Mehul's Room Makeover

We started on this room over the MLK weekend (not President's Day. I'm an idiot who can't keep them straight) ~ approx. a month ago! It has taken us so long to put the finishing touches on this. But I LOVE the way it looks. This is the first time I have a) used Orange b) used pen and paper to draw a plan. Usually I just have things planned in my head :)

First up, the Focal wall. The prints are 12x16.


The chalkboard painted on the wall. It is magnetic as well. Much work but too much fun!!


The Bookcase wall. Bookcase is Expedit series from IKEA. I love the drawers and door cabinets (they're red so kinda hard to see!) I can hide away things out of site.



Testing it out!


The frames are also from IKEA.


So are the curtains, the quilt, and the little coat hanger.


This room turned out to be so much work but so worth it. We painted the 2 different shades of orange on opposite facing walls. We did the first paint without primer and it needed 3 coats! I'm glad we hadn't started the other paint as it only took 1 coat after primer.

The chalkboard was a fun idea. We painted magnetic primer first (3 coats to make it super magnetic). Then we applied a bunch of coats of the chalkboard. The frame is just an unstained chair rail. This is my favorite project in the room. Every kid should have a chalkboard. I had one growing up in my room and it was my best buddy when preparing for exams. I learn best by writing so it really worked for me. Besides, it looks awesome.

Everything is worth this happy smile!

Just busy

I've been busy busy busy for many reasons. I had a work deadline which is now done. We are getting our basement built. The contractors started last weekend. We've been gathering ideas for the kitchen/bar area we wish to make there. Been to Lowe's, Home Depot, Ikea, etc. I loved one of the kitchens in Ikea and that's what we'll go with. We ordered the appliances from Sears on Black Friday and got quite good prices because of the sale. There will of course be pictures when everything is said and done.

I cleaned the play room today. What a disaster area. Ugh. Currently, we're using the living room as the play room and use the family room to entertain the guests. That should change though because I can not handle the toys at the entrance of the house anymore. They are breeding like anything and are completely out of control. I have many ideas for organizing the playroom but lack the time rightnow. Once the basement is done, we'll move the playroom downstairs and then buy some nice furniture for the room. I've even selected what I want.

I started stitching the Angel of Love again. It's coming along really well. I have it in my 101 list as a goal for finishing in 2007. We'll see if that actually happens. I get distracted very quickly LOL!

HomeOffice Makeover Photos

Before


After





I think I'm in love with the wallpaper. I love the look and putting it up wasn't too bad either. Current plan is to do it in Mehul's room, Dining room and possibly, Powder Room. It depends on finding the right paper. If nothing inspires me then we're going with paint.

Anyone need a scarf?

Parents are gone. We had a 4 day weekend (no holiday, just vacation time). I have been knitting. A lot. DH is very bored and missing *my* parents more than I am. Does anyone else think there is something wrong with that? Besides me.

So, in order to distract myself from the emptiness of the house after my parents left on Friday, I started a scarf for Mehul. And this morning, I put the last stitches (knits/purls?) into it. It's the best one yet. Wait till you see it :D Pictures coming soon. There might be a booty in there as well :D

I was watching a hindi movie (Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna) and started noticing the scarves the actors were wearing. Instantly, I opened photoshop and noted a lot of the ideas. And came up with a bunch of new ones. Now I'm definitely a knitter, right? Because I'm coming up with scarf ideas :) I have plans to make vertical striped scarf and a boxy scarf. And a black and white very stripy scarf. We'll see how far I get. I usually have grand ideas, not so grand execution.

What else is new? I got wallpaper for the Library. Yes, wallpaper! Sometime in near future, we'll be putting it up. Hubby refused to co-operate last night or we'd have a nicely done wall by now. The plan is to do only one wall first, see if we like it, then finish the remaining 2.5 walls. Wish us luck with this one! If this goes well, we plan on putting wallpaper in Mehul's room and possibly the dining room as well.

