The Bead Board is Capped

Ugh, the room that will not die is one step closer to completion. The cap is on the bead board, which means that caulking and painting the trim is the last step in the process.

We've already painted the interior of the doors and the bead board itself to cover up the seems and nail holes, which really made everything look much better. It's definitely motivation to finish the rest of the project.

It's a beadboard bonanza around here!

You may recall all of two posts ago, that I vowed to get the mudroom done by June 30th.  Josh knows that it kills me to have unfinished projects waiting for me. I love completion! That's why, being the best husband ever, he helped me pound out some major mudroom progress this past weekend!!!

We cut and installed all of the base molding and bead board and put a new door casing on the door that goes from the mud room to the kitchen.

Before:

With paint, base molding and new door casing:

With bead board:

The bead board is still very rough. I've used caulk and wood putty to fill the holes and seems but will go over them one more time to make it all look as clean as possible.

Once everything is sufficiently patched, I'll go over the boards with a pure white in satin and the trims in a pure white semi-gloss. Then I'll add the chair rail to the top and add a piece of flat trim to the long wall for coat hooks.

Josh is taking a class on electrical work for homeowners, so hopefully after his lab this week he can switch out that handy dandy nipple light for one of these:

 I also have to figure out what kind of shelving and storage I want. That part might be finished after my self imposed deadline.

Family Room Progress

We knew when we moved in that we would want our "relaxation" space done as soon as possible. There had to be one room that we could go to when the rest of the house looked like a construction zone. The family room we started out with was a bit dark with an off white paint that made it look dingy. The fireplace grate was a very dated brass.

One of the main challenges in the room was that the one window, though large, faced out to our covered patio area which limited the amount of light it brought in.

We started by tearing out the base molding, painting the ceiling beams white (Behr Ultra White Opal), painting all of the trim (Behr Ultra Ultra Pure White) and painting the walls a green-blue (Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue). The sellers removed the fireplace grate before we moved in. We don't know why, but we didn't argue. The weird white thing in the fireplace below is the vent cover - I removed it so that I could paint/vacuum the dust out of it and the fireplace seemed like a great place to stash it so it wouldn't get hit with any paint.



Next we put in new 5'' base molding and had six recessed lights installed between the ceiling beams in hopes of giving the room some additional height.

A week later, a special delivery arrived from Pottery Barn.

We got a new coffee table and tv console from their Hamilton reclaimed wood collection. Josh and I both loved them. They're very substantial and high quality and the hardware is beautiful. We also like the reclaimed look so that one day when we have children and they scratch/dent/destroy things, it will have minimum impact on this furniture.

The room is very near finished, though I reserve the right to continue adding decorative accents. Check back for the "after" shot!

Mud Room Progress

The mud room was high on the priority list when we moved in - well, half of it was. We had ordered our new washer and dryer (GE Profile front loaders) to be delivered the weekend we moved in, so life would be substantially easier if we finished the area behind it prior to their arrival.

Josh didn't really understand why I cared what the mud room looked like, but my personal view is that every room in our house should be presentable. Also, you must pass through the doorway to the room to get to the downstairs bathroom, so it would definitely be seen by guests.

My goal for the room is for it to eventually be pretty and functional. At this stage, it's neither.

Here is where we started:

Confession: I took this photo after we started, but wanted to include a shot of the original wallpaper.

The wallpaper was pretty terrible - it had to go along with the curtains and the cabinet. In its place I'm indulging my love of molding and charm in general and putting up bead board. For the wall color, I decided to go with something dark, since the laundry room seemed like a good place to take a risk. We (okay, I) went with Behr Ultra Starless Night.

So, two months later half of the room is done:

Half of the room is sitting, taunting me: 

The goal is to finish this room by the end of June. That means painting the other side of the room, putting up the rest of the trim and bead board, painting the door, installing coat hooks into the bead board, adding open shelving above the utility sink and changing the light fixture out. 

Fingers crossed for an on-time finish and note to self to tidy up before taking the next set of pictures!

Captain Ludwig von Tinklemaken

...or "Tinks",  for short. Meet the newest addition to our household:

It all started at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I had gone to purchase a dresser for our guest room when I noticed this in their art section. I took a picture with my phone because I thought it was funny, but then I kept looking at it after I left the store. After showing a coworker the picture, I knew I had to have it. I called the ReStore and bought it over the phone for weekend pick up.

Where am I going to hang this artistic gem? In front of the downstairs toilet, of course! I mean, who wouldn't want to look at Captain Tinklemaken while making tinkle?

I discussed it with some ladies on the GBCN message board and it was decided that the feline should have a name. One of the ladies came up with Captain Ludwig von Tinklemaken. I think it's fitting - a very serious name for a cat that obviously takes itself seriously.

One message board response referenced Beyonce the Chicken and it gave me an idea. I already knew Josh would be confounded by Tinks, but what would he say if he just randomly looked up from the toilet and saw this refined feline staring down at him?

Fast forward to today. I picked up Captain von Tinklemaken and hung him in the bathroom around 2:30pm. I asked Josh to clean the bathroom, put new toilet paper in there AND make sure there was a hand towel. The hand towel rack is less than a foot away from the bottom of Captain von Tinklemaken's frame! He still hasn't noticed it. How anti-climactic can you get?

Alright, let's see how long it's going to take him to see it. If it's more than five days, I'm adding a countdown button.

Update: I gave up and told him about it on Sunday. His response? "It's a cat in a bonnet." Good thing I didn't marry him for his powers of observation.

The Garden Grows!

How did we spend our second weekend of home ownership? Killing grass. With the 8,000,000 things on our to do list, this one had to be in the top five so that I could plant a vegetable garden.

So far, it's my favorite part of the house. I've been spending at least an hour a day back there weeding and feeding the little buggers. Most of the plants went in mid-April, died, and were replaced with bigger/harder to kill plants mid-May. Lesson learned: the mulch should not touch the stem of the plant.

The first hints of produce are starting to arrive.

Zucchini

Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes

Celebrity Tomatoes

San Marzano Tomatoes

Habernero Pepper

Romaine and Mesculan  Lettuce (from seed)

Three varieties of sage (small one to the left is sprouted from seed)

Parsley (from seed)

We also ended up with some "volunteer" plants that grew out of our compost. I know that this is some type of squash, but have not yet determined the type. 

 I've also started some container herbs which will eventually be moved to the kitchen window sill so we can use them through the winter.

From left to right: lemon basil, tuscan blue rosemary, barbecue rosemary and lemon thyme.

We're still waiting on some of our other veggies to start showing fruit. We've got: 

Better Boy Tomatoes

Sugary Tomatoes

Yellow Pear Tomatoes

Mucho Nacho Jalapenos

California Wonder Bell Peppers

Sweet Red Bell Peppers

Carnival Mix Bell Peppers

Black Beauty Eggplant

White Eggplant

Nantes Carrots

Kaleidoscope Mix Carrots

Fingers crossed that everything survives the bunny family that lives in our yard!

We bought a house.

..and here it is. Yes, after four months, 50+ house viewings and three bidding wars we can now call this ours/Wells Fargo's. There is a lot to do to this place, but we're looking forward to taking our time to make it what we want. (Note - these are the MLS pictures and none of this furniture is ours.)

House features:

-four beds

-two and a half baths

-finished basement

-.4 acres with a fenced yard