Pantry Organization Project #2

This was a simple project, but much needed.  We seem to have amassed a large collection of plastic grocery bags in the pantry.  I do already have some of the fabric hanger thingys (technical term) that you shove them in the top and pull out the bottom, but those were not enough! 

Then I sawTHIS.  

Lightbulb went off and wouldn't you know we finished the large can of coffee that day.  I used a LARGE coffee can...

I was prepared to spray paint it, but once I removed the label it looked lovely all in its shiny silver self.  Using the Silhouette Cameo I printed up some vinyl letters to match the previously done project #1.  

I did spray paint the lid black.  And SHOVED in the bags and poof!  A new bag holder to add to my collection.  

One more small step towards the Pantry/Mudroom redo.

I also need to mention Pinterest because this is where a lot of the inspiration and ideas are coming from.   Just don't tell fabulous husband, or he may ban me from the site.

A girl can dream...

Here are some of the ideas I've "pinned" for the pantry/mudroom renovation!

from BHG.com

I love the color of the above picture.  The shoe storage, coat rack and baskets are also really great.

Living in High Cotten Blog

This makes me WANT bead board walls!!!  

fm The Letter Cafe Blog

I can so do this with my Silhouette!  What a great idea.  Wonder if those containers EVER go on sale.

2012 Goal #1: Pantry Organization Project #1

Project # 1 involved using my Silhouette Cameo machine for vinyl printing labels for some of my bulk storage.  After playing around with how to print vinyl, picking out a color and then doing all the dirty work to print, remove vinyl scrap and then adhere to the containers, I think they came out great!

It wasn't too difficult to do and already looks better.  Now the fabulous husband will never question what is what.  I've had the Rubbermaid Containers for awhile and they work really well to keep things fresh.  It is also handy to see exactly what is in them.  But I wanted to experiment with the new Silhouette Cameo and the vinyl kit I had ordered, so inspiration hit and Poof!  Well, not so much poof, but didn't take me too long and I think they turned out really well.  As I get further into the pantry re-do I hope to add more for things like brown sugar, baking soda, pastry flour etc.  Which means more vinyl!

2012 Goal #1: Organize/Re-do Pantry

One of my goals for 2012 is to renovate our current pantry into a mudroom/pantry.  It's got great potential, but it needs A LOT of help.  As you can see in the pictures below, it isn't in the best condition.  The ceiling is contact paper, there is a "soft" spot in the floor, there is old vents and piping from when a former homeowner had their washer and dryer in there.  While functional, it tends to be a disaster.

Ideas:
1. Remove window and replace with a door.
2. Find someone who is redoing their kitchen and take some of the old cabinets and re purpose.  Already have someone who may be a good hookup.  Depending on size, condition etc I am thinking I may have to refinish them and add new hardware.
3. Replace the flooring.  This will involve fixing some of the sub flooring as well and I will most likely just go with a good vinyl rolled flooring as this will most likely turn out to be the entrance we would use to the house.
4. Paint the walls a much better color - something more inviting, shows less dirt and will compliment the cabinets (see #2 - no idea what they will be like).
5. Create a space for all our needs and all my wants.

Current Needs/Wants:
One of the most important things in planning this venture is to figure out exactly what we NEED, what I WANT and how to make it ALL work.

1. Food storage (obviously important that we are able to store all our pantry needs).  Rather than the current haphazard set up of food wherever it fits, and stuff just stuck on shelves, I'd like to have a system in place... all baking items, staples, cans, etc where they are easy to see and easy to just grab.
2. Shoe storage.  I envision a lower cabinet that we can open when we walk in and kick off our shoes into and also store them in there).
3. Pet Storage - A place for dog/cat food, treats, toys, bowls, and all the extras that come with them.  They've got a lot of STUFF.
4. Cookbook/Recipe Storage:  I have a lot of cookbooks and recipes.  I need a place to store/display them all.
5. Cleaning Supplies/Paper Goods: MUST come up with something good for storing paper towels, cleaning products and supplies.
6. Pot/Pan/Small Appliance Storage: Need a place to store all the extra items like the blender, kitchen aide etc.

