{renovate} it's all in the details

Friends, it occurred to me this weekend that I am terrible with updating you guys about small changes we make around the house. Somehow a new welcome mat just doesn't seem to warrant an entire post. BUT, we have made a couple small updates around the house that I thought you'd like to see. And I just have to apologize about the photos - for the last few days, even when it's daylight, it isn't actually light out. It's that pesky rain thing that comes with January in Oregon :).

Entry rugs.

In the midst of the kitchen remodel chaos we somehow lost both our back and front entry rugs. I have no idea. So the front door has a new lovely rug (that was on SUPER sale) at West Elm. I can't even remember what our last rug looked like (a true sign your remodel is taking too long), but I really love how BOLD this one is - especially when paired with our navy front door. 

The back door has a fun new graphic rug from Target. I do remember the last one here - it was very beige. I am really liking that this one is dark and moody. Sort of like the January we're having. Which makes me wonder if I'll still feel like that once the weather's nicer? :) 

Fruit bowl?

Possibly. I've talked before about Portland's Seek the Unique - we held our blogger event there last spring - and this lovely was the result of a quick stop this weekend.

Isn't it gorgeous? I don't know how long it will stay a fruit bowl (it's huge, if you can't tell by the amount of fruit in there), but I know that it will easily travel around the entire house and be amazing. That texture! Kills me!

Sheets.

I've wanted striped sheets since the minute we bought our duvet cover - 4 years ago! I finally bought these from West Elm, which I'd been eyeing for more than a year (!), when I stopped by there a couple weeks ago. I LOVE them. And this photo reminds me - where do you fall on the spectrum of bed making? I fall firmly on the "what's the point, you're just going to get back in it later" side. I only make my bed for you guys, really :)

I think what I love most about these updates is that each is big and bold in its own way. All are supporting characters in the grand scheme of things, but are still making a fun and unique statement. And I think because of that, they add so much to our home.

Friends, I love to know - what small changes have you made around your house lately?

{renovate} backporch lighting

When I posted our backporch makeover last week the most commented on feature was our lights! So, let's take a closer look at them, shall we?

{That mess in the background? Welcome to life during a remodel ;)}

Let me preface this by saying - lights for the backporch weren't even on my radar. My plan a for lighting in the space was twinkle lights. But when we went to Astoria last summer for our birthdays, we came across the most charming architectural salvage store, Astoria Vintage Hardware, which also sells amazing upholstery fabrics and some other new items. And, that's where I found the lights. I totally had a gut feeling about them, and we brought them home with us without having a place to put them. Friends, for us, this is living on the edge. As a general rule, we don't make home purchases without a specific use or place in mind for the item. But I knew they were worth the risk.

On the drive home, I was imagining them in the kitchen. But as it turns out, they were destined for the back porch, because they are perfect for that space.

Here's what they looked like at first. But, we thought they needed something a little sturdier to make them seem more like a fixture.

So Chris built this awesome wood fixture that the lights hang through.  I love this in ways I can't even begin to explain. It ties the lights together, it's dark stain is an awesome feature in the very white room, it compliments the farm table, it hides all the cords (functional!) and my awesome husband built it, so you know, I'm biased :).

As you can see, we have pretty small bulbs in there. This actually creates the perfect evening lighting situation. Not too dark, not too bright. Perfect for the dinner parties we like to throw in the space.

So, if I were writing this up last month, this would be the end. The only place I'd ever seen these lights were these two, in that one little store, in that one little tiny town on the Oregon coast. 

Randomly though, I ran across them online the other day (!). So, if you love them, you can find them here. 

Friends, I'm curious to hear. What's something that you purchased without having a "spot" in mind -- you just knew you loved it??

{renovate} the never ending-back porch-story

Friends! Hi! Happy Monday! 

While Chris worked on the kitchen this weekend (trim + concrete board!), I worked a little on our back porch, which I haven't talked a lot about -- just a sneak peek here and there. See, my original intention for the back porch was to finish it, have a super dramatic before and after, and then fill you in the details.

Well, nearly three summers after we started the project, we still aren't finished! It takes a back seat to all other projects. And, I realized that my original intentions were silly. Very few spaces in our house are actually done and part of the fun is bringing you guys along for the journey. So I'm going to back up and fill you on where we're at so far. {And please excuse the mess that is the back porch right now -- it's getting cleaner, but it's the staging area for the kitchen!}

For those of you who haven't been reading for the last couple years, the back porch is a screened in addition off the back of our house. Three sides are wall, and one side is screened windows. It's a completely amazing space, but it's needed A LOT of work. The photo above is where the back porch began. Full of crap, dark, dark, dark wood, and unfinished/missing pieces of wall.

My husband, in a move of genius and brilliant forethought, saved the old siding from when he renovated our garage, because it matched the existing siding in the back porch perfectly. So first we set about filling in the missing walls. The green boards are the old garage boards. You can see the texture of the paint in this photo. What you can't see is that the dark boards above were also treated with kind of lacquer that also gave them a lot of texture.We talked through so many options about how to treat the wall. Do we sand it all down? What look are we going for?

