Painting Puzzle

In case anyone thought that no posts meant I've just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, here's what my living room looked like a few days ago:


What you see here is more than 300 feet of beautiful baseboard and casing (and all the other requisite bits and pieces) that my dad bought for his place. I managed to fit them all into my living room so I could put a couple coats of paint on them, figuring I had more unused space (and unlike dad, no four-legged friends to disturb them!) to get the job done. I also thought it would be easier to paint them before he installed them on his freshly-painted walls. (I still think I was right about that one!)

Speaking of those walls, ever since helping him get them painted, I've had the itch... I think it's time I said goodbye to some more of the boring beige at my place...

Organization Makes Me Giddy

There's one room in my house that I end up spending most of my time in, and I'm pretty sure I haven't posted any pictures of it yet (it's late, or I'd check). It's my studio, it's the largest bedroom upstairs, and if you're wondering what it is that I DO in there, have a look over yonder
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Anyway, it's a work-in-progress (aren't they all!?), so I'm not ready to show off the whole thing yet, but I couldn't wait to show my latest bit of organizing/thrifting/DIY awesomeness. But first, let's get the 'Before' mess over with quickly, bandaid-style:


Ugh. Ok, that's all you're getting, and I insist you forget you ever saw that. My propensity for making (or attempting to make) practically everything, means I have A LOT of stuff. And up until recently, no place to put it all.


Now check this out! The two white bookshelves were an absolute SCORE from Kijiji (I showed up expecting to buy just one, it turned out that they had two after all, and I got the two of them for just the $15 I'd planned to pay for only one).

As a side note, for those of you in the US: do you have Kijiji? I only ever see Americans talk about Craigslist...

Anyway, they were in great shape, but since I'm apparently not one to be happy with plain white shelves, I lined the backs of them in this cool 'formica'-like stuff that looks like bamboo (formica=weird, I know. But it was relatively cheap, easy to work with, and I love the look of it!):

(and no, I don't typically store placemats and stemware in my studio. I use these random objects as photo props, and my business cards are just in the glass because I think they look cool)


The fun stripe-y pegboard is super functional, but it's also practical: shelves all the way along that wall would've made for a tight squeeze trying to walk around my extra large work surface that's almost as wide as the room. This way I still get the storage, but it doesn't take up any floor space. (The stripes weren't for function, though. Just like the bamboo stuff lining the shelves, they're there because I think they make it more interesting, and because I can't leave well enough alone.)

Anyway, that's it for now. Maybe next time I'll show you how I store my ridiculous fabric stash. :)

What a Pair!

In my quest to furnish this house (a quest which is far from over), I happened upon these at a thrift store:
Someone had (obviously) already tried to re-upholster them, but the result was pretty lumpy and, well, not pretty. But at $8 each, I figured I (and some lovely fabric) could give them a new life.


Not bad, eh?! The fabric was a remnant from a favourite fabric store in Toronto, and I was lucky to have juuuuuust enough to do the two of them. After replacing the foam on the seats and recovering, the chairs ended up costing about $15 each. Now if only the place where I want to put them wasn't over-run with other projects, I could show you them in their new 'home' rather than lined up against the wall, 'jail booking photo'-style. Sigh.

Snow fun? No fun.

What did I do today? I shovelled. This:

For the second day in a row.

I can barely move my arms. And winter has barely begun!

reflecting

2009. A year full of highs and lows, it was the very best of times, and the worst, often all at once.

I bought a house, (started a blog!), turned thirty, and lost a job.
spoke up. kept quiet.
laughed. cried.
succeeded. failed. persevered.
found the silver lining.

faced fears. conquered obstacles. embraced change.

Decking the Halls

Sorry for going AWOL for a while there, but work on the house has had to be put on hold for a bit in the lead up to the holidays. I've spent most of the past few weeks in my studio doing my Christmas 'making' (definitely not to be confused with Christmas baking) - both gifts to give and several custom sewing orders for others to give to their family and friends. One upside(?) is that it's given me lots of time to think about all the changes I want to make to that room, so watch for that in the new year!

Anyway, for now I thought I'd share a few pics of how I've decorated for my first Christmas in the house...

I got my craft on one day and made some mod paper ornaments to hang in the front window. (An idea borrowed from here.)


Inspired by this, here's a wreath I made as a gift for someone. Someone I don't think reads this blog. I guess we'll see! :) I love it, and am tempted to keep it for myself, but I'll just have to make another one when I have a bit more free time!


In lieu of the traditional garland on my very narrow staircase, I opted for a simple ribbon:


And finally, the tree. Due to general busy-ness and the as yet un-organized/un-decorated state of my living room, I contemplated not putting it up this year. But I'm glad I did - nothing beats the light of a Christmas tree! (big thanks to mish (the ribbon guru) for all of her tree-decorating assistance - ribbon-related and otherwise!).


And a special gift from these guys to commemorate this milestone, which I thought was very, very sweet of them :)

(reads: First Christmas in the New Home, 2009)

Happy Holidays!

Making an Entrance

So I finally finished my entryway. Here's what it looked like before:


It was the only 'room' in the whole house that hadn't been painted before I bought it. Combine that with the rickety shelves, the sagging wooden closet rod, the large cracks in the plaster caused by jacking it up this past summer:


and the holes made by the electrician who wired in an outside light for me:


and it definitely needed some TLC. What followed was a couple weeks of patching, mudding, taping, mudding, sanding, mudding, sanding, repeat. Here's a 'work in progress' shot:


And finally, the end result:


A fresh coat of paint on walls & ceiling, new shelves and closet rod, the new light, and some DIY key hooks.
Oh, and those stylin' rubber boots aren't there just to look pretty - they're a necessity when it comes time to clean garbage out of the ravine next to my house! :)


Now THIS I want to come home to.

**Update: for those of you who join me in a love of thrift, here's the cost breakdown:
repairing the walls $47.04
paint $23.32
decor $34.48 (includes light fixture, closet rod, shelves, key hooks, etc)
Total: $104.84

Lighting Up

Yippee! I successfully swapped out my first light fixture (the first of MANY to come!)

Here's what was there before:


Calling it a 'fixture' is a bit of a stretch, I know. And apologies for the lame before shot - I had to crop it out of a larger pic since I didn't anticipate getting this excited about a light fixture (who knew?!)

Anyway, check out what's lighting up my world now:


Nice and simple, a little bit 'old school', and all for the low low price of just $4, courtesy of my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Do you have a ReStore in your neighbourhood? In my neck of the woods their deals can't be beat!

So there's a little sneak peek at my entryway transformation. The full 'reveal' is coming soon!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

OK, here goes. This post has been a while in the making, mostly because I'm not a big fan of admitting 'failure'... and that's sure what this project felt like. But it's DIY reality, and it had a happy ending, so here it is! :)

I have a back porch. It has a roof. If you've seen any of the pics of my backyard (like the snowfall one below), they're taken from directly under this roof. Anyway, when the main roof and the front and back porches were re-shingled shortly before I bought the house, someone decided it'd be a good idea to only do the job half way. They redid the shingles, but didn't install any flashing in the space where the roof meets the wall.

Or a closer view:

I don't know if these pics are doing the gap justice. It was big, and causing problems. I really shouldn't be surprised, because I'm finding that so many things have been done in a similar manner (half-assed). But hey, I'm always up for a challenge, so I figured I could make it right.

I did lots of research, and gathered the requisite tools and supplies to install step flashing to keep water from entering the gap. I scheduled the assistance of a ladder-holding friend (thanks, Mish!). I found myself a bright, sunny day. I even got up there on each side of the peak and ran the circular saw along the roof line, to get enough of the shingles out of the way to get the job done (this was step one, and my first ever experience using a circular saw. My advice? Try it on solid ground first. But, hey, I got it done)

And then I hit a wall. Well, figuratively, at least. Basically, what I discovered that day was two-fold:
1. No matter how much I might wish otherwise, I do not have the arm strength of a man. Not even an average or somewhat wimpy man. That arm strength was a requirement of this job that I didn't anticipate.
2. I'm just not cool with working on that kind of angle, at that kind of height. The pics don't really tell you how high up I was, or how steep the roof angle, so just trust me: it was bad. Not bad for someone accustomed to such jobs, but bad for someone like me who's not a huge fan of heights to begin with. Add to that the wobbliness inherent in using a ladder at that height and...

End result: I eventually had to concede defeat, and call in a handyman. Thankfully Mish (the ladder-holding friend) knew of one who could get the job done. So here's what it looks like now:


In the future, the plan is to make it look a little prettier with a piece of wood clad in aluminum (white so it blends with the siding) but for now, the water has stopped pouring in the gap, so I'm happy. And hopefully this'll never happen again:


Yep, that's rain water that leaked into my light fixture through the roof/wall gap. Pretty, isn't it? Not so much. There was also a lot of water in the section of my basement that's directly underneath, and I hope it's gone for good, too.

First Snowfall

First snow of the year today. (A lot earlier than I'd like to see it, but pretty!)

And yes, I'm still counting 'firsts' like this in the house, but I'm allowed - it's only been six months since I bought it!
(SIX months!! How'd that happen?) :)