century home

Front Door Makeover

| The Bee Life

If you may remember, I was having quite the dilemma figuring out which color to paint our front door.  After much deliberation and making sure B liked the choices too, we decided on… <drum roll please> … on Sherwin Williams, Commodore!

The Color
Before
Before
Door knocker – Painted/Before
There is hope!
Progress!

We went from blah to blue! And it looks awesome.  I think the part that makes this blue pop even more, is the life I restored back into our original door knocker.  It too had been painted the same ugly tan color as the door… the original brass knocker… painted! I couldn’t believe it! Nicole Curtis would be proud of all the elbow grease and extra effort I put in to restoring this.  My initial thought was to just spray paint it gold – but I just had to try and get all the (2-layers) paint off and restore it to it’s original, gorgeous glory.

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How did I get all of that paint off? Boiling water soaks and SOS/Brillo pads, a lot of them! It was tough getting around all the detail in the top, but I kept on and it totally paid off.  Next steps is to swap out that storm door with a full glass storm door – as much as I would love to ditch it completely, I like having the front open for a breeze in the summer and guarding the cool wind and snow in the winter.

This was such an instant upgrade and I’m so pleased with the way it came out, better than I thought!

Attic Update

| The Bee Life


Well we first started our attic work in the end of July – we are now nearly approaching October and we still have a lot of work that needs to be done, but finally after a delay we have progress happening again!

We had a minor hiccup finding someone who could finish our electric work, but hopefully that will be complete tonight. Then the fun begins: insulation and dry-walling! Both will be a first for B and I – and it honestly all sounds a little daunting! Especially lugging everything up to the 3rd floor, but winter is fast approaching so we will need to keep moving quickly and make sure we do everything right.  We’ve received a number of opinions by professions so I know we’re on the right path.

A few things that we hadn’t accounted for was needing to hire someone for our electric (our neighbor was helping us out, but schedules just got busy), so that was an added expense. We are also waiting to receive a quote on refinishing our floors, however they’re pine and painted – apparently two not so great things, sooo I am sure the estimate will be far beyond what we expect, so we need to figure out plan B and plan C. Do we just put in new floors? Or do we just paint our current ones again? I’m not sure yet what we will decide yet. Another to-do is finishing our chandelier, I got one for a steal from Lowe’s for $15, it was an old display fixture that had some broken strings – I’m going to switch those out, just need to buy my supplies!

The list of to-do’s isn’t getting any shorter, in fact it keeps growing! But I am excited to be making progress and ready to get some things complete!

Do you have any tips for dry-walling?

Wood Crafts

| The Bee Life

With our recent attic project (see here) we have a lot of old wood that we’ve replaced, meaning we have a lot of old wood sitting in our garage waiting for something amazing to happen to it! So I have a few projects brewing in my head that I hope to start working on for the upcoming holiday seasons for some nice holiday decor. I also have a few projects/presents in mind for family and friends. Here is just a few sneak peaks of a few of my ideas…

I might even brainstorm and create a few ideas of my own for more holiday-esq door signs and decor.  That is one thing I love having year round, and with the front door about to be painted within the next month – yes a color has been chosen, (you have to wait to be surprised) we will be able to showcase some of those new ornaments.

Hope you have a crafty, inspiring weekend!

Front Door Dilemma

| The Bee Life

Ever since I realized I was able to paint our beautiful original front door … I say realize because the inside is still original but for whatever reason the previous homeowners decided to paint the outside facing 100-year old door! And because of that, I now have had the ongoing dilemma on what color to paint this door.  We have a neutral colored house (tan with off white trim), so I feel like we have a pretty wide range of options… which also makes the decision much harder.

So beyond going on Pinterest for inspiration, I used the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap app to look at a range of colors that I’ve been gravitating too. Finding the right shade of whatever color we end up choosing is important, and ColorSnap allows an ease of browsing along with saving the color swatch right on my phone!

The Color

I have looked at a few fun colors too, like a bright orange, or even a deep purple.  But I think going with something more practical.  But just when I think I am leaning towards one color over the other I change my mind.  I think I am just going to have to go for it!

Help! Any suggestions? Advice?

Thanks in advance,

House Hunters – Attic Retreat

| The Bee Life

One of the things that we loved about our house was the attic.  Especially after we had seen a dozen or so homes with not so great attics and just as bad basements.  In our city, 100 year old homes are the standard, no cookie cutter houses here, but with that when you find a gem you have to move quickly… unless pure fate is on your side. So when we saw our bright open, massive attic space we instantly had dreams of making it our master… our own retreat.

Beyond just the furniture which we have some loose ideas around, as seen in my previous post House Hunters – Bedroom Retreat.  One of our larger projects was to raise the roof! Not literally but we wanted to raise the ceiling.  Having a 6’6″ boyfriend with a 6’7″ clearance… doesn’t leave a lot of head room. hehe. So this past week and weekend, we have been removing the ceiling and all of the insulation to see what was up there.  We were able to gain 6-inches of clearance, which is better than having B’s hair brush against the ceiling. Some electrical needs to be reworked and we need to figure out insulation. From there it’ll be drywall and finishing touches.

