Tuesday, May 4, 2010

We have a new home

There is a good reason why it's been a long time since we've updated. First, we needed a painting break. And up until two nights ago we had TWO bathrooms torn apart. Now we only have one. Which one? The master bathroom. The one we started a long stinking time ago.

And I know I need to post pictures of the issue we've run into. I have taken them, I just haven't gotten around to posting it. But there's been more going on. For those that follow our family blog, you know we've moved to our own domain. And we've decided to semi-merge the two with a sub-domain. I'm still finding my way around with the subdomain. And it's not totally done. But now all of you that follow this will be able to see more about us, and still follow our house blog.

For now it seems like you may have to "subscribe" to both if you want both. I tried to set up google friend connect to link both of them, but that doesn't seem to be working right. You can subscribe at the the top right of the new blog.

So the new house blog is : http://house.charminglychandler.com/
There will be more slight changes but at least you can go check it out now.


Our family blog can be accessed from that site by clicking "Home".
Or you can just go to http://charminglychandler.com

So go check it out. Sorry for the subscribing mess that's occurring. But again, subscribe to at least the house blog. If you want both you'll have to subscribe to both sites...at least for now.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

It wouldn't be a DIY project with out an issue?

I posted about how we were working on the bathroom. And I've been asked for pictures. Well here's the issue we've run into (the reason we haven't posted any pictres).

When we were installing the new light fixture we ran into an issue. The box that is in the wall, the one where the wires come through, you know the one you mount the light fixture to? Well it wasn't mounted to anything inside of the wall. It's supposed to be mounted to a couple 2x4's. that are either the studs or connected to the studs. This one wasn't. It was just sitting in the wall, hanging out. It's no longer hanging out, because as we were trying to figure out why the fixture was "rocking" the dry wall cracked. A little inspection caused the box to seperate from the wall. Basically it was bonded in there with paint. And then the old fixture was a wide fixture, so there wasn't pressure AT the box exactly. But this new light fixture puts all the pressure at and right around the box.

So now we have to get that sitch fixed before we can install the light. We still don't have a mirror to put in (the old mirror was trash). And so that's why there are no pictures. But as soon as the wee one wakes up from her nap I will be uploading some photo's of the living room so we can all at least ohhhh & ahhhh over what a transformation THAT was!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

So much painting has happened!

And I haven't shared any pictures. I know...whats the point of this blog if I'm not going to keep up with our progress? Well it's been busy.

We hired a painter to tackle our living room and master bedroom. He did a great job, but we won't be needing a painter ever again. We watched his technique, asked questions. And now we're better painters than ever! To test out our new skills we painted the bathroom. And we did a great job! We make a good team as long as we aren't BOTH painting. The Mister preps, and I paint. It's a perfect system for us.

We are going to be busy painting ALL.THE.TRIM in the house this weekend (well all that we haven't done). We still need to pick out a color for the basement and the upstairs bathroom. I have an idea of what I want to do there, I just need to find the perfect colors to pull it all off.

So things are going to remain busy here this weekend. Hopefully I can snap some pictures and finish up the updates!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Wow, what a little color can do.

First let me say paying someone to paint our living room was the smartest thing we've ever ever ever done before. Best money ever spent. Worth every penny. And every other smart spending saying out there.

Lets review here's the living room's before pictures. (It's pretty much necessary to view these first if you haven't seen them before, or at least to refresh your mind!)

Here is our painter Dwaine.


He was using tinted primer. So pretty much, that color is the color of the walls. Here's another picture to show you that this is going to make a major change in the room!
I really cant describe how the mood of the room totally changed with a different color. It feels lighter. More mellow. More airy. It feels so much better.

Now I'm going to post a couple pictures of the wall, but this isn't going to serve as a BEFORE/AFTER post because we are getting new furniture, and we need stuff ON the walls. Once that is done I'll be posting a real post that compares the before room to the after and we can all ohhhhh & ahhhh!



