Powder Room Redo

One of the projects I wanted to tackle when we moved in two years ago, was the powder room off of the kitchen. It had been 85% updated prior to us buying the house, but it still needed some cosmetic finishing. The toilet and pedestal sink were perfect for the space, but the walls... well that was a challenge for me. I kept contemplating tearing off the old melamine wall boards and replacing them with bead board, wainscoting or white subway tiles. I really want to go with the white subway tiles, but the pocket book isn't quite up for that expense, so the powder room just stayed the same. I finally decided that it needed a face lift in the interim. 

Before: 

Challenge #1: The layers and layers of paint on the woodwork. I considered replacing the woodwork, but opted instead for repainting the existing. There were some areas where the paint was chipping so I removed the loose pieces. Easy peasy. 

Challenge #2: The wallboard. My biggest concern was that the paint actually stuck to the plastic-like surface. I lightly sanded the wall with a Scotch-Brite Ultra Fine pad in a circular motion along the entire wall. I am not usually very patient with the sanding steps so I did it twice for good measure. 

The next thing I did was apply a primer. I had read about Glidden Gripper on Pinterest and I am completely converted. This stuff is aaaaaaamazing. After the primer had dried, I did two coats of Behr Marquee Semi-Gloss on the tile board and all the trim work. You can also see in the before photo that the iron radiator was also in desperate need of refinishing. We actually have a lovely 4 coil refinished radiator in the basement that we intend to swap this 2 coil out for at some point, but until then - paint!

For the top portion of the wall, I chose a Behr color called "Graphite".. It's almost black, but a little warmer. I did the base in a matte finish. Two coats. Well, one and a half if I am completely honest. I have always really loved the bold look of wallpaper but due to my mercurial decorating nature, I just know that in 5 years I will want to change it. Flash forward to me holding a wallpaper steamer and kicking back a bottle of wine while sobbing about the tediousness of removal. So to get that look of a high end wallpaper, I stenciled on a damask pattern using the same color but in a gloss finish. Voila! The look I love without the worry of removal. 

After:

Once all the painting was done, it was just a matter of the finishing touches. I replaced the old medicine cabinet with a frame-less oval mirror. The artwork is from HidenSeek on etsy (whom I adore). And of course there was the window. I just used a simple bamboo roman shade from Lowe's and a vinyl frosted window film for the lower half so we could have both privacy and natural light. 

Summer Days

It was a hectic summer - and my camera has been on perpetual back log but I did manage over the last few evening to process some photos of the girls from summer. Bean is getting harder and harder to wrestle down for pictures - she wants nothing to do with me and my camera anymore - I count myself lucky to have snagged the few that I did. Now if I can only get them together.... 

i am a pixel pusher

It started almost 17 years ago with graphic design... and now my obsession has grown and I am recently (re)obsessed with pixels... more specifically the sharpness of pixels in my photos. It's never enough.

I am constantly striving to improve what I have previously done... always viewing my work with a critical eye and telling myself "Ok.. you did well, but you could do better, now get to it". I get nervous - even when shooting my own kids - about finding pretty light and that and exposure just right, creating a pleasing compositions in camera, angles, catch lights... Ahhhh! It is safe to say there is a lot whirling around in my brain when the camera is stuck to my face.

Fortunately, I have a tiny little model (who cannot runaway when she sees the camera like her big sister, Bean) with me when the light is just right. While I prefer to use only natural light, but I have been know to pop a flash or use my alien bees from to time to time. From her expression in these two photos, you can see she has already learned, at her young age, to be patient with Momma when she has her camera out.

Right now - other than pushing the sharpness of photos (it's not enough!! I want more!!! I want better!!!) - I am also experimenting with different angles to take photos of the baby. As much as I like props, I seem to lean (recently) in just taking photos of baby in her natural element - whether that be in a little sundress or just her diaper chilling out on a furry rug on the living room floor. The way I see it - this little image is more real and when she is grown and perhaps has babies of her own, this is what I will remember and will make me smile when I look back.

four months old!

