Our next project!

Well, the doors are complete and they look faaaaabulous.  Very excited with how they've turned out.  Of course, now they're piled in a corner, covered in sawdust waiting for when they can be installed.  I know she doesn't read my blog or anything but I just have to say thanks to Door Sixteen's Anna for the blogging about the loveliness that is BM Toucan Black.  Look at how delicious it is, even covered in dust. It's my new favourite paint colour.  I loves it I does! 

The other project, the stairwell, is on Kurt's hit list for today while I am making a big pile of paleo cabbage rolls.  It's getting it's very first coat of white paint.  We're using a Sico product that apparently can stand up to foot traffic and is not slippery.  I also talked with Norm about getting a change order done up to install a small light in the half storey that can be trained on that stairwell to give it a bit more illumination. 

And, last but not least, I've managed to come up with a third project for us to tackle over the next few weeks.  I'm going to go on the hunt for a second hand dresser that can be painted out and decked in pretty knobs to sit under the chandelier in the dressing room.  Yayness!

Here's what I'm thinking of:

 

(House and Home via Mochatini)

Things are coming along since I last posted photos.  We're about three weeks away from completion so we're quite a bit over the original finish date of February 22nd.  We're relatively snug and comfortable in our pretend bachelor pad on the main floor so I'm not exactly unhappy that we're taking longer than originally estimated.  What's been done this week includes the base for my closet and drain pan for the washer has been installed, Kurt's closet minus the mill work is in, our shelves and window seat are up WITH decorative millwork almost completed (we're doing a hinged top on the window seat to give us some closed storage with shaker style moulding on the front that mirrors our original wainscoting) and we have about half of our shower tiles in.  I love coming home from work each evening to see a little bit more done every day.  The bath is turning out exactly as I had envisioned it!

Our shelves and window seat in the bath!

Smudge checking out the window seat.  He's a perv who likes watching us in the shower so I'm expecting this will be his new favourite perch.

Our future shower. 

The start of my closets in the dressing room.

The start of Kurt's closets in the bedroom

House Porn of the Day

I love herring bone floors and french doors with transoms.  And spaces that pair dark, aged looking hardwood with black and white.  I just really want this room all for myself.  I really wish herring bone floors were in the budget for the second floor reno.  I will make sure we budget enough when we do the main floor.

(Roman and Williams via Remodelista)

And a few more rooms with the same colour palette that I'm loving right now...

 

 (Country Living via Apartment Therapy)

 

 (home life via Apartment Therapy)

Blame Canada! Or do I need to just get over it.

Dead cow on floor + horns in the same otherwise impeccably styled room.  My opinion on these design trends has not altered by seeing them together in one space.

(DécorMag via Desire to Inspire)

I am in love with that upholstery on the statement chair, though.  GORGEOUSITY!

Edited to add:
Maybe I need to just get over it?  Look how lovely the rest of the room is! 

(Rum via Simply Grove)

The herring bone floors, the details on the fireplace, the gilded mirror and the casual floor pillows mixed with the clean lined simplicity of the sofa and the modern coffee table all in a subdued palette.... *sigh* ...and then... "moo". 

Window Seat Brilliance

After we're done with the second storey, we're moving onto a little DIY in the half storey.  Well, actually, it's sorta DIY but we're using the services of The Boy, who will soon be done his construction course at SIAST so good practice for him and it'll be nice having the aid of someone who is actually trained to do this stuff.   Compared to the gut and rebuild of the second storey, it's a few minimal changes with some built ins, the loss of a wall here and the gaining of another wall there and either refinishing the hardwood we found underneath the subfloor or new carpet (it just depends on how banged up it is).  In our half storey, we have two dormer windows... one of which is screaming for something awesome to be done to it.  The other opens up onto the landing of the stairs so it's at it's full potential providing, you know, a place to stand and not fall to your death.