You can't really tell from these pictures (I can't seem to win on making them the size I want them, they are either always too big or always too small) but we've also repainted all the trim. (You can actually still see some tape above the door in the last picture!). What a difference. It all just POPs a little bit more.

Now this view is going to be one of our next project. We are repainting the spindles a bright white. And then we're refinishing the rail and posts. They will be a very dark stain. It should be a great contrast! BUT what in the world am I going to hang on that wall? If you looked at the "before" shots you'll see they had pictures and a coat hanger thingie. Well I don't really want to hang pictures like that. And we've tossed around the idea of putting a coat hook thing like they had. But we're not sure. I'm sure things will look different once we've stained the railing. Maybe that will give us some direction.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Weekend Projects

They aren't all HGTV makes them out to be.

Which is probably due to the fact they condense all that work into an hour, sometimes 30 minutes.

And you get to sick back and watch a whole team of people (at least 4 but up to a few dozen!) work on a room or a set of rooms. The reality is weekend projects aren't like that in the real world (or at least in my reality of the real world!)

Trying to do work with a 7 month old means either one person works while the other plays/feeds/changes/rocks the baby. Or nothing gets done until bedtime (which thanks to the time change is an hour later).

Last night Mr. C & I started on the bathroom, we worked from 7ish-to after midnight. And really we only got the walls washed, prepped, and the ceiling painted (we'd already removed all the hardware off the walls).

Today we're going to be painting the walls and painting the doors to the closet, bathroom and bedroom. Hopefully we can get the wee one to nap where I can at least get ONE coat of paint on the walls!!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Watch out bathroom....

We are about to rock your world!

The bathroom is needing some serious overhaul. The painter we have hired for the living room is also going to do the bedroom. So we don't have to mess around with that. But the bathroom....the bathroom is all us. And I am going to take a sick satisfaction from it.

The ceiling, the walls, the hardware, the cabinets. It will all be changing!!

This is the bathroom currently (I will take more pictures right before the work starts!):

It's not the best picture, so I'll need to go in and take some more so that I have good before and afters.

We are repainting the walls with a beautiful cinnamon color. We are staining the cabinets a darker shade. We are repainting the ceiling. We are replacing the light fixtures and the hardware. Oh and we're replacing the mirror.

The only thing we aren't doing right now is replacing the floors. And the reason is funds. would it be easier to do it all at once? Of course. But we are still deciding on what floors we want, and so far our taste exceeds the funds available. So instead of settling we're going to make it something that we like and will enjoy until we can get to the floors.

I will have more to tell of the end plan of the bathroom(s) in the before and after post. While we were hoping this project would be our weekend project, it will probably take a couple of weeks just because of some other scheduling issues. But I can't wait for it to be done and us to show you the final product!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Let the painting begin!

Our living room is a deep shade of....of...a brownish green, olive maybe? Either way it isn't something we love. But we've watched enough HGTV to know to never hold wall colors against a house. So we looked past it and I started searching. We knew we needed to find new colors for every room. I searched blogs, I talked to friends, I took home paint chips from Lowes, HD & SW's. I found a color we loved on a blog that I've mentioned here before (I've actually talked about this color before). I can't resist showing the picture for those who are just quickly scrolling:


Just looking at the picture I am so excited for the change. It looks so relaxing, so soothing, so perfect.

When we close on our house we talked to our REA about a painter. We knew that the living room was too much of a project for us. The ceilings are vaulted, and we knew our limitations. Not only time, but the trouble. It is worth the money to us. Our REA got us in touch with the painter that he recommends for clients that are selling, it's also the painter he uses for his own home. As a housewarming present our agent is paying for the paint, and we are paying for the labor. It's a great deal, and this painter is very well priced. He is not only going to paint the walls for us, but he's also going to fix the baseboards, and clean up the ceiling from previous paint jobs.

I am excited to see the transformation...it's going to be MAJOR!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Pantry is Complete.