I've been scouring Pininterest for ideas, among other sites.

The Beach Guest Room Day #4… a little late.

All the trim, the windows and door were painted, the wall paint was cut in and then I painted the walls. At this point, I was already in love with the color, Behr’s Ozone, but once it was on the walls? I was MADLY in love. It is the perfect color for this room and with the Ultra Pure White Trim by Behr and the dark wood floors it was fabulous.

I picked up simple curtain rods from Wal-Mart, and hung sheer’s that my mom had given me. Using some satin silver ribbon I tied them back and Viola! It looks great.

There is still a lot to do… refinish some pieces of furniture, move some around, pick up some night stands, iron the bed skirt, paint the closet and closet doors but otherwise we are in good shape!

The Beach Guest Room Day #3!

A short recap, at this point I have removed all the wallpaper in the room. Next? I sanded and spackled a few nail spots, as well as washed down all the trim and windows. After that I sanded, spackled and sanded again where curtain rod holes were on the window frames.

The next step? Paint the trim and windows! All of same would be getting 2 coats of Behr Ultra Paint in Ultra Pure White with a semi-gloss finish.
Tapping off windows and trim is probably my least favorite thing. I would rather remove a full room of wallpaper. Seriously, I would. It’s so tedious and time consuming and really just kills my motivation to move on. But, I pushed through, tapped off the three windows and the large amount of trim and door.

I did all of this in more than just a day, but for blogging purposes I’ll lump it into one day. Overall the whole room from wallpaper removal to final paint layer took about 2 weeks, which is pretty good considering that I did it alone AND I work full time.

Fabulous Husband did help out with changing out the two outlets and the one light switch in the room. As did our wonderfully crazy foster dog Ris, who we are encouraging to pay attention and learn some tricks of the renovation trade. She’s only excelling at taking cute pictures at this time.

After two coats on ALLLLL the trim, I then started to cut in with the beautiful wall paint….

More to come…

PS. For those who may wonder, yes, I did (accidentally) paint the windows shut. I’m going to try to remedy that this weekend.

The Beach Guest Room Day #2!

On the first night of my boredom, I removed the first layer of the wallpaper, simply by peeling it off. I pushed all the furniture into the middle of the room and emptied out what I could. What was left on the walls was the paper wallpaper backing, which ironically looked better than the wallpaper itself.

The next day I grabbed my 5 gallon bucket, rubber gloves, gallon of vinegar, plastic floor covering, and scrapper. Using a 50/50 mixture of warm water and vinegar I sponged the walls down with it, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and began removing the sheets of the paper backing. As luck would have it, they came off with ease and the job didn’t take nearly as long as I anticipated.

But I smelled like vinegar. Yum.

At this point in the renovation, I have removed enough wallpaper that I think I can call myself a pro. And oddly I find it almost cathartic. There is one full wall of wallpaper in the office left and then 2 bathrooms with some wallpaper. I’m almost sad that I will most likely have no wallpaper left to remove by the time we have been in the house a year.

I may have to offer my services to some friends down the road just to enjoy what has become a favorite past time of mine. NOT.

The Beach Guest Room Day #1

Last weekend I was bored and decided that the wallpaper in this room just HAD to go. It is the only remaining room with four full walls of wallpaper and while not completely obnoxious, I was over it. Plus I have a really great plan for this room.

The wallpaper was a wonderful fabric damask in an ivory (read: dirt) color. The pictures do not do it justice, or maybe they do. I will leave you to decide that. The floors in this room are some of the nicest in the house with a nice deep, dark stain that is in really good condition save a few spots. My plan was to do something that would highlight the wonderful floors and use the fact that there are three windows (2 north facing and one west facing) that get great afternoon sun.
I tried two different paint samples from Behr. I already had the color picked out in my mind and on a paint chip, but figured I would try another color as well. Well my original paint color won. The room will be painted “Ozone” by Behr (color on the right) and this will be the “Beach” Guest Room.

