The New House : Progress... and Painting Prep 101

I'm sorry to have been out of touch for the last couple of days... we've been busy sanding, scraping, spackling, filling and sanding.  Last night we finally got some paint on the walls. 

I documented the process for you so you, too, can have the pleasure of spending hours repairing your woodwork and trim.

It is tedious work.  So much so, that Mike and I did the living room, prepped the dining room... and called a painting company the next day to finish.  Oops.  We really wanted to do it ourselves, but it was just taking us too much time to do it right. 



Before we started most of the woodwork looked like the photo above.  Ick. 

Step 1 : Sponge down all of the woodwork with soap and water.



With the bad comes the good, as do these really pretty glass and brass door knobs.

Back to the woodwork.

Step 2 : Sand the trim.  I sanded all of the spots that had dings and chipping paint.  Then I wiped it clean with damp rag.  

Step 3 : I filled the woodwork that was chipped away with wood filler.

Using a putty knife I filled the spots...

Then used the putty knife to form a new sharp clean edge.  

Step 4 : Patch the walls by filling any holes with spackling. 

We used this spot light to bring out all of the imperfections so we could repair the walls perfectly... or as perfectly as we could.

Step 5 : Sand.  Sand all of the filled walls and trim.  

Step 6 : Finally, paint.  We rolled first, then trimmed. around the edges.

Paint : Benjamin Moore in Manchester Tan
*You can see my design board (including colors and layout) for this room, here.

As I rolled, Mike used caulk to smoothly seal the seams.  We waited for the caulking to dry before I went back and filled in with paint to the trim.

Painted walls!  The house is feeling fresher already.  The color is a really soft warm grey, creamy color... even though this photo was taken at night in bad lighting.  I'll try to get a more accurate photo later this week! 

The paint crew started their part of the house (the rest...) today and should finish tomorrow.  I'll be traveling the next couple of days, but will follow up with a "before" photo tour of the house.

*You can see my design board (including colors and layout) for this room, here.

Limelights in the House

Limelight hydrangea, 1940s Strahan wallpaper,
antique French milk pitcher and vintage French alarm clock. 

I had a great week last week.  The weather was perfect and I took three days off to do nothing.

I slept in (which means 7:00), walked a lot; in fact, took a six-mile walk to get some Farrow & Ball paint samples, sanded my bedroom floor, visited some antique shops to look for bathroom vanity possibilities, cooked some really healthy meals and did a little gardening. 

I could get used to that.

I'm really impressed with the Limelight hydrangeas I put in last summer.

They've held up really well to the heat and drought and should look great well into October.

I took out a bunch of things in an adjacent area of the garden and just added a big mass

of Russian sage that I think will look great next to these white and green flowers.

I couldn't help but bring a big bunch of them in the house for Jane's party.

I hope you have a great week!

A new dining room (+ more)

Checking in with a quick weekend update!

Starting with our sunroom.

Back when a little storm named Beryl rolled through and our patio furniture was forced to seek shelter inside, we had a casualty:

Truth be told, our sunroom has been rugless ever since.

I was seriously considering going with a FLOR rug, mainly from a practical standpoint. I was digging the neutral woven look of the 'Look Both Ways' pattern in Grey:

But the total came to $170 shipped for a 5x7, which isn't the cheapest solution.

Then I found this charcoal beauty from Rugs USA...

I was mesmerized. And at the time it was 35% off with free shipping for a total of $145 shipped (after you entered the coupon code).

To narrow things down, I did a quick photoshop:

I think either would have been a perfectly acceptable solution, but I was still drawn to the charcoal.

Before I made my final decision, a Rugs USA groupon miraculously appeared and I was sold:

$90 for $235 worth of rug? Count me in. With my Upromise cash back program it was technically only $85.

Then when I went to purchase the rug, I found out the price had dropped even further, making my total exactly $235.

$0. Scoooooooore. The only stipulation—it's on backorder for another month. But I figure we've waited this long already, so what's another month? I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival.


Next order of business...


We bought a boat.

Well, sort of. Brad's coworker's mom happens to be our neighbor and had an old paddle boat stored away in her garage that she was willing to donate to us. Yay, a free boat....

Not entirely.

It was in pretty bad shape, and first had to be pressurewashed....

We have since named her the 'Shrimp Po Boy'

We then had to spend over $100 on seats and miscellaneous hardware to dock it. It's also leaking so we have to fix that next. And so the perils of boat ownership begin... I am not thrilled with this scenario but I can't deny Brad his toys.

Here it is all ready to be launched:

Our smart car makes it look like a beast, ha.


We took it on her maiden voyage in our backyard pond the other night, which I have to admit was fun. It was neat seeing our house from a new perspective:

Currently the boat is lying upside down against the fence. We'll see if it ever even gets used again... sigh.


And finally, I am excited to start on a new project that has been bugging me for a while. The dining nook.

There were a couple spots where the paint had chipped and I tried to fill it in with the new can of paint but it didn't match (remember when I had to repaint the foyer because of this? Yep, same thing here).

See the color difference where I painted over a patch? Not going to fly.

