Hallmark Hallway!

I am totally obsessed with our updated hallway! We are so excited about our open living and dining room too, but this hallway has had a dramatic facelift. I apologize in advance that I dont have a complete hallway before picture! Im my defense I didnt know I would be so happy and excited about the hallway enough to do a whole blog posting about it!
Before; 1980's globe hall light fixture:




Before; 1980's parquet flooring:



And more before; carpet, chipped baseboards, and parquet:



After; new industrial light, wood floors and tall fresh painted baseboards:


Also notice paint color change and white painted doors!
1980's before:


Updated after:


I'm obsessed! It's still 1 single light but much brighter and more beautiful!

Home Stretch!

Wood floors are down, TV is up! Here's some before, during, and after pics!
Closet before:


Closet extension framing during:


Closet/TV niche dry wall during:


Closet/TV niche painted after:

 
Chair rail, new paint, hung TV complete with wireless remote receptor thingy! All TV components are inside the closet. Oh and I promise you that the TV is centered exactly equally within the niche from left to right!! This picture doesn't look that way, but you better believe that it is. I measured it about 8 times and it's exact. The vertical measurement is a little off but I could care less about that.

Before, boring old coat closet again:


And after, larger, closet TV niche combo, again:

 
Amazing!! This really makes a difference in the living room. Not only will we have more space, but it looks sooooo cool and modern!!

Also seen in this after photo you get a sneak peek of the new floors here in the after shot. More to come on that later!
- Swiss Avenue

Without a Trace!

Any sort of trace or hint of a fireplace and a wall are completely gone now!
See here before with wall and massive fireplace:


The progress of taking out the fireplace and wall to the studs:


And now, nothing left, still in progress though, with an addition of a new support beam:


I cannot wait to get paint on the walls and trim!!!!

In The Closet!

Again, here are some more before and after pictures of the closet reno. This is the before shot of our coat closet looking at it from the center of the living room:



And here is the same look of that closet in progress of adding a pantry and TV niche to it:



So the existing closet remains but gets opened up on the other side to create a pantry. A new coat/TV component closet gets built out into the wasted space of the foyer:



And here is a shot of the dry wall completed closet/ TV niche:



Also here is a shot from the hallway of my new pantry!! I don't even know what I'm gonna do with all that storage space:



We have been kicked out of the house since Sunday! They are painting all the trim and doors and walls! Can't wait to see it this weekend!

Demo Derby 2!

The fire place, parquet, baseboards, and carpet are all GONE!

Check out before:


And standing, viewing the same place, after shot:


I will miss decorating it for the holidays, like here: Mantle Times. BUT you cannot beat the added space with a stick! We are going to love it!

Today the wall framing should be coming down! Stay tuned for progress shots!

Demo Derby!

So after much deliberation and hard work we have decided to stay in our house and rennovate!! We did have it on the market: listing photos here. But now we want to stay and make it our own!

So excited to go home tonight to see the progress on the fireplace demo! I know people are going to read this and think I'm totally insane for demo'ing a fireplace, normally I would agree, but this thing was MASSIVE! We calculated and estimated that we will gain about 50 square feet in the living/dining room when adding in the dead space next to it that wasn't usable. Yes, you read that correct, that's a 5-0, not a 1-5, in square footage! It also will open the living and dining room into one large "open concept" living space. We are also doing other renovations which I'll get into at a later date.

See before of massive, yet charming, yet cluttered, fireplace:



De-cluttered for demo:


Side view:


So huge:


Stay tuned for after photos!

Feature!

I'm so happy to announce that I was featured today on Better After!

Well not me personally but my ugly oil pipe fence before and beautiful new fence after!! Check it out!


Better After is an awesome blog that doesn't beat around the bush. It cuts right to the before and after photos of different projects! Love it!
 
Thanks again Better After for my feature!!! I added one of your buttons to my blog so my readers can easily check you out too!

Light Bright, Light Brite!

My friend Jen and her husband Wayne had a question about putting a light fixture in her dining room. I'm no professional but I love to help on house things whenever I can!

Here is her email:
"I wanted your opinion. We are desperately in need of a light fixture for our dining space. Besides the fact that the existing light is U.G.L.Y., if we get that San Antonio job, we'll need to sell the house and a chandelier/pendant/whatever will help a lot with staging. The problem is, I need it to be fairly inexpensive and I can't find anything that Wayne and I both agree on. He wants something simple, cheap and able to go very bright - I want something a little funky but neutral enough that it will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. Any ideas?? (Our fridge is stainless steel but the fixture in the family room is oil rubbed bronze. So a silvery finish OR a rubbed bronze finish will work.) Our dining room table is 4 1/2 ft in diameter, if that helps size-wise.

Thanks for all your help!! :)"

Here are Jen's photos of her dining room and current dining room light fixture. (The matching light fixture farther in the back of the photo has since been replaced with an oil rubbed bronze fan and light.)

 I'm all too familiar with this light, I have one in my house too...

