Kitchen curtains: done-zo!

Ya'll it happened!  I found the most deliciously fantastic fabric with which to whip up some basic panels for the kitchen windows.  It took me only a fraction of the time it usually does at the fabric store to decide that this was "the one", and I whisked 3 yards of this yellow and gray perfection home with me and quickly sewed it into some simple window treatments.

It wasn't until I had sewn and hung the curtains that I realized that many of my concerns with the room had been resolved!  Just a small and simple addition in the form of a little bit of a fabric made such a huge difference!  Now there is something lovely for your eyes to go to and rest upon.  Before the curtains, I think the room just felt bland and empty and sterile.  Now it feels like a lived in room!

Tonight I also made my final decision on the backsplash material and made a big purchase.  Anyone want to venture a guess about whether I decided on the modern and sleek glass mosaic tiles or if I chose the classic look of bead board?

xo,

Emily

The Kitchen: update #350573991

Number one way to make your previously fine floors appear dirty, dingy, and disgusting:  paint your wainscoting white!

Ask me how I know that.  Go ahead.  Ask!

In case anyone was wondering, I ran out of painting patience with this project a long, long time ago.  Not only do my floors look awful next to the fresh white wainscoting, I have discovered now that the already white windows and trim is more of a creamy white and the new white is more of a bright white.  And, on top of that, I have an electrical outlet issue.  Other than the ones in the breakfast room, all of the outlets in our house are almond.  (The ones in the breakfast room are old and black.)  I planned to replace the ones in the breakfast room, but with what color?  The walls are white, so I can't use almond.  But, all of the outlets in the whole house- including those right across in the kitchen- are almond.  Do I dare go white?  And, if so, should I swap out the switches for white, too, which are currently almond?  I feel like every little decision I make with this project snowballs into some huge issue.  Man, I could never do a real rehab, haha!

Ahem.  Regaining control.

And, so tonight, I leave you with a picture of Colin and me from a recent trip to NYC.  Here we are at Rockefeller Center.  I look at this photo, and I can't believe that he is as tall as I am!

Good night, y'all.

xo,

Emily

One step forward, two steps backward

Let's see...where were we?  Oh, yes.  Now I remember.

This is usually my favorite stage of a project:  the construction is complete, the dust has settled, and the back breaking work is done.  This is the fun time when you get to pick out paint colors, fixtures, and finishes.  Just to bring everyone up to speed:  as you know, the half wall is installed, the new light fixtures have been hung, and some patchwork painting on the dining room side has been completed.  Next step:  paint for the breakfast room!  Here is where we started:

Historically, I have been pretty good at picking paint colors.  My MO is to bring home about a schmillion swatches from the paint store and simmer over the decision for several days/weeks, checking to see how the colors change over the course of the day and with my mood.  Which is exactly what I did this time.  I did a lot of waffling and finally decided on a stellar combination of 2 grays with green undertones:  Valspar's  Arid Plains and Wild Hawk color matched to Behr's paint and primer in one.

Well, I am here to tell you that my paint picking streak has been broken.  It has taken me several days to fully accept my fate, but I will be re-painting the room.  Boo to the hoo.  The color I used for the top half, despite going on rather mint green-ish turned out lovely:  a nice greige, if you will.  The bottom color was a different story:  instead of gray with green undertones, I got green with green undertones.  Wahhhhh!  **picture me cycling through the following emotions:  denial, patience (that the color would dry gray), hopefulness (that the Painting Fairy would again visit), anger, acceptance, resignation**

So, even though I do hate the color, I did snap a few shots to share with all of you.

It has also become apparent- both in looking at these pictures and in seeing this in real life that the molding also deserves a fresh coat of white.  In fact, I've decided that the first attempt to fix this room will be white from the chair rail down.  Colin and I got started on that tonight, and I'm reserving judgement because the coverage is so poor it looks pretty terrible at this point.  So, yeah.  That's where we are today.  Not the finest time in DIY land here.

In attempt to complete a nice, easy project yesterday, I attempted to swap out the boob light in the kitchen with a sweet semi-flush mount light that matches our pendents.  Long story short, I wrestled with the electrical, jerry-rigged the mounting bracket (because if I know anything about electrical it's that what you have in your wall/ceiling never works with what comes in the box), hung the fixture, and patched and painted the ceiling since the new footprint was much smaller than the old one.  Then, I stood back to admire my hard work and decided that I don't like the fixture.  All I could do was laugh.  At myself, of course.  So, I suppose some night this week, I will undo all of that and put the boob light back up.  Meh.  Worse things could happen.  At least it's my own fickleness that is causing all the extra work.  :)

And, because I hate to leave on such a negative note, behold the cuteness that I enjoy every day:

DIY set backs or not:  I am indeed blessed!  Sometimes I cannot believe the man-boy with whom I live is the baby to whom I gave birth, the child I cuddled and tucked into bed, the adolescent who- despite growing and maturing- is still that piece of my heart that grew into a human and left my body 14 years ago to travel around on its own.  What an honor it is, indeed, to be called Mother.

xo,

Emily

Our Imperfect Home: video evidence

Okay, so I've already devoted one post to the imperfectness of our imperfect home, but I've really been wanting to make a video that captures how our home might look at any given moment.  A couple things to keep in mind as you watch this video:

1. The sound you hear in the background is the dogs wrestling/playing.  When the video camera comes out, they assume it's time to put on a show.
2. Please, don't even attempt to count the number of projects that I'm working on.  I didn't realize how many things I am in the middle of until I watched this video.  It's comical, really.
3. Yes, I call the sink the dishwasher.  Haha.
4. Consider taking dramamine.  I'm no videographer.

xo,

Emily

The Painting Fairy

She exists!  I know because she visited my house last night.  Lemme see if I can explain.