I can’t wait until it gets finished, I’m so excited for my walk-in closet (which I am sure I’ll end up sharing with B, because I’m too nice). The second thing I am most exited about it is getting a king sized bed. Surprisingly (or not) we don’t even have a queen size for as tall as B is. Beyond those things; the ideas are endless with finishing touches and organizational ways to fit within the attic space. Here are some ideas we’re hoping to replicate:

Banister for an open look: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-eclectic-and-cool-south-aus-138993#_
More storage options for sloped ceilings: http://www.andreagary.com/photo-gallery.html
Optimal Closet Space: http://designingmainstreet.com/tag/sloped-ceiling/
Hidden Storage: http://thehousediaries.com/blog/2015/1/7/jan-7-big-bedroom
Awesome ceiling detail: http://www.decoist.com/2014-07-08/slanted-ceilings-design-ideas/

Can’t wait to show off the finished photos, although I’m thinking this is going to take some time! I know our goal is to get most of this complete by the winter!

House Hunters – Kitchen

| The Bee Life

Our kitchen is terrible.  It has a horrible layout, no counter or cabinet space not to mention it’s dated. We’ve been able to improve it some since we first saw the house, but it’s still nothing that it could be. Although when we remodel, it’s going to be a complete gut, moving walls and extending out the house. It’s not going to be cheap or quick.

We helped the layout drastically by moving the fridge to it’s current spot, it was where the green bar was, making it a tight squeeze. But as you can see it’s not very functional or pretty.  Our dream is to blow out where the exterior door is to square out the current galley part – from there the possibilities are endless – maybe even blowing out the wall between the kitchen and dining room (where the current green bar is)… I can just hear the dollar signs right now!

Here is some inspiration for the future, all white is a dream with lots of light and some accents of blues or teals.

http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2012/10/favorite-pins-friday-19/
https://www.subwaytileoutlet.com/products/Vapor-Arabesque-Glass-Tile.html#.ValzM_lcD-V

I am sure our kitchen won’t be remodeled for a few more years, but it’s definitely on the wish list as far as big ticket items. My parents just remodeled their kitchen after living in their house for 30+ years! It’s funny because the first time we looked at this house B wasn’t phased by the kitchen, he just loved this house and the first thing I pointed out was the terrible kitchen! Since then it’s become quite the opposite conversation…. maybe we will get lucky and get on a DIY kitchen makeover show.

TGIF!

House Hunters – Bathroom Retreat

| The Bee Life

Bathroom’s are always something to marvel over, they’re second best to the kitchen when it comes to a top-selling point for a house.  Well for B and I the kitchen and bathroom’s could both use a good overall.  Although I don’t see the bathroom being for awhile, as it’s a big space and functional, all the upgrades found be purely for our own reasons, not because anything is broken, which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing. *smiles*

We have a ‘claw foot’ tub (without the claw feet) and I love it, however I am thinking if we ever remodel our bathroom, we would ditch the claw foot and do a stand-up shower. We would gain so much more space for a vanity. But then people argue, that the resale value on the house is lower because people want bathtubs (especially families)… I feel like it’s a lose-lose regardless, just do what we want, right?

Here is the wishlist:

  • White subway tiles
  • Double vanity or an extended counter
  • Larger mirror
  • Accents of color with flooring or tile work
  • Lots of shower heads
  • Chandelier light fixture
  • Stand-up shower and claw-foot tub

Some inspiration…

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2014/09/casabella-home-furnishings-and-interiors_5.html
http://houseandhome.com/design/photo-gallery-jillian-harriss-vintage-inspired-style?page=8
http://jensawesomeworld.tumblr.com/post/66268620778
http://www.bhg.com/bathroom/color-schemes/colors/bathroom-color-ideas/#page=3

I think our kitchen remodel will come first before the bathroom, but you never know! We might just go crazy and tackle everything at once one of these days. This bathroom certainly won’t be a DIY project… maybe parts but not all. Until then I will be looking at lots of pretty pictures building and dreaming of our future bathroom.

House Party

| The Bee Life

Our house was officially broken-in since we hosted our house warming party on Saturday!  I would say the party was a success overall.  The weather of course wasn’t as warm as I had hoped, in fact it was almost chilly, a cool 60-degrees, it would’ve been perfect had it been October. We had plenty of food and plenty of alcohol… we have so many leftovers, but I am not complaining about that! A lot of friends came that we hadn’t seen in awhile, that meant a lot and it was great catching up with them.

It was nice to be able to share our home with some many people who are near and dear to us, the first of many parties, I am sure.  I will hopefully get the food/drink portions down a little better and also try and be a little less stressed pre-party. We could probably have a second party with all the beer and left overs we have!

Transformation Tuesday no. 7

| The Bee Life

A little over a month ago, I was brainstorming some ideas for our empty, yellow and brown sun room. Well we ended up going in a completely different direction, but I absolutely love it. We ended up painting the room white, and adding some base and crown molding to give it more of a finished look.  Since we got new furniture, the big debate was what to do with our old leather couch and our super comfy, yet not so cute recliner. Solution? The sun room! Not to mention I had some fun colorful pillows that just didn’t go with our new furniture – B had the brilliant idea of re-purposing in this new space.

One of my favorite parts is the curtains, we used PVC pipe and little hooks to make the curtain rod, it goes around the entire window frame, it was super inexpensive and all custom. I also love our Jackson Hole pictures topping off and making this a true retreat. I love all of the color and patterns, I realize it’s not everyone’s taste but I love to mix it up and have some fun.