Under a Blue Moon

5.14.13

File this under quick fixes.

Succulents sure are having a renaissance right now, aren't they? I have to admit that while being a fan of the plants I'm generally not as enamored with their usual containers. Either terracotta (think SouthWest) or 70's minimalist terrariums.

When we moved into our new house our next door neighbor left a sweet card and a little potted arrangement of succulents on our front stoop. It was a lovely gesture and a nice welcome to the neighborhood.

The plants came in a shallow terracotta pot which I kept in our kitchen window. I kept looking at it, thinking I should be able to enjoy the plants while still keeping to my style. While unpacking my eight millionth box I came across this shallow china dish. It was just the right size. I just plunked the entire arrangement in it and filled the corners with a little extra potting soil. Easiest fix ever.

5.13.13

Here is my attempt at a bath mood board.

When we bought the house we knew that the hall bath was going to need a remodel right quick. It's not a bad bathroom but the shower/tub is completely inadequate, particularly since this is our main/master bath.

You can see how low the ceiling is above the tub. Rick's head brushes the ceiling when he stands in there. According to the folks that have poked around up in the attic above the bathroom there really isn't anything in that space (like ductwork or anything like that) so other than it being a popular design feature back in the 40's (according to one contractor) there is no reason for it to be that low.

The tub is also too narrow to accomodate a glass door. Well we could put one on but then we couldn't move around much in there. So the ceiling will get raised and the tub will be replaced.

At first we were entertaining the idea of a solid surface for the walls but after pricing them, yeah, that's not going to happen. We were going to go with a Corian or quartz on the walls and then do a matching countertop. Something that mimics Carrara marble.

But after getting the bid for the less expensive (Corian) surface we decided to switch gears a bit. We will do white subway tile for the shower/tub walls and do real Carrara marble for the countertop. Since we're saving on the walls we can splurge on the countertop.

The cabinetry will stay but we'll remove the soffit above the sink area. The cabinets will get a fresh coat of white paint (it's a pinky beige right now). The walls will get a beadboard treatment.

The current countertop is some kind of solid surface material. It's not bad looking in the picture but in real life it is a dingy beige color with busy dark grey streaks in it.

The paint color I'm leaning towards is Behr Chocolate Froth. I'm a little worried how it will look with the marble so that is subject to change. My inspiration has been this picture from for the love of a house (you can see it included up there in my mood board). I'm hoping the Chocolate Froth is neutral enough to not clash with the grey of the marble.

Here's one last, very unglamourous, shot. That wallpaper really needs to go. I don't know why it is we keep buying houses with wallpaper that needs to be removed. At least it is a fairly easy fix. Imagine white painted beadboard with a pale, neutral taupe above.

The idea part is easy. We already have the details (tub, tile, faucet, colors, etc.) decided. We just need to find a contractor to make it happen.

Friday’s Favorites

1. Life with flowers, 2. maybe I should bake something?, 3. swap button card, 4. Untitled, 5. Pastel, 6.book storage, 7. a little embroidery, 8. Cards Display, 9. Baby's breathe

How cute are these paper ornaments made from Martha Stewart's paper punches (scroll down to see all the pictures)
Pretty alley way
Ooh – a tiara (or crown) I could actually get away with wearing
Ha! Reminds me of how my packing boxes were getting labelled towards the end…
Clever party invitations (you could used striped fabric and do a circus theme instead)

Exciting goings on at our house this week! Well maybe exciting is overstating things a bit. We are having all the old galvanized piping replaced with copper. So I'll rephrase my original statement: Expensive goings on at our house this week!

Our town is known for it's hard water. I mean REALLY hard. We knew we would need to repipe eventually we just weren't expecting it so soon. We had a water conditioner installed too.

It is the first step towards the bathroom remodel though – no sense in putting in nice new fixtures if we are just going to ruin them with hard water. We have been pricing tubs, faucets and solid surface options. Naturally all the things I gravitate towards are a bobillion dollars each. I've had to rethink a couple of design features I want in order to keep within budget. I'm working on a design board I'll share next week.

Happy weekend everyone! Hope yours is splendid!

5.6.13

Sorry for the lack of Friday's Favorites last week. The week just got away from me with work being incredibly busy and with getting ready for a garage sale.

Goodness garage sales are hard work! I was very organized. I had everything sorted in big boxes, labeled and priced, had my fanny pack with lots of small bills to make change. We scheduled to start at 9:00am and at 7:30 people were already pulling up and going through my unpacked boxes.

My goal was to get rid of things I haven't used in years or just didn't have the need or room for in the new house. Making money was secondary. I sold almost everything so I feel good about that. It was a joint effort with my mother in law (held in her driveway) and it was fun to hang out with her all day. We were both exhausted though.