Happy 4 months, Violet Catherine! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by! The photo is a little grainy - but it was dusk when I took the photo so I had to push the ISO... but she was giggling so hard I just couldn't miss this little moment!

Coupons... not just for blue haired old ladies anymore!

Not to long ago, I viewed coupons with some level of disdain. In my mind, coupons were associated with old women saving pennies on margarine and toothpaste until I caught a clip of that TV show 'Extreme Couponers'. Yes, yes, I know... I am late jumping on this train – it's a life long habit of blocking out main stream hype on movies, books and 'trends'. But perhaps, this time, there is something to this particular craze.

We all know the economy sucks. Layoffs, pay cuts and investment losses abound still. Even the lure of getting ab MBA has lost it's luster with hundreds of well educated folks underemployed or unemployed. We are more then a generation removed from the Depression Generation who took nothing for granted.. the original reuse, repurpose, recyclers. My generation was raised by Baby Boomers whose hey-day was in the Partying 70's and the More More More 80's – mass consumption and disposable everything. By the time the 90's hit, I was in my teenage/early 20's... and the course was set. Maybe that explains this re-fascination with saving money through coupons? I don't know but watching these men and women and their extreme couponing skills - I was fascinated, amazed, horrified and a tad bit inspired.

The fascination and amazement came through the strategy and planning that these people created and implemented to save hundreds and walk out with essentially 5 free grocery carts full of stuff. The horror was when they gave tours of their stock piles... I mean come on, who needs 75 boxes of Fruity Pebbles, 42 toothbrushes and 36 cans of stewed tomatoes?!?!  I'm pretty sure one woman had 3 years worth of diapers and didn't have children. And while I admire that strategic shopping, there is no way I would want to - or be able to - dedicate 40+ hours towards planning such a shopping trip.

The other thing I noticed was that most of the grocery savings come from the 'inside' aisles. In an effort to eat healthier, when Eric and I shop, we mostly fill our cart the perimeter items. (Good rule of thumb when grocery shopping is "If the food can go bad fast, it's good for you. If the food can keep longer, it's bad for you.) Saving big at the grocery store probably isn't in the cards for us – I don't want to save money at the cost of health. It is, however, inspiring to think, that I could save big on all most of our personal care items  - like soap, deodorant, diapers and such.

My co-worker, Lisa, took some couponing classes our company offers from time to time. She has been taking photos of what she has been getting from store like CVS and sharing the tales of her savings with me. Check out this weeks latest score:

Lisa's CVS score!

She saved 77%! The value of goods was $101 and she paid just $23 for everything. Those Olay moisturizers alone cost $26 each. Basically, she bought one of those – at a discount – and got all this other stuff for free. I want to do this!!!!

As a primer - she used this blog post to plan her attack shopping trip: My Shopping Trip: CVS

Here are some coupon resources to help you get started
Extreme Coupon Professors (This is the woman who works with my company)
Coupon Divas
Living Rich with Coupons (my personal fave at the moment!)
Hip 2 Save

And a YouTube tutorial as well!

Knitting Narwhales

Narwhales are, in a word, awesome. A whale with a horn!?! Hello! They're the unicorn of the ocean... and they are real!

I just had to share my most recent score. We are trying to decorate our home with orginal pieces of art and I found this print, by Sally Harness of Sadly Harmless, on Etsy while looking for artwork for Violet's room. When we were in the condo, I hadn't really thought about nursery decor since she was sharing Sophie's room. But I wanted somethng original and not "babyish". I'm not actually sure how I stumbled on it, I call it artsy fate. 

I actually toyed with hanging it elsewhere in the apartment, but I think Violet will dream happily with sea unicorns in her room. 

Girls Just Wanna Have Clean: Tip #1

I ran out of glass cleaner months ago. When it happened, I was in the midst of Saturday morning cleaning. Having a newborn and a 9 year old in the house, and a husband at work, I did not cherish the thought of running to the store in my pajamas with kids in tow. That's when I remembered a cleaning tip my Great Aunt Julie had bestowed on me {queue hazy sepia toned imagery}.

For about 10 years, before she passed away, I use to go over to her house every Wednesday after work and she would cook me supper and afterwards we would chat or, being elderly and alone, she would have me help her with some chores she could no longer do. One evening we were cleaning the picture window in her dining room and I asked her where the Windex was. To which she proudly informed me:

"I have never bought Windex in my life. I always just use rubbing alcohol. It cleans the glass and doesn't streak."

Aunt Julie had one of the cleanest homes I have ever been in. You know how on sunny afternoons you can see dust dancing in the sun beams? Well, at Julie's there were sunbeams, but no dancing dust... THAT'S how clean it was.

She would often give me pointers and tips on how she had kept her home clean through the decades - some I used and some, like the rubbing alcohol trick, were tucked away in my head.  Figuring a little old fashion cleaning couldn't hurt and would save me from going out, I went to the linen closet, grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a rag (made from re-purposed old t-shirts), and went to cleaning the bathroom mirror. Shiny, happy, streak-free perfection. Once again, my great aunt did not steer me wrong – rubbing alcohol makes a FANTASTIC and INEXPENSIVE glass cleaner.

When you think about it, our depression era relatives were really better then we are at re-purposing and reusing materials around the house – rag rugs, scrap quilts, empty containers for left overs, button boxes – you name and they probably didn't waste it. They cleaned with natural things like lemons and vinegar and while I won't be making my own starch like she did, I am really excited to try out some of her other household words of wisdom and reporting back!

Why yes, that IS a full size sofa in our Ford Focus!

{OK, so it didn't look quite like that... but it was close!}

My husband is one determined man. He fit a 80 3/4" sofa into the back of our Ford Focus. How?? I'm glad you asked. But first, let me start at the beginning...

Space, glorious space! Our front parlor just screams turn-of-the-century charm and to me, that says, the new digs required a new modern sofa to balance it out. I love all the original warm honey colored woodwork through out our new home and the architectural details that you just cannot find in home built post-World War II. My personal style leans towards the eclectic, so traditional furnishings were just not going to cut it. Living in New Hampshire, options are limited in acquiring non-traditional furniture. And, as much as I wish it wasn't, money is an object – as is the need for strength against children. So, where does one go when you need to find a sofa that has style, comfort, affordability and durability?

After checking out the local offerings - IKEA-land here we come. Design geniuses extraordinaire, those Swedish designers have the market covered on utilizing small space in a most eye pleasing way, but it is their flat packing that have my most sincere kudos.

Eric and I made the trek through Boston and into Stoughton/Avon to the nearest IKEA. It's just over an hour away - but it's a far enough distance that if you get down there and they are out of stock on an item, one can get very irritated. I've tried calling and having them hold an item that is in stock until I can get there - but they won't. You can purchase some items online, but you can't pick them up in the store. They will ship them to you and, in the case of a sofa, it's an extra $199. They do have an online inventory check that they say is accurate (because stock moves so quickly, they claim to err on the side of caution on inventory counts). We had been a few weeks prior and found the sofa we liked, but they were 'temporarily out of stock'. That was OK, because at the time, we weren't ready to commit. Now we were.

In our case, the online inventory said there were 6 pieces in stock at 5pm. Surely, there wouldn't be a mad run on sofas between now and the hour and 15 minutes it would take us to get there. We hoped in the car, and drove down. For anyone who have never been to an IKEA, it is a playground of gizmos, gadgets and glorious decor for a person like me. Eric firmly directed me to the sofa section to keep me from straying to a random lamp or pillow case, where we quickly tested the sofa out one more time, jotted down the aisle/bin numbers and went back down to the warehouse to pick up our sofa. We got side tracked in carpeting and lighting, but no more than an extra 15 minutes.

