Mr. and Mrs.

Floors!!! Part one: sanding

2012-08-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

So we finally decided...

This is special walnut on the main floors and dark walnut on the stair case. Isn't it lovely? We realized that with short ceiling and darker furniture, our nice and airy house would be dark and an scary. Here are some progress pictures...

The stripped banister, brought back to life by a full day of work by my tireless mother-in-law and hubby. Thank you. Thank you.

The red oak, 2 1/4 herringbone floors all sanded up. Yeah :) This floor makes me really happy.

Two of many samples the flooring guys showed us.

The best thing we've heard in a while? "Wow. You guys should have your own company. These floors are professionally done." I will take it. lol

While that was going on upstairs, Matt and I tried to get some last minute supplies.

And I am working my magic on walls, sweating away in this 103 degree, non-airconditioned home.

Thats it for now. Hope you all enjoyed July and are ready for school. Matt starts back up on Monday! Where did this summer go???

xoxo,

Mrs. in love with my floors

Hardwood Flooring

2012-07-30T10:57:00.001-07:00

Well today is a great day! After weeks of hard work we are finally able to take a break as our hardwood floors are being restored. The best part? Its not us doing the work! Hallelujah!

With that said we are looking for color choices for our 2 1/4 red oak floors. I prefer super dark, walnut floors but I am concerned about the home feeling swamped and closed in. Any suggestions, comments, concerns??? Anyone have dark floors and regrets it?

I need a choice asap. So feel free to tell me what you all think.

C D

xoxo,

Mrs. sleeping in and loving it

How to make industrial cage lights

2012-07-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being MIA. We were in Maui and Oahu for two weeks, which will be detailed later. As soon as I got back I was attacked with sinus/allergy issues and I have been a lil miserable. (Double ear infections, blurry vision, itchy eyes, migraines, bloody nose, itchy throat) Its also made worse by the fact that I cannot get to sleep until 3 am each night since I guess I am still on Maui Time. This California Valley is sucking the life out of me. :)

So, since I am out of it and not wanting to write, I thought I'd show you a great site that details how to make industrial cage lights. It meets two specific criteria that is important: its vintage (styled) and is functional. They would look great in a variety of rooms but they make the most sense to me in my art studio.

As much as I would love to buy them ready to go, spending $100 ea at Anthropologie seems a bit ridiculous. $100??? So I have been searching on my off days for DIY ideas and finally ran across this great DIYer, Creede, who featured his ideas on this fantastic site that you should check out. I mean, it really is great! Depending on where you get your supplies, you could realistically spend between $5-10 each. Now that is a deal I can get behind.

Sources: (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

xoxo,

Mrs. sneezing away

P.S. Thank you so much for the sweet comments and nominations! When I get a chance to breath, I will check it all out. :)

A wedding and a weekend away

2012-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so we did a LOT of traveling this weekend and met up with some of our old college friends. We were all over the place: from Sacramento, Sonoma, Napa, Camp Meeker to everywhere in between.

While Matt was busy helping set up the reception hall, I slipped out and met up with my dear friend Harmony and her lil one. We both were each other's bridesmaids and she definitely lives up to her name. That woman is a gift from God.

The adorable church that has no airconditioning.

Taking a weekend off from housework brings out the silly.

I definitely was not in proper wedding attire. We heard ahead of time from the guys that it was going to be extremely hot, so I dug through my shopping bag of clothes purchased for our trip to Hawaii, (did I mention that yet??) where I had a few cotton beach dresses and found this one. Oh well. :) Yes we are headed to Hawaii this summer. I CANNOT WAIT.

Some cute things we saw at the wedding...

Chalkboard seating chart, paper polka dot runners, wildflowers in thrifted vases, milk glass pedestals with cupcakes and a threaded monogram on wood near the "candy shop" table.

Another threaded heart for the gift wrap table, advice cards on the tables, wedding cake for two and some hanging baskets at the church...

Some other great things we saw were pictures of the bride and groom's parents on their wedding day. It was a really neat, personal touch.

We stayed with a few others and cleaned up the reception hall and then treated ourselves to homemade ice cream at Screamin' Mimi's in Sebastopol with Matt's sweet friend David. omg. I had some amazing Cinnamon Crumb Cake ice cream that was wicked awesome. The next day we packed our bags quickly and ran to a little Orthodox mission for church and then headed over to meet more friends at Sonoma's Sunflower Cafe.

