We're still working... I promise!

I feel like because I haven't posted I haven't been very productive in getting this house together, but I promise it's not true!  We did get hung up on some black mold and trying to seal up some windows.  And unfortunately after getting that all patched we haven't broken paint out again yet.

I did pull out the tree and put it together basically.  I'm still working on a few more ornaments I need to spray paint and modge podge.  But this is basically it at the moment.  I'm not even too worried about hurrying to finish because we don't have kids and I know Chaynce doesn't care how bare the tree looks ornament-wise.  Really Chaynce has opened his present already (he's a spoiled little boy) and it's already on one of the new dresser/media stand in our room (he got a new 50" flat screen)

But that means we did get one dresser sanded and stained and all that.  The drawers, however, he is working on as I type.  With the below freezing temps lately we were too cold to work outside and were worried paint/stain would freeze and such.  But with the weather improving we should have the dresser totally finished by the end of this week I think.

More paint progress...

We finished the back half of the main room last night.  And while switching all the furniture back to the other side Chaynce smashed the light fixture.  It is literally demolished! Ha!  I'm not worried, it was some cheap old thing that didn't even match the other one in the room, sometime I'll replace it but it's on the end of the to-do list around here.  The color we chose was "creamy pebbles" by Better Homes and Gardens.  It's a kind of greige color although I don't know how much you can tell in these pictures.

Maybe I'll start the front half/entryway today.... maybe.... but besides that we just have baseboards in the kitchen and around the shower stall in the bathroom and we're done with paint!!!! 

Window treatments: Check

Ok only the window treatments in the two bedrooms are done, but I'm very proud.  What I'm not proud of is picture quality.  I really need some practice/lessons, probably more patience too to wait until the right time of day to be  taking pictures in whatever rooms. 

I bought 3 of this rod for the bedrooms and I hung these old blue curtains I had from an old apartment in the spare bedroom/closet room.  This is the only pic you get as the room is stacked with stuff from the living room.  We're getting ready to paint this weekend!

I made dropcloth curtains for our bedroom and really love how they turned out

Unfinished edges, exposed seams, uneven ruffle were all intentional.  We like the roughed up, wrinkled material look to them.

Thrift store success

Can I just say I love thrift stores!!!  I know it's become oh so trendy, but it's something I support, I think all benefit from re-using items, being frugal, etc.   Well today's trip was very successful.  I spent $12 and got 5 jars, 3 knives, a glass mixing bowl, a food chopper, and an immersion blender.  I'm very proud in case you can't tell.

2nd Bedroom is painted!

The bathroom is still in progress.  It's close, just needs some caulking and touching up around the shower.  Unfortunately the old rusty stack of drawers I found on craigslist to use as storage is an inch too wide for the space next to the washer/dryer.  I'm way bummed and need to figure out how to get some storage space in the bathroom still.  But I did just go ahead and get the 2nd bedroom painted. We went with the color "smooth stone" by glidden and we really love it.  It's a pale grey although you can't always tell in my crappy pics.

Here's the 2nd bedroom before

Another before shot, we got rid of the broken armoire

starting the wall color

love that grey

After

After

 I'm so excited about this room.  Although I'm sad it's not going to be a very "pretty" room.  We'll be using it for our closet and storage space.

Current nightstand

So we have an old wooden crate we're using as a nightstand at the moment and I love how old and rustic it is. 

Maybe I love sleeping next to old rusty nails?

One down, One to go

We got one of the rolling racks done!  Yay!

 

 

Here's a shot of the casters.  We just ordered some off etsy that are from the 1920s? I believe.  They were a little smaller than I thought but not bad

Seriously love the stain!!!!  In case you're interested it's dark walnut by Minwax.  Love it so much we'll prob use it on everything.

Eventually they'll go into the second bedroom but for now it's in the living room as we still need to paint that room.  But we (mostly Chaynce, ok just Chaynce) made this from scrap materials so we only paid for the stain and casters. Score!

