The First of Many Adjustments

I am fully aware that our house isn’t baby proof. In fact, if I had given birth to a toddler — first of all OUCH — and second of all we’d have all kinds of child protective service cars over here.

I’m going to have to start figuring out how to make our house more kid-friendly. I know I have to eventually figure out what to do with all of the houseplants. I’ll need to make sure none of them are toxic, and the ones that are within reach are going to have to either be super glued or removed or else I’m going to have dirt all over the carpet and a toddler who’s extremely proud of herself.

Until that day comes — we still have, what? like a year? — I’ve started making small adjustments. A small, but necessary one, was simply switching the two end tables by the love seat to accommodate the GINORMOUS baby swing.

 

That big lamp looks a little strange on that small stool, but I didn’t want to move the light source. That would’ve thrown my mojo outta whack and I would’ve been even more off-kilter than I normally am. I realized that I love the large table by the green chair, so I’m probably going to get a glass round top for the ceramic stool, when things get switched back.

Another non-baby-related change was just simplifying things. I think my OCD is starting to slightly heighten because of all the baby supplies that are strewn around the room. I wanted less “stuff” out. I obviously can’t get rid of the baby junk, so I simplified the credenza and the fireplace mantel.

 

I know, I got rid of the awesome twinkly lights on the mantel, but you know what? The little monster inside my head named Obsessive Compulsive Phil (yeah, I just named him. So what.) is quiet now. Removing all the extra decor was like giving O.C. Phil a shot of Jack and a little hammock. He’s just minding his own business now.

I know, I know. All you moms are laughing your little demonic laugh right now, armed with the knowledge that the toy situation is going to get 10x worse before it gets any better.

The secret (not-so-secret) plan is to make a wooden drawer that will slide under the credenza to corral toys. More on that later! It’s in the works. And by “works” I mean Steve and I have had a single discussion about it. We’re hoping to really get started on it soon.

I hope you people are enjoying Spring. Tie up those snow boots extra tight!

Modifixes: Installment 1

One cold and rainy Saturday I took a good look around my home and realized I have a lot of little house-related tricks that make my life a whole lot easier. I’ve always had this obsession with constantly trying to make things more efficient and less of a hassle. I get that from my mom; my dad calls her The Modifixer. (Why? Because he’s foreign and likes to mix up English words on purpose.) That phrase–which is a combination of modifying and fixing things–just sort of stuck, and now it’s a commonly used term around both of our homes.

I thought this could be a recurring feature on the blog, and I encourage you to share your modifixes (Dude, seriously WordPress. Add that word to the dictionary, already.) in the comments!

Modifix #1: A sewing machine

This isn’t so much a modifix as it is something that I recommend for all somewhat-crafty homeowners. It has changed my life. There is a whole door of projects that opened once this bad boy came home with me.

Modifix #2: A timer

Ever sit in your family room and suddenly think, “How the hell’d it get so dark in here?” Putting a timer on one of my focal-point lamps is probably one of my favorite tricks. It comes on and turns off at the same time every night, and it’s something I never have to mess with. It’s also a nice reminder to get my booty into bed on a work night.

Modifix #3: Drawer dividers

This is such a simple thing, and I know most of you are face-palming right now. My life was made so much easier after putting in these dividers. I can actually FIND THINGS now. I know! It’s a ridiculous realization. Gone are the days of cursing and rummaging through my utensil drawer while a delicious questionable meal is burning cooking on the stove.

I thought I’d throw this one in there, too.

As a woman with weak hands–seriously–I recommend that orange/red jar opener thingy. It will change your life.

Modifix #4: A step-stool

The dog in the background is an optional purchase. Although they do make life pretty grand. I’ve never had a step-stool until recently because I’m pretty tall, but the last few times I’ve needed to reach up high into the pantry this guy saved the day. I want to make him a little superhero cape. See Modifix #1.

Modifix #5: A cereal container for bird seed

I’m not even going to tell you how many times I’ve cut a small hole in a bag of bird seed, gone to fill up my feeder, and then Three-Stooges-Style watched the bird seed spill and cover every surface imaginable. You know why I’m not going to tell you how many times? Because the number is too high to count. Use this trick. Do yourself a favor. You never want the birds to get the impression that they’re smarter than you. Haven’t you ever seen that movie?

