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upstairs bath before and afters

5 Jun

The upstairs bathroom is complete! I wanted to post some before and after pics – what a difference! Before – we had old wood paneled walls painted glossy black with river rocks glued midway up the wall, original fixtures in really bad condition (the faucets were literally rotting out), and awful vinyl flooring. We did a total overhaul of the bath, including:

  • Tearing out the bathroom to the studs
  • Routing an HVAC vent into the bathroom (there was no cooling or heat in the bath before)
  • Replacing a portion of the subfloor that had water damage
  • Installing a vent (there was none before)
  • Rewiring the entire bathroom and adding a light in the ceiling
  • Grounding the outlet
  • Installing a new tub
  • Installing a new toilet
  • New window with clear coated birch ledge
  • Installing a new IKEA vanity with IKEA sink and new chrome faucet
  • Painting a mirror from Target for above the vanity
  • Converting an unused nook into some storage/shelving with white inset and birch clear coated shelves
  • All new tile flooring and tile tub surround with built in nooks
  • Installing a wall mount IKEA light fixture over the vanity, and installing a spray painted teal fixture in the ceiling
  • New interior door painted glossy white, and new chrome door lever
  • All new modern trim painted glossy white

So, basically the entire bathroom was gutted and replaced, and we love it. We painted the walls a medium neutral gray which really works nicely, and the painted teal fixture adds a nice pop of color (along with the accessories and shower curtain – photos of that coming soon).

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upstairs bathroom remodel | it’s happening!

30 Apr

We finally pulled the trigger on the upstairs bathroom remodel! Our goal is to have this bathroom done before we start the main house remodel, and we are well on the way! We purchased all of the materials/finishes and hired a contractor to do all the install/work. So far, so good!

The bones of this bathroom will be clean and modern with touches of blue. However, it is a kids bathroom so we want it to be a little fun too! But, all of the fun stuff can easily be changed out when Zoey gets older and outgrows it. Here are a few things I recently pinned that I love for the bathroom. We seem to have a “whale” theme going. I’m generally not into themed bathrooms, but I want this to be a fun place for her!

This moroccan looking ceiling fixture is awesome, but I’m not into the oil rubbed bronze look. It’s a tad too traditional for me. So, it has gotten a makeover with “lagoon” spraypaint from Rust-Oleum! Stay tuned for the final result. I can’t wait to hang it!

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I love this print for the bathroom, from Urban Outfitters.78bb6db88a4c01b732f1ed4a89bb355c

And of course this whale shower curtain is too cute.

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And a matching bath mat of course

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This is a hippo, not a whale, but it’s too stinkin’ cute!

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And here is the tile work in progress. So exciting! Next comes floor tile, grout, primer, paint, and then install of all the fixtures!

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the kids bathroom

13 Nov

We’ve decided to remodel the upstairs bathroom before we begin the rest of the remodel. We have a few reasons for this…first of all, that bathroom’s footprint will remain unchanged so there isn’t any reason not to do it now. Also, we don’t want to include the remodel of that bathroom in our construction loan for budget reasons (we are trying to stretch our remodel budget as much as possible), so doing it first with our own cash makes sense to us.

Here is what we are starting with (and in case you are wondering – yes, there are river rocks hot glue gunned to the wall):

We’ve been spending the last couple weeks making decisions about the finishes and fixtures for the bathroom, which to me is so much fun! Here is what we have so far:

Floor tile – gray linen pearl 10×20 tile – it has a really nice linen texture and was only 2.76/sf at Floor & Decor here in Austin

Love this toilet! Ariel Platinum ‘Camilla’ Dual Flush Toilet via overstock.com

And this clean, modern bathtub – American Standard “Clean” Arctic White rectangular skirted tub ( I think only sold at lowes.com)And this Speakman tub/shower mixer

we had a hard time finding exactly what we wanted for the shower/tub – since we knew we wanted a hand sprayer shower since this will be the kid bathroom…and we liked the adjustable shower head also kid friendly!


