Notes from A Cottage Industry

The kitchen.

Let me begin by sharing what I am sure you already knew, the fact that yesterday was National Pancake Day. (A holiday I am quite sure was created by the good people from IHOP.) In honor of this, we cozied up at the kitchen counter and had Ralph's favorite...breakfast for dinner. (complete with pancakes, of course.) I share this because it seemed appropriate, since today I am showing the kitchen remodel. (For those of you that missed National Pancake Day Twenty-Twelve, mark your calendars for next year so you don't miss out.)

Now, on with the kitchen re-do details.

I was going to to start off by saying that we really didn't do much with the kitchen during the whirlwind remodel, but that's not true at all. It just doesn't seem as extreme of a difference as some of the other rooms...at first glance.(Don't ask me why I didn't get any decent actual true "Before" pictures. I don't know. I do have this one, which is kinda sorta before they started doing too much of the demo (As you can see, we still hadn't even taken down my cute window valance yet)....you can see the old Parquet flooring, dishwasher, and the innards of the older florescent lighting up above in the ceiling...(The ceiling had florecent light panels with plastic covering them in an oak frame that we had sheet rocked in and added can lights for a more modern look.)
and a bit further along...
The cabinets remained the same, but the flooring was replaced... ...as well as the refridgerator and dishwasher. (The range had been replaced last summer after a rather spark-filled incedient involving a large pot of oil with a leak and an electric burner...)
(Ignore the spatula and dishes on the counter...I didn't even realize they were there until I looked at these pictures later) Oh, and I know it's a lousy picture of my window treatment but, I ordered my valance from Country Curtains, and I have to say, they are really nicely made.

The fridge is our favorite new toy, with a deli drawer and a little bell that tingla-lingle-lings if you walk off and leave the door hanging open for too long. Did I tell you yet how crazy in love I am with the new wood flooring? Truly, madly, deeply.

Really.

Next up on the ren-no tour...the living room!

App-rehension.

Okay, so I am totally interrupting my home tour to ask a question that has been burning in my mind of late.

"What is the point of having a smart phone if I am not smart enough to use it to it's full potential?" Actually, it is not a question of intelligence, but rather a question of apprehension surrounding the whole Oh-my-gosh-what-if-I-do-something-and-lose-everything worry.

I have an unnatural fear of technology in regards to anything related to computers and home entertainment. (I guess that pretty much covers it all, now that I think about it, unless you count learning all of the bells and whistles on our multi-faceted kitchen range.)

(Which I still haven't done, although that is not out of fear, but more-so the fact that I seem to learn most kitchen-cooking-baking lessons by using a good level of wild abandonment coupled with the trial-by-fire method.)

(Literally. Trial by fire. Or smoke. Or oh-it's-still-cold.)

Aaaaanyway.

Along with wanting to get organized this year, I want to use my Generation-Zero iPhone to it's fullest capacity such as that may be, and that requires that I install (yikes!) a few...Apps. (low and behold, just as I was thinking I needed to do this, I was approached by BlogHer to participate in an affiliate program with appSmitten, and I'll receive a small payment for newsletter subscribers...)

Where was I?

Oh yes. First off, let me say that I had not a single clue what "Apps" is short for, so I googled it. It turns out that APP is an abbreviation for "application".

Go figure.

Alrighty-then. Makes perfect sense. (Seriously, am I the only one that didn't know that here?)

Now, in case you are wondering exactly which "App" prompted me to want to figure out the whole learn-how-to-install-and-use-it thing....well, it was the flashlight app. Up till now, I have been using the clock icon on my lil desktop (is it called a "desktop" on a smart phone?) and going to the Alarm page, coz it's pretty light and bright, compared to my contacts list.

I am the Queen of Jerry-rigging.

Ehem...Just so ya know, the flashlight App is much brighter than using your clock face. (Another lightbulb moment for me...no pun intended.)

So.

This got me wondering what other amazing Apps I have been missing out on. Plenty of them, it seems. You see, I found out about the coolest site. It's called Appsmitten. (Kinda cute name, don'tcha think?) and they tell you about all the latest and greatest Apps out there, and send the descriptions and links to download them to you via an email newsletter. (You've just gotta sign up for the Newsletter! It's Free, and it's got so many cool Apps!)

I discovered I could easily be checking my banking (yes, I have seen commercials for this, but figuring out who-where-when-what-and-oh-good-Gawd-HOW is quite a different story. This newsletter took the scaryness out of it all...