Karlstad Korndal Brown Sofa from IKEA

Eric grabbed a flat cart and we were quickly steering that left leaning cart to our new sofa. There, in our aisle, was a lone man, loading a sofa onto his flat cart. That's OK. There are still four more... three if it's been busy. But man, that bin looked really, REALLY empty. As we peered in and saw darkness, I felt a flutter of panic. We looked at the man with the sofa and Eric was quickly calculating how much cash the man might would accept to hand over the Karlstad... when the man said "You're lucky. There's just one left."

One? ONE! There in the shadows was the LAST Karlstad sofa. (queue angelic music and heavenly beam of light)

Eric loaded it onto the cart. We checked the stock numbers one last time to make sure we had all the right boxes and headed towards check out - content in the realization we had successfully scored our first sofa chosen together.

No Water Bottle Left Behind
Of course that happy, fuzzy feeling quickly faded as I looked long and hard at the main box of the sofa. How they H-E-Double hockey sticks was this going to fit in car? I have a 2004 Ford Focus Wagon that is a little work horse. The seats fold flat down and it is actually roomier than most mid sized SUVS –  but I was definitely getting nervous that perhaps I had over estimated my little wagon this time around.

Hubby said not to worry, it would fit. Cheerily, he folded down the seats, grimaced at the  stash of candy corn (remind me to vacuum and de-goo-ify) and various snacks that made their way in to the seat cracks, and loaded the main box.

It was to big. Not to be put off, he moved the front seat up a bit. It almost fit. Since the box was really just one side of the car, he moved the front passenger seat up again. It fit, IT FIT!!!!! But there were still the other boxes of cushions and covers, I told him to leave the case of water out so everything would fit.

"Nonsense.", says he.

Squish, swish, smush and crunch... (why, oh why didn't I get  picture of this?!?!)

Never mind the fact that Eric had to ride shot gun in the knees-to-nose position, everything made it in the car. And, of course, about a mile into the trek home, those darned water bottles started rubbing together and squeaking the whole trip. It took about five miles for me to stop giggling about the whole adventure.

So there you have it... one part (afore mentioned) determination + one part IKEA flat packing + one part wagon + one part knees to nose sitting position =  new sofa at home! Now to find some fun, bold graphic pillows.

Pouf!

Pouf! Pouf pouf!! Besides being really fun to say - I am in 'adore' with poufs. What a great way to add stylish extra seating or a spot relax those tired toes while hunkering down for movie night with the hubby.

I love the way they can add a pop of color and and element of texture to a room without being overwhelming. My goal in decorating our new home is to make it well designed, yet inviting place where our family and friends can just sink in and be cozy, rather than feel as though there are 'No Touch' signs all over the place... plus, we have kids so 'elegance' has to also be durable.

I saw a home tour on Apartment Therapy not to long ago and started noticing them. It got me thinking about how I could utilize them in our new space. We have a side console table in the dining room that has lots of open airy space underneath. I like the idea that I could easily tuck these away under the table and still maintain a well designed look AND add that splash of color I mentioned. I tend to lean towards very clean lines when I am looking at furnishings. I need to remember to add some softer elements to keep from creating too many harsh edges. Not being the traditional cube ottoman (which is what we have now), these poufs create a more interesting white space.

The coral rope pouf above is from Target and is reasonably priced at just $56 smackers. Sure, they come in lots of shapes, fabrics – leather, cotton, velvet, patterned or plain – but something about this woven/knitted look just makes me smile. It just oozes a casual and comfortable lifestyle while still holding on to a bit of elegance.

Home sweet corrugated labyrinth

The wine was packed by the chimney with care...

The move is complete! Well... 98% complete. We still have some odds and ends laying around the condo that have yet to make it over, plus the cleaning and touch ups at the condo for our tenants in a few weeks. What baffles me is this: How did we accumulate SO MUCH STUFF?!?! I swear we must be the Tetris experts of closet filling! Not to mention... why when you move, you have a boat load of stuff you no longer want or need, but you go out an buy new stuff??!?

The kids are packed!

