The Saddest Little Corner in the World

September 2013

Welcome back to our saddest little corner of the world, I am looking at you Southwest backyard corner.   We had a party in three weeks and nothing was more pressing then the cinder block monster that was now o so visible with the pine tree removal.  I honestly just couldn't stomach dealing with it. Luckily, I had done some free-lance design work on the side for some contractor friends and they still owed me. I asked if we could do a work trade instead of payment. They agreed to skim coat the cinder block wall and paint it for free if I provided the paint and mortar mix. DEAL

So I took a trip to Lowes bought 15 bags of mortar mix and a gallon of paint.  In one day they roughly applied a skim coat of mortar to the wall.  The wall was in bad shape, it was missing mortar between the cinder blocks, someone had nailed several large metal spikes into the wall for hanging baskets and it was generally pretty gross. Since we were not actually using stucco all we did was trawl on a layer working it into the mortar joints.  The final product was that we were left with a large gray wall that looked slightly better then the masonry wall of sadness.

We knew we didn't want to paint the wall any color to grab attention, that ruled out our blue house color, white paint, or the dark red of our porch.  We decided to pick a cedar brown color that would hopefully blend in if we ever replaced the fences with wood. The color was a little more red then were are expecting and is maybe a little more Tuscan then woodsy, but it looked 800 times better then the unfinished cinder block wall and we were only to happy to live with it.


Unfortunately, no actual pictures were taken in September, these were from December- blog fail

After the wall was painted we had to address the landscaping or more accurately the lack there of.  The first step was to get rid of all the random stuff we had stacked back there.  Trash cans were filled with broken concrete, plastic pots.  Wood branches, logs, leaves, and pine needles were made into fire wood or placed in the lawn debris bin.  For some reason, we unearthed 9 plastic soil bags the previous owner had laid down back there as well as a plastic dinosaur (bonus).  We also found several old rotting stumps and a random assortment of rocks.  After picking out all the rocks and doing a quick pick axe to the stumps we broke out the rototiller to level and freshen up the dirt.  We now were left with a clean but barren landscape.

We decided to keep the single rhodie that had been hiding back there.  Feeling tight on cash and already out the $400 for the tree removal we struggled with what to fill the area with that was cost effective.  We went to the nursery and bought 3 trees. We went for the biggest ones we could get in our price range.  First up was one additional Donard Cypress for along the back fence and then two Sekkan Sugi Cedars (aka. Golden Japanese Cedars).  We picked them for several reasons, first I liked their fuzzy nature, second they seemed to go with our lime green cypress trees and third they grow to only 20-25' tall and only get about 5-10' wide. After our large pine we had no interest in creating a huge issue down the line with a too large tree that would block out the sun or take over the yard.

We filled out the area with some more limelight hydrangeas (because I can't help myself) and a weeping hemlock.  It stills feels sparse, but everything grows and hopefully in a few years it won't seem so bare. I can't wait for spring when everything takes off!




 Below is a view from inside the porch in October, you can see the additional Donard Cypress and one of the Japanese Cedars in the corner.  Unfortunately, you can also see the expanse of our horrible pinstriped cyclone fence. Grow trees... Grow!

Guest Room Embarrassments

August 2013

As the summer wound down we were rushing to complete a few glaring projects throughout our house. The worst offender: the three windows in the guest room. Back in 2011, we replaced all the double hung windows in the space. While the outside of the wood windows were painted with the exterior the interior remained unpainted. To our defense: we had a roommate living in the room so access to paint them was non existent. Fast forward TWO YEARS and we still hadn't painted the windows. Fail. I can come up with a lot of excuses, it needed to be warm to paint, we had a lot of patching on the woodwork due to some damage when it was removed to install the windows. yada yada yada. The truth is: it's a room we rarely use and divided lite windows are some of the worst things to paint. Josh and I spent two weeks patching, sanding and repatching before we decided to call it repaired enough and start to paint.
 

 

It took a weekend to three coat the window and trim. The longest time was spent taping all the window panes. We already had the paint and the brush so it cost us nothing. It looked a lot better.  Although now the dark wood paneling seemed to bother me more than ever.  Probably because this was the longest time I had spent in the room since 2012.

