Making it Legal - The Final Installment

It's finally done! Well, fortunately this project was wrapped a couple weeks ago but with the Holiday Season upon us I've been less than punctual with our posts.

After ripping out the existing walls Adam went to work sanding down the newly exposed floors as they stood a little higher than the rest of the floor since they'd never been refinished. (This photo was taken after we started the framing but he did the sanding beforehand.)

We also quickly threw some insulation into the ceiling and walls in the closet since there was none before.

We started the framing with the wall that would house the bedroom door before branching off of that to create the new closet wall.

Below is the framing for the pocket door for the closet. (The rectangle in the back wall was where the heat vent used to be, but seeing as it was going to end up inside the new closet we insulated it, sheet rocked over it, and moved the vent into the bedroom.)

We were fortunate enough to be able to use the original closet door as our pocket door - Adam just had to take a few inches off the bottom and fill in the existing hardware holes before I gave it a fresh coat of paint.

The front of the HVAC tube will be drywalled over and then we'll build a top for it that can be removed in case in needs to be accessed. 

Another decision we made while framing was to get rid of the knee-wall access door on the west side of the bedroom (there's still one further south on that wall in my office) because it would have bumped right up to the new closet wall and I wanted a clean corner for a dresser or a reading chair.

The edges of the doorway were then trimmed in 2x4s so there was something to nail the sheetrock too and then insulated, under strict supervision... (You can also see where we moved the vent to.)

Last step before drywalling was to modify the electric slightly. Originally all the ceiling lights were operated on one switch at the top of the stairs, so Adam split that so the three lights in the bedroom are now operated by a new switch installed next to the door.

We also installed two closet lights with a switch just on the outside of the closet door.

Framing and insulation complete we contracted out the sheet rocking. With the many slanted cuts and needing to match the texture to the existing walls we figured it would be worth our time and money to have it done professionally. Three days later and we were ready to prime and paint.

We were able to salvage most of the existing trim from the baseboards and from around the exterior of the closet door, I just needed to give each piece a quick sand and new paint.

Fast forward through installing the trim and hanging the new door and voila! Here's the cute reading corner at the top of the stairs that was created by legalizing the bedroom. Pay no attention to the very comfy but very ugly chair I have yet to recover.

The view from inside the bedroom back through the door.

 It all looks so clean and like it was always there. I think my favorite part is the pocket door with the charming little brass details Adam found for it.

 Remember that beautiful wood we salvaged from inside the closet when we demoed? Handy husband turned it into the top for the HVAC at the back of the closet, thus creating a great little bench.

We had trouble finding simple light fixtures for the closet that had a low enough profile that they didn't eat up the minimal headspace in there - but I found these gems at Lowes. I think they're meant to be used as exterior lights but they work well and look nice and simple.

Here's the corner where the old knee-wall access door used to live. In hindsight we probably could have just moved the access into the closet so that someday we could get rid of the door in my office (which is practically the first thing you see when you get to the top of the stairs) but again, being as this isn't our forever home we're not too worried about it.

Speaking of brass details, can we take a moment to soak in these door knob backplates that Adam found at a local shop in town? Such great detail. And the knobs are reused from another old door in our house that we decommissioned. I love it.

It's not a HUGE change, but it's significant - it increases the functionality of the space and the sellability of our house when the time comes.

 What are you trying to take care of before the holidays? Finishing remodeling that guest room? Building your new dining room table? Maybe just buying and setting up the tree is enough for you? Whatever the case may be I hope it goes swimmingly!

Making it Legal

As it stands now our upstairs bedroom isn't legal - there's a closet and a window but no door between the "room" and the staircase. Adam and I have been brainstorming plans for this space for a while now - how to include a door while taking the attic ceiling angles into account and how to maintain a decent sized walk-in closet should the next owners want this space as a master. If this were our forever home we'd also be planning on how to incorporate a bath as well, potentially adding a dormer to the roof for added space, but since this isn't we're sticking to the basics.

