July 3rd, 2011
Move: We moved on Wednesday. It was a hectic and stressful day and not helped at all by me waking up in the morning sick to my stomach. Luckily I started feeling a bit better by mid-morning, but I missed out on all those early morning super productive hours that I was counting on. A huge thank you to all of those who were able to help. We had tons of moving help and I know we could not have pulled it off without our packing help from Kim, Alys, and Stephanie. Thanks ladies!!
Home ownership: Its been in the 100′s… we are so dreading our electric bill for this month, and we haven’t even been keeping it super cold. Thank heavens for ceiling fans and the whole-house fan which is making life bareable. Hopefully we’ll take some time out to go swimming tomorrow and escape the heat a little bit.
Organization: the house is a huge and aweful mess! Nearly everything is still in boxes, and not having a real kitchen is a pain! We’re going to set up a rack and a folding table to manage most of the stuff that exists in a kitchen. Half of the problem right now is that we can’t use the garage for storage because Spencer is using it all to build the cabinetry. But we don’t have furniture to store stuff either, so the result is just a lot of boxes with no place to be unpacked!
Bathrooms: We officially have 2 complete bathrooms – the powder room got a mirror yesterday which was the last piece needed, and the guest bath got a sink and mirror. The master bath shower got it’s glass and is now working, and the toilet was installed. So all that is left bathroom-wise is the double vanity in the master. This wont happen until after the kitchen is done, but we can use the guest bath sink until them, no biggie as it’s right next to the master bedroom.
Baby: He is growing up so much! Strength and dexterity are on the rise, and his little personality is starting to really shine. He loves to grab his feet, but can’t get them all the way to his mouth, so when he’s wearing socks, he just pulls the socks to his mouth and sucks on those. This results in wet droopy socks, but it’s oh so cute, and leads me to put socks on him more often than not just to see him pull them up to his mouth. The move went well with the baby, we had his crib set up right away, so he didn’t have any unusual sleeping situations to throw him off schedule. He is also more hungry than before, and I’m having to supplement nursing a little bit with formula. He’s almost 4 months old, so introducing solids isn’t too far off.
That’s basically it for the week, we are so focused on getting finishing touches on the house, so its taking up most of our time and energy right now. I am grateful for the long weekend, because its been so nice to have a few days without work interruptions. It’s back to work on Tuesday though, so tomorrow is a very important day!
Word of the week: Details. So many little things that have been happening, and still need to happen. but thanks to a lot of hard work from Spencer, it’s coming along really nicely, and soon all that will need to be done is the kitchen!
July 3rd, 2011
We needed a quick and easy vanity for our upstairs bathroom. I had been checking out craigslist listings for awhile hoping to “upcycle” a dresser or some such into a vanity. I came across a few things that I liked. Some were antique dressers, they were a little heavy, some were tables that needed to be cut in half, but that was too much work. I wanted something with open shelving, and little or no ornamentation – just simple and cottage-esc. Oh and it had to be 48″ wide, 36″ tall and no more than 24″ deep. I came across a shabby chic open cabinet that was nearly perfect dimensions and snatched it up quickly, here it is in the truck:
It did come with some awesome blue kitty knobs (on the drawers), but those were promptly removed.
We already had this sink from Overstock.com. We had planned on using it in the powder room, but ended up buying a pre-made vanity for that room.
We bought some planks of Alder from our local hardwood shop, and Mr. Project assembled a vanity top with all his fancy wood-working equipment. He made it with a hole already in it to save on wood costs. After tearing the top off the old cabinet, he braced the structure with some wood planks horizontally and vertically.
Based on his measurements, he cut the cabinet to fit the sink:
The sink fit perfectly!
Once everything was all cut to fit, he stained the top:
And varnished it:
This is the spot in the bathroom just waiting for a vanity:
Mr Project cut out a hole in the vanity for the plumbing, and slid it into place:
all that was left was to screw in place (from the bottom) the top and add the sink and faucet (and new awesome glass knobs):
He still needs to cut into the shelf to fit the plumbing, and then install it, but for now the sink works great and looks adorable in the guest bathroom!
From start to finish this project took Mr. Project less than a day. He’s pretty awesome.
*** UPDATED*** The vanity is finally done being decorated yay! Here is what it looks like now, and hopefully forever unless the baby decides that he really loves towels:
I LOVE it even more!
July 3rd, 2011
I find it really amusing that the room that we hadn’t even planned on remodeling for awhile is the first room that is complete*. This is what I refer to as the “cottage bathroom” – when we decided to redo this room, I knew I wanted to put board and batten up. I had been wanting to do that in a room, but hadn’t really found the best place for it. I’ll post more about that process in a bit, but just wanted to show off the serene room that exists now. I love how the board and batten really sets the tone for the cottage feel, and everything else plays off of it. 
The Vanity is the show-piece of the room, though it needs a shelf and baskets etc. to finish it off. We needed a FAST vanity for this room so having one custom made was not an option. However we had time to modify something existing. So I found the white cabinet on Craigslist for $100, and Mr. Project made a gorgeous Alder wood counter top for it, finished it off with a semi-flush mount sink and voila a vanity that looks custom made. I’ll also post more on the process of that later (post completed, click here to read).
I love how the dark wood really gives a pop to the room, so I decided a black mirror would be a fun way to bring in another pop of color. I also thought it would be fun to use a towel bar for the hand towels instead of a towel ring. This to me feels way more cottage-inspired and unique than your standard ring.
I splurged a little on the hardware and got the towel bar and tp holder at Pottery Barn. The vintage pewter finish brings some nice rustic charm to the space.
Just a few accents for now… but I couldn’t resist these little bird jars! I had seen them when I was Nursery shopping, and definitely could not use them for a boy’s room, so I snatched them up as a perfect accessory for a cottage bathroom. I am planning on using a medium mason jar for tooth brushes, I want to keep it very down to earth in that bathroom and not go overboard with accessories or frilly things.
Another fun detail that I like is the shiny faucet:
It was challenging to find a faucet that only required one whole on the sink, but when I found this one, I fell in love with it. It’s made of solid brass and really really really heavy. On the opposite wall, is just the door and more B&B. The gallery shelf is 2″ deep and I plan on doing some sort of mini gallery wall, or just a few fun word-art posters in frames leaning on it… or something like that. I’ll get to that later! The paint color is a bit more pale than what these picture look like too. The color I used is Sea Salt from Sherwin Williams. I do love it, but it does go more green in artificial light than blue, and sometimes that bugs me just a little bit.
And here is the left side of the room with the window all trimmed out
Several things were reused from my previous bathroom including the shower curtain and towels… here is a breakdown of new costs:
Board & Batten: $120 (there really is board behind the batten strips, but it might be cheaper for you if you have untextured walls and don’t use board)
Vanity: $150
glass knobs: $22
Sink: $150
Faucet: $80
Mirror: $25 (Ross!)
Rugs: $11 (Ross)
Bird Canisters: $12
Lighting: $106
Hardware: $73
Toilet: $249
Recycled Glass tile: $3.98/ft
*The room needs a trash bin, and we need to install the shelf in the vanity and put baskets and towels in it, oh and hooks for towels
Here is a quick before/after shot:
