Category: Current House

Dragonfly is the New Peacock?

Published on by Our Humble Abode13 Comments

It’s starting.  The era of bold, saturated color.  I fell for Benjamin Moore’s Dragonfly as soon as I saw it.  In an effort to step out of my comfort zone and go with my instincts, I decided to buy a gallon of Dragonfly, color matched in Glidden paint.  Where is this going?  I decided to test the water, um, paint in the master closet.  Boring cream walls and shelving are a perfect starting point.

I started by painting the shelf supports with Wal Mart’s bright white exterior paint.  Why?  Three reasons.  1.  It’s bright white, no need for color matching.  2.  We already had it on hand from a few mailbox touch ups.  3.  I hope exterior holds up to wear and tear better.  Back to the fun paint.  After slapping a coat of white up, I started with Dragonfly.

And I’m even more in love with it on the walls.  It’s bold, but not too bright.  Saturated, but not overwhelmingly dark.  It’s blue, it’s green, and it’s lovely.  Now I have to find time between packing and cleaning to finish what I started.  I feel confident using this on the walls of the master bedroom, too.  Happy camper, right here.

What do you think?  Is Dragonfly the new peacock?  I think we should start a trend.  Ha.

No Shortage of Yardage

Published on by Our Humble Abode21 Comments

Weather here in Montana was b.e.a.utiful this weekend.  On Saturday, we made had a bathroom shopping spree at Home Depot, spurred by a 10% off coupon and a great need for a tub.

That was Saturday morning.  Saturday afternoon we went up to the new house.  Ben wan’t in the mood to work on the bathroom, so he and Handy Sammy capitalized on the sunny day, working on cleaning up the yard.  Year(s) of neglect made the landscaping a hot mess.

Cleaning up loads of weeds and several dead plants.  And oodles of pine needles.

I know they hauled at least two pick up truck fulls of pine needles and such from the side yard, right here off the deck.

This little area was also a house plant graveyard.  Anything that died got tossed out here, sometimes in the planters, sometimes not.  A helpless duck planter (shown above) was an innocent victim of plant and planter tossing.

While we were over there, I asked Ben to cut down a scraggly tree and old stump.

He easily cut down the little Russian Olive tree.  The stump was rotten, so a several strong kicks and it fell apart.

After that, we called it a day and headed to the other house for dinner and a shower.  On Sunday, Ben started bathroom work while Handy Sammy got friendly with our weed whacker.  He asked what he could do, so we asked him to cut down the weed covered hillside.

Left-Yard-Last-Year

Now we can see the yard.  And all the things we’ll have to do to get it looking nice.

Right-Yard-Last-Year

We’re certainly no where near a nicely landscaped yard, but it’s one small step in the right direction.  Also, we met several of our new neighbors this weekend.  I think they were all very happy to see we’re cleaning it up, lessening the eye sore the previous owner left behind.

Make Light of the Situation

Published on by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

On Saturday, we made had a bathroom shopping spree at Home Depot, spurred by a coupon and a great need for a tub.

Four carts total including: three Kohler Highline toilets, one American Standard jetted five-foot tub, 12 sheets of concrete board, a stack of two by fours, a sink and tub faucet (Kohler Mistos) and a Rheem tankless water heater.  Our coupon took $200 off (that was the max) and we got another $300 off because Ben found the same water heater online for about $150 less than Home Depot’s price.  Remember, Home Depot has a ‘meet and beat’ policy.  So they matched the online price and beat it by 10%.  We love that policy.

I mentioned here that I was trying to talk Ben into my lighting plan.  Well, he has agreed to it.  What is that plan?  I want to use pendants in place of sconces in the bathroom.  Yes, I said pendants.  So we looked at HD’s options, seeing two things I like.  This Home Decorators bubble pendant for $70 each.

And this cylindrical glass pendant for $80 each.

While I liked the style, I’d like to stay under 100 bucks for both pendants.  Then I looked at Lowes, where I found a few more options.  I really wanted to use these pendants in the kitchen, and quite like them for a bathroom.  At $41 each, we’re under budget, but Ben has a requirement of using standard sized bulbs so we’re not on a wild light bulb hunt when we need replacements.  Too bad these are tiny little bulbs.

I do like this ORB cylinder pendant for $48.  Similar to the one above, but I like that the bulb is concealed.  We prefer to use CFL bulbs to cut down on consumption, but they’re not pretty.

The style is great, but we’ve got chrome faucets and other chrome accents.  Too bad this only comes in ORB.  I’m still considering it though.

I also like this polished nickel pendant for $48.  It’s chrome, a mix of traditional/industrial style, and takes a standard bulb.  However, I’m concerned this won’t give adequate lighting.

Right now, the only light in the bathroom is from two small sconces.  We bought a Sky Tube to add natural light, but we probably won’t have an overhead light in the ceiling.  So, what to do?

Do you have similar lights?  Are they bright enough?  Which style do you prefer?  Are you on board with pendants in place of sconces?  I’m excited for it.

Gimme a Giveaway Winner: Chasing Alila & Design Samples

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

Last Friday we asked what you were ‘chasing’ or planning.  Until last week, we were chasing our new house.  Not that we’ve closed, we’re chasing moving into it and closing on our first house.  The winner of the Chasing Alila giveaway, Wendy, is chasing after a new job and house.  Good luck, Wendy!

Now, let’s talk design samples.  I borrowed the sample board from the tile shop to see which colors looked best in our bathroom.  Like I thought, I want Cebu Aqua on the floors with charcoal gray grout (to hide dirt from little feet) and Cebu Moka with white grout for the shower surround.  While I think the Silver is pretty, it’s just too dark for dim our space.

I haven’t landed on a paint color for the bathroom yet.  Maybe a pale gray?  Perhaps a very light tint of the vanity color?  What I do know is the color I want for the main areas.  Wood Smoke by Glidden.

It was my second choice for the living room at our first house.  And it looks perfect in here, on the sample.

Not terribly dark, but not pale.  I grabbed a few dark gray swatches too, to see what I thought of those.  Seal Gray (also Glidden) is no darker than the red accent wall, but it’s too dark to paint the entire living and dining rooms with.  No accent walls either.

However, I do want a dark color for the master bedroom.  The current blue is both dark and ugly, but I don’t mind the dark.  The room is bright enough with sunlight streaming in through those south and east windows.  Especially once we add a king bed with white bedding, pale floor to ceiling curtains (maybe white with detailing?  maybe a different light color?), and white trim and doors.

Dragonfly by Ben Moore (left) is my first choice for the moody blue-green.  If we’re playing it safe, I’d choose Caribbean Teal (the middle color on the right strip).  Basically it’s a darker version of the color we have in the kitchen and dining rooms at our first house.

In this house, I don’t want to play it safe.  I want to go with my first choice, even if it might look terrible on four walls.  It’s only paint and can easily be changed, so why not take a chance, right?

And really, anything is better than the current poor coverage blue.  Eek to those sconces, too.

When I ask V what color he wants his new room, half of the time he’ll say green.  The other half he says yellow.  Green is his favorite color, but I think he wants yellow because that’s what his other room is.  I think I’ll split the difference with a yellow-green.  I prefer Refined Tan, an Ace Hardware color (on the bottom left).  It might be a tad bright, but I like the general color.

Perhaps I’ll get a 75% tint.  Or maybe I’ll get full color and temper it with other neutrals.  I already have a plan for curtains.

All I know is I like it and so does V.  Ben said he doesn’t care either way.  Sadly, we can’t paint either of these bedrooms right away because we (ahh hem, Ben) has popcorn ceiling to scrape off.  I’m sure the walls will get dirty in that process and I’m too lazy to paint the walls twice.  So not looking forward to painting those heavily textured walls in our bedroom.

What do you all think?  Do you have a favorite yellow-green color?  Which blue would you choose?  Do you prefer light or dark colors in a bedroom?

You’re Tearing Up My Heart?

Published on by Our Humble Abode26 Comments

Actually, he’s tearing up my pool.  And bathroom.  Of course the ‘he’ I’m referring to is Ben.  The day after closing on the new house, Ben decided to tear out the pool liner to see what we’ll have to fix.

Naturally, V was the site supervisor.  That boy sure does love construction.  It makes sense I guess, look at what we spend so much of our time doing.

When we first looked at the house, the pool was half filled with stagnant green water.  There’s still a little left in this picture.  Fortunately you can’t see the huge centipedes or the dead mouse.  How about we look at a room without dead critters?  Here’s the main bathroom, before Ben got in there.

Yes, it’s updated, but not to our lifestyle or taste.  This is the bathroom the boys and guests will use.  Because of that, we need a tub and a shower.  We want to lighten it up, too, both with natural light in the form of a Sky Tube and lightning the walls.  Dark bead board + minimal light = dungeon.

While the vanity might look pretty, it certainly doesn’t have much function for the size.  Don’t even get me started on the lights.

While we have another house to live in with bath tubs, we decided to get started on this monster right away.  Ben pulled the fixtures first.  We plan to Craigslist the vanity and hope to reuse the claw foot tub in the master bathroom.  Has anyone painted the exterior of a claw foot tub?  I’d love to hear your experiences.

Back to the subject, the main bathroom.  After taking out the large pieces, Ben tore off the bead board, which was held in place not only by nails, but glue too.  Looks like this house will have a trim treatment after all!  Floors, gone.  Tub, sitting in the pool room.

With the vanity and mirror down, we discovered the lighting situation.  Plugged in sconces, anyone?

Yesterday morning, the boys and I looked around for tile, both for the floor and the shower surround.  I think we’ve made a decision.  Here it is:

That’s the large sample to show the design, but we’re thinking of going with a lighter color to brighten the room.

Maybe the middle color for the floors with dark grout and the top color for the shower with white grout.  I haven’t the slightest idea as to why the middle is called Aqua…  These tiles are a true body tile (the same color through) and come in a 12 inch by 24 inch.  Get this, they’re under $4 a square foot.  Sweet.

After considering different layouts, we’ve decided to keep the same plan.

We’ll build an open vanity, similar to the basement vanity at our first house, but we’ll have a small linen closet at the end for more storage.  I’d like to paint the vanity a fun color, hence the blue/green.

The rest of the room is so neutral, and with a leggy vanity, it’s not much color anyway.  And I love the color Jenny used on her entry console (Behr’s Billiards Table).  Worst case scenario, I repaint if we don’t like it, right?

What do you think of the new house plan?  Can you tell we want to do something a different from our first house?  This house should be a little more modern, dramatic, and bold.  A bright painted vanity fits the bill.  Oh, and I’m trying to talk Ben info killer lighting.  More info as we get there.