Ooh La La

We have half a ceiling fan in the bedroom of the DC Coop, people! Mind you, I was working alone, so it was difficult for me to remember to take pics each step of the way. For instance, I forgot a "before" shot? And most of the "during" ones too...

To make up for it, I stole another shot of a different light fixture to give you an idea of what I'm working with:



Fabric-covered wires! Not just fabric, but ancient, decrepit fabric that crumbles to the touch and this makes it tres difficult to work with....

Closer:


Quite literally, a hot mess!

Anyway, I needed to figure out a way to rig up a safe, secure ceiling fan mounting bracket up to, well basically a hole in the ceiling. There was a lot of hemming, hawing and trips to the hardware store involved in order to find just the right crossbars and screws and brackets and safety pans and all that jazz:



You can't really tell, but there are 3 layers of stainless steel security action going on up in there....



Eventually, I figured out a way to make it work. And my goodness, I can't believe how secure it is!



Then I just attached the ceiling fan's mounting bracket and motor (with the handy hook thingy that they have in case, like me, you are doin' it dolo) and covered it all with the spiffy coverer thingy:



I'm making it sound really easy. Well, it was and it wasn't. Like with the toilet in this same apartment, I can imagine that it is extremely easy when the basic fixtures of the building are oh, I don't know, from this half of the century? But given the parameters of a pre-war building, it is pretty difficult to come up with work-arounds for these types of things. BUT SOMEHOW I MANAGE. And some days I feel like a genius.

I had to stop working because the next step is to attach the 6 or so blades to the fan motor and I was very dehydrated since I had to cut the power to the whole apartment (all wired to the same breaker... ah yes, yet another charming feature), that meant no lights, no air conditioning. But I feel very happy with what was accomplished so far.

Still working on getting the cement patch level, spread another thin layer on today. The light color looks so much better than the old dirty charcoal gray. IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN. Why I can't take a picture of it is beyond me.

I wiped all of the cabinet doors in the kitchen down with ammonia to get rid of the stickiness, it seems to be working. Someone came and took the old 4 foot long laminate countertop (posted on craigslist)! And someone else took the humongous, immobile chifforobe! I love craigslist so much. Helping people, helping me. Win-win, I say.

Well, if I were reading this, I would stop due to the lack of pictures. I'm sorry, I know I need to work on that. Here is one from over 2 years ago, my darling kitty who I miss so much, it hurts. I'm working very hard on honoring her by adopting soon:

Lettered Cottage Love

Layla at The Lettered Cottage has just opened up a new shop: Lettered Cottage Home and it is AMAZING. She always finds the coolest things with her great eye for detail.

Go and check it out to find unique gifts, decor items and beautiful useful things that you never even thought of!

Stuff is Happening

I guess I should update my to-do list so that I have a record (rather than going back and editing the one I posted a couple of weeks ago....

So the big news is, I walk into the coop this morning to find two huge holes in the walls. One on the Left:

(Why these won't turn the right way, I do not know)

One on the Right:

(SO AGGRAVATING!!)

Say what? Close up on the Left:


Close up on the Right:


.... These 2 holes changed the game completely. Suddenly, my gorgeous faux-finish is gone for good and I don't feel like re-doing it YET AGAIN when I am not sure that many people would be able to appreciate it anyway. So I called up some painters and got an estimate and was VERY HAPPY with the price along with the assurance that they PREP THEIR SURFACES PRIOR TO PAINTING! Yeah!! That's all I need to know, since it was obvious the previous painters never did. So with painting, seemingly the most daunting of tasks left to do, out of the way - I am FREE to complete all of the little itty bitty projects that have been eluding me with my eyes full of dust (from the sanding, scraping and peeling of course).

Things done today:
Patched hole in bathroom floor. Why didn't I take a picture? You can kind of see it here:


Bought vinyl peel n' stick tile for the bathroom floor (it looks so cute on the diagonal, I can't wait to apply it!):


Sprayed the range top and range hood of the stove:


Sprayed the fridge:


My poor trigger-finger is dead :(

Here is the semi final product of the bathroom with the old tile, for posterity:


