Living Room

I dug up some "before" pictures for you, just so you can get an idea of the sad little way it used to be in our house. I'll try to make these before and after pictures make sense...so bear with me.

Before, the living room was minuscule. Seriously, it was this big:


There was a wall, right down there, dividing the minuscule living room from the minuscule kitchen. See it?

For some reason I don't have a before picture of the front door, but I was standing right in front of it when I took this picture.

Now, here is our front door. It's red!


And continuing left, you can see our new living room! (for continuity, notice the Christmas card clothesline above the window in pictures above and below) Our new entertainment center was a gift we love love love. On the wall opposite that, which you can't see, we currently have our old dining room table, and that is where our fish and lizards are residing. It's not that pretty right now. We are going to build some custom shelving to fit those cages/tanks and hold our books too. In time.


Now, in the picture below, you can see where the old wall came out (parallel lines in ceiling and floor), and that door leads into the garage. To the right of the door was our old pantry, about the size of a small coat closet.


And here is that space now...the door is nicely framed, we put a heater on the wall where the oven used to be, and the yellow door now leads into our mudroom (we sacrificed garage space to build a mudroom and a pantry). Again, you can see the left edge of the entertainment center, and the loveseat there in the lower right. The clock and entry table are where the old pantry used to be.

*Opposite this wall we have a couple of armchairs, an end table and an ottoman, a small sitting area in what used to be our dining room. Or it will be a small sitting area when we unpack the rest of the boxes that are currently residing there. I'll show you that part later!*


And continuing on around the turquoise wall, we enter the dining room! I've shown you the dining room before, but it's Christmastime, so here it is again.


It's hard to tell in this picture, but we added a 45 degree angle on that turquoise wall to flow around the corner. That angle is mirrored in the kitchen cabinets, directly across from that wall. You'll see those soon. The end of the turquoise wall used to be the exterior of the house, if you can believe that.


That big hulking shape in the corner is the Christmas tree, lights off. I really love our dining room, but I bet you knew that already!

Master Bathroom/Cowgirl Spa!

Also known as "the Spa," this room is a source of pride for us. Number One and I chose the tiles, I designed the layout, and I also cut many, many of the tiles and laid them alongside the contractor (and sometimes alone) and helped grout the whole place. I learned so much, and I think I would be confident enough to take on a tiling project on my own!


The master bath is directly off the master bedroom, as you may have guessed, and is adjacent to my closet and Number One's closet. That's right, we each have our own closet! The door to my closet is in the bedroom, Number One's door is off the bathroom, you'll see that in a minute.

entrance door

The entrance door to the bathroom is not quite finished. We purchased it new, and just haven't taken the time to peel the protective vinyl covering off the glass yet. That's fine, because it's across from the only window in the master bedroom a person can actually see in through, which doesn't yet have curtains. So I'm okay with the vinyl helping to obscure the view of people getting in and out of the tub! We actually have a different vinyl to apply to the center window of the door, that will make it look like textured glass. (because doors with real textured glass are pricey!) One of these days, that will get finished!

We put so much thought into this house. It is the result of years of ideas and inspiration, coming together into what we both wanted out of a house. While the space itself turned out great, and it's technically not our "dream house" since we didn't get to start from scratch, all the details were carefully planned out based on things we had seen or thought about, that would make sense where we were starting, adding on to the existing house. whew, that makes me tired just to recall!


The design of the bath/closet area was inspired by Number One's dad's closet, which has a skylight in a hallway and lower dividing walls to allow light from the skylight into the closet. I thought that was genius! So we have a large, lovely, low-E skylight centered in the bath/closet area, and low walls dividing the bathroom from the two closets, and also giving the toilet a bit of its own privacy. (the ceilings in the addition are 9 feet; the low walls here are 7 feet)

low walls; that wall is NOT green!

the toilet "nook"

One trick we used throughout the house, especially on the low, existing ceilings, was to paint them the palest sky blue. This was my idea, inspired by the porch on The Grand Hotel (where I lived and worked for two years before moving out West), the ceiling of which is painted blue to echo and reflect the color of the lake. My idea was that it would fool our eyes into thinking the ceilings were higher, sort of like the sky. I don't know if it works that way, but I love how it turned out. Our ceilings are actually so pale it is only noticeable in certain light, but around the skylight it is most obvious.

skylight; the low walls of Number One's closet and my closet;
can you believe the ceiling is the same color as the skylight surround??

