Browsing Tag

decorating

Getting (more) settled

Uncategorized February 12, 2016

I’m really starting to feel at home in the new house and I am really loving our new community! It is so welcoming and so very quiet.

We’re slowly working on re-doing the kitchen right now. It’s got the original cabinets, counters and floors. We’re currently waiting on our new flooring to arrive. I can’t wait to get it put down. Our current tile is in rough condition, looks terrible, and is impossible to clean. And as anyone who has bought and renovated an old house, old tile can be made of scary things. I just want it gone.

We had a very hard time deciding what to do about the flooring and eventually decided on vinyl planks. Let’s face it, the carrara marble I really wanted just isn’t in the budget right now (hah! the handmade lingerie business is not that lucrative).  Our house is older and has some lumpy floors and we didn’t want to have to go through the trouble or laying a new subfloor right now, so I think the vinyl will be a cost-effective, durable, and easy way to spruce the place up.

Right now, we’re (actually I am) painting our cabinets, adding new hardware and changing out old light fixtures.  It’s looking good, but the process is so slow. Painting cabinets is so much cheaper than buying new ones, but it isn’t a quick weekend project. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar, plain and simple!! It is a process of removing hardware, washing with TSP, sanding, priming, painting, then waiting several days for the paint to cure. Of course, all of our hardware had years of paint build up on them. If you are going to paint cabinets, please, please, please, remove the hardware first!

If you plan on painting cabinets, prepare for weeks of total chaos

 It’s coming together though! I’ve polished up the old chrome trim along the counter top and we painted the ceiling too.

I’m currently on the look out for some art for the breakfast nook and something interesting to display on the glass shelves in the window above the sink. At my grandmas house she had pretty glass perfume bottles that looked so beautiful in the sunlight. I was thinking of trying to find some antique glass bottles, or possibly some pretty rocks and crystals. I don’t think I’ve ever brought this up before, but I love rocks! Not in a “crystal healing” way but in a “geology is awesome” way. 
I’ve also been working hard trying to clean up our old Heartland Stove. It was/is very, very dirty. I’m very conflicted about this range. I’m sure it was expensive when it was purchased. It is very small. I like the gas cook top (though I burned every grilled cheese I made for the first month). I don’t like the empty space above it.  I miss my old stainless steel, brand new appliances… but I’m getting used to it and I’m really trying to love this stove. I’m struggling trying to figure out how to dress up the space around it. The “hall” to the right of it is a fairly large open space.  We’ve put an Ikea island there for now and plan on putting some shelving above it… Does anyone else have one of these repro ranges? How did you style it? I’m not digging it’s location but it’s the only place that has a gas hook-up.

This house purchase was so stressful and seemed to go on for ages. I can’t remember if I mentioned that when we moved in the previous owner had left so many of their belongings behind – dishes were still in the cupboards, items still in the storage areas, and below our deck is absolutely full of old garbage. We had written a condition in the purchase agreement that the house was to be left empty and “broom” swept. When we received it there was broken glass all over the basement floor, and the front door lock had completely fallen out of the door (hah!). We were told on closing day, by our lawyers office that the previous owner was having a cleaning crew come in that morning, which obviously never happened. We were pretty annoyed to hear that the only recourse was small claims court to cover the cost of junk removal despite the fact that it was in our contract. Our lawyer advised us that it probably wasn’t worth our time pursue. Then just a week ago, I got a random call from our lawyer letting us know they had made an error in calculating our land transfer tax and we immediately owed $700. It was just that one last thing that pushed me over the dissatisfaction edge.

Overall, I was very happy with how the sale of our house went – we left our house mopped, clean and completely vacant, save for a bit of extra flooring and paint. The purchase on the other hand just left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m still happy with the house and am having a lot of fun working on it (dream come true), I always just have a hard time when people don’t follow through on things they say they would do. I always feel like I’m the nice guy who just let’s things slide, but end up with the short end of the stick. I keep reflecting back on how I could have prevented these things, but I guess that’s just the way things go sometimes!

