We've had a round of fantastic weather, we're talking 71 degrees!! So Sander, contractor of awesomness, had his crew clean up the back yard. I was very happy to take the afternoon off and help layout the slates. It was so nice to get my hands dirty.
Raccoon Tracks!!
It's a bit woopy-jawed (my fault) so I'm going to tweak the layout a bit and then plant some creeping thyme within the stones.
I can't tell you have much I love being able to get to the shed without jumping through the puddles. Five months with a plywood walk way is a bit much.
As you can see we've got a long way to go! We've got leaning posts, a missing shelter and a big orange earth mover to take care of. We won't mention the lack of grass. Really, don't mention it. Even though it doesn't look like much right now, it's just so much better and I'm ready for spring!!
I was thrilled that the guys helped me clean out the beds. Normally this is my job, a job that hasn't been done properly since Modern June got more intense. They removed all the weed trees that I was fighting a loosing battle with and I removed dozens of sticky vines. When the next round of nice weather comes along I'll dig out the brick boarder, that always helps tidy things up. (Even if your grass is junk)
The following day we had a lot of rain and my son enjoyed playing out on the second story patio. We're are all loving the new wood floor out there, it's a real treat.
Here you can see that our new bedroom ceiling and walls are all ready for paint. No more water damage, better yet no more Dr. Who cracks in the wall. I was really happy to have sleep in a semi-white room for a few nights. It got rid of my desire for a home with white walls. I gotta have my color!!
But...
...I am not feeling this color! Everyone says I used the same color as the studio but that's not the case, it's actually more green then the studio. It's sssssssoooooooo aqua. Don't get wrong it's a nice color, just not for a bedroom. But it's done and so am I! We'll see if I like it better once I get the drapes up and furniture in the room. Either way, it's not changing anytime soon.
The needed repairs in our bathroom are coming along nice and quick. The cracked ceiling has been sheet rocked with some fancy bathroom grade stuff (technical talk). This darker ceiling is really weird, I'll never paint a ceiling anything other than white. It's feels like the sky is falling.
Since we had to have the ceiling mucked with anyway, we invested in a much needed vent. How very modern for this 85 year old house. Believe it or not, I've never lived in a home with a vent in a bathroom, it'll be like a hotel bathroom. (rrrrrrrriiiiiiight!)
I have NO idea what color to paint in this room. I know I just said I didn't want an all-white room but I am thinking about it for the bathroom. I think I am just afraid, I feel like I messed up the bedroom and I am tired of making costly mistakes -- even if it's my insurance companies money.
We call the insurance money, Kelson's money. Kelson was our insurance adjustor. We've been saying things like, "If Kelson's not paying for it, we don't need it." We've told the contractor more that a few times, "When Kelson's money runs out, you have to leave!" I love Kelson's money, I loved Kelson and he loved us. He was happy that we didn't want more money than we were due. At the time all we wanted was the tree off our home, a proper roof and a sewer line that was actually connected to the city.
Oh well, even if we just go white, I know that I won't be sorry to see the Martha Stewart two-tone thing go away. It's been the same for 13 years, okay I am pretty sure that I repainted it at some point, tweaking the colors slightly. I can't believe that, we've been here so long. I swear we just moved in and remolded that bathroom. I think Maddie was about 18 months when we finished the room. Amazing.
Photo credit: West Elm
Here's my inspiration. I bought this nice shower curtain from West Elm that is citron and white. I intended to paint the walls a soft slate grey but now I am not so sure. Do you know what I really want? I want to fancy tile on the bottom half of the wall and then use a bright paint color on the top half. Or! How about a solid painted wall on the bottom and some big funky wallpaper on the top?
Oh hell, at this point I am just tired of thinking. I say we paint it all white and then when have the energy to commit I'll do it myself.
All the cabinetry is way past tired, we were so poor when we did the bathroom the first time. I think we paid $125 for the sink and both cabinets. Gotta love the big box special. I guess that it's time to start saving for a proper bathroom reno. At least for another round of big box cheapies.
I just picked this up for the bathroom today at Joannes. Our Joannes is moving so I got the rest of the bolt at 60% off. It's a canvas weight home-dec fabric. I am thinking of having my new stitcher make me a roman shade with this pretty tangerine print. Jonathan spent years working in the interiors business, so even though I've made a few shades myself, I'm 100% sure it would be much better use of my time and money to have him do it.
The last area with hurricane damage is the ceiling in the stairwell. I am pleased as punch to have the ceiling and walls professionally painted. This is the only way to fly my friends, the only way!! I'll take 13 weeks of plaster dust to have that stairway painted.
See why? Those dingy walls would have stayed that way for a very long time if it weren't for that mean old tree that just happen to fall and go boom on our house.
There's just a little more work left to get done. They say one more week, so I figure it'll be 2-3. : ) I've been teasing Sander that he'll be here to help make the Easter ham.
I am beginning to have mixed feelings about this whole thing being over and the guys leaving. I'll miss the crew when they are gone. Sander Altman has become a part of my daily life, he's become a family friend. Don and I text him more than anyone else, more than we text each other. Sander and I talk about life, parenting and food all day long. He brings my kids rice crispy treats for crying out loud!! And when I mentioned my need of a doughnut he brought us all some. I'll miss my new friend when he's gone!!! Poor Don's going to start getting some serious "honey do" lists when this is all over and I no longer have 1-5 guys in the house all day to do my bidding.