It's so interesting the way different colors appear in different light--the skylight surround is the exact same color as the ceiling, and the wall next to the toilet (the one that looks green) is the exact same color as the rest of the bathroom walls (sort of a sand color).

The vanity was a score at Home Depot, I can't remember if I've told the story here so I'll just tell it again. We had been pricing vanities, which at HD are basically any variation of the cabinetry they sell for kitchen and bath. That means they are custom-built and expensive, and no way we sliced it was one of those fitting in our budget. We were getting discouraged, until we noticed this cherry vanity up high on a shelf. It had a Will Call tag on it, but it also had a price tag on it. Mystified, we asked about it.


The staff said that it had been a special order but no one had ever picked it up. This doesn't make a lot of sense, because special orders have to be paid for up front (at least partially), so we didn't understand why/how someone could have backed out of the deal without losing a substantial amount of money. Regardless, we asked, "so it's up for grabs?" And they said yes!

We had them get it down, measured it to be sure, and then I asked if the price on the tag (which was already a bargain compared to ordering a custom piece) was the best they could do. They went off to discuss it, then came back and said they'd be willing to knock another 10% off the price! SOLD!


With the discount on top of a discount, it fit in our budget AND we were able to order a custom solid-surface vanity top with two sinks and very cool faucets as well!


I made the mirrors a few years ago; the one on the right was made from wood I salvaged when we tore down an old tack shed up at the mountain cabin. Both were in storage until I decided to use them here, and they're perfect!

And, Aunt G. already teased me about the "hollywood" light fixture, but they are bright and cheap and darn it, I like them! Plus they fit into our budget!

The bathtub was another score. We had such a limited budget for bathtub/faucets/rough-in materials (yes, our budget was broken down quite specifically) that we were worried we wouldn't be able to get a big tub like we wanted. All the tub that were bigger were also too expensive--we couldn't afford a tub AND faucets! We just didn't want to settle for a tub that a person couldn't stretch out in. Our old tub is so short you can't even get your whole body in the water, so it's not very pleasant at all.


So anyway, we were walking around Home Depot with our mile-long list when we noticed a tub on display. It looked nice, it was jetted, at 5 1/2 feet it wasn't quite as long as we'd hoped. But. It was on CLEARANCE. For just HALF of our total tub budget! A virtually unheard of bargain! When we found our HD guy, he said it was the last one and they could hold it for us until we could get back to pick it up. Awesome! At that price, we were able to get a lovely faucet, a rainfall shower head and matching handle, a really sweet drain, and all the rough-in parts, and we only had to borrow a few dollars from another budget category.


So the contractor built a tub surround based on our specifications (notice the extra 12" of space at the end of the tub, above), and then we tiled it. We haven't decided what to do about a shower curtain or something like that...I've debated having one of my three metal working artist friends design a shower rod, or then I've thought about a partial glass wall, but really I'm just not ready to mess with the lines in the bathroom with a shower curtain. With the nice tub we don't take many showers anyway, and if we do it really doesn't splash that badly, plus it's all tile! So that's another thing that can wait a bit.

The door to Number One's closet is one of the doors I salvaged from the bunkhouse basement, it was actually an interior door in one of the old houses here. I just sanded and painted it. I am not at liberty to show you the inside of Number One's closet right now, let me just say when it's clean, it's impressive. Ahem.

Number One's closet door

We're not quite finished in the bathroom, you notice the mirror on the floor I haven't decided where to put, but I really needed a hook for the robes. The one drawback about pocket doors is that you can't hang anything on the back of them--that's where we used to hang our robes. Other than that, they are perfect!

That's about all that I can think of right now for the bathroom. If you have any questions, just leave a comment!

Stay tuned for more rooms!

Housewarming Extravaganza...the photos.

*Exactly how long can a post languish in "draft" status before it's published? Way too long, apparently! Here's a short post I started MONTHS ago and I suppose I got distracted or something.

Anyway, our party was fabulous, we have amazing friends and family who were there to support us and celebrate our new home, and it goes without saying the food was out of this world. Thank you to everyone!*

It's been three weeks since our fantastic housewarming party, and I realized I hadn't even written about it!

