AHHHHHHHH!!!

I had a bit of a nesting freak out this past weekend.

I think I turned the corner into the second trimester. My morning sickness is gone. (Hooray for not wanting to die every day!) I'm not nearly as tired as I was at the beginning. And what I think can be described as "nesting" is in full force. But maybe after you see these pictures of my secret bedrooms you'll just think that I finally snapped and couldn't stand living in a hoarder house anymore.

There are two rooms in our house that are off limits to anyone besides me and my husband... for very good reason. Behold, my office and the spare bedroom:

AHHHHHHH!









This is the reality of our home. Even Ringo is disappointed with us!

The office needed to be cleaned out for the baby's room, and the spare needed to be cleaned out for my new studio/workspace. We're having new bedroom furniture delivered on May 8th (for us not the baby - we're selfish like that) so the goal is to have all the rooms cleaned out and in order by that time. Then, we'll have a space to start stocking up the baby's stuff and I'll have my little studio in order for Spring and Summer baby sessions.

So, whether you call it nesting or just cleaning, I went to work. I cannot stand junk and nicknacks and stacks of papers. They drive me insane. I had to purge, purge, purge our house. We have three full trash cans and an enormous pile of Goodwill stuff in the garage. I'm not completely done yet, maybe about 80% of the way there. Those rooms look so much better than they do in the photos above though.

The best part of all though, is that I feel so much lighter. It's amazing how physical crap can weigh you down like that! I dream of having a well organized and spacious home. I want to make the most of the space we have available and I wasn't doing that by allowing a decade's worth of garbage to fill up our spare living space. I don't want to be ashamed to let people see my office! I don't want to be ashamed to let a guest open my coat closet! I want serenity and a light, airy home. Until we have the baby at least.

$100 Bathroom Makeover

I'm having a little Design on a Dime challenge with myself. I want to restyle our bathroom on a $100 budget. The bathroom was renovated before we moved in, so overall it's in great shape. It's just... boring. So far I've spent $28.86 on a shower curtain and a bamboo tray for the counter. I'm guessing paint is going to cost around $24, so that leaves me with about $47 for rugs, a couple hand towels, and maybe a soap pump or a new toothbrush holder.

It might be time to hit the clearance shelves.

I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the month so I can submit it to the Design*Sponge before and after book.

Before and After: Accent Wall

A while back, I saw a picture online of a black and white striped accent wall in an entryway. I loved the look, so last weekend I set out to replicate the look in our house. Matt was out of town (painting is my favorite way to pass the time while he's gone) so Jen came over and assisted.

Here's the wall before:



And after:



I've hated the dingy looking kitchen paint since we moved into the house. It just seemed like a dead spot in our otherwise vibrant color palette. The cabinets, backsplash and tile are all a little on the dark side so I didn't want to paint the kitchen walls solid red to match the rest of the house.

I started by painting the creamy off-white kitchen walls a stark white. Then we used a laser-level and painter's tape to tape off 4 inch wide red stripes on this narrow section of wall. The overall effect makes the narrow section of wall look a lot wider and the ceiling look taller, something I wasn't expecting to happen.

I really love the stripes but I'm not completely thrilled with the white paint in the rest of the kitchen. It looks like we primed and then forgot to paint. There isn't really a lot of wall place once you factor in the back door, windows and cabinets, so I thought it might be cool to paint red vertical stripes in the other wall. But I want to avoid making the kitchen look like the inside of a circus tent. (My dad already asked me if calliope music plays when you walk in the door.)

Drooling Over Real Estate

If I had half a million dollars, I would buy this house. The architecture is insane! Look at those widows! And the floor! And the fireplace! And the ceiling! Look at it in all of its 1950s glory:







And if half a bazillion dollars for a house seems like too much, I'd also settle for this one at only $250K. Peep the size of the refrigerator! This one is actually bank owned on a default so $250K is an absolute freaking deal. It's valued at $490K.

Laundry/Bath Re-no Inspiration

It's been raining non-stop in Omaha for the last week or so. I think in one night alone we got something like four inches. That's fantastic and all, but eventually the ground stops absorbing the rain and it ends up elsewhere. Like in our basements.

