A Closer Look at Ottoman

Collecting Feathers

Boo and I like to pick up feathers when we walk around the house and surrounding area. Here's a few that we've found:

1. Wild Turkey Feathers - I wish you could see how iridescent these feathers are on the dark part near the tip...it's really pretty. And, I love the white eyelash tips to these.

2. Wild Turkey Feather - Wild turkeys have such a variety of feathers! This one is deceiving, it's really quite long, like 12" or so. If you follow me on Twitter, I've mentioned all the little baby turkeys (as well as spotted deer) that we've been visited by in recent weeks.

3. Blue Jay Feather - or at least that's what I think it is. I've been looking for one of these for some time. Eva has had better luck. This feather is much smaller, maybe 4" long.

The wood in these pictures is the new landing for the exterior entry. I'll share some pictures when the whole thing is done. Slow...we're busy with so many other things. Before and afters are so much better when the after is fully finished.

So, lately....I've been pretty uninspired which isn't like me. I usually have so many ideas running through my head that I can't pick one. I also have been waiting on Jeff to have some time to help me with something...he's been so busy...it's okay, I'm pretty patient. I also have had some inspiration this week. I've been mentally trying to solve a problem, and I think I've got it. Oh, how I need a method to my madness. Systems. I'll try to share more soon.

Peach and Gray

When I was in 6th grade (late 80s), peach and gray was a favorite color combination. We recently had to tear up our approximately 30-year-old redwood deck to be able to work on the house. So, we're re-using the wood for the exterior entry and some steps to the house...and eventually, a rustic dining table. I'm sure we'll find many uses for the wood. The new exterior entry makes a nice spot to photograph as well....More of that to come.

I hope you're staying cool. I feel very fortunate to be in usually rainy Oregon right now, as the temperature has been in the 80s. I've been thinking of you folks in areas with sweltering heat.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I'm hoping to get more done on the house...I've been thinking it will be cold and rainy here soon enough and this house has so many drafts that I want to seal up as much as we can soon.

Serendipity!

I know I've mentioned that there is a lot of stuff we need to get rid of around the property that is the previous owners' (they are our friends...so it's okay...there was a big garage clean-out when we bought the place; Jeff needed space to work on vehicles in the garage, so a pile was started outside to clean-up later)...and it will happen in our big, outdoor spring clean-up. Blackberries and "stuff" begone! Anyway, Jeff found a new-ish (I can live with a ding), stainless steel sink! It's not exactly what I wanted; it's a double sink instead of a single...but I certainly can't complain with free and reusing! Then, while I was on Re-Nest, I saw an article on bringing back the wash basin! Perfect! Also, a second sink can be filled with ice during a party for drinks and the water can easily be drained or be used to water plants.

Here's the sink:

Happy Tuesday!

Modified Manufactured: New Outlet Covers, Train Table and Flooring

We got quite a bit done this weekend again and the half of the living space with the woodstove is close to being done (well, there will be minor bits to work on, but we'll be able to hang stuff on the walls finally). My partner, Jeff, started to install some new outlet covers that have protection (I don't remember the terminology) in case Boo tries to stick something in them:

And, since we are putting down flooring and sealing it, Boo can't ride his bike inside anymore. :( So, we brought out his train table that we had stored since we moved in for a replacement!

Speaking of flooring, we decided that since we are laying 1-2 more layers of underlayment down so that the floor is really strong and doesn't creek (and the doors are hung unusually high, so they accomodate), we are sealing the underlayment for our floor surface (we are going to do something else in the areas where there will be water). It's cheap and we really like the way it looks...like cork!:

We use the best side of the underlayment even if it's the side that has the stamp. You can see here that we found some "environmentally preferable product." The picture above is with one layer of sealer; we're going to put on 1-2 more layers this next weekend. Here's what it looks like sealed (this is before we found the underlayment in the above picture, so it's a little different looking):

 
You can see it's scuffed up a bit from all the construction, but these rooms (we did the floor in them before we moved in) will be sanded and sealed with another layer once the main living space is finished; then, everything will have felted feet!

Happy Monday!

Doily paintings on my new shelf (mantle)!

Well, there is a new one to share too:

The light in my new place is very blue, but the color on this painting is actually pretty accurate, it's sage green with cream lettering and the name is "Eric."

