Re-Rug'd

Have you ever searched for something you weren't quite sure existed? And yet you can't settle for anything but what's in your mind's eye? I think we all have: That perfect dress, haircut, partner, whatever - In this case, the perfect rug.

You may remember way back when I scored a great deal on a beautiful rug through Overstock.com for our family room. As things in our house have evolved, it became clear pretty quickly that while the rug was great, it just wasn't quite right. A little too small, and, if I'm being honest, the colors were never quite what I expected when I ordered online. Fine, but not perfect.

And so began the hunt. Apparently, it's a rarity to find a non-white-based rug that incorporates gray, yellow, brown, and black.
...Which, okay, now that I see it listed out, I kind of understand.
But after years of periodic searching... Success! And not only color and size success, but an unbelievable sale price to boot (under $150 for 100% wool, marked down from over $600 via RugsUSA.com).

I think we'll keep this guy for the long haul.

And the peacock rug will be happily put to use in our living room - A space that I really enjoy, but needs a little more life and color. I think this switcheroo will be a good start. The covered ottoman will probably follow.

Side Note: I can't believe how different our family room looks from that peacock rug post! God bless the flooring.

Someday Has Come

Remember that room I've been calling my "someday sewing room"? I hope so, I've been calling it that for two and a half years.

........

That was a cringe break. I know I needed one.
I called myself out waaaaay back on June 13th of 2012 when we were about 5 months into living here and everything we moved in and didn't know what to do with immediately got dumped in this room. It was a white carpeted, junk-filled nightmare. Remember?

It evolved from there, especially when we had to clear the place to get our new floor, but was never truly functional as what I wanted. But now, oh-ho yes, now it looks a little something like this:

Yes, that's a small kegerator. Yes, I'm an awesome wife. Thanks for noticing.

Now excuse me while I go craft/sew-something/stare-googly-eyed at my clean room (that last one is the most likely option).


*Notice the desk-like tables? The larger table with the cutting mat on it is the former dining room set up. That makes two pieces of the former dining room at home in the sewing room: The light and the table/chairs. Yay for using what you've got!

On The Side

It's the upgrade that almost wasn't.

I go through phases where I'll buy just about anything within reason, and then a switch gets flipped and I'm back to my scrimpy-save-y ways, scrutinizing every penny and over-analyzing every purchase for long-term value.

We were in the neighborhood of our local Home Goods store recently and Nate suggested we pop in to look for bar stools for our soon-coming table (next month, eeeee!). We struck out there, but spotted a great side table. Slowly but surely we've been upgrading our Ikea college leftovers, and deep down I knew this was just the thing. But... Sixty dollars? At that moment it felt sickening.

I got over it. And the more minutes it's in our home, the more I love it. Buh-bye black blocky Ikea table, helloooooo weathered, wrought-iron loveliness.

Lesson learned? If I see something I know is perfect, it's a great price for the quality, and it's in a place where they only sell one and it will only be there once.... For heaven's sake, BUY IT. Big ol' shout-out to the hubs for convincing me of my own lunacy and pretty much picking up both the table and I and taking us to the cash register. It's a keeper (and so's he).

Deck The Walls

Christmas in August? Kinda. Especially since the last time I mentioned this project was back in December...

Remember the rope-wrapped letters I made as Christmas gifts (tutorial here)? Well it was finally time to treat myself and take care of some blank wall space.

And another blast from the past: The metal horseshoe 'wreath' I bought aaaaages ago (literally a whole year) also finally found a home in the family room.

For the record: The wall color is not this weird in real life.

Love having these pieces in our most-used room so we can see and enjoy 'em often.

A little room context.

The art above the 'J' is by an insanely talented friend of mine, Caitlin Hansen. See more of her work here. 

Patching Drywall: Easy As 1, 2, 3.

I know, patching drywall sounds intimidating. Or at least it did to me. But no joke: It's about a three step process, and the steps aren't even tough. Ready?

First, make a hole in  your wall. I prefer to make mine with a 15 pound, 36" pry bar when wrastling (yes. wrastling.) up old hardwood. Done? Mmkay, moving on.

You can pick up one of these handy dandy patch kits if it meets the criteria of your hole size (about $8), or you can pick up each item singly.

Now all that's left is the work: Stick, spackle, sand and paint. Yep, that's it. Look:

Stick on the metal mesh (really - it's a sticker.)

Load up the putty knife with spackle.

Slap it on, blend it out so it's not a big lump.

Let it dry (this brand is pink wet, white dry). I put up the baseboard too.

Sand lightly if needed, then paint to match. Done!

