Guest Bathroom Reveal

I can't believe how far this bathroom has come! There are still some small updates that need to be finished but I didn't want to delay the photos any longer. Here's what we started with:

• Initial house tour
• Demo begins 3/11/2014
• Update 3/27/2014
• Update 5/7/2014 

We'll let the pictures do the talking. Source list below.

Sources

Wall color - Benjamin Moore Classic Gray

Tile -  The Tile Shop

Rug - Target

Vanity - Lowes

Vanity Top - Lowes

Vanity Lights - Home Depot

Mirror - Home Goods

Faucets - Home Depot

Shower, Tub, Curved shower rod - Lowes (1, 2, 3)

Shower Curtain - Home Goods

Toilet - Lowes

Frames - Target

Window blinds - Home Depot

This bathroom has come so far. And we absolutely love it. I mean the cracked aqua tiles, laminate flooring, and stained tub were all well and good but I think this is a bit of an improvement. :) We have a few items to clean up like adding pictures to the frames, painting the window frame, door frame, and door as well as purchasing new door knobs (for all of the upstairs doors) but like I said, nothing worth delaying these photos any longer. We've had this room finished since June...

What do you think??

Tile Options - Plan B

This past weekend we decided to get all major items for the kids bathroom renovation ordered. This is a bit of a different approach than we took with our master bathroom renovation (when we had no idea what we were doing really).

After a few headaches during the ordering process for our master bathroom renovation - everything takes longer than estimated it seems - we decided this time around, we'd make sure we had everything we needed ready to go.

Much to my delight, we found ourselves with a plan free Sunday this past weekend! Obviously that never lasts long so before I knew it we were out the door, off to make our purchases. Our first stop was really The Tile Shop but since they didn't open until 11 we killed sometime in a nearby Home Depot first. We strolled the aisles of tub options, vanities, toilets, etc. I already had my mind set on a few options at Lowes and Home Depot really did nothing to impress me in this department. Decor is definitely where Lowes takes the cake. Do you agree?

So on we went to TTS to order up our penny round tiles. I was so excited to get these ordered. My bathroom vision was taking shape! Welp, the store is completely sold out! Gah. Like, out in all locations and no ETA on when the backorder is until. WHAAAT?! Womp, womp. As much as I appreciated the fact that they didn't want to order anything since the backorder realistically could be 3 months, I was super bummed about this. I'm actually proud of myself for keeping it together - pregnancy hormones somedays can be killer.

Soo now it's time to figure out Plan B. We took a few minutes to browse the store before discussing the Penny Round tiles with the sales person and fell in love with this marble hex. Which of course is more than double the price per square foot. And that just does not fit into the budget we've set....But, how about the fact that they're running a sale and we could get as much as 20% off. Or that our vanity, tub, and shower purchases ended up coming more than $1,000 under the budget we set.... do we go for it?!

We spent Sunday afternoon scouring the internet for options. First off, damn is penny round in a moss coloring popular these days - it was sold out on every site we checked. And second, damn is everything else we like expensive! Champagne taste on a beer budget. As much as I keep reminding myself this is a kids bathroom, this is kids bathroom, I don't want to totally cheap out on it. It does have to last!

So what do we do? Here are a few options we've found between our internet searches and the best husband in the world making a few tile store stops Monday afternoon to check out samples:

1 - Our original plan that has fallen through the cracks.

2 - Do we switch it up for white penny tiles instead? Maybe go with a darker grout?

3 - A HomeDepot find I would have never expected! But at the same price as the other marble tiles and lack of color variation, it's not our first pick. To be honest, it won a serious second glance simply because I totally misread the pricing labels in our original trip down the tile aisle.

4 - A polished 1x1 Ming Green hex marble, pretty amazing right? 

5 - Or how about a 2x2 marble hex? Definitely a little easier to install and having seen it in person, it had us both drooling.

6 - Or how about a tumbled 1x1 Ming Green hex marble? We totally loved the more rustic, less polished look of this one!

Well, let's just say that something has been ordered!! And fingers crossed we're in love once it's in our possession (soon!). But I'm going to keep it a secret until then. :)

So stay tuned!

Another Bathroom Reno

Well folks, the time has come. We've officially started the guest/kid bathroom renovation!

It's something we've been planning for since moving last year but it's still crazy to actually get it started.

We sat down Saturday morning to finalize our budget on it and well, the itch was scratched. We've taken a fair amount of time off from house projects but lately my mind has seriously been swirling with house plans. Possibly it's some early nesting but I have a laundry list of things I'd like to get done before July. J's so excited! :)

But in all seriousness, he couldn't wait to get the old bathroom cleaned out. It's high time we got another big project going.

