Our House is officially listed for sale!!

I can't really explain how bittersweet it is.  I want to sell, and I hope that it goes quickly and smoothly.  Then the other side of me is not wanting to see it go. So much of our lives put into that house over the last 3 years.

If you're interested in seeing all the pictures, here's the link from Zillow:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/225-Winthrop-Dr-Belleville-IL-62221/5269220_zpid/

I'll be posting professional photos that my friend Lara came and took for us in a few days. They turned out so beautifully. 

The Kitchen: Final wallpaint and we're happy!

Refreshing the memory; we've had horrible luck with painting our kitchen.
Memorial Day was a doozy.
We've gone from Tan to primed white to green, to darker green, to Miami Orange, to mellow orange, to our final product.  Ugh! 
Here's the best photo I could find of a blank canvas for the color. Pre-backsplash and pre-gas stove and matching microwave. 

The kitchen color fiasco was all solved when Terry brought home this color palette one evening after a Home Depot trip.

Of course, me being me, I immediately said, "Purple?!" (although to be fair I think I had a little reason to think that was far-fetched).  He stuck with it and we went and bought little paint samples to test it out.

We started with T painting the ceiling. It was looking pretty dingy, and when we put up the new paint, it made it almost look gray up there. Oops. Then we tried out the three colors to see if it would work.  Elephant Skin would go around the main band along the ceiling, Burnished Clay would go on the main wall with the french doors, and Darkest Grape would be our accent coloring behind the refrigerator and in the nook leading down the main hallway.

I was a little hesistant about the purple still, so we went and bought another paint sample to ease my worries.  You can see that we put that up next to the original purple in the photo below, and it was just too dark.  It was a major help in my concern, and well worth the $2.99 for the sample.
Next, Terry trimmed in the Burnished Clay over the dreadful Orange.  

 We Love it! It works well in all lighting , and with that space getting all light-options of the day, it was a win!

 So much of a win, that we opted to paint the main hallway and entrance-way the same color.  It has made our home look very crisp and more contemporary. 

Another shot leading down the hallway, and base trim and french door trim!!!  It is all finally coming together!

 Here's all three colors in a night shot, and it doesn't get too dark and washed out.

 Here's in the daytime, and it still looks crisp (There's painters tape up still along the cabinet in the photo below. Oops)

 Last photo when we first painted behind the entryway into the dining room next to the refrigerator.  Later, I ended up pulling out the fridge and painting the entire wall so that there wasn't the tan cutoff like you can see in this picture.

We love how the space looks now! Finally colors that coordinate and bring life to the kitchen, and that aren't neutrals to fade into the rest of the neutral space. 
And, yes, our kitchen has purple......and it rocks!

Hall Bathroom Update Continued

So we left off here.

What is up with the half painted wall, you may say? Well, we opted to install wainscoting! (bad picture, sorry)

Adding on the trim and base boards. Mind you the vanity came in and out roughly five times so we knew proper cuts and edges.  Putting my puny little arms to work.

Another angle

Which I guess is a great segue into how the vanity has turned out.
We sanded all the previous stain away and started from scratch, applying Jacobean wood stain.  It took several coats, but we were happy with the outcome.

 I think that it looks a bit dark in this photo as far as the color goes, but you can see that it's super glossy with the polyurethane layers we added to it so it would be durable in a bathroom setting i.e. high moisture area.

One last check before we brought it in with the vessel sink on top to set it firmly in place and glue it in place.

 Again, from the picture above I think it looks so dark, but the true shade is closer to the picture below.

 We brought in the sink to measure exactly where it would sit on top of the vanity. We marked it off, then shimmied the vanity out to have a little extra room, spread a silicone bead all over the bottom of the sink, and set it back down in place.  What a stinky mess!  But the reward paid off.
Note: I think that from this angle, the sink looks tiny.  So tiny that it makes it look silly to have two faucets on it. 

