Google+ House Revivals: August 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Vintage Mirrors for the Master Bathroom

We finally had a moment to look for mirrors for the master bath.   I was really hoping to find something vintage, and had found a few mirrors that I liked, but the scale would be wrong, or there would only be one, or they would be attached to a dresser....  We found a substitute that would work, on clearance, at Lowes, but I wasn't crazy about the quality of the piece.
The frame was plastic, and the glass was thin.  We went ahead a bought two of the Lowes mirrors -- just in case we couldn't find anything better.  Well, that same afternoon, at the Habitat Store, we found two seventies vintage dresser mirrors.
The funny thing is that I had seen them before and thought they would be perfect, but they had been attached to a dresser.  Apparently someone bought the bedroom set, and re-donated the mirrors.  We decided to buy them, bring both styles of mirrors out to the beach house, then decide which we wanted to use.
Well, when we looked at the pieces side by side, we decided quality vintage trumped the newer trendier plastic version.   Of course, the vintage mirrors needed a little work to be wall worthy.....
They had metal bars attached to the back that needed to be removed.
And they needed to be cleaned and sanded....
... and primed.
I decided to try a different kind of primer than I usually use.  It's Zinsser, and so far I am really impressed.  I'll let you know how the finished project turned out, in part two of this post, in a couple of days.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

So Long, Bathtub, I'm Breaking Up With You

You were there for me when I needed you.  I used you to get through a rough time, but I never really loved you.  I was just using you.  Now I have a new love, and I won't be bringing you my dirty dishes anymore. 
So, bathtub, this is goodbye.  I probably won't even look back with fond remembrance on our time together.  I won't look back, at all.

I'm fickle that way.



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Master Bathroom Before and (Temporary) After

Our master bathroom is still not completely finished, but it is completely functional.  We're just waiting on one little part for the bathtub sprayer, and a couple of electrical covers.  And a back splash. And a vent cover. Oh, and I guess we need to re-hang the door :)  But other than that, it's practically finished....
My husband is coming out from the city this weekend, and I thought it would be nice if we could use our bathroom.  So, I finished painting out the trim on the window, wiped down the tile, polished up the chrome, and stood admiring my work.... then looked out the window to the house two lots over.... and waved at the neighbor.
Oh, that's right.  Add window treatments to that list of little things we still need.   Right now.
Well, when I mentally inventoried my random assortment of sheets and items that might work as a temporary window covering  (most of our stuff is still in storage), I remembered these funky little vintage curtains I thrifted a couple of weeks ago.  I bought them thinking the fabric would be great to transform into shopping bags, or aprons.
These were originally from Sears, and still had the price tags pinned to them!  At $3.88 a panel, they cost me more to buy them from Goodwill.
They turned out to be just barely big enough to tack up as a temporary window covering. 
Is it a "designer look"?  Not really.  Is it fun and pretty, and functional? Definitely. Will it provide privacy for right now? Absolutely.

And now, I'm happy.  I finally get to use my new bathroom.  And here's a little reminder of how this bath alcove looked when we bought this house!
What do you think?  Is it better after?
Well, I have more trim to paint -- in the living room, this time.  I hope you're all having a lovely week!

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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Making Over the Master Closet


Well, my new BFF, Dexter, and I are still hard at work.  Once we'd finished painting the master bedroom, we moved on to the master bedroom closet.  Why is it that the smaller the room, the longer it takes to paint?  We've spent the better part of the week on this closet, and honestly, if you looked too closely, you'd say we needed another go at it....
Here's a peak into the closet the first time we looked at the house.  It was dirty, and had a broken light fixture, but it had plenty of space, and salvageable rods and shelves ( I'd love to design and install a really beautiful closet system, but for now, we are working with what we have).

What you don't see is that a previous owner had left a stash of sunflower seeds on one of the shelves.  Who does that?  Some critters found the stash, and left lots of empty shells and critter poo in here.  Seriously. Disgusting.  Needless to say, lots of bleach was involved in the cleaning of this closet.  And there may have been some dry heaves.

