House Love At First Sight

It was on Memorial Day weekend last year that we saw this house listed for sale on Trulia. It was in a nearby neighborhood we had been "stalking," it was within our price range, it had all our "must-haves," and it had just the right amount of potential. Our Realtor showed it to us later that afternoon. We put in an offer the next day and found out the offer was accepted the day after that. We went from casually browsing to buying a house practically overnight.

We've done a lot of work so far and we have a lot more to go, but I often get so caught up in the urge to fix everything all at once that I forget to take the time to reflect on everything we've accomplished in one short year. It's hardly the same house anymore…and that's a good thing, I think.

Here's a montage of the house as it was listed one year ago and how it stands today.

Exterior changes: Powerwash, new paint (blue, gray, & white), new white steel door, new white vinyl windows downstairs (new windows upstairs coming soon!)

One Year Later

Backyard: Powerwash & new paint, new bay windows, cleared out monkey grass, vines and small trees, repaired broken lattice and play set.

One Year Later

One Year Later

Living Room: Painted walls, trim & mantel, new windows, new curtains, new pot lights, stainless steel outlet plates.

One Year Later

Dining Room: New paint, new windows, curtains and rod, new light fixture, table and chairs.

One Year Later

Kitchen: New windows, custom window seat, new light fixture, primed for paint (next week!) 

One Year Later

Front Hallway: New paint & trim (including banister), new white steel door, new light fixture.

One Year Later

Laundry Room: Painted wall and cabinets, knew knobs, new dryer, custom built folding shelf.

One Year Later

Guest Room: New paint, curtains, art, etc.

One Year Later

Master Bedroom: Removed border, new paint, white outlet covers, curtains (new windows coming soon).

One Year Later

A lot of people think we're joking when we say it will be years before we're done fixing up the house, but it's true.  For every project we've finished, there is an equally daunting project we still have to accomplish (the kitchen, bathrooms, third bedroom, landscaping, etc.). Let's blame HGTV for making us feel as though we can "makeover" an entire house in a short hour-long "episode." Today, though, I will remember this house as it was one year ago when we first saw it, and how far it's come.

Cushion Conundrum

During my journey to find an inexpensive custom window seat cushion for our seat (which is about 82 x 25 inches), I learned that upholstery foam is outrageously expensive, and that only rich people buy anything custom.

Plan B took us to World Market where we noticed 17-inch square chair cushions were 20% off, bringing the $16.99 price to under $14 each.  We could fit four of these yellow chevron patterned cushions along the seat, and figure that we'll fill in the back and sides with accent pillows.

It's not perfect, and it's certainly not custom, but for $54 total, it was the easiest and most affordable solution. Most importantly, Maya doesn't seem to care as long as it's soft.

PVC Pipes in the Bay Window

Because I am in love with our large replacement windows in the dining room bay window, I didn't want to cover them up with blinds or heavy curtains.

These light linen (Alton Print) curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond ($35 per 84-inch panel) were exactly what I had in mind, and the contemporary branch-stenciled design is a perfect reflection of our style: natural, contemporary, and light.

When the curtains are closed, they provide just enough privacy while still letting light in, and the branches look like they could be shadows from the trees outside. The grommets are great for this kind of set-up as well; sliding easily and fitting the rod perfectly.

Because I wanted to be able to slide the curtains all the way over and to the small gaps in between the windows (so as not to cover up the prairie grids), the hanging method was tricky to figure out. Thanks to a lot of Googling, we decided to give simple PVC pipes a try. This required a couple ten-foot 3/4-inch PVC pipes (cut to size), two 45-degree angle PVC connectors, two PVC caps, and five curtain brackets.

For the brackets, we chose these circular ones from Allen+Roth at Lowes (about $7 each) into which the pipes just barely squeezed (this was probably the hardest part to figure out).  

The whole contraption was given a couple coats (2 cans) of spray paint with Rust-oleum Metallic in Flat Antique Nickel. There is one curtain panel on each side, and two for the big picture window in the middle.

By strategically placing the brackets, and being able to slide over the little connectors, the curtains can hang in just the right places without blocking the beauty of the windows at all. 

My husband made fun of me for saying that my vision for the dinging room was "elegant, whimsy"…I wasn't sure how to pull it off, but I think the new light fixture and the curtains help a lot.

(Dining room on day 1)

(Dining room today)

Brassy to Classy Dining Room Light

I haven't posted in a while, but that doesn't mean we haven't been working on the house…we're always working on the house.  There has been more doing and less writing going on while my dad was in town to help us, and my crazy new job got busy.

One recent update we made was to our dinging room chandelier. I thought about trying to update the brass light fixture that came with the house by spray painting it (a la ideas from Pinterest), but I couldn't decide on a color, and changing the color still wouldn't change the traditional/cheap style of it.