Our retaining wall started losing mud last weekend. Well, the end of the retaining wall slopes towards the house - more specifically the basement door - so the mud followed. Unfortunately, the door doesn't have a threshold under it (no particular reason why) and all the mud ended up in our basement. This weekend my dad is coming over and we're installing a threshold, adjusting the door so it doesn't stick anymore, and replacing the lock and deadbolt.

This has me all amped up to start doing work on the house. You know, all the stuff we said we were going to fix when we moved in and then never started on. I'm assuming everyone has one of these lists... I hope. Make me feel better and say that you do.

One of the big things we want to correct is the fact that the house only has one bathroom. All the plumbing is in the laundry room for the second bathroom, but there aren't any fixtures. Actually that's not true. There's a toilet in the laundry room which I have used exactly once since living in the house. It's the most horrifying looking toilet in the world. It's clean, I know because I've cleaned it... but it doesn't look clean. It's dingy and green and freaky.

At first we wanted to put up a wall to separate the bathroom from the laundry room, but I think that's going to make the bathroom too small. It might also block access to the heater and water-heater. Instead now I think we're going to go with something like this:



This is pretty much the layout of our room. We have white machines and large white storage cabinets in the laundry room so this is almost exactly what I want our room to look like. I found some affordable and stylish fixtures at (where else) IKEA that would work great since there isn't a ton of space between the washing machine and the wall.



They also have some cool red room dividers that I'd like to get to hide the heater units from view.

Assuming that the plumbing in the room is good and doesn't need major work, I'm thinking that we might be able to fix up the whole room for less than $700. Not too bad! My only concern is that it won't be considered an actual bath when we eventually sell the house. We're counting on this to help add some value since we currently only have one bathroom. I read that adding a second bath to a one bath home can add as much as 20% to the value of the house. I don't expect that much, but I'd like to see something for our efforts. Does anyone know about the technicalities of what is considered a bathroom?

Before and After: Office

I've given up on waiting until the office is clean to photograph it and post it. In the past 14 months we've lived there, it has never been cleaner than it is right now as evidenced by the following photos.

Before:





After:





I've realized throughout the course of this blog that I am terrible at taking pictures of the inside of our house. I'm terrible at taking pictures of lots of things, but this is probably the worst. I don't know what it is. You can tell me to take a picture of a kid or a plant and I get it. Tell me to take a picture of a room and my brain goes, "What? What do you mean? How? Huh?"

Whuuuuuuut?

Remember how I said I thought the living room needed more texture and maybe some more color? (You're probably thinking more color isn't the answer.) Well, I found what I was looking for...

I just mentally spent about $500 at French Bull. Where was this when I was registering for wedding gifts last year?

Among my favorites:

Delight Full / Queen Duvet Set
Mosaic Platter
Multidot Fellini Bowl
Robot Square Plate Set
Pink Paisley Runner



If I had my way, our house would be so triptastic by the time we moved out that the whole place would have to be power sprayed with white. I really admire people who can decorate their houses in whites and neutrals and make it look warm and inviting, but unfortunately I am not one of those people. I'm addicted to color. Ugly, nasty, burn your eyeballs, make you dizzy color.

Speaking of, the office has been put back together and I'm excited to take pictures of it.

Awesome Color Combination

I'm kind of in love with this color combination. I saw it on a Design*Sponge before and after post. She used it in a nursery, but I'm thinking it would look awesome in my office... I started redoing it but then sort of trailed off. The grey I painted it turned out pretty awful. Working at my desk is like sitting inside a galvanized bucket. It's about as inspirational as that too.

Looks like someone might be taking a trip to Lowes this weekend...

I think it would really look good in there since I already have an orange sitting chair and I can make cushions out of this fabric that was left over from my failed attempt at recovering chairs. We also bought a really cool navy blue "Summer of Love" print in San Francisco that hasn't found a home yet.

