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The Year of Bigger Projects

January 12, 2016

The year of finishing what we started was pretty accomplished, now that I look around the place. In late January 2015, amidst an awesome hibernation, I made a list of things I wanted to get done to make our home feel more finished. Some things were easy (install a new doorbell), others were either expensive (i.e. new $5,000 electrical system), or time intensive and hard to get motivated for (cleaning, scraping, reglazing and painting all of the exterior windows… ZZZ), but the lists I made at the beginning of the year were helpful in that it set expectations and modest goals, and it worked. We got a lot of stuff done, even if the days and weeks spent refinishing all of the windows don’t leave me much to show for it.

What else did we cross off the list?

  • A new mattress and our first-ever bed frame. We upgraded to a king to help fill the space in our big master bedroom. The bedroom is disproportionately large compared to the rest of our house, and still seems like an unnecessary use of space (I’d rather it be divided differently to make an extra bedroom, or a master bath) but we bought the Mod Upholstered bed frame from West Elm, which fills out the space in a better way than I could have predicted. Verdict? Feels like a hotel when your bed is off the ground. True story? You may never see a full shot of the bedroom again; we are not that tidy, nor are we “make the bed” people. Sorry to disappoint ;)

Bedroom update: West Elm Mod Headboard, new bedding.

  • In September, I ordered a couple additional corner cushions for our Tillary sectional. The corners are way heavier than the straight back pieces, and they’re less likely to slide around when you’re laying on the couch, plus, it’ll help us make the couch more configurable. (By March, we should have them – oof! – someday I’ll dish about how frustrating it can be to order furniture, but in the meantime they offered me a $50 credit so I’m not side-eyeing too hard). If there’s anything good I can say about ordering furniture from West Elm, is that their credit card program is awesome – between the bed and the cushions, we have several hundred reward dollars to apply to future purchases. But I digress…
  • We really ramped up the media experience in the living room. We committed to using the projector for indoor movie nights and producing the ultimate video gaming experience with the addition of a ginormous ceiling-mounted screen that retracts to block the light coming through our front window. Solid investment, and by configuring it where we did, we free up a large wall opposite the window on which we’ll hang new art. It also allows us to face the couch towards the wall-mounted television and out the front window for a better view. Is it normal to have a 12-foot long projector screen mounted where one would expect curtains in your living room? No. Do I care? No.
  • My favorite DIY shelf is also officially a floating DIY shelf, because I finally got around to anchoring it in the wall beneath the TV.

Ceiling mounted projector screen in the living room.

  • After years of not reliably getting any channels with our rabbit ears/Leaf antennacombination efforts (still shown to the left of the TV in the photo above), Pete relocated the Leaf to the outside of the house, and ran cable through the ceiling joists in our basement up into both first floor televisions in our home. It was a bit of a test, and we may end up affixing a more powerful antennae inside our attic space if Leaf doesn’t hold up outdoors long term, but for now the reception is great. We still don’t have cable (I miss DVR conveniences, and maybe someday we’ll go back but right now I can’t justify the cost). Instead, we have a Roku hooked to one TV, and an Apple TV on another, which gives us basically everything and more that we’d want to watch via other subscriptions like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
  • The happy little shelving find found a permanent home in our hallway. I haven’t even refinished it in any way yet, but turns out that its shallow depth makes it the perfect size, and offers us plenty of space to store odds and ends (behind the closed doors) and some of our kids’ book collection in plain sight.

Narrow midcentury shelving in our hallway for Children's books.

  • Buying the new-to-me dining room table and chairs was one of the biggest highlights of the year. We still haven’t refinished any of it yet – it needs it eventually, but not desperately.
  • I really thought we’d have more art on the walls, which we don’t, but I did make progress in that I had a local frame shop do a custom frame for a very large print. The custom job was totally worth it, but I don’t know where to hang it yet.

Framed large print by Jaime Derringer.

  • As has been the trend, we spent nearly all spring and summer doing outdoor projects. There’s a flagstone fire pit now, painted doors, painted trim, a bigger garden, and Pete cleared even more brush from the back acre to extend our grassy play area tremendously. The grass has begun to spread really nicely into the land he cleared in 2014, and I bet by next summer we’ll have great natural grass coverage over most of the new, opened space.

Backyard panorama – we've cleared so much brush.

Honestly, that photo doesn’t mean anything unless you remember what it looked like when we moved in, and turns out that I didn’t have many reasons to photograph “before” shots of an impassible wooded area. In the next photo, the wooden fence and the tree 10-ft. to the right of Pete are the distinguishing points of reference, from the first time we pruned branches:

Backyard, Summer 2013.

What’s on the list for this year?

  • An extended flagstone patio for our backyard to create a better outdoor entertaining space. We have so much more outdoor space in this house compared to our last, but it’s still just lawn chairs-in-grass, versus setup on a porch or patio. We always planned to fix that, and I think this is a good time.
  • A repaired fireplace (we’re on the 3rd winter without a fireplace, which is 3 winters longer than I imagined it would be). I also figured we’d get around to this in the Fall, but I was feeling pretty lazy every time I drove past the local fireplace specialists that I want to have quote for me. Soon-ish, OK?
  • A few updates to our basement to make the space more usable. This is in progress literally right now (paint is drying, so I’m typing).
  • I never found the bedroom drawer storage to replace our crumbling IKEA RIBBA dressers, because there are just not many units on the market that I like at the moment that are either solid white or a light oak/maple/birch. I’m excluding the $2,499 models from some of my favorite higher-end stores, and the low end models that I know would work for a few years, but would rag out just like RIBBA. Something will come along eventually, so it’s still patiently hanging on my list. If you know of anything you think I’d like (including vintage solid wood units that need rehab) send a note my way.
  • Better lighting. In like, every room. Bedroom sconces to flank the bed, floor lamps for the living room, eventually a new ceiling fixture for the dining room, which leads me to…
  • hopefully, a jump start to our bathroom and/or kitchen remodeling. I keep having dreams about contractors quoting us really low. I think it’s a bad omen. I’ll just keep saving.
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Bedrooms  / Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

7 Comments


Cait
January 13, 2016 at 4:42 pm
Reply

You guys have had a busy year! I know how frustrating it can be to tackle large, costly projects, especially if it feels like you have little to show for it in the end. Those are always the types of projects I’m least motivated to work on, and then in the end they’re often some of the most satisfying. Maybe it’s just because I get weirdly proud of myself for doing something the right way, even it it’s something that the casual observer would never notice?

I had forgotten about that DIY shelf, but it’s perfect below your TV! Loving the hallway shelf and how the WE bed looks in your space, too! I’ve been crushing on that bed frame for a while.

As far as dressers, are you looking for a shorter, 6-drawer dresser or something more like a highboy/chest? I feel like I remember you having two of the taller, narrower MALM dressers…

I really love the look of the West Elm Mid-Century line, and I think it would coordinate nicely with your new bed and your nightstands. We have the smaller size of the media console. I can’t remember how the bottoms of the drawers are attached, but I can look tonight. Plus, rewards dollars… ;)

Otherwise, hopefully the perfect thing will come along at a yard sale, local vintage store, or on Craigslist! I keep falling in love with vintage dressers that I have absolutely zero places to put. Actually, I just keep falling in love with vintage/Mid-century inspired furniture that I have zero room for in general. Fortunately most of it is either exorbitantly expensive or too far away to be a logical option.

As always, love the howling Cody photo :)



    Emily
    January 15, 2016 at 1:49 pm

    Ideally, we’d have two lower four or six-drawer dressers that could sit side by side against a longer wall. I like several at CB2, my only gripe is that they’re too low, I’d rather have something closer to 30″-36″ height to scale well in the room.

    Now that we have a West Elm locally, I notice what I don’t like about the lines. The midcentury line didn’t stand out to me when I saw it in-store, the way the drawers operate, etc. And I think the coloring is too dark, though they did just release one of the dressers in a lighter wood option and I’m hoping it’ll make its way to the store floor soon so I can see it in person.

