I used to love it, it used to be pretty…*

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*Lyrics from Neptune City by Nicole Atkins. I heard this song on Pandora the other day and really liked her voice. Not sure how I feel about her more recent album yet, but I can confirm that her voice is attractive to me. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

DURING: Our plan is to redo the railings to match the other side of the house, use cedar to wrap all the pressure treated (i.e., ugly) lumber, and to replace the storm door that pretty much failed after our kitchen renovation.

Yeah, so, yeah. I’m a crap blogger. I mean, I hope you like what I post when I get around to it. But, I’ve been pretty unable to keep up lately. I have (what must be) a hundred half-finished projects sitting around the house, ones that I’m hopeful will be worth posting (I’m taking pictures as I go, but nothing is ready to share), but for now you’ll have to settle for some progress pictures of half done-i-tude.

read on…

And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people…*

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*Lyrics from Five Years by David Bowie. I already used this song for the other master closet renovation, but thought that since this closet is really an extension of that one, well, it fit to use it twice. Plus, I mean, it’s Bowie. 

AFTER: I shot this looking into a full-length mirror we hung (which is why the bathroom is on the right and not the left). The stencil is in metallic silver (like I used in the family bath for the stripes).

Ok, so, closets. Who knew they were so important? Obviously having recently finished the last touches on our master closet renovation we’ve been eager to tidy our bedroom into a livable state. Of course then we took a mini-break to NYC and have had travel bags and suitcases strewn about the room looking for a home (previously stored in either the basement or the white room closet which is now our second master closet – confused? me, too). So it was time to finally tackle the other closet in the master bedroom.

read on…

My motto’s always been, when it’s right it’s right…*

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*Lyrics from the Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team’s rendition of Afternoon Delight. Feel free to oversaturate your love for Anchorman by watching this clip from them singing it in the movie, too. 

The living room, open to the dining room (and foyer), has handsome drum fixtures on the ceiling, but needs some fresher lights in the face space.

With our new thrift/antique side tables in the living room settling in nicely, and with new curtains beginning to give the space a more homey, lived-in feel (only took us 5 years to nail down a curtain choice), I thought it might be an appropriate time to examine the lighting scheme. As Brick said so eloquently in Anchorman, “I love lamp.” But, as Ron Burgundy questioned him, “Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying that?” I, too, had a similar conversation with myself, and then with Jeff… did he really love our lamps? Because I certainly did not. Specifically in the living room where IKEA lamps reign supreme, where each lamp is merely a shade balanced on a spindly little tube of chrome (which can be beautiful, don’t get me wrong), and where the only lamp we have that has any mass is too tall (and therefore a tiny bit blinding while sitting) for the space. It’s not really working, and so I’m on the hunt for better choices.

Our sole sofa-side lamp sits just a bit too high causing a bit of a blinding spot on that side of the room.

read on…

All day today the sun was out, the winter stayed inside the shade…*

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*Lyrics from All Day Today by Hospitality. I’m attempting to seek out new artists, new sounds, new experiences for my ears. Check it out, if you like. And feel free to recommend some ear-sounds for me.

I love impromptu house projects. I really, actually do. What I don’t love are the crazy deadlines that accompany them. But the spontaneous impetus to make something better than it was before? Yeah, love. So, last weekend when we were continuing to deal with the state of the basement…

The basement! It's a total work-in-progress filled with cast-off furnishings, DIY supplies and other remnants of our life that got boxed up during the renovation but never got unboxed.

…we began by clearing out the laundry room. Before we began our mini-makeover the following things were issues: the folding area wasn’t working as well as it could; the floors were grungy to look at; and, there was unused space that could have been better utilized for household storage (to get it OUT of the basement once and for all!). All of these things were fixable by a little elbow grease (and a thorough vacuuming), paint, reorganization (and imagination) and some thrifty re-purposing.

read on…

Instead there was hot pink flashes in the sky…*

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*Lyrics from Lemonade by CocoRosie. They’re a strange group, with a haunting sound and intriguing lyrics. Note to self: investigate them further. Note to readers: please do the same.

Beauty shot: orchid porn.

It has been said (by me) that there is nothing quite like a fresh coat of paint to improve one’s mood, one’s space, or one’s perspective on life (and I especially like it when people call that fresh coat of paint a ‘lick’ of paint – so English, so dreamy). Well, the same could be said for a new shade of blush. Now, I’m not a huge make-up wearer, and we’ve already established that I don’t often wear dry clean only, hang this up right away kind of clothing. But, I do wear make-up (I am a licensed hairdresser after all) frequently enough. Infrequently enough to have a spent tub of blush awaiting replacement for, oh, it’s gotta be at least 6 months. Maybe more.

read on…

Time has come for you to see where I’m coming from…*

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*Lyrics from Texture of my Blood from Dillon. A strange little album, with a voice that reminds me of Lykke Li, and melodies that remind me of Fiona Apple and Feist. An interesting listen, and one that I’m still listening to.