I'm practically half way there! Really, all there is to buy is paint. And paint is generally the cheapest part of any room makeover. Does anyone want to help me paint white and sea-foam over industrial gray this weekend? Doesn't that sound like a total blast?

New Chair

I think I'm addicted to spray paint. Not in the bad, "huffing in an alley" kind of way. But in the good, "as intended by the manufacturer" kind of way.

My favorite paint to use has been Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Gloss. I've used it on metal, wood and ceramic so far and it's worked great every time. The colors are awesome and it does dry glossy and smooth, making it appear that it's the original paint.

I bought this stool at an antique store last weekend for $9. The paint was scratched and scuffed. It looked pretty haggard. I slapped a couple coats of paint on it and it looks as good as new.



I also used it to paint the two green chairs.

My Chairs - With a Quick Tutorial

I have been working and working and working on these stupid chairs for weeks. I had grand plans of doing a really awesome tutorial about refinishing chairs (because you obviously can't figure it out on your own). But, plans sometimes change...

I started out with this. Or rather "these." There are two of them.



I took the frames and sanded, primed and spray painted them. Easy enough...



...and then noticed that, gee, the seats are metal too.



It's kind of hard to staple fabric onto a metal chair seat. I spent a couple weeks contemplating it before I decided that heavy-duty industrial adhesives were the answer. I bought a sheet of quilt batting and adhered it to three sides of the seat. Then I frankensteined an old cushion into filling for a new one.



And glued the fourth side down.



Then stretched my fabric over the new seat and cushion I made.



Wow! How great do those look!



Oh, but wait. One small problem. I can't screw the seat back onto the frame. The fabric is stretched over the groove that needs to be touching the frame. If I try to screw it on, the fabric is going to rip. So, right now the seat is just perched there on top of the chair. I wouldn't recommend sitting on it, but doesn't it look nice?



Remember how there are two chairs? Here's what became of chair number two:



DUH! A freaking chair cushion! The obvious (and easy) solution from the beginning. I could have just put a damn chair cushion on it and been done with it. This one just happens to match everything in the house. Imagine that. It even unintentionally matched the paint on the chair. It was kismet, me and that cushion.

In summary, here is how my tutorial for refinishing chairs goes:

1. Take the seat off the frame and paint the frame.
2. Put the seat back on the frame and slap a cushion on it.
3. Go have a beer because you're done.

And Here We Go!

Has everyone been entering for their chance to win HGTV's 2009 Green Home? If I win, I promise to let everyone come visit.

It's funny that I was talking about redoing our bedroom because Matt came up to me the other day and said he thinks we need to work on it. I took that as him giving me his consent to spend our money on things. So I went out and bought these. We want to lighten up the room (you paint one wall of a tiny room chocolate brown and the room suddenly shrinks in size - who knew) and make it look more open so I bought the Dune color. I thought those curtains were a steal. I saw them in the store and the quality is impressive for the price. In store they were $29.99 a panel so I ordered them off the website for $22.99 and got an extra 15% off the sale price. I ended up paying $99 after shipping. I didn't think that was bad for curtains.

And yes, I know that I'm supposed to be anti spending money right now, but give me a break. Sometimes a girl just needs to shop for curtains. I was going to alter the ones we have, but I want the room to look luxurious and grownup. My crafting skills do not embody those two adjectives. Plus, I want the room to have style. I'm finding that hard to do since I really have none. I've been looking around at some websites and I think I want to go for a sort of loose interpretation of "mid-century modern" with really clean lines and geometric shapes. We'll see how far I get with that before I get all "polka dots and stripes WHEE!" on this project.

Check out this Mid-Century Modern group on Flickr. There is some awesome stuff in there. Obviously, since I have no knowledge of interior design history, our bedroom might end up looking nothing like those pictures and could be better described by some other decorating period. What came after mid-century modern? Later-century modern? Pre-acid-trip mod? I don't know...

Next!

I think I'm going to spend Saturday finishing up on the chairs that I'm redoing and moving around some furniture.

Thrilling. I know.

