Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Living Room Demo

As much as I love reading about Thanksgiving table ideas and awesome food - what I'm really interested in is this demolition we have going on over here. Finished demo I might add. Yesterday morning I had approximately 5 minutes to snap some very horrible pictures before Josh started installing the drywall. Demo included: laying down paper on the floor to protect them (it takes longer than you think), ripping out all the wallpaper, removing all the existing crown molding (to be put back up after the drywall goes in), and removing the door frame for the door we are closing in. All in all, it probably took about 3 hours to demo from start to finish. I took a few wine breaks. And Josh finished my job of stripping the rest of the wallpaper down while I went shopping yesterday. :)

Notice they installed crown over more blue crown molding that goes hand-in-hand with the blue ceiling. 


If you notice a trend with the wallpaper removal, it stopped once I couldn't reach it anymore. In the next picture, that's all the crown molding we took down. Luckily I think only piece got damaged a tiny bit.




The blue ceiling that will soon be a bead board ceiling. In fact, I will be painting individual strips of wood that makes up the bead board all day today.



And this is the wall where our built ins and fireplace will be. Really anxious for this to come to life.


Here's we are now: yesterday Josh got about 3/4 of one wall drywall'ed and all that wallpaper down. Today's plan is that Josh is doing electrical work for the living room - he explained it to me and it didn't make sense so I'm not even going to attempt - then he will continue with the drywall if he has time. I, on the other hand, will be painting bead board till my hand falls off which is usually about after 30 minutes. Breaking is key.

Hopefully I have lots of updates coming for you very soon! If you follow me on Instagram, I usually put a few sneaks :) Hope everyone has a wonderful day preparing for Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for each and every one of you! 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Living Room Inspiration

Living room inspiration is here! I have to say, I don't really have a clear picture for color scheme at the moment. I'm really waiting for that jumping off point. I know sort of what colors I want the walls to be, and I have a clear picture of what needs to go into the room, but as far as accents - not really there yet.

Let's start with what's in the room. In the next picture these are the items that are most likely staying: the rug, chair (there's two of them), sofa, grey and white pillows, garden stool, and probably the bench.


And here's the rest of my inspiration.


Okay, so I'm going for the gray fireplace. All the way up to the top just like that inspiration picture. Except these are the tiles I've chosen for the surround.

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I dream of those little gold sconces at night. I worry they're too matchy-matchy with my existing rug, but we'll see where I end up. I don't envision them above the fireplace, rather on either side of a window or the big doorway that connects the dining room. For the overhead lighting I want something very subdued, can't take away any jazz from my built in wall or sconces.

Right now, I'm learning toward gray, black, and navy accents - and still waiting on another color to pop into my radar. Maybe a light blue?

Did anyone notice the bead board ceiling? Yep, doing that too! Cannot wait to give this room something to smile about. I'll have some demo pictures to share tomorrow! We tackled that yesterday and I'm even more ready than ever to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Have a great Tuesday everybody!!

Monday, November 25, 2013

The Living Room Saga Begins!

So, today begins our living room story. We're declaring an unofficial 6 week challenge on our living room: 1. because I think we can do it 2. because Josh saved his days to take off for the teacher holidays with me. So, we're hoping to have this wrapped up before the end of the year. BUT, since it is the holidays, we'll have lots of parties and family gatherings to attend so it should be fun to see where we end up! And by fun, I mean we better end up finished. :)

We spent this past weekend mapping out plans, pricing out materials, and Josh made some spreadsheets. So today, we are ready to demo and purchase all of our stuff! And this stuff I'm talking about it is: a bunch of wood and pre-made cabinets for our wall of built ins/fireplace mantle combo. We ordered our fireplace and marble tile last night, eek!

Now, here's some before pictures. Here's my disclaimer: I didn't want to pick up because I wanted to show you exactly how we've been living. And, some of these items you see before you will return and some will go goodbye. Well, and I'm lazy. We're about to bring all this stuff out of the room, so why pick up? Right? I'll explain the white walls in a second.


And a view from the other way... into my still glowing dining room.

  
Remember I was talking about my fireplace that I have to have now? Well, meet the wall that it, along with built ins, will soon call home.  That door to the left is going goodbye. We're closing it in. On the other side of that door is a bedroom so that's awkward anyway. Not a hallway to a bedroom, just a bedroom.


Considering there is the front door right there. See the tape on the floor? That's Josh giving me a visual of where the built ins will be. Of course the TV will be the centerpiece. And, I'm not complaining because I'm about as addicted to TV as they come. I just can't live without Bravo.
 

Does it get any uglier? So the story behind the pink walls and the white walls. I'm imagining white walls for this room - or like gray almost white walls - so I needed a mental picture. And the word wall is used very loosely. That's actually the same wallcovering that was in the dining room. So, there's no drywall behind that. Add that step to our list! 


Love my two big windows. 


To top it off, there's no overhead lighting which I hear is pretty typical of 70+ year old houses. So, I have so many details to pick out! My favorite part, of course :) 

So, do you think we can do it?! I'll be back with demo pictures in a day or two, along with my overall vision for the space. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday week!!

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Middle Bedroom Updates/Weekend Glimpse

Seriously, Friday can not come any sooner. This girl is ready for a break! Any other teachers reading that are ready for their holiday?!