My preggers friend, Katherine. Poor thing had to leave the wedding early as she was having contractions at the wedding. Did I mention it was hot?

Well, you probably won't hear from me anytime soon... Back to work!

xoxo,
Mrs. sweating profusely

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Be your own decorator and design a room

2012-06-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope you are having a great week. I just wanted to pass along this fantastic site I just found. It is a great program called The Make Room which is an interactive room planner that you can customize with furniture, decoration and even technical data such as lighting and wiring.

Its simple to use and best of all- free! They don't require a login although I think its preferable if you want to save your room plans.

The Make Room site

Here is my living room that we "decorated" online this morning. I cannot believe how easy this program is to use. Remember drafting supplies and their crazy stencils? I had tons of those as a kid when I was interested in becoming an architect. Technology is just too cool.

In the brief time I was using it, I didn't see a fireplace symbol so I just enlarged a bench seat to the approximate size. Double click items to clone, recolor and resize.

Okay...back to remodeling. Off to go put on my coveralls and conquer the day.

xoxo,

Mrs. designing away

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Father's Day Gift Ideas

2012-06-11T10:50:00.001-07:00

Celebrating dads can be a bit difficult after years and years of giving repetitive gifts. I think I have given my dad about all the golf related items you can find. But I am still an old fashioned girl with a love of all things classic.

Here are my must haves that I think most guys at any age would get a kick out of.

Dress him up with a leather belt, wallet, etc (image source)
Give him a fantastic vintage camera (etsy print source)
Tobacco Pipes (etsy shop)
Vibrams to run, kick box, hike "barefoot" (source)
A 1954 vintage Sunbeam Motorcycle (source)
Snazzy Bow-ties (source) (vintage ones on etsy)
DAD belt buckle (etsy shop)
Take a cue from a dad of many...Brad Pitt's Newsboy Hat (image source)
Take him to a game...of course it has to be the SF Giants (image source)
Shaving Set with Straight Edge Razor, Brush, Leather Strap (source)
Temporary DAD tattoos to show your love (source)
Antique Books from his favorite authors or subjects (source)

What are you doing for Father's Day???

xoxo,

Mrs. daddy's girl

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A few updates

2012-06-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have a day where you are like, Good Lord! This is taking forever. Yes, we have had that times 6 months.

These are the current projects that are in the "during" stage and unfinished as of yet.

We added the same trim "apron" we did on the windows to the top of this doorway. It still needs a final top green coat but so far, I think it adds a great vintage quality to the entryway.

The front door before and during. Blue paint is just a first coat- and will be finished in green.

The former dining (which might just stay that way) had an entryway removed. On the other side of this now closed room will be the refrigerator. Matt commandeered boards from the kid's room upstairs and did a great job installing them. Momma dear painted them and I am in the process of texturing.

Whole house fan... all I can say is that it works...its loud and maybe a perfect cover for when we want ... ah hum, alone time in the future.

My dear hubby went along with my crazy plans. There was dead space with a venting system remoded between the right wall of this bathroom and the master bedroom. We decided to pimp it out with storage solutions to maximize this small space. The top left will have recessed shelves. We added electrical outlets so that we can plug in a radio until we afford speakers.

The bottom left area will be divided between a trash compartment and a tilt out laundry hamper.

We had our electrician add a hot water supply line to the toilet area for the addition of a bidet attachment. In the future we could always add a cloth diaper sprayer when we have kids. Necessary? No. But totally awesome. I think until us crazy Americans visit Europe we just don't understand what we are missing. :0)

Hubby came up with this one all on his own. For whatever reason this boxed wall area had literally nothing behind it. All the other cute cut outs have some sort of storage or drawers so Matt decided it was a must to cut it out. In one day my amazing hubby built out the floor, insulated the pitched ceiling and floors and then my amazing Mum came over and installed hardwood flooring. Awesome!!! Hello shoe storage. :)

Last but not least is the herringbone floor my mom and I installed. Isn't it a beauty? A few rows in I was like, "Oh I got this. This is silly easy." Um... I have crazy cuss words going through my head even now. It was hard and NO way would I do it again. But will I love it? YES!

