Living Room Makeover Reveal!

It’s tough to improve on perfection but we try oh so hard. That enormous propeller dangling from the ceiling. The elegant drapes. That lush carpet, not a minute over 38.

There were just a few updates we wanted to make to the living room.

Just a few.

Task 1: Remove vile 80s carpet and revive beautiful original hardwood floors. A big, fat, painful CHECK! You can read about all of the horrifying details HERE.

Task 2: Fireplace makeover. Extract weird (definitely explosive) gas fireplace. Replace with gas fireplace insert from this century. Check!

Task 3: Remove enormous/ugly ceiling fan and replace with a less conspicuous, true to the age of our house ceiling medallion. Done!

Task 4: Allow sunlight to actually enter the room. Perhaps my favorite improvement. The previous homeowners (though I’m sure they were lovely people!) had extremely heavy drapes on the windows. Even though we darkened the paint from their choice, white, to our choice, a darker gray/tan/green shade, this room looks so much more open and bright. Check!

Task 5: Add lots of personality - new furniture and accessories, a fresh coat of paint, lighting, tons of house plants, artwork and photos (our unhealthy obsession with the dog can’t be missed). Checkity-check-check-check!

Yet to come: Our television is looking a little dorm room chic at the moment. We plan to remove it from this room all together and banish it to the basement.

Bam! After! Better? I think so.

Have you made any improvements to your living room? I’d love to hear about them!

The Worst DIY Ever

We’ve begun making a minuscule dent on the 14 encyclopedias worth of home improvement projects that need to be completed around here. Starting with tearing out roomfuls of icky, old carpet and refinishing the original wood floors.

I would not wish this punishment on my worst enemy. It was, in a word, Awful.

We made our way over to the local Home Depot one bright, early morn to rent their finest industrial floor sander. Which by the way, you are not able to reserve ahead of time. You just have to hope they have one available on the day you wish to start your project. As if sanding every square inch of your home is something you'd do on a whim.

"Hey spouse, I was thinking we could hit up Whole Foods today."

"Oh really, I was hoping that you might feel like emptying the contents of our entire house, making arrangements for our needy pets, staying up until an ungodly hour doing back breaking work whilst eating terrible take-out. But I guess we can go to Whole Foods."

Back on the narrowest of tracks.

To prepare, we had watched every season of Ask This Old House and about 16,000 YouTube videos on how to refinish a floor (seriously, what did DIY home renovators do before YouTube, read books?!)

We got home and the sanding began. We sanded.

And sanded.

And sanded some more.

And cursed the 1970s for their love of all things ugly.

We sanded for TWELVE HOURS STRAIGHT. Do not be fooled by these photos. I know they make it seem like Gunnar was doing all of the work but I assure you, I was not eating bon bons on the couch. I was in charge of detail sanding (far worse than operating this modern contraption) and had the bruises to prove it.

We fueled up on cheap beer and crappy Hy-Vee Chinese. Then sanded some more. I got this fortune, which seemed more like a punch in the face at the time. This home was not as “wonderful” as it seemed.

When it was all said and done, They. Looked. Amazing. Okay. They just look okay. Most certainly not perfect but nothing a few strategically placed rugs can’t camouflage. At least no one will be asking us to help refinish their floors next weekend. Seriously. Don’t even think about asking.

Old Houses and Choosing the Perfect Paint Color

If it were up to me, every room in our house would be a different color with a neon accent wall. My boring husband however, not so much (kidding, honey!). When we first moved in to our home, I knew painting was an immediate and much needed cosmetic upgrade. I could only live with the asylum white walls for 47 hours… maybe 52… but those extra five hours would pure misery for anyone in my crazy, color-craving path.

I know white, minimalist walls are having a big moment right now, especially on THEEE greatest design site in the whole world, but they’re not for me. After many, many arguments a mature, respectful and quiet discussion, we finally landed on two of the most beautiful colors in the world (with equally inspiring names): Behr’s 750D-4 and 750D-5.

Also known as Desert Shadows and Pebble Stone. I’m convinced that there’s some kind of blue/black, white/gold dress conspiracy going on here because on these look green in my house. See?

Normally I would go for bold and bright, but for our 1930s home, with its small rooms and imperfect walls, a neutral seemed most appropriate (never mind it was the only thing we could agree on). Now’s the part when I offer some unsolicited advice about choosing the perfect paint color(s) for your space.

