Door Knobs

Our projects have really slowed up this fall. I have some plans for what I want to do with the dining room. It's just going to take some time and money. So in our attempts to save money for the bigger projects, we've been working on small, cheap projects, one of which are our door knobs. 

Our door knobs were this ugly yellow gold color full of marks made by what we can only assume was a dog who loved chewing on anything. They were scratched up in places and just plain boring.

With six dollars and a trip to Lowes, we purchased a can of brushed bronze spray paint.

And voila, we have door knobs that perfectly match the color theme we have going with most of our furniture. 

Giving the Bedroom Some Love

It's been a slow-going process, but the bedroom is taking shape. We've painted the walls, bought some actual furniture, and hung some curtains. While it's still a ways away from being complete, it definitely is better than it was, and it feels comfy (and that's what counts). 

We took an experimental approach to the paint by going with two primary colors in addition to the trim. While strolling through Lowes's paint department, I happened on a brochure that was combining two colors in one room. The green and brown example instantly struck a chord with me, and so that's what we ran with.

We're still deciding on what to do with the headboard. It's good quality, but the light oak color clashes with the darker wood we selected for our end tables. We're thinking about either going with an upholstered or rod-iron headboard. Since we added the curtains, I think we're leaning toward a rod-iron look which could blend nicely with the night stands.

We purchased the night stands from World Market. We searched high and low for a set of two, going all over Des Moines to almost every major furniture store in the area. The ones we liked at the various stores were either way out of our price-range or were über cheap looking. The ones at World Market were in our price range and they looked great.

We bought a set of dressers from World Market as well. Once again, they were on the cheaper side but felt like they were well made and built with good quality materials. They also came from the same set as the night stands. They definitely dress the room up, and they're ten times better than the temporary Pamida dresser we've been using for the last eight years. The dressers make me feel like an adult, oddly enough.

So this is our work in progress. We need to make a decision on our headboard, and I want to figure out what to do about the carpet and other wall decorations. It's coming along.

An Experiment without Frames

Many of the design blogs I follow have some clever, artistic ways of displaying art, photography, and miscellany. I've found some really good ideas, but both Steph and I aren't always that daring when it comes to displaying our art. So I've decided to use our bedroom as a place for experimenting with alternative ways of designing our living space. If it's an epic fail, no big deal; we can always change it. Moreover, it's the bedroom, so guests hardly ever come in there anyway.

Here's our first foray into experimenting with our living space, which really isn't that experimental at all (baby steps).

This gives an idea of what I'm going for. I love using the binder clips to display art, and the wall finally doesn't look like a Spartan cell. We've been really busy with the bedroom, and I'll be sure to put up some pictures that show the new, experimental color we decided on for the walls and our new dresser and end tables, among other ideas for where we think we should go. 

And We're Back...

So after a month hiatus, I'm finally back to posting things on our house. We've done some small projects, but I've fallen behind on talking about them here. My fall goal is to continue posting things both big and small.

Over the week, Steph and I bought some really cheap picture frames from Hobby Lobby, which I thought would look perfect in the corner of our living room. It's a slow-going process, but the living room is really coming together, from the surprise wall color I chose to the third-time's-a-charm curtain selection.

Here's the before and after for the corner of the room. The lone clock no longer feels like it is on a sea of wall.

Before:

After:

Steph and I were both amazed at how adding five picture frames totally cozied up the corner. The next step is finding a way to add a new end table and getting rid of the four cubes that are just there. 

Seaport Paint

Steph and I have been busy with a number of small projects this week, everything from the office that will forever be in a constant state of fixing to attempting to reupholster a couple of chairs we found on the side of the street (Yes, I know. We've become those people). I'll be sure to document our attempts at the chair.  On Wednesday, I had the afternoon off, and I was given the go-ahead to buy some more paint. This time for the bathroom and our bedroom. We're thinking of trying something experimental with the bedroom, and we'll need to complete some tests before we're ready to actually paint the room. The bathroom, on the other hand, was ready to go. Just an FYI, here's what it looked like when we bought the house.

I've actually been really happy with the quality and shape of the bathroom. The shower, sink, and toilet (after I installed a new valve for the flusher) all work really well, and there is plenty of storage in the cabinet underneath the sink. The color just was really bland and didn't help to make the room stand out on its own.

We get some really good light in the room, and even though it's a smaller room we wanted to go with a darker color to make it have its own personality from the hallway, We also thought the beige-ish tile and white trim would complement a darker color nicely. After some time spent in the paint section of Lowes, we ended up purchasing a Valspar, Allen Roth color called Seaport. Here's what the room looks like now. 

