OUR HOME | Stately Kitsch

Archives For OUR HOME

Third Floor Before Tour

February 7, 2013 — 6 Comments

I know its been a while! Things have actually been quite busy here. My contractor has been over finishing up some long over due projects (YEAH!). More to come on that later but I thought I would give an update on part of our upstairs project. I had a spray foam insulation contractor in last week to take a look at the messy, messy third floor. As part of this I had to finally draw some accurate plans of the third floor. I found it fascinating to see how it all fits together, since there are lots of bits in the eaves that aren’t accessible and it has been hard to figure out how they connect (and dream of future storage space). I thought I would share some before pictures. Beware I don’t usually let people up here and the in case you were wondering where the 1970s went, they are alive and well up here. This floor is currently a wasteland of stuff (12 1/2 years of stuff). Please try to not judge too harshly! Some of the furniture will actually stay, but it is impossible to see it will all of the boxes and piles of stuff. It is really hard to photograph the space, but it is actually one of the reasons we bought the house. The scale is perfect for kids (if you ignore the dangers of steep steps and low old casement windows).

Yes, those stairs are as steep as you think they are. Brown painted pine steps that are taller then they are wide. And isn’t that wallpaper a nice complement! We are thinking about removing the wall to the right to open up the hang out space.

This is my future craft room. It currently holds random Christmas decorations and half finished crafts, as well as my husbands CD collection. It is the one room where the wallpaper is not crazy, although it still needs to go!

This is actually not the same room as the previous photo (I know it is hard to tell). This is our future “hang out” space. I can totally picture a bunch of kids hanging out up here. We currently have a wall of low Billy bookcases on one side holding our books. I would like to replace them with built in bookcases some day.

This is the wall we are looking at taking out to open the space to the stairs. Any what is that crazy thing on the wall? Well that is a Victorian expansion tank for our radiators! Crazy I know! It actually was still in use until we redid the boiler about 7 years ago and added an expansion tank down there. I think it may become garden art someday. You can also see the craft room across the way.

This is the doorway to the bedroom. I don’t have to duck but Mr. S. does.

This is what we would like to use as an extra bedroom/ kids room (when they get older). There is actually a bed already here! I think a built in bed under the windows, with storage on either side, would be amazing.

And the one space that everyone wants to see, the tower! I can just fit through this without ducking!

Did I mention that we have a lot of stuff? This space is quite strange. There are no windows at eye level but the light is amazing.

Here are the tower windows! This is where we would like to build a fort up high for the kids. This space is a little strange. They never installed the interior trim on the windows. These unfortunately need to be rebuilt, but aren’t too hard to pop out.

So there you have it! You have now seen some interesting and embarrassing photos. You can see we have years of work ahead up here, and it will get much worse before it gets better. Stay tuned for another 100 posts or so on how we go about making these spaces our own.

6 Comments

In -Third Floor, -Victorian, OUR HOME

Upstairs To Do List

January 27, 2013 — 3 Comments

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we are looking into installing air conditioning in the house, namely in the second and third floor. I am pretty much sold on the concept of running it in our second floor hallway ceiling and then installing a new lower drywall ceiling below. This would allow us to keep the ceilings in the bedrooms high while sacrificing some height in the 9 1/2′ high hallway. As you can see it would also solve the existing ceiling issues left over from a leak years ago. I still need to call in some air conditioning contractors to see if they agree with my strategy. Of course to make all of this work there are a bunch of other things that also need to happen (in a specific order). As with these types of project scope creep is inevitable. This project I imagine will take us most of the year to complete (with some pieces taking possibly longer). We are hoping to be able to have air conditioning by summer (fingers crossed!). So even though the weather is absolutely freezing here, I am thinking about more cold air.

House To Do List 2013

Step 1. Fix roof flashing in several locations.

I should start by saying that we had the house re-roofed in 2001. It was the first big project that we dealt with when we bought the house. We knew that it needed a new roof, it still had the original cedar and then 2 layers of asphalt on top. It required adding plywood underneath (cedar is installed on thin slats). It also required several flat roofs to be replaced with membranes. Did I mention that they also replaced the gutters and the beadboard ceiling on the porch? So the downside. We went with the least expensive contractor. We didn’t really have too much of choice since the other contractor was twice the price (which was out of our budget) and I couldn’t get any other roofers to give us a quote. I actually saw a roofer pull up, look and then drive away. It was our first experience in the dangers of owning an old house (with a very steeply pitched roof). Needless to say our roofing contractor was in over his head and some of the flashing details were not the best.The main roof itself is actually fine (knock on wood) but there are several conditions that need help.

