Weekend Projects

This weekend, we got started on a couple of projects that we hope to finish up this week.  First - we ordered a new window for our bathroom.  When we originally demolished the bathroom, we were living under the illusion that we would get all the work done fast and wouldn't have time to wait for a special order window.  We pretty much hated the single hung window that we put in there - first, it opened right at waist level so the neighbors (whose kitchen is directly across from our bathroom) would have the tantalizing sight of us taking a shower, and secondly, the steam can't escape because the opening is too low.  So we finally ordered the double hung window in the same size, and this weekend, we pulled out the SH and installed the DH. 

Sadly, this is what the neighbors have had to look at since November.  Because we hated the window, we never put the trim back around.  Maybe we were hoping they'd be so disgusted by the window trim that they wouldn't notice our naked selves in the shower.
















But - we got the window done, and all the trim done, and then the caulking and paint and touch up, and it looks lovely now! 

Not a glamorous job, but we're glad it's done.










The other project we started this weekend is some seating for our summer guests.  We love to sit outside in our back yard (I'd say on the patio, but that's way too fancy a name for the cement slab.  We have one chair and one chaise lounge, and a tiny little square end table.  So we want to make some more friendly seating.  We like the plans for the Weatherly Sofa at ana-white.com - so we got the wood and started building the sofas on Sunday.


<----this will
               soon be this----->

Those are actually 3 pieces - two sofas with arms and one armless love seat.  So far, we have the criss-cross motifs done:

And we've got most of the back framing done.

We're hoping to have some time on Monday and Tuesday to work, too.  After reading lots of reviews of the Kreg jig, we decided we should get one of those, too --  it really does make joining wood pretty much a breeze.  Here's Dale drilling some pockets for joining part of our sectional:

Because we are making this for our uncovered back patio, we figure it's going to take a beating for a few years, and so we didn't invest a lot of money in wood and supplies.  The wood and fasteners were just a little more than $100 -  what is going to cost are the cushions - but we've got some ideas for those.  When it's done, we're going to paint it white, although I am looking forward to the future when I get the patio covered with a pergola and I can make more of a Moroccan-inspired oasis, and I would love it a dark red!  We figured if we paint it, we can change the color and refresh it every couple of years, since the sun is going to really beat down on it and it'll need a new coat of paint occasionally. 

So that was our weekend.  Guest #2 comes Tuesday evening - we're excited to see Leslie!

Summer begins

We had our first summer visitor trying out the guest room -- my youngest daughter Hilary came for a week and we had fun doing the tourist-y things here in southern California:  Disneyland, Hollywood, San Diego Zoo, the Aquarium of the Pacific - and the beach. 

 

It was fun having her out!  We have another visitor next week - my middle daughter Leslie will be out for a week, then the day after she leaves, we have my best friend Eric and his partner Herbert out for a week!  It's going to be a fun summer!

The last day Hilary was here, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a free agave - it was huge! 


Here it is, planted with some iceplant starts.  It's a little beat up but will do just fine.












This weekend, we are going to work on a furniture project and replace the window in the shower - more on that later.  But in the meantime, we're just relaxing, and enjoying the summer!

In all it's glory!

While I was finishing up grading yesterday, Dale finished up taking all the old, dead ivy off the eucalyptus tree in front of the house.  It filled the trash cans, but it looks so great!

It actually has more leaves and healthier branches than I thought it would - I was afraid the ivy was really choking it out, but it looks great.  And no more 'Angelina Jolie's leg' look as I come down the road. 

We are also happy about the bamboo's progress in the back.  When we transplanted all the bamboo, a lot of it looked like it died right off - the leaves turned brown and it just sort of looked like a bunch of dead sticks stuck in the ground. 

 

But looking down the row at ground level, there are lots of new shoots coming up.  Or, as one of my friends told me, "don't worry, it'll look like Viet Nam back there in a couple of months."  And it does grow fast - we looked at one of these shoots about a week and a half ago, it was about 12" tall --

 

And when we went out there yesterday, it was taller than me (about 5'6").   A couple of the older canes are fine, it seems that if they hadn't turned black but were still green, they survived the transplant better, like this one.  We'll get the old canes cut down and let the green shoots go to town.

 

But....that will have to wait until next week - my daughter just arrived (she's at IHOP with Dale having breakfast - he picked her up from the airport because I had a doctor's appt. that I couldn't change) - and so the parade of summer visitors has officially begun!  