Functionally complete. We've got some other things that we're doing that will add some finishing touches. But for now, the project as we currently had it planned is complete.

There used to be a washer and drier area in the kitchen. The previous owners had a great laundry area built in the basement. They had plans for the area of the kitchen but never got around to making their ideas a reality. Once we realized we wouldn't ever use this area for its intended purpose, we knew right away that it would make an amazing pantry. (we have left everything needed to convert this area back to a washer and drier area just in case we ever NEED to move it, or we sell and the next owners want it to be on the main level).

This was our first real house project, and it sorta took a detour. The stud finder we used (and contrary to what our friends think, even though they were helping they weren't the studs) picked up a drainage pipe as a stud. The pipe is tight against the wall, this is the only reason we think this happened.

The drilling started, and after nine holes the walls cried their tiny tears.

The project immediately came to a screeching halt while we formed a plan, (a few plans too, just in case). We had to cut out the portion of the pipe that had been drilled into (by we I mean my dear husband, and two of our friends. The wee one doesn't know much about DIY and so her and I played in the living room during all of this).

The guys worked for MANY hours that night to get everything repaired so that the pipe was back in working order and the wall would be ready to be fixed the following day.

The next day the number of people working on the project went from three to two as one of our friends had to return back to Georgia after being a house guest for a few weeks (it was really helpful to have him here to help while moving, we really appreciate him!!
The second day of the project resulted in this:


Finally on Day Three....the sanding and priming and painting was complete on the repair. And we could get to installing the pantry!

Now that it is complete I am SO happy with how it turned out. It didn't take a few hours like we originally planned for it to. But it turned out great and in the end that's what matters most!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

We are facing our first Home Owner Challenge (well besides the crying wall)

Whew, this is one of the stresses that has been weighing on my mind for a week or so now.

The upstairs bathroom has some, what appears to be, mold under the linoleum. It was located under the bathmat in front of the tub. We never would have thought to even LOOK there for it. It starts at the edge of the tub and comes out roughly a foot. I would say it's about three feet wide. This little square footage of area is causing so much stress. I have a firm understanding that when you usually SEE a problem, the problem is bigger than the surface.

We had a home inspection January prior to buying the house. He never looked under the bathmat. It was a MAJOR fault on his part, as an inspector to not look and catch something so major.

After thinking about it for a week I decided we should call the inspector, because it WAS his job to catch it. He was paid a fee, and what's the point in paying an inspector if he's not looking at things a normal person wouldn't think of? (Something as simple lifting the mat).

I spoke with the inspector today and he's coming over tomorrow to take a look at it and "put our heads together and see what can be done." I've done some research, talked to our REA and if tomorrow he doesn't come to the conclusion that he SHOULD have caught it (it's so obvious, and visible, he SHOULD have caught it) we will be taking the next step with the licensing people for Home Inspectors for our state as well as contacting his insurance company and seeing about putting in a claim anyways. The whole reason that they are insured is for situations like this, so we are hoping that he has enough integrity to admit there was a mistake and make it right.

Let me add a few things that we have checked (even though we are untrained so it really means very little) the floor doesn't feel soft, it doesn't have any real give to it. The walls aren't soft. The linoleum isn't rippled, soft, wavy or any of the other things we imagine would be happening if water had been causing damage for years. Or if it was a pipe issue from under the tub or in the wall. We really think it was just water coming over the side of the tub from the previous owners children taking a bath, playing, and getting in and out of the tub.

We won't know the extent of the damage, we won't have a plan of action...we won't have ANSWERS until sometime after tomorrow. So here's to hoping that things go our way with the inspector tomorrow!

Here are the pictures:








So now that I've shared the pictures any words of advice, wisdom, or a horror story that will cause me to lose some more sleep??!!

"Why are the holes you just drilled in the wall crying?"

The answer? The holes were drilled into a drainage pipe, a toilet was flushed...and tears formed.

