we are entering the age of aquariums!

...age of aquariUUUMMSSS!!!

As I posted before, there is a bit of a transformation going on with the fish tank. The tank is from my mom, who has had it for almost as long as I can remember. We've used it, first, for fish and later for a lizard. This is what it first looked like:

[BEFORE]

As you can see (or maybe you can't?) it's a basic & very flat oak stain with not much pizazz. And I, I am a girl of PIZAZZ!!

So I started staining:

[DURING]

I believe I used an Antique Pine stain, but who can be sure? The rest of the can is all the way downstairs and my feet are cold, so a guess is all you will get. But here we are, 1/2 done. 1/2 Pizazz, 1/2 Un-Pizazz.

Now, a wise woman would have done this with all the windows open. But it was cold outside!! Well, actually, I guess a "wise woman" would have taken the entire stand outside to stand in the spring or summer.... details, details.

After filling up the tank gradually (to check for leaks) and then adding the gravel.....

[AFTER]


TA DA!! I love it. Nope, no fishies yet. I need to get filters and silly stuff like that. But that is neither here nor there- LOOK AT THE AQUARIUM! The dark color matches my house much better and is more of a statement in this stand-out stain. Sadly, the "wood" surrounding the actual tank is a plastic-faux-wood, and wouldn't take the stain. Whatevs, it's better this way. Two-toned, and all.


I would also like to say that this has been done for quite some time (over a month, I think!) But I just... I... I didn't have a picture of it. Sorry and sad excuse, I know. Many apologies.

shh! no talking!

Library Update!

Though not completely finished, it is oh-so-close! Unfortunately for everyone, I don't have a "Before" picture. This room, (which is located off the rec room) was originally a small kitchenette for the first level. There was a cherub border around the top, an extremely narrow door that I could barely walk through, and a window that was replaced with a vent-fan for the stove. Now, the actual kitchenette was gross: old cabinets, dirty, broken & rotten egg in the fridge, dirty, grimy, small and dark. And dirty. So, Day 1, all of that was torn out. Then, I had my drywaller widen the doorway and wall-in the heat duct that ran along the ceiling. Which, brings us to....

(KINDA) BEFORE:

See the border? Also, the lovely linoleum. In excellent shape, of course.

The guts of the kitchenette. Complete with mold, thrown in for good measure. And you can see the original door molding and that blasted vent-fan.

Though there were those that advised me to keep the kitchenette (which would make a downstairs apartment more rent-able,) I chose to make it another living area. When it comes time to sell, could be listed as a library/playroom/office. My thought was that I didn't want to deal with replacing all the appliances, counters, and cabinets and the increase in utilities that comes with it. Also, I like the feeling of a single-family home, instead of two separate living levels.


DURING #1:
Widening the doorway! Though I would have loved to widen this more to make one open great room, this would have required a lot of work to maintain the structural support of the house if we took out the studs. So instead, just widened the doorway as much as the wall studs would allow. Still good! And, as a bonus I hadn't thought of, keeps this room kind of private for the times when I have a lot of company, and need to use it as another guest room.


DURING #2:


Installed flooring in the library and removed the bottom foot of drywall where there was damage.


And removed the tile backsplash and wall (more damage) from the kitchenette. Only to find the previous owners did not use proper insulation (no moisture barrier for being against the concrete external wall.... D'OH!)


New insulation! And you better believe the leftover insulation will be put to use in the attic! Also, surprise surprise, not only are these studs not spaced the standard 16" apart, they aren't spaced equally, either!

Then comes the drywall. And then......


DURING #3:


Paint!!


I used the same color as the rec room, for a seamless transition, making both feel bigger. I ended up painting all walls except the back alcove. Here are some more pictures during the painting process:





(KINDA) AFTER:


I chose the floral rug for this room. It kinda matches in a ridiculously-perfect way.... it's the exact seafoam blue-green as the walls, the mid-brown flows seamlessly with the floor color and the dark brown will (eventually) be the same color as the coffee table.* And, at some point, I will get a new futon color, probably in a light tan. See? PERFECT!

