Well, I'm back today to share with you a bit of a bathroom update. After Jonathan installed the rest of the beadboard, I decided that it was time to work on the storage space a bit. In this small bathroom, storage has to be very efficient. You don't want something that is so big it holds everything you need it to, but overwhelms the space. It's a delicate balance to strike. 

If you remember, we had a dresser (that was left behind by the previous homeowners) in the corner. It was an easy storage option and the best part about it was that it was free! I liked that it offered a way to conceal all that we needed to keep in the bathroom, but I really didn't like how it looked. It was a bit to blah for me. 

(Yes, that is a REALLY old picture...our bathroom has come a long way if you ask me!)

So, this time around, I decided to do something a bit more styled. As with the last time, I had to work with what we had and the price tag was going to have to be z-e-r-o. After racking my brain and trying a couple of options that didn't quite work:

(I love the idea of the crates, but there wasn't quite enough storage space.) 

I landed on this option:

A bit of a combination of the crates and more storage! Perfect. The green shelf was actually being used as a storage unit in our garage. We found it on the side of the road one day and decided that we could bring it home and spruce it up! Well, it never actually made it into the house until this past weekend. It was just waiting for the perfect spot to call home.

I had to do some major scrubbing to it, but I think it cleaned up nicely. After going through all of the storage containers that I had on hand, this is the arrangement that I came up with. Jonathan and I each have a shelf and the other shelves store medicine, toilet paper, and a few daily-used things such as q-tips and cotton balls.

 The crate to the side stores all of our bath towels and hand towels and then the brown box under the green shelving unit stores all of our wash clothes. The brown lidded basket to the right side of the crate, holds all of the bottles that are too tall to fit on the shelving unit. I'm not sure they will stay that way forever, but for now it works.

My favorite part is the top shelf. I love that there is a bit of bamboo in our bathroom--gives it a spa like feel. Also, the washboard seems to be a natural accent to the room. Finally, the depression glass bowl (thank's grandma!) filled with soap, gives a bit of beauty to something functional. Plus, it makes the bathroom smell wonderful!

Another thing that I really love is the scrapbook paper that I added to the shelving. It made the unit a bit more cheerful and also makes each piece on the shelf really pop. These anthropologie bowls make a great necessities holder when combined with the turquoise fiesta bread plate.

Who says dinnerware can only function at the table? I think it's great to pull these fun accents into an unexpected space.

I love the new set up! Plus, I already got the seal of approval from the carpenter. Last night, out of the blue, he said that he loves the new set up! Awesomesauce. :)

Happenings...

Things have been slowly happening around here. Nothing too exciting, but still important nonetheless. Remember this post where I talked about things slowing down because of our expenses? Well, we are trying not to let that completely stop us. So, this past few weeks has been all about accomplishing tasks that cost no moolah. So far, so good!

Let's start with the back yard. Jonathan has been itching to cut down the two trees beside our garage. We would love to plant a veggie garden there possibly. Or maybe put an outdoor pen for the dogs. Regardless of what happens, the trees weren't really in a great spot and were always dropping sap on our cars. That, plus the ideas mentioned above made us decide it was time they were gotten rid of. So, Jonathan cut them down.

Can you see him climbing in the middle of the picture? 

He started by limbing the entire tree. This allowed him to make his way to the top using the tree stubs.

Then he dropped the top quarter of the tree.

Then the next quarter.

Oh and I might add that while he was working on the tree, I was loading the trailer with branches. We probably did a half dozen loads of branches and then two loads of just the trunk.

Finally, the last half of the tree was dropped. Sorry for the horrible pictures, it was actually pretty dark out, so this is the best I could do.

 And here is the wedge that he cut out. Pretty impressive.

Jonathan cut down the other tree this past weekend. So, both are down. One has been hauled off and gotten rid of. And the other one is waiting for us to have a free weekend to load it onto the trailer. Next step: making plans for next summer. I'm still crossing my fingers that the garden will work. 

The other project that Jonathan worked on is inside our house. Do you remember our less than complete bathroom corner? You can see it here in this old progress picture. 

