Random Tuesday

Some of you were probably scratching your heads when I posted yet another "help, I'm indecisive" post about the tile. The back and forth stemmed from several things:

1. I was concerned that the white would look sterile, maybe a little stark and hospital-like compared to the warm flooring and vanity

2. Concern over keeping it looking clean with white grout lines (we always intend on cleaning our showers, toilets, floors consistently, but then life happens)

3. Concern over it matching the house - we have done a lot of work to our house and want to make sure that the more permanent elements tie together because one of the big issues with this house to begin with was the lady that owned it before us did a bunch of her own handy work and nothing seemed to go with anything else - so we are definitely concerned with keeping things tied together. It was for this reason that the clawfoot got the ol' heave-ho in the first place, totally didn't go with the house, at all. 

4. Desire to keep the house classic and un-dateable. I don't want people to walk in 10 years from now and be able to tell exactly when we re-modeled..."Ah, this is a late 2000's house for sure!" We are definitely going with classic lines overall, cherry shaker cabinets, white oak floors, classic wide white wood blinds, warm tone ceramic tiles, etc. 

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Someone is going to want to strangle me for saying this...but I am thankful or a mild (so far) summer. These cool days + pregnancy = perfect. I love warmth as much as the next person, but when pregnant, warm means swelling. Not cute or comfortable.

Little bear is getting strong and bumping around a lot in there these days. I think he has some hand weights and sometimes, I think he is having a party all by his lonesome in there. 

I have acid reflux for the first time in my life - I guess we will see if this means that the old wives tale is true- reflux = hair. 

Tile Decisions

Holy cow, this whole tile thing has just been a very difficult road for us! Between trying to figure out what type of tile to go with (ceramic, natural stone, etc) and then what actual tile once decision 1 was made, this has just been a really long process.

As general "do it yourselfers" - we have decided to hire out the actual tile setting. While this is certainly something we can do ourselves, there are certain things that are just easier and better to hire out. Tile kinda has to be perfect and straight and, well, perfect - or it looks really bad and will ruin an otherwise good project. Not that I doubt we could get it to be perfect...Nick is definitely good at being a perfectionist - it is just faster and more efficient for us to hire out.

Plus- poor Nick's to-do list is long and it is time for me to help out where I can to make that list shorter. The guest bath needs to be done before the baby comes so I am doing everything I can to help him out.

So here are the 2 examples of tiles that I have been looking at over, and over and over and over....

Oh man - tile decisions. I think...we are going with the white....good decision??

You have to stir it?

So, I have been debating back and forth about what to do regarding the dresser that smells like cigarettes. First, I just want to say that smokers suck. And no, I will not apologize for being mean to smokers - I mean seriously, this whole smoke smelling dresser thing has really cost me some serious time!

My choice came down to this:

1. Craigslist the dresser and invest in a closet system (since either way, I have determined that the dresser will have to live in the closet in order to accommodate the crib, rocker, dresser and daybed without the room looking totally overwhelmed)

2. Try to make the dresser not stink anymore (baking soda in the drawers for a month did nothing)

I determined that while the dresser was only $10 and I should really just give it the ol' heave ho, I had invested considerable time into the thing and it had really grown on me, I mean, it is pretty cute. So...I decided to invest some more time into it. 

First step, use a primer with a shellack base (rather than water base) so as to seal in the stench. I took all the drawers out onto the deck and painted the inside raw wood parts with primer. The shellack primer was left - over from when I did the bathroom cabinets. This stuff is runny and hard to work with. 2 drawers in and it seemed like the brush was hitting the bottom of the can pre-maturely. I wondered to myself "do they put a false bottom in this thing and basically screw you out of that much product?" 

Um - no. They don't. That is the stuff that should have been stirred in to the more watery stuff that was runny and hard to work with. I was using the can like the Roger Moore James Bond, shaken, not stirred and what I should have been doing is using it like the Sean Connery James Bond, Stirred, not shaken. Um. Basically, I always shook the can and the stuff that settles (the thickening whatever it is) was never getting shaken into the primer. Yea - dumb. So anyway, the remaining drawers got super thick coats of primer. 

I have a paint cabinet full of paint. This is because I have been extremely indecisive about paint colors and for the longest time, Home Depot did not have sample sizes of paint, you had to buy a quart to test the color. As such, I have a ton of quarts of perfectly good, unused paint. Enter the electric blue color I bought for who-knows-what reason. 

Perfect!

So - the interior of the drawers will be blue. I still have to paint the actual inside of the dresser too - I think I will go with primer white and then a coat of a creamy white over. 

Cross your fingers that this takes away the smell. If not, I wasted and absolutely incredible amount of time on this. 

I feel like the blue looks either edible or like playdough. Either way - I like it! It is super fun and brings a little bit of a whimsical flair to the dresser - a flair that will pretty much be hidden and no one will ever see but still fun. 

Nursery Happenings

Working has definitely taken a lot more time than I envisioned so blogging has gone by the wayside a little bit - Sorry guys! My little business is going well - I have been putting in around 27 -30 or so hours per week (by choice), then add on 2 hours per day for commute time (I didn't miss commuting when I wasn't working, not at all!) and it has made for a bit of a change in my routine.

I have been busy trying to get Baby Bear's things together in the nursery. He is one lucky guy - he has a ton of clothes and various goodies from Auntie Ali, and he finally has a crib (no mattress but that will come!) thanks to Grammy Joni.

We have been busy doing laundry, putting the crib together (I did that!), trying to figure out where everything will go in the nursery, etc. The placement of things is difficult because the room is pretty small and we are trying to cram a crib, dresser, daybed and rocker in there. We will see what we can do with the space.... I am also having trouble with the dresser. I purchased it at a garage sale (something I haven't done before) and the drawers have a smell to them. They smell like they may have spent time in a smokers house - which is way not working for me. I put baking soda in the drawers for like a month and the smell is still there. Does anyone have any tips? The dresser is solid wood.

So here is what we have going on in the room that will someday be fit for a baby (more of a disaster area at the moment)

The crib is from the Goodnight Room here in Portland is is the Annabelle 4-in-1 by Million Dollar Baby. It currently is home to all the clean clothes as they come out of the dryer because I don't want any of the baby clothes in the dresser for fear that they will end up smelling like the drawers do. 

Here is a view inside - as you can see, there is a whole lot that needs to be done, and the final placement of furniture is not definite...This room never seemed little until we actually started trying to use it for something other than our personal junk dumping ground. 

A small fraction of the loot from Auntie Ali! This little guy will be one stylin' dude! And I think it is pretty funny that he will end up wearing most of the same clothes that his cousins wore! So fun!!

Accidents happen frequently around here

Accidents seem to happen a lot around here. 

1. I lost my job

2. I had to learn to be domestic rather than a career woman

3. I got pregnant (ok, not an accident at all, that was super planned but it sounded good)

4. I accidentally started my own business. 

Wait. 

Say what?

How do you accidentally start your own business?

Allow me to explain.

In my past life, I had a job as a financial statement auditor. I had a love/hate relationship with this job career. I loved the company I worked for, I loved the people I worked with, I loved some aspects of the job, but for the most part, I didn't particularly love being an accountant. I left this job for the one that I would get fired from (some 2 months after starting) which was also an accounting job but definitely not the right accounting job - more so than the previous accounting job. 

Take all the things that I loved about my previous job as an auditor and get rid of them. Take all the things I hated from my previous job and multiply them. Then add some crazy not good personalities from the owners and voila, recipe for disaster. 

One of my neighbors knew about my past life as an auditor. She has her own accounting business. A former client of hers needed some accounting preparation work done for an audit and she gave them my name. 

I went in kicking and screaming a little bit. I mean - accounting (yuck!). Am I right? But I went in anyway. Turns out, doing audit type accounting is like putting on an old pair of shoes, comfortable. And it also turns out, I am a pretty good accountant. I just spent so much time detesting it that I didn't really give myself a chance to realize that I was actually kind of good at it. (Now I just sound full of myself, allow me to put some pressure on my head, ok, back to normal)

So anyway, that is how I started my own accounting business. I still need to give it a name. I am working with a client now and am sort of operating without a name - that needs to change. 

So. 

I'm 26 weeks pregnant.

I just started a business

I wonder where things will go from here. 

Life never ceases to amaze me. If you would have told me a year ago that I would leave my job, get another job, get fired from that job, spend 6 months as a domestic and get pregnant during those 6 months and then start my own business, I would have told you that you were crazy. 

Tile votes

Hi guys, I need some help. 

Around the shower above the tub in the guest bathroom, we are doing a brick pattern.  (or subway, whatever you call it).

I need help deciding on a final tile for the surround:

These are 6x8 glossy white (larger than normal subway) tiles

Here is a picture of the tile that would go around the surround with the darker tile below being what we are using as flooring. (Gotta love using Home Depot's floor as a showcase!)

These are some type of ceramic and I can't tell if they are 6x8 or if they are 9x12, also in a brick pattern.

 Here is the darker and larger tile. The square tile, again, is the floor. A side note, these tiles actually look slightly different from eachother in real life. One of the big differences is that the tile for the shower has a rough "slate" feel to it and the floor tile is smooth. 

Keep in mind, there is a white tub that sits between the two tiles so you won't actually see them mashed together like this. 

I asked him what he thought but he was just bummed that I wouldn't throw his ball.

Speaking of dogs. Please Please Please, remember when it's hot out, your car is an oven and is deadly to dogs. Take them in or leave them home. 

Oh and PS - here is a progress pic of the master bathroom. 

Excuse the mess. 

Items completed

Cabinets painted

New Hardware on cabinets

Part of floors installed

Trim painted

Walls painted (touch-ups needed) I had Miller paint lighten the green and I am liking it a bit better

Left to do

Finish floor

Touch up paint

Frame the mirror

Paint countertop

Install baseboard trim

Put up towel racks etc.

So close to finished!! 

Projects and more Projects!

Continuation of projects - desperately trying to get them all done before baby Bear gets here!!!

Here is the babies dresser/changing table. I am a total idiot and didn't take a before picture. It was oak and had dark hinges that were super old. It was sanded with my palm sander, repainted with 2 coats of behr paint, sponged with an antiquing stain, rubbed down with bleach water and accessorized with some new hardware. Voila! Finito! 

Here is a close up of the hardware purchased at Home Depot of all places for less than $3 each! 

Total cost of this dresser:

1. Dresser purchased at Home Depot: $10

2. Paint from my sister in law: Free

3. Hardware from Home Depot: $2.85 each * 7 = $19.95

4. Antique stain from my sister in law: Free

5. Clear coat from Fred Meyer: $2.85

Grand total: $32.80

Ok, that's not actually the grand total. I just ordered some wall paper to line the drawers with. It is a blue with white polkadot pattern. Unfortunately, I had to purchase two 11 yard rolls (I only need 3 yards) which cost $68. So that kind of blew my low budget. However, I am sure I can find other projects to do with this wall paper. It's pretty cute. 

Nixed the wallpaper. Shipping was $16.95 plus the $63 for the actual paper...That's well over 2x the cost of the whole dresser!! And for drawer liners that hardly anyone will see, no thank you!

I follow this blog from time to time for various ideas and do it yourself tips. I love what they did with their bathroom above. We will be adding a mirror frame like the one in the picture and I love love love the paint color. She nicely shared her paint color - Sherwin Williams 6164. So I went to Miller Paint and had them match the color. They have the SW color swatches and they are able to make the color exactly the same....

But this is what mine looks like....um, I don't even think these are the same color at all. Aaaaahhhh. This was not what I was going for at all. I am off to Miller to see if they can lighten the remaining gallon of paint because I used the antimicrobial paint which is a staggering $30 per gallon. I really don't want to have to purchase a whole new paint gallon. This is supposed to be a color called Svelte Sage. I am not seeing the Sveltness of the color. 

This is what our entryway tile is going to look like once we get it all put down. We chose 18x18 tiles with very small grout lines. I love the look of a less busy tile pattern. These are Dal tile porcelain tiles. They have the look of travertine without the maintenance (you have to seal real stone every 6 or so months) and without the fill in the tiles that you get when you have natural porous stone. I love the way they will look when they are done! So excited to get this project done!!