Windows... and a bump update

Before we did all the work on the house, there was more separation between rooms, i.e. walls. So each room had it's own style... And I use that word loosely. My style consists of throwing together craigslist finds, clearance items, and hand-me-downs that look like they kinda-sorta go together, and then hoping for the best. Tony's style is whatever is cheapest and the wife likes, in that order.

Now that everything is opened up we've had to rethink the different styles and try to keep everything somewhat cohesive. In particular we've found this challenging with the windows. There were different blinds and curtains to suit the 'style' of each room.

Although I don't have any true "before" photos, here is an idea of what we had going on:


See that thing behind the 3 drunkards? That's our bay window in the main room. It's pretty indicative of what was going on throughout. Raw wood trim, yucky white horizontal vinyl blinds leftover from decades past, and whatever cheap curtains we found in the clearance bin.

Here it was yesterday:

Just painting the trim white was a huge improvement, which was done months ago. But we weren't sure what else to do. Instead of getting custom-sized (read: expensive) blinds for each window, we decided to go with a double curtain rod. Then we'd put a sheer curtain closest to the window for privacy, and a real curtain on the outside rod. Here's how it looks now:

We like it. In case you can't tell, the sheers are ivory and the curtains are chocolate brown with a checked-pattern texture to them.

A sidenote to all those shopping for 84" curtains... Apparenly, 84" sometimes really means 82". So the brown curtains ended up being 2 inches shorter than the sheers. Ugh. Luckily after a quick phone call to my mother, we let out the 2+" hem at the bottom and re-hemmed the bottom with some Stitch Witchery (great stuff). Thanks Mom!

Anyway... These brown curtains we bought recently are not only energy efficient, but they happen to be the exact same curtains we hang over our french doors in the fall/winter. Seen here in this blurry pic from Christmas last year:

So when it becomes cool enough to hang these again, the room will be balanced and warm (literally and figuratively).

For the rest of the standard-sized windows throughout the living room, bar area, and dining room, we wanted something easy, natural, and cute. So we went with my fave, bamboo blinds:

We could put some curtains up over these, but I think this look is nice enough to stand on its own. Also of note, these are cordless blinds, so no choking hazard! Gotta think of the bambino.

Speaking of the bambino, here are some pics of the ever-growing bump from the past couple of weeks:

21 weeks

22 weeks

In the last photo I am wearing my new maternity jeans, that I believe were stitched together by angels in heaven. You have been good to me, Bella Band, but it's on to bigger and better things.

And things are definitely bigger!

A new house

Where to start, where to start...

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, it's hard to sum up in a single entry. So I'll just cover a couple of the major bullet points and then maybe Tony can expand.

1. Paint
My nemesis. From the point of choosing a color, slapping it on, second coats, washing brushes. The whole process makes me both anxious and bored to tears. But after poring over countless swatches, choosing a number of test samples, buying 2 gallons of a paint color I ended up hating, and repeating the process all over again... I think we finally nailed it.

In the main living area we went with a basic taupe/tan/whatever you want to call it. And in the kitchen/dining we went with a blue-gray. Here's a decent picture of how the 2 colors play off eachother:



Check out those moldings, huh? Another recent dramatic update.

And please note the 2 chairs and TV tray that were temporarily acting as "couch" and "coffee table."

Also regarding paint, we had new ceilings, moldings, window trim, etc that all needed to be primed and painted. Luckily Nick and Paul own a sprayer, so after taping everything off, hanging sheets over the kitchen, and donning a dashing gas mask or two (I hid in the bedroom), the whole process probably took 1/4 of the time it would have with standard rollers and brushes. Those boys always come through for us.

And here's the biggest change that happened this weekend:

2. The floors
Because the upstairs floors are so dark and cozy, we wanted some contrast with the downstairs, so we were going with something light and airy. The original natural maple we picked out ended up coming back from the mill defective. So it was back to the drawing board. I had always loved the idea of bamboo, so when the maple didn't work out I floated the idea to Tony again. With Nick's approval, he went for it. It also helped that it was a heck of a lot more affordable. So we chose a light 3 3/4" bamboo for the downstairs living and dining areas, and we could not be happier. CHECK IT OUT!

Laying it down:


Halfway done:


Pretty much there:


I love how you can see the subtle striations of the bamboo.