Modifix #6: An easily accessible tool box

Keeping a few common tools in the pantry assures that I never have to run into the garage in my socks to grab something as simple as a hammer. We keep our whole lot of tools locked up (there are a lot of them) so it’s exceptionally brilliant to keep a handful of useful tools within easy reach. Except I have no idea what the hell that white tube thingy is.

Modifix #7: Hidden pantry cork boards

I grabbed a 4-pack of these sticky cork board panels and hot-glued them (the stickiness didn’t hold over time) inside one of our central cabinets. It’s a great place for receipts, take-out menus, or anything that you don’t want tucked too far away.

Modifix #8: An olive oil dispenser

This guy is decorative in the sense that I pour the olive oil from its original bottle into this “decorative” bottle, but it’s also extremely functional. Because it sits out I always have easy access to it. I use olive oil all the time when I cook, so having this close by cuts down on trips to the pantry.

Modifix #9: A jewelry corral

Yes, I have my jewelry stored and organized in an ocd-like manner. But sometimes when I get home from work I like to de-jewelify by tossing my favorites into this ceramic dish. It keeps everything together without me having to meticulously put everything away every single time I get home.

Modifix #10: A small space heater

This guy. Let me tell you about this guy. I used to crank up the heat in the whole house while I got up early and started getting ready for work. Who likes to get ready in a cold house? Not this girl, no sir. I got wise and realized that’s not really the most efficient way to do things, and now I just have this little $10 space heater in the bathroom for my morning routine. It heats up the room quickly and is much cheaper than cranking up the thermostat.

Modifix #11: A hair utensil rack

I picked up this bad boy at Ikea (thank you to the good people of Sweden) and he lives behind the wall that separates the vanity and the toilet. He’s hidden back there, but it’s also just an easy reach in the morning to grab my most necessary hair accessories. The best part is I can put my straightener away hot, and the other best part is I’m less likely to burn down the house, because I know if it’s back there in its home then it’s not plugged in anymore. One point for the good guys.

Modifix #12: A basket for mail

You know how when you get mail there are always some things you toss into the recycle bin immediately, and some things that require your attention but you’re too tired from work or fighting dragons or whatever to even think about it? Well, I got tired of papers all over the place, but I also didn’t have the energy to give those papers my full attention. We developed this little basket dealy to corral our papers until we could sit down and go through them at one time. It keeps the counter tops clean and prevents us from losing anything important.

The end.

Those are my 12 Modifixes for this fine Friday. 12 is a rather random number, but we’ll just pretend I planned it like that. Anyone else have anything good to add?

If that doesn’t get you ramped up for a little Saturday organization party, than I don’t know what will.

Have a great weekend, party people!

Better Than Twilight

This saga I’m about to tell blows Twilight out of the water. But I’m on Team WhoGivesAHoot, so that’s probably not difficult by my standards.

Let me start off by defending my totally bad-ass husband, and add a disclaimer: the reason this project took so long is because of his long work hours (you know, at his real job), and the fact that neither of us had ever done this before. Learn from our mistakes, people. This is me, grabbing around your collar and shaking you vigorously: LEARN FROM OUR  MISTAKES.

Caulking. Hold your fire; you don’t have to make any jokes about that word because I used them all up throughout the course of this project. Black caulk, white caulk, your caulk is leaking… we have that topic covered.

This 11 day project started because of a simple problem: the old, dark green paint was left on all of the caulking around the entire master bathroom.

It wasn’t the painters fault – their job was to paint, not replace any caulk. It was really nobody’s fault, just something that happens when you switch from a saturated, dark color to a light and airy one.

It was all we could see when we looked at the bathroom.

Enter: the tools. I thought we would just buy this cute little yellow packet of tools, go to town, fix ‘er up, drink a margarita, and call it a day. And then unicorns were going to give me a manicure while I farted rainbows.

Ho, ho hooooo boy was I wrong.