As I was wandering through my blog list, I stumbled across a lovely collection of dormer windows that make my dormer windows look decidely sad.  Nest Egg's Rachel Halvorson also had some GREAT suggestions for what to do with window seats.

Here are two of my favourites!

I want to curl up and have a nap on this one.  Gorgeous!  And I love how they've created great additional storage for blankets, books and fun little chotckies.  I'm a pack rat and, therefore, a sucker for nooks and nitches in which to stuff odds and ends.

(Domino Magazine via Nest Egg)

This second one would work very well in our space.

 

(House Beautiful via Nest Egg)

We just have the pesky issue of electric heaters underneath the windows to figure out.

And, last but not least, my favourite half storey dormer photo of all time ever care of the first issue of Lonny Magazine.

(via this is glamorous)

*sigh*  So pretty!  Look at the subtle pattern on the wallpaper!  And the hidden storage!  And the pops of colour!  The only think I'm not so keen on is the diamond pattern on the floor but I think that's only because of the hunter green diamond squares that were painted all over our second floor hardwood.

Okay, we were talking about window seats!  Here is another one that is styled very well.  This is about the size of the window seat we're installing in our bathroom.  Oh, yes, did I mention we're putting in a window seat there?  It is already partially installed!

 

(via La Maison Boheme)

Progress on our projects and some random photos of other stuff.

Kurt's currently laying in bed, felled by sanding off 100 years of varnish and paint from our interior doors while not wearing a mask.  That and eating way too much junk food on the weekend.  The good news is he'll have time this afternoon to put a second coat of paint on the doors!

Here's where we're at with the stairwell.  We finally found a wallpaper we could both agree on at Yarnton decorating.  Also, how have I lived in Regina for 15 years and never heard of or been to Yarnton decorating?  That store is super fun!

It's a bit more traditional and muted than I was assuming we'd go for.  It's nice and light so the stairs will be fresh and airy.  It's also scrubbable so it should hold up well especially considering this stairwell isn't a high traffic area.  The pattern is small so we'll have minimal waste.  We should have lots of paper left over so I'm eyeballing a feature wall behind the headboard in the half storey as a good spot to use up the rest of it.

We've also finished sanding the last coat of wood fill on the stairs and Kurt got it all primed out.  Next up is painting it out!  Hey, how handy is it that Kurt's taking a sick day.  Maybe he'll feel like painting?

Our doors are also coming along nicely.  I love the paint colour.  It reads black but when you take the time to look at it, you realize that it's actually a muted, dark indigo (it's Benjamin Moore Toucan Black... Anna over at Door Sixteen recommended it and, sure enough, she was not wrong about it's awesomeness).  So pretty and it will look fantastic with our silver and crystal knobs!  This is just one coat of paint so the coverage isn't uniform as of yet. 

Oh, yeah, I forgot I took a photo of this!  Here's my floor plan for the second storey.  We went with very few changes to the floor plan and left the toilet in it's original location with the rest of the plumbing lined up with the stack along the west wall to keep costs reasonable.  Originally, we had hired a designer to do up plans for this floor but they were all way out of our budget and dependent on building a different stairwell to the half storey.  I think the only thing that has stayed the same is the archway connecting the two old bedrooms.

I was kicking around photobucket trying to find photos of my lovely ex entrance way and stumbled across the original second storey plan that cost too much that we scrapped after our original basement "contractor" stole our money after knocking holes into our house...

Oh, Bain Ultra Balneo Naos tub with thermomasseur jets... you were but a dream.  A "price comparable to a used economy car with low mileage" dream.  *sigh*

Ah, yes, and here is the light fixture we found at Maison in Nelson.  We're hanging it in the dressing room.  It looks much nicer when it's not flopped onto a few CD storage boxes.

And finally, since I'm now just posting random photos, may I present The Sneak.  She is currently on a diet and is a bit stressed about it so has been grooming herself a little too often.

It gets darkest before dawn.

