spring - inside & out

Spring is finally here and our cherry tree is blooming...To bring some flowers into the house I picked up a bunch of ranunculuses (ranunculi?) while grocery shopping at Trader Joe's after work. They sit in a Dibbern vase from the black forest series by Bodo Sperlein.

vestibule - update

I was working a little bit on the vestibule this weekend - changing the light fixture and painting the walls.

First was taking off the booblike light fixture with blue painters tape still attached from the previous owners painting the ceiling probably years ago. I wanted to use a ceiling medallion to hide some imperfections in the ceiling, which I already bought and also primed a while back.

We didn't pick a light fixture yet so for now I used a simple porcelain lamp holder that I spray painted black. Could end up being a more permanent solution too...We'll see...While spray painting the lamp holder I used an old light bulb to keep the thread (?) clean. To make the finished project look a little bit nicer I used an "Edison" bulb I bought at West Elm.

After installing the ceiling medallion and the light fixture I painted the walls (raccoon fur by Benjamin Moore). Next week I want to paint all the trim and base boards white. Then I want to paint the closet door the same dark color as the walls and add another piece of trim above to frame it, right now it looks like it is missing something. After that I hopefully will be able to install the flooring...

chair

Found this chair in the ready for pick up garbage pile at my office today. I needed to rescue it from the lurking doom of ending on a landfill. Unfortunately the plywood armrest is cracked but I will think about how to fix it once I got the chair home. It's sitting behind my desk at the office for now. Will have to drag it onto the train with me on Friday...

one year ago

One year ago we became home owners...Never thought that would happen because we were happy renters, always made the apartments we lived in our own, mostly without asking permission from the landlords though ;)

I started this blog two days after our closing day to document the progress of making this house our home. Mostly for ourselves, family and friends but everybody else is more than welcome to read this little blog too. Happy about everybody that pops by :) Thanks for reading my ramblings about our house!

Usually I'm not big on writing, love to read but I'm not much of a writer myself, so writing this blog is kind of a big deal for me...Enjoying the ride so far and I hope you do as well!

Today I want to share a scan of a copy of an old document the previous owners left for us on the kitchen counter. It shows our house ca. ?. There is a date on the copy, dating the document at 05/09/38, not sure how accurate that is. Aren't the shingles and the windows lovely? It looks sooo charming and much better than the current vinyl siding. The entry door seems to be different as well. Hope to restore some of the exterior charm someday. I'm also on the hunt for more old pictures from our area and the house. The second picture shows the house two days after closing and besides the new roof it still looks pretty much the same as it did that day.

vestibule

In order to enter the house you have pass through a little entryway/vestibule. Thought it would be a fun little project to finish in a couple of weekends. Wrong!

Some of the tiles in the vestibule were already missing and some were loose, making it a tripping hazard for me...Started prying them off by hand whenever I took my shoes off when I got home. Soon I needed to take out a chisel and a hammer and was working on taking them all out. After the tiles came out the floor was still covered with some kind of rubbery adhesive. I am using a heat gun to warm it up and then scape it off. Not a lot of fun but I am more than half way through with this project.

In addition to working on the floor I have prepared the walls for a new coat of paint. Will use leftover paint I have from painting an accent wall in the bedroom where I had used Raccoon Fur by Benjamin Moore.

In the last picture you can see I also took out all the glass panels above the hallway door. Sadly one of the panels broke when I was trying to take it out. Bummer!

waiting for spring

Yesterday was a great reminder of what the weather can be once spring has started. I am so ready for some sun! The cherry tree in our front yard needs sun too. Can't wait for it to start blooming...

bathroom radiator cover

The renovation of our upstairs bathroom is nearing its end. Yay! To complete the project we only need a door or rather refinish the one we have and hang it as I already mentioned in my last post...

Last weekend I finally hung the shutters that I found in our basement and turned into a radiator cover. On the first pictures you can see how it was covered before we started the renovation. After I took the cover down I knew we needed something that gave us access to the radiator whenever needed, one thing the old one didn't do. When I finally pried the old one open it was broken but it didn't look that good anyways...We thought about building a frame around the opening in the wall and then have some kind of door to access the radiator. Then I remembered the shutters I saw lying around in the basement, they were not in best shape but I thought some paint and pretty knobs could fix it. Had my eyes on the Snodd knob from Ikea for a while but was never sure where to use it. Finally I found the perfect project! We had the contractor who did the bathroom renovation also built the frame for us.

First I had to clean the shutters, then sanded them with fine sand paper. After that they got a coat of oil based primer and two coats of Benjamin Moore White Diamond, the same color I used for the rest of the trim as well as the walls. I even spray painted the thingies black that connect and move the individual shutters. Not that you can really see it but it's a nice touch and lately I have developed an addiction to spray painting...The oil base primer I used for the shutters also came in a spray can...Lucky me!

door handles

Our door handles are a hodgepodge of cheap fixtures in different finishes. Except the one on the left in the last row. This one came with a door I found on craigslist which we want to turn into a sliding door for the upstairs bathroom. Hopefully this is a project I can cross of my list soon. Once it's done I will be be posting more about that door.

OK, back to the door handles...Most of them are attached to cheap and crappy doors but some doors will be looking nice after a coat of paint and updating the hardware. So when Gracious Homes had a 40% off sale on all Omnia hardware I had to take a closer look. We both liked the lever "12" (see 2nd photo) in brushed stainless steel because it is simple and would be a nice contrast to some of the old details in our house. There is actually only one original door in our house, which is quite sad. It is the one that leads from the entry vestibule into the hallway but it is missing its door handle. Maybe I can use the one from the craigslist door. We'll see...