COOP:
1. Plumber to fix kitchen sink and bathtub CHANGE to Bathfitter October 13th
2. Electrician to fix outlet in living room
-Move kitchen cabinets to Left Side CHANGE to add base and upper cabinet in left corner October 13th b/t 3:30-6 and flip refrigerator
-Remove tile from bathroom walls CHANGE to Bathfitter October 14th
3. Plasterer (Mom) to fix walls in all rooms (unpainted walls & ceilings)
4. Sheet vinyl for bathroom and kitchen floor CHANGE to mend tile in bathroom (OCTOBER 9th, ebay) and kitchen (need propane or dry ice) CHANGE to mend hole in floor and put down a thin vinyl (bought 7/25) that won't go too far above the surface
5. Countertop for kitchen - 6 foot and 8 foot -Strip window and door in bathroom
-cut counter for sink and for stove island & install
6. Paint trim (satin) and hall(s)(linen) and Kitchen
-Faux glaze paint over patches CHANGE TO HIRE PAINTERS TO PAINT ENTIRE APARTMENT 7/25
- Workers need to patch up the gigantic holes in my living room before I can sign the contract
-Paint Bathroom window and touch up radiator with rustoleum satin white
7. Replace toilet to 12 inch. model
8. Spray range, hood and fridge
9. Install hardware in kitchen
10. Add trim or shim up the cabinet to meet the new cabinet height
11. Install toe-kick under kitchen cabinets
12. Install ceiling fan in bedroom


I also bought weather-stripping for the condo, for temporarily deterring drafts and bugs from entering the gaping holes in the patio door and window frames, but I didn't feel like copying the whole list just for that. Oh, ok:

CONDO:
- rearrange bedroom furniture for better flow
-change kitchen faucet
- fix front strip to countertop
- change toilet seat
1. get a/c duct in bedroom fixed (sort-of)
2. install ceiling fan in bedroom
- paint bathroom
- rearrange living room for better flow
-paint living room
- get laundry sorting station for hallway
-replace windows/screens/patio door CHANGE TO add weather stripping to patio door and windows to prevent bugs from getting in and air from getting out

Not much is happening in the other 2 homes since I am really motivated to get this one off my hands first so I can get settled into a home home.

I promised you pictures

Here they are! So much is getting done now, it's ridiculous ~

Coop Improvements:

Testing out the new countertop in the new microwave area~

Before ~ Old Toilet

After a whole lot of clean-up, we had this:

YES, I said clean-up! This is CLEANED UP. I can't even begin to explain how nasty it was before (I timestamped the pics and it took me about 2 hours to clean this little 1x1 area). This ended up being the most whacked-out flange system I've ever seen (after doing all of my Internet-searching on the subject of replacing toilets). It turned out to be a lot of rust (which stained the porous marble tile like crazy) and corrosion that had to be chipped away in order to create a level surface for the wax ring/toilet base to sit upon. Aside from the chipping and the cleaning up of the rust-flakes that left permanent scars all over that beautiful tile, the job was not that difficult. I did it myself and pulled my hamstrings in the process. But all ended very well, cleaning up nicely into this:

After ~ Ahhhh.... she's beautiful!

Condo Improvements:

Bedroom before:

I can't really express how much I hated this layout. I think it speaks for itself and need I point out that "my side" of the bed is on the far side? The one over there where you have to squeeze through a tiny space between the corner of the bed and the corner of the bureau (can we say Bachelor Pad?)

Bedroom reconfigured ~

This is now what you see upon entering the room, of course, if I had my druthers there would be an upholstered headboard on that bed, or even a wall of fabric a la The Youngsters or Bower Power, but work with whatcha got.... instead I added a mirror to "my side" to mimic the window. It's not the same size, but whatever, it helps me save time primping in the morning (I like to roll right out of bed a minute before I have to leave for work).

Living Room before:



Excuse the crappy pic, my camera broke and I was using my phone for a few months a while back. Again, I can barely find words to describe my disdain for the color of the couch and the layout (there is a futon next to the TV, facing the couch), so let me just skip to the goods....

Living Room reconfigured & slipcovered:

This new layout frees up all of the breezeways through this undefined space and creates a more intimate conversational setting. It also allows us to open the blinds behind the futon and that coupled with slipping the sofa has lightened and brightened the space by a million! We'll just ignore that Christmas tree for now.... (picking battles, picking battles....)

New TV and pulled it out of the freakin corner!

The original layout was kinda geared toward One particular person... ahem, The Bachelor. Now everyone can enjoy it, or, more importantly, This Girl. And, please, let's just pretend the Barca Lounger doesn't exist, alright?

Freshly de-mildewed and painted bathroom w/brighter shower curtain~

I scrubbed the ceilings and walls by hand - they were a putrid yellow before and with a disgusting border that soaked up all the mold/mildew. EW.

A fresh coat of white, mildew-resistant paint makes the room breathable. And the white shower curtain with clear liner allows the vanity lights to penetrate the shower area SO ONE CAN SEE WHAT ONE IS DOING IN THERE. Imagine that.

Laundry Central~

The Bachelor likes to separate each clothing article by individual color, so 2 of these 2 part containers from Ikea do the trick.

Now for the disappointing part, I swore I had some updated pics of the lakehouse projects in progress, but I can't find them! All I could find that hasn't been uploaded already are these upstairs shower pics:

Not too exciting, I just changed out the fixtures to: a. fix a leaky shower and b. match all the finishes to the brass (which I hate, but the shower door and everything else was already brassy to begin with) . Maybe one day I will spray them all oil-rubbed bronze????

