T20:09:00.003-05:00

i kind of have a thing for chairs. i know, surprise, right? i am getting more selective with the chairs that i bring home because honestly, we are running out of space. and money. and mike said no more chairs. we are only 2 people, i am trying to come to terms with the fact that we do not need a dozen seating options in each room of our house. but, there is a certain chair that i have been keeping a look out for, and that is a bertoia side chair. there is just something about it that i always drawn to, and i've never seen an image of a room with a bertoia chair that i haven't loved. one of my co-workers has 2 that are in storage that i've tried to buy from him many times. i've even considering buying one that is in very bad shape at a nearby antique store just because i was worried i would never find another one (that i could afford). but i was patient, and like most things, figured that if it was meant to be, something would come along.

so imagine my surprise when, over the weekend, i received a call from my mom. it went something like this:

mom: "your dad and i went to this second hand store near the house and saw these weird looking chairs. we thought they might be something you'd like so i wrote down the name."

me (assuming the "weird" would actually be something "weird" and not something i would want): "oh, really? what did they look like?"

mom: "there were these white wire things. the name on the chairs was something like bertoia"

me: silence. long pause... "you found bertoia chairs? are you sure? in the suburbs??"

mom: "yeah, we went home and looked up the name online. the images matched the chairs at the store. they seem like something you'd be in to. kind of like your crazy fiberglass eames chairs."

and a day later, i am now the proud owner of these:

my bertoia chairs! finally! thanks mom and dad, you are the best! i'm even more excited that you found 2!

now i just need to figure out how to get them to st louis...

guest room photo wall

2010-07-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

as soon as i painted the guest room a dark blue, i knew i wanted to hang up a line of photos in white frames to help break up the dark color. the room gets so much natural light that the dark color really isn't a problem during the day, but at night it does start to look a little cave like. i have been planning on buying the frames from ikea and even had them in my cart during our last trip. since i wanted at least 5 of them, the price was quickly adding up (as it often does at ikea) and i couldn't justify the extra $$ at the time. so i never got them.

while at homegoods last friday we spotted a few of these in the sale area:

they had 3 of one style, and 2 of another, but they were approx. the same size and looked very similar. the black frames were really scratched and had paint chipping off of them, but that didn't really matter to me. a couple were $5, and a few were $7. in total they were less than $30 for all 5. once we purchased them we realized that the mattes were actually ivory, not white. we looked at hobby lobby to try to find pre-cut white mattes but they were out. so instead we bought a 79 cent bottle of white acrylic paint and just painted the mattes white - problem solved. for the actual frames, we gave them all a light sanding to remove the chipped paint and smooth a few scratches. but after we primed them and then painted with a high gloss white spray paint, you really do not notice any of the imperfections.

now you can see the pictures from the hallway and i think that it makes the room seem that much more inviting.

we decided to fill the frames with some of our favorite travel photos.

i love what they do for the room, and i love how the white frames and mattes look against the dark walls.

we also have a few other changes that we're making to this room, so stay tuned. the guest room has always been one of my favorite rooms in our house, and these changes are just making me like it even more. maybe we should just use it as our room instead...

weekend projects

2010-07-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

my mom and brother drove out to stl last wednesday to visit us for the week. we had a great time going to a baseball game, the art museum, doing some shopping, and eating a lot of good food! i love the restaurant choices in stl! they left this morning and we miss them already. mom and ad - hope you enjoyed your visit!

so on to the project part - for some reason my family always wants to work on some "project" when they come visit. i guess we're not entertaining enough on our own :-) i had a couple of smaller projects that i've been wanting to work on, so we headed out to homegoods to see what we could come up with. well, one trip to homegoods resulted in a few projects... and also half a day of going to thrift stores. the bad news is that now our house is a mess again because we started working on several different things and nothing is really finished. the good news is that now i have something to blog about!

here's the before of the first project:

this room + a few clearance picture frames + a can of spray paint

i still need to take an after photo, so i'll leave you with that for now.

lumber liquidators?

2010-07-23T11:23:00.005-05:00

question for all of you out there in blog land - has anyone had any experience with prefinished hardwood flooring from lumber liquidators? mike and i stopped by the store over last weekend to check out their flooring options and found a floor that we really liked. we are looking for a mid-tone brown oak floor, in 2 1/4" width. we are trying to stay as true as possible to the existing damaged floor and kind of match what is on the second floor of our house. we took home a sample and i actually think the finish on it might be more durable than the bruce sample we already had (i tried to scratch both with a key and thought the bruce sample was much easier to scratch).

here is the link to the floor, it is casa de colour - lono oak finish. i can find all sorts of reviews about lumber liquidators as a company and they are mostly not good. but honestly, i don't really care about their customer service as much as i care about the quality of the product. and i can't find anything (good or bad) about the quality of the product. i will say that the person who helped us at the store was very nice and helpful, he also knew a lot about the different types of floors and the installation.

a big thing to keep in mind is the cost - we need almost 700 sq ft to do the entire first floor of the house and since we still have some other big/expensive projects left to do, we really need this one to come in as low as possible. but we also don't want to sacrifice quality just for cost, we do have two large dogs that will be running all over this floor so it needs to be durable. finding that balance is difficult sometimes.

let me know if you all have any recommendations!