This is me starting to scrape away the discolored caulk (::snicker::)

Yeah, plastic tools kinda suck. This is what I was left with:

Then steps in my beastly husband and his all-powerful tool set. I’m not even sure what tool he used. It looked like a chisel? I don’t know, anything past a hammer or a screwdriver and I’m basically nose down in a dictionary.

I can practically hear Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting in the background. So, imagine this level of destruction, all the way around the bathroom. After some spackling and primer we were left with a pretty good-looking wall.

By this point a few days had gone by, and Steve attempted to paint the wall, and then run a bead of caulking along the seam. And wouldn’t you know it? IT DIDN’T WORK. Every single time he had problems. We realized it was because we weren’t taping off the walls to protect the paint from the caulk when it was spread, so he would rub the caulking off to try it again, and then all of the paint and primer and spackling would rub off. So, that step was completed multiple times. Frustrating. Very frustrating.

So, that being said, that’s where the majority of the extra days went. This project wouldn’t have taken so long if we would’ve just used the method below.

ATTENTION: USE THE METHOD BELOW (Please, please, please save yourself many gray hairs and loud bursts of profanity, and just follow the next few steps.)

Ok, so let’s pretend this is where we started. La Tee Daaa, here we are. The wall is spackled, and then was promptly primed and painted.

We taped off the wall to allow just a small crease where the caulking would go.

Excuse the terrible quality. I was zoomed in from across the room. I didn’t want to disturb the master. You know how you feel when you’re watching a superhero movie and you’re practically holding your breath during the epic fight scene at the end, afraid to breathe because you just want the good guy to win so badly? That’s how I felt watching Steve vs. The Caulking. And he totally won. It was awesome.

You can see why the tape was needed. This phase, where you spread out the caulk so it seals the crack, gets quite messy if you don’t have the tape. Steve totally owned this round.

While everything was still wet, he ripped that tape off. Well, more like gingerly pulled it up.

TA DAH!

You guys, I seriously wasn’t sure if we were going to make it through this project. You ever have one of those ideas that you think is going to take you a day, and it turns out taking 11 days? ELEVEN DAYS. 11 days of spackling everywhere, drying paintbrushes cluttering the sinks, rollers, and tools strewn about the room. Yeah, I was over it. But I can’t even tell you how proud I am of my never-give-up lumberjack. Thanks to his patience this project is now over and looks truly incredible. I didn’t really do anything but wipe his sweat and snap a few photos. All the credit goes to Steve on this one.

The moral of this story is when the going gets tough give up and drink a cocktail keep trying until you get it right. It’ll happen.

The end.

Cords: BE GONE

Today I’m going to show you how Steve managed to be AWESOME by hiding all of our TV cords. He manages to be pretty awesome pretty often, but this time was even more impressive than usual.

I will warn you. This post is going to be a lot of me sounding like I know what I’m talking about. I don’t. I mean, it’s a super simple process, but Steve was the one doing all the work. I just watched and batted my eyelashes, and snapped a few pictures.

Here are the pieces we started with (purchased at Lowes):

After Steve marked where the holes needed to go in the wall it was time to cut them out. NEW TOY ALERT! Dry wall saw…

I have to tell you guys that the tape was my idea. At least I contributed something to this process. We recommend taping the first side you cut so you don’t lose a square of dry wall into the abyss that is your family room wall.

(Sorry about the blurriness. AHEM. ::eyelashes still batting:: I’m still working on a new camera.)

After your hole is cut you just pop these little orange fellas in place. I’m all over the technical terms for this tutorial.

See those arrows? Once you have the plastic piece in there, you flip those little guys down. Once this step is done, go ahead and repeat it for the second hole (AKA the cord exit), which usually falls behind a credenza, or whatever your TV was once sitting on.

After you slip all of your cords through, it’s time for the white cover piece.

Done! Now you’re ready to hang your TV, which should already be done. The whole point of hanging the TV first is so you know where these two white boxes should go. (But then, of course, you have to remove the TV to go through this whole process.)

Look Ma — no cords!