My kitchen related to-do for last night was to clean, prep and paint the dining room side of the half wall.  'Cause I was kind of getting tired of staring at this:

I had tracked down a close-enough paint color to use, so I dropped Colin off at his Thursday evening commitment, and then got down to painting business.

I ever so carefully taped off the molding and ceiling.  Then, I cut in using my angled brush.  Because the area was so tiny, that took like no time at all.  So, I cracked open the paint and got to rolling.  It seemed to be going on nicely, and I expected such since I was covering with almost the exact same color.  So, I finished rolling, did the clean-up and proceeded to sit back and admire my painting job.  Except that it looked funky.  And streaky, and all jacked up.  And horrible.  **cue lump in throat and near tears**  Honestly, I was baffled.  I've never had paint go on like this.  It looked totally uneven.  Like part of my roller hadn't gone into the paint (except it HAD- I kinda would have noticed if not.).  Or like maybe I hadn't stirred the paint well enough and the color wasn't even.  Boo hoo!!    By this time, I needed to go pick up Colin, so I forced myself to keep my chin up, and I reminded myself that I had only invested about an hour on this wall, so it really wasn't a big deal.  I'd just give it another coat tomorrow.  So, I picked up Colin, he confirmed it looked awful, and we both went to bed.

So, at some point during the night, unbeknownst to me, Colin and the dogs, the Painting Fairy must have paid a visit and rolled on another coat, 'cause when I hesitantly glanced at the wall this morning on my way to the Keurig, I was amazed:   it looks perfect!  I mean PERFECT!  Like no streaks, no stripeys, no nothing- except perfectly even color.  Woo to the hoo!  Since I didn't have to roll another coat, I had time to tape off the molding and touch it up with some fresh white in semi-gloss.  Oh, how I love freshly painted molding!

So, I declare the dining room side of this project DONE!

xo,

Emily

PS-  I am SO SORRY for the picture quality.  Have we determined that I do absolutely NO diy projects until after dark?  (Or, at least, I complete none of them until after dark...)

PS #2-  The only thing better than making a list is crossing stuff off of one, so let's have a look at my Kitchen List:

1. Clean, prime and paint dining room side of half wall.  We don't have any of the existing paint color, so that should be fun.
2. Clean, prime and paint the ceiling.  Again, we don't have that paint color either, so this may turn into painting the ceiling in the entire kitchen, dining/living room and hallway to the bedrooms since they're all connected. (Do I smell a painting party?)
3. Repair the crown that had to be removed to take down the upper cabinets.
4. Ditch the boob light in the kitchen.  I found a semi-flush fixture that is in the same collection as my pendents that I think will be perfect.  Only concern is being too matchy-matchy, but we'll see.
5. Prime and paint the breakfast room.  Goodbye red walls.  Yeah, I loved them, but now they've got to go!  And, I think I've decided on a paint color or two.
6. Figure out what to top the half wall with.  Currently, I have a 1x10 cut to size sitting up there.  Stay tuned for developments on this front.
7. Purchase and install a backsplash.  The jury is still out on this one.

Going out on a ledge

I'm not usually one to do things twice, but I decided early on in this project that I wanted the material that tops the half wall to be something special.  I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for someplace where I can get a one-of-a-kind hunk of gnarly repurposed wood.  Like an old, weathered barn beam or something.  But, since I figured the search for such a material might take a long time, I needed to top the half wall with something else in the meantime.  So, following YHL's lead, I picked up a super affordable 1x10" pine board.  Ain't she perfect?

I had the fine folks at HD cut it to length for me, and my Dad router-ed (routed?) the edges to give it a nice, finished look.  Then, I slapped on a couple coats of MinWax stain in Jacobean and topped it with 3 coats of polycrylic.  If you remember back when I redid our kitchen table, I've had issues with the poly in the past, but I'm happy to announce that this time it went on flawlessly!

I left the board 2 inches longer than the wall for a slight overhang.  Of course, we didn't want anything hazardous, because the last thing you want to do is slam your hip into a piece of lumber as you navigate through the house with a laundry basket or something.  But, there has been none of that.  :)

It hangs over about an inch on each side, too.  The wall is built with 2x6s, and if I was a super duper carpenter lady, I could do the math and tell you exactly how much overhang there is on the sides, but I always get tangled up with the actual dimensions of lumber vs what we call them (ex. 2x6 is not really 6" wide, but then there's 2 pieces of drywall, and of course the 1x10 is not really 10" wide, either).