Not so scary anymore now, is it. The hardest part is waiting for the spackle to dry: Mine said it could take only an hour, but it was pouring rain and the humidity made that one hour about twenty four. Looking back I could have added some texture somehow into my wet spackle to better match the wall, but the hole is behind the front door so I'm just not too worried about it being a little smoother than the surrounding area. You can't even see it looking down from eye level.
Success!

P.S. Added bonus: I only used about a quarter of that little pot of DAP spackle, so I've been using it around the house to fill some other damaged areas that don't require the mesh. Two-for-one, love it!

Random Round Up: The Little Things

Sometimes it's the little things that make me happiest. Like a visit from my dearest Emily this weekend, a cushy new kitchen rug, and watching the bumble bees have a hay day in our flowering back yard.

Bumble Butt

Loving the new rug* - Found at Target.

They're baaaack! Sweatshirt-stamping craft time with Em.

Outdoor mat upgrade.

Also, found this pre-color pic on The Color Run's photo site - We're already talking about next year's race!

My friend/co-worker Jessica, myself, and Nate

*In New Floor News: We found out we can't have anything rubber long-term on our new flooring as rubber stains urethane over time, so we've had to do a bit of a rug redux. It's weird and something we had no idea about prior to purchase, but in the grand scheme of things, not really a huge problem. I'm glad we know so we don't lift our kitchen or sliding glass door rug in 10 years time and find a big dark square! Consider this an FYI for all you laminate-owning peeps out there: It's info direct from the supplier.

Completely Floored

As promised (drumroll please)... The new floor!

Dining room - In need of a non-Ikea table, stat!

Incredibly thin hearth surround.

Hall (laundry/garage on right, powder room doorway on left)

Kitchen, dining beyond, as viewed from family room.

Semi-put together living room/dining room.

Powder room (sans toilet)

Light-flooded sewing room.

Even Tucker's coming around.

You can see things are still in transition a bit with the uninstalled toilet, the piles of crap stuff on the kitchen counters, and the baseboard up in only some of the rooms (I actually polished off that project last night, but some of the photos were snapped prior). And as for the white baseboard with the "pickled oak" (yep, that's really the color name... gross) cabinetry, oh the plans we have. Those puppies will ultimately be all kinds of white and hardware-d hopefully by the end of the summer. Same with all the doorjambs - all Decorators White by Benjamin Moore, same as the newly spruced baseboards.

If you're in the area, we highly, highly recommend Evoke flooring (ours is the style 'Gustave') through Metropolitan Hardwood. And I cannot say enough good things about our installer: Alex of A.S. Hardwood - He's licensed, insured, and awesome. I was so impressed at the level of care and quality he and his assistant poured into their work.

But for now, reveling in the new floors and how spacious the place feels! Thrilled.

Shuffle [base]Board

You guys, I'm such an unintentional tease. Here I promise floor photos and am not at all delivering! Well here's one little kitchen glimpse of the before and after:

More to come, I promise! But with a family birthday and both visitors and The Color Run this coming weekend, things are getting lost in the shuffle over here. The current pressing project is getting the baseboard sanded, painted, and re-installed. Caulking and filling the holes will have to wait until next week/end, but for now we're just shooting for protected sheetrock and getting my car back in the garage. Check it out:

Yellow-y cream to clean, pretty white.

s

Gloves and sandpaper (not a disembodied hand, despite appearances...)

Drying in the garage

Paint Creature

The baseboard in the living/dining rooms were that yellow-y cream color pictured above, but most of the other stuff is a super shiny kind of orange-y wood. It surrounds all the doorjambs too, so guess what the next project is....
Floor pics are coming. Really. Someday soon!!

Farewell Flooring!

You saw the process of getting rid of the kitchen linoleum last, so thought I'd squish all the other results into this one post: Hardwood and more carpet, gone! It was my personal undertaking to remove every last piece of hardwood from the foyer/hall/powder room via sledge hammer, rubber mallet, 36" pry bar and good ol' fashioned sweat. And... Success! Let's bring on the before and after...er, during, shall we?

Foyer Before (can't see from here, but hardwood is very damaged)

Foyer (and hall) Demo'd (black paper is old moisture barrier)

Powder Room Before (hardwood splintering/damaged here too, really)

And Powder Room Demo'd - Sink and toilet in the garage, classy.

Family Room Before (and a Tucker butt)

Family Room Getting Sealed (it was down to bare wood in here)

Family Room Demo'd!

Meanwhile, the kitchen now looks like this:

Utter Chaos

But this was pretty satisfying...

Bye linoleum!

 We're living on the bare bones, drop cloths, and shoes on at all times (which kills me)... But that just means that the flooring is really happening. Right. Now.

Reveal next week!