Bathroom Reveal

Try not to think too hard about that title. It sounds so awful, doesn't it? I promise to keep the post rated G.

After Herm and I got married my goal was to take his house and make it a little less 'man cave-ish'. He did a really good job keeping it neat and orderly, but the house was lacking a cozy atmosphere. It needed some neutral paint on the walls, a few throw blankets draped over the sofa, and house plants here and there, to liven things up. (I didn't do so well with the house plants, but it's been almost a year since I last killed one, so things are certainly looking up!)

With my 'go-getter' personality,  the entire house was redone. Well, everything except the bathroom. It still boasted grass green walls and cheap yellowed Formica cabinets. 

When I first moved in, it drove me crazy. But I guess I lost momentum, and after painting all of the other rooms in our house, I was done. Simply done. I didn't want to think about another room or breath in any more paint fumes. The green colored walls could stay green. 

Herm, however, grew fond of the neutral shades I chose for the rest of the house, and he kept mentioning to me that we need to do something to that bathroom. 

As work slowed down for him over winter, he decided it was time to start. He ordered a kit to make a concrete counter top, and gave me instructions to pick out the rest - paint colors, a sink, floor samples, and so on. 

We share very similar styles, which makes it fun and easy to work together on projects like this... there is no butting of heads or arguing. We just go with it. 

Originally we were planning to use the existing cabinet, and replace the counter top on it, but once we started on the project, we realized just how cheap the structure was. So Herm, my artist-husband, built a new one.

In the middle of this project, we went on vacation, to a little cabin near Lake Placid, NY. We felt refreshed and had such a wonderful time together as a family, but as soon as we got home, we went back to work. We had less than 24 hours to complete the project before our house was filled with guests. Herm's sister Anne, her husband, and their crew of 7 children were coming for the weekend, and since we only have one bathroom, this was a must!

We divided and conquered. I took over painting - the walls, ceiling, trim, and cabinet; Herm installed the cabinet and counter top, mounted the sink, worked on the silly plumbing, and laid the new flooring. 

Within 30 minutes of completion (other than a few detail things) our guests arrived. And that, my friends, is how you get things crossed off the list. :) 

Weeks later, we still stand back and admire our work. It's such a good feeling to have a project turn out like you pictured in your mind, but it's even better when you're blown away with the end result. And in our opinion, this looks good!

 

 

Can I share a quick funny story with you before I let you go?  

I often get complimented on my smile and how white my teeth are. But after I got married, I couldn't keep them white. No matter how hard I tried, they always looked yellow-y. Herm assured me they didn't look bad, but I wasn't convinced. It was frustrating, and I wasn't about to spend a fortune on whitening strips, so I kept hoping for new results with baking soda and regular brushing. I was married and letting myself go, I guess. Well, after the bathroom was repainted, my teeth suddenly appeared brighter too. We solved that problem without really trying too. Grass green reflects yellow hues, folks... Moral of the story: If your teeth look yellowed, paint the bathroom.

Brown Sugar + Honey Body Scrub

I made this scrub for the first time as a young teenager. A zit had formed on my forehead, centered directly above my brows. In my mind, it was the size of a small Himalayan mountain, and I was going to do everything in my power to rid the pore of infection. I rubbed the scrub into my skin, good and hard, then applied a hot compress to the problem area. I had read that hot compresses work to draw out infection.

BAD IDEA.

I was left with an area even more red and twice as obvious. Within a day or so, there was a large crusty scab where once lived a small, almost invisible to the naked eye, zit.

However, ten years later, I am still making this scrub and using it regularly, although it doesn't often go anywhere near my face, especially not when hot compresses and zits are involved. 

If you are brave enough to try it, and I hope you are, please only use it as a body scrub. 

I keep a small container in the shower and often will apply it to my legs before shaving. It exfoliates, removing dead skin cells, allowing for a super close shave, leaving your skin hydrated and silky-smooth. It's especially wonderful in the winter, when skin starts to look dull and dry.

It also is a great gift! Simply put it into a pretty jar or container, add some ribbon and a tag and maybe send a bottle your favorite colored nail polish along too.

BROWN SUGAR + HONEY BODY SCRUB

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:  Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Store in an airtight container for up to three months.

To Use:  Apply a small amount to damp skin, rub in a circular motion. Rinse off and moisturize as usual. Use 1-2 times per week for soft, glowing skin.

DIY: The Kitchen Project

This post is way over-due. My kitchen has been "finished" for over a year already. I think its definitely time I document it. 

Let's get started, shall we?

I met Herm the weekend he came up to New York to have closing on his house. I think it was probably a good thing that he had already purchased the property before we were married, because honestly I don't think I would have seen the potential that he saw. The stench of smoke, the yellowed walls, and the cigarette burns in the carpet would have kept me from noticing the gorgeous lake view. The mounds of garbage littering the yard and the overgrown flowerbeds would have distracted me from the stream with several waterfalls running through the woods.

 When Herm was on the market for a house friends had mentioned this place to him. He said he looked at the ad and knew he would never buy it, but came to check it out anyhow. When he pulled into the drive a herd of deer were in the front yard and Keuka Lake was sparkling in the distance. I'm not even sure if he noticed the many imperfections after that. This place was a hunters paradise and he knew it was the one. 

Thanksgiving of 2011 the entire Esh family came up to help Herm get the house cleaned up so that he could move in. They spent hours scrubbing and wiping and painting. Bless them!

This is before they cleaned. The place was trashed.

About nine months later we were married. 

The house was very livable by the time I moved in, but it was a man-cave through and through, so I went to work and started adding my touch to the place. There are still days when all I see is the cigarette burned carpets and wonder how much longer it'll be until we can remodel... but when I look over these pictures and see just how far it has come I am amazed. I love this house and I love the man who saw potential and knew this was were he wanted to start a family. <3

This was after I moved in, but before I painted

I didn't want to spend a lot of money redoing our kitchen, because our long-term goal is the remodel the entire house, but the cabinets and counter tops drove me crazy! They were a cheap yellowy-beige Formica that screamed early 90's. In general I don't enjoy working in the kitchen, but I do spend a lot of time there, so I was determined to figure out a way to change the cabinets and counter-tops that was affordable. I was shooting for less than $100.

Prep work is so time consuming. This stage was pretty intense.

I love the look of concrete, but I do realize that it's pretty time consuming, and from what I've heard, its tricky to perfect as well. Pinterest was my go-to research tool. I found tons of tutorials and blogs and ideas on there. One of the blogs I found showed a beautiful kitchen makeover - including painted counter tops that looked like concrete! I decided to give it a try. Check out this blog post if you want to see what kind of paint I used. Just be warned: It's NASTY stuff. Herm and I painted the counter tops one evening and then promptly left for the weekend. When we returned the house still smelled horrible.

Look at the difference! Much, much better.

Another thing I wanted in my kitchen was a subway tile back splash. I priced tile out at Lowes and knew it would be too expensive. My sister, Kate, is super talented; she paints, she draws, she sews, she does carpentry, she's a photographer, and she's single ;-). That said, I started bugging her about painting tile for me. She was willing to help out. I painted the entire back splash area white, then she put extremely thin painters tape on the walls in a tile pattern and started blending shades of grey and green over top. After she was finished, we pulled off the painters tape and... tada! We had tile with grout. Kate's brilliant. 

Nobody is willing to take my word on the tile being paint.
They always need to touch it first.  

And finally, I wanted a coffee/wine bar. Our kitchen is really tiny with limited counter top work space. There was an awkward spot by the fridge where there could have been more work space, but all it boasted was a trash can. So, again I went to someone super talented with another idea... I asked Herm to build a cabinet for me where I could have the coffee grinder and coffee pot, along with my espresso machine on top, and where the microwave could be stored out of sight, because we really don't use it often and it was taking up so much room on the counter. 

Don't you love when you have an idea of what the project will look like and after it's all finished it looks so much better than what you even imaged? Me too!   

The wood was reclaimed from an old barn. We first used it
to make a table for our bridal party to use at our wedding,
and then Herm used it again to make this. He also put
a piece of glass on top of the wood for easy clean up.

The shelf above the coffee bar was made out of old metal handrails that were attached to our garage and an old piece of lumber.

Oh, one more thing... The island area of our kitchen boarders the living and dining room. (it's an open floor plan.) Whenever we host people, we always end up hanging out around the kitchen, so we decided that instead of just having a wall area to lean on, we should make a bar area to sit at. Herm is an artist through and through. He went to work and made a butchers block counter top for the bar. It was all reclaimed lumber that he stripped down into thin sections and glued together. It added the final touch our little kitchen needed to be cozy and enjoyable. 

Do you have any DIY tricks of your own? I would love to hear them!

-Sarah