Some Little Projects

I've been working on a few little things lately trying to summer things up a bit around here. Starting with the front garden. Last year we ripped out the brick at the front of the house to put a small garden, and it was ok. We had some blooming things (mainly because we planted things that already had flowers on them) but it was relatively sad haha. In the fall my mom and I planted a bunch of bulbs and I didn't really have high hopes for them, I'm a bit of a black thumb. I was always the kid who's stupid little bean never grew. That's why the only house plant we have is a succulent, because not even I can seem to kill them. But my garden out front looks great so far, and it's still early! So I had my mom and sister come out to help me weed, and we put up a little border around the garden, just using the bricks we'd pulled up.

I'm most excited about my rose bush. We transplanted it from the backyard last year, and it was pitiful, we figured it was dead, but it managed one bloom. This year it is looking WAY better, and I'm really hoping we get a few more than one this year.

There's still a few more plants and flowers I need/want to get in there, like some nice annuals, maybe some inpatients, and a few more begonias. There's some grape hyacinth in the backyard that we'll transplant up there as well as soon as we can (they're growing in the middle of the yard)

We also took off the ugly awning over the dining room window. It was one of those projects that take absolutely no time, and makes you wonder why on earth you hadn't done it sooner. And it lets is so much more light into the dining room now. We still want to take down those cedars, they're just too close to the house, but we want to wait until we're able to plant another tree first. Seems only fair since we already ripped out Bertha the giant bush. I also want to do some gardening/landscaping on this side, since it's not going to change at all, and it gets a bit more sun than the other side.


In terms of still summery, but less flowery things, I made some patio plates. I somehow have amassed a significant collection of plates, (I like to throw parties haha) so I decided to take the white plates I had and fun them up a bit. (they came from Dollerama) I started with a white plate and some Sharpie paint pens.

I was wanting to create something like the plates that Amanda from Love & Renovations scored from West Elm a while ago, I just loved them, but they don't sell them anymore, plus they'd probably be out of our price range anyway. So I figured why not try this Sharpie on white ceramics thing that's all over the place, and see if I could recreate a similar look.

Here's what I came up with. The colours are considerably more primary and bright, and a lot of my zig-zags don't line up all that great, but they're not too bad. I was a little disappointed with how they turned out, but Jase thought they looked good, and proclaimed they'd make good patio plates. So patio plates they shall become. The second plate I did looked better, and I devised a plan for the third one, so it should look even better. I've got 12 white plates kickin' around so I'll probably do it to all 12, and I've got an idea for salad plates, so hopefully I can get to those soon too.

April Organize-A-Rama: You Call That an Office?

So, April's apparently half over already? Someone clearly neglected to tell me! I've been working on a few areas, getting them organized, or functioning better, so first up was one area that didn't really take all that long, but has made a pretty big difference so far. That would our "office". We don't don't have a dedicated home office space (yet). But we do have a desk in the corner of our bedroom that we can use as a makeshift office for the interim. His name is Shakey...because if you look at it wrong it could fall over - it's that sturdy, but he does the trick for now.

Sorry about the crappy phone pictures the in-laws have my camera and it was night time) Please pretend that the light is in fact finished and hanging proudly, illuminating the room; instead of unceremoniously slumped half finished and half forgotten in the corner. (While you're pretending the ball of folded paper isn't there, you can also go ahead and imagine that that duct work is enclosed nicely) Now, moving on the desk. It's not particularly unorganized, it's something that's just not really living up to it's full potential. While a light sneeze may bring ol' Shakey down without warning, he still really wants to pull his weight, and help us stay on top of our bills, and taxes, and magazines, and what not. The cords are a big pain in my you know what, and since the desk top doesn't work (and hasn't for close to 6 months) they can finally disappear! We needed a central "hub" for billing and other paperwork, so I wasn't running all over the house trying to find where I'd stored things when we needed them. Plus keeping on top of bills is rather important, because companies can get a little testy when you don't pay on time - and "I lost my bill in a mountain of random paperwork" doesn't really fly with them.
   After about two hours of organizing (actually it was more like 1.5 hours of tracking everything down and about a half hour of organizing) Shakey now looks like this:

