Surprise!

We’ve hit a small {baby} bump on the road to renovation.

Handy Hubby and I are unexpectedly expecting baby #3!

I couldn’t put more emphasis on the ‘unexpected’ part of that news.  As in, we were actively trying not to get prego.  I guess we weren’t trying hard enough.

I think my father-in-law explained what happened best when he said, “Tell god your plans and watch him laugh.”

Obviously, there is a larger plan for us.  It includes a smaller house and a larger family.  And while we’re still warming up to the idea of another baby, we’re up for the challenge.  This baby is unexpected but not unwanted.

Things just got verrrrrry interesting over here, didn’t they?!  And because I know any baby news always comes with tons of questions, feel free to leave your curious inquiries in the comments section below and I’ll post a special Q & A write-up on Friday.

What a way to start the week, huh?

FYI – Contrary to popular belief, that is not a can of Copenhagen in my front pocket.  I gave that up when I found out I was prego ;)  It’s my camera lens cover.

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Since I’m on a flooring kick…

…here’s the tile I’ve chosen for the mudroom/dining room/laundry nook.  This is the space I’m talking about if you need your memory jogged…

How could you forget the green carpet remnant, window A/C unit, hideous ceiling fan and dryer that vented directly into the attic?  Ick.

As I’ve mentioned already, this room has direct access to the backyard {through the sliders seen above} and to the garage {through the man door seen above} and thus will see a lot of traffic from dirty, muddy, wet shoes.  Even though keeping flooring consistent throughout a small space is essential to achieving a cohesive look, I felt that a durable tile floor {versus engineered hardwood} would better suit our family and our daily activities in this area.

In essence, this space will serve as a mudroom, extra dining space, laundry room, storage room and craft room all in one.  Whew.

So back to that tile I chose…

It’s a natural stone.  Travertine to be exact.  Also called limestone sometimes.  When considering tile for the mudroom, I was immediately drawn to natural stone tile versus ceramic/porcelain tile.  The subtle pattern and color variation of the natural stone felt and looked organic and, well, natural. Unlike all the other flooring I’ve had to choose {bathroom tile, engineered hardwood}, it took me about 20 seconds to find this tile and name it ‘the one.’  Quick, easy, painless.  All I had to do was get Handy Hubby on board.

Guess what?  He LOVED the travertine!  Yippee.  One easy, agreeable Underdog decision under our belts!

Travertine comes in several different finishes:  tumbled {like what you may see as a kitchen backsplash with lots of grooves and pits}, chiseled & brushed {which has a natural but high end look}, and honed & filled {where the naturally occurring holes and pits are filled in and the tile is given a satin finish}.  The tile I chose is honed and filled.  Why?

Because it has more of a natural matte finish and looks a lot like concrete.  Here’s an image I snapped with my phone in-store at The Tile Shop that shows a better real life perspective…

I love how each tile has its own individual color variations and patterns running throughout.  Not one stone is the same as the next.  The gray, mocha and tan tones go along with the rich Texas Brown birch {seen at bottom right in the image above} I chose for most of the rest of the house.  Rocks, mud and dirt should hide on this tile nicely!  I also like the large size of the tile.

The non-polished, satin finish gives it a rustic look.  Much like concrete.  HH and I really like this effect as we plan on DIYing concrete countertops in most of the kitchen.  Having this concrete-esque finish in the adjoining mudroom will keep things flowing nicely and feeling cohesive even with the floor changing over to wood in the kitchen.  At least, that’s how we see it.

{kitchen of Jenna Lyons – complete with concrete countertops, black lower cabinets, light walls and hardwood floors – sound familiar?}

To warm things up in the mudroom/dining room {since tile alone can lend a sterile look}, I’d like to add a small area rug and a round/oval wood table.  {I’ve secretly been hunting for a table and just found one yesterday in a surprising place!  More on that next week…}  Yes, you heard me right, a wood table.  As in a wood tone table.  No painting it white.  I told you I was feeling a little more masculine this time around.

{sadly, that’s not the table I found but it’s great, isn’t it?!}

Although we’ll most likely eat regular family meals at the future island in the future kitchen, I’d like a small table in the mudroom to serve as a craft area, sewing table, family game night table, homework surface, laundry folding surface and extra dining space.  I think a round one {that possibly extends to an oval} would be perfect for the modest room.  It can’t be too big because we’ll need to fill one wall with tons of storage.  Because a dining room that doubles as a mudroom needs storage, right?

Anyhow, it feels great to have flooring decisions made.  As overwhelmed as I felt in the beginning, it was fun to consider all the options out there.  There are soooo many!!  Getting the floors nailed down {figuratively speaking} has helped me pin an aesthetic for the Underdog.  Floors can have such an impact on a home’s style.  Have you recently made a decision on new flooring?  Do you have a favorite floor in your house already?  Are you contemplating new floors?  What’s your dream floor?  Just keep talking floors since I’m already on the subject.

