Friday Update - 01/30/15

Happy Friday.  Did everyone have a good week?

The weather has been AMAZING here.  For those of you dealing with all that snow, I am so sorry.  We were sunny and 75 (I love that song) everyday this week until today.  I am depressed that the high will only be 60 today and the wind is out of control.  The beautiful weather made me want to be outside and I made lots progress on my projects.



Here are a few weather pictures.  :)  The dogs and I had smoothie time every afternoon this week.

FURNITURE:

I am currently working on a dining room table.  The client wants it stained a chocolate brown.  Here are a few before shots.

I also am working on a dresser and crib for a nursery.

MASTER BATH:

The plumber came by this week and I picked out our shower fixtures.  Now I am just waiting for the overall quote...little nervous about that.  We were going back and forth between a few shower set ups, and decided to keep it simple.  Y'all, shower fixtures are expensive!  Seriously.  We went with the simple plan and the shower fixtures are going to cost as much as tiles.

Here was my inspiration picture.  (We will not be using any of these colors, just the shower head arrangement.)

We will have a traditional, multi function shower head on the right and on the left there will be a rain shower head and a hand held.  This keeps it a little fancy as a multi shower head/two person shower but within budget and simple.

A while back, I talked about us trying to keep the costs down in this bathroom.  It is so easy to get sucked into what you want instead of what you need.  What you can afford and what you should afford.  Our goal is to finish all our indoor and outdoor updates and be able to sell for a profit that day.  No, we are not planning on selling right now or when we finish, but being upside down on your house is NEVER good.  I would love to live here a while after we do all this work and enjoy it but if the right house came on the market in our neighborhood, something farther down the canal on a larger lot, we would consider selling.


MISC NEWS:

The kitchen was featured this week, TWICE!  Country Living Magazine featured it in a great article that was published on their website.  A few days later House Beautiful featured the same article.  It is still very surreal that my kitchen was on the homepages of these amazing sites.

See my kitchen on the bottom right?!

So crazy!



Have a great weekend and don't eat too much super bowl food!

Country Living Magazine Feature

Let me just say, I will never, and I repeat, NEVER get used to seeing my name and my home on other people's websites or in magazines.  Never.

The surprise and shock is always genuine and it usually takes a while for reality to set in.  Anyone that takes the time, effort and money to design a space in their home then update it, loves the result most of the time.  When we bought our outdated, waterfront cottage 18 months ago, our goal was to create a space that represents our personal style, that is comfortable and cozy, and is what we feel is beautiful.

The design world is extremely subjective (just read a few of the nasty comments about the kitchen...yikes).  Everyone has different tastes and styles and with so many amazing makeovers out on the blogosphere and in printed magazines, I never thought in a million years, our kitchen makeover would catch the eye of any design blogs and/or magazines.  I love the final result but it is my design, my project and my kitchen (there could be some bias in there).  It is what I want and what I think is pretty.

So last night, I was watching The Apprentice and eating a banana, strawberry, raspberry smoothie in my pj's relaxing after a long day.  My friend texted me saying she saw my kitchen on Country Living Magazine's Facebook feed.  Sorry, what?!  She said she recognized it immediately. (Is it weird that people who have never been in my home can recognize it on the internet?)  So I scrambled to the computer and sure enough, I see my kitchen on their Facebook feed.  Shocked is the only word I can come up with.  Blittle and I could not read the article fast enough.

It is a great article/feature about the kitchen and an overall description of what we did.  Another friend commented "Gets me every time" and that is a great way to put it.  It does get me every time.  My name and my blog's name on Country Living's website...AAHH!  CRAZY!

To read the Country Living article click here-->  http://cntry.lv/6184Izgu

To see all the before/after pictures and details of the kitchen click here-->  http://bit.ly/1gnU9zJ

I have to give huge credit and a big thank you to Jessica of Ever & Anon.  She did an amazing job with the after photos.  They are gorgeous!  If any of you live in the Houston area and are looking for a great family/wedding photographer,  I highly recommend Jessica.  You can check out her work on her website or her Facebook page.  To see pictures from our family session with her click here--> http://bit.ly/1JVXQWo.

Not going to lie...I feel some pressure with the master bathroom remodel.  Is it going to be as pretty as the kitchen?  Hopefully.  There are a few details I still need to work out but I have the vision in my head...just got to make it happen.

Happy Tuesday, everyone and thank you for reading.  I have many new readers but some of you have been with me since the beginning and have experienced my growing pains.  Thank you for being patient and sticking with me.  :)

Master Bath Demo Weekend

Demolition weekend was a success!  Blittle commented Sunday afternoon how smooth things went and I had to agree with him.  Things went great.  I am sure there will be a few bumps in the road as the renovation progresses, but so far, so good.

Friday afternoon, I pulled the carpet out and cleaned up the floor.  We knew there was a bit of water damage where the wall met the corner of the tub but it wasn't as bad I thought it would be.

I also cut a few holes in the shower wall to see where the water lines were.  I told y'all in the last post that the air conditioner had been sucking air from the shop into the house from the hole under the tub.  When I sawed the hole into the shower wall, the AC was on and it immediately sucked my hair into the hole!  So I filmed it.






