Books, books, and more books

Sorry for the silence around the blog lately. Things have pretty hectic! I started a new job last week, working for a marketing company. After working full time out of my home office since September, it's been a big adjustment to get back into a real work environment. Even though we've had plenty of projects around the house, I haven't really had the time to devote to finishing them up.

One project that I did finish (for now anyway) was building a bookcase/storage unit for the guest bedroom. I had mentioned in my last post that we've been picking away at making this room less of a storage dumping ground, and we're still working on it.

Since moving in, one of the biggest problems we faced was dealing with the boxes and boxes of books that we had piled up. The bookcase in my office was being used for work materials at the time, so now that I'm no longer working from home, I was able to clear that out and finally unpack our books!



It might not seem like much of a difference, but I broke down at least 8 or 9 boxes that had been piled up in the guest bedroom. Getting rid of those was a major breath of fresh air!

Because we have tons of books (even some textbooks left over from college...) this one bookcase wasn't going to provide enough storage. We had some scrap wood left over from a different project and it was just sitting in a pile in the middle of the guest bedroom floor, totally in the way:



Not very inviting... you can see why we're working on this room! Branden put the heavy planks to good use and built a long bookcase for us to tuck into the corner of the room underneath the eave.



After it was built, I primed the knots before painting.



Side note: I think the paint would've covered fine even if I didn't prime the knots, but whatevs. I didn't want to take a chance so I figured I'd do the quick extra step.

Two coats of white paint later, and this was the result:





It's nothing earth-shattering, but it provides a ton of much-needed storage space for the guest bedroom. We already had the wood, nails, primer, and paint on hand so the best part about this project is that it was f-r-e-e! Gotta love using what you have.

We also got a free hand-me-down area rug that helped cozy up the room a ton. The next step in here is a futon (we want to be able to sleep people if need be). I also have a spray paint art project in the works that I hope to share soon, if all goes to plan!

In the home stretch

Renovating a bathroom is messy.



Like, really messy.



It would've been awesome to have a second bathroom to use while we did this work, but alas. No such luck in our old house. (We have plans to add a half bath downstairs when we renovate the kitchen... next project!) Everything is cleaned up now and we're able to shower in our own house again...

The renovation has gone really well. We got all of the big stuff done--drywall, new ceiling, tile, paint--in our long four day weekend. We're working on buffing the tiles to remove the grout haze (from what we've read, it takes 1-2 weeks for it to come off completely) and still have to put up the ceiling trim and paint the bead board. We also got a lovely new light fixture that will be going up tomorrow.

Here's the bathroom after we primed the ceiling and that horrible yellow paint on the walls.



We ran into a minor problem when it came time to put color on the walls. We bought our paint in a semi-gloss finish, and oh man, it looked horrendous. It was way too shiny and the brush strokes were super visible.



See how terrible? Yikes a bikes.

Side note, though, see that lovely smooth ceiling up there? Branden did a great job putting it up. It's so much nicer than the gross panels that were up there before.

So, another trip to Home Depot and we got the same color in an eggshell finish. By the way, yes, the cashiers do know us and ask how our projects are coming along... it's sad.



Sooo much better!

Once the trim is up and painted I'll do a full reveal of the before and after. Until then, I'll leave you with another shower tile preview, all grouted!

Seriously, who gets bronchitis in July??

Long time no see! For the past two and a half weeks I've been miserably coughing, choking, hacking up mucus, and generally wishing I was dead. After finally breaking down and visiting the doctor I found out I have bronchitis. I'm still trying to shake it and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere quite yet. Anyway, while laying on my couch spitting yellow phlegm into a bucket I neglected to update this blog. I think I get a pass, no?

July was crazy hot. Like, most days in the high 80s/low 90s and really humid. So naturally work around the house slowed a bit. We did get to enjoy barbeques in the backyard and dining on the front porch. We got a new lock for the garage so we could store all the yard tools that have been clogging up the back patio. Lucy's been loving the backyard.



During the hottest days the porch stayed nice and cool, so we put the backyard patio table up there for a little while so we could enjoy the breeze and get some relief from the heat.




Deeeelish!

It hasn't been all fun, games, and phlegm around here though. As I showed you earlier, we primed over the hideous wood paneling in the mud room on a whim a couple of weeks ago. Branden has been itching to finish the room off, so we picked out a paint color and he got to work on it while I coughed and wheezed and cheered him on from the kitchen.



What would I do without him? :)

After paint was done, the next thing to tackle was the horrible linoleum floor. It was in rough shape and peeling up at the corners. We also knew we'd be trashing it, so we didn't mind getting paint and primer all over it.


After the 1,382,039th trip to Home Depot, we decided on some easy vinyl tiles. Since we weren't sure what condition the sub floor was in (though after we ripped up the linoleum the sub floor ended up looking fine), we decided to get tiles that adhere to each other--not the peel and stick tiles that adhere to the sub floor itself. The floating floor was a good choice, and the tiles were pretty easy to get together. Cutting them was the toughest part.



We're almost done tiling the floor--we came up just three tiles short!--and it has already made an enormous difference in this room! It used to be dark, dingy, and dirty. Now it's light and airy and adding usable square footage to our house. Once the floor is done and the trim is painted, I'll be sure to post a full reveal with before and after photos.

A plumber is coming in Monday to give us an estimate on what it will cost to redirect the existing washing machine hook-up to the mud room. The dryer hook-up is already in the mud room, but the washer is in the basement. Weird, I know. So if we can get a washer and dryer out here, it will be a lovely and usable laundry room! Let's hope it doesn't cost a bagillion dollars!

Busy, busy bees!

Things have been so busy since we moved in at the beginning of the month! Every day has been devoted to some project around the house, and we still have tons and tons more to do and plenty of boxes to unpack.

One of the biggest projects has been getting the backyard ready to be fenced in and safe for Lucy to roam and eat sticks. Since dismantling the shed that once stood in the back, we've had to rake up endless amounts of debris (nails, glass shards, wood planks, etc.) and build a retaining wall to prevent the neighbor's chain link fence from toppling in a landslide.

Here's the site where the shed used to be, with the retaining wall in place:


You can really see how having it gone has opened the whole place up considerably. Here's a before and after:



We're getting a delivery of 10 yards of top soil on Monday, which we'll spread over the sand. Then we'll be able to lay some grass seed and get some green growing!

Inside, the living room is definitely the furthest along of all of the rooms. We've still got some things to work out and change, but it's the one room in the house that feels almost complete.



We need to get a much smaller chair for the computer and some new throw pillows for the couch to coordinate with the curtains. I'm actually happier with the ceiling lights than I thought I'd be (and they really don't look like boobs as much after they're installed...) I'm in love with the wall color, which changes during the day from a beige to putty to a deep mocha, depending on the light. Since the room is so big (it's something like 20x13) the rich color works beautifully and doesn't make it seem small, which was one of my fears. Lucy loves having all the extra room, and one of her favorite spots to stretch out and sleep is between the tv and the coffee table.

Yesterday, on a whim, Branden started priming the mudroom. This room had dark brown paneling on the walls and needed to be brightened up.

Here's the mudroom before we started painting:


And here's the mudroom currently, with most of the room primed:

Doesn't look great, but it's already an improvement!

There's still tons more to do. And since moving in, we've somehow lost electricity in all of the upstairs bedrooms aaand I put a hole in one of the windows while hanging blinds. Don't ask me how that happened. We'll hopefully be able to get an electrician in this week to figure out what in the world is going on upstairs, and with luck it won't require any major rewiring. The joys of being a homeowner!