Rental Progress/Update

Remember how I had this lofty goal of getting everything unpacked/painted/updated/pretty a month after we moved in. I was soooo wrong.  But I have to tell myself we really have gotten a lot done in the last month.  We got Internet!!!  (which was actually a huge process as we didn't have phone lines in the house for dsl and we're kind of in a dead zone for mobile broadband but we got lines ran to the house and finally got it all set up for not too much money. Yay!)

The first room we tackled was the front bedroom which we'd be using as our room.  We got it painted finished sewing the duvet cover and moved our bed and TV in there as not much else would fit in such a small room.

 We went with a medium grey paint and antique white trim/ceiling.  You can't see how nice it looks in this pic but this is the only pic I have right now. We love the flour sack duvet cover, we got it from H&M and added some material to the outside as they only had a twin size.  We need to add more pillows and find another set of pillowcases but that stuff has been moved to the end of the to do list along with adding decor for now.  There's just too much else in the house to do.

Next we went to do the bathroom.  It's been a much bigger process than the first room. 

Right side of the shower before

Right side of the shower cleaning out all the rotted/crumbling stuff

Clearing out all the nasty at the top of the shower stall

Left side of the shower, same story.  Don't you love the rotten floorboards?

The bathroom is mostly done now.  I need to do another coat of paint but there's been much puttying/silicone/scrubbing/caulking going on in there.  It's going to look infinitely better and I'm excited.  We also were able to find some old rusty metal meat drawers on craigslist that we're going to be using for a storage cabinet next to the washer/dryer that I'm really excited about.  It was also only $5/drawer so very cheap for something vintage industrial that we love.  I'll post pics when we finish the bathroom.

Other than that we've been winterizing the doors, got a microwave, got a couch, got the shed cleared out (mostly), got a lawn mower, one rolling rack is almost finished (I'm hoping tonight), and I think we'll try to paint the second bedroom this week (fingers crossed)

Rental house BEFORE

Ok we have the keys.  I took over the first small load in my car this morning, don't tell Chaynce I'm taking a break to take pics and post them and it'll all be ok :)

Front of the House

Pic from entryway, and I will be taking down those curtains

Back half of the living/dining/main room

Right as you come in the front door and look right, the first bedroom

First bedroom, these are tiny.  hence they're hard to get a pic of much while inside the room

More first Bedroom, we will likely be using this as our bedroom as it's the room with a door

This is the second room, we'll be using it for the rolling racks and dressers and probably a broom closet but that's not at the beginning of the to-do list

Other half of the second room, it has the bathroom off of it, and that isn't our armoire, we'll be getting rid of them

As you walk into the bathroom

The bathroom is narrow and very difficult to get a picture of this side but a stall shower and stackable washer and dryer

Kitchen, the most "current" room in the house

The other half of the kitchen and the back door

The backyard right as you come out the back door, that is the owners dog posing for the pic, they're scrambling trying to build a dog run at their new home.

back side of the house, that cellar door just leads down to some storage space and the water heater

Side yard

More side yard, there's a clothes line.  Not my thing but I like the added character

the back of the shed where we have struggling grape vines and the back alley

Well there you are.  The house was built in 1920 and definitely has an aged look to it.  These are all pictures before we put anything inside so there's definitely some stuff we need to clear out.  I'll be jumping headfirst into a million projects.  I think first is rolling racks and painting the front bedroom.  However, I work weekends so I prob won't start till next week.  I'm really excited to document our progress though.

