Spring has Sprung!

That's right, spring has finally arrived in Central NJ, and I have been hard at work trying to bring some life to my formerly dull and uninspired front garden. 

Here's what we started out with when we bought the house:

We quickly eliminated the fence, but aside from some pruning, we didn't do much to the existing garden until this year.  Here is what the front yard looked like before we started:

It wasn't too bad.  Except that the boxwoods were way too big, and not centered.  And there was a weird strip of garden, with another strip of grass right next to the path that Matt always complains about when mowing the lawn.  And the strip was crowded with lillies, hosta and roses, while there was nothing in the other beds besides the large boxwoods. 

Anyway, it was time for a change.  Matt helped me rip out the boxwoods.  I then re-edged the bed on the far side of the stairs, and I updated it from a rectangle to a curvy shape.  Then I spent 7 hours edging the front strip and digging up the sod between the bed and the front path.  That is hard work!  

I decided to split the hostas instead of buying new ones.  Actually, none of the hostas are in their original locations.  You can tell where the original bed was by the line of lillies, but I moved and split all of the hostas, removed the roses (I tried to relocate them, but they died), and added oak leaf hydrangea, silver mound, salvia and dianthus.  Oh, and they're all perennials, so I don't have to worry about doing a ton of work every year!  I also planted herbs in containers on my front porch.  Easy access and they look and smell so pretty!

After 3 weekends of work, I'm so happy with the finished product!  Other front yard projects we're planning for this summer include painting the shutters and doing something with the front steps (not sure what yet).  Hopefully by fall we'll have more curb appeal!

Powder Room Ideas

Like everything in our house, our downstairs powder room is pretty beat up.  When we bought the house the powder room had a lovely fleur de lis motif, with a wall of 12"x12" stick-on mirrors.  In my initial fit of destruction, I removed the mirrors and fleur de lis fixtures, leaving it looking even more damaged than originally. 
 

The bathroom during our final walk through.  Please excuse the gross toilet - Matt took the photo and didn't think to close the lid first!

I don't know if you can tell in the above photo, but the back of the toilet stuck out about 4" from the wall before we removed it.  After we took it out I measured the rough in and saw that it was 14", instead of the typical 12".  So we ordered a 14" rough in toilet so it should sit closer to the wall, and not make you feel like you're sitting in the middle of a room. 

We will also be getting a new sink, because I "accidentally" chipped the vanity top when I was trying to pry it off.  Luckily we were able to save the melamine from the vanity base, and are re-using it as shelving.  We ended up getting a square top pedestal sink.

Here is my inspiration for our new and improved powder room


source: http://www.houzz.com/

I love the grasscloth wallpaper with the beadboard around the bottom.  I think it makes the room look bright and sophisticated.  The brighness is especially important in our case because we don't have a window in that room.  

Right now we have the wallpaper and floor installed, and I've been working on the beadboard and trim.  It's frustrating because none of the walls are even, but caulk is my friend and I'm pushing through.  I'm really hoping to have this done in the next couple of weeks. 

Carpets are in!

Last weekend we got the carpets installed!  We are really happy with them, and so are the dogs :)  I really like the color - it changes from beige to gray depending on the light. 

Family Room

The stairs look soooo much better.  I still need to put the new banister up, though!

Happy puppies.

Music room

Music room

Family Room Built-ins Part 1

I'm actually pretty far behind with updates here.  Silly me for actually doing work on the house and not having time to blog!  I promise more updates will come soon.

We actually just got the carpets installed today, but I don't have photos right now.  We had to work really hard to get the built-ins ready for the carpet to be installed around them.  

We made the frames out of melamine particle board, because it will look nice on the inside and be easy to clean.  The fronts have wood trim.  

We also added beadboard backing, so it gives it a more finished look.  We spent a lot of time measuring for the outlet hole, and it was worth it because when we moved the built-in into place it lined up prefectly! 