Happy weekend!

images:  1) The Tile Shop  2 & 3) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  4) The Tile Shop  5) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  6) Ken Levenson  7) Style Homes

I would have jumped at the chance to change any and all flooring in our previous house.  I always did detest the odd Y intersection of hardwood, vinyl and carpet in the great room.  So weird.  So builder.

But we didn’t have the funds to replace 2,700 sq ft of carpet and vinyl.  Plus, even though it wasn’t aesthetically appealing, there wasn’t anything wrong with it and we couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars to replace brand new flooring.

We’re basically starting from scratch in the Underdog and we get to choose all new flooring.  The original matted 1950′s carpet just wasn’t cutting it.  Initially, I was super, SUPER excited about getting to pick out new flooring.  {Handy Hubby is leaving most design options up to me.  I come to him with an edited list and he says ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ then we choose together from there.} But after considering all the different options – concrete, wood, laminate, tile, cork, bamboo, etc. – I started to feel a tad overwhelmed.  How in the world was I going to choose?!

I decided to take it one step at a time, rationally.  First, I was limited in my options because the Underdog has no subfloor just a concrete slab.  Solid hardwood was crossed off the list from the get-go due to problems that arise when solid hardwood is laid over moisture-retaining concrete.  I was kind of bummed.  I’d always liked the look of hardwood floors and they popped up frequently in my inspirational images.

I moved on.  The obvious solution was to polish and maybe even stain the already existing concrete slab.  But after talking with HH about this option, he mentioned that the slab had a few substantial cracks in it and would have to be totally re-leveled if we were to use it as our main flooring.  He also said that after spending a lot of time at the Underdog working, he could feel how day-to-day walking on the concrete was impacting his body.  His legs and back were sore…although I’m not sure this was entirely due to the floor.  I mean, he was demo’ing and renovating after all.  Still, I didn’t want pretty polished floors at the expense of painful bodies all the time.  Not to mention the fact that concrete isn’t very forgiving to two kids who tend to run, jump and fall on a regular basis.  I was a little concerned about the noise and echos with concrete as well.  And once I started looking at prices {since the slab would need some repairing and leveling}, it didn’t seem like refinishing the concrete was going to save us any more money than having to install new flooring.

That left me with laminate/vinyl, tile, cork, bamboo or various engineered hardwoods.  HH completely ruled out laminate and vinyl.  He said to him they seemed like placeholder flooring and that he didn’t want to spend money on something we didn’t really like to begin with and then want to replace it a few years down the road.

Tile was a viable option.  It’s pretty much a given in bathrooms and I thought it would be great for the mudroom/dining room/laundry nook area since the space gets direct traffic from the garage and backyard.  But I definitely didn’t want tile throughout the entire house due to many of the reasons we decided against the concrete.  Using it in hardworking areas {i.e. mudroom/dining room/laundry nook and bathrooms} seemed like the way to go and HH totally agreed.  {More on tile options later…today is about the majority of the house.}

I knew I wanted all the other spaces {kitchen, family room, hall and bedrooms} to have the same flooring to keep things flowing nicely and feeling cohesive.  With cork, bamboo and engineered hardwood left on the list, I kept hunting.  Right away, I scratched the bamboo idea.  I didn’t hate it but it just wasn’t the look I was going for.  Too much striation.  That left cork and engineered hardwood.  To be honest, I didn’t like most of the cork I came across.  It was a little too swirly and busy for our small house.  I did find one cork option in planks at Home Depot and thought it would be doable.

It wasn’t as busy or as orange-y as some of the other cork I had seen elsewhere.  HH liked it too. But that was our problem.  We just liked it.  We weren’t in love.  And it was ~$4/sq.ft.  We left it on the ‘maybe list.’

Then I started looking at engineered hardwood.  Unlike solid hardwood, engineered hardwood can be installed on top of a concrete slab {along with a vapor barrier} so it’s great for basements or, in our case, homes with no subfloor.  After doing some window shopping, I was shocked to discover that the engineered wood cost just as much {or even more!} than solid hardwood.  I had been wrong to think that it would be a cheaper alternative to hardwood.  Until…a reader turned me on to BuildDirect, suggesting them as an affordable vendor for engineered wood flooring.  {Thanks, Ginger!!!}

{customer submitted image from Build Direct}

Immediately I fell in love with a handscraped hickory engineered wood.  I thought the lighter color would be great for our small space but I was worried that it might contrast too much with our lower black kitchen cabinetry.  And at almost $4/sq.ft. it would have cost us over $4,500…and that wasn’t even including any underlayment or shipping.  I was determined to find another cheaper alternative to show HH along with the hickory option.