There is a slight greenish hue, which works perfectly with our towels, and blue hue work well with the white trim. We also for the first time in our married lives have put up "art" in our bathroom: San Francisco ocean waves and Paris. 

One Glass of Wine, a Pouncing Cat, and Some Picture Frames

After following a really great idea from this blog, I put up our picture frames in the hallway. Overall, I'm really pleased with layout of the frames (it looks much more balanced than it did before). Instead of me reinventing the wheel and explaining how I did everything, I'll leave it to Roost to explain how I set up our frames. 

Hostas Hostas Everywhere

I'm slowly chipping away at the stuff that needs to be done outside. I removed the dog kennel poles last weekend and my basil garden has taken off, but I haven't spent that much time with the yard. I hate wasting water on the lawn, so our grass is patchy and brown; I don't really care about having a well-manicured, green grass. To avoid my apathy toward grass in general, my goal is to have as many plants tastefully filling the yard as possible. Of course, this will take some time and effort, but I much rather have perennials that are easy to maintain, while helping to increase our house's curb appeal.

That being said, I've started working on the terrace in the backyard. I plan to move my way forward to the dog kennel, with a sidewalk (maybe) by the end of the fall. As you can see, the back terrace has some real potential; I'm just having trouble envisioning what I really want back there.

The area is well-shaded, so plants requiring a lot of sun are out. My mom recommended using hostas. According to her, they're shade loving and almost impossible to kill (two bonuses). She also gave me two of her hosta plats as a house warming gift. On top of that, our flower bed along the front of the house has some hostas that were extraordinarily out of control, for not having anything done to them. I was quite happy because they're expensive little plants. After digging out three from the frontyard and planting my mom's, here's what the second terrace looks like now with the hostas.

There are still more weeds and over growth than intentional planting. I still have a long way to go, but it's a start. The previous owners had left three bags of radiant black mulch as well. It works pretty well, and I will probably go to a gardening store to buy some more bags, giving the second level a much more even look. 

Because the plants were sitting in a bucket of water for over week, they're looking pretty rough, but I expect them to do all right for the rest of the summer. In the mean time, I have a coworker who has offered some of her hostas, so I plan to have the entire second terrace filled with the plants. The next step will be tearing out all of the weeds and dead bushes on the main terrace. It should prove a challenge, I'm sure.

Return of the Curtains + New Pillows

Steph and I had the opportunity to go back to Atlantic for the Atlanticfest Road Race, a five mile run that cuts through our hometown. This is one of the races that I've participated in for the past four years since I started running. On a side note, I got fourth in my age group (not too bad!). 

Anyway, after visiting the family for a little bit, we made our way to the Walmart in Atlantic. While we're both adamantly opposed to going to most Walmarts, Atlantic's is always less crowded and not nearly as scurvy as some of the other ones we've been to. Our goal was to find some new curtains. The eggshell blue curtains just didn't work in our living room since I painted, and we've been needing some that more closely match the walls. We looked online, but the prices were way more than we were willing to spend, I thought it was too risky to look at curtains based off of internet photographs. Walmart seemed like a decent option.

We totally lucked out as well. There were several options to choose from, and we could spend fifteen dollars for two panels rather than ten, twenty, or, in some cases, thirty+ dollars for just one. We finally decided on a color called bennett (don't ask me what sort of name that is), and the result looks like this:

Instantly, our walls don't look as blue as they had with the eggshell curtains. I also really like that the the curtains have a semi-sheer look that lets in some light, while blocking out the interior of the house when someone looks in from the street.  We may end up going with a darker brown rather than this tan color, but we definitely like the neutrality of the look. 

The older pillows we've had for a couple of years didn't work. A combination of five different colors, including purple, the old pillows really clashed with every other accessory we owned in the room. While shopping for the curtains, we found these pillows as well.

This blue color in the pillows definitely helps tie the room together, and it matches the blueish hue we get from the walls, which oddly enough, seems to help bring out the grey in those very same walls. It's amazing how quickly accessories and curtains can help to bring a room together.

The Wild Hair

Steph went to Kansas City this weekend to work at her office for the day, so I had the entire weekend to myself. I had planned to go into a vegetative coma, but I got a wild hair to paint the living room (much to Steph's chagrin). This was somewhat of a daring move on my part. I chose the color without Steph's approval, and in hindsight, that wasn't the wisest thing Ive ever done.. So on Saturday afternoon, I went over to Lowes and picked up three gallons of "autumn fog," a color I instantly liked  as soon as I saw it. 

So the living room, in the course of 24 hours, went from this: 

to this:

It's definitely more blue than the color swatch led me to believe. That being said, after sitting in the room with Sir Pouncelot, a glass of wine, and just letting my mind go, the color has really grown on me. It matches more closely what I had in mind when we bought the curtains. But now I think some patterned curtains that have either a brushed bronze or brown look would work better in the room. I'll have some new posts up later this week to show what we did with a new TV we purchased and our decision to do away with the entertainment center.

