If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

I'm not a mouse, but this story starts in a similar manner.

Now that our little man Connor is here, I've started rethinking more areas of our home.  Right now Connor sleeps in our bedroom with us.  We are planning on transitioning him to the crib in his room soon, but having him in the bedroom with us for now has gotten my mental wheels turning.  Babies are messy, and little boys are even messier.  And from what I understand, they don't make messes in localized areas, even when advised to do so.  Our bedding is beautiful (to me at least), but the giant comforter is not easily washed.  It's too large to fit in a washing machine drum, even a front-loading Star Trek-esque one like ours.  Which means we're rolling the dice on making an unplanned trip to the laundromat every time we have that baby in the bed with us.

He's sleeping... like a BOSS.

Last spring Steve and I started talking about updating our bedding for temperature reasons anyway- the poly fill of our comforter was nice and toasty in the winter, but much too warm from May through September.  And after three years of use, the fill was a bit deflated at the top edge and had sunk down into the lower corners.  So we decided to start searching for new bedding.  Our requirements were: easy to wash, hypo-allergenic (down fill makes me sneeze and itch), natural fiber (poly fill can make us sweaty), work with our existing sheets and wall color, and not cost an arm and a leg (hello, maternity leave!).  We decided we'd look for quilts and see what we came up with.  This time around I was also looking for something decidedly less fussy than what we had.  Not that I disliked it, but just that our style has evolved since we purchased it and so has our lifestyle.  I was hoping to trade elegance for ease.

How it was.

I ended up finding a quilt Steve and I both liked on Target's website.  It had good reviews, a trip to my local store confirmed that it was soft and a nice weight, and it was on sale.  Bingo.

{via}

And then as long as we were getting a new quilt, we might as well replace the down-alternative blanket we've been using that had grown increasingly lumpy with each wash....

{via}

So now our bedroom looks like this.  Please ignore the dust, piles of stuff on our nightstands, and non-matching pillowcases.  I have a baby, it's not like I have time to style photos for this blog.  Puhleese.

The raw edge makes this more modern than your average quilt.

Love the edge on that blanket!

Which got me thinking.  Steve and I love the new quilt and blanket.  But now everything else in the room seems too formal.  And plain verging on monochrome since there's no loud print on our new quilt.  Plus our lamps.  They aren't exactly our style (even though we both love Tiffany lamps), they take up so much room on our nightstands, and they're really heavy and fragile!  I can just imagine Connor walking in there, grabbing the cord, and knocking himself out with one of those- you know, once he's walking.  I mentioned to Steve that I liked the idea of having wall lamps, and he was immediately sold.

{via}

Which got me thinking.  If we had wall lamps, we'd be able to actually have some organization in place on our nightstands.  And maybe some pretty things, too.

Which got me thinking.  We'd have room to hang some art on either side of our beds.

Which got me thinking.  We'd be able to introduce more color to the room to add visual interest and warmth.

If you give a mouse a cookie....  She'll end up making a collage on polyvore and wanting to refresh the whole bedroom.

Awww yeah!

Challenge accepted!!

Plumb Crazy

Steve managed to sqeeze in one last DIY project before Connor was born.  The good news is that he managed to fix something that's been broken since we bought the house!  The bad news is that we hadn't planned on DIYing this project at all, but were driven to from a series of odd events.

Our hose bibs have been messed up from the get-go with this house.  We knew when we purchased the house that the hose bibs lacked knobs to turn the water on and off.  No biggie, we thought.  Hose knobs are easy to come by and not terribly difficult to install.  So when it came time to buy the correct knob, a closer inspection of the hose bib revealed that a new knob wasn't what we needed.  The gasket the knob would normally attach to was completely stripped.  This was the same for the spigot in the front of the house and the one in the back.

Stripped.

We knew at that point that we'd likely need to replace the entire spigot, and this was confirmed by a couple different plumbers when we were gathering estimates for our bathroom reno (you can read about that here).  But way back then, we had other, more pressing projects going on, so we saved our money and went with a stupid-simple hack that only cost us a few bucks.

Stripped and clamped.