Yes, we used a stud finder (I'll spare you all the stud jokes that get told during the use of a stud finder). The pipe is actually pressed against the dry wall. They probably figured it didn't matter because it was a laundry room. Well Mister Builder Man...it does matter when a handful of years later a sweet couple want to make your laundry room into a pantry. IT MATTERS!

So as I type this there are three guys in the one-day-pantry (ok not that dramatic, tomorrow the pantry SHOULD be finished). They are cutting out the dry wall and the pipe. Tomorrow morning we are going to replace the piece of pipe with new pipe and fix the dry wall, and then finish the pantry instillation.

So our first DIY house project isn't exactly going as planned.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The List

I decided a while ago that I was going to post a list. One that I could reference back to on here. I love lists, more than that I love crossing things off of them. Sometimes when I do things that aren't on my list of "to-do's"--I'll add it, just to cross it off. It brings some sort of sick organized satisfaction to me.

As I was saying, a list. A beautiful list. So here we go:

Painting:
- Kitchen
- Living Room
- Master Bedroom
-Master Closet
- Master Bathroom
-Upstairs Bathroom
-Basement Bathroom
-Craft Room
-Man Room
-Outside Shutters
-Front Door
-All Trim
Kitchen Makeover
-Redoing Kitchen Cabinets
- Installing Pantry
-Hardwood floors
-counter-tops
-backsplash
Stairs
-Strip Banister and stain
-Paint spindles
-Replace post.
Master Suite
-Closet Makeover
-Tile Bathroom floor
-Redo vanity
-New carpet in bedroom & Closet
Craft Room
-Install shelving in old closet.
-Install counter-tops
-Add lighting
Upstairs:
-New flooring in bathroom
-New vanity in bathroom
-New cabinet storage in bathroom
-Redo one of the closets in Baby C's room
-New faucet in bathroom
-New Tub
Garage:
-Paint
-Install shelving.
Doors:
-Replace/fix up interior doors
Fans:
-Replace fan in Baby C's room.
-Replace fan in Living room.
-Replace fan in guest room.


All typed up that list looks SO DAUNTING. Maybe I shouldn't have typed up a WHOLE list of ALL the things we want to do with the house..ever! Ha ha. Maybe I should have made the list of stuff we're going to do NOW. But, it is what it is. And we've got years to work on all of it!

Most Recent Edit: March 27th, 2010. I have added some things to the list, and crossed some things off. Blog posts with pictures are coming, just be patient with me.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Wee One's Room is Painted

After closing today we stalked our new house (the previous owners are in the process of moving) anyhow I was on the phone with her (the previous owner) when we were driving by just looking and we decided to just go ahead and stop in. The person that they have painting the two rooms was finishing up Baby C's room while we were there. And I LOVE IT Y'ALL! Right now there are no blinds in there, and no furniture. So it's very, ummm, eye opening. But I am so excited about it. I am almost GIDDY to make it all her's! It's going to be AMAZING. It could quite possibly become my favorite room in the house!!

I forgot to take a picture of it today. But we're going by tomorrow to put some stuff in the house, and so I'll take one then. But I may not post any, I may hold out until we at LEAST get her furniture and blinds in there so I don't get phone calls telling me how crazy I am for the color. I have faith you will all love it as much as I do when you see it totally done!

*I have edited this 6 times already. So any sentences that don't make sense are going to have to stay that way! It's been SUCH A LONG DAY!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




WE ARE HOME OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Well, tomorrow is the big day!

I think I've posted about every room in the new house. The only pictures that are left are the pictures of the outside. But since there have been some changes I'm holding off posting those until we've taken pictures. (probably tomorrow).

Tomorrow is the big day: CLOSING DAY!

Tomorrow the house is ours. OURS. Tomorrow the adventure starts.


Next week I will try to take some pictures of the painted rooms upstairs (Wee one's room, and the guest room) and post those before we finish moving everything and are out of touch (internet wise) for a few weeks.

