Happy Friday! I hope your day has been less eventful than mine. Last night after the kids were tucked in bed, I was enjoying a hot shower for the first time in I’m-too-embarrassed-to-tell-you-how-many days when the shower decided to stop draining. I hollered {that’s what we say back where I come from} for HH to bring me the plunger then proceeded to plunge the heck out of the drain. To no avail. My long awaited shower was ruined.

After further investigation, we discovered that the toilet, too, wasn’t draining properly and water was coming up around the base of the toilet and through the toilet drain in the unfinished kid/guest bathroom.

Did I mention it was 11:30 p.m. and we were under a winter weather advisory due to an ice storm? HH texted our plumber and he called us back this morning. {Only after a fretful night of sleep on my part. I’ve mentioned this before: my #1 house-related fear is anything involving water leaking, dripping, trickling, seeping, rushing, pouring, flooding into our house.} Plumbing isn’t our thing so we’re happy to have found a reliable plumber to handle all our plumbing needs. Eek. That doesn’t sound quite right now that I’m reading back.

Turns out there was a blockage in between the two bathrooms which was remedied this afternoon. How does a family of five go to the bathroom with no toilet for 12 hours, you ask? One word: bucket. And we were home all together due to the weather. Good times.

We’re not sure what the exact cause was. Old pipes? Possibly. The new cushy toilet paper I bought last week due to HH’s incessant whining about the cheap stuff I usually buy? Maybe. Either way, we’ve decided to have the pipes inspected via camera BEFORE we finish the kid/guest bathroom. That way, if there is a problem with the pipes then our plumber can fix it without busting up a bunch of tile. If there’s no problem, then it’s worth the peace of mind and I’ll rest easy. And I’ll be sticking with the dollar store toilet paper from here on out. So goes living in an older home.

Not only did I feel like jumping ship in regards to our temporary bathroom-less situation, I’m also blog-hopping today. Click on over to Pepper Design Blog to check out my interview with Morgan.

Thanks Morgan!

Congrats to Jenn who was a fan of the TV show Cheers {one of my dad’s personal favorites} back in the ’80′s. Jenn is this week’s winner of the EcoColor giveaway! And to those of you who were only babies/eggs in your mama’s uterus in the ’80′s…you make me feel verrrrrrrrry old.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Remember the photo shoot? Well, today I finally get to share the fruits of our labor with you.

HH and I partnered with The Tile Shop over a year and a half ago during the renovation of our Underdog. After many, many, MANY months of hard work {and very little sleep}, we are so excited to be a part of The Tile Shop’s blogger spotlight and ad campaign. As of today, you can read about the details of our tiling adventures over on The Tile Shop’s site here. The online spotlight includes many never-seen-before photos of our kitchen, mudroom/laundry nook/dining room and bathroom as well as commentary and DIY tips contributed by moi.

If you happen to live in one of The Tile Shop’s major markets you may just find full page ads featuring our house popping up in your local glossies. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! As far as I know, the ads should run in the following prints over the next few months: Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, Chicago Magazine & Chicago Home and Garden, Kansas City Home and Gardens, Charlotte Home & Garden, Cincinnati Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Madison Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, Nashville Lifestyles, Philadelphia Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine, Long Island Pulse, St. Louis Magazine, Buffalo Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine and Atlanta Magazine.

Fun fact: The Tile Shop will be featuring several other bloggers via their blogger spotlight and ad campaign so keep your eyes peeled. I am the guinea pig!

Can we talk for a brief minute about companies recognizing the voice and importance of bloggers? And I’m not talking about my voice. So many wonderful, deserving bloggers out there are collaborating with amazing companies and brands in  win-win partnerships. A few of my favorites: Holly Becker of decor8 + West Elm. Trina McNeilly of Lalalovely + Land of Nod. John & Sherry Petersik of Young House Love + Shades of Light. And don’t even get me started on the things that Joss & Main and One Kings Lane are doing. Fabulousness all over the internet. Fabulous. Ness. It’s a very exciting time to be a blogger.

From a consumer standpoint, I find these partnerships inspiring as well. I prefer seeing real homes - as opposed to lifeless sets or over-the-top mansions - in advertisements and catalogs. I think it shows how brands and products can be implemented realistically and effectively. More companies should take notice of this latest trend in marketing!

And just so you know, it wasn’t easy capturing a decent shot of my family in our kitchen. I find it mind-boggling that we got one pic in which everyone is looking at the camera with their eyes open, hands down and tongues in their mouths.

Um, Everett can be a bit of a ham in front of the camera.

images: Megan Hoy for The Tile Shop

I posted this image of HH on instagram a few days ago with the caption “scratching an itch.” The image and caption caused some confusion/hilarious comments. HH is not literally scratching an itch. The gutted kid/guest bathroom is giving us quite the tick though. And we’re ready to do something about it.

Last week we took the first steps towards making this space a functional bathroom.

HH poured concrete to fill in around the future tub’s plumbing which we had a professional plumber update back when we were in the midst of a full-on reno.

HH also removed and rehung the backerboard under the window because the drywallers did a shoddy job.

Once that was all finished and the new concrete around the plumbing had cured, HH prepped the floor for leveler primer + self-leveling underlayment. We used Henry’s brand from Home Depot. The underlayment is cement-based and helps to smooth and flatten surfaces before flooring installation. In our case, we’ll be laying a tile floor in the bathroom and the job is 200% easier when the floor is nice and level.

To prep, HH cleaned the floor of all debris then fashioned cardboard “dams” around the toilet drain and floor vent. He caulked around the toilet dam and secured the floor vent dam with masking tape along the inside.

He built another dam at the bathroom’s doorway. Hint: If you’re going to be using self-leveling underlayment, it’s important to block off any parts of the room that you don’t want to be affected by the concrete. Then the primer went on. {Sorry, no pictures of this step. It’s likely that I was tending to a blown out diaper.} The primer improves the underlayment’s bond and prevents pinholes/air bubbles in the finished surface.