  (oh, and I got the quilt done yesterday, just in time)

It's going to be a fun summer - and probably lots of Disneyland for us!

My friend Doris

The two paintings over the bed are by a fabulous artist and dear friend named Doris Vlasek-Hails.  Doris passed away in 2004, and I am so glad that I own several pieces of her work.  The two over the bed are abstractions, and were gifted to me by another dear friend Eric!

I also have a pair of small paintings hanging in my kitchen:

And a gorgeous vase in my living room:





 It's nice to have these reminders of a wonderful friendship!






Doris
Vlasek
Hails
1938-2004

oops....

Well, I was supposed to be busy this week working on a quilt.  Instead, I watched a "Chopped" marathon - and I don't even find food all that interesting!  So - our bedroom is not quite finished, but we did get furniture moved in:

Got some artwork hung, and I got new sheets and a blanket for our guests.  Although it is summer, here in California, it always cools down at night so a nice warm blanket will be welcome.  Apparently, the cats approve:


 Some people might be concerned that I let our cats lay on the guest bed, in case some of our visitors have cat allergies - but these cats are Oriental Shorthairs, and they have a single coat - no fluffy undercoat, which is what most people have an allergy to.  So they are pretty hypoallergenic.  And they don't shed like other cats.  So, while I don't let them live on the bed, having them jump up once in awhile isn't too bad.



One of the things we're doing in all our rooms as we go is to add some architectural interest.  I installed crown molding in this room, same as in the bathroom, and then added a picture frame rail about 3" below the crown molding.  I painted the picture frame molding, the crown molding and the space in between all white, which makes it appear to have a more substantial molding at top, since they all 'read' as one piece:

I really like the way that the new blinds go with the yellow walls.  Because this window is so long, we couldn't find a single blind that fit across - but a pair fits perfectly.  Hmm...this picture is kind of dark, but you can see the pretty beech wood.




So now I've got to get that bedspread finished - and get a shade for that bedside lamp!

Ready to move furniture in!

After the earlier disaster of too-bright yellow, I went back and got another gallon of paint, this time a tint lighter and also changed from satin to flat.  So much happier! This color I love. 



I also finished out the trim work around the wardrobe.  The wardrobe pieces we bought  from IKEA are not as deep as our closet space.  We considered bringing them up to the front, but hated to waste any space in this little house!  We can always use that extra 6" to hang hooks for belts, etc.




So I built out the trim and finished off the edges.


Oh no!  The door hardware was hitting the top of the closet - just barely, but enough to drag and cause them to be difficult to open/close.  So we took the whole thing down - doors, trim, etc, and dropped the doors 3/4", which was the size of the wood I had that would fit.  Put everything back up, then...oh, dang, now they're dragging the bottom!  Just barely, so we took the whole thing apart again, and trimmed it by 1/4".  Needless to say, Dale was not thrilled to install the doors 3 times instead of once, but he knows 1) if I am not happy with it, I will be miserable and probably complain forever, and 2) he is a really good sport and as long as I feed him well and give him enough breaks, he's willing to go the extra mile or two.

So now the doors are perfect, and I rebuilt all the trim and repainted and I'm happy! They look beautiful, they slide along ever so nice.







Lots of storage and clothing space--














I think I'm going to add a shelf over the bar on the right, to store blankets and pillows for my visitors.










I also installed crown molding and new baseboards and installed nice beech wooden blinds.  This morning I scrubbed the floor - we'd love to refinish all the floors but there are so many things ahead of that in the line, but they're not too bad if I go over them with pine cleaner, water, a putty knife and steel wool - inch by inch! - and then polish them back up.  They'll do for now.

Next post will be the furniture and decorating.  I have an old iron bed that I've repainted to match different rooms - this time it'll be cheerful and red to match the decorating scheme I've come up with. I've also repainted an old record cabinet that I had installed mosaic fronts and sides to - it was originally dark green to match our bedroom years ago.  It looks much fresher with a coat of ivory paint.  It looks like we'll have everything ready for my daughter when she comes in a little more than a week!  Pictures to come.....

aarrgh...painting woes

We're making progress on our guest room - we've got to get it done because it's getting booked solid!  Our first visitor is coming in two more weeks, so time to pull it all together.





Last I mentioned, Dale had ripped out the closet, and it looked like this------------>

He had to cut more out -- then we assembled (and assembled! and assembled!) the IKEA wardrobe.












and then we slid it into place --

and I framed out around it.  So far, so good.