{customer submitted image from Build Direct}

That’s when I found a rich Texas Brown birch.  It was a lot different from the hickory I had originally fallen in love with but much cheaper as well.  Nearly $2/sq.ft.!!  It would save us well over $1,500.  I ordered a FREE sample of each engineered hardwood and showed them to HH.  He liked them both.  But when I told him the price difference, he was sold on the birch.

We know that birch is a softer wood but many of the reviews we’ve read say that has more to do with dings and dents than scratches.  I’m fine with dings and dents.  Heck, if I wasn’t then I wouldn’t even consider any wood surface in our home with two rowdy boys in tow! We’re pretty adamant about not wearing shoes indoors so that should help to keep the birch looking as good as possible.  And we have no pets which means no claws or paws to damage the floor.  Plus, since the birch is already handscraped and has a ‘bumpy’ texture to it to begin with, I think some dings will probably blend right in and the ones that don’t will just show signs of life.

I also know that some people don’t like darker floors because they show dirt and dust more easily. With a ‘no shoes on inside’ rule at our house and weekly cleanings {I’m sorry, I like to clean}, I think I’ll be able to keep them looking pretty good.  I heard the same thing about keeping white kitchen cabinets clean, but it didn’t stop us from painting our builder cabinets white in our previous home and they ended up looking great and were no harder to keep clean than before.  Sometimes you just have to go with what you like.

To keep things feeling light and airy, I plan to add lots of area rugs.  They’ll also help define seating areas in the open great room and cozy up the bedrooms.

The darker wood goes along with the more masculine aesthetic I’m liking nowadays too.  Many of my inspirational images include dark floors with lighter wall colors.  I think that’s where we’re headed.

So I did it.  I bit the bullet and placed an order for our Texas Brown birch.  It’s costing us less than $3,500 for flooring and underlayment {which includes a vapor barrier} for the kitchen, family room, hall and all three bedrooms.  That price includes shipping.

With a few finishes chosen {bathroom tile, main flooring, etc.}, I’m starting to get a good feel for the overall look of our future Underdog.  Are you?

images:  1 & 2) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  3) Amy Butler via Apartment Therapy  4) Art & Decoration  5) Amy Butler’s entryway via Apartment Therapy  6) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  7 & 8 ) Build Direct  9 & 10) Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

I’ve been unplugged for a few days.  I surprised our kiddos with a trip to DC to visit my sister this past weekend.  I purposefully didn’t pack my laptop.  I really needed some one-on-one time with my boys and we had a great time!  Handy Hubby stayed behind to work…at work and on the Underdog.  Upon our return home, Everett came down with an awful stomach bug. {Probably from the germ-infested Metro!} So, not only have I been thinking nonstop about bathrooms…I’ve been spending a lot of time in them with Everett as well.  I’m about bathroom-ed out!  But not enough to keep me from coming up with a quick preliminary plan for our future master bath.

Take a look…

1 – To keep things cohesive, I’d like to use the same galvanized sconce that I mentioned in the kid/guest bathroom mood board {seen here if you missed it or forget}.  Plus, I just can’t get enough of the industrial feel it provides.

2 – In searching for tile options for the shower surround, I came across this uniquely textured ceramic wall tile.  The shiny textured surface reflects light like glitter.  With natural light pouring in from the window right inside our shower, this wall tile would really keep the small room light and airy while providing a little glitz too.  It’s light reflecting power is difficult to see from the online image, so I made sure to snap a picture of it in our local store.

Isn’t it purty?  I think I’d install it horizontally in a brick pattern.  At 10″ x 19.75″, this tile is large so there wouldn’t be a ton of grout lines.

3 – For the floor, HH and I both fell for these moss penny round tiles.  I like smaller tiles for the floor in petite bathrooms. They add texture and pattern not to mention an anti-slip safety feature.  Again, the online image isn’t exactly true to reality. Here’s my phone pic for better reference…

The round tiles have a subtle gray-blue-green color going on and I love it.  Notice how the dark brown edges provide definition and contrast.  Oh, and that wood floor sample next to the tile sample is what we think will be going in as flooring for most of the rest of the house…if that makes any sense.  {More on that later!} I brought the floor sample along with me to The Tile Shop to make sure whatever tile I chose would look okay alongside the wood floor since they’ll meet at the entrance to the master bathroom.

