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May 23

This and That

Well the bungalow is still a hot mess, but that didn’t stop me from having a little brinner (breakfast for dinner) dinner party with some old pals.  I decided that I would cook, which if you know me at all- you know is a small miracle.

Case in point: I have never cooked bacon before.  I don’t know why not, I love bacon.  I should be a bacon cooking master.  I’d like to tell you that it went off without a hitch.  I’d like to tell you that I didn’t absolutely vaporize a piece of bacon.  I’d like to tell you that I didn’t set off the fire alarm.  Twice.  But, you can’t make an omlet (or bacon) without breaking a few eggs!

I also made my Great-Grandma Weezie’s legendary buttermilk pancakes, which turned out perfectly thankyouverymuch…and was left with a ton of left over batter.  I decided to add some clove, cinnamon and blueberries and baked them into blueberry muffins, and those were pretty great too :)

 Anyhow, it was great fun to  have some girl time and catch up with old friends.  Lots of mimosa- traditional and grapefuit, the best banana bread I’ve ever tasted, laughs and hugs.  And Cooper.  Lots and lots of Cooper attention.

Sorry, no pictures to share today, just the anecdote.  Have a good week everyone!

May 15

Bit by Bit, Putting it Together

The house is still absolutely disastrous, but bit by bit, little by little, it’s turning into home.

For example, I have a place to hang my coat(s)…

My books are all moved in and organized…

Cooper has a place to keep his toys…

And I have even hung some things on the wall…

And after (incorrectly) putting together my ikea armoire (3 times), my dresses now have a home.

And I have even made a few meals!  For those that know me, you know that this in itself is nothing short of a miracle.  Next thing you know, I’ll be doing yard work :)  Here are the fillings for turkey lettuce wraps that I made the other day:

Of course, like I said, much of the place is still disastrous…guess it’s time to make yet another dump run.

I better get going on cleaning & organizing, because my free time is soon to be claimed by a new job!  It is bittersweet for sure.  I have really gotten used to the freedom that I’ve enjoyed for the last 5 months, and honestly, if I had still been working, I’m pretty sure the bathroom still wouldn’t be finished.  But reality was bound to take control sooner or later, so it was time to go back to work.

I guess what I’m getting at is that I will be back to being a weekend warrior as of today.   Speaking of weekends, I hope you all enjoy yours!

May 1

Pedestal Sink

My pedestal sink was installed last Saturday, but I don’t have wireless at my house so I wasn’t able to do any posts until now.

And here it is…

It fits in the space perfectly, and it is sooo pretty!  That means that the bathroom is basically finished.  Yep, the herculean task has been accomplished with the help of my wonderful friends and family.  I am so grateful to them, it would not be finished without their help :)

Mom has come and gone, and we had a lovely visit, even though the weather didn’t hold up the whole time.  Despite that, her husband subdued my front and back yard, which I am most grateful for.  We shopped, she filled my fridge with groceries, she cooked delicious food which I happily ate, we laughed, I did laundry, and we had a Downton Abbey marathon.  Yep, we made it through all 3 seasons in a week! 

Subsequently I have adopted an imperious British accent remiscent of the Dowager that I can’t seem to shake…

And now I have to return to real life- which means getting serious about finding a job, finishing moving in, organizing, finishing up home decorating projects, and cleaning up the place so that I can prepare for the bungalow’s first big social event- my house warming party!!!

Apr 24

The First Step is Admitting You Have a Problem

I have a confession to make:

I have a shoe addiction.  I have filled all of my shoe cubbies, and I am still way overflowing.  I think I’m gonna need a bigger boat.

Today my plumber came by to install the bathroom sink.  Unfortunately this dumb home owner purchased a faucet and sink basin that were incompatible.  Waaaahhhhh!!!!

The good news is that Home Depot has the widespread version of the sink basin instock, but I won’t be able to pick it up today.  So I will be exchanging it, and Bobby said he would be able to finish up by Friday or Saturday.