I’ll tell you what: this makes me happier than a hippo with a sandwich. Seeing all of that clean wall space between the TV and the credenza, and then the credenza and the floor is greater than or equal to my wedding day. That’s JUST HOW AWESOME THIS IS. Ok, maaaaybe not greater than… but close.

If you slide open the left cover this is what you’ll see:

See that white arrow? You can sorta see the hole that Steve had to cut in the back of the MINT CONDITION, 1950′S CREDENZA from NORWAY. Gasp! I know. But if it’s not functional in our house, it’s not staying. I know some of you wouldn’t dare cut up a piece of furniture like this, but it’ll be ours forever and ever and it works perfectly now. And I’m not really the “mint condition” kinda girl anyways.

It’s the weirdest thing, but now the family room really feels settled. Just to have the TV tucked away with no cords screaming out for my attention really seals the deal.

What do you guys think? Think you’ll give this a try? If you have any questions feel free to send us an email (info in the “about section) and we’ll (Steve) answer any questions you have.

Hope you enjoyed this! Big Gulps, eh? Welp, see ya later!

Psst! Will you take my two second survey?

How Do I Love Thee…

Let me count the ways.

Except I won’t count… I’ll spare you the monotony. But I will tell you that I am still extremely obsessed with our credenza. Remember where we last left off, and I had only showed you one measly picture?

Well, right now we are in step two of a three-step process. Step two being: Hang The TV on the Wall.

Step three, which is hopefully happening tonight, involves hiding ALL THE CORDS behind the wall. Steve already got all of his new toys, including a drywall saw, so he’s rip-roaring and ready to go. I could use the power of Photoshop to show you what it’s going to look like with out the cords hanging everywhere, but where’s the fun in that? It sorta takes away some of the surprise of the reveal after the sweat and hard work. (Well, Steve’s sweat and hard work, at least.) It’s going to look radical, though. I assure you.

And while I had the camera out I thought I may as well snap a few pictures of these two adjoining rooms since it’s probably been a while since I’ve had you all over. So, kick off your shoes and stay awhile.

The lingering family room projects include finishing that table under the gallery wall (the top is completely torn apart and raw) and finding The Most Perfect ottoman to swap with that coffee table. I also have some new pillows on the way from Joss & Main.

Also, lately the crazy inside my head has been curious about that gallery wall, and what it would look like if it was not as tall and spanned the width of that entire wall, encompassing the newly wall-mounted television. The TV would sort of look like just another picture among the gallery, and that wall might feel more cohesive. Just a fleeting thought. To my husband, if you’re reading this, no I am not on any medication nor have I been drinking.

The view into the kitchen is one of my faves. The chandelier, the three birdie pictures, the floating shelves, the loud rug… I love it all. I want to put it all inside a pita pocket and inhale it. Maybe with a little tahini.

The pop of green from that chair makes me ridiculously happy. And yes, it is as comfy as it looks.

Okay, enough house porn. I know I need to go through the rest of the house and document, but nothing is really finished as much as these two rooms. Although I know you would all love to see the work in progress, so I’ll promise to work on getting those pictures rounded up. And even though I call these rooms “finished,” they’re forever a work in progress.

Back to the credenza.

I grabbed some books from my collection to style this bad boy, as well as one of my favorite planters from Anthropologie, and my dad’s old Twin-lens reflex camera.

So, what do you think? Just the simple act of hanging the TV made that whole side of the room feel more finished.

I can’t wait to see the image above without the cords below the TV and dragging on the floor. Cords are my arch nemesis. My disgust for them is on par with my feelings for Mariah Carey.

Now that THAT’S off my chest… I hope to be back soon with more pictures.

Have a tubular Tuesday, everyone!

Skeletons in our Garage

I have a dark secret. A very dark secret.

Our garage hasn’t been touched since the day we moved in.

As in, all of the junk that we plopped on the counter tops and stacked in the corner on move-in day haven’t moved. I know. I’m ashamed of myself.

It looks much worse when you’re all up in it. Old paint cans everywhere, tools stacked like the worst Jenga game you’ve ever seen. Just absolute chaos.

We were able to use some of the hooks from the previous home owners, but for the most part stuff was just leaning against the walls.