We had such a great turnout, lots of family and good friends showed up to celebrate with us. Everyone loved the house, the food was fabulous and it was just so much fun.

I'll share some pictures, but honestly we were having too much fun at the party to take very many pictures. If you'd like to see the menu and the recipes and pictures of the food, please visit The Bad Girl's Kitchen.

I will still take you on a virtual tour of the house, don't you worry! We're getting the rest of our living room furniture on November 18th, and after that the tour will begin.

Here are some of our guests, and you can see some of the house too...

Shelving Maniacs

In the new master suite, which used to be a very small bedroom, there was an old, small closet. You know, the regular size closet that accompanies every small bedroom. We had a guy rip out the walls that framed in the closet (it only had one door anyway, the other fell off years ago and was never replaced), patch the drywall and flooring where the old walls came out, and it became...

...an Alcove.

It made more sense, since we just added two big closets to the master suite anyway, and didn't need a third, ugly little closet. Now, the alcove looks like it belongs, like it was part of the room originally. (I haven't had time to take a picture, sorry)

We decided the Alcove needed some bookshelves. Number One and my Dad went to town for wood and supplies, and got to work. You may remember the shelves Number One built for the new pantry? He's a good shelf-builder, but I wanted a different design.

Number One and my Dad came up with the shelving design. They ran the plans by me, but then while I was gone they changed them. (I'm over it now). Number One decided the shelves needed arches at the top.

They spent two or maybe three days building, then my Dad spent a day sanding and varnishing. And here they are:


I like how open they are, and I like the arches too. You can barely tell that space used to be a closet! They are just waiting for all of our books and things.

Now, we just have to do something about this light fixture in here:

You Gotta Be Kiddin'

Days before our final walk-through with the contractor and our ABEG rep, we noticed that one of the new electrical outlets wasn't working. Number One checked it out, but couldn't figure out what was going on. On the day of the walk-through, the contractor checked it out, but he couldn't figure it out either. He said he'd have to call the electricians. Great. (I don't remember really harping on the electricians on here, but let's just say it took so many trips for them to "fix" their stupid [intentional?] mistakes that I hope I never have to see them again).

The other day, Number One asked if I had seen the bathroom. "The bathroom? No. Why? What?" I replied.

"The electrician was here," Number One informed me, and told me it was the one with whom we had so much trouble. The one who told me "dimmer switches just get super hot, they just do" and then I had to call his boss to have him come back and upgrade the dimmer switches. Grrrrr.

I ran back to our lovely, spa-like Master Bathroom to find this:



Perhaps you can't see it in the picture. You see the two outlets, to the left and right of the sinks? And in between those outlets, you see the THREE CUTOUTS, oh excuse me, THREE HOLES in our freshly-drywalled and textured and painted WALL. Here's a closer view, just so you can see it:

Seriously? WTF, man!!!!???? Number One said the electrician told him that somehow the wire between the outlets had gotten cut (again, WTF??) and that he had to run a new wire in between them. Number One asked him if he couldn't just fish it through the less than 60" of wall space, instead of cutting THREE HOLES in our brand new wall.

Guess what. He said he "couldn't." Guess what? I say he's an ASSHOLE.

At least Number One convinced him to cut the holes higher up on the wall, instead of right down next to the backsplash on the countertop, where the idiot evidentally was going to cut them. And he saved the pieces of our wall and gently placed them back in their holes. And then he left them that way for us to deal with. Now we have more patching and texturing and painting to do.

His lame excuse? "The inspectors want the wiring stapled to the studs." UHHHHHH...the inspector will not be able to see THROUGH the drywall of a completed wall. It doesn't appear that an inspector will even come down again, having already been here. We haven't heard a peep about another visit from an inspector, and it's all over but the painting and moving furniture.

I think the guy is just LAZY and didn't want to fish the wires through. Plain and simple. He is lucky I wasn't here.

I really hate this guy. He is sooooooo not invited to the Housewarming Extravaganza.

Dust

On Friday, Number One and the Irrigator sanded the dining room and kitchen floors all day long. When the boys and I got home from school, they were still at it. We couldn't go in those rooms at all. The boys and I retreated to the master suite, and I occasionally went around the outside to retrieve apples from the kitchen for H-Bomb while Sawed Off continued his nap.