1. If you have a small home like ours, consider using multiple shades on the same swatch. You can see pretty much all of the rooms on the main floor standing in one spot. Multiple, contrasting colors would make the space look too busy and super small. Instead we chose two shades off the same swatch and alternated between them throughout most of the rooms on the main floor. The entry way is the slightly darker shade, living room and hall light, dining room and bedrooms dark. I love the subtlety and cohesiveness as you walk from room to room.

2. Take a chance. Nowadays you can get a dozen of those adorable little paint samples, paint them all on the wall side by side and spend days torturing yourself over the slightest nuances from one beige to the next. Maybe you’re into that. Cool. I’m not. I’m way too impatient and like the majority of my DIY projects to be done in a weekend (much to my husband’s chagrin). I say pick what you like and then just go for it. I think it’s just about impossible to envision what a room is going to look like based on a square foot sample. Paint is cheap. Just do it already!!!

3. Get weird with it. Paint the ceiling. Paint an accent wall. Use masking tape and paint half of the wall. I'm really inspired by this hotel. I did a chalk board paint wall in our dining room and we absolutely love it.

4. If you're painting an old house, use a flat paint. The shiny stuff shows every little imperfection. I feel like the people at Home Depot are always trying to convince me to go for an eggshell or semi-gloss. I'm not into it, Home Depot!

5. Neutrals aren't all bad. I'll admit, at first I was really resistant, but I love the freedom a neutral wall color gives me to change up little things like rugs and throw pillows... which I change every chance I get. It's a problem.

What about you? Any major painting projects you've regretted? Any huge successes? I'd love to hear about it!

Our Home - A Virtual Tour

Welcome to the virtual tour of our new home! I have a few rooms to reveal in the weeks to come but you can’t truly appreciate the progress that has been made without having a sense of where we started. So let’s begin with the living room.  Well really, what’s not to like here? The way the ivory carpet compliments the ivory walls which really set off those beautiful ivory window treatments. And don’t forget the ivory fireplace! Don'cha just love a nice ivory? And how about those heavy powder blue drapes? If you’re anything  like me, natural light is the last thing you want in your living room. Oh, and nothing says “welcome to our home” like an ginormous, faux wood ceiling fan hung dangerously low, ready to decapitate an unsuspecting house guest. In summary, hardly anything changing here. Moving on

Something we actually like. Lots of lovely little 1930s details like this.

Ah yes. Carpet in the dining room. That makes sense. Now accepting bids for that stunning light fixture, too. Make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Now this is what they call a chef’s kitchen. Love the way that table/island/breakfast nook (???) cuts right into the barely existent usable space. Ideal for folks like us who love to cook.

But at least the appliances are brand spanking new. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that fecal brown is going to be the stainless steel of 2015.

Bedrooms. More ivory! Yay!

I can neither confirm nor deny that the laundry shoot was a top selling point for this house. The tie rack didn’t hurt either.

Not only does the house shelter us and keep us warm, it enables us to travel through time! They don’t make wood paneling like this anymore ladies and gents. Allow me to introduce you to our basement.

Believe it or not, the goal is to one day convert the attic into our master bedroom. Dream big. Stay tuned...

Hey You! Welcome!

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by!

I’m Carrie. I recently signed on for wifely duties and co-homeownership with Gunnar, my husband. We dated for approximately sixty-eight ten years before tying the knot on September 13, 2014. I work for the Lied Center for Performing Arts and love practicing yoga and cooking Persian food in my spare time. He just landed an assistantship at the University of Nebraska at the School of Natural Resources, is crazy for cycling and has a different hot sauce for every food. We both adore old homes so buying a new [to us] house was at the top of our newlywed to do list… right after booking a killer honeymoon trip to Chile and Argentina, that is. When we’re not ripping out shag carpet or replacing light fixtures from the 1980s, you can find us putzing around in the garden, canning vegetables or organizing the garage. In bed by 9 PM, of course.

Shortly after our wedding, we closed on an old brick Tudor home near downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. She was built in 1935 and is quite the charmer. We are on a tight budget and doing most of the renovations ourselves… a bold choice during the first year of marriage… just wait for the post when I talk about refinishing floors.

Anywoo, I’ll use this space to talk about our remodeling endeavors, urban gardening adventures, renovation nightmares, DIY disasters and why you should never embark on a home remodel during your first year of marriage.

I look forward to oversharing all of the unfortunate details with you!