As you can see...we are making progress!

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. worked to the herringbone

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A free giveaway for your special man

2012-06-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

With Father's Day fast approaching, I thought it would be a great time to do a freebie for one lucky reader.

Closed! Winner is Ms. Hannah Vines.

Considering that my man salivates when walking by the tool corral, I thought this $30 gift card would a welcomed site when told he just HAS to go shopping for manly stuff.

All you have to do is join our site as a follower and comment below. Preferably vote on which kitchen design you like the most and tell me what you love about your man (dad, grandpa, husband, son, brother).

Make sure you include a way for me to contact you. Entries must be made by June 12th, 2012. My man will then do a blind drawing and we will announce the winner on the 14th and mail out your gift that day.

Best of Luck!!!

xoxo,

Anne Marie

We need a decision asap... So voters? And ideas?

We have done a venetian plaster effect on the walls and ceiling using

Behr Valley Mist on the Ceiling.

Behr Vintage Linen on the walls.

Now the debate is white cabinets or a dark greenish blue???

Thoughts?

White Cabinets ? in Behr Falling Snow

Green cabinets??? in Behr Agave Frond

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And the two shall become one

2012-06-09T00:00:00.001-07:00

The kitchen was approximately 13' by 10' before we tore down the dividing wall to join the "den." It was a useless kitchen and we figured it we were going to go so far as to rewire, rip out cabinets, add new windows and new flooring we might as well just open it up.

The header was headed up by my dear old pop. He painstakingly researched, purchased and installed this bad boy. What a blessing to have a construction savvy dad who loves me!

If you look closely you can see the 4 new in ceiling speakers, 8 new cans, 4 pendant lights and tons of electrical. My electrician is amazing btw. Actually the speakers are not in as we cannot afford them yet, but the room is run with new Monster Cable as well as zoned for a music control panel. This room houses the "control" room which we framed up in the unused space under the staircase. All the ethernet and music zones in the whole house meet here and can connect in the future for whatever my little heart desires. Even if you are budget friendly, add this to your wish list. Its stinking amazing.

Can you spot the one we call Tiny Tim? ha.

He is the one holding sheetrock to the ceiling with one hand.

1. Before picture...which isn't looking too bad at this point.

2. Braced much? We are prepared for the earthquake of the century.

3. All sheeted! Praise the Lord.

And here is what we look like afterwards...

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. beaming with pride

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Dash-traction time

2012-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have a new distraction that we picked up in December. Bloggers meet Dash. Dash meet my bloggers. He is our 7 month old black lab/ border collie.

And this is what I see every single day when I am at the new home remodeling.

and I cannot resist his cute face.

He runs up with his new toys that he has managed to dig up from previous owners and sets it by my door. Lately he has learned to toss it inside the open door so that we will go pick it up and toss it out. I think he is training us quite well.

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. in love with our pup

DIY Chalkboard Paint

2012-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

The upstairs kid's room had a wall that we had to remove to fix electrical a few weeks back. It was covered with beautiful moulding / wainscoting and unfortunately during the removal- many of the boards were damaged. Rather than replacing them, we decided to go with sheetrock and a flat texture effect that we would cover with chalkboard. I love the idea of letting my kids write and draw on walls.

So I had all my supplies together after I found the tips from Martha Stewart. Unfortunately my internet wasn't working and neither was my brain. I was absolutely certain that it was a 1 part grout to 1 part paint. ha. ah- no.

Do you see the crazy patterns I made? It was so thick it could have made peanut butter look like water. So this is really a WHAT not to do post. Do not forget instructions when you are in the middle of a project. It stinks. My mom couldn't get internet reception at our house that day either and graciously drove around a few blocks trying to get reception so that she could google directions. By that time, my paint had started to gunk up on me and I was very frustrated.

Anyhow, I did water it down and fixed it eventually ... I love it.

Here are the ACTUAL directions. Thank you Martha.

Here are my dumbed down ones...

1. Mix 1 part unsanded tile grout to about 3 parts latex paint. Don't use a flexible container like I did. What are you- crazy?
2. Paint your wall with a rough roller. Repeat- repeat- repeat.
3. Sand your walls with 150 grit or whatever is on hand. Dust up.
4. Rub chalk on walls and wipe away.