The chairs have become a home project of epic proportions. They cost me $4 and weeks and weeks worth of brain melting snags. But they're looking pretty cool. Hopefully, it will all be worth it when my butt is sitting on them Sunday morning.

And then I'm leaving the living room behind and moving onto the bedroom. In our bedroom we have exactly:

one bed
one night stand
one lamp
one entertainment center
five Beatles pictures on the walls.

Some of the trim is white, some of it's brown. The rug is awful. The room needs help. My biggest issue with it is that it feels really dark. And the furniture in there doesn't really make sense. Our nightstand is a side table from the living room, and the entertainment stand is a night stand. Why? Why is that? I want to shuffle around some things between the bedroom and the living room.

And then I will magically make the room fantastic in the following 8 steps:

1. Paint everything brown, white. The biggest thing that bugs me about that room is that I painted the trim around the closet white (the old owners painted it beige for some reason) and then then left the closet door in it's original, ugly, wood veneered state. I'd like to paint it white.

2. Then I'd like to paint a couple of really wide white stripes across the wall behind our bed. The wall is a powder blue color so I think it will look nice.

3. Then I want to buy a headboard. It's the most uncheap step of the plan, but oh how I want that headboard.



4. Buy a couple of cheap used tables, paint them white and turn them into night stands. Buy a second lamp that goes with the first one.

5. Get a new rug. Preferable a shaggy, soft one that will treat me well when I step out of bed in the morning. Target has one for something like $40.

6. Figure out how crown moulding works. Probably call my dad a million times for help and power tools.

7. Rearrange the Beatles mania. Maybe cut back on it a little.

8. Lengthen the curtains with some white and blue polka dot fabric that I bought and then never used.

I'm sure no one really cares about the list. Really, I understand that. I'm a glutton for lists though. Thanks for reading it.

From My Inbox to You

I was ranting the other day about not being able to find practical and cost effective ideas to use around the house. Here are a couple of things I've found that have a few good budget friendly tips. Bonus points for these also being "green" ideas.

I somehow got signed up for an email newsletter from DIY Network a few weeks ago. I've actually started reading it now and it's pretty cool. It's full of DIY tips (obviously), green products, budget friendly ideas, and on and on. It's great to click through their site and find all kinds of easy and cheap tips for around the house.

From DIY Network I found Ecologue. Ecologue is where I am going to spend the majority of my afternoon I'm afraid. It looks like most of the articles are compiled from other sources like HGTV and DIY network. It's great that everything is all in one place where it's easy to find and reference. Right now I'm loving Going Compostal! I've always wanted to start a compost pile.

Check out their Crafty Recycling tips. There are a few really cute decorating ideas in there for little money. I really like the tips for reusing cans in Can the Clutter but I think I would give my husband a nervous breakdown if I put any of that stuff in our house. His biggest phobia is cutting himself on the edge of a cut can. I would have to buy one of these.

My Issue With Home Decorating Recources

I love to read home decorating blogs but I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with them. First off, home bloggers and magazine editors must think that everyone lives in an architecturally stunning home. I do not have twelve foot ceilings. I do not have 100 year old wood floors. I to not have a patio that overlooks hills and mountains, nor do I have columns or archways.

I have this:




This is a home. This is what the vast majority of Americans live in. Houses. Average, everyday, affordable to the other 95% of us, houses. Of course I wish I was living in something Frank Lloyd Wright designed or a townhouse on Park Avenue, but let's get real. I'm 25, recently married, and a first-time home owner. I do not have the resources to afford such a home.

This lady knows what I'm talking about.

Which brings me to my second issue. Money. I want to have a great, personal looking house but I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on furnishings. If I had thousands of dollars to spend I'd make major home renovations, not buy some crazy ass sofa that my dog or morning coffee spills are going to ruin. I love good deals and cheap crap. I think it's possible to make a lovely home with next to no budget but it's hard to find the resources sometimes. And yes, that $300 lamp on sale for $99 might be a steal, but it's still $99. I want to make my own lamp with fabric scraps and $4 in supplies. But I need someone to show me how!!!