Goodbye original blue tiles (everywhere)!

So, what's the plan? First and foremost, the plan and budget for this bathroom is dramatically different than our master bathroom renovation. Let's be serious, this bathroom will be used by kids most often. So we'll be going with easy to clean/maintain products (read no marble, possibly no granite). And we don't need to change the layout of the bathroom at all, just upgrade everything. So we'll be taking a hands-on approach this time and diy-ing everything we possibly can.

I wrote about our original ideas for the guest bathroom back before we moved in (here). Some of these ideas we're still planning to incorporate but I've decided to change it up a little too.

via

1. Neutral Walls. The bathroom we inherited had crazy stucco-looking walls. Now we know why. During the demo we realized that the previous owners slapped some plaster up over the original wallpapered walls and called it a day. Seriously. Why wouldn't you remove the wallpaper and keep smooth walls? I still love the idea of shiplap walls but clean, smooth walls will be so nice too.

2. Double Sinks. Oh yes, this is still in the plans. I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect, reasonably priced, vanity. And that purchase will determine what we end up using as a top. So many vanities online today come with marble as the stone of choice. In a kids bathroom? No thank you. That is just way too much maintenance for this space. Even granite shows water marks. So this is still something being researched but the easier to maintain, the better. White corian is sounding better and better. 

via

3. Penny Tile Floors. Our original plan included slate floors. I am so happy with the floors in our master bathroom, which have a slate-like look to them. But I've decided to go in the complete opposite direction for our second renovation. I've fallen for the look and feel of penny tiles. Plus, I'm fairly sure these will be easier for us first-time tilers to install.

4. White Shower Surround. We've decided to opt out of tiling in the shower. Instead, we'll be installing a tub that comes with a shower surround. Something like this. After putting some serious thought into this renovation, we've decided this is just the smartest decision for us. Not only will it save us a few dollars that can be used in other home projects (or maybe a vacation?) but it will be so much easier to maintain. No grout lines to scrub? Sounds pretty wonderful to me! But getting a nice, new tub was an absolute necessity! We kinda know that another upgrade will happen in this bathroom well down the line once our kids have grown up. And then, we'll splurge on something nicer.

via

So here, we go. Round 2 in bathroom renovations over here. I'll share updates as we go for sure. Like, how J is getting the original cast iron tub out - think sledgehammer. Oh yes, he's pumped.

And don't worry, with a baby on board, I really won't be doing too much of the heavy lifting. Especially during the demo, the dust was insane so I steered clear. But count me in for the design (obv), painting, and tiling. The slow and steady tasks are more my speed.

Wish us luck!

DIY: Ikea Rast Hack

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. A week off from work (and blogging) was just what I needed. I plan to recap part of our trip south to Charlotte later this week if work doesn't get too crazy. We had a great trip! But until then, let's get back to house projects.

I shared our master bedroom as it currently stands two weeks ago. And since I promised to be back with more details regarding our nightstands, here we go.

When we originally bought our bedroom set years ago, I just couldn't justify buying the matching nightstands. For one, they wouldn't fit in our condo at the time. But also, they would have rung in at more than $250 each. No thank you.

So we made do in our tiny bedroom. But in our new home, using a TV table just wasn't ideal. Time to grow up. And with a laundry list of purchases to make, spending $$ on nightstands still wasn't a priority. So I knew early on that heading to Ikea for nightstands was the best solution for us. Why not? 

So here's what we did:

What you need:

• Wood conditioner
• Wood stain - we used Miniwax in Honey (new, still not on their website...)
• Polyurethane
• Paintable/stainable wood filler
• Oil based primer
• Paint color/finish of your choice (We used the trim paint from our master bath reno - white in a satin finish)
• Stain brush - wood conditioner and stain
• Foam brush - poly
• Paint brush - oil based primer
• Small foam roller - finish off the drawers with a smooth finish
• Sand paper - fine, superfine
• Steel wool
• Tack cloth
• Cloth rag
• Paint thinner - you'll want to keep some on hand with a separate cloth rag in case you get any stain on your hands, which is inevitable. Also use this to clean the brushes.

*Make sure you have a well ventilated area to  work with stain and oil-based primer. The fumes are insanely strong. I can't stress this enough. 