4 – Even though HH and I love the idea of a large walk-in shower with dual shower heads, we decided against it.  Subtracting a tub from the bathroom would technically make it a ¾ bathroom instead of a full bathroom.  While we intend to stay in the house for 10+ years, we’d really hate to lose the freedom to market our house as ’2 full baths’ whenever/if ever we decide to sell.  Plus, HH wasn’t keen on a lower shower threshold thinking it might splatter water everywhere outside the shower. {I told him NO to glass shower doors.  I’m the one that would clean them and I detest cleaning glass shower doors.  So, our walk-in shower would have simply had a shower curtain.}

We’ve actually already purchased this Kohler bathtub.  We liked the simple lines, it had good reviews, it would fit in our teeny bathroom, the price wasn’t awful {$440} and it was in stock at our local Home Depot.  It’s joined the chaos of other ‘waiting to be installed’ stuff in the Underdog’s garage.

5 – I really like white textured shower curtains.  What else can I say?

6 – To tone down all the straight lines that are inevitable in a small rectangular bathroom, I’d love to incorporate a round mirror above the sink.  The bathroom sink/vanity will be visible from the master bedroom, so using a mirror that doesn’t scream ‘bathroom!’ would be nice.  The antique zebrano finish on this one makes it feel less utilitarian.

7 – If it can be done, I want {Handy Hubby} to DIY a chunky floating wood vanity/shelf to house this simple IKEA sink.  Of course, the wood would need to be sealed to avoid moisture penetration. Don’t worry!  We don’t plan on using plywood/OSB as a finishing material in the bathroom or anywhere else in the house.  The vanity I shared last week was simply an inspiration to me.  Before I decide on a major design element, I gather a bunch of inspiration images and then think about how I can tweak them to fit my style and aesthetic.  I do think that DIY OSB vanity was clever and could look great in the right setting. But it’s not going in our home.

8 – Since under sink storage {open or closed} will be minimal due to the floating vanity, we’ll need other storage options in the bathroom.  I found this stainless steel medicine cabinet just today and think 2 or 3 of them would work and look great. Must show to HH tonight!

9 – West Elm has the best hand towels.  This honeycomb one in slate is my pick for the master bath.

10 – If I can squeeze it in somewhere {under the sink?  next to the shower?}, this woven ottoman {or a cheaper, similar alternative} would provide a landing spot for {taking off or putting on} clothes, a book or magazine, or maybe even a glass of water or wine.  I like to add at least one natural, woven element to each room – even bathrooms.

So, there it is.  What may be our future master bathroom.  Do you like?  Not like?  By far, my favorite element is that glittery white shower wall tile.  I couldn’t stop running my hand across the sample at the store.  Thankfully, HH liked it too.  I can’t wait to see what it looks like installed.

Now, it’s back to the ugly apartment bathroom with Everett.  Poor guy.  I hope he feels better soon.

images:  1) Polyvore collage by Dana Miller linked within  2 & 3) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

In an effort to come up with finishes and an overall aesthetic for our master bathroom, I’ve been pouring over bathroom images online for weeks.  Originally, I liked the idea of hunting for a petite antique table or dresser, adding a sink to the top and converting it into a bathroom vanity.

Unfortunately, my antiquing and secondhand shopping haven’t turned up a suitable option.  The dressers I find are too large…too deep and too wide.  The tables that look like they’ll work are too ornate for our simple style.  Boo.

It just wasn’t working.  I wasn’t getting anywhere and I finally came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn’t supposed to work.  So, I dropped the salvaged dresser/table idea and moved on.  I still like the idea of incorporating antique furniture into our home, but I don’t think our small bathroom is going to be the place to do it.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that a floating vanity might work well in our small master bathroom.

They take up less space visually and physically.  They’re simple, usually with clean lines.

The options are endless, too.  An open wooden rectangular box with open storage in plain sight, two chunky concrete shelves hung parallel with textured baskets for hidden storage, or even a sink with a closed floating cabinet just beneath it are all variations of the floating vanity that could work.

Even a floating chunky wood countertop with a simple sink installed on top would provide space underneath for open or closed storage in the form of baskets or ottomans.  When I mentioned the floating vanity idea to Handy Hubby we was all ears.  He says it would be relatively easy to DIY. Plus, it would cost a whole heck of a lot less than the $400 sink/vanity combos I’ve seen at the home improvement stores.  And if we DIY a floating vanity, we have the freedom to customize it to our bathroom and its dimensions.  Just check out this DIY’d plywood floating vanity I came across and nearly fainted over…

Seriously?!  Isn’t that amazing?

The contrast of the sleek metal sink bowls against the warm plywood is spot on.  And by DIYing the project themselves, these homeowners created a totally custom piece that fits their bathroom and aesthetic to a T.

I like it.  I think we should do it.  Now, I just have to come up with a design.  I plan on adding hidden and concealed storage elsewhere in the bathroom to house toiletries.  It will also give us a good excuse to edit our already small arsenal of bathroom things.  But I think we can make it work.