The thought of living in this house for the last 18+ months with dirty air makes me feel gross and I possibly lost years off my life because of it.  Ew!

Saturday morning, we capped off the water lines and sawed the tub/shower unit into sections to make it easier to carry downstairs and to the road.  Everything went well.  Even the concrete base came up easily in one whole piece.

Remember the hole in the ceiling of the shop?

Well here is the view from the bathroom where the tub used to be.  

And the picture of the back of my tub/shower unit from my AC intake...

This is the view of the air intake from the bathroom.  To be to code and have more efficient AC/heating, we need to seal this off.

We cleaned up our mess and assessed the situation with the AC intake.

After some discussion we decided to just go to the home improvement store and see what our options were.  We bought insulation board (actually, a thermal sheathing meant for attics and walls but it got the job done) and metal duct tape.   The installation boards were easy to cut with a sharp razor blade which made things move fast.  After measuring and cutting, we screwed in boards to cover everything but the shared wall with the bathroom.

Then I had to block myself in!  The boards on the shared wall went on and I had to crawl through the 20"x 25" air intake hole to get in and out of the space.  It was a tight fit.

This is the only standing space I had after carefully crawling through.

It is now sealed all the way to the top!

This is the view in the bathroom.  

While at the store we priced getting a new AC intake grill (not even sure if that is what they are called) and decided to get a new one.  The old one had a broken lock and the air filter didn't fit well.  I had to bend and force them into the cubby and it shouldn't be that way.  It was worth the $36.  The new one is so clean and pretty compared to the old one.

Now, when the air turns on, it can not suck air from any place but the air intake so only indoor, filtered air is blowing through our house now.  Hopefully, it will help with our energy bill a little.

One more thing I did this weekend, ordered our shower base.

Once the tub was out and I could take better measurements, I found that the 36" x 60" base will fit.  Two inches wider than I previously thought and six inches wider than the original tub.


I have some furniture projects to work on this week so other than meeting with the plumber, I don't plan on doing too much in the bathroom until the base gets in.  This project is going to be done in stages.  The vanity, toilet area, flooring and paint will not be changed until the shower is finished.  One thing at a time.

Have a great Monday!



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Friday Update & Demo Day

Hey guys.  One of my goals for 2015 is to be more consistent in my posts.  I know.  I know.  You have heard it before.  This time I am starting slow.  Instead of making a broad goal that is hard to track, I am starting with small steps.  The first one is to do a Friday Update.

My main problem with the blog is finding time.  It is extremely time consuming to take and edit pictures. Many times, I don't like the first round of pictures so I go back and take more.  Also, I over analyze and take too long writing posts.  My high school English teacher's voice is constantly in my head.  "You are starting sentences with "I" too much" "The word "that" isn't necessary here" "You are using too many conjunctions.  Rewrite the sentence without so, but, and, etc"  Knowing people read my writing scares me.  I proofread.  Reread.  Rewrite.  Change up.  Read again.  And after all that it is still a grammar nightmare.  I taught math.  My writing skills have always been lacking.  One post takes me hours sometimes.



This blog is not my main job, the furniture is, which means the blog is put on the back burner when I get lazy time gets short.   But if I am being honest with myself and with all of you, I have time to make at least one post a week, every week.

Even if I don't have a completed project or much content to share, every Friday I will give a general update on what I did that week.  Rather its furniture, updates on the other business or stuff going on in my personal life, there will be an update.

And let's not talk about the fact that this isn't the first Friday of 2015.  Baby steps, y'all.

So here is the first Friday update.

This week was extremely productive!  BLittle had Monday off and the weather was beautiful.  We worked outside most of the day and I started on a fun project that involves the two solid wood doors I have had laying around.  A client requested that I make them into chairs!  They are coming along and hopefully will be finished today.

Recognize this dresser?

It was available for purchase but this tall boy along with its matching dresser were picked up this week by their new owner.  They will be part of a sweet nursery.  When things are finished and my client sends me some pictures, I promise to share.


There were also two great posts this week.  I shared my DIY filing cabinet desk and finally revealed the home office.

This week had some activity for our other business but I still can't share those details.  Soon, I promise.

The weather was rainy, windy and cold all day yesterday so I tried to be as productive as possible inside.  It was nasty and I wanted to avoid it.  I did research on updating the blog, I think I want to go with a new look, got some cleaning and laundry done and I made some final decisions on the master bathroom.

It's been a while since I have talked about the master bath reno so let me update you on what has happened over the past few weeks.  Hint:  We had to start showering in the guest bath.

Back in September, there were several posts about the master bathroom (read about it here, here and here).  The goal was to start on the bathroom after the new year, so right now, but we chose to delay that start date.  Life happened along with a few unexpected expenses and we decided to extend our trip to Europe by a week.  (I KNOW!  Tell you the details on that soon.)  We wanted to give ourselves a little more time to save the money for what we have planned over the next 6 months and was going to put the renovation off until Spring.  God had other plans.

