Rambling Renovators: March 2010

Famous - or infamous?

Today we caused a bit of controversy! Not one, but two of our projects were posted on Apartment Therapy today. I had submitted our little chair makeover to the folks at Ohdeedoh, thinking they may want to share it with their readers. And they did! You can see that post here. Well, the writer poked around our blog and liked our renovations so she did this post on our bathroom on the Apartment Therapy main site, as part of their bathroom month series.

And what a response it received -- to the tune of 62 people (so far) chiming in - to say how much they hate our bathroom renovation!! Okay - I exaggerate, only 90% actually hate it :) I'll admit, when you have that many people telling you they don't like what you've done, lots of thoughts run through your head... shock, anger, defensiveness, sadness, curiousity, incredulity, and ambivalence were just a few.

But now that I've had a few hours to absorb those comments, I can be a bit more objective about things. I get that our projects are rather atypical of the Apartment Therapy aesthetic. We're much more traditional and conservative in our tastes and our home reflects that. I can see how people would think our monochromatic bathroom boring. Or how they would think the hand-painted mural was lovely - without knowing it covered all four walls and ceiling and made the 5'x8' bathroom feel claustrophobic. I can even understand their appall at how we removed the jacuzzi tub and pedestal sink even though these things didn't fit our family's needs (functionally or aesthetically).

At first, I thought I would respond on the AT site and clear up misconceptions and provide more information about why we did the things we did... but then I thought, "Why do I care?" The folks who left comments likely have tastes far different from mine and there is nothing I could say to convince them that yes, we made the best decisions possible, that we considered all the alternatives, that in context of our neighbourhood/house style/lifestyle/personal needs our choices were sound, that our sweat and effort was worth it.

For those of you that did land here via Apartment Therapy - Welcome! Please poke around. I hope you stay awhile. And for those who only peeked in the door and decided this place was not for them, I hope you have your own happy place to go home to. We're crafting these rooms into a home that suits us, no matter what others may say - and as homeowners, shouldn't that all be our goal?

La Salle De Bain C'est Fini!

The bathroom is finished! Yes it is. The last piece of the puzzle, the door, is in. And I am so excited, I must speak en français! You see, HandyMan and my most favourite city in the world is Paris. We love the Parisian sense of style and we try to imbue a bit of that in our designs. So here is our take on a Parisian bath... touches of marble, mirror, black and white, and vintage signage.

But this door wasn't always so lovely and we had quite a bit of trouble with it. HandyMan doesn't do doors (they are troublesome creatures!), so we waited to get someone to install this one. And when I say waited, I mean we bought the door and had it sitting in our garage for the last six months ;)

Opportunity finally came knocking and we asked the folks who installed our front door (which we love by the way) to install this interior one while they were here. It would have been fine... if it was the skilled young guy who did it and not the old-and-didn't-know-what-he-was-doing, barely-spoke English, never-seen-these-type-of-hinges-or-door-lock guy. So that's how we ended up with a butchered door that didn't close properly, chopped up trim, ugly wood putty patches - and a door installed BACKWARDS with the frosting side out!!!

Argh. Goes to show that not everything runs smoothly in the world of renovations. Being the kind of people that HandyMan and I are, we knew we couldn't live with this pimple, this blight, on our pretty bathroom. Plus, the decal wouldn't stick on the frosting side - and that is one reason why we got a frosted door in the first place, so we could have a pretty decal! So we had to get it fixed. And in our moment of desperation, we told the fix-it guy something you never ever want to say to a contractor -- "I don't care how much it costs. Just make this problem go away." Lucky for us, Mr. Fix-It is a good guy and did a great job at a reasonable price.

And now it is lovely. C'est magnifique!

Mini Chair Makeover!

8 months, 148 nail tacks, 7 feet of flexible tacking strip, 1.5 yards of fabric, 1 quart of paint, and 2 bloody fingers to take this:

to this and finally this:

It's not perfect, but its done :) This is my first reupholstery job and I learned a few things like:
- flexible tacking strip is probably well suited for regular sized furniture but is a pain in the butt for a mini chair like this one
- flexible tacking strip needs lots of foam on top of it to prevent it from poking through the fabric
- for a first time reupholstery project, don't pick fabric with stripes or plaids (strike 1 and strike 2!)

So it took much more effort than I anticipated but I'm pretty happy with it. Now Chloe will have a chair to sit on when she blows the candle off of her 1st birthday cake!! Not that the kid likes to sit on the chair - yet. The chair isn't the only thing that's changed:

I'm linking this post up to some blog parties: Creative Cats; Saturday Nite Special; Frugal Friday; Show and Tell; Frugalicious Friday; Transformation Thursday

This and That

Lots going on at the HandyLuster household and no time to blog about it! We finally have a bathroom door. Well, we had one before but it was butchered by the installer... and put in backwards. Agh! So we had that fixed. Once we get a coat of paint on it, I'll take a pic.

Then there's the bedroom reno. Panelling on the wall is done - yay! But last coat of patching still needs to be sanded - boo! Carpet will be installed in two weeks - yay! But that means we have to get all the painting done (and HandyMan will have to continue sleeping on the couch till then) - boo! Then there's the ordering of the curtains, sourcing the bamboo blinds, painting of the side tables, waiting for the sconces to arrive via my American cousin, and finding supplies for my special secret project ;)

Oh, and since we were ordering bedroom carpet, we decided to order the stair runner at the same time. Which means that the painting of the spindles and handrail and now-dinged-up risers will have to be done in the next two weeks too :)

And we're busy preparing things for Chloe's first birthday party in three weeks. On that note, one little project is almost finished. Here's a sneak peek. And if I can get my adorable chair model to sit still for a second, I'll reveal it in its full yummy fabricy goodness.

A Touch O' The Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Source: 1 - Sarah Richardson Design, 2 & 3 - via Full House, 4 - unknown

Falling Down The Rabbit Hole

I have a love/hate relationship with blogs and design sites in general. I love reading them. I love finding inspirational photos, learning DIY tricks, and coming across crafty ideas. I love falling down the rabbit hole, following a link that leads me to a new great blog and then another one and then another... until I realize 3 hours have passed and I still have to clean up the kitchen and put away the laundry and my daughter will be up in 5 minutes for another feed and I could have been oh so much more productive with my time and finished any of the 14 projects on my to do list and... you get the picture.

All of this makes me wonder about these newfangled free online e-magazines. Unconstrained by typical production and distribution costs, these mags weigh in at around 150+ pages. So on the one hand, they are chock-full of more design ideas and interesting articles... but this means I will spend even more time immobile, butt in chair, straining my eyes as I zoom in and zoom out to read the computer screen. Will these abundant design sources really help me to make better, savvier choices when decorating my own home? Or is it like standing in the cereal box aisle - faced with dozens of different choices, why do I still reach for the same Oatmeal Crisp cereal?

As the message of design itself becomes 'simpler', more back to basics, with growing recycled/upcycled/repurposed/vintage trends, the medium of design is becoming oh-so-complicated. For now, I'm inclined to resist this newest of trends. My blog reader is already overflowing and I have so many different inspiration folders saved about, I don't know where to look first. But if you're looking to fill some of your time, here's some e-magazines you might want to check out:

Nesting Newbies
Lonny
Southern Flourish

Barbie Does Design

Can I live in this dollhouse?? Pretty please?!

Found via li'l magoolie.

On Parenthood: Possibility

This is a house in my neighbourhood.

And this is the elementary school at the end of my street.

The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, grew up in that house and attended that school. And one day, my little Chloe will attend that school too.

I have no illusions that Chloe will grow up to be Prime Minister, but finding out those interesting facts about my 'hood really made me stop in my tracks. If some boy can grow up in the same place I am raising my child and become the leader of our country... what can my little girl grow up to be?

As a child, my parents instilled in me the belief that I could do and become anything I wanted to be, no matter my race, sex, height (or lack thereof!), age, or colour. I didn't realize it at the time, but my parents gave me so many experiences and exposed me to many things, just to show me that the world was indeed my oyster. I have fond memories of my dad piling up the neighbourhood kids in our station wagon and taking us to the Lions Club swimming pool and asking for the Family rate for this mis-matched gaggle of children. And our summer barbeques where we would roast a whole pig in a pit in our backyard, my uncles explaining the delicacy of crispy pig skin to our curious neighbours. Or how we would dress up in our finest clothes and go to watch the symphony at Roy Thompson Hall (and I would notice at intermission that we were the only immigrant family about. This was the 1970's afterall). I asked my dad once why we did all those things, why my parents seemed to go out of their way to expose us to so many varied and different experiences, and he said "Because I never wanted you to grow up thinking you couldn't do those things."

Finding out about the Prime Minister brought me back to that thought. These days, the things Chloe can't do are becoming more a part of my parenting her... don't touch this, don't eat that, don't climb there, hold on, be careful, be safe. Its a natural instinct to want to protect your child, but I was reminded that sometimes I need to push her and support her, beyond my own comfort zone.

Chloe's personality is really starting to shine through. She is a social butterfly in her music and swimming classes, always smiling at the sight of other babies, wanting to touch them and play with them. She is loud and happy, clapping, splashing, making noise! And so much energy and curiousity she has; I am forever chasing after her, trying to get her to pay attention or sit still but most often letting her explore and crawl about. I see other mothers giving me that look, feeling so lucky that they have a quiet docile baby and not this rambunctious lively handful. In a word, Chloe is so different from me as a child :) And that is the challenge. I don't want to constrain my child and limit her experience of the world because of my own inhibitions. I don't want my fears to become her fears, by default.

I need to believe that yes, my daughter could become Prime Minister. That is a possibility. The little boy down the street taught me that. And as her mother, her first teacher, and her greatest nurturer, my role is to instill that belief in her too. We give our children many gifts, but the most wonderful of these is opportunity.

Go exploring, Chloe-belle. I'll be here to catch you if you fall.

Master Bedroom: Deciding on Drapery

The snow is melting, the sun is shining bright, and the smell of Spring is in the air. What is it about all that sunshine that casts everything in a flattering light, making the world seem happier, fresher, and so alive? I've been enjoying the sunlight streaming into our master bedroom lately. Most of the time we have the blackout curtains drawn to keep the cold gloomy days out of view but now with the bedroom renovation underway, what will we replace the curtains with?

I'm drawn to a few looks. I like these photos below, with drapes layered over matchstick blinds. The blinds add warmth and texture, and lend a casual summery vibe to the room.

Images: Canadian House & Home, House Beautiful, Coastal Living.

Or we could do roman shades in each of the three windows, like below.

Images: Coastal Living, unknown, via DecorPad.

I like the ribbon banding detail on the roman blinds. Its a cleaner, simpler look. And blinds definitely would use less fabric - but maybe they would cost more than curtains to get made by my seamstress?? Decisions, decisions. I'll have to mull this one over for a while.

Guest Blogging at Brooklyn Limestone

Hi friends! Follow me on over to Brooklyn Limestone today where I'm guest blogging about my favourite nook. Its the nursery of course (where I've spent the better part of the last 10 months!)

Mrs. Limestone is one of my most favourite bloggers and I'm sure she will be one of yours too (if she isn't already!). You must check out her incredible renovations (we took inspiration from her bathroom remodels for our own reno) and her stunning crafts and projects. I can't think of a blogger with more exquisite taste and a consistent and refined decorating style. Thanks so much for having me over, Mrs. Limestone!