Bathroom Update - on the nautical side

Not long after I updated the guest bath, I decided the half-bath on the main floor needed some livening up.

Here it is - not bad, just not interesting. And, it sported another one of those enormous cabinets!












This time, my inspiration piece was a mirror, a wonderful mirror made from an old brass porthole, that I'd seen on Skipjack Nautical Wares and Marine Gallery. Not a bright shiny new one, a beat-up-looking old one. I can't find anything like it on their current website, but it looks most like this one.

My other inspiration was a post I'd seen on Houzz featuring nautical navigation charts on a bedroom wall - the designer simply used thumbtacks to affix the heavy charts to the walls. This fit with my basic "least effort, least patience" character, as well as my love of maps! My sister had given me one chart for our own area, so I endeavored to find more of nearby coast and rivers.

Marine navigation charts and porthole mirror

I bought a semi-nautical-looking light fixture at Home Depot, and a cool old totally not-nautical cabinet from a local antique shop. I covered the top half of two walls in Pacific Northwest marine navigation charts, using some of the yardsticks from my plentiful collection as the border. A couple of brass items from a local shop added some fun - "To Life Boats" above the sink and a bell above the toilet.

Not-so-nautical cabinet, accessorized

A model crabbing vessel, purchased from a local curio shop, tops the antique cabinet.  The lighthouse soap dispenser is a recent find (repurposed K-Mart lotion dispenser, just a little trimming of the spout did the trick). We did purchase new faucets, but have yet to install them (did I mention "lazy"? :o)

I love the wooden lighthouse curio shelf, a real steal I picked up a couple of weeks ago at a nearby shop for only $39. The wheel, not genuine, is still a fun addition. The Carter's Pills cabinet and Deep Sea Oysters metal poster are both things we already had. I ditched the wall TP dispenser for a free-standing one that holds magazines.

Nautical Half-bath

So here's the photo to compare with the "before" shot at the top of my blog - what do you think?







Please note, to date, I have not "monetized" my blog - the links are just links, I get nothing from anyone for putting them here.

Bathroom Update - Fun with color

It was really wonderful five years ago to move into our dream home-by-the-sea, with the added bonus that it needed no major work (except painting). All it needed were updates and the regular maintenance that comes from owning a house on the coast.

One of the first things we did was to liven up the downstairs "guest" area with my collection of colorful maps, and a new collection of fun, and useable! kites. Over the years we've added more and more kites - guests are welcome to take them down and fly them on the beach. Hmmm, I may have to do a whole other blog to talk about this room!

Family Room

The colorful kites and maps also line the hallway that ends at the bathroom. Ummmm, can you say dull and white?

Guest Bath

After leaving it in its functional but dark and desperately blah state for a couple of years, I finally decided it was time to bring it up to the same level of brightness as the rest of the guest floor.








In the above photo, the bathroom looks nice and bright, but believe me, it was a cave! I tried different shower curtains, but standing in the shower was a dark experience with the only light coming from the vanity strip above the mirror. At first I was thinking we'd have to put in another fixture, but then I realized it was the mammoth "medicine" cabinet (top left of photo) that was blocking the light. So my first step was to take that sucker down!

I tried to do it alone, and it would have worked except it was HEAVY... So down it crashed onto the toilet tank. My hubby came running, and so did the water! No photos of this setback (thankfully), but a trip to the hardware store and lots of towels later, all was well again with no major damage to the room or to my well-being :o)

Once that was done, I went out and bought the brightest, whitest high-gloss bathroom paint I could find (a cave, remember?).

After taking down the light-fixture, prepping the walls and taping off everything else, it looked like this...

and this...

After getting a couple coats of paint on the walls, I tackled the mirror. I'd been reading blogs like this one (momtastic) thinking I'd like to add a frame to it. I'd bought a couple of pieces of 1x4 pine when I got the paint, so I measured and cut and glued. My mirror didn't turn out nearly as perfect as Momtastic's did (I lack patience for details), but I love it. I thought I'd taken some in between shots of the project, but can't find them.

So, while I waited for the paint on the walls to dry, and the glue on the mirror to set, I made a trip to Walmart. I had ordered a cute little white medicine cabinet and some bright colorful wall stickers from Amazon.com, but hadn't been able to find a shower curtain that really clicked with my plans (not so much "plans" as "I'll know it when I see it"). Plus, I really wanted to find one of those curved shower curtain rods that expands the space inside the shower/tub. Success - I scored a perfect shower curtain with a couple of matching accessories. My idea was really taking shape - brightly colored dots and frogs. Fun!

Finally, everything arrived - I had a blast laying out the dots on the walls. I had purchased several cute sayings, and took great liberty in cutting them out so they'd say what I wanted them to say! I placed them a couple inches from the ceiling, starting at the mirror and running all the way around to the door.

The little white cabinet went together easily. Extra wood from the mirror project was perfect for adding a shelf inside, and a couple of cute dotted knobs and some wall stickers completed it. My "inspiration piece" for the room fit perfectly on the outer shelf - the two fish in the rowboat (left side of shelf above the yellow washcloth).


I didn't have to buy towels or a matching rug, these are all things I already had from a previous house.

Here's the mirror after the glue had set enough to take the tape off (still needed to caulk and do touch-up). Note the lack of a light fixture. I kept the white six-bulb vanity light, positioning the mirror frame to fit under it as if it were a matching piece.


Below is the finished mirror and light fixture. I decided to use little round bulbs rather than the regular size for a more fun appearance. I left the vanity alone - someday perhaps we'll swap it out, but it works for now. The artwork above it is a print from an Oregon artist - frogs playing in a sink of running water - so cute!

It's a tiny bathroom, so it was hard to get photos of the whole project. Here is an angle that shows the new shower curtain and rod, as well as the size of the new cabinet in relation to the shower area.

This one gives you a better look at the bright colors (slightly crooked), and the next one shows you pretty much the whole room...

That's it - my bright, colorful and playful guest bath project! Hope you enjoyed it as much as our guests do -- young or old, it brings a smile.

Fireplace Update, Phase 1

Our beautiful beach house was built in the 1980's and, while we love most everything about the house, there are a few things on our "project list" that need updating. For instance, most of the brass light fixtures have been replaced with ones we prefer - mostly reclaimed from ReStore or other thrift shops.

These two brass-and-glass were replaced with two great finds (below).

The one in the back came from ReStore, the front one came from Craig's List. A third, a fan fixture from the same set, we found at Goodwill!









Other updates have included minor remodels in the guest and half bathrooms, but I'll save those for another blog. Today we're talking fireplaces...

Here is our 1980's fireplace, complete with pink monster tile and a floating oak shelf that's too small for the wall and the fireplace.

Another, older photo showing it in the room (yes, that fan/light fixture is gone!)










Since our dream river rock fireplace is not in the budget, our interim solution (aka "Phase 1") involves paint and reclaimed wood. I had just finished building some bookshelves from a section of our wooden fence that blew down last winter, so decided to see how that wood looked around the fireplace.

I propped up a few pieces and asked friends for their opinions. Response was positive - yay!






After reading online about painting tile, I had a few colors laying around, so I painted some leftover tiles (another project), positioned them around the fireplace and again asked friends for their input.

Um, not so good... So I took my photo to the Sherwin Williams website and used their nifty design tool to "paint" my tile with other colors. The response was much better - and green won the day.

I made a trip to our local True Value to get some Rustoleum spray paint - Spruce Green for the surround, and hammered Brown for the hearth. We removed the old mantel and hauled it off to ReStore, then taped up the surrounding walls and TV. It took a few days to clean, spray, dry and respray but I loved the result.

First I painted the hearth:

Then the surround (a few days later):

Lessons-learned - 1) wear your mask (first day I didn't - whoa, headache time!), 2) windows and doors open and fan on also mean the air is moving -- duh (a light spray went beyond my paper/tape and took some time to clean up).

I loved the look so much I was tempted to leave the fireplace as is!










But no, I had already started building the mantel - two side boards, two cross boards and a box. Sounds pretty simple, right? Here's my plan:

Here are some of the pieces - I laid them on sawhorses to get the straightest, flattest ones, then marked them with blue painter's tape.






My plan called for notching the uprights to provide some support for the cross boards. The tools in my "shop" are pretty simple. Here's my first attempt at the notches:

Not too bad :o)

The box was not easy - I should have done more research. That, and I changed my mind several times mid-stream. Here's a more detailed sketch I made while working on the design.





But finally it was ready - here is the first dry-fit:

After some tweaks, I pieced it together in the living room with some help from the cat.







And finally, the finished project:

Started the project by soliciting input from friends on April 3rd - put the final product up on April 12th. I think it looks pretty darn good.

Embarking on our House Painting Project

Well, after four years of feeling like the sore thumb of the neighborhood with our peeling gutters, two years of "we really need to get the house painted", and one year of calling various painters who were recommended to us (and getting absolutely nowhere); we are getting serious!

When we bought the house in 2009, it was already badly in need of a paint-job. 












Giving up on the advice "first step is to ask friends and family to recommend a competent professional" (http://www.ehow.com/how_5470163_choose-house-painter-questions-ask.html); I decided to break out the good-old PAPER Lincoln County yellowbook* and call every painter listed in the yellow pages.  My only criteria:

1. Must have enough of an ad so I could tell that they paint exteriors of houses
2. Ad must list their Oregon CCB (Construction Contractors Board) number

*A must-read - who can resist a book that claims to be "packed with content[ment]"?!?

The result - four of the seven painters called me back the same day, one called the next day.  All expressed interest and are going to be coming by the house this week, with bids submitted sometime next week.  Out of the five, we hope to get at least three valid bids.

"Its important to get a few quotes (at least 3), verify their experience, ensure they are licensed and insured, and also make sure you hire someone you're comfortable with."  Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5470163_choose-house-painter-questions-ask.html

Here are some more "before" pictures.

West (front) of house

East (back) of house

                                   North side

South side

I'm still researching advice on how to make a selection.  Here are some questions we've come up with so far:

1. Overall cost
2. Type/brand of paint and cost
3. Description of prep-work, caulking, and other important labor
4. Experience and references
5. What happens when you run into repairs that need to be done (e.g., rotten wood, loose flashing) 

The first painter is here to look at the house -- cross your fingers for us!