The other obvious issue in the room was the wall light in the corner. I am not sure you can call it a light fixture when it is only a bare bulb sticking out of the wall on a metal hook. Ghetto is truly the only word I had for it. It happened to be the only hardwired light in the entire room and we figured we should keep it. Does it have a purpose? Not really. But, it seemed to be original and that is often one of the fun things about old houses, sometimes there are lights, trim, built-ins for no obvious purpose. We bit the bullet and went to School House Electric to get a new period reproduction light. They had a sale so we were able to score a cheap clear globe for the wall light. Unfortunately, due to fact we needed it to have a switch in the style and color we wanted we had to custom order it. A few weeks later it had been made (here in Portland!) and I took it home.
 

This was the wonderful time in 2012 when we lived in the guest room during our master remodel.  Shabby chic right?

That weekend Josh removed the existing janky light and and did a fair amount of patching since the new light was smaller. The plaster gave up a fight but eventually we got the new light installed and removed one of the last horrible 1970's lights in the house. At this point, we have updated or replaced every light, fan, or fixture in our house except for the office. It has been a slow process, but it feels so good to check this one off our list. Of course, we have yet to paint the patching from the new light, but let's ignore that for now.
 

 

Red Paint... Will Be the Death of Us

June 2013

Now that the porch was painted and stained we could start making the screens for the openings. After several brainstorms we decided to make these ourselves. The work needed to create 'standard' sized openings to utilize prebuilt screens was almost the same. Building our own screens would give a more custom look while using store bought would look more builder grade.  Step one: what to build the screens out of?  We ruled out cedar due to cost and MDF out of crappiness, which left us with pine trim pieces. These would work well because we wanted the screens to be removeable, light, and attractive.

We found our pine trim stock at Lowes. It was 1" wide and 1/4" thick. One edge was bull nosed which we liked. It made them less boring and standard looking. They came pre-primed and I always like when a step has been removed for us. The biggest issue was how much of the material we needed. The pieces came in 8' lengths and as we started tabulating the number of sticks grew. Our plan was to build two frames for each opening. We would staple the screening to one side and then nail the frames together to make a complete screen. So each opening x 2. In addition to the screens, we needed to purchase trim to create frames inside the porch bays to allow the screens to rest in the openings. We decided the same trim for the screens would work pretty well. Before the math made our heads explode we decided to get 30 sticks. At roughly $8 a piece, it brought us to $240 in wood. We also had to buy screen material $116 for a roll (we chose black aluminum, which was more expensive but more durable), brad nails, staples, screen clips, black screws, and paint. I talked the Lowes lady into giving us contractor pricing (since we bought so much) and we gulped and moved forward.

Since it was June in Oregon, it rained the entire month, so I set up shop in the basement to paint the trim red. I am not sure when we decided to make the frames red. By this I mean, that I decided they should be red. Very quickly I grew to regret this decision. As I already knew, our red (Benjamin Moore Raisin Torte) requires 2-3 coats to cover. This was even worse since the pieces were painted with white primer and it was slow going painting the 1" pieces without drips or brush marks. I spent hours in the basement half bent over painting the sticks on saw horses. It took about 2 hours to coat all the pieces on one side, wait to dry 4-6 hours, paint again, then flip and paint the backside (I cheated and did one coat on the back). This is the point where I should have sucked it up and purchased a paint spray gun and the job would have taken half the time.

As soon as the trim pieces were complete, I remembered that our porch doors would also need to be red. So four doors came off their hinges, down in the basement and onto my trusty saw horses. These required primer, and two coats of red on each side. It was a lone women show and it was not fun. We rehung the red doors once we stained the porch.  After all this effort, we were still miles away from being completed and we needed two full weekends to complete the rest.

Bathroom Gets Fancy Pants

May 2013

While we were working on the backyard we had a few days of rain that made me take one last look at our bathroom.  The space was missing many of the finishing touchs that would make it feel more like a bathroom we would have designed.

Disco bathroom gets updates

The first step was the decision to paint the sink cabinet.  I am pro wood. I would never paint wood unless I absolutely had too.  This one was a long internal debate.  Two things finally turned the tide. The current cabinet was starting to get water damage from all the bathroom steam. I believed painting it will help seal the wood and avoid further damage.  Also, the cabinet was Maple which is fine but really not in keeping with anything in the house or even the feel of the house.  Before I could change my mind I sanded the cabinet on a Friday and primed it.  Three coats of semi-gloss white paint and it was looking much more smart. At Lowes I bought two black knobs to tie into the black countertop. Mini-Project Complete!



Many people have asked about the small sign on the tile.  It reads 'Please!  Mind the faucet water is hot and flows like crazy!  Thanks the Mangement.'  Don't all of you wish you lived in an old house that requires disclaimers?

The next step was what to do about a hamper.  We had been using a rolling metal basket that was mine from college.  It worked great, but the round shape meant we hit it alot and banged up the wall.  We had many requirements for a new hamper.  It must be narrow (no wider than 14")  it must have a cover on it (no one wants to see your dirty underwear), and it had to match the style of the bathroom.  This is actually a tough nut.  There are not many hampers that are that narrow or attractive or have covers.



I love this John Muir quote and sign

We finally found a small tilt-out unit from Home Decorators that was about the size we wanted and had the bonus of being a small cabinet that would allow us to store stuff on top. It was expensive and on principle alone I would never spend 100 bucks on a hamper.  I searched the internet and got several coupons and decided to bite the bullet.  There were two things wrong with the hamper. First, it is a little more ornate then we wanted (it has silly little feet and this curved trim moulding), second, it was cream not white. But since it fit so well we decided to overlook it's fancy pants and took the plunge.  And, for the second time, I was sanding, priming and painting a cabinet for our bathroom.



            

             Mr. Whale looks really high in this photo, probably because I am sitting down. 

Once these changes were made, all we had to do was update the accessories.  After searching all over the internet it turns out I like products from Target best. I bought some Nate Berkus towels and a floor mat. I decided to go with a gold color to compliment the gray wall color.  I also picked up a blue glass toothbrush cup and soap dispenser.  The last addition was a new metal sign with a John Muir quote in gold.  The room is finally starting to feel a lot more our style.



This really gives you an idea of how small the space truly is.

Brick: To Paint? Or Not To Paint?

January 2013

After I finished staining the mantel I spent the week applying the poly protective coats.  It took three coats that I applied with a foam brush.  By Thursday, I knew I could no longer ignore the lower portion of our fireplace.  This was my dilemma: I love brick, heck I am from Virginia.  Our clay soil means we are the biggest producers and users of brick in the US (I just made this fact up, but it could be true).    Our brick had problems- big problems. One, it was not the nicest brick, just kinda of a boring 'I am brown' brick, not that I was going to hold it against it.  Worst, the mortar was pink, yes, pink.  Urgh I hated that mortar.  On top of all of that: the brick was covered with 80 years of soot and general dirty house funk.  Just to remind you what the brick was looking like:      

I had some choices.  I could clean the brick. There were several methods I found online that were home made and involved a lot of elbow grease.  There were also several expensive solutions I could purchase where I slathered some goopy gel on the brick wait a day and then according to the pictures have an amazing before and after moment.  The problem was none of these options would help my pink mortar.  This meant I would have to pay someone to come and repoint my fireplace with more attractive mortar- namely any other sensible color such as gray or tan. Read between the lines: very expensive for little change.

The other option was to paint the brick and mortar and be done with the darn thing.  Gulp.  This was tough, there was no going back, once painted brick would be painted forever. There is no stripper for brick. I liked our rustic living room and painting brick felt modern and cold to me.  The problem was I didn't really want to spend any more money of this fireplace. I looked online and searched painted brick fireplaces. Honestly they did make a huge difference to rooms. Rooms that felt old and tired looked fresh and bright.

On a Saturday, I decided to do a quick clean to brick to see if it made a difference. I cleaned the brick and cleaned and it looked exactly the same: sooty sad brown.  I made the decision- we were painting. 

The next step was what to paint the brick?  We could go with the same brown as the chimney breast or the standard bone white of all of our trim and ceilings.  Josh and I decided since our new surround was dark brown we should paint the brick Bone White to stand out.   I bought masonry primer and with way more confidence then I felt I started painting the bricks. 

It was pretty quick work, one coat of primer on Saturday night, then two coats of bone white acrinamel the next day. Getting in the cracks and mortar lines took a long time.  Luckily, small detailed oriented projects are my jam. The best part was since it was January and I had my Downton Abbey to replay over and over.  I had to make sure I had memorized every scathing Maggie Smith reproach.

By the end of the weekend the fireplace looked like this:

Regret it- no, Love it- maybe not totally?

What Hallway?

February 2012

On the main floor of our house we have a very small hallway filled with 6 doors.  It's a blink and you'll miss it kinda space that gets you from one area to the next.  When we moved in it looked like this. 

The first thing we did was refinish the flooring.  But from that moment on I chose to ignore it's existence besides the weekly vacuum and occasional spider web removal. However, this room needed love.  The plaster walls and ceilings had cracks and were stained.  The only light came from a bare light bulb that was one of those CFL's that had to 'warm up' so we pretty much never turned it on.  It was a mess. 

But what really started it was the rug. The existing runner in the space was from my college dorm room and was approaching 9 years old. It was worn, stained and always seemed to be coated in Gus fur.  I could not wait to replace this rug.  So, after careful consideration I decided on a West Elm rug and ordered it during the Christmas sale season.  But my rug was back ordered and then sold out and I was sad.  Until I found this even cooler Pottery Barn rug on after-christmas sale!  Win!  I ordered it up, downgraded the existing rug to our mudroom and rolled this out.  Swoon.

But wait... how can such a beautiful rug be in such a horrible space?  After Christmas when the plaster guy did our upstairs bedroom we had him skim out the walls and ceilings.  Josh and I debated paint colors and went back and forth.  Did we want a cool light gray? Warm golds? Classic browns? It was going to be tough, the rooms off of the hallway are fern green, lime green, butternut squash and seafoam green. More importantly you ask...  how have we still not painted over that horrible blue trim in the stairwell?

Stay tuned.

Hello Storage, Have We Met?

February 2012

Soon after we finished framing in the wall, our carpenter Jason arrived to start our built-ins.  The first thing to go in was a bookcase that we designed to go in the small recessed area around the chimney.  We designed it to have a small cabinet on bottom and three movable shelves up above.  The first day it went in was a huge break through! One more hole in this room was finally filed up! Next, Jason installed new baseboards and door trim throughout the room.  Instantly our shanty half constructed room started to look a little more professional. 

Last, he started building in the two closets along the eave wall.  The last step was for him to make the solid wood shaker style doors to match our kitchen cabinets. He then dropped the doors and shelves off for us to start painting, and painting, and painting before he installed them.  We had 6 doors in all, 7 shelves and endless feet of closets and trim to start priming and painting.  We pulled out our trusty Benjamin Moore Bone White Acrinamel and went to work.  We set up the doors and shelves in the basement and I circled the room countless times painting the trim.  Slowly the spaces came together and we started to imagine what life would be like with four walls in the bedroom and enough closet space for all of our clothes. In the meantime, we kept painting.

Best House Project Ever- Porch Light

September 2011

I am sure you have a few questions already... what happened to August 2011? Why aren't you talking about the mud room...  etc. ?  We took August off from house work, we worked on the garden, went to some concerts, volunteered, celebrated my birthday and planned some September trips. We did manage to take a few hours out of the one of the weekends to install our 'new' outdoor porch light.  I am putting 'new' in quotes because my parents bought this light for us as a house warming gift.  That's right... when we moved in, in May 2010.  It sat in our basement for over a year looking pretty and doing not much else. 

There is multiple excuses of why it did not get installed, the biggest being we knew we were going to remodel the outside and did not want it to get damaged.  The real reason is we put in the basement and then it kinda moved off our to-do list.  But, we had no more excuses, the exterior had been done for two months and the bare light bulb was definitely lowering our curb appeal.

For those of you who are wondering, it is a pottery barn light, my parents got in on sale for memorial day, it is a beautiful moravian star light with speckled clear glass and an oil rub bronze finish.  We pulled it out of the box, shortened the chain, and turned off the breaker. Project light was off and running 16 months in the making.

 

Josh quickly got the old bare bulb socket off the ceiling and we realized the new light base had a much smaller circumference.  For the record, this has happened every time we have installed a new light... what gives?  So, we had to sand the area down and then quickly apply two coats of yellow paint to the area.  Two hours later we came back. The biggest issue we had was that the old wiring in the house is not color coded.  It's hard to know which wire is the positive and which is the negative.   Josh held the fixture and I hooked it up, and I took a shot in the dark.  We ran a test (involving running down to the breaker and flipping the switch), which proved I had guessed wrong.... urgh!  50/50 never works for me.  We uninstalled it and swapped the wires (since this time we have bought an electrical meter to avoid this).
 

The best part was when we flipped the light on... something amazing happened, the barrel vault in our front porch immediately reflected a lattice work of triangles from the star.  It was pretty freaking amazing and a total unexpected win!  I love this light.  This is probably the cheapest and most satisfying house project ever.  It look us about 4 hours (painting included) cost under $100 and transformed our entire porch.  If I had known this I would have installed it ages ago.

Loving Our Curb Appeal!

July 2011

As July loomed closer we worked on the finishing touches to our exterior remodel.  Downspots were painted, mulch was added back, and landscaping was spruced up.  The remodel lasted a little under 2 months and we were officially done and broke.  We managed to stay within our budget and accomplish a lot of our goals. However, towards the end it felt like things were going out and not much was coming in. In the end, we were super happy with the results! I would actually be excited to drive down the street and see our house peaking out!
 

Here is the orginial wish list so you can see how we did:
1. Replace all windows that were not original to the house.  HALF SUCCESS- we replaced 4 of the mismatched windows.  We had to hold off replacing the remaining 4 due to money. 

2. Remove 1970's 10" cedar siding that did not match the style of the house and made it look stumpy.  Replace with more correct cedar shingles or 5" cedar siding.  SUCCESS- We re-used the orginial siding which was under the 1970's siding.  Big cost savings!

3. Repair/replace trim around windows, doors and eaves that had been removed or damaged in the 1970's. SUCCESS-All trim was restored or replaced to match original profiles.  Additional window moulding was added for depth.

4. Replace 8' wide impossible to open or lock sliding glass door to the back porch.  SUCCESS-Replaced with a beautiful wood french door!

5. Remove dangerous understructured and sagging back porch. SUCCESS- Demolished back porch, which was definitely needed.  Although we really miss the covered patio, it was one of our favorite places to eat in the summer.  Another project?

6. Install insulation in walls so our house could get above 60 degrees in the winter. SUCCESS-House was fulled insulated by May, just in time for the good weather.

7. Repair original windows to former glory.  FAIL- we ran out of money.  But it is still a goal to restore the 12 windows. We did replace 3 of the windows due to the level of damage. Which goes back to half-success on number one.

8. Paint whole house pretty colors! SUCCESS-Done and Done, with awesome results!

 

 

 

As soon as the remodel was completed, Josh and I took a much needed vacation to Bethany Beach, DE for 5 days to soak up the sun, see the parents, and enjoy some delicious seafood!
 

Exterior Paint is Here!

June 2011

The cool thing about painting is that it happens and it happens fast.  Our contractor was spraying the body of the house and so one day we left for work..... and that night we came home and our house was blue! It was super exciting and the difference was immediate!

The following day they came back to start to paint the main trim color the yellow we had selected.  Holy yellow! The problem is something that looks very pale on the small mock up, looked extremely bright and glaring once it goes up.  I came home from work and gulped. I actually kinda regret that we never took a picture because our house looked like a sports jersey (in a somewhat cool way).  As soon as Josh came home I told him we had to go get another color!  We went out to Sherwin Williams at 6:00pm and went to the white section and then picked the yellowest white we could find.  The color was called Tea Light and was about 4 shades lighter then the original color.  The next day our painters got two new gallons and started covering up our little issue.  This color was perfect, it looked like buttercream.  It still read yellow but definitely not in a primary kid school kind of way.  We did keep the porch ceiling the darker yellow as a testament and also because it looked great up there without sunlight.

The delicate nature of painting all the window sashes took some additional time so it took about a week to get the overall color scheme.  To save money I painted the front door and the french doors since doors take a lot of time and detail work.  In the end, we couldn't have been happier with our (almost original) picks.

Our little project was slowly wrapping up!

Goal: Exterior Remodel

May 2011

 

Our biggest wish for the house in 2011 was for it to look a lot better from the outside.  We were very lucky to have taken advantage of the home-buyers tax credit and when I filed my taxes in February the government sent me a check for $8,000.  We were itching to improve our little place with the money.  The biggest issue was going to be our long wish list and our not so impressive budget. 

 

Wish List included:

1. Replace all windows that were not original to the house.  There was several reasons for this.  First, all the 'newer' windows were the worst culperts for drafts, inoperability and general frustration.  Second they were just plain ugly and did not go with the house.  The house currently boasted two alumium sliding windows from the 1970's (definitely not in keeping with the house) and some cheap 2006-2009 vinyl double hungs that were already leaking. 

2. Remove 1970's 10" cedar siding that did not match the style of the house and made it look stumpy.  Replace with more correct cedar shingles or 5" cedar siding.

3.  Repair/replace trim around windows, doors and eaves that had been removed or damaged in the 1970's.

4. Replace 8' wide impossible to open or lock sliding glass door to the back porch.

5. Remove dangerous understructured and sagging back porch.

6. Install insulation in walls so our house could get above 60 degrees in the winter.

7. Repair original windows to former glory.

8. Paint whole house pretty colors!

Is that enough for you? It was enough for us to get quotes in the $30,000-40,000 range.  Gulp... not exactly what we were thinking. We needed it be less than half than that amount.  Amazingly, we were undetered and figured we should start and see how long we could make it until the money ran out.  We started with this list in December and moved forward.

 

Our first step was to buy some of the new windows in 2010 so we could get a tax credit.  We decided to start with the ones that needed the most work.  The upper story windows on the front of the house had been replaced by the owner prior to the sale due to rot.  By the time we saw the house it had two short misproportioned vinyl double hungs in the master bedroom.  It truly made the house feel short and they were hard to open.  We had a feeling looking at some other similiar houses in Portland that the upper windows might have been casements instead of double-hungs. The double hungs just didn't seem to match.  And just as important we like casement windows better and felt it would give us a vertically currently lacking on the facade.  

We wanted the windows to be wood, inside and outside.  I did not want alumium clad or vinyl wrapped, I wanted wood... like how all windows used to be made.  Apparently, this is not even an option anymore?  So, we had to custom order our windows.  Since we had a 7' opening upstairs we took a risk and assumed that between the existing two upper windows there was no structure and bought a Chicago style, simulated divided light, wood insert.  I can't show you a picture yet because it would spoil the reveals but o baby is this a beautiful window!

The next window we decided to replace was the staircase window.  This window was a 1970's alumium window that we opened everyday during the summer to let in the fresh air.  It had no screen (read BUGS) and looked horrible.  I wanted to get a double casement for the window but it was too narrow so we opted for a single large casement and matched the front windows.

 

The last thing we purchased was a new set of French doors to replace the sliding glass door.  For those of you who have never purchased a French door, probably most of you, they are VERY expensive.  I am not exactly sure why a sliding door in the same size and material can cost 50% less... but it can.   But let's face it, you cannot put a sliding glass door in a 1920's house... So we sucked it up and custom ordered a solid wood divided light 6' French door for the back.  We picked the smaller size because we wanted to install a dog door for Gus so we could give him an option to see the world when we were at work.  More on that later...

We took a gulp and ran the credit card and set ourselves back about $4,500.  This budgeting was not going well.  (The good news is that the US government gave us $1,500 for the windows since they were so energy efficient, and Oregon gave us another $150 on top of that).  Still, we were gonna really have to pinch our pennies from here on out if anything else was going to happen on this house.

Dining Room Bliss and Other Rambles

July 2010

I abruptly left the last blog post about the dining room because I felt it was getting long and probably not overly interesting.  Also, I wanted to convey the length of time it takes us to finish these projects.  It feels a bit criminal to sum up 2-3 weeks of work in one blog entry... although I am sure to blog world it makes it look like Josh and I are rock stars. 

 

Since I broke this blog up into two I can also talk a little about our trim/ceiling color.  As many of you may know from this blog, life, or any other interaction with me I do not like white.  Apparently, this is one of the reasons I can never be a true architect.  I feel quite simply, white is for pussies... wow I said it, gulp.  I love color, I think in colors, I want to express my moods in colors.  To the white lovers, I apologize, I try not to make it personal- I just feel deeply about this and wish I could go into every white house/apartment and paint it when their on vacation (so far this has not happened, so friends and family you are safe).   I realize that artwork and furniture can 'pop' against a white wall but so to can a sky blue vase on a chocolate brown wall.  Okay wow, that was a huge aside. I didn't know you could ramble in writing but proof is here.

So yeah, trim, I didn't want white trim in the house. Trying to pick out non-white white is kinda similar to a slow death by fire.  So I was lucky that we were using an 'attractive' cream white at our buildings.  It seems crazy to use a color that is used in health care clinics... how is that not cold?? But it is the perfect shade because it doesn't seem to fight any colors and doesn't change much with the lighting.  So, I had Josh buy a huge 5 gallon bucket for the trim and another for the ceilings.  We applied our Bone White and let me tell you, it was a leap of faith, against the stark white of the primer it kinda looked the color of flesh, urgh.  And Josh was looking at me in that... 'we just spent $200 bucks on the ugliest thing ever look.'  However, as soon as the white was banished with color it looked AMAZING.  It was antique without looking dirty, cream without looking pastel, and it looked fabulous with our oil rub bronze hardware, yay!

After we finished with the trim we pulled up the paper on the floors, cleaned the room and rolled out my favorite rug I got in Morocco, which fit perfectly!  Josh's boss was amazing and gave us an 80 year old Oak dining table and chairs that had been in his basement for years.  It is adorable and totally something I might have bought at an antique store if we had to go.  We slowly unpacked the room and ate our first dinner at a table in our own dining room.  Bliss.

 

 

Also can we all love this Gus photobomb?