Not too shabby of a makeover eh? And yes, it is essential that you be watching Dr. Who whilst organizing. We got rid of the non working desk top and put the laptop up there. Unfortunately we don't have wireless because we're pretty technology illiterate, and our wireless router wouldn't work for some reason when we moved, so we have a massive 100ft internet cord that we just traipse all over the house when we need to move. So coiling it up keeps it out of our way. Bianca the hippo is an excellent note holder for all the corny little notes we like to write each other, and the calendar clipped to the wall tracks all our bills - when they come out, how much that kind of thing.

100 nerd points if you can name what Dr. Who episode I was watching. I plan on adding a cork board (I thought I'd have enough left over from a project, but alas, I didn't) and probably a larger calendar. As for underneath, we've got everything there now, at the reach of our fingertips. Sorted and stored and pretty looking.

I've got all my magazines, which I reference often, I went through them all and threw out ones that I deemed no longer relevant, and took out pages in ones that only had a few nice things - which ended up in the blue binder - that's where I keep track of all the house stuff. (Inspiration, layouts, budgeting, etc.) The green binder I is pretty self explanatory, it's a house for all those called Manuel. Every time I see (or hear) the word manual, I think of Wall-E, when the captain doesn't realize it's a book. "Operate Manuel. Manuel, relay instructions." (Check it out...funny) White file thingy has all our current tax stuff, receipts, papers all that jazz (because we're bad, and still haven't filed yet - still have time). The red binder has the recipes I ripped out of magazines that I then got rid of (can I get a woot woot for throwing out 20lbs of old magazines), it's also where I do our menu planning.

These files house all our important paperwork. Our banking stuff, insurance stuff, travel plans for future trips, medical stuff, yada, yada, yada. The purple ones have all our paid bills stored for tax purposes (two months at a time) and previous years taxes.
   That cleared up paper from all over the house, and has helped my piece of mind, knowing where all our important papers are - so hopefully nothing else gets lost. That crosses one thing of my list, and I'm currently working on the our closet and the blue room, so hopefully those should both be done by this weekend.

Master Bath Progress

So, in case you haven't noticed, we have a little bit of a problem when it comes to finishing a project. We're great starters, we have started a number of projects, both big and small, but have yet to call one officially done. And I'm here to say...that we still aren't ready to call one done haha. The master bathroom has been easier to hide than the rest of the massive demo projects we've begun, so we weren't really focusing on it. OK, lets be honest, we haven't really been focusing on any project. We're like Dory, only without all the bright colours. Here's what the master bathroom looked like when we did our final walk-through before we pulled the trigger and bought the house...

Not bad really, the pinky/beige countertop and wall paper isn't really our cup of tea. But apparently it was the grown son's cup of tea, because it turns out he was the one who lived up there, not the little old lady. He obviously liked peachy colouring because literally everything up there was painted that. Because we're planning on making the bathroom up here considerably larger and more spa like, I was content to just live with it until then - or make some smaller changes. I was thinking of painting the tile (because it was also a pinky white), as well as the countertop (and possibly the floor if we couldn't find anything cheap) But then Jason did this...

Okay, so technically he didn't do this, my sister Meredith and I did...but he was the catalyst. He apparently heard me say I wanted to take the tile down - which certainly sounds like, "I think I'll paint the tile." right? Right? I guess it does, because one night he took it upon himself to see how easily the tile would come off. Not very easily. He broke about three trying to get one off, so then I was left with the option to try and match the tile and replace the few broken ones, or rip them all down and redo the bathroom. (Clearly he forced my hand, I had to redo it) So, I enlisted the help of Mer and she went to town on all those pink tile. Over a number of months we took off all the tile and the wallpaper. Then it stayed like that for many, many more months, before I finally got frustrated enough to do something about it. (That and all the Rona gift cards we got for Christmas)

Wabam! Looks considerably different eh? The floor is the awesome vinyl I talk about here, that I picked up from the ReStore for only $20! It looks fantastic, and it actually kind of feels like real wood, and the seams are hardly visible at all. You can also buy it from Home Depot if you're looking for something similar. We bought the beadboard from Rona with our gift cards. Since I was planning on painting it anyway, we went for the cheaper plain unprimed stuff rather than the white ready to go stuff. It was seriously like half price. Jase cut them, and I nailed them up. Then I filled the holes and caulked the seams, and attempted to paint.