This time around though, I wanted to spruce it up. I've been eyeing wallpaper/stencils for many months but never figured out a good area to try it out in, and this seemed like the perfect space for my first attempt.

After weighing my options, I finally settled upon this pattern:

I loved the simplicity and elegance (and of course the fact that it kinda matches my new sunroom rug).

It comes with the ceiling and single piece, which I thought was necessary.

I purchased from cuttingedgestencils.com, and found a 20% off code (no longer active) which brought my total to around $40 shipped. Yes, I could have DIY'd, but I think that would have been a nightmare. I don't trust myself to freehand something of this caliber and have it turn out the same. $40 is worth it! Especially since I can re-use it in my next house.

The one somewhat annoying part about this type of stencil is that your current wall color will be the line color, and you'll essentially have to repaint most of the walls again. I wanted my background color to be what it currently was with white lines, so I had to repaint everything white first.

Crappy iphone in progress shot...

And here it is now after a few coats:

The good thing about this is that no one will notice if the area where the lines are painted is 100% coated in paint. You can see I have some minor patchy areas where the paint didn't completely cover, but once the main color goes up you won't be able to tell.

Case in point is this hand painted DIY stencil from Jones Design Company...

Looks great, right? She hand painted it using just one coat of white paint...

But you can't even tell from a distance.

I'm hoping my dining room will have a similar look once its finished. I think it will be a fun change to our currently plain-walled home.

The stencil should be arriving within the next few days so hopefully I'll have a weekend update with the results.

I also have new plans for this wall on the right...

This Martini sign caught my eye while on Pinterest and sparked some ideas. I've also discovered a new technique for DIY sign-making, so I'm super excited about this next project.

Source

Be back next time with some dining room progress!

Our New House | Our Real Estate Agent Mary Carol Schriefer

We're officially home owners (again)!  This morning we closed on our new house... let the work begin.  As you know, I've been busy making design plans and pinning inspiration photos and products for what we hope to do with the new house, but a lot has had to happen for us to get to this point, including finding, negotiating and actually buying the house.  Details, details!

I want to give a big THANK YOU to our realtor Mary Carol Schriefer from Mary Carol & Reed Premium Real Estate Services.  In the spirit of full discloser, Mary Carol happens to be married to Pops (my grandpa), but the benefits of her services greatly surpass her family ties.  Mary Carol is an absolute expert in all things Residential Real Estate - from having great taste (like when I ask her her thoughts on window treatments and paint colors), a keen investment sense (she and her business partner/son Brian own investment properties themselves) and insight to the financial side of buying a house (her 30+ years of experience as being a mortgage broker helps!).

When we walked through houses Mary Carol and I would talk about how perfect a Christmas tree would look in the front picture window or how perfect the french doors were that lead from the dining room to the side porch, and in the same breath, she would turn around and answer all of Mike's questions about the condition of the windows and foundation.  I knew she would be the perfect agent for us because not only is she is a very smart (and self-made!) business woman, but she knows the importance of living well and how crucial a gracious home is as a part of a comfortable life.

Besides Mary Carol's experience in the business, Brian (her partner, as I mentioned) owned an appraisal business before he partnered with his Mom to start their agency and he was able to share with us his knowledge about the true value of various homes we considered.  Talk about full service!  Thank You, MC and Brian for helping us find our new home!

Visit Mary Carol & Brian's website, marycarolandreed.com, for more information about their services.

Another big Thank You to Melanie Reed (Brian's wife) for doing a wonderful job as our mortgage broker.  You made it painless!  Visit Melanie's page for more information about her services.

The Girls | Sam & Emma at Moo Moo's House

Over the Fourth of July weekend, my friend (and our wedding photographer) Claire Ryser came out to my Mom's house (aka Moo Moo) to take some photos of the girls and our family.  It was an early morning and Emma was a little shy, but Claire was able to capture some really cute moments from the girls.  I love this sweet blushing Emma above - it is one of those sweet little looks that I might have never thought to shoot.

All photos by Claire Ryser.

The girls are being silly on their Moo Moo's chenille baby blanket.  Sam was saying "I'm going to get your nose, Emma!" 

Sweet babies.

Classic Baby in a basket.

It is amazing how much more hair she has now - just a month later than this photo... and the teeth that have come in that she seems to be working on in this pic!

We were telling Sam to give Emma kisses.

We close on our house tomorrow morning!  I'm headed to pick up paint and painting supplies.  The search for area rugs and light fixtures continues over the weekend - wish me good luck!

Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard Illumination Night

Illumination Night, Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard

If the gingerbread cottages of Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard aren't cute enough by day...

...the candy-confection cottages are lit up

one night each summer for Illumination Night.

This celebration is over a century old.

I wasn't able to attend myself but one the Urban Cottage roving photographers was

on the island to capture the event for you.

I'll shut up and let you enjoy this enchanting event.

Thanks to Cynthia for sharing her photos!

(Daytime photos are from Google image search)

If you would like to attend Illumination Night, it's typically held the third Wednesday of August.  I would probably start planning your vacation now as it's quite a popular event.