Several weeks ago I discovered a leak in our master bath tub drain.  Remember, the livable space of our home is on the second floor and the first floor is our garage/shop.  There was a puddle of water in the shop one day in a weird spot and I couldn't figure out where it came from...until I looked up.  It was right under the master tub drain pipe coming out of the ceiling.  Then I noticed rust on the light fixture.  Y'all!  It's been leaking for some time.  I am so thankful there was never an electrical short or fire or something horrible.  Yikes.

Another discovery came with finding the leak.  We have always known that the air conditioning system in the house wasn't efficient.  When the AC cuts on in the summer, hot air comes out at first and in the winter, cold air starts out when the heat cuts on.  It runs too much and the hallway feels drafty. That air is coming from somewhere but we could not figure out from where.  Until I found the leak.

*Hopefully this explanation won't confuse y'all too much. I included pictures to help with the visual.

The hole where the drain comes out of the floor of the bathroom/ceiling of the shop is letting air into the house....and not just a little air.

This is the ceiling in my garage under the house.

Our AC air intake is right behind our tub unit and there is no insulation or separation between the two.  When I change our air filter, I can see the back of my fiberglass shower.  So when the AC unit cuts on, it is sucking air through that hole in the floor to the garage, pass the tub and into our home/AC ducts.

It explains the wrong temperature air when it first cuts on.  It explains how my house is getting so dusty so fast.  It explains why the house starts to smell like chemicals when we paint or fiberglass under the house.  Everything came together the moment I stuck my hand up to the pipe in the shop to see if it was wet and felt the air being suck up into the house.

So long story longer, we want to get the AC issue fixed ASAP and we don't want to pay a plumber to come fix a leak when that pipe needs to be moved in a few months. We decided to rip out the carpet and tub this weekend!  The master bath demo will start Saturday morning!

I am so excited.  Using the spare bathroom to shower is just weird to me.  :)  Its not my space and feels foreign.

The demo will give us a chance to see if there are any problems hiding behind the fiberglass unit, we will see what kind of plumbing we are working with and we will finally be able to seal off the air intake for the AC.  Also, we are hoping to break up and remove the concrete slab, yes, you read that right, concrete slab under the tub.  How do I know about a slab under my tub?  Because I can see it when I change the air filter.

It is about 4 feet long by 2 feet wide by several inches thick.  Our goal is to remove it without hurting anything else...including ourselves.  Fingers crossed. 

I promise to keep y'all posted on Facebook and Instagram as we work.  This is the last day my master bath will look like this.  EEEKKK!

Monday, this enclave should be a clean slate for us to start the new walk in shower!

Have a great and safe weekend everyone. 

Office Reveal

I am excited about showing y'all the office today!  There hasn't been an update about our house in a long time.  It feels good to have the space finished and organized.

Most of the decor and furniture I already had.  The only purchases I made for the space were the DIY filing cabinet desk (bought materials and filing cabinets), the 2 navy chairs, and some office supplies.

Here is what the space looked like when we bought the house.

This is what it has looked like for the past 12 months.

AHHH!  And sadly that is the clean version of how it looked.


But now it looks like this.

This dresser holds all my craft, sewing, and miscellaneous supplies.  I love using dressers for storage.  Its a great way to keep everything hidden in plain sight.  This dresser was part of the set that included the armoire I used for the dog feeding station.

The closet is used for storage and organization.  I have had the blue and cream storage boxes since I had my first tiny home office that was in a closet.  :)

My first home office...which was in a closet.  I am very thankful for my entire room home office.

The closet in the home office has my ironing board, iron, sewing machine, work out equipment, extra electronic chords and items, camera equipment and other important materials.  The room feels much bigger and the closet is much more usable with the doors removed.

I am obsessed with the navy chairs I found at Homegoods.  Love them and want enough for my dining room.  Not only are they pretty, they are comfortable.  I have a great place to work and there is an extra chair for Blittle to sit and talk to me or vice versa.

This office has to be and stay organized.  I am now running more than one small business out of the same place plus our personal papers arena the space.  I meal plan, coupon and budget so I essentially have 3 businesses in one office.  To keep things straight and organized, I have the new business calendar, files, to do list, etc on the left and Fisherman's Wife Furniture on the right.  Our menu calendar is in the kitchen but I have files for coupons, menu planning and budgeting in the office.

There are a few small things I still need to get done but it is mostly finished.

I need to sew/buy a curtain.  Nothing crazy and fancy.  Just something to add character and block light or give privacy if needed.

The rug probably won't stay.   I need something to protect my floors but this one is an incorrect size for the space.  Also, the texture is not that great for moving a chair.  A low profile, smooth rug would be perfect.  

The other is a project for the blank wall.

There is a plan but I can't tell you what it is just yet.  That will come when I can tell you about the other business.  Its very scary and exciting at the same time when starting a business.  I am so proud of my husband for having a dream and sticking with it. There have been some bumps in the road but things have smoothed out and are looking good.  Fingers crossed we will have success.

Hopefully, I can share the details on that soon.  :)