We had a lot to tackle last weekend so instead of taking on the entire garage we settled on just half of it. It seemed more manageable and probable that it would actually get done if we cut the job in half.

Here is what’s wrong with this picture:

It may not look all that bad but the way this side of the garage was set up wasn’t practical and needed a good cleaning. Jimmy Hoffa could’ve been stuffed behind that pressure tank and we wouldn’t have even known it.

First step was to pull everything away from the wall, start cleaning, and get rid of what we don’t want (which was basically everything in that white cabinet — left over from the previous home owners, of course).

We sprayed down the white cabinet with the hose once it was empty, and obviously Olive got sprayed down, too. Because, we had the hose out… why not? Every time she gets a bath she darts around like an escaped mental patient.

Also, as we were in the midst of our cleaning session I spotted this:

If that isn’t just the smuggest skeleton face I’ve ever seen. That expression looks like he ripped a huge fart and is just waiting for the room to get hit with the funk.

Are you ready for the most non-dramatic reveal ever?

Ta-dah!

I know it doesn’t look like much, but trust me when I tell you this feels like an entirely different space now.

Here’s a break down so you don’t have to scroll all the way to the top:

Getting out of my car is so much less stressful now. I don’t have to shimmy past all of the junk to get in the house anymore. We took a bunch of old gardening and yard chemicals to Tox Drop (dispose of those properly!!) which really cleared out that white cabinet. Now it’s virtually empty and when we tackle the other side of the garage we can load it with tools.

It felt really good to be able to re-purpose our old TV stand as a vertical shelf, too. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, people! All of those loose, small items that were scattered on the garage floor now have their very own cubby. Just like kindergarten.

Oh, and you could totally eat off that pressure tank, now. And behind it. Just sayin’.

Now all we have to do is organize the second half. ALL WE HAVE TO DO. See how I just made that sound really easy? Yeah, it’s not. Steve wants to come up with a “plan.” Plans make things sound like a lot of work.

I suggested just throwing everything away but got vetoed.

Have you guys been up to any spring cleaning? Doesn’t it feel good to get rid of stuff? Olive better watch her back: I’m on a purging kick.

 

 

 

 

 

Bundles of Joy Set to Arrive

This weekend two of my favorite women are gracing me with their presence: my mom, and her best friend Linda. (If you read about our wedding in the tab above, we had our wedding at Linda’s house, AND she married us!)

I’m so excited to have them here and to finally be able to show Linda the house. I’m sure we’ll spend the evening gabbing, ingesting copious amounts of wine, and hanging out on the deck; the three of us have a grand ole time together.

Not only are the two of them visiting — which would’ve been enough — but they are driving here in Linda’s beastly SUV which is (hopefully) big enough to bring……. MY CREDENZA! You guys didn’t forget about the most perfect antique shop find in the world, did you?

Here she is to jog your memory:

My levels of excitement are off the charts. I am finally going to have this baby in my house, where she belongs. You better believe I’m going to take a kajillion pictures for you guys. Is it weird that I want to sleep out in the family room with her on her first night at home? I just want her to feel comfortable. Give her a glass of water if she’s thirsty. You know, the usual way to treat a new piece of furniture.

As if I needed anymore excitement, they’re hoping to fit a few more large objects that have been held hostage at my parents house because of a lack of transportation options.

Behold, The Temple Rubbing:

This picture is about 7 years old, and it’s from my old house where I had this bad boy proudly displayed in my family room. Isn’t it stunning? I want it for our bedroom, but that entire sheet of glass is fragile, heavy, and huge, so we’ve had no way to get it here in the past. If it fits in Linda’s car I am going to probably freak out. I’ve been longing to have this back in my home since we moved in.

As I’m sure you’ve already assumed, this artwork was passed down to me from my parents, like most of my artwork. It was originally a gift from my Aunt to my parents — from Singapore, I believe — that they had framed. Collecting interesting artwork is really becoming a passion of mine. I’m lucky to have parents who once felt the same.

And last but not least in this SUV / Tetris extravaganza is a large cedar chest from my parents bedroom that I’d like to put at the foot of our bed.