To start off week 11 we emptied out our bedroom this week to make way for a bit of plaster demo and a new wall and ceiling. The only thing left in our room is our bed and our dressers. The rest of our bedroom in hanging out in the dining room, it's not like we've been able to use that room since early November.
The chimney for the boiler is right behind the whole in the wall. Years of water damage was added to when the tree feel on the back of the house. Our bedroom ceiling will be crack and water damage free too. LOVE that!!!
This was the weirdest night thing. The room felt like a a bad fun house. I had the hardest time falling asleep, when I laid in be the room felt like it was tilted.
Now it looks like a padded cell. Now don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I am just thankful that we aren't sleeping in the dining room. My vacuum and I are very close friends.
This is a bonus, we didn't have a proper deck floor before all we had was a prickly roof paper underfoot. This is lemonade in wood form.
Working late...
My hubby bought this sweet little cafe set the night before Hurricane Irene struck. You heard me right. The. Night. Before. He ordered it from Lowes and set it up on our old deck with a bunch of my flower containers from the porch, it was the only nice surprise I got that weekend. The tree hit the weekend that my book was released, this bistro set was my "you wrote a book and deserve a nice get away spot" gift.
Well, guess what? I have a nicer spot now!!
This is looking so pretty!! The clay moon plaque was bought on our trip to Tennessee right before we had our Maddie, it makes Don and I smile. I am just happy that it survived the tree falling upon it. The chimney couldn't say that.
I know it's winter but this is so bad!! Let's just say I am adding a lot of images to my garden Pinterest board. More on that project later...
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!!
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.
Do you like my cottage cheese ceiling? After dark it's very Dr. Who! The stupid tree landed right on top of the kitchen roof, the ceiling really took a beating from all the rain and impact. It was a nice excuse to check and see if the bathroom plumbing was intact.
Since repairs where necessary and a new dry wall ceiling was going to be put up I figured that a few pot lights just had to be added. I can't wait for my new pot lights to be in place!! I just love the new ones in the studio. It'll be so bright and modern, and worth every extra penny!!
We eat out all week, and now we are broke!
We'll be having oatmeal and roman till the next pay day.
Dry wall, plaster dust and plastic, oh, my!
It was 5 days with plastic on the every door and no overhead lights. It was pretty annoying, but worth it in the end. (I'm repeating this over and over and over again!)
The new dining room ceiling is up. Yahoo, no more water stained crumbling mess to worry about.
I got dry walled ceilings with tape and mud for Christmas. While out getting lunch one day, I noticed that my handbag smelled like joint compound. I know your jealous!
We considered sticking with this dilapidated Tuscan look that
only a decaying plaster wall can capture.
I love this photo, the mud on the wall isn't even dry and I am as ready for Christmas as I am going to be.
While Sander, chief contractor dude, coated the walls and ceilings with another coat of joint compound, his helpers, Steve and Irving, cleared the room of ladders, drills and other unnecessary equipment. They've been so great about making sure we have as nice of a holiday as possible.
The guys left my house early Wednesday afternoon and I went on a cleaning spree. I dusted, vacuumed, and mopped twice! Then I took down the plastic that separated the living room from the kitchen and dining room and pulled out one of my favorite vintage tablecloths and topped it with the one holiday decoration that Don pulled out of the attic.
The Studio got a new cutting table top!!! I love how big it is. They guys took a 4' by 6' sheet of melamine board and some 2" by 4" and snuggled it around Target cube shelves and an old dresser. I'll finish up the paint and raw edges next week.
Please don't judge me, the stuff on the shelves are just put there to be out of the way. I'll properly merchandise the room soon. All I've done for weeks is more crap from one place to another just to keep it safe. In retrospect, I see that I really should have just packed more of my stuff away. I guess I know what to do when the guys go upstairs in January. Oh yes, there's a whole other floor that needs to be repaired.
As a added treat, Sanders insisted that our upgraded electrical box be properly housed. I swear I don't know how to work in a studio that is an actual room and not a DIY dungeon.
The best part of this weeks update is the lack of updates. Four days without the guys in my house has been dreamy!! I grown to love them but break has been very nice. The timing is great, Aidan is sick and Maddie turned 14 on Thursday.
The back half of the house is looking good! The roofs are all done and totally water tight. I can't say the same for the brown door that you see on the balcony. We had a rainstorm that blew rain into the house. Let's just say we had a bit of a waterfall wall in the dining room below. Mother Nature also gave us a light show to with the water works. Oh, she's so clever. Enough. Already.
All they guys worked very hard to paint and trim out the back of the house. Of course, I catch Tacho sitting down for the first time in 3 months. love him, he sings all day long and always has a smile for me. I know that he thinks that I am a loco chica, and you know what, I am okay with that.
The window's looking fine! Just a little touch up left to do.
RIP Bliss Kitty! In the middle of all this chaos we've been trying to make the final days of our aging cat peaceful. I miss my furry friend of 16 years more than I ever thought possible. So, in a yard filled with mud is a pretty little plant for our pretty and extra big cat.
A mad dash of paint touch up before a they guys left for a well deserved weekend!
Framed and painted up all pretty like!
Home Sweet Home! I enjoyed doing some paperwork and cutting in the room on Saturday.
