I painted my parent's hutch

My parent's had intended on taking the hutch with them when they permanently moved down to Arizona, but it was either unable to fit in the trailer or my mother couldn't figure out where to put it in their new house.  So, I told them they could leave it here. I knew I wanted to repaint this and another shelving unit in the kitchen to match, but I didn't realize what a pain in the butt this project was going to end up being.

I originally bought this color paint to use on these two pieces as well as Ginger's dresser, but right away I knew it was the wrong color for the kitchen.  I ended up loving it for her dresser, but now I have a full can of paint that I don't know what to do with.

After that mistake, I knew I needed to go lighter in color so I 'quickly' picked out a new color (paint choice #1) off a paint chip.  After painting two coats I realized I didn't like it.  There wasn't enough contrast between the wall and the hutch.  I ended up taking the can back to Menard's to have them add more color.  I came home with paint choice #2.

I put one coat on and it was definitely darker and a lot better, but the color was still to blue and 'cool' for the rest of the colors in the house.  Now you are probably going to say to yourself "but the last color and the final color are the same", but trust me, they weren't.

I made the decision to go to my local hardware store and get a new  can of paint, this time with more green in it and with a warmer tone.  This is the final product that I'm fairly happy with, but mostly I'm just so sick of thinking about it that I'm leaving it as is.

Don't get me wrong, I DO like it. :)  It was so hard to get the color right in the pictures, but it closely resembles a teal colored Fiesta mug.

The room in which the hutch sits is still pretty sparse.  We just bought this 7 ft. circular rug (which should be here tomorrow) to go in this room and once I find someone to help me recover some box cushions and reupholster a couple of chairs, it will look more full.  I plan to put a large vintage school map that we found in Minneapolis in this room as well.

I filled the hutch up with all my pretty things and a few sentimentals as well.  I found the Taylor Smith & Taylor dish set at Savors before we moved into the trailer.  It was a steal of a deal and I've slowly been adding to the set every time I see a matching piece.

This is a photo of my mother's parent's when they were young and in love... new love. :)  I love it!

This is my first Polaroid picture I ever took.  It's of our rose bush from our old house.  I loved that place.

This photo is of my Grandpa (my Dad's dad), not sure when it was taken, but I'm going to guess he was 18 or so.  The tin was an estate sale find.  I remember my mother having the same tin when I was young, only it was square and a bit bigger.

And here we have an handheld antique mirror and one of my many bird's nests.  The nest sits atop a collection of old children's books that I found at an estate sale.  

I believe the books date back to 1880 or something like that.  Completely adorable too!

I'm relieved that the hutch is done.  What intended to be a couple day project turned into a project that dragged out over a week or two.

Scott's planning to paint the kitchen mid April and I'm hoping to paint the kitchen 'unit' fairly soon as well.

I'm heading out today for a solo trip to Duluth, which is always so nice, and a lunch date with my older sister.  We haven't done that in ages!

Enjoy your day!!

our fireplace transformation...

To be honest, I never really did like the fireplace in my parent's house.  I always thought it was a bit big and the color of the mantel wasn't my style.  However, when it's cold outside or there's a chill in the house, it's nice to be able to turn it on with a flip of the switch.

When we decided to purchase this house, I knew immediately that painting this thing was going to be high on the priority list.

I was initially planning to go white (again), but decided to mix it up a bit while still keeping the color neutral to go with the other furnishings in the house.  As you can see from the pictures, the kitchen still needs to be painted along with the green kitchen  'unit' as we like to call it... that will be a pale blue/green.

So, last week I spent a few days transforming it.  I sanded it lightly, wiped it down with a wet rag and proceeded to paint it gray.  The paint had a satin finish but turned glossy after I put on a few coats of clear coat.  I'm not to fond of the shine and thought about painting it again with a coat of gray, but I was so excited to finish and pull that painter's tape off!

The gray matches the marbling in the black part perfectly and it gives it a much more modern feel, in my opinion.