Here's another image so that you can see the shelf:

I'll share more shots of this shelf soon....I'm very excited to have a 10 foot long shelf behind the woodstove to adorn!

Well, off to work hard on the house this weekend; I'm sure I'll have more pictures to share next week!

Happy Friday!

Modified Manufactured: A New Series

I'm starting a series on this blog entitled: Modified Manufactured. I've decided that maybe now would be a good time to start sharing about this budget remodel I've been referring to. Here's the scoop....my family does live on a tight budget (it's the price we chose to pay so that I could stay home with Boo instead of me going back to work and putting him in daycare) and we were able to get this home because it was a great deal. It's on a beautiful piece of property, but it's an extra long double wide manufactured home from 1980. Yep, it's true. I'm sure you think that I'm crazy, especially since I'm an educated person with a BFA in Visual Art for crying out loud! However, hear me out on this. All the other houses we looked at were in town on tiny lots and the homes often weren't structurally sound, or were in unacceptable neighborhoods. When we decided that this little piece of beautiful property was the way to go and we had a bit of money left over, we thought we would maybe just build a TINY, one room, little square of a house until we could afford to add to it or maybe get an LVL home. Then, we decided that it would be more environmentally-friendly to fix up the existing structure! Especially since the "bones" of the house lent themselves to a modern home perfectly! So, call us crazy, and maybe we are...but maybe, just maybe, we're a little cutting edge. After all, what sent us over the top to do this project was an article in Dwell.:

The article focuses on trailers in parks...which isn't what we have; BUT, the idea of such a drastic transformation hit us so hard that we knew we could do this!

So, time to share a few pictures...are you ready? Oh, but first, we bought this house from friends, but they rented it out, for some time, to a guy that was off his rocker, so I don't think that they'll be upset when I explain how horrible some things were before we started working on the house. And, these pictures are under construction conditions so please keep that in mind.

This first set of pictures is the area we've been focusing on; it's half of the living space. This first picture was from before we moved in. We weren't going to move into a house with nearly 30 year old carpet that the renter let his dog and cat pee on...it was putrid. So, the carpet had to go first. The pile in front of the wood stove is stuff that we already had ripped out.:

And, a closer shot. The interior walls of the house are entirely wood paneling; yes, real wood, but not good quality and SO dark.:

This shot shows that the carpet was ripped out and a layer of oil-based primer sealed the sub-floor.:

When my dad and his friend were here, we tore out the built-in "stuff" around the wood stove and took off the "decorative" brick behind the stove to prepare it for drywall.:

Here's another angle with my dad's friend getting all the pieces off the wall that stuck out too much ("hi Chuck!").:

You can see here we are laying another layer of sub-floor (and in the living space, two layers) throughout the house because the old sub-floor is only a thin layer and, let's face it, it's been peed on. You can see here how big this room is by the size of the woodstove and this is just one quarter of the space! The area in the bottom right is the kitchen (I'll show more before pictures of that, we ripped out a wall that was an L-shape that existed in the lower left.):

Here's a shot of the area drywalled.:

Okay, that's all for now, but there's more about this space to come!

Happy Inaguration Day!  

What do you do when...

it's winter, you've recently moved, and now you're remodeling (by yourself), so your routine is all out-of-whack and you have a three-and-a-half-year-old? Well, I guess you try to do things you wouldn't normally do if your life was normal and make it fun!

So, we let Boo ride his bike indoors:

Notice the hammer, work gloves, sawdust and figures drawn on the floor for the dimensions of the hearth under the woodstove? Oh, and the base to the halogen lamp (for when we work on drywall and such at night - yeah).

And, my partner built Boo an indoor sandbox; why not...there's already sawdust and drywall dust in the main living space? Boo's got quite a thoughtful daddy.

Oh, and when Boo and I went to Jenny's house last Thursday, we made homemade play dough. We used the Martha recipe and it turned out great!:

That color on the far left...that was red and then Jenny's 16-year-old wanted to make it purple (it wasn't working out quite right)...the color is now referred to (by me) as "internal organ."

So, when you've got lemons...make lemonade!

Don't get me wrong, I'm SUPER excited to be able to even do what I'm doing! I'm finally making a space of my own (OUR own), it's going to be rad when we're done...it's just a little crazy/chaotic/stressful in the meantime! But, I just remind myself of our goal!

Happy Tuesday!