I would say that I am about 80% moved in, however the place is still a mess, so I’m going to have to find a way to make everything pretty by 3pm tomorrow.  I predict it will be a late night….but atleast the weather is cooperating.  In fact, it is a perfectly glorious Spring day, and it is supposed to last through my mom’s visit.

1 day to go!

Apr 22

Every Girl’s Dream

I was finally able to take some decent pictures, and I just couldn’t resist posting them for you…

That cute little white shelf above the toilet was a gift from my friends Dan & Lisa, the couple that came up last Labor Day weekend to help on the house.  The sides are beadboard, and there is just a touch of bling on the finials.  I love it!

I know what you’re thinking, why did I post the same picture twice?  It’s not the same- this is to show off my cool revolving tower that I got from Cost Plus.  In the first pic, it is a full length mirror.  Then you swivel it, and you get shelving as shown in the above.  Since I will only have a pedestal sink, this tower is going to be invaluable in terms of storage space. 

Here is what the shower curtain looks like.  It’s silver and white, and I got it at Target.  You can also see one of the chrome hooks that my dad put up for me on the left.

And here is the medicine cabinet, and another shelf/towel holder.  Oh, and the ceiling fan is up, though I didn’t take a picture of it as the fan was on and my camera and I are not that talented…but you can see the pull chain hanging down.

And this is the wicked awesome magazine rack that I found at Home Goods.  It’s hanging on the wall just below the window, between where the jack & jill doors swing open.

Okay, enough bathroom- here is every girly girl’s dream, a wall of shoes!

I’m not finished with this wall yet, but it just needed to be admired.

To the right of the shoe wall and under the windows, I stacked 2 Expedit units from Ikea horizontally, which will be the future home of my massive cardigan collection:

You can also see a little corner of my vanity there in the forground with my hot pink vintage chair.  I am planning on painting it at some point, maybe white?  I thought about changing out the material as well, but it’s leather, and now that I see it in the room, the pale pink doesn’t bother me.

And lastly to the left of the shoe wall, I have double hanging racks. You keen observers may have noticed that I do not have any tall hanging space for my army of dresses.  That is because I found an armoire/closet on clearance from Ikea that happens to fit perfectly in my bedroom, so I opted for that. 

I would show it to you but I am mad at it.  I have built it once,  taken it apart once, and rebuilt it because I had put it together wrong.  Well, when I went to put the doors on it, I discovered that it’s still put together wrong, so it’s on a time out in the corner until it apologizes to me for nearly giving me a psychotic episode. 

I am going to bed now as it is 1am and I need to rent a U-Haul tomorrow!

3 days to go!!!

Apr 21

Down to the Wire

This is it kids, this is the week my mom is in town, and the week that I finally move in!

I am in good shape.  As of today, all that is left to finish is to install the closet racking, install the bathroom sink, and install the main lighting in the bathroom.  There are umpteen other little things such as finishing trim work and touch up paint that needs to be done, but the place is most definitely liveable.

Because the lighting in the bathroom is not up, I still can’t show you any finishing pictures of the room, but here is one little tid bit to help tide you over, my bed:

 

I have not slept or even laid down on it yet, because every time I am at the house, I am a sweaty hot mess!  Needless to say, I am really looking forward to getting my first night’s sleep.

Tomorrow afternoon, the plan is to pick up the closet racking and install it, and for my dad to finish installing the bathroom light fixture. 

On Monday, I hope to rent a small U-Haul to transfer my beloved shoes, clothes and craft supplies to their new home.  My electrician buddy should be by that evening to finish up some miscellaneous projects.

On Wednesday, my plumber will be by to install the bathroom sink.

Only 5 days to go!!!