The biggest of these are the tower windows, (which are scary high). I actually got a look at them when the chimney guys were here and I got to take a ride in the fancy crane. Some of the windows were flashed incorrectly (i.e. the flashing was not installed behind the roofing material but in front). All of this work needs to be taken care of before we can proceed with insulating the roof. Of course this will have to wait until the weather is a little bit warmer.

2. Empty out Third Floor.

Since we don’t have an attic, the third floor has become a dumping ground. We don’t necessarily have to take everything out, but we do need to take a large portion of things out (a lot of which we just need to get rid of).

3. Demolish part of the third floor plaster eaves to allow for access for insulation and ducting.

Above is a section through the house at the hallway. The areas in pink are the spaces that we will be doing most of the work. It was a pretty good exercise to draw this up. Based on looking outside, we should have some extra cavity above a portion of the corridor. Interesting, very interesting! We are currently evaluating the best way to take out a portion of the lower plaster while keeping the upper portion in place.

4. Have the roof insulated (including sloped roof, flat roof over hallway and tower roof)

I am really hoping to use closed cell spray foam. It takes a very specific contractor to do this in existing walls. Fingers crossed we will be able to find someone.

5. Demolish plaster in part of second floor hallway to allow for door to master bedroom to be shifted, to allow for new closet

To make the closet system work we need to shift the Master Bedroom door 7″. This will allow for a full depth Ikea PAX Closet System to be installed behind the door. I can’t tell you how much I dream of the day that this will be in place! We are also planning on running conduit in the wall that we are shifting for both the second and third floors.

6. Shift door to master bedroom and frame out for new pocket door for bathroom.

The wall to the Master Bedroom is structural, so it will need to be carefully structured.

7. Frame out area in Third Floor for Air Conditioning Unit

We will be adding a “closet” in one of the third floor rooms to house this unit. I still don’t know how big this thing will be. Hopefully not TOO big.

8. Run required electric up to second and third floor for air conditioning, ceiling fans and new third floor outlets.

9. Install air conditioning unit and ducts (in hallway and up to third floor through eaves)

10. Install new exhaust fan/heater in bathroom

I’m not sure whether we will need to drop the ceiling in the bathroom yet. I do want to install an exhaust fan/heating unit like the one in the basement bedroom. We will have to see what we can make work.

11. Install new drywall ceiling in hallway, master bedroom and bathroom.

This will require framing below the new ductwork, but I can’t wait until we have a lovely new ceiling and some ceiling trim.

12. Install new linen closet in hallway and pocket door for bathroom.

The pocket door for the bathroom is really important, to avoid this door from interfering with the shifted bedroom door. It also allows for a small linen closet. We are hoping to reuse the bathroom door and reusing a couple of old cabinet doors that use to live in our basement. We currently store sheets in our bedroom closet and the towel are in a basket in the bathroom. It would be awesome to find a place for these things.

13. Install new closets in Master Bedroom

Did I mention that I can’t wait for these? I dream of all of the cool pullouts that I ooogle everytime I go to Ikea.

14. Install new trim in Master Bedroom and finally finish painting all of the old trim white.

15. Design and Install storage in the eaves on the third floor.

This I’m sure will be a longer project, but I imagine all of that unused space!

16. Enjoy cool air conditioning.

Phew! I’m tired just looking at this list (and it took me 3 days to write this).

3 Comments

In OUR HOME

Trying out Turkish (aka Fouta or Peshtemal ) Towels

January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

I know it is a major trend right now, but I decided to give Turkish or Fouta or Peshtemal towels a try. I actually tried them years ago when I was in college and visiting Istanbul for a few days while studying abroad. At the time I was confused and definitely not convinced. I thought these sheet like things are suppose to be towels? They seemed stiff (possibly starched) at the time and not at all luxurious (of course I was staying at an inexpensive hotel not really made for tourists).

So anyway, back to now. I have been seeing them pop up on a number of the sale sites and in some of the catalogs I get in the mail. I couldn’t believe how pricey they were ($40-60 a piece), although they are super colorful with fun patterns. But what finally convinced me to give them a try was reading a review of them on House*Tweaking. She is using them on hooks (like we do) and said that they dried more quickly. We have problems in the summer with the towels drying out properly, which leads to going through a lot of towels and spending more time then I would like ensuring that they are washed properly to get the mustiness out. Dana recommended this etsy shop. They have them in the $24 to $28 range, which compared to some of the other prices I have seen, wasn’t bad, but it still felt a little pricey for something I wasn’t totally convinced about.

