Before and After

We've been doing some work around the house.  Projects.  We have finished three in the past little bit, like this past weekend.  Here is our work.

First.  Probably twelve years ago, we bought this couch from a tweaker client of my dad's.  She was losing her house and her stuff, and we thought the couch was beautiful.  Well, let me rephrase.  We thought the couch shape was great and that it had the potential to be beautiful.  We have been storing it and moving it for years, at least four times.  Kent and I will sometimes talk about what we would do if we had a million dollars, and I always say, "I think we should get the couch recovered."  

We don't have a million dollars, but we finally decided to have the couch redone anyway.  I had already refinished the wood trim, so we just needed to find fabric we actually liked.  Something about the yellow, blue, and green floral didn't really appeal.  We found a guy who does upholstery for a decent price, we found fabric for a great price, and we had the couch recovered.  Finally.  

I love the way it turned out.  The fabric is gold with a squarish accent.  It looks so classy and came out as beautiful as I thought it could be.  When Hector (the upholsterer) brought it into the house and set it in place, I was thrilled with the way it looked, and fairly unhappy about the way the other couch next to it looked.  

This is a bad picture of the couch, but it here is what was next to our new, fantastic sofa.  A hand-me-down blue couch (without the chalk) that looked tatty.  So I had Hector take the other couch out and went looking for other fabric.  With four choices, Kent and I decided to have this blue recovered in a silky feeling red.

 How about that!  Although this couch does not have the same great wood trim on the arms and across the back, it is much the same shape as the other and looks really good next to the gold.

So here is the living room.  I recently made the curtains from a striped fabric I love, love, love, that has all the colors of our house and tie things together nicely.  We also just got the picture of Kent's great-grandfather Paul that we have hung above the bookcase.  I love the way the living room feels and love being in there.

While the living room projects have all been decorative, we have been doing other remodeling.  When we bought our house, there was carpet all over, including in the bathrooms.  We ripped it up the first day we had occupancy.  Before we were finished with everything we wanted to do before we moved in, my friend Heidi suggested we not recarpet the stairs, but instead, replace the treads with wood and paint the risers.  Kent and I both liked that idea, so we didn't carpet.  Then, it took us months to actually do the stairs.  Months to start, then months to finish.

Redoing this stairwell was very tricky.  When Kent finished he said, "If I ever decide to do this again, I'm not doing it.  I'm hiring someone else to do it."  The treads did not come up easily, the risers were mangled, and the landing had to be sawn through.  But Kent persevered, and the stairs look great.  I removed the railing (on the left in the picture) so we could replace the stairs underneath, and I like the way it looks without, so we are not going to put it back up.  I don't figure it will matter until we sell the house, but as we have no plans to do that anytime soon, I'm not worried.

Before and After.

They are warm and so easy to clean.

Looking down from upstairs

and from the entryway. 

In October, I had been talking with Kent about redoing the loo.  The half-bath on the main floor is boring and needs some spicing up.  One evening when we were talking, Brandt piped up and said, "When do I get flooring in my bathroom?"  There was carpet in all the bathrooms originally.  While there was linoleum around the toilets, by the sinks and showers there was carpet.  We ripped it up and haven't replaced it with anything yet.  Yup.  For a year now we have lived with sub-floor in the bathrooms.  I haven't been too concerned knowing we were going to get to it eventually, when we figured out what we wanted.  When our six-year old son asked about his bathroom floor, I decided he should be given priority because he obviously cares.  So on Thanksgiving weekend, we launched into a bathroom remodel.

It proved to be a lot of work.  Kent removed the toilet (we needed a new one) and the linoleum underneath, and we began our work.  We laid tile, painted, stained the cabinet, and hung hooks, a towel bar, and a toilet paper holder.  I fancified some towels and hung three pictures to finish it all off.  I must admit that I love the way it turned out, and so do the kids.  

Here is Kent laying sub-floor for the tile.

As you can see, the walls are a very boring yellow tinted white and the cabinet is stained golden oak.

It is a not a bathroom with a lot of personality.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Kent stayed home from work and we tiled.  Why is it that projects always take longer than you think they will.  This is a small bathroom we thought we could finish in a couple of hours.  All told, it took us six hours just to lay the tile.  It was a bit trickier than we thought it would be.  The small tiles came with a mesh back that held them together in a 12x12 inch square, but they moved around when they were being set and I wanted to try and keep them as straight as possible.  

I am happy to report that Kent and I did not fight while we were doing this tiling.  We worked really well together.  I grouted the following Wednesday while the kids were at school, and by Thursday evening, I was taping and readying the room for paint.  Blythe pointed out that this is her bathroom too, that she and Brandt share, so she wanted some input on what color we should choose.  We needed a color that would stand up against the green of Brandt's bedroom, so we did some compare and contrast with several different colors.  Blythe was pretty keen on a purple, which I thought would be great if we could find a purple that was bright enough and boyish enough for Brandt.  However, in the end, the children agreed on a blue, Resonant Blue to be precise.  "Resonant" because it is so loud you can hear it echo.  

Brandt helping with the painting. 

I made him take off all his clothes (well, almost all) so he wouldn't get paint on them.

The painting went very quickly because it is such a small space, then the baseboard was put back, the toilet replaced, and Kent declared us finished.  I, however, did not like the golden oak cabinet with the black and white floor.  I wanted something different.  So, I removed the drawers and doors, sanded those as well as the cabinet base, and stained the whole thing black with a product Kent is launching on the wood market soon.  It looks perfect with the floor and the walls.  

So here is the finished product.  I hung the pictures (the kids with their DeMartini cousins), and I sewed some decorative finishes on the towels.  The whole thing is exciting and interesting and much more in keeping with the feel of the rest of the house.  

Brandt wanted a large B while Blythe wanted a smaller one.

Two different colors so that they can distinguish whose towel is whose.

New light fixture too.

The other was cheap and ugly.

Looking from the jolly green bedroom into the resonant blue bathroom.

Fantastic!