The first thing we did in here was have a washer and dryer hook-up installed.
Seems simple, especially since the closet shares a wall with the master bath's tub alcove, but it still involved bringing in a plumber, a framer, an electrician, and a drywall guy, and will ultimately involve bringing in a finish carpenter.  It's literally taken weeks to get the w/d hook-ups to this point.  I'll be honest and just say that the drywall guy never got to make his final pass -- I was just tired of waiting, so I bought some joint compound and tape and finished it up, so I could do the painting and be done with it.  Please, don't judge my drywall contractor by the finish job you see here...
Of course, much of the time I was working around a wall oven.  Why, you ask?  I don't know.  Our contractor had a member of his crew remove it from the kitchen, and I guess they didn't want to carry that heavy thing down the front stairs?  I can tell you for a fact that it was heavy.  I know this because I finally got tired of working around it,  and moved it out into the hall by myself, so the contractors would have to trip over it....  The silly thing is, they just created more work for themselves (and me) by carrying this thing into the back of the house from the kitchen, than if they had just carried it outside in the first place....
Once the oven was out of the way, we removed the shelves and rods, to get them out of the way, and painted the walls.  We also stained the rods in a dark walnut stain and painted the shelves and brackets white. Then everything got put back, exactly as it had been before.
With the exception of a few surfaces that needed to be primed with Kilz (in which case, we ventilated and isolated), Dexter and I have only been using Mythic paint.
 We are also using the same colors that were used in the bedroom.  The wall color is called Sierra Grande. It looks gray, blue, or gray green, depending on the time of day.... Ultimately, the ceiling will be painted in Antique Pewter, but I just couldn't bring myself to climb on a ladder with Dexter "helping"...

We finally finished the cleaning and scrubbing and staining and painting, and the closet is almost ready for clothes!
We just need the electrician to finish up the switches and plugs and change out the light fixture; and we need the finish carpenter to re-install the base molding.
The flagstone floor got several good scrubbings, then received three coats of sealer.
You can really see the difference in the color of the stone in this threshold picture.  Applying the sealer really brought out the natural coloration of the stone.
Finally. I finally feel like I have a decent "before" picture.  It's taken months to get to this place.  Now, we can start working on some "after" pics!

 **If you are new to the House Revivals blog, be sure to check out our other beach house projects, including lifting the house nine feet to re-capture the ocean view.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Painting with Puppies

Dexter and I have been  painting. 
 Apparently, my little fluffy roller things look just like his little fleece bone things.
Which must mean painting time is play time, right?  It's hard to believe this giant dog is still less than a year old.  He's just a puppy, with tons of energy.  A puppy that also happens to have generous amounts of Kilz in his coat....
His mommy isn't too crazy about the Kilz, but she's been a little preoccupied lately...
 ... which has left Dexter and me to see what trouble we can get into.
Dexter is especially helpful with cutting in.  Thank goodness for that!
Together, we were able to knock out the master bedroom in no time at all.
He even helped paint out the trim work -- that took multiple coats of Kilz, since the woodwork had never been painted before, but Dexter was a real trooper, and stayed right by me the entire time.  He stayed so close, in fact, that I tripped over him several times....  Such a helper....
He was pretty proud of his contribution, I think.
Overall, I think the room turned out great.  We would have liked to have painted the ceiling in a winter storm gray, but I've decided to tackle that one on my own... after Dexter's daddy gets back from Afghanistan, and he and his mommy join him at his duty station.
Something about being up on a ladder, when Dexter comes barreling through the space, makes me think next year is a fine time to paint the ceiling....

Friday, August 5, 2011

Beach House Kitchen Gets Cabinets!

Things have been happening in the beach house kitchen.  Our cabinets arrived and have been installed. Finally.  A month late.  We've been just a wee bit distracted by a wee babe's arrival, so I completely forgot to blog about the kitchen progress.
Here are a few pics from the installation.
It took three guys to get those uppers into place.
This is "phase one" of the kitchen cabinets.  Phase two will include a four foot by six foot island, but for now we will just have a kitchen table.
Phase three will address the pantry wall....  For now, these cabinets will just get a little face lift.
 And now, I need to go snuggle a grand baby....  Have a wonderful weekend!