Evolution of a living room

When we moved in:

Later:

Some construction:

 And today:

Well, not today-today.  Today it actually looks like this:


And smells like a barn.  Normally the bunnies don't stink at all, but when you work all week and leave the cage scrubbing til Saturday, and then add a chicken in the mix... It's not great.

Love, J

New bath

Okay, I really cannot find the "before" photos of our bath remodel.  So instead I will describe it: 

Moldy tub enclosure; rotted out grout; dingey linoleum; stained walls; the vanity and towel racks were faux wood finish and looked like something you'd find in an RV.  The toilet paper holder was shaped like a little outhouse.  There was no fan, so any shower in the winter totally steamed up that side of the house.  The mega-tub came to about 10 inches or so in front of the toilet, making the room uneccessarily cramped.  And the door had a 4' mural of three wolves howling at a full moon decapoged on its front. 

Basically, it was not a nice room.  (The Habitat Store did take the outhouse TP holder though, if you're in the market for some tacky.)

Then hubs gutted the room to its studs, and DIL worked his contractor magic.  Now we are revelling in our:

~ New, bigger window.

~ All new fixtures, including a short, deep tub reoriented to take up less space.

~  Linen closet.

~  Tile.  Oh, the tile!

~  Radiant floor heating under said tile.  I'm officially about as glam as J Lo.  Life goal acheived.

Plus a fancy fan, wolf-less door, nice lighting, and on and on and on.

And now may I present, the during and after photos, bath remodel edition:

Fireplace!

We did a bit of construction around la casa this fall, and here (finally) is one before and after set.  

I give you, fire:

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

I know it's before-and-after-shot 101 that the "after" shot should ALWAYS have better lighting and be prettier than the "before."  But it's gloomy winter here which means bad light for pics, and this still gives you the idea.

Anyway, the fireplace is SOOO cozy and I love it entirely.  I thought maybe I'd hyped it up in my mind so much that there was no way that actually having it could ever live up to my expectations, but I. Was. Wrong.  Freya and I now conduct all of our business within a 5 foot radius of the thing.

And I can't say for sure, but I *think* the hubs is pleased with it as well.
 

The real, mega construction was done on the bathroom.  I've got good "after" photos, but I can't find the "before"s, so that'll wait for another day.

Love, J

And NOW for the big reveal

This is a long time coming, but the house is finally done!


And worth the wait, if I do say so myself.


Love, J

"Brick" be gone

Did you think our house was brick?

I did.

When we first drove past it, on one of our evening tours of cheap-houses-for-sale-in-The-Valley, I was sure there was a typo in the listing. There was not a chance such a stately, brick house, with such a beautiful, huge lot was in our price range. But a call to the realtor confirmed that yes, the price was right.

We made an appointment to see it the next day. And I spent the night telling my grandmother all about the pretty brick house we had found.


But when we approached the house the next day, I saw that it was not brick.

It was something even better.


What is this stuff?

I have never seen this kind of siding on a house before. It's like roofing material, but with a faux brick pattern.

It's hilarious, and tacky, and I adored it. Plus, because I'd never seen it anywhere before, it felt fancy in a limited-edition kind of way.


But I only enjoyed it so much because I knew it was temporary. The hubs is unable to appreciate the tackier things in life. So while replacing it was towards the bottom of my to-do list (somewhere just after installing a fireplace and getting a tire swing), it was right on top of his.


To be fair, the fake brick seems to have been original, and our house was built in the 40's. The siding had not aged very well.


And, after about a month of working in the rain (him, not me), I now present to you, our house:


TA-DA!


This isn't quite the big reveal I was going for, as the paint is still in buckets in our basement. We didn't beat the weather (lesson: don't start a huge weather-dependent project in early November) so we'll be painting it as soon as it warms up in the spring. All those caulk lines surpass even my greater-than-average tolerance for tacky.

Good job sweetie! You're the handiest guy I know, and I'm always impressed with your mad housing skills!

Love, J

Exciting...

Something exciting* is happening around here...


