House Tour 2013

When we bought the Ugly Duckling, the interior did little to inspire awe and house envy. Sure, it did have good bones, and all the space we were looking for at a steal but it wasn't pretty. No, really. Honestly, I look at these pictures now and can't help but think "Oh goody, what were we thinking?"

We have come a long way and while I occasionally feel like asking "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?", it's been a lot of fun and a whole lot of growth.

Hop on over here to this post for some scary Before pictures, and then lean back and enjoy some "After" pictures. I know I certainly did. Phew!

P.S.: There is no rhyme nor reason to the order of the rooms in this House Tour. Heh. For a floor plan of our little old house, visit this ancient post here.

Our Guest bedroom: With neither of our families living nearby, a dedicated guest bedroom to keep them comfortable during their visits was a must-have when we started looking for a home. It's a darling room - not very big, but sweet and bright and peaceful - and Little Man just loves camping out there on the weekends (it's a special treat).

Our stair case: After breaking it free from the wall that separated the upstairs from the downstairs, refinishing the treads and painting the risers, and adding a newel post at the bottom, all that is left to do is to remove the remainder of the wall and restore the spindle baluster on the downstair's half of the stair case. That is, after I'm done restoring the upper part (read about in the Staircase Challenge).

Our entry hall: Hard to believe it was the tiniest bedroom ever when we bought our little old house. It's hardly ever this tidy, though. 

Our Living room: It's such a cozy snuggly room. 'nuff said!

The dressing room: It's finally starting to look like a real room!

Our dining room: It's still the room in which we spend most of our days;

we should really consider changing its designation to 'living room' and call the living room "sitting room" instead. It's also the one room that we haven't tweaked at all since we moved in.

Our lovely lovely kitchen: We are still madly in love with the big farmhouse sink, and haven't made any changes here either (although I see different hardware, a backsplash and an eat-in nook sometime in the future).

  

Half Bath: The world's tiniest bathroom but serving its purpose beautifully. No changes here either. I dream of getting rid of the wall time and put in wood floors though ... one day, one day.

Our master bedroom: In its second incarnation we are loving it even better! We traded the dark rich teal on the upper half of the walls for a soft cream color (BHG's "Cultured Colonial Cream") and painted the ceiling a custom-mixed light turquoise like a southern porch ceiling. LOVE it! It feels so much brighter and bigger now.

Obviously

During last week's painting marathon nothing got away, not even the door to the hallway closet. Since it may or may not stay, we're leaving things "as-is" for now which includes keeping the ugly cheap hollow core door. However, since last week the golden oak eyesore sports a fresh coat of bright and clean white.

[After: White and ... blah]

Something had to happen. For a moment I was contemplating painting it black to match our entry door, but I just couldn't justify the confusion that might create. I also wasn't too keen on drawing too much unwanted attention to the closet door and if anything, black doors are real showstoppers.

So I thought I could label it, right? That would deal with any possible confusion ("Is that the bathroom?"), add a little bit of spiff and satisfy my craving for decorating.

After contemplating just which word to use ("Coats" didn't cut it), I decided to go with the obvious:

"Closet"

Since I don't have any fancy cutting machine, I had to do it the old-fashioned way. I designed my label, printed it out and coated the back with graphite powder for a homemade carbon-copy paper effect.

Here it is, taped into place.

After deciding on the placement close to the knob - centered but not in line with the knob, simply because it looked good to me - I traced it onto the door. The graphite backing (if you don't keep any fancy-schmancy art supplies around you can simply rub the back of your design with a pencil - that works just as well) created a copy of faint outlines on the door: just strong enough to be visible but not too dark to create issue removing any extra lines.


After that I grabbed a small brush and some black-brown acrylic paint and started painting in my label. It wasn't all that easy. Not that the design was complicated, oh no, it was more the placement that made it too high to kneel and to low to comfortably stand while painting. I turned into quite the contortionist and if I had a yoga instructor, I'm sure they'd been quite proud of me.


Here we go, all done! Of course it isn't machine perfection but it's darling. Really!

Now my closet is stating the obvious, or perhaps it's proudly announcing for all to see that it is indeed a closet and not the door to the bathroom!

Got label? What's the latest thing you put a label on?

Vesti-beautiful

Here are the things that my life outside of work and family revolved around for the past week: wood filler, deglosser, paint, brushes and rollers, cleaner and a good cup of tea every now and then to keep me going.

