Exterior Updates

This is the current view from the entrance to our complex. Please do not zoom in to look closer at that sign - the peeling paint and rotting wood might make you a little queasy.

Mike and I attended our first ever HOA meeting last night and I am so inspired by the projects that we have lined up. Sometimes HOA's can be a real pain but since our complex has just eight units, it's much easier to get things done and feel like your input is heard.

The first on the list is addressing this stucco wall. That little building you see is a 'clubhouse' that is actually pretty nice inside (minus the fact that it gets used about once a quarter). The wall is in badly need of repair or replacement but to rebuild it is very expensive. This issue has been on the docket for almost a year and we finally voted on it last night. Here is what we came up with (the new wall is photoshopped):

Huge improvement, no? We are lucky that our neighbors are young and share the same love for clean and modern lines. The only argument against it is that it may clash against the rest of the complex which has a different vibe with shingle siding and a maroon/light yellow color scheme.

However, replacing the siding/trim and painting are also on our to-do list which means that, although major renovations are out of our budget, we could get our complex heading in the right direction. In fact, a little search on pinterest, and I ended up finding a ton of modern houses that have shingles.

I would be in favor of replacing the siding with new redwood shingles but if we decide that is too costly, I think our best bet would to repaint with a dark grey and black color scheme. Painting the exterior dark is not intuitive but has been gaining momentum lately and really does 'modernize' even traditional looking houses. Another one of my favorite tricks is painting the siding and trim the same color. Again, not intuitive but very modern and beautiful.

Currently Obsessed: Black Window Trim

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There is a house on our street that they've been building since Mike and I moved in six months ago and I cannot get over how beautiful the windows are. The black, steel frames look amazing with the modern/Mediterranean architecture. They just put up a for sale sign and I am definitely going to drag Mike in there the first open house they have.

In our home we are *blessed* with old single-paned aluminum frame windows. Not only can you feel the draft from them, but they leave our entire complex looking shabby. I don't love the look of bright white vinyl windows, but I would take those over our current ones any day.

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Mike and I have our first HOA meeting next week and we are totally nerding out over it. The president sent out a preliminary list of what is on the agenda and it includes everything that Mike and I have been wanting to address: rotten trim, over-zealous sprinkler system, hideous sign out front, etc. New windows weren't a part of it, but I'm hoping they can at least answer if replacing the old windows falls under the HOA or if it is our individual responsibility.

In the mean time, I am seriously considering painting the inside trim of our windows black. I am a little concerned about the paint chipping off when we open and close the windows but I read if you use oil-based primer, then they should hold up fine. I usually shy away from anything oil based because it's really hard to work with / clean up / is super toxic, but I might just have to give it a try for this project. Mike is heading to Asia on a business trip this month and I think it would be the perfect time to give it a go on at least one window.

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Let's Talk About the Boob Light

When did this light become so popular? It's pretty much synonymous with all builder-grade homes... in fact, our house has not one, but two of them.

Flush mount (I've seen it both as one word and two) lighting is tricky. Unless you have tall ceilings in every room, you most likely have flush mount lighting somewhere in your home.  If I had all the money in the world I would probably have 'can' lights on a dimmer installed in every room but installing recessed lighting on a bottom story with another floor above it is too tricky for this couple to DIY (not to mention Mike's terrified of all things electricity-related).

There are a few areas in our house that I think we are going to save up to hire an electrician and properly install recessed lighting, but I actually would like a nice-looking flush mount fixture for the light inside of the front door. I'd call it our 'entryway', but I don't know that the five feet between the front door and stairway qualifies?

I talked about what we want to do with the stairs and think whatever light we choose to go here should coordinate with the overall feeling of the room. I've rounded up a few flush or semi-flush mount fixtures below... which do you like best?

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Office Space

Not this one...

But what used to be this one:

As you can see, I got oh so excited and forgot to take a proper 'before' picture and have already started to rip out the shelf and hanging bar. But who needs a spare closet when you have plenty of storage space and there are office nooks to be made!

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Check back early next week for the big reveal. For now I will leave you with this beautiful & blurry progress shot... 

Anyone else got big plans for this weekend? 

Material Profile: Concrete

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One of my favorite things about decor is the way it evokes certain feelings based on the materials used, amount of light, and color. I love a happy space but there is something about a solid and isolated interior that I find beautiful.

Concrete is one of those materials that I keep coming back to again and again. Although I traditionally equate concrete with floors, I see it popping up all over the place from kitchen counters to bathrooms to fireplaces.