Anyway, this past weekend we continued to finish up a bunch of unfinished projects. This made me some kinda happy. We're still lingering on the baseboards in our master bedroom, but those should be complete by tomorrow-ish. Forewarning: these before pictures are disturbing. 





See, I told you. And I lived with that for 8 months. 

Alright so then they started to go in. And then they got caulked and wood puttied and a bunch of other steps that make every process very time consuming. It's so funny, you think - oh we'll put in new baseboards and it'll be so quick and easy (and it is) but then you have to factor in a bunch of steps that you don't even think about and before you know it - poof! the day is over. And don't even get me started on the mess. 



And NOW! 


Remember when I mentioned gas lines last week? Exhibit A. We had to cut a hole our baseboards to accommodate this little guy because Josh said it would be too much to disconnect the gas line. It doesn't bother me too much though. 
Not to mention, all the random holes that had to be patched in the walls. I know, I can't make this stuff up. Like we bought a house that needed some serious TLC. But thank you husband for the new electrical. 



Seriously, those spots up there - outlets. 


And they are all patched and back in place happily. Oh, and surprise! Drop cloth curtains finished!!! Stripes all around. 


And this little humpty dumpty is all put back together again. 


This room still has a long way to go. Right now it makes me yawn. I would much rather walk by it and stop in my tracks. Do other people feel like that about their rooms/houses or am I alone in that? Like I want every single room to be a page out of House Beautiful. And I want it now - thanks Mom :)

Oh, and I posted this on insta over the weekend. Another little jewel of an update. 


I hope everyone had a great Monday and Tuesday! Two more work days for me and I'm off for the holidays!!!! 

xoxo


Friday, November 15, 2013

Dining Room Update?

I know I know. You thought you had seen the last of my dazzling new dining room. But, I just couldn't stop. And probably won't stop until every inch is covered. You may be asking yourself - what was left to do? Well, in my original plans I talked about recovering my chairs. In my reveal photos, that was not done. The problem was that I could not find a fabric that I could commit to. Well, I found and committed.

These were my choices:




And here's what I chose: 



Let's see if notice any difference in the "before" and after. Besides the obvious picture quality. 


And now, no more stark white (very stained) cushions.



Do you like my choice? It was between that and the stripe! 

And then, I took a plain ole boring mirror that was once bronze. Like fake bronze. And spray painted it to match my chandelier. Warning: this picture is laziness at its finest. This is the picture I snapped on my iPhone to send to my Mom. Windex and all.


Don't stare too hard in the background or you will see some joint compound and wood glue next to the cabinets. And some mighty fine wallpaper border. 

TGIF! Have a great weekend everyone! 



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

My New Must Have: A Fireplace

Yep, as if the wainscoting wasn't enough of me to ask, I have now fallen head over heels with the idea of having a fireplace in my new living room. I figure if I can show Josh a picture of wainscoting and he can build it, I can show him this picture and no problemo, right?

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One tiny glitch may be that we have to close in a doorway, put up dry wall, and build the actual built ins. Minor stuff. 

As much as I would like to do that gray fireplace because I LOVE it in that picture, I think that might be a bit much for my space. Not to mention, this will be an electric insert because we have an upstairs and there is no chimney. Sounds much too complicated. I'm going for the look not the heat. It's Louisiana, after all. 

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Source Unknown

Anyone with me on this vision?? I know it would be super helpful to have an actual picture of the wall I'm talking about, but let me paint the picture of whats happening on that pink wallpapered wall right now: a rug is leaned up against it, a leather chair is blocking the doorway, a tv is on the floor (along with wires and cable box), mail from the mail slot, and other random objects. So for now, visualize pretty :)


Monday, November 11, 2013

Back to the small stuff... For now

As much fun as it has been waving my magic wand and giving you a dining room to look at for the past few weeks, it's back to reality friends. We've got so many odd jobs to complete around here, but we're ready to knock them out super fast so we can get on to the living room. It's the little things, right?

For instance, I neglected to tell you about our small bathroom toilet debacle. Because who wants to hear about that when there is wainscoting to build? Well, just so you know, upon tightening something to put the toilet in place, it cracked. Yep, shortly after I showed you my reveal picture here. Womp womp. I saved you all from my disappointment. I've been living for two entire months without a toilet in that bathroom. I know, hard times. Don't fret too much. It's fixed. And by fixed I mean we bought a new toilet and it's finally in. Yep, that was task 1 of the weekend. I'll save you from pictures of that.

Next up, we've got holes in our walls every where. Why? Because when we go out with the old electrical, the new that comes in isn't always the same size. Or, we pull out gas lines. Or, there's just random outlets where they don't need to be so we patch those up and make them vanish. I know, totally boring. Most of them are completely patched and ready for paint.

Next order of business. A margarita. Can you get through the weekend without one?


Then, Josh asked me the million dollar question. What would you like for me to do this weekend? Since we aren't on a jet to Miami like we were at this time last year, I guess I will have to settle for my answer of "baseboards". And baseboard he did. Every room in this old house has dis-gusting baseboards. Like the kind with surface mold. More on that later this week. We're hoping to get our bedroom and our middle bedroom aka the guest bedroom done this week. 

It was a gorgeous day here yesterday. So I embraced the outdoors for a bit. Did a little walking and some satsuma picking. Hoping to have a positive, fun-filled Vitamin C week. 


Oh, and maybe I'll FINALLY get around to painting my other drop cloth curtain. Why is it that some projects are just so hard to finish? Happy Monday friends!



 
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