Ding Dong, the Entry is DONE!!!

...well, not all the way done. We still need to add crown molding, find a new light, and (eventually) change the front door, ...and decide whether or not to paint or re-stain the closet door, but for all intensive purposes, this project is done!

 Even Zizou likes it:

...or maybe he just wants to go outside.

Here is a closeup of the bench that I made. Want to see how I made it?! You can check that out here.

And now I have a nice spot to kick off those Sperrys.

Here's a closeup of the picture shelf.

Remember this frame? Now he has a home.

And here is a close-up of all the knobs. Don't mind the white paint on the back wall. That will get fixed once the crown molding goes up. I'm beginning to understand the phrase "housework is never done".

I still can't believe how different it is when you walk in the door. I'd say much more welcoming than the original wood paneling. Since the last post, I have sanded, painted and retouched the shelving and bench, installed the transition strip under the bench, and added some color with the frames, pillows and bench cushion. Over time and over many shopping trips to Target, Ikea, Home Goods, etc., we will find more pillows, rugs, and trinkets for the picture shelf to bring some more color into the space, but for now, I am SOOOO much happier when I first walk in the door. And I did it all myself! I can hardly believe it. :)

Until next time...

Come On In and Have a Seat!

There was a lot of thought that went into how to build the bench for the entry way. Initially, I wanted to the bench to span the entire length of the back wall. But after finding out that the jut in the wall was actually part of the third bedroom addition, I changed my mind. Rebuilding a wall for only three feet of extra bench seemed like a little too much work.

After that somewhat disappointing realization, I began to contemplate how to build our "plan B" nook bench. There were a few problems to consider:
1- I wanted the bench to be open underneath so that people could kick off their shoes and leave them underneath the bench. This meant that I had to still be able to support the weight of 1-2 people without the bench tearing off the wall.
2- The wall on the left of the nook is 8in, and the wall on the right is 15in. Obviously, an 8-in bench is not wide enough for even a little butt. I had to think about how I was going to allow the bench to be the width that we needed but also keep it securely attached to all three walls.

Considering both obstacles, here is what I came up with:

The bench was essentially a 2x4in. wood frame with additional 2x4s spanning the width for additional support. On the sides, I used two 2x8in boards so that they would go down to the ground and I could screw them into the wall. My bench will be able to hold a small army. Once again, I picture a (non-existent) kid jumping up and down on the bench. No skulls will be cracked due to my faulty handy work! However, if the next owners don't like the bench, they may have a real hard time taking it out, but it won't break while it's in there.

Incase you have a very similar lay out and would like to know the cuts that I made (or rather, made my husband cut for me), here they are:
1- 2 x 4 x 44in (for the back wall)
1- 2 x 4 x 37.5in  (front of the bench)
1- 2 x 4 x 6.5in  (angled side of the bench, measured from the inside)
2- 2 x 8 x 19in (side pieces spanning to the floor)
1- 2 x 4 x 4.5in (additional piece on the right side)
1- 1 x 4 x 12in (to securely connect the pieces on the right side)
5- 2 x 4 x 9in (support beams going the width of the bench)
1- 1 x 4 x 40in (face of the bench in front)
1- 1 x 4 x 9in  (face of the side angle)
plywood:
1- 47 x 13in (top of the bench)

Once the bench was put together, we fastened the bench to the studs using four, 4in. hefty bolts.

I also secured the legs to the wall with 3 1/2in. screws. You may also notice I found another use for a strip of our bead board: the flooring under the bench.

This bench is going nowhere! It can actually hold both Nabil and I with no hands (or feet), but no one was around to get that picture. ...but we tried it.

Next, I added the baseboard and trim pieces, caulked, mudded the holes/gaps, sanded the surface, and primed and the unpainted wood. This is the part that I hate the most because the end is in sight, but it always seems like this stuff take FOREVER! Once it was all said and done though, this place was actually starting to look like an entryway with a pretty kickass builtin bench if I do say so myself (and I do).

Here is the view as you walk in the front door:

To wrap this post up, let's look at that entryway to-do list shriveling away:

- tear out the bookshelf
- take out the paneling below where the picture shelf is going to be and add another texture to separate from the rest of the paneling
- build a picture shelf to span the length of the back wall
- incorporate hooks for hanging coats/purses
- build a bench to go in the wall "nook" with a place for shoes underneath (in progress, just need to finish painting and add the cushion on top)
- replace all the outdated trim and add crown molding
- replace the light fixture with something a little more modern
- replace the front door (eventually! Realistically, this is probably a few years down the line)

Picture Shelf

Aaaahhhhh... That is the sound of the heavens reigning cheers of glory on my half-way done entry way.

