I got Good news, and Bad news!

Well lets start with the good. I went out this morning bright and early with a good friend and my mother to hit the estate sales. They have been far a few between as the weather has been wet and rainy almost every Saturday since January. This Saturday was no exception, actually more like poury than rainy. But we went anyway and I'm glad I did because I found the sweetest little vase for our guest room nightstand to hold a fresh flower or two when guests stay the night.
The color is so lovely.


I also scored this old little stool base and I can't wait for the time to upholster a top for it.


I managed to paint the backs, and second coat the fronts of our vanity despite the wet weather, the coats dry fast if you apply thin ones.



Now the Bad. Well you know what happens when people remodel their own master bathrooms, after the previous owners already remodeled it but did a lousy job? Bad things happen. Rory was attempting to remove the mold ridden step into our shower while I was out picking up tools from the folks, when he cut into a hidden water pipe and drenched the bathroom and some of our bedroom. He quickly shut the water off and assessed the situation. We are now on damage control and hopefully this will be a thing to laugh at when we're old.

Our beautiful new expensive carpet is currently in this position until it drys out. I'm trying to remain calm. Excuse my language, but this is my mantra....deep breath...."Nothing is fucked dude."


Here is Rory fixing the "little mistake" and hopefully we'll have water on for tonight.


This shot shows how gross it is where the leaky tile had been, due to the previous owner remodel booboo of not supporting the footing to the shower.


All I have left to say is thank goodness for parents that watch our little mischievous puppy Baxter in these stressful times, without you we would be pulling our hair out. Thank you! And thanks for the plumbing tools to fix this dad!

Demolition!

We love to demo, it's almost as much fun as putting in all the new pretty stuff. It's exciting to see everything get ripped out and start with a new canvas. But it can get messy! We have encountered why it's not good to let cracked grout in a shower go for a long time, mold! That's why, we found mold. The whole shower is going to be re-tiled anyway, but now I want it all out asap. We need to see if there is any other damage that needs to be replaced.
It hasn't been too bad not having a master bath for the last couple weeks, but I'm eager to have it all finished and clean again.

The vanity is fully out, the floor is mostly gone and the toilet and shower are coming out this weekend.


Just a few floor tiles left under the toilet. But all those tiles have to come out of the shower!

Cookbook shelf

Rory built me a shelf yesterday, painted it and installed it above our fridge space. We are seeing if it works for us. The fridge that was here when we moved in was a monster commercial height beast that didn't work. The one we replaced it with is a normal size, shorty and the space above it looks odd and empty.
This was a quick fix for that, and I can have my cookbooks easily accessible. I just don't know if I like the way it looks?

Edited (here it is currently with the new kitchen themed "bookends")

before



after

Burlap Headboard

Our Guest room has been a bit neglected over the last few months as we have been busy doing other renovations. The the mattress in there is quite comfortable but to make the room even more inviting I made this padded headboard. It is diamond tufted and upholstered in burlap. I followed the tutorial on Apartment Therapy.

And I used this as my inspiration.

Velvet & Linen

The room still needs a lot, some paintings and pictures hung, and a bit of decor.





Baxter my little helper here jumped up to give me a hand, as usual.


Super easy and we love it!

A Little Festive Color

These colorful and fantastically fun plates were a wonderful accessory to our Valentines day dinner, which we shared with some friends. They were a gift and I can't believe how perfectly they match with our decor and napkins.




The set has a Tuscan Villa pattern, perfect for our little "mini Villa"




Here is a Sneak peak into our slow but exciting Master Bath remodel. Rory took the weekend time to demo out the light soffit above the vanity and the entire closet from the other side.




Meanwhile I played around with a sample door and the color we chose for the vanity. I also tried different glazing and distressing techniques.

Bathroom idea board

Here is the latest mock up via Photoshop for our bathroom vanity and tile choices. It's ever changing and evolving as we get each step closer. Unfortunately the Talavera sinks we custom ordered from Mexico were broken on arrival via FedEx, so we will have to wait another 1 or 2 months for those replacements to come in. Fortunately we do have all the deco Talavera tiles in and the sink fragments to base the new color palate off of. The originally sample tile had an aqua trim in the tile, the custom ordered ones turned that color more into a light blue. Which we still like very much, but it's changed the paint color of the vanity.

Here is the latest configuration of the Vanity drawers and cabinets. We have decided a tilt out laundry hamper would be more practical for the center cabinet and the drawers have gotten shorter and we added 1 on each side, for a total of 9 working drawers.

We are going to repaint the now buttery white walls and lid of the room "Super White" to really make the Mexican White color tile pop, and have it more authentic looking. I am leaning towards this "Cedar Path" green for the vanity and I'm most likely going to faux distress it and age it with a brown glaze when I paint it.



Here is one of the sinks, so sad, but so beautiful!

Tamales!

Rory has talked about making homemade tamales for years, and with today being a blustery, windy cold day it was perfect to spend most of it in the kitchen trying them out. He did all of the cooking himself and made everything from scratch, and he couldn't be more excited. Rory rarely gets to cook, as I take over the kitchen most days, but today I'm feeling under the weather. We all know how much he loves Mexican food and really wanted to make these. I showed him how to wrap them and tie them up nice and neat, then he did the rest. I also made flan for dessert and he got himself some Corona's so he is all set!
We have these little cuties in the steamer, and the "autentica" meal should be ready in about an hour.





Baxter was very cute today as he watched "dad" aka Rory push the lawnmower around in the front yard. He looked like a cat sitting on top of the couch, I just had to snap a shot.

Vanity plans, what do you think?

I did a mock up design of the double sink Vanity that Rory will be building for our Master Bathroom. It is a really long space so having it custom made is necessary. Thankfully he knows people with custom cabinet shops!
The almost 8 foot long vanity will be the only cabinetry in the bathroom, since we are ripping out the closet to put in a whirlpool tub, there will be no place to store clean towels. So I decided to sacrifice the center cabinet for shelves. It will be functional and visually break up the very long cabinet.

Shown here, the brown rectangles represent towels on an open shelf.
Similar to this effect of having and open style linen shelf.

When Squirrels Attack!

Baxter actually outran a squirrel today! He caught it gave it the death shake, it bit Baxter's upper lip and punctured it all the way through, Rory yelled for him to "Drop It" he did, then the squirrel ran up a tree and died. It then fell out of the tree, dead, and Baxter went back for a another death shake to make sure he finished the job.
Baxter was so happy, he was dripping with his own blood and has a full blown hole through his upper lip, but it was was worth it to him!