So I had the idea stewing around in my head for a while.Then I saw a link on Little Green Notebook for a company that I hadn’t seen before called Nine Space. And as a bonus they are offering 20% off with the her discount code (LGN20). So I went over there and found some awesome deals in their sale section.

I ended up with the Lapiz Fouta Towel in navy. It is now listed at $29 but a couple of weeks ago they had it for $16.99 + 20% off. So I decided to order 2.

So the verdict? These are generously sized at 40×71 and I quite like them. It is definitely a different feel, but I felt like it did as good of job as a plush towel. They are suppose to get more absorbent the more they are washed, so we will see how I feel about them in a couple of months. Mr. S. is still deciding undecided/not fully convinced. I think my favorite part is the nice texture of the cotton. They hang nicely and up close the weaving is very pretty. I also picked up a turquoise one for the pool and to use as a wrap, which I think will be a much needed stylish upgrade.

Has anyone else given these a try?

Basement Artwork Update: Moravian Tiles

January 18, 2013 — 2 Comments

As part of my New Year’s resolutions for our home, I am trying to try mix some small fun projects in with the big, expensive and laborious ones. So one of the first things on this list was hanging up the Moravian Tile that Mr. S. bought me for our Anniversary last year (or was it Mother’s Day). Moravian Pottery & Tileworks is adjacent to Fonthill (where we got married), so there is a lot of sentimental attachment to these, especially the one on the left, as it resembles Fonthill.

I picked up a frame at Ikea a few months ago (which appears to no longer be available). I liked that it had some dimension to it, so that the tile would be recessed in the frame. The first step was choosing a background paper. The frame came with either a white or black board as the backer, but I thought they were a little boring. So I went through a pad of scrapbook paper that I had on hand.

I tried a bunch of patterns including this crazy one but settled on this blue textured pattern instead.

I mounted the tiles with Scott Permanent Mounting tape (it is about 1/8″ thick and a little squishy) that I picked up at Staples.

I cut holes with an exacto through the paper to allow the tile to adhere directly to the backerboard from the frame. The tape claims that 4 pieces hold 1 lb so I should be well covered (I used between 2 and 3 on each depending on the shape).

I spent about a half hour on the project (not including going to the store to get the tape). I am pleased that the tile are up but I am not happy with the paper backing. It is a little puckered and the seams are visible. I think I am going to see if I can find a piece of scrap wallpaper or something and try again. At least for now they are up and not sitting in the drawer.

Does anyone have any other ideas for mounting these?

2 Comments

In -Basement, DIY, OUR HOME

The Piano: Valentine’s Edition

January 14, 2013 — 2 Comments

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! We had a good one here. I am finally feeling better and some time with the family was just what I needed. So for once I actually have my decorations up early! I was taking down some more of the Christmas decorations and I decided to go ahead and decorate for Valentine’s Day.

Funny enough the inspiration came from a Christmas ornament. I ordered a couple of clearance ornaments at Urban Outfitters a couple of weeks ago. One of them was this LOVE one, no doubt inspired by Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture in Philadelphia (a favorite of mine). I was getting ready to put it away for next year, but then I thought it might make for a good Valentine’s Day decoration. I pulled out some red books from the Living Room bookcase and decided to leave out some of the pink Christmas ornaments. Finally I mixed in some white ceramics that I am starting to collect.

The tree stump ceramic box is new. I picked it up at 90% off at Target. It is actually from GamaGo (which is usually known for its cartoon characters and t-shirts). I had seen it right before Christmas and thought it was cool, but for $19.99 decided to pass. When I saw it in the clearance section it didn’t even have a tag so I brought it over to the price check machine and was happily surprised when it came up at $1.99. There was only one, so I quickly put it in my basket. The ceramic acorns and pine cones are also a post Christmas 70% off sale from Target. The squirrel unfortunately is not. He is from Jonathan Adler, we picked him up this summer on our trip to NYC. He usually lives on our desk.

I like to think that I am getting better at “staging” this area. I guess there is nothing like practice and spending some time looking through a camera lens.

