The hall--another "room" checked off the list

It's hard to make something like a hallway priority when making DIY plans for the house.  However, it's hard to have a hallway as ridiculously bad as ours was.  Since the fix was purely cosmetic, I'm rather shocked that it good me this long to get it done.

 

 

This poor hallway didn't have a lot going for it.  Blue paneling with a wallpaper border (I tried to see if I could get the border off to avoid having to buy new wainscoting...no such luck). 

 

 

 

Plastic wood-look trim that was so carefully cut out to accomodate various thermostats and ornate switch plates.

 

 

 

 

 

 A wall of vents (baseboard and wall!) that didn't actually work anymore (not pictured). I wish I had a photo since those awful vents were the first thing you saw from the front door.  Ugh. 

This is better:

 

 New paneling, new trim, new paint!  New light fixture (not pictured)...no more weird shadows thrown all over the place.

 

 

A place for photos and miscellany.

 

It's not perfect...we still need to get 4 new doors.  And we won't even talk about the floors.  We'll have to leave that fiasco for later and just be glad for two new runners to help cover them :).

It's amazing what a little updating can do to really liven up a hallway...I love it! 

Off to say goodbye to the last of the mauve carpet...stay tuned!

Bathroom reveal!

Three things we're not going to talk about...

Time Flies.  Life happens.  And I'm not going to talk about how I haven't had the means (mentally, physically, financially, etc) to blog.  The space-time continuum completely won for a little while. But I'm breaking back in (and totally picturing myself surfing on that ol' continuum and making it work!)  Because I love this blog! I've missed it like a childhood friend...

I love this blog.  I love writing. I love pictures.  I love my home and my life.  Gonna bring it back via the blog!

Excuses.  I don't love reading about them, even less...writing about them.

SO...let's catch up.

Let's remember that we had completely demolished the old bathroom.  It was original to the house...

Had carpet in it when we moved in...Eww.


It was rather ugly.  Pink "tile" (yeah, plastic.)  Blue bathtub.  Bulky vanity with blue marbled tile.  Blue potty??  Takes the cake all day long. 

So we tore it down.  All of it.  Because there was a plan. (And I love it when a plan comes together!)
  
Then in a true DIY kind of way, we kinda busted the budget, hit more economic bubble-type issues, but trudged on. 

It took longer than expected.

But it's better than I ever hoped.  Take a look:

 New walls, tile floors!

Pretty new mirror/medicine cabinet with Mr. Seahorse posted up.  (And the super awesome shower curtain matches him wonderfully).
 

Sea turtle watercolor.  Thank you Kindergarten art class!  

 
 Ah, Miss Mermaid.  I love you, so!  Great cast iron Fair find that was an inspiration to this room well before the walls came tumblin' down.  

Storage is essential!  I was totally going to buy this:
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=27178276&color=020 .  Storage seemed adequate and size seemed to fit. A little pricey for my budget, but I loved the look of it! 

In a weird twist of providence, the Mr. comes home with this little gem:

 
 Nasty, greasy, rusty, restaurant cart from a closed down restaurant he came across.  I'm pretty sure he was hoping to use it in the garage but it fit the corner and offered the industrial look I was going for.  So I had a vision!  Clean it up, and paint it.  Cleaning it up took a bit of elbow grease, and a little Rustoleum Aged Bronze Hammered Finish.  For $Free.99 vs. $179, I'll take it!

What do you think??

More small improvements, ideas, and general life to come.  We're doin' things around here!

~Julie