So we have a lot of Sh**

First of all Happy Memorial Day and thank you so much to all who have served us.  

 

It's true, we have a LOT of stuff.  I prefer to blame it on the hoard left behind from Steve's parents, but truth be told, we have more than we need as well.  We have done a pretty good job of getting rid of most of our extra on the main floor of the house as Steve's parents stuff isn't mixed in with ours.  I have sold or gotten rid of a ton of stuff in the past year (ours and Steve''s parents), but we still have so much to do.  

I hope to get rid of a lot more over the process of the remodel.  I'm sure we will have a ton more to dump once we have lived without it while in storage for 6 months and/or still can't find a place/use for it once we move into our gorgeous new space.  

So this is what the attic looked like this morning.  Over the last month, I have been bagging linens and a few other things as I find time.  I also found time to collect all the outgrown baby clothes (4 bins) that we had floating around upstairs.  We were able to pass some to Goodwill and others onto friends.

And here is the attic tonight. All the drawers and real attic spaces are empty.  The storage pod out front is over half full.   While we still have a couple hours of work to put in, we are close.  We plan to finish emptying while Q naps in the am and then pull the carpet (I posted it for free on Craigslist and we already have two takers-hooray for re-use and no dump fees).  During afternoon naps we hope to remove the paneling and beadboard and put that up on Craigslist for free.  

Dumpster comes Friday so you know how we'll be spending next weekend.  So un-fun but it is saving us several grand so totally worth it.  We're only taking on shingles on the exterior and carpet, drywall, paneling, insulation. Also removing plaster wall in the main floor hall to allow for a support beam to go thru the wall.  The rest we are paying the pros to do. 

Can you believe that this broken beauty (enter sarcasm) was nabbed up on Criaglist in just an hour?  It's amazing what people can use!

And our girl turned 1 yesterday!  So we celebrated with donuts at Pip's Original to start the day...u get a free dozen donuts on your birthday!

Q is quite the fan!

and in the afternoon (the weather was AMAZING), we had a BBQ with something like 14 kiddos, 8 of them aged 1 and two more under 1, under 5.  Totally wonderfully nuts. 

Q thanked us today by taking her first steps-just in time for this remodel to blast off!

Raise the Roof...literally

I like to think of myself as an optimist.  Generally a positive person. 

Late last week we got some not so great news from our architect, Joe (e-mail me if you want his contact info as he is awesome at what he does and owns a gorgeous bungalow).  He took some "hypothetical" questions down to the city about ceiling height and dormer additions/existing staircases to double check that everything would be good for inspections down the line.  We already knew we were cutting the whole head height issue close at many places but thought we would be ok being that the staircase to access upstairs is existing. 

Long story short, Joe ended up showing the city the plans and he found out that the head height issue was an issue.  BOOOO!

 

But everything has a silver lining, right?

Joe was able to quickly put together some new options for our addition.  Yes, they cost a little more but very little in the end as we are going to be getting much more bang for our buck.  As in 7' head height everywhere and a real bedroom for both kids instead of the tiny office that we were planning on putting Quinn in. I might even get a little craft room!

We were obviously playing around with the layout.  We are in the very early stages of finalizing.

Steve and I are interested in making the second bath a bit wider so that there is some storage space (may not be an issue now but I am envisioning two teenagers many moons from now-mainly a girl teenager-the lotions and sprays I had as a teenager was epic :)

We are thinking of maybe making the closet in bedroom 1 bigger (push into bedroom 2 hence the blue lines) and making bedroom 2 my craft locker/storage room (which makes me giddy as it is a pain to clean up all my crafts each time we have a guest stay at our house).  The playroom space would become bedroom 2.  

The little x by the bathroom is for the laundry chute-considering maybe putting a mini linen closet above it.  Not really sure if we need it but storage is always great.  

The unmarked room off the master bedroom?  Master closet.  Glorious master closet.  I can't wait to have a place for all my clothes in one place.  Two other rooms off of that-true storage.  Yes, a place for all my Christmas decor!  

Oh, and cracks me up, the master bath is going to be as big as our kitchen.  Never imagined a big master bath (nor do I need one), but it is the way that plumbing lined up.  So I'll take it.

This is a general sketch (again, these were quickly put together so we could move ahead) of what the outside may look like.  We are going to play around with the cut out dormer thing above and maybe make it more triangular/gabled.  Basically the house is just going to get much taller but as Joe explained, this addition option would allow proper head height everywhere and be the most historically accurate from the exterior.  I was skeptical of this plan at first, but once explained, it made complete sense.  Loving it more each day (being that it's been all of 2 days since we met with him).

