It's Breakfast Time!

Next up on our remodel list?  Our breakfast room.  This is what it looks like now.

We haven't painted since we moved in.  We have replaced the light fixture and painted the globe lights.  We replaced the back door also.  We have also had a leaky roof.  This caused some issues with the drywall, so that was all the motivation we needed to do some remodeling.  So these are some things I'm thinking of doing

I love this board and batten with the molding ledge.  Our ceiling in the breakfast room is bead board, so we will either do bead board or a board and batten on the walls.  I want it to be about four feet tall, and we have an eight inch baseboard, so it will be high.  The ceiling in that room is twelve feet at the highest (it's slanted) so I think the scale needs to be tall.  I love this grey color too, but not for the breakfast room.  I would love to do this color in our master bedroom.

I love, love, love this color.  

I like this one too, but I think it's a little too celery-ish.  

I would love to remove two of our chairs and put an upholstered banquette piece under the windows.  We have a perfect couch in my office that I can have if we find a replacement for the lobby.  

I love the look of this.  

I adore this - framed family recipes.  I have several of my grandmother and great grandmother's cookbooks with hand written recipes.  I will be doing this.

House Goals for 2012

You may remember this post where I listed all of our to-do things for our house.  Um, it's a long freaking list.  Let's review and see what's been done.  I've added new goals (re-wrote immediate goals) in red, which I hope to finish this year:

Kitchen

• Paint
• Backsplash
• Install garbage disposal
• Under cabinet lighting
• Secure toe kick trim
• Finish restoring island
• Flip laundry room door to open into Laudry room
• Stainless fridge?
• Farm sink?

Breakfast Room

• Install bead board and trim
• Repair cracks in wall
• Paint
• Paint hutch
• Farm table
• Repair threshold
• Replace chandelier light fixture
• Paint globe light fixtures
• Repair/Replace cracked window
• Fix leak in roof.  Again.
• Replace back door?
• Add storm or screen door
• Upholstered seating on one side of table?

Living room

• Weather strip for door
• Paint vents
• Repair phone jack
• Hide cords
• Touch up crown molding
• Drop leaf table
• Find another drum table for the other side of the couch
• Reupholster chair cushions.  Or just get rid of the couch.
• Replace coffee table with ottoman or more appropriate table.
• Family tree art/project 
• Hang silver trays

Dining room

• Paint vent covers
• Install crowm molding
• Rug?
• Recover chairs
• Replace light fixture

Master Bedroom

• Paint
• Build out closet
• New bedding
• Paint wardrobe
• Artwork
• Do something with the fireplace surround.  Paint?  Strip?  Tile?
• Repair floor by window
• Replace window pane.  (Ahem, Chris. . . )

Entry/Staircase/Computer landing

• Hang mirror or artwork by front door
• Reupholster bench.  Or get rid of it.
• Bookcase under stairs
• Paint
• Replace doorbell
• Small rug for computer area
• Address chandelier. . . clean crystals, replace bulbs, clean fixture without killing myself.  Or replace with a larger fixture.
• Replace attic ladder with a metal ladder.
• Paint ceiling.

Small downstairs hall

• Paint
• Make shelving a bookcase
• Paint inside wall of bookcase
• Replace light fixture

Playroom

• Paint
• New curtains
• Organize closet
• Clean rug
• Recover loveseat (replaced it instead)
• Make/Hang chalkboard
• Add another bookcase or costume storage
• Hang art display system
• Clean out/donate books

Boys' room

• Paint
• Organize closet
• Add a dresser
• Hang photos or art
• Update photo collages
• Matching bedding
• Bedskirt for David's bed
• Rug?
• Hang wall lighting
• Replace overhead fixture?

Guest room

• Address fireplace.  Convert to gas? (We've decided to leave it as is right now - I don't think a gas fireplace and a five year old developmentally delayed child are the best combination in a bedroom.)
• Strip/paint/tile/something fireplace surround.  We cleaned this up, and I think we're leaving it as is for now.  We need to secure the screen, and call it a day.
• Hang mirror or art over fireplace
• Clean transom
• Paint
• Curtains
• New bedding?
• Rug?
• Art?
• Closet shelving and hanging system
• Lampshade for black lamp
• Cushion or pillows for window seat
• Add crown molding
• Fix loose outlets