As for the mantel, it's quite large and I wasn't sure what to do with it at first.  But when Scott and I made that trip to Minneapolis a few weeks back, we found these really cool marquee letters that were so fitting for our home.  The mantel is still in limbo as I still have lots of things packed in boxes waiting to find a home, but for now this is what it looks like.

Tomorrow we're getting new light gray carpet installed which will hopefully brighten things up even more.  Scott is currently in Montana on a snowboarding trip, but when he returns he will finish putting up the baseboards, something we were waiting to do until after the carpet was in.

Today I made some new colorful pillows for our sofa and I'm looking forward to getting some shelves up and some pictures on the walls.  I'm finding it hard to commit to anything considering there are no longer holes in the walls.  Anyone else ever feel like that after you've just freshly painted?

Still so much to do...

Mission accomplished!

Our Airstream renovation is complete and we couldn't be more thrilled, relieved, and exhausted.  To get the full effect of what the makeover looks like, I thought I'd share with you some of the before pictures first.  In hindsight, I really regret not using my wide angle lens from the start, but I think you'll get the idea.

Let me tell ya... it was a TRUE labor of love. :)

before

after

Sorry if the pictures are a bit fuzzy.

  I'm so COMPLETELY happy with how our new home turned out and the rest of the family loves it too.  We've already settled in and I don't think we could've fit one more box of our belongings in here.  Full to the brim... but you wouldn't be able to tell... could ya :)

Find out all about our first destination in the next post!

Holy Smokes!

I can't believe our last post was on September 10th!  Time has been flying by and I'll assure you that there hasn't been a dull moment.

After a low ball appraisal from the lender for our house, we almost lost the sale.  Fortunately, both parties were able to compromise, but the whole fiasco left us stressed and unsure of what to do next.

Scott's been interviewed for a couple different positions, one in San Jose, CA and another in Castro Valley, CA.  Both seemed to go well, but we're still waiting for a call back.

We've begun the packing process and it feels as though we're getting nowhere.  It doesn't help that I came down with a cold two days ago and it's bound to take it's toll on the whole family.  Hopefully it stays away long enough for Scott to do all the heavy lifting in the next few days.  Progress is still being made in the trailer too!  We made yet another trip to IKEA this past week for some much needed supplies.  A handy curtain track for the girls room, 

a $20 chair for the living room, a sheepskin rug, and a few other odds and ends.  I've also been busy sewing curtains and today I finished up cleaning the trailer so we can start moving things in.

Below is a picture of a cupboard that used to have a dated looking mirror with a beveled edge.  I decided I wanted this aluminum sheeting to be there instead and we love the way it turned out.  I think we'll keep our dishes in this one.

These are the curtains that are in the dining and living room area.  We decided to forgo the kitchen sink curtain as well as the bathroom curtain because of the splash factor.  I think instead we'll stick some frosted sheet to the window to add coverage, yet still allow the light to come in.

These yellow polka dot curtains are in the bedroom.  Since the bedspreads and curtain are so bright and colorful, I decided to keep the this fabric simple and light.  I love how they turned out!

Here's the bed frame that Scott just finished.  Once the baby moves out of her crib, he'll build the second frame.  He made the center counsel from an unused door that we took out and used some extra counter top for the top.  I'm so lucky to have such a handy husband!

He also used the old thingamajig from the old bed so when the top is up, it stays up.  It'll be really nice to have this extra storage for little Ginger's clothes that she has yet to grow into. She'll definitely have the most clothes along throughout our journey.

The new faucet and sink is in too... it really makes a difference and we're so glad we decided to replace them.

And the counter top!  These photos make it appear a bit more yellow than it actually is.

Last but not least, the bathroom faucet.  We also replaced the shower head and bath faucet.

These next few days are going to be CRAZY busy seeing as how we close on the 30th.  Much work to be done and a good nights sleep is necessary if I'm going to be in tip top shape.  I hope to blog on the closing day with a few farewell pictures and I want to shoot a video of the trailer once we're all moved in.  It's hard to get the full effect through pictures.  I just need to find a video camera :)

More soon!!