In the end we decided to paint the entire thing -- walls + ceiling -- white. This keeps the room, casual, bright and cohesive. And, you can still see the texture, but it doesn't look bad under the coat of white paint. The painting itself was, um ... labor intensive. Because of the grooves between the siding boards, paired with the unevenness and nails in the ceiling, we had to paint the whole room with a BRUSH. Two coats of oil primer + one coat of paint. When I say it took forever, that is an understatement. BUT, white paint was exactly what this space needed and instantly brightened it up. Painting the back porch is by far our most dramatic makeover to date. Seriously. It's even more dramatic than tearing out the wall between our kitchen and living room. {ps, we don't have a dog! We were puppy sitting at the time :)}

You can see in this photo that we also painted the foundation a dark grey to match the rest of the foundation. It also helps really ground the white. We also painted the floor, but I'll talk more about that later.

Here is the other side of the space. Again, missing siding boards, nasty old house door and jail-like and rusty screen door. Actually, if you look at the top left of the house door, you can see a space because the door didn't even fit. Our energy bills LOVED that in the winter ;).

New boards + new doors + paint make a huge difference. You can read about my painting the doors here. And, you can read more about the work that went into this wall here. We had to tear out the whole wall : |.

Clearly the porch was a late addition, because that window goes to a bedroom. Obviously ;). You can see it's broken and very poorly painted.

Aah. Much better. New window glass, new paint and messy paint scraped off and cleaned up.

Walls + ceiling + new lights.

A view of the ceiling. You can see the nails from the roof poking through. It adds ... texture.

So that is our backporch. Friends, we use this space ALL THE TIME. We LOVE it. I'm so glad we've turned it into a space we love and use :).

Why was I out there this weekend? Well a bunch of the caulk between the siding boards cracked and left huge gaping holes. Ugh. So I re-caulked and touched up the paint. It's looking awesome again :). 

From this point on, I'll make sure to keep you filled in on back porch updates. There are still a couple bigger projects up our sleeves back there and I'm excited to bring you guys along for the journey!

{renovate} back entry reveal!

Update 9/13/11: I am updating this post a bit and submitting it to Abode Love's Roomspiration party! Please pop over and take a look at all the great linked up entryways :).

It is a GREAT day! The sun is shining and over the weekend I saved all my lovely back entry photos from their hostage: the camera. Which means: BACK ENTRY REVEAL! I'm so excited about this reveal. Seriously. This has been a labor of love for both me and Chris. And, I realized this weekend, it's the first actual *construction* project we've tackled. Needless to say, it's boosted our home confidence a notch, and makes dealing with other scary house projects (I'm looking at you bathroom) a little less daunting.

Without further ado, here's a reminder of the before of all befores. What the room looked like when I moved in, circa 2008. Primer white, nasty torn linoleum, an extra fridge (?), a door that didn't fit and dirty, dirty, dirty:

And, here's our new back entry!

Light, clean, open and even a little spacious feeling :).

Here's the room just before we started the project. When we were *making-due* till we could tackle it:

And, today:

We painted the entire room, added board and batten, new tile, and painted the door for a fun burst of color. We added hooks for hanging coats and my purses and a bench for plopping things down on when we walk in the door. New artwork adds some personality and a potted plant adds some life.

The ceiling before:

A previous roof leek had bubbled and damaged the existing paint (luckily, not the plaster), and the brass chain light was falling out of the ceiling:

Ceiling now:

Newly painted ceiling, and shiny new light. You might remember that I specified a Schoolhouse Electric light on the mood board. Sadly, it didn't work out this time. Chris had found the fixture a few years ago on super discount, and we'd saved it for this room, but none of the Schoolhouse Electric shades I wanted fit into the fixture. We looked at buying an all new fixture + shade, but it was close to $200. In the end, the $5 shade from Home Depot was just too good to pass up. But, mark my words, I will one day own a Schoolhouse  Electric fixture :).

Stairs before:

The stairs at the beginning of the project. Originally, they were actually carpeted (with the same horrible blue as the hallway/back bedroom), I just don't have a picture. They sat like this, though, for a couple years, so they're an accurate before :).

Stairs today:

Details:

As I mentioned, we painted the door blue for a lovely little pop. It's by far the best part of the room. We LOVE it. The sign above the door we picked up at an adorable antique store on our annual birthday trip last year. We have no idea where E. Lake Ct. is, but we love the graphic nature of the sign, and it reminds us both of that super fun trip.

This little red tray was an afterthought. It quickly became apparent that the bench would be huge mess if we didn't corral keys, wallets, movies to return, etc. I was so excited when I remembered this tray! It was a wedding gift from someone I absolutely adore, but I'd never found the right place for it. Not wanting to get rid of it (and, that is how I roll. If we aren't using something, I usually donate it), I'd stored it away. Turns out, it was simply waiting for it's new home in our back entry! 

