Nightstand Makeover

A few weeks ago, my husband (helpfully) mentioned that I should make some time to work on my "to do" list in terms of decorating our home. With work, family and the holiday, most of our nesting had taken a back burner. Too many times I have jumped right into redecorating projects soon after moving and ended up regretting them. I believe, for me, I have to really settle into a space, absorb it and find out how we really use it.

For example, in our last home, we rarely ate in our dining room. These days, we rarely eat anywhere else. Our TV room is not set up for comfortable plopping in front of the tube and vegging out while we mindlessly shovel food into our mouths. I love this.

We also "cut the cord" with the cable company - so except for basic channels - we don't have "cable". This has made a drastic reduction in losing hours flipping for something to watch. I love this, too.

As a result, however, the wall behind out sofa is completely bare. We aren't really in that room all that often. But we have collected vintage maps and atlas pages of all the places we have traveled together. I have been hunting down old frames to give them more character and plan to collage them. But so far, only two have been framed and none have been hung. It's on the list.

Another item on the list was repainting our nightstands. I got a pair of RAST 3 drawer dresser at IKEA a while ago. I basically just slapped white primer on them with the intention of dressing them up. But they remained white for about 5 years. They didn't look bad - they just didn't have any real style. Before Eric and I got married and I was living on my own,  I was going to paint them something sweet and feminine - a buttery yellow with glass knobs.

 Our bedroom is mostly white - a white pintucked comforter, white lightly designed curtains, white walls - and pale, birch dressers. Because of my afore mentioned experiences with diving right in decorating, and because and I have grown and changed in my style, I've developed a taste for clean, crisp white or neutrals and adding bold color through fabrics and accent pieces.

I opted for a bright lime green color. I mean BRIGHT. I was nervous - it's bolder than any color I've ever painted. I also wanted to change the knobs. I am not a fan of painted wooden knobs. They look to "country" for me. Bright lime green is anything but country so I felt they would look out of place. I poked around the hardware store and found some really simple brushed stainless pulls for $2.99 each that I felt would work.

After lightly sanding and washing them down with mild soap and water, I started painting. Since the dressers were already "primed", I opted to not get the primer/paint in one. Big mistake. I found this color to act a lot like red in terms it was a thin color that needed many coats. I think I did 4 or five coats to get a really good finish. I also got a semi-gloss finish - which I am most pleased about. If it wasn't for the noticeable wood grain, they would almost look like metal.

To help hide the brush strokes, I also used Flood Floetrol as an additive to the paint. You can find it near the paint sprayers in Home Depot and runs about $6.99 for a small bottle. I only used a little bit for my quart of paint, so I have plenty left over for future projects. (Instructions are on the bottle depending on how much paint you have.) It was the first time I used it and overall I am happy with the results. Again, the wood grain makes it a tad more difficult to tell, but I don't see a brush stroke at all. (The real test will be when I paint my desk which has no visible grain what-so-ever)

So TAAA DAAAA... the result! I like it! It's amazing what a little color can do to change up a room. I apologize about the messy bed. I hate when the sheet sneaks out the bottom of the comforter. I will have to take a better after photo - maybe a couple of the whole room. What you can't see is all the crap I have collected in those drawers over the last few years. I believe when we moved them, the drawers stayed in, so I didn't even go through them while packing or unpacking.

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.

Homing cat

You've heard of a 'homing pigeon'. They show up in all sorts of cop dramas, books and Ewan McGregor even did voice over work in an animated tale about heroic WWII homing pigeons. But have you ever heard of a 'homing cat'?

Well, here at Chez Jodoin, we seem to have an adorable new porch mate. Mittens (as the Bean as dubbed him) is the super sweet gray cat with white paws (thus Mittens) that has begun the habit of sitting on our porch underneath the window peering in with those sad Dreamworks animation-like eyes. Of course, this habit of his is aided by the fact that Eric and the Bean feed her chicken and ham bits in the evening and our landlord feeds him some moist cat food in the morning.

Mittens is a petit little declawed feline with a red woven harness. He is obviously someone's cat, but I have yet to determine if he is really a stray. I would think by the fact that he is declawed, he should be sitting pretty on someone's window sill dreaming of successful squirrel catching and not haunting our side porch in search of attention and scoring free nibbles. My first guess, is he escaped right between the house coat clad knees of an adorable white haired old lady opening the door to get her morning paper or saved himself from the humiliation of being dressed up in Build-A-Bear princess clothes by a precocious little girl having a tea party.

Or, perhaps he is let in and out of his house and isn't lost at all. So what is a girl to do? I tried calling the animal shelter to find out if anyone reported a lost cat, but my sense of timing is awful. I either tried to call before they opened or in the one hour gap they are not around - my mind (which with everything going on in the past few weeks has resembled shredded swiss cheese) was just not able to remind me to call mid day. Fortunately, I had enough brain power enough in reserves to contact a friend (thanks, Crystal!) that works with the shelter - she suggested that I attach a note to the cat's harness and see if anything comes back.

Brilliant!!!

I remembered another friend of mine, Lela, while living in LA, had a cat that went out during the day. One evening, Sweet Pea, returned home wearing a brand spanking new collar. Either he had gotten a five law discount or that boy was hanging poolside with somebody else. Lela attached a note to the new collar to find out what was going on and VOILA! she had herself a homing cat. A note went out... a note came back.

 

When I got home that evening, there was little Mittens on the porch stoop rolling over for his hello belly scratch. After that little formality was completed, I dashed into the house to grab a small zip lock snack bag, painters tape, a note pad, pencil and the Bean. I scratched out a little message:

Does this sweet little boy belong to anybody? He's been spending a lot of time on our porch and we are curious if he has a daily home or is lost. {mobile number}

The Bean sat down on the ground and Mittens, seeing his opportunity for some attention, pounced over to her lap. While she was distracting him with scratches, I attached the note and he seemed none the wiser.

