A Quick Attic Update

I got everything primed late Sunday night...like 11:00pm late.  But it's done.  And it is glorious.

I'm going to attempt to get everything painted with the final coat this week.

Then we should be able to hang the light & get the planks up on the upper portion of the window wall.  After that comes the trim.  We've got a long holiday weekend coming up, so I'm hoping I can get most of the painting & trim finished - eek!

After that, my dad will be working his crazy carpenter wizardry to fit these $25 Craigslist stair rails around our stairwell.  Once the rails get fit into place, I can paint that darn floor & start doing the fun stuff...like decorating!

It's the final countdown!

Finally.

Putting down the paintbrush...for now.

The bedroom is painted!  (Well, everything but the floor...but that's a project I'll tackle at the end of the remodel.)

Everything is painted Benjamin Moore's Simply White.  The walls & ceiling are satin, the mouldings are semi-gloss.

I've never used it before, but while I was at Menards picking up paint, I saw a display for Glade paint additives.  You mix the packet into your paint & it's supposed to freshen your space for up to 6 months!  So far I love the smell...I'm curious to see how long it actually lasts!  The only thing that I didn't like was that the additive seemed to make some of the paint "chunk" up.  At first I thought the roller head was shedding, but I switched to a brand new head & it was still doing the same thing.  Of course, it could be the brand of paint I used as I've never tried that kind before.  I'll update next time I use it with another brand of paint...

A few pictures of the space...the next step is organizing the under-eave storage & moving everything out of the landing area & into the bedroom so we can start all over again with the tape & mud.  Womp womp.

Here's a glimpse of the wall our bed will go on, & the access to one of the storage areas.  My dad is building custom doors for those spaces.

The other side of the room, more storage, & Eli's closet.

Here's hoping we'll be able to get started on the landing area this weekend!

This is what's up(stairs)...

Things are pretty insane around here.  Eli is busy coaching basketball - constantly - we hardly see him.  We're still recovering from the holidays.  Grady was sick all weekend with a fever, cough, & ear ache.  He also starts swimming lessons today...on one of the coldest days of the year.  In the middle of all of that, Dad & I are chipping away at the attic project...slowly!

We're "this" close to being done mudding the bedroom portion of the attic.  There are just a couple of small spots that need one final coat of mud & sanding.  Most of the surfaces in there have already been primed & painted BM Simply White, though!  I should be able to finish up painting the bedroom & closets tomorrow!

Here are a few quick Instagram (@reneestarzl) shots of what we've been up to...

Prime & paint on the walls - mud on the ceiling.

Painting barn lights in "Catalina Mist" by Krylon.

Ta-da!  (Cage is from Barn light Electric, barn light from Menards.)

Gathering some bedroom textile inspiration.

What's next?

• finishing up the last coat of mud
• prime & paint ceiling
• hang lights (eek!)
• hang paneling on window wall & paint
• repeat above bullet points in landing
• paint & install stair rails
• paint floor
• trim, trim, & more trim
• closet systems
• storage doors
• DECORATE!

Attic Update 9: French Doors {painted}!

Hi all!

Just a quick post today.  We STILL haven't gotten that darn window replaced in the attic.  It rained ALL weekend.  Don't worry...we still found something to work on!

Last weekend, dad & I hung the French doors.  They looked like this:

This weekend, dad brought over his router & we took a little bit of the width off (they were rubbing when opened/shut).  Then we hung them back up & I took over priming & painting.

I flip-flopped over a paint color for the longest time.  I ultimately decided on the same yellow I used in the Ikat mural in my entryway.  It's bright...& I'm still flip-flopping about whether I like it or not!  I'm about 90% sure I'll keep it yellow, but I might do a little distressing, or a glaze or something over it.  Whatever I choose to do, I know that I'm for sure going to wait until the rest of the space is complete.  At this stage it's hard to tell if it's going to work as-is or not.

And because no post is complete without pictures!

Oh, & big bummer alert: the perfect glass doorknobs I purchased on Etsy aren't going to work.  Boohoo.  The space I have for a knob is too narrow & the knobs knock into the opposite door when it's opened.  I picked up some black gate pulls at the hardware store to use instead.  (Or until I find something I like better.)

This week/weekend actually looks like sun (hooray!), so we're planning on tackling the window & perhaps even starting to get some drywall hung!  Cross your fingers!

Ikat Entry Way {finished!}

Last month (how has it been that long?!) I posted a picture of our entry way.  At that time I had only gotten one wall done, & was just about to leave on vacation.  Almost a month later, I FINALLY finished it!

I didn't really have a plan or pattern.  I just bought a quart of yellow paint, roughly measured out a couple of lines (so I could keep the pattern semi level), & started slapping the paint on the wall with a 1.5" angled brush.  I started with the zig zag on the bottom & worked up from there creating a diamond pattern.

Once I got the pattern painted, I put a fresh coat of paint on all of the trim.  It needed it - badly.  It's been on my list literally for YEARS...so it felt good to get it done!  The previous owners had painted it "white", but as you can see in the picture below, it had pink undertones which I'm not a fan of, at all.  The bottom is freshly painting with BM's "Simply White".  It's a night & day difference.

I still need to paint the inside of the front door (yellow? turquoise? slate blue?).

I'm really loving the semi crazy, unexpected, bright pattern in that little entry way.  It's such a cheery way for guests to enter the house!

Ikat entry way

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything for almost a month!  Yikes.  Summer is SO busy with Eli away directing basketball camps for two months.  I'm a single parent for the summer & it's hard to find time to blog!

We haven't completed a lot on the house in the last few weeks, but we're slowly working on a few things...two of which are the entryways.  I tore out two layers of old linoleum in the side entry in preparation for tile, & am in the process of painting an Ikat "mural" in the front entry way.  (Crappy iphone sneak peek below!)

The small entryway used to be painted a medium tan color that was just feeling to dark.  I was needing some "happy" injected in there!  Yellow always does the trick...

Dad has also been working on turning those old windows into French doors for the attic bedroom.  They look awesome, but you'll have to wait a bit longer for a picture of those...sorry!

We're also working on stripping the old, chipping paint off our garage doors so we can repair & repaint them.

Busy.

I have so much to write about the cabin, circus, the White Earth Pow Wow, Tball, the drive-in theater, Valleyfair, the 4th, swimming at the beach, etc.  Oh, & we're leaving for Michigan early next week!  Hopefully I'll have time to update everything in the next few days & get caught up a little bit!

Painted Pattern Window Boxes

Last spring/summer when we remodeled (er, rebuilt) & screened in our back porch, my dad also rebuilt the old window boxes.  Last summer they remained unpainted or stained mainly because I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them.  Color, no color...just stain them...paint a pattern?  I could NOT commit to anything.

They were pretty sad...

Anywho...we're having a birthday party in a couple of weeks for Grady (4 years - how is that possible?!), & I really wanted the porch to be "completely" done by then.  That meant I had to figure out what the hay to do with those darn window boxes.

First, I decided that I wanted a fun pattern in white paint & walnut stain.  Happy, but not brightly colored which I felt would compete with any flowers I would plant in them.  I needed a super simple pattern since the wood on the planters is super rough.  On a whim I chose a scallop or fish scale pattern.

I started by removing the metal box from the wood planter, cleaned it up a little bit, & stained the four sides and top edges.  then I took a styrofoam cup, cut the round bottom in half, & used that as a template for the scallops/scales.  Pretty high-tech - haha!  A little bit of white paint & some spray spar finish & we were in business!

With a little assistance from my favorite helper between rain storms, we got the boxes planted & hung this weekend.  Gosh I love the spring after things start to grow again!

I finally got a couple of minutes where it was "dry" enough outside to take a couple of shots this morning.  I think they turned out pretty durn cute!  I can't wait until the flowers fill in a bit & the surrounding landscaping starts to green up some more.

Has anyone else been planting?  How about working on any fun outdoor projects?  We're scrambling like crazy to get our yard in order for the party - I feel like we're really far behind due to our LATE spring here in Minnesota!

Holy Hearts! Our unfussy Valentine's Day craft.

Grandma, Grady & I whipped up a quick little Valentine's Day project this week.

I had a bunch of leftover canvas (duck cloth) from my Pinterest Challenge chalkboard map, so I put my mom & Grady to work painting it in shades of teal, coral, & red.  I didn't give them much direction - just told my mom to have Grady go for it.

After the paint dried, I doodled different sized hearts on it with Sharpies, cut them out, & strung them up with my sewing machine.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute & add a little love-ly charm & color to the house!

{Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see Grady's Valentines too!  He's so proud of them!}

 

 {glow-stick light saber card inspired by this}

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday spent with the people you love most!

Don't forget to check out my Etsy store for more Valentine's goodness!  XOXO

Mini Makeovers: Entry way light, caulk, & painting trim

For years I've had a list of small, inexpensive or free fixes/repairs/tweaks that I'd like to (or need to) make to our house.  Guess how far I've gotten on that list - not very.  For some reason it seems like those tiny, 15 minute projects are the hardest to tackle, even though a lot of times they make a huge impact.  That's about to change friends.

I've challenged myself to cross an average of one item off the list each week.  Some weeks I might finish one, some weeks I might not get to any of them...just so my average is one per week.

So, here's where I'm at after week one, with help from my mom & Grady.

Mini Makeover #1: Ugly entry way light fixture.
I know that gold is back, but this here ain't no pretty gold.  I actually like the globe on the original light, so thought I'd put a quick coat of ORB spray paint on the base to freshen it up a bit.  After taping up some newspaper on the ceiling, the whole shebang took 5 minutes...if that.  Easy peasy.

Mini Makeover #2 & 3: Cracked bathroom trim & hallway/dining trim retouch.

After a too hard door slam in the bathroom a couple of months ago, our trim inside the bathroom got popped away from the wall a little bit.  I had to cut away the old caulking & nail the trim back down, resulting in a gap between the trim & tile.  Before I had a chance to nail the trim back down, the door started rubbing against the wonky trim & peeled some paint off.  So in addition to caulking, we now had to paint the trim, too.  (While we were at it we gave all of the door trim in the hallway & dining room a fresh coat of paint too since there were a few dings here & there.)  Caulk = 1 minute, trim paint in bathroom & hall = 1 hour (with two people working).

Mom & Grady painting the newly repaired trim.  (I wish I looked that cute in my undies!)

Future Mini Makeovers:

paint small strip of wall that was missed in kitchen

paint 1 piece of trim in kitchen

stair railing in basement

wallpaper side entry ceiling

paint exterior doors

paint dining room built-in

threshold by patio door

patch old curtain rod holes

patch cracks in living/dining rooms

repaint living/dining rooms

lay wood floor in hall closet

new smoke alarms by bedrooms

new doorknobs on entry closet & our bedroom door & closets

patch cracks in bathroom & repaint

new shower curtain

art for bathroom

kitchen window treatments

touch up trim in front entry

paint front entry ceiling

I'm sure I'll think of a few other things to do, but this should keep us busy for a while!

Here's to getting stuff done & crossing items off lists!