Original brass chandelier in dining room

I wanted something modern yet warm, and I had a very specific vision: a stylish silver fixture with distinct lines; small shades to give off a warm light; light linen shades to match the linen curtains we have, and all of this for $150 or less. 

Westinghouse Parker Mews five-light brushed nickel chandelier was exactly what I was looking for priced at $148 from Home Depot.

The light is great, but the journey to install it wasn't easy.  The first chandelier that arrived from Home Depot has some rust/corrosion around the bulb base.  I didn't think much about this until we installed the light, turned it on, and only four of the five arms worked.  The whole unit had to be replaced, but of course Home Depot was out of them so I had to order a second one from Amazon (luckily the same price).  The second chandelier worked like a charm but two of the lampshades came wrinkled and damaged.  Since we still had the first light, we could easily swap out the bad shades.  Obviously, the quality control on these lights is horrible, but once you get one that's in good shape, it looks fantastic.

It was a long journey to get here, but now that it's finally up and all the parts are working, it adds a much more elegant and warm look to the dining room.  The ability to flush-mount it and skip the chain was an added bonus.

Dining room before

Dining room now

In the next post, I'll cover the pretty new bay window curtains you see in the background.

Turkish Triptych

Remember this big blank wall behind "Maya's" new couch?

Well, we finally ordered a piece of art to display on it, and we love the way it came out.

It's a scene of the city of Istanbul that Tommie took during our honeymoon to Turkey in 2011.  

We were toying with the idea of getting panoramic prints for few of Tommie's photographs, but prices for large images can get expensive…add to that any frames and we were quickly looking at over a couple hundred dollars for just one piece of art.  

We have ordered several of Tommie's photos on 16x20 canvas before and have been really pleased with the quality, so when we noticed that Canvas On Demand was having a 70% off sale for a three-panel "PhotoSplit" (triptych), we jumped on it.  It cost $75 for what was normally $350.  One of the benefits of canvas is that no frames are required, saving additional costs.  

It took us a long time to decide which image to use.  Finally, we decided on the sepia mosque scene because we figured the coloring and the image itself would look great above the couch.  Even though it is one image broken up into three sections, serendipitously, each panel has two marionettes in it and could almost exist on its own.  (Each panel is 15x30 inches with a two-inch gap in between.)  

Our advice for choosing an image to use for a triptych is to go for a scene that was captured fairly close up and includes a large impact subject.  Each panel should look good on its own as well as together, and don't choose something that will be ruined by the breaks.  The hardest part is, of course, hanging them so they line up perfectly.  Let's just say there was a lot of math involved (not on my part or else they'd be way off.)

Guest Room Finishing Touches

With Tommie's parents headed our way for Thanksgiving, it was time to put some finishing touches on the guest room and bath. (The color looks different in pictures--it's light lavender with a yellow accent wall.)

Some recent updates to the guest room include a yellow, gray, and tan chevron curtain bought for $15 at Target.  We also put a desk in the corner so people can set up a laptop if they need to do work.

I thought this floating shelf would be a cute way to display some reading material for guests, like local magazines.  (We're getting another small floating shelf to put above it to better fill the wall.)

The guest bath also has a couple new features like a chrome hotel-style curved shower rod (I don't know why, but I love how spacious these things make the shower!).

There is also a updated large silver mirror I bought for $20 on Craigslist, and a nice new chrome towel rack with shelves.

Our guests may have one of the best spots in the house so far!

Fully Furnished

We've always lacked sufficient seating in past abodes.  Even though most of the time it's just me, Tommie, and the dog, it barely seems like there's enough comfortable seats for the three of us, let alone any one else we have over.  Mostly, I blame Maya, who for a small dog, uses her length to her advantage, stretches out, and takes up the space of three grown adults.

In our new house we found ourselves with more space than we've ever had before, which meant we could finally accommodate more seating.  Due to the narrow shape of our living room, we settled on this small-space sectional on sale at Macy's (called "Clark").  It's stylish, compact, and even has a chaise, which I've always wanted.

When the delivery men came to set up the couch Maya got scared of the truck and hid in a closet, but when the coast was clear she came downstairs and it's as if she thought, "Oh, that's nice, they got me a new couch." She jumped right on it and fell asleep--ignoring the old couch which we hoped could become "her's." 

Couches are one of the few things I don't look for on Craigslist.  Tommie has a fear of used upholstery, and I agree that a stained couch is worse than a dusty table.  So, while we splurged on the new sofa, we saved on this used dining room table.  I found this solid piece on Craigslist for $80.  

It's in great shape and will be perfect for holiday meals (we're rumored to be hosting some of those this year).  In the meantime, it serves as our home office with a pretty view out the front bay window.  

I also scored a set of four dining room chairs on Craigslist for $10 each.  You know I love a good deal.  Our homes have always been a mix of the old and the new and I love the challenge of putting it all together.