The closet that is up there now is a decent size, albeit full of dated wall paper and a version of sheetrock from the early 20th century... The biggest problem with this closet though is that the wall comes out halfway into the whole room - taking up sizable space of the only portion of the ceiling that is parallel to the floor.

(Doggie photo bomb.)

Our plan is to take out the front wall of the closet in order to knock it back to the bend in the ceiling, which will allow for a full-sized door to then be placed perpendicular from there with a wall that continues across to the other side of the attic. Here's the floor plan for the existing layout.

 Doing this will take away square footage of the closet so we've decided to also remove the back side wall of the closet and stretch it further into the bedroom - the closet will be narrower now but it will be longer also.

Here's the catch - the small square in the corner of the existing closet is the HVAC duct that goes from the basement to the roof, and attached to that is the duct that runs along the floor into the eaves. These are things that have to stay in place, so in order to work around that we have to get a little creative.

The HVAC chase is currently drywalled on two sides so we're going to continue that around a third side before turning from that to create the actual closet wall.











It will create a small little alcove before you enter the bedroom door but we've done the measurements and it doesn't appear that it will impede anything like moving large pieces of furniture in and out. A pocket door will also be incorporated as there won't be any room for a closet door to then swing out into the room from where it is. We chose to keep the closet door on this wall for two reasons:
 - I wanted to leave the wall space opposite of the bedroom window as open as possible for a dresser or art work or both.
 - We wanted to leave the option of installing a shelving system on that short wall to the right of the pocket door.

With a plan in hand we started the demo - first step was removing the closet door and the trim as well as the rod and shelf that were in there.

Next we started taking down the interior walls of the closet - only to discover some really beautiful, super wide rough sawn lumber lurking behind. In order to remove the boards carefully in case we wanted to use them for something else down the road, Adam cut into the drywall on the other side and we popped them free that way.

After removing everything from the interior we worked to disassemble the rest of the drywall and the existing framing so we had a blank canvas. This photo was taken right before we took off the front wall of the closet but it still gives you an idea of the space we have to work with now.

Up next will be sanding down the pine floor where the walls used to be in order to prep them for matching to the existing finish when we're done. We'll also be framing the new closet out and doing the electrical so hopefully we have an update for you early next week.

What are your plans for the weekend? Going to try and get out and soak up some the last of the sunshine or are you eager to dive into a new project? Have you started gathering your decorative gourds yet? I still need to get myself some white pumpkins...

Throw Back Thursday - Living & Dining Room Style!

I had so much fun digging through old photos of our living room's evolution looking for an early fireplace photo that I thought I'd come back this week and take you all on a magical journey through time.

Let's start here with the living room when Adam first moved in.

And the dining room.

After a couple months Adam coerced a couple of friends to come over and help him remove 3-4 layers of wall paper that had been painted over, and over.

Only to discover that much of the plaster was cracked and would need repairing.

So Adam did what any first-time home owner would do - he gutted the living room.

First came the plaster.

Then the lath.

Then he made the decision to rip out the arch between the living and dining room in favor of installing built-ins in its place. This is what it looked like when I met him and saw the house for the first time before the new windows were installed.

Here's me, not much later, over my shock and pitching in.

Adam updated the electrical - adding high-end can lights to the living room (which I was highly skeptical of but am so grateful for), some accent lighting, and AV wiring before hiring out the task of sheet-rocking. 

Xia was not a huge help.

Adam installed the new trim with the help of another friend who also constructed the builtins both either side of the fire place and then between the living and dining rooms.

There will always be room for ongoing improvements (update the fireplace again? Check.)

But for the time being it feels mostly finished. Though there are some sections of trim in the dining room that need to be painted or touched up and the trim on the stairs needs to be finished.

Initially I thought we might miss the arch between these two rooms but I'm glad Adam went the route he did because of how open it makes those front rooms feel - not to mention the giant bonus of all the storage added.

