the couch...

a little angry with me today.

'you are diabolical,' my husband said to me today.

see, we got a new couch.  the couch i wanted :)

not that i made him, or we only got the couch i liked.  pi wanted to get a new couch too - but he wanted a new couch in addition to our old couch.  i, on the other hand, wanted to throw the old one out in to the hallway.  the thing is that we have a gorgeous, fancy couch.  we bought it from arhaus before we were married when we were moving to brooklyn.  it has lasted us five great years and is still in decent shape. 

but i've been feeling like it is time to move on.  it’s not super comfortable for us to snuggle up on, it’s small, and it wouldn’t really be practical if we had a lot of people over or just wanted to be able to not worry about the fanciness of the couch.  which is why i have been rooting for us to get rid of said fancy  couch and get a new one all together.

but pi loves the fancy couch.  and, what’s more than love, is that we spent what was, at the time, a small fortune on it.  so he wants the couch to stay.  this meant that, in order to keep the fancy couch, we would have to still buy another couch to fit around the couch that we currently have, it would have to match the sofa style we already have. 

old fancy couch.

new super-comfy uber-practical couch.

but that didn't exactly happen.  we purchased our new lovely corner-piece couch, thinking we could potentially make it work along with our old fancy couch.  and it turns out, there was just no way that we could make it work.  we tried every possible way to get our new couch and old couch to mesh.

taking the couch apart during the first re-arrangement.

then the tv had to move...

he's still smiling here!

well that doesn't work...

...and neither does this...

so, at the end of the day, the old couch had to go away.  i tried to banish it to the hallway, but that would not happen.  so we compromised.

here is the new living room and dining room area.  it may look silly to you, but we like it, and this is our compromise to keep us both happy today. 

couch in my dining room.  love it.

still need to hang stuff on the wall.

 marriage is a compromise, guys.  we successfully bought a new couch and kept our old one.  and i'm pretty happy with the results so far :)

downstairs bathroom update!

hey all.

so i don’t even know if you remember this, but a looooong while ago i mentioned how we were going to have to re-do the downstairs bathroom. well fast forward practically a year, and we are finally underway with bathroom renovation #2! of course we have tons of great reasons why this didn’t happen until now… but the important thing is we are getting it taken care of. it’s funny – there is always this huge wish list of things we want to get done in the house someday when we have time. but now that we are renting it out, we have a fire lit under us to start working through this list.

there are a ton of smaller things we have done, but the biggest project by far is finishing up the bathroom. so, the first step: new tile in the shower!



shower all ripped out - notice the basement behind?

in my fantasies [yes, as a grown woman i know fantasize about things like this] we got a new shower pan, but hey, we are on a time and budget crunch now. i was at least able to get the shiny white subway tile i wanted – we are going for a subway look. now i know what you are thinking – dirt and grime and rats in the bathroom? we are going to somewhat model it after our old F stop in brooklyn – carroll street. so we [this is the royal ‘we’, not the literal ‘we’, because of course PI is doing all the heavy lifting while i finish up school] left the top few rows of blue tile that were not damaged by the moisture of the shower, and the subway tile will be underneath.



subway tile with original tile above

looking great!

our old subway stop in brooklyn

 

 

so the sign won’t actually be in tile, but the decals go over the tile, and with the border… well, it will look pretty damn awesome. it’s definitely a change of pace from my typical eclectic, mixed bag, morrocan-french-bohemian décor look the rest of the house is. the new sink should arrive in the next week and i’ll change up the décor in there a bit before the holiday party.

besides the bathroom… it’s been pretty busy but pretty much the same. lots of homework, but i have another class wrapped up now so just two more to go. they are slowly dwindling – and it’s just over two weeks until graduation. it can’t come soon enough!

as soon as i have a little more time i will catch everyone up on our trip to LA for thanksgiving – maybe this weekend?

til next time!



entryway LOVE.

what did you do for the 4th?  barbeque with friends, hang by the pool, or maybe just light off some sparklers with some cool lemonade?  well, not me my friends.  i did this.