Anyway – enough of that.

This week I want to finish up with the house tour so we can get on with decorating and projects. So first up front yard.

Here is the view from our front door. Rick deadheaded the roses yesterday but even so there are still tons left on the bushes. I feel like Alice in Wonderland walking down our pathway. I love looking out at the houses across the street. They are really, really cute.

Let's talk about the brick at the front of the house. I'll show you a better view of the front yard in a second – but take a look at it here. We'll eventually paint the house and I was thinking of toning down the orangey brick a bit. I would whitewash it so it isn't so bright. I don't want to completely cover it because I like the contrast, and frankly painting brick is one of those things where you need to be completely committed because once painted it is near impossible to reverse.

Does anyone have any experience with whitewashing brick? Any tips or advice?

Orange just isn't my color. We'll probably paint the house some version of a light taupe-y grey with white trim. I think whitewashed brick would look nice with it.

And finally here is a long shot of the front of the house. If you remember the pictures from the inside far left is the garage. The first window to the right of the garage is my office/craft room. The second window (going left to right) is the window over the kitchen sink. The rest of the windows are kind of hidden but the brick part of the house is the living room and there are corner windows on each side (so four windows total). The front of the house has a southern exposure to it is very bright and sunny on that side.

In the next post I'll show you the little courtyard in the front and some shots from the backyard.

5.1.13

Let's continue the tour – shall we? When we left off we were in the sitting room. Just off of the sitting room is my office/craft room. It used to be a nursery for a baby girl. Pink paint will be gone shortly. Here is looking into the room from the doorway:

Here is another shot, looking back towards the sitting room (the window looks out onto a little courtyard, which I will share in an upcoming post):

This room was an addition or maybe conversion is a better word. I think it used to be part of the detached garage. When the sitting room was added, connecting the house to the garage, this room and a small hallway to the garage were carved out of the existing garage. All the rooms have decent sized closets for a house built in the 40's and this room is no exception. Except for the slightly odd placement:

Okay we are done with this end of the house. Let's move back into laundry landing and take a peek into the guest bath:

Tiny bath with lots of character. It has two doors – one from laundry landing (open door on the right) and another that opens into the guest room (closed door on the left). It has the world's teeniest shower:

Moving on to the guest room (looking towards the guest bath):

And looking towards the hallway (with a peak of the living room):

Here is the hallway that leads to the hall bath (door on the left) and master bedroom (at the other end of the hall)(notice also the left over heating vents from heating systems gone by):

Here is the hall bath which will be our first remodelling project. The tub/shower ceiling height is ridiculously low. Not to mention the tub is narrow and won't accomodate a glass shower door. Sorry for the crappy shot – It's actually a nice bathroom and will be even nicer after we are done with it.

And finally the master bedroom. From the doorway, looking into the room:

And looking back towards the hallway:

Yeah – painting is definitely on order here. The room has a North/East exposure (and windows on both the North wall and the East wall) so the lighting can be gloomy. The paint color in the room now is so dismal. A weird lavender/taupe color that sucks the life out of the room.

This concludes the tour of our new home. The inside anyway. I'll give an outside tour next week. But, before I go – here is a rough floor plan of the house to help you get your bearings. It's long but the space flows really nicely (Click on the image to see a larger, more legible view):

4.29.13

Welcome to my home. Please come in and let me give you the guided tour. Get ready for a very pic heavy post. First up is the living room.

Next up (below) is a shot from the corner window looking towards the dining area and hallway.

Look closely around the hallway door to the right, near the floor are two old, defunct heating vents. And on the left side of the door we have thermostat build-up. They replaced the heating system twice and left all the old remains behind.

Here we have the dining area looking towards the kitchen (drapes are gone now).

We've seen the kitchen ad naseum but here is a different angle:

And another:

This odd little room is the laundry area slash Rick's office. It's hard to get a sense of the space but the washer/dryer are behind the shutters. There is a small panty/broom closet to the right with a hot water heater closet right next to it (near the doorway to the kitchen which I am standing in while taking this picture):

You got a peak at the sitting room above – here's another shot looking back towards the laundry room/Rick's office (he is stuck in a corner just out of sight and now looking at this picture I should have shut the shuttered doors):

This room is one of my favorite spaces in the house but before anyone gets excited about the toile wallpaper it is going. And the blue paint. We'll do white beadboard below the chair rail and some nice fresh, neutral color above. Curtains are going too. They are a bit too precious for me.

Let's turn around and look towards the backyard. Real French doors people! I have real French doors!

And finally let's look out towards the street. This room was an add-on in the 60's. The second owner of the house (whom we see riding his bicycle past the house fairly regularly) connected the garage to the house with this room:

On Thursday we'll pick up with pictures of my office/craft room and the bedroom part of the house.

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