On the other end, I just butted it right up against the wall. 

Oh, and here's a bonus project!  This HVAC in our kitchen ceiling used to be a shiny brass.  I pulled that sucker down and gave it about 7 light and even coats of ORB.  Goodbye eyesore, hello gorgeous!

So, there you have it!  One (small) step closer to our goal!

Last night, I committed to both the paint color and the backsplash tile and dropped some moolah at HD.  It felt great!!

xo,

Emily

Winter Pinterest Challenge

What's that?!  It's time for the WINTER PINTEREST CHALLENGE??!?!?  Yahoooooo!

The Fall Pinterest Challenge is the whole reason I started this blog in the first place, when I attempted to recreate a burlap bunting and mod podged pumpkin.  So, when I heard that my besties, Sherry and John from YHL and Katie from Bower Power were teaming up again to bring us the winter edition of the challenge, I knew I had better stop pinning and start doing!

So, without further ado, I present to you my take on Mini Manor's embellished tea towels.  I originally pinned this image of Ashli's:

And, once I read her simple tutorial, I knew it was a project I could tackle.  So, I followed her steps.  I laid out my 4 scraps of random left-over fabric and ironed them flat.

 Then, I got to sewing: up one side, turn 90 degrees, down the next side, turn 90 degrees, repeat.  In no time I had two cute towels!

And, before I knew it, there were four!

Now, there was one thing that Ashli just might have forgotten to mention: what happens if you forget to cut off the tags first.

 But, well, I suppose worse things could happen!  So, here are my new towels in action.

They really are super cute and were super easy to make.  I think they took me probably 15 minutes total.  And, now for a cost breakdown:

bar towels:  $5-ish bucks from Target
fabric:  free!!  (left over from this fabric bunting project)

Wahoo!  How's that for custom kitchen linens?!  I hope this leaves you all pin-spired!

xo,

Emily

Demo's done PLUS we have light!

So, last time I we spoke, the plumbing and existing electrical had been moved.  That left some new electrical to wire and drywall repair.  I am pleased to announce that it has been done!  My contractor made super quick work of things and manage to knock most of it out on day 2.  He did have to come back on day 3 for an hour or two of sanding, but that is it!  Here is how things look today:

 I had my contractor wire 2 overhead boxes above where the ledge will be thinking that I could easily knock out installing 2 simple pendent lights myself.  First of all, the words 'simple' and 'electrical' should never occur together in the same thought.  The hanging process was not, in fact, simple.  Secondly, installing new overhead fixtures requires at least 2 1/2, sometimes 3 to 4 hands.  It is not a job to do solo, especially when you only only have mediocre (I'm being generous here) electrical skills.  Thankfully, my dad was once again in town and he gave me a hand pretty much handled the whole thing and just told me what to do.

Well, enough of that.  I say it's time for more pictures!  This is the view from living room.

Oh, these pendent lights!  No matter how much fiberglass laden attic navigation they required, they really do it for me!

Aren't they perfection?  I think I have a pendent crush.

And this fab view is from the breakfast room.  I cannot believe I can sit at the kitchen table in the breakfast room gazing out into the backyard and then glance over my shoulder and see the living room!

And, this?  This is my view from the sink as I wash dishes.  Pure delight, I tell 'ya!

And so, let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?  This used to be my dish washing station:

And, this is it now!

This used to be the view from the living room towards the wall that isolated the kitchen.

 And, now that the wall is half gone!

Oh happy day!!  Who knew losing half a wall could make one person so happy?!

Okay so yes, it's true we've been making good progress with this project.  But, there is still a bunch to do.  I still need to:

1. Clean, prime and paint dining room side of half wall.  We don't have any of the existing paint color, so that should be fun.
2. Clean, prime and paint the ceiling.  Again, we don't have that paint color either, so this may turn into painting the ceiling in the entire kitchen, dining/living room and hallway to the bedrooms since they're all connected. (Do I smell a painting party?)
3. Repair the crown that had to be removed to take down the upper cabinets.
4. Ditch the boob light in the kitchen.  I found a semi-flush fixture that is in the same collection as my pendents that I think will be perfect.  Only concern is being too matchy-matchy, but we'll see.
5. Prime and paint the breakfast room.  Goodbye red walls.  Yeah, I loved them, but now they've got to go!  And, I think I've decided on a paint color or two.
6. Figure out what to top the half wall with.  Currently, I have a 1x10 cut to size sitting up there.  Stay tuned for developments on this front.
7. Purchase and install a backsplash.  The jury is still out on this one.

Whew.  I feel slightly overwhelmed listing all of that off, but it has to be done.  (Okay, okay, that might not be exactly true.  I actually secretly LOVE making lists!  So, the list making doesn't stress me, but the work to be done does.)  Ah well, we'll just keep plugging along.  And, with any luck, my dad will continue to "just happen to be in town" when I need his help with anything complicated.  :)

xo,

Emily