I have always loved the picture shelves in the dining room of old houses, so I knew that I wanted to incorporate one in our new house somewhere. ...and why not cross it off the list on our first house project right? When building the picture shelf, I had to keep a few things in mind. (1) The shelf had to be sturdy enough to support the weight of frames and other decorations over the years but also not stick out of the wall too much. In my mind I kept picturing an eight or nine year old boy doing pull-ups or just hanging off the shelf. I'm not sure who this boy is because he obviously isn't ours, but it seems like a prime idea for some pre-hormonal kid with bottomless, unfiltered energy. I don't know where I get these premonitions, but I wanted to make sure the shelf could support the weight of this non-existent child before he got hurt. (2) The shelf also had to have some kind of stopper on the end so that the frames didn't slide off the end hitting some un-expectant guest on the head. And (3) the shelf would be the divider between the gray wood paneling above and the white wall below where people would hang their coats.

Keeping all this in mind, here is what I came up with:

I use a 1x6in. board to cover the gap between the two boards. This would also serve as the base for the shelf, so I made sure it was securely fastened to the studs. Also, at this point, I had decided that I wanted to use knobs as coat hangers. Luckily I decided this before hanging the board, because with knobs, they have to be screwed in from the back of the board, so before securing the board to the wall, I drilled eleven holes and placed the screws where the knobs would eventually live.

To assemble the shelf, I used a 1x4in. board and two rounded 1x1in trim pieces. Once measured and cut, I wood-glued and hammered on the trim piece on the end of the picture shelf because that would have been more difficult to do once the shelf was already assembled. Next, I screwed the shelving pieces directly into the edge of the 1x6 support boards. If you do it this way, make sure to drill pilot holes so you don't crack the wood since the screws will be so close to the edge of the board. I then added the 1x1in. rounded trim on the underside of the shelf. This was mostly just for aesthetics, but I suppose it could be adding just a little more support too. Below is a cross-section of the shelf which probably explains it better on it's own than my long winded descriptions.

Just incase you were wondering, I do realize that the corner cut has a big gap. I quickly realized that the wall was not exactly 90 degrees, so my corners were a little off. Nothing a little mudd and sanding can't fix, right?

This is the view right when you walk into the house. The coat closet is on the left, and the living-room is to the right.

Once it was all mudded, caulked, and painted, here's what we have:

I love the look of the knobs instead of hooks. We also decided to use all different kinds of knobs to keep some interest. They are all bronze or oil rubbed bronze (or at least they look it), so it isn't too distracting. Love love love!

So there you have it, a step-by-step on how we built a picture shelf. If you'd like to see the before pictures, you can check them out here. Once it's all complete I will post more pictures of all the fun details, but for now, let's take a look at the things we have crossed off our enrtyway to-do list, shall we!?

- tear out the bookshelf
- take out the paneling below where the picture shelf is going to be and add another texture to separate from the rest of the paneling
- build a picture shelf to span the length of the back wall
- incorporate hooks for hanging coats/purses
- build a bench to go in the wall "nook" with a place for shoes underneath
- replace all the outdated trim and add crown molding
- replace the light fixture with something a little more modern
- replace the front door (eventually! Realistically, this is probably a few years down the line)

Phew, half way done! ...and all this was done in time for all of our Christmas holiday guests arrival (barely). Next up, the bench to go underneath the shelf.

Until next time...

Entryway Makeover - The Plan! Muahaha...

That was my evil plan laugh if you couldn't tell.

Anyway, back on track. Nabil and I have been in our house for a little over six months now, but it feels like we are still moving in. We haven't had the chance to do as much with the place as we would have liked so far. A very leaky roof and a lack of furniture to fill the place have made our to-do list projects a little cost prohibitive, but this winter we started working on our first room. This being one of our first house projects, we needed to start with a small room that we felt confident tackling and not getting overwhelmed mid-project.

Enter entry-way. If you can't remember, when we first moved in, it looked like this:
Note: This is the view looking at the entryway from the living room. The front door is on the left wall of the entryway.

Hate, hate, hate! I don't think that you can really get more out of date than wood paneling. And bookshelves in an entryway? Really?! I'm sure that they were meant to house picture frames, because I can't imagine who would want to store their books by the front door, but I would like my entry way to be a bit more functional. So what are the new plans you may be asking? Firstly, tear out those shelves and add in a little more light with paint.