Steve really liked this option.  I wasn't crazy about it.  Just a shed dormer tacked on the back.  And then we saw the price tag.  No and thank you very much. 

Another super pricey option.  Nice but it definitely looks like a new addition.  Not what we are going for.  and pricey too.  

Last option.  The least expensive.  But gives the least square footage.  Not a huge difference in price from the option we chose considering how much less you get.  Other thing we weren't crazy about is how small both of the kids' bedrooms would be.  Fine for when they are little but would be hard to every use as a guest room or even possibly put a double bed in when they are teenagers. 

I would love any input on our choice shown at the top of the post.  Are we silly to be closing off the "playroom" space and making that into a bedroom (we plan to use one of the bedrooms (Ben's) on the main floor as a playroom)?  Anything else we need to consider?  I can't wait to start (Ok, already have) researching finishes! 

THE "Mudroom" Beast is Complete

“Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

After what seemed like a million hours spent putting on a coast of pre-stain conditioner, 2 coats of stain and 2-3 coats of poly depending on where it was on the piece (with sanding in-between), I declare the "mudroom" complete.  And we are in love.  It is absolutely awesome. While we haven't fully stocked it with our stuff, I know that is going to be awesome on a day-to-day basis.  And it fits in seamlessly with the rest of the house.  Looks like it has always been there.  You can follow my journey to the finished product here and here and here and here and here.

my drawings before they came to life

I want to thank the peeps that gave input to the original drawings I posted on the blog-the ideas were so helpful. And thanks to Joe from Dovetail Custom Woodworking for building the beast.  I think it was more than he bargained for when he bid it out.  You should have seen install day...s...

added metal grating for breath-ability as recommended by a reader.  We are still trying to find a way to line the drawers so that we can store (often wet) shoes inside.  I have found some plastic bins that are a pretty close fir for now. 

........so pretty.  Love the brass (aged with brass ager from Rejuvenation) hooks from House of Antique Hardware...all the hardware is actually from there

Ah, the joys a super textured plasters walls.  Lots of paint touch ups.

And a cute tootsie shot to leave you with...more to come soon.

Holy Shisties, it's all taking shape!

So we met with our architect over coffee on Sunday. And he had some pretty freakin awesome plans to show us. We can't believe what can fit upstairs (of course we are blowing out the walls and doing big things, but still, we are shocked, and flipping excited!).

We are literally going to get everything on our "must-haves" and "would really like to have" lists. The "office" cannot be a legal room as it won't have a full closet (just storage cabinets) but it will have an egress window and we plan to have Quinn in there at least til she starts school. 

Anyways, many more tweaks are ahead but this set is the first approval set. Sooo excited!

...now to start interviewing contractors-gah

 

Well, it surely isn't Halloween anymore, but here are our cuties on the big day.  Ben decided that he didn't want to pass along his costume from last year so he reappeared as a bigger and better airplane. My lil Quinn was a sweet peacock, tutu and all (I made her tutu and headband).  Her ladybug costume was made by my aunt but we ended up putting her in a carrier as we walked around so she couldn't wear her ladybug bunting.  The weather was warm and dry-it was fabulous!  You can see our front door in progress in the shot of just Ben.  It's still not done but oh so close.  Hopefully by the end of the week.  Other fun things, the boy is still the best big bro, Q is now sitting on her own and "eating (more like smearing all over her) solids"! 

Raise the Roof!

So excited to report that we are finally starting to work on our dormer addition. Basically it went like this...  our friend and architect called (to give us a kick in the butt) to say that he had the time (our job is on the side) to start our project so, we were like, well, this is soon but sure.  But then we realized timing really is right on as we hope to start sometime (preferably sooner than later) in 2014.

He hopes to have final plans to us by Feb 2014.

We met a few weeks ago to just discuss things we had to have and our other ideas.  I printed out all of the pictures that I have collected over the years and we discussed over a brewski.  Best way to make business plans. 
When we went to the Hofbräuhaus in Germany just after college (many moons ago), we heard that many a famous person had met to make big decisions there (even Hitler which is downright crazy).

Here were my must haves:
1. master bedroom
2. master closet large enough to hold all of our clothes (would love walk-in but not a must have)
3. master bath with walk-in shower.  No bath.  Waste of space to me and we wouldn't really use.
4. Second bedroom

Would really really like but would not be totally heartbroken (well, maybe) if we didn't have:
1. Half bath for other bedroom.  Nightmare to have kids tramping into our room during the night to use facilities.
2. 3rd bedroom or craft room/office....this would be Quinn's room, at least for a while, no matter what the size.  For those parents out there, you probably all feel my pain that I want both my kiddos on the same floor as us. 

Joe asked us all kinds of great questions, like what constitutes a small vs. regularly sized bedroom?  Some people (like us) consider a fair sized bedroom to be 10x12 while others consider that to be miniscule. 
And made some great comments, like: "Why don't you make the second bath a full bath (with shower) as there is room.  For about $500 extra, you will increase property value by about $2500 as it will then be recorded as a full bath.  Genius, Joe!  Plus, The kiddos will then be able to bathe in their own bath upstairs.  Hence, no wet feet tramping up the stairs every day after baths.

He said the pictures I gave him really helped as he realized that I like little compact spaces with lots of built-ins.  COZY is my game!

Left small picture is view from front of house and large design is view from side of house. 

Design 1: 4 way gabel dormer.   Most historically accurate.

 Design 2: One of least historically accurate but we loved the look of it when we saw a house with this design while out walking.  Would allow for a lot of square footage. 

Design 3: Raise the roof.  I liked this one but Steve was not in love. 

Design 4:  Super pricey and would totally look like a new remodel, which is not what we are going for.  Would look similar to last picture here.

What did we chose?  While we both loved design 2, the slope of our roof will not really allow for the design to look decent when built.  In addition, it would have been next to impossible to do a dormer like this in 1913.  SOOOOOO.... we went with design #1 as it will (woo-hoo) allow us everything on our must-have and desire lists for our upstairs while being historically accurate. 

I can't wait to see this all develop...  More to come soon. :)

"Mudroom" Sketch-Up

I finally got the time to start sketching up "mudroom" designs based off of the inspiration photos I posted several weeks ago.  The design above is what we are tending to like the best thus far.  However, I would love any input anyone has to give.
Here are some things I am questioning about the "mudroom"

1. should we add a 1x6 at the base of the cabinet so it is similar to the rest of the built-ins throughout the house?
2. should the large pull drawers at the bottom be real drawers or just tip down/out?
3. On the large right side bank of cabinet doors (3 shown), should it be 3 doors or just two (one upper that will be the same size as the other upper cabinets and one lower)
4. should that bank of cabinets as well as the upper bank come out as far as the seat-18" or more like 14-16"

I would love your opinions and any other ideas!


Outtake Drawings:

 

I love the idea of the baskets but I don't want any "junk" showing (stuff might hang out of the baskets) and I fear that the whole basket rage may be too trendy and not timeless

 

Like the ease that open shelves on the bottom would bring but I fear that it would always look messy.  We are trying to avoid messy in our front entry as much as possible.

Seemed too busy with the 3 drawers to the right

Living Room Restyle

My talented and lovely sister visited this past weekend.  Her hubby and kiddos came too!  It was so awesome to have them here as it has been a couple years since they have been up this way.

My sis happens to have a knack for decorating and design-in fact, she has started her own design consulting in Los Angeles/Long Beach. 

Anyways, I always have a list of projects to get her help with or advice on when she comes to visit.  Sometimes I send pictures or facetime for help but that is just not the same. :)

Steve has been wanting to update our living/dining room spaces a bit and add some modern touches.  However, we wanted to do it without spending any or much cash.

 To take a trip back down memory lane, here is our living room on inspection day 7 years ago.  Gross, I know.  Check out that sweet paneling and faux brick.  How about those aluminum windows-purrrr!    How did we see the potential?

In between-serious work done but nothing pretty about it.

Here is the living room after major progress.  This photo leaves out the leaded glass in the built-in and baseboards.  We actually rearranged since this picture to have the couch under the window and the chairs on the wall behind where the couch is in this picture (it totally opened up the room), but I can't find any photos of it-boo!

And here it is now.  We swapped out the small 5x7 dark rug for the 8x10 light rug that we had in the dining room.  We currently are not using that rug due to a certain messy 3 year-old so it was great to pull out of the attic. 

We moved the coffee table trunk to the side of the couch and pulled my grandma's 50's Lane coffee table out of the attic. 

Rearranged the table and standing lamps. 

Swapped out a couple kick knacks. 

The Lane coffee table could seriously use a refinishing but I love how it makes the room less heavy and the proportions are awesome if I do say so myself.   Anyone know of a way to spruce up the table (think water stains and light scratches) without totally refinishing it? 
Added bonus: makes a great fort structure and hiding spot.

Other than that, we didn't do much but I can't believe how much bigger and brighter the room feels with just these few little changes.  I would like to purchase some dramatic 50s sculpture type piece for the coffee table and some fun pillows as well as hide all those cords by the TV but other than that, I love the new room! 

And best of all-FREE!