Sewing outside my comfort zone

Uncategorized August 21, 2015
Large scale projects scare me. I’m not the most precise sewist when it comes to sewing for myself, and I usually shy away from sewing large scale items.  But, I felt like stepping outside my sewing comfort zone and trying something new. Isabel has been great inspiration to try new sewing endeavours!
One of the things I love most about being a mom (besides slobbery baby kisses, which is Isabel’s new favourite thing), is getting to relive all of the things you loved as a kid!  When I was little, I loved playing with play food (which is funny because as an adult, food-prep is one of my least favourite things, but I do love to eat!), playing with dolls, doing arts and crafts and… forts!  So, I decided to try my hand at making a play-tent.
I used the tutorial on Make-It Love-It to make the frame. It worked out really well, but I’m going to add another 1×2 board across the bottom to add some stability). To make the fabric tent portion, I roughly followed the tutorial on Make-It Love-It, but instead of doing a flat front and back opening, I added gathers and a binding along the top.  I used clearance fabric from my local fabric shop. It’s a pink ombre eyelet fabric. I layered it overtop of ivory broadcloth. It’s not too heavy, and feels so pretty inside when the light shines through the lace. I seriously love being inside this tent and kind of wish I had one in my living room to hang out in! This tent wasn’t exactly cheap to make, since I used 5 yards of lace and 5 yards of broadcloth, but you could easily find a more inexpensive fabric, or use a sheet like they suggested in the tutorial.
As you can see, Isabel is pretty darn happy with it. I put a fluffy, faux-fur rug inside along with some of her toys. She spent a good portion of this morning chasing Oliver in and out of the tent, giggling the whole time.

“I love my tent!”
I used 4′ dowels and 4′ lengths of 1×2 and it made a surprisingly large tent! It takes up a good portion of Isabel’s small room, but that’s ok! who needs space when you’ve got a tent as cool as this?

I really, really, really want to make myself a tent. I’m just trying to figure out how to rearrange the living room to make one fit!

Around the house…

Uncategorized July 8, 2015
When we purchased our home, not a whole lot had been done to it in the last 20 or so years… We got it for a good price but it needed a lot of updating. We’ve been here for a few years now and have changed all of the exterior doors, insulated the basement, installed a new bathroom vanity, some new flooring, jacked up the floors, have painted every room, updated wiring and electrical, installed a dishwasher and new appliances, and have done some landscaping. It still feels overwhelming, the work that needs to be done… we need to tear down and rebuild the falling down garage, repair the crumbling chimney… and I’d love to put on a small addition for my studio so that we can go back to having three bedrooms for guests (or a sibling for Isabel?).  But, that’s not for a while yet.  Of course, we are having to do all of this on a very tight budget!
Over the last couple of weeks we checked a few things off our to-do list that have been lingering for a while. When we replaced the doors, the walls that are still lath and plaster crumbled… so, we repaired the plaster in the side entry, filled all of the cracks that appeared when we had previously jacked up the floors, and painted. I still need to put down some new flooring on the stairs, but for now, our side entry way looks 7000% better. No exaggeration!
our crumbing house!

Clean and bright!

 We had begun to plan to do our garage build this summer, but there is total chaos outside our house from now until October. Our entire street is torn up and we’ve lost a good chunk of our front lawn. The street is being widened and new sewer and water pipes are being installed. It’s been an inconvenience (not to mention ugly and noisy), but when it’s done everything will look new and pretty!

the summer of construction.

To escape from some of the ugly and add some privacy, Dan put up some lattice pannels on our front porch. I absolutely love it! It’s like we have an extra living space now. We bought a small patio set for out there and how have a nice cool place to sit back and relax (after all of the construction crews have left).  And look how much my gardens are filling out!

My gardens are filling out.

But the really BIG thing that we have recently done is having painted all of the awful orange wood paneling that covered our entryway, stairs and upstairs hall. It wasn’t your average wood paneling. It’s this deep-grained, shiny, horrible orange paneling that was a nightmare to paint (and in general, a nightmare to look at). None of the corners or seams were finished very well so we went through a ton of spackle. I think at one point, part of one of the walls in the entryway was used as a bulletin board, or possibly a dart board… it was absolutely covered in holes.  Underneath the paneling is more crumbly lathe and plaster, which eventually will be removed. But, for anyone who has done that before you’ll know it’s a terribly dusty job, and not one I want to do with a small baby crawling around the house! The house feels so much brighter and cleaner now.

This window seat is what made me first love this house.

How our house looked when we bought it, and after we installed new flooring.

We keep toying with the idea of moving, but every time I look at the houses in our modest price-range, I never see anything that even compares to how much I like this house (warts and all). Maybe I’m just sentimental because we have done so much work to it. There is still so much to do… it is overwhelming. But each time we finish one project, I begin to love our little house even more!!!