2 Comments

In -Dining Room, OUR HOME

Shattered Stool & Germs

January 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

I ordered this beautiful ceramic wood stump table (Silvia Stool, $99)over the holidays from Joss & Main, one of my favorite flash/private sale sites. Isn’t it kind of ridiculous? Unfortunately when it arrived the other day it look like this:

I knew it was a bad sign when the box was wrapped with an extra layer of bubble wrap on the outside. I was planning on using it back by the piano and colorful chair kind of like this:

Alas it was not meant to be. Joss & Main was really good about giving me a credit back for the full amount and shipping but they don’t have any extra. It is one of those purchases that I looked at a bunch of times over a couple of days before ordering. Mr. S. even weighed in on which one he preferred, so I was pretty excited to get it. I did learn that it was made by Statements by J who I see makes quite a bit of stuff for both J&M and One Kings Lane. So I guess I will be keeping an eye out for something similiar. I was planning on using it to hold my coffee cup for when I sit in this chair and talk to Mr. S. while he works on the computer. Oh well.

In other news the stomach bug has struck again (this time it was me). Yuck! After Sam was sick on Saturday I scrubbed the house down with Lysol wipes and washed all of the sheets, towels and blankets. I guess it wasn’t enough. I spent yesterday in bed watching bad tv. I’m up today and except for being really tired and not very hungry appear to be mostly better. Now if I could just get someone to do all of the other work I missed I would be all set.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and may the bad germs stay away from you!

New Red Carpet Tile for the Hallway

January 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

Today I wanted to show off my new carpet squares for the hallway. I decided to replace the 4 orange squares with patterned red squares (lasting grace, $14 each). I have been meaning to do this for a while, but now that I have been spending so much time thinking about the space I decided to finally take the plunge and order up 4 red FLOR tiles (of course after finding a coupon). I decided to go with a big pattern to add a little more fun to the space and pick up on some of the pattern in our Living Room rug. I am very happy with the result, especially considering it only took me about a half hour to cut and install them. Lets here it for short and was relatively inexpensive projects!

Here is was before with the orange:

And here it is now:

It is not like I don’t like orange, heck I pretty much like all colors, but for some reason it was no longer working for me. And for now I have the orange tiles up on the third floor in case I change my mind. The rest of the tiles are House Pet, which are about 7 years old and are super durable. They aren’t super soft on the feet but my cats scratch on them on a daily basis and they still look the same, which cannot be said for any of the other things that they put their claws into. Now if I can just get around to refinishing the floor and adding some crown molding.

What do you think?

Hallway Coatrack Update!

January 4, 2013 — 2 Comments

A month late, but it is done! We have hooks and storage and it was finished just in time for Christmas. I think I made it harder on myself by modifying a Martha Stewart Shelf from Home Decorators. Although it at least gave me a starting point, which until recently I was lacking.

I spent a good portion of time sanding off the finish so I could put on a walnut finish to match the other trim in the hallway. I also made a different top that was longer, shallower and solid oak (1×12). I went back and forth on the shape of the corners and actually planned to make a more complicated corner, but I wanted to route the edge so in the end I cut a corner with a jigsaw and sanded it into a radius, which I think looks pretty nice. Finally we (i.e. Mr. S.) routed the nice edge detail around the 3 sides.

The narrower depth also made sure that the shelf didn’t over take the hallway which I was concerned about. The lower shelf is the one that came with the shelf. Fortunately it is in shadow so it isn’t too noticeable that the finish is different.

I also added the very important backer boards for the hooks (which makes installing the hooks much easier and gives it a more polished look). I used 1×4 oak and routed a chamfer on the top and bottom. Since I decided to use animal knobs for the smaller hooks, I had to spend way too long drilling larger holes on the back to allow for the nuts and washers.

I also spent a couple of hours cutting the bolts down to fit without sticking out the back. Then I applied 2 coats of walnut stain to all of the bare wood. I hung the lower backer board first since it didn’t need to fit in between the shelf and i was getting desperate for coat storage.

Then I hung the shelf using the hardware provided and finally screwed the upper hook backer board in last. Finally I picked up a couple of baskets at Target. These are now holding the mail and the kids artwork (2 items that were taking over the kitchen counters).

Here is how it was before. I’m not quite sure why I left that small coat rack for so long.

And here is a detail of my hooks. I am totally in love with these animal knobs. I still have a couple more things to do in the hallway (i.e. some new carpet tiles) but it is such a relief to have this up and working. So far the kids have actually been reasonably good about using it.

What do you think?

2 Comments

In DIY, OUR HOME

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2013 — 4 Comments

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope everyone had a joyful and restful holiday season!