oh yeah

2010-07-23T10:32:00.002-05:00

i passed my 3rd ARE - only 4 more to go.

i'm over studying and taking tests. i'm ready to be done. i want to have free time so i can work on the house again :-)

distraction

2010-07-18T11:35:00.003-05:00

yesterday i went to lowes to buy a few flowers. i, of course, walked away with a few flowers, plus 6 different knobs to try out on the buffet.

i'm leaning towards this gray color for the paint, so i tried to keep that in mind while looking at the knobs.

starting at the top, we'll call this options a and b

c and d

and e and f.

i'm liking options a, c, and d. mike doesn't like c, but i'll still keep it in the running.

it's raining here today so the plans of studying by the pool are out. i still need to study, but contemplating hardware options and trying to make a final decision on paint color seems like a lot more fun.

i'll take 2 please

2010-07-13T16:33:00.004-05:00

the hinge sconce from cb2 - and I'd almost given up hope in finding sconces for our bedroom. this one is perfect - love the shape and the black color! now i just need to find some room in the budget...

say it isn't so!

2010-07-09T21:43:00.003-05:00

i love love love mad men. it's one of my top favorite shows. ever. i have been counting down the premiere since the last episode last season. joan is back!

so tonight i turn on the tv and get a pop up message from at&t - they are having a dispute with amc and might be dropping that channel next week! what?? only weeks away from the premiere? not cool at&t, not cool at all....

ARE number 3

2010-07-01T19:40:00.002-05:00

i took my 3rd architectural registration exam yesterday morning. this one was programming, planning, and practice. i had heard that there was some overlap of information on the construction documents and the ppp exams so i only gave myself 3 weeks between them.

i thought the ppp exam was... interesting. i have absolutely no idea how i did. like the last exam, the graphics portion seem straight forward and more of a test of following directions and using their strange drafting program. and finishing on time. i think i did ok, unless i made some giant error that i don't know about. the multiple choice questions were all over the place. i felt that most of them had several answers that could have been considered correct, so it was just a matter of picking the one that was the most correct. i don't know how i did with that. there were only a few questions that i had no idea on. for the most part, i feel like i would have done the same on the exam even if i didn't study. the questions were more general and really not that specific to the information that i had studied. this exam has the highest failing rate though, so that's not comforting...

guess i'll see how i did in a few weeks when i get the letter in the mail!

birthday gift

2010-06-28T11:14:00.001-05:00

i finally did it - i bought a netbook!
the samsung that i was looking at before was on sale, so i decided to just go for it. i had narrowed it down to the samsung and an asus. most of the netbooks are basically the same - just a few minor differences with design, color, etc. i did want one with a larger hard drive space and with windows 7, that cut a bunch out of the running. my other big requirement was that the keyboard was easy to use. since netbooks are smaller, i found that a lot of the netbooks were difficult to actually type on. so i went to best buy and practiced typing... the samsung was the clear winner.

plus i liked the color/design of it - the asus was only available in dark red and i didn't really want a dark red computer :-)

i'm excited to have a computer again, no more sitting up in the hot office every time i want to check my email at home!

other than that, the rest of the weekend was spent at the pool and/or studying. hope the rest of you had a slightly more exciting weekend!

wish list

2010-06-25T11:54:00.000-05:00

it's been awhile since i've posted a wish list. my house wish list is an ever changing thing, but here is what i currently have my eye on:kulla light from ikea. we have a mysterious ceiling light plate cover in the den. but there is no switch on the wall. we need to do some investigating to see if there is actually power in the ceiling (and if you're been reading this blog for awhile, you know how well we do when we investigate electricity). if there is power, i'd like to install an overhead light. i love this light from ikea and the black color would go perfectly in the room.i also like these wire baskets from crate and barrel. i can imagine them on the shelves in the den, filled with misc. books and supplies. i am always in need of more storage.

once i have some time again, i'm still planning on working on the buffet. even though it's still a work in progress, that doesn't stop me from thinking about what i can use it for. besides extra storage, i'm also hoping to get some kind of lamp to put on top, as well as some artwork to hang above it. i'd also like a few of these decanters.

i have never bought furniture from urban outfitters, but i keep coming close to purchasing this small table:

for only $60, i think it would be a great addition in our house. problem is, i can't decide where i want to put it. right now i'm leaning towards the living room, but who knows where it would end up. i have several places that could use a small table.

lastly, i've been thinking for awhile now about switching out the green chair in the den with some kind of daybed.

i kind of like this daybed from west elm, but it's kind of expensive and i'm not sure that i love it. the other day i did some quick google image searches and came up with these options:

these are, of course, vintage daybeds that are way way pricey. but now i'm thinking that maybe we can make something. i think i would like it to have a solid back, but not upholstered. that way i can use pillows for a back rest when using it more like a couch, but take them off when i want it to be a bed. how complicated do you think it would be to build one...

this is an old picture, but the daybed would replace this green chair and ottoman, and go along this wall.

construction documents: passed!

2010-06-24T20:31:00.002-05:00

i only took the cds test about two weeks ago, but the results arrived in the mail today. i was not feeling good about the test at all after i took it and was very nervous when i saw the letter in the mailbox today.

i may or may not have started jumping around the living room when i saw "pass" at the top of the letter :-)

2 down, 5 more to go...