In actuality, it's a very long sink.  I made Terry model a 280'ish lb man on one side using the sink comfortably and he's still not close to the center of the sink. (Bad picture again, but I didn't have time to fool with it when he agreed that he'd model for me. These chances happen so infrequently)

 The final step in securing the vanity permanently into the bathroom was to silicone it to the wall.  FYI, this stuff smells like concentrated white vinegar, so I took this shot and then was coughing for 5 minutes. 

Voila!  Oh, and we just hung the mirror.  Double Voila!!  Oh and the mirror gives away that we've hung a shower curtain and framed in the laundry area, but we're not complete with that part yet.....so you're gonna have to wait until after this weekend!

It really looks so amazing in person.  Just still so hard to believe how it started and what it's become. 

Hall Bathroom: I don't know where to start, so I'll start here

Since I've last posted about the bathroom, we are essentially a toilet and shower head installation away from a finished product.  That being said, I clearly haven't done a good job of keeping up with posting.  We've been busy.  So rather than spend an exorbitant amount of time in attempting to figure out the best breakdown of posts, I'm just gonna go with it.  It may be out of sync, it may be a little hard to follow.  Sorry.  Otherwise, I'll more than likely dawdle a few more days away before I start to post about it again.
Here we go!
From where I left off with finishing the floor in travertine tile, we decided to also run the travertine around the shower wall to make a more cohesive look to the space.
We had to tear out the previous shower wall and backerboard due to mold growth.  Pictures not necessary....lets just say it was black on some parts.

 New backer board

 Water sealant.

Midway through the shower tile install...

Shower tub to ceiling finish.  I think it creates an illusion to the eye to make the room seem taller.  Especially while standing in the shower.

And what you may or may not have caught two pictures before was that in the midst of tile installation, we started priming and painting!  Yes, don't adjust your computer monitors, that is in fact YELLOW!  Butter Cream to be exact.  Picked out by the one and only Big Man of the house. This isn't a great picture, but it's the only one I can show at this time point and not give away a ton of the other fun that has happened.

Also in the midst of shower tile installation and painting: Installing the backsplash around the sink.  We rented a tile saw, so we had to do things a bit out of order and mock up where we were going to place the sink, then pulled it back out to finish the vanity. I know this picture is a big giveaway (duh) of what to expect of the vanity, but its the only way I can show the backsplash and it make any sense.  And the vanity looks entirely different since this photo.

And certainly a lot different from how we bought it when we moved in......

So here's how I'll leave it for today. I'm writing up the next post now (slow day) so there will certainly be a post for tomorrow.  Continuing with "Why is the wall only half painted?" and "Whats the vanity really look like now?"

 Again, one final reminder of where we started (below) and where we're headed (above).  Crazy pants!

What became of Chunky Legs, and who won the bet

A year ago, we purchased what ended up becoming our master bathroom vanity.

The thing is, pretty much for a year, I've left you hanging on what became of the other half of the table.  See, we unhinged the top of the table from the base:

We chopped it in half length-wise....and yes, that was our former master bathroom vanity that our now current master vanity countertop is resting on.  Wouldn't YOU buy a house with a single-sink, two-toned purple vanity in your Master too?!?  Duh.

Then we re-assembled and poof!, it's our glorious master bath. 

So what became of the other half? (thanks for asking, since I know you're curious).  We made a bet on whether or not we could sell it, just like any other loving and slightly competitive couple would do!!
I admit that I was downright certain skeptical that no one would want to buy half of a table for 1/2 the price we bought it for.  Terry was convinced it would be an easy sell.  And so the bet was on!

We staged it in our living room and posted these pictures as well as our completed bathroom makeover up on trusty old Craigslist.  And then we waited.

For a week, all that we got was one fraud email, and one insulting low-ball of an offer.  The funny thing about staging it for us was that once we re-purposed it, we thought about actually keeping it for ourselves and taking it with us to the next house we went to.  Sentimental in a way, but always being able to keep a little piece of our first house with us.
I re-posted the ad again the next weekend, and it must have just been the timing of the post, but it got hit up like crazy with offers. We got full asking price and it was picked up the next day.

