Saddle Up

Here's a little ditty about installing our hardwood floors: JC and I checked out Lowes and Home Depot for the best price/quality of flooring options. We knew that this area has a high traffic volume and we wanted these floors to last forever so we went for the real deal - solid wood.

We chose Bruce - Oak Saddle as our brand/color of choice. The Oak Saddle in the store was ridiculously expensive, I was bummed because it was my favorite but after doing some searching online, we found the same floors for half the price (woot!) we scooped up 19 boxes and crossed our fingers that the color was the same. One week later, we got a call from Estes and got to skip out early from work so we could get home and unload our pretty, pretty floor boards.



But, wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. For the sake of remembering those ugly old carpets, let's take a look back in time....



Going...



Going...



Gone... Oh - Hi, Nuisey and furniture.



That floor was installed by my grandfather, it's actually some sort of sticky tile that looks like wood. He had nailed it down in places where it started to peel up. I actually had a few people compliment our "new floors" while we lived like this for a few weeks. Hah! Please... but in their defense, it was dark and we don't have lights in those rooms. So, I guess it's understandable. Here's a peek at the dining room with a little less linoleum:



Then came the fun part, eeeek!! This was seriously the best. We opened a couple of boxes at a time and grabbed the prettiest pieces to use. I loved it, all the boards were different and they fit together like puzzle pieces.



My favorite part was sliding the pieces into place and nailing them together was a fun little bonus. Yes, I'm stupidly barefoot. Just don't tell my mom.



We had some late night helpers, Adam and Sam. They were real troopers, I think Sam enjoyed it as much as I did. We worked in teams, Sam & Kaylene vs JC & Adam. We dominated that installation like it was our job.



Day 2... it was hot, we were ready to be done, but the long hours were totally worth it. Who doesn't like a giant puzzle made of pretty oak? JC, that's who. He was less than thrilled by day 2 of the project. Here he is before the frustration of tight quarters and weird corners sets in:





Inching towards the weird corners... and JC's mini anxiety attack.



Day 3 we finished up all the edges near the wall where we couldn't use the nail gun.



This has been the sweetest, most anticipated, hardest, most fun to achieve project to date. We are more than satisfied with the results:



Makes you want to slide down there in your socks, doesn't it?

Magenta Madness

It was high time for that pink rug to hit the road. It was extremely outdated and way past its prime, if it ever had a prime...? I know one thing, without the rose wallpaper, the carpet just looked lonely and out-of-place. We were pretty pumped to tear it up so we set the date: Big Trash Day.
This would be our first experience with big trash day in our town and we had plenty to contribute, namely one pink carpet:



What we discovered under the carpet and foam padding was an unfinished wood floor in perfected condition. It was preserved by the carpet all these years, just waiting to be unveiled, sanded, and stained. And that's exactly what we did. First, we sanded it down and removed all the staples that held the foam into place.



Then the both of us stained it together. This was my first time staining, I was surprised at how "a little goes a long way". The total cost of this project was $7.00. Behold:





Not bad considering this is where we were just months before:

It's fun making our house pretty. I'll be back with pictures of our newly installed wood floors. Mmmm.

Orange-ya Glad I Said "White Risers"?

At first our plan was to stain the entire staircase. When we realized what a pain it was to sand all the nooks and crannies, we decided to look into an alternative. While searching google for staircase images, I came across this little beauty. We loved the looks of white risers and the idea that it would bring a lot more light to our staircase which is sort of dismal. Let's face it, if there's one thing we're not going to turn down, it's a chance for a brighter/lighter area. We're surrounded by hulking whispering pines so even the natural sunlight is dim.

Back to the (stair)case at hand. Pretty much all the natural wood in the house was/is orange. unfortunately orange wood is the opposite of everything we have envisioned for our house so it all needs to be re-stained or painted. Our stairs were our biggest orange transformation project yet. I can't even begin to explain the tediousness of this project. All I can say is that I'm so thankful that these are our only stairs that needed a transformation treatment. Here they are before:





JC sanded his way down the stairs (literally) one step at a time.


Then he stained the treads and banister... Four coats of semi-gloss polyurethane later and they were looking slick as a whistle. Apparently I was MIA during this whole process because I don't have any pictures of it. So, here's a progress pic of some of the risers I primed when we first started - I stopped there because we decided to stain first.



We couldn't be happier with the results. The treads stained beautifully and I love how a little white paint can make things look crisp and new. Hard to believe they used to be orange:


There you have it folks, in the words of my husband... Badabing-badaboom.