At least, I think that's the bullshit saying people use when they're sick to death of whatever situation they have themselves in.  I shouldn't complain. Things are actually going really, very well.  I'm just tired of living on a construction site.  It's been a year since Garth first ripped up our basement floor, leaving us with exposed, cracked sewer lines and only partial plumbing to half our house for six weeks.

This is why I'm getting a bit cranky.

Our entry before the reno:

 

Our entry as of about 10 minutes ago:

Even wrapped in plastic and covered in dust and crap our stairwell is fucking gorgeous.  It's why I bought this house.

We are almost there.  Really, we are.  Stubbes has finished their other job and are set to finish ours in two weeks.  I can't wait.  Here's where we were and where we're at now...

The Master Bedroom
 Our master bedroom really was so gorgeous to begin with, I'm really not even sure why we're renovating.  I just found the flower basket wallpaper to provide such a wonderful romantic mood.  With the ceiling tile and forrest green painted beadboard, I think the room provided a relaxing, almost bliss-inducing space in which to unwind, read a book and drift off to sleep.

Here we are, part way through our unneeded reno.   This photo was taken from the dressing room, looking into the bedroom.  The opening has been created to accommodate an archway similar to the one we have separating our living room from our entry.  The drywall at the ceiling and floor has been left unmudded as we're putting in 12" baseboards that mimic the original ones that didn't make it through the demolition.  We're also doing a sizeable crown moulding.  I'm still undecided if we want to take it further and do the picture frame moulding with chair rails. 

 

The Dressing Room

Originally, our dressing room was a teeny, tiny sponge paint explosion.  The people who lived in this house prior to us had their poor little boy sleep in this room.  I often wonder if he has nightmares of yellow blotches attacking him in the night. 

 

Okay, so it's not looking much different just yet, which is why I don't have a good picture of it yet.  Rest assured in  a few days, there's going to be some lovely custom cabinets in there and as soon as our washer and dryer are stuffed in said custom cabinets, we can get those walls repaired and painted out.

The Bathroom

Okay, this comes in two sections, but first I want to tell a story.  Our neighbours are lovely.  We adore them.  They are best couple friends with the couple who owned our house in the 90's and, incidentally, are responsible for all of the gorgeous decor decisions we're now eradicating.  Our ever so adorable neighbours one day exclaimed to us that straight couples like us LOVE buying houses from same sex couples because gay men know how to decorate.  They then looked at us with pity, our hetero natures barring us forever from knowing good taste.

Generalizations are not always accurate.  May I present to you my proof:

This little guy and his stenciled friends made their home in my shitter for far too long.  Faux Egyptian hieroglyphs everywhere.  I tinkled next to the sphinx.  I brushed my teeth under the keen eye of a scarab beetle.  King Tut perved at me while I showered.

Have you ever seen a more hideous scheme for a bathroom?  I am doubtful.  Please, prove me wrong and be the first ever to commentate on my blog!

The bathroom has been carved in half.  The old tub area is now part of the spa and will soon be reincarnated as a lovely shower with rain shower head.

And the other half will be a powder room with toilet, pedestal sink and no Egyptian hieroglyphs whatsoever.

 

The Spa!

Our spa used to feature maroon-painted, cat-pee stained floors, gas station bathroom wallpaper and a sponge painted tiled ceiling. Who wouldn't want to spend time in this room!

 

 

The "lights akimbo" look is so on-trend right now!

This room I am most excited about.  Aside from the giant, separate shower, we're also doing a lovely soaker tub along this wall here.

Our washstands from Restoration Hardware are going along this wall:

And I don't have a shot of it but we will be flanking either side of the window with built in shelving to store towels, toiletries and the like and it will also include a window seat!  Yayness!

As for the entryway, it is coming along nicely.  Before, it was covered in the residue of an attempted makeover on my part with some wallpaper and hope.  It didn't go as expected.  The sticky note on the chandelier says "keep me".  It's sitting beside our water softener in the basement with a tuft of pink insulation stick on it waiting to be dusted off and installed above our soaker tub.