We tested out our color.  "Hail a Cab" by Valspar.  When I looked at the swatch, it had a nice buttery feel to it.  When I painted the test swatch onto the wall, I really, really liked it.




I was going to swipe the swatch from the website to put here - and this was my first moment of alarm.  The color looked like this:

Yikes!! that looks electric.  If you know me, you know I pretty much hate yellow - except nice, buttery yellows.  This is like fire alarm yellow.

But the swatch looked nice, right?

So I primed the walls.....


and tonight we painted.  Holey smokes.  WAYYYYYYYY too yellow for me!

What happened to that nice, buttery yellow swatch?  Oh yea, that was over the yucky tan paint in the room....when I primed the walls white, I guess I let the "true colors" come shining through.


So I am making a trip to the store for a totally different yellow.  I can't take this color!


In the meantime, I'm busy finishing out the year with my classes, so I won't get it painted until the weekend - I also have crown molding and baseboard to install and paint, but that's a quick job.  We should be able to hang the doors and window shades by the end of the weekend.  In the meantime, I've also painted the old iron bed, cut out fabric for a fun quilt, and I've got a table to paint for this room.  We want to make it welcoming for our summer visitors - not scare them awake with a blast of yellow!

Yard Work Day!

It's been absolutely beautiful this week, so we took advantage of that and worked on getting some yard work done.  Dale woke up this morning and said, "I'm cutting that tree down on the corner of the house." So that was the project for the day.  Here's a video of the tree coming down:

The neighbors have been anxious to get us to get this tree down, too - it leaves a lot of crap on their car and it's just unsightly.  This afternoon as we got ready to cut it down, she came by and said, "Oh, I remember when that tree was just a seedling - and I've wished I had just pulled it up years ago when the house was vacant!"  We do, too - but now it down and cut up.

So here's a shot of the house when we were doing the inspection, and how it looks today with the tree down:

Our neighbors are also doing some landscaping - they've removed most of their front plantings and are in the process of painting their house.  Also this week, we (rather, Dale) removed more of the ivy from the tree in the front yard.  If we hadn't filled the trash cans, he probably would have taken it all down.  Now that it's dead and dry, it's shrunk and it's a little - just a little! - easier to get down.  Here's a progress photo:

Look! You can see a limb!






After we took down the tree and cut it up and hauled it into the back where we're storing firewood, we saw an ad on Craigslist for some more free plants that were already dug up, so we hopped in the car and filled the trunk with these nifty succulents:













There's a place by the back door that the water drains into - we planted a big patch of them there, leaving space for a bougainvillea - we plan to go pick one up tomorrow to plant there.  We'd like to train it up the posts. 

These are great little plants - aloe noblis.  We have a pile of them, the rest of them are planted behind the garage in a holding zone until we decide what to do with them down the line.

I also planted a few in the strip beside the driveway - I'd weeded this area yesterday and saw some little gaps here and there.  Here are a couple of the new succulents next to my favorite striped agave.












So - even though our backyard is far from beautiful, it's come a long way!  I took some shots to compare with the photos I had taken on the day we did our inspection:

This is our lemon tree, and the one below is a view of the bottlebrush tree, which is still a hot mess, but we'll get to it eventually.  The grass is still really patchy, but wow - compared to the total lack of anything but dirt back in September, well, it feels like a lush garden of eden!  All I know is, it's a great place to sit and relax while enjoying the great California weather!

Slow and steady updates

Lots of things I like about older houses - character, charm - and some things that aren't so great.  One of the things we've been doing along the way is switching out the outlets, switches and light fixtures.  The light fixtures had to come first - they were both unattractive and one of them actually would make crackling sounds (!) when turned on - so those had to go right away.  We haven't changed them into anything interesting for the most part - just your generic light fixtures (aka "boob lights"), since we had some of those from an earlier place we rented.  But today we changed out about 5 outlets (we've been doing this periodically).  Here's an illustration of why this is pretty important:

 

This one basically disintegrated in his hands when Dale went to change this one out.  It's from our bedroom.  Lots of them have cracks and other obvious faults, so we'll feel better when we get them all changed.  We've got about 5 or 6 more to go.

We also spent the day putting together IKEA furniture parts - the wardrobe, the inner dressers, the doors.  Dale also got most of the wall demolished, so tomorrow he's hoping to frame out the space.  While he's doing that, I am going to be working on the crown molding and baseboard trim.  More pictures to come when we make some progress!