It created a sort of airy layered color effect which I really love. Now for the crappy news. We have been trying to get rid of a huge hive of bees that have made their nest behind this wall and the outside fireplace. To no avail- now we have to tear down this wall (aww yuck) and exterior wall and have a professional bee removal man out. Why? Apparently if you kill off the bees without removing their honey, you can cause serious problems to your home- insect infestation, mold, etc etc. Fortunately the bee man removal crap is a serious business in the California Valley and they come out for free as they get to keep the hive and make a good living off it. (Which is great, actually.)

Okay, there is my vent of the day. I already painted the wainscoting up here first, then had to rip it off, then sheeted, textured, painted and NOW I have to redo it again.

Deeeeeppp breath. I can deal with this.

xoxo,
Mrs. biiiizzzed off

A view of one's own

2012-06-06T13:51:00.003-07:00

The window moulding trims aka window casings were in a "rough beat the heck up, crapy state." Dogs had gone through and damaged a good chunk of them. I laugh now, but when we first bought the home I adamantly refused to remove and replace any of the trim pieces. I thought it would take forever.
Boy do you end up learning a lot when remodeling. This project took about 2-3 hours with the assistance of my mom and hubby.

Rather than buy more mdf trim that is ridiculously overpriced, we decided to rip off the modern updates and go back to vintage trim. Over the last few weeks we have been scouring our neighborhood for inspiration and looking at pinterest (of course).

Meanwhile hubby, mom and I have installed sheetrock, textured and painted a lot of ~~crap~~ stuff. I'm beat.

So as you can see the trend, here is our lil mock up for inspiration...

We went with flat, preprimed pine at what Ana White calls the Orange store. It was surprisingly cheap, especially compared to that mdf junk. Each window used 7 pieces that came precut and about 8' long. We could have gone with the longer boards but we had our small car with us that day and didn't feel like making another trip. However this turned out to be great because we are using the scraps for the staircase trim ...one day...maybe.

(Sizes are approximate)

3 stools (name uncertain?) (1 x 1.5" W)
1 header piece (1 x 3"W)
3 Left/right sides and one bottom apron ( (1 x 2.5" W)

Tools:

tape measurer
pencil
brad nailer / nails
chop saw

After we removed the existing molding (a little victory as I still don't know how I convinced my hubby to go with this) we noticed (duh) that the now green wainscoting was cut perfectly around the old trim. I really love thicker trims but I didn't want to mess with the charm of the beveled wainscoting. Also we didn't glue these in as we wanted to be able to make any necessary changes to the windows in the future.

Step one: measure, cut and install the bottom piece first- aka the apron. You want the side rails to match the width of the apron. This is easy as NO pieces are angled. Tip: keep in mind the width of your saw blade and cut long if you are worried about cutting too short. You can always cut it down.

Step two: add two inches to the apron's measurements and mark all three of your stool trim boards. If you have wainscoting like we do - measure the depth of the wainscoting and cut that depth out of ONE piece of your boards.

Step Three: Add your side boards. This should extend from the bottom stool to right above the head jamb.

Step Four: On the ground- or a prep table assemble your header (the top three pieces shown). Make sure the apron (aka window top casing) is flat and position the bottom stool flush. Affix with the brad nailer. Repeat with the top stool. Comprende? Once assembled, attach to the wall.

Step Five: fill holes, let dry, sand and then paint.

Voila! Isn't my garden beee-utiful?

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. gleeful

sources: 1. Source unknown 2. This Old House 3. Bathroom windows by Laughing Sun 4. Natty by Design 5. This Old House

Inspiration Friday

2012-05-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

What a super successful, stressful yet surprisingly fun week it has been for us! Electrical 99% done, walls and texture getting slapped up as fast as we can manage, we celebrated the union of our friend's marriage and Matt said goodbye to his 2012 Senior class with a great graduation ceremony last night. And it's not even the weekend yet!

