Tag: home remodel and repair

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A Glowing New Look for Our Master Bedroom/Bathroom

French Ethereal

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!! Can we all breathe a collective sigh of relief? Usually when I paint from room to room, like I did the first year we moved into our last home, I painted the master bedroom and bathrooms last, working on the children’s bedrooms and living spaces first. Over the course of seven months, I repainted most of the house as it needed freshening up. This time, I decided to do our bedroom first since it is just us now, and it is the darkest room in the home even with all the windows it has.

I love yellows, which is what I painted in our first home’s master bedroom, and I thought about painting this room a soft yellow but chose to go more French European.

In our second home, I painted over a bright yellow color in that master bedroom with a soft rag rolling of white over top. It was just enough to tone down the yelllow and it turned into a lovely soft pale yellowish color, which we loved. Just the one wall behind the bed was left the original color and to that I added French trefoil stamps in gold.

For our new home here in Texas, the walls and ceilings throughout the house are painted a deep coffee color. I liked it at first ~ a bit more contemporary, more transitional. However over time and especially in summer, when the angle of the sun doesn’t hit inside the living/family rooms or this bedroom much, I knew we needed to paint a lighter, softer color that would really bounce around what sunlight does come inside.

Hence the move to Valspar’s “Comet Dust” (#773956) in eggshell. It is a lovely light Gustavian grey which pairs well with off-the-shelf Valspar Ultra White (#773957) in satin. I found Comet Dust back when we were remodeling the kids’ bathroom in California to sell the house. The finished bathroom ended up feeling so much lighter with the removal of an un-needed wall to the tub and bath but which in the early 1990’s was put in to hide the changing ceiling height of an added dormer. We embraced the changes and opening it up made all the difference!

I loved how this bathroom turned out!

“Comet Dust” on the walls paired well with the travertine look-alike tile flooring we had installed, which then in turn worked well with the real 20″ x 20″ travertine pavers we designed and laid ourselves downstairs (after ripping out the 20+ year old carpet).

So while watching favorite garden shows on YouTube (Garden Answer) and listening to SiriusXM radio, the coffee color disappeared! That and about 100 hours of priming and painting throughout the three spaces ~ commode, bathroom and bedroom ~ over two months or so has given us a beautiful change!

I’ll share a little home tour soon, but with freshly washed inside windows (rain washes the outside lately, though they really need a good scrub!), the bedroom is coming along. Thought you’d enjoy seeing some of the “in process!”…

Enjoy your summer’s day, friends,

Barb 🙂

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Labor Day Weekend "Fix It’s" Around the House

French Ethereal

Labor Day weekend was all about fixing little projects around the house. Mr. Ethereal wanted to do these things for a while and with a bonus just in, now was the right time…



Laundry needs

Our Sears Kenmore washer and dryer are 25+ years old and these last few weeks as I have been using the dryer, it only blows warm air once in a while. The thermostat must be broken. We learned about five years ago now that replacement parts weren’t being made for our set anymore from a repairman who worked on our washer then, so it is time for a new set.

This has been a great washing machine even with its rusted out case.
Hubby and I have looked at what’s available on the market and I still like a top loader so that is mostly likely what we will purchase to replace these.

Bathroom needs

This vintage commode ran continuously and was too short for us and our aging knees, so we picked out a taller Kohler extended bowl style with a self-closing lid to replace it. 

When Hubby pulled out the old toilet he found wallpaper still in place. We thought I’d better paint before he went any farther with the installation so I quickly added some Valspar Comet Dust #5006-1A I used in the craft room (post still coming ~ still need to finish putting some things away) to the area behind the toilet. 

Any guesses on how old this wallpaper is?
😉
Here’s the new toilet ready for its new area paint job!
The other bathroom project was replacing the moldy caulking in the master bathroom shower. After Hubby removed all of the old caulking I scrubbed and bleached the lower walls and joints to prep for new caulk.

Electrical needs

When we moved into this house our inspector noted that the three dimmer switches in the living, dining and family room areas needed replacing. Hubby picked out these sliding dimmers with rockers which turn on and off the switch.

No more snap, crackle and pop ~ a good thing!

While Mr. Ethereal was doing these little jobs I’ve been working on a t-shirt quilt for our son’s birthday. Begun in June I have been working steadily on it throughout the summer. The seam binding is being sewn on now. I hope to finish it this week and to share a post with you soon.






Blessings to you,

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A Tale of Two Homes… What to Look for When Buying a House

French Ethereal

We are currently in the process of buying a home here in Texas so today’s post is all about what to look for in a home. Whether buying your first home or a place to retire to ~ let’s look at some key home features…


Location Location Location

Location is always high on the list of priorities as we all want a house with great curb appeal in a good neighborhood. Lately I have seen some great houses but their locals weren’t so wonderful. Check out areas you think you might like to buy in then keep that in mind as you shop for your home.

One of the homes we were considering needed just a few updates. The cabinets were in good shape and solid wood so why rip those out to put in cheap particle board ones?  Removing the lower added mini cabinets with sliding doors and replacing the outdated lightboxes with strip lighting above would update this kitchen nicely.

Kitchens

The heart of the home is the kitchen and family room ~ the places where we spend the most time ~ so look at the layout of each of the homes you are looking at and considering. The flow of these rooms especially affect how we feel about our homes. 


If you don’t mind doing a little work, a fixer upper is usually a cost saver on the home loan side.  Check and see if the appliances are good enough to use until you can afford new ones and also check the layout of the kitchen.

Decide too if it is important to you to have a good view out the kitchen window. Or if there even IS a kitchen window.

Loved this kitchen with its granite counters and stainless appliance!
In this home we loved the brand new appliances but ultimately decided that the main room didn’t flow for what we were looking for. Buying a home because it has a beautiful kitchen and not a good flow in the main living areas can be a costly mistake.


Does the home need a remodel?

If you do buy a home with remodeling needs ask yourself if you can afford to make these changes over time. Fixing the vault of a room’s ceiling ~ you’ll need a structural contractor to give you an estimate. Adding new beams and headers if you are removing or moving walls ~ the same.

Fireplaces

How set are you on having a fireplace in your next home? 

Condominiums and apartments don’t often have them and it was one of the high priorities we wanted in our first home.  Now we are looking at style of each fireplace. 

We would look to remodel this fireplace with removing these ugly grates
in the upper area and having a stone mason put in soldiers (brick standing
upright) spaced evenly apart to allow for passive heat flow with this ventilator.
These two photographs show two different fireplace layouts and both could be kept the way they are, or have some minor or major facelifts depending upon on one’s needs and tastes.

Garden and yard

If you are a gardener like me then you are probably looking at the curb appeal of your next home and its gardening potential. This home sat on almost a half acre and we loved it for its beautiful manicured English style gardens.

Laundry room

Newer construction gives us much bigger and usually better laid out laundry rooms but surprisingly not all of us require a large laundry area.  This one is charming and practical for when a hot water hose breaks ~ a drain is already set into the floor plus the room is sunken by 4″ to deal with major water spraying.

In our first home we had a hot water hose break while we were eating dinner. First we heard a strange hissing sound then saw a swirl of water turn the corner from the carpeted hallway coming rapidly into the kitchen!

Not the best way to end dinner ~ but insurance paid for all the repairs. 🙂

Something to look at on your home owners insurance ~ is flooding included in your policy? It should be but it is good to read through your policy to be sure. If the carpeting gets soaked during a pipe burst will your insurance replace all connected carpet and other damaged flooring?

Good things to make sure you have in place especially if looking at an older home.

Sorry this is a bit dark ~ taken with my iPhone.

Bedrooms, bathrooms and office spaces

For a room to be counted as a bedroom it must have an egress window in case of emergency plus a built in closet. I’ve seen some homes here in Texas that were advertised as having a certain amount of bedrooms but the room in question was really a play space ~ not very ethical and a potential for disaster.



Office spaces are wonderful especially if they come with built in shelving. A drawback is what to do if you already own cabinets and bookcases. Where would you now put yours?

Could you put those bookcases somewhere else in a potential home? Would you have to sell them?

That’s something to consider. 

Good layout for a powder room.  Could make an update down the road
with new cabinet and countertop.
In looking at the houses you visit you’ll want to check the layout of each bathroom in each house.  So important as we have found that many homes today look pretty but aren’t functional.

It is the trend today in some bathroom remodels in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs to take out the medicine cabinets in favor of just plain mirrors.  This may be all over the country, as far as I know, and this is perfectly fine as long as there is a base cabinet with drawers (such as in our soon-to-be home, below). 

Oddly enough, one flipper in our area took out the base cabinet in one master bathroom as well ~ a totally non-functional bathroom.  What he put in was beautiful with its granite countertop and pretty marble shower but there was absolutely no storage. It was a hotel bathroom and not a residential bathroom… big mistake and had we bought that home we planned on asking for money to make it functional.

Good design must include function as well as beauty.   🙂  


Sneaking this photo in of our soon-to-be home, if all goes through. 🙂

Putting in an offer

These are  two of the many homes we looked at over the past six months and considered as we were finding our first Texas home.  We lost out on the first house we bid on (the older home shared here in these photos which sat on almost 1/2 acre and had a lovely English garden… I was crushed at the time!).

This beautiful all white home was one we really thought about but ultimately decided not to go ahead.  But we did find another home we really like this and this second offer was accepted.



Yesterday’s post shared just a peek at our home-to-be… 🙂 Which is another thing to be prepared for: not having your offer accepted and it is very emotional and disappointing and often we don’t know why our offer wasn’t picked. Sometimes it is timing ~ that your offer is contingent upon your current home selling. Sometimes it’s just a matter of what the seller and realtor feel is best for them. In our case with the first home, the seller’s had a cash offer which trumped ours.   🙁

But don’t lose heart as there are plenty of good homes out there in a style you will love!  Keep looking and try for the one which has the most items in it that will suit your current needs.  




Happy house hunting,