I can't really imagine Mike and I tearing out our wood floors downstairs, but I did find this tutorial over on Little Green Notebook that has me thinking about how I could incorporate a faux concrete finish into our home and I'm thinking the perfect place would be the mantel a la this guy:

I'm not exactly sure how I would do it, but am thinking that as a 'phase 1' makeover, I could build a box out of wood to go over our existing mantel and then apply to faux finish to it. I would consider making a solid mantel out of concrete but I'm not sure what is behind the drywall and a solid concrete block would definitely need to be anchored on studs.

What do you guys think about concrete in the home? Just a phase that will look outdated in a few years or is it here to stay?

I'm an {Art} Committment-Phobe

If your house is anything like mine, you have tons of frames and nothing to fill them with. Art is that one aspect of decor that stumps me yet I don't feel like a room is complete without it. I'm drawn most towards art with simplistic shapes and words but feel like those options are very 'safe'.

I want to be adventurous in design decisions but the price tag of most pieces leave me paralyzed. Questions like, "What if I don't like it three years" or "What if it doesn't mesh well with what I already have" make pulling the trigger near impossible.

As I was staring at the bare frames on my picture rails I just installed in the master bedroom, I started to brainstorm how I could expand my collection and develop an eye for what I like. The best option I could come up with is I need to start exposing myself to more art. I have an idea of what speaks to me, now I just need to expand on it.

These three are currently in my collection and make me smile or inspire me in one way or another everyday. Do you have any tips on how to curate a collection you are proud of or secret sources of affordable art? Please share.

WRDBNR // Andrew Miller // Three of the Possessed

A Rustic-Modern Dining Room

With a new house and new blog, I've been on the hunt for a perfect collage tool to aggregate all my favorite things in one place where I can see how the look together. After following a link in a comment on one of my favorite design blogs, I stumbled upon Polyvore -- a step up from pinterest in that it shows you items that you can actually buy. I realize that this site feeds off of consumerism, but i'm sick of falling in love with the perfect bookends only to realize that they are no longer for sale from Anthropology (and haven't been for two years). Unbeknownst to me, when I stumbled upon their site yesterday to make the perfect dining room, they had just barely launched the Home sector of their website.

Now with that un-paid promotion over, here is what I am thinking for our eat-in area which only measures about 10' x 3':

I have been in love with the Saarinen tulip table and Eames molded plastic chair for quite some time but those two items plus the Enzo Mari painting totals up to around $3k on their own. Although I have found art similar to the Enzo Mari painting, the pear (and it's counterpart "Uno La Mela") is the one thing I would splurge on. The pendant light is from Crate and Barrel and is on sale right now. We have a decent-looking fan in there right now but to be honest, I've never met a fan that I'm a fan of I like.

I'm curious to know what other people decide to save on and where they splurge. Also, should I just buy a knockoff of the table and chair (there's a million of them) or do I save my pennies for the real deal?

3X

As in, we have three times as many bathrooms in our new house as we did in the apartment. That’s a ton of toilets for two people!

Mike and I have been enjoying the fact that we don’t have to share the bathroom in the morning (planning out who needs to get in the shower first was the topic of conversation more often than I’d like to admit), but unfortunately we are figuring out that they are all are missing elements of functionality and beauty.

Half Bath Downstairs

Guest Bath

Master Bath

All three have the same cabinet combo that we had at the apartment with the counter extending over the toilet. I’m not sure why this type of vanity was so popular in the 80’s but it doesn't leave much room for creativity. The previous owners did make an attempt to dress-up the bathrooms by replacing the lighting and framing-out the large mirrors but Mike and I want to take it a step further – starting with the half bath downstairs.

This bathroom is in the worst shape with peeling floors and a very smelly cabinet (we think it previously held a cat’s litter box). There are always surprises when buying a house and if this is as bad as it gets, we are lucky. As for what I want to do with it, I really love the look of planked walls. Most pictures I find have white painted planks but wouldn't it look amazing in a dark color? I stumbled across both these pictures this week (neither of them are bathrooms though) and think I could pull it off downstairs. I worry about it looking too nautical or cabin-ish and how that would work with the rest of the house, but my favorite thing about home décor is you don’t have to get it right the first time (even though it annoys Mike to no end to have to re-do projects). Another option that Mike and I both like is a half wall of beadboard and chair railing all painted the same color. I like beadboard but tend to think it's too traditional - seeing it painted all the same color made me thing twice though.

As for the two full bathrooms upstairs, I think they will stay how they are for now until we have the capacity for a full-bathroom renovation. I’m really not enjoying the color of the tile in the guest bath so that might change soon, but our master bath is pretty neutral with white tile all around. Our biggest issue with the master bath right now is there is really no storage for all the small odds and ends that we used to have in a drawer in our old bathroom. Mike wants to rip out the vanity in favor of a version with more storage options which I am all for if it is the right price. Down the line we’d actually like to expand the bathroom into our bedroom about 3 feet and switch up the layout like so:  

Original Set up

Possible Remodel

For now we are just on the hunt for a shower curtain that we both like. We made it out to Ikea for some table legs and new handles for the kitchen drawers but struck out in the curtain department. 

Staring at the Stairs

Am I the only one who thinks there is something romantic about having a staircase in your house? I know Mike definitely doesn't even consider things like this... his response would be "they're stairs -- they get you from one story to the next," but he has to admit having a staircase adds architectural interest to any space.

Right now, our staircase is neither romantic nor interesting, but of course, we have some big plans for this space starting with ripping out that yucky brown carpet that covers our entire upstairs.

View looking down the stairs at the front door

Since the stairs are the first thing you see when you walk in, I feel like they set the tone for the whole house. Mike and I agreed that we'd like to install walnut flooring to replace the carpet with white risers on the stairs. Like this:

Wirtheimer Architect 

Unfortunately, the previous owners picked out an engineered flooring for downstairs that Mike and I aren't crazy about. I like some variation in texture or grain but the what they chose has far too much variation for my taste. While I am open to a lighter wood as well, I love how sharp the walnut looks against white.

Another addition to the stairwell will be board & batten along the wall behind the door and up the staircase. Mike always looks at me like I am speaking a different language when I say 'board & batten' but then I turn to pinterest for some visual help. I'm kind of torn between a more subtle detail or a chunkier version. Which do you prefer?

Urban Lens Studios

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Country Living

Complete with a fun color for the inside of the front door (we can't paint the outside due to HOA rules) and a pendant light in the stairwell, I think these stairs will be worth staring at.

My First Working Fireplace

When it comes to having a fireplace, Mike and I have very different upbringings. My family's chimney was damaged in the '89 earthquake and although I remember it being 'fixed,' I have never seen a fire lit in my childhood home. This may have something to do with it being located in the formal living room which might as well not exist with the amount of time we spent in there.

On the other hand, Mike's family lights a fire in their fireplace every chance they get during the cold months. I love how cozy his house is with everyone lounging on the sectional during the holidays with a good fire burning and football on the TV. In my head it totally looks like a cheesy commercial but in reality it's perfect. In his house the TV is above the fireplace (a design choice I realize a lot of people don't prefer) and he always tells me the story of how one winter after the Christmas tree died, they decided to chop it up and burn it and the fire got so hot it actually melted the wiring for the TV.

Lucky for us, we aren't planning on putting the TV above the fireplace, but we are planning to give this awkward little corner some love. Here's what it looks like now.

The fact that the bottom of the mantel is shorter than the width of the stone bothers me to no end, but I am thrilled to have a wood-burning fireplace that actually works! Mike and I both agree that it needs something, but short of a total makeover with a big budget, we weren't sure how we could make it work -- especially with those odd angles. Needless to say, I've been pinning fireplaces like crazy over on my 'new home' Pinterest board which has made me realize just how many different options there are for fireplaces.

If we were going to do a large renovation and completely change this wall, I would opt for a gas fireplace over wood and choose a green option. I really like both of these from Ecosmartfire.com

I realize it's a very modern look, but I feel like it would incorporate well even in a more traditional house. However, since we don't have the funds or courage to start moving walls, I am thinking of a makeover more along the lines of this:

Apartment Therapy

Young House Love

The fireplace makeover YHL did on their old brick fireplace probably tops my list of their most creative, beautiful, and budget friendly DIY projects (which is saying something since they DIY for a living). Although I prefer the tile and pattern in YHL's makeover better than the one above it, I like how the first picture shows what it would look like if I wrapped the mantel around the entire portion that extends from the wall.

This makeover is definitely on the 'to do in the next 6 months' list as far as home improvement projects go but in the mean time, I will have to settle on decorating the too-short mantel. Oh, and dreaming about replacing the granny-esque fireplace cover with this beauty...

Crate and Barrel

What’s Cookin'?

The first time you move on the hottest weekend of the summer it’s just bad luck. The second time, it’s a tradition. 

One Mike and I don’t hope to continue.

Good news is that we got our entire apartment boxed up, loaded into the U-haul, and unloaded at our new place all in one day for under $100. We still have to go over to the apartment and patch some holes/ clean up but all around we got a lot done this weekend. My goal Sunday was to have most of our stuff put away at the new house so we could get up for work in the morning without digging through boxes to find something to wear (which was mostly a success – I’m still figuring out what ‘business casual’ means). Mike pointed out that if someone only saw the spare bedroom right now they would probably think we were hoarders but then I pointed out that’s why doors were invented. That room is on the list of things to tackle this weekend but for now it’s really nice to be able to just allocate the mess to one room that we don’t have to see every day.