Sunset at IKEA harbor. Kidding, it's not IKEA harbor. But we were at IKEA. And that was the view.

Last week my tiny, 4-month-old niece (oh, and her parents, too) moved to California. Boo. Hiss, hiss! Who but the cruelest of the cruel would force me to put ‘visiting California on the regular’ on my to-do list? I’m kidding, of course. Sort of. I lived in California for a brief bit of time during my late and not-so-great 20’s (yes or no the apostrophe here? I can never remember) and while it is undeniably beautiful it’s just not for me (plus, I really, really hate to fly). But, I suppose a visit now and then can’t hurt, right? Give me a few years and I’ll probably be thanking them for moving away (and giving me an excuse to visit warmer climes). But for now it’s just a drag.

read on…

Honey, I’ve been really struggling to see this thing through to the end…*

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*Lyrics from Camera Obscura‘s Careless Love off their album My Maudlin Career. I just discovered (read: found, I certainly did NOT discover anyone) them the other day and I really enjoyed this album. Have a listen – it’s nice.

Additonal living space mood board. Full furniture credits available on olioboard - see the link toward the end of the post for more info.

So, recently my oldest friends in the world – who I don’t get to see very often due to schedules, locations and our own family commitments – let on that they had been making over their kitchen and main floor of their house for the past six months. By themselves. Gulp. You got that right. Holy crap! Now, these are not un-busy people – two kids, demanding jobs, lots of family spread out around the entirety of New England, you name it, they’re doing it. I was flabbergasted, impressed and nervous for them all at once. I would have loved to help them in the planning stages, but it was one of those things… first the sink needed to be replaced, and, well, if we’re going to have to hire a plumber anyway… and we want to add some outlets eventually, and the walls have to be opened up… and we could really use some more counter space, plus these counters will never survive the new sink… these floors are really not working anymore, and this carpeting has to go… you get the idea. Snowball effect. I’ve lived through it, but not the DIY version. It’s hard enough with seasoned pros at your side, let alone tackling it yourself on weekends. With small children. For six months! Phew.

read on…

It’s only echos in the Valley love…*

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*Lyrics from Feist’s How Come You Never Go There from her latest awesome album, Metals. I recommend a blind purchase on this one, especially if you’re a Feist fan. Which I am. Naturally.

I also spotted this little silver bread basket that I thought might be a nice addition to my office mantle.

We have the best neighbors. Seriously: generous, kind, fun, smart, and just a pleasure to live near. So when we were chit-chatting with them the other day about heading out to help my mom do some grocery shopping and to get some curtain rods they sprang into action offering the exact right color, size and number of rods we were after. Sweet! (The rods were earmarked for giveaway, so we knew we weren’t taking the shirts from their backs, so to speak.) And, since you all know our time together as marrieds is precious, being able to tackle a chore like hanging curtains right away when we got to mom’s place was a huge time saver. (Of course we still ended up spending hours going here and there, fully and completely exhausting my poor mama. But still.) And what a huge difference did the curtains (and rods) make! Makes me want to sew up some curtains tut suite for my own abode.

Curtain rods from generous Erin & Nellie. Curtains from sale department of ZGallerie.

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I had to cram so many things to store everything in there…*

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*Lyrics from David Bowie’s Five Years. We’ve officially owned this house for five years, and it feels like that’s how long each project is now taking. My brain hurts. A lot.

AFTER, for reals: beauty shot.

Weekends around here have become mighty precious. Jeff’s work schedule has been non-stop since about September (I’m not actually exaggerating – it might even have been like this since August), with small pockets of time off here and there. And by small pockets I mean a day here, or a few hours there. It’s been hard on both of us, and even harder on the state of the house. With so few hours to spend together who wants to spend it cleaning out the garage, or organizing the stuff in the basement for giveaway, or otherwise finishing projects that are half done all over the place? Jeff did manage to get the week between Christmas and New Year off and we were able to finally tackle some of those half done projects. Like the closet in the master bedroom.

read on…

I always had a knack with the danger…*

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*Lyrics from St. Vincent’s Year of the Tiger. Love.

I must take a break from house stuff, from trivial pursuits like color stories and drying paint to celebrate a friend who just launched her first blog. Her blog is not about home stuff, or decor. It’s about breast cancer, survival and the unenviable (yet inevitable) decision she has made to undergo a bilateral mastectomy and immediate reconstruction. I only found out recently that she was diagnosed just before Thanksgiving, and her surgery is set for next week. Since we live in different states I can only offer emotional support from far away. Luckily, since she’s so damned adorable, smart, funny, warm, honest, loving and just great to be around she has a huge network of friends who are there for her (and will be there for her), and her husband and their two kids.

read on…