Guest Room

The guest room is in the front corner of the house. It may be technically considered the master bedroom, but I didn't want my room to be so close to the street.  In my old apartment my guest room was kind of neglected and filled with random leftover furniture.  I didn't even have a queen sized bed for guests.  When I moved into my house, I knew I wanted to buy a new mattress for myself.  So now my guests have a proper sized bed to stay in. Mom also helped paint this room.  I had yellow curtains from my old apartment and I knew I wanted to go with a yellow and gray color scheme.  

The guest room the day I moved in.

I picked the color "bell tower stone" by Valspar in Sherwin Williams paint.  I love the color. It's rich but not too dark and the yellow really stands out nicely against it.  I lived without a matching comforter for awhile. I found this duvet color set from West Elm and completed the bed with some throw pillows from Target.  Months later I finally hung my favorite Van Gogh prints and other pictures.  The only thing left to do in this room is get a new light fixture.  I've been looking for one that I like, but is at a reasonable price.  But with only one item left on the to do list the guest room is the most complete room in the house! I almost love it more than my master bedroom!

Mom helped make the curtains from fabric from JoAnn fabrics. The wood shelves on the floor are my old 4H House desk shelves.  Maybe one day I'll replace them with something else. Dad made them for me so they have a little sentimental value!

The light fixture is brassy and outdated.  The glass has etched designs on it so the light throws subtle shadows over the room. I really dislike it, but since I'm rarely in here at night I can live with it for now.

The Dining Room

The dining room has seemingly been a never ending work in progress. When I moved in, all of the walls in my house were the same shade of white and mostly in good shape. The dining room walls were, however, full of nail holes and covered in scratches. Since I'm the worst at making decisions, but really good at picking up every paint sample under the sun, I decided to patch the holes and repaint over the bad spots. There was a leftover can of paint in the basement conveniently labeled 'dining room', and I could stop obsessing about how bad the walls looked until I could decide what color to paint. This method seemed to work until the paint dried and you could totally see the places where I re-painted. I knew I'd need to paint the entire wall sooner rather than later. One weekend while Mom was visiting she had already painted my guest bedroom and was ready to tackle another project. She forced me to finally pick a color from my stack of 2,323,234 paint samples. After staring at these samples for months I finally just gave up and randomly picked two colors. Mom and I worked out a plan to paint the wall two different colors and to later add chair rail molding to dress up the room.

The top color is Province Blue by Benjamin Moore and the bottom color is Tempered Allspice by Valspar. Mom painted this room in one afternoon. She is the lady to call if you have some painting to do! We then successfully hung a new shelf from Ikea. PS - I'm a real pro when it comes to power tools :) The plan was to use the shelf to make a picture gallery wall.

While I was home for Thanksgiving we picked out trim at Lowe's, my brother cut the pieces, and I picked the pieces back up at Christmas. The pieces then sat in my basement for about three months until I found the closest shade of stain that would match my existing trim. This proved to be a more difficult task than I first thought it would be. I realized that the floor trim and the window trim are just slightly different from each other. I ended up using three coats of stain and I sealed them with polyurethane that I found in the basement left by the previous owners. The end result is very close to the existing finishes. It’s not perfect, but it doesn't bother me that all of the trim isn’t exactly the same. Next came hanging the trim. I borrowed a nail gun from a coworker, and Adam came to the rescue with an air compressor. He helped me hang the trim (and finish some other projects) while he and Jessie were visiting in March. Adam is a pretty good house guest who gets a lot more enthusiastic about my many projects than Ace does. :)

After the trim was hung, the room looked much more complete. However, I started to doubt my original choices of paint. The room just seemed too dark. The brown looked too heavy, and I felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the house. After seeing a lot of turquoise and gray rooms on Pinterest I decided to switch up the paint. I really liked the original turquoise color, but decided it should be the anchor of the wall. I chose Light French Gray by Sherwin Williams to go on the top of the wall. I’m so happy with the results! The room is much “fresher” now and is not at all dark. It flows much better with the other rooms as well.

The final touch was to finish the gallery picture wall. My inspiration came from this blog. I made a trip to Ikea and purchased various sizes of the 'Ribba' frame. I took the paper out of the frames to use as spacers on the wall.  This method was not 100% effective at accurately figuring how the frames would fit, because the frames added an extra inch or so.  But it worked well enough. Some of the frames are a bit close to the ceiling, but it works. The hardest part was deciding which pictures to use. I knew I wanted some of my farm pictures that I've taken along with some family pictures.

I love the final look! I love that all the frames match, and I love how white and clean they are against the gray wall.  The wall looks white in these pictures, but it's a subtle gray in person.  The paint is also more turquoise than blue.

I think the shelf needs a few other items. I have one lonesome Mason jar sitting there now. However, it took almost 6 months to get to this phase so it may take me a little longer to find some shelf accents!

