Rotating Renter's Room Renovation

Our 3rd bedroom has many names. Guest Room, Renter's Room, Sister's Room. (My sister lives in Los Angeles but has claimed our spare bedroom as her own, giving "permission" to our visiting friends to sleep in it.)

In about a week, I have a girl-friend coming to visit and I'm super excited!! The guest room is absolutely presentable, but I want to make it more special than just ok. Sooo.....I'm gettin' to work!

What the room is right now is probably what everyone's spare room is....where all cast-offs live. The problem with my particular guest room inhabitants is that they are in a color palate that isn't necessarily cohesive with the rest of my house....and if there's anything that I learned from my mama, it's that your whole house needs to live in harmony. So I have to make it work!! (And plus, I don't have lots and lots of money to go out and buy new stuff!) The color palate that I've chose for my house, so far, is a cool one. Blues, Greys, Whites, and I've recenty been throwing in Reds and Magenta. The stuff I have from my apartment dwelling days are mostly warm greens and browns.

I know the room is gonna look just FanTastic when it's all put together. I'm going to do a couple projects in there that I've been dreaming of doing forever......(on the super cheap, of course....)

Here are some before pics of the room, followed by some inspiration.....


I took the bed clothes off just so the "before" would look extra bad!! j/k...



The "Flaming June" picture has been in my possesion since I was a single gal.

 Here's what's got me goin'.....

via

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I love the color contrast with all the molding. And since my Arizona desert house has absolutely NO character, I figured that a paint option would be a perfect starter project for me. The real molding will happen soon enough. I just need to do some real planning for that. Oops! Did I just give away my whole plan??? Oh well, you would have found out soon enough anyway.....

Come back to this site to learn how to do stripes and faux molding the easy(-er) way!
BTW, my goal in decorating life is to eliminate as much taping as possible! If you are of the same mind, you probably will want to come back and find out how.....

{Autum Planting in Autumn 2011}

Today is the first day of autumn. I love autumn, and I LOVE being named Autum. And although I loathe, yep, I'll say it..."LOATHE" the typical autumnal palate and crunchy autumn leaves display, I have to say that it's pretty cool having been named after a pretty cool and restful three months. The most magical three months in my humble opinion. It's cool, or cool-ish winds (depending on where you live), sweep away the dusty heat of summer and leave a crisp, serene space for winter to finally settle in. And in this place where summer temperatures rival the surface of the sun's; autumn, and winter are prime time for loads of vegetable crops!

September 9, 2011 was planting day for us at Sevilla Soul Garden. It started out with nearly perfect conditions. We got our start at mid morning; (which is usually quitin' time in the summer!) It was a bit breezy and cool, and hubby and I had a friend along who just happens to be a mad scientist. Well, maybe not totally mad, but I can't think of any better type of scientist, can you?? He does genetic research on plants and is a hoot to have around.

Hubby checking the irrigation at our plot.

I'll give you a quick run-down of the seeds we sowed...

ACORN SQUASH

ZUCCHINI

STRAIGHT NECK YELLOW SQUASH

CALYPSO (YIN YANG)  BEANS

GREEN BEANS

CHIVES

LETTUCE

BEETS (RED & GOLDEN)

BROCCOLI (PURPLE, GREEN & ROMANESCO)

CAULIFLOWER (PURPLE & SNOWBALL)

CUCUMBER (LEMON & ENGLISH)

RADISH

TURNIP

KOHL ROBI

PAK CHOI

LIMA BEANS

(probably tons more that I can't remember right now...)

A sampling of this season's seeds.



Aren't these beans super-cool?? They look like mini "Shamu's"!!



This year, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to drastically increase the quantity and quality of our harvest. So that starts with lots and lots of seeds, right? And, for the type of produce that I want to, umm, produce; namely, heirloom varieties, you can't just pick up all of your seeds at my favorite store, Lowes. Sure, you can find some, but your best bet is to go online for the really special stuff. There are tons and tons of seed sellers all over that sell heirloom seeds. I purchased many from Ebay this year from 3 different sellers.

I also really love Urban Homestead. This site is run by a family in my hometown (Pasadena, CA) that turned their average size backyard into an incredibly, almost self-sufficient homestead. Although I don't want to live exactly like them, they have been very inspiring and an exceptional resource for all things super-hippy.

