Let's Head Downstairs!

  Our basement is divided into two sides:
     - Head down the stairs, turn to the right = our family room + laundry room area - in progress.Future home of movie watching and video game playing...
     - Turn left at the bottom of the stairs to go out the back door, pass the downstairs full bathroom, and head into the ??? room.
  This room used to be a 2-car tuck-under garage many, many years ago before the previous homeowners built an extra large detached garage space. The tuck-under space was finished off into a HUGE room with a HUGE closet, two big bay windows, a wall of cabinets, and a teeny-tiny sink. The previous owners used this space for a master bedroom, + office space + what seems to be a lot of ??? space.
  When WE first walked through this house a year ago, we didn't know what the heck was going on with this room, and ended up purchasing the house with plans to divide the room up into smaller, more functional spaces....
  Take a look...

Here are a few views of the room
Please Note:  Lovely load-bearing post right in the center of the room + the super attractive brass reading lamps that used to flank the previous owners king sized bed.
(They took the mailbox with them, but left us these treasures...)

Upper left =  cabinets with a little countertop area complete with little 8"x8" sink
(Note: the bathroom is right on the other side of this wall - not TOO far to go to brush your teeth...)
The other photos show the extra large walk-in closet full of the press board shelving the old owners built themselves... The closet space is SO large, that most of the space in here is pretty much wasted.
Unless we add center island to maximize the space, this space is pretty much just a big dressing room.
While that sounds very glamorous, we just don't think it's necessary...

Two big bay windows look out onto our driveway.
A perfect place for a certain someone to keep an eye on who is coming and going...

 
  FAST FORWARD to today! We are moving forward with remodeling this big ole' room! I have moved all of the unpacked boxes that used to live over here into the other side of the basement, and we're ready to start some demo!
 
BEFORE:

THE PLAN:

We plan to keep a portion of the space as our 4th bedroom, but we still have plenty of space to spare for a shared office/studio space, and a mud room. We are taking part of the huge closet, + adding a smaller hall closet space. On the wall where all of those old cabinets used to live, we'd like to install new lower cabinets and countertop that will include a designated home for Finch's kennel.  ( Like my diagrams?!)

So let the demo begin! That closet wall has got to go!

Nice work Kevin!

Closet walls are gone! Time to frame it all up! as our pal Brian looks on... he likes to "help"...

More to come soon!!

Fun Finds @ Ax-Man!

  It has been YEARS since I've been to an Ax-Man store - at least 8+ years.  Ax-Man is a surlpus store that buys extra or discontinued product or parts from companies and re-sells them. The result is this crazy mish-mash of 'stuff' - baby doll parts, circuit board parts, beakers, ....
  I used to frequent the Ax-Man in St. Paul with friends when I was in school - art students are always on the hunt for some random bits to use for a project (like a sculpture or a set for stop-motion animation - I helped).
  The St. Louis Park store is the closest location to us now - really close actually (other locations include St. Paul, Fridley, and Crystal) and Kevin's never been in there, so I figured why the heck not? Perhaps there will be some new project for us - for art, or decor, or...who knows....

LOTS of colored tape  -  LOTS of colored votive holders  -  LOTS of License Plates  -  LOTS of cork stoppers

Marbles!

Need Zippers? Ball Bearings? Springs? Perhaps glass? (could be cool for a framing project)

Bowling Pins  -  Mini Clamps $.45/ea ( these are my favorite: perfect for book binding)
Cardboard boxes in lots of sizes (might be handy if I EVER open my etsy shop...)
lots of hardware  - wooden frames  -  glass mugs, plates, bowls, etc.  - tiny bottles, vials, and beakers of all sizes

And here are just a few of our take-homes :)

yellow and gray tape!  -  mini cutting mat  - a cute bottle + mini beaker (for flowers)
little forks, formerly from North West Airlines food service, perfect for pickles!  -  little green votive holders

Ax-Man was a lot of fun - I think I might make another trip over there again soon! I have several project ideas...  Let me know what treasures YOU find when you stop by Ax-Man!

Master Bedroom Update

   We have finally completed our master bedroom! Sure, there's a few things here and there that still need to be resolved, but we're ready to share what we've come up with!

Before = an empty room, cream walls - not even worth sharing a photo...

After = Behr "Aloof Gray" walls + and one big yellow-green wall :)

All of our white furniture and bedding really pops off of our big green accent wall :)
Our bedframe is Trondheim from IKEA - I think they are discontinuing the collection...
Instead of night stands, we flanked our bed with these tall cabinets for extra storage.
Not pictured = sweet white floor slider drawer that fit right under the bed: one on each side

The cabinets are all white, just like our bed frame, but from the Besta IKEA collection:
typically seen in a living room in some combination for an entertainment center.
We selected these low profile door pulls preferring to keep the doors clean of chunky knobs/handles.

We were starting to run into a whole lot of flat white staring at us - SO!
We added a little texture and warmth into the inset panels of the cabinet doors.
- Picked out a nice neutral handmade paper at Dick Blick - its hard to tell in the photo, but the color has
a slight yellow/green cast to it, that ties in nicely with our wall color.
- Took measurements and I cut down the paper with a knife and straight edge
(my cutting method of choice for pretty much everything! )
-  little sticky tabs along the edges in the corners and VOILA! Customized cabinet door panels!
The project cost us about 8$ with some extra paper to save for a future project ;)

We added a shelf above our head board to hold our new little, adjustable task lighting - great for reading in bed :)
And above the shelf = the vintage cabinet door we purchased back in Feb. at the Be Mine Market (see earlier post)

Our duvet - from Urban Outfitters - combines both of our favorite colors: yellow for Elisa and orange for Kevin!
+ the little birds with the great scandi floral makes me happy :)  I was surprised at my wedding shower (a while ago now!) with yellow monograming on the gray pillowcases that we'd registered for! Perfect!

Yes Finch's bed has a spot too! Finch's duvet isn't new, but it was custom made by my mom and I with a durable + cozy green berber fleece  (Fits over a 3' x 4' grid of pillows that we sewed together) Duvets for dog beds are the best - so easy to pull off and wash + easy to customize to fit in with a color scheme.
+ Finch gets yellow monogramming on his pillow too :)

We customized our IKEA Malm dresser - yet another big block of white - with these sweet decals from Mykea, a company that makes decals to fit just about any Ikea furniture out of Amsterdam (see earlier post)
+ Kevin built me a sturdy wooden "TV Boost" that allows us to store our TV components under our bedroom TV.
It's been spray painted gray of course...

Our bedroom didn't have previously hardwired lighting, and instead of hardwiring in a new fixture,
we just added this white glass pendant above our TV/Closet area to light the way
+ Super sale purchase of this gray with white knobs dresser for Elisa, from where else: Ikea - for 99$ (also being discontinued). I had really wanted to add a non-white dresser that wasn't a big brick/black hole in the room - this dresser features curved legs and nice beveled edge details.
+ Above my new dresser hangs the mirror! Remember? The mirror that used to hang in my parent's house, that I spray painted white - originally intended for our master bathroom! (see earlier mirror project post)
Well it finally found a home and I love it!

   Thanks for being our bedroom guests ;) It's so nice to have such a cozy room completed + we added lots of functional storage space too! We just need to get a few things up on the walls... I'm having wall-commitment issues and I think it's started to drive Kevin nuts. He's SO over all the bare walls throughout the house. 

   We'll get there...and when we do you'll be the first to know!

Remember Us?

Hello All! It's been a pretty hectic month and a half! While neglecting our blogging duties, we've been all sorts of busy.

Mom on the Mend: Elisa's Mom had surgery early March and is recovering well. All that stupid cancer has been removed and all the next steps coming slowly but surely. Caring Bridge was like my blog-away-from-blog for a while there :)

Kevin on the Hunt: Kevin had been job hunting for while so that he could line something up for when he finished school in March - and we are pleased to report that Kevin graduated and he started his official career on March 30th. He is really liking the new gig so far and is learning a ton :)

Kevin on the Mend: Yikes! When Kevin turned 30 last year, his warranty expired. He's been having back problems for a while - the kind that makes it hard to do pretty much anything.  A few bulged discs and a little floaty piece of bone that liked to stab him, even when he was just sitting still, were all removed/shaved down during Kevin's micro-dicsectomy surgery.
March Week 2 = Kevin graduated, Week 3 = Kevin's surgery, Week 4 = Kevin started his new job....

   .....let's just say March was stressful for so many reasons.....

Elisa on the Run: Coordinating the next home projects, hanging out in hospital waiting rooms, traveling to LA/San Diego for business (Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo- for real), work deadlines galore, and arranging to teach a few book-binding classes at Light Grey Art Lab this summer...

Finch on the Couch: on the couch, snooz'n in the sun, playing with his duck - He really should've picked up the blogging duties...

We're glad to be back and intend to bring you along on our latest adventures.