Living Room

When I last left you, the living room sorta looked like this:

It hasn't looked like that in a long, long time.  That red couch was the victim of our cute kitten who was not happy with our addition of a new poodle puppy.  She took out her displeasure on the couch. Multiple times.  So, we got rid of the couch and orange chair.  And it looked pretty empty for a few years.  

So empty, we put a huge tree in the middle of the room one year.

We only had the heat pumps for heat and we wanted an alternate heat source, just in case we ever lost power during the winter.  So, we went looking for a gas insert.  Looky what we found!

And installed it looks like this:

So, then we needed furniture.  I found these two couches and had them reupholstered.  Found the perfect rug, redid a couple of chairs, and made some pillows.  Presto, change, voila!  A living room!

Before

After

Before

After

And, so, today, it looks like this:

Vivian heartily approves of the changes.

Squeaky Clean

So, without question, the work on the house has slowed down over the past two years compared to the first two, as to be expected. At some point, you have to stop working on the house and just live in it. Enjoy all that the city has to offer which was the reason we moved here in the first place. I will be sharing each project (with lots of pictures) over the next few weeks, as well as some of the upcoming projects. Today, it's the master bathroom! Yippee! For the first time in my adult life, I have a master bathroom. Oh hell, this is the first time in my adult life I've had more than one toilet. This is a big deal people. Let me tell you, having more than one toilet becomes more and more important as you age, just saying. So, let's start with how the room look originally, or as close as I have. Somehow I never took an original before. Suffice it to say that it was a small (9x9ish) sleeping porch (?) surrounded on three sides by windows. This pic is after we ripped out the paneling and exposed the crumbling plaster:


We knew that we had to lose this window because the electrical line comes in and we had to by code, but also because that was to become the shower wall.
  

The window on the right in the pic above we pulled out and replaced with glass block so as to not lose the great light in here.  It's really hard to take a good picture of a glass block wall with the sun shining in.





I also insisted that the shower wall did not go all the way up to the ceiling.  I didn't want it to feel too boxed in and coffin like.  I wanted it to feel pretty expansive, for such a small bath.



And that's how it got left for a really long time.  And then we decided it was time to start shopping for tile.  The fun stuff!  I knew I wanted something that looked like it could be original, but fresh and shiny too.  I wanted to respect the history of the house.  So, we went with subway for the walls, traditional, and not terribly expensive.  Where we splurged was on the floor tile and the radiant heat.  That is the best shit ever!

Marble threshold

The column on the shower wall was a bit tricky to finish out.  But I am very pleased with our solution.

Painted it blue.  Was supposed to be a moody grey/blue but it ended up just blue and I like it.

I love the way the sink looks, but haven't been thrilled with the quality.  I wouldn't recommend it.  Style is killer though. It's really tall.

My $9 mirror score.  Lights are from School House Electric.  Love them!

It feels so luxurious to have a bath right in the bedroom.  It's pretty cool.

So, until next time!

Updates coming soon

Okay, so a week or two turned into two years. Life happens that way sometimes. In two weeks, school will be over and I'll be back to providing some updates of the changes we've made over the past two years, and there are a great many of them. We still have a long list of "to do" items still yet. Hang tight, updates coming. In the mean time, here are some sneak peeks.