Reclaiming Part of The Guest Room

Here's the deal - on either side of our staircase we have matching rooms. Had our house not been hacked to bits by the former owners, one would have been the dining room (which it is) and the other would have been the living room. Follow?
Unfortunately, the one that should serve as living room had been turned into a bedroom at some point. So it has a closet and an ugly plastic coated bathroom. We've been using it as a guest room slash my office because we have so few rooms done in the house. It hasn't been gutted - so it still has a yucky dropped ceiling and paneling (which we painted to make it more tolerable).
Recently, I had a brainstorm as to how we might make it more living room-like. Our budget? Roughly zero.
Behold: OK, this is not a true before picture. I had already started moving things around, so the room is super cluttered. But you get the gist.

Big console holding the TV right in front of the pretty fireplace. Bed immediately to your right when you walk in the door. CLUNK.


Oh wait, here's another before (pre-console days).

And here is the same view now, walking into the room.

walking in one more step...

Turning to the right where the bed used to be. There you can see my desk sticking out. Now, the TV is on it. Kinda janky, I know - but it'll have to do for now. We need either a flat screen above the fireplace, or a TV cart that can roll out when needed. And I need my desk to be in my office (currently used as the shop). Sigh.


Here's another before:

Here is the wall that the bed used to be against. I'm so jazzed to have this couch out of the dining room where it was sucking up so much space. This still needs tweaking. I should use different lamps, and the end table situation is iffy. There are also some smudges in the paint where the bed rubbed against it.Those paintings are by my old friend Mathew Brannon (hello, solo show at the Whitney). I may hang a bunch of photos on this wall as well. Haven't decided. Stay tuned.


Here's a before for contrast:

This is where the real work happened. I draped the hell out of the closet, and moved the head of the bed into it to create a little sleeping nook. That made the bed (a queen) much less obtrusive in the room. Joe and I also made some great little shelves for reading lamps out of books from Goodwill. I'll post a tutorial in a sec. Don;t ask me why I have that stick over by the fireplace. It's been there for over a year. I'm insane I guess. There, I said it. Are you happy?

I'm having weird camera problems, so forgive the spots.

We can finally admire the pretty fireplace in this room. Both mirrors were "dumpster dives," I found one on the street, and got another from my friend's house-sale for free. The topiaries were also free from the same sale. Oh ps: the great sissal rug is one of two that my aunt Mimi just gave me for free. Hate me yet? It totally makes the room because the floors desperately need to be redone.
Over by the fireplace you can where Terminex tore a bunch of holes in the floor to show us old termite damage. Thanks, Terminex. Don't look at the ugly baseboard heating either please. You're looking! What'd I say?

How hilarious is this picture of me (swoopy bangs) and my little sister? I love it. My Father In-law asked who the boys in the picture were. I don't know what kind of Flock of Seagulls dudes he's hanging out with. PS: could we have looked any more miserable in the shot? 7th grade I think.

Here's the nook with Bernie admiring.

All for now - more later. The little shelves we made are so great. I can't wait to show them to you you.

Shower Pictures and Furniture Pruning

Joe and I did so much fun projing this weekend. I can't wait to show you some pictures. But for this morning, I thought I'd post a few shots I took of the living room all set up for a bridal shower I threw a friend about a month ago (as a lapsed blogger I have a big backlog of pics to roll through dontcha know).

These pictures show what's still wrong with the room as much as they show what's right.
In this one you can see that I finally got a great corner china cabinet (I'll post more about that soon too). You can also see that there's a couch on the right hand side of the room. It has to go. Makes the room feel crowded and cluttered.

Nuther couch view. Ick! But look how pretty the table looked with all the favor bags and sparkly silver.


You can also see the cool farm cabinet in the right hand side of this pic. Again, another big item that is just sucking up space in this room and needs to move. In fact, pretty much every room in our house could benefit from 20% less furniture. I'm pruning like mad at the moment. But with few finished rooms, we have had to cram a lot into a little. Thankfully, that's finally starting to change.

Oh how cute is this? I found a bridal knife at a friend's house sale. It was more like a bridal sword. Kinda scary/pretty in a 50's housewife kind of way.


More views. I make a mean tea sandwich btw.

Why do I have this many tea pots?


