My Biggest Design (or renovation) Mistake So Far

Happy 2010 everyone. Since everyone seems to be looking back at the past year or so, I'm wondering if there's anything you did to your house, either decor or reno related, that you'd change if you had the time and money to do over again. I ask because there are choices that I made that were super duper dumb, and I thought I'd share just in case people were considering making similar decisions. Please email me yours - the criteria is super loose. Just share your "what I know now" knowledge with your fellow homie bloggers. Feel free to create your own post and send me a link, or email me the description and photos and I'll post it for you.


Here's mine: picking wood flooring with a beveled edge for the kitchen floor. Sure, a painted floor DOES look historically accurate. and sure, the beveled edge adds tons of interest. But it also ads a gross ditch to collect dirt and dropped food etc. This ditch always looks dirty despite mopping and vacuuming. To remedy it we will be caulking the ditch to lessen the depression somewhat, and painting the floor a much darker color than the cream it currently is. But if I had it to do over again, I'd chose a smooth surface. This was such a bad choice - and it's funny because I was so adamant about it. I just had to have this floor! So embarrassing.

Here it is unpainted:

And here it is primed:

I have made lots of other silly choices (which I'll post as the week goes on), but this one was the most flat-out frustrating. Please tell me I'm not alone and that you, too have screwed up here and there.
Please?

UPDATE: Here's a great, totally helpful response post from Decorno - one of my very favorite blogers. Thank you so much for this lady!

For Next Year...

OK, so it's too late for this year but you guys have to see these. My friend Gretchen Kelly (a daily painter here in Hudson, see link on right), is selling holiday cards that are prints of some of her house portraits with little glittery accents sprinkled here and there. So fantastic!


Can you imagine commissioning a house portrait and then having few hundred cards of it printed up? I can't think of anything more chic.
As soon as the front of my house is an ounce or two less fugly, I'm doing it. I'd send that Christmas card out year after year.
These are just doors, she's great at little peaks into worlds like this - but her formal house portraits are more complete.

Just wanted to share the pretty.

Dining Room Progress

Hi all,
For those who give a toss, yes there has been some rather magnificent progress in the past month, but as has been the case for awhile lately, I've had little time to blog it.
So where to begin?
First of all, forget about that time, a few seconds ago, when I used the word magnificent. There's been some pretty good progress OK?
The progress has really lead to a less war-zoney feel, and it is way way way more civilized downstairs these days.
For starters, the dining room walls and ceiling are done. (Except for the tons of panel and crown molding that we'll be adding)
The color is lead by Ben Moore. It's a really cool dark grey with a bit of navy - though it looks navy in these shots. In real life it's exactly like pencil lead scribbles. Yum!
Here it is with the dining room table in it.
Note the TV and all other manner of crazy clutter - we have to totally over-utilize the livable rooms that we have. So, it's a TV room, living room, dining room at the moment.
No, we will not have a telly in there forever.

I only have a few chairs in from the garage. But hey, it's not like I'm throwing dinner parties right now anyway. So we are jazzed with what we have.
The floor still has some adhesive residue. It has no stickiness, just the grey film you see everywhere. The downstairs floors will have to wait awhile, they'll all get sanded down together.
Here's a super cluttery shot of what's going on with the fireplace. As you can see there isn't a mantle yet. The plaster treatment proj turned out pretty well in my opinion.
I piled some art around it in the meantime, cause who can wait really?
Those candles seem rather matchy don't they? Unintentional, so just calm down.
There will be no geese with bonnets forthcoming.
I am still allergic to all things "done" looking, perfectly symmetrical, and/or adorable.*
Not that I'm in any danger, considering the current state of things, but a girl has to defend her reputation.
You may also notice the drape situation. That's it's own entry, but suffice to say, I am aware that they are not a slam dunk and am tackling the issue (at the usual snail's pace).
In the huge box is an amazing chandelier I got for the room. You will not be able to handle it.
Ok maybe you will, but it's dreamy I assure you.

* except for those found in the animal kingdom.

Dad Labor - The Final Installment

I probably didn't mention that my Dad went home with a nasty case of full body poison ivy. But yeah, my Dad went home with a nasty case of poison ivy. One of the other things he did for me while here was clear the crap out of my yard. Here's a fascinating picture of the side of a dirty garage. You don't give a rat's ass? Well what if I told you that there used to be weeds (probably 85% poison ivy now that I reflect upon it) the size of a box hedge that came about two feet up the side of said garage? Oh you still don't give a toss? Oh Ok.

So anyway - Dad cleared all of it. 

The underneath of this tree was piled with three years of sticks. Gone! Thanks Dad. 

The lawn is cut and the weeds are wacked. This part was a Joe/Dad collaboration. It's really starting to look nice back there. 

So Dad really wanted to try stripping the fireplace mantle, just in case there was something cool under there. I tried to get him to buy a green stripper - but his actual words to the Lowes salesman were "I'd like the toxic chemicals please." Argggggggg. Anyway - after he stripped it for awhile this beauty emerged. All we could say was REALLY? 

Yep - they really did paint the whole thing pepto pink. It's even gnarlier when you realize that the kitchen ceiling was also this color as were the living room walls... as was all the... wait for it...

window trim - which we stripped a tad just to see what was under there. 

So yeah - we're going to ditch the mantle and just give all that trim a fresh coat of white. And that concludes the Dad trip. Thanks Dad xoxo.I needed to get this last installment posted because I have pics of the fireplace project which I started last weekend. So stay tuned!

Group Afters

Here's an "after" group photo. Wondering how I managed to get that beautiful Rob Zombie looking hair? Well I'll tell you. Empty out an attic, Empty out a basement, experiment with drywall, plaster, sanding and paint. Do not rinse. Repeat.




Doesn't Ann look cute?
I'll have you know that she rules at cutting in. Every decent border in the house has her name all over it. Don't look at me, I tape off and it still looks like crap.

4 Day Work Extravaganza

I'm so exhausted that I can't get too poetic in this post - but I will tell you we had a helluva weekend. Joe's parents drove up and we all spent 4 days up in Hudson working our collective arses off on the house. I can't believe how hard the parents worked! Here are a few befores on one of the rooms we tackled.



Another case of painting the panelling to create a decent space for awhile - until we open those walls to insulate. In case you can't tell it's another shade of grey (gray?).


Joe's mommy mopping the icky bathroom. She's so cute.


Action shot of Joe.

An after with my makeshift curtains - I realize the color is all wrong .I want something neutral so that the fireplace is the star of the show - but hey, the free bolt of fabric that I happen to have on hand is this aquamarine business. So it'll work for a few weeks.

Panneling Party

Ok here's a little before and... well I guess during pictures.
We decided to paint the paneling in one bedroom in an effort to create a clean place to camp asap. I was reluctant at first because I know that as soon as any part of the house becomes non-hideous it gets moved to the bottom of the list. Which means this quick fix could stay this way for years. But ultimately I went for it - we need a clean spot and this one has a huge closet so it won the eenie meenie.


We painted it grey - but it looks really powder blue in this shot.

Yes I know that it looks like crap around the windows and baseboards - but we haven't done those yet. Priming and painting was all we had time to do last Sunday. I'll do them this weekend.


What do you think? Is it too tacky for words - or do you think its passable in a cottagey kind of way?