Friday, January 30, 2015

Friday Update - 01/30/15

Happy Friday.  Did everyone have a good week?

The weather has been AMAZING here.  For those of you dealing with all that snow, I am so sorry.  We were sunny and 75 (I love that song) everyday this week until today.  I am depressed that the high will only be 60 today and the wind is out of control.  The beautiful weather made me want to be outside and I made lots progress on my projects.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Country Living Magazine Feature

Let me just say, I will never, and I repeat, NEVER get used to seeing my name and my home on other people's websites or in magazines.  Never.

The surprise and shock is always genuine and it usually takes a while for reality to set in.  Anyone that takes the time, effort and money to design a space in their home then update it, loves the result most of the time.  When we bought our outdated, waterfront cottage 18 months ago, our goal was to create a space that represents our personal style, that is comfortable and cozy, and is what we feel is beautiful.



Monday, January 26, 2015

Master Bath Demo Weekend

Demolition weekend was a success!  Blittle commented Sunday afternoon how smooth things went and I had to agree with him.  Things went great.  I am sure there will be a few bumps in the road as the renovation progresses, but so far, so good.

Friday afternoon, I pulled the carpet out and cleaned up the floor.  We knew there was a bit of water damage where the wall met the corner of the tub but it wasn't as bad I thought it would be.




I also cut a few holes in the shower wall to see where the water lines were.  I told y'all in the last post that the air conditioner had been sucking air from the shop into the house from the hole under the tub.  When I sawed the hole into the shower wall, the AC was on and it immediately sucked my hair into the hole!  So I filmed it.






The thought of living in this house for the last 18+ months with dirty air makes me feel gross and I possibly lost years off my life because of it.  Ew!

Saturday morning, we capped off the water lines and sawed the tub/shower unit into sections to make it easier to carry downstairs and to the road.  Everything went well.  Even the concrete base came up easily in one whole piece.







Remember the hole in the ceiling of the shop?






Well here is the view from the bathroom where the tub used to be.  





And the picture of the back of my tub/shower unit from my AC intake...





This is the view of the air intake from the bathroom.  To be to code and have more efficient AC/heating, we need to seal this off.





We cleaned up our mess and assessed the situation with the AC intake.





After some discussion we decided to just go to the home improvement store and see what our options were.  We bought insulation board (actually, a thermal sheathing meant for attics and walls but it got the job done) and metal duct tape.   The installation boards were easy to cut with a sharp razor blade which made things move fast.  After measuring and cutting, we screwed in boards to cover everything but the shared wall with the bathroom.






Then I had to block myself in!  The boards on the shared wall went on and I had to crawl through the 20"x 25" air intake hole to get in and out of the space.  It was a tight fit.

This is the only standing space I had after carefully crawling through.





It is now sealed all the way to the top!




This is the view in the bathroom.  





While at the store we priced getting a new AC intake grill (not even sure if that is what they are called) and decided to get a new one.  The old one had a broken lock and the air filter didn't fit well.  I had to bend and force them into the cubby and it shouldn't be that way.  It was worth the $36.  The new one is so clean and pretty compared to the old one.






Now, when the air turns on, it can not suck air from any place but the air intake so only indoor, filtered air is blowing through our house now.  Hopefully, it will help with our energy bill a little.

One more thing I did this weekend, ordered our shower base.

Once the tub was out and I could take better measurements, I found that the 36" x 60" base will fit.  Two inches wider than I previously thought and six inches wider than the original tub.


I have some furniture projects to work on this week so other than meeting with the plumber, I don't plan on doing too much in the bathroom until the base gets in.  This project is going to be done in stages.  The vanity, toilet area, flooring and paint will not be changed until the shower is finished.  One thing at a time.

Have a great Monday!

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Friday, January 23, 2015

Friday Update & Demo Day

Hey guys.  One of my goals for 2015 is to be more consistent in my posts.  I know.  I know.  You have heard it before.  This time I am starting slow.  Instead of making a broad goal that is hard to track, I am starting with small steps.  The first one is to do a Friday Update.

My main problem with the blog is finding time.  It is extremely time consuming to take and edit pictures. Many times, I don't like the first round of pictures so I go back and take more.  Also, I over analyze and take too long writing posts.  My high school English teacher's voice is constantly in my head.  "You are starting sentences with "I" too much" "The word "that" isn't necessary here" "You are using too many conjunctions.  Rewrite the sentence without so, but, and, etc"  Knowing people read my writing scares me.  I proofread.  Reread.  Rewrite.  Change up.  Read again.  And after all that it is still a grammar nightmare.  I taught math.  My writing skills have always been lacking.  One post takes me hours sometimes.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Office Reveal

I am excited about showing y'all the office today!  There hasn't been an update about our house in a long time.  It feels good to have the space finished and organized.

Most of the decor and furniture I already had.  The only purchases I made for the space were the DIY filing cabinet desk (bought materials and filing cabinets), the 2 navy chairs, and some office supplies.

Here is what the space looked like when we bought the house.


Monday, January 19, 2015

Filing Cabinet Desk

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Some of you might even have today off, too.  Blittle does so we are finally going to see Unbroken and get a few chores done around the house.

Over the weekend, I used my new office several times!  It is so nice to have an organized, beautiful space to work in.  Something about it makes me want to work harder.  Silly, I know, but true.  I posted this picture on Instagram yesterday of me using the desk for the first time writing tomorrow's blog post and you got a small sneak peek of the room.





Friday, January 16, 2015

Finally Organized the Office

I have fallen off the blogging band wagon.  Again.  Over the past few months, finding time and energy to blog has been a struggle.  One of my goals for 2015 is to be more consistent at blogging and sharing work.  Now I have a pretty office to work in so hopefully that will help me stay focused.  :)

A year ago I did a post called My Dirty Little Secret and showed all of you my "office."







Yeah.  It was bad.  I don't want to talk about it.

I made some progress getting it cleaned up and organized.






I lost steam on making it the office so it became the catch all room that I tried to hide from guests.  Over the past year it has been in various stages of messy and clean but has never been a functioning office....even though we still called it the office...hilarious.  Anyway, my husband and I have started another business venture, I'll fill you in on that another day, and we NEED a home office.

The room needed a desk/work station, a filing cabinet/system, a surface for a large printer and it needed to be pretty.  I wanted to get this done on a small budget and tried to use items we already had.  Remember, I had a junk room full of stuff that could be used.  :)

The blue dresser will stay in the room.  It has all my craft and sewing supplies and its a great place to put the large printer.






Filing cabinets are not that attractive so I wanted to incorporate them some way in the room and not have an ugly filing cabinet standing in the corner.  A filing cabinet desk came to mind immediately.  Something like this....






I couldn't find filing cabinets on Craigslist or on our neighborhood forum and was on a bit of a time crunch so I bought new.  This filing cabinet was only $25 at Office Depot.  I bought two to make my base for the desk.






The only problem is the filing cabinet is boring and not a great color.  I added to some detail to them and painted them!

Monday I'll show you the details on the filing cabinets' makeover and the desk.

Tuesday I'll show you the entire office.

Have a great weekend everyone and check back on Monday.  Also, be sure to follow me on Instagram to see special sneak peeks and what I am up to.  Facebook hides my posts from most of my followers so Instagram is the better choice.


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