For the shell:

• Sand, sand, sand the unfinished wood. Then wipe down with tack cloth.
• Cover in wood conditioner and let sit for at least 15 minutes
• Once the wood conditioner has set in, coat with your first layer of stain of choice. Let the stain soak in for at least 15 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the more it will soak in to the wood.
• Wipe off the excess stain with a cloth rag (we used an old shirt of J's).
• Let this sit for a couple hours and fully dry. I believe the Miniwax stain says 4-6 hours on the back of the can.
• Once dry and ready for another coat, sand with steel wool (steel wool is much finer than sandpaper and will not leave any scratch marks that could show up in the staining process)
• Add another coat and follow steps 3-6 again. 
• Add as many coats as needed until you reach your desired color. We were happy with 2 coats of stain.
• Once dry and sanded with steel wool, it's time to poly the wood. This will give it a really nice shine. The poly takes a whole lot longer to dry. Like 8 hours...so get a coat on at the end of day 1 if you can and let it sit overnight.
• Sand with steel wool once dry
• Add a second coat of poly and let dry. We stopped here.

Drawer Fronts:

• If you are changing the location of the drawer knobs, fill the pre-drilled holes with paintable/stainable wood filler. Let dry (15 mins).
• Sand the drawer fronts down until smooth. Wipe with tack cloth.
• Prime the drawers with an oil based primer to ensure that no yellowing bleeds through from the wood.
• This should dry quickly, within 15 mins. So sand again, and prime again. 
• Lightly sand again and apply your first coat of paint.
• Once dry lightly sand once more and apply your final coat of paint.
• Add your hardware of choice. We went with these.

Make sure to stain the insides of the nightstand shell. I can't stress this enough. We didn't think about this, threw the drawers in to see how everything looked, and immediately saw the raw, unstained wood staring back at us. Thankfully this is a quick fix, but I'd advise staining all the way back to the shelf ledges. 

And the final product: 

What do you think?

I can't believe we waited so long to get these nightstands finished. If you can dedicate a full day and a half to them (with plenty of drying time to get other things done) these nightstands are very DIY-able. We love them!

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Treading Water

Just popping in to say hello! 

I need to take a break from blogging this week....we're hosting some family and friends this coming weekend so in true Tracey fashion, I've loaded up my to-get-done list. And then decided I wanted to get the living room and family room painted too. Oh yes, nothing like a little pressure! And some late nights...

I have so many house updates to share in the coming weeks. But have decided to keep them off the blog until our family and close friends get the first glimpses this weekend (plus I just don't have the time right now to share).

Here's one sneak peek....the nightstands! We went with option 3 from this post. In the essence of time, keeping the frame of the nightstands as is was the most logical choice. And we're totally in love with the finish! 

Have a great rest of the week. See you Monday!

DIY Time: Nightstands

Within a few weeks of moving we purchased nightstands for our bedroom. Those nightstands were the ever famous Ikea Rast and embarrassingly enough, they still stand unfinished. They function quite well as is!

But they're an eyesore. And they've been on the to-do list for far too long. Don't judge - renovating a bathroom, painting trim, painting walls, etc were just a tad more important. But it's time we start finishing up the smaller projects.

I've gone as far as purchasing wood conditioner, stain, and poly. Yet these nightstands are still unfinished! Somebody send me some motivation puh-lease.

Here are a few ideas I have for the nightstands. I can't make up my mind. What do you think?

1. What I'm currently thinking (with Miniwax's new Honey colored stain - a little lighter than Jacobean)
2. What caught my eye a couple months ago (I even bought the burlap)

via Get Home Decorating / via Centsational Girl

3. My original inspiration, and much easier than the first 2 options
4. Or go with color? How fun is this?!

via Little House Blog / via Love Live Dwell Repeat

Help! I must make a decision this week and get these nightstand finished this weekend. Don't even get me started on hardware, that's another can of worms. So many options!

But it's time to check #46 off the 101 in 1001 list.

Which makeover would you undertake?

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Home: Outdoor Space

Good morning! How was your weekend? Mine, well mine was absolutely fabulous. The cat's out of the bag now, Caitlin's surprise location bachelorette party was in Newport, RI and it could not have gone any better. Details to come on Wednesday! Think I'll add Weddings to my Wednesday fashion rotation.

So let's get to today's post. More home planning!

As I mentioned last Monday, one of our priorities in our new home will be to reface the deck. We are very thankful that the frame of our future deck is in great shape, but the deck itself has started splintering and rotting. We'll be refacing it as soon as we can once moved in.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet on the blog, but our next home has an in-ground pool off of the deck. I am SO excited for this! Don't worry, I've already hired a pool boy. Having worked for a pool company for a few years during high school, J's resume checked out. He's totally qualified for the job. :)

With that said, having an outdoor space to entertain is extremely important to us! As in, we'll be spending our money on outdoor furniture before addressing a guest room most likely. I am really hoping we'll be spending many weekends hosting friends and family to pool parties and cookouts because A) we'll be broke from the move and won't be heading to the bars and B) I want everyone to feel welcome at our pool any and every time they'd like to come by! All seriousness there.