Well, we have been trying to figure out what to do with that corner, because we didn't think we had enough beadboard to finish it. Turns out, the only problem was that there wasn't enough base trim to finish it. So, we just decided to make the spot that doesn't have trim, be in the corner so it could easily be covered up. In the future we have plans to fix it, but for now, its fine the way it is. 

See the little corner peeking out under the sink? Yea, that is all the base trim that we are missing. ARGH!! Oh well. I'm just glad that the rest of the wall is done! Yes, I snapped this picture a bit early, so Jonathan hadn't put up the last piece of trim, but don't you worry! Stick around tomorrow and you will get to see it all completed!!!

A Little Project

I love to make art out of unexpected things. Looking at an object and seeing it only for what it is, is just plain boring. I love to look at things and try to give them new life. Sometimes my ideas flop, but sometimes I can come up with something unique and different. I wouldn't classify this next project as completely unique, but it definitely is a different use for a plain-jane magazine. 

While we were in California visiting Jonathan's brother and his sister-in-law, we went shopping. Of course, the second I spotted Anthropologie I was all about stopping in just to "look around." I knew that most of the stuff would be way beyond my price point...heck all of it was...but I couldn't resist seeking out a bit of inspiration. Their stuff is just so beautiful! 

Long story short, I came across a design magazine that they had on sale! I'm guessing that Design*Sponge must put out this magazine on a regular basis for Anthro. Anyone know? Anyways, for a mere ninety-five cents I purchased the bad boy and did a little happy dance on  my way out of the store (well danced on the inside of course--I was way too excited about this purchase).  

After getting home from CA, I paged through the magazine looking at all of the great summer inspiration. 

And fun craft ideas.

But then I came to the original reason why I bought the magazine. 

These two pages filled with fun graphics of summer items were what caught my eye originally. They reminded me a lot of John and Sherry's twigs and berries prints. So, I took the two pages and a couple of frames I had on hand and got to work. 

First, I pulled out a black frame that I had planned to use on another project. I took the magazine apart and put the first sheet into the frame. I then tested it to see if I liked it better with the mat or without the mat. 

I decided that with the mat, the paper looked a bit more chic and not like something a five year old would do. 

After that frame was all put together, I took out another frame that I had on hand and fitted the other side of the two page spread. With that all said and done, I started to walk around the house looking for a place to put them. I tried substituting them for two canvases I had in the living room, that didn't work. Then I tried using them in the built-ins in our dining room and that just look cluttered. Finally, then ended up on the walls in our bathroom. I had originally planned for something a bit bigger to be put there, and that might eventually happen, but for now, they are gussying up that corner just fine. 

What do you think?? 

Oh! And speaking of the bathroom, I should also share that we got a new rug in there! Let me just spare you the gross details and say that it was all the dogs' fault. Unfortunately, our gifted rug was ruined. So, we purchased this nice dark gray one. He seems to warm up the space a bit. 

I have some gray fabric that I used in the kitchen that I might make a valance with for our lone window. I think the dark gray fabric and rug would go together nicely. Plus, now I need to bring that dark gray up the wall. The rug seems a bit out of place in such a bright and light bathroom. 

The Dapper Crapper

I guess we will continue on and focus on the resident bathroom in our new house.

This bathroom of ours wasn't so pretty at one point. Do you remember?? The horrible color, the tub, the hanging sink that was falling off the wall, and the smoke stained ceiling? Ugh it was horrible. 

I think I could have lived with it if I had to, but I was sort of excited when we realized that we would need to gut the entire thing. Not really friendly for our pocket books, but much more friendly to Liz's not-so-nice germ phobia. There is just something about this bathroom that was telling me to use bleach on every surface! (Now, that is saying a lot because I DO NOT use bleach on anything, ever. I don't even own a bottle of it or a cleaning product that contains it. Vinegar and baking soda all the way baby.)