While we'd painted the walls of our entry hall aka the vestibule a while ago, scraping together enough enthusiasm to tackle yet another room's worth of trim took me some time. Oh, but it was so worth it! For more impact, let's go back to where we started:

[Before: Once upon a time our vestibule was a bedroom ...]

Ah yes, it was awful. Like, really really awful. This is what our entry hall looked like when we first toured the house. In order to create a second bedroom for the downstair's apartment of our house, the previous owner had closed up the original archway to the livingroom and the wall toward the staircase. It was teeny tiny, cramped and pretty filthy.

Within a week from closing we tore into those non-original walls and restored the original floorplan.

The impact that reopening those walls had on this area of the house can hardly be captured in pictures. I marvel at it every time I step into our house. Not only made the floorplan sense now but it felt like the house was drawing you in while at the same time appearing much, MUCH larger than before.

After hours of trimming, patching, priming, sanding, refinishing floors, updating electric yet still miles to go in regard to artwork, window treatments, lighting and other decorative finishing touches, we have arrived at this:

Hard to believe it's the same room, no? Or the same house, for that matter. The old heart pine floors look simply A-mazing against the white trim and soft warm "Woodlawn Colonial Gray" walls and the entire vestibule feels open and airy and bright.

Looooove!

Topping it off two-tone

For the past couple of days I've been a derwish with a paint brush in the entry hall. Everything and everyone including the cat got painted if they weren't fast enough to get away!

One of the few things left to paint, other than the actual staircase, was the newel post Joe built for us to replace the one that had been chopped when the house was converted to a duplex. Looks like it came with the house, doesn't it?

[Before: Hello Newel!]

It's been sitting there primed but un-painted for quite a while. This week, I finally tackled it. You see, the newel post is part of my Nemesis project: the staircase. While we're missing the spindles and handrail along the lower part of the stairs, there are spindles and handrails along the second stretch and the cantilever balcony. Badly painted spindles and handrails. Flaking spindles and handrails. Spindles and handrails with ornate detail and nooks and crannies.

Spindles and handrails that are a bear to strip from old bad nasty paint. It's a project that'll keep me busy for a while.

The downstair's part is easy and was a joy to paint. Just white, though, didn't quite cut it, so I decided to paint the top of the newel post in a dark warm brown, picking up on the beautiful warm walnut brown of our refinished stair treads.

[After: Hellooooo, Newel!]

I love the two-tone look on our newel post. It also comes with the added benefit that it's now much more visible against the other millwork in the hall and Little Man is less likely to run into it. Yes, this has happened before and is quite painful, he can assure you.

Trim envy

Here we go again - trim it is for today's post! While the de-texturized zone was drying I made sure to spend the spare time in between coats on other projects around the entry hall. As you might have noticed by now (I have whined reported about it a couple of times already), all of the millwork at the Ugly Duckling is in dire need of some TLC. This usually comes in the form of scraping, patching, sanding, priming and painting or short, SPSPP.

It's now a serious effort to get excited about painting trim. Sure, it's rewarding. There're few things more rewarding than the look of crisp clean white trim. But, man, it's a bore!
Anyways, the original trim in our house has taken quite a beating over the past 97 years - too much to restore it to its stained wood glory. Besides, I prefer white trim and old millwork looks absolutely stunning in pristine white.

So here I am again, scraping off loose paint and filling in with wood filler.

[In-progress: Notice the fine layering of drywall dust on the floor.]

See the corner of the window peaking in on the left of the photo? That's where our big entrance door with the sidelights (and the now missing transom) should be.

It got moved years ago, replacing a window in the livingroom, when the Ugly Duckling was turned into a Duplex. I'm hellbent on squirreling aside enough funds to move the ol' door back to its original location sometime in spring next year. That'd really rock my boat even though it means construction dust and painting everything all over again.

[In-progress: Now with primer!]

Next step, primer! That usually gives you a really good idea of how the end result is going to look. Lovely, don't you think?

All done! yes, I even painted the archway. Isn't it pretty? Phil trimmed this one out for us and he did a beautiful job. It looks like it's been there ever since the house was built and feels just right. I'm so glad we returned the house to its original floor plan as much as we could; it just makes so much more sense and flows beautifully.

And just before it got too dark for pictures I snapped this one with the furniture moved back into place. Yes, we have vintage typewriters all over the place. This is an old German one that I flew in all the way from Hamburg for Christmas one year. The things you do for love ...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall

Isn't it the loveliest of them all?

[Look what I found!]