    Thanks for the nice comment, Cait! Cody says hello.

Michele
January 14, 2016 at 2:11 pm
Reply

Hey Emily, you guys have got so much done! The house is looking great! Have you considered updating the interior slab doors and knobs?

Your yard is looking gorgeous! Flagstone patios are my favorite.

Just wanted to tell you that we DVR free-over-the-air antenna TV all the time or else we would miss Scorpion, Blacklist, and Elementary. :-) We use this machine — works GREAT and worth every penny: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HD-DVR-HDD-1TB-with-ATSC-Tuner/46444956

We also have one of those large outside antennas and we ran the cable into the house and plugged it into the TV, much like you would do with subscription cable TV. We have a perfect picture.



    Emily
    January 15, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    Thanks for the antenna tip!

    As for the doors and knobs, oof. Yeah, they’re on my mind constantly. I wanted to see how the vinyl wallpaper that I put on the inside of my front door held up over time before I did anything drastic to the interior doors. I think an easy solution (and most probable solution) would be white paint, but an easier/faster solution would actually be wrapping them in the same birch wallpaper… except I don’t know what I would do with the edge of each door.

    Knobs are one thing I thought I would update immediately! I even had these amazing ones picked out before we moved in, but $$$$$. Whoa, do you know how much it would cost to update all of the doors? That investment is still lower on my list.

    Michele
    January 15, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    I know what you mean about $$$$$$……I do everything on a budget too. :-) At the end of 2013, I bought all new prehung doors and brushed nickel door levers to match the hinges that came on the doors, but they were so much cheaper then. The doors averaged $80 a piece and the levers $18 a piece…..they made such a HUGE difference:

    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-Scroll-Satin-Nickel-Privacy-Lever-905153/203410395

    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Masonite-24-in-x-80-in-Roman-Smooth-2-Panel-Round-Top-Hollow-Core-Primed-Composite-Single-Prehung-Interior-Door-10959/202505904

    The style knob you like has a really high $ tag! Would something like this work instead: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Delaney-Contemporary-Collection-Cira-Satin-Nickel-Bed-and-Bath-Lever-502T-CI-US15/203886252

    I really loved how the birch wallpaper turned out on your front door…..I remember it looked phenomenal in the photographs. Would it be too busy on every interior door in the home (I cannot remember the pattern exactly off-hand). I’ve seen where people have added inexpensive moulding to their flat-panel doors and painted them white, but for what you can get a new prehung door for (which also comes with 3 clean, new hinges which really makes a home look “fresher”), it may be worth it to do all new prehungs? I guess depending on what they run in your area. And “inexpensive” moulding isn’t so inexpensive anymore. Prices on building materials are really fluctuating where I live!

    Emily
    January 15, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    I bet the new doors and handles make your home look great! I don’t think I would go the route of adding molding to these doors; I did that to a door in our old house and it was fine, but not my favorite DIY project or end result. I do like the current smooth look of the doors without molding, and I’m not sure if the light birch wood paper would be too overwhelming, but plain white might be the next option. I love how the super expensive handles look! With the white detail, especially.

    Michele
    January 15, 2016 at 5:23 pm

    If you do go with the birch wood paper on the doors, you could get a paint color that matched the predominant color in the wallpaper to paint the side of the doors……you could even try to paint in some darker color branches if you are more artistic than I (I would have to stick with just the solid color on the sides because my faux attempts tend to end up as disasters. lol). I like plain white doors, but if you get the white knobs, the white doors would take away from the “knob glamour,” IMO. :-) And a pure white door may make your current hinges look old or stand out in an unwelcoming way. Another option (I’m tossing random things out there!) is staining the smooth wood door a darker stain color, not a gel stain that would turn opaque; but a real wood stain, like a walnut or an espresso. My mom just painted all the oak trims in her house white, and painted her doors Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze — so that’s even another option. lol Whatever you do, I know it will look fantastic! LOVE your beautiful dog, BTW. :-)

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  • HI, I’m Emily

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