Isabel started crawling a few weeks ago, pretty much right at the 8 month mark. Life is now really hectic. She’s pulling herself up to standing and cruising around on her own around furniture. I can’t believe how much she has changed in just a few weeks. She’s starting to really be like a kid now!  She has 6 little teeth, is nibbling on finger foods (she is a cookie monster!), gives slobbery wet kisses, and says “dada” pretty much non stop.  She’s a total cutie, and if you follow my Instagram you can get lots of Isabel Spam.

Making the house less… ugly.

Uncategorized April 15, 2012

 Hurray! Our shutters are up.  They fill up the void of the upper level nicely.  Now, if it would just stay warm enough for me to pain the front porch and get some flower beds started… At least our grass is starting to grow on the front lawn.  I’m starting to see more houses like ours around town, but ours seems to be a little different with the spaced apart windows on the second floor, the beams, and stucco… Ours is also much taller than others I’ve seen.  There is standing room in our attic, and the ceilings in the upper floor are very high.  It is such an unusual house, I just love it so much!

We live on a busy street so I am a little concerned about putting too much out on my front porch.  Have you ever had thing go missing from the front of your house? We have a huge front porch that one day, I’d love the have a wicker chair and love seat for…. but for now this little bench and shelf will do!

I made 3 16×16 cushions.  One ruffled, one with a bow, and one with our Monogram, which I cut out of fabric, glued onto my cushion, then with embroidery thread, did a running stitch around.  In all, the 3 cushions, including forms, cost $30.  I added long pieces of ribbon to the back to tie them down to my bench so they don’t blow away…

I think I am back to work now…

Uncategorized February 2, 2012

Well, like most things, moving and fixing up our house took longer than expected, and I am sad to have completely missed the Valentines Day rush, treasuries, features, etc, etc… another year, I suppose!
However, we do pretty much have the house up and running. We’ve been living here for a full month now and it’s finally starting to feel like home. Everything is moved in, save for a few things stored at my parents house, curtains have been sewn, and I’m already planning paint colours for the exterior of our little barn-house.
Everyday, I walk down the stairs in utter amazement. I’m so proud of Dan and I, and so thankful for all of the work my Mom & Dad, cousins, uncles & aunts have put into our house over the last week. It felt like an old fashioned barn-raising here with all of my family over to help, everyone hurrying around finishing up projects. I am so grateful to have the family I have.
I’ve got my sewing machines all set up to get back to business this weekend. I am planning on retiring old designs, holding a sample sale, and listing a bunch of new things come spring. In the meantime, I am keeping Ohhh Lulu on vacation until I can get myself better organized. Plus, I’d like to give myself a break. I’ve done a lot over the last several months, between getting married and buying a house! 🙂
Though… I say that now, and I’m sure this weekend I’ll sew something up that I won’t be able to resist listing on Etsy!!!

Getting back to real life soon…

Uncategorized January 12, 2012
Life is slowly returning to normal. We still have not unpacked and are having to find our way around tools and saw dust, but lots has happened.

In the Bathroom we re-tiled over the 1970’s green tile. We can’t afford to replace the Harvest Gold Bathtub or “rose print” tiles quite yet, so we tried to think of a colour scheme that will work. We chose black stick tiles, and a sunny yellow for the walls. We are now on the search for some white, grey and yellow fabric for a shower curtain. This weekend we are going to try removing the rest of the tracking for the shower doors. Last night we replaced the fittings for the tub hot and cold handles and the spout. Dan sprayed water everywhere, a traditional plumbing initiation practice in these parts.
We painted our cupboards and laid laminate floor down over the old tile floor in the kitchen and foyer. First we put up jack posts in the basement to support the staircase which has a serious slope. Everything got painted, cleaned, and we got our appliances. Looks like a very messy, but very fancy kitchen now. I can hardly believe I’m still allowed to live here! We kept some of the quirky things, like the funny railing along the top of the cupboards and the wood panelling on the walls.
My dad and my uncle have rewired part of our basement and much of our main floor. We knew the house had some knob and tube wiring, but we didn’t realize how poorly the house was wired… so I feel much safer now.
This lovely, rotted old piece of wood was what was supposed to be supporting our stair case. It’s no wonder the stairs were a little slanty… and bouncy!

Our washer and dryer are coming on Saturday, which is great because I am starting to smell bad. We are going to hopefully be picking up a few more pieces of furniture on Sunday at an auction sale, and at that point, we will really be ready to unpack and get back to normal… Which I am very much looking forward to.