Nearly everything in the kitchen had been covered with tarps, and Number One turned off the refrigerator for the day. Now I know why we haven't moved many of our dishes and utensils and appliances back yet.

This morning, despite much shop-vac-ing by Number One, everything, and I mean Ev.Ry.Thing, was covered in dust. I wish I had bought more plastic tarps. I wish we had been able to finish the floors before the entire kitchen went it. Even though I know that wouldn't have been the best solution, given the months of builder/plumber/electrician comings-and-goings that followed the kitchen installation. Still.


The few cookbooks we brought over, which incidentally were under a tarp, were covered in dust. This clean up is going to be huge.


I pulled the coffee maker out of its pantry retreat, and cleaned the dust off of it. Yes, dust infiltrated the pantry. Thank goodness I hadn't moved very much in there yet! I wiped a spot of the counter top free of dust, just big enough for the coffee maker and a couple of mugs.

I didn't clean off the entire counter, because today is another sanding day. Hopefully we'll get a coat or two of varnish on the floors today too.

Number One and I stood there, admiring the floors. He says they shine when the sun hits them. I'm so proud. What a multi-talented cowboy I have!


And as you can see, someone has been having fun with this dusty situation. I guess it's not all bad! Those footprints look H-Bomb-sized to me.

Pine Floors

I know this will all be worth it in the end. I just have to admit, I'm tired.

Finishing the pine floors is the largest task on our diminishing list, but not the last. We rented a disc sander from a place in town, and after I tried to use it, unsuccessfully with the thing just winging around in wide, dangerous circles (no wonder the cord has so many electrical tape "repairs"), I gave up.


Number One came home, and somehow he mastered the machine. In his underwear. He wouldn't let me take a picture. I really wanted a video, it made me laugh. He worked on the floor for several hours last night, and it is looking great. It still needs another couple of hours of attention, but we'll get there.

In the meantime, we are using a belt sander around the edges of the kitchen and dining room, and by "we" I mean our helper, the second irrigator of the season who has been helping us in the house and doing random tasks around the ranch since the irrigation water dried up.

We'll get some wood putty to fill in the imperfect gaps we've noticed while I (yes, I) vacuumed the entire room(s). I don't know why we don't have any around, but I can't seem to find any.

For the beautiful knots, I will wait until the floors are finished, then go around and fill them with a clear, high-gloss resin so they will still be visible, just not susceptible to filling up with dirt.

That is the plan anyway. I'll keep you posted.

The Universe, and Other People's Money

Number One and I feel extremely lucky and fortunate these days. And happy. We feel like The Universe has told us that we are exactly where we are supposed to be right now in this life. Case in point: this remodel has gone so well! There haven't been many disagreements, not many mistakes (not counting the electricians, of course), and whenever we've been worried about the budget, we find an awesome piece on clearance or Home Depot calls and gives us a huge, unexpected refund. Seriously, it happened.

I don't feel like it's a secret that ABEG is paying the bills on this remodel. They own the ranch, after all, it's their investment. But they are investing in our future, which is incredibly nice of them. It makes us feel good.

There are a few people, one in particular, who during the course of the remodel have commented snarkily, "It must be nice spending Other People's Money."

And that comment just hasn't felt right to me.

I feel like I need to address this issue, right here, in the open, with the blessing of The Universe behind me.

It is true, ABEG is footing the bills. And for that we are eternally grateful. But let me make this abundantly clear: no one in this economy, not even A Big Environmental Group, has money to spare. Once the contracting bid was negotiated and approved, we had a very specific, defined budget and very specific areas in which we had to spend this money. We were given the freedom to choose everything that went into the interior, as long as it fit in the limits of the budget. Number One and I have certainly not taken our responsibilities lightly, and from the beginning it has been our goal for this project to come in Under Budget.

Under Budget is practically unheard of in the construction industry, I'm sure anyone who has undertaken any sort of remodel, addition or new construction would agree. So it was an ambitious goal for us. Even ABEG was skeptical.

I can't give you the numbers of our budget, which is part of a confidential agreement with ABEG. Let me just say, it was meager. Minimal. Teeny tiny. In fact, most people couldn't even remodel a kitchen on the entire budget we had to use for a kitchen, dining room, pantry, mudroom and master suite.