In case you didn’t know, I am a beachaholic. I lived at or near a beach for most of my life. Having acquired a collection of beach theme décor, I figure this is a great place to put it to use.

So, join me in my boredom as I show you how I redid this room from start to finish!

Oh and just for fun, check out the current light fixture. I kid you not, this is exactly as it was when we arrived. No comment.

Our First Fire!

We lost power on Saturday and the house started to get cold fast, so we had our first fire in the fireplace! It kept that part of the house nice and toasty, and happy to report our house is still standing.

While I enjoyed it, the cats enjoyed it the most. Clearly they are not happy that we keep the house chilled, they were enthralled with the fire and also loving the warmth in the room.

A Little Background on The Cabin

A few people have asked for more information about the cabin, and for more pictures. I will do the best I can with what I've learned so far. I promise more pictures, I had to wait for the ice to melt so I could actually make it down there.

The Cabin

Below is a picture of the cabin from the summer of 2010. Our first summer owning the property. The cabin is essentially located 150 feet below the ridge our house sits on down in a valley, next to Blair Creek. Getting things down there isn't the easiest, but contrary to this picture we were able to get a lawn mower down there and did get the yard cleaned up.

Now that we have met some of our neighbors we have gotten some of the history of the cabin. We were told by the prior owners that it was an old hunting cabin built in the early 1900's. Which makes the cabin a brand new building compared to our house, which was built in the 1820's. Aside from our cabin, 3 others were constructed in the general creek area by the owners of the tannery building. Our neighbors to the south live in what was the Tannery building, and have 2 fireplace remnants still standing on their property from 2 of the cabins (See picture below). I've included a picture of the fireplace in our cabin.

Our cabin isn't in "great" condition and according to tax records it is dilapidated. I like to think we can make it so much more special than it already is. At this point, we need to just make sure it doesn't fall into further disrepair. And while it needs work, water and electricity, it is actually in decent shape considering no one lives in it.

You enter through the front door into a large open room that is home to the fireplace. To the back and to the left is a small bathroom and to the back right is a kitchen, which has a door out the back of the cabin, as well.

Yes, There is a bathroom...

It needs help.

It's on the list... I plan to do some cleanup this spring and at least get the windows sparkling and clean the brush and trees from around the immediate area of the foundation and roof. There is nothing better than sitting on the front porch of the cabin with the creek flowing in front of you, not being able to see another house or person. It instantly transcends you to another world.

Lights, Camera, Angles..

Ahh, when I see this picture I instantly begin to unwind and destress. Part of the reason we picked this house was because it came with the cabin. I may love the cabin more than the house actually. I do believe I kept saying over and over, but it has a cabin and a stream, who cares about the house. So when I see it all snow covered, I instantly transport myself to Walden Pond or some other idyllic setting. Lucky for my, I only have to walk down 100 stairs, and on this particular day ALOT of ice and snow, but all the same, this is in my very own backyard.

In loving old houses and cabins one of the great things is the cool (and sometimes not so cool) things that you discover. Below is the door handle to the front door of the cabin. To me, it's ridiculously fascinating, but I'm a dork.

I took this to show how diverse the cabin is in structure. Notice the clapboard ceiling, the log pole and the cool light fixture. What you can't see are the slate porch floors which add even more character. You may see work, or old or crap, my eyes gloss over and I see cool old cabin.

And these! Oh there is a pair of these amazing light fixtures on the front of the cabin. No electric down there, but how wonderful these must have looked all lit up and welcoming. Now they are home to some birds, but still give the place some personality.

Gah, I love my cabin.

The Dining Room

That is powder blue trim around the windows, as well as the wall trim and oh yes, the doors and windows were painted that lovely shade as well. The walls themselves were white. They are no longer. Meet our dining room. It's actually completely open to the living room and is the whole back half of our house on the first floor. The dining "area" is a wonderful little set up. It is partially open to the kitchen, has that lovely bay window (which isn't so lovely and rotting up close, so don't look when you come over). It's hardwood floors, and well, it's got some personality.