I didn't want to spend a lot of $$$ on art. I LOVED the art that I pulled for the mood board. I actually ordered the Kite Hill print, but Chris and I agreed that it just doesn't look right in this room. I already have other plans for it, so look for it popping up in a different room :). I framed a piece of my favorite chevron fabric, and pulled this letterpress print from the living room. It's way better here. As for the Make You Own Path art, I loved the actual letter press, but it would've been WAY too small for the space. So, I made my own using a bike map of Portland and letters printed at my local Fast Signs. I really like how it came out, but there are a few things I'd do different next time. Live and learn, right? :)

Close up of the art.

Close up of the small shelf that wraps all around the room.

I'll be honest, sometimes I just sit on the stairs admiring the room. And, the blue door. Thanks for all your support over the last 3 (THREE!) months of this project! You guys were so great and patient through all the updates and seemingly endless amount of time it took. HAPPY MONDAY!

If you'd like to read more about this 3-month project, go here, here and here.

{renovate} back entry: week by week

Bet you thought, from the title, that I'm going to show you the finished back entry?! The good news: The entry is done! For now. The bad news: The photos are trapped on my camera thanks to a faulty card reader. Boo.

In case you haven't noticed, projects around this house take just this side of forever. Or maybe I'm just too close to the situation? Either way, it's hard not to compare myself to the other bloggers who whip up projects like it's their job. Even though a lot of the time it is their job :). But, our back entry reveal is a long time coming.

I'll get a new card reader this weekend and on Monday I'll share with you a full reveal! Today though, I thought I'd walk you through our process and show you  both why it took a while and a few sneak peaks :). We decided, at the beginning of this whole back entry project, that we needed project parameters. Rules, if you will, so that we weren't completely burnt out at the end. We've made the mistake before of working weekend after weekend on projects, which on top of our regular 45+ hour a week jobs, gets to be a little much. It leads to burnt out, cranky, and not very fun to be around spouses. And it's after projects like these that we usually don't touch the house again for months. So we figured, to make this project as fun as possible, plus still have energy for other projects we want to tackle this spring, we'd set rules. The project might take a little longer, but we value our sanity, and our relationship with each other.

Our rules for the back entry (and the hardwood project) was work only on Saturdays. That left me Fridays to play (I work 4-10's), and Chris and I Sundays to play. We had our good friends helping us, so we promised ourselves we'd get up early, work our tails off and then break at a reasonable hour and share dinner with them. This plan worked well! Yes, we were super tired by dinner on Saturdays, but each weekend we got tons done still had a day or two to play. At this point we're sick of the project, but not BURNT out. So, our parameters were a success!

So, let's take a look at how this process went down.

2008

This is what the back entry looked like when I moved in. Horribly ill-fitting (and completely non energy-efficient) door, spare refrigerator (obviously), bad linoleum, and walls that consisted partially of lath and plaster, partially of wood and partially of concrete. Needless to say, the extra fridge was the FIRST thing to go after I moved in.

2010

Baby steps. We had already moved the fridge out, and we replaced the door with one that fits! Yah for less draft and lower heating bills! :)

This (hilariously kindergarten-esq) picture give you a better idea of what we were working with, uneven wall wise. At some point Chris had started to tear up the floor. I can't quite remember why he didn't finish. 

2011
WEEK #1

I, ahem, tore up the linoleum and the 80+ year old tile underneath. More about that here.

WEEK #2

We heart our friends! They began helping this week. Originally I'd wanted to pull out the stairs and built new amazing ones, ala Centsational Girl's beautiful stairs. Once we got going though, it was clear that the walls and floor in the room were neither straight nor square. Awesome. Tearing them out completely was the only part of this project the boys said *no* to. Instead they tore the tops off, stabilized and reinforced them, and put them back together.

WEEK #3

The beginnings of board and batten! We had a couple things working against us in the this room: uneven wall surfaces, and less than square/even walls and floor. It took us forever to even begin working on this room because we thought we were going to have to gut it, and that sounded like SO. MUCH. WORK. One day it occurred to me that we didn't have to gut if we could just cover up the uneveness. Yah! Board and batten was a perfect choice because we could cover up as far as we wanted, and the perfect shelf height covered all the weird surfaces.

I felt pretty bad for the guys though. The internets make board and batten look like a piece of cake. But when you're dealing with uneven walls, there's a lot of piecing together, and reworking to make sure everything is level. They were such rock stars.

WEEK #4

Once the walls were up, week four was all about adding some trim and tile. Tiling was actually super easy (says the chick that didn't tile)! The square tile I picked out fit perfectly across the room.

WEEK #5

More detail work. I mean really, look at the angles we were dealing with here!

WEEK #6

Chris was starting to look like this .... so we took a week off and went to the beach. :)

WEEK #7

This was the only week we broke our *Saturday only* rule. Once I start painting, I have a really hard time stopping. HAhaha! I just realized that sounds weird. But, it's true. So, I started on Friday, Chris and I worked on it all day Saturday and I finished up on Sunday. Phew! It was soooo nice to have done though.

WEEK #8

This week we started moving things back into the space ....

Adding finishing details such as hooks ...

and art!

We love how the space came together and are so, so, so excited to show you the final pictures Monday! I hope you all have a great weekend! :)