Fireplace Makeover Part Deux & "In Other Matters"

I've been pretty much taking it easy the last couple of days since last week proved to be rather exhausting. We're really enjoying the cleaned up and reorganized playroom/office/sunroom (pictures below). It will probably be quite a while before we get around to remodeling this space, so for now I'm content with just "fixing it up" as best I can. For now, we're having to store some of the "treasures" that I've lugged home in here as well, but they seem to fit in ok and it doesn't look so much like a used furniture store like it did when we stored them in our kitchen/dining area.

For some reason that I'm sure we'll discover in the future when we work on this room, it doesn't heat and cool well at all. It's probably a combination of all the windows, the high ceiling, the probable lack of adequate insulation, and the way the heating and air system is laid out in this house. I brought in a rug that I had been storing in the garage to put down over the cold tile floor. All the girls' toy baskets are in here and they love sprawling out on the rug and playing. When I took this photo, the room was kind of a mess, but my little Z had her friend over and they had spent forever setting up their Barbie things. I wanted to leave everything "just so" for when they resumed playing after their naps:) The old fixer-upper dresser is another item we're storing in here for now. It actually provides a nice 'drywall dust free' surface for me to display some photos:)




We have an oversized chair in the corner and this week we brought in a tall, farmhouse style bookshelf to house the girls' books. We placed it right next to the chair, and behind the chair, we added a reading light. It's a nice, cozy corner now. I have to keep plenty of snuggly blankets handy on extra cold days.



Our computer area is small...just a tiny oak desk and a couple of ladderback chairs. We figured that if they had computers in the olden days, they probably sat in a good old fashioned chairs:) I have two in here because often the girls use the computer in pairs. One to play the games, one to watch while eagerly waiting for her turn. A couple of months ago, I found an antique, padded headboard at a junkstore. It has beautiful carved wooden legs and all. The upholstery needs to be redone, but that is yet another future project. I decided to just stick it behind our desk until we can move it into our garage. For now, it kind of makes a neat place to thumbtack the children's artwork:)



On to the fireplace, you may remember that several weeks ago, I replaced the old tiles with new. They looked much better, but they almost looked *too* new and too contemporary. Also, the new tiles are a very light shade of beige and I was beginning to worry that once we put the nice, cheerful yellow on the walls, the fireplace in it's new light beigeness would still look too beige, out of place and flat. I really wanted the firplace to pop since it's such a big visial part of our small living room.

I noticed that there was still quite a bit of white grout film left on the hearth. But I really liked the way it looked! It lightened the tiles and gave them a limewashed effect. So I decided to apply another thin layer of grout over the entire tiled surfaced. Once dried, this gave the somewhat smooth, beige, pitted tiles a whiter, rougher surface. The next day, I mixed white limestone wash (it has a slightly sandy texture) with some white glaze. In a random motion, I applied it to the tiles. When it dried, I had the look that I was after! It reminds me of old whitewashed bricks...perfect for a cottage environment:) Btw, I still need to seal the tile with some matte sealer. That will be the final step.





Now, time will tell if our fireplace will have a Makeover Part Trois. I still haven't been able to find out if it is safe to use high heat paint oil based paint on the brass insert. If it is ok to use, I would love to cover over the brass with a black or dark bronze paint. (Edited on 3/6/06 to say that the brass insert has been painted...go here to see photos!)

Ahh, The Melodious Sound of a Flushing Toilet

I am pleased to announce that our plumbing system is back on track. After spending *a l l d a y* working on the lines, Jeff and his dad got things straightened out. As of this morning, and even with some very heavy duty drain opening chemicals poured in last night, the clog in one of our plumbing lines wouldn't budge. It was somewhere near our septic tank but they couldn't get to it with the snake. They discovered that the PO had built the sunroom on top of part of the septic tank (I know...unbelievable) which makes it extremely difficult to access all of the line. (Grrrr!) I didn't retain all the details hubs relayed to me about the problem and how they fixed it, but basically, they laid a new line that is much more accessible and easier to snake if need be in the future. So all seems to be fine now. He forgot one plumbing part at Home Depot so we can't use the kitchen sink or dishwasher tonight, but I don't feel like doing those mountains of dishes now anyway.

Today I worked really hard on our office/playroom/sunroom, scrubbing the tile and doing a quasi 'spring cleaning' of sorts. I still have a few toys to sort and we have a couple pieces of furniture to bring in, but hopefully that will get done tomorrow. Our place is still pretty much upside down. I basically purposely turned our (already upside down) house inside out to give it a good decluttering and cleaning (the house looked/looks like it threw up) - and in the midst of it all, we had the plumbing emergency which added to the chaos. Oy. The chaos just overwhelmed me today and I would have cried, too, had I not been so busy trying to get control of it. I finally made it over to Eese's house to take a nice,long, wonderful bath. I felt so much better afterwards. The girls all had a bath, too, but I'm sure they didn't appreciate theirs half as much as I appreciated mine! Thanks, Eese!

I think I'll go flush the toilet now, just because I can.

Plumbing Woes

Since our bathroom demolition, the five of us have been reduced to using one tiny half bathroom. As if that isn't challenging enough, last night our one and only toilet rebelled against us and refused to flush. We're not quite sure what the problem was, but we figure it has something to do with the fact that we have three girls who love to use toilet paper. They go through it like air here. Anyway, the toilet filled up with water to the point of almost overflowing, but fortunately it didn't. Jeff plunged and plunged to no avail. By this morning, the toilet water had gone down and he was able to flush. All seemed fine until a couple of hours later when the bowl filled up again. Did I mention that our washing machine water backed up into our tub last night as well? So something is definitely wonky with our plumbing system. Jeff crawled up under the house last night to inspect and he says that it seems that there is a clog in an elbow shaped pipe. So he's on his way home now with a 50 ft long snake to try to unplug it.

Forgetting all of these plumbing woes, this morning I made myself a delicious cup of coffee flavored with Hazelnut creamer and whipped cream on top. Normally, this would be a perfect way to get my day started. However today - I'm afraid it was a mistake.

I could really use a bathroom right now.

Virtual Fun with Paint

I've enjoyed testing some of the colors that I've picked out for the house with the Lowes online virtual painting software . Below is a photo of what my kitchen cabinets *should* look like when they are finished. Mind you, the photo is not one of *my* kitchen, but it is just used to show how the wall and cabinet colors will look together. I think I've finally, for the 12th time, decided on Homestead Resort Parlor Sage for the walls. Yeah, I know. Last time it was something different, and the time before that, too. But I've decided to try and only use historic colors and this one is quite pretty, though it is a little darker in the photo than it's suppose to be. See how the kitchen and dining concepts are starting to coordinate? Remember, it's all one big room.




I'm still having trouble picking a final color for the living room. Everytime I think I have it, I start doubting myself. I really don't know if I should go with an ever so slightly orangy yellow, or a "yellow-er" yellow, or with a light yellow. Here are the three historical colors that I'm bending my brain around. Ugh. This is hard!







Saturday, Jeff and I got some work done around here, though I didn't get anything primed as I had planned. I needed to finish (yes, I said FINISH! I'm finished!) my last stencils, sand them all a bit, and then wipe down the walls. Jeff worked in our gutted bathroom. He moved the bathroom door over 10 inches to the right to keep it from banging into the newly relocated toilet (the toilet isn't installed yet, but when it is installed, we don't want to be whacking it - or whoever is sitting on it- with the door everytime we walk in). We also brought in the new vanities/sinks to try to get an idea of where we want them installed.

Before the weekend is out, I would like to get our living room ceiling painted and maybe the kitchen primed. We shall see:)

It really does get worse before it gets better...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my finally finishing up the "old pitted wall" effect that I'm adding to the walls in the dining room, kitchen and living room. I thought I'd share a few photos of me in action, hehe. As you may recall, I plastered my entire living room back several months ago, but I used a different technique (which later I decided I didn't like...so I did-it-all-again using the above mentioned technique). It goes without saying that I'm really sick of drywall mud now, lol. Notice me below giving my new bucket of drywall compound the "evil eye":)




After all the mudding was done this time around, the dreaded "light" sanding began. However light it was, it still created an awful mess that took FOREVER to clean up. Fortunately, the kidlets were out of the house for day so at least there wasn't the pitter patter of little feet through all the dust! Here's a shot of what my living room looked like right after sanding the walls:



Joy.

I wanted to also post a few pics of my husbands handywork. A few weeks back, he moved the unsightly,ill placed, and disorganized electical junction box from our hallway to inside of our laundry room/pantry area.

A couple of before shots of the box when we opened up the panel and wall...the sloppy wiring really drove my husband nuts!





And now, a few shots of the neat and tidy relocated panel. The first one is of the new location before the panel was installed. See the shelving with all the lined up canned goods? That, too, is an example of his handywork:)







I would be remiss if I didn't post a photo of one of our little helpers at work. Our oldest daughter is shown here priming a few exterior trim pieces for her daddy. That was one less thing his *bigger* little helper (Me!) didn't have to do! Thanks, dear!



In the latest renovation news, we're inching our way closer to painting. I have about four more plaster stencils to put up and a little more sanding before we start priming the ceiling and walls. Before we actually breathe life into the walls with color, I may go ahead and get started cleaning and priming the kitchen cabinets. Believe it or not, I'm actually starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

As promised, photos of my ceiling fan makeover

Well, I'm finished with the fan project and just put the blades back on this morning. As you can see in the "before" picture below, our living room fan was a standard fake wood grain/yellow brass ceiling fan. With a couple of coats of anodized bronze metal paint, it is remarkably changed with a whole different style.

Before:


After:


Yet another After:

Ceiling fan makeover! Good-bye yellow brass!

I haven't updated in a little while...everyone here has been sick (and I was on a several day fast/cleanse and was not at all focussed on work!), so not too terribly much has been happening around the house.

But I do have to share my ceiling fan makeover story. I really don't like ceiling fans in general but I do know that in some cases, they are absolutely necessary...like in our living room, for instance. Our ceiling is very high and we need the fan in the winter to push down the warm air when the fireplace is being used and we need it in the summer to keep a nice breeze going. I would love to see a simplistic chandelier in place of our ugly shiny-yellow-brass-with-fake-wood-grain-blades fan, but I know that function trumped beauty in this case. Until now, anyway.

I spent some time online looking at different ceiling fans, particularly ones with my favorite old fashion metal finish - oil-rubbed bronze. They *are* available, but pricey. And those that aren't too pricey look just like our current fan, just in the bronze finish. Sooooo, I decided to buy some Rustoleum anodized bronze paint made for metal surfaces and refinish our fan myself. I'm still in the middle of the project as the fan needs another coat and the blades still need to be done, but even with just one coat, it looks *great* so far! The difference is like night and day. From cheesy to tasteful just like that, lol. I'm going to be doing the blades with the same paint because I don't want them to stand out but just blend in with the rest of the fan. I'll be sure to post pics when the project is complete:) This would also be a great idea for other fixtures that have a nice form but an ugly finish. I may even do this with our current kitchen cabinet door handles and pulls and I'm even considering doing our interior brass door knobs. Can you tell I'm really excited to discover this paint? lol

Jeff did surprise me twice this week by bringing home our long awaited new bisque colored sink (pictured in white). And then later in the week, he surprised me with a new bisque colored GE over the stove microwave to match our stove:) We got the microwave installed yesterday and it looks great! I was so happy to get rid of our old black one. The old one worked great and was also a GE Spacemaker (16 years old!!!), but it really was an eye sore that stood out amidst all of our other bisque colored appliances. Our dishwasher is black and will someday be replaced, but you don't really notice it unless you're standing in front of it - you can't see it from the living room like you can the microwave.

We won't be installing the new countertops and sink until the cabinets are primed and painted Russet red, but with the installation of the microwave, I can already start seeing the cottage/farmhouse theme come together. I love the cabinet color! It's so cheerful and vibrant and homey.

I guess that's about it for now...this week I'll be working on the plaster stencils some more. Can't wait till I'm done with those!