I have to say, thanks to this sweet lil Newsletter, I discovered that there's a whole new frontier out there for me. Oh! And it turns out that one of my friends is a contributor for Productivity Apps! She recommended an App that is now going to be helping me achieve my word goal for the year. (My word is Organize in case you have forgotten.) How cool is that?!

So, if you have a Smart Phone of any kind, and are interested in finding lots of cool new-to-you Apps that you can download and install (without the help of a fifth grader)that can totally make your life more organized (or just more fun, and in the case of fun, more is more) hop on over to Appsmitten and get yourself signed up for the free newsletter, like I did! (Even if you don't have a Smart phone, but maybe your kids do, it's a great newsletter to check out!)

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, and...well,even though I am quite sure that the guys at the Genius Bar, nor the Geek Squad aren't going to try to head-hunt me away from my day job anytime soon, I'm still feeling ever so mildly tech-savvie right about now, if I do say so myself.

And, I'm on my way to being that much more organized!

My blog has moved...back!

My log has moved back here to Typepad.....

Please update my URL address on your blog roll if you have me listed, or grab my button. I want to thank everyone that reads my blog. I appreciate you and love hearing from you!

Tracey

Welcome to the Family Room.

**Note** This is a RE-POST from my Blogger post yesterday. It didn't export with the other posts and I didn't want to lose all of your comments, so...if you have already read this post, that is why!

This picture totally reminds me of that old, old song from My Fair Lady, "Wouldn't it be Loverly?" You know,"...All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air, with one enormous chair...Aow, wouldn't it be loverly?..." Yup, makes me wanna curl up right there (right now) with a cuppa cocoa and my laptop....

Anyway.

That photo up above is to let you see a peek, a morsel, a cozy lil'corner of our home. Mmmm hmm, I am finally, at long last, ready to share a few Before and After pictures of another room in the house! (Can I get a drum roll please?) Without further adieu, I give you....

The Family Room.

Wait. 

(I'm getting ahead of myself.)

Let's see a shot of it..Before.

Before I lived here, when it was Bachelor Pad Central.

Functional. 

Organized, with no shortage of audio equipment, old or new.

After...with the newly installed oh-so-terribly-wonderful-and-worth-every-penny slide-by shutters (in the open position)....

...and, with the shutters closed....

Oh! I cannot tell you just how much I am loving these slide-by (that's what I call them, anyway)wood shutters! I personally think sling glass doors are the biggest challenge in the window treatment arena, because they need to be functional, and supply privacy, and energy efficiency, and look good all at the same time, you know? Anyway, I think these babies do it fabulously. 

Yes, the whirlwind remodel was so worth working around little inconveniences like no television or internet for a couple of weeks...(I swear I'd do it all again in a new York minute!)

Let's take one last look at the After shot one more time, shall we?....(Notice please the old bi-fold shutters are re-purposed over behind the chair to cozy up the corner of the room, and the audio equipment is still intact and ready to be used at a moment's notice...)

I hope you're enjoying the tour of our what's-old-is-new-re-born-cozy-and-warm home.
Next stop? The kitchen!(Okay, you can all stop reading here.)

*Dearest Guitar Man of my dreams,

I just want to say Thank you...for being such a Team Player and stretching yourself ginormously outside of your comfort zone. I know this was all huge for you, and I want you to know just how much I love that you did this for me!*

Catching up.

Well. 

It's been another long stretch without a post. I know. Try as I may, life has been ca-razy busy, and, well...

Let's catch up, shall we?

Far too much has been going on to cover it all in one lil' blog post, so I'll just cover a couple of the highest points.

Let's see. Where do I start?

Work has been busy, with me prepping for a project I have been working on, which included quite a few evenings at home tweaking handouts, and creating props. (And you know how I love a project like that!)

We got the Sewing Queen all semi-settled in up here and she is in the middle of unpacking moving boxes and trying to find some of her sewing accessories as I type this. We are thrilled to have her here!

Then, I spent this past weekend with my two daughters, celebrating a milestone birthday for Carter and Coen's Mama. (How can she be 30 when I am only 42?!) We had a fabulous Girl's Weekend, complete with an overnight trip to the Allison Resort and Spa for some much appreciated foofifying and relaxing, laughing our heads off, as well as a marathon shopping expedition, and eating way too much.

On the home remodel front, our projects are getting buttoned down and things are looking aaaaah-mazing! 

Let me interupt myself here to say that my Rock n' Roll Buddy deserves a shout out here. He has been the driving force behind making this fabulous make over happen in record time, not to mention being the ultimate egg-McMuffin of bargain shopping, swinging some of the most eye popping price deals I have ever seen. Now, this is extra hard to picture if you know him, as the house has been in the exact same state as when he first moved in, back in the 80's. (We are not talking about a guy that typically embraces change here, people.)It's truly been a fun time and we are both pretty thrilled with the outcome.

