Reno Update: Week Ten

Our exterior bedroom door before.

I cannot believe we are about to begin week 11 of our "a-stupid-freaking-tree-fell-on-our-house-5-months-ago-and-it's-still-not-fixed" RENO!!! Seriously? Seriously!

As if closing down my retail business 5 weeks before Christmas wasn't bad enough. We hit rock bottom when my kids started worrying about us not having a Christmas tree because the dining room furniture and 25 bolts of fabric was in the living room? What could be worst than all of that? Well let me tell you  what's worse I'm getting kicked out of my bedroom. Today my husband and I having to remove everything from our bedroom into out dining room, one level below. 

Told ya! It just got worse, didn't it? Who knows how long this will take, best guess 2 weeks. They guys have to board over the ceiling with new drywall and remove a plaster wall to assess the damage from the trees impact and fix all the water damage. Fun. Good times. I. CAN'T. WAIT. 

Can you tell I've gotten a little surly. Hell ya I am, I am so totally over this. NO more lemonade for me. Today these lemons are rotten. Maybe tomorrow (or in two months time) I'll be back to seeing this massive project as lemonade. But today, it's just rotten.

The silly during shot.

It was a slow week here in reno-land, the guys just touched up the paint in the kitchen and dining room and put in 2 NEW exterior door in our bedroom!! Okay, all surly bad attitude aside, these two doors really rock my world. They are so strong and fancy. No rotting wood or broken glass. We won't tell the insurance company that a lot of that damage was there when we bought the house 13 years ago. Not that they paid for these beauties entirely, but every little bit helps. My hubby went the extra mile and told the contractors to make me happy and to put in the primo doors. I love that man!! The light that is pouring in is worth all the extra money we're paying.

I found some time to move some of our kitchen stuff around to new spots, I am making the most of that pretty window by making a useful vignette.

Since I moved the (little used) Kitchen Aide to the top of the fridge I was able to get the bread box my Mother-In-Law gave me a better home. It's needs some tweaking and some navel jelly but it's progress. 

What's really exciting is that the studio is all put away and working out so nicely. Well mostly working out, I did a really bad job with the cutting tables finishing tape, that will have to be redone. Don't you think we need a pretty new cutting mat? A giant white one will have to be ordered soon. 

OK, I stand corrected, there's some lemonade to be had!

I took some oilcloth and covered the backs of the cube book cases to make it all wee bit nicer. I love my stashed storage. A rolling rack keeps our scraps organized and the rolling filing cabinet is perfect. LOVE!!

BTW, the white bin is filled with strips of selvedges for my roman shade project!! Note to self: You gotta get moving on that!

Maddie and I hit IKEA last week so I could the chair bases for my fun red chairs. Don't you love them?

The best part of the week was the fact that I could open up the window when the temperature hit 60. Please keep in mind I have never-ever-ever been able to open a window in the studio before now. What a gift! OK, there it is, I am happy again. So the tree falling down wasn't but so stupid.

Reno Update: Week Eight

You've got to love a contractor that brings your family treats!! They look like plain old cereal treats but don't let them fool you, they are pure crack on a plate. My contractor, Sander, doubles the marshmallows to make them pure gooey heaven.

They guys finished up the kitchen on Friday. It is the most lovely shade of red. Behr Poinsettia!! It's a real shame that the insurance company didn't pay us to have the trim painted too. A. Real. Shame. I swear that tree made all of our white trim all dirty and I think they should take care of that for us too!!

Next on the agenda, the dining room. Yellow sucks, I can't find the right shade. One is too pale, one is too grey, and the other is to "highlighter" yellow. Oui!

 I started playing around and came up with something... I really hope we all like it.

The guys have the ceilings looking sharp with Behr's Ultra White in semi-gloss, our new ceilings are now bright and perky! We're just happy not to see the wall paper seams that came with the house. Crazy, right? Who wall papers their ceilings? Yuck.

I finished up the cutting table that the guys made for me a few weeks ago. I used the weird orange tool to trim up the edges. This is meant to create a slight beveled edge, but I must say it didn't really work out very well. I ended up painting the chipped and rough edges with white paint and then gave it a light sanding.

I used the an iron to adhere the melamine tape to the edge of the cutting tabletop. This worked out well, now my sweaters are safe from the rough edge of the raw board.

I finally got a few more boxes unpacked, no more digging though my shed looking for my supplies. Doesn't the peg board look much nicer with the trim? Thank you stupid tree for all the perks!

All the cutting stuff is back at the cutting table. I love these Ikea bars that I put up 2 years ago. Everything in it's place and as much stuff off of the table the better.

Studio Makeover: Cutting Carousel

Right after Christmas my DH was sent out to Michael's for last minute birthday favors for Maddie's 10th birthday party and came home with a present for me! I had my eye on this great organizer for weeks. I have to say that it was lost for a week or two on the sewing table from hell.



I could not figure out what to do with this. Once in my studio it was big and overwhelming. But then I got inspired to create a "cutting carousel". Now everything I need to cut is in one place. And best of all I can simply move it from the studio to the "cutting counter" in the kitchen.







Now I have no going back and forth gathering up this and that. And clean up is a snap. It all lives in one handy carousel.

I believe they are still in the stores but if not I found them on line at Kaboodle's. Happy organizing!