Ahhhhhh-MAZING

A few months ago I went to a trade show in Boston. I have been going for years and the last few haven't been very exciting. Sort of the same ole, mixed with less exhibitors means not much has thrilled me. Until, I spotted this

IT IS TILE! Porcelain tile.  Perfection! Here it is in all blue

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I love it because it is available in a ton of colors, different sizes and reminds me of a cartoon drawing of wood. You can mix and match the colors. Love it!

My New Obsession

I am back everyone! So, lately even $5 projects are out of our budget, so not much has been happening around our little home. BUT, a girl can dream. I give advise to our clients on different materials to use. Most of the time people have a good idea of what they want to use and I just suggest one way or another. What I have found myself doing lately is trying to select a bunch of material options for my own home for different projects.

I won't tell you my full plan (yet) but, I definitely want NEW countertops in the kitchen. While I really have always wanted paperstone (more on that another time) I have to be realistic. Higher end materials are more than I have a budget for and don't fit in with the top value of our place. So paper stone and any stone or solid surface are out. What about laminate? Now, we have laminate now and I loathe the look of it. It is beige-ey and speckle-ey. Looks like the pre-made counters you can buy at Home Depot. I totally get why the previous owner did that, it was a rental and it's cheap. I want a higher end look without the cost. Laminate is perfect for us, cheap, easy to install, and you can get some good looking stuff!

While asking around, I found that people are generally not happy with the bumpy kind, it is hard to wipe clean. Smooth is the way to go. But I am not a fan of speckled. So, I did some research, brought out our sample chips and I am in love. 

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Even a girl like me, with a shoestring, budget can have nice looking things! 

Five Months Later...

Wayyyy back in June I poked a hole in the side of our bedroom closet. I had every intention to be speedy and install our cabinet in the hole, but it just didn't happen...until now. Just to remind you, we have about 2'-6" of space on either side of our closet that is not very easy to use. So, we decided to utilize part of one side by installing a cabinet to face the hallway.

So, we finally coordinated a morning with my handy father to get it done! The only big thing left to buy (since we scored the cabinet for free from wonderful friends when they moved away,) was some trim. I knew I wanted it to be simple. We have metal trimmed doors (weird/annoying) that I would love to change, so I knew whatever trim I got, I would eventually like to be everywhere. We are on an unemployed-husband-both-students budget, so we made a stop at EcoBulding Bargains (their newly opened, gorgeous facility.) And SCORE. We got 22 linear feet of used (and painted) trim for $4.68 (with tax.) That is only $0.20/ft!

Plus, because it was painted, I don't have to sand, prime it all, saving me some time. We got more than we needed, just in case we cut it wrong. We also got some more trim paint from Home Depot to match the rest of the white that we have going on with furniture etc.
So, we got to work and a few things that I had not thought about needed to happen before the cabinet was put in place. Two things I knew about before, I wasn't sure if I needed to take the whole stud out (I know the wall is not load bearing, none of our interior walls are) but I didn't know if I could cut out the bottom part and leave the top. Blah, blah, blah, my dad cut it and took out the bottom piece.The other thing was the switch to the hall light was smack dab in the middle of where I wanted the cabinet to be, since June it has been dangling.
My dad suggested that we add wood to the right side of the opening (the left side had a stud to screw the cabinet into.) There was too much room for one 2x4 but not enough for two.

Yay for over buying trim! It was exactly the thickness we needed with a 2x4, with a cut out for the switch.

My dad secured the switch on it's new home, fortunately there was enough cord to reach, otherwise we would have been calling an electrician, I am not a fan of electrical work. After some extra drywall trimming

and patching a huge hole i had made (I was a little too demo happy!)

we (my dad and Brendan) slid the cabinet into it's new home!

They shimmed the sides and screwed it into the studs on either side. They also shimmed the base from the backside.

I was SO excited to put our towels in there, but i couldn't find the l-clipy thingies that came with it for the shelves. Apparently 5 months was my expiration on patience, so back to Home Depot I went! $2.98 (plus some new spackle for $4.97) later, I had shelf holders! Got them home and wah-wah, they are too big to fit in the holes

I thought all l-clipy thingies were created equal, not so much. Fortuanely, on the bag they came in, there were instructions to drill 1/4" holes for them (meant for closet systems.) So I got my drill and made the holes I wanted to use 1/4". Now it looks gorgeous inside!

Check out that organization! Yes, I took the photo in a mirror, the hallway is much too small.
The next morning (after my dad had measured and cut the trim in his workshop, gotta love a dad with a full shop) I had Brendan help me nail up the trim.

He put up all three pieces and set all the nails. I patched the damaged drywall and trim (used isn't always perfect)

with help from Sophia, obviously. Below you can see the trim in place, with the switch in it's new home.