Number One and I (especially) are good shoppers. We know how to find a bargain, and we can wait patiently and persistently until things go on sale or shipping is free. There are very few things that we purchased for this that were full price, and we are so proud of this! We got everything we wanted, including a tongue-and-groove pine ceiling, pine floors to match our old pine flooring, a fabulous kitchen, a bathroom that resembles a spa, and more.

I have kept meticulous records, to the penny, of how much we have spent on what. Our part of the budget would have come in more than $2,300 UNDER, had it not been for the seriously underbid flooring and ceiling materials, which our budget had to absorb. Once we had purchased everything we needed, we were happy to cover the flooring and ceiling with our budget, and we STILL came in almost $500 UNDER!

I'd say that is a success. Number One and I would like to thank ABEG and everyone in the organization who has supported us and had a hand in making this project happen. One person in particular, and She knows who She is. In fact, She will be the Double-Secret Guest of Honor at our fabulous Housewarming Extravaganza.

Oh, and thank you, Universe.

Today's Projects

I thought I would take a break to show you some of things I've been working on today.

Our dear friend Margaret, with me as her assistant, returned this morning to finish installing the dining room chandelier. Isn't it lovely? It came in about 5 million pieces, with two small, vague pictures for "instructions." We had to figure it out ourselves, but we did it. Margaret is awesome!


I love how the chandelier centers the room, creating a nice, warm focal point, and how it contrasts with the red, and matches the windows. It will also eventually match the dining room chairs, when we get some.


Now I just need to get some light bulbs...and chairs for our new table. I promise I will post more pictures with lightbulbs and chairs! Someday!



I've also been working on installing the drawer/door pulls in the kitchen. The door knobs were simple, I actually put all twelve of those on the hickory cabinets and the island a few weeks ago.


The drawer pulls, I think technically they might be called "bin pulls," those are quite another story. We have a total of 25 drawer/bin pulls to install. The other day I put on three, then had to buy longer screws because our cabinets are apparently built so well. Today I put on six more, so far. See?


The gorgeous hickory cabinets fronts did NOT come pre-drilled, not that I expected them to, but I just thought I would point that out. It's not as simple as putting some screws through existing holes and tightening them. Noooooo.

First, you have to determine where EXACTLY you want the pull. You have to measure for the center, both horizontally and vertically, but you can't only measure for the center, because you have to take into account the height of the pull. So that's a bit tricky. I made a mark on a wooden yard stick, so I can put the pull on the yard stick, line it up and mark the horizontal center directly on the front of the pull.

Then, I use a little trick that Catherine taught me. She learned it from her father-in-law, John, and it is really great. I chalk up the screw holes on the pull itself, you know, so the holes in the pull where the screws will go have chalk on them. I line up the center of the pull on the horizontal, holding a small level under the pull, make sure it's level and then press the pull onto the drawer front. Just to be sure, in case the chalk doesn't touch the drawer front for some reason, I also mark around the screw hole thingies with a little pencil. If I'm lucky, I'll have a chalk mark and a pencil mark, which is reassuring to me.

Then I get my drill. I carefully drill the holes through from the front, countersink from the back just to clean things up a bit, then install the pulls. It is getting a bit easier with each pull I install, but I will be very happy when this project is done!

Did you ever think this cowgirl was so handy? Number One is a lucky guy. And I'm lucky too: while I was working, Number One grilled some delicious burgers made out of venison and pork, with tomatoes and onions inside. A toasted bun = perfection!

Oh, and I almost forgot! In Pantry News, Number One finished his gorgeous shelves the other day!




The shelves were inspired by this Swedish Shelving from Williams-Sonoma (below), but the price of their corner unit alone is $199.00. (not including tax & shipping)


We were sure we could make shelves for less than that, and we were right! We paid just over $200 for all the materials it took to make ALL our shelves that run the length and width of the pantry, with two corners included! There's no telling how much Williams-Sonoma cash that would have cost us, maybe someday I'll do the math.

I drew up the plans and figured out how much wood we would need in a couple hours, and then Number One built the shelves. I think they turned out much nicer than the inspiration, and they are sturdy--both boys were perched on the upper shelves the other day, "helping" their dad!

I'll post more pantry pictures when it is fully stocked and organized too.