Laundry room

• Cabinets over washer and dryer
• Add a cabinet for linen storage
• Paint
• Hanger for brooms, etc.
• Reroute pump to outside
• Install back door
• Clean/paint light fixtures

Patio

• Rug
• Figure out the light.  Make it work.
• Paint concrete?
• Rework the seating to make it more of an outdoor room
• New patio furniture
• Paint the flower stand.  Or love it the way it is.
• Paint candle holder/lantern thingy
• Add a stair?
• Add concrete planters?
• Hang flower holders
• Window box

Exterior

• Side the remainder of the house.  Yikes.
• Paint.
• Repair trim above front windows
• Replace upstairs windows
• Gutter/French drain system
• Reinsulate crawl space
• Repair loose roof panel(s)
• Pressure wash porch
• Paint porch floor, stairs, and rails
• Re-do porch columns?
• Replace front light
• Clean weeds off of front of house
• Make crawl space opening larger
• Clean/paint lattice under porch. 
• Trim out lattice
• Add back door to laundry room

Yard

• Fence back yard
• Cut down tree?
• Massive yard clean up
• Remove kennel after fencing is put up
• Weed killer on front walk  This will be an on-going project.
• Prune bushes
• Plant a garden
• Add two more bushes along the side of the porch
• Rip out three small ugly bushes near patio.
• Rip out two little trees in island area.
• Electricity to the shed?

Dream List/Far in the Future

• Build a detached garage
• Finish the attic and add another 1000+ square feet
• Add a second bathroom

Updated House Photos

We had to take several photos of our house to include in our dossier information for our adoption. 

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the progress we've made since we bought the house ten months ago.

We've managed to keep ourselves (OK, Chris) pretty busy.

Our backyard is looking pretty decent, despite the ring created by the horses we had at our birthday party in April.

We've replaced this patio set since these pictures were taken with a new (to us) rectangular table with six chairs.  The table and chairs need to be painted, and I will get new cushions.  Photos to come when that project is completed!

Nothing has changed in our breakfast room.  I am on the hunt for a small loveseat or sofa to put under the windows, and I'll remove two chairs from the table.  I was going to take the one from our office when we got a church pew to replace it, but the pew is miniature and won't be adequate seating for our clients.  I will likely just wait until we replace the couch at our office and take that, because it's the perfect size (and even material) to go in this space.

Kitchen is still the same.  I still haven't painted the island table.  And I still haven't added a backsplash.  We did change the curtains over the sink.  We took down the panels and added some bamboo shades.  I will put these on the breakfast room windows too, but there are never enough in the size I need at the store when I go looking for them.

Our master bedroom remains unchanged from pretty much the day we unpacked, with the exception of the new armoire.

My fabulous friend Kelly had a baby and couldn't use this black armoire in the baby's room.  She asked if we could use it.  If we could pick it up, we could have it.  Um, hello.  We picked it up.  It's a Pottery Barn armoire that was originally a tv cabinet.  I really wanted to be able to use it in the playroom, but it weighs approximately 1,378,385,098.4 pounds and there was no. way. that was going up the stairs.  So Chris altered it to store clothes, and it's perfect in this space.  I'm toying with the idea of painting the rest of our bedroom furniture black to match and painting our walls gray.  I would love to do gray walls with yellow and white accents in this room.  I promise it will probably be the last room to complete.

I still typically have our couch covered with the slipcover.  Thankfully it's machine washable, because it spends about 25% of it's time in the washing machine. 

We've painted the entry, and I love it.  We will use the same paint upstairs at the computer area and in the hallway.

And I'm still SO glad we've removed the stained glass panel and replaced with clear glass.

I've considereded moving the computer down to our entry and making this a sitting area.  That could still happen since I recently discovered in our computer history the googling of some inappropriate words. . . and Jack got blamed for it despite the fact that he is unable to spell.

No changes here.  I can't make up my mind.  And I feel like as soon as I decorate this room they will change their minds about what they're interested in.

No change in the laundry room either.  And I promise there won't be for a looong time.

I wasn't bold enough to go orange in the entire playroom.

I just couldn't do it.

I'm thinking either a gray or a khaki for the other three walls.  For now, we're a happy shade of cream.  And holding strong.

The curtains are a good-enough-for-now option.

Next up?  Finishing Katie Ruth's room, then probably on to some beadboard and wainscotting in the breakfast room!

Our New Door!