I can’t believe 2012 is over and it is time to start thinking about 2013 and what lies ahead. This past year has been so full it is hard to imagine what is in store for this year. As you can see I’m starting off the year with a bit of a ramble. I’ve had some time to stew things over in my head, so I thought I would share.

I had some quality downtime over the break. So what did I do with it? We spent a good bit of time as a family and Mr. S. and I actually managed to get some alone time in, including going out to lunch a couple of times by ourselves!

I also managed to start cleaning and organizing the workroom in the basement and Mr. S. worked on a new logo for the blog and is part way through a new layout. I’m pretty excited about that, especially since the current format seems to be literally falling apart.

The other thing I managed to do was to read an entire book, which is a miracle in itself. I chose “Happiness at Home” by Gretchen Rubin. I haven’t read the “Happiness Project” but I thought this sequel might be more my speed. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, much less on actual concrete “home” and more on creating a better home life. A lot of the things she wrote resonated with me. So I’m not quite sure I will be starting a compete Happiness Project, but I am going to try and be more mindful and am considering a few small changes. I like her strategy of making small concrete changes, rather than large gestures that are harder to actually implement and stick to. Has anyone tried their own Happiness Project?

I also worked on some to do lists for the house. I really like making lists, particularly by hand. That way I can add notes, circles, cross things off. Does anyone else still do this?

What came out of my house lists and discussions with Mr. S. is that adding air conditioning by the summer is at the top of the LONG list. Our window units aren’t cutting it and with global climate change air conditioning has become much more of a necessity in these parts. We also have some ongoing space planning issues on the second floor, which have been on hold until we determine the layout for the air conditioning ducts. Our general plan had been to install the unit on the third floor to feed the second and third floor. Our neighbors have this set up and it has provided ample cooling for all three floors of their house. Of course it is never that simple. It will require removing a good portion of the plaster knee walls in the third floor to insulate and then carefully snaking the ducting through the eaves down to the second floor and into the third floor. Well after some thinking about both the second and third floor problems, I think I have come up with a better solution. Our second floor ceilings are 9 1/2′ tall. The plaster ceilings in the master bedroom and the hallway need to be covered/replaced anyway, so why not take some of the ceiling height in the hallway and run the ducts down there? That should provide a straighter and cleaner installation for the air conditioning ducts. Of course that still requires insulating the third floor/roof and installing the base unit up there, but I think it might be a good solution.

As I work this out a little more in my head I will post up some drawings and photos. I also need to get some air conditioning and insulation guys in to take a look. I also need to figure out how to get more power up to the second and third floor without making a total mess of the house.

I also have a list of a LOT of smaller projects. So over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing some of these ideas.

Cheers to a wonderful 2013!

4 Comments

In FAMILY, OUR HOME

Christmas Decorations on Top of the Piano

December 3, 2012 — 3 Comments

Piano Decorated for Christmas

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. We had a low key weekend here, including an afternoon curled up watching a movie together after putting up the Christmas tree. As much as there is a certain amount of annoyance with putting up our artificial tree, at least the kids are actually old enough to enjoy hanging up the ornaments (even if it isn’t in an evenly distributed manor), and we don’t have to worry too much about hanging the ornaments up so high. In addition to our big tree I also put up our little silver tree (that I picked up on clearance last year).

Bowl of Ornaments and Small Silver Tree

I have changed up the top of the piano again! I guess in a busy house it is nice to have control of one area (even if it is a small one). It is also one of the few areas that the kids are good about not touching. I decided to put the cute little silver tree here and filled it with miniature ornaments that I have had since my apartment days. I wasn’t sure what to pair it with until I was strolling through the aisles at Target. I saw these cute (non-shattering) Christmas ornaments in lots of delicious colors. I decided that these were worth a try. I wasn’t sure whats I was going to do with them. I was considering making a wreath, especially after I saw this super easy tutorial by Eddie Ross, but then I remembered that I had this beautiful glass bowl (that is normally stuffed behind some stuff in an upper kitchen cabinet).

The 2 boxes of ornaments worked perfectly! Then I pulled out a cute cat figurine and a vintage angel candle snuffer. I think it could still use a few more little things, but for now I am quite enjoying it, especially because we spend so much time back in this area of the house.

Remember here is where I started this summer:

Piano from this Summer

And here is this fall:

Fall Display

And here we are for Christmas:

I think my favorite thing about it is that the ornaments pick up on the colors from the chair (which I still really love).

How are your holiday decorations coming?

3 Comments

In -Dining Room, DIY, OUR HOME

Archives For OUR HOME

House To Do List 2013

Categories