So, here are some ideas for our deck, where we hope to be dining and lounging for the next 4+ months.

Outdoor Space

1. Dining Space - we'd love to buy a 7 piece set. Even though a table that seats 6 wouldn't fit our extended families, I think it would be a great size for us.

via Pinterest / original source Home Depot

2. Outdoor Couch - wouldn't this be perfect? We are searching high and low for an affordable outdoor lounge set. Ideally, I would love a couch/loveseat and two chairs but this post really makes me want a huge sectional... 

via Home Depot

via Pinterest / original source: Denise McGaha

3. Greenery - I honestly have no idea if I'm a gardener or not. I can't say that I've had all that much experience outside of helping my mom weed once and a while growing up. I am horrible at keeping house plants alive, but I'm hoping I have better luck outdoors. I am dreaming of the day where we have fresh herbs and tomatoes growing on our back deck, and possibly a small vegetable garden at some point down the road. How gorgeous is this terrace space?

via Fig and Plum

4. Shade from the sun - this one is a someday idea....but we would love to enclose part of the deck into a screened porch. We will be living in a fairly wooded area...meaning lots of mosquitos. Help me! But until that day, how about a DIY pergola to shield some of the deck space from the sun?

via Pinterest / original source Houzz

via Pinterest / original source The Handmade Home

5. Lights - I love those string globe lights. Hopefully we'll be able to incorporate a few strands into our outdoor space.

via Pinterest / original source Home Depot

via Pinterest / original source unknown

What about you? What would you include in your ideal outdoor space? 

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Home: Bathrooms on the Mind

We will be out of our condo in 4 weeks and into our new home in 5 weeks if all goes according to plan. Crazy!

There are many, many projects at our new home. But the immediate priorities are as follows:

• Finish flooring on the second floor
• Reface the back deck
• Update the full bathroom on the second floor (it is really nasty)
• Build out the master bathroom that is currently non-existent

So with two bathrooms to design and DIY as much as we can, ideas are constantly swirling through my head. My biggest fear is getting too caught up in what's trending today. Tile can go out of style quickly. Too quickly. So my goal is to create timeless spaces.

I did ask J if we could use marble in our master bath because even though it is a major fan favorite today, I've always loved it. J, not so much. But he'll do anything for me. What a guy. :)

Here are my current thoughts on the upstairs guest bathroom. I'll be sharing different ideas each week until we move in, and then update you on projects as we go. Sound good? Good.

DIY Guest Bathroom Re-Do

1. Shiplap walls. This is a huge maybe. I'm really not sure if we can realistically incorporate shiplap or tongue and groove onto the guest bath walls but I would love to. I've always loved the farmhouse look of them.

 via: Pinterest / original source: Houzz

 L: via: Pinterest / original source: Style Files/ Design to Inspire  R: via: Pinterest / original source: DIY Network

2. Double sink. As you walk into the guest bath there is built-in storage immediately to the left followed by a single vanity. Well, there are also built in shelves behind the door on the right side of the room. Planning to get rid of the extra storage and build out a double vanity. No future kiddos fighting for sink space! (Don't focus on the finish color...that is still undecided)

 L: via: Pinterest / original source: 7th House on the Left   R: via: Pinterest / original source: Home Depot

3. Slate floors. Not set in stone (no pun intended) but really liking the idea of black or dark grey slate floors in a large subway pattern. Possibly in the master bath too. (First picture is to show you the design...pedestal sinks just would not be practical in our full bath)

 via: Pinterest / original source: Restoration Hardware

 L: via: Pinterest / original source: Decor Pad   R: via: Pinterest / original source: Home Depot

4. White shower surround tiles. Good ol' classic white subway tile perhaps. And possibly white walls. I am a big fan of white/light/bright bathrooms. Yes, white has that sterile look to it, but that is just what I want in a bathroom. We will be keeping a bathtub in this bathroom - gotta bathe the future kiddos! (First picture is a bit of an extreme...)

Hopefully these decisions will create a welcoming guest bathroom that won't look like it's straight out of the "2010's" in 10 years or so. Does that make any sense to you? It does to me. 

Have any DIY bathroom stories you'd care to share?? We will take any and all advice!

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Nothing as Sweet as Heat!

Well, we didn't quite make it to the Boston Home Show this past weekend. Nor did I even make it to the gym.....But, Sunday was quite the adventure over here!