We had some serious issues with the door in our breakfast room.  It was a lovely door, wooden and a pretty stained color inside.  My favorite part?  The crank doorbell.  The problem?  It had a huge rotten spot on the bottom, was hung out of level, would swell when it was hot out or raining, and didn't close all the way at the top and the bottom.  Helloooo energy efficiency, bugs coming in, and just being a general pain in the back door.

I apparently don't have a photo of the door in my collection of house pictures.  This is a pretty good idea of what it looked like though.  We replaced the brass doorknob with a more attractive brushed nickel.

You know, because we had one key to the old doorknob and had six made but none of them worked.  What's that about?  Now I want oil rubbed bronze hardware on it, but we'll get there.  

We looked all over for a new door, but I'm cheap thrifty and didn't want to spend $600 on one.  We went to salvage yards, the traditional big box stores, and my favorite hoarder's spot.  I would have preferred a wooden door, but didn't want to deal with the issues we had with the existing door.  I was also very specific in that I wanted a window, but not a window that had sectioned panes of glass.  I would have preferred a Dutch door, but that was out of our budget.

We opted for this fiberglass door, from hoarder's paradise, for $165.  It has double paned glass with blinds in between the panes.  It can be painted or stained, and we can put the crank doorbell into it.

We will paint the inside white, and will stain the outside a deep brown.  Our existing door was painted a sort of redish-maroon, but we will paint the exterior eventually and I'm not going to paint this door a color I hate, just to paint it again later.  And we don't have any of the exterior paint or have any idea what the color is, and I don't feel like starting that matching game.

Please disregard the chipped trim, the empty flower pots, and the single plant in the wall planters. . . I need about 40 more hours each week.  I'm addressing the flower situation today. . . We're also going to scrape and repaint that trim section, because it looks atrocious.  However, I love my new back door.  I'm glad we waited to find something we liked, instead of getting something temporary that would be good enough.  I'll update with some pictures once it's been painted and stained!

Paint, Paint, Paint

Just when we thought the paintbrushes were put away to dry. . .

I'm at it again.  Next up?  The downstairs hallway.  And breakfast room.  And entry.  And playroom upstairs.  And landing/computer area.  What colors?

For the breakfast room, the downstairs hallway, the entry, and the landing/computer area I've picked Valspar Laura Ashley Taupe 4.

We're starting in the downstairs hallway, which is not large.

It's really more trim than walls.  

I've also painted the backs of the built-in bookcase in that hallway blue.  

I can't wait to see it all together.

In the breakfast room we're going to do beadboard on the bottom half of the walls and the taupe on the top.

We did this in our first kitchen and I loved it.  

It's so easy to clean little fingerprints off of.

And it comes already painted, which is a huge time saver.

The stairway will be interesting.  

Because it's roughly 20 feet tall, and I don't want to die painting, or have my husband die painting.

My solution?  Leave that wall unpainted for now.

I'm going BOLD in the playroom.  

I'm going to do Olympic Paint's Field Poppy.

I was inspired by playroom pictures in the Land of Nod.  

The Land of Nod photos are Mythic Paint called "Have You Seen Tangerine?"  I'm not ordering gallons of paint online, because that seems a bit foolish.  I'm quite certain I can get it reasonably close at Lowes.

I love, love, love this playroom. 

And am even considering painting our Target bookcases in this room blue like the storage in the Land of Nod room.

It looks so cute, and I think it will make that room feel more cozy.

I'm going to do some more of my favorite drop cloth curtains in that room.

Get your brushes ready!

New Breakfast Room Light!

YAHOO!  Gone is our breakfast room brothel chandelier!

Why brothel?  

Well it wouldn't have been bad, but it was bedazzled. 

Everywhere.

There were crystals hanging from it.

And over each of the lightbulbs, like a little net of crystal beads.

So. Not. My. Style.

In came this little beauty from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Not exactly attractive in the builder special bronze that you find in every house.

But for $15.00?  

Oh I can so make that work.

Enter Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

Swoon.

This is hands down the best spray paint.  Ever.

I want to paint everything with this.

And have started Chris on another project with it.

I had to go get two more cans today!

Now?

Voila!

A classic black chandelier, with simple linen shades.

The shades were the most expensive part - $3.33 each at Lowes, and I needed 6.

I've looked up similar style chandeliers online.

This from Ballard Designs.

$199.00, with no shades.

Those are  $13.00 each.

So the total for this one would have been $277.00, plus shipping.

Pottery Barn offers this Architectural Salvage Chandelier.

For $299.00, without shades.

Shades?  3 for $39.00.

Total for the PB light?  

$377.00, plus shipping.

Price breakdown of mine?

$15.00 for the light fixture.

$7.50 for the spray paint.

$19.98 for the shades.

Total?  $42.48.

Less than the shades at Ballards or Pottery Barn.

Next up? Revamping the globe fixtures in the breakfast room.

And replacing the dining room ceiling fan with another DIY chandelier.

I'm linking to Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday

House To-Do- List

Are you ready for this?  It's a big one.  Thankfully we have the next thirty-ish years to get it done. . .

Kitchen

• Paint
• Backsplash
• Install garbage disposal
• Under cabinet lighting
• Secure toe kick trim
• Finish restoring island
• Flip laundry room door to open into Laudry room
• Stainless fridge?
• Farm sink?

Breakfast Room

• Install bead board and trim
• Repair cracks in wall
• Paint
• Paint hutch
• Farm table
• Repair threshold
• Replace chandelier light fixture
• Paint globe light fixtures
• Repair/Replace cracked window
• Replace back door?
• Add storm door
• Upholstered seating on one side of table?

Living room

• Weather strip for door
• Paint vents
• Repair phone jack
• Hide cords
• Touch up crown molding
• Drop leaf table
• Find another drum table for the other side of the couch
• Reupholster chair cushions
• Replace coffee table with ottoman
• Family tree art/project for big wall

Dining room

• Paint vent covers
• Install crowm molding
• Rug?
• Recover chairs

Master Bedroom

• Paint
• Build out closet
• New bedding
• Paint wardrobe
• Artwork
• Do something with the fireplace surround.  Paint?  Strip?  Tile?
• Repair floor by window
• Replace window pane.  (Ahem, Chris. . . )

Entry/Staircase/Computer landing

• Hang mirror by front door
• Reupholster bench
• Bookcase under stairs
• Paint
• Replace doorbell
• Small rug for computer area
• Address chandelier. . . clean crystals, replace bulbs, clean fixture without killing myself

Small downstairs hall

• Paint
• Make shelving a bookcase
• Paint inside wall of bookcase
• Replace light fixture

Playroom

• Paint
• New curtains
• Organize closet
• Clean rug
• Recover loveseat (replaced it instead)
• Make/Hang chalkboard
• Add another bookcase
• Hang art display system
• Clean out/donate books

Boys' room

• Paint
• Organize closet
• Add a dresser
• Hang photos
• Matching bedding
• Bedskirt for David's bed
• Rug?
• Hang wall lighting
• Replace overhead fixture?

Guest room

• Address fireplace.  Convert to gas?
• Strip/paint/tile/something fireplace surround
• Hang mirror over fireplace
• Clean transom
• Paint
• Curtains
• New bedding?
• Rug?
• Art?
• Closet shelving and hanging system
• Lampshade for black lamp
• Cushion for window seat
• Add crown molding
• Fix loose outlets

Laundry room

• Cabinets over washer and dryer
• Add a cabinet for linen storage
• Paint
• Hanger for brooms, etc.
• Reroute pump to outside
• Install back door
• Clean/paint light fixtures

Patio

• Rug
• Figure out the light.  Make it work.
• Paint concrete?
• Rework the seating to make it more of an outdoor room
• New patio furniture
• Paint the flower stand
• Paint candle holder/lantern thingy
• Add a stair?
• Add concrete planters?
• Hang flower holders
• Window box

Exterior

• Side the remainder of the house.  Yikes.
• Paint.
• Repair trim above front windows
• Replace upstairs windows
• Gutter/French drain system
• Reinsulate crawl space
• Repair loose roof panel(s)
• Pressure wash porch
• Paint porch floor, stairs, and rails
• Re-do porch columns?
• Replace front light
• Clean weeds off of front of house
• Make crawl space opening larger
• Clean/paint lattice under porch. 
• Trim out lattice
• Add back door to laundry room

Yard

• Fence back yard
• Cut down tree?
• Massive yard clean up
• Remove kennel after fencing is put up
• Weed killer on front walk
• Prune bushes
• Plant a garden
• Add two more bushes along the side of the porch
• Electricity to the shed

Dream List/Far in the Future

• Build a detached garage
• Finish the attic and add another 1000+ square feet
• Add a second bathroom

Happy New Year!

