House Visit: My Name is Mud

We’ve been working on a house in the outer boroughs this past week, remodeling both a kitchen and bathroom from scratch. We were lucky enough to start with a blank slate and allowed to just go in and work with the homeowner on the design. The bathroom was the more urgent job in this situation, as you might expect – you can always order in, but you can’t always use your neighbor’s shower.

As you can see below, we just finished laying the tile in the bathroom and are awaiting the drying process to finish up before we get into the grout. You’ll see the separators keeping the tiles even in some of these pictures. We opted for mud setting over wonder board on this job, which is best for any tile work. A wonder board setting will often lead you to more cracks in your tiles and a lack of even pitching all around. The mud setting, for those who don’t know, is essentially a layer of cement with wire mesh and tends to make for solid, long-lasting floors in bathrooms especially.

We’re also waiting on some decisions to be made regarding the vanity mirror. As you can see, we already have made the recess but, to be completely honest, the vanity tends to be the least urgent part of the job in situations like this, as it is one of the few things where plumbing is not directly involved. Still, it would nice to get this done in the upcoming week and get some pictures on here of the finished project. Will update soon with under-construction kitchen work. Also, check out these tiles! Not too shabby, ay?    

Vintage Shaving Mirror

This weekend was so nice.  We got so much relaxing (& eating!) in and even a few random things ticked off of our "To do" list.  One of them was hanging the vintage shaving mirror I got my husband for Christmas.  (Yeah, I think he really loved it, considering it took until now for us to get around to hanging it ;) 

Our master bathroom is pretty terrible.  I have a green fiberglass shower, linoleum floors and the shower/ toilet area is separate from the vanity area (surrounded in Hollywood style vanity lights- aaahhhh) which makes the small space feel even smaller.  I hide the green shower with a shower curtain that goes up to the ceiling and have simple shower hooks up for our plain white towels.  (The one pro is the all natural light it gets.)  The view into the bathroom makes a great focal point out of the toilet.   arg.

We have plans to redo it eventually, but it's not high up on our priority list. 

BUT.. sometimes the little things make even bad rooms a bit more bearable. 

I decided after installing the mirror that if we just ignore everything but the shaving mirror, the bathroom is perfect!




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Updating an Ugly Box with Graphics and Paint

My husband had a box in the garage that originally held a car waxing kit. The box was sturdy and a great size, but not very cute!  :)

I started with a Graphics Fairy label.

   

I tried to 'age' it with tea.  I really didn't have to do this step, as it didn't make a huge difference.

 

I painted the box with a couple of coats of green spray paint.  

I then sanded down the edges.

I cut close to the edge of the graphic, then mod podged it on the box.

I put an antiquing gel on the whole thing, then rubbed off the excess.  They used to sell a one-bottle antiquing gel, but now you buy the Martha Stewart Antique Effect and mix it with any color you want.  I mixed it with the color Vanilla Bean.  I bought both of these bottles at Michael's.  I mixed them together with equal parts.

 

I added a knob so it's easy to open.  I now have a great place to store my weekly ads and coupons.

Thanks for visting!

Pam

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Touring the HGTV Dream Home

My husband and I were lucky enough to get tickets to tour the HGTV Dream Home today.  It was a perfectly beautiful day!

 The house has this incredible view of the Wasatch Range.

 And it's only a short drive to Park City and all of the ski resorts.

 And minutes from this reservoir for some summer boating.

 I hope in a few weeks, I'll be saying "Welcome to my new home!"

 The living room was so pretty!  I love the colors, the rock on the walls and the view out all of the windows.

 

 I was standing in the living room and looking toward the dining room.

 This hallway led from the living room to a bedroom suite.  A beautiful ottoman and creative decoration with the candles on the wall.

 I love the blue backsplash with the red knobs on the cooktop.  The appliances were plentiful--besides this Wolf Range and the wall oven/microwave/warming drawer combo (below), there was also a separate refrigerator, separate freezer, wine cooler and two refrigerated drawers.

 A great big island!

Right outside the living room/kitchen area was this fully equipped outdoor kitchen/entertaining area.

 Including this fireplace and tv!

 They didn't have a fire going in the firepit today, but it still looked like a great place to hang out!

 The master bath was lovely!

 

 This is the view from the master shower!

 We loved this mirror in the half bath downstairs.

 

 And doesn't everyone need a sauna?!  I'd love it!

 There was a lot of light coming in from the windows, so this picture didn't turn out great, but this is a family room at one end of the house.

 

 They used an area attached to the family room to create a great 'sleepover' place for the kids!

 

This was the third bedroom.  The carpet pattern was buffalo check navy and white.  It was very bold, but since those are my favorite colors, I thought it looked pretty neat.  I love the bedding in this room too.

It was quite lovely.  The setting with the river behind the home and the view of the mountains in front of the home is outstanding.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll win!  :)
(The tour guide told us today that they had 77 MILLION entries for the Dream Home last year!  I'm guessing my chances are pretty good!)  haha

Thanks for your visit!

Pam