Saturday night we noticed that our heat didn't seem to be running at full steam. What great news to get during the winter in New England. By Sunday morning, it was dead. And a call to local service companies told us we'd need to pay the "emergency rate" of labor starting at $600.....um, no thank you. I can think of a lot of other things to spend $600 on....ya...

Have I told you how awesome my husband is? Seriously, the guy is amazing. The idea of fixing the issue ourselves hadn't really crossed my mind. I know nothing about plumbing or heating systems. Nothing. Apparently J does! And anything he didn't know, he researched and reviewed online. The beauty of the internet..

Anyways, before I knew it, he had assessed our situation, figured out what was wrong, and we were on our way to Home Depot to get what we needed - a new recirculating pump. Side note - who names a plumbing company Taco?

Honestly, I'm not going to tell you how to replace it because that would just be crazy. But here's what we had to do.

There are 3 condos in our building....3 water heaters, 3 gas boilers, lots and lots of pipes!

J's trying to give me a lesson on how the closed system boiler works....there are way too many pipes going in every which direction! I have no idea what each means, ask J.

And here's the jerk that decided to die on us and leave us to freeze.

We did a bit of googling to make sure we were doing the right thing. Some of the sites we used are here, here, here and here. These sites may be exceptionally basic for anyone who knows what they're doing, but basic is just what we needed!

We did end up needing to buy a hose in order to drain the system before taking the pump out. Though we have no use for a hose at our condo otherwise, I guess that's one less thing to buy down the road!

All in all, this was a pretty satisfying project. It felt really, really good to know that we were capable of fixing it ourselves. And when I say we....I really mean J. He couldn't have done it without me because it was necessary at times to have a second set of hands, but that's about it....I also did a fair amount of running up to our unit and back down to check the heat, grab water, let the dog out, etc. Living on the 3rd floor has its price I suppose, I feel like I did the stair master all day!

A few tips we came across/made sure to do/learned along the way - 

• Turn the circuit breaker to your furnace off and turn the power switch on the furnace off....safety first!

• Check for a valve that's shaped like a bell - most likely that means you have a fast-fill furnace. We didn't read about that at first....and spent an hour trying to figure out how to re-fill the furnace when we don't even have a hose spigot on our property...we were prepared to use the water line from our washer. But it was connected to the main water line the whole time....

• The pump has an arrow on it. Our original pump had the arrow pointing down. We didn't even look at the new pump because we bought the same exact pump....or so we thought. Sunday night around 9 we realized the heat stopped working. J went to investigate and realized that they had changed the placement of the motor on the new pump. So even though it looked exactly the same and had the exact same part number, we had put it in upside down. And now the pipes were 130 degrees since they had been on.....off went the entire system for the night. We stuck it out for the night under our down comforter and got up extra early Monday morning to fix the pump before heading to work.

The fun part of being a homeowner I suppose! Now...if only J could learn how to vault ceilings on his own.....Kidding! Sorta...

xoxo,

T

Kitchen Storage

The other night I stumbled upon a blog post that I haven't stopped thinking about. This lightbulb went off for me and all I could think was, wow what a fantastic idea.

I can take no credit for this whatsoever. But it was too neat not to share. How to re-vamp an old hutch into useful, dare I say modern, kitchen storage. There are so many Ikea hacks today to turn plain jane Ikea furniture into built-ins, but why not take an old hutch with character and revamp it? I followed in Emily's footsteps and did I very quick craigslist search for the Boston area....omg there are hundreds. Here are a few I found for less than $200.

Here's an example of a finished product. I love it!

via

As I mentioned on Friday, I visited several open houses on Sunday afternoon with my mom. It was really interesting. And eye-opening. J & I have decided to work with a very limited budget in the hopes of keeping our condo, paying down school loans a little quicker, being able to travel still, etc. So many of the homes need work, some need a lot of work... I'm down for some work definitely. And like I've mentioned, J would like to totally revamp an old home. Seeing ideas like this gets me really excited to think about the possibilities of updating a space to exactly what we want.

Thank you Emily for sharing such a fantastic idea! 

Another route to go if you're feeling adventurous? Build your own rustic hutch. Um, how amazing is this? Definitely not modern, although is rustic the new modern? Who knows, but I do know that this is a fabulous piece that I would welcome into my home any day.

via Ana White

If you haven't heard of Ana White, I suggest you read up.  Woodworking genius! I bought her new book this fall and cannot wait to build something have J build me something!

I hope you find these ideas as inspiring as I did. Not only are older pieces of furniture made better than many pieces today, it's nice to go green and reuse something, and I'm sure the wallet doesn't mind either!