So that's where we're at. What started as a simple "remove wallpaper" project turned into an all-out renovation, which was great for installing things like insulation, new lighting, and wiring the TV flush with the wall, but I think it was more work than Adam had initially thought he'd put into these rooms. It'll be interesting to see how we tackle our next home and what projects we choose to do first and how extensive of a remodel we'll take on.

In the mean time we'll be here, reveling in these before and afters...

                   

What's the largest project you've taken on in your home? Was it your first project or did you live in your home for a time before taking the plunge? What would you have done differently or the same?

Grate Expectations

Ever since we bit the bullet and tackled the hallway this spring - taking down the last of the wallpaper and painting walls and trim - this ugly grate has been, well, grating on my nerves.

Not only is it splattered with paint but it's another episode of "faux-wood" theater. Ugh.

I removed it, vacuumed it, and scrubbed it down before applying two coats of grey spray primer.

I had initially thought I'd like to paint it oiled bronze since that's what the fixtures in the bathroom directly across from it are, but looking around the house I see the other vents are painted black (although they're all in dire need of being repainted as well) so I went with two coats of flat enamel finish in black.

Such a small change feels like such a difference, especially because this is something we can see coming from four different rooms in the house.

Below is the kitchen vent which is in about as good of shape as our bedroom vent. One thing checked off my list and another two added...

What do you think of the small transformation? Are you ticking anything off of your house to-do list this week? Any quick spray paint jobs?

Too Hot to Handle

It's hot. Like H-O-T hot. Which means the last few days have found me inside, reveling in the air-conditioning, pouring over my favorite design blogs and thinking to myself, "you're overdue for a blog post." And what stares back at me as I sit on our couch but our gaping dark hole of a fireplace. The red fireplace I've been threatening to paint for the last six months. It's the focal point of our living room and it's where light goes to die.

Don't get me wrong, it's leaps and bounds better than it was when Adam bought the house and the previous owner's passion for all things pink and mint green was still going strong...

If this were our forever home I think we'd sit down and brainstorm a plan to eventually reface this guy as there are no fewer than three different textures of manufactured stone going on here - from the Rockies to the plains to the beach after a rain storm - but we wanted to do this quickly and on a budget. In trying to keep with the traditional craftsman vibe we chose to paint the stone facade a deep brick red and at first we loved it because it was such an improvement. But eventually I began to feel like it was sucking all the light from the room, and being as our living room is in the northeast corner of our house with hedges outside the largest windows, we could use all the light love we can get. Then when we added the new reclaimed-wood mantle that Adam built it became a little too "cabin cozy" for me. The pine cones and the owl don't help, I know.

The built-ins flanking the fireplace are painted the same color as the trim throughout the better part of our house and I had most of a gallon left over from when we did the trim in our bedroom.

It took me two coats to complete and because of the "terrain" of some of the stones I had to apply my paint pretty thick to get into all the crevices, which led to some drips. I've learned that often times it's best to let a drip dry completely and pop it off with a straight blade later rather than to try and wipe it away, especially in hard-to-reach areas like under these bricks.

I'm in love! Friends, this thing literally bounces light back at you! I'm so happy with the result and I hope Adam is too (I pulled this off while he's been at work - danger.)

There's just something about the way the mantle pops off the white stone - it makes a bolder, cleaner statement. Now to scrub the hearth and update the decor up top.

We still have some trim work to iron out around the sides but for the time being the paint job cleans that area up substantially.

And in honor of #throwbackthursday...

What do you have in the way of throw back Thursday? Any awesome shots from your home before you started working on it? Or midway through a big project?

Bedroom Revamp - Part I

With summer narrowly approaching - full of warm days and cool nights - all a girl wants is to be able to open and close her bedroom window as she pleases. Instead I wrestle, bracing myself against 90 year-old windows in the hopes that this time I'll be able to open it enough to allow some air in but not so much as to attract the attention of bugs. These are fortunately the last two windows in our house that need upgrading.

