In Case You Were Wondering

About my spare bath. I know you've been frantically checking my blog while screaming "What about the other bathroom Brandi?! You said there was two but I only saw one. Tell meeeeee!"

Well here it is.

I mentioned before that we are renovating it. We have been since January. We are doing all the work ourselves and that means progress is slow. Luckily we have a perfectly beautiful master bath to share and its just the two of us.

So here is what it looked like when we moved in. Texas themed wallpaper and everything. There was no texture on the walls or ceiling. We added that, scraped off the paper, and painted every surface. Oh and we also nixed the texas star toilet paper holder of course.

This is how it looked until January of this year. Except we did find a leak in the wall, AGAIN, and had to tear some tile out. Not as much this time but we couldn't put the tub faucet back in afterwards, so we just had a lovely pipe sticking out of the wall, awesome.

Shortly after starting demo. We ripped out all the tile, the tub, the little half wall between the toilet and sink, and of course the fur downs above the sink and shower areas.

And this is its current state!

Don't worry, that red stuff is a water resistant coating that goes under the shower tile. Doesn't it already look bigger without that half wall and the fur downs? Why did builders ever add those? They suck.

Soon we will tile a simple white subway tile. New countertops, new doors, new marble on the floor. 

I already painted some paint swatches in there. I just couldn't wait. I figure since this room is small with no natural light I'll just go dark. My favorite is the middle one. I like the one on the right, just not for this room.

I'm thinking about doing a stencil in here too. What do you think? Which one of these two do you like better?

This mirror over the sink. It's bone inlay, it will look so pretty on that dark greenish teal wall.

                                                                          Source: designsponge.com via Brandi on Pinterest

I really want to do the shower curtain like the wonderful Naomi from Design Manifest did in a recent project.

I picture an ivory linen edged with this trim.

And the valance above edged with this blue trim.

The vintage rug from the kitchen will come in here too. I've already found a replacement for the kitchen also, just gotta get the funds together.

So what do you think? Anything you love or hate? I'm all ears!

PS Apologies for the long absence. I'm afraid I won't be around much this week as well. I'm working on something VERY important. And before you go guessing it has nothing to do with work or interior design. I'll share next week after its over though!

Well Hello Beautiful

I had a super duper productive weekend house-wise. I got the following accomplished;

Bought this dresser...

...and this mirror thingy from my former boss who is moving back to NYC for $200. Best. Deal. Ever.

Got my dining table. I am now searching for mismatched chairs of pure awesomeness.

Replanted the flower beds in the front and backyard (with a lot of help from my mom and MIL, they are greatness). The hydrangeas are going to look so pretty outside my kitchen window when they get big. Also got a super cute birdbath as well. Live long and prosper plants! My husband also completed several critical projects as well but they aren't pretty so I won't bore you with pictures of that. But he did work on the bainofmyexistence hump in our backyard and partially fix the sprinkler system that busted right as winter started last year. Yay us!

How Could You Not Enjoy Your Day?

The amazing husband has set up some new-fangled automated email that sends me a message every hour on the hour during my work day. They go something like this...


On August 28, 1961 Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.

On August 28, 1878 George Whipple, American doctor and Nobel laureate (d. 1976) was born.

Crazy random fact #1: The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

Crazy random fact #2: The Kit Kat bar got its name from the Kit Kat Club in London’s West End, a joint famous for bringing dance-band music to the city in the 1920s.



Now that you know the above, how could you not enjoy your day? =)

ilu

He's so silly! I love my husband, ooh-la-la I'm a lucky girl!

We are so Close...

Worked on the house all weekend and for a few hours yesterday after work. I've been feeling very frustrated and getting a bit snippy with Scott for no good reason. All I've done on the house is paint, paint walls, paint trim, paint cabinets...and I'm sick of it! I've been frustrated with him because he doesn't want to paint and I understand that, I hate it too. But since I'm the only one willing to paint the tasks go on and on especially because the white paint needs two coats and you have to wait 4 hours for drying in between coats which makes the process even longer.

But yesterday before I left the house and after Scott had left to go back to our apartment I walked room by room. I went in each room turned on every light switch, opened up closet doors, looked inside cabinets, ran my fingers along the new faucets, new mirrors, new drawer and cabinet liners and finally felt a sigh of relief. Not because we're done because we still have a list of things to accomplish before moving day but because we have come so far. Not a single corner has gone untouched in our new home. When we move in I won't be able lay my eyes on any area that we have not improved in some way. It has been so much more work than we anticipated but the reward is greater than I could have imagined. Although our bank account and our free time has suffered there is a finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

I remember when we met the inspector at the house before closing and as he was going through quite a list of things wrong with the house I was sitting on the couch just looking around at everything that needed to be done. When we left I felt like I was drowning. I almost asked Scott if we should just back out. I thought that there was too much work to be done, we didn't have any of the skills to make these repairs much less the money either. But as usual my amazing husband came to the rescue. He has such a positive outlook on everything that comes across his plate and I've tried very hard to get some of that positivity to rub off on me. He told me that he could do almost all of the electrical work, some of the plumbing, and almost any other thing that we needed. He was also willing to put in all the time and effort that we needed without even batting an eye or thinking of complaining. We are such opposite ends of the spectrum in this way. When I get frustrated or get into negative thinking mode he is there to balance me out and calmly talk me off the ledge without getting angry at me when I am snippy with him for no good reason. Maybe whoever said patience was a virtue had a wonderful spouse because patience is one thing that easily slips through my fingers.

Just for giggles here is the what is remaining on our to do list before move in day:

Finish sanding and painting master bathroom cabinets
Replace knobs and hinges in both bathrooms
Replace roman tub faucet and shower hardware in master
Prime and paint new mantel (thanks dad!)
Replace two more light fixtures
Hold back vommit while cleaning out bathroom cabinets and putting in drawer liners (seriously I will take a picture to show you the funk this lady lived with)
Spray for bugs inside and out
Fertilize, water and mow yard
Run dishwasher magic and bolt in dishwasher before it falls on the puppy
Hang up new towel, hand towel, and toilet paper holders in both bathrooms
Install new outlet and switches in spare bedrooms after they are painted
Measure recessed lighting in bathrooms and order new covers
Staple gun up cords from lights we hung under kitchen cabinets
Clean, clean, clean
Pack omg I've barely started

There now I've said it out loud, sort of, so now it has to get done! I can't wait to share our after pictures with you...