Compulsive Craftiness

I've been researching flooring options for the lower level of the house for at least three weeks now. I posted here on the blog that I chose Pergo. Moisture concerns for a below-ground level ended up changing my mind. Then I found vinyl plank flooring. I was debating between the much more expensive and much more difficult to install click version, and the glue-together floating option which is super easy to install. Leaning towards the cheaper version, simply for ease of installation more than anything, I found that it was the Special Buy of the Day at Home Depot today. Hooray! The daily deal discounted it to $1.49 a square foot, plus there was free shipping. I saved a total of $308! And it's only going to cost $882 to floor the entire lower level of the house (minus the bathroom). I was leaning toward Barnwood before, and this Country Pine has a very similar look. We do our final walkthrough in three days, and close in four. Counting down! … [Continue reading...]

The new house needed quite a few new pieces of furniture. And if you know me, you know the chances of me buying actual "new" furniture were slim. I already told you about the vintage thrift store chairs I got. I've also been obsessively checking Craigslist. My first Craigslist find was a wooden patio set for our new covered patio. I've lost the photo of it all together in the listing, but here's a before shot of the love seat. Well, it's after I sanded the original paint off a bit: The set also came with two chairs and a coffee table. It's all in various stages of progress. There has been a lot of rain on and off, and I'm working on it outside, so that's slowed me down a lot. Plus, I definitely underestimated the difficulty of sanding and painting all of those slats. Here's the love seat at the moment, still showing some primer: And this is the ikat print cushion that I found for the seating: I'm using all oil-based products to paint this set, after having had … [Continue reading...]

As promised, I've been messing with a plan to redo the living room at the new house. I love getting it all planned out on the screen, knowing I can really make this happen. The furniture is not certain - but it's the general vibe I'm going for, and there was a photo of it all together at CB2 that fit really well into the room I'd worked up here. Now: The Future: … [Continue reading...]

There are still 19 days until we get the keys to the new house. With so much time to wait, I'm trying to quiet my impatience with planning. When I decorated the Studio Calico office building, I carefully planned each room. When possible, I even went so far as to do detailed virtual mock-ups of the furniture in the rooms. When I purchased big-ticket items for the rooms, I was generally really certain that those pieces would work. I've never done that kind of planning in my own living space. But this time, I'm trying it out. For starters, I'm working on paint colors. In the kitchen, I want to do the wall above the chair rail in a dark gray. Below the chair rail, I'm planning on white. Beyond that, I plan to not have curtains in the small window above the sink, to let in maximum light. So here's my virtual attempt at doing that: The kitchen as it looked on our last walk-through: How I imagine it to be, as a blank slate, ready for accessories: I also want to do … [Continue reading...]