I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the room right after I painted and before I took out the bookshelf, so here is my pre/post primer photo from Instagram. It's crazy how much paint can change a room.

As I tend to do, I got a random twinge of motivation just before we had a dozen people over for Thanksgiving. Less than a week before everyone arrived, we primed and painted the wood paneling a lovely shade a gray (Ozark Shadows by Benjamin Moore). I may have been a little crazy for starting the project and organizing dinner within the same week, but I desperately wanted the color to be at least a little more inviting when the guests arrived, and literally the day that they all left (less than 15 min after to be precise), I grabbed our new crowbar and tore out the hated bookshelves.  Soon after I realized that the pesky jut in the wall was actually part of the addition and I couldn't make the back wall flush like I originally planned, so onto plan B.

On Pinterest, I found this photo for my inspiration:

Side note: I would normally site the source here, but the link only lead me to a url with just the picture. What a shame.
I knew that I wanted a lot of the things that this entry had: a bench for putting on and taking off shoes, hooks for jackets, and a picture shelf for a little aesthetic appeal. The only thing it is missing is a place to put your shoes once they're off.

Here is the to-do list for the entry-way:
- tear out the bookshelf
- take out the paneling below where the picture shelf is going to be and add another texture to separate from the rest of the paneling.
- build a picture shelf to span the length of the back wall
- incorporate hooks for hanging coats/purses
- build a bench to go in the wall "nook" with a place for shoes underneath
- replace all the outdated trim and add crown molding
- replace the light fixture with something a little more modern
- replace the front door (eventually! Realistically, this is probably a few years down the line)

More entryway progress to come soon. Until next time...

Frame it up!

We are slowly decorating our new crib and with that comes new projects. This time, sprucing up that blah of a hallway. So here we go again. Remember my last frame project? Don't worry, this one was quite a bit easier. I didn't make anything from scratch. I used some old frames and painted, sanded and placed them to fit our style and location.

I'm mad at myself for not taking a picture of the frames before I painted them so that you all could get a true sense of the difference from start to finish, but alas, I didn't think about it until it was too late. Anywho, I started with a box set of about 10 frames. I think that I bought them for $5 at a garage sale. They were sitting in the hall closet at our old place for about a year until I could figure out what to do with them. Turns out, they were just waiting to be painted.

I bought a few spray cans of flat, white paint/prime. The hallway where I wanted to put them is pretty dark. The space needs as light much light as it can get, so bright white frames are the way to go.

One of the things that I hate most about spray painting, is that you have to be patient. That's not my strong suit. I want to spray a layer, and then spray the next one right after that. I feel like it take so LONG if I do it the right way. Turns out, people tell you to be patient for a reason. I found out that painting too fast can sometimes cause the paint to bubble up. It could have had something to do with the material I was painting on (cheap plastic), but nonetheless, when I was "almost" done with painting all the frames, I noticed a few splotches bubbling up and when I waited for it to dry, the bubbling flaked right off. Not a good look. You can kind of see one of the flake chunks that came off in the photo above (on the LOVE).

In order to salvage my project, I decided to sand down all the letters and "shabby chic" (as my sister calls it) them all. I used some gritty sandpaper that we had in our tool box to wear off the corners.

Here is the after effect:

In my humble experience, the worst part of sanding to "shabby-chic" is trying to decide wear to stop. I like the sanded look, but I needed to keep the frames mostly white so it would still brighten up the hallway. After a long process of sanding, sanding, and more sanding, I was finally ready to sort and hang.

You may notice in the "before" picture below, our hallway is pretty long. Because of that, I had to spread out the frames quite a bit. I think it will actually be better because then I can add other white frames through the years.

And there you have it. I brighter, slightly more decorated hallway. It's starting to feel more and more like home with each project.

Until next time...

Can I please get some curb appeal?

We have been in the new house for a couple of weeks about a month now. In that much time, we have come to the conclusion that it always seems like there will be enough time to get everything checked off that pesky to-do list, but there never is. We still don't have everything out of boxes or up on the wall yet, but I decided that we needed to get some major curb appeal before people came over for our house warming party. Anyone walking by would assume that noone has lived here for the last year and a half. It is an accurate assumption, but not anymore. Time to spruce things up!

Before:

Progress:

One of the great things about moving into a new house of your very own, is that other people who have been there before know how overwhelming and expensive it can be. Ergo, we have gotten a lot of gift cards to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. from friends. It has been so incredibly helpful, and we REALLY appreciate all the help that we have gotten. We are very lucky to have great firends and neighbors. Last weekend we used one of our gift cards on our weekly trip to Home Depot. Among other tools and supplies, we cam home with some plants to spruce up the front of the house a bit.