We started the new year of with a bang. . . or several bangs actually.  First, the upper trim of our guest room window, on the second floor, fell off.  We knew this would need to be repaired, but weren't really planning to do so right now.  This is not something we can DIY.  The people who owned this house prior to us did extensive work inside the house.  And essentially none outside.  Clearly the outside is where we'll be focusing some attention in 2011 when the weather gets warmer.

Next, I woke up on New Year's morning to find several leaks in our breakfast room.  We have a metal roof, and we had a drip in one small area when it rains hard.  One small area.  When I woke Saturday morning the greater portion of the room was wet.  And there were probably seven leaks.  (Please note, we did have extensive heavy rain for probably a 12 hour period, which is not normal for this time of year.)  This we will try to DIY.  Thankfully this part of the roof is not thirty feet in the air.  Chris is not excited about climbing onto the roof.  I'm more excited about him doing it than paying someone else to do it.

 On New Year's Eve, the kids were jumping on their newly constructed trampoline.  The dogs were in the house.  David went into the house for something and, when he came back out, Max escaped out the back door.  He ran through the neighbors yard.  Where he was cornered by at least two other dogs who consistently roam the neighborhood without an owner in sight.  Apparently the dogs attacked Max, and had him up against a chain link fence.  Max had an eye injury and looked like this later that night.

When we woke up Saturday, his eye was completely swollen shut and leaking puss.  Awesome.  Of course it was a holiday.  What does that mean?  Our vet wasn't open.  One trip to the emergency vet and $217 later, Max has four prescriptions.  And can see.  And I'm seriously contemplating bringing the owners of the dog that did it the bill.  I did call animal control, for what it's worth.  And I think I'll continue to do so whenever that dog is in our yard.  I cannot wait until we get a fence up.

Here's hoping that 2011 only gets better from here!

House Tour

Let's have a little tour, shall we?

Clearly this is the bathroom.  The only bathroom.

My favorite part about this picture?  David and Henry were taking a bath when I took it.  

The dining room is up next for paint. . .

And for some attention to the windows.

I. love. my. living. room.

I got this table at a little junky antique store over the weekend for $40. 

It's perfect for this space.

I love this lamp - it's a rooster lamp, and it's pair is in the foyer.

This is the view from the living room to the bathroom. 

There's a storage area behind the door that has our towels, etc. stored. 

However, I am in search of a pie-safeish cabinet for the towel storage.

I love our breakfast room.

I have a lot of my milk glass and some silver pieces in the hutch. 

I was iffy about it at first, but I really like it. 

I will still paint it eventually, I think. 

I have play-doh and art stuff stored in the bottom for the boys.

This is, hands down, the best $200 I've spent since we moved in.

That little storage cabinet has our dog stuff in it.  And nothing in the bottom. 

Trust me, it won't take long to fill it up.

I love my kitchen.  Like, pink puffy heart love it.

The drawers?  Perfect.

The cabinets?  Perfect. 

I probably would not change a single thing about it.

Ignore the dirty dishes. . .

And box of cleaning supplies. 

At least you know I clean.

I thought about not showing the laundry room. 

Because it's a mess.

But. . . how clean is your laundry room?

We do laundry in here, nothing exciting.

Having an actual laundry room , as opposed to a laundry closet, is fabulous.

This is our foyer, which has changed several times already. 

The S is on the chair because we are hanging the S "collection" on the walls around the chair.

And I thought about cleaning all of this up, but a decorator doesn't live here.

A 2 year old does though, and he's been playing in the chair.

All of the boys are in the same room. 

I have matching bedding for them.  In a box somewhere.

David's bedskirt is also in that box.

This is the playroom, which is adjoining the boys' room. 

David looked at the photo and said, "Well, the playroom is only half a wreck."

Our office area is this little nook at the top of the stairs.

I really like it for this purpose.

It's exactly the amount of space we need.

And it's cozy. 

We've got a few more things to add, but not major changes

Not shown?  The master bedroom, porch, patio, and guest room.  Those are not fit for public viewing yet.

Hopefully they will be soon. . .

It's not perfect yet, and I suspect it never will be, as we'll always be changing something. 

However, for only being in for three weeks, I'm very happy with the progress we've made!