You Left A Stain on Every One of My Good Days

In this case, the stain was left on one of our good days - in a very good way. If you didn't get the Matchbox 20 reference, it's ok. Moving on...

The best part if DIY'ing is that you can move at your own pace as your feel motivated or inspired. This past weekend, JC felt the motivation mojo for the office floor upstairs that has been neglected its whole life... the office floor was exposed hardwood that never had a finish put on it so it had been beaten down and become sort of grimy and dull with time.

For some reason I wasn't feeling the mojo, maybe it was my upcoming Lasik eye surgery that was distracting me from enjoying the project. Whatever the case, this was mostly JC's baby. But because I don't like to sit anything out when it comes to our house, I helped out a little. Here I am power sanding like an outlaw... in jammies:

I like JC's ninja style, it's tough being married to someone who is so much cooler than me.



Back to the point... Day #2 of the project, after we sanded and cleaned up the dust (BEFORE my surgery, mind you), it was ready for stain! This is where I stepped back and let JC take this one over all by his lonesome. He was so spellbound by this project, he didn't even mind doing it alone. I did managed to sneak up for a picture. Here's my hunny making our house pretty:



Meanwhile, in the living room, I recuperated from my eye surgery with the cutest couch potato ever:



2 days later, the project was complete. Here's the before and after shot:

ta daaa! Pretty, pretty mahogany. We love, love, love it. Now I just need to get back up there and finish the mopboards. Now that there's some polyurethane on there, any accidental paint drippings will wipe right up instead of immediately soaking into the untreated wood like before. I'm picturing a reading nook with a little white desk and a snuggly beanbag.

Kitchen Inspiration

I've been in a kitchen state of mind lately. I suppose you could say that I'm in the "heavily thinking" stage. I'm pretty much consumed with cabinets, counters, floating shelves, and shiny appliances. So, how are we going to turn this into our dream kitchen?



With lot's of patience, research, good ideas, and good deals. It's coming together very nicely in my head. I've been telling JC for a while now that my plan is to ditch all the upper cabinets and put in some open shelves. The look on his face told me he was picturing fur and grease covered dishes and
maybe this image jumped to his mind:



Needless to say, he was completely against it. Lately he's been warming up to the idea, especially since I started showing him pictures of what I was actually talking about:



The open shelves on either side of the window are a big YES. Love those chunky shelves:



We went over to a friend's house the other night to check out their recently renovated kitchen and their custom-made cabinets. They were fancy shmancy and gave us LOT'S of great ideas. I'm glad we're taking our time with this, it'll be worth the wait. I'm sure I will have thought/talked all the details to death by the time we actually start. I'm just trying to hold myself back at this point. Everything within me wants to attack my cabinets with a paint brush but I know it will just be a waste of my time since they will be completely replaced in the semi near future. Gah, patience.

Spiffing Up A Nook

This just may be my favorite room in the house. I love the fact that it has 2 windows even though it's so tiny.

Here's what it looked like in December back when it wasn't my favorite room in the house:

::gasp:: the clutter! the horror! Well, that's all taken care of now and let's just say our spare bedroom which was recently cleaned out has been completely filled up again. Such is life.
Here we are, all ready to get our paint on.



Now, because the office has the same amount of light as the livingroom, and the 2 rooms are connected by an open stairway, we decided to go with the Burnished Metal up there as well. In this room we carried the paint color onto the ceiling. The ceilings are undoubtably low, so instead of ultimately failing at trying to raise them by keeping them white, we thought it would be best to embrace the small space and cozy it up by making the whole room the same color.









Mmm, I can't wait to sit up there in my over stuffed chair and read a book.

Painting Our Blues (and yellows, and greens) Away

We did it. We painted our living room and dining room. I'm feeling a little romantic about it so don't be surprised if this post gets mushy.

In order to refresh your memory, here's the grim before shot:

Makes me cringe and shiver.



Now, here she is folks. A nice, soothing, airy, grey. The polar opposite of the dastardly yellow. We used Stone White by Glidden.







Here's the dining room before & afters:





I love how the white trim makes the windows pop. I could just kiss it.














Here we used Burnished Metal by Behr. We didn't want the two rooms different paint colors to clash or compete with each other so we went for the subtle layered look. We tried to settle on the same color for both rooms when we were testing out colors via paint swatches but the Burnished Metal was waaaay too dark in the living room and the Stone White was way too, well, white in the dining room. There you have it! Our house already feels bigger. It's amazing what a little paint will do.