There are still a couple of items on the dining room to do list.  I’d like to find a really big clock to hang on the wall opposite of the frame wall. I’m also planning to take down the chandelier and spray paint it silver. Mom is making a new curtain for the window to better match the new colors.  I've thought about sanding and painting or re-staining my table, and I'm loving the look of mismatched chairs right now.  I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on chairs.

I'm calling the dining room a (semi)finished success! 

Old Door Entryway Bench

Ever since I moved in to my house, I've been on the hunt for some sort of entryway bench.  When you walk in the front door, there is a small alcove set back in the wall.  I had a picture in my head for what I wanted, but I was having a hard time finding something that fit the correct dimensions.  After joining Pinterest, I started seeing a lot of ideas using old doors.  I began to think about using an old door and turning it into some sort of hall tree/bench.  The downside is that I am not a carpenter and had no idea how to turn my idea into a reality.  While I was home for Thanksgiving, I mentioned my idea to Grandma Betty. She told me that our relatives,  Larry and Caroline Legg, have been selling benches similar to what I described.  Larry and Caroline make and sale crafts at local craft fairs. Mom and I set out the day after Thanksgiving to stop by their house to see what goodies we could find.  They had a couple already made, but they weren't exactly what I wanted.  Luckily, Larry is a good family friend, and has had a soft spot for me ever since I started showing cattle as a cute little girl (I don't really know if the last part is true, but he does like me a lot).   He quickly started going through all the doors he had in the shop until I picked one that I liked. We went over the desired dimensions, types of hooks he uses, whether I wanted Caroline to paint it or paint it myself, he showed me the choices of door knobs, and in about an hour I had ordered my custom made entryway bench.  He delivered the finished product to Grandma's in a little under two weeks.  I assured him that he could take his time because I wouldn't be home again until Christmas, but this fell on deaf ears :)   Like I said, Larry likes me.   I opted to paint it myself. I forgot to take a before picture, but it was originally a green door with red trim.  Larry takes all the windows out of the doors to make them safer and lighter to handle.  He also cuts the bottom of the door off where he adds the bench to help make it lighter.  He then adds a shelf to the top, and a curtain rod on the back so that a little curtain can be hung.  They turn out really cute.  I primed the door white, and then used the same turquoise paint that I used on the old window picture frame.  I distressed the shelf by sanding it in places with sandpaper.  It looks good, although I kind of wish I would have tried to crackle paint it.  I still love how it turned out!

The curtain rod on the back. I don't have a curtain on there now. I've thought about having a farm picture printed out and applying it to the back to show through the windows.

The back pre-painted

The front after priming.

First coat of paint

The very boring entry way before 

The new and improved entryway.  

Here's a close up of the very cool antique door knob that Larry included. He does several projects with these, and is always on the hunt for them.  This one is antique brass with a glass knob.  

Mr. Pig would like to welcome you!!  

The last few weeks have been full of crossing projects off of the to do list.  Can't wait to show some before and after pictures!

Life

The last few of weeks have been one big roller coaster full of emotion.  Ace's mom passed away on February 3 and my brother got married on February 8.  I started, stopped, and restarted this blog post several times. I even thought about just skipping over it and instead writing a post about something I've worked on in the house recently.  But I think I should write something about the last few weeks.  Doris lost her life to cancer.  When she conquered the disease almost 3 years ago there was always the possibility that it would come back.  However, when it came back and took her life in only one week it was a huge shock.  I don't believe anything can prepare you for the loss of a parent no matter how old you are. It's something I would not wish on anyone.  If there is a silver lining it's that she's no longer tired and sick. She didn't want to go through chemo again, and we all believe she knew what was coming long before anyone else did. 

Doris was a second mom to a lot of people.  Ace always refers to home as Hotel De VanDeWalle.  Pretty much anyone is welcome at anytime, and Doris always made sure there was plenty to eat.  Even on some pretty late nights, there would always magically be sandwiches or snacks out on the counter.  I'll never again eat potato salad or homemade salsa that even comes close to hers.  Since the first time I went home with Ace, Doris has always welcomed me and made me feel at home.  It was nice to have another home to go to since my family lives so far away.  Now their house seems so strange without her there. 

The visitation and funeral were a true testament to how loved and missed she is.  I haven't heard the final count, but I'm guessing there were upwards of 300+ people that came to say goodbye.  It's hard to understand why God takes the good ones and why cancer even has to exist.  The phrase "life is too short" has taken on new meaning.  

The day after the funeral, I stood up as "Best Man" at my brother's wedding in Key West.  I struggled with how silly it seemed to be going on vacation after what had just happened.  I was also certain TSA was going to mark me as a suspicious person and ban me from flying as I cried my way through the airport. (The crying was intensified by the fact that my flight was delayed and I then had to spend the night in Dallas and I didn't know if I'd even make it to the wedding on time, but that's a whole other blog post!)  I did make it to Florida in time and managed to turn off the sad and turn on the happy.  What had happened in the days before made spending that time with my family celebrating Rob and Brooke's day even more special.  The wedding was amazing, and I'm so happy for my big brother.  The week was bittersweet since Ace was supposed to have come with me.  I finally decided that it was ok to be sad and happy at the same time.  Life is too short to not celebrate the good times, and I think that's what Doris would have wanted.

