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total chaos

6 Jun

Total chaos is the state of our house right now. We decided (well, ok maybe I decided and Mike went along grudgingly :) ) that I just couldn’t live with the popcorn ceilings and textured walls in some parts of our house (namely Zoey’s room and the guest bedroom upstairs, and all of the downstairs), while the areas that we totally renovated have smooth new drywall. They just don’t match. We should have done it all at the same time, but at that time we just didn’t have the funds to do the other rooms after we’d redone all of the drywall in the kitchen/office/living/hallway/sunken living/entrance along with all of the other renovations we did in those areas.

So, after staging the Agave house, selling it, and moving our staging furniture back here (the buyers of that house did purchase a lot of the furniture), we never even put the guest bedroom and Zoey’s room furniture back in those rooms. Some of it is in the garage, and some of it is in the sunken living room. It’s total chaos, but we have Zoey’s room and the guest bedroom cleared out on the main level and the drywall guys will be here this morning. Exciting! They will be clearing out the popcorn ceilings, making them as smooth as a baby’s bottom, and doing the same thing with the walls (which right now have an icky sand texture).

After the drywall is done, they will prime and paint (undecided on the colors yet, but I think I will do a cool pattern treatment on a wall in Zoey’s room, stay tuned for that). Then, we are likely pulling the old switcharoo in those rooms. Zoey’s room will become the guest bedroom and her bedroom will become the guest bedroom (and eventually a nursery if and when we have another baby). We figured it might be smart to think ahead since we would eventually move Zoey’s room if we have another kid, and the thought of moving all of her stuff out of her room yet again just kills me.

Zoey’s room before

And all cleared out…

Good Riddance Popcorn!

Guest Bedroom Before

All cleared out…

We are also having them fix a few drywall nicks and repaint in a more blue hue the front wall of the house. Here is what that looks like now (this is an older pic). The color has a lot more green/teal than it shows in photos. The color we are repainting is more of a deep blue.

After those rooms are settled and we can finally say we are done with the upstairs, we will start on the huge downstairs project. I will leave that for another post. More updates soon!

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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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our next big plans…

16 Dec

So, as we’re waiting for our new sectional sofa to arrive we have been making some more renovation plans. People are always asking us if we are done with our remodeling – the truth is we will probably never be done making changes to this house for as long as we live here. I think it is our nature. It seems to be a bit of a curse and a blessing at the same time (definitely a curse to our bank account!). We are relatively satisfied with the main level of our house (which consists of our entry, kitchen, dining, main living area, laundry, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and my office. Well, ok I take that back we still have quite a few things to do up there. We actually made a punch list the other day which I will share soon…it is a little daunting. I really want to do some work in my office – but that is sort of last on the list of course.

But,with the new year we are starting to focus on the downstairs area of our house which consists of our master bedroom, master bathroom, and the den/wet bar. When we first moved into our house almost 3 1/2 years ago (cannot believe it has been that long!) we did a few quick fixes to make that area livable – since it is where we would be spending all of our time while we renovated the upstairs. Those quick fixes involved removing all of the carpeting in the den and master bedroom, hiring a contractor to polish/seal the concrete floors, having some patching/cracks repaired in the drywall, repainting the walls, and installing all new trim.

Our den currently – with original stone fireplace wall.

Once we finished the bulk  of our renovations upstairs, we really started spending the majority of our time up there and to be honest, were so sick of spending so much time downstairs while we renovated that we sort of avoided the whole area (except of course our bedroom) for the past year or so. We really aren’t happy with the way the concrete floors look downstairs – they look dirty and unfinished. We had a pretty poor experience with the contractor we hired for this and could not recommend him. So, we have big plans for the downstairs that include but knowing us aren’t limited to:

  • Installing laminate flooring – I was originally really against laminate flooring because I thought it looked cheap. But, lately I’ve been impressed with the selection and look of the options I  have seen, and I love how durable it is. Our hardwood floors upstairs have turned out to not be very durable, which has been disappointing. We found a few options we love. More to come on that soon.
  • Redo the wet bar – including repainting (white), new knobs, new concrete countertop (hopefully DIYed), new sink and faucet, and tile backsplash from leftover renovation tile.
  • Drywall repairs/patching and possible removal of all popcorn downstairs.
  • Replace white tile in master bathroom with concrete resurfacing as well as countertop in master bath

Here is our groovy wet bar that needs some work. It served as our kitchen the entire time we renovated upstairs.

Our groovy master bathroom. The white tile gets dirty so easily, so we want to remove it and resurface the concrete.

Our master bedroom

The sitting area in our master bedroom is awesome but VERY unfinished!

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in search of the perfect gray sectional

28 Nov

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a lovely four day weekend and I finally had some time off from shooting and editing! Now, it’s Monday so back to the grind!

I have been wanting to do a post about finding a sectional. This is our main living area now. The area where the sofa is used to be the dining room – separated from the old kitchen by a wall which we took down (see photo below). When we renovated, we loved the idea of having our kitchen and main living area all sort of connected…since the kitchen really is the heart of our house. This setup works great for our daily living with the three of us (Mike, myself, and Zoey) but isn’t as functional when we have gatherings – we really need more seating in the living room, because since it is so close to the kitchen it really is where everyone congregates. So, the sofa you see pictured will be moving down into the lounge area of our master bedroom (more on that to come soon) and we will be replacing it with a sectional.

Below left – the dining are pre-remodel, and at the tail end of the remodel

So, to help with this lack of seating, we have been on the hunt for a gray sectional to add more seating to our living area. We have some criteria which are making our decision quite difficult! First, I’ll share my “dream” sectional:

Behold, the Jonathan Adler Lampert Sectional. Since this is my “dream” sectional, I’d of course upgrade the fabric to Grade 7 Brussels Charcoal and course get the walnut legs. The total comes to $5500. YIKES. I am sure worth every penny, but just not feasible for us! So began the hunt for something comparable but in our price range. Our criteria?

  • Gray fabric (preferably not microfiber, since in our house it tends to collect dog hair!)
  • Must be a sectional with arms on both ends – not a sofa with a chaise.
  • Must fit in the dimensions of our room (max 110″ on the short wall and max 122″ on the railing wall)
  • Modern style, preferably with some tufting since I am obsessed with tufting
  • Cost less than $2500, but preferably less than 2k

So, with this criteria in mind (and our little tax refund in our pockets) we began the search many months ago. Some runners up (there were really not a lot of options that we found that we really loved):

Baxter Studio Alcoa Gray Sectional $1981.99 at overstock.com and free shipping

This one we *almost* went with. We love how the sections can be rearranged and we love the general look of it. However, we were really hesitant to spend so much money on a sofa we couldn’t test in person, and we were nervous that it would be too firm/uncomfortable. It does have great reviews online though.

Another runner up was the new CB2 Dual Sectional at $1799. However, it was out of the running because it didn’t have an arm on the left side, only a chaise:

We also came really close to getting the Phoenix sectional from Z Gallerie – we saw it in person and really liked it. But, I am so glad we didn’t. It’s pretty boxy (yet comfortable) but doesn’t have the tufting that I love.

Our search for the perfect sectional then took us to the Build a Sofa – where we found THE ONE. The Oliver Sectional for us was the perfect combination of everything we were looking for – we were able to customize it to have arms on both ends, it had the wonderful mid century look that we really wanted (including tufting), the size ended up being just perfect for our space, and we even were able to select our fabric, the firmness of our cushions, and the number of pillows and cushions. We chose medium density and we will have one long bench cushion on each sofa. The selection of fabrics in the basic grade A group was really great – we chose an option called Avalon Gray that is a really nice gray chenille (I think not unlike the Jonathan Adler dream sofa). I sound like an infomercial for Build A Sofa, but I think it is a really cool concept, and affordable for being able to customize a sofa. I will be sure to post photos and a review once it arrives (which is the only downfall – it takes 4-6 weeks). We are really, really hoping to receive it before Xmas since we will be hosting a family gathering at our house. Fingers crossed! When we went in on our first visit we selected all of the options and the total came out to almost $2700 which was just out of our budget (and this was including a $200 off per sectional piece sale). However, last week the saleslady called us to tell us that they would be having a black Friday sale promo for 20% off and free delivery (which previously was $99). So, we went for it! And the total came to $2416 for everything – a little more than we were hoping to spend but still within our budget. We can’t wait to see her in person! 

 


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the big reveal!

14 Nov

So, it all started way back in June! We entered a “Makeover your Social Space”  contest sponsored by American Express and featured on one of my favorite design blogs – Making it Lovely. To our delight (and much surprise), we won!! What did we win, you ask?We were so thrilled to receive 150,000 American Express rewards points (which for those of you who are wondering equates to about $1500 in gift cards). So, armed with a great design board from Nicole we set out to redo our patio space. We didn’t make it very far, however, until we realized that we never would really be happy with our front patio space so long as we had to live with ugly and rotting hunter green original 1972 siding, minty green trim, and vintage Spanish light fixtures and arches that were just not our cup of tea. So, first we set out to rid ourselves of the stucco arched wall. Armed with the equivalent of $800 in gift cards from Home Depot – we put in some sweat equity (which turned into A LOT of sweat equity), demoed the wall in a weekend, and set out to rebuilding it as a modern slat wood privacy wall. When I say “we” as far as rebuilding, I really mean the hubby Mike :) I am not so skilled with carpentry per say, but we will say that I was his “helper” throughout the project. We used our Home Depot gift cards to purchase paint, screws, the actual wood for the frame and for the slats, and the new house numbers. I think we probably saved a couple thousand in labor by doing it ourselves (though we gave up quite a few weekends to build it, and of course during the hottest time of the year).

So, here is what we started with:

Bye bye ugly stucco arches:

Hello awesome modern wood slat wall.

So, with the slat wall completed and new fixtures hung we hated our old green siding even more – especially with the juxtaposition of the new modern slat wall and the old decaying siding. So, we set out to get a small home improvement loan to redo it. This took several months – if you are planning on a home improvement project which involves a loan, even a small one, don’t plan on it taking any less than 2 months. In the end, I think it took close to 3 months.

So, we interviewed several contractors and settled on my uncle – who is a contractor here in Austin, to do the work. We like to keep it in the family, and we knew he would do an amazing job. Which he did. And he did so many extra things that we hadn’t even thought of – like wrapping the rough textured and rotting beams with hardi and removing, painting, and reinstalling the gutters.

So now, it is time for the grand reveal! Once again, here is where we started:

And now!

right side before

after

left side before

after

patio area before

after

front entry before

after!

I LOVE the way the white soffit/fascia looks with the gray beams.

back of house before

after

So, that’s the big reveal! I wish I could say we are done, but we aren’t! Our patio makeover isn’t quite complete because we still have some little and some big things left to do. Here is our list:

  • purchase furnishings for patio with the remainder of the gift cards (west elm and crate and barrel) and set up the patio
  • get a new doorbell (see photo below)
  • hang retro metal mailbox

And we love the vintage original brass peephole that is in our door – but the finish doesn’t really match the chrome finishes we’ve chosen for the outdoor fixtures and doorknob…so there is that situation to deal with…

So, that’s all for now. I’ll post updates as I find furniture for the patio! And I’ll soon be posting some updated house photos and we’re thinking about starting some work on the downstairs den/master bedroom area…we’ve lived with it half done for a very long time now…

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paint tease!

7 Nov

Two posts in one day? What?! I’ve finally got my head above water – crazy wedding season is coming to an end for me this Saturday! I’ve still got shoots and weddings, but at a much more manageable pace from now until the end of the year :)

I still have yet to take pro pictures of the siding remodel all painted, but here is a little teaser pic taken with my ever so convenient Iphone :) The colors aren’t very accurate in this pic (the door is pretty bright but not quite THAT bright)! Professional pics coming later this week, including before and afters!

 

 

siding | before paint

5 Nov

Ok, I have to admit I am about a week behind with photos but I think they are worth the wait! I wanted to share some pics of the siding once they were about done and the painters had started caulking and puttying in preparation for paint!

So, here is where it all started! Way back in JUNE! All of this original paint was selected by the previous owners – definitely not our preference! And we weren’t in love with the spanish style light fixtures or the stucco spanish arch privacy wall, among other things.

So here is the wide shot of the house, all re-sided and ready for paint. One of the most amazing things we ended up doing was wrapping the posts in the front courtyard/patio with hardi board. Previously, they were very ugly cedar beams, and some of them were rotting. They are very expensive and labor intensive to replace, so wrapping  them was the best option. It will extend their life for some time and they work so much better with the new siding since the smooth finish matches the siding.

Right side of the house during work.

Left side of the house during work.

Here is a shot of the front patio in progress.

Next up: paint! My favorite part!! Here is where we started way back when with selecting paint colors (these are Behr colors). In choosing the paint, we stuck with these pretty closely.

And below are our final paint swatches for the house color. We ended up having to use Kelly Moore paint because that is the paint that our painters preferred. So, for the soffit and the fascia we wanted to use the same white that we used on the slat wood wall, which meant they had to color match it. They were able to do that, it worked out well. We aren’t those people who paint tons of swatches before we make a paint decision. We basically went to Kelly Moore, picked out a bunch of gray swatches (for the siding) and yellow swatches (for the front door). Then, we brought the swatches home, narrowed it down to 2 gray swatches, and got samples mixed. Below were the results of those samples – they look really similar (and they are!) but the one on the left has a little more green and the one on the right has a tad bit more blue. They are still both pretty neutral grays. Stay tuned next week for finished pics of the painted siding and to see what colors we chose!

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happy halloween!

31 Oct

Happy Halloween from Moo (aka Shrek) and Linus (aka bad dog) – he’s got the prison tats to prove it. Hahaha.

Wedding season full in effect + travel for some of those weddings + 4 portrait sessions on one week = neglecting the little old home remodeling blog. Ack, I promise I’ll be back with it soon. And I realize I need to really do a full house tour as I never really posted pretty finished photos of the kitchen, and plus we’ve tweaked other areas of the house since the last time I posted pics! So, that is all coming soon as well as photos of our exterior remodel and patio redo. They started painting on Saturday and I am in LOVE. It’s such an amazing difference I can’t wait to share photos. The new siding and paint has modernized the house more than I even thought possible. I can’t wait to share!!

siding progress

19 Oct

I just wanted to post a quick couple of Iphone pics of the siding progress! It’s been in the works for a little over a week now. So far they have put up scaffolding type access for the sides of the house, ripped off the gutters and all of the old trim, laid the paper, and started installing the new siding and trim. They are actually laying the new siding over the old siding – which seems odd but it will make for another layer or protection and insulation. They started installing the siding (hardi smooth and I believe the planks are 12″) on Monday…it’s very exciting to see it going up. Everything looks so fresh and new already. I absolutely can’t wait for the part when they paint!

Oh, and also they are wrapping the old rough cedar breams with smooth hardi as well which is going to really modernize the look – those beams add so much architectural interest and this will only serve to complete the look!

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siding | before pictures

12 Oct

The siding remodel started on Tuesday! We are sooooo excited…they spent all day yesterday tearing off the old (and some rotted) trim, and building scaffolding for the sides of the house (which are on a slope and the upper level so not easy to get to at all).

To start off, here is a shot of the front of the house currently- before any work was started.

 

Here is a shot of our front porch…which we will be completing the makeover for as soon as the siding and painting is complete!

Below is a shot of the right side of our house. The door leads into the garage, and really is pretty useless. So, it will be going away and will be sided over in the remodel.

Here is a shot of the left side of our house….

In the photo below, see the black paper next to the window. That is a really poorly done temporary patch from when we removed a window during our kitchen remodel over a year ago.

The back of the house – as you can see our deck is also in need of replacement, but that is further down our to do list…

Another shot of the back of the house, the beige temporary siding is covering up where we used to have sliding glass doors – which are now covered over by cabinets in our kitchen. And note the lovely rotted out hole in the siding to the right of the beige patch. Awesome.

One more shot of the back, the french doors were an addition during the interior remodel and they need a coat of paint and new trim…

And lastly, here is a sneak peek of what has been going on today – the ugly, rotting cedar beams are being wrapped with hardiboard for a much more modern and durable look!

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