I just needed to get my hands dirty!

S0 when you get to a point with house projects, where you are tired and need to take a break what do you do?  I think most normal people probably just do that - take a break, relax - rest. 

 I am clearly not normal.

You'd think that I could at least give it a rest while I was visiting my parents in NY, but ...no. 

For years now the 2nd floor bathroom in their beautiful 1940's home has bothered me. When my parents bought the home in the early 70's, they converted the unfinished attic space into 4 bedrooms for their 4 kids ( me included) 

There was a bathroom up there, but other than that it was one open space with one closet. 

While they were putting up walls and adding wiring, my Dad had the contractors tile over the asbestos tiles on the floor and wallpaper the cardboard (never meant to be permanent - just there to hold in insulation) walls. 

This bathroom always bothered me. 

I don't think that my Dad thought about the color of the tile. In fact - I know that he didn't because he is color blind. So the fleshy - taupe color that he allowed them to attach with mortar on to our floor , permanently- to be stared at for decades - was probably a pleasant soft gray through his eyes. 

It had to go. 

I knew better than to take on a major project right above their bedroom - so I decided to go with a quick fix. 

Bathroom renovation :

1940's house - bad 1970's upgrade - 2014 last ditch effort to see if it can possibly be cute. 

I should note...I forgot to take a true "before" shot. Once I had the go ahead from my Dad, I had to run with it, before he changed his mind. But, just so that you can get a good visual. The most recent wallpaper was a hunter green floral  - very Ralph Lauren 1985. Which was probably right around when it was last redone. 

This is the bathroom right after I had the green light to go ahead with the project. I could not wait to get that dark paper off the walls! They are so thin that just the removal process was hard on them. I had to layer on the primer to make them ready for paint. 

Another view - just after the paper came down. I love this old wall sink. 

Painted the ceiling, trim & top of the walls with this fun blue 

This shows a close up of the flesh colored tile that no one in their right mind would choose if they could see it. It's a terrible color to try to match. 

I decided to put up these 4" sheets of bead board to reinforce the cardboard walls.

It got a little bit tricky around the sink and behind the pipes! 

Trim to top the bead board 

Then it was time to tackle the floor! I found a primer that allows you to tile right on top of old tile. 

This stuff is like gritty thick paint. You have to let it dry for an hour, but no more than 24 - or you have to reapply, 

Not the neatest piece job on the panel here, but my plan was to get it all in place, and them caulk as needed before painting. 

Made my chalk lines & started in the center

adding grout

Almost done - missing about 1 cup of grout 

I found this glass shelf @ IKEA for $10. I think it adds just the right character for the age of the house

I have touch up and the finish grout to do on my next trip. Now maybe I can focus on my house again and get to work on some of my unfinished spaces! 

f

New house - Old charm

After neglecting my little house for months - I'm taking an hour to work on the garage. What could make my new house look more old & dated than good ol' peg board! 

This stuff soaks up primer like a sponge. Too bad for me that I didn't know about the pre-primed option - even worse for me that my husband did, so of course he now feels the need to harass me about my wasted effort for the $2 savings! 

Oh well.

It's been a while since I had primer in my hair - it was time. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

B

Baby steps - wipe your feet!

Back in July, at the end of a post about the driveway, I said...

"The walkway should be in by tomorrow" 

Well - had I known then what I know now, that would have read...

"The walkway should be in by 2014"

To be clear - I am not knocking my landscape designers & stone guys, they are awesome!

Julio Mojica with TerraForma has been wonderful to work with, and his design work is done by Brian, another great guy.  
These guys were referred to me by Meg Turner who has drawn up the whole long term plan for the yard for me. 

Check out her work - pretty incredible! 

mturnerlandscapes.com

I am a firm believer in a landscape plan. I love to plant and add variety here and there, but you have to have an idea of the over all scheme of what you are trying to accomplish with the plantings, or else it can be a lot of wasted effort. ( This coming from years of wasted effort experience!) 
The great thing about a master plan is that it is just a plan. 
I have not planted a single thing from the plan yet. 
Without the long term planting plan, I would not have known where to put the driveway, or the irrigation.  

This project took so long because at the last minute ( back in July) I decided that I wanted to add something of interest to the walkway. Originally I had thought brick, then later I was thinking slate. Neither of those seemed to have any character, and the exterior of the house is crying for some character! 

So I went on a hunt for a Mill stone. It took a while, and all of my searches were fruitless.
In the end it was Julio that found one for me. 

Here are the photos of the new walkway. I hope that you like it. I do.