I say attempted only because it was a major pain in the pituitary to paint this mother. I tried rolling it on with a super nappy roller, but that didn't really work, it didn't get in the crevices very nicely. (You can sort of see my first attempt to the left of the vanity) So then I had to try plan B. I used a paint brush to brush in all the crevices first, then went over with the roller. (I haven't photographed that yet) I still had to finger smooth down some of the lines where extra paint built up. But this beadboard takes the paint so nicely. I didn't prime it, and only had to do two coats and it looks pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. I painted the top half of the wall "Moody Blue" By Sherwin Willaims, colour matched to the Dulux Kitchen & Bath brand. Lets disregard my abysmal cutting job, I had intentions of painting the ceiling, but I ran out of paint. I usually use the Xpert brand of the Dulux paint, it's our favourite, but I thought I'd give the Kitchen & Bath a try, and it covered terribly. It's all splotchy, and streaky, I thought it was maybe the roller, but even the parts where I used a paintbrush look bad. I talked to the people there and they're giving me a new can (this time I'll stick with the Xpert), so I'll have to repaint the walls (and I'll do the ceiling at that time). I also painted the vanity black, and spray painted all the hinges and knobs silver. I also swapped out the uncovered heinous fluorescent light for something a bit more appealing (even if it has to be on the wall crooked). And because I know everyone is as big a fan of lists as I am here's where we stand:

• take down tile & wallpaper
• remove baseboard heater
• remove trim
• paint vanity & hardware
• lay floor
• install beadboard
• paint (walls and beadboard)
• change light
• install ledge & hooks
• paint countertop 
• change out faucet (and possibly sink too)
• change outlets/covers
• hang art

I count four things left on that list (and since we're only going to replace the faucet/sink if Jase can snag them for (preferably) free) really there's only three things. WAHOO! 

One of These Things is Not Like The Other

What do an octopus chandelier, (ok so she's not really an octopus, but she's got 8 legs so close enough)

vinyl floor,

beadboard,

a hutch,

and dresser...

all have in common? Well if you took the bead board out of that equation they'd all be second hand - woot woot! But, really it's that they all should be getting some attention next week. We are long overdue on a number of projects, and one of the unexpected perks of going through the adoption process is it's forcing us to finish a number of house related projects, before the judgement lady comes, and gives us a gold star and tells us we can start our kid  shopping. No longer will things sit in the corner of a room, collecting dust, trying to see how much we can balance on top of them. These poor neglected children will finally get to see the light of day, and have their chance to shine. (That's right, I'm talking about you Octa and Hutch - get ready!) Octa and Hutch, will both be getting a nice crisp white makeover, and will both be residing in the dining room (that is if we ever get it paint ready in there)
   As for the vinyl floor and bead board, we're going to get slap happy with those friends, and throw um up (and down) in our master bath, so it doesn't have to look like this anymore!

it's like that hillbilly cousin you're embarrassed to admit you have. I've already painted and changed out the light fixture, so once we do the floor and bead board we can pretty much call this room "done". Or at least liveable until we can tackle the big makeover we have for it a few years down the road.

Lastly, we have the dresser. I've been searching for a low, long dresser for our bedroom since we moved in. I'd been searching kijiji, and pretty much every thrift store within a 75k radius to find one that fit the bill. I wanted either french provincial or midcentury, with at least 6 drawers, solidly built, and preferably something that was under $200. I was beginning to think that what I wanted was like the elusive flying unicorn that Jason swears exist, and was starting to lose hope. Then, he came to me. I asked Jase's mom if she could keep an eye out on the swap shop that she has access to, and a week later she sent me that picture. He's quite handsome isn't he? I will be giving him a hair cut, because we don't want the mirror attached, and a full body makeover.