We made a couple trips over with boxes of breakables earlier last week before the big move day on Saturday. We still managed to fill up one box truck, one pickup truck, one SUV and two cars... PLUS another 2-3 trips with the car. I know dear, sweet Eric might blame my shoes - but I am pretty sure it wasn't just me (the man has quite a wardrobe these days himself). Who knew we could jam so many kitchen accoutrements and serving dishes into our tiny condo kitchen?!?! Books galore filled box after (heavy) box. Legos and barbies and board games...oh my!

While navigating our dining room was quite the challenge - finding simple necessities, like toilet paper, took on frantic search-and-rescue-like efforts (which were much appreciated by the Bean who then left us to enjoy a weekend at the beach in Maine).

There have been a few late nights unpacking and organizing - and one run to IKEA already to help with said organization. Five days later, it's starting to resemble a home rather than a jungle of boxes, newsprint and bubble wrap. We are still waiting for our internet services to be transferred over - something about a bad line or what not - but I say "Let the decorating and memory making begin!".

And lastly, a big... no a HUGE THANK YOU to herculean efforts family and friends who helped out in 90°+ heat... pizza and beer is surely not enough. You know who you are and we owe a move... please don't be like us and pick July.

Fear is the Killer of Dreams

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com

Just a quick post since moving is on my mind a lot. Fear is the killer of dreams. It can be immobilizing and keeps one from moving forward into the unknown... and let's face it... the future is really just one giant question mark. No matter how much planning one does, or the order one keeps - what happens isn't always what was planned.

I keep telling myself this whenever I start to get nervous about our upcoming move. As previously mentioned, we are renting out our condo and moving into a bigger, more expensive space.

the Fear 
I am nervous about becoming a landlord and finding good tenants yearly (or every few years if we are lucky). My biggest fear is a tenant breaking a lease or not being able to replace tenants after a lease is up and having to cover both our rent and our mortgage – which we can do but it will make for tight months and I wouldn't want to have that issue for months in a row. But I suppose that is the bane of any landlord – and they survive it unscathed... I think.

the Dream
Eventually, we would love to buy a house that we plan to stay in until the kids are grown and moved away. We don't want to buy and sell and buy and sell – we want to settle and root. We don't where that will be, but we do know that in order to do achieve this dream, we cannot stay in the same place. So with that - we are holding our noses and jumping head first into the future!

Dream on!

The Hunt for Clean Laundry

(or how I found a washer & dryer)

For the last four years, I have shared a laundry facility with my 11 other neighbors. Located one floor down, I have lugged basket after hamper of soiled under and over things - paying through the nose for each precious wash and dry. True, it is more convenient than having to drive it to a laundromat, but it's just not the same as having my own washer and dryer. With this upcoming move, comes a brand spanking new laundry room right off the kitchen. I can not express how besides myself with glee I am. (This has also proven to be a good indicator of my age as I do not remember getting excited about laundry at any other point in my life.)

Step #1: Brand Spanking New Washers and Dryers
Like any excited wash woman, I started looking at washer and dryer sets at the usual locations – Sears, Best Buy, Lowes – and I was surprised to find how much prices had gone up since I had bought my last set a decade ago. A lower end set starts at about $800. Wow! It's so basic that, besides having only 3 wash cycles, I am pretty sure I have to generate my electricity. Plus, I don't want a cheap, low end set meaning anything of reasonable quality was going to cost upwards of a grand. If I'm going to spend that kind of money, then I might as well go with high end, pretty colored sets - but I'm just not ready to do that yet for various reasons.

If you can't afford it - don't buy it.
As I have mentioned, we are renting our new digs as we establish some rental history in the condo we own. It also buys us time to decide where we want to actually purchase a house. Seeing as I have owned and sold two houses and currently own a condo, I would like for the next purchase to be a little more final. Not knowing where we will be living – in say five years – the last thing I want to do is invest in any expensive appliances. And since we are not the kind of folks fooled into taking out 10 year auto loans on used vehicles or those no interest/no payments for 6 months deals, we started talking about alternative options.