Ikea Godmorgen Sink and Vanity in high gloss white – we needed a pretty small scale vanity for this bathroom and we needed some storage, so we went Ikea.

Danze Reef Single Handle Lavatory Faucet in chrome – we liked the clean modern lines of this faucet. We found it on amazon.com listed “used – in new condition” which really just means it was a return. We got like 75% off – we just inspected it as soon as it arrived to make sure nothing was missing! Score.

And the best part – the tub/shower surround tile will be a chevron/herringbone pattern with a medium gray, a light gray, and a white matte tile in 2″x8″ – this was my inspiration for the tile we have going in:

And that is what we have so far! Looking forward to seeing how it all comes together! We also still need a mirror, light fixtures, and possibly a wallpaper for one of the walls…

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daydreaming about tile…

24 Oct

So, the latest update is that buying the house is still a GO! We even got a better deal on the loan – the new lender we are working with, who is awesome by the way (Dominik with Sente Mortgage) advised us towards a FHA loan, until he realized Mike is a vet. So, we are now going for a VA/Texas Vet loan which has some pretty amazing terms (0 down and 2.88% interest). It looks like we may actually get money back at closing – that NEVER happens!! We are set to close late this month or early November, and everything is crossed that it all goes well. After we close, we will do a home improvement loan or some other option for our addition/renovation. In the meantime, we are living out of boxes over here, trying to unpack as little as possible since there is a chance we will have to move out when it is time to renovate. I think the renovations, if all goes well, will likely start in January (which is my slower season for wedding shoots so ideal for me).

In the meantime, I am a pinning fool (see my inspiration board for the remodel here). We have some great ideas for the remodel and we are so excited to make them happen. One of the first things on my mind has been tile. I LOVE tile…here are some of my favorite options so far.

Mod Dots Lemon Yellow Penny Rounds $7.95/sf

I think this one would be super cute and fun in the upstairs kids bathroom…and I am still as obsessed with yellow as I ever was.

Overstock SomerTile Martine Porcelain Penny Rounds about $7.50/sf

If Mike doesn’t go for the yellow for the upstairs kids bath, I think this might be another option…

Overstock SomerTile White Morocco Porcelain about $9/sf

I love this one for the master bath shower surround, with a gray grout.

Kismet Tile Hex #8 in blue $25/sf

I can only afford a tiny bit of this tile, but I LOVE it. So much. I am thinking it would be perfect for the tiny half bath we will be adding on the main level of the house!

Birch Honed Stacked Stone (available locally from Travis Tile) about $23.50/sf)

I am not sure where we would use this one, but I really want to find a place for it.

I also really love these fish scale tiles that I saw online, but I can’t seem to find anyplace locally or online where I could get info or order…

And this looks like it will be the floor tile for the laundry and possibly the kids upstairs bath…it’s a linen pearl porcelain tile available at a local store for 1.99/sf!

Those are the tiles I am in love with right now – still looking though. I want to find something really awesome for the kitchen backsplash…Are there any other good online (or local to Austin) tile resources that I must know about?

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house tour with before and afters!

18 Sep

Well, it looks like we are moving! The house went on the market a couple of weekends ago – we had multiple offers and it sold in 2 days. The new owners to be love the house and the area, and said they wouldn’t change a thing. We’re happy to see it go to someone who will love and appreciate it as much as we did!

We did find a house to move into and I’ll be posting about that as soon as we get out of the option period and it looks like it will happen. Right now I can say is that it was built in 1961 and is a pretty major fixer…it’s not our style (it’s a cape cod traditional with dormers and 1.5 stories) but we plan to modernize it and make it “us” as much as we can. The big seller for us was the area – great schools and right around the corner to the elementary school, and pretty close to Mike’s work and Zoey’s daycare. It’s gonna be a challenge to make modern, but we’re up for the challenge!