What do you think?  Do you like the idea of a floating vanity in a small bathroom?  Maybe you have one yourself.  Or possibly you think it’s a horrible idea and I should ditch it right away.  I’d love to hear what you think.

images:  1) Rate My Space  2) Mirrors Mirrorsss  3) Bohemian Stoneworks  4) Rate My Space  5 & 6) Dwelement

“…reindeer pause…out jumps good ol’ Santa Claus…”

There are only 87 days until Christmas.  This makes me a little nauseous.  But that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about the Underdog’s roof.  Prepare to learn more than you ever wanted to know about it.

The backside of the Underdog is riddled with all kinds of venting paraphernalia on the roof. {Disregard the horrid landscaping and dirty brick.  We’ll get to those…someday.}  Several features were present when we bought the house but others have been added to meet code requirements and to make the house safer and healthier.

Three surface vents near the ridge of the roof came with the house.  Typically, they are thought to create adequate air flow beneath the roof so that condensation problems are avoided.  These vents will disappear with a new roof install and new foam insulation.

Along with the surface vents, there is a gas furnace vent and the chimney both of which are original to the house.  These will remain intact although the wood burning fireplace will be converted to gas.

Two plumbing vents {they look like small black pipes sticking up through the roof} were in place already and will remain as well.  The one on the left is for the bathrooms and the one on the right is above the laundry area.  Are you starting to get a feel for the house’s layout and {modest!} size just by knowing what’s what on the roof?  Kinda cool, right?

The old kitchen hood vent is located near the laundry area.  Previously, the stove was placed on the wall that separates the laundry closet from the kitchen.  We’re moving the range to the exterior wall of the kitchen at the back of the house.  It will be placed between the two kitchen windows to serve as a focal point and to make room for the refrigerator which was previously located along an interior wall that we knocked down.  Remember the wall between the living room and kitchen? Yep, that’s where the fridge used to be.  The new kitchen layout puts the fridge where the stove used to be.  Soooo…that old kitchen hood vent is going bye-bye.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, this bad boy is the new kitchen hood vent.  Handy Hubby installed it himself.

That’s the interior view.  Notice how the range and hood will be centered – albeit not perfectly due to space restrictions – between the two windows.  We also have plans to convert the window on the right side to french doors.  We like the idea of having direct access from the kitchen to a future backyard patio since we prefer to eat outside as much as possible.  But enough of that.  Back to the roof…

Also new to the roof is a vent for the radon mitigation system that we had installed.  {The house failed radon testing upon inspection.}  If you’ll remember, HH had the grand idea to locate it within the laundry nook’s walls to save precious space. The roof vent was part of the hired out install.

When we bought the Underdog, our inspector discovered that the dryer vented directly into the attic.  There was 50 years worth of lint in that attic!  Gross and not so great for preventing moisture in the attic.  HH installed a new dryer vent which vents to the outside through the roof now.  No more attic lint!

From the inside, you can see where the new dryer vent and radon mitigation system exit through the roof.

HH also installed fans for proper ventilation in each of the two bathrooms.  When we purchased the house, there were no bathroom fans.  Even before we uncovered a major mold and mildew problem in one the bathrooms, we were set on having proper bathroom ventilation.  I can barely stand to shower in a bathroom with no fan!  Like in hotels.  You know that can’t be good.  Nothing dries out.  Towels are still damp when you go to use them the next day.  Ew.  Me no likey.  So, two new bathroom fans it is.

This should also give you a better idea of the bathrooms’ size and location.  Even though we’re designating one as the ‘kid/guest bathroom’ and the other as the ‘master bathroom’, there’s really no difference between them.  They are mirror images of each other and exactly the same size. And there’s definitely nothing master-ish about the master bathroom – other than in being located off a bedroom.

In summary, several original roof vents are coming out and we’ve added a few new ones. Specifically, three surface vents and one old hood vent are no longer needed.  Instead, proper ventilation for the radon mitigation system, dryer, new kitchen hood and two bathroom fans has been added.

Why am I sharing all of this?  There’s a good reason.  If all goes as planned {which could likely NOT happen because we’re talking real life renovation here} the Underdog is getting a new roof this weekend.  All of that stuff I just bored you with beat to death had to be completed before the new roof could go on.  And since we were wanting to DIY most of those little projects {dryer vent, hood vent, bathroom vents} to save some money, it’s taken us a while to get around to it.  But they’re finished now and the roofing material has been ordered.  We’re just hoping we stay on the schedule for this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

In case you’re wondering, we did in fact decide to go with a metal roof which I mentioned a while back here.  It won’t be a standing seam style as seen here…

The quote on that style came back way over our budget.  Instead, it will be an Everlast charcoal gray roofing metal that contains more ribbing {i.e. humps}.  It’s not exactly what we would have chosen style wise if money wasn’t a concern BUT money is a concern.  The metal roof will look more like this…

Notice how there are large ribs every 9″ or so with lower rising ribs in between.  As far as color goes, we’ve pretty much been set on a dark gray or black since we began contemplating a metal roof.  We want something that looks great with the original brick color as is {i.e. the way it is right now} and that would look great with lime washed brick too since we’re thinking that may be in the Underdog’s future…far future…not anything we’d do right away.  We settled on a charcoal gray color just because we felt the black would too much contrast.  And you know I like gray!

Price wise, yes, a metal roof is more expensive than an asphalt roof.  But we really want something maintenance free that will last a long, long time and we’re trying to go as green as we can afford on some items whose aesthetic appeals to us.  We have money from an insurance claim that we filed back in June after a severe hail storm damaged the already weak and leaky roof.  The money the insurance company gave us was based on a new asphalt roof. After all is said in done, we’ll be paying $1,500 – $2,000 for a new metal roof.  This includes new gutters to accommodate the runoff from the metal roof and the installation of four skylights over the kitchen area which I briefly discussed here.

That’s the latest on progress at the Underdog.  Things have been sort of at a standstill for the last week or so.  For one, HH finally took a weekend off {the first I can remember in a long time!} to take Layne camping.  They had a blast.  Also, we’re awaiting the arrival of new doors and windows.  We were told they would be in this week but, lo and behold, now we’re being told it will be next week before they arrive.  HH has just about had it with contractors and their broken promises.  Luckily, nothing major has happened but HH is tired of getting the run around. Especially since he thinks he could do most everything himself if he had the time.  The new windows and doors arriving a week late pushes everything back…insulation, drywall, flooring, kitchen install, etc.

Oh well.  It’s nothing we didn’t expect or weren’t warned of when we initially told everyone our renovation plans.  We’re grateful that we have a roof over our heads and don’t have a pressing deadline.  Still, we’d like to get everything done and move in soon.  We try to remind ourselves daily that it’s all just stuff in the end and we’ll get there eventually.  Plus, we really do enjoy seeing our drab Underdog come to life – even if it is in gradual little spurts.

images:  1-12) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  13) LGC Roofing  14) North Carolina Metal Roofing

I mentioned wanting to add a few houseplants in our apartment to help get rid of the inevitable ‘apartment smell.’  I decided to go with a few snake plants since they’re one of the top 15 NASA recommended house plants for improving air quality.

I picked up 2 snake plants {one large one and one small one}, 2 bags of sheet moss and one bag of potting soil at Home Depot for about $40.  I already had two large planters on hand.

The white textured one is from HomeGoods.  I bought it over a year ago and planted a bamboo palm in it at our previous house but it didn’t fare so well.  {i.e. my black thumb killed it}  The smaller black and white floral motif planter was an estate sale purchase.  I paid less than $50 total for them both.

I filled each planter with potting soil then added a snake plant.  I really needed a tad more soil in the smaller pot but ran out and didn’t want to buy more so I made do with what I had.

I’m so glad I did this outside on the balcony of our apartment as I made quite the mess!  Dragging a small trowel and gardening gloves out of storage just seemed like too much of a hassle at the time. So, yeah, I did it all with my bare hands.

I cut and placed a layer of sheet moss on top of the soil.  I’d never used moss on top of soil in a planter before but I wanted to give it a try since it gives the planter a more organic feel and hides the dirt.  I ended up needing only one of the two bags of moss.  I even had a little leftover from the first bag after covering the soil in each planter.

I love the extra green and added texture of the moss.  Makes me want to zap myself with a shrinking laser and traipse through the pot à la Lord of the Rings style.

Luckily, Handy Hubby was around to carry the {heavy!} potted planters inside from the balcony.  I had him place the larger one in the living room next to the sofa.

Snake plants can survive with little light and in this position, the planter receives north light so I think it will do okay here.  I just have to remember not to overwater it!  Snake plants can survive with little water, too.

I placed a cork circle beneath the planter to catch any run off and avoid carpet stains.  {The planter has a drain hole in the bottom.}

I placed the smaller snake plant on a wooden trunk in our bedroom beneath a north-facing window. Again, this one could use some more soil to bring the plant up a bit.  Maybe I’ll get around to that…

I love the oversized scale of it in the bedroom.  The patterned planter is one of my new favorite pieces.  So happy I broke down and bought it at an estate sale last spring.  {It belonged to the Underdog’s previous owner.}  I wasn’t sure what to do with it at the time but I think the clean lines of the snake plant are a great contrast to the swirly floral motif.  Plus, the upward reaching snake plant leaves give a clear view of the planter’s pattern.  I wouldn’t want to cover it up.

There’s even subtle pattern on the rim of the planter.  So charming.

With two snake plants in our houseplant mix, we now have 5 NASA recommended houseplants {along with a few succulents not on the NASA list} in the apartment.  While it’s a far cry from the 15 that NASA recommends {yikes!  That’s triple what we have!}, I still feel good about our plant arsenal. More than likely, I’ll continue to add to it when we move into the Underdog.  Plus, I don’t think HH would be too happy about carrying 15 large planters down the 3 flights of stairs that lead to our apartment when the time comes to move {which we’re thinking will be November} into the Underdog.

While I can’t say that the apartment smell no longer exists {I still get a whiff of stale air and old carpet every now and then}, the good news is that I spent less than $40 on this apartment project but it will completely carry over to the Underdog.  No money wasted!  The pop of living greenery really brings a fresh look to the apartment too.

What plants do you have in your houseplant arsenal?  Which is your favorite?  Are you closer to the NASA recommended #15 than me?

FYI – Snake plants are toxic even though they’ve been used in some herbal remedies.  Always use caution when handling them and use supervision when kids/pets are around!

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Sorry this is going up so late!  I worked second shift tonight and just got home.  My entire morning was spent running around packing bags and coolers for my lil’ and big guys’ weekend camping trip. So that means I have the entire apartment to myself for one night.  It’s eerily quiet!  I barely know what to do with myself.  This is a rare occasion for me.  I’m trying to enjoy it.  I think I may change into my comfy pajamas and read one of the design books I checked out from the library last week. {Our new library has a much better interior design selection than our previous library and I’m taking full advantage of it!}  It’s Darryl Carter’s The New Traditional, if you’re interested and I’m loving it.

But enough about me.  I enjoyed reading through this week’s giveaway comments and seeing what everyone had to say about their own handwriting.  Many of you lamented the sad fact that typing has cursed your handwriting skills.  I guess that’s why it’s never a bad idea to write out a card or letter {versus an email, tweet or text} every once in a while – just to keep our handwriting in check.

Lucky for Sharon {the one who commented that she hates her handwriting, only signs her name and uses a fine tip marker to print everything else} – she’ll get the chance to improve her writing skills with the help of some Jack & Ella stationery! Congrats, Sharon!

Happy, happy weekend to the rest of you!  And happy first day of my favorite season…fall!

images:  book cover image via Gordon Beall

If you’ll remember from our apartment tour, this is the kitchen…

Looks like an apartment kitchen, doesn’t it?  It’s teeny but fine for what we need right now – which is just somewhere to store and cook food while the Underdog undergoes some major surgery.

Right away {even before we moved into the apartment} I noticed something about the kitchen that caught my eye.  The countertops appear to have been painted.  Not by us.

That’s the breakfast bar countertop above.  {Yes, I ordered the new Design*Sponge at Home book last week.  No, I haven’t even cracked it yet.  It’s just been sitting on the bar ever since it arrived. I’m waiting for a rainy day…}

The main background color is creamy with flecks of tan and gray on top to give it a little more dimension.  For an apartment countertop, it’s not bad.  Not bad at all.  It’s light, clean, stain-free and wipes down easily.

On the other side of the breakfast bar is the sink with a little bit of counter space on either side of it. This is where I prepare meals/snacks and where dirty dishes sit before they’re washed.  {I’m hand washing everything because, ironically, the dishwasher does NOT wash dishes.  It just squirts some water around and makes a bunch of noise, leaving our plates and silverware looking like they did right after we finished eating with them.}

I’ll be honest.  I don’t necessarily try to be nice to the countertops.  Sometimes, I put hotter-than-recommended pots and pans on them, cut directly on them and clumsily drop pointy/heavy dishware on them.  But the counters have held up very well so far.  No dents, scratches, blemishes or anything.  Of course, I have no idea how long the countertops have been painted. We very well could be the first to use the painted surface.  Still, it seems quite durable.

Even the edges are holding up.  I told Handy Hubby that I thought the countertops had been painted and he didn’t agree at first.  But we got to looking around and there is telling evidence that they have been painted.  Some of the countertop paint is on top of the caulk around the 4″ backsplash against the wall.  There’s no other explanation for it.  Must have been due to a shoddy tape job.  HH believes me now.

The surface is what I would call a satin finish.  It has some shine to it but it’s definitely not glossy. It’s textured too.  I’ve tried my darndest to figure out what the original countertop may have looked like because I’m weird/curious like that.  But the original surface is covered really well and I can’t find a single painting ‘miss’ that would give me a clue as to what it was. Because it’s an apartment, I’m guessing faux butcher block.  Oh, how happy I am it’s painted if that really was the original look.

I must say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the durability and appearance of our painted countertops.  Although it’s not something I would ever want permanently, I think it’d be a great temporary holdover project for someone saving money for natural stone {or the like} who can’t bear to live with, say, faux butcher block anymore.  Needless to say, it’d be a DIY project for a rental too {as long as the landlord gives you the go ahead}.  And maybe even a good investment for someone trying to sell a home that has cringe-worthy, dark, hunter green countertops.  Taking a peek at some prices, it looks like you could achieve a transformation like this for less than $300 with one of the countertop transformation kits available at home improvement stores.

Have you seen painted countertops before?  Ever tried ‘em yourself?

images: all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

We’re not ready to paint the Underdog yet.  In fact, we don’t even have drywall up!  But that’s not stopping me from gathering a bunch of paint samples to get a color scheme going.  Handy Hubby is 100% on board the figure-out-the-paint-colors-now train. And he’s leaving it up to me.  He says he trusts my eye.  We’ll see if he really means it when the paint goes up.

In the past, I’ve mostly used Valspar {Lowe’s} and Sherwin-Williams paint colors and paints.  No particular reason.  Those were just the nearest stores to our previous home.  Things might be a little different this time around.  We live in a new city that has a Benjamin Moore paint store located just minutes from the Underdog.  Seeing as how many of the paint colors I find inspiring online hail from BM, I decided to hit ‘em up for some paint swatches.

That first image is a pic of some of the BM colors {Coastal Fog, Stone Hearth, Stingray, Mount Saint Anne, Old Navy, Gravel Gray, etc} I’ve been adoring from afar, online, in various settings.  I decided to grab them up for reference in case I ever want them but they aren’t available anymore. Yes, I have an ongoing list of paint colors I like on my iPhone…categorized by brand.  It makes things a lot easier when I’m actually in the store.  I just look at my phone instead of standing there blankly pondering “Now what was that color I saw online that I wanted to check out?”

This week I stopped by our new {to me} BM paint supplier store and browsed through all the swatches.  Let me tell you that paint swatches are to me what free crack samples {do they even do that?!} must be to a crack head.  No offense to the crack heads out there.  When I get back in my car with a stack of free paint samples, I’m on a high.  That’s healthy, right? Healthier than crack at least.  And completely legal.

I left with this assortment of swatches.  I didn’t really have a deliberate scheme in mind – just started pulling swatches that spoke to me or that I thought would work well in the Underdog and work well together.  So far, the only sure thing at the house is the kitchen cabinetry which we purchased over the summer during an IKEA kitchen sale.  The lower cabinets are black and the few uppers are white.  Pretty much everything goes with either of those neutrals, so, like I said, I was just feeling the moment and grabbing what tickled my fancy.

In the mix, I ended up with a few light gray-ish, tan-ish, taupe-ish neutrals that I could see working well in the main great room.  I have every intention of keeping that space light and airy since we’re working so hard to make it that way {removing walls, vaulting the ceiling, adding skylights}. Painting it out in a dark taupe or gray would totally defeat the purpose…even though there are some great darker colors out there that I do love.

I also chose a few whites {man, there are sooo many white choices!} as possible trim paint options.  Then there are those pops of contrast and color in the more saturated teal, gray and olive swatches.  Not sure that any of those will actually make it onto walls in our house, but I like the overall scheme.  Bringing those colors into rooms either as painted pieces of furniture, throw pillows, patterned curtains or artwork would be a more subtle way to incorporate them.  I’m already picturing one of the dark teals on the front door in a nice, glossy finish.

What’s more…when I got home from the paint store and started looking more closely at the swatches, I made a fun discovery.

My on-a-whim color scheme loosely mimics the original art that I purchased at the Underdog’s estate sale back in late spring.  {Yes, I finally hung some stuff in our apartment!}

Can you see the light grays, tans and taupes?  The whites?  The contrasting jades, teals and charcoals?  The dark olive is in there too.

We have big plans for this large piece of art.  Without giving too much away, we’d like to use it as a ‘unique’ focal point in the living room area.  So pulling color inspiration from it – albeit subconsciously – seems like a reasonable idea.  Who knows? Maybe this original artwork {painted by the Underdog’s previous owner} will become the color inspiration for the entire house.  I think it’d be a great way to pay homage to the house’s previous owner. While the house may be unrecognizable by the time we’re done with it, I like the idea of letting this artwork take center stage and pulling subtle color inspiration from it. I’m being nothing but sentimental when I think of honoring it in such a way.  But it feels good.  It feels right. Plus, I like the colors.  Guess that’s why I bought it in first place.

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking