Monday, August 25, 2014

Monday Already??

Dude, where did the weekend go?  I had such high hopes of burning through my to-do list, but instead it seems like I (well, hubs and I) just created new bullets to add to the list.  Ugh.

So...#1 on the list for the weekend was to rip up the carpet in our basement (specifically, hubby rips the carpet up while I watch the kids).  The plan all along has been to create a lofty feel in this man cave but execution of this design was sped along by good ol' mother nature.  Several weeks ago, we had a number of intense thunderstorms that left our basement a bit on the damp side.  We bought a dehumidifier to remedy the excess moisture in the air but decided it was time to get rid of the carpet so said moisture wouldn't be tempted to collect and form mold.

Our weekend's progress:

In my mind, this was a quick and easy project.  But I totally forgot about step 1 - removing the furniture from the room.  Duh!  With a crew of one, it took my husband all day to move everything into the garage.  On Sunday, he was only able to strip up one "row" of carpeting.  He was surprised to find that whoever originally laid our carpet down went all glue crazy during installation.  Yay!  Just what we need, extra work.

So, now hubby is in the middle of researching glue removal techniques...ones that can be performed without moving the pool table.  And that means that my plan to cross off items on my list are yesterday's news.  So for now, I will have to put hanging up window treatments and possibly removing wallpaper on the back burner.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Let There Be Light.

Take a look at our new guest bathroom light...

And, OMG, our new foyer light!

Don't they look amazing??
I couldn't be more pleased!

So, for the bathroom, we I decided to go with a more feminine, chic-y look.  My husband was (and still is) not on board; he wanted me to keep the design more gender neutral (read - not girly), but here's my stance: I absolutely love color and design and, while I understand his reasons for wanting to keep our home gender neutral (read - safe), I find that this style robs me of creating an environment where I feel at home.  And uh, I live here too, right?  Right?? lol  So, I have commandeered the guest bedroom and bathroom.  And the kids' bedrooms.  And my sewing room (understandably) but more on all of that at a later date.

Back to the light fixture.  Check out the ever-so-stunning before pics:


Trust me.  These pictures don't do this light fixture the justice it deserves.  What you can't see (probably because of the blown out light bulb) is the rust that is slowly trying to devour this fixture.  Not exactly the kind of vintage look I'm trying to create.  So, needless to say, it had to go.  And in its place, a beautiful sconce.  Choosing to use a sconce turned out to be a great lofty 4 less choice.  The light fixture intentionally designed to be the main attraction was 3 times as expensive as its sconce-y counterpart, and rightfully so.  But I think using the sconce also gives the room the right amount of "girly" factor, if you will - enough elegance/charm to please me but not so much to make my husband uncomfortable using the room (the main attraction light was also 3 times as big as the sconce).

Installation was fairly simple.  I was, however, shocked and a bit relieved to find that I had to put together my light fixture piece by piece (I wondered how the manufacturer planned on getting my glass fixture to me unbroken...)

I had to remove our newly updated mirror to install the base of the sconce, which was surprisingly centered above the mirror without my having to make additional adjustments.  

Oh, and before we move on, let's give one last shout out to the old light fixture for leaving us with rust markings.
Rude.  That will have to be addressed at some point.

But, for now, here are some after pics:

Light ON!

I love how the crystals somewhat resemble the hanging fabric circles on the shower curtain.  Very chic!

Here's the old foyer light in all of its glory:


This light actually wasn't that bad but we wanted our foyer light to make a statement; to kind of set a vibe that this house belongs to a playful and somewhat "edgy" family. (You know you want to chuckle).  And by golly, I think our new light does the trick.  Well that and our newly painted bright green door.

One thing that I'm learning about renovations is that one project typically starts an avalanche of follow up projects.  So, now that we have replaced the foyer light, we now have to do something about the old fixture "shadow" that remains.

Quick fix would be to paint but neither my husband or myself are fond of the textured ceilings so I think we will be smoothing those out in the very near future.  Then there's also wallpaper removal that needs to happen in the guest bathroom to address the rust markings from the old bathroom light.  So much to do, so much to do...