Garage

I haven't done much of a home improvement update lately.  I guess because there really hasn't been much going on worth talking about.  Don't get me wrong, we've been plenty busy but it's all small stuff....and half finished.  For example, I've been working on a frame wall up the stairs since the end of last summer (I really need to get that one done!)  We did clean up the basement and get it painted and converted to a playroom but I've been waiting to share pictures until I get some details (curtains, pillows, wall art, etc) done. A lot of my effort has been focused on sorting through random stuff, getting organized and freeing our home of all the unnecessary junk.  I love purging!

A few weeks ago Jim took vacation days to make a long weekend and help us get some projects off our list.  A big one was cleaning out the garage.  Unfortunately I didn't get a 'before' picture but this is what it looked like after Jim hauled everything out into the driveway.

When we moved in 3 years ago we did nothing with the garage except throw a bunch of junk in it.  I don't even think we gave it a cobweb sweep.  Over the years and many many construction project the garage went from bad, to really bad, to 'oh man I can't close the door'.  We were stacking piles of demolition materials, drywall, tiles, glass shower doors, wood planks & boards of all sizes and who knows what else.  It basically became a dumpster with the exception of small area left for the lawn mower.  Several times we emptied out the materials (once into a junk removal trailer and several times with MANY trips to the curb). We were pretty much left with a lot of small broken up pieces of crap, nails, mice, random stuff we didn't know what do do with and lots of dirt.

Even though I don't really intend to let Riesling play in the garage, I knew she would end in that direction just out of curiosity. I didn't want to be worried every time the door was left open about her stepping on glass or picking up a rusty nail.  Plus we need a spot to store her array of hand me down outdoor toys (she even has a little tricycle!).

So we shipped Riesling off on a playdate for a few hours and set to work.  It so disgusting!  We had to wear mask and cover our faces because of all the dirt, mouse poop, and general grime. 

The previous owners built on the garage later.  It's attached but no entrance to the house. They basically never finished it.  Instead of hanging drywall there are random pieces of plywood nailed up haphazardly, random hooks, beams, shelves, and 'closets'.  It's a mess but we didn't have time to deal with that stuff.  I was pleasantly surprised by what a little cleaning and organization did for the place.

We still have a few items that we're trying to get rid of on Craigslist and a few that we just don't know what do with but all in it's a functional garage at this point.  Plus there is plenty of room for that Mustang convertible!

The bathroom reveal

I've been wanting to post some before/after photos of the bathroom but was waiting to get some pretty things hung on the wall. Doesn't seem like that's going to happen any time soon so here you go.

View from our master bedroom....

Before

During

After

Vanity...

Before-ish

After

Potty corner...

Before-ish. There use to be pink tile on the walls and a nice pink toilet.

During

After

And the grand finale....
The shower!

Before

During

After

Isn't she lovely?!

1st Annual Robinson Holiday Gala

A holiday party seemed like the perfect excuse to put our butts in high gear and get the Robinson house in order once and for all. Ok that's a lie, I fear there is never really an actual end but you know what I mean. Plus, due to the constant state of chaos and construction our house has been in over the last year and a half, we've avoided having any large groups or gatherings here and a little house warming seemed well past due. So, last Saturday we had our 1st Annual Robinson Holiday Gala (so fancy, right?!).

I am overjoyed to report that it was a big success and the house held up nicely. We had plenty of room for about 50 guests throughout the evening, never feeling crowded or overwhelmed. I love how much room there was in the kitchen to put out all the appetizers on the counters, desserts on the island, and even a special little coffee station on the buffet. In some kind of pregnancy memory lapse I didn't take a single picture. Not our lovely guests, the yummy food, the sparkle & glitter. Nothing. But, I did take a fewof the little details that were still intact during the day after clean up....

I covered the buffet with a runner made from brown paper, the kind that comes in a large roll, that we had left over from a construction project and turned it into a little Keurig coffee station. During the party I had peppermint mocha and french vanilla creamer on the coaster. The sugar bowl was a $.50 thrift store find and the little bowl to the far left for the spoons is a cute little Christmas dish that I got in a pollyanna exchange.


I used little placecard holders that my mother-in-law had given me in Christmas pasts to make little signs out of cardstock to designate little details (alcoholic punch, where to find water/soda, etc).

The basement was our biggest transformation. We unloaded our moving truck into the basement and it has been a messy variation of a storage unit since then.....




I don't even think there are pictures of it at its worse. At some point we were actually sleeping down there while the hardwoods were being refinished. I'm going to have nightmares just thinking about those dark, spidery days.

And the After.....
It's also "after" the party so not quite as neat as tidy as it was at it's best.



We have future plans to patch up some holes, paint the wood paneling and eventually want new carpet. But it cleared out pretty nicely and was the perfect party spot.

We set up a long fold out table for beer, wine and snack foods and since it were the later party crowd ended up, I eventually brought down some of the dips and food for everyone.

Since my kitchen and upstairs is pretty traditional, I decided a little more fun was in order for the basement with silver, sparkles and bright colors. I bought ornament shaped foam decorations that come in blue, purple, green, and pink. Some were already covered in sparkles while others where plain, so I used glitter glue to add some special details. I punched holes in the top and used colored ribbon to hang them from the windows, tables, and even the fish tank. I think all the glitter helped distract from the remaining imperfections

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

~Norman Vincent Peale

That's helpful too.

