House of Cards

Well, house cards anyway. I was trolling my blog roll the other day and came across this post from The Design Pages about organized shopping. It's true, with everyone organizing every other aspect of their houses it is a good idea to organize how you buy for them. I certainly am in the same boat as Carol having frequently purchased furniture for the house only to get it home and realize it doesn't fit where I thought it would. Most often thrift store finds, which are sadly non returnable. I was really struck by one idea she had in particular. A pocket sized floor plan from Apartment Therapy.

Apartment Therapy 

And of course I thought "I can totally make that!" Little did I realize it would take all afternoon just to do the measurements. When I was finally done I got something that looked like this.

I did the same thing for each room noting measurements where I needed the short walls sizes for new furniture or paintings. I created them in publisher on 3X5 sized paper and printed them on card stock before laminating them.

This is the final result

I also clipped in paint swatches and fabric that I am using in some of the rooms to help with future color choices. I only laminated the front side so I can add measurements and info on the back. Now I only have to remember to bring it with me. It should come in handy with the kitchen remodel we are working on (if the snow ever goes away so that I can get more supplies!)

Are you always this organized? Or are you like me and leave your lists at home? Maybe you just have a good eye for proportion? Tell me your secrets.
Cheers!

Linking up to

Frugal Friday

The In-Between

Probably the most hated phase in all of DIY. That point where it looks worse than it did before and you start wondering why you chose now to start the project. Luckily I haven't reached the hair pulling, "why oh why did I do this" phase of the project but snow and work have definitely slowed us down. Added to that, we have travel plans at the end of February that are beginning to look a lot closer than they were when we started this project. I've got a four day weekend this weekend so I plan to get lots done and hopefully have real progress to show you. For now this is what I've got.

A master bed full of door trim I'm saving in case we need it, kitchen cabinets, and other miscellaneous junk. On the bright side though we have finally broken ground on my new closet!

Remember the closet that was supposed to be my birthday present? Back in August? Better late than never right? Obviously it has a bit more work to be done but we are getting there.

The to do list for the weekend:
1. Finish demoing and frame out closet
2. Come to a final determination on beam and remove (or deal with)
3. Install electrical
4. Drywall (or at least get the materials to do so)
5. Figure out how to match our current cabinets

That last one is causing the most difficulty. I know they were put in recently but I can't figure out where they came from. I only need one lower cabinet to add to the new configuration and it would be nice if it matched. Any ideas on how to tell where they came from?

Cheers!

Snow Day!

 Here's to hoping it lasts just a little bit so that we can have some fun.
Cheers!

Another Reveal

I realized in the mess of removing walls and cleaning up 110 year old plaster I forgot to tell you what was under the ugly carpet in the Master Bed. I'll give you a hint, it looks bad but is really quite a good surprise.

Here's the corner reveal

Before

Current

Yeah, that's some pretty hideous laminate. Never fear though! In taking down the wall we discovered that the laminate hides a beautifully protected hardwood floor. Yay! We did some quick internet searching and found that a hair dryer and a putty knife are all you need to remove it! We've left it for now since it is basically a big protective sheet covering the floor but I can't wait to get it removed and see the beauty underneath. It almost makes up for finding that silly beam behind the bulk head.

Anyone else get some good news lately? I love good news, especially when it comes to the house!
Cheers!

Deconstructing

Hope you all had fabulous constructive weekends. We had a bit of fun being even more destructive than usual and nor can officially say our kitchen/bedroom remodel is well underway (and it snowed!). We have gone from this

To this

To this

To this

and finally, to this

 I feel like we made some great progress even if we ran in to a few minor snags. Mainly finding out that that "decorative" bulk head actually contained a huge giant beam.

Major bummer. I might have even cursed. We've been doing our research, taking to the experts (and fathers) and are 95% sure it is just decorative. We've come to that conclusion through much going in to the attic, staring at walls, and long conversations that culminate in Google searches of load baring beams. I do not, I repeat, DO NOT suggest anyone else does what we are doing. Make sure you have someone you trust help you make these decisions. You most certainly do not want to have your roof come tumbling down. We still haven't decided how sure we are that we can safely remove it ourselves, so if we (and by we I mean me) are still skeptical I have a structural engineer who was recommended to me. I would highly recommend calling one in if you have a similar problem. It all comes down to what you are comfortable with. 

Like I said this reno is going to be a slow process. While we wait for more funds to come available (we are trying to stick to our resolutions folks) there is plenty of clean up and take down that still needs to happen. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers!

There Today

Hopefully gone tomorrow. After waking up at the crack of dawn to meet the contractor (and for those of you who don't live in the upper states that's 7 a.m.) we went from this

To this (which after being inspected thoroughly by both Kitty and Daniel was deemed to be sound)

Obviously we still need to take out the existing wall to finish the construction but it feels like we are on our way. Hopefully this weekend we will have finished all of the initial demo and construction which will leave next weekend free for electrical and drywall. I realized today that we need to know exactly where the oven and hood is going to go before we close the wall so that we can run electrical to it which means the bulk head in the kitchen needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

For tonight we are using the space to house a pair of rarely seen members of the Keller house, our Guinea Pigs Sadie and Audrey. Honey sure thinks they are interesting though.

Normally the weather is moderate enough for them to live out doors but the forecast predicts snow so I figured I'd rather move them into be safe. No one wants Guinea Pig Popsicles! I've had them for a few years now so they are definitely part of the family too.

I'll keep you all posted on our wall progress as more gets done. I'm super excited about it still (which is a good sign) so hopefully it will keep moving along at a good pace.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Cheers!

Bringing in Spring

We are still moving along in our wall demo but I thought I'd take a break and show you another project I'm working on. Well, I'm not really working on it, nature is.

This fall I bought a TON of bulbs from Brecks and planted them all over the back yard (I skipped the front since I didn't know what would be happening with it this year). I tried to get a mix of bulbs that would start early in the spring and keep going through the summer so I have everything from Crocuses to Irises planted back there. I also went a bit over board on Daffodils (Go Dils, go dils). At one point I just ran out of places to plant without being totally random so I had a few left over in a bag while I thought about what to do. Those few days turned in to months and I pretty much gave them up for dead. Imagine my surprise when I went to do some weeding and found they were sprouting in the bag. I figured it was a sign and decided to try and force them indoors. Hopefully I'll have some color in a few weeks to offset the construction zone my house has become. So I ask you, have you successfully forced bulbs inside? My amaryllis did fine but that is all I've ever done. Do daffodils even work that way? We'll see I guess!

We are totally jazzed about getting the wall up tomorrow. I'll try to post the final project in the evening so you can see our progress. The contractor comes at 8 a.m. (eak!) so with luck it will be framed before lunch.  Fingers crossed it is a simple project and no headers are needed to complete the wall.
Cheers!