I discovered this pretty vintage and rather large mirror on one of my quests through the local thift and antique stores. (I should take you along one of my trips some day; that'd be fun!) I'd been searching for a suitable mirror to go with our vanity for a couple of weeks now. At first, had my heart set on the "Ung Drill" Mirror from IKEA but while the husband wasn't opposed I worried it might be a bit too frilly for his taste. Looking for a better compromise I decided to continue looking; IKEA is just a 2.5h drive away and if all else failed, we could just swing by and pick it up during a weekend trip.

This darling mirror with its curvy yet clean lines caught my eyes as soon as I set foot into the store.

I zoomed right in on it.

And then I saw the price tag.

[Quite a splurge ...]

Yep, that's $12.95, ladies.

Muahaha ... and it's MINE!

Score!

I lugged the heavy thing through the store and to the cash register without wasting any time on possible other treasures. Even if we didn't like it for the bathroom, it would still look quite delicious above the fireplace.

[Beautification in progress]

At home I went to work to beautify it. The finish of the frame had some unsightly blemishes, not to mention that I wasn't too crazy about the ...uh, aged finish of the silver paint. In keeping with our minimalistic black and white film noir color scheme for the master bath, I whipped out a can of black spray paint.

It looked like the mirror was putting on a little black dress: the curvy lines started to look classy and sleek, and after following up the coat of paint with a coat of glossy spray poly, the mirror looks like new! I did give the new finish a solid two days to cure before touching it. Patience, baby, I has it (somewhat ... a little .... you know, sometimes)!

I had to replace the hanging wire on the back, drill two holes for hooks into the wall by the vanity but after just a few minutes, some groaning and some grunting (this thing is heavy! And big!), I had it hanging on the wall!

Ohhh .... pretty!

Yep, definitely loving it!

With all of the major bits and pieces in place, it's now finally time for the decorative, finishing touches. Well, alright, that is after the door is finally framed out. Or maybe the husband will take care of that while I run off to say ... Calico Corners and Bed, Bath & Beyond and other places for fabrics and stuff. As you can see we also need a light to go above our vanity. I have a couple of ideas, but need to run them past the husband for input first, so stay tuned as the adventure "master bathroom" continues. (Heh, we're kind of like a bad soap - no end in sight!)

Master Bath: a sink, with feeling!

Good morning!

I just wanted to let you know that today's entry will be featured as guest post Over at Nette's "This Dusty House"Blog. You can check it out here:

"This Dusty House" is one of my absolute favourites, and checking in on Nette and her latest project is on my daily to-do list.

We both share that we're writing renovating blogs, not decorating blogs. While we occasionally take a break from the bigger DIY projects to toss in an adventure in hanging curtains, spray painting accessories and upholstering a chair, we're still up to our ears in bathroom remodels, total kitchen gut jobs and more drywall dust than we probbly ever wanted.

So hop on over and find out what's going on with this:

[Peekabo - I see you!]

Death by laundry

I guess one of the biggest lessons (finally) learned is that order only comes through having a space of its own for everything you own.

At the Ugly Duckling, laundry tends to accumulate quickly and infinitely. My normal state of being is "between piles": the unwashed pile o' laundry and the ready-to-fold pile. And once that is under control, you know, for that half an hour a week, the cord to the iron tries to trip you and the ironing board is lurking in the laundry room just waiting for the moment to whack you over the head good.

When I was over at the Blue Box today, I spied with my little eye this nifty little thing:

[Quick and easy laundry organization? Yes, please!]

That sounded like a quick and easy way of securely coralling the wicked iron and its board into a safe corner and a first step to creating some semblance of order for our laundry situation.

So it went into the cart and home with me.

[Before: Into the corner with you!]

Here's the corner I chose for our unruly iron and its partner in crime, the ironing board, before the installing. All that was required were two holes for drywall anchors and then the shelf was screwed into the wall with two screws. That took all of 5 minutes after locating all necessary tools (a drill, a level and a pencil and a screwdriver)

[After: All well-mannered and orderly!]

So much better! Now the iron has a place to go and hangs nicely secured so unexpected whacks over the head are now a thing of the past. The iron has a nice spot to sit and the starch can go right next to it. And me? I'm tickled about tidy it looks.

Now if I could only make the laundry vanish ...

Kitchen: In for a window treat(ment)

After all the major updates in our kitchen, followed by painting some baseboard and door frame (read about it here) and adding vintage style open shelving (described here and here and here), it was time to tackle another project on our to-do-list for this room in our home.