Not an hour later, I get a phone call from a number I didn't recognize and an unfamiliar voice said "Hi, someone attached a note to my cat."

Turns out Mittens is a Maxwell and he lives a street away. His owner says he comes home several times a day but he gets out when she opens the door to go outside or let the dog out and that he is very determined to get outside... so she has given up trying to keep him in. She said she tried to attach another note to his harness, but he wiggled out of her grasp and dashed away again... obviously she does not give heavenly kitty scratches like the Bean. I'm not going to lie - I was a bit disappointed that I got a phone call rather than a note back. What a unique way to get a pen pal!

Every morning since, I wake up, open the shades in the sitting room and there he is lying like a king in a sun patch on the porch, looking in the window and waiting for treats or scratched or both. I am wondering if I should send his owner notes home to let her know his daily intake of treats... you know... like they do in daycare :)

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!

Welcome Violet Catherine... and New Digs

Violet Catherine has finally arrived! Well, she arrived 11 weeks ago - but this mom has been super busy readjusting to life with a new baby and maintaining the schedule of a 9 1/2 year old!

Ya ya – there is a HUGE gap in this post and my last. One reason is, I was waiting for Violet's arrival before unveiling the name of my new blog as we were keeping her name hush hush. The other reason is, I had forgotten how much work newborns are and didn't get to do a fraction of the things I thought I was going to be able to get done.

In my pink hazy memory, I remember the Bean easing right into a sleep schedule and my easily cleaning the house and preparing meals. Either Mother Nature rose colored the bejeezus out of my memory or I had truly forgotten all the work involved in getting to that infant eutopia. Between feedings every two hours, endless diaper changes and a wee one that adored being held and vocally disapproved of being put into a bassinet for naps – my website did not get updated, my blog sat untouched, photography projects I had envisioned remain on the "creative shelf". Not to mention the fact that these little people need so much stuff!!!!

I knew we wouldn't last long term in our two bedroom condo, but I kept saying to myself "People in Manhattan do it all the time" and "Folks in Europe don't live in as much space as we do". Well, New Yorkers and Europeans are made of much sterner stuff than myself – or maybe they do it because they have no other choice. Maybe it is my post pregnancy/less sleep brain railing against clutter. I don't need a lot of space and I have no problem living modestly, but whatever it is, the small space/larger family dynamic is not working for us.

Ideally, a newborn and an almost ten year old could sleep in the same room. Violet is sleeping through the night – but she goes to bed so much earlier than Bean. That's a downer for Bean if she wants to play in her room or even just read in bed. Not to mention, Bean has school and needs her sleep, so putting her 11 week old sister in the room with her probably wouldn't be conducive to a good night's rest.

And then I started worrying (and my husband, Eric, will tell you worrying is my super power) about small toys. With the first one, it's easy to keep all tiny things that could cause choking out of reach of a curious baby. With the second, now there are tiny toys every where – even when you pick stuff up, Polly Pocket's shoe is lurking just under the sofa skirt and The Littlest Pet Shop babies are peeking out of a partially open closet.

Eric and I had done a lot of creative legwork in terms of using what space we did have wisely. It was about looking at an area and redefining what it's potential was. I admit that I took a lot of  inspiration from the folks over at Ikea and their amazing use of tiny spaces while still looking clean and well designed – and I think we did a mighty fine job of doing just that. We de-cluttered closets, added cabinets to walls, used baskets and bins to organize shelves... but at the end of the day, we were just feeling too cramped. Add to that the sleeping arrangements, it was time to move.

Dealing with a downward market
Condos have been hit hard and ours has not been spared from the drop in the housing market. The property, when we had it appraised, lost almost 50% of it value from when I had purchased it four years before. Yikes! We are not about to hand over cash just to take it off our hands and we refuse to short sale as a first option. After swallowing that bitter pill, we started looking at our condo as an investment property – because really you don't lose money unless you sell low – making our only real option to rent it out.

Next, we had to decide whether to buy a second home or rent a larger apartment. I spoke to our very helpful mortgage broker and found out that we qualified for a mortgage on a second home (yay!) but because we hadn't established a rental history it would be smaller than if it did (boo!). So, we could buy a second home, but it would be small and modest and possibly need some updating. We are all for fixing stuff and making it our own, but we would rather wait and have more options in terms of amenities and location. Plus, we aren't sure where we will be in a few years. Renting gives us time to decide where we want to buy – whether it's in this area or out of state. So, renting it is!

Finding our tiny piece of (rented) heaven
That decided, I haven't lived in  anything I haven't owned for well over 10 years and was shocked to see the limited choices of three bedroom apartments that are out there - avocado bathrooms and dingy carpeting galore! Since I have no desire to live in someone else's filth and I am quite particular about "the look", not to mention the area, of a place - the search took a little while before we found a place that fit all of our requirements - off street parking for two cars, a yard, a nice quiet, safe neighborhood, three bedrooms, updated kitchen and bath, laundry hook ups (more on that later) and hardwood floors (I DESPISE wall to wall carpeting... all the dirt and dust mites... blech!). And we found one! The fact that it has a refinished claw foot tub and beautiful fireplace is just bonus awesome-ness.

Laundry Hook-ups!!!!

This two-family home was just renovated and restored to it's hardwood and Victorian detailed glory! The area is lovely, quiet and ideal for what we were looking for. It's not a huge, over the top space, but perfectly sized for our little family to nest in – and we found fabulous tenants to rent our condo to boot! All the pieces are falling into line nicely (thank you good karma!) and I can't wait to move in and start decorating! I'm thinking it needs some POP of modern to accent it's turn of the century charm. Now to find a washer and dryer set...