Now, back to my post...

I have been waiting to share pictures because the plantation shutters took three weeks to be made. Since we were having them installed in every room,(pinch me!!!) there was no way to really capture any room without it looking undone due to a window without anything on it. (Unless you count the sheet we swagged across the living room window to shield us from the sun while we watched the Superbowl.)

Anyway.

The exciting installation was yesterday, and so I am gearing up to share our grand reveal. (Doesn't that sound dramatic? Trust me, the change is incredible and we both keep saying how it feels like we live in a brand new house.)

Here's a lil' peek at the installation process in the family room. The sliding doors got "Slide-By" shutters and my-oh-my! I adore them! The look of plantation shutters with the ease of sliding them open to go in and out the door, or let cool air in in the summer time!......

We're down to the accessorizing stage now, and I must say, that is my most favorite part of decorating. You know, adding touches that reflect our personalities really warms up a room. I can't wait to show you everything...room..by room..by room!

Men at work!

I have so much to share after being without internet service for two weeks, that it's tough to figure out what to share when.

I realized after beginning my home re-no tour that I had skipped sharing one of my little Grand's Birthday party...so here it is!

The party theme was construction, so my daughter began at the front door....

 

....and continued all through the downstairs. The treats were construction themed as well...

...and everyone was given a tool apron and a hard hat!

More pictures from Coen's party are over on the birthday boy's Mommy's blog!

 

On another note, I won't be posting for a couple of days, as I am flying with Mrs. Big Dog to the Biggest Little City today and driving back up to the Pacific Northwest tomorrow...why? The Sewing Queen of Northern Nevada is relocating up here to live!

The Loo.

I know. It's a rather unusual spot to begin the re-no tour, but I've got to start somewhere and this guest bath is currently one of my favorite lil' places in the house.

It went from being a generic 1980's guest bath....

.....to being much more of a charming little space, don't you think?

 

This was the only room in the house that we painted a color instead of the creamy shade of off-white that we did in the rest of the house. I will readily admit that the color I chose didn't come out exactly as I imagined. I was shooting for a warm-ish putty tone, but with the bathroom being in the center of the house with no windows for natural light, it gives off a hint of a lavender undertone when the halogen light in the toilet-tub area is turned on, rather than the heat lamp. I think I'll live with the color for a few weeks and then decide whether it will stay or get a second coat of something else. (Aaah, the beauty of paint. So affordable to change and try out...)

 

The old mirror was a large sheet mirror that had seen better days, so we replaced it with a fabulous mirror that Ralph already had here at the house. It compliments the new brushed nickel light fixture we snagged on clearance at good ol' Home Depot....

A few little details here and there and a spash of white with the towels and shower curtain (I just love Target for bath things, don't you?) 

 

I'm still on the lookout for something adorable to hang above the towel bar, but for now I printed a quote I like and framed it in an old frame I had so the space wouldn't look too bare...

I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve for this bathroom,(Brushed nickel drawer pulls and knobs, and a pom-pom rug I saw and didn't buy last trip...) but I think we're off to a pretty good start...updates will be coming as the room evolves!

Move over, Nate Berkus.

Move over, Nate Berkus...'coz Ralph is in da house, and he is renovating everything. 

Wait. 

Let me begin at the beginning.

Once upon a time, way back in the late 80's my Rock n' Roll Buddy moved into the ranch style home in Stars Hollow Camas where we live today. He brought with him his uber-large blue recliner/hide-a-bed sectional sofa, his brass and glass coffee table with matching end tables, and a whole lotta band and stereo gear. Add to that, two growing sons and, over the years, many televisions. The end.

(In a nutshell,I guess what I am saying here is that, in fairly typical man-style, his life was not about decorating and foofy-fying up his abode.)

Now, me, on the other hand...I am as passionate about decorating and nesting as my Rock n' Roll Buddy is about playing one of his favorite guitars. 

So.

(Can you see where I am going with this?)

We had several discussions regarding individual tastes and style over the past few months, and debated the vast differences in opinions concerning the expected life span of a pair of pinch pleat draperies, and then..it happened.

Two and a half weeks ago, he called me at work and told me not to get too excited, but he had been thinking. Thinking that maybe we should look into some new paint, consider hiding the surround-sound inside the walls, possibly some window treatments, and yes, maybe new carpet wasn't such a wild and crazy thought.(How could a girl with Behr Paint running through her veins not get excited at this prospect?!)Let's just say I was...ehem...guardedly optimistic.