While I love having a backyard view from my sink, seeing the ratty old mini blinds every morning just didn't brighten my day, nor did it brighten our kitchen. It just had to go. And fast.

[Before: Meh ... miniblinds]

I'd been patiently waiting for another sale at Calico Corners to snatch up a piece of that adorable "Dahlia" fabric (I talked about my fabric shopping woes here) but again, no luck. They didn't have it in stock and ordering it would take another 7-10 business day.

I'm patient, but not that patient.

So I browsed beautiful fabrics for about an hour, petted some lovely Ikats here, fondled some delicious Matelasse there, and then came across this pretty little number:

[What lovely leaves - Robert Allen Collection]

White linen with a scattering of leaves featuring colors that would work well to pull my yellow and white kitchen and my turquoise and white dining room together. Sold!

At home I pulled up my favorite "Miniblind to Roman Shade" tutorial up from the "Little Green Notebook" and got cracking. It worked great so if you feel crafty and need some easy-breezy window treatments check it out here: Miniblind to Roman Shade Tutorial

Following the instructions I cut out the thin strings that allow the miniblinds to tilt, careful not to cut the main string for the up and down mechanism.

[In Progress: Chop Chop!]

Our house cat "Boots" took off with one of the strings, and after she was done playing catch with it for a while she returned to keep a watchful eye on me to see if I'd create another toy for her during my project.

[In Progress: Extra string removed and ready to tackle step 2]

After that, I removed all but 5 slats and re-attached the bottom slat again before laying the shade skeleton on my fabric.

[In Progress: Fabric cut to size and ready to be attached]

I trimmed my fabric - one yard turned out to be the exact amount of fabric I needed for this project and then started glueing the hems. I usually -never- use any of those hemming tapes and glues. Sewing a straight seam through a sewing machine is easy and comes with the guarantee that IT.WILL.STAY.PUT. Something I can't necessarily say about some tapes I have used in the past.

I consider this a test: if it stays, great. It would have been much more difficult to run this through the sewing machine (but not impossible - just quite pin-ful to make sure the fabric doesn't move). If it doesn't, oh well, then I'll have to sew it after all.

[In-Progress: Looking good!]

So far this project had been surprisingly easy and it progressed swimmingly. Hanging the miniblind turned Roman shade back up, turned out to be a bit tricky and required me to drill a new hole into ancient pine but after just a few more minutes my kitchen window looked much improved!

[After: What a "window" treat!]

What a change! Now I really need to take care of the window trim.
And just for kicks and giggles, here's my "Honey Do" list for the kitchen as of today:

Kitchen:
- rip out old cabinets
- rip out linoleum
- repair heart pine floors
- refinish heart pine floors
- re-plumb kitchen
- update electrical wiring
- hang new drywall
- finish new drywall
- prep, prime and paint walls
- repair base molding and add quarter rounds
- prep, prime and paint ceiling
- install ceiling fan
- install kitchen cabinets
- install appliances
- install cabinet hardware
- prep, prime and paint base molding
- prep, prime and paint trim around doorway to breezeway
- create open shelving with brackets and boards
- create/ add window treatment
- add a chalk board somewhere
- prep, prime and paint window trim
- finish trimming out the cabinet above the fridge

Optional/Possible future projects:
- update lighting*
- create built-in breakfast nook *
- add small round pedestal table*
- install back splash*
- add crown molding

With new eyes

After a while you get so embroiled in all of your projects and work - painting, tiling, laying floors, and so much more, that you end up seeing only those things that still need to be tackled, that still need finishing. Sure, you know how far you have come, how much better everything is now, but still.

That's when it's great to have visitors stop by who have seen the ugly nasty dirty ramshackled "Before" in all its glory. Visitors who love you too much to have told you that you were nuts for taking on this project. And visitors who now look at all of your half-finished rooms and projects and marvel at how much everything has changed. For the better, no less.

That's a really nice and very much needed breath of fresh air :o)

It also prompted me to poke through my many folders of pictures for the first ever pictures I took of our Ugly Duckling from our first tour and to team them up with Now pictures. Wow! Wow ... wow ...WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! Sure, it was all mostly "cosmetic" but don't let that fool you. Even cosmetic repairs cost hours of effort, funds, sweat and tears (not so much really, but maybe a groan or two).

Anyways, both the brother-in-law as well as the in-laws were impressed with all the changes (for the better) we'd wrought upon our little old house.

And so are we. Seeing the "Before" and "Now" side by side is really an eye opener, don't you agree?