Here are some amazing sites I had the pleasure of catching over the last few days. I am amazed with the talent that non professional, regular DIYers have such as that amazing rustic island table and the Instagram pillows. Well, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Sources: You can check out the full sized pictures on my Pinterest Page or go directly to the sites here... 1. DIY towels and rustic island table from Our Vintage Home Love blog 2. Botanical Prints BelleBontanica 3. Urban Outfitters 4. Chalkboard wall on Mr.G and me Crafts. 5. French Antiques, French Laundry guest post on Common Ground 6. Instagram sachets and beanbags from lilboyboo. 7. DIY umbrella stand centerpiece at A Vintage Fairy 8. Vintage art collection from Design Tripper 9. Pantry decals from The Painted Hive 10. Design Sponge

xoxo, Mr. and Mrs. sleep deprived

La-la-la Laundry

2012-05-23T16:33:00.001-07:00

Hello all my new followers! Thank for you joining our crazy life. We have been SUPER busy with the remodel. Which is great for the home but it allows no time for bloggin. I should preface this post by saying it is TOO stinking long and I have NO discernable talent in texturing. This was a complete "okay, lets see what works" kind of project.

In the back of our home is an odd addition that one of the former owners added. It includes a laundry "Service room," hallway and a tiny bathroom. The floors were all uneven and consisted of a few transition lips that we stumbled over a lot before we finally ripped it all up down to the dirt floor underneath.

When they installed this addition, they didn't use treated wood for the subfloor supports and there was a TON of scary, black mold in that bathroom. Additionally there was no crawl space underneath which meant fixing any plumbing or electrical impossible.

By tearing up the flooring and some walls, we were able to fix the mold, add a crawl space, and rig up a gradual decrease in the flooring to create no transitions between the rooms. Think of a wheelchair ramp but with only an inch of actual slope. We decided to continue using sold, red oak hardwood flooring. I had in mind to install these encaustic tiles but the price and possible cracking due to flex was unrealistic. In the pictures below you can see parts of the unstained and unfinished wood flooring which will be redone at the end.

Helpful tools...bribe mom with frozen yogurt in exchange for free labor. Like my kitchen gloves? lol

Goodbye vinyl floors!

Before / Day of Purchase- Former family used it as an office space

One of the other advantages of rewiring the whole home was the benefit of making this an actual laundry room again. The previous owners didn't use any of the three laundry electrical stations in the room because their machines wouldn't properly fit in any of the locations. I don't blame them. The units would have made it difficult to get out the door! You would be stuck doing laundry all day. :)

They took their washer and dryer to the attached garage where there was a lot more space. So to solve this problem, as I wanted to turn the garage into an art studio, we settled on stackable washer and dryer units (which I will show more of later) that will be to the right of the window. The rest of that space will host a large counter and sink.

As soon as I got the green light when electrical was all done, hubby and I started patching the holes in the room. We did this by using stir sticks and left over hardwood as supports that we screwed in from the front. Then we cut out drywall and fit in the holes. These were then screwed in and textured with joint compound. This technique was shown to us by our amazing friend Tony who is a Godsend.

Look at my new, puurrty hardwood. This green color on the walls may look nice in the pictures, but it is horrid! I mean absolutely pea-green yuck.

Laundry Before pictures (but after new hardwood installed). See the nice subfloor access door? Yep. I did that.

For the walls, my inspiration came from Anthropologie and the venetian plaster walls all over Europe. I told my family in no uncertain terms, "I want dirty, old, crappy looking walls." Anyone who has been inside Anthropologie or looked through their catalogs probably gets what I am talking about.

I always found that paint out of the can looks flat and boring. By layering the paint in the texture it creates depth and an airiness to it. Its like three colors in one. Halfway into this project though everyone freaked out and ~~harassed me mercilessly~~ tried to get me to stop. I gave a lot of dirty looks and almost gave in... almost.

Walls were lightly "primed" with a base coat in the creamy color, Behr Premium Plus Self Priming Interior Flat Renoir Bisque. After it dried I thoroughly mixed 1 part BRB to 1 part Joint Compound. I applied it with a tile trowel. The center of the blade is bowed out and prevents lines from appearing all through the texture.

Plaster and Paint Mixture

This video has an excellent tutorial for applying the compound. Look for the steps at 1:30.
FYI I did try this technique above but it is way to laborious.

Here are the walls right after a bit of texture was added to them.

the Clear Stain- 1 part MS Faux Finishing Glaze and 1 Part Water for a topcoat sealer on texture.

