Habitat Restore finds

I recently dropped into our local Habitat Restore to see if there was anything interesting I could pick up for a dime.  It's always hit or miss.  This time I found a cute little table that could use a facelift and an abstract art project.  The table below was marked $35, but I talked them into taking $20.  It's solid wood and an improvement over one I saw at Target for $79, which was the least expensive little one I could find.

So my Habitat bargains before:

And my $2 framed abstract - a bit rough but hey it was only $2 and framed!

And after some elbow grease and a couple of cans of black spray paint, the afters:

My $2 painting looks good in the TV room and serves as a nice pop of color!

(there's a bit of a glare on the painting due to the flash-

sorry, still working on my camera skills)

Closet Challenged!

Don't die of shock that I actually am posting twice in 2 days - rare for me I know.  But I had been thinking about something that I wanted to share with all my closet whore friends......you all know who you are!!

When I moved into this reno project, I knew that closet space would be something I would have to adjust to.  A couple of shots of my old closet (not as tidy as it could have been when I took these shots):

One whole side just for shoes and purses!

Then the shift to the 1950's house with teeny-tiny closets in most of the BRs.  I moved into a closet space that was 3' deep and not even 5' long and had 1 bar for clothing.  Obvious my 10 wardrobe boxes were not going to be accommodated :)  So, I got all motivated to purge, purge, purge - called the closet company and had them come out and build in 2 closets (one is in the spare BR).  Then I got even more inspired to continue the purge, when I watched some organizational maniac on Nate say that most people really only wear about 25 basic things over and over.  After thinking about it, I went to my closet/s and pulled out what I typically wear and realized the maniac was right.  I do tend to go to the same favorites - basics mostly with a few zips of color.  So just for the hell of it, I thought I would show you the closet that serves me now:

Since the spare BR now also has built-ins,  I use that as well, but honestly almost everything I need is in this one confined space.  In fairness, I must admit that I also have a large dresser that houses quite a bit too.  I also realize that there are more than 25 items in here - but a huge downsize when you figure that I started with 10 wardrobe boxes filled to the brim.

The plan is that when we renovate the 2 small BR's into 1 Master - there will be a much better closet system and closet man will incorporate both of these built in systems into the new closet area.  But the moral of the story is that teeny-tiny closets forced me to purge huge amounts of clothes, shoes and bags that I rarely used. 

And for all my friends who are true closet whores - and I won't name names here (smile), be grateful that you can continue to hoard those clothes in your HUGE closets.  I only did this because I was forced to!!



A little tweaking and now I have a desk

I wanted to share a little tweaking I did today.  After sitting at the DR table or with a laptop on my lap (while watching The Voice) - I decided that I wanted my own designated desk space.  The old secretary in the LR didn't give me enough space to spread out, so it really serves as more of a paper storage area.  Fast forward, to a discussion I recently had with my ex.  We have a deal that all furniture split up during the split would be offered to the other, should we ever want to part with it.  Turns out, he offered up a desk we once had in our former life together and I found the perfect place to put it. 

My tweak to the TV room, now has a desk facing the golf course and I love the view.  I shot of the true before:

Then after the room re-do:

And now after the "tweaking" done today to make space for the new desk:

The desk overlooks the golf course, so I can easily day-dream about improving my golf game

and while I really wanted my much loved orange lamp on the desk - the scale was wrong...

So I did the change up on the lamps and happily found the orange lamp a new space.

I'll close by saying a little tweaking is good for the soul..... I'm happy to have a new place for my laptop, with a view that allows me to dream of becoming a better golfer.

Black and Yellow - A Bath Update

First I should say that this is the bathroom that we plan to gut and turn into a master bath, once we do the large master bed/bath area.  This will be a big project, as we plan to take 2 small BR's, a hall, this bath space and steal a bit of closet space from another BR.  I have no idea when funding will be available to do this rather large scale project - unless I win the lotto :)

So, I decided that until we take on the Master Bed/Bath gut job, I would spiff up the little bath so that it looked a tad bit more cheerful.  Here is the before shot of the little bath, before I began.

Black and yellow and straight out of the 1950's!

Don't you just love the lovely mirror and florescent lighting?

Since this space is slated to be gutted, I decided to TRY not to spend more than $100.

I have been inspired by stripes lately and had never done them before, so I thought hmmmm....this might be a good time to give it a go.  After prepping the ceilings and walls, which were in really rough shape and needed to be scrapped and sanded, I thought - shit, with all this prep work just to get the walls smooth am I really inspired to put more time into this little space.  so, I closed the door and took a breather for a couple days.

This is what I saw everytime I opened that door:

So after a couple of days, I finally mustered up the energy to continue with black and white horizontal stripes.  My thought was that it might look like a prison outfit (although I think prisoners these days are more hip and wear orange)....but if it looked like shit when I was done, I thought paint is cheap....all I have to do is repaint it.

After painting the room a fairly bright white in a flat, I purchased a quart of off the shelf black

"flat" paint for the horizontal stripes.  After reading that Frog Tape was worth the extra money, I opted to spring for it instead of using the blue painter's tape.  Smart move and thanks to whoever the blogger was who made the recommendation.  Measured and taped, only to find that I mis-measured a corner and when I got to the end...where all the lines are ideally supposed to connect - mine did NOT.  Grrrrr! Now I will admit this was the second time I started thinking - really, do you really want to do this?  After a few not so nice words, I ripped the tape off where I had boobed it up and taped again.  First coat of black "flat" paint goes up.  The next morning, I walk in to find that it's not really flat paint, more of an eggshell and looked shiney against the flat white.  I knew it would always bug me, so I rummaged around and found a can of black chalkboard paint.  Second coat went up in chalkboard paint and black stripes were now flat black.

