First Remodeling Project (Part 1)

I'm excited to share our first remodeling project at our new place. A short while ago I showed you a photo of the living room fireplace:

Technically there was nothing wrong with this fireplace other than it needed some touch-ups here and there. However, two weekends ago we got the itch to make some serious changes and decided the living room fireplace was a perfect candidate. It's an electric fireplace so we knew going in we wouldn't have to worry about gas lines or a chimney flue. We began by taking down the TV and wall mount:

Then I started removing the trim around the base:

Next came the mantle. My other half was visiting with his dad for the weekend and I was too antsy to wait for him to get back so I jumped at the chance to do a little demo work. I used two scrap 2x4's from Home Depot as a makeshift lever:

The mantle piece came off way easier than I thought it would. Phew! After taking off the remaining trim pieces, I started removing the tile using a small pry bar and a flat-head screwdriver. About halfway through I started thinking I was crazy to be removing perfectly good tile on a perfectly good fireplace and got up to take a break. I had left the screwdriver jammed into the sheet rock and when I came back I found my cat hard at work where I left off:

That was all the motivation I needed to keep going with the project (although I decided it would be better to keep kitty in a different room while I worked so off he went). The tile came off easily enough and I was done in a relatively short amount of time. I then decided I would tear off the sheet rock. You know those TV shows where you see people busting through walls with hammers and everyone looks so happy because, well, demo work is fun right? Oh how I wish I could experience that feeling! I picked up a hammer and swung it as hard as I could at the sheet rock, fully expecting to blast out a hole the size of a basketball (or at least a golf ball) and nope. CLANG!!! It just bounced right off and made the loudest noise possible. Since we have neighbors sharing walls with us, I decided it would be best to not continue with this method. And since it was also past the hour of noise-making (one thing house owners don't have to worry about as much) I called it quits for the night.

The next day I woke up to a surprise visit by my parents! They came up to help me with the rest of the demo work (what a nice thing to do huh?)

And we left off with a clean slate:

I'll be back to share more soon!

Pics of the New Digs!

We've been at the new condo a week now and we're finally making some headway on all those boxes left to unpack (how on earth did we get so much stuff??) I've woken up every morning with the hugest smile on my face. I love it here!

I'll spare you the pictures of our junk everywhere (in reality it's not that bad but in 859 sq ft, the tiniest mess looks huge). Here are some shots we snapped on our first visit & during inspection (with the seller's stuff).

As you walk in you see the kitchen first:

 After living in apartments for the last 5 or 6 years I'm definitely used to small kitchens, but this one had me at hello. The tall upper cabinets are perfect for extra storage, the layout is great and the kitchen even has some quirky little things I love like these tiny spice cabinets next to the microwave and tiny cabinets next to the stove for baking pans (hooray)! And yes, we have some ideas for changing up this perfectly good kitchen already (I know I know, we're crazy)

 The picture above is looking back at the entry way & coat closet. Behind the louvered doors is the washer/dryer (stacked).

 Above is the living/dining room (yep, it's gonna be a cozy fit!) Sooooo many ideas for this room (although currently it's the place of "box mountains")

The view! (taken the day after we moved in)

Yay! A fireplace!

Backing up a bit, the hallway starts near the louvered doors (washer/dryer). To the right (not pictured) is the door to the 2nd bedroom. The door on the left goes to the guest bathroom while door straight ahead leads to the master bedroom/bath.

 Here's the 2nd bedroom. The seller was using it as a home office (we are too)

Guest bathroom

Looking from the guest bathroom into the master bedroom hall (the open bi-fold door is the walk-in closet, which I don't have a picture of just yet)

Checkin' out the master bedroom. This room is pretty small, but who cares! The view!

I'm not usually a fan of fans, but this one is actually pretty cool. I think it's staying :)

Master bathroom

 We've only been here one week and I keep finding excuses for taking a bath in that tub. I feel really spoiled. Oh and in case you were wondering the seller did not leave the basketball tv behind :)

So there you have it! My new home. I'm excited to get back into blogging and I'm really excited to have a place to decorate again. We've already started on a big project (and no it's not unpacking), wahoo!

News!

I'm breaking my blogging silence to pop in and say I'm now officially a home owner! (And no this isn't an April fools joke, I promise). My significant other and I purchased a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo in a city and building we both love. We closed on Friday and spent the weekend moving in. The building is fairly new but we've already got a few projects in mind to make the condo feel more like us and I can't wait to get started (gotta take time to properly plan though!) I'll share some pictures soon!

Still Alive...

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive, I've been a horrible blogger lately I know.

I mostly dropped in to say a quick general announcement (although I'm fairly certain I'm the last person on earth to find out about this) but if you live in the Seattle area, there are two HomeGoods stores opening up nearby! One is in Lynnwood and the other is in Federal Way. The grand opening is this Sunday. I've been dying to check out HomeGoods after seeing all the fun things other bloggers have picked up (although it will probably just be a window shopping trip for me!)

In case you were wondering why I haven't been blogging, I've got some side projects going on and haven't been focusing on decorating at all. I'm rooming with some friends I met in college and I've decided to hold off on decorating/projects until I have my own place. The girl who owns this condo loves decorating too and I don't think she would mind, but this is her first real place and I want to respect her tastes. I'm keeping myself content with my little bedroom and I'm happy knowing I'm saving up money to someday get a place of my own. Plus I really couldn't ask for better roommates, so I'm thrilled!

Here are a few shots of things in my room:

 

Above: My landing place for jewelry on my dresser. I bought one of those photo-hanging family trees from the thrift store (it was missing the frames) and used it to hang my earrings (still need to paint the base). I also framed a feather I found in the woods when I was young, I've had it with me all these years!

I painted the wall opposite my bed a dark color using a semi-gloss paint and hung my faux-wood painted canvas up. I believe the dark color is called "Cascade" by Sherwin Williams. It reminds me of the deep dark ocean and changes colors throughout the day between black, blue and green. Also, as you can see a visitor dropped in to snuggle up on the blanket: some of you might remember Tobermory, my rescue cat (looking rather irritated at the moment!)

Anyway, that's all for now!

Featured!

My Chevron deer print has been featured by the lovely Michelle over at What I Heart in an inspiration board for her daughter's room. I love it, thank you Michelle!

A Practical Use For Bad Walnuts

I went and visited family on Sunday and had a little get-together in honor of my sister-in-law's birthday. While preparing food, we realized our bag of walnuts was rancid. We were about to throw out the bag when my sister-in-law mentioned we could use the nuts to "erase" scuff marks from furniture. She gave a little demonstration and it worked beautifully. Here's how it looks on my parent's cabinets. I suppose one could use Old English just as well (which is probably less messy) but I thought this was really neat!

Before 

 

 After! Not perfect but a huge improvement!

Yikes?

My co-worker sent me an article on Pinterest that had me saying yikes. Or maybe not? I'll just leave this here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/29/businessinsiderpinterest-copyright-.DTL

Thoughts?

Saturday Morning...

Guess what came in the mail today? The ottoman and mirror I ordered! I'm really pleased with both of these, now to find a place for them!

Thrifty & Not So Thrifty Finds

The decorating fairy has been visiting my dreams rather frequently I guess, because I've been on a mission to spend

 {thank you, Hyperbole and a Half and for whoever made this a meme}

While visiting my local Value Village a few months ago (forgive my lateness on this post!), I spotted two beautiful pieces of furniture I couldn't peel my eyes from. And just what were they?

 

Grandma couches!

Ha! Never in my life did I think I would buy a blue sofa. Or anything that even remotely resembled  chintz. But I fell in love with the shape of these sofas and the stretcher bar legs immediately. They aren't perfect (as you can sort of see by the second photo, the cushion is missing a lot of foam and was re-stitched, badly) but I plan on having them re-upholstered (hopefully sometime this year). I can see them in a linen colored fabric, possibly with some tufting on the back and a taller seat cushion. Oh and just in case you were wondering, no, I'm not going to attempt to tackle the reupholstering myself. Call me wimp, but I'm leaving this job to the pros. In the meantime they are quite comfortable and the fabric has grown on me (it could be much worse, right?) Did I mention they were $75... total? Nab! 

Rachel (my roommate) and I moved one of them into the dining room area and it's been a great place to sit and enjoy a meal. I love curling up right in the corner and looking out the window too, and this was our view a week and a half ago:

Beautiful snow!