That tiny clamp served us well as a makeshift knob for two years.  And then one of the clamps got lost.  And then I planted some things on the north side of my house.  And then the spigot that still had a clamp-for-a-knob started to shoot water from the gasket, which meant that the scary-pregnant lady that lived in our house had to water her window boxes with a watering can.  I broke down in early July and informed Steve that I'd be calling some of the plumbers we talked to last fall to get an estimate and schedule a time for our hose bibs to be replaced.

I called the plumber that we were talking about using last fall before we decided to DIY the bathroom and left a voicemail.  His Yelp account showed a few more very positive reviews since the previous fall, and he was one of our cheapest estimates (plus a generally polite and well spoken guy), so I was excited to get him out to our house ASAP.  Four days later, I still hadn't heard from him so I called and left another voicemail.  A week later I still hadn't heard from him so I called and left yet another voicemail.  He called me back the same day to tell me that he had been on vacation, and would give me a call when he got back into town the following Monday.  I thanked him for getting back to me and agreed.  Well, the following Monday he called to say he had just gotten back into town and would call me later in the day to schedule an appointment.  He never did.  I tried calling him one more time and never heard back from him.  So disappointing.  A few more phone calls to local plumbers meant we'd end up spending about double what the non-responding guy was going to charge, or we'd have to go with someone we didn't really trust.  

So we did what we usually do, which is watch a ton of youtubes and just give it a go ourselves.  We figured if we really screwed it up, we'd just end up calling a plumber and spending an arm and a leg anyway.  At least if we tried it ourselves, we'd have a chance to saving some money.

Steve decided to try the hose bib in the back of the house first.  It would matter less if it ended up not being aesthetically pleasing, but most of all the plumbing was exposed in our garage.  It was easy to get to and would cause far less damage to the house if we screwed things up.

A series of tubes.

Steve ended up replacing most of this section of pipe- the pipe to the left goes through the back of our garage and out to the hose bib.  I won't pretend to know how he did it, but after a few hours, $80ish worth of materials (take that, $400 estimate!), and a few magic swear words, we had a brand new hose bib WITH A KNOB that worked perfectly and didn't leak.  I could finally water those window boxes with a hose instead of schlepping around a watering can!

Hooray, a functional knob!

It's not sexy, but it finally works!

The hose bib in the front still needs to be fixed.  We waited for a couple of reasons.  The pipe behind our spigot in the front of the house runs in through the coat closet near our front door and will require cutting through drywall to access, so the risk of damaging our house is much higher.  That also means it will require patching the drywall when we're done, which is a pain in the butt.  Also, I had a baby about 4 days after Steve fixed the hose bib in the back, and we haven't had a lot of free time since then that hasn't been consumed with being completely exhausted.  Steve has promised me he'll fix the one in front by the end of October though, so that we don't have to worry about the pipes freezing when the weather turns.  Cross your fingers we get it done uneventfully!

Look What the Stork Brought!

Mr. Baby's due date has come and gone, and he has yet to make an appearance.  But after nine months-ish of hard work, we do FINALLY have a finished guest bathroom!  Yes, you read that right.  We are probably setting the record for the longest DIY bathroom reno in blogger history.  But I don't care because A) IT'S DONE! and B) IT GOT DONE BEFORE BABY ARRIVED!  What started as replacing a cracked and broken tub and shower surround ended up becoming a full bathroom overhaul in preparation for our family's changing needs and I couldn't be happier with the results.  As a reminder, we were aiming for: higher quality materials, surfaces that are easy to clean, a richer color palette that would complement Mr. Baby's nursery, and better functionality that will last us for a few years of Mr. Baby growing up without sacrificing the needs of our guests.  So let's get on with the fun part, eh?  Pictures!!

The view from the hallway.

Lots of fun blues and greens to break up all the white.

I am in love with this picture.

The opposite side of the bathroom.

Between the vanity and the shower.

Couldn't resist a little bathroom-related humor.

Extra hand towels, wash cloths, travel size toiletries, and a bin for Mr. Baby's bath items.

I love how cheery and functional this space turned out to be.  The bead board is a dream to clean with a microfiber cloth.  It'll be nice when the time comes for us to move as well, because almost all of the permanent fixtures in this room will create a nice neutral palette for the future owners to personalize as they see fit.

And as a fun parting shot, here's the evolution of this bathroom from move-in to current day:

Realtor's photo

Year One...

Year Two...

...and Now!

Fun side note... while my photography skills still leave a lot to be desired, it's nice to look back at photos across a long span of time to see that I'm at least improving!

On to the nitty gritty breakdowns for you detail-oriented people.


Sources for the bathroom (links provided where applicable):
American Standard Americast Princeton tub- Lowe's
Subway tile and grout in Delorean Gray- Home Depot
Pfister tub/shower trim kit in nickel- Home Depot
Danze "The Pottie" toilet- Costco (no longer available)
Cape Cod style bead board trim kits- Home Depot (available in store only)
Benjamin Moore's "Gray Owl" paint in low-VOC Harmony line- Sherwin Williams
Broan bathroom fan- Lowe's
Behr's "Twilight Chimes" paint- Home Depot
Valspar spray enamel in "Gloss Tropical Oasis"- Lowe's
Over-toilet shelves and brackets- Home Depot
Diaper sprayer- Zulily
Shower curtain, towels and washcloths, soap dispenser, rugs, towel hook bar, clock, small picture frames, and almost all items on shelves- Target
Printable artwork- Oh So Lovely
White vanity, vinyl flooring, builder-grade mirror frame, light fixture, shower curtain rod, large photo frames, hand towel ring, robe hook, green candle holder- existing.

Grand total for the complete bathroom reno: just a smidge under $1700.  Still cheaper than all but one estimate we got (and that was only for replacing the tub/shower surround with another fiberglass tub/shower surround, and not including labor for demolition or drywall repair).  And since it took us SO LONG to complete, we ended up spending an average of less than $200/month across the whole span of the reno.

Just found us?  You can check out the whole long, drawn-out saga by checking out all of our posts labeled "Guest Bathroom."

Check out more fun projects at The DIY Mommy's Motivational Monday Link Party!

And even more projects at Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!

Make Room For Baby

Check!  This week I wrapped up decorating the nursery (for now) and I think we're as prepped as we can be for Mr. Baby's arrival.  Everything that remains on the "to do" or "to get" list will have to wait until we meet the little fella.  Let's take a little tour of the nursery.

Come on in!

Hanging right from the door is Mr. Baby's diaper bag.  This won't be its permanent home, but right now the corner of the door at eye level means we're more likely to remember to grab it on our way to the hospital.  Steve very kindly shaved down parts of that door as well so now it opens and shuts completely and softly.  The tub full of bath time goodies and the dresser Steve's grandpa Mel built (read more about it here) have been joined by the diaper pail and two Ikea spice racks turned bookshelves.

Wonder how long it'll take before I can remember what baby things go in which drawer?

Our little changing area got some fun upgrades as well.  The mis-matched storage at the top of the closet bugs me a little, but not enough for me to make something to cover it!  This is another area that won't be dealt with until after Mr. Baby arrives, because the bins are holding newborn and 3 month sized clothes, and we're not sure he'll be small enough to wear any of them (Steve wore 6 month clothes as a newborn)!

The baby buns station.

I made some fun little orbs to hang above the changing station.  I took at 1.5" circle cutter and made short work of a bundle of paint chips (yay free materials!), folded the circles to make an equilateral triangle (once a math coach, always a math coach), used glue dots to attach all of the bits and hung them with fishing line.

Fun colors!

This little sign was made from an 18" x 24" canvas frame, leftover crib skirt fabric, and iron on letters.  Best of all, it covers our fuse box!

Cue the hormones.

Steve cleverly added hinges to the same side that the fuse box swings open on.  This means easy access when it's necessary, and we could attach them frame to the wall on the side of the fuse box rather than risk hitting wiring by hanging it from above.  We used velcro on the other side to secure it to the wall.

Steve is tricky.

We finally got a little storage ottoman for the rocker, so now it's very easy to rock- my feet barely touch the floor because we added the rocker skis!  I've loaded some fun magazines for me in elastic side pocket of the ottoman.  Tabi made the whale quilt that's on the back of the rocker.  Just like everything else she has made for Mr. Baby, it's adorable.

I don't think this is what LMFAO meant by "Party Rockin."

I elected to use all of the sweet cards I got at Mr. Baby's shower to decorate the wall behind the chair.  It's nice to look at all of those cards and think about how many people love him even though he hasn't arrived yet!  The twine and clothespins were part of a shower gift and they're held in place with some fun push-pins I ordered on Etsy.

Mr. Baby's affirmation wall?

Most of this side of the room has stayed the same.  The Pack N Play has been shifting around the room, looking for a permanent home when not in use.  And then there's the blow up air mattress my in-laws used last time they came for a visit.  We still haven't managed to walk the 30 feet to the shed to put it away.  Because we're lazy awesome.

Gotta move the air mattress to get the baby in and out of the crib.

The only other additions here are our filled-out bookshelf (thank you Paige, Anika, and Grant!!) and the video monitor we snagged for super-sale on Amazon perched in the upper left.

So many books!!

I am loving that most of the decor for this room was very inexpensive (or gifted or re-purposed), and Steve maintains that it's his favorite room in our house so far.  So at this point, I'm sticking a fork in Mr. Baby's nursery.  I'm happy enough with it, it's as functional as a person who's never been a mom before can figure to make it, and it feels like a place that I'll be happy to spend a lot of time in (even if it is in the middle of the night).  Now all it needs is a baby!

Mac in the Office

Fleetwood Mac, of course.

After doing a little clean up/organization overhaul on my side of the desk, I decided it needed sprucing up with a little bit of new wall bling.

Hello, my pretty.

I switched out the small mirror with the dark frame for a larger one that used to hang in our guest room.  A few coats of spray paint transformed its frame from gold to bright white.  Between the light, the mercury glass, and the mirror, that little corner of our bookshelf is nice and bright now.  As for the wall to the left, my diplomas are right where they've always been, but I removed the hanging pocket organizer which had ceased to be useful in lieu of some fun things that felt a little more in sync with my tastes now.

Me space.

I tried to keep the color palette simple and clean to tie everything together and minimize the feeling of clutter that can quickly creep in to our office.  I also wanted the art here to be things that speak to me.  Fortunately, Target had two of these pieces- the graphic Fleetwood Mac lyric (or Jason Mraz, if you'd rather) and the ode to coffee canvas.  The bird hook used to hold our pocket organizer but now is mostly just there because it's cute and I love it.  The art to the far left is simply a printable featuring a chalk design of "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection."  The floating frame used to be a dark cherry color; a can of silver spray paint made it tie in with the rest of the grouping.

As long as other parts of the office were getting a lighter and brighter makeover, I decided the dogs' crate should get a little update as well.

New fluffy puppy blankets!

Seems like they are enjoying the improvements, right?  So am I!

Dipes, Wall Art, and Bookshelves, Oh My!

Slowly but surely the nursery is getting a little more "finished."

Although my goal in this post was to get the changing station all fixed up and ready to roll, I've really only made small changes in this corner of the room.  We finally got a changing pad and cover and attached it to the dresser.  I took the mirror from the office and spray painted it orange and hung it above the changing station to bounce some more light around in that little alcove.  I found a secondhand wipes warmer that will be great for storing cloth wipes and a cute little bin on super sale at JoAnn Fabric.  I also finally got our diaper pail set up.  This is my first simplehuman brand garbage can and I have to say that I totally love it.  It doesn't show fingerprints, has a handy feature for tucking in excess liner, and has a soft-close lid.

Almost ready for baby buns.

My favorite update in this area is something I actually had nothing to do with.  My very crafty and creative sister-in-law, Tabi, found a pattern for making cloth diapers online and last week she brought me this darling handmade basket full of 9 newborn sized cloth diapers she had made.  It kills me that they are color coordinated.

The whole kit 'n caboodle.

How cute are these??  Mr. Baby's going to be styling some cute buns, for sure.  PS, Tabi is thinking of selling cute dipes and accessories like these on etsy- I'll pass along a link once her shop opens!

"Rawr" means "I love you" in dinosaur.

On the opposite side of the room, I made a no-sew crib skirt for Mr. Baby.  I love that I got to choose my own fabrics, but I especially love that the skirt is attached to the crib frame with velcro.  This will make it really easy to take off and reattach when it needs to be washed, and it'll also make shortening the skirt as the crib gets lowered a cinch.  Plus we now have some handy hidden storage under the crib, woo!

The result of a couple hours of quality time with hem tape and an iron.

On the wall above the crib, I used some scrapbook paper and pins to create some whimsical wall art in the form of pinwheels.  I really wanted something that would have a big impact but be super-cheap.  That way I won't feel guilty if/when things need to be changed up again in this room.  The smaller pinwheels actually spin!

Handmade wall art that costs less than $5.

I spray painted some Ikea spice racks and attached them to the wall above the bookshelf.  I'm intending to use these for the books we'd like to keep in Mr. Baby's collection but not be handled without supervision, like books that have been signed by the author or are being passed down from my mom's collection.

Ready for bedtime stories!

I'm so excited that things are coming together in this room!  Makes me feel a little bit more ready to meet this little guy!

Only 3 weeks left til Mr. Baby's due date!

Guest Bathroom Reno: Episode 461

I cannot believe that we started our guest bathroom reno last NOVEMBER and are still not quite done.

Yes, the tub and shower are done, and that was what we originally were aiming for.  And we really like how our subway tile surround turned out.  Now we're mostly into improving the aesthetics, since we know this bathroom will now be a place used heavily by Mr. Baby and his needs.

Since the last update, a few things have happened.  I repainted the ceiling the same color as Mr. Baby's room- Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore.  Steve has begun trimming out the room and we've got floor-to-ceiling bead board on one-and-a-half walls.  I've caulked and painted the bead board that's already finished.  All of these things were planned.

So fresh and so clean clean.

We did make two unplanned improvements as well.  After helping my parents install some new toilets a few months ago, we decided to upgrade our toilet too.  Costco had awesome toilets, so we sprung for those.  The new toilet is chair-height, which means it'll be easier for our less-agile family members (which includes me at the moment!!) to get on and off the toilet easily.  It's also one piece (easy installation and cleaning), low-flow (our old toilets were not), less prone to clogging, and quiet.  Plus the sale price at Costco was about $400 less than the particular brand of toilet normally costs.  Our other unplanned improvement is still in progress.  The motor in the bathroom fan gave out.  Since the fan is loud, difficult to operate (it's on a timer switch), and moves less air than is necessary in a bathroom that size, we decided to purchase a new high-capacity fan that's much quieter, and change out the timer switch to a regular on/off switch.  Unfortunately, installing the fan will require Steve to crawl through our ceiling, so we've been waiting for Steve to finish his boss' desk and for the weather to give us a nice cool day so that he doesn't roast up there.

Less than fan-tastic.  Har!

All the rest of the updates are fun aesthetic updates that are bumping up the color factor in this room, coordinating a little better with Mr. Baby's room, and better serving the functional needs of a bathroom that will soon be used mostly by a little boy, sometimes by visitors, and occasionally for overnight guests.  I painted our mirror frame the same blue that I used on Mr. Baby's chest of drawers- Twilight Chimes by Behr.  The rugs, towels, and new soap dispenser all came from Target (which I managed to purchase on sale- yeah!).

Hello, nasty unfinished wall!

My favorite update though, was the trickiest one for me- the shower curtain.  It was easy enough to find a shower curtain liner long enough for our shower curtain rod, which is hung just below ceiling height.  I was having a terrible time finding a fabric shower curtain that would be long enough, not look cheap and junky, be easy to wash, and let a decent amount of light through.  After searching and searching and coming up empty handed, I decided to make my own shower curtain.

DIY shower curtain.

I purchased two 96" length rod-pocket curtains from Target.  The ombre effect seemed like it might be bright enough to let in decent light, and the teal color coordinated beautifully with the bath mat.  After pre-washing the curtains, I did some math- I measured the opening of the shower and the width of the two curtains, and chose to place the grommet holes about 8" apart (the grommet holes on the liner were more like 6" apart) leaving 3" of extra fabric on each end and overlapping the two grommets where the curtains would meet.  Originally I forgot about needing to overlap the grommets, which would have left me with a gap between the two curtains right in the middle- oops.  After I carefully measured, marked, and cut holes for the grommets, I used a grommet kit from Michael's to tap the grommets into place.

Please ignore the unfinished wall bits.

I love how it turned out.  The fabric is nice and light.  The color at the bottom of the curtain is saturated and matches the bath mat really well.  I didn't have to do any sewing at all.  Best of all, this little DIY project cost less than most of the 96" shower curtains I found on the interwebs- less than $5 for a grommet kit, and two curtains from Target (also purchased on sale).  Not only that, but the height of the shower curtain makes the room look taller and roomier than it is.

From this angle the bathroom looks finished!

Pretty sure I will never buy another stock shower curtain again.  :)