I have a few things left to do, like paint the trim, paint the wall, trim the carpet to the bedroom, and replace the baseboard (with leftover recycled pieces.) Then our mini hall reno is done, well, until we revamp the hall closet!

Candle-liscious (even with the power on!)

So, I don't know if you heard, but here in the WesternMass we had a bit of a snow storm just before Halloween. With the weight of the wet, heavy snow falling on the trees that had not yet shed their leaves, we lost power here for 5 full days (some got it back sooner, others, like my parents we out for over a week.) We are fortunate to live in a condo and not have a yard, so no cleanup for us. It did get a little cool in here, but our place tends to cook from the sun during the day, so it never got unbearable. We managed to find various family with hot water (some with power) throughout the week to shower, but we weren't able to do laundry anywhere. Gross.
We ended up buying headlamps halfway through the outage, let me just tell you, AMAZING. And for only $20 at EMS

They are so much easier to read with, go to the bathroom with (TMI?), play monopoly with, etc than a flashlight. Before we bought our stylish (B said he won't leave the house with it on, not even to walk the dog in the pitch black, whatever!) headlamps and an awesome new BuzzLightyear flashlight (apparently when an almost 100,000 people lose power in one area Target tends to sell out of candles and flashlights.)

We had exhausted almost all of our candle supply at that point (and of course I couldn't find my stash.) But since we had our handy dandy lights we decided to forgo buying additional candles until later. Well, yesterday I went hog wild (sort of!) With the power off, there was something really nice about candlelight, I tend to forget when it seems easier just to turn on a light. Now that our candle supply is restocked here is my table...

Overkill? I don't agree! ;) Also, did you notice we moved the table? More on that in another post...

Do you like candles for light??

Back in the Game

Since my husband got laid off, I have not been blogging much at all. Between school and trying to work more there doesn't seem to be the time. I have decided to rededicate myself for a few reasons.

1. There seem to be a fair amount of unfinished projects around here. I love starting things/hate finishing them. Blogging about my projects tends to get me to finish what I start. Like:

My oh-so-beautiful hole in the wall

(among many others)

2. My husband will be starting school soon and will be out of the house. THANK GOD. For some reason he doesn't let me start new projects with out finishing another. His other prerequisite is I need to have a plan. I tend to not plan projects (which is odd, since it is my job to plan other people's projects.) While the cat's (my husband) away the mouse (me) will play!
3. I have been helping some friends out with their mini redesigns of rooms. I am super excited to share what we have done!
4. We made a few changes around here, which, I never blogged about (bad blogger!)
5. I have been pinning like crazy and feel the need to write about the things I am loving.

Bottom line: our place is a little to ghetto to not get back into this whole blogging world!

Is Brass Back?

When we moved here, there was brass knobs on the 3 doors. I quickly replaced them with stainless look knobs, which I almost immediately regretted. We have ended up going with oil-rubbed bronze light fixtures, so now we have mix and match metals everywhere. In my defense, our place was a rental before, so lord knows how many dirty hands touched those knobs. But, now I am thinking, was the brass so "out" that I should have just waited for them to come back "in?" Or am I just really late to this brass party?
I am loving brass hardware on crisp white (mixed with stainless appliances, in love!)

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Or ON stainless

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On taupe furniture

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Or on Tiffany Blue!

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I even like a hint of brass with white on this Anthro knob (ps, I am also really into teardrop knobs)

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Oh, and look at this! At our local second hand building supply store, they have TONS of old brass drawer pulls (some are prob from me!) Here they mixed and matched pairs on one dresser. Love.

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Knit for a Special Cause

I am a good knitter, but I stick to scarves because my mom knits the more complicated projects and I reap the benefits. I can follow a pattern, I can even create my own, but I don't, I just show things to my mom that I would like!

Anywho. My husband's favorite cousin (sorry everyone else, she totally takes the cake) is a Special Olympian. She has been involved for years and it is a fantastic way for her to compete and show off her athleticism. Last Christmas, her mom mentioned to me that she knits scarves for the Special Olympians. Since I rock at scarves, I was really curious about how to get involved. It's super simple, they give you the color options and even suggested patterns, but really, they just want a scarf 6" wide and 54"-60" long. Oh yea, and you can crochet it too! How easy is that?!? So, I have joined the two aunts that already participate and I will be donating some scarves this year. 

Please join us! Here is the website with the deats. I love being able to donate in different ways to different causes, so this is right up my alley. This site has a list of other organizations that you can kni-nate (I like to combine words, I don't think that worked) to. If you like the idea and have a different organization close to your heart, check and see if you can kni-nate to them!