I am excited for this next chapter in our lives. For the next few months there will be a lot of transitioning...making it the house bought....to the home we love. I also can't wait to start on all the decor projects I've been bookmarking for a couple of months now! As soon as the big stuff is done I can start with those.

Basement Bathroom

I haven't got much to say about this bathroom. It's fairly new, the current owners put it in. We like the look of it....the only thing we *may* change is the wall color. But all in all this bathroom is perfect for a basement bathroom. It's perfect for when we're doing things down stairs, it's perfect if we've been doing yard work. So here's a quick picture.


Kitchen aka Biggest Project

Ok well the Kitchen is the biggest project of 2010. In the next couple of years when we renovate the bathroom, that will likely be THE biggest project of the house. But for now, the kitchen is our big task. The big dream. The task that we face with excitement and a little bit of dread.

The Kitchen.

Here are some pictures at different angles of the kitchen (and it's attached dining area). Yes I took TOO MANY pictures of it. But because we do have big plans I wanted to be able to look at the pictures as many times as I needed (and I would say that these are some of the most viewed pictures we took that day!).











I can give you some definite inspiration pictures for the kitchen. I had decided almost right away on what I wanted to do with it. All Mr. C really wanted to see was some pictures, he needs to SEE something in front of him to get an idea of what I'm describing.

Our plan goes a little something like this:

-Repaint the walls. This will probably be done VERY soon as I really do NOT like the color that it's in there right now. It's the color the owners before the current owners painted it, and it is just not our style at all.

-Pantry. It appears that there is already a pantry in the kitchen. And to a certain extent there is. The accordion doors in the kitchen used to be where the washer and drier were. They were moved downstairs to the basement. We've decided to stay with that plan and make the space in the kitchen into an awesome pantry. We finally won't be filling all the cabinets to the brim! Finally -- A Pantry!!

-Refinish the Cabinets. This is the step that causes my to get a little weak in the stomach. It's a big job. Even though there aren't A LOT of cabinets. It is still a big job. They will go from the current finish to white. With refinishing the cabinets we are going to make window cabinets (probably not the technical term of what those sort of cabinets are, but you get the idea) out of all the upper cabinets. We are also replacing the hardware on the cabinets.

-New Countertops. We are going down the granite path. Since these days granite seems to be the standard. We are going with a black or very dark gray color for the countertops.

-Tile back splash. we haven't picked the tile. I am really liking the idea of a light gray glass tile. But I know there is always something classic and clean about white subway tile.

-Hardwood Floors. This step was complicated almost instantly. After talking to the current owners we found out that the floors need some sort of re-leveling or something or other. They had plans of putting in hardwood and didn't want to deal with re-leveling so never bothered. We are set on it so we are currently in talks with some contractors to see how much and how long of a process that is. Once that part is done we'll be putting in dark hardwood.


Like I said, HUGE project! huge HUGE huge!

We are excited. There will be a lot of DIY here (pretty much everything except the countertops and re-leveling the floor). Mr. C's brother just recently put in hardwood floors with a contractor friend of theirs, we will be utilizing their services during this big old project. So hopefully it all doesn't drag out forever! I just can't wait to see the finished product!!

Here are a couple of pictures we're using to draw inspiration:



Mr. C's Room

Yes, the room he'd like me to call his "man cave", but I can't bring myself to say it because I just feel silly. So I guess the name doesn't matter...after all a rose by any other name...........

Currently this room is serving as the current owners oldest sons room. It's directly off the garage, and there is a door to the room that leads right outside. We are struggling to decide how to arrange any furniture in this room because of the shape. Mr. C wants to rip out the closet. I don't. I feel like you can never have TOO MUCH closet space. Why would anyone want to rip out closets?? I look at it as a great place to store jackets and stuff during the warmer months. We can store all sorts of stuff down there, out of the way! I'm sure we'll come to some sort of agreement.