 

but that lovely, calming blue used to be dark maroon red, and it was the worst.  and we finally did something about it. i have a blue entryway, blue staircase, and a white ceiling.  who would have thought?  it makes the space look at least twice as big, and it wasn't nearly as hard as i thought it was going to be.  with the help of my mom (the expert painter) it only took us an afternoon.  and we were done in time for sushi and a late trip to ikea :)

of course nothing is totally done - trim still needs to be painted (probably this weekend), decor needs to go up, stairs need to be carpeted - but i can finally start planning the wall collage up the stairs i've been dreaming about for two years now.

a few more pics of our super-productive independence day.  please note that for a little while, our entryway and hallway was red, white and blue.  very patriotic.

swatches of the new paint

downstairs detail with light fixture

mom painting the top ceiling corners!

philip hard at work (with mussolini darting down the stairs)

door looks amazing with the new wall color!

updated entry decor (still in progress)

 

 

what a difference a day makes (a hard day that is).  

until the next project... have a happy thursday!

hallway update: fini!

after a week of no painting (no paint fumes for me on doctor's orders!), i finally finished the hallway.  phase one of the artery's demise is complete.  kind of.  i'm not allowed to paint the ceiling (husband's orders this time due to my excessive clumsiness), so philip is doing that part next.

but so far?  it looks great.  and i absolutely LOVE it.  it has made our hallway look at least twice as big as it did before.  it still needs a little fixing up - some pictures, artwork, maybe a little table or something.  i'm not sure.

phases two and three: the entryway and the hallway, respectively.  i'm thinking the entryway will come next (maybe even next weekend?), and i have a gorgeous shade of blue, behr's faded denim, that i have in mind for the entry.  but then there are the questions of... what to do with the stairs (previous owner painted them white), carpet, wiring the stairs for lighting, do we really like the entryway?... so much to do.  but one thing at a time, we'll get it done :)

i'm surprised and happy about how easy and fairly quick this project was.  i was able to do it in the searing heat, with no AC, while taking summer school.  but mostly it was relaxing and almost therapeutic to just sit upstairs and paint while listening to spotify, fixing something i didn't like about our house.  the red paint over the wallpaper was so intimidating that i built it up into something so difficult it would take years for us to cover - when all it took was two coats of primer + paint in one, along with a few half-days.  not so bad.

but here we have the before and after of the upstairs hallway!

makes the floors look nicer too :)

til next time (i'm itching for my next project!!!)...

xoxo

hallway update: trim paint

since i last shared pics of our newest house project on saturday, i haven't done a whole lot.  father's day was sunday and since then i've been a little under the weather - but i did start some of the trim paint!  it looks wonderful, and i can't even believe how quickly it's going.  at this rate i should have all of the upstairs done by friday morning - just in time to start the entryway this coming weekend :)

here's the trim:

old trim

new trim

progression from old (on top) to new (on bottom)

i am not used to so much white in one place in my house!  we have colors EVERYWHERE - and the only thing i've painted white in the house is the ceiling.  the trim is behr's oyster, which i love.  it's turning out lovely so far - after the painting is done i'll treat myself to a new light fixture for my fancy new hallway :)

should have more updates soon - happy tuesday!

til next time - xoxo

death of the artery

there is a feature in my house that we not-so-lovingly call 'the artery.'  this monstrosity is actually just our entryway, staircase, and upstairs hallway - but the walls and ceiling of all three are painted a very deep, dark red.  and did i mention that the paint is over wallpaper?  because it is.

every since we first looked at this house, i knew if i lived here i'd have to do some major painting, especially in the artery.  but due to the dark hue, i figured i'd have to hire a professional and it would take at least a week to get it all done.  i actually priced it out last year, but seeing as the cost was over $1000 i figured we could maybe try it ourselves.  a few days ago, i decided it was time to start the big job.  we have a laundry list of projects to get started on with the house, because it has been months since we've really done any updates to it.  so a quick trip to home depot, and here you go! 

hallway before

hallway after

 today i just accomplished the upstairs hallway, but it's a start.  and what's more is that it only took me a few hours and two coats of paint to transform dark red into white.  or, more specifically. behr's camembert.

some walls white, some still red

finishing up!

LOVE this! looks like lights are on upstairs now!

 next up is the trim tomorrow - can't wait!  next weekend hopefully i can tackle the entryway - now i have some good momentum and motivation.  plus i smeared blue paint on my wall as a sample, so now i kinda have to do it :)

happy saturday all!

xoxo

the backyard: update i

happy sunday night all!  it's not like me to be blogging so late, but what can i say... i'm inspired by these longer days we have been having.  it's been an absolutely lovely weekend here i must say, and i definitely have some fantastic updates for you all!  we have started on our summer project: the back yard.  yikes.  i like to say that when we first moved in i'm pretty sure that is where they filmed hostel.  yeah.

but let's backtrack to the playing part of the weekend before i get to the working part :)  friday night philip and i did one of the things we do best: played our hockey drinking game.  now this is something that i made up way back in the day but is still just as fun today as it was two years ago.  there are only a few rules to the game:

-1 drink for every shot on goal
-3 drinks for every goal

the rest of the goals depend on the game you are watching.  so it can be 1 drink every time you see sidney crosby if its a pens game, 1 drink for every fight if it's an avs - detroit game, etc.  friday night we had some good ones though:

-2 drinks every time the h. and d. sedin are referred to as "the sedins" or "the sedin twins"
-1 drink for every crowd cheer of "louuuuuuuuuuuuuu" no matter the absent-minded stop
-1 drink for every mention of how damn old recchi is

so obviously we were having a good time :) until the game ended.  saturday morning i had to work - but a soon as i got home i found philip working in the back yard, and he asked me, "what do you want to do today?"  my reply: "go to the park and drink."  and that's exactly what we did.  we both got bikes last weekend, so it was a perfect time to take them on a test run.  we packed backpacks with a six-pack of alaskan amber, a picnic blanket, a deck of cards and some triscuits and headed off to sloan's lake.  after a few hours of drinking beneath the shelter of an aged tree (that one's for you philip!) we decided to head home.  it was about 6pm and we had been in the park for three hours.  so on the bike ride home, i was leading the way... and decided to bike over to three dog instead :) we enjoyed a few more drinks and some good conversation with one of our favorite couples the kremhellers who came out and met us.  it was an awesome day - even when we biked back to our house at 10:30pm.

but sunday we were done playing and on to work.  we were up fairly early and went to pick up all the supplies we would need for a successful yard work day and then started at it.  last year we laid the sod, so a lot of the hard work has already been done.  this summer it's more about fine-tuning the yard, making the sides look presentable and having a place where we can sit outside and enjoy our hard work. just a reminder of what the backyard looked like last summer when we moved in:

paint party!

what's better than getting an email from your friend late on sunday night inviting you to a party on saturday?  finding out it's a paint party -- where the fun is painting said friend's living and dining rooms but also drinking the beer this friend is bribing you with.

and that's pretty much what the painting party was on saturday.  now, i know what you are thinking.  why mix painting and booze?  but if you knew my friends... you'd know why (kidding!).  but seriously, it went really well.  philip and i moved most everything out on thursday and friday evenings after work except the big things - cabinet with television, bar, couch and dining room table.  philip and i were up bright and early saturday morning getting ready for company.  we covered everything up and made a huge pot of decaf babushka blend (my new obsession -- for those who don't know, i'm strangely obsessed with anything russian) and got to work.  mom and her friend vince arrived and my girlfriends were there shortly after and we got to work, set to the tunes of my awesome painting party playlist to keep us motivated :)

starting to move things out

taping up the mantle - check out the paint swatches! 

half of living room in the entry

the bathroom disaster

for those of you who may not know, we are re-doing the bathroom this year.  usually every year we take a big trip abroad (2008: germany and turkey, 2009: paris, 2010: morocco and spain).  2011, however, will be a bit tamer.  we decided last year that rather than taking a big trip we would put that money into our upstairs bathroom, which desperately needs some updating.  here are a few shots of what the bathroom looked like in march last year, before we even closed.  keep in mind this is what we have been living with as our main bathroom until just last month!

no, that crap in the right corner wouldn't come off

bland tile. chipped, cracked and impossible to keep clean

taking up just enough space in the middle of the room. why??????

boring mirror and lights from home depot (mirror came free w/vanity purchase).

the weekend of my birthday, i was showering and i looked up at the bathroom ceiling.  what i saw made me want to vomit.  the previous owner, or whoever painted our bathroom stock-white, used cheap paint. i can tell this because when it gets wet, the latex base drips in the form of yellow streaks on the walls and build-up on the ceiling that literally looks like pee on the walls.  it's the worst.  i got out of the shower and told philip that we should start ripping it out.  and my ever-motivated husband went right into the bathroom with a hammer and started smashing :)

at the risk of giving my mother a heart attack i won't post any pictures of what the bathroom looked between that day and yesterday.  i will tell you that it wasn't pretty.  and for about two weeks it sat totally untouched because we were out of town, so that kind of put a kink in our plans.

here's a photo of the kind of look and feel i'm going for in the bathroom:

photo from domino, tile from emery & cie

really, in a perfect world, i would use tile like this (below) with that gorgeous mirror above and some really interesting lighting.

tile from home depot.com

but marriage is about compromise and those of you who know philip won't be surprised to hear he doesn't like this tile (or the cost).  so we are going a more neutral, man-friendly way.  so far we have tentatively picked brown glass tile with a white stone border. 