And here we are set up with our new couch:





The bar will go back where the stools are sitting, and we're in the process of finding an area rug, among other furnishings. But I can't believe the difference in the matter of a single weekend.

Friday night we were on our dusty subfloors watching TV in a wooden chair with TV trays in front of us. Last night we were on our new floors sitting on a couch watching the Amazing Race with Janet and Nick.

Mama said there'd be days like this.

If these walls could talk...

...they would say "where's that new floor..and what the hell did you do with the ceiling?!"

With the holidays behind us, we've ramped up the work on our...project. I guess it's just one big project now. It needs a name. Suggestions?

After a night full of drinking and rockbanding on NYE, I woke up early (11am) to get started on removing the old decorative ceiling tiles. They came down fast. I bagged them all up in hopes the trashmen would take them the next day. They did! We've had good luck with getting rid of the demo to this point.

So the tiles came down, then it was the strapping, then there was wallboard, and of course more strapping. Although we vacumed 90% of the area above the ceiling, there were some areas we couldn't reach. So we blocked off the kitchen and living room with plastic.

Basically we wanted to keep the mouse poops out. And of course the chipmunk carcus.

The next day we moved on to cutting the rest of the floor out of Bedroom #1. Then I cut the ceiling wallboard into smaller pieces and gave them a little kick to loosen them. Sarah was in rare form pulling the celing down from the kitchen below. She even got a heavy dose of dust and mouse poop from an un-vacuumed piece of the ceiling. It was fun to watch from above.

So, here I sit in the living room. It's one of two rooms that are currently live-able. That's until this weekend when we expose the wall separating the living room and bar. We'll be migrating the big TV and PS3 back to the bedroom. The living room will be one of the last rooms that is finished in this whole deal.

Once the new framing is done, we'll slowly get back the rooms, less the ceilings/floors. But that stuff will fall in place. The kitchen will be useable, and the dining bar/great room will all be useable. We won't be able to move anything upstairs until we lay the floor. But that will happen quickly after the new framing. I am thinking Bedroom 2 first, as I am going to need a place to study (back in school, fun!).

Sarah is Irish afterall...

That's the reason we have a fully functional bar.

The Bar

History/Facts
-Before the porch was converted to a sun room, this room was always used as a living room.
-When we started renting the house in 2003 we weren’t using this room for much of anything.

Highlights
-Part of the Bar/Dining/Kitchen open floor-plan
-Has a large deck attached
-Parquet wood floor
-Wired for surround sound and even has a TV mounted (like a real bar!)
-Working bar tap (nothing has been on tap in a while…)
-Large mirror behind bar makes the room feel even bigger.

Lowlights
-Ceiling is dated. Old 12x12 foam tiles.
-No lighting
-Exposed pipes for heat (left over work from deck expansion)

What we've done
-Our former roommate (now "arts and crafts" brother in-law, Nick) built the bar
-Removed two windows and added French doors to lead to the newly constructed deck. This may be the best change we’ve made to the house to date. It makes the house feel so much bigger.
-Painted the walls
-Added some colorful (cheap) lights above the bar


What we'd like to do
-Replace ceiling and add canned lights (8)
-Open the wall up to make a large great room w/ the sun room (10)

Where to begin?

The first stop on the tour of our new home is the Sun Room. The format you see here will be the typical format we use to introduce you to each room. We'll try to go back and link to the specific projects that take place in these rooms as they happen. As you notice in the "What we'd like to do" section there is a (#) rating. That's what we feel is the difficulty of the project.

Sun Room

History/Facts:
-Converted in the early 90s from a storm window porch to living space with a tiled entry way, carpet and a large bay window.
-Part of ceiling was replaced as the roof above the room had a leak (roof was also replaced)
-Main entry to the house

Highlights:
-High ceilings
-Large south facing (i.e. Lots of sun) bay window

Lowlights:
-The ceiling that was replaced is painted white, while the rest of the ceiling has a textured finish
-Carpet is beat up from traffic and pets

What we’ve done:
-Painted walls (used to be a fleshy peach)
-Painted the front door red (inside and out) - Still needs a final touch up
-Bought a sweet coffee table on craigslist!
-Bought a 42” LCD TV (every home needs one!)

What we’d like to do:
-Texture the ceiling to match (3)
-Replace carpet with wood floor and area rug (5)
-Open the wall up to make a large great room w/ the bar (10)