bathroomania

Apparently we can't get enough of new bathrooms - we originally thought we would wait a few years before renovating the original bathroom downstairs, but decided to go ahead with it now so we don't have to endure a dusty house again after we're fully settled in. So we gave up dreams of spending our tax refund on anything fun and Kyle set off on yet another project. Behold. The bathroom in its original state, minus window framing.

Where the pedestal sink once stood
The hole left from the old medicine cabinet

The destruction has begun. The shower area. Rob spent the weekend working with Kyle and they moved 11 tons of trash both out of the bathroom (below) and from the garage to the dumpster. The garage still contained the old kitchen from when we tore it out last year. I guess plaster is heavy.

The homemade trash chute.
We tore out the old ceiling tiles in the hall while we were at it. The ceiling has to stay low because of the a/c duct, but at least it's drywall now.
Kyle, Doug and Elliot hanging the new drywall.

The hallway with its new ceiling

Partly finished drywall

Paint! Pale Grey by RL.

New, clean tile! That 70 year old scum wouldn't come up no matter how hard we scrubbed with a toothbrush. We decided to stick with a vintage b&w look, but I much prefer this basketweave to the old square pattern. Here's a close-up:


The shower area with new tile. Same look as before but cleaner and with a darker grout for a vintage look. We kept the old cast iron tub and are going to have it refinished soon, so it will be a brighter white to match the tile.

We just went to the granite store today to pick our countertop. We chose this marble below:

Finally, Kyle and Corey are working on building the vanity and a tall cabinet for linen storage. The bathroom grew by about 3 feet in width because we incorporated the linen closet into it. The cabinet they're building will have a few drawers on the bottom and a glass door on top so I can display some pretty things inside. The vanity and cabinet will be white. I showed them pictures of ones I liked from Restoration Hardware and they are copying them...they are looking very close so far!

More to come soon!

curtain call

Ok, enough pillow talk. Sorry for the long delay in posting - we took a little break from projects.

A few rooms in the house look completely different now than they did two days ago, thanks to new curtains! It's amazing the difference they make. Here are some photos of our bedroom with it's curtains made by Margie.

Here is the living room. I picked up a lady's card at JoAnn fabrics and she made them for us. She had the brilliant idea of making roman shades for the bay window, which alleviated the need for any expensive hardware and allow us a lot of options in terms of coverage.

Lots of light
A little less

Full coverage so Kyle can walk around in his skivvies.Expert installation by Kyle and Dave

I realized after they were all up that all of our curtains are a linen-esque, floral fabric. At least I know what I like!

pillow talk

We spent the past weekend in "the dred" with MargeCat and TNort and had a great time.

I had to get a little ghetto there for a minute because the rest of this post is going to be about crafts - but the dred is a.k.a. Edlred, PA, Kyle's hometown, and M-C and TN are my awesome parents in law, for those who don't know.

Ok, back to original subject. Up too early this morning, can't focus. Margie and I took a detour on the way to dinner to JoAnn's for bedroom decorating inspiration. We ended up placing an order for curtain fabric and bringing home some coordinating fabric to make pillows. Here is the step-by-step (oh, baby! sings NKOTB's Joey in his best falsetto) process:

1. Choose fabric. Here is a selection of the fabrics we chose, against a brown silk very similar to our bedspread and the paint chip of the wall color. It's actually a little darker and greener than it appears here.

(Sorry, technicial difficulty...I'll upload picture later if possible)

2. Watch mother in law measure and cut fabric to proper size - a few inches larger than circumference of pillow to allow for the puffiness of the filling. (you could also do this yourself if you are in fact the crafty type). You can use sharp scissors or this neat roller thingy with a really sharp wheel blade. I understand it's usually used for quilting. Be sure to use a mat underneath so you don't scratch the table.

3. Put two pieces of the same size fabric together, nice sides facing in. Sew straight lines around three edges, keeping track of how far in from the edge you sewed in case you need to fix it later. When you're done, turn it right-side out and try it on the pillow.




4. Re-do as many times as necessary to get a nice, snug fit...we re-did about 4 times! The pillow looks much nicer and more tailored if it's just the right fit and not too loose. You may also have to kind of shove the pillow around in there to get it to fit in the corners nicely.




5. Right-side out, place over the narrow end of the ironing board and iron the seams nice and flat. Insert pillow and get ready for the penultimate (yes! People seem to find that word impressive) step.


6. Hand sew the last side of the pillow with a thread that is very close in color to the fabric. If you want to get fancy-nancy you could put a zipper here, but we're not too fancy.

The neck roll pillow is not quite done yet. That is the advanced lesson!

7. Put your pillows on the bed and admire!

Thanks, Margie, for the lesson! Next addition to the bedroom: drapes by Margie in tan linen with a red floral pattern.

artistic endeavors

All of you Potsdam folks will smirk at this title. For others, it's the name of the big art show our high school used to have - there were some real gems, lemme tell ya.

Anyway, the other night I asked Kyle what is holding us back from keeping our house neater and generally making it feel more lived in. We came up with a few answers: rugs, art, curtains, and motivation. Since he's now working again - even if unofficially - we are feeling a little more optimistic (check, motivation!), and decided we can allow ourselves to spend a little bit toward the other three solutions.

We ordered a cream-colored shag rug from JC Penney and got a great deal - under $180 including shipping for an 8x10! I think it will be a nice contrast against the pine floors upstairs, and will be oh so nice to step onto when getting out of bed on chilly mornings!

I also found these prints at allposters.com for the wall in the living room behind the couch. I love arts & crafts style art and furnishings, and these fit that as well as the botanical theme I am going for in that room. At just $16.99 each and 20% off, they were a great deal too! Now I just have to dig up that Michael's coupon for 50% off framing and we'll be in business.

Finally, we hired a lady to make some ceiling-mounted roman shades for our bay window. These will solve all the problems that window has posed, provide privacy yet still allow light, and hopefully, look beautiful! Also, Margie is going to make drapes for the normal window in the room in the same fabric to save us a few bucks. And, I may get a sewing lesson as a bonus! Here is the fabric I chose - it goes on sale this Friday at JoAnn - wish me luck that it isn't discontinued like the last one!

heading south...me and the economy

I'm off to Palm Beach for work for nearly a week! I'm sure I'll have some progress from the house to document when I return...Kyle suddenly has a lot of free time on his hands.

He was unfortunately one of the many homebuilders to get laid off recently - we got the news last week. He's got a few leads but most everyone in the industry is cutting back right now. So if you know anyone who needs a {very} handy man in the next few weeks, let us know! Meanwhile, he'll be networking, applying, and puttering around our house.

I haven't been too good about taking house pictures lately, but here's some eye candy for you from our ugly holiday sweater contest on Christmas Eve. I had already taken mine off because I was too hot with it on in the kitchen. Kyle's sweater has been in his dad's dresser drawer for probably close to 30 years!

Have a great week, and pray for a new job for Kyle and good weather for me!

Bring us some figgy pudding!

We didn't have figgy pudding, but we ate just about everything else...Christmas 2008 at the Nortons' was full of culinary delights! Here is a photographic re-cap.

Cookies

Dave is marveling over his good fortune of marrying into a family of sugar-addicts.

Lemon drops, Russian teacakes, mint brownies, sugar cookie cut-outs (aka "trees"), peanut butter kisses, and chocolate crinkles. And a hungry Kyle.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Tera artfully prepares Potatoes Anna.

They were as delicious as they were beautiful!

My favorite ham recipe - herb encrusted. There are some pearl onions carmelizing too - a delicious side accompaniment.

Dave carves the ham.

Christmas Morning

Carrying on the Norton tradition of cinnamon buns (extra sticky this year!) on Christmas morning.
From scratch? You bet! Totally worth getting at up at 6 on Christmas morning for. These and some strong coffee gave us just enough energy to open presents.

An egg bake with hash browned potatoes and cheese for brunch.

Christmas Dinner

Kyle decants the Christmas wine.

Preparing Lesley's yummy dijon green beans, with a bonus steam treatment.Roasted root vegetables. Even the brussel sprouts were good! The man of the house goes to town on the prime rib.Caught! Mom sneaking a pre-dinner bite.Yorkshire pudding. It got a LOT puffier than I expected, and made a huge mess of drippings in the bottom of the oven. Thanks again, Mom, for cleaning it up! Mmmm....can't have steak without sauteed mushrooms.
The obligatory 'round the table picture. Gramma, this one's for you!
Finally...my plate is ready. YUM!

I don't have any pictures of dessert but it was another Norton tradition - Margie's chocolate mousse. It was great, but I don't think it was quite as good as hers. There's always next year!