Actually moving the frame to the wall was really tough - it was super heavy, and it was also a really tight fit.  We got it in eventually!  Then I spent a while trying to get the trim to fit perfectly on the front.  I think they're looking pretty good! 

Here are the progress photos!

Built in frame made of melamine board with beadboard backing.

The built in is in place!

It looks much better with trim!

I made sure to attach the trim securely, even in the corners, because the doors will be attached to the trim and I want to make sure they're sturdy and hold up over time.

I added some lattice to the end to give it a more finished look.  Hopefully it will all come together soon!

Next up we need to make the doors and stain the wood for the counter top. 

Band Room Update

One of our main considerations in house hunting was that there was a music room.  Matt has a lot of music gear (and I have a little) and we needed a place to store it and practice.  Like everything else downstairs, we kept putting things there and forgetting about them.  Soon it looked like this:

Why yes, that is my wedding dress!  And a bunch of boxes, and old doors, and other clutter.  So we cleaned it out and ripped out the trim and floors.

Better, right?  Matt and I wanted to go with a fun, bright wall color to energize the room.  We chose Maple Leaf by Behr.  Here's how it looked after I painted it.

 

Today I added trim.  I still need to fill the holes and touch up some places, but I think it's looking pretty good.  

  

I think the paint looks a little bright in these photos, and it looks darker in person.  Once the carpets get installed (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) it will be finished!  I can't wait!

Family Room Inspiration

I am so excited for our family room.  Like, really excited.  We have been living in the house for 1.5 years, and during that entire time our family room has been a storage/work room.  If we want to watch TV we have to cram into the office, which has become extra crowded with the addition of the dogs. 

Our goal for the family room is to create a comfortable, relaxing space with plenty of storage.  We will be adding carpet, to make it softer and warmer, and we just placed an order for a new sectional!  We chose the Axis sectional from Crate and Barrel.  It's large enough that everyone (me, Matt and the dogs) can fit comfortably.  Although I'm sure the dogs will still lay on top of us like they do now.

As for the storage part, we decided we're going to add some built ins to the area around the stairs.  My inspiration for this came from Remodelaholic.  I have been drooling over their amazing custom built ins since they posted about them a year ago.  So most of my plans are based off of what they did.  I even bought similar hinges since I loved the look so much! 

Image from: Remodelaholic

Obviously ours aren't going to be as extensive, since we don't have the space, but hopefully they will add a lot of storage to the room.  

The color I chose for the space is Delicate Mist by Behr.  My friend Kaylie from Life on the Treeline offered to come over and help me paint, which was awesome, and we were finished in a few hours (vs. the entire day it would have taken me to do it myself).


Delicate Mist is a very light blue/gray.

I also installed a new light fixture.  I got the Calypso surface mounted fixture from Ikea, and I think the scale goes a lot better with the large room than the previous one. It also holds one more bulb than the previous fixture, so it has a higher light output.

Our to do list is still pretty long, but it's getting done!

First Level Renovation Update

Even though I have been MIA from the blog world, it doesn't mean we haven't been working on our house.  Matt and I have actually been really busy in the past few weeks, and are finished with the demo process and started on the re-building.  This weekend we will be ordering flooring, carpet in the family room and band room, and tile in the hallway and bathroom. 

Originally we were planning on having stained concrete floors in the hallway and bathroom, but after taking up the layer of tile, we found another layer of flooring.  It is vinyl tile, and with the age of the house we're assuming it might be asbestos, so we tried really hard not to break it while we were taking it up.  In the bathroom someone had already taken the vinyl tile up, and there is a black adhesive stuck to the floor, so we decided it would be best to just put down new tile. 

Here are some photos of how the house looks right now.

Family room painted with Delicate Mist from Behr.

Band room with the ceramic tile and trim stripped.

Hallway with the walls primed.

Powder room with all fixtures removed.