That picture isn’t the actual chest — just something similar I found on Google — but it gives you the idea. My parents cedar chest looks almost identical, but without the scrolly bottom.

Can you imagine what their car is going to look like loaded up? We’ll see if it all fits. My main concern is getting them here safely, then the credenza, and anything else is just a total bonus. After they leave Saturday morning there’s a good chance I’m going to have a tea party with all of my new furniture and artwork. To get re-antiquated. Oh, how I’ve missed them.

I can’t wait to see my mom and Linda, and as if that wasn’t exciting enough… our two dear friends Angela, and Christian are coming to visit us on Saturday! (They were mentioned in this post.) This weekend is going to be full of good times. It’s only Thursday and already I’m getting so excited. I just have to make it through two more days…

 

Wine Wednesday

Wine Wednesday, which serendipitously coincides with Hump Day, is something I’ve completely made up. Obviously. But it’s fun all the same, don’t ya think? There’s nothing like crafting with a little alcohol in your system.

Remember my little succulent slash window display in the master bathroom?

After seeing it all together I decided I wanted to remove the screen and the weird mini blind on the octagonal window. Alas, a project is never that easy; I ran into a teeny privacy issue. The issue being our neighbors could see all of our business. Which isn’t good in the bathroom if you catch my drift. Or Whiff. Whatever. Moving on.

I knew I needed to get some frosty windows up in there. After I removed the cross section I was left with a big ole gaping hole that looked directly into our neighbors screened-in porch.

“HI! Whatcha doing? Sipping on a cocktail — nice! Oh, me? I’m just picking my nose. Don’t mind me.”

I’m sure everyone has their own method for the contact paper application process, but I’ve learned the best way for me is to first make a template. I made mine out of magazine pages; I started with one page up top, and taped as I went around the perimeter.

I was left with a very strange-but-kinda-cool stained-glass window effect.

After I had my template made I poured myself a glass of wine (WINE WEDNESDAY!) and rolled out the frosted paper.

Wouldn’t you know it? My contact paper was just a smidge too short. My on-the-fly problem-solving skillz hinted at some sort of splicing method. So instead of cutting one large piece I cut two, and made sure the cut was in a place where the seam could later be hidden behind the cross bars.

And then I took a sip of wine. Because my husband was at work and I was bored. And drinking wine helps me hone in on my problem-solving skillz, so realistically I just helped myself out of a pickle.

My ADD finally kicked in when I glanced out the window and my eyes landed on our bird feeder. I had to take a picture of this. Excuse this conversation I’m about to have with my mom: MOM! A Mourning Dove was on my feeder! Isn’t that just the strangest thing, since they’re ground feeders, and all? I thought he was pretty brave for trying to wedge himself on the feeder. Oh! Also, I had gold finches for the first time yesterday. Big news in Bird Land.

Ok, back to the window frost. After I had my contact paper cut to fit my window, all I had to do next was get that glass squeaky clean. Wasn’t it a beautiful day?

After peeling the backing off of the contact paper, I started from the top of the window and carefully placed the sticky side of the frosted paper on the glass, working my way down.

After it was in place, the next step was to push all of the tiny air bubbles out with a credit card. No fancy tools needed.

Then I followed the same process with the bottom half of the contact paper. Peal, stick, push out bubbles. It really is that simple. I mean, come on. Anything you can do while drinking should be able to be narrowed down into 3 steps.

BADA BOOM BADA BING

And just like that, I was done. I hung the cross bars back into place, and they lovingly covered up my exposed seam.

Much better, don’t you think?

Now that the screen is gone, light floods the room and sprinkles a little sugar on my succulents.

Our bathroom is lacking decor but I’m okay with that for right now. I’d eventually like to get something up behind the tub, but I am immensely enjoying the light and bright, zen-like bathroom each morning. I love starting off my day in an open, airy, and uncluttered room.

The mini space heater doesn’t hurt, either.

And now I don’t have to worry about turning the corner into the bathroom and immediately regretting deciding to de-robe in the bedroom. I’m sure the teenage neighbor boys are disappointed with our new frosted windows.

Happy Wine Wednesday and Hump Day. I hope you use the both of those to the best of your abilities.