Step #2: Craig's List
My friends, Nikki and John, find the most amazing things on Craig's List. Their home has character, charm and comfort – it's what I strive for in ours. I remembered they had found an amazing espresso machine on Craig's List for a fraction of the retail price. I thought this would be a good starting point to finding a used washer and dryer set at a bargain price.

JACKPOT! There were so many listings for seemingly fantastic sets in great working order. My enthusiasm knew no bounds. I emailed a few people who posted and waited for a response. And waited...... and waited....

Nothing. Did they not want to sell these sets? Had they all been scooped up?

I tried again. This time even contacting folks who couldn't bother to upload a photo. In these emails, I asked for a photo (some of the listings that *did* have photos showed sets that must have been 20+ years old - hello Lady Kenmores!). The one response back I did get back couldn't send photos. This didn't feel right. In this day and age of digital - everyone could take and send a quick pic! I started thinking to myself that perhaps this was a warning from the universe - a cosmic red flag, if you will. If I bought a set off of Craig's list and the set failed, there was not recourse for us. There's nothing more sad than an Amber standing in a pile of dirty laundry, holding a detergent bottle and peering into a broken washing machine. Well, ok... maybe there is, but you get my point. This brought me to step 3.

Step #3: Used Appliance Stores (aka My Foray into Rent-A-Center)
When I was living in Austin, I shared a laundry facility with the whole apartment complex. More than once, I found someone else's laundry in my dryer. People were to cheap to pay the .75¢ a dryer and would sneak it in – leaving my clothes damp. I found a rental place that would also offer used, refurbished sets that they would warranty for a fraction of new sets. So I thought to myself perhaps I could find a similar place here. Now Austin is a HUGE college town – so there are many options for rental and used appliances. Manchester... not so much.

I was headed to the liquor store at lunch the other day to pick up boxes when I noticed a Rent-A-Center. Remembering the small shop in Austin, I thought that maybe they might offer the same deals on used washers and dryer.

While they offer used sets for sale – they do not refurbish or service their machines and they do not offer warranties.

Well, that seems like an even WORSE idea then buying blindly fro Craig's List. Without servicing sets and no warranty... geez. Who knows what kind of abuse those machines have been through and how long they will last... or (THE HORROR) what's creeping around inside of them. **shiver**

Step #4: Back to Craig's List
Figuring that it was better to play the odds on a used set through Craig's List, I once again checked the listings. Low and behold what do I find?!?!?!?


"LIKE NEW WASHER /DRYER SETS
WHY BUY NEW WHEN I HAVE QUAILITY PREOWNED WASHER/DRYER SETS MANY MAKES AND MODELS SO DON'T BUY FROM SOMEONE THAT CAN'T GUARANTEE WHAT THERE SELLING ALL SETS HAVE A 90 DAY WARRANTY SETS START AT 325.00 TO 400.00 ALL SETS ARE PULLED APART CLEANED AND INSPECTED STACK UNITS FROM 450.00,TO 500.00.DELIVERY AVAILABLE"


THIS I what I was looking for! A (somewhat) local business (that's been around for 30 years) that offered used, but refurbished sets and had a warranty to back their work! PLUS, they deliver. We found a nice Whirlpool set for $400 that if we went to Sears and bought new would cost us well over that! At the level of washer/dryer we were looking at – a couple steps above basic – let's face it, those sets are like cars... they lose value the second you bring them home. Why pay full price? Why get spanked with interest?

People pay mad amounts of money and are willing to pauper themselves for such silly things. How many washers and dryers do you see at friends homes? Do you care what they are? So what if it's used – it's going to clean my clothes just fine and is still better than a laundromat. I can wait until I am in my "final house" before spending money a high end washer and dryer. To me, it just makes financial sense right now.

UPDATE #1:
The set arrived today and was installed and I am impressed. They look brand new and the washer even has a hand wash /delicates cycle. Woot woot!