We Bought a Fixer - Matt Made Built-Ins

Hi there. How are you today?

I'm happy to have another finished space (well, almost finished) to show you!

If you recall, our living room is just one long, open space. 

With the picture window on one wall..... 

......and the fireplace on the other, we were having a hard time figuring out where to set up the TV. 

Matt decided to make a built in. 

Here it is in its very early stages. 

 Here it is now! 

It's amazing what a little paint does to MDF. 

 

 Matt designed the shelves on the right side of the unit specifically for typewriters. 

This is Matt's favorite.

This is mine. 

The back of the unit is sheathed in pallet wood that we salvaged from the perpetual construction site we once called home. (The condo we spent the last year in was one of the first on the street. They are still building there, and probably will be for another year. So glad to be out of there!) I love the industrial look of the wood and the texture it adds. 

Along the back wall of the room, Matt constructed a wall of bookshelves to house his massive collection of books. 

Ta-Da!

 It was really tough to get a good shot of the whole thing, with the light coming in from the window. 

I spent a few evenings styling the whole thing. 

I arranged the books in rainbow order on the bottom shelves.

Matt thinks I'm crazy for taking the time to do this...

I really like the way it turned out! 

Matt also designed a space to house his speakers and records. 

Matt's most favorite part of this whole built-in is actually outside.....

He's following in his mother's footsteps and has developed an affinity for birdwatching. 

We found this planter in our back yard when we moved in. Matt recently moved it and filled it up so he could watch out his bookcase window.  He loves to see that the seed is getting eaten and is frustrated that the cardinals that hang out in the bush right behind it won't touch the feeder.

I really do like how the built-ins have given purpose and division of the space.
I have to give Matt so much credit on this project.
 He made a great use of every inch of space on that back wall.
I love that I have a crafty husband!

Until next time. Ta-Ta.

To read our entire "Fixer Upper" saga, make your way here.

We bought a fixer - Part 1

 Hi There! How are you? 

Can you believe there are just 12 days until Christmas Eve? Insanity! 

 

So, the day we got back from New Orleans, we closed on our new house.

 And the work began.... You see, this house is a fixer!

The previous owner had not done any yard work in the last 3 years. 

Though you can't see it in these images I grabbed from Google Maps street view, ivy has taken over! 

Everything was overgrown! Weed trees galore. 

Ivy was growing all over the house and had even grown into the window screens and shutters.

 There were burning bushes that were totally obscuring the picture window. 

The house is huge and has good "bones", but it is totally outdated and covered in smelly carpet.

We've got big plans for this front room. Stay tuned.

The guest bath is one of the worst rooms in the house.  Carpet, ancient brown lowboy toilet, and a pink tub. Eww! 

This room is getting an almost total gut job. After first seeing this bathroom I vowed I would never live in this house!

 Matt had to do a lot of convincing for me to agree to put in an offer on this one.

The kitchen is huge and really is in quite good shape. It's just not our style at all!

This room, as it appears here, is already a thing of the past! 

Our roofer removed the entire kitchen and will be reinstalling it in another house. 

(Felt good that it got recycled!) Work on our brand new gourmet kitchen begins in January. Can't wait!

That's all for now. Come back next week for some early reno/demo pics. Ta-Ta!

We Bought a Fixer: Studio Renovation

Hi there. How are you?

As long time readers know, we bought a "fixer-upper" home in December of 2012. We've renovated the entire main floor and now have moved on to our basement.

Matt has been itching to make art again, so right before Thanksgiving, we started working on our new studio. 

The space we've decided to use as our studio was actually two connected rooms. It was kind of a bedroom and den thing. The first thing we did was tear out the wall between the two rooms. Now we've got a large "L" shaped space. Sorry, I don't have a good shot of the layout yet.

Matt installed lots of pot lights and track lighting to brighten up the space.

We spent this past weekend painting. It's amazing what a coat of white paint can do to a space! I love how the exposed beam pops against the white.

We're installing interlocking foam tiles on the floor. It feels good under foot, was a breeze to lay down and was very reasonably priced. 

Matt couldn't help but inject a little bit of color and personality in the space right away.  He gave the vent a coat of spray paint before re-installing it. Love it!

Matt is now working on building a large work table and some more built-in storage. It's really going to be a great space for both of us to work in. Can't wait until it's finished!

As we are traveling for the holidays, this will probably be my last post for the year. Wishing you and yours all the best! Ta-Ta!

P.S. I'll be sending out a special holiday gift to everyone on my e-mail list later this week. Sign up here if you'd like to be included. Thanks!

We Bought a Fixer Part 3 -Wallpaper

Hi! Happy Holidays my friends. I've missed you!

After a week away, Matt and I are back home and getting back to work at the new house. Jack is down with us for about 10 days as well.
We are trying to get him to help us out, but he's not very interested in manual labor. What kid is really?

So, lets talk wallpaper.

You might have noticed that wallpaper is making a comeback in the design world......This scares me terribly. Now don't get me wrong, I love bold color and pattern, but WALLPAPER IS NOT THE ANSWER!

Our fixer had wallpaper in just about every room. (See stunning montage above.)  Pretty huh? Now the sliver in the bottom right corner isn't wallpaper. It's an awesome peacock sculpture the previous owner had in the house. That's one thing we wish they'd left for us!

The very first day we took possession of the house, we started ripping out the wallpaper. The first layer came off easily in pretty much every room.  With very little effort, we were getting fully intact paper pieces off the wall. We couldn't believe how quickly it was coming down!

The problems started when we uncovered 3 more layers of paper underneath the first. Yes, 3! Aaaah! 

The last 3 shots illustrate the papers we unearthed in just one room!  

Yep, that's Holly Hobby!

Unfortunately, we also found some mold. 

Luckily it was old and dead and easy to take care of.

Welcome to our entryway. 

We spent an entire weekend right here removing this stuff.

This original layer of wallpaper was adhered right to unprimed drywall.

Not cool 1960's owners!

It took an industrial steamer for us to make any headway on the stuff. 

We scored the walls, then Matt would hold the steamer up to the wall for a few minutes.

I came through with a putty knife and scraped off the loosened paper. 

It was exciting when it would come off like butter! 

An artful carnage shot.

After an entire day, we managed to scrape the entire wall.

Unfortunately, the drywall is in rough shape, so it's going to have to be skim-coated prior to painting. 

The next day we managed to finish off the dining room as well. 

By day 2 we were pros, so these walls are not going to have to be skim-coated. Yes! 

As soon as I finish up this blog we are going to head over to the house and tackle "Holly Hobby Hell." 

Wish us luck! 

This picture pretty much sums up today's wallpaper removal session.

We put up a valiant fight against Holly Hobby and her striped accent paper, but I am sad to admit that she won. 

We've called in the professionals to rip out the drywall in much of this room and have it redone. 

We're feeling a little defeated, but are glad to spend the money to have someone else "make it right."

Let this be a cautionary tale to you fellow homeowners. 

Think before you paper! 

So my friends, tell me about your wallpaper experiences. 

Have you hung it? Removed it? Would you consider hanging it in your house? Do tell! 

I leave you with a delightful montage of some of the other lovely papers we have uncovered. 

Happy New Year friends! Ta-ta.

(To see our our house in its pre-reno state click here.)