So that's what my week is shaping out to contain, hopefully I'll get that, and more done, so I'll actually have things to share.
  

Over The Sink & Through The Window

Since we're making progress in the kitchen, I thought I'd take the time to discuss the lighting situation in the kitchen. Before, the entire space was lit with an old, off centred, and odd angled, florescent light, a ceiling fan, and one little globe light (if you could even call it that)

Here's what it looked like when we moved in. Man, look how tiny that kitchen was! (The pictures seriously don't to it justice, I should've taken a picture of me standing in it for reference) Don't you just love the pinkish sort of glow that's reflecting back in that little nook from the wallpaper?

 It's hard to believe that's what the kitchen used to look like...with carpet! Even the empty space we have is an improvement over that. Now that walls have been removed, paint has gone up and cabinets are (mostly) installed we can get our electrician (aka: cousin Adam) to come back and change things up in the lighting department for us. Our table and benches will be in the corner roughly where the old closet & hutch were, and benches will go all the way across the window, so we'll be moving the lighting from the fan over so we can hang a pendant over the table (instead of in front of the fridge). We're going to swap out the old globe light (that broke during demo anyway) with a pot light, and we'll be adding 5 more pot lights spaced throughout evenly. We bought those ages ago, and if memory serves have a stainless face plate. It'll be so nice to have electricity working in this room again...right now we have an old floor lamp plugged into the one working outlet, and since it gets middle of the night dark at about 4 in the bloody afternoon it gets a little difficult to work in the evening. 
  And over the sink (which is staying in the same spot it was before) we'll be hanging a pendant. I flip flopped on what I wanted there more than anything else so far. Which seems a little weird. First I flip flopped between pendant or pot light. Then once I decided on a pendant it was back and forth between various different lights. I had originally DIYed something.

  I started with a flower pot from Ikea...

Spray painted it red, drilled a hole through the bottom and strung it on a pendant cord, then held it up trying to get an idea of what it'd look like. 

It looks cute red, but the scale just wasn't right, and I wasn't 100% happy with it. I figured it was mostly due to the fact that it wasn't up and I couldn't fully appreciate it.  Then during one of my weekly ReStore perusals I found it. THE light. I'm on the lookout for a decent looking chandelier that I can revamp for the dining room, so I always make a beeline for the lighting area - like a pregnant lady for the pickles. They didn't have a chandy that stuck my fancy, but I spotted something just as good, and some slid over and scooped it up faster than a bat outta hell (not that I know for certain how fast they are - but I hear they're pretty darn speedy)

Ain't she a beaut! It's a cracked glass, bulb shaped pendant with stainless plates. And it's considerably bigger than the little pot, so it will be able to hold it's own above the hefty sink.


Here's a little comparison...

Woot woot! I got it for  $20! I've tried to find similar ones online or in store, and the cheapest comparable one I saw was $90 (or there was a $60 plastic version from Home Depot). I can't wait to get it up, it's going to make the coolest light shadows.

  Yay for the ReStore, now if only I can find the chandy, dressers, desk, and chair I'm looking for too haha. 

Kitchen Files: Butt Candy

No, not in the candy G-string type of butt candy...that Jason threatened to wear to my ABC birthday party - which he thankfully did NOT, nobody needed to see his man bits dangling through the gaps, it was bad enough we all to bear witness to Brad's cheecks. I'm talking about "eye candy" for your tush haha.

 Since we’ve finished slapping up some walls, and the cabinets are coming together (albeit rather slowly), it’s time to start thinking about all the actual creation we have to do. There are a number of features in the kitchen we are choosing to DIY to save money; such as the concrete countertop – which we will hopefully be starting around the beginning of March. We are planning on building the table for the kitchen, along with the built in storage benches, and quite possibly stools for the peninsula. So naturally, I’ve been searching for any sort of inspiration we can use as a jumping off point for our own construction.

