Housekeeping the Blogs

In the zeal of buying our house late in 2012 I started a blog called sweetstreetstl to chronicle all the renovations and DIY projects that we would be doing. But I decided to roll all those entries up into this main site, small wonder, where I've been blogging for ten years now. Trying to consolidate and simplify. If you want to know what is going on with the house, check out the labels house, mid-century, pink bathroom, decorate, remodel...you get the idea. We're still working on things.  

Snake Plants for Mid-Century Indoor Planters

Our home was built in 1960 and like many of the mid-century homes in our subdivision, we have an indoor brick planter. I like how it provides a division between the front door entry and the living room, but I've been confused about what to actually do with it. I don't exactly have a green thumb. 

First, I tried succulents. They were gorgeous for a couple of weeks, but ultimately, an abysmal failure. The planter only gets filtered morning light because I keep the grass shades down while we are at work. So my guess is they did not enough of the right kind of light. 

Next up...a magazine holder! This worked beautifully for the magazine hoarder that I am. It held three magazines across, by at least 20+ deep. But after 18 months of constantly hanging up the coats that get thrown on the magazines (even though the coat closet is two steps away,just to the right of poster boy above) I thought I would try plants again. They always look so great in magazines and warm up a space.  

I am not a huge fan of snake plants, a.k.a. mother-in-law tongue but they may be the only plant I can keep alive or will thrive in the planter. They are supposed to be indestructible so this weekend I planted planted three in the mid-century planter. I hope they take. I really love the way the way they turned out and now it looks like poster boy is jumping out of the grass with a full moon glowing. I'm in the market for a replacement for poster boy, but I haven't found the exact right piece. I'd like to find some kind of tapestry. But more to come on that. 

Do you have a mid-century planter? What have you done with it? 

$10 headboard

I bought this pretty rough headboard at an estate sale in May. It was on a Sunday and half priced at $10. It had a back to it, dangling on by staples, and a lot of shellac. This weekend I sanded it.

Then I gave it a couple of coats of bright turquoise paint. I used some fabric and batting that I had in the basement and padded the back piece.

Then I stapled the back padded piece to the back of the headboard and voila! We moved it into Audrey's room and now she has yet another spot to collect sticks, rocks, feathers, toys, books, empty paper towel rolls...you know...kid's stuff. And since I had all the supplies for this already on hand, the whole thing cost me $10. Win-Win.

Pink Bathroom: The Saga Continues

Bad News. We were hoping it wouldn't come to this, but the hot water faucet went out less than six months after the cold. So it all had to be ripped out. Complicating matters, whoever constructed this originally, used way too much concrete, which oozed through the mesh and fell downward completely encasing all the copper tubing, you see in the photo above. It was was completely inaccessible--buried in concrete. You should have seen the drill they had to use to get to this. But they were able to repair it. So now it works, but we haven't re-tiled yet, so we haven't really used it. The handle is the cheap set the plumber installed. I'm still shopping for a replacement.

Good News. I got 30 100% matching vintage pink tile at our local Re-Store for only $3. Yes, 30 tile for $3. To say I'm elated is an understatement. The hole gets repaired and re-tiled later this week. I can't wait. This bathroom is going to be my summer project. New vanity, lights, etc. Slowly, but surely, I'm going to come to terms with this bathroom.

Attitude of Gratitude: 15

One year ago around this time, we put in our offer on this house. We've been here not quite a year. I am so grateful for our house, our neighborhood, and Audrey's school. It has been the perfect place for us to settle in and get cozy. We have a lot of projects still slated, but um, I love projects. It is really feeling like home. We have room to have Audrey's birthday party at our house, in the basement, with a piñata (that is all she cares about--the  piñata). I'm having a baby shower for a friend next weekend. I finally have curtains up, so yeah. We're getting there. Happily. Ever. After. 

Polka Dot Walls

The wall was Sherwin Williams thunder gray (no photo). Then I accidentally painted it Behr Pewter Mug (before photo).  I say accidentally because I thought this was a gray I had bought and forgotten about, but actually, it was a gallon of paint left over from the previous owners. It went on gray, but dried with a very slight purple hue. So today, on a whim, I painted dots of light gray and a few gold highlights. I like it for short term winter fun. But I'm sure I'll paint it come January. Now it looks a little like Christmas wrapping paper. But it only took me an hour and I loved free-handing it so it was good practice. I think later I'm going to go all Robert Motherwell on that wall. I'm just elated that I have that wall to play with.

Mid-Century Door Part 3

Bronze Green won out, which is sort of a baby shit yellow, but I love it. What I don't love:

• All three lock sets were supposed to be keyed the same. They weren't.
• The front door handle is crooked.
• From the inside bar handle, the front door opens up instead of down, which is not only totally counter-intuitive. but incorrect.
• The garage door hardware was installed crooked.
• And finally...what I didn't realize until I already started painting the door...the top window in the door is made from a different trim set/stock than the smaller two windows. It has extra grooves in it. Granted, probably no one would notice this unless I point it out, but the point is, we paid for a custom door and essentially, I feel like what we got is second rate. The seam down the middle front of the door is kind of rough too. I don't want to sweat the small stuff and I'm so happy the damned thing is finally installed. But again, I'm not elated with the quality. But have to let it go.
• This is actually the second set of doors. The measurements for the first set were entered incorrectly at the store and Lowe's ordered the front door with the back door measurements and the back door with the front door measurements. So we waited forever for this, and then when they were finally installed, after repeated trips, well, not the greatest job and again, I'm not super satisfied with the quality of the door. I love the way it looks, but...

 They are returning today to re-key the doors and tweak the handles so they aren't crooked.

Mid-Century Door Part 2

Finally, after multiple issues, the door is in. I was going to use a semi-transparent stain, but there is so much weird graining in the door, I'm not so sure now. Stay tuned.

Bedroom Questions

The master bedroom really has me stumped. Under the gun, I painted it white in a state of indecision. But it is so cold and mismatched right now. In the middle of this brutal March, it is quite depressing. I bought some gorgeous vintage inspired fabric at JoAnn's on super sale ($8/yard + 25% off!) but I'm not sure I want to go with the cool grays or that I even want curtains in there. The best part of the that whole room is looking out the windows in the morning at the trees. I don't want to cover that up.

So yesterday, I selected ten bedrooms that I like for various reasons, all from Pinterest or Houzz. I sent the photos to the hubs and asked him, because I want it to be cozy for both of us. I asked:

• What are your gut response favorites? 
• What colors speak to you? 
• What style appeals to you? 
• What decor speaks to you? 
• Which one would you want to be snowed in for a couple of days? 
• Which one would you want to nap with the windows open on a warm spring day? 
•  Which one can you see the two of us in? The three of us on a Sunday morning? 

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

I was a little surprised by the selections that got no votes at all. He definitely gave me something to work with. Tomorrow I'll reveal. Which ones are your favorites?

We're Here

Just some random shots as evidence that we have indeed, moved. The morning after the biggest snow storm of the season. The truck got stuck three times on the way to our house, but we persevered. One of my favorite discoveries so far is the view of the trees from the window in our bedroom. It is like waking up to a big painting. And the birds. Lots of singing. Audrey loves her room. Happy.

Home

Moved in and we sign away Magnolia tomorrow morning. My computer is up but I have had no time to do anything other than unpack. My first priority was getting Audrey's room setup and the kitchen unpacked. She was thrilled with her room and seems to be adjusting just fine. I'm back at work. Exhausted. Happy. Brain dead. We will settle in and I'll post more soon.

Progress Report

Audrey's pink ceiling turned out really fantastic. We all love it. I will post a final picture and all the details once we get the chandelier hung and the trim painted. The photo below is before I painted the walls and finished the closet. Below that is Lindsey, bearded up and ready to go.

Last weekend my dad spray gun painted the basement ceiling and walls and the garage. This week the kitchen, living room, hallway, and main bathroom are being painted. Lindsey and I hope to finish both offices, our bedroom, and our bathroom this weekend. Whew! We've had to put this thing in overdrive because our closing date got moved up by two weeks. So, there goes most of February. We are stressed, happy, punchy.

Grays & Taupes in the Living Room

Progress continues, but slowly. My warm grays turn too taupe, too brown. My cool grays turn too blue, look like primer and ice. Where are you color perfection? So far, I've tried (left to right on first photo):

• SW Comfort Gray (too blue, but may consider for bedroom)
• BM Revere Pewter (too taupe)
• MS Malted (only considered briefly as accent color)
• MS Heavy Goose (a contender)
• BM Gray Owl (turns too blue)
• SW Worldy Gray (too pink)
• SW Amazing Gray (too dark)

Paint Scheme In The New House

So after trips to Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Hanneke Hardware, Home Depot, and Lowe's I've accumulated enough paint chips to wallpaper the basement. I thought I had everything so perfectly chosen. Then I slapped some paint samples up on the wall and looked at them at different times of the day and...not working. The main gray I selected for most of the house (Revere Pewter/Benjamin Moore) is way too brown most of the day and turns chalky in the evening. The other gray I chose (Heavy Goose/Martha Stewart) is nice in the day, but turns icy blue with less sun. And the gorgeous greenish gold I chose looks like mustard at all times of the day.

So back to the drawing board.

I'm noticing that in the kitchen all my samples seem to take on a purplish hue. I'm wondering if I should just go with (hold your breath) charcoal gray. Really, there isn't much wall space. The kitchen is mostly cabinetry and windows. The main wall in there will be covered by my hutch so I think it could be dramatic and pretty awesome.

Introducing Our Mid-Century Pink Bathroom

This is the main bathroom in the new house. It probably would have caused many buyers heartburn. I'll spare you the Pepto-Bismal references.

I've been a fan of the Retro Renovation blog for years and have followed her crusade to, Save The Pink Bathrooms. I just never thought I'd be saving one.

I'm excited, but frankly this thing is going to be a challenge. It needs special attention. I've only seen it in person twice, and won't know what I'm truly up against until we close on the house at the end of the month. It will be pulling triple duty as the guest bathroom, Audrey's bathroom, and I will likely be getting ready in there, because our master bathroom has a pedestal sink and that doesn't really work for me. (You know. I have "prodcuts" to contend with.)

There seem to be a lot of different pinks and patterns going on. That vanity is kind of atrocious, yet could be made loveable. Right?

I'm thinking...

• New lighting is definitely needed.
• New hardware is needed for the vanity as one of the handles is broken. That should be easy. 
• Behind the door is built in medicine chest made of the same pink marbled Formica. It needs new knobs, as existing are gold.
• I'd like to replace the existing mirror with some kind of vintage medicine cabinet for additional storage. I have one like below (sans towel bar) that I've been using in Audrey's room as a display shelf, but it could easily be re purposed. Just not sure it is the right scale or period. Would like to find something larger, similar to the one below it, in better condition, of course. 
• Shower curtain will probably have to be pretty plain with the competing patterns going on (marbled, tiled, etc.)
• I'll probably keep everything as white or light gray as possible to help make this thing a little easier on the eyes. 

Stay tuned...

Paint Tools

{Source}

After six plus years of beige/khaki walls throughout the downstairs, I'm looking forward to a new neutral. Probably gray, if I can find one that will also work with the kitchen. I just don't think I can go with straight white. It seems too cold and unfinished even though I have a ton of white rooms pinned. I hate the TV over the fireplace (above) and we will undoubtedly have more colorful and personal objects, but this room seems like a livable gray. But it may be too blue. This is going to be difficult.

Here are some of the paint tools I've been using.  

Favorite Paint Colors
Blog where readers submit photos of their rooms and the paint colors used. Allows you to see real-world examples. 

Valspar Virtual Painter
The Virtual Painter allows you to apply color palettes to photos that you upload. 

Sherwin Williams ChipIt!
Color tool that lets you instantly turn any picture online into a color palette pulled from more than 1500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors.

Closer to Our New Home

So the seller agreed to the few fixes we wanted and it seems like this house will actually be ours at the end of the year, barring anything nutso. Still kind of can't believe how quickly it happened once it happened. Lindsey and I sat on the back of our deck so many times over the past six months discouraged by the lack of prospects.

The house we are buying listed the same day I had emailed our agent about the possibility of changing our strategy. We were going to start looking at houses that needed major renovations. I think I said, "...unless we find something that we love that doesn't need any major work, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen." As he was typing a response, Lindsey was emailing me the link to "our house".

The house is a ranch built in 1960 in Forest Haven, a subdivision in Grantwood Village, nestled south of Webster, east of Crestwood, and west of Affton. Basically, a hop from Grant's Farm. It has just the right amount of mid-century quirks (pink bathroom) and charm (double-sided fireplace). The kitchen has been remodeled so the floor plan has been opened a bit without compromising too much of the original design. I would have selected different finishes, but it is in great shape and better than 85% of what we've seen in other places. I think I'm going to feel like the commander of a spaceship cooking at that 5 burner. For real!

The place is loaded with potential and I wake up two or three times a night thinking about paint chips. The entire house will need to be painted before we move in which is thrilling and terrifying.

So this is where we'll be for the next 20 years. That's kind of the plan anyway. I know. I'm so domestic. Cozy in with me.

Paint Obsessed

The house deal is moving along and I'm slightly obsessed with the entire ordeal. You know. Mountains of paint chip strips. No sleep. Inspiration board overload. So, I'm starting a separate blog entirely devoted to the house and all things related to the domestic nesting implosion about to go down. So. Excited. Can. Hardly. Deal. Steady. Girl.

Almost Ours

November 16, 2012
11:00 AM offer made and 5:30 PM offer accepted
November 21, 2012
Inspections completed. No show stoppers so far.

Weekend Bits & Pieces

Our offer was accepted! We put a bid in at 11:00 a.m. on Friday and knew by 6:00 p.m. that night. Inspections are Wednesday. I'll post more photos once that process is behind us. Some of you may recall we had an offer accepted on a house last July, but the inspection did not go well. So while we are elated and don't foresee any major issues, I want to remain cautiously optimistic. It is a ranch in a fabulous neighborhood and the basement is going to be a fantastic studio, lounge, play space. I can't wait! More to come.