The time has come friends, the time has come, and with this little update I again coerced Adam into making a small project bigger by replacing our faux-wood trim and molding and painting the room. Again.

There are some real hi-lights to this trim and paneling - fortunately our new baseboards will be tall enough to cover this minor miscalculation. 

How many pieces of plastic trim do you need to cover a span of less than 8 inches? Apparently a minimum of 2. 

Each window was wrapped in plastic "wood" quarter round - we assumed to hide giant gaps between the paneling and the trim.

First things first - after measuring, ordering, and picking up our new windows we set about removing the old ones. Adam removed the interior stops from each frame as well as each sash pulley.  Both windows came out with little fuss which was a welcomed surprise. 

Then we dry-fitted each to make sure everything fit correctly and snugly. Next Adam applied caulk to the inside of the exterior stop, we popped them in, and he proceeded to caulk the exterior from the outside as well as the final interior seam. 

You guys, these windows practically open themselves! I'm over the moon. Now for the trim.

Fortunately non of it was glued so with a small pry-bar, a molding bar and a hammer we were able to remove it and all the nails fairly quickly. 

"Why don't you take the wood-paneling off too while you're at it?" you might be asking right now. Well let me direct your attention to the following:

Behind that paneling lies at least 2, potentially 3, layers of wall paper which are covering original (pepto bismol pink) lath and plaster walls that would need a lot of attention. If this were our "forever" home we would tackle this project, but being as we don't see ourselves being here for more than another couple of years, we're going to keep it simple and paint over the paneling. 

Just for fun, let's go back in time to when I first met Adam and this bedroom looked a little something like this.

At the time his goal was to eventually re-surface the walls in this room with new dry-wall, but until then he was rocking the paneling, complete with a futon and a TV/VHS player combo. (This was due to the fact his living room was stripped down to the studs - more on that at a later date.) 

As someone who had only rented in her adult years, my first question to him was - why not slap a coat of paint on these hideous walls until you're ready to re-do it? Well he was of the mind-set that if he was going to do something, he was only going to do it once. And then along came me.

So now here we are, gearing up to paint this little room once again. And here are the contenders... 

What do you think of our color options? Have a favorite? Any projects you're prepping to tackle this weekend? We hope to be back here next week with the rest of the revamp!

Couch Potato

It must be the weather - long, sunny days start to shine light on the little corners of the house that need a small facelift, a little freshening-up. We have a really great, locally made sofa that Adam bought when we first started dating, and I love it, I really do. I just wish it was grey instead of brown.

But until that happens I'm taking a stab at integrating some grays in with the brown (gasp!) and getting rid of our super shiny, floral, green and yellow throw pillows.

These delightful little pillows came my way via a good friend who is moving and purging everything - and while I'll be sad to see her go I'm really excited about these pillows.

My hope is to recover all of the offending pillows in a mixture of beiges and grays in order to create the illusion of my new favorite color, "Greige." Look it up, it's a real thing.

This remnant of off-white linen was from another throw pillow project for our bedroom and it was the perfect size to wrap around the smaller sofa pillow.

One thing about the original pillow I knew I might miss was the little bit of visual interest in the embroidery so I played with ideas on how to bring something similar into the new cover. I settled on a simple set of chevron stripes that I lightly sketched with pencil on the back of my fabric before I assembled the slip cover.

Then I ran it through my sewing machine, going over each line three times with a medium grey thread and then finished assembling the cover.

Looks pretty nice, it's a little simple but I think it will live nicely with the new grey and yellow ikat pillows.

And here he is - living with his new neighbors. The pillow to the left was snagged from our bedroom and you can see my first attempt at the "poor woman's embroidery" technique.

What are your thoughts on mixing gray and brown? Appalling? Or is it an antiquated rule like no white shoes before Memorial Day? Speaking of, Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone! Let the white shoes reign! 