Anyways, after our sink left us with a wall looking like this:

we had no choice but to do this: 

 We gutted her down to the studs, took out the radiator, and replaced the plumbing, electric, and made sure the stuff behind the drywall was updated to the 21st century. Then it was on to the finishing work of it all. Drywall, green board, and a new window. Painting, wainscoting, radiant floor heat, and tile followed. And finally it was time for all of the hardware and lighting fixtures. A little clawfoot tub action and a new sink to match and things were starting to really shape up.

Fast forward through all of that and our new bathroom was looking almost finished.

We still have a few things that we need to do. We have decided to finish the wainscoting (you can see the missing pieces behind the dresser in the picture above), do some decorative tweaking, and eventually she will be declared 100% finito! 

I love this room and honestly feel like it represents our sense of style the most. Now, I just need to figure out how to get the rest of the rooms on board. I'm in love with the old school charm of this space and really appreciate the color scheme and the not-so-obvious touches that have been added (i.e. the painted tub, dresser, and a few other things that are still to come). She is our dapper crapper. 

Now, that we have dug deeper on the ins and outs of the bathroom process, let's talk money. This is a big list y'all. 

Plumbing Materials: $100

Electric updates including radiant floor heating: $400

Finishing materials (drywall, green board, mud, tape etc.): $150

Clawfoot tub: Free (thanks Isaac and Mary!)

Sink: $54.38

Wainscotting: $402.78

Tile: $283.02

Dresser: Free (was left by the previous homeowners)

Toilet: Free (It is not even a year old! Jonathan saved it from a job that he did; they wanted him to just get rid of it!) 

Toilet Seat: $20.98 (we bought a new one to replace the used one on the free toilet :) ) 

Hardware (towel bars, faucet for sink and tub, and tub converter): $261.98

Window: $175

Paint: $0 (I said $0 because we used leftover paint from other rooms. Really the amount needed in this room was minimal.) 

Lighting (bathroom fan/light combo, vent kit, and lights above the sink): $176.91

Total: $2025.02

Not to shabby for a bathroom renovation! According to "the experts," whoever those people are??, we can expect to see all of that money back when it comes to resale value. Plus, with the national average being $10,000 spent on a bathroom remodel, I think we are doing quite well! 

Like I said, we do plan on doing some more work on her, but I really think that she came together nicely. Plus, she has really defined the feeling that we are looking for in the rest of the house. 

Ha! Imagine that!

A bathroom being the "defining" space in a house. 

Ew. 

I guess we really need to get to work. 

Tell us, what do you think? Have you ever done a bathroom remodel? How much did you spend? 

Less is More

Want to know what else happened this past weekend? 

Just say yes. 

Appease me here people. 

Well, Jonathan was kind enough to install a new window for us!! He actually installed five windows this weekend, but we are going to focus on one for this post. 

Do you remember the horrible bathroom window? 

That's what it looked like when we first bought the house. We then, stripped it down and were left with this. Notice the wonderful  peel-and-stick window frosting. I tried to peel it off, hoping that we could salvage the window, but it didn't come off evenly and left a horrible residue in its place. So, the window had to go.

We waited so patiently for our replacement window to come in. We couldn't wait to get rid of the last thing in the bathroom that was old. With the rest of the room looking nice and spiffy, the window was just putting a damper on the whole updated-theme we had going on. Basically, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Enter our new, energy-star-rated, replacement window. Notice the frosting on this one looking a bit nicer; more even and professional.

Once the window came in, Jonathan took out the old window...

(A bit of a comparison. I will take the white one please!)

and in went the new window! Definitely blends in a bit better. No more sore thumb. Our appendages are feeling much better.

Oh and just for an even better comparison of the windows, well actually the whole bathroom thus far, here is the before picture again.

And an after picture with the window all framed in and awaiting a fresh coat of paint.

Ahh...that is just so much better. 

My question is, what do you think of the frosted glass? I debated about this for awhile, contemplating the idea of putting in a regular window and then using window treatments instead. But, in the end, I decided that less-was-more. If we did the frosted glass, I wouldn't need to hang blinds or curtains. What do you think?