This is the current look of the room: (I've blurred out the kids, and the owner. Since this isn't their blog I am not comfortable putting their pictures in here)





The color of the room will be the same as the craft room and the basement stairs. Which may or may not be blond.

I like the curtain in front of the door. Especially as a way to block light when watching a movie or a football game or whatever it is men watch in their room (yuck-"Man Cave") I'd like the door to be functional. So I'm thinking of doing a fake out curtain, as in making it much wider than the door area so it doesn't look so...well so doorish. If I have the panels centered in the middle it keeps the door functional but also makes the room look less "off the basement" (although it IS ha ha).

Eventually (as in probably this summer) we will be putting our current living room furniture down there. This room may take a little longer to get to a funtional point simply because I know he wants a TV and with all the other projects in the house that will probably be put off.

In the spirit of it being HIS he has been wanting badly to put up a poster of Michael Chiklis from The Shield (it is autographed, and was sent to him while we was deployed years ago). I have been dragging my feet on this, but only because in my mind posters go in room of teenage boys and girls. But after looking up some framing options I think I've found a way to make it work with out looking terribly awful.

Again, no real pictures to give you an idea of what it will look like when it's done. But you'll just have to check back to see.

Ohhhhh My Craft Room.

I am really excited about having a room to not only organize all my craft stuff, but also a place to work on this with out anyone moving things around on me!!

So here is the craft room in its current state (it is a teenage boys room!)




I can not wait to get to work on this room. It is going to look SO DIFFERENT when we are done with it. I don't know if you can see it well in these pictures, but the baseboards...yeah they are black. We toyed with the idea of what would be easier when it comes to fixing that, and we've decided to just tear out those baseboards and put down new ones. Painting over that black is just going to be too much of a hassle.

Before I get to ahead of myself let me tell you what I have in mind for this room.

It's going to be an open space, well as open as you can get for a room this size. We are going to brighten up the entire basement with new paint. A much brighter shade. We haven't picked a definite color yet (I have so many color swatches on the table right now, I don't know how people make these decisions!!) I am in love with the color "blond" in the basement, but I am not as in love with it for the living room (Mr. C is completely the opposite, and so until we decide I guess it's all still up in the air). (you can see the blond color here) Anyhow, it will be a similar shade as the blond as far as brightening up the space.

We are taking out the mirror closet doors. In that area we are going to put in some shelves (organization here we come!!). I am in love with the idea of hanging "curtains" there to give some character to that side of the room.

We haven't figured out a desk situation yet. There will be two "desks" (more like a counter space, and a desk). The desk will be for our "office" stuff. And the counter will be for my sewing machine and things like that. Whatever we decide, they will be white. When I said I was brightening it up, I wasn't kidding! White and light colored walls! I am so excited it's going to be so fresh looking!!

I know this entry isn't really picture heavy. I haven't found a lot of pictures of other craft rooms that really show what I want to do with the room. So you're just going to have to wait until it starts to come together! :-)

(if this post seems scattered, I am going on very little sleep, and I am typing pretty much one handed as Baby C has fallen asleep in my arms.)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Master Bathroom

Deciding on the wee ones bathroom was easy. We weren't changing the actual color, just the feel. Easy peasy. Master bathroom? Not as easy.

In the next two years the master bathroom will experience a real renovation. As in new floors, stand up shower, garden tub, new vanity. Renovation.

However, a project that size, that costly has to wait a couple of years. The kitchen has a top spot on the renovation list.

But, that said the bathroom will be getting a makeover. New paint, maybe a slight change to the floor, and a face lift to the vanity. Just enough to hold us over until we win the lottery save up for a renovation.

Here is the current bathroom:



I am going to turn to you. My friends that have made their way here from my family blog, the fellow SITS's and the possible readers from the D&R.

For reference the bedroom will be shades of gray. Soooooo you can leave me comments, or e-mail me (there's a contact me button at the top).