However, there is a room that Mike and I are excited to see and that is this baby right here. Best part? You can open the dishwasher and fridge AT THE SAME TIME. Whoa.

In order to increase the resell value, the previous owners made a few cosmetic upgrades – one of them being new tile counter tops. I usually am not a fan of tile for counters but since Mike and I don’t have the budget for a full kitchen reno at the moment, I am glad they went for this option. The cabinets however, are a different story. They look okay in pictures but up-close they are just bad. The edges and doors are chewed up and insides are dark and dirty. The internal hardware is also non-existent which means when you open a drawer, the whole thing just falls out. But hey, did I mention that you can open the dishwasher and fridge at the same time? All joking aside, I am really excited about having a kitchen with enough space that Mike and I can cook together instead of just getting in each other’s way.  Cooking is something that we both really enjoy and I can’t wait to whip up some fabulous dinners in here together.

As for what we plan to do with it, we have a “phase 1” and “phase 2” approach. Phase 1 includes:

• Painting the cabinets dark grey like this or this:

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Gwenyth Paltrow's Home from House & Garden

• Replacing the internal hardware to make the drawers functional and upgrade the hinges and pulls to something we both like. Although I feel like these handles may be overused and a little 'trendy,' I want something that will bring these cabinets into 2013.

Ikea

• Replace the blinds with a simple shade. Here is a great tutorial on how to make no-sew shades in any fabric you want and also inspiration for the look:

Catherine Kwong Design

• Add a hanging light or sconces above the window or sink. I am leaning towards the two sconces but would love some input. Also, if I add just one pendant light, do I center it on the sink or the window?

Willow Design

• Last but not least, we plan to slowly replacing the appliances (with a new fridge being our next big buy). We’re thinking that a counter-depth model would flow better with the rest of the kitchen and since Mike and I have a habit of grocery shopping two or three times a week, we don’t really need a lot of space to store food.

Phase 2 involves entirely new cabinets & counters, a 6-burner gas stove, a couple corner cabinets, and a big farmhouse sink but there are other areas of the house that need some attention before we get to that point. I’m hoping we will have the time to start phase 1 and paint the cabinets in the next few weeks. Mike got me a handheld power sander and an air compressor with a nail gun & paint sprayer attachment for my birthday which I am so excited to use for this project. He knows me so well! 

My Favorite Room in the House

...isn't even a room. It's this guy right here.

A laundry room nook! Mike and I lucked out that our apartment complex had multiple washers and dryers available to us so we never had to actually go to a laundry mat but oh man, not having to scrounge for quarters every time I need clean clothes is going to be such a treat. Also, not that I'm a huge germaphobe, but finding pet hair on my clean clothes when I don't actually own an animal makes me wonder how clean are they actually getting?

As you can see by the partially slanted ceiling, the nook is located under the stairs. Below is a shot to give you more perspective on how the downstairs is laid out with the laundry nook to the right and the half-bath on the left across from it.

Although it's just a small part of the house, we have some big plans for this space - the most obvious being replacing the old washer and dryer with something more energy and water efficient. When we transferred over the utilities to our name this week, we asked for the average monthly bill so we could estimate total household expenses and were blown away by the PG&E bill - $268 a month!! We think either they consistently left every light in the house on or they were growing weed (which could also explain the intense security system they had going on in here). Of course we realize that electric is going to be more than the $25 a month it costs us now, but anything we can do to reduce our energy consumption is a win for earth and our pocket books.

Other than nerding out over home appliances, Mike and I have plans to make the space more functional by adding shelving and a place to hang-dry clothes. I also would love to make it so I'm not embarrassed to open the doors if company is over. Jenny over at Little Green Notebook did an amazing laundry room transformation a few weeks ago (which you can see here) and now I'm feeling inspired. On the consideration list is tile all the way up the back wall like they did below. Subway tile and stainless steel has always been a favorite of mine and I like how they used grey grout to tie it all in. I'm also digging the steel back splash in the second picture with the bar in the middle.

via Kitchen Lab

Via Casa de Valentina

Overall, the plan is to live in our space for a while to see how we use it and then dive in to the bigger projects but in the mean time, I am dreaming about my clothes spinning round and round in one of the beautiful front-loaders. Anyone have washer/dryer recommendations or know of any killer sales? I've been stalking craigslist for any deals on a set but so far, no dice.