I finished it with a simple top poly coat to prevent any texture from flaking off on people as they walked by, and to help it be lightly cleaned up in the future. It is 1 part Martha Stewart Faux Finishing Glaze and 1 part water. It was perfect and didn't add a lot of shine which is nasty. I personally loved it at this stage. But the hubby and mom said it was muddy and dirty. (Um...wasn't that the goal?)

So the following day I came back to darken it up and tried it in a corner. Errr... they were right. It looked a lot better with the 3 part top coat.

the "Dirty" Stain- 1 part Faux Finishing Glaze, 1 Part Minwax PolyShade Mission Brown, 3-4 parts water

Don't read the tub for the combination here. It was actually 1 part Martha Stewart Faux Finish Glaze, 1 Part Minwax PolyShade in Mission Brown and 3-4 parts water. Stir it all up and then apply with a good rag or one that looks and feels like microfiber that won't pil.

Some Tips:

During the glazing stage, I stirred the glaze mixture every time before I dipped in my rag. I started noticing that the stain would dry on the top and cause little clumps on the wall if I didn't stir ahead of time.
The mixture should spread like warmed honey.
I worked in figure eights and circular motions in one small areas at a time. Then I would wipe it down to feather in the edges and to wipe off any brushy rag looks.
Work on one wall at a time from top down, side to side. This helps with preventing any drips from the stain drying below and streaking.
If there are holes or issues with the walls, patch these PRIOR to painting the first "prime" coat.
Tarp down the floors really well to prevent issues and stains.
Wear precaution... gloves, mask, etc. Be safe and open doors or windows for ventilation. Also- unlike some people who advocate drinking coffee while working- just don't. The water bottles seen in the pictures are for the stain mixture. Do not drink or eat in the space while working. Art studio rules 101.
If you don't like the final glaze coat, watch the video and copy the third coat process and add on top of the texture coat. Then add the clear stain seen above.

How to make vintage distressed wall texture.

Priming, texturing and top glazing took from start to finish about 5-6 hours total. Not bad, not bad. (Patches and drywall took about 3-4 hours the day prior).

So to review...

Patch holes or other issues prior to priming.
Prime the walls with your base FLAT coat.
Texture the walls (1 part joint compound and 1 part paint).
Glaze the walls with a rag (1 part Faux Finish Glaze, 1 Part Poly Wood Stain, 3-4 Parts Water)

Voila!

How to create distressed vintage walls.

Well I trust you enjoyed my SERIOUSLY long, but hopefully helpful demo on wall texture.

xoxo,

Mrs. glazed-astic

What goes up must come down...

2012-05-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Matt and I took our first weekend off since December. We jetted down 8 hours south to the magical world of Disneyland as chaperones for his seniors celebrating Grad Nite. We left around 4 am Friday and then were back by 9 am Saturday. wooh. That was a rough trip. The kids were miraculously well behaved and no discipline issues but I guess being in your late twenties means you are too old for this sort of thing. I double checked, but we slept well over 22 hours on Saturday.

Back to reality and the land of ceaseless projects. Here is the living room at the new home. Before renovation, it was the only family room of the house until we tore down a wall between the den and the kitchen. Since the dining room (red room in pictures) is so small, we have plans to turn this into a formal room with dining. The room was in overall good shape minus dog damages and cracks on windows, cracks on walls and no overhead lighting.

This prompted a serious debate- are we really going to mess with curved ceilings that have stood the test of time since 1940 JUST to put in lighting?

And then I saw a chandelier at the Alameda Antiques and immediately said yes! Absolutely yes we have to add lighting! However, these were amazing ceilings and the solution was crazy- we had to rip up the flooring above in the kids room to have access to these ceilings. But more on that later.

The new puppy, Dasher "the dash".

my pinterest board

The aqua blues and golden yellows are intended to run throughout the home and I am hoping that they go nicely in this room. As an aspiring artist, I love old maps and prints, anatomical studies and botanical prints and think a neutral palette will showcase the great collections I have (and want to have). Other inspirations are the d'Orsay clock in Paris, vintage wood pediments, charcoal and conte crayon drawings, crystal chandeliers, Belgian linen and walnut and french pine furniture. I was inspired by great detailed wallpapers you would find in a missions or craftsman home but my hubby put his foot down on that one. Of course my timing on asking about wallpaper was right after we spent two weeks removing wallpaper. I'm apparently not that smart!

