Around the house – 22 Greystreet

Our front entry redo

When we bought our house, one of the things I didn’t really like was that the dining room was right next to the front door. I think if we had an eat-in kitchen it wouldn’t have bothered me as much, but given that this was our only place to eat, the layout seemed really awkward and not very private from anyone randomly stopping by our house.

The idea we came up with was to build a wall at the entry to give us privacy and the entry more of a feeling of purpose than just an opening into the dining room. To the left of the dining room table there was a wall that split the dining room and kitchen, which also seemed weird. So, part of our plan was to also rip out the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room in order to make an eat in kitchen. But that’s a post for another day.

If you look at the before pictures you can see blue tape on the floor. We did this to figure out where the new wall needed to go and get an idea of how much room we would have in the new entry. We were also limited by how far we could push the wall out because of the window in the dining room. Along with the tape we also briefly hung some curtain down from the ceiling to give us a better visual feel as to what the new wall would look like.

We paid contractors to build the new wall for us up to the point of texturizing. Then we primed, painted and installed new baseboards. The old door had seen better days, so my awesome husband also installed a new dutch door. I thought a dutch door out in the country would be fun. I painted it the same color as a built-in in our living room.

The rug, light fixture, and mirror are from Ballard Designs. The shoe cubbies are from Ikea, the pillow from Etsy, and the chair I bought on clearance a couple years ago from Crate and Barrel. The monkey lamp I’ve had for about 20 years and has been broken and fixed a few times.

The #SUMMER banner I made and is available through me Etsy shop, LittleUrbanite.

We have a catch all for keys and sunglasses and, some hooks for coats or bags, and a great book under the monkey lamp, Do Unto Animals by Tracey Stewart. The chicken and sheep photos on the wall I took at the Farm Sanctuary in Acton, our family spent Valentine’s Day at the sanctuary.

So there you have it, our new cozy little entryway!

Kid/Guest Bathroom Remodel

So, we moved to North San Diego county at the end of July 2015 from Portland, Oregon. We lived in Oregon about 8 1/2 years and came to the conclusion that, well, we missed the sun. We had left California to try something different, but were now ready to move back. So, we bought a place with a couple acres of land out in the country and have been busy ever since trying to fix it up. The house is about 1850 square feet and was built in 1996. It hadn’t been updated and was well lived in and in need of some love. The paint colors were all very dark, so the first thing we did was paint paint paint. We chose a white color with just a hint of green, a color we used in our last two houses and decided would be a good neutral pallet since we weren’t quite sure what color scheme we wanted to use.

The next task we focused on was the kid’s bathroom/guest bathroom. Our house only has two bathrooms so it was important that we made an inviting space for guests, but also kid friendly. We did all the work ourselves, trying to keep the costs down as low as possible. The tub/shower was tiled in white squares with a dark green strip of small square tiles. Since the white tiles were in good shape we decided to carefully take out the green strip and replace it with a more updated look. We chose a mosaic tile with white ceramic and marble. We also replaced the floor tile with light grey 12/24 inch tiles. We put in a new toilet and replaced the old oak cabinet with a white cabinet with a marble top that came with the sink already attached and a faucet that came free with purchase. The marble countertop has proven to be a little more stressful to maintain than I thought. It discolors easily if water sits on it for too long, or if the kids drop toothpaste on it and I don’t notice right away. You also need to be careful what you use to clean it with. I use water for quick cleanup and hydrogen peroxide for a deeper clean. I can’t use my go to vinegar on the marble surface. So I find myself wiping down the countertops more often than usual since my girls seem to get water everywhere whether they’re brushing their teeth or just washing their hands. We also decided to put up another big mirror to cover up all the marks left behind from taking down the old mirror. If we did it over we’d probably patch up the wall and use a more decorative mirror to make it feel cozier. Someday I’m hoping to go back and trim it out with wood to soften it a little. The mermaid pictures on the wall I painted with water color (using a picture I found online as a guide) and then bought matching towels. My girls each have color and hang up their towel under the matching picture. Finally, the lighting was changed out, we installed a new shower head, the walls were painted, and we installed new baseboards.

This project took us about a week with weekends on both ends. We ran into problems with the new vanity being taller than the old one and plumbing had to be moved which was a big pain for my husband and resulted in a lot of trips back and forth to the hardware store for plumbing pieces.

Bathroom before

The bathroom after. We had just gotten two kittens and Sprinkles was checking out the new sink.

Save