living room lights - check

So I was skeptical about this whole project. But its done!!!! No more stumbling around in the dark, no more awkwardly placed lamps, and no more construction dust in the living room. Lights are up, holes are patched (and much to my delight they are PERFECT!) We are DIYers that do electricity... or rather, Hubby is a DIYer that does electricity.

Pretty snazzy. Bringing our house into the 21st century one room at a time. And just a little reminder of what it looked like before (below)

Happy Birthday Hubby!!! It's Hubby's birthday today and he is hard at work patching the holes in the living room ceiling that we made while installing the recessed lighting. I will post more about that when we have a finished product. Hubby's family came in this weekend to help and we completed the drapes and they are up! We sewed on 30 yards of trim. And by we, I do mean myself as well. I sewed, and I have pictures to prove it.

I just couldn't help myself, my precious little nephew Wesley

The beginning... only 8 more panels to go...

The proof... I can sew

The dining room/sweatshop. It's wasn't so bad, there was wine. Thanks Hilary and Carolyn

Ta dah! French doors in the master bedroom and the new curtains.

Beautiful
Hubby's pride and joy, the tv niche we had put in when we expanded the closet.

I am loving how tall the curtains make our ceilings look. Please disregard our lack of bedding... we will have something by winter...

Here is the only "before" picture we have. You get the point - it wasn't pretty

Master Bath

It's kind of hard not to jump around with this whole blog. The reality of it is, that's how things go around our house... we have 10 projects going at one time. Next weekend we hope to hang our curtains in our master bedroom, so I thought it was finally time to reveal the master bathroom. Hubby gave me a new master bathroom for a wedding present before I moved into the house. I can't think of a more perfect gift!

Here is the before. Obviously previous owner's stuff. One tiny sink. No storage and maroon tile. And that little light you see, was the only lighting besides a dingy ceiling fixture.

Right outside the bathroom there were built in drawers. The old school kind without rollers... we tore them out and made this area part of the bathroom so we could have a double vanity.

Props to hubby who did ALL the demo. The tile was layed in this concrete backed by mesh. It was really impossible to tear it all out.

Here you can see the studs that divided the bathroom and the little area with the built ins.

I won't miss that wallpaper

Time to get to work! We had a contractor do the drywall, but we layed all the tile ourselves.

Hubby working on the tub surround

Getting there. Tiling those niches was a major pain... but so worth it now that its finished.

Since we tiled to the ceiling, we went ahead and put in an extra tall shower curtain. You can really see how tall our ceilings are. We also added crown molding and grey paint.

Recessed cans. Not so dark in the shower anymore : )

Beautiful shower

Double vanity I purchased at: http://www.directtoyoufurniture.com/product.aspx?ID=195237&CatID=1393&s_cid=nxt195237 ... It's a knockoff of Restoration Hardware... a little scary having something that big shipped in the mail but it was flawless and 1/3 of the price.

Mirrors I got a Lowes, Sconces are from Restoration Hardware, and faucets are Delta Victoria widespread in chrome finish.

Quite a transformation don't you think??? We are so pleased with the way it turned out.

I will apologize in advance for the lack of posts this week. I am away in Houston for work and I will not be back until the weekend! Until then...

There are 2 things that scare me about home renovations: plumbing and electrical work. I don't want to burn my house down because I crossed the wrong wire. I also don't want to find myself five inches deep in doo doo because we forgot to tighten a bolt on the toilet.

Although we feel confident in small projects like changing light fixtures, etc. we usually hire out the more sophisticated projects like recessed lighting or running new electric. That was until the bids started rolling in for the living room project...

So it became a DIY thing. When hubby told me he was going to tackle it with the help of his mom, I was not so supportive. In fact, I refused to participate... with the exception of making design decisions. So now here we are, and my hubby, lawyer and contractor extraordinaire is actually doing it! I am so impressed. Pictures may not look like much but soon there will be LIGHT. I am trying to remain calm about the holes in our ceiling.


"We are going to have to cut some small holes in the sheet rock"

Indeed. Small holes ... in large quantities.

Mess.

The most accurate stud finder ever.

NOT. Tee hee. I don't think you are going to fit a can up there!

That's for you hubby

The aliens are coming

The end. For now. Hopefully soon I can post the finished pics : )

Today Hubby's mom brought us the valance. Our powder room may be smaller than the average closet but it is beautiful! Hehe. We picked out the fabric and tassels the other weekend in Houston. Handcrafted with love.

We also tackled the master bedroom. Since we had the trim painted already we just had to paint the walls and ceilings. Half way there. Paint is Sherwin Williams City Loft, a soft grey.

Look at me, getting good at cutting in without blue tape.

The curtains are ready except for the trim and rods. My mother in law is going to help me sew on the trim... let's hope I don't sew it on backwards or upsidedown. Here is the trim I picked... I actually found it on fabric.com. I love me some internet shopping.

We are certainly laboring this Labor Day. Hope you enjoy your 3 day weekend!

My very Un-DIY Post

We have painted a lot of trim in our house. Painting a room is one thing, and having to paint the trim when you have french doors, built in shelves, crown molding... etc. is another. It takes SO long. Plus I hate hate hate hate oil-based paint. It gets on you and stays, forever. So we hired someone to paint the remaining trim in the house. We will paint the walls, but we are happy to fork over a little moola to have it done by the pros.

Hmm. Can you guess which is the new paint color?

Wallpaper is starting to look a little sorry. We will have to paper over it since its in our 2 story foyer. I don't particularly like wallpaper, but it is coming back in style so I will have to pick something fun... like grasscloth!

So happy its not me painting those spindles.

Living room.