We currently have a blue velvet couch similar to the one above with two gold chairs and the Verona dining collection from Cost Plus World Market. I love-love-love the linen curtains from Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn but Ikea sold me at only $19 bucks a pair. To complete the look of those windows, I found nautical-looking rope at Lowes for .49 a foot and intend to use them as tie backs.

We will see how the room eventually gets assembled and hopefully it will be on budget and on time.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Mrs. needing a caffeine jolt

Upstairs bathroom

2012-05-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

I will come right out and say it, there is no official master bath. uuugggghhh. Everyone that has been over to our home quickly ~~blurts out~~ nicely informs me that we have to add a bathroom STAT in the large room off our master bedroom. I would love it but my pocketbooks did a Harry Potter charm on me and flew off to an unknown room of requirement and unfortunately I do not have a key to that room!

When I first saw the matchy-matchy gray tub, toilet and sink I thought, "Okay Annie! You can do something great to this." I spent a week stripping the walls of wallpaper, cleaning mold out of the tub and grout and I put at least 5 coats on the sink cabinet and medicine cabinet. The drawers were cheaply made and it took us about 4 hours to pull them all out as they were broken and massively off hinge. The countertop was a gray formica and I researched a million ways to renovate it on the cheap. Then we had the plumbing inspected and everything came to a halt. They found out that it was the old time clay pipes and they were ready to burst. The only access to them was to take out the tub, some walls and the cabinet.

My husband made the final call on it and said "now or never" and drove me about an hour south on a "Craigslist mission". He swore he found this amazing deal on a vintage clawfoot tub from a 1940s home - just like ours! I was seriously opposed to the scavenger's hunt as well as the cost, not to mention it put some serious scratches on the back of my car as we hoisted it up ourselves.

I will show you more of our progress soon, but for now here are the before pictures and the idea board.

source: ilovemrandmrs.blogspot.com

CONS:

gray, gray, gray everything
vinyl flooring- with soft spots and dryrot underneath (especially near shower)
mold on ceiling, in cabinet and all over the tile grouts
walls are falling apart and splashed with layers of wallpaper
the one electrical outlet is NOT grounded- scary
a lot of broken tiles
overhead fan doesn't seem to be working properly
windows are falling apart and chipping like mad
the sink water line is too strong and sprays out everywhere.
the tub water line is weak and gurgles
the overhead lighting consists of two cans and my makeup application will be clown like
drawers are broken and wont come out- need repairs
medicine cabinet is great but I can barely see in it! And yes that is how short I am.

PROS:

the tile is livable and I am beginning to like it
the cabinet is paintable
the walls can be stripped, retextured and painted
we can live with this and we can put the money elsewhere

sources

sources: ilovemrandmrs.blogspot.com

We will post an update that includes how we got rid of the HEAVY existing tub, the sink cabinet and opening the walls to increase storage, rewire all electrical and add lighting as well as plumbing. Its a big undertaking for such a small room.

Stay tuned for more!

xoxo,

Mrs. ready for a soak in a tub

A new door...

2012-05-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else."

Upon first glance the entry way here was in almost perfect condition and very little was necessary to update it. We did have to rip open some walls to rewire the electrical but overall- it is a little gem of the home. At the moment we are finishing up electrical and drywall and moulding is tba.

CONS:

no staircase lighting and it gets scary dark when walking down at night. I can not imagine carrying a child down those steps! Lord have mercy.
layers of glue, dirt and wallpaper all over walls, ceiling and steps-fixable
the staircase banister support is broken
lighting fixture is hung too low and kinda on its last days
electrical needs to be redone for lighting fixtures, switches and outlets
I'm not digging the colors here but they look a lot better in these pictures than I remember! :)

PROS:

great hardwood steps that are miraculously not painted
great texture on all walls- doesn't need any touch up except new paint
an awesome "harry potter" closet under stairs!
the fact that there is an entry- I feel so posh!

On my idea board I was inspired by simple white moulding, vintage crystal chandeliers, architectural relics, a neutral paint and fabric palette. I really think that minus their ridiculous deconstructed collection, Restoration Hardware is a great source. Their fall catalog was stunning.

Until next time!