With the primer dry, we tag teamed the  mixing of the underlayment. Hint: the dry powder is fine so wear a mask to prevent inhalation. It’s not difficult – you just add water and mix with a drill gadget – but the leveler sets up very quickly. You only have 10 minutes after mixing to pour and work with the leveler. We guessed we would need 2 bags of underlayment. So HH mixed one bag in the garage and took it inside to pour while I began mixing the second batch. Then I brought my bucket of mixed underlayment in {muscles!} just as HH was finishing up with the first bag.

Here’s the first batch going in. HH poured the mixture in small sections and used a hand trowel to gently move the leveler into tight spaces.

He also used a section of 2″x4″ to work the larger areas.

We set a timer for 10 minutes to keep track of how much time we had left before the cement started to set.

With ~four and a half minutes left, we poured the second bucket. At this point, HH was working from the hallway.

After 10 minutes and 2 batches of underlayment, we had a floor covered in wet cement. A few hours later, the floor looked like this…

It’s only cement but it already looks 10x’s better. Seriously. I sat in the hallway watching it dry and dreamt of a finished bathroom. It’s going to be great! I just know it. {See my plans for the bathroom here.}

But we’re not completely ready for tile just yet. The area around the tub plumbing didn’t level up the way we had predicted. Turns out self-leveling underlayment is great for smoothing out minor discrepancies but not major ones. Looks like mixing and pouring more concrete is in our future to get that corner as level as possible.

When do we expect the bathroom to be finished? I dunno. 2014? Hehe. I laugh but it’s totally feasible. We’re just working on it whenever we have a chunk of time to devote to one step of the bigger project. HH has a lot of traveling to do for work over the next three months. We only have a few free weekends coming up but every little project we tackle gets us that much closer to not sharing a bathroom with the little people in our house. I’m stoked.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Q – Hi Dana,

I first want to say how much I love your blog. It’s one of the few I read regularly. I’ve been a loyal reader for several years watching you decorate and your transitions in life. I must say – I was really keeping my fingers crossed for that girl ;) We have two boys, ages 9 & 7, and the third is a girl. At age four now, she can draw a dragon and wield a light saber like it’s nobody’s business. In a tutu, of course! 

I digress. My question to you is do you ever have regrets or doubts about downsizing? If not the whole process, are there things you “miss?” Surprised you miss? What have you unexpectedly gained? What gains have been the most significant? Is there anything you would do differently such as buy smaller but not needing a total overhaul or was the demolition/ renovation worthwhile? – Ellen

{our previous house}

A – Great question, Ellen. And one that I get quite often. Before I delve into my thoughts on downsizing, I’d like to give you a little background on our decision to downsize.

When HH and I first discussed downsizing, it was mainly for financial reasons. I was working as a pharmacist and HH is an engineer. From a budget standpoint, we were completely comfortable paying for the big, new spec home that we were living in but we always had this elusive dream to own our home outright {no mortgage} by the time we were 40. We probably could have paid off our previous house in that time frame by following a strict budget that would have left us with little to no money to do much of anything else…like pay for extracurricular activities for our kids, pay for a good preschool for Everett, take trips, eat out sometimes, make upgrades to the builder basic finishes that we detested, etc. And we realized this. To make our no-mortage-at-40 dream come true, we would have been tied to a big house that had blah finishes {carpet, vinyl, standard tub/shower enclosures, etc.} and way more space than we needed. There were several rooms in the house that we didn’t use on a regular basis and they felt like such a waste. There was nothing wrong with the house per se but we’re house people and we get a lot from living in a home that we enjoy.

Also, I had become very unhappy with my job. I was good at it; I made good money; I worked with good people. To most people, that would be enough to keep them satisfied. But I was craving something else, something creative. My heart wasn’t in it and I was becoming more and more turned off by the entire pharmaceutical industry and what it stood for. At the same time, I was becoming more and more interested in decorating, designing and blogging. Downsizing could be just the break I was looking for to make a career switch in the future once our mortgage was paid off.

In the midst of the real estate fallout, most people saw an opportunity to “super size” their house {i.e., buy more house than they had or needed}. We saw it as a chance to downsize {i.e., buy less house than we had or needed}. In fact, I think downsizing has such a negative connotation associated with it. Like you’re giving something up or settling for subpar. Why not call it “right sizing?” That’s how we looked at it. Sure, we would be moving from a big house to a relatively smaller house but we didn’t need all the space or mortgage tied to a larger house. Together HH and I made the decision to downsize. We didn’t arrive at that decision overnight. HH was more reluctant to move than I was but, in the end, it was a collective choice to do what was best for our family.

Oh, family. That’s another thing. Up until a week before we officially sold our previous home by owner, we were a family of four and thought we would remain that way. We were done having kids. Or so we thought. Then we discovered we were unexpectedly expecting and initially it threw a wrench into our plans.

Oh no! Maybe we need a big house after all? Will a three bedroom, two bath house be enough for our growing family? Is this a sign? Should we call off the whole thing? 

But after taking everything in, we quickly realized that downsizing was the perfect solution to our surprise addition. Our childcare costs were going to go through the roof with a newborn in the picture and me working nearly full-time. HH and I did the math and decided the money I would bring home after paying for daycare wasn’t worth the hassle of shuffling three young kids around. I was tired of missing their class parties and school activities too. After baby #3 arrived, I would quit my job and stay at home to care for the kids full time. Here’s the funny part. Just as HH was the one reluctant to downsize, I was the one reluctant to quit my job and stay home {even though I hated my job}. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but deep down I also knew it was the best decision for our kids and our family.

{our house on inspection day}

So now that we’ve survived downsizing, do we regret it? NOT AT ALL. Even with me not working, we are on schedule to pay off our house in 4-5 years – a year or two before we turn 40. I’ve said it before. This house is not our dream house but it’s the house in which we are pursuing our dreams.

What don’t we miss about our previous house? We don’t miss living in a big house. That may have something to do with the fact that we lived in a 900 sq ft apartment for nine months in between living in our previous house and our downsized house. When we moved from our apartment to this house, we almost forgot we were downsizing! Cleaning our previous house was a day-long task that I dreaded every week. I can clean this entire house in one morning. While there are times that we {I’m talking adults as well as kids} need our own space, we make it work. Sometimes Layne hangs out on our bed reading while Everett plays in their shared bedroom to get away from each other. Other times, HH will wrestle with the boys in their room while Mabrey and I take part in more refined girly things…like playing peekaboo in her room. Haha. I don’t even miss having separate sinks in our master bathroom!

We don’t miss having carpet. We have only engineered wood and tile in this house. It is such a breeze to clean. Makes me wonder what disgusting things were living in our carpet at our previous house. HH and I have both said that if we ever have another house, there will be no carpet.

We don’t miss living in a newer, developing neighborhood with construction going on all the time. We like our established neighborhood with its mature trees and roomy lots. We like that the houses aren’t cookie cutter clones.

We don’t miss our old location. Here, we’re closer to HH’s work so we get to spend more time with him in the mornings and evenings during the week. He still leaves early and gets home late but we’ll take what we can get! We like the fact that we are in a quiet neighborhood nestled within city limits. We are close to everything. Layne can even walk to and from school if he wants.

Are there things we’re surprised we miss about our previous home? Yes. One thing. Our previous house had a neighborhood pool. This past summer we longed for a pool nearby to splash in. It’s one of those things that we probably wouldn’t think about if we hadn’t had it before. This year, we’re seriously considering a membership to a local pool just a few minutes away.

There are things we miss that aren’t surprising too. We miss the neighbors in our old neighborhood whom we had become close friends with. We knew we’d miss them. We keep in touch but, obviously, we don’t see them as much as we used to. The twist is we’ve made some really good friends here.

We miss living in a house that’s “finished.” Our lil’ Underdog has come a long way but there’s still a fair amount of work to be done. When we look around, it’s difficult not to see all the unfinished projects. The guest/kid bath is gutted. The driveway is in bad repair. There’s no landscaping whatsoever. Our unusable front door doesn’t exactly scream “Welcome!” The garage and attic are in desperate need of organizing. And then there are the little decorating tweaks that we’ve barely even started. I remind myself that it will all happen in good time. So, I’m trying to enjoy each step we take that gets us closer to home.

I miss living in a well-oiled machine. I had our old house organized and decorated for the way we live. Everything had a place and it was really functional. But it took me nearly four years to get it that way, so I need to give myself a break.

Are there things we’ve unexpectedly gained from downsizing? You bet. The schools in our new city are outstanding. We can’t say enough good things about our experience with them. It’s not that we had a particularly awful experience with our previous school district but the schools here offer our kids so much more and have been a huge help in tapping into our kids’ potential. If anything, we’d do it all over again just for the schools.

We’ve been surprised by how little space we really do need. Editing and purging our belongings are ongoing tasks that are necessary for keeping a small house clutter-free. But they’re pretty damn fulfilling as well. We have no room anymore for “what if”, “maybe” or “someday” items. Which reminds me. I need to get on the attic and garage organization soon.

We were genuinely surprised when several companies contacted us about partnerships pertaining to renovation, home improvement and home decor. We weren’t buying a new old house to feed the blog. Collaborating with some of the companies resulted in forging a few symbiotic relationships. Very cool.

We didn’t realize how much we would enjoy living within 10 minutes of three grocery stores that focus on healthy foods for a healthy lifestyle. I am cooking, people. And I’m actually starting to enjoy it. Surprise! I know, right? HH has noticed a difference as well although I think he’d say, “I love it!” to just about any dish I make if it meant I kept cooking. This may have more to do with me staying home than downsizing but, whatever the cause, we’re eating better.

We’re surprised that living in a smaller house has made us more affectionate towards one another. Our modest house forces us to be together. And that’s what family is all about, right? In our previous home, there were days where we would all be home together but rarely see each other because we’d be off in different parts of the house doing our own things. Here, we touch each other more. You know what I mean. Spontaneous hugs or little squeezes just because we’re close. It’s nice.

Parks! There are numerous parks and playgrounds within walking distance from our house. It seems we discover a new one every couple of months. We switch it up and frequent them when the weather allows. Our previous home had nearby parks but nothing that you could walk to {other than the small, usually overcrowded neighborhood playground}. We’d have to load everyone and everything in the car to visit the nearest park and that step alone was usually enough to make us say, “Ugh. Let’s stay home.”

On a more abstract level, we’ve gained confidence. The confidence to try something new and scary, to act on big plans, to live more simply, to prove all those people who think we’re crazy wrong, to bring an old neglected house to life, to pursue whatever dreams we may dream up, to make any house our home, to change career paths, to make new friends, to walk off the beaten path, to become completely debt free.

Of course, there are pros to downsizing that we expected. We’re well on our way to becoming mortgage-free. HH has a shorter commute. With a smaller home, we’re able to focus on higher quality materials and finishes that we couldn’t afford if we were installing them in larger quantities in a bigger house. We use every single square inch of our house on a regular basis and I love that. We’re able to send Everett to an excellent pre-K program. We’re able to let Layne participate on a competing gymnastics team. We have less space to take care of. We are discovering a new city.

Would we do anything differently? We’re not ones to focus on the past. However, HH and I keep bringing up one property we looked at during our downsizing adventure. It was a duplex in a highly sought after area. Each unit was ~1,000 sq ft and had its own kitchen, three bedrooms, one bathroom and a laundry room in the basement. It needed some work but was livable as is. When we were looking to buy, we had two kids and I was working. We had no idea we’d be expecting a third child and that I would quit my job to stay home with the kids. Looking back, the duplex would have been a sound financial investment. We could have lived in one side of the duplex and rented out the other side to cover the mortgage. Knowing what we know now, I think we may have jumped on that duplex. But bygones are bygones.

Could we have gone even smaller? Probably. But I’m really looking forward to having a second full bathroom this year.

As for the sheer amount of work that we’ve put into our home, we don’t regret it. Every big project we’ve tackled – from removing interior walls to vaulting the ceilings to adding skylights – has been a huge learning experience and helped make our house work and feel like ours.

Would less demolition and less renovations have been nice? YES! And easier. But we wouldn’t have found that house in our price range in this neighborhood. We had to make it.

Has it been easy? NO! Throw a new SAHM and baby into the mix and, well, things get complicated. And sometimes yelly.

Would I recommend downsizing and renovating to everyone? NO! You have to do what’s right for you and your family.

Is it worth it to us? YES! There’s still so much that needs to happen to make this house our home but we try to be patient with ourselves and the journey. Let’s be honest. We’ll probably get bored when/if everything is done.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Blogs have a way of portraying life as chipper and easy and always good. But it isn’t always so. 2012 wasn’t my favorite year. It’s been rough. 2012 kicked my butt and while I hate to wish away time I’m not sad to say adios to the past year.

Here’s a brief recap of what happened in 2012:

We tackled various DIY renovations that put us about six months past our predetermined move-in date. One project that we thoroughly underestimated was the installation of our engineered hardwood floors. So. Much. Glue.

Let’s not forget that I was pregnant at the beginning of this year with a surprise #3. And when I say surprise, I mean “SURPRISE!!!!!” It was an eventful pregnancy with two lil’ ones, a demanding job, a renovation in progress and a traveling HH. I ended up on modified bed rest for the last two months.

We finished one bathroom. It’s still the only functioning bathroom in our house.

It was a girl! We welcomed Mabrey Larew and our lives grew even busier. But, damn, she is so cute. Okay, so maybe 2012 wasn’t a total loss.

I officially quit my day job as a retail pharmacist. I don’t miss the work but I miss the comradery, the paycheck {quitting my job meant cutting our household income by 50%} and getting out of the house on a regular basis. This SAHM stuff is serious business.

We finished and installed a walnut butcher block countertop for our kitchen island. It’s still one of our favorite projects to date.

We finally moved out of our apartment and into the Underdog.

We had a water leak which forced us to move out of the house for several days. I’m still having nightmares about that one.

I went dairy-free for baby’s sake and you guys were such a huge support system. FYI – Mabrey gave up breastfeeding a month or so ago and I’ve since reintroduced dairy into my diet in small doses. Hello cheese. Nice to see you again.

We organized the bedroom closets to maintain some sort of sanity.

I decorated one room. It remains the only decorated room in the house.

We excavated. In the mud vs. Dana battle, mud won.

I painted a rug because I’m crazy like that.

I met John & Sherry. It was one of the only times I got out of the house without all three kiddos in tow. I forgot how to act in public.

We tweaked the kitchen.

I practiced speed blogging.

HH found color-changing Christmas lights to appease everyone.

And then the year was over. Just like that. I had assumed 2012 would be the year I focused more on decorating and blogging but I was distracted by poopy diapers, hungry kids, school parties, sibling rivalry, sleepless nights, dirty dishes, piles of laundry and New Girl. Why is it taking me so long to find my sea legs after downsizing, quitting my job and churning out baby #3? Maybe it’s not the same for everyone but going from two kids to three has been extremely rough for us.

2012 is going out with a “thpppfth.” HH and I had plans for an adults only NYE night with another couple. We were going to get a babysitter. I was going to make dinner and dessert. We were going to drink and stay up late on purpose. We were going to entertain for the first time in our Underdog. Then 80% of us {that would be four out of five} went viral. And not in the good Bourne Legacy viral kind of way. Think more along the lines of exploding bodily fluids kind of viral. And we only have one bathroom. I’ll let you use your imagination.

Did I mention we’re on a tight schedule for a photo shoot scheduled for next week?

2012. Goodbye. And good riddance.

2013 come quick. Please bring toilet paper and sprinkle my kids with sleep fairy dust.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

You already saw our kitchen go from this…

…to this…

Yeah. That was a complete gut job. Since then, we’ve been doing what we do best. Tweaking.

We originally installed four open shelves near the range. They were totally functional and got me on the open-shelving-in-the-kitchen bandwagon but left a lot to be desired. The white MDF boards got lost against the light-colored wall and looked a little meh. A reader with a keen eye also noted that the shelves seemed too low and would look better if they were in line with the hood.

We lived with them that way for a few months. I really liked having our everyday serving ware {plates, bowls, glasses, etc.} out in the open for quick access but felt that something was off. I went back through my kitchen inspiration photos and noted that many incorporated wood shelving. And after I looked further, I noticed that {as the wise reader above had suggested} the open shelving was in line with either: 1) a range hood 2) wall cabinets or 3) both. Aha!

I mentioned to HH that I thought the shelves would look better if they were raised so that the top shelves were in line with the hood and the bottom shelves were in line with the bottom of our wall cabinets {on the perpendicular walls}. He just looked at me.

He didn’t say a word but I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “What?! I just hung those shelves. They’re not going anywhere.”

Then I added, “And wouldn’t it be nice if we could find some reclaimed wood to replace the MDF?”

Still, the look and no words. This is what HH has to put up with on a daily basis. Have pity on him.

But I had planted a seed. And eventually it sprouted some roots because a few weeks later HH told me we had a few fence boards leftover from our DIY ‘love’ headboard. On top of that, they were 1″ thick – exactly what we needed. He thought we had enough to replace the MDF shelf boards. He also said something about installing a backsplash while he was at it.

I love that man.

I’ll have full-on ‘how we did it’ posts next week but feast your eyes on this…

How you like dem apples?

First, let’s discuss the most obvious tweak. The backsplash.

We chose 2″x12″ white subway tile and a contrasting warm gray grout.

We decided to tile up to the hood but not to the ceiling because we really didn’t want the hood to be an ‘in your face’ focal point from the adjoining family room.

Likewise, we chose to only go three tiles high with the rest of the backsplash. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy an entire wall of tile now and again but when it’s visible from a not-so-utilitarian space {like our wide open adjoining family room} then it feels a little cold to me. Not to mention, keeping our backsplash minimal saved us time and money. Unless your kids are doing the cooking in your house {in which case TELL ME YOUR SECRET}, you really don’t need a backsplash that extends to the ceiling.

It’s hard to tell from this shot but the low backsplash wraps around under the microwave.

No backsplash along the desk area. I’m reserving the under-cabinet space for an inspiration board, memos, reminders, etc.

Now for the less obvious tweak. The reclaimed wood shelves…

Seriously. They might be my favorite thing in the entire kitchen. Besides the skylights. The wood is old fence boards from HH’s family farm back in Pennsylvania. Like I mentioned, it was from the same lot that we used to DIY our previous headboard. {Don’t worry. HH sealed it so there’s no risk of contaminating our dishes with nasty chemicals or harmful dust.}

This shot shows how the raised shelves follow the lines of the kitchen better. I liken their new, higher position to a good {not Joan Rivers} facelift. It’s like that’s where they were supposed to be all along. Oh, and I have no problem reaching stuff on the shelves at their current height. At 5’4″, that was a slight concern for me but, turns out, it’s just like reaching up into a wall cabinet for something on the bottom or middle shelves.

The wood isn’t perfect. It’s bowed and warped which did pose somewhat of a challenge to hang. It has an aged patina that can’t be bought and only comes with time. We purposefully left some of the old paint on the boards.

Each shelf is actually made up of two boards placed side by side. Since we reused the IKEA brackets, HH had to cut the boards length and width wise to fit. Even though there are two boards and they aren’t perfectly smooth, it’s not enough to make our dishes wobble precariously above us.

I love the function of the open shelving so much that I bought two more brackets and we added a low shelf over near the fridge for easy water drinking. {See how the backsplash continues along this wall?} The height of the shelf is in line with the backsplash and still allows us to utilize the electrical outlets properly. This corner needs work. I want to hang the paper towel roll and I’ll probably remove the coffee maker since we rarely use it.

HH was worried the area under the shelf would be wasted but it’s perfect for storing cutting boards.

Some more shots because I can’t enough of the reclaimed wood and it’s Friday!

The mix of the shiny white tile, glass globe pendants, stainless steel brackets & appliances, weathered wood shelves, warm walnut island top, dark lower cabinetry and aluminum stools are so us. We love the contrast of light + dark, old + modern, shiny + matte.

I still have a short list of things to add to the kitchen, mostly final touches and accessories: window treatment, rug, maybe some hooks under the lower shelves near the range for towels/kitchen tools, wall art to the left of the window, etc.

Last week, one reader guessed another addition to the kitchen…

Cabinet lighting. {I’ve yet to paint those damn french doors. Why?! It’s not that hard!}

HH installed it himself. I have no idea how. I’m clueless when it comes to electrical work. I do know our electrician-in-law {who did the rest of the electrical work on the house} ran supply wire and hooked it up to switches so the cabinet lighting turns on/off with the flip of a switch. Presto! If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask in the comments section and maybe HH can answer them. I’m sorry. I have no desire to be an electrician.

But I do love what lighting can do for a space. I wish I could capture the ambience of the cabinet lighting at night. It’s the only lighting we use in the great room in the evenings after the kids are tucked in bed, lunches are packed for the next day and the kitchen is cleaned up. Cabinet lighting – that’s about as romantic as we get, people.

One last thing before I go…THANK YOU for voting for Mabrey’s room in the Room for Color contest over on Apartment Therapy. We won the dark division! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Have a happy weekend! I’ll be attempting a weekend warrior project that involves paint. Fingers crossed the kids cooperate.

Click here to see who won this week’s Bona giveaway.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a weird obsession with peeking in people’s homes at night. Okay, that sounds weird. But it’s not the people I’m looking at. I’m looking at the house. The innards of the house. There’s something about seeing lights on, a TV flickering and pictures on the walls that grabs my attention. When I drive by my favorite local homes at night, I slow down in hopes of catching a glimpse inside. Total stalker. I know.

The weather was so beautiful tonight {I’ll take upper 70′s and sunshine in late October anytime Mother Nature} that I slipped outside to peek into my own house for fun and realized that I’ve totally forgotten to show you the exterior lighting we added to the Underdog. Forgive me. Also, please forgive the aftermath of our new hardscaping. Yes, that is the original screen door lying horizontally propped up against the house and a wheelbarrow to the left of the picture window and a hose reel on top of the brick planter. Junking up the front yard. We’re cool like that. If you look closely, you can see our grassy lawn too!

Our electrician-in-law urged us to go with exterior downlighting installed under the eaves. HH and I hadn’t really thought too much about exterior lighting and, if our EIL hadn’t mentioned downlighting, we probably would have added landscaping up lights instead. We’re so happy that we went with the downlighting! Our EIL placed the recessed lighting so that it washes flat areas of the brick facade. We like that it warms up the brick and gives it a soft glow. That way there’s no annoying bright light shining in through any windows to the interior.

Are  you peeping in my window? Haha! That’s okay. I’ll let you look in mine if you let me look in yours.

You can see in this picture how the lighting is placed closer to the house to illuminate the brick {accent lighting} and then further out from the front door to act as task lighting. The gray heart is covering our house number. Seriously. How does one see a house number that small from the road anyways? We might as well not have one. Which is why we have plans to replace it with larger, more modern numbers down the road. Well, not literally down the road. You know what I mean.

After living with standard incandescent flood lights for only a few months and almost all of them burning out, HH decided to look into replacing them with LED’s. I was leery. Typically, I don’t like LED’s because I associate them with a cold blue light that feels sterile – not warm. HH did some research {the man loves his research} and found a Sylvania 50W 2700K soft white flood light. It’s an LED good for 50,000 hours but gives off that warm glow I love so much. HH tracked a bunch down when they were on closeout a few weeks ago, hitting up several different Lowe’s stores to acquire enough for our house. Even at the sale price, these bad boys weren’t cheap. We paid $39.97 a pop! But they’re guaranteed to last three years or we get a full replacement. Sweet. If you’re interested, this is the newer available version.

The back of the house has downlighting too. And two new patios {!}. We’re replacing the back lights with LED’s as they burn out. We don’t turn on the back lights as frequently. You can see one light is burnt out now and needs replaced.

And because I like peeking in houses at night so much, here’s a shot of mine. Complete with kid lunches on the island in preparation of school tomorrow.

I’ve been wanting to reveal the kitchen backsplash in a true before-and-after post when the kitchen is put back together. But, what the heck!, I’m keeping it real and showing you what it looks like right now. We went with this 2″x12″ subway tile and contrasting epoxy grout in a warm gray. I love subway tile but was afraid that traditional subway tiles would have looked too busy…too many grout lines. {FYI – We’ll be using this same tile but with white grout on the walls in the kid/guest bathroom!}

You also might have noticed that we backsplashed {yes, I just made “backsplash” a verb} sparingly. We tiled up to the hood above the range and only three tiles high the rest of the way. Why didn’t we tile the entire wall? After all, I love me a focal wall tiled all the way to the ceiling. Well, three reasons: 1) It was cheaper not to. 2) It was easier not to. 3) I didn’t want the wall to be a focal wall because you see it from the front door and family room. We did something similar with the backsplash in our previous home because the kitchen, dining room and family room were all open to one another and liked the results so figured we’d go that route again.

HH removed the open shelving to install the backsplash. Once it was down, I decided I didn’t like the previous placement. While it was perfectly fine to reach and use, it was too low visually. Here’s a picture from a few weeks ago to jog your memory.

One reader recommended raising the shelves to incorporate the hood. I looked back through several inspiration photos and discovered that most of them had an open shelf in line with the bottom of the hood. I think putting the top shelves in line with the hood and the bottom shelves in line with the bottom of the wall cabinets is the way to go.

HH really doesn’t want to drill new holes and patch the old ones but I got him on board by saying it will be one of those little things that makes a big difference design-wise. We’ll be reusing the stainless steel brackets but replacing the white MDF shelving boards with reclaimed fence boards. I can’t wait to see the results of this little tweak!

What about you? Are you a legal Peeping Tom like me? Have you added exterior lighting to your house? Are you tweaking your kitchen? Did you notice anything else new that I didn’t mention? ;)

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Sometimes HH and I get overwhelmed, discouraged and even struck with fear when looking at the long list of things left to do on our Underdog. Especially when many of the projects are right here in plain sight for us to see on a daily basis. We’ve found that the best way to turn our frowns upside down is to look at ‘befores’ of our house and see just how far we’ve come.

We bought the house in May 2011 but didn’t really start any work {aside from tree removal and demo} until after our previous home sold in mid-August 2011. During the nearly 9 month renovation, we lived in a two-bedroom apartment away from the chaos. Even though our apartment was far from lovely, I am so thankful we were able to have a safe haven separate from the renovation.

I thought you would appreciate seeing the progress on our home as well so you’re in for a little before-and-progress/after action today! {I’ll warn you. The ‘befores’ may be frightening to anyone who suffers from claustrophobia and the ‘afters’ are far from done.}

Here’s our Underdog in all its untouched and then renovated glory…

That’s the view from the front door looking towards the dining room and kitchen.

We removed the walls dividing the kitchen, dining room and family room. We vaulted the ceiling and added skylights. The original dining room window was replaced with french doors. The doors need painted and we still have a little work to do in the kitchen {backsplash, window treatment and styling}.

The original kitchen cabinets were rotted and falling apart.

We installed an IKEA kitchen.

That’s the interior wall we took out to open up the space.

A large 9′ island adds storage where wall space was lost and serves as a casual dining spot for everyday meals.

That’s the family room. If you look closely, you can see paint peeling and water damage along the wall and ceiling above the mantel.

And that’s the family room as of this week. Eventually, painted white tongue-and-groove planking will surround and frame in the TV. An original painting {created by the previous owner no less} will hang in front of the TV and raise/lower via a motorized pulley system. HH is still fine tuning the design. Other than buying a rug, new sofa and chairs, this room hasn’t been decorated. We need window treatments, a bench under the picture window and accessories.

Some more shots of the great room after…

The only decision we’ve made about the original brick fireplace surround is to live with it a while. I have nothing against painting brick but HH and I both like exposed brick. We’ll see.

We haven’t addressed the front door yet.

I have plans for a gallery wall behind the sofa to disguise the surround sound speakers and balance out the upper cabinetry on the other side of the room.

The leaning artwork is the piece that will raise above and lower over the TV.

Onto the former den…

The window unit was the only form of air conditioning in the house.

We removed the unit and installed a heat pump heating & cooling system.

We’ve repurposed the room as a dining room/mudroom/laundry room although it still needs a lot of work. HH added tongue-and-groove wainscoting and laid durable travertine tile. Even with the two PAX wardrobes, I need to address storage & organization. Somehow, shoes and backpacks aren’t making it all the way to the wardrobes. We also need to repair the man door to the garage, hang the light and hang the last interior door {to the kid/guest bathroom} that’s leaning against the wall.

The dysfunctional sliders were replaced with french doors. Just like the ones in the kitchen, we’ve yet to paint them. The dining chairs are actually outdoor chairs that will live outside in the future. For now, they’re inside.

The other side of the room housed a laundry closet.

We demo’d the closet and added upper cabinets. The plan here is to install a wood countertop above the washer/dryer and to conceal the machines so that this corner resembles a dry bar.

The opposite side of the house is where the bedrooms and bathrooms reside.

The old hallway was dark and dirty.

Recessed lighting was installed to wash the walls and brighten the passageway. {Hi boys!} The interior doors were replaced but they aren’t painted yet. We need to build a door for the attic access.

The first of the two bathrooms had cracked tile and mold within one wall.

The bathroom was gutted and is prepped, awaiting finishes. It’s on our winter to-do list. It will become our kid/guest bathroom. Yes, that means our family of five is sharing one bathroom right now.

The first teeny {smaller than 10′x10′} bedroom had peeling paint on the walls, matted shag carpet and a bed took up the entire room. It was a nice four poster bed though, no?

This room is the closest to being ‘done.’ As in the rest of the house, we demo’d the room to add insulation to the cinder block exterior walls, updated the electrical, hung drywall, installed new flooring & baseboards and painted.

The second bedroom was a decent size but crowded with furniture and clutter. The baseboards in this room were deteriorating from termite damage.

Our boys share this room now. {Surprise! You get a sneak peek of their new rug. More on that next week.} I can’t wait to add built-in desks and open shelving so the room can double as a workspace for the kids.

The master bedroom was being used as an art studio. It was dark, dirty and outdated.

It’s now a true bedroom but needs some tweaking. Don’t mind the sloppy bed with mismatched pillows. Everett made the bed and I didn’t have the heart to tell him he did it wrong.

I have to be honest. I’m not 100% happy with the wall color. It’s Benjamin Moore tapestry beige and it’s the same color we used in the hall and great room. While I LOVE it in the hall and great room, I don’t like it in the master bedroom. The problem with the bedroom is that it faces north and receives little natural light. I thought painting it light would make it appear lighter but this particular color just accentuates the shadows and comes across as dingy. I’ll probably end up repainting it. Any suggestions for good paint colors in a north room are welcome!

The adjoining master bathroom had many of the same problems as the other full bath. The original tile was cracked and the entire space was outdated.

We did a full gut job. I need to get creative with storage and organization in this bathroom. A toilet paper holder would be a good place to start. I have the same feelings about the paint color in here as in the master bedroom.

Currently, this is our only functioning bathroom. While it isn’t impossible for a family of five to share one bathroom {I do love having only one bathroom to clean}, I am looking forward to the day when the kids have their own bathroom.

So. There you have it. A look at our house from the first time we walked through it to current day.

Whew. That was cathartic. I’m feeling much better about our progress. And that’s only the inside of the house. Maybe I’ll crank out a similar post for the exterior. Can you believe HH and I walked through the house the first time with it looking like that and left with smiles on our faces? Yeah. We’re crazy.

To answer a very popular question…the house was an estate sale in a highly sought school district and listed at $99,000. It was the black sheep of the neighborhood with most homes in the area going for $140,000 and up with minimal updates. We offered $85,000 and got the house. At closing, we learned that all of the money from the sale of the house went to charity.

While tweaking this house into our home isn’t always easy or fun {damn you, concrete slab and cinder blocks walls!!}, we love it a little more each day.

Check to see who won this week’s Stella & Dot and Signs by Andrea giveaways!

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I told you we excavated. With no walk to the front door, we are now keeping house guests at bay.

The excavation proved to be a very dirrrrrty project. And still is. We experienced a severe drought this summer, so imagine loads of dry dust flying and landing on any and every horizontal surface – on our cars, in the window sills, onto the roof, etc. – then multiply that times a kajillion. Then picture the kids tracking almost all of it into the house. Yep. I’m living in Awesome Town. In order to remain somewhat sane, I’ve completely let go of my Type A cleaning regimen. It’s useless at this point.

Letting go. Now there’s something worth talking about. I’ve done a lot of that recently. Renovation deadlines? Let ‘em go. Sleeping baby expectations? Let ‘em go. Laundry in the wash, in the dryer and in piles on the dryer? Let it go. Showering? Let it go. So, DUST ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE? Easy. Let it go.

Renovating a fixer-upper, being surprised with baby #3 and quitting my day job to stay home with the kids, while all very rewarding, are mutating my innate micromanaging nature. Okay, so in my mind I’m still micromanaging but in reality it ain’t happenin’. And maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, it’s very obvious that someone or something is trying to teach me to cut myself some slack. To just be. To take my time. To enjoy the process. To enjoy the day. To take it all in. All of it. Every last speck of dust.

I’m trying.

Click here to see who won the Lamps.com giveaway.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I’m about to show you a house tour. Don’t peek! First, I need to tell you how this came about. A few months ago, I blogged about my affection for fig trees. Many of you kindly offered green advice for my black thumb. But one reader actually sent me a picture of her happy little fig tree. Just from the image of the fig tree vignette, I could tell this reader’s home was special. I graciously thanked Heather for the picture and advice she openly gave, then all but begged her for a house tour. Four months later, here it is! The time lapse is all my fault – not Heather’s. As the saying goes, “Good things are worth waiting for.”

Enjoy!

Who lives in your home?  I live with my husband, Win, and our dog, The Baron.

Where is your home located? New Orleans, Louisiana

What do you do for a living?  I work in the Oil and Gas industry and Win is a documentary filmmaker.

What is the architectural style of your home? We live in a Victorian shotgun cottage.

How would you describe your style?  The best way to describe our style is cottage/contemporary. We paid homage to our 100+ year old cottage in most of the design elements, but also incorporated a few contemporary pieces to shake things up a bit. Our style may be a bit all over the place for some, but I love that everything in our house has a story, whether it be original artwork from Win’s talented family, an antique night stand salvaged after Katrina, or an old soda bottle I dug up in my garden.

Where do you find inspiration for your home decor? When we first bought our home in 2008, my best friend Rachelle brought over three binders filled with gorgeous images and articles pulled from Cottage Living magazine. She compiled the binders while rebuilding her home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I spent an untold amount of time poring over the binders, soaking up the inspiration brought forth from its pages. Cottage Living was such an amazing resource to me. I still have a hard time believing that it’s no longer in publication. I would say that most of my current home décor inspiration comes from the web. I cut my teeth on amazing blogs such as Young House Love and The Lettered Cottage, and lately it seems like my day is not complete until I check out the latest projects over on Chezerbey, Manhattan Nest, The Brick House and House*Tweaking.

Where did you splurge? Those who know me know that I pride myself on being a serious bargain hunter and that I rarely splurge on anything other than a great meal. Looking around my house, I can say that 99% of the furnishings and appliances were either passed down from our families, bought on sale, picked up at a thrift/consignment shop, or plucked off the street. With that said, there have been one or two splurges along the way and our custom walk-in shower in the master bath is definitely one. Everyone was trying to convince us to install an inexpensive fiberglass shower stall, but Win and I wouldn’t hear of it. We knew what we wanted and even though it was a quite a splurge, it’s been worth every penny.

Where did you pinch pennies?  As for as supplies go, we definitely saved quite a bit of money by reusing our existing cabinetry and purchasing IKEA wood countertops in the kitchen. Our carpenters pushed the idea of custom cabinetry, but being an avid reader of house blogs, I knew that all they needed was a paint job and new hardware. We also saved by purchasing stock tile and stone from a discount retailer for our bathrooms and kitchen instead of custom ordering it from a tile shop or stone yard.

Favorite space in your home? For me, it’s got to be our kitchen. Being an avid cook, baker and collector of all things culinary, I love being in the kitchen. I still can’t believe that it took us over three years to get around to gutting and rebuilding it. Thankfully, we worked with an amazing carpentry team that worked tirelessly to develop my kitchen vision into a warm, inviting area that maximizes every inch of usable space.

Least favorite thing about your home? We both love the fact that we have reached the point where there are many more positives than negatives about our home, but there are still a few things we can’t wait to transform. Our backyard is definitely something we try to avoid because of the sheer “ugly factor”. It’s downright hideous and that’s no joke. My main problem with the yard stems from my love of gardening. The gardening gene runs deep in my family. Some of my favorite childhood memories include digging in the dirt with my mother and grandmother. Currently, I have planted and pruned every inch of my front yard, but unfortunately, my back yard is completely useless to me because it is covered by a virtually impenetrable 10” thick concrete slab. One of these days Win and I will rent a jackhammer and get to work on transforming it into an inviting space filled with fruit trees and a large vegetable garden.

From your point of view, what’s been the best improvement you’ve made to your home? It’s really hard to pick one improvement over the others since each project has made such a significant difference to the house as a whole, but if we had to pick one, the renovation of the master bath is high on the list. When we bought the house, it was two separate spaces: a huge fire-charred laundry room and a miniscule bathroom with the toilet falling through the floor. Until the space was renovated in 2010, it was a depressing, dark disaster area that I only ventured into long enough to do a load of laundry. Now, it’s bright, inviting and absolutely fantastic. Friends that have witnessed the slow transformation of our home still can’t believe it’s the same space.

Do you have any special housekeeping rituals? I don’t know if this is a ritual or a sign of OCD, but I cannot go to bed with a messy kitchen. When we host large gatherings, I am sometimes up for hours afterwards cleaning the kitchen and putting everything back in its place. Win can easily nod off with a mountain of dirty dishes in the sink, but I cannot fathom the idea of relaxing when there is a chaotic mess going on in my favorite room of the house.

What’s your next home project or purchase? Realistically, our next project will probably be tweaking the remaining bedrooms, but our dream project is gutting and renovating a cinderblock workman’s shed in our backyard. It is already equipped with a bathroom and power, but the amount of work required is quite daunting. Ideally, we would like to turn it into a guesthouse, but that’s years away.

What’s your favorite thing to do at home? I would say that it’s a three-way tie between working in my garden, relaxing on my front porch with Win and The Baron, and whipping up meals for the people that I love.

Advice for other homeowners? I would say the best advice to new, first-time homeowners like ourselves is to take your time when it comes to renovations. When we bought our home, we lived in it for a full year before embarking on any interior projects. That decision was partly due to financial constraints, but mostly for the fact that we wanted to get to know our “new” old house first. Living in it for a while allowed us time to develop a plan of attack as well as refine our slightly contemporary style around such an old house. On a lighter note, never underestimate the transformative power of a can of spray paint.

Isn’t that one amazing cottage?! I absolutely adore the cottage aesthetic mixed with industrial touches and pops of happy color. Thank you so much, Heather and Win {and The Baron!} for letting us peek into your happy home.

SOURCES:

Living Room/Dining Room

wall color:  Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

sofa: Ikea

chandelier: Design Within Reach

Guest Bath

wall color: Benjamin Moore Nightingale (25%)

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

tub, toilet & sink- Kohler

fixtures: Kohler

tile: Floor and Décor

medicine cabinet: Home Depot

shower curtain: Urban Outfitters

Kitchen

wall color: Benjamin Moore White Dove

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

cabinet paint: Behr Graceful Gray

countertops: Ikea

lighting: West Elm

ceiling fan: Hunter

refrigerator: Samsung

range: LG

sink: Kohler Vault

Master Bedroom

wall color: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

lamps: Target

headboard: Wayfair.com

bedding: Macy’s

Master Bath

wall color: Benjamin Moore Nightingale

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

sink: Kohler

fixtures: Delta

toilet: American Standard

tile and stone: Floor and Décor

medicine cabinet: Home Depot

armoire: Nadeau

washer and dryer: Samsung

Guest Bedroom

wall color: Martha Stewart Plumage

trim color: Benjamin Moore Decorators White

bedding: TJ Maxx

throw pillows: Bliss Living

Do you have a room makeover, DIY project or house tour that you’d like to submit to House*Tweaking? Great! Please contact me at danarmiller@hotmail.com. I’d love to see what you’ve been up to.

images: Heather Riley