So I am here to announce, I lost the bet.  Terry is the wisest of them all!!  (But seriously, I know it really is such an awesome piece, but would YOU HAVE THOUGHT we'd get full asking price for HALF A TABLE?!?)  The power of staging and free advertising. 

Laundry Closet Upgrade

Cue my gasp that we bought this house this way.  I still laugh looking back at these photos.  Not that our "in progress" photos of this bathroom currently are any better, but Mannnnnn it's gonna be SWEET when we're finished....which will be very soon! :-)

We purchased a storage cabinet to go over our washer and dryer, oh I dont know, 2 years ago or something close to that.  It's just been hanging out in our garage all this time waiting to be useful.  Poor inanimate object that I feel sorry for.

The Before (Useless tidbit; I believe that was the Lowes bucket that I found my Engagement Ring in.  Still haven't posted that story yet.....aren't you anxious?!):

The After! (The washer and dryer were temporarily moved to our entryway while we were putting the floors down.  It's also a good before and after of our new floor)

We made a few errors when attempting to drill into the "studs".  We believe that there was some wonky business going on behind those walls from when they installed the water lines and the electric outlet for the dryer, but no extra wall is coming down on our watch.  Just keep drilling holes til we find something!

We still need to trim in the frame and hang a curtain (we're going to match it up...hopefully...with what we pick for a shower curtain so it will have a nice flow) and that will be complete.

Now that it's hung, all that we have said is that we wished we'd put it up sooner, so we could have enjoyed the clean finish and not all our stuff sitting on the top of the dryer. Lessons for the next house I suppose.

Hall Bathroom Floor: Update

Where I left off with the bathroom was the fun demolition part of the process. Which brings us to this view:

Yes, there was a small likelihood that we could have found a new longer vanity to cover the holes from the two wall semi-partitions, and yes we could have cut corners to save ourselves a little time and budget.  But ya know what, we didn't want to!  We wanted this room to be just as beautiful as the rest of the house that we have rebuilt together.  And so far, we've more than surpassed my wildest expectations of the room.  Pushing boundaries for sure, and teetering on the edge of both of our comfort zones with the choices we are making, but we've just gotta trust our instincts and jump.  

 So, step one: Rip up the linoleum.  Shouldn't be too bad right?  Oh...there's another layer of older linoleum? Ya don't say?! 

 Nothing screams beautiful floors for the main house bathroom like baby blue flowers.

Unplanned Step two: Rip up second layer of linoleum.  Minor setback, no big deal.  Oh, the toilet has had a slow leak and has black mold in the subfloors? Ya don't say?!  So out the subfloor came around the toilet.  This falls in the minor/major setback category.  This certainly falls in the tick my boyfriend off so much that it makes him propose marriage to me category.  Not really, but kinda.  All this fiasco was about an hour before proposal. 
Oh, and there used to be another layer of linoleum before the 2nd layer that luckily they were able to mostly rip up??!!?!?  REALLY?!?! This bathrooms gone through more makeovers than Oprah Winfrey.  It looked like a majority of it had been ripped out, but we could still see the outlines of the grout. 

After all of that mess, finally the new cement board was able to go down for our new travertine tiles.  As you may recall, we also installed travertine in our front hall entrance. I think it makes the house look a little more cohesive in a silly little way. 

 

Sidenote: if you are ever tiling floor, using the 18" tiles makes life SO MUCH EASIER!  The job goes so fast in comparison to 12" tiles. 

Because I'm a bit spacey these days, I didn't take a picture of the finished floor before Terry put down paper backing to A)allow the grout proper time to cure and B)partially protect the tiles while we still go to town on getting this bathroom completed. Here's the only sneak peek area that I could take a picture.  It looks so beautiful in person.

This weekend, along with Sarah coming into town and us running the Half Marathon, we plan on tiling the shower.  Wish us luck!