Check back soon for an update of the seedlings. It's been 2 weeks since they went in the ground. Little baby plants should be sprouting soon!!

{Neat Party Trick}





With all this talk about my Mom-In-Law, I figured I would throw in a little story about her birthday party we had at our house just a couple days ago...and I must admit, I'm pretty proud of the little magic trick that I performed in the laundry room. In order to preserve precious counter space in the kitchen for all of the delicious food that we prepared, I decided to use the washer and dryer as the drink area. But who would want to hang out in there?



My laundry room. Certainly not festive enough for a party.





And now...for the magic word......

 

A LA...PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES......

 

SHAZAAM!!!

 

Neat Trick, Huh??

By using pretty things that I already had around the house, I was able to take a cluttery space
and turn it into a colorful and festive room fit for entertaining guests! This is what I used....



Pink parasols previously used as decor for a garden wedding.



Cheap but pretty items I had from the GoodWill

I tossed a regular old white sheet that's usually  used as a paint dropcloth (and a back-seat cover for car rides with the doggie) on the washer and dryer, and layered it with a grey paisly shower curtain thing that I got at GoodWill for a dollar, and a pink table runner, also from GW for 50c.

Put them together and the laundry room becomes a fun place to grab a soda and admire the cupcakes!

I also conjured up some magic to hide the cabinet contents (detergent and whatnots) with pretty pool towels.

Pretty genuis, I must say. I could have bought ballons to liven up the space for the party (which I often do), but instead, I got to work employing items that I had laying around the house. It cost me not one red cent--I used pretty things that I already had; leaving us money to get mom-in-law a nice gift and plus, it gave me a place to "sweep things under the rug"! Makes me try to think of other things that I can use in unintended but interesting ways!

What fun, free magic tricks have you performed for a party or other occasion? I wanna hear about it.....



{Mother-In-Law's Powder Room} Part III

Continuing on in the story of "The Terribly Tilted Latrine".....
We arrive now at one of the best parts--the showstopper if you will.....the wall tile. We absolutely knew that we wanted a WA-OOW! right when you walk in the door, so we decided to do glass mosaic tile going from the sink, all the way up the wall. We looked at all sorts of glass tile, and ordered these samples online for about $4 a sq ft. 



These are nice, but stop the show; they do not.



And, plus, not being terribly experienced in all things construction, what I do know is that there are many occasions when estimates are incorrect, and you need more material. If we ordered it and had to wait for it to ship and it came broken or not enough, bad news. And we were on a time restriction! So instead, we found what we thought would be perfect at a brick and mortar store, Lowes. (my fave-orite place!!)


The guys actually picked this out. (I'm so proud of their design skills!)



It was a crowd pleaser. We all fell in love with it. The mix of glass and marble added interest and a richness of texture  that would help this bathroom make the jump to a high-end look. And the price was great! $11 per sq ft. Hmm....to go all  the was up the wall, we need about 15 pieces--so we thought.



Brother-in-law starting the tile....this is gettin' good!!

 

Almost there! (This is right about where we ran out of tile sheets)

 

Tile. Done. Isn't it fab?




Here's the crusty old light fixture.....



....and the new! Along with the mirror  that I chose, also from Lowes.

An average fixture can be from $50-$80 but I got this one on clearance for $26!! Another day, another deal! 

Before, just a fan.




...And after, a fan/light combo.  Much nicer, right?

 I think we did a very effective job of brightening the space up. Don't 'cha think so? I can't wait till you get to see the whole space put together and see the reveal video. It's really fun.... Soon enough, my friends, soon enough.

{Mother-In-Law's Powder Room} Part II, The Vanity

This past Winter, my husband, brother-in-law and I decided to do a complete transformation in their mom's super outdated powder room. To turn this plain ole' half-bath into a showstopper while we all three were working full time jobs was going to be  challenge. There was no better time to do it than when she was on a 15 day trip to visit friends in Florida in May. So in late Spring, we got busy with the project. The room had a couple of issues (besides just being old) that you can read about in a previous post.





Nothing but 80's builder grade standard.



So after the demo was done, (no more tilted toilet!) we painted all the walls a refreshing Icy Blue and hung beadboard from the floor to 4' up. Next step was to install the flooring. We used 12x12 travertine that we bought for $2 a sq ft. It was remnant tile that we had found, and some were better than others, so rummaging through crates to find peices that had the least imperfections was necessary. The color was a nice creamy neutral and the price was so right! (Travertine is usally upwards of $6 a sq ft.) We had to be careful on installation to use the worst pieces as the ones we would cut for the edges or around the toilet. But $60 total for natural stone floor tile instead of almost $200??? I'd say it's worth the extra effort. 

We were really torn with our vanity situation. Should we go pedestal or cabinet?

As pretty and fresh as a gleaming white pedestal can be, we didn't want to lose the only storage in the room. So a cabinet it is! The problem that we ran into was that our space was an odd 34". Now, as you might know, most stock vanity cabinets are 30" or 36". But....we couldn't shave an inch off of both sides of a 36" (although I would have given anything to do so! There were so many great options in that size!) and a 30" gave us too much unusable space. We thought our issue was solved when we found a couple options that were 32" but the quality just wasn't up to snuff. And.....with the price of a simple cabinet being about $280, and we still have to purchase a counter-top---well, the desicion was made that we would refurbish the existing piece and get a remnant granite top cut and installed. After all, there was nothing really wrong with the cabinet itself.  No major surgery needed. Just some cabinet paint in a dark color and--

Good As New!



Let's just paint it and get a new granite countertop!



The cabinet shell. I took the doors off  and painted them in the other room.

The cabinet was pretty easy to paint. I used the Rust-Oleum cabinet kit that has everything included in it. It has a solvent that you wipe on the cabinets and doors before you paint, and then gives you easy to follow instructions on how to paint the doors so that you don't get any brush strokes showing. Then you paint on a protective gloss. I've heard from other people that you can just use regular paint to do cabinets, but I wanted them to look great for a long time, and not have any paint flakeage (did I make up a word?). In short, I didn't want to do a janky job of it. And plus, The kit has enough paint to do a small kitchen's worth of cabinets, so we can save it for the next room to spruce up!



You have the paint tinted when you purchase it. All of the color options are listed on the box.

We had a remnant piece of granite cut to fit and installed by a local company called Bathrooms Plus Kitchens. Anyone living in the East Valley, I totally recommend them. They did a lovely job. Their guy was on time, in and out, told us everything we needed to know about the care of the granite, and left us with a little folder containing warranty and care instructions. Thanks guys! You couldn't have made it easier!

Here's a pic of the finished, well sort-of finished product. We still have to mount the door hardware, but you get the idea....





You're also getting a sneak peak look at the gorgeous tile....Lucky you!



There are just a few more details I'd like to show before I reveal to you the completed project, and the super fun video of Mom-In-Law seeing the powder room for the first time..... So....stay tuned!

{Mom-In-Law's Powder Room} Starting the Project

A bit of "back-blogging" for you today. And it's totally worth the trip! Some months ago, my brother-in-law had the great idea to do something really big for his mom, my MIL. Her downstairs powder room needed refreshing in a major way. The fixtures were seriously outdated and there was a very, umm, shall we say,  "interesting" toilet situation. I am so dissapointed that the photo below doesn't show the degree of "tilt" in the toilet. Yes, the toilet is lifted on one side, making any sitters concentrate a little harder in order to conduct business and remain on the seat itself.





Sorry toilet, did I catch your bad side?

 So why on earth would someone have a fun-house toilet? Well, we were all thinking that the handyman that installed the tile and toilet did something incorrect. I mean, the three inch moat of grout sourrounding the toilet gave us no cause to think this man did quality work!

But any way you swing it, the room needed help. The main complaint, (besides the obvious) was that is was dark. My mother-in-law has a wonderful and lively spirit and this room doesn't reflect it. This room must have ree--aaalllly been bothering my BIL for him to suggest that we overhaul it. It's tons of work, we all have full time jobs and the Spring temps in Phoenix were slowly creeping up. But I'm always a sucker for a good renovation, and I get to be project manager!! So I was IN before he could change his mind!! (Just kidding. He'd never change his mind. He'd do anything for his mama.)

