Christmas-party-planning time! Crazy but true. For the past three years, I’ve hosted a gingerbread house party for Christmas. I blame these things on my not drinking and needing an activity. Regardless, its crazy popular. The basics: Come on over at … Continue reading
How could you see And want a stenciled room of your own? No idea. We both saw and wanted these, so Lesley came down for a quick Sunday afternoon paint and decorate (crazy productive) afternoon. My front hallway is tiny, … Continue reading
…sometimes the rain falls in your house. And it is NOT. GOOD.
This should be a final reveal of my new lovely bathroom. Except it isn’t.
So.
Two weeks ago I was fast asleep, snug in my bed at 2:15 am, when I heard water. Rain? Maybe, but I usually can’t hear it in my bedroom. House guest in the bathroom? Showering with the door open perhaps? Nope, doesn’t sound like the shower…
So I got myself out of bed, confirmed no one was in the bathroom but water, turned a light on and…promptly flipped it back off. Because water was pouring through it. My upstairs neighbor somehow overflowed her toilet (I’ll let you put the 2:15am pieces togethere here) and caused a whole lot of water to come through a whole lot of places into my house. I was up over an hour that night putting out bowls, ran late the next day, and generally did not have fun.
It could have been worse.
There doesn’t seem to be any significant damage to the bathroom, the water has stopped, and her insurance will cover the damage. But grabbing bowls, having water come through your (also new) hallway light fixture for over 2 days and not being able to close the bathroom door (ahem, still) are not my idea of fun.
But it really could have been worse. I was home. I woke up. I stopped a lot of damage before it happens, including water sitting on my radiant heat floors. Life will go on.
It just wasn’t what I wanted to be talking about here. You can see some nice demo pictures of the hallway Lesley and I painted back in January. It will get repainted now, same color. It will be smoother. But mostly it will be the same, and my house will get dusty and dirty and have random people in it again. I’m not exactly excited.
Have you ever had water pour through your ceiling? Oddly, this is at least my fifth time, although my first in this place.
NOTE: Please go read basically anyone else’s blog. We are not exactly success stories here. There will be no instructions, just some process shots. And possibly advice about how not redo a piece of furniture.
It started when I found this awesome piece in my basement. Every unit in my building I think used to have one in the dining room; some still do. I didn’t, and I thought they were awesome. I asked for permission and everyone was ok with me taking this last one in decent shape (there are two others, but they have both been used as workbenches and really aren’t salvageable).
I wanted to restain it, but closer inspection showed that would be pretty tough. I would have to sand and strip it all the way down, which would take ages. Painting it, by contrast, would take a day. Sold.
So we bought supplies (all those people who say you need to use a dense foam roller? Geniuses.) and got down to it. We didn’t want an obvious color, and I thought a nice navy would coordinate well with my curtains and not be too in-your-face in the room. We sanded. We cleaned. This isn’t a detailed piece, which made both sanding and painting a lot easier.
There is a mirror that is supposed to be attached to the back (it was attached by a single ruler when I found it), but sadly it just wasn’t in good enough shape.
We did need to patch the gap the mirror is supposed to slot into, and got lucky with a furring strip in the dimensions that we needed.
Then we sanded some more, primed, and got on a few coats of paint. And….
Two coats in, we could tell it was NOT what we wanted. Good= a really deep dark blue (almost black, really rich). Bad= Americana blue (too gray, too pale, not deep or dark).
(Not) ta-da!
Fail.
I called up my paint color guru/friend’s husband, and after a good search we decided having the original paint retinted (to up the blue and the dark) was likely to get me close, and either way I was out a quart of paint I didn’t like. Worth a shot.
It worked.
It doesn’t clash now. Still wish it was a touch darker, but it’ll work!
Stay tuned for the full room!
In a (really, really) good way. My bathroom had very little storage in its past life. A vanity cabinet with a drawer on one side. A medicine cabinet. A small cabinet above the toilet. And then all the extra space … Continue reading
When I saw Amanda’s awesome spin on herringbone art: I just had to do one of my own. I’ve been looking for something to replace my large/boring/generic/beige hand-me-down art from my dad in the dining room and this seemed like … Continue reading
You may be wondering what happened to me. I’m wondering too. I’m a teacher, so we went back to school last week (and worked without students the week before that). However, we’re already off because the Chicago Teachers Union is … Continue reading
Two weeks ago, my bathroom looked like this:
And then we started, and it looked like this (I can’t find the full set of pictures, just this one the contractor texted me*. But it all looked like this):
While I was gone, they made some (ahem, not enough) progress (this is the shower, where the tub used to be):
And now it looks like this:
Things you see:
Things you don’t see:
You are smart enough to determine everything else you aren’t seeing here. Things you also aren’t seeing?
Me.
Because that’s my only bathroom and it doesn’t have any bath-related capabilities. (You know how everyone says these things take twice as long? Totally right. I might be able to go home Thursday.)
Have you done any major renovations? How long did they take? Can normal people live without a toilet?!
No pictures because I can’t find my camera cord. I can’t find my camera cord because my house is a mess. My house is a mess because everything that isn’t stuck down in my bathroom is somewhere else (mostly in … Continue reading
Here’s where I’m at: Choose floor tile (plus shower accent tile) Choose wall tile Decide if I want tile on shower walls or in any other parts of room (nope, just the shower) Choose shower floor tile Choose vanity Order … Continue reading
homemade•handmade 