Ahhhh....done (ish)

Ok - I have another round of paint on the upper half of the walls and a towel rack to hang, but really, what I was waiting for was the shower glass to be installed.  And it has been.  And it's lovely.  The cats approve. And it was expensive...

 

I had no idea how much this would cost, but it was something we really wanted, so we didn't bother to get any kind of estimates until we were ready.  Talking in the car one afternoon, I told him I was going to get estimates the next week for glass, how much did he think it might be?  I was hoping it wouldn't be over 2K, and his guess was 800 dollars.  So I guess it was right in the middle of our two guesses.  We called several places and the dollar amount was similar.  It's something we WOULD have done if we had the skills, but this is not the time to experiment.  I went through reviews of various glass places through yelp! and I was very happy with the company we went with.  Well, I might have been even happier if it was cheaper, but what can you say?

Here's a picture that I photoshopped rather shabbily, so you can get a look at the whole shower.  We can't take better pics with my iphone camera due to the smallness of the room, but I wanted to get an idea of how it looks --

So it's basically a glass wall.  It goes up 80" from the threshold - due to the fact that Dale's tall and we didn't want to either bang his head on the top rail (which was necessary because the door could not be hinged on a wall, and we also didn't want water to bounce over the top.  So it's extra tall, and extra expensive as well.  We did ask that they add a short towel rack on the right - we have a real struggle where to hang towels in here, so that gives us one more small place for a guest towel.

I still have to hang up decorations (and the pale green needs one more coat of paint), but it's such a relief to be able to shower without a janky makeshift shower curtain, and to have a functioning sink, and, well....all of it. 

So - on to the bedroom closet.   We took a trip to IKEA this morning, and we've got the piles of boxes and instructions and little IKEA tools to wrestle with this afternoon.  And we picked out a paint color for the room.  But now I gotta go, because I'm the one who has to do a lot of the instruction deciphering!

Waiting for the glass guy to show up

Today the glass company is scheduled to install our shower glass.  They're running a little late, so while I wait, I am going to give some preview shots of the bathroom.



We used marble tiles on the bathroom floor to match the floor of the shower.  But I wanted to add a subtle pattern, so instead of laying them in a running bond, I put them in a herringbone pattern, but not at a diagonal.  We have running bond on the shower walls and floor, and the basketweave insets are nice.  Just this one little change keeps things lively.

The thing that I really think added a lot to the look of the room is the picture frame molding - it gives a feeling of texture and contrast to what is essentially a whole lotta white. 


It also gives some style to what is essentially a plain little house - our house is a mid-century California bungalow - not quite stylish enough to be mid-century modern, but certainly toned down.  Adding these little touches gives it some character that it lacks.








I added a magazine rack on the lower part of the wall below the light switch.  We have precious little wall space here, so the toilet paper is on a standup holder.  And we have to add our towel racks and accents where we can.










Considering that one of our walls contains a pocket door, we can't just hang things willy-nilly without thinking about the placement pretty carefully.






We got the metal accent pieces a variety of places - the shower shelf we got at IKEA, the towel hooks by the vanity at Target, the magazine rack we found on amazon.com.  We were looking for a soft nickel finish - not exactly brushed, but more of a soft luster.

So, the other day I sat down and did all the math, adding up the receipts that I have carefully saved, so that we'd know how much our bathroom remodel cost.  And darned if I can't find the piece of paper I put my totals on!  So although I don't have exact figures, I can give you some roundabout numbers.  I divided the receipts into 3 categories - building (lumber, drywall, plywood, cement, lights, etc), plumbing (pipe, shower liner, fixtures, etc) and tile (grout, thinset, tile, tool rental), and basically it comes to this.



Building materials - 1300.00
Plumbing - 1100.00
Tile - 900.00
Shower glass - 1723.00



For a total of around 5100.00.  For a complete remodel, we feel pretty good about it.  The shower glass was a lot more than we expected, however!  Just the same, it's the way we wanted it, so we're happy.

Ah, they're here and installing as I type this.  So after that's done, I can touch up the paint and add the last remaining details!

And - already, we've started on our next project.  We decided to do our guest bedroom, because we have some visitors coming in June.  We are going to paint, add crown molding and new baseboard, and most importantly, redo the closet.  So when I came home from work yesterday, I was glad to see that Dale's already started the demo (his favorite part!):

We got rid of the closet doors on craigslist, and he took out the rest of the interior yesterday.  This afternoon, we're off to IKEA to pick up the new workings, as well as nice blinds for the room.  We're looking forward to making a comfortable place for our guests to relax!