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. ready for a break

Kitchen Before Pictures and our Idea Boards

2012-05-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Since we purchased the home without seeing the guts, it was a free for all in assuming what kind of state the kitchen would be in. We hoped that the kitchen would be pristine and in perfect condition but we ran into some issues that convinced us it needed to be gutted and redone.

Namely it was a "we've lived through a similar bad kitchen" experience and were not about to do so again. Part of the remodel envisioned removing a wall that separated the kitchen and the "den" that served the last family as a bedroom. This was no easy decision. Discussions involved finances, to the usefulness of a third downstairs bedroom, to time and effort and just how in the world do you shore up a header?

Here were the CONS:

one set of drawers that do not function well, some are broken and need to be replaced
no vent above the gas range
NO dishwasher
gas range is right near entry door (danger for kids walking through?)
fridge sticks out so much, making walk way difficult and in the way of those already in kitchen
uneven counters prevent lower cabinets and more storage
leaks under sink causing mold and dryrot on subfloor, flooring, and cabinets
overall design/ esthetic was livable but poor
laundry board in kitchen (keep but move to another room)
blown electrical outlets and not enough of them
there is no in-kitchen dining (despite lower countertop that is too impractical)
vinyl flooring (looks surprisingly great in pictures but is really ugly- but livable)
countertops ran up under the upper cabinets- odd
very limited storage

The PROS of keeping the kitchen as-is:

budget friendly!!!
no time and effort (except maybe a paint job on the cabinets)

sources from ilovemrandmrs.blogspot.com

In the process of planning out a new kitchen we consulted with Home Depot, Lowes, Ikea and a local custom Kitchen builder who were all recommended to us. We went to Ikea a few times debating over the mission styled cabinets. They looked great but the durability of the cabinet bases concerned us. Even in the store, the particleboard was broken and doors were falling off. We guessed around $4k for uninstalled, unassembled cabinets.

Home Depot missed over 4 appointments. Whereas Lowes was prompt, but their customer service and price left something to be desired. The price we were given as an estimate was between $18k-25k just for delivered cabinets but not installed!

Our last ditch effort was the custom Kitchen guy who after a LOT of appointments came down to $13k for unfinished, uninstalled cabinets that he would order and assembled for us.

Meanwhile, we went through a lot of online vendors until we found Barker Door and Cabinets out of Oregon. The biggest advantage was that we could customize the sizes. They are made in the USA, solid hardwood with strong hinges and such for drawers and door fronts. We have yet to install them, but we just got them delivered in a huge crate!

After searching for months, here were some of our inspirations for the kitchen. (sources) As you can see we were interested in a farm sink, vintage range, natural wood shelves, schoolhouse lighting, carrara marble subway tiles, soapstone, bead-board and great hardwood floors.

source

Here is the rough design work I put together. I think a few changes have been made since we did this back in February and we are currently only doing the bottom cabinets until we can afford uppers. The price for the lower cabinets came under $3k.

Above is a "garage appliance" cabinet. I wanted the doors to slide in and out to hide the microwave (which I have an odd hatred towards for many reasons) and other larger appliances. Throughout it all we wanted to keep a thoroughly vintage and built-in cabinet look. Hopefully it goes as planned!

Stay tuned for updates and pictures of the progress!

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. busy but excited

A little introduction...

2012-05-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. is a blog we created to show the steps taken in renovating our first home. A local business purchased the home through untraditional means on our behalf at the local court house steps on December 1, 2011. As we learned later, the home had fallen into foreclosure and the owners were in the process of selling it to buyers during a short sale. Unfortunately for them the buyers backed out and the bank quickly took it to auction. It was a very difficult time for the family as well as uncomfortable for all of us involved. It is never a fun thing to show up to a family's home and hand them eviction papers. However, throughout it all they were incredibly kind and generous and we wish them the best.

We didn't receive keys until a month later as we wanted to provide time for the family to spend Christmas at home. So on January 1, 2012 we finally were able to have access to the home and we didn't begin any renovation work until February. What we expected to be a fast paint job with a few updates in the kitchen, quickly unraveled. As my dad said, any paint would have just been lipstick on a pig. We quickly discovered black mold, termite damage, and electrical damages which we will get into later.

xoxo,

Mr. and Mrs. determined 