Love, J

* "Exciting" by lame, home improvement standards. I'm not going to Disney World or anything. Damn it.

Reading rainbow

Could I have found a more productive way to spend my evening?


Most definitely.

Do I wish I had?


No way.

Love, J

Mix it up

I am a furniture-rearranger.


As I grew up, 2 or 3 times a year my mom would rearrange our living room, get us all to trade bedrooms, and just generally shake things up. It was so much a part of our household routine that I never thought there was anything unusual about it.

Then one day during my freshman year of college, when I felt like things were getting sort of stale, I set about rearranging my dorm room (which is no easy feat when your room is 70 square feet and most of the furniture is bolted to the floor). After a bit, the hubs (who was at that time 'the boyfriend') stopped by and wanted to know what the heck I was doing. And after some consideration, it dawned on me that a lot of people think of furniture placing as a one-time job. They pick where a chair goes, and from then on, that's where it goes.

I don't think I could live like that. When I get to feeling sort of blah, and the house just doesn't feel right, no matter how well I clean it, I know it's time to move things around and start anew.


I love the 'fresh start' feeling I get when I walk into a room that's been reoriented and shifted around. It makes everything feel new and clean, even when it's all the same-old stuff I've had for ages.

This time, however, I do have something new: a couch.


Thank you, Craigslist. I love it so much, even though it kicks up the old-lady factor in our decorating scheme by about a billion. I need some funky art to hang above it and bring the room's feel back to the land of the twenty-somethings.

Here's to spring and fresh starts, in any form.

Love, J

Where legal research meets holiday cheer

The list of things I liked about law school is sparse indeed. But I can now add festive holiday decorations to that list.

There are two major legal databases that attorneys use to look up cases and statutes. Both companies try their best to get future lawyers hooked on their database while we are still students, so that after graduation we'll pay the big bucks to use their services. They buy our love with free lunches, gift cards, and points. Oh, the points.

My first year of law school, I researched with both databases constantly, for the sole purpose of earning those beautiful points. They can be redeemed for some pretty choice prizes, and I wanted very badly to have enough by graduation that I could cash them in for a fancy projector or a nice camera.

But my interest waned during my second year, when I started working and didn't have time to go to the lunch classes that earn you major pointage. Plus, one of the companies hired a new rep, and he really annoyed me (and was stingy with his points), so I sort of boycotted them for a while.

Still, by the end of my third year, I had a pretty huge point stash. Not big enough to send for the big-ticket items I'd had my eye on, but I did okay.

From the first company, I ordered a dutch oven from Le Creuset (I LOVE Le Creuset, mostly because of the colors. Probably it cooks well too, but I don't know what I'm doing enough to be able to tell the difference.) And I got a box of ramikins with the leftovers.

I looked through probably every prize in the online catalog for the second database, but nothing caught my fancy. So I redeemed my points with them for a cash card that is good only at certain vendors.

And Home Depot is one of those vendors.



And Home Depot has Christmas lights.



Fabulous, giant, LED Christmas lights.



So the hubs and I had a shopping spree, and I fulfilled a lifelong dream of having my very own home decked out in lights. And now we sleep in one cheery, colorful little house.

Happy December!

Love, J

Projects and progress - Part 4

The kitchen's done! Just in time for Thanksgiving.

This is what it looked like on inspection day, before we moved in:



Grandpa S. was his usual helpful self and painted it top-to-bottom with the hubs:





My father-in-law was resourceful and handy, finding a great, used dishwasher and then installing it for us:



And the hubs got to use the mad vinyl skills he picked up the summer he worked at the university floor shop in college:





And the final result...


Oooo, aaaah.



We replaced the oven with a garage sale find and the fridge with a new one. We thought the fridge broke one day, and then had the new one installed before I realized the old one wasn't really broke after all. Sort of annoying. But this one's way energy-efficient (and prettier), so it all worked out.



And even though everyone has lots of suggestions on what we should replace our counters with, they are staying put. I like the light color, the gold speckles in it, and even the fact that it's already stained in spots so that I don't have to worry about leaving stains of my own.

Love, J