So I scoured lighting fixtures and found some really great, inexpensive pieces online. Some places that I didn't expect would have some like Wal-Mart and Ikea, did have some good and stylish options! So I put together a mood board of light fixtures I found.

(Photo and Light Sources: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7)

So to break it down: Jen asked for a lil' funky but neutral. Wayne wanted function over form. I really hope I "set the mood" for them. Well umm, not in that way, but with finding a light fixture.

Jen said that her favorite was #2 and that was my favorite too. It was found on ebay of all things. So I think I inspired her to do some looking on her own and she found one at Overstock.com!

I think it will be perfect for her dining room!

(photo source: Overstock)

Jen, I can't wait to see the after pictures after you get it hung!! It is perfect! Thanks for letting me help you! It was fun!! Please check out Jen's blog: Call Me Crazy! You will die laughing/crying/ and relating!

Rock It Out, Now Rock It Out. Yes I Rock It Out!

My rock flower bed thingy was finished this weekend and I cannot take all of the credit. I had three bags of rocks left to pour on and I went to a see a friends baby and came home to it being magically done for me!
I didn't take a before before photo, but I did have during photos that probably looked worse than the actual before photos. Well maybe not, imagine this mess below plus over grown plants and a whole lotta weeds.

Before/During/Muddy Mess:

After: so fresh and so clean, clean:

First I pulled out the massive amount of weeds that were in the flower bed. I then cut the weed blocker tarp into shapes around my rose bushes, liles, and crape myrtle. (Don't mind the chewed siding by the doggie door. That is getting replaced next!)

I cleaned and trimmed up all the existing plants that I wanted to keep.

Then I started pour the rock. I love how it instantly gave me a beachy feel!

I noticed early on in the project that I didnt have enough of the Mexican river pepples (the grayish color stones), but those bags were $15 vs. the $4 bags of pond rocks (the brownish color stones).

So I decided to make a sort of a "river" running through it look.

Do you see the "river" ?

That way I was able to use less of the expensive Mexican river stones (gray) and more of the more cost effective pond stones (brownish).

I did really like the Mexian river rock better, but I just decided that fifteen bags X $15 each = was not in this budget.

I do like how it turned out and I am happy to say I haven't seen one weed yet! (Plenty of falling leaves though, ugh!)

Let me know about your Rockin' Out projects!

River Rockin' Out!

I decided to finally tear out all the weeds in my back yard flower bed and pour in pretty new river rocks in their place. The rocks are providing the double duty action of looking cool and blocking out future weeds. In my nit witty head I envisioned pretty stone beds with ornate flowers and plants equally placed at exactly four inches apart.

Photo courtsey of: Shed Style

I also saw pretty contrast of cool gray rocks against lively and vibrant green plants.

Photo courtsey of: Silk-Flower-Smart

A place where there were no weeds or unsightlys in sight.

Photo courtsey of: Shed Style

 I worked tirelessly for five hours last Sunday. I cut weed blocker tarp into  intricate shapes and sizes to go around the existing plants. I made a trip to Home Depot where I hauled twelve heavy bags of river rock, (I guess I should say Riann hauled them, but I was there cheering her on) off the shelf, into the car, then out to the back yard. I made very good progress in those five hours, silly me I thought it would only take one! Nit wit I know! I did make a muddy mess but it's all cleaned up now! So after all that then I finally realized I actually needed fifteen heavy bags of river rock, not twelve, so I quit. Role model I know, but it was getting late, Home Depot was closed and I was oh-so-sore.

Stay tuned for my before and after shots of my Rockin' River Rock Flower Bed with no weeds. It may take me a while to get it posted because I have come to realize that I strained my hamstring during my five hour river rock romp. So it is going to take me a while to put the extra three bags of rocks out. Epsom salt baths every night and I'll be back out there this weekend, I swear!

Fierce Fireplace!

My fireplace has been ashy for years. It's in major need of some shea butter in the form of a massive cleaning. So I started by shoveling out all of the ashes.

There were a lot of these little shovel loads!

Then on my hands and knees I scrubbed down the hearth while singing "Cinderella, Cinderella, wash the fireplace Cinderella".

Then once all that was cleaned out I put back all of the candles:

Notice my black metal pointer silhouette. She was a First Monday find for $5. Wait, I mean I commisioned an scultpture artist to weld a figure of Tate into this silhouette-o-metal. Tate was so hard to get to sit still but, I think it turned out to be a real likeness.

Tate is already posing for her next commissioned metal artwork piece:

She calls this pose "The Lioness".

I do think the fireplace looks pretty fierce! Here is what it looks like at night with one candle lit:

I do have real fires in here on cold winter nights, hense all the ashes, but during the summer I like to keep candles in there.

So my next project will be painting out the whole inside of the fireplace black, with fireproof paint of course. Have any of you done that before? I think it is a much cleaner finish on a fireplace and I am now going to look up a tutorial on how to do just that!