Since this was going to be a surprise, we wanted to have all the materials on hand before we started the job. And since it was a gift, we wanted it to be spectacular! And since we're not rich, we needed to get as many deals as we could. That's the fun part for me. I love me a good deal!! I can smell 'em where they hide!

The ultimate goal for the little PR (powder room) was to feel fresh and inviting, and slightly tropical; like a polished resort room. I wanted the walls to have a color, but nothing that would take over it's identity, so I chose an interior semi-gloss in "Icy Blue" by Valspar. It turned out just perfect. To add a little detail and interest, we (my hubby) installed a bead board wainscoting from the floor, up 4'. The trim is pretty neat too. It's a product that is already shaped to fit right over the boards, making a finished look very easy to achieve.

Oh, and by the way, when we removed the toilet, we discovered that tree roots had invaded the plumbing and were actually lifting the toilet up!! Crazy!! I tried to get a pic of it, but the guys shoved a bag in the hole, and I didn't want to touch it to move it out of the way!! The guys had to dig as much as they could of the roots out and use a root killer on the rest. Let's hope it worked.....


Kind of a shoddy pic, but then again, consider the subject. 

 I'll sign off from this post leaving you feeling what we were feeling at the time. Dirty and underwhelmed. We were a long ways away from turning this room into a polished little gem.

More to come.....

{Sevilla Soul Garden} The Beginning...or "Phoenix-- We Grow More Than Just Cactus!"

Moving from Los Angeles to anywhere else is setting yourself up for culture shock. But this can be a good thing! My hubby and I moved to the Town of Gilbert, (yes, a "town"!) a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. And although the three months of summers are truely, truely hot (my sister was afraid that she would burst into flames when she visited, and honestly, I was a little afraid of that myself!) 9 months of the year are downright gorgeous! And what most people don't realize about Arizona is that we have an ideal climate for growing many, many varieties of produce! Yes, folks, here in Phoenix, we grow more than just cactus! (That should be our state motto!) So when we were notified that we recieved a Community Garden Plot at Agritopia, we were beyond psyched!! We've got land!! We thought for sure that all of the current participants would hold on to their 400 square foot garden spaces like a prized jewel. That's how we feel about ours, and we plan on never, ever leaving!!

Simple trellis for Beans



Laying pipe! (hee hee)  ;)





We got our plot in March of this year, and had
a nice window to enjoy working in cool-ish weather before the temps shot up to the triple digits in late June. To get started, we had to construct our own watering system. Each plot came bare, just a 20'x20' box filled with soil and an irrigation hook-up. We constructed a simple drip system with PVC pipe, drip tape and an automatic timer. All the supplies for the irrigation system cost us about $75 dollars. We wanted to construct a simple structure to allow us some vertical growing, so with a roll of steel gridding, (which I scored on clearance for $25, regularly $80)and some 2x4's, we made ourselves a trellis. We also used the gridding rolled in on itself and mounted on stakes to make some really sturdy tomato cages. With our last garden, we learned that tomatoes get really tall and heavy and those little tomato cages that you buy for a couple bucks--what a joke! They don't support squat!! The ones we made worked out really well. I'm very happy with them.

  


Home-made, sturdy tomato cages

  

We piled on redwood mulch to preserve moisture








Weeded till we couldn't weed no mo'....

 


And in 3 months, we began to harvest!!








My beauties!! German Pink, Lemon Boy & Green Zebra

 
Spring/Summer 2011 gave a sucessful harvest with tons of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinni, green beans, peppers and cantelopes. We did not have such great luck with the corn and eggplant this time. But the experience wa-aaayyy more than made up for our failures. We had plenty to eat and even more to share. We didn't keep detailed records of pounds harvested, but in the future, that's something that I really would like to do.

Now that we've had a chance to feel our way around our new garden, we're ready to get serious! I want this year to go for quality and quantity. I want to grow as much as we can in our little plot, and share so much more. I want to give to our friends and family again, of course, but I also plan to have so much produce, that we'll have to take some to the food bank near us. I've never been to a food bank, so that in itself will be an adventure. I can't wait.....



My goal for the Fall (I mean, Autumn)/Winter season is to become a mini-farm. And our farm's name is .......Sevilla Soul Garden. I love it. And I hope you do too!