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Monday, February 1, 2010

If we could pick a living room color...

....it would help me put together a whole mood of the living room. It would help me to visualize more of what sort of things we will hang on the wall. It will help me to piece it all together.

But we.can.not.pick.a.color.

It's the truth. I've looked at so many blogs and websites, looking through color options. I think I say "What do you think of this one?" to Mr. C more than I say anything else. His response "It looks like the Blond color."

They never look like the Blond color. But he is obviously in love with that color. And I like it too. Don't get me wrong. But I wish I could see it in person before being in love with it. The living room is a major deal. It's not like the color of the guest room, which I will hardly be in. Or the guys room (Mr.C would like me to refer to that room as the "Man Cave" but I just can't bring myself to do it).
Here is a picture of the living room as it is now:



View from doorway.



View from fireplace. *pictures blurred since they aren't MY kids I don't want to be posting pictures of their kids everywhere. Safety First right?!


View from the top of the stairs.



So not the best pictures or the best angles, but you can see that the living room color is going to be a major color choice, it's a lotta wall!

The Blonde that Mr. C is in love with is from this blog post. Expect to see a couple other things from this blog. We are in love with a banister makeover that they did!

Anyhow, that's the talk of the casa at the moment, living room color!!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Already changes to the Wee one's room.

I just posted a few hours ago about the paint color choice for her room. And I was looking at it more (which I've been doing a lot of for the past 2 weeks) and decided that now that I put it all together in a blog and really pictured ALL of it together. The color needed more "pop". It needed more. And I think I was a little scared of more color before, and in the past would have been talked out of it. But I have my inspiration picture and I am in love with it. I picture the room and I am in love with it. It's a color that will be able to be made much more playful and fun as Baby C grows.
So, we're changing the color folks.

Here's the blog entry that finally made me just decided that the previous choice of Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue was too light.

So here's a little peak at the color:



Now picture it again with the pompoms, and quotes, and maybe daisies! It fits much much better now!

Second Floor Bathroom

This bathroom will have a dual purpose. It's the guest and company bathroom, but also the wee one's. So while I don't want to totally kid-ify it. I do want her to like it, since she'll be using it more than anyone else.

Currently the owners have it decorated like this:


It's a fairly large bathroom, you can't really tell but there's a bit of room to the left of where the picture ends. Enough for some shelving for towels and other bath items. Something else that's difficult to tell from this picture is the color. I took another picture of the bathroom, but it's not the best quality, I was rushing. The bathroom is actually gray. A really nice gray. Our question has been how to dress that grayup for Baby C. We've come up with a couple of options.

Option One: is to accessorize with pink, bright pink. Not bubble gum bright pink, but more like this color pink:


Now it's a whole lot of pink when it's the only color in the room. But I'm attempting to talk Mr. C into being on board with a solid line midway around the room. With a matching solid shower curtain. I think it would add a great amount of color to the room. I saw a picture of a kids bathroom that I really liked this picture and quote they had. I am on the hunt for the picture again, but I can't find it right now. As soon as I do I'll come back and add it here. But in the mean time I'll do my best to describe it. It was a picture of her child (or maybe two kids) wrapped in towels. Framed. Above the pictures had a quote. I can't remember now what it said for sure. But we're going back and forth between "Rub-a-dub-dub" and "splish splash",

Option Two: Also known as Mr. C's least favorite. Adding wood paneling to break up all the gray. We would probably still accessorize with pink, just no stripe.

Option Three: A totally new color. This would be a totally blank slate. No color choices have been decided if we go with this. So I imagine if we don't decide between one and two, we'll have a lot of brainstorming ahead of us.

The Wee One's Room

I am really really excited about Baby C's room. It's like the best of it all. Her current room is pretty much exactly what I wanted for her. I love the wall color, I love the wall art, I love her furniture. There were some things I wanted to do that I never did, and things I wish I had had more room for.