Renovation realities

Have you ever watched the show on HGTV called "Renovation Realities"?  It's where people take on their own home renovation projects, usually under a short time frame and with a small budget.  It's quite entertaining to watch them battle it out with their spouses and try to get their projects done without much of a clue as to what they're doing.

I feel like we should be on that show right about now.

Although things up to this point have been coming along fairly smooth with no big problems, this week we had our own "renovation reality".

This is the couch.  The couch that I picked out the cutest fabric for.  The couch that we bought new foam for.  The couch that we got upholstered by a 86 year old man.  The couch I was worried about being ruined by said 86 year old man.  The couch which wasn't cheap.  The couch we were supposed to sleep on.

It's mostly installed now except for the drawer that still needs foam and fabric.  

Isn't the fabric cute!!??  The pink and red plaid is perfect for the look I was going for in our new home.  So completely retro... so completely ME.  Scott likes it too :)

This adorable couch is on a frame that flips down into a bed... a pretty small bed.  When we got it reupholstered we didn't think to bring the frame with.  We picked up the finished product and it looked great, however when Scott went to assemble it we realized what had happened.  One of the cushions wasn't cut square and now every time the couch gets folded down, the frame rubs and squishes the foam.  With this problem, the fabric is sure to wear very quickly and having a large rip in our newly reupholstered couch is NOT something we had intended.

Our solution?  We're sleeping on the floor.  We considered getting it fixed but Scott seems to think it's too much work.  He also thinks the bed is too small for both of us anyways.  So, we'll be buying 3" foam to sleep on and stowing our "beds" under the blankets on Maria's bed.

C'est la vie :)

On a good note, the majority of the cupboard doors have been installed.  Yay!!

And the floor is done too!

Instead of replacing the light fixtures in the bathroom, we just decided to paint the brass finish with a silver metallic spray paint.  The end result isn't bad and I think we'll use the same paint on some of the recessed light fixtures and other odds & ends.

My dad is making us a small sideboard much like this one to put behind the dinette.  We originally intended on putting these chairs there, but plans change.  Now I have my heart set on one of these... or these to put close by.  Today we'll be ordering sheets and an entry door light fixture and the curtains should be arriving this afternoon.  I'd also like to order one of these pillows for the couch.

or maybe this one.  Not to mention that I need to find a shag rug!!

Still lots to do, but it's relieving to know that we're almost done.

More to come!!

Another update

I just realized that many of you are in the dark about our house being sold... we close on September 30th which doesn't give us much time.  Luckily the Airstream is almost done!  There was a time when we thought we'd never say those words.

What seems like weeks upon weeks of painting, we can finally say we're done... mostly :)  

A few things were accidentally painted the wrong color or not painted at all, but the cupboards and walls are finished. We're really excited to get the new hardware on and install the doors, then it will really start looking like home.

All of the aluminum work is finished and it looks AMAZING!!  Oh!  and the couch!  It's done and that looks SO COOL!  The fabric I chose for it is really retro... and girly... but hey, Scott's out numbered :)  I was really nervous about the 86 year old man reupholstering it for us, but he did such an awesome job that we found another project for him.

these chairs!!

When gutting out the trailer, I told Scott to remove a floor cabinet behind the dinette.  Sacrificing the storage was worth it so we could have a comfy chair in it's place.  I picked these up at The Goodwill last week for $10 a piece.  I'm planning on sanding and painting the wood (not sure what color yet) and having Gerald reupholster them.  I'm sure it won't cost us more than $100 to get them done, not including fabric which is something I've been struggling with.  Do I stay with the same color scheme or mix it up a little bit with a pop of contrasting color?  Print or solid?  Decisions, decisions.

Scott also started putting in the floor today and will hopefully finish it tomorrow.  We picked out our counter top as well.  It's pale yellow Skatelite which is generally used in skate board parks.  However, Richlite which is the maker of Skatelite, also makes counter tops out of the same material.  We have a cutting board made from this sustainable product and we love it!!

The curtain fabric was picked up today and the final window measurements were taken.  We're expecting to hear from Chryssa in about a week with word that the curtains are done.

Until then, we'll get back to work with much more to show you really soon!