House Tour

After buying my house 6 months ago, I'm finally putting pictures up.  I hope to do a better job of posting pictures so I can document my many projects. The house already looks quite a bit different thanks to a few coats of paint. I'll start with the bare pictures and work through the different rooms in upcoming posts.

Kitchen - I have a pretty long list of ideas  for the kitchen. Number one is changing the light.  There's currently a giant fluorescent light in the center, and I hate the light it gives off.  It makes everything look yellow. I'd also like to pull up the linoleum and see if hardwood floors exist underneath. I've also been playing with the idea of painting the cabinets white. I get new ideas everyday, and my ADD is kind of a problem. (ask Ace how much fun it is to shop at Menards with me)

This the view from the kitchen looking into the living room.  The dining room is off to the right.

Living room - The living room is a long space.  I'm still trying to figure out if I like how the furniture is currently arranged.

 Guest room - located in front corner of the house

 Main floor bathroom.

 Dining room

Master bedroom

Looking down the stairs to the basement. Yes, part of the wall is missing.

The basement is partly finished. However, the finished part has this lovely half wall that exposes the unfinished part. The story I was given was that the water heater once broke, and it caused the basement to flood. After the flood, they just cut the wet part of the wall off.  It's very odd.  I have a lot of plans for the basement. It's a huge space with a lot of potential. 

I couldn't find pictures of the basement before I moved stuff in. 

More basement

Full bathroom in basement - The walls are made out of this really lovely printed, green flower, slick shower wall type of material.   

Shower in basement

Unfinished part of basement. 

So much empty space! - See that drain in the floor? That's where the unfortunate plumbing incident of 2011 occurred. 

I wish I had a picture of this area before I cleaned it up. The "Frankenstein" cabinets that used to reside here were awesome.

So there you have it.  My little 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom starter house.  I've learned a lot in the past 6 months, and I can't wait to start making my big ideas actually happen!

Adventures in Home Ownership with Rachel

1. Don't put a pot of leftover beef and onions down the garbage disposal. It clogs the basement drain.

2. When the basement drain clogs, Draino won't work.

3. A garden hose will fit into the drain to try to snake it. It worked better than the $12 metal snake thing. However, if you are cheap, and the hose was cheap, the hose is not strong enough to break through the clog.

4. You have now ruined your $25 hose.

5. Wear gloves when snaking your drain. Especially if you tried to pour Draino in the drain.

6. Now your hands look like you were in an extreme cage fighting match.

7. Cry.

8. Call Dad for the 2398742 time that night.

9. Call a plumber.
 
 
I now know to just call a plumber first.  It was almost less expensive than the tools to fix it myself plus the cost of the ruined hose. On the bright side, I now own a pipe wrench that could be useful for self defense? He also pulled a bunch of roots out of the pipe so it was not entirely my fault.  Lessons learned! Stay tuned for the next episode. I'm sure there will be more!

Project

I'm getting everything settled in the house. I officially have no more boxes sitting around which makes my OCD feel much better!  I finally have pictures on the walls, and have finished most of the small projects on my list.  When I come home after work I finally don't feel like I have a million things to do.  It's starting to feel like home.  I wanted to post pictures of my latest project.  I saw a picture on pinterest.com (If you haven't heard of pinterest, check it out - it's my new favorite thing) where an old window was used as a picture frame.  I happened to find an old window in my basement left from the previous owners that I knew would be perfect.

The window had a glossy finish on it so I sanded the window down.  Then I primed the window with primer spray paint I had.  I knew I wanted to hang the new frame in my living room, so I went to the paint store and picked out a turquoise shade of paint.  However, when I applied the first coat it came out looking very bright Tiffany blue.  While I love the little blue boxes with the white bows, it was too bright for my living room.  So I went back to Ace the helpful place hardware store and asked if they would darken my paint.  It took a few tries, but it finally looked the right shade

I was going for an antique old finish so I took a piece of sandpaper and scratched the finish up.  The window weighs 12 pounds (yes I weighed it on my bathroom scale).  I was worried about it being too heavy for the wall, so I attached four picture hooks on the back.  My stud finder has proven to be a piece of junk so I think four hooks is enough to ensure maybe I hit one stud and the weight is evenly distributed to not pull the drywall down.   Then I picked three of my favorite pictures I've taken and had them printed as 11x14 posters.  The frame doesn't have a glass backing so I taped the pictures down.  I'm going to have to find a new solution to attach the pictures, because after a week the tape is peeling back. Otherwise, I LOVE how it turned out.  It's my favorite part of my living room now.  What do you think??

My next projects include: finding/making something to put in my entryway, painting the ugly gold door knobs throughout my house, painting or finding new cabinet knobs for my kitchen (I painted the knobs in the bathroom and they look great!), and lastly I need to decide what colors to paint my bedroom, guest bedroom, and dining room.  So maybe I have a lot of projects but I've got a long winter ahead of me!