Apr 15

Little Victories

I finally nailed down the trim in the craft room, and RK cleaned up the floors, so I am finally ready to start putting the craft room together!  So far I have my Expedit workstation from ikea, my area rug from Costco, my chair from Target.com, and some of my many modular storage cubes from Michaels:

I painted my master bedroom ages ago, but I was really unhappy with the color.  It was a baby blue, and I was shooting for slate blue.  I had purchased an extra gallon of the stuff, so I took it back to Sherwin Williams and asked them to add tint to make it the color I had in mind.  We finally re-painted this weekend, and I am really happy with the color:

Now that the paint is done, and the floor has been cleaned up, I plan to start laying the new flooring tomorrow.

In other news, the bathroom is pretty much finished except for the sink.  I’m sorry, I don’t have pictures because my dad is in the middle of switching out the new light fixture, and without the main light source, it’s too dark to take pics.  He plans on finishing up tomorrow evening, so hopefully I’ll be able to show you on Tuesday.

10 days to go!

Apr 12

Beautiful Bead Board

Bead board and trim is up!

Rob did the measuring and cutting, and I operated the nail gun, which was super fun.  I think I may need to find a way to justify getting one for myself…

And as for the paint choice, I went with Behr’s Cool Lava (or as my friend Mindy has dubbed it ”traffic cone orange”) on the walls, and Fruit Shake on the ceiling- both in a semi-gloss finish. 

I don’t think the pictures accurately portray the colors, so here are the swatches:

Cool Lava is on the left, Fruit Shake is on the right.

I really love how it turned out, but it is hard to tell the difference between the two, so I think I may put up some crown molding down the line.

Today the plan is to clean up the bathroom, fill in the nail holes, caulk, paint the bead board, and if I still have time/energy, prime the walls in the master bedroom.

 13 days to go!!!

Apr 11

Texture and Paint

On Monday, I textured the bathroom.

Say hello to my lil friend

On tuesday, I primed, and put up some paint samples.


As you can probably guess, I liked 3 / 4 of  the samples.

I have already picked out the color- and painted it yesterday!  I am really happy with the results.  But I’m not going to show you yet :)   Today the bead board and trim is going up, so I’ll unveil it when it’s all done.

In other news, I bought a new mattress.  It’s really comfy, I can’t wait to get my first good night’s sleep.

14 days to go!

Apr 8

Things Are Shaping Up

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted any progress, it has just been so busy.

First thing’s first- I am pleased to show you my semi functional bathroom!

Yep, the toilet flushes, and the shower showers- I could have had the sink installed too, but we need to install the bead board first.

I realized that I am just terrible at mudding, so Rob took pity on me and finished it up.  We hope to texture this week, then put up the bead board, and paint.

Speaking of paint, I went to my local home depot to get some paint samples for the bathroom, and my favorite paint guy was there.  He was busy, so I left him the swatches while I finished shopping.  When I went back to pick them up, he wasn’t there…but my samples were, along with this note:

I’m not entirely sure what part of my house I need luck for, or if he just didn’t approve of my paint choices- but I thought it was pretty funny.  I think I might frame it and hang it in the bathroom. 

My dad set up my tv, blu ray player and wii, so the living room is ready to play!

Yes, that is Mario Bros

I got a vintage mahogany bed frame from a new thrift store that I discovered.  It’s pretty cool as is, but I have some grandiose plans to spruce it up…but you’ll have to wait for that post, because it’s going to require a post all on its own.

I brought over a few pieces of furniture that I have had for ages, but have been stored in my parent’s garage: 2 leather inlaid vintage side tables, and a sweet zebra upholstered chair:

Lastly, I realized that I didn’t have any drink coasters, so I went on Etsy to look for something unique and fell in love with these ones that were made out of scrabble tiles.  But you know me, I will jump at any opportunity to do an arts & crafts project, so I bought a scrabble game, and with RK’s blessing dismantled her old set.  I am really happy with how they turned out:

I have also finished installing the craft room flooring, I have put together lots of storage furniture from Ikea, and started to bring over my craft room.  But sorry, no pictures :)   Maybe next time.

That’s it for now.  Yikes- only 18 days until mom gets here!

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