Conquering the pink beast

We have about 300 half finished projects around here. We seem to get things 70% complete then move on. A lot of it is decor stuff that I am seriously indecisive about, some of it is just boring stuff that we're avoiding, and some it is pure laziness. I've been making list left and right and trying to get some stuff moved over to the completed column.

One such project...the pink beast aka our new buffet.

One of my patients was moving back to Oregon last March and planning to leave behind a lot of their furniture. We ended up snagging this solid, handmade pink hutch; a vintage hoosier cabinet; a really nice wood bench; small glass top table; and a cool rocking chair for a $100. Pretty good deal, right?

The hutch was originally two pieces with a really tall glass front top with crown molding. We already have the Craigslist Ethan Allen hutch in our kitchen/dining room, plus the height would've put it really close to the ceiling so we decided to just use the bottom as a buffet.

Months and months ago we gave the guy a good sanding, a layer of primer, and a coat of nice white paint.

On top I added an assortment of items I had around the house including: a basket of folded cloth napkins, a summery lantern, and a cake stand my mother-in-law didn't want anymore. The artwork is actually the front of a card I saved from our wedding in a frame I already had (I think it was from Target). I added a set of cool knobs that I had picked up on a random shopping at HomeGoods last year and we ended up with a pretty satisfactory "after."

Not bad for a almost free project! Especially since it helped fill in a really empty spot in our large dining room area.

Before

After

Before..view from foyer

After...view from foyer

My biggest problem is that it still seems a little empty on that side of the dining area, especially looking in from the foyer or dining room. So my goal for the week is to get something hanging on the wall above the buffet. I've been debating and searching for the perfect thing for months now.

I have a large mirror from our old apartment that would be the perfect size, but it's a green, kinda distressed looking frame and I'm a little concern it might just be too much green going on in one place. It will probably involve having Jim hold up the heavy mirror repeatedly over a period of days in different lights for me to decide...we shall see.

I changed my mind.

All our hard work IS worth showing. Here's a few pictures of the front as of today...

We're most excited about the bird feeder.

Which incidentally has attracted zero birds so far.

I'm also a fan of the "drift wood" piece, our creative reuse of one of the shrub stumps. I also think the rock border turned out really good. The memories of removing them from the bug/spider infested pool area last summer is haunting. I'm trying to block it out before I start having nightmares.

I'm thinking rose bushes here...

Projects

How's our new bathroom coming along? Well thanks for asking! There is a ceiling and some walls, and I managed I managed to pick out a vanity within our budget. There is a toilet in patiently waiting to be installed, along with new shower fixtures.

But, in all reality project new bathroom has actually come to a screeching halt. I can't make any decisions about tile, big suprise; there is a weird corner that we don't know how to sheetrock; Jim and I equally, although probably for different reasons, hate the process of finishing drywall so have just avoided it all together hoping for the magic bathroom fairy to show up in the middle of the night; and it's spring.

Which means that we've moved onto a frenzy of outdoor landscaping & gardening projects...

One year ago....

First things first. Clear out all the stupid, half dead, overgrown shrubs. I hate shrubs that just grow into one another turning into some kind of strange, poorly shaped barrier. We started this project last year but still had a long way to go.

I took charge and had the front and side cleared in less than 30 minutes. There are times that you need to call in the professionals and this was one of them. Now that 90% of the shrubs are gone, Jim and I can focus on cleaning out and preparing the soil for new, beautiful plants. Which is no easy feat either. After a full day of work last Sunday it's not even enough change to even give you an after picture. Sad. But, I'll take the outdoors over dusty drywall work any day.

Pretty in Pink

Now that the kitchen, dining room, and living room areas are functional and under control, it's time to move upstairs. We took a little break over the holidays and were slow getting back in the swing of things in January, but in February we managed to get the office/guest room done (pictures to come) and have moved onto the master bath. Somehow I managed to take no pictures before the destruction started. Just imagine everything in this pink tile....

Personally, I hated this bathroom from day one. It's on the smaller side, which I don't really mind so much but the the whole bathroom was just kind of dark and dingy. The lighting was poor and the layout seemed a bit awkward.

The door from the bedroom opened into the bathroom completely blocking the shower. The first day we were in the house we actually couldn't find the shower. Jim and I were going crazy thinking..."How did we miss the fact that there's not a second shower. I could have sworn the listing was for 2 1/2 baths??"

Silly shower hiding behind the door.

old pink shower minus glass shower door

I've never actually used the shower (we found out it leaked into the basement) and was a little creeped out just cleaning it when we first moved in.

After a little demo work (two weekends worth) we discovered that the previous owners had really lowered the ceiling of the shower and closed in the sides. I think they were hobbits. So our new shower will be much more suitable for the vertically blessed Robinson family.

And I solved the door issues by having a pocket door frame installed by our contractor, George. So no more hidden shower and it eliminates any risk of getting slammed in the ass with the door while standing at the vanity.

Because it's a bit of a messy project and who knows how long it will take to finish, we vacated the master bedroom and are snuggled up in the middle bedroom. Which also gives us a chance to patch up a few things and paint the master bedroom without worrying about the mess.