the look in our house is pretty original, i think.  it's pretty eclectic.  while i love italian and french designs, i've found that i'm most home around moroccan decor.  so i'm really hoping to put a bit of that middle eastern flavor into the bathroom with dark tile and differing and neutral glass tea lights around the room like these from elizabeth's embellishments (one of my new favorite stores!) in lafayette.

we haven't picked out a vanity, floor tiles, paint, light, etc... right now we are just focused on getting a bathtub up and running so we don't have to shower downstairs every day.  i want a bath tub... our old one was so yucky i never took a bath in it.  so now that we are getting close (tub is being delivered monday or tuesday!) i am literally dreaming of hot bubble baths with candles and a good book.

but for now... i guess i'll just have to live with this.  happy sunday everyone :)

a bit about the yard

well, philip and i are sitting around at boston logan airport so i'll get started a bit on the yard.  here is what the house looked like the very first day we saw it.

february 2010

it was the first weekend in february and it didn't look too pretty.  luckily we are well versed in "it's what's on the inside that counts," so we were able to see past the grim exterior into the gorgeous interior.  i won't go into the interior now but anyway, here it is, our lovely home in highlands.  the pretty house to our right belongs to our awesome neighbors, e & b.

may 2010

june 2010

after months of paperwork and phone calls, we finally closed on the house in april.  it took a little while before we were able to start on the yard; for those of you familiar with colorado's weather you'll know we can get snow all the way until the middle of may.  so we were a bit patient.  but once may did come, this is what we saw underneath the snow in front.  the right side of the yard needed some serious TLC.  weeds in the grass, brown splotches, and only one nice green area where a dog had obviously relieved itself.  on the right side there wasn't grass, but we couldn't quite see what was there.  something would sprout up in the spring we were sure... but we would have to wait a little bit longer to see the overtaking of weeds we would need to remove.  up in the front against the porch were various dead bushes, a baby tree with roots growing down towards our foundation and a dead rosebush tied to a trellis on the other side of the steps.  absolutely lovely.  here is what was growing on the left side of the lawn.  as you can see in the june picture, the right side of the lawn looked better after much in april, but the left side had to go.  and this was just the front yard :)

here is the lovely, lovely backyard.  4th of july weekend we gathered some family and very kind friends to help us out and start the backyard project ourselves.  we dug up dead trees, knocked down multiple bee hives, whacked down weeds literally taller than myself and sprayed round up til our knees bled.  it was an insane amount of work in one day, and all we actually did was prep work for a landscaper to come in and lay sod.  here's a few more snapshots from that day.

backyard, july 4th 2010

nate, aj and philip hard at work

towards the end of the working day

my herbs, which died within a week or two

i am really pretty proud though.  and mostly it was due to the nagging of my wonderful girlfriends layne & walker.  i was complaining about our impossible time hiring a reliable landscape crew and the girls gave me the necessary motivation to just start the work ourselves.  and they were right.  we saved a ton of $$ on labor just by doing the hard part ourselves.  laying the sod and creating the flower bed were a little beyond our means -- but i still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when i look out back, knowing i helped create this.

the finished product (for this summer anyway!)

pretty decent, right?  we don't have anything planted out back and haven't done anything with the patio (besides mass amounts of weeding).  i'm hoping to do more of that this summer.  i'd also love to have a little herb garden if possible, but i'm not sure if that will work out.  lots more to do - a homeowner's work is never done :)

here's a few shots of the front yard, after we had our landscaper replace the crazy weeds on the left side with grass.  i planted about six different species on the left of the walkway up to the house.  to be honest at this moment i don't remember if they were annuals (or is it perennials?) or not, but i think i might have to re-plant this spring.  the big bush in the middle of the left side grass is a daisy bush which was there when we moved in.  i love it; daisies make me happy.  we also loved the roses at the front of the house back to life and enjoyed the most fragrant white roses all throughout the summer and into the fall.  i'm certain it's my pop pop helping my garden with his soul.  

there's also a shot of philip mowing the lawn for the first time.  notice how lovely green it is -- a little bit of fertilizer goes a long way!  the lawnmower is a generous hand-me-down from our awesome neighbors i mentioned before, e & b.  they had a spare and probably noticed how insanely long our grass was while philip took his time researching lawnmowers on homedepot.com... 

i hope to have more pictures as we thaw out of this winter but nothing new to share yard-wise now.  next time i'll either add some photos of the fireplace (all new!) or share some photos from the holidays... a little belated, i know.

enjoy!  until next time...

buona notte,
alaina