Here’s a reminder of what the layout of the kitchen will look like, and where the benches and table will go. The benches will be about 6ft long along the long wall, and about 4ft long on the other to take them to about the window. And we’re hoping to be able to get as much storage as possible from them. We don’t really need the storage right now, but we’re positive we will down the road, and there’s really no such thing as too much storage right? We’ve been debating whether we want a flip top, or drawers, or if we want back and seat cushions, or just pillows, or nothing at all. Do we want a rectangle table, or an oval? Yeesh, I guess I somehow just imagined it miraculously looking perfectly put together after we built the frames for them haha. So I pulled from a few of my favourites from Pinterest to hopefully come up with something that will best suit us, as well as our space.

I'm drawn to the fun colour combinations of this...and it definitely helps with my "pillows are better" argument. I also like the drawer idea, although I'm not a fan of the look of those knobs, I think they'd bug your legs too.

Here's another take on the drawer idea. I really like this idea...much more than the drawer from the front idea - this way you don't have to slide the table out of the way - or crawl under it. Plus we have the room for this type of style. I feel as though the more I look at the benches, the more I want cusions haha...it just seems sort of cold without any butt cushion. But the drawers with their clever dividers really strike a chord with me.

I absolutely love the look of this bench. I love the simplicity of the cushions, the back one that goes all the way to the floor, elongating the line of the bench. I'm also fond of the open end...a great place to store cookbooks perhaps??? It would work best with the flip top type of storage access.

Another fun drawer option, with pillows...I'd like to order a view like that please!

A little too formal for our tastes and style, although the table is right up my ally.

I love the look of this table. The clean lines, and low profile of it are ideal for letting a fun bench show through, and isn't bulky or heave if or when you'd have to pull it away to gain access to the storage compartments.

So there's our inspiration for the corner of our room. We're still trying to work out everything that goes with it...but we both agree that the table in the last picture will be waht we go with, a) becuase it's a sort of timeless look too it, and b) it really won't be hard to build. In terms of the benches we're rather torn on the style. I'm pro drawer from the side (like the second picture) but Jason doesn't really like that idea, not that he'd give another suggestion or anything haha. A flip top style might be easier to build, but in the long run, and in terms of functionality, I think a drawer would be best. And I am leaning more towards the third picture for cushion configuration. Hopefully we can start building very soon! 

Kitchen Files: A Helluva Good Deal

I LOVE saving money. Lets be honest...who doesn't. When you find something on super sale, or even better when you don't realize that something is on sale until it rings in. Holla! Those are the best nonbirthday, birthday presents! The last giant savings (other than the appliances) was when I bought our new pot set. A 17pc Lagostina set, regulary $699...on for $199. What made these pots an even sweeter deal was that $85 of it was bought with gift cards...seeing "You saved $500" on the bottom of my receipt made me a happy, happy person!


SO...all that rambling had to lead to something right? What is this amazing good...no, Helluva good deal that we got? Well, you remember me saying that I REALLY wanted an apron front sink for the kitchen, and that it was something I wasn't really to compromise on? I also said that Jason won the husband of the year award by being able to get it through a rep at the wholesalers for around $700, which was hundreds off of what we would've spent retail. BUUUUUUUUUUT...after talking to the rep again it turns out we're able to get an even better  deal! Because apparently not enough people know about apron front sinks and they want to make money on them, they're giving us this super, awesome, unbelievable, almost can't speak over how great this deal is. We are saving SO much money, that I am actually not allowed to say what we're getting the sink for...but I can tell you that we're saving over $1000 form the sink I initially liked at Home Depot.


So, here's our new sink! The 31in double apron front sink in white, by Franke

Again, ignore the hideodorous faucet, because...dun dun dun duuuuuuunnnnn!

THIS is the faucet we're getting! It's the Trinsic, by Delta. We decided to go with the Delta over the Moen, because it ended up being about $150 cheaper, but mainly because it has a more timeless look. It's not something we'll look at 5/10 years down the line and wonder what we were thinking, why we picked something so "trendy". Overall, we are VERY happy with our choices, but mostly with the crazy awesome savings we were able to get! Both faucet and sink have been ordered, since there is about a month lead time on the sink, we should be getting sometime in the middle of January. I can't flippin' wait!