Always a work in progress.

An Experiment on Curtains and Curtains

The office is close to being done. I just need to touch up some areas. The next big step is going to be decorating the room into something that works for Steph as her office, and helps to seperate her work space with her living space. This won't happen over night, but we're talking things over for what she wants. To start things off with decorating, however, we've had some yellow curtains that we used in our old apartment that we put up temporarily in the living room. Over the weekend we went to target and made, what is for us, a rather bold choice in new curtains: eggshell blue.

Aside from a messy living room, I do't know what to make of these. The color, at first, is kind of off putting, but I think mixing them with the right paint color and decorations could really be fun. Here is what Steph found for inspiration. Like I said, I'm still of the fence about these curtains; I'm hoping they'll grow on me, and I'll find a color scheme that will work in my mind's eye. 

Curb Appeal

I've been trying to come up with some ways to improve the curb appeal of our house. Not that it is ugly, but I feel like we could do some small things to really cute it up (landscaping, a new sidewalk, etc.). Both Steph and I really dislike the front stoop, however. The carpet is old and moldy, and no matter how hard I try or what I do, I cannot get the stains out of it.

My goal is to use an acrylic sealer to lay over the top of the concrete. The carpet will be the easy part to remove, and I've quickly learned my lesson to not be too ambitious with the demolition portion of a job. This could very well be a bigger task than I bargained for. 

The overhang is an eyesore in my opinion as well. The cheap plastic that serves as our awning just doesn't help to improve the overall look of the front stoop.

I would like to tear it out, but that needs to wait until I actually have a plan for what to put in it's place. Here is a picture of some inspiration. I think an angled awning that matches the angle of the front part of the house could have some real potential. One step at a time, however.

A Work in Progress

Work has been crazy busy the last couple of days. I haven't had time to work out, read, or write. However, Steph and I have been diligent with working on the office. After a month of  paint removal, followed by wallpaper removal, followed by even more paint removal, we were finally ready to prime and paint the room.

One big issue we ran into as we were removing the paint, however, was removing parts of the wall. There were quite a few dings and chips in it. While most of these were not too noticeable, I needed something to hide the nicks, so we bought some wall texture that could be easily rolled on. It wasn't the perfect fix, but it helped dramatically. 

After priming and texturing, we began painting the next day. This was a really exciting moment; after eight years of marriage, we had never painted a room together. Choosing a color took some time. We're both very much attracted to green shades (I worry that all of our rooms will end up green, if I'm not careful). But because this was our first paint project, we both decided on and fell in love with a nice, lightish green color. The camera makes it look darker than it actually is. 

The next step is redecorating the room, finding some art, and finally making it Steph's place of business. 

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake

Post written by Stephanie.

Coffeecake is something I had never made until I found this recipe.  Mainly because the coffeecake that Starbucks has, or used to have maybe, is so incredibly good.  I just never had the desire to make it.  But, I stumbled upon this recipe at King Arthur Flour and thought I'd give it a shot.  It was the "streusel" part of the recipe that sold me.  Mmmmm...streusel.  So, I made it, and was very glad I did.  Especially now that I haven't seen the Starbucks coffeecake in quite a long time, so this is a more than sufficient replacement!  Side note, the streusel topping makes a TON.  I literally ended up scooping off about half because it was loose on top anyway, and plenty good without all the extra.  I would recommend making half what the recipe calls for, streusel only.

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake

Ingredients:

Streusel Topping

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Cake

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (also used King Arthur white whole wheat)

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans.

2) Make the topping by whisking together the sugar, salt, flour and cinnamon.  Add the melted butter, stirring till well combined.  Set the topping aside.

3) Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder.  Note that the cocoa powder is used strictly for color, not flavor; leave it out if you like.  Set it aside.

4) To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, salt, sugars, baking powder and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

5) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6) In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream or yogurt and milk till well combined.  You don't need to whisk out all the lumps.

7) Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk/sour cream mixture, beating gently to combine.

8) Pour/spread half the batter (a scant 3 cups) into the prepared pan(s), spreading all the way to the edges.  If you're using two 9" round pans, spread 1 1/3 cups batter in each pan.

9) Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter.

10) Spread the remaining batter atop the filling.  Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake.  Don't combine filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.

11) Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

12) Bake the cake until it's a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes for the 9" x 13" pan, 50 to 55 minutes for the 9" round pans.  When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.

13) Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving.  Serve cake right from the pan. Recipe taken directly from King Arthur Flour.