How much better is this view with the couch cropped out? What does belong over there, imo? An upright piano. But I'm still scouring Craigslist and Freecycler for the right one.

I am in love with these goblets. ps: that's my Mom's china pattern. I'm lucky. Who was picking a simple platinum band in the late 60's/early 70's? No one, that's who. Most moms were into gaudier things like orangey brown floral patterns.

Gotta love my makeup industry friends who kicked down fantastic cosmetics and skincare goodies for all my guest's goody-bags.

Promise to post proj pictures tomorrow. I hope you'll love the changes we've made (we sure do).

Curtain Saga

What's wrong with this picture?
I'll tell ya.
As soon as I hemmed and hung these babies (thanks Donald Trump! - Joe scored tons of drapes for me off this season of The Apprentice - which he works on every year) I realized it wasn't working. For one thing, they totally cover the moldings (casings?) that surround the windows, which zapped the room of any architectural interest and made it look new-ish and prefab.
Ick.
This is partially because I used too narrow of rods, they should be so wide that the drapes reveal the entire window when open. But then they'd cover tons of wall, which I also do not want. I want to add some cool panel molding later and I don't want the room to be wall to wall drapery.
Does that make sense?
So about a week later, I went up to Albany to an awesome salvage place, where I scored a bunch of interior shutters. They will give us the privacy we need but still let in a lot of light and the pretty views we get in the evening.
As you can see they are beat to crap and really dirty. I'll have to paint them. But come on, I got 8 of them for $100 and the size is perfect.
In this shot they look too short because they're tipped, but they cover the bottom window exactly.
I'll just use the drapes in one of the zillion other rooms that need window coverings. Even the navel-height windows upstairs could use these.
Here's my artsy shot of the view from the front window.
It looks like a light-brite or paint by numbers - no?

What do you guys think? It's not set in stone.

Fireplace Project

here - as promised (a zillion weeks ago it seems) are some updates on my fireplace project.
first I did a few tests. On the upper left hand corner I used joint compound only.
In between the bricks elsewhere I used a hot mix which is (for those who don't know) just a combo of plaster and joint compound. The mix makes it dry much faster and gives the whole thing a bit more body so that it doesn't droop or sag or any other such bs.
The more plaster you mix in the faster it dries so you wanna mix just a bit at a time if you are a slowpoke like moi. I also stripped some of the mysterious crappola off the floor with a brilliant cleaning product that I like using way more than the strippers I've tested. It produces no odors or gasses thought I'm sure it's not at all green. But I digress. More on that later.
Example 1:
As the closeup reveals the joint compound alone section looked like total ass. lots of bubbling and cracking and all manner of ugliness. Fine, now I know.
Meanwhile the mix section dried really smoothly and was mailable by hand. So I was able to press it into the crevices after letting it dry for about 15 minutes.
Here it is fully covered. It still needs another coat and then paint to achieve the look I am going for. But I think it already looks way way better. More like stone and less like something built by stoners. Ok that was a very Dad/king of lame puns type joke but you'll have to forgive me. I have other qualities.
Here's another close up of the surface.

And one of the hearth. These tiles are pre 1900's and I'm diggin on them. So they shall stay.
Ok I also tested an adhesive remover on the floor and this is the result. It worked pretty well - but was super fumey and scary toxic. I'm thinking I'll just use the hardcore cleaner again. But will also test out one of the soy strippers and see if we can get there without destroying the earth.
It's gonna look rad huh? In my dreams this floor is stained a silvery gray like driftwood.
Here is the cleaning product I used. I don't have the energy to reload it in the proper way - so be a dear and tilt your head to the left won't you?
all for now.

Fireplace Project

So finally - a fun decorate-y project! This week, one of the things I get to do is work on the fireplace. My Dad is coming up (over?) from Montana to help me and together we are gonna work our asses off. Here's my plan for what I'd like to do to the fireplace. (yes that is a snow shovel that I was using for a dustpan - thank you for noting my ingenuity).

First a few facts about the fireplace that I call "creative bricklaying gone bad." It may surprise you to learn that this fireplace is not some wacky addition thrown up in the sixties. Because I am a crafty little detective I discovered that this baby is either very early 1900's or actually 1800's! First of all every Hudsonite who has seen the hearth has said that the square hand made tiles (not pictured in my photo but they look exactly like the ones pictured below) are pre 1900's. But that's not enough to get me excited or anything.