This is what it looked like almost a year ago from today... when we did our home inspection.

Below, as you can see I was just not sure what color (hence the red splotches everywhere), and we were still in the midst of unpacking, cleaning etc. So excuse the disaster.

And POOF! this picture is from just before our housewarming party in November 2010. As you can see it is looking MUCH MUCH better.


The Paint:

Walls - Behr's Tea Bag

Trim - Behr's Ultra Pure White



Rug- pottery barn (hand me down)

Buffet - 1920's piece from craigslist

Dining room table & chairs - Harden (this was my parents table and they gifted it to us!).



The floors still need to be refinished throughout the entire house, and I think these will look amazing when that happens. We kept the light fixture the same, but eventually I would like to change it, but no rush. I have not yet put anything on the window (except Christmas lights) and not sure if I will in this part of the room. As I said above the window itself needs to be replaced sooner than later, so I may just enjoy the natural setting look for awhile.



I still don't have much on the walls, and hopefully the right pieces will find their way there, somehow. While it isn't a room we utilize often, we do look at it and walk through it everyday. I do love it, but it's far from finished. It is just another shining example of what a little paint can do to spruce up a space.

You can read more about some of the pieces and ideas in this post.

Mouse Patrol

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a cat person. Over the years I had a desire to have one, but sanity quickly prevailed and I never was a cat owner. A roommate in college had one and Simon was a cool feline, but they are just not my type of animal. Dogs are more my style. However, I do love all furry, fuzzy, cuddly creatures. Given the opportunity, I would most likely own any number of animals... cow, raccoon, sheep, goat, horse etc. Oh, how I would love to own a cow. Shh, don't tell my pets but I've always loved cows. Living in Vermont for 4.5 years was like living in cow heaven. They were everywhere!

But alas, I've never lived anywhere that would be considered cow permissible. Although, a cow would probably love our property, fabulous husband veto's it before I even finish saying "cow".

Back to our mouse patrol. Shortly after moving in, I found mouse poop in the utensil drawer. Um, can we say disgusting?!?! Everything in the drawer was promptly entered into the dishwasher and the drawer was cleaned and I was grossed out. It is one thing to know that you have mouse potential, it is another entirely to have their poop on your fork. We live in the country, the possibility of mice is higher than the possibility of cell service. I get it, and I'm okay with it. I wouldn't say I embrace it, but if I don't think about it, it doesn't bother me.

Within 24 hours, I was a cat person. Into our lives came Layla. Layla was a barn cat from a dairy farm in Upstate NY that we adopted from a local couple whose parents own the dairy farm. She is also the head of the mouse patrol.

Layla was getting lonely. Or I said she was, or I was thinking really she should have a friend. And 2 months later, we adopted Gutter. Gutman as we affectionately refer to him came from a Philadelphia shelter via his wonderful foster home and into our lives. I am now a 2 cat person.

Scooping poop and cleaning litter has most likely made me a forever and only 2 cat person. I do every now and again get a twinge, but then I scoop some litter and that twinge is long forgotten.

Layla and Gutter at first were not friends. In fact Layla wanted nothing to do with Gutter and I thought, OH GOD, I made a huge mistake. But alas as time went on, they have become the best of friends, or at least to a non-cat person they seem as if they tolerate each other enough to sometimes cuddle together, play together and occasionally clean each other. Gutter is second in command of the mouse patrol.

Prior to them gaining their mouse patrol skills, we did have 1 incident where Rissa, our foster dog and the Dyson Animal vacuum had to step up and rid us of a mouse. Oh yes, fabulous husband and I cornered a little field mouse and not wanting bloodshed, swiftly kicked Rissa out of the room, and decided that the only safe, humane, CLEAN way to get him out of the house was to vacuum him. And yes, I'm aware that Dyson most likely did not mean the Animal version of their vacuum to be used for such purposes.

Ode to a Thermostat

One of the things I know enough to stay away from is electrical work. My dad taught me that nice and young and I'm forever grateful. Sure, I could tell you all about arc chutes, arc shields, circuit breakers, and switchgear among other things, but that is all technical knowledge. Thankfully there are people that are trained in the APPLICATION of that knowledge. At the end of the day, I was just happy our house wasn't still rocking the old Knob and Tube (which the remnants of can be seen in our attic).

While there is a decent amount of electrical work that needs to be done on the house, most of which I am staying far, far away from, there was one thing I was determined to tackle.

The Downstairs Thermostat

Here is what was here when we arrived. A generic, non-descript thermostat. If you look closely, it almost looks as if there had been a different one there and it had been replaced with this generic wonder. Thank you prior homeowners, once again, you baffle me.

We have 2 zone heating in the ole' house here, one upstairs and one downstairs, which is great. But without a programmable thermostat it's not very efficient, and add propane heat and we'd be broke.

So I took a little trip to the Home Depot (where everybody knows my name) and I picked up a mid-grade thermostat. Nothing overly fancy, but it is programmable and that was the goal.

The instructions were simple to follow, and the installation was minimal. Without little hassle and maybe 15 minutes of my time we now have this fabulous little beauty.

And don't worry that blue trim paint is gone BUH BYE and that fabulous wood spindle is now white.

The Pepto Pink Bathroom

This is the true story of our retro pepto pink bathroom makeover. Initially, this half bath was not going to be renovated beyond maybe removing the wallpaper, and painting the walls and maybe in 5 years we would totally redo it. Well, plans changed. I got sick of looking at it. Truthfully, you access it through our foyer, and it's the bathroom that would get most used and most viewed. After getting through most of the downstairs rooms, and realizing this was the ONLY room on the first floor that wasn't getting touched, I decided to touch it.

Reading up on painting tile, I ventured to Home Depot (where everybody knows my name) and bought several options for covering the tile. I was going to take this pepto pink wonderland and turn it into a simple, elegant bathroom.

Here is what it looked like the day of our home inspection, almost 1 year go. Can you believe we still bought this place?!?!

The wallpaper was removed, I covered and taped up until I was sick of tape and newspaper and garbage bags. This was also where I realized that holy crap, this is a tight space to work in. I then set out to Epoxy Spray paint the tile with a Tub and Tile paint kit. Complete with my gloves, cleaning solution, crappy clothes and a mask that would make any chemical war victim survive I started the process. Scrub walls with cleaner, wipe clean, dry, steel wool walls, wipe clean, dry... REPEAT THREE TIMES!?!?!? Ugh, did I mention I work full time?

Finally I got to the spray part. It went okay, not good, not horrible. The fumes were TERRIBLE. And this bathroom is not that well ventilated. So after 2 coats of the spray, and realizing I could still see ALOT of pink. I headed down to the basement to grab option #2.

A really good, highly recommended primer for tile. I primed up the walls, with 2 coats. The walls now had 4 coats and yes, I could still see pink. At this point, I'm thinking maybe it's just me, but then fabulous husband concurred.

In comes Behr's ultra pure white in the new formula and POOF! No more pink. Beautiful WHITE tile. Thank you God for creating Behr paint. And in the picture below you will see the finished product. The green walls are also a fabulous shade of Behr paint, trim is all Behr ultra pure white.

I think we can all agree, that even though the tile is not 100% perfect (please, if you come to my house don't look TOO closely) it is still sooooo much better than the pink. And don't worry all you retro tile loving people, I've got a mint green bathroom and a powder blue one as well that will NOT be getting painted over. My tile painting career began and ended with this project.

There are still some outstanding projects that need to be done to complete this bathroom. Eventually the flooring will get replaced. The medicine cabinet will be going as well. I have the new light fixture that will go above the tile, and a new outlet will need to be put in as well since the one that is built into the medicine cabinet does not work. However, if there is one thing I am sure of, I do not do electrical work. I will leave that to our electrician. I won't know what will go in the place of the old mirror/cabinet, until I take the one that is there down... stay tuned.