OR TEAR OUT THE WHOLE THING. My mind goes crazy when I haven't been there in a while (it's going on 6 weeks and counting....)

That's it for now, is it just me or is organizing pics on blogger extremely difficult?

Say Hello to The Youngsters!

Too bad they almost got sued over a clever play on words, but now they are free to express themselves on their newly-monikered site:

I absolutely love these guys and am inspired by their can-do attitude.

Get up to get down

Wow. Long time, no action. I've been a busy girl lately what with work, work and evermore work.

But I also have been busier than I thought on the home front. I just stumbled upon my old "To-Do" List and was surprised by how much I've been able to check off without even paying attention:

COOP:
1. Plumber to fix kitchen sink and bathtub CHANGE to Bathfitter October 13th
2. Electrician to fix outlet in living room
-Move kitchen cabinets to Left Side CHANGE to add base and upper cabinet in left corner October 13th b/t 3:30-6 and flip refrigerator
-Remove tile from bathroom walls CHANGE to Bathfitter October 14th
3. Plasterer (Mom) to fix walls in all rooms (unpainted walls & ceilings)
4. Sheet vinyl for bathroom and kitchen floor CHANGE to mend tile in bathroom (OCTOBER 9th, ebay) and kitchen (need propane or dry ice) CHANGE to mend hole in floor and put down a thin vinyl or laminate floor that won't go too far above the surface
5. Countertop for kitchen - 6 foot and 8 foot -Strip window and door in bathroom
-cut counter for sink and for stove island & install
6. Paint trim (satin) and hall(s) (linen) and Kitchen (Linen)
-Faux glaze paint over patches
-Paint Bathroom window and touch up radiator with rustoleum satin white
7. Replace toilet to 12 inch. model
8. Spray range, hood and fridge
9. Install hardware in kitchen

CONDO:
- rearrange bedroom furniture for better flow
-change kitchen faucet
- fix front strip to countertop
- change toilet seat
1. get a/c duct in bedroom fixed (sort-of)
2. install ceiling fan in bedroom
- paint bathroom
- rearrange living room for better flow
-paint living room
- get laundry sorting station for hallway
-replace windows/screens/patio door

LAKEHOUSE:
-replace toilet seats
-fix kitchen faucets, upstairs cold handle CHANGE to hire plumber to fix upstairs bath drain/wall, install shut-off valves in shower, replace shower faucet/head and fix shower drain. Also look into leaks in basement.
-strip wallpaper (started)
-GET RID OF FLEAS!!!! Contract with Orkin 6x year for 1 year.
-add towel bars and hooks to master bath (satin nickel)
-stain behind picture frame marks on wall CHANGE to let them all be for 8 months CHANGE to paint all paneling white or other light beachy color
-paint kitchen counter while waiting for permanent replacement
-paint kitchen cabinetry while waiting for replacements
- replace kitchen hardware
-take down overhead cabinets and put up shelves with iron brackets (iron brackets added to range hood)
-paint wood paneling in dining area, add trim, remove from around fire place
-add brick/slate to wall behind wood-burning stove so that it continues up the stairs to the top? oR Remove all brick and move stove down to basement?
-remove carpet and vinyl flooring in dining room and kitchen in order to prime and paint subfloor while waiting for new hardwood

Pictures to come soon. I really am in awe of the amount I've done thus far without much pressure on myself to check things off the list (obviously, since I haven't even checked the list in months and haven't been working consistently). Getting the toilet done all by myself in the Coop was a huge feat both physically and mentally. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do it - but it's done! And it's fantastic! Now if I can just mend that marble tile or figure something out with that.... While there have been a few additions due to the nature of DIY spawning more and more DIY projects, it's starting to seem almost manageable now. Especially with the Coop nearing sale.... Once that is gone, I can fully concentrate on where to live in the City, getting some pets and fixing up the Country house!

Ode to Just Beachy

My favorite blogger of all time, Just Beachy is hosting a giveaway for one of her design consultations (available at CK Interiors anytime) and I am praying to win. This would be a dream come true for me, with my new lakehouse all stripped down to bare walls and wood paneling.... I need someone like her to give me ideas, esp. in the big open great room - right when you walk in the door. I love her aesthetic - classic, casual, comfortable. The best of the best! And she is so handy with her knowledge of woodworking and painting to update the feel of a room instantly.




Help me by helping her help me by clicking through:
http://chriskauffman.blogspot.com/
http://ckinteriors.blogspot.com/



I should be updating on the progress in my current dwelling - the "in-between condo", where I have painted the bathroom and updated the bedroom and kitchen with simple re-design, rather than renovation.

Laterz