And this is where we're at with this area today.  To celebrate, we finally picked up a settee that will be nestled in the corner.  We ended up going with the tight backed button tufted baby from The Bay. 

And that's our reno so far!  Stay tuned for a stairwell update (we bought wallpaper and Kurt's been busy!) as well as an ode to my husband, the grand sander.

Searching for wallpaper

Here are more options.  This first one I am lusting all over.  It's perfect.  Of course, it's bloody expensive and takes six to eight weeks to ship within the continental US.  I live in Canada.  They may or may not ship to me.

 

(Flavor Paper's Terminal paper in Grasshopper available through 2modern)

This next one is available through an online UK store.  I personally think it's lovely, as well, AND it's less expensive than the first option.  Of course, I like it just a little bit less.  But I still like it!  A lot!

 

(Du Barry Ogee Trellis Wallpaper through Fabrics and Papers) 

 

Kurt will likely very much dislike the next option but I thought it was kind of fun.  Also, what other time will I ever have the option of putting lime green and aqua paisley wallpaper anywhere in my home?

 

(Rajapur Wallpaper through Fabrics and Papers)

Stupid trends that ruin otherwise perfectly lovely house porn

Just recently, it seems like every time I flip through one of my decor mags or wander around the internet to drool over some quality house porn, my eyes are assaulted by two completely hideous trends.  These trends are ruining otherwise perfectly lovely house porn.  Yes Darryl Carter, I'm looking at you!  Your rooms are otherwise perfect and, therefore, some of the worst offenders!

1.  Cows on the floor.  Have these people never spent any time with live cows?  They're possibly the worlds most stupid, yet delicious creatures.  And they smell.  Stupid and smelly.  Neither of which are adjectives I feel the need to promote in my house. 

2.  Walls with random horns.  I don't really find the idea of being gored by my wall particularly restful.  Let's put horns on the wall in our bedroom!

Look at all these absolutely otherwise perfectly lovely rooms.  Ruined by cows and random horns. 

(Big ole horns via Beach Studios via my favourite and my best)

(Dead cowish type thing befouling otherwise gorgeous room by KML Design via Desire to Inspire)

 

(Darryl Carter's otherwise dreamy bedroom.. does it make you horny?  NO! Elle Decor via My White Shirt) 

 

(Cow detracting from statement art piece via Plush Palate)

(Gorgeous room, better put a dead cow on the floor.  Domino via Nest Egg)

 

(Gorgeous white floor topped with cow care of dos family via door sixteen)

 

(this makes me the saddest of all as the rest of the room is yum... Sasa Antic via Door Sixteen)

Stairwell Update

Check it out!  Both Kurt and I are procrastinating getting work done for, um, work this long weekend, which is ensuring our fun stairwell project is continuing along at a break neck pace.  Here is is denuded of it's grey berber and sanded down to show the various coats of paint applied throughout the ages.  Poor thing!  At one time, it was army green.  The Dilbert-office gray that it is now isn't much of an improvement, either.  Someone had the smart idea of white.  I think our white paired with risers with attitude will be the best of it's many iterations.

Kurt is off to Home Depot for some wood fill and 1/4" plywood.  Next weekend will be paint and whatever paper I decide on for the risers.  I've already found two damaskish type papers in blue-green that would work from Home Depot but I don't think they're quite right.

 (Home Depot)

(Home Depot)

 Meh...

Perhaps something more vibrant and unexpected is needed.  Next up is a trip to The Paper Umbrella to see what they have that might work well.  Too bad they are closed today!  Now I want to go shopping.

Edited to add:  And another option could be wrapping paper from Amy Butler?  Wondering how sturdy it would be if it were varnished after application?  This one is lovely and you could alternate between the three different papers all the way up the stairs.

(Amy Butler)