Be My Guest

The folks are coming to visit next month so naturally we're compiling a list of things we feel like we should get finished before they arrive. Nothing like hosting to motivate you to get things done.

We have a little guest "suite" downstairs that gets a fair amount of natural light and has a small sitting area as well as a full bathroom. It's a cute little corner but it still needs some personality.

Deep in a closet there is a box of things that moved with me from my old house that still haven't found a place to live on these walls. This was my first stop and I came up with enough items to adorn this space.

I laid everything out on the floor in a configuration I liked and then because my fall-back style of guessing, hammering, and realizing the position was wrong would have made for a far less interesting story, I busted out my newspaper, scissors, and tape.

After I had cut out shapes for each of my pieces and placed them on the wall the first time I decided the grouping was a little high and a little too far to the left than I wanted.

My next placement was better, pulling everything down a little closer to the chair and over to the right as well as spacing some of them apart a little more. 

Comfortable with this arrangement I went ahead and began hanging, starting with the center top piece (the portrait of our adorable pooch, Xia) and working my way out.

This was the placement that I had been trying for but the black print in the dark frame dragged the whole arrangement down, so I tried an old mirror that was hanging on an opposite wall.

This had the desired effect of brightening up that corner but it felt a little too bright since every other piece had at least a little black in it. Plus I liked the mirror on the wall going into the bathroom better than in a corner.

So I sacrificed a white frame I had and tried for the black horse print again.

Better - the look of the black image in a white frame is a fun contrast to the lighter images in the black frames - but I'm not sure I'm sold. It's great for now because it's 1. Done and 2. Didn't cost me anything. Now to remember to put a battery in that clock. 

Do you have a corner in your home that needs a little love? What are your plans for it? Are you trying to do it on a budget or is it something you've been saving for?

Have You Seen My Keys?

If Adam had a nickel for every time he heard me ask that question, he'd be rich. Or at least slightly better off. So we decided to do something about it - create a space in our house (near an entrance) for things like keys, sunglasses and darling notes to one another. We began to brain storm - it had to be functional and be able to keep our accouterments organized without taking up too much space, and of course I'd like for it to look nice. Ta-da! Let's repurpose an old medicine cabinet into a mini command center!

I sent Adam off to our favorite recycled housewares store - not expecting to strike it rich the first time out - but he pleasantly surprised me with this great find.

Solid wood and in good shape and only $20. Sold. My initial thought had been to paint the interior white (it was a pale yellow and very dirty) so I set about sanding the surface to prep it for paint and as I let the sanding go a little too far I discovered the interior wood to have a really nice grain to it. Hmm..

Two rounds of paint stripper and a round of sanding and I was left with a sort of "distressed" look. I had hoped to rid it of all the paint but I sort of liked the result so I put on a clear coat to seal it all and called it good.

To install it into the wall Adam located a stud bay (the space between two studs) and cut a rectangle the size of the cabinet. He mounted it into the opening and attached it with screws to the studs on both sides.

Next was to fashion new shelves (the original ones were glass) and find small boxes narrow enough to fit on the shelves and hold our things. Adam headed to ikea and killed two birds with one stone by picking up a package of these wood magazine holders. The width of the wood was perfect for the thin shelving grooves and what he didn't use for shelving he cut down and cleaned up to be the storage boxes. PS Grand Budapest Hotel was great and I recommend you go see it. 

Then he reinforced one of the shelves with a small strip of wood and installed cup hooks along it to house our keys.

To create a space where we could leave the above mentioned love notes we took a sheet of magnetic sheet metal, cut it to the size of the interior of the door within its frame, and glued it in place.

Lastly I painted the outside of the door with chalkboard paint and now, as you can see, it's always Happy Hour at our house. You might notice the small patch job to the side of the cabinet - we had something hanging there originally and still need to touch up the paint but we're busy enjoying happy hour...