More Photography

Belated Happy Mothers Day, and here is what I received from Mehul. He brought this card and flower home from the daycare. The card had a really lovely message and his handprints inside!



DH took this one of the mini Taj Mahal.


I am in an ATC card exchange (well, I was until April). This is all the cards I've sent or received! Pretty pretty.



My first closeup with Manual Focus.


Now he knows to smile for the camera


We have prepped the Family room for painting so we'll be painting the first coat tonight. Here is the plan-

Wed: First Coat. 1st Fan to be assembled.
Thur: Second Coat. 2nd Fan to be assembled.
Fri: FR Fan to be hung, paintings/photos hung on the walls, etc.
Sat: Rods for sheers attached, sheers and curtains hung.

Dang, we were planning to go to the zoo this weekend. Doesn't seem likely. I want to practice my photography and Mehul wants to see the birds. I might have to move the Saturday work to next week.

Fans

I was going to respond in the comments, but then I remembered a little story so I decided to put it here. We have fan outlets, not just light ones, but fan ;) They were a touch costlier (remember, we got the house built so we got to chose what we wanted where). The house is central A/C ofcourse (I don't think there is any new construction in our area that isn't!) but sometimes, you just need the fan. Specially when I run, the AC or the little fan on the treadmill do nothing for me.

On to the story, friends of ours got their house built an year before us. They bought it right when the seller's Market was starting to come down and interest rates were going up. Their builder (different builder than ours) charged them extensively for every little thing they wanted. Their lot backs to 2 rows of trees and they were charged $50K for lot premium where as regular lots are more like $5-10K. It was extortion but they really wanted the privacy. Not much thereof because when we visited them for the first time in winter, the houses behind them were clearly visible. Anyhow, the fan outlets - they were a tad more ($275 for them, $175 for us) than regular light outlet ($225) but P was so frustrated by every little thing costing extra, he got the regular one to save where he could. We could just read the frustration on his face when he was telling us this. They ended up with the correct outlets regardless because when the house was being built, the contractor saw this and thought this was a mistake and put the correct ones. BTW, my knowledge of fan vs. electric outlets is very limited but as I understand it, they put a 2x4" rod in the fan outlet to hang the fan from. That's the only difference and since we're not handy, we just let them do it. Just goes to show how the builders extort money when the market is at its peek. Now the same builders are giving free upgrades and what not. So not fair.

Can I be any more absent minded?

I forgot to bring my work laptop with me. To work. This is right up there with the time when I showed up for work on a holiday.
DH went right back home and brought it for me (we were carpooling and he had the car) but this was pretty stupid. I generally don't take the laptop home with me so in order to not forget to bring it, I keep it with my purse near the kitchen desk or on the stairs where i sit to put my shoes on. Yesterday, we were getting ready to paint the Family room so I removed everything from there and all the Family room stuff is *everywhere*. But it is no excuse.

Anyhow, we bought 2 fans yesterday as well as the paint for Family Room. Name of the shade of paint is 'Ornate gold' or something like that. It's a really pretty shade of mustardy gold. We got these fans - for family room and Master BR.
Hunter 52" Yorkshire at Lowes. The center part has English Bronze finish and the blades are Dark Walnut.

Hunter 52" Georgetown at Lowes. This has one Umber finish with fontanta accents (no idea what that is) and the blades are reversible, Antique Cherry/Bretton Forest. I love this one more.

I know they're very similar in color and style. I can't decide which one goes where. Probably doesn't matter that much. Decisions Decisions.

We have never installed a ceiling fan before, it ought to be an interesting job. I'll post pictures when it's all done and the room is ready.

The MBR Project

Before we moved our furniture in the room (September). I forgot to take a photo with the furniture! This is the Bedroom view from the Sitting Room.


Sitting Room Before


BR and Sitting Room After


With Flash


This one's Without Flash


Nightstand. You can't see the phone clearly, but it's really pretty. I got it last year when I did the Library in the other house. But, it goes with this furniture more so it'll stay here.


The Bedding


I still need some things, like, curtains (on my next trip to India), The Perfect Paintings (as I find them), a Full Length Mirror (already selected it at Bed Bath and Beyond, just have to get it). Also, my Angel of Love will go in this room. So, majority of work in this room is done. I will keep decorating it little by little :) Oh, almost forgot! I will replace that ugly chair (or, DH's favorite rocker) in the Sitting room with a beautiful Chaise once I find it. No need to hurry, though :)

And now, to think of the next project. It will be a smaller room (i.e. not Family Room or Living or Dining). Hmmm.

Birthday Scrapbook

Some of you might know that we celebrated Mehul's First Birthday back in India. It was done in a semi-big way. That's the way 1st birthdays are done there, generally. All cousins, etc. were invited, and there was a DJ (Dance Jockey) with a dance floor. It was fun! We also had a photographer and videographer to tape the function. It's much cheaper than here, so most people are able to do this. Plus, we generally do a get-together to meet everyone anyway, because we go back every 2 years.

I kept looking at the photos and thinking of cool ways to scrap them. Hadn't come up with a plan.

Until Monday night. I started with one photo of my sister and BIL with Mehul. Her Sari color inspired me to look in my Ztampf folder. Lots of common colors there, and the rich papers are going to be perfect for this scrapbook. I've done 5(!) Layouts since then. Unfortunately, I don't have them with me rightnow.

Last night, we went to Kohl's to pick up a train set for Mehul. And came back with that, new comforter set for our MBR, decorative pillows, yummy embroidered sheets, some pants for Mehul, and 2 hand towels for the Powder room. LOL! Don't ask!

Paint, paint, paint...

Paint: Check
Tape: Check
Rollers: Check
Tarp: Nope

As you can probably tell, we are getting ready for painting. First paint job in this house. Wish us luck. The first time we painted at the other house, we managed to spill some paint on the carpet. We have this huge canvas that we use to cover the carpet while painting, but some paint has always managed to get through. We have to get a plastic tarp to put underneath it.

We have a Tray ceiling in the room, that's turning out to be a challenge. If you're not familiar with what this is, it looks like an inverted tray. The center part is recessed and there is crown molding on the edges. There are 4 recessed lights in that portion too. We want to do some decorative treatment in the center portion. That's still not final, so we'll start with painting the walls.

The nightstands have been ordered (1 for MBR, another for Guest BR). I also got some table lamps and other things. Can't wait to get started!

Some of our friends think it's weird that we paint the house ourselves. LOL! They'd rather live with white walls than paint themselves. We're the opposite as we can't stand white walls. It helps that DH is completely onboard with me on this. Even though I have painted rooms by myself before, but it's more fun when he's right there with me, painting. Mehul will most definitely pick up the rollers too, but we'll make sure he doesn't come near paint!

I just can't think beyond this rightnow. But, I do want to mention that I managed to sneak out of office early yesterday and taped Mehul's practice session. They all look *so* cute. The show is tomorrow at 3:00 and I've already asked the boss for leaving early.

Weekend Plans

Tomorrow morning some friends are dropping by to look at the available plots in our community. They can't get over the fact that how big the house is, specially the kitchen/Family Room area. They have only been looking for 1 month and after seeing our house, they are practically ready to move in. LOL!

We are going to get some furniture this weekend. We bought most of our furniture when we moved to our first house. Everything is still pretty new, and we got nice things that would last a while. We have to get some barstools and a nightstand.

This is our Master Bedroom collection. The photo is from the store's website, not our room. It shows all the things we got - Queen Bed, NightStand, Dresser & Mirror, TV Armoire.



However, we only got 1 nightstand because that's all that would fit in the MBR at the time. Now, we have a bigger MBR and a sitting room attached to it. We've moved the Armoire into the sitting room. So, we're getting the other nightstand. Now, the problem is what to do to Mehul's crib? He sleeps in the crib by my side and hops over early morning for snuggles. I don't want that to stop! I think we'll get the nightstand and assemble and put it someplace else. I am afraid of waiting too long and then not having it available anymore.

BTW, the paint color I've chosen for the MBR is pretty similar to this one. Maybe a touch darker. I didn't realize it, but I was probably going by this picture I had seen more than 2 years ago when we first researched for the furniture! Ack! I really like the color, though. We had done it in the Library in the Townhouse. I do have pictures of the library somewhere. Let me see if I can find it. I had prepared a flyer (with many photos) for the ad for sale/renting of the townhouse. DH and I feel we got a great response for our townhouse, because the ad was really good LOL. People really want to look at photos before they go to see the house.

Yay. Found it. The paint is called Woven Mystery. Pretty sure it's American Tradition paint. Doesn't that Library look great? For the record, I painted the entire room with very little help from DH. I did it over the last winter when I was staying home. Little did I know we'd be leaving that place so soon. *sob*


The new house looks very bare, which is why I'm not sharing many photos. I have to personalize it. Paint, Decorate, and Accessorise. It will take time before this house feels like 'Home'. It took us about 1.5 years to decorate the other house. I really enjoy the process of planning and researching it. So, I'm not in any hurry :-)

Last night's Layout. I can't believe I hadn't scrapped this photo. I have many beautiful photos from this particular day. My most favorite one is this.

Gorgeous

All papers by Meredith Fenwick's Everyday Inspiration collection.
Frame by NRJ.
Stitching also by Meredith Fenwick.

Powder Room makeover...Take 2

The makeover is underway. The plumber installed the Toilet and the Sink last night. It's funny how we got the plumber so quickly. We had not even started looking!

Last week, we had gone to Lowe's to pick up our faucets and things, and we ran into P, who is actually a friend from my neighborhood in Delhi! Her parents house is on the same street as us. She moved to Virginia a year after I moved. We've been meeting since then.

They too have recently bought their Single Family House in VA, and moved a little farther away from us. Anyhow, they were there to look for some stuff for their Basement Bath remodel at their old place that they're renting. They said good things about their plumber. We hadn't even had the time to call anyone or look for a plumber. So, we went that night and met him as he was doing work at their place. Luckily he was available this week. Plus, he's cheap. I like it when things work this way :D

So, he has finished his part, now G will replace the Paper Holder, Vanity Light, Towel Ring, etc. We haven't picked a mirror yet! Also, we don't have the Tank Lever. Lowe's doesn't carry the one from Delta. They have another one from Moen, which might work with this collection, but I want to check out Home Depot or even order online. We are holding off on painting the room rightnow. There is just no time for us to do that!

Powder Room Remodel..Take 1

The freshly minted house keys have not yet cooled down, we're ready to remodel. LOL. Yep. That's us. We are Self Professed Home Improvement Junkis. We had ordered some of the things from Lowe's when we ordered our Refrigerator and Washer/Dryer before we closed on the house. We did have the option of getting the same from the Builder but we did our research and found that we can get it for much cheaper (almost half) the price outside, and get it installed at a fair rate too. So, that's what we're doing. Our very first remodel.

Kohler Pedestal Sink - Portrait(Bisque)	Kohler Toilet - Portrait(Bisque)

We have selected the Faucets and accessories too, and will be picking them up this Sunday. (Psst..Lowe's is clearing out it's inventory of a lot of items, so many things will be 50% off this weekend. Check out your store.)

Ok, you want to see pictures of what we've picked, right?

Delta Victorian Lavatory Faucet	Delta 2-Light Victorian Vanity
Delta Victorian Toilet Paper	Delta Victorian Towel Ring
Delta Victorian Double Robe Hook	Delta Victorian Tank Lever

I *need* the Robe Hook in the Powder Room. Every room with a toilet should have a hook. I hate it when I need to put my purse, or coat away, I have to put it outside because there isn't a hook in the room. Hate it. It's my house, I can do what I want here, so there :p LOL