Here's what did it for me....

I was in a church in Hudson (do not ask me why darling) when I saw this... My fireplace's very own ugly twin! Ok I'll admit that mine is much uglier. But still! Of course I made a total spectacle of myself snapping these photos without explanation, but whatevs. I was on a mission.

Here's the aformentioned hearth. not nearly as ugly as the fireplace surround but nothing too darling either. But regardless, mine will probably stay (thought possibly painted - inspiration pictures to come soo).

So here's where I gleaned some info. this fireplace was gifted to the church in honor of Mary Leeds Punderson 1818-1916 for her 98 (for real y'all) years of service to the Senior Sewing Society. So this was after her death. Sometime not to far after 1916 I'm thinkin.

So I'm also thinking that these were probably made by some local designer. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more like them in the area. NONE of this info however, is enough to make me want to keep mine intact. I'm just not that deep. Much as I'm into historic restoration I'm just not feelin it.

So here's the plan. Frst of all - keep in mind this fireplace was coal and does not work. I'd love to get an insert someday so that I can turn it into something functional but that's not gonna happen anytime soon I don't think - due to finance alone. I'd like to cover the brick surround portion with the plaster treatment shown below (from Apartment Therapy). Follow the link to see how to do it. It leaves a sort of softened cloudy surface to the brick. I think I might be able to obscure the weirder brick shapes and sort of re-draw more normal-ish shapes in the plaster with my fingers. We shall see.

How to create BDDW walls

Then, I'd like to whitewash the exposed brick from the chimney portion (which we just exposed - yay!) so that the bricks still show through but aren't so dark. ie the gorgeous photo below (Apartment Therapy). Follow the link for directions on how to do it.

How to whitewash brick walls

Then, I'd like to use an old barn beam or something similar for the mantle. That's the sort of thing I love love love shopping for. So that'll be a welcome break - whenever I get to go hunt for that.

All for now. I'll let you know how it all shakes out. Getting the dining room dialed in is going to feel awesome!

Ch ch ch changes (finally)...

So there's finally been some dramatic movement upstate. Yay! I know we've only had these walls open for a few months but it feels like a long time since anything major happened. We are nickel and diming our way along donthcha know.
Anyway - the doorway in the dining room (creative bricklaying room) has finally been reopened. It looks awesome. This is clearly how it was intended to be. Across the hall you can see where there was once a matching doorway into the living room. That area is now where the super gorgeous parade of plastics bathroom addition was plopped down. And since it's really high functioning it's gonna have to stay awhile. Dang.
When in doubt, just cover your bad decisions up with fauxtastic panneling. Alright people?

Now turning toward the kitchen - we popped open a window of sorts. Why, you ask did we not just open up the whole wall (or at least a doorway rather than a window)? Well frankly, we couldn't sacrifice the wall or storage space. This is the only wall that a refrigerator could go against, and I really want to at least have bottom cabinets. When the cabinets are in, this will hopefully look less window-y and more bar-ish (though I don't want any kind of counter top overhang coming into the dining room). I feel like this was a good way to split the difference and make it a bit more open without trying to make this area something it isn't... in a word, modern.

Here's a full frontal of said pass through.

And finally - some super sexy insulation. YAY!
Those of you who have never paid a $700 heating bill after keeping the thermostat just high enough to stop the pipes from freezing will never know this level of joy.

This week the drywall is going up. We are actually farming that out. Chester (angry Santa) and his boys are doing it, although Joe and I will be doing all the taping and sanding (which should be epic and take forever and ever amen) in order to save on labor.

The Carnage

This is the dining room with the creative bricklaying fireplace in it. We've demo'd the ceiling and some interior walls in order to deal with plumbing and electrical issues. The bad news is that it looks like beyond the friggin thunderdome. The good news is that half of the house has completely new electrical. So we are now 50% less of a fire hazard.

This is a door to the hallway we've discovered. It appears to have been framed out around the door so I think it will be safe to take back out - but we have to double check with someone who isn't me :), the resident know it all.


Don't even ask about the rasta ladder. I have no idea. Chester, "Angry Santa," the contractor must have left it behind.