Closet Planning

So we're on the brink of moving.  We are attacking it tomorrow.  It's a few days later than planned but that's how those things often go.  I'm planning a lot of before and after pics soon and as I go along (I plan on decorating this place to my hearts content).  It's a little house, very little.  In fact it has zero closets.  I've been spending a lot of time trying to plan how to handle this.  It's a two bedroom so we've decided on one room being a regular room and using the other room for closets/clothing storage among other things.  We thought about getting those enclosed closets from Walmart as they'd fit our needs but I hate the idea of buying it and using it while we're here and then having no use for it and likely just throwing it away.  So I've come up with some better ideas.  What we'll most likely do is this:

I came up with this as I've finally "defined" a decorating style that we both like: Vintage Industrial.  Just knowing this is helpful.  I can google image search all sorts of ideas and we agree on about 90% of things.  I don't know how to express how AMAZING that really is.  Anyways I google image searched vintage industrial closet storage and found this.  We agree, we both like.  But even better we can ultimately re-use them for any future retail endeavors of mine.  And they can be used to decorate in future spare rooms.  They feel like more something we'd keep and use rather than just have a temporary use.  In our searching we also found this idea...

We really like this idea too but I doubt we'll make it.  It's just too simple to do the other one.  But I thought I'd still share the idea.  

Initially I thought I'd want just one large rolling rack but I've decided it'd be more aesthetically pleasing to do two smaller ones and go with a his and hers idea.  I love the aged wood on the bottom you can stack shoes on.  There are tons of variations you can do with switching up different pipe fittings or adding more wooden shelves, for now the plan is just a basic rolling rack like the picture but it won't be too challenging to switch it up later.  Cool right?  I'm ready to run with it, too bad we're right in this packing/moving business.

New Nightstands!!

It's been forever, I know.  Biggest reason: I'm in a relationship, we have very different decorating styles/views/preferences.  His is mostly skulls, flames, motorcycles.  Is that even a decorating style?  We've been trying to find things we can both agree on for a while now, we've made some progress.... some...

So I finally said enough! I got on craigslist and found some old nightstands for cheap.  Here is the before.  So lovely right?

I love that shabby chic look.  I dream of nice things.  We currently have the most heinous plush grim reaper blanky with cigarette burns and everything.  I PASSIONATELY hate it!  We've agreed to switch to a duvet and I would make a cover that we can both live with.  We've yet to find material :(

We also currently live in quite the trashy little joint.  Wood paneling on the walls, carpet from the 70s, poor lighting.  So yeah poor quality after photos that are limited in angles to hide my hideous room.  But here they are crackle paint, stained with black tea, distressed.  I love them.  I think Chaynce is just ok with them but it's a start.

So there you are, poor pictures, zero editing, time stamp (don't even know what to do about that?).  But we're moving in the right direction towards nice things.

I'm a butter nazi

My relationship has taught me that not everyone understands or utilizes butter quite like I do.  So for those who'd like to know especially so as to not send me into a fit of rage over butter here are some butter laws.

~Use tubs of "spread" for spreadable butter for toast and grilled cheese and what not.  Having a stick of butter left out in some dish or container leaves extra clutter on your counters and leaves a nasty dish to have to clean.
~Stick butter has its place.  Generally for baking.  When a recipe requires a measured amount of butter cutting a stick of butter is much easier and less messy than trying to measure out spread into a measuring cup.  There is nothing worse than finding some crumpled wax wrapped stick of partially used butter messing up your fridge when there is plenty of spread for spreading.  Some of you might be thinking well what about greasing a pan for baking, stick butter is for baking.  There are better ways!  Use a paper towel to scoop up some spread from the tub and coat your pan using the paper towel to apply.  This means not having to wash butter off your hand or a dish and the applicator is, get this, disposable and inexpensive!  Does it get any better than that?
~Now this one is THE most important so pay attention here.  You want to preserve the integrity and purity of the tub of spread as much as possible.  When buttering toast one might double dip the butter knife, it's ok, we all like a little extra dipping.  You will remain in the clear as long as your keeping crumbs out of the butter.  It's the worst feeling in the world to open the tub and find dirty butter.  Also you should know that spread is already soft enough to easily spread on your bread no matter how thin or soft your bread is.  Do not "churn" the tub of butter.  The butter has already been churned.

Now go and change your butter ways.  And if you'd rather have heathen crumby butter then go do it with your own butter, but heaven help you if you ever defile my butter!