I got to have the green and pink room that I wanted to bring her home to. Now she can have the turquoise room that I was too intimidated to do before. The room in the new house is bigger, windows on opposite ends of the room. and more wall space for more fun stuff!

Here is a picture of what we have as her room now in our current house:




I like it, but I am also really excited that with her new room in the new house, that we can do something new!

Here's what the room in the new house currently looks like:







The color we've chosen for the wee room is called "Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue" It's a light turquoise, depending on how light or bright it is once we get in the room will decide how many other turquoise accents we add to the room. Every online swatch of the color looks much more green than it is. So instead of doing that, here's a room painted the color that wee one's room will be.


I truthfully hope it turns out a tad brighter than this room. I think since there won't be as much sunlight it will turn out exactly how I want it. And if not, we'll well change plans (which may or may not include one coat of the next color on the card). No biggie.

Over the crib we're going to hang some paper pompoms (or cloth if I can find fabric that I like). I am not decided on the number of them yet. But there will probably be two or three colors. Two shades of pink and maybe a turquoise if the room needs some extra pop. Here's a picture of similar colors to give you an idea:



I found this adorable idea on this blog:


I will finally use the quote I loved when I was pregnant. I kept trying to find a place for it in her current room, but never had a chance. "Today you are you. Which is truer than true. For no one alive can be more youer than you." And for the sake of staying even with quotes I have a couple more quotes that are being decided on. I asked the above blogger how she did it, so I'm fairly confident I can do something similar. We will see!

I do plan on making another memory board like the one that currently hangs over her dresser. I want to make it bigger, so I'm waiting for canvas to go on sale at the craft store!

Mr. C and I were talking last night about what to do in the little "cove" in the room. I really like the idea of putting a toy box under the window like the current owners have. But I want to do something fun and a little whimsical with that area. Currently we're talking about decals of daisy's "growing" from the floor, or maybe dandelions. Nothing has been decided. We also are talking about where to put her name in the room. I want it somewhere where she see's it regularly so she can become familiar with how her name looks. But I also want it to flow with the room.

Lastly I found an Etsy store (if you don't know what etsy is, go look, now.) that makes custom glider cushions. This makes me very very happy! I haven't seen a fabric that I think I want for it, but once we get closer to getting it all together, I'm sure I'll find something that jumps out at me!

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions just send me a message!! Nothing is written in stone yet!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Master Bedroom

Mr C. and I are super excited about the mater bedroom, the closet, and even including big plans for the bathroom (if those actually come to life in the next five years is a different story.)

Here are two pictures of the room as it is now (with the current owners belongings)




Now, you see the door down there? It is to the closet....against the wall in the L shaped room is the door to the bathroom. Here is where the major changes begin....
We are going to box the room, we're making that wall flush and extending the closet. There is a good reason that we will get to later (a good reason besides having a bigger closet). We haven't worked out the details of where the door to the bathroom will be, but trust me...we're already working on that. (I have a picture of the inside of th current closet..but you're going to have to wait until it's empty to get to see a picture, sorry!!)

Now after we've made that wall flush we are going to repaint and refurnish the room. They are currently rocking the sage green feel, we will be changing that.

The master bedroom was the only room they didn't get around to re-carpeting, so that will also be part of the redo, what it shown at the bottom of the photo is the current bedroom carpeting, whats at the top is what we're just going to extend into the room:



The look we'll be going for of the room will be a mix of these:






My dreams for our closet look a little something like this:



But since that's the size of an entire bedroom, you can all be assured it won't look much like that at all. But we are going to add some shelves, and drawers into the closet to make it more organized, and hopefully if all goes well relieve the need for a dresser (while there is room for one, we'd like to make the room larger by not having one! Crazy idea huh?)

It will probably look a little more like this:

Just with more organization, no slanted ceiling, and maybe have a her side and a his side...

As I said, we've got major plans. If timing works in our favor the actual bedroom and closet will be done by the summer!!