You know one person who really gets what I'm talking about? Martha Stewart. Martha gets it sometimes. I just read on her website how to create a faux wood looking table using paint and some weird roller brush. YES! Cheap! Awesome! Creative! Leave it to one of the richest women in the world to show us how to pinch pennies in style.

That's why she's Martha.

I'm trying to come up with some of my own ideas and plans for cheapo home decorating. I bought all the furniture and big stuff I can afford and now I want to make the room look full and cheery and personal without spending an arm and a leg that I don't currently have. This is a recession people. And I am certainly recessing with the frivolous spending in my life. Starting with this. I will not buy that. Even though it's on sale for $199, it's still $199. Maybe Martha can show me how to weave my own peace sign rug with old unraveled sweaters.

Update On the Living Room

We (I) started working on fixing up our living room back in September. This is what we started with...



We rearranged it a couple of times...



And this is where we're at right now.





If I had more money I would continue to fill the room with furniture.

I. Love. Furniture.

I think the room still needs more texture too. Another rug, maybe some wallpaper... It just needs more. The room is really open so I kind of throws me off. An interior decorator I never claimed to be.

It feels like our home though. It's definitely a room that looks like Matt and Christine live in.

Happy One Year House Anniversary!

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of closing on our house. Only 29 more to go until it's paid off! Hooray! I've been taking a mental inventory lately of all the things I intended to fix on the house when I bought it and pretty much 99% of those things are still undone.

First off there's the inside... I never fixed the red paint in the dining room that stops halfway into the kitchen. But that's okay because it matches some holes in the living room that I patched and then never painted. Then, last week there was an incident involving large pieces of furniture being moved and the wall in the hallway...

The sun shining on the outside of the house makes it very clear that the old owners attempted to touch up the paint with the wrong color. And then left it. They also didn't feel a need to replace the piece of downspout that looks like it got ran over with a truck. But neither did I, so touché old owners.

There are still old tires behind the shed for some reason. And a computer monitor inside the shed. I can't go in there though because the door is guarded by the universe's biggest spider.

Sigh. Maybe I'll manage to fix everything sometime within the next 29 years.

Upholstery Predicament II

I posted a couple weeks ago about a pair of chairs that I'm trying to recover. Here's a couple pictures of the bottom of the seats to better illustrate the issues I'm having with attaching the fabric.

Any advice will definitely be welcome!

In My Dreams

Requirements for my next kitchen:

1. My very own Diet Coke dispenser.
2. A professional, huge, crazy, eight burner, double oven range.
3. A square of heated floor in front of the coffee maker. I spend a lot of time there in the morning.
4. A dishwasher capable of dissolving an entire casserole from a baking dish.

...I think that might be it. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Upholstery Predicament

I have a bit of a problem regarding a chair seat I'm trying to recover. I have these two awesome aluminum kitchen chairs, kind of like these but mine cost a whopping $2 apiece at a garage sale. Mine though have a detachable seat which is covered in a nasty red vinyl that has paint stains on it. I've been meaning to recover them and after five years of owning the chairs, I finally got around to it. I bought all the materials to rewrap the seats, took the first chair apart, and then realized that the chair seat is made out of some type of space age indestructible plastic and I can't use my upholstery stapler on it.

What do I do? How do you reupholster a seat if you can't staple or nail into it? The red vinyl is held on by little tabs that were cut into the chair seat and then the material was shoved under the tabs. Sort of like the back of a picture frame. (Did I mention that I'm terrible at describing things???) I don't think I can get my new materials under there with it because the tabs don't bend.

What to do.... any suggestions?

Amazing Home

Do you think this lady will let me move into her home?

Beth Jansen's Photogenic Home on apartmenttherapy.com

I want to buy that house from her and everything in it. It's such an inspirational home.

Who wants to come over and help scrape the popcorn ceiling so I can paint it yellow? Does anyone want to sew me an awesome, bright quilt like hers? How about wallpapering? Does anyone like wallpapering?

Call me.

Oh geez... she's a photographer too. Give me a break. This is just too much. Cat, don't go look at her site. You'll want to fire me...