Like most first-time home owners everything that we do is on small budget. After doing some research and keeping track of the direct light/sun schedule in the area for the past couple weeks, I found some relatively inexpensive plants that will really help to make things more inviting.

Sedge Evergold - 4-6 hours of sun - $6 each

I love me a good hasta, and like hastas these plants are low maintainence and require little direct sunlight.  ...I think that these are evergreens too. I could be wrong though. I guess we'll find out in 6 months.

Rex Begonia - 4-6 hours of sun - $6 each

same as above. I just found out however that these are annuals. I usually only buy perennials, because who wants to plant again every day?

Buxus Sepervirens Argenteo-Variegata  - 4+ hours of sun - $5 on sale at Bovees Nursery (awesome local Portland family, owned business)

Nabil and I randomly found this nursery when driving around the new neighborhood. I wanted an evergreen shrub that would be low-maintainence, didn't need a lot of direct sunlight, and was easy to trim/prune.

Osmanthus x Burkwood II - 4+ hours of sun - $5, also on sale at Bovees Nursery (picture to come)
I wanted to put something next to our huge ugly cement planter. Our house water valve in under the planter, so we have to leave it here so we can access the valve, but I wanted a little shrub that would help to hide the ugliness a bit. ...maybe to even wrap around the planter. This little evergreen shrub is supposedly low mainatinence, and in the spring it blooms little fragrant white flowers.

Pretty Pink Peonies - 6+ hours of sun - $15

These were the most expensive plant that I bought, but they are one of my favorite flowers, and I make Nabil spend more than $15 every summer "surprising" me with a peony boquet, so I figured I could do it if I only buy one. ...maybe I'll buy a few more next spring. :)

All together now:

So much better! That's all for now. Many more outdoor projects to come.

The House Tour

I have gotten many requests to post pictures of our new house. It is afterall all I've been talking writing about the past couple weeks, and it has been a lot of sweat already. Luckily, no blood and tears yet. It has been a few months since we first put in the offer. It seems like it has been forever. You may remember my post about our adventures of being first time home buyers. It was a lot of work and effort, but it seems like it will all be worth it. So without further ado, here it is. Get a good look, because these will be the "before" pictures when we do all of our fun improvements.

Welcome!  Here we are from the driveway.

 Here is the front door with our plants in pots that we moved over. There is definitely some work to be done here. You may also notice our cute little kitty spying on everyone from the window.

This is the picture of the front entryway looking back in from the living room. We have some plans this winter to put in a bench and a place for the shoes.

And here we are looking at the living room from the entryway. Nabil is ready to turn some logs on the fireplace. The great wood floors are part of what sold us on the house. Now we just need to invest in a bunch of area rugs to make it a little more homey.

On the other side of the fireplace is the kitchen. Nice and airy with a side of bubbly.

Off to the side of the living room and kitchen is the sunken family room. It was a garage that was converted, and we think that with the exception of the strange 2 x 4 in the middle of the room, it is nice and cozy. Zizou likes it too.

On the other side of the living room is the bedrooms and bathroom. Below is the picture of the bathroom. Our first homeowner project was putting in the light/vent. It was a big pain in the butt for a number of reasons, but we finally have a working vent, which means ...we can finally shower!

Here is the first of three bedrooms. This bedroom is in the back of the house. We are currently using this as the master even though it isn't the biggest, but we don't have drape yet, and we don't really want the neighbors to be watching us sleeping since the real master is in the front of the house.


Here is the hallway looking down from the first bedroom. The other two bedrooms are through door number one and door number two.

The smallest bedroom is behind door number one. It will eventually be the nursery. ...but for right now, that is kinda scary to think about, so we just mostly keep that door shut.

The last room. This is the view from the little nook in the corner of the room. This room is actually the master bedroom, but we would like to get some drapes, a bigger bed, and a different wall heating system before moving in. ...more fun house projects!

And last but certainly not least... our yard! This is one of the big selling points of the house for us. We envision a big patio with a built in fire pit, raised garden beds, maybe even some fruit trees in the back. I mean the yard is huge. If you look hard enough, you can see Nabil mowing the lawn with our new riding lawn mower (we got a GREAT deal on Craig's List)! So much potential!

So there you have it ladies and gents. That is the house. There will be many more home improvement / DIY projects to follow so stay tuned!

Until next time...