Room Service Outlet

I just found the Room Service Outlet. They have a regular online store you can see here. It is lots of white, super cottagey, very girlie. Their outlet had most of the stuff their regular store did. We gotta go when you get home. I got these pj's for Kennedy's party, the lamp, and this amazing linen duvet for less than $100. 

o! gracing the background of my bed, you can see the pillowcovers you gave me last holiday : )

Kennedy's bday party

How was Paris? Send me your pics!

Over the weekend Kennedy had her bday party. We did a girlie sleepover in a fab suite at a hotel (the bathroom was larger than my living room). It was by far the easiest, best party I've done. It was so simple and we did such simple things. I loved it as much as the girls did.

We had dinner at American Girl (ackkk!--horrible food but the girls thought it was terrific.) It is one of those places where they all sing around your table and bring you a big cake with candles.

We checked into the suite. I got the girls matching jammies. They were so cute. They took bubble baths and rode the elevator, we went swimming, sat in the sauna, more bubble baths and ate downstairs. I loved it.

p.s. the other little girl is Kate--Sueann Geibler's daughter and Kennedy's best friend.

Another painted brick wall example

This is from a local blog I follow--seaofshoes.com.  I'm pretty sure the house is in HP/UP. I think the white painted wall is exceptional. 

It will look great in your entry.

I found these on Craig's list for $150

These would be great for your kitchen (painted white, of course...or maybe black?) 

here is the listing:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/fuo/1040890218.html

Sunroom--flowers

Leonore--read the post below this first so this will make more sense.

These passion flower vines could climb the posts.

I've never personally seen a gardenia bush this big. Maybe in Florida? Anywoo, they smell amazing when they bloom in the spring.
These star jasmine do pretty well here. These climbing the posts would also be fun.
Pink geraniums in pots. How can you go wrong?

Sunroom--new approach

Since you will no longer need the sunroom as a playroom with the upstairs conversion, what about if you turned it into a mostly open, walled patio. It would be a great natural extension of living space. Instead of having the lr and den look into another closed off room, it would look onto a patio. 

I agree with you that it is awkward to have a window look into another room. This would be a good compromise. It is a porch that functions more like a room.

My neighbor is a gay architect--he did this and lined the top inside with rods for curtains. They stay open most of the time, but if you want to sit out there in your pjs, you could close them. 

I don't think this would be expensive--just removing windows/back door and leaving the corners.

Think of this space as a great place to have coffee in the a.m. or a place you can read while you watch the kids play in the backyard. You could also use it as a potting shed with a trunk disguised to place to put all your garden tools.  It would be a place to protect your tender plants in the winter. It would make it a more functional room. 

With cute potted plants (think pots of red and pink geraniums) and landscaping (sweet smelling star jasmine vine climbing the posts) it would make the view from the den window lovely. If you planted some gardenia bushes too, when you opened the door/windows in the spring it would smell lovely in that room.

I'll put some pics of plant possibilities in the next post.

Windows

Ok -I'm thinking about the windows in the sunroom.

If we do the porch turned foyer project then we have to buy three new windows for that room. That means we have to buy new front windows and the front second floor window so they will match. That leads me to want to replace the dining room window and the kitchen window and also the second floor living room window because they are high traffic areas and near a new window. I'll also bid the two small 1st floor bathroom windows.

Let's say we keep the windows in the sunroom. Do we replace them too? It would cost the same to make them built ins and architecturally they feel really strange to me. I think the sunroom must have been a porch at one time but now it's weird to have windows into a room. Love the idea of closing off the living room window. It's in a strange place to decorate around and could be a functional shelf in the sunroom.

The den window is a bit more challenging. It will make the room considerably darker sans the window, even with the french door to the sunroom and the double pocket doors to the light bright living room. When it was going to be a library/media room that was not such a problem. What do you think? What if we made that window a floor to ceiling built in book case? Or just cover it with a curtain?

Reconfiging the Bathroom

And I agree with you about the bathroom reconfigure. Here is what I was thinking would be most cost effective.

But if money was no object, I'd blow out the two small closets that are in the bedroom and then you could create a walk in closet on the left that opens into the bathroom with pocket doors. Move the tub to where the right closet is. Move the sink, mirror & sconces to where the tub is currently. This would be costly, but a walk in closet with floor to ceiling shelving! Yummy.

And one more detail..... In the bathroom we had to put pull down stairs to the attic. If we did this layout, they would be in the closet and less obvious. You could still pull them down when you opened the pocket doors to the bathroom though.

BTW, this was Lisa's idea years ago. Brilliant!

Master bedroom

Here is the master bedroom. Sigh..... The picture represents the color pretty well - a pale green.

Love the bathroom pictures you sent and so appreciate this blog to chew on these ideas!!

I am really leaning towards not doing the office nooks. I want to be an architecture purist too! Plus, Jason is not so keen on them. And he's a natural born slob (God love him) so asking him to keep his papers/office neat may be a continual fight. Not good.

Also, it's a lap top so I can work any where. And I could easily devote one of the back guest room closets to become an office. I have picks I'll find about that.

I still love the library idea. You think keep the windows to the sunroom? Hmmmmm..... I am rethinking. I have furniture that would work well in that room. I can always do it later.

Dining Table/G's Bday

Hi. Today is Griffin's bday. He opened his present from ya'll. He loved it. Thanks.  The top pic was while the kids were waiting for dinner.

Check out my new dining table. I bought it two weeks ago, but they just delivered it today. I love it.

Keeping the tile vs. not keeping the tile

Hmmm...That is a lot to think about. Here are my thoughts/pros and cons of each argument.

Keep the peach tile:

• Pros-It is easy, cheap, eco-friendly and leaves you money for other desirable projects: library and desks.
  
• Cons-In addition to the flip-side of the pros, it might be harder to rent the house with that bath. The constant complaint we heard when trying to sell our Monticello house was "pink bathroom".

Lose the peach tile:

If you take out the tile to do a renovation I would consider the following:

It will be a major job to remove that tile. It is set in inches of concrete with chickenwire mesh. Dust everywhere for months.

I would consider rearranging the placement of everything so it gave you more room and better flow. Houses of this era have that notorious long skinny feeling so that all the plumbing could be on one wall. Our current house also had this setup and was rearranged. If you are going to do it, you might as well do it right. The pics have some cute setups.

If you give up the library project and desk project, it wouldn't affect the value of your house. I personally love the large, elegant feel of your lr and it is hard for me to envision the desks there. I'm a purist when it comes to architecture, and I hate changing things unless they really, really need to be changed. 

With that said, if you really, really need desks, put them in.

My same thought applies to the library. If you can make it work without closing off the window, I think it would be better. For resale, taking away a window is a hard sell. 

So, if it were me, and it were my money and all things were equal, I would go with the bath remodel and hold the other projects. But, really it depends on which projects you will enjoy more and get more use from. 

Were I to give in & retile...

Were I to retile I'd.....

Tear out all the tile and add beadboard all around the room a bit higher than where the tile was. This will avoid messing with sheet rock and also can go over where the door was. Add a bit of a ledge on the top, enough to fit a tea light or rest a picture, like you did on McCommas. $700 plus $300 for removing the door

Replace the vanity with a new double sink vanity like this one by PB. $2100! I'd hope to get it cheaper

Tile the shower area with white square tiles with gray grout. I think I'd need to do square since the floors tiles are square? But maybe border the tile with (black?) subway tiles. $700

If I can get a vanity to cover the old vanity area, to the floor , I can avoid retiling the floor.

Reseal the original tub. $500

Replace the tub hardware & add sink hardware. $500

Add new chrome shower rod $200

Large simple mirror (with storage from the vanity you'd not need a medicine cabinet $100

New towel racks & toilet paper $100

I have sconces here I can bring and also will bring an antique small crystal chandler.


Total around 5k........

Something to chew on.

If I did not to the library, just the window book case. And if I did not do the office nooks in the living room then I could do this.

I'm quite torn. I'd really love to find a way to make due with the current bathroom set up and just do the door removal and cosmetic changes. I might rather have the library....

Not this bathroom

Here is a link to a Real Simple article that is not what I want to do to the bathroom. To cutesy. I thought maybe by outlining what I don't want to do, we can better answer what we do what to do.

Cute for your desk/bookcase

I know this is a closet, but I thought it would be cute for your bookcase or built-in desk.

Let's rob a bank....

and do this!

O.K. seriously now. If you paint the vanity grey, what kind of look do you want for that bathroom? Cottage, eclectic, sophisticated, fun?

Thank you so much

Sally,

Thank you so much for all the time you have put into this. You have some amazing ideas and my head has been spinning with them all morning.

I know you stayed up so late on this and it's almost time for you to be getting up again. : )

oxox

Shower Arches

Maybe instead of the shower arches, we could do a wooden built in enclosure similar to these cornice boards. LOVE the decorative holes made with various size drill bits. And you could hang the shower curtain from this and loose the old (broken) chrome shower rod.

Is this to kitschy?

If you painted the vanity and shelves rich gray, wouldn't you have to paint this too? Maybe we leave it all white?

Den turned Library

And I like your idea about the window in the den becoming a built in. I think it might be a better bookshelf than a place for a flat screen just because of where you'd be sitting if the TV was centered. Plus what about the DVD player? I like the idea of the screen being on the wall that's at the rear of the house. This opens lots of good, budget conscious new ideas!

In our living room here in Germany we bought a set of blood wood pieces - a buffet, a pair of book shelves, a small pull down top desk and a cabinet. I've always wanted to paint them black. IF we used all those pieces in that room, it would work nicely. The flat screen could go over the buffet, with the DVD and sound equipment hidden in it. We could even use the desk like we do here for the laptop/printer and postpone the office nooks idea. I have to say the price point on this is very attractive.

This is the buffet that could store the DVD player and DVD's etc.
The flat screen could be hung above it on the wall.

I have two of these book shelves.

This little desk could go in that room too.

A small cabinet that could go in that room to store games and such.

This is what the room looks like.

Can you believe it's been 2 1/2 years since we've been in this house! We will bid out the cost of doing the den turned library, but if it's over budget or if we have to start cutting costs somewhere,that would be a great alternative. Since this house could be a rental some day, we really have to weigh how much is smart to spend.

The drying rack by Ballard Designs.

And on the other side of the window, in the sunroom, there is great original wide bead board I could not replace. SO in that spot maybe a carpenter could make something like this rack for drying laundry. That room would be perfect for that purpose.

Foyer Lighting

Also, I have a huge 8 light bronze chandler I got at the flea market in Budapest. It needs to be rewired and cleaned up, and it might be too big there. It's easily two 1/2 feet across. BUT, it might really be showstopping there and go nicely with the brown stained concrete.

concrete floors

I LOVE the idea of stained & polished concrete floors. And this sounds much cheaper than my other options.

It could make the room feel more like a converted porch than a foyer. To add warmth, I have a great oriental runner that I could put there. Also, with the carpentry work (benches, high molding, shelf/coat hook and window molding) that may help.

Also, since not much will be invested in this, I'd not feel bad about redoing it later if we change our minds.

Arch and storage over bath

Have you thought about adding an arch over the bath? You could add a section with doors above the arch to store linens. We had one on in our McCommas house. I'll see if I can find a better picture.

You would have a wall between your sink/dressing area and your shower-- a nice place for a picture.

I have to go to bed now. I'll send more stuff later. 

Master Bath

I think closing off the door to the hall is a great idea--more space, more privacy. It's a cheap thing to do at about $300.

Here are a couple of color combos to get you thinking. Admittedly--mixing warm colors is not my forte. But, the thought of pushing in more orangy reds, pure reds and happy yellows seems reflective of your warm and bubbly personality. You'd need a little green thrown in to cool off all those warm colors though.

I love this handle. Anthro of course.

I like the mix of colors in this--I think it would dilute all that peach and at the same time compliment it.

These rock

I'm in tile love.

A bunch of stuff I've been meaning to show you

This reminded me of you since you are such a worldly traveler.

I have no idea why this reminded me of you...other than it's cute.

This would be perfect for you to do with the girls.