A during shot of the progress:

Ok, finally the finished result. 

A better shot of the stripes:

For the few little touch ups needed - guess what I used???

White Out worked like a charm....

and ta-dahhhhhhh.....

I love my black and white horizontal stripes, the update mirror and light fixture.

Cost breakdown, white paint $30 $15, (but enough left to paint the other small bath - so that really makes it $15), quart of black paint $8., frog tape $5., mirror HD special $40, Overstock light fixture $60.  Shower curtain and monogramed towels free - a gift from my sister who had purchased the shower curtain from Ballards and never used it.  Lucky for me both of our last names begin with "B".  So, ok I think I spent $128 total, which was pretty darn close to my $100 budget.  I'm happy with the damn stripes, but who new painting 3 bold stripes would be such a pain in the ass!  Truth is I ordered a stencil to try in the other bath - yes, if the 3 stripes were a total pain, I may just shoot myself with the stencil project :)  Stay tuned!

Back at it ...

Wondering why you have not heard a peep out of me?  OK, a clue or 2.

Dreaming of a new Parisian flat

Loving all the "fleurs"

Why don't we have small flower shoppes with reasonably priced flowers in the US???

Picking out a ton of cheese to go will ALL the wine consumed was an absolute must!

Seeing some of the sights,

Eating and drinking our way through the city,

and did I mention dreaming of one day buying a place in Paris???

Hey, a woman can dream!

Anyway, I'm back to my real world and think I have almost adjusted to the time change - so let the next DIY project be finished.  Close to having a little something to post....just waiting for the electrician to come hang my new light fixture - or find a man with good electrical skills :)

The Living Room - Before and After

My apologies for it taking me so long for this post to finally appear.  Suffice it to say, I have been technically challenged.  First with camera issues (solved by purchasing my new Nikon) and then by a laptop that died a slow death.  When it rains it pours....so off to purchase a new laptop that I am now adjusting to.  Trying not to be too sad about some of the files lost but not having everything backed up and moving on.

As promised to YH - finally a post of the reveal of the LR.  Hurray!  Odd but when rooms come together over time, you often forget how bad they looked when you begin. I give you a couple of before shots, just so you can appreciate how far it's come.

The day I first saw the room - it looked like this.  I wish I could find the picture that I had of when the renters were here (lost with my laptop crash) because it really looked very sad.

Another angle - shot from the fireplace wall

And now a few after shots:

A few extra shots just for good measure....

And for those that may be wondering about this aspect of the mantle arrangement:

Many years ago I ordered a series of letters and started putting inspirational words on display for the kids to see.  A twisted traditional began with my oldest son almost always

coming in and changing the inspirational word to something like "nerd", "rad", "dumb"...getting the idea here.  Flash forward a couple of decades and a few mantles later and I decide to again put theinspirational words on display for the twins.  Oldest son comes over and again does his routine of the change up of the word - and now guess who's carrying on the tradition? Yep....the twins.  The other day I came out to find the word "mule".  Guess the good news is that they are challenged to think of new words with the limited amount of letters we have left in the series.  So the family tradition continues in a fun and entertaining way and it's always obvious which are the words I choose and which are the funny words they choose.

For the record, other than the paint and the drapery panels, there was not much cost in pulling this room together.  I had everything from previous homes and lives.  Guess the real question really should be why the hell did it take me so long to get it pulled together.

Hope you enjoyed the post...post a comment and let me know what you think.

Off to play golf.  Hmmmm..... maybe that's why I'm not getting these rooms done as quickly as I should be!



My messy little packrat

Why is it some kids just aren't born with the "neat gene"? I'm a fairly organized person and I tend to like things clean, neat, orderly.  So how is it I end up with a daughter that is a total packrat and could care less if things are a mess?  Quite obviously the child has never heard the term "less is more".  She seems to think "more is more" and just for good measure, let me throw in the fact that she does think her space is organized.  Perhaps to her it seems that way.  To me, I tend to want to sneak in (when she's not around) with a big garbage bag and go on a wild purge session.   Ok, I confess.....I have!

Now we have yet to agree on the design and re-do of her room, so I'm opting for one step at a time.  Have I mentioned the child has an opinion about everything? Kind of like her mother I suppose.  We picked a wall color and painted the room a peach when we first started.  She has decided that she wants white, green and hot pink to be her additional colors.  so - while not what I would pick, I am trying to work with her on her color choices.  Guess it's fair to say we started working on her space this weekend.  Step 1, attempt to get rid of some of the mess by getting her a desk.  Off to IKEA for something that a) worked with our selected colors (IKEA always has white, right?) b) was inexpensive and c) would work in the space we had.

I give you her before shot - fair warning it's a mess.....

And after I found the perfect little desk at IKEA and her father came over and helped with the assembling of the desk, the after shot:

BTW, never believe IKEA sales people when they say it's very easy to assemble.  It took 2 college grads giving it our best college try to put it together.  I could have never done it solo.

So - I'm amazed by the fact that not only was she thrilled with the desk, but she very neatly put everything in her 2 drawers in a orderly fashion and helped me clean the room.  It's a start!

To date we have:

Wall color - painting and trim done
Blinds installed
Green rug found and down
White desk

Next up: change out the bed (from a single to a full size), find bedding, rearrange layout of the room, DECLUTTER.  I'm hoping that the tidy white desk is going to inspire her to like a more streamlined look.  However I would not place a bet on this ever really happening.  I think the "more is more" look somehow suits her in an odd sort of way and hey....I figure they eventually grow up and move out :)