I ended up choosing this one over the blue because it blends in, and essentially "disappears" in this room since it matches so well. So, even though some may argue it's a "busier" rug with a design, the fact that it has the same colors as the wood floor and the walls means your eye doesn't notice as much. The blue rug, being a different color "pops" out at your eye. In such a small room, I prefer to have something that blends rather than makes a bold statement.

*I am going to stain the coffee table. It'll be the same stain as the fish tank stand.


And, what would a library be without.....
Bookcases! ...FINALLY!!! Plans to pick up these bookcases were delayed about 178,980 times by snow, sleet, rain, ice, more snow, and a couple tsunamis, but tenacity prevailed! I'm super excited to move my books into these and truly finish the room, which would open up the upstairs closet for more storage and clear out the boxes and bags of books littered around the house! SO EXCITED!! But, I'll be patient and wait until the molding is installed so we don't have to try to move full bookcases when the time comes... See? Thinking ahead!

These two fit in the alcove perfectly! Such a built-in look (which, to be honest, was not my initial idea for furniture arrangement, but darned if it doesn't work better this way.) My aunt & uncle were nice enough to give me these bookcases since they were done with them, and I am absolutely thrilled with them!!

So, to finish this room:

1. Floor molding (shoe & quarter-round)
2. Doors for under-the-stairway storage
3. Paint the blue weave (white? tan? ...other??)
4. Hook up/run Fios cable to TV
5. Oh, and one other little thing..... trash the vent-fan and re-install the window! Let there be light!!

You see? Not much. BASICALLY done!

you could go with this...

...you could go with that!

Christopher Walken needs to be in more music videos.

......

In the epic battle between two rugs, only one can be the champion!! Sale at the Pottery Barn outlet means amazingly beautiful and plush rugs for cheap. Now, I have to decide which to use in the library!


OPTION #1:


Hard to tell with the camera/lighting/computer display, but this is pretty much a perfect color match. I can't tell you how much this surprised me, as the wall color was a weird color-creation at the paint table. But it works! It also has a great design in 4 different browns. I actually saw this rug on a decorating blog months ago and liked it, and lo & behold- it's now in my house!


One of the medium browns really matches the floor well. The coffee table will be stained a dark brown, which will be close, if not exactly matching, to the darkest color in the rug.


OPTION #2:


TA D-
....
....... what is that??!??! Is that a Vanna White impersonator?? you see, this is what happens when you try and get things accomplished with your "hilarious" brother around. Hardy-har har har.

::le sigh::

Anyways, as I was saying...


TA DA! This is a dark blue rug that is insanely rich in color and awesomely thick and plush. I love the way it feels under foot, and the blue is beautiful. It has a bit of texture to it (better seen in the next picture, though the color in that picture is a bit too light and cobalt-y.)



So, the question arises: Rug 1 or Rug 2? The blue rug is more of a statement piece in the room and would really stand out, whereas the pattern rug would blend in to the room as it matches the wall and existing wood.

Stay tuned to find out which one I pick!! (I know, the excitement is just TOO great. I can barely stand it!)

everyone I meet says I am one fungi!

GET IT?? FUN-GI??? FUN GUY! ... I guess this would be better if I actually was a guy. Huh.

Cleaning up leaves and the gardens this fall and minding my own business when... wait, what? What is THAT?!!??!

Yup. My yard is infested with alien spores. To be expected. Couldn't just have mushrooms like a normal house. NooOOOoooOOoo. They have to be pods of yellow death in the earth. And everywhere I looked? MORE!


Luckily, they popped right up from their earthly bed without any fuss. But still! And surprisingly? Those suckers were heavy!

Well, here's to hoping I didn't breath in toxic spores....

unfinished business

Just when you thought it was safe, I went and turned everything upside-down and started myself another project. Or two. Or three.

Originally a kitchenette, ...correction, a gross-kitchenette, I thought to myself "why leave good enough alone?" And, went and made it into a library. Well, making. Making it into a library. First, we extended the floor into the room, making it one one continuous flow. However, funny enough, when the quarter-round was popped off, behold! Mold! You see, when someone removes the plumbing underneath the utility sink, water tends to flood. All over. Yeah. So, we removed the bottom strip of damaged drywall. And the old tile back-splash. And the drywall behind the back-splash.

See there? That awesome floor and the gaping hole?? Yup, pretty amazing, ain't it? Oh, and this was before I got the old washer out of the utility room (for some reason, it's advisable to make the hall opening .04" wider than the washer and/or dryer... you know, for easy removal and new utility installation.) Good news! New(ish) washer & dryer are installed and no longer in the library!

So, once the tile-covering-drywall was removed, and, Surprise! Moldy insulation. Why? Because someone thought it was a good idea to put plain insulation, without any barrier, against the concrete cinder blocks to the outside world. So...

And you know where that stuff goes? It goes here:


Which gives you:


Now, what may not be perfectly obvious, due to the magic of photography and perspective, is that these studs are not equally spaced. In fact, they are nowhere NEAR being standard. This made hanging drywall interesting. Which brings us to this:


The dust is still settling after a bit of clean-up, but the room is almost ready for priming & paint. A teeny bit more spackel and sanding to go and then, voila! ....well, and then molding. And a new window. And a cabinet door for the crawl-space. THEN, 'voila!'


Meanwhile, I got a small little transformation going on.

Ta-da! Staining the fish tank stand "Antique Pine". I did the top lip first, so that I could move the tank around as I worked; stain 1/2 and allow to dry, then shift and finish the other 1/2. I hope to make some serious progress on it this weekend.


And as if that isn't enough hulla-baloo? Take a gander at this:


Mmmhmm. You know what that means... I MAY have a WORKING shower! Sometime!! Madness, I know. The plumbing has been fixed/replaced, and now it's ready to replace the tile.

So, in case you aren't keeping track, that's: 1) almost-done library, 2) in-the-works tank stand refacing, 3) the beginning of the bathroom remodel, and 4) all the other half-finished projects [::cough::garden bench::cough::]. Good thing, too- was getting way too comfortable here.

hold on to your banisters!

Once upon a time, I thought my camera was doomed for death. An unprompted burst of hope had me trying to turn on the device one last time... MIRACLES OF MIRACLES IT WORKED! So now, let the home updates, with corresponding visuals, resume.


BEFORE:

There is a metal railing at the base of the steps. Needless to say, it was not in the best shape.


And this is the first thing you see upon walking through the front door; screams "Welcome!", doesn't it? The paint was old, yellowed, and chipping.


... so, we scraped it off! Then, using an oil-based paint in basic white, I repainted that sucker. Took quite a few coats over a few days (allowing for it to dry completely, before more coats).



AFTER:


Ta da! It really came out well, and the white ties to the base molding and the stair molding very well. I am not ruling out replacing this with something more modern later down the line, but for the now this is MUCH better!

the cursed room

BEFORE:



Very blue. And the trim? Painted. Blue. See the window in the corner? The window trim is blue. Very blue. The doors are like that too. Trust me. This room gave me the biggest headache, as it REFUSED to look good. The wall color just didn't work. For months.


DURING:

Now, the idea was to paint this room a light, soft green..... what I got was a very bright, almost neon candy apple. I don't have a picture of it. You'll just have to trust me.

So, then I had the lasts 1/2 of the gallon lightened, and ended with this:

Now, this may not look all that bad. But it was not, how do you say, "good." It was lime sherbet. Minty. Still too much. And the curse continued. On the upside, the trim returned to white!


AFTER:

Sweet salvation!


Alittle softer, alittle more blue, and a lot more perfect! And the best part of this color? The way it flows with the rest of the house so perfectly. The blue-green from the rec room is a darker and dustier color that compliments this perfectly. And the grey and silver from the other bedroom and bathroom? Couldn't be better.


Now, the room still needs to have quarter-round installed, but other than that it's pretty much done! I plan on renting this room, with the grey (gray?) room out, so not too worried about decorating.



**Uhh, my camera is broken. Much to my surprise, it did NOT want to go for a swim. So pictures may be hard to come by until I get a new one/mine restored**