 So obviously we have a lot more work to do, but we're getting there!  Hopefully in a couple of months we'll have a great finished space to relax in!

Happy 2013!

This year I'm all about out with the old and in with the new.  After a pretty crappy 2012, I'm hoping to play catch up this year and get to where I want to be, both with the house, personally and professionally.  So I have 13 goals for 2013.  I've divided them into different categories.

House Related

1) Finish the first pass on the inside of the house.  I know, this seems like a lot, but we're actually doing pretty well!  We're currently reno-ing the downstairs (I'll update more on that soon) and after that we just have a little trim to do upstairs.  Easy peasy!

2) Go through the house and purge every closet, drawer and cabinet.  We have too much stuff, and I hate clutter.

Health/Fitness

3) Run a sub 30 minute 5k.  I started running a little over a year ago, and since then I've run 4 5ks, 2 10ks and 1 10 miler.  But I am slow.  So I want to work on my pace this year and try and pick it up. 

4) Complete a half marathon.  Another running goal!  I had signed up for a half marathon last November, but due to several different issues I had to scale back and ran the 10k version of the race instead.  This year I want to run the whole 13.1 miles.

5) Get to my goal weight and maintain.  I've actually lost 20 lbs since last year, but I am having a really hard time losing the last 5-10lbs.  I kind of got off track over the holidays so I need to get back into eating healthy and exercising this year.

6) Have a general physical, dental cleaning and eye exam.  I am so bad with keeping up with doctors appointments.  I am overdue with all of these and need to get on that!

Professional

7) Get my LEED AP.  I have already applied to take the exam, and I got accepted, so now I just need to actually study and take it. 

8) Do five speeches for Toastmasters.  Last year I had a goal to do 3 speeches, and I finished by June and then haven't done one since. I only need 5 more speeches to get my Competent Communicator.

9) Take the GRE and apply for grad school.  I would really like to get started on my MBA, because I'd like to graduate by my 30th birthday (in June 2016).

Personal

10) Change my name.  This is super embarrassing, but I still haven't gotten around to changing my name since getting married.  Two years ago.  I will do it this year!

11) Start an IRA and contribute the max.  Matt and I are pretty behind on retirement, so we need to increase our savings.

12) Make 3 changes to decrease my carbon footprint.  I tried turning the water heater down this morning, but after a very cold shower this morning I decided to turn it back up, haha.  We already make an effort to reduce energy usage and waste, but I know there's more we can be doing.

13) Don't buy any clothes in 2013.  This will be the most difficult for sure.  It includes shoes. 

So there you have it!  It looks like I will have a busy (and hopefully productive) new year. 

And hopefully I'll post more, too, but we all know how well that went last year :)

Office Re-Design

Now that I've finished refinishing the office desk, we're finally able to get that giant plastic desk out!

Ok, so the big desk does have advantages: storage, desktop space, etc.  But in the small office it just took up so much space!  Here it is:

See?  It's huge.  Plus the TV was way too high to be comfortable from the sofa.  So we moved out the large desk and replaced it with the desk that I refinished and a hand-me-down TV stand from Matt's parents that we used in our apartment.  I think it looks loads better.

We still have some trim to put up, and the closet door, but I think the room looks so much bigger with 2 smaller pieces of furniture vs. one large one.

Painting a Desk

I have never painted or refinished furniture before.  I always admired people who did, but I was scared that I would mess it up or something. 

So I bought a cheap wood desk ($12) from Craigslist.  Then I bought some primer and paint and new harware and got to work! 

Craigslist Desk

I used two coats of Zinsser oil-based primer, which is meant to cover without needing to sand the furniture first.

Primed desk.

Then I followed up with tthree coats of Behr Hi-Gloss in Jet Stream, which is dark gray.  I did a final coat with a polyurathane finish on the top to make it really shiny.  Add some new hardware and voila, new-looking desk!

Now we can finally send the massive desk that we've been using back into Craigslist land for some lucky new owner.