After some whirlwind research and price shopping on flooring, and bids with contractors, we were ready to begin our adventure. 

Give or take two weeks and a day, and we have a newly remodeled, redecorated, cozy haven of a home that we are both thrilled with. We added new carpet, wood flooring, painted the entire interior, got the surround sound working like a charm, and ordered shutters for every window in the house, along with a lil' surprise bonus of stainless steel kitchen appliances,all in fourteen days and nights, thankyouverymuch.

The man that three weeks ago claimed he didn't see any reason to replace a "perfectly good 27 year old carpet" in the hallway selected the hand-scraped Chilean hardwood for it's weathered time-worn beauty. This same man shocked me when he announced that "brushed nickel" is his favorite finish for ceiling fans and household hardware.(Who knew?)

Oh yeah, the Rocker's got style. (And the skills to negotiate the sweetest deals around.)

Don't be surprised if you see us someday on Nate's show in a segment of house-proud.

...Hope you enjoyed the teaser picture of the living room today. Tomorrow the real home tour begins! 

Good news, bad news, good news, good news, bad news, good news.

The last two weeks have pretty much been an ear-to-ear-grinning happy blur of home projects that domino'd into more home projects, (good news!) but I haven't had television, nor internet for that entire time, (bad news!) so I couldn't share any of it with you!(God only knows what crazy looks Steven Tyler has given folks on Idol these past couple of Wednesday and Thursday evenings that I will never see, and who's still around on The Bachelor?....)


Yes, plenty of late nights and early mornings spent picking up supplies and greeting workers, all without my trusty MAC and the world wide web.

Not too worry, as I have photos to document pretty much every step of the fun progress, (good news!) starting tomorrow!

How big of an undertaking was it? Well, let's just say that in exactly two weeks we accomplished a home re-do project that would have typically taken the average home renovator two months. (Good news!) We literally got the kitchen back to operating order,and the furniture back in place just in the nick of time for our Superbowl party. We should have had our ehads examined, after pulling a nearly all-nighter (we made our way to bed at about 4:30 a.m. for a couple hours sleep before setting the last minute things up for the party....) with my Rock n' Roll Buddy tweaking the surround sound system and me hanging pictures, fluffing pillows, and removing the layer of sheet rock dust that seems to be everywhere.In the end, it was worth every minute of sleep we lost. (You'll see, starting next post!)

Now then....

I'd like to address a comment (bad news) that I got a couple of days ago from someone that signed her name Carol but chose to post as "Anonymous" rather than link to her own blog or email address so that I could reply privately. I don't get these kinds of comments to terribly often, and when I do, I usually leave them alone. I respect all of you out here in Blogland and I honestly think (I hope) most of you realize that sometimes life gets busy and...well, things happen, like no internet due to a remodel project that required you to unplug all of your electronics including your wireless modem. Couple this with not enough time after work to pop over to a nearby Starbucks to write and publish a blog post, because you're back and forth fifteen times to Home Depot with your new best friend in the canned lighting department each night till they close at nine.....

Anyway.

Here is her comment in it's entirety: (or read it yourself in the comment section following my last post here. )

Hi Tracey,

I'm excited to see what you're going to do with your new home. Finally. However, I've noticed that you hardly ever post anymore. How come? I've been reading your blog since before Mr. whatshisname left and you used to post every day or nearly every day. Surely, you can come up with SOMETHING for your readers....a recipe, a table presentation, a light fixture or paint color you like. I have a friend who has an acquaintance who writes a blog and she gets paid for it by how many clicks she has on her blog. I'm assuming you get paid for this blog. You are jipping your readers if you are getting paid because people are clicking to see if your posting. It's been TWELVE days since you've posted ANYTHING!!!

Carol 

*sigh*

Well, thanks, Anonymous Carol.

I guess it's a good thing that it didn't turn out I hadn't posted due to a hideous family emergency.

Being snotty and snipey isn't pretty and frankly, it just isn't my style. (And it's not appealing on anyone else for that matter, Carol included.) I'm sharing this comment because I do care about all of my readers (Anonymous Carol included) and I hope you're not mad at me for being away. Please know that I was thinking of you, and that should be confirmed with the amount of photo documentation I did during our big-fat-remodel adventure..truly, you will feel like you were there with me, every exciting, dusty, messy, take-out-mealed step of the way.

On yet another note, I am at last announcing the winner of the Word of the Year Banner. (Still more good news!) I did the drawing on the 28th but had no way to share the news...

The winner is Amber, with  her word being "Bloom". Thanks to all of you who entered my giveaway, and continued to check in here for blog posts!