What's the most creative way you've seen someone repurpose something? Do you have a "repurposed" favorite in your house? 

One Night Stand

Finding the perfect night stand is like finding the right pair of shoes to complete an outfit - and if it's cute and functional - you win.

My requirements were - 1. Storage 2. Decent height so I could easily read my clock from our lofty bed 3. Cute 4. More storage. We have a small bedroom (God bless the 1929 craftsman) so the more nooks and crannies we can create to house our things, the better.

Met this little guy at one of my favorite Portland thrift stores - and while I didn't fall madly in love with him at first sight - it had the height I wanted and a price tag I could get on board with ($20.)

The top piece was just a thin square of cheap plywood so that went away first thing. Then I removed the drawers, lightly roughed up the surface of everything with 120 grit sandpaper, and spray painted 2 coats of a nice glossy ivory. 

The drawers had a groove along the bottom for pulling them open but I wanted to update the look and give a little visual contrast to them so I sourced three pulls - they appear mostly black but they have a slight "oiled bronze" patina to them.

For the top I wanted a "polished rustic" look, so Adam and I dug through our scrap barn wood and unearthed some pieces that he then ripped down to various widths (2" - 3".) I used our random orbital sander to make them smooth and he attached them from inside the top drawer with our nail gun. The finish is just a clear gloss spray I had lying around - I'll keep you posted as to how that holds up.

And here's the finished product nestled into its tiny corner in our bedroom.

What's your favorite thrift store find? Was it perfect to begin with or did you revamp it especially for your space?

Spring Chickens

Well being as it's spring in the Pacific Northwest - I thought I'd share with you all our chicken coop and a bit about how we got there.

We found this little gem posted "free" on Craigslist after having hunted for something like this for weeks. Hitched up the trailer and drove out to see it - couldn't beat the price. But... It was one of those "some assembly" required when it was new - the owner had built the shed in his backyard - inside his 6' fence. The gate wasn't wide enough to accommodate the shed but thanks to the help of two neighbors, myself, Adam, and the owner, we were able to hoist it over the fence to freedom. (The shed is made of light-weight sheet metal and doesn't have a floor.)

Our first step was to build a platform for it to live on as we didn't want it to be subjected to rodent visitors. 

Then we placed inexpensive peel-n-stick tiles over the plywood floor for easy cleaning. I don't know if you know this but chickens can be kind of gross...

I had to work double time as the sun started to go down finishing just as it got dark.

The next day we mounted the coop to the platform and Adam cut the "chicken" door out of the lower right corner. Here's a view from the inside.

Next step was to build the perimeter of the run - keeping a space to allow for a door for us to access it - and completing the run with 2"x4" galvanized steel fencing - being careful to counter sink the fencing an inch or so around to deter unwanted visitors.

We topped the roof with corrugated steel and decided to install a window into the coop for more light. We found the 24"x24" window at a local re-sale store for fairly inexpensive. We also installed two simple HVAC vents to either end of the coop that can open and close depending on the weather for some cross-ventilation.

For the interior we concluded that the ladies didn't need all 4' x 8' of the space so we devised a way to build a closet space into the front 1/4. Here we can keep their food, bedding and other miscellaneous chicken supplies.

The middle shelf you see in the closet extends the length of the coop where we've installed their double nesting box as well as the roost where they will sleep.

Here's Doris trying out the little ramp we included to assist them on and off the shelf if needed. See, I told you chickens can get gross.

And for the final step - making it look nice! We chose two exterior paint colors - one for the "trim" and one for the rest of the "siding." I then cleaned the exterior from top to bottom, allowed it to dry, and painted (2) coats of paint and primer in one. 

Then I twisted Adam's arm into making me shutters and a window box which I painted a contrasting color and filled with geraniums. Last but not least were two hanging baskets filled with flowers and these girls are set.

What are you doing to get ready for spring? Are you as in love with planting colorful flowers around your yard as I am?