I wanted to share one final house tour with some before and afters. We had a stager come in before we put the house on the market and we decluttered a bit and switched around the living and dining room…looking at these old photos makes me so nostalgic and so proud of all the work we put into the house. This house was a labor of love for us, and it totally reflects us – our style, our personality, and our quirks. This house for us was literally blood, sweat, and tears.

More to come on that, but for now onto some before and afters!

EXTERIOR BEFORE

EXTERIOR AFTER

new smooth hardi siding, wood slat modern wall, lighting, yellow door, house numbers

ENTRY BEFORE (during reno)

ENTRYAFTER

custom metal railings, wallpaper wall, sealed concrete floors in sunken living, mineral black birch floors throughout, all new insulation and drywall and paint

SUNKEN LIVING BEFORE

AFTER

custom mineral black birch stairs, half wall (not shown) is a ledgestone

sofa is build a sofa, yellow lamp and pillows are homegoods, coffee table is four hands, yellow magazine holder is vintage, rug is angela adams

DINING ROOM AND HALLWAY BEFORE

AFTER

dining table is four hands, chairs are vintage milo baughman for thayer coggin restored, table runner from homegoods

HALLWAY BEFORE

AFTER

mirror is from the new martha stewart collection at lowes

KITCHEN/DINING DURING

AFTER

LAUNDRY BEFORE

AFTER

BEDROOM 1 (OFFICE) BEFORE

AFTER

BEDROOM 2 BEFORE

DURING (as Zoey’s room)

AFTER (as guest bedroom)

BEDROOM 3 BEFORE

DURING (as guest bedroom)

AFTER (as Zoey’s bedroom)

HALL BATHROOM BEFORE

AFTER

GUEST BATH BEFORE

AFTER

That’s all for now, I’ll post before and afters of the downstairs soon as well!

look what we did this weekend :)

24 Apr

On Sunday Mike and I were both in the mood to do a little home improvement. But, lacking the motivation to accomplish any of the larger items on our very long “punch list”, we decided to demo the bar top! I had mixed feelings about getting rid of the vintage tile, but up close it’s in pretty bad shape and the bar top itself is pretty gross. I’m excited to modernize our little wet bar and maybe finally use it!  I had a major aversion to this area once we finished our kitchen remodel that took over a year – we used this little bar as our kitchen for that long and I hated every minute of that. So, after we finished the kitchen I stayed as far away from it for quite a while. But, I’m ready to get back to it. So, we started small – Mike disconnected the plumbing and we were able to pull off the backsplash and bar top in two solid pieces. With demo, I’m always the impatient one – I like to just start banging stuff and breaking it out – but Mike likes to think things thru a bit more. Which in this case was a good thing. So, here is where we started:

excuse the crappy phone pics below – I was too lazy to get out my ‘real’ camera :)

So, our plan from here is as follows:

  • Mike is going to attempt to make a concrete countertop
  • New modern sink. I love this one from Overstock, and it’s really reasonably priced:

 

  • New modern faucet to go with our awesome sink.
  • Repaint the cabinet with a fresh coat of paint, and add new pulls.
  • Tile backsplash (I plan to reuse some leftover tile from past remodeling projects, but I haven’t decided which yet)

So, it’s a start! We’re excited to make this a really cool wet bar!

 

 

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organizing and digitizing

12 Mar

One of my goals for the next few months is organizing! We’ve put off our downstairs redo for a bit (until we sell the AGAVE house) so for now we are trying to make our own house a little cleaner and we are getting rid of stuff we don’t use. Last weekend we organized the garage, and I really really wish I had taken and before and after photo because the difference is amazing. But since I didn’t, for the “before” imagine any hoarders garage. That would be us. The after is so much more useable.

Also, on my list of tasks for organizing was to get rid of extra paperwork that I didn’t need. I’ve had an entire drawer in our mid century credenza that was dedicated to holding receipts, samples, magazine clippings, wallpaper samples, etc. You name it, it was probably in there. So, I went thru that drawer and thru all of my magazine clippings and scanned and digitized them finally! So, I wanted to share them here – just some snippets from magazines that I loved for one reason or another…

Love this galvanized metal sliding door. Would be perfect for a kids area…

I love any Jonathan Adler design.

Love the mix of traditional and modern in this room.

I definitely have a thing for yellow doors.

Love this color palette. It feels so mid century modern.

Love this color combo also – chartreuse and peacock blue.

I wouldn’t mind some drapes like this.

This is a great little bathroom.

Another great bathroom, love the wall of tile.

If I was brave enough to do colored kitchen cabinets I think they would be this color.

the AGAVE house staged (by moi!)

1 Mar

First of all, I realized this morning that we were nominated for the Apartment Therapy “The Homies” blog awards in the “Best Home Design Blog” category! Thanks to whoever nominated us – I realize we have no chance against some of those amazing (and regularly updated I might add :) ) blogs like Retro Renovation and Making it Lovely (which I read regularly) but it’s still really nice that someone took the time to nominate us! And who knew there were so many design blogs?!

If you’d like to vote for us, that would be so cool! We have not a chance of winning, but it’d still be fun to see our name creep up a little higher on the list. So to vote, click here, scroll all the way down to register or login, and then do a “find” function search for us and vote!

Also, I wanted to share the final results of our staging and “sprucing up” efforts on the AGAVE house. This is a home that I have owned for over 4 years (lived in for about 2 years, and rented out for about 2 years). My husband and I have decided that we really don’t want to be landlords anymore, so we are selling it. However, in order to sell it in this market it really needed to be staged. But, we were already planning to spend money on touching up drywall, paint, and landscaping so there was no room in the budget for staging fees. With that, we decided to stage it ourselves with furniture and accessories from our home now.  There’s more backstory on that here.

So, I spent about 2 weeks bringing over small carloads of accessories and smaller furniture for the house, and I did a photography trade with some movers to have them move over the big stuff. Almost everything we brought over to the house was existing from our house, with the exception of the dining table and chairs (table was purchased on super clearance from West Elm (“$130!!) and the chairs were a Craigslist find that I had reupholstered – but more on that in another post soon).

Without further delay, here are some before and after photos!

And a few more photos (all afters)

I think this is my favorite vignette in the whole house.

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And that’s all! It’s staged and on the market! If you’d like to see the virtual tour that was put together by our realtors, click here. It’s actually really cool – click on the “style designer” feature and you can change wall colors, countertop materials, etc!

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austin modern home tour part 2

22 Feb

It’s time for the rest of the home tour – though I will say some of my favorite homes were in Part 1, there are still some great homes in Part 2.

I can’t remember which home this shot was from (I only took one photo in this home, wasn’t in love with it). But, I love the idea of using a slab of wood as a countertop!

House #5 – 1103 Live Oak Ridge Road

“Simple materials such as brick, plaster, and oak have been incorporated in a composition that highlights the connection to the materials of the landscape. Dramatic colors within private rooms provide a distinct personality to each of the spaces within. The house features a vanishing-edge pool, roof landscaping, and solar-power supplementation.”

I love this little bar table – I believe it is from West Elm?

Love their use of colored LED (I think) lights throughout the home, especially as under cabinet lighting. Added a nice pop of color that you could easily turn off!

Infinity edge pool? Yes, please.

In my dream home I will have a jack and jill bathroom, like this one.

House #5 – 2311 Peach Tree Street

“This is a new 1,620 sq ft single family residence in the Zilker neighborhood in central Austin. It features a multi-level floor plan including three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a separate dining room and an integrated kitchen/living area. Interior materials include micro topped concrete flooring throughout, custom walnut millwork and exposed CMU feature wall. Exterior materials include CMU, white stucco, and tiger wood. Landscaping is a combination of xeriscape and drought resistant grass.”

Love these walnut bathroom cabinets.

Those circular a/c vents were so retro cool! And on a wall of walnut, even better!

 

House #6 – 701 West Elizabeth Street

“The Elizabeth Residence was built for a family that values their privacy along with natural light. After entering past a custom water feature pouring from a concrete wall the heart of the house opens to a center courtyard visible from the 25′ long 10′ tall glass window wall in the living room. The courtyard is the house’s primary garden for kids and the covered deck acts as the outdoor kitchen. “

I love the concrete facade of this home, combined with the wood to warm it up.

LOVE this garden!

I normally don’t go for this sort of tile, but I love it, especially combined with the penny rounds on the floor.

 

 

House #7 – 609 West Live Oak Street

“South Austin modern design at its best. New construction with 3 Beds, 2.5 Baths plus an office. The home is one story with 2160 sq ft and built with all the latest green features. Located within Austin’s most hip neighborhood, this home adds to the cool vibe that is South Austin with a vintage turquoise fridge, tongue-and-groove wood ceilings, concrete flooring, and an abundance of natural light. It also features an interior atrium and a hookup for an electric car charger in the backyard. This kitchen allows for everyone to converse at dinner parties with its openness to the dining and living room which is a statement of its own with floor to ceiling windows across two walls.”

 

 

I took this photo to remind me that I need to do FLOR tiles in our hallway! Love the look.

You can’t go wrong with a turquoise fridge!

I am not sure how I feel about an atrium (we had one growing up and never used it), but this one is really cute. Love the tile.

That’s all for now! These were my favorite parts of the Austin Modern Home Tour!

 

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austin modern home tour part 1

8 Feb

We had a super busy weekend! On Saturday, we dropped Zoey off at the drop in daycare and then went to one of my favorite events every year – the Modern Home Tour. It’s like snooping, but without the guilt :) This was our third home tour, and every time it gets better. Though, I have to say I always walk away with some serious cases of house envy and an even longer idea/to do list! I brought my camera along to this one and wanted to share some of my favorite things! (and on Sunday, we worked on staging the Agave house. It’s still not quite done but I think it is looking great and I’ll be posting pics of that soon)

House #1 – Jeff Davis Street

I love the modern California feel of this home, it reminds me of the homes in Agave.

love the modern landscaping, especially the gray landscaping rock

love this kitchen with the walnut cabinets and modern white countertops

love this modern tub

this is a really affordable way to modernize a standard fence by capping it off at the top

cute bedroom

marble countertops, how i love thee.

this textured wallpaper was a really nice way to add some interest to the wall

love this idea to add some interest to a big blank wall – create some wood frames and wrap them in fabric. would also be a great sound absorber.

House #2 – 4502 Balcones Drive

This house was completely amazing.  From the Modern Home Tour website “The house has the feel of a treehouse, perched on the edge of a fractured limestone cliff, which is a part of the eschelon of the Balcones fault. Rooms look either downhill into the tops of trees in the ravine below or uphill into the rock gardens behind the house.”

love the look of these concrete pavers

I have major envy of this outdoor area, especially the amazing fireplace.

the amazing view from the living areas of the home.

This bathroom had a really great design – with the toilet on the left and the shower on the right.

The living area had an entire wall of windows that opened up to the beautifully landscaped yard.

nice modern stairs.

House #3 – 2903 Wade Avenue

“A mid century modern home, originally built in 1964 and recently remodeled.”

This was one of my favorite bathrooms on the tour, because it was BOLD and graphic.

I am in LOVE with the terrazzo flooring.

This clock is so mad men it’s ridiculous.

Ok, this was a favorite bathroom too…the photo doesn’t do it justice.

hello amazing tiled walls and skylight.

Part 2 coming soon, as well as before and after pics of the staging of our Agave house!

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