Some things on my Ikea wishlist (part two).

Here's some more ideas for the house from Ikea...

Expedit bookcase.

I've been wanting this FOREVER. We have tons of books and it will be across from built-in bookshelves in the dining area. The majority of our books have been boxed for like four years! Not that I have had time to read with a munchkin, but soon he will be in school and I'd love to re-read my art books from college.

 

Lekman box. These boxes fit in the Expedit bookcases and they will come in handy for needle felting supplies and markers/paint/crayons/play dough for Boo.

 

Ludde sheepskin. Okay, at first I thought that this was a faux sheepskin rug (the humor), but I don't think it is...so, I may have to re-think this one.

 

Atran wall cabinet. I think this would be great in Boo's bathroom as a medicine cabinet; I believe you can fit any number of them together like a puzzle.

Varen pot trellis. Do you remember my post on this plant? Well, this would be perfect to grow it upward out of reach of little hands.

Well, that's the wishlist for now....I'm sure there's more that I love, so maybe there will be a part 3! But, I'm hoping to fill-in and substitute with some thrift store finds also!

Happy Friday!

Some things on my Ikea wishlist (part one).

I love Ikea, and we plan to take a shopping trip probably in the summer to get stuff for the kitchen mainly, but some other items as well. Here's some of the things that are on my current (things may change as the house develops) wishlist:

Skar (sorry, I don't know how to add all the accents etc. in other languages) bench with shoe storage. This will be perfect for the entry to put one's shoes (oh, I will be so happy to not wear shoes inside again....oh, the tracked-in dirt! But, it isn't safe to not wear shoes inside currently), and you can sit on it to take them off!

 

Sebastian bar stool. We'll need some for the island and I like that these have a bit of a back (but we'll need to test drive first).

 

Grimle glass-door wall cabinet. I've seen this (or something similar...but I thought it had frosted glass doors) in dining rooms with dishes in them. Although our future kitchen island will hold most everything, I'd like some of these in the kitchen to hold our everyday dishes/glasses so that when guests are over, they don't have to hunt.

 

Trollsta sideboard. Now, this is a bit extravagant and would probably be a later purchase (did I mention BUDGET remodel?) I love this in black...but...

 

if it were yellow, it would mirror what we're thinking of doing with the kitchen counters...

 

Pragel countertop. I like the fresh lemon yellow for the kitchen!

Seeing the last three pieces inspired me....The yellow would link the kitchen to dining area (it's also going to be a library), and if I had another sideboard in black in the living room area, it would visually link it to the dining area (they are next to one another)! Hmmm...more to ponder for sure!

Off to Jenny's for the day! Happy Thursday!

The Search for the Perfect Modern White Paint

As a kid, my parents' house always had an off-white paint, and it drove me crazy; I wanted color! Now, my parents are painting different colors in their house and I'm into a modern, clean-lined look and I'm trying to find the perfect, modern, white paint - go figure!

As an art student, the museum and gallery walls on campus were not bright white, but a kind of vanilla ice cream color. So, I always figured that that's the color I would use in my house; I mean if a museum or gallery used a white that wasn't a bright white and art looked great on it, it's a no-brainer - find out the color and just use it at home!

Now, here's the issue....Not only is my house not a museum or gallery, but we are doing a really spare, BUDGET remodel using basic building materials. I'm using my creativity, my partner's skill/logical brain, and my collection of artwork (mine own and others) for the interest in the house. ALSO, since we are using basic building materials that are often simply white, a non-bright white would probably make the walls look dirty.

So, I first went to the Dwell site hoping to find some educated information on modern white paint and didn't seem to find anything (this was quite a surprise). But, as an aside, I did find this blog post about chalkboard paint (I had chalkboards on a wall in my apartment and have been trying to figure out where to put them in the new house) and two VERY inspiring pictures (see the first and the last/third picture on the post). Edit: I took the pictures off this post because I couldn't find credit for them on the blog and I didn't want to bother the (I'm sure) busy folks at Dwell for permission.

Back to white paint....I did find one forum discussion on the LiveModern site regarding the best white paint for the modern home, and most recommended Behr Ultra Pure White. Perfect! My partner said that he would prefer a Behr paint, if possible. So, unless something changes, it looks like this will be our paint color. Any further recommendations from YOU would be wonderful! Now, to take on the next of many design challenges!