While out thrifting, I also snagged some George Briard glasses (these ones actually, but taller) and some large picture frames I'd love to find some cool art for. 

Meanwhile in the not-so-thrifty department, a "vendor closing, BOGO" sale sign caught my eye at a place close to my work. I decided to swing by for a look and ended up having an intense moment of brainwave transmitting with a lady. It went something like this:

Me: Wow, what an awesome mirror! I love the style and color... I need this! $70? Hmm.. it's a little steep, but since it's buy one, get one maybe I can find a cool picture frame too. *Tries to get mirror off the wall and pauses as it bumps another mirror* Maybe I'll go find someone to help me...

One minute later, another woman found the only salesperson in the store and mentioned she was looking for some frames. No worries, I can wait.

Two minutes later, they are standing in front of the mirror.

Lady: "This mirror is fantastic! I was shopping for frames but I think I might get this!"

I started to worry that she might be serious. 

Lady: "Oh, there's a white one too! Hmmm... this is a tough choice!"

Me: Oh man she is serious. (Brainwave transmission) "You should definitely get the white one..."

Lady (turns to salesperson) "I have a room with gray walls, do you think the white mirror would look better or the gray one?"

Me: (brainwaves) "WHITE!"

Salesperson: "Hmm... I think the white one would pop more against that color..."

Lady: "Hmmm yeah I suppose so, but I think I like the dark one more..."

 Me: (brainwaves) "GET THE WHITE ONE!"

Lady: "Well I guess I can get the white one and if I don't like it I'll come back for the dark one."

The salesperson helped her get it down and the second they walked around the corner I snatched the dark mirror off the wall with such force Obi-Wan Kenobi would have been proud and then promptly found a brown frame to purchase as well. This about sums up my mood walking out of the store:

{via Etsy, although I can't seem to recall the seller who made this, sorry!}

As you can see from the mirror photo above, it is now hanging in my room between the two paint swatches on my wall that I STILL have yet to decide on. Yikes. 

In other wallet-getting-thinner news, I also fell in love with this bench from Kirkland's:

...and this mirror from Seventh Avenue:

In my imaginary entryway, I think these two would go great together (I would hang the mirror vertically over the bench). We don't have room in our entryway unfortunately, so I'll have to make due somewhere else. Decisions decisions. I'll post pictures when they arrive!

What I've been up to lately...

Hello everyone! It's been quite an extended "blogging vacation" for me - over 6 months, whew! I just wanted to drop in and share what I've been up to lately:

First, I moved! I'm now living in a condo with my friend Rachel, who is just as excited about decorating as I am (score! and... dangerous?)  Here are some messy "before" photos (moving in):

 Hallway into living/dining/kitchen area

 View of the dining room form the living room

 Living room

Things have moved around quite a bit since these photos were taken, I'll be sure to post updates soon!

My bedroom. 

I painted some swatches on the walls right away... and that's pretty much as far as I've gotten. I can't decide if I want to commit to the blue-gray. And yep my computer is in my room, which is where I blog from. :)

In other news, I went back to school (of sorts). I took a 3 month class from a new local college and it was awesome, I loved every second of it!

About 4 months ago I was contacted by Houzz to create some ideabooks for their website and it's been awesome working on those. In my search for products I've found way too many things I'd like to buy!

In August I got a new pet. I was driving home from work and saw something running across the freeway and nearly had a heart-attack when I realized it was a kitten! I pulled over and he stayed right where he was and just meowed at me. When we got home I sat down on the floor with him and he immediately crawled into my lap and started purring and fell asleep. My heart just melted. Due to the condition he was in I suspected he was abandoned, but in the following weeks I did what I could to find his owners and didn't get any takers. I took him in for check-ups and treatments and all that good stuff and he's looking so much better now. He's been such a blast to have around the house (albeit rambunctious at times!) I'm very glad we crossed paths!

 I named him Tobermory (Toby for short) after the cat from

Nocturna, one of my all-time favorite 2d animated movies.

 Feisty!

Other than that I've been keeping busy with work and Etsy and taking some time to just enjoy life.  I haven't been doing any projects lately which is unusual for me, although I did pick up a few things I plan on fixing up and changing (I'll share those soon!)

Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend!