New Master "Sort of" Suite

So, we've moved around a little....we kicked our kids out of their old bedrooms (into a new attic area - more on that later) and made it our new master "sort of" suite.   I guess the reason I say "sort of" is because it's not your typical spacious master suite with big tub and walk-in closets but we love it nonetheless.  

Here's Ellie's old bedroom she had for 3 years..........

Into our new Master Bedroom......

From the other angle.....

Our funky chandelier......

A little romantic lighting above the bed.......

Here's the view of Ethan's old bedroom he had for 3 years........

Tearing it up to make our new bathroom........

The old bathroom was on the other side of this wall so we had to flip the plumbing and cut out a hole in the floorboards to tie into the plumbing that was underneath..........

Adding a wall and pocket door to divide the shower/toilet area from the vanity area..........

Here's the new vanity area....

The new shower area....

Close-up of the shower/toilet room......

Here's the other view of Ethan's old room......

Here's the same view but uncovering what used to be a door (on the left) which is right at the top of the stairs.......

In between the boards written on the drywall was a fun discovery.  The previous owners wrote a note back in 1998.  They probably wouldn't have guessed we would open up that doorway 15 years after they closed it up!   The couple wrote that they, along with their four children (all named with their ages at the time) were living temporarily in this upstairs apartment while they got the day care center off the ground.  They had left their teaching professions to start this endeavor.  I loved how they signed it, "May God bless this building and all those who may occupy it!"

Installing pocket doors.......

Here's the AFTER view.....

During demolition I took this picture of the laundry chute (in Ethan's room) that we made awhile back.  Above the chute was the remains of the old chimney......

We had to extend it out to make the shower so here's the new laundry chute (door is open).   The bottom door is for a little trash can.....

I thought Dustin was pretty genius to make the new chute angled and smooth so clothes just slide on down.....

Here's the view (from the toilet area) of where we hang our towels and have lots of storage.  

We can even keep our vacuum around the corner......

Our little misc. storage and "hair station" where we keep the blow dryer, curling irons, etc...

This was the small bathroom (taken before we even moved in).......

 The old gross shower.....

This is how we flipped all the plumbing from this wall to the new bathroom on the other side of the wall....

Old bathroom into a new master closet!  

(I thought to take half the clothes out and make it look all fancy like the magazines....and then thought again)

Walkway

I keep forgetting to post about our new walkway to the front door!!

This is the Before....crumbling cement stairs......

This is the DURING back in Oct of 2012.  The concrete guys took out the whole last step to put the walkway on a slight slope.  They also dug out the flat part before the next flight of stairs in order to completely redo it........

Here's the AFTER...........

Close-up of stained concrete.........

Grand Prize Winners: Best Whole House Remodel 2013

My son Ethan took this picture of me after we received our copy of This Old House magazine.   It is quite surreal going to the mailbox and seeing our own kitchen on the cover of the magazine that we've subcribed to for years.........

It all started with me thinking we might have a shot at winning This Old House annual whole house remodel contest so I went online, put a few before and after pictures, told our story, and hoped for the best.

A couple of weeks later I got a call and my heart skipped a little when I saw New York, NY on my caller ID.  Sure enough it was the magazine just asking a few questions because they loved our house and we were being considered in the final decision.......but we needed to send some more pictures.

I sent more and then our family left on vacation over Spring Break.  On our way to San Fransisco, in the middle of nowhere Nevada, I get another call from NY and my heart REALLY skipped a beat....maybe this is it!?  Nope, they needed more pictures from every angle imaginable!

We pull over at the next exit in the middle of the desert to a McDonalds with WiFi and thankfully we have my laptop with lots of stored pictures.   For the next hour and a half we go through hundreds of pictures and try to email them the best ones we could find.

Back on the road (we are crazy with excitement at this point) we get another call from NY.  Still need more pictures!  The problem now is we don't have a lot of those shots and we're not home to take them.  Luckily, my brother, who is an awesome photographer and happens to be in town and willing, goes to our house and takes all the pictures needed and emails them to NY.  I warned our contact there that the house was pretty messy but she assured me they just needed angles and they didn't care how messy it was.  phew!

I don't remember all the other calls but there were a couple of very nice people from different departments of the magazine.....one which gave us a little interview of our story, things that we did to the house, what our future plans were, and most of all making sure we were the owners of the house and not somebody else's house or one that we planned to sell soon.

The next call was the big one.  Dustin and I were sitting in our hotel and I screamed when she told me we won.  Dustin and I were so happy, so excited, so amazed....almost in disbelief.   For the next 3 days we kept looking at each other, shaking our heads, and telling each other we won.  :-)

So, what did we win?  Besides the satisfaction of winning and having the coolest experience of having our house featured in a magazine?  A NEW TRUCK and $5000 CASH!!

Here's a little bit of our experience.  2 days of photographers taking pictures and videos.  Here's 12 boxes of Crate & Barrel stuff that the stylist had shipped to stage our house......

Photographers and stylist at work......I didn't know how much time went into getting the perfect shot........

The lighting had to be perfect.........

Videographer at work......

I was worried about how the video would turn out because I thought I was so goofy.  I kept messing up!  I told the videographer that he better edit it very well and make me look halfway normal!  ha ha

The photographers, videographer, and stylist who came were so awesome, so fun to hang out with, and very talented.   They all had stories of working with lots of famous people, magazines, and traveling the world.  We loved this experience with them.

Here's a lot of the equipment in our entryway.......

Here's the big truck that delivered the 2013 GMC truck that we photographed with for the 

magazine shoot....

With this big truck out in front, photographers taking video and our family pictures out front, we had quite a few texts, calls, and Facebook messages...."What is going on at your house?"

We were supposed to keep it quiet until the magazine came out......for 2 months!!!   Very difficult to do.

For more cool pictures and the video, check out this link......

htmlhttp://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/info/0,,20701269,00.html

Spring Decorating!

We've been getting some Spring decorating projects done around here!

First off,  awhile ago we painted the stage alcove a nice gray color (Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray) and filled the blank wall with an artistic display of old ceiling tiles found at a local consignment shop...... 

Close up of overlapping ceiling tiles.....

This was a quick and easy project I made using scrap wood  - 

Cornice boxes covered with burlap and 

upholstery tacks.......

(upholstery tacks were the cheating kind that you pound in a nail every 4th one)

Overall look of living room with spring pillows.......

Love the splash of color.......

Totally in the mood for Spring.......

One of my favorite projects that I haven't posted about yet....our new china cabinet!  

The china cabinet had to be TALL so the only solution within our budget was to MAKE one!

We started out by buying an old dresser on craigslist.  It was lightly stained so with a quick sanding it was ready to be painted......

Dustin of course built the top and cute doors.........

I painted, distressed, and glazed........

I didn't want a normal back so I covered it with fabric, stretching it across and stapling along the 

back edges of the hutch..... 

Finally, a place for my linens, place mats, and extra china dishes!.....

Amazing what a few cut branches from outside can do to brighten the mood and bring the feeling of Spring inside!

Even a couple of spring pillows make me cheery.........