Catching Up- May/June 2014

Wow- two months since my last post!  Life's been hectic lately... and the blog fell to the side for a bit.
I hope that I can get back into a rountine with it!

Here are some random things we've had happening with the house...

Mike built doors for the closets under eaves of the media room.

They had to be custom built, since the openings were an odd size.

I've primed them, Mike got hinges and hung them, and now I need to paint them.

We also bought the hardware- just a basic satin nickle knob for each.




I also added this shelf up there... I'm still fussing with what goes on the shelves.  For now it's photo albums, blankets, a couple of old Atari games, and empty buckets/storage bins.






I put together these mason jars of old thread spools and buttons.  They'll look great in a laundry room (some day!)








The fruit trees that we planted last year are doing good!
We lost one of them, so replaced it with a new nectarine tree.

Most exciting is that the peach tree has three peaches on it!  They are rather tiny, but a good start!!!!

Other items...
We've been moving forward with the plans for the extension.  Of course, after living in the house for a few years and mulling over the existing drawings, we now want to change some things.  I'll post about that once we've met with the architect again.

Media Room Updates

Although I had declared it done, there are still lots of little things we're working on in the Media Room...


We finally got the rug padding put down under the carpet.  It was a bit of patchwork to get it to cover the entire area under the rug.

I hemmed the curtains using iron on hem tape that I still had left over from making knight costumes for my son's 2012 birthday party!)

And, we're finishing up the moldings.  Here is a section that needed some wood putty to even out the space between the wall & the molding (since nothing is truly square in a house this old!)


 I hope to get the last coat of paint on them this weekend...

Media Room- Before & After

This room has come a LONG way!

Here are the Before & After photos...

From the Doorway:

From the Left Corner of the room: 

From the Right Corner of the room: 

There have been a bunch of posts as we've finished this space:

Before/Start of project

New Windows installed

Electric to do list and work done

Radiator re-installed

Ripping down attic hallway ceiling

Insulation
Drywall
White washing beams
moldings and more
Painting
Flooring
Under the Eaves
Window Safety
Curtains
Decor

As I mentioned earlier in the week, there are still some items up in the air:

Here it's set up with
"Vader-ade" & "Luke SkyWater"
for my son's Star Wars birthday party

-put mini fridge & microwave up here?  - We brough our wine fridge up here, since we weren't using it downstairs.  It's located in the right corner of the room (but can't be seen in the wide shot from the doorway because the couch is in the way)

-put the mini combo foosball/hockey/pool table up here, and maybe a desk for doing homework? - you can see we've added the foosball table (photos above).  Will have to see about a desk, since this is the same wall I thought we'd put it on.

-add a bookshelf or armoire?  I'd like to put some of the board games up here (the linen closet may also work well for this since it's right outside the door of this room).

-bring leather coffee table from downstairs living room up here? 

-Pull the couch out into the room a couple of feet (it would still be a good viewing distance from the TV), and put a console table and two bar stools behind the couch.  I think it would be perfect for the kids to sit back there while eating, or whatever.  We're debating this one!

Media Room Decor

We still have some finishing touches to make on the Media Room, but here's where we landed with the major purchases...

Rug-
Mike & I both fell in love with this rug when we saw it on Joss & Main.  I was thrilled that we agreed on it so quickly!  We went ahead and got the largest size- 8'9"x12', which still allows for a nice area of wood flooring to show around the outside of the room.

We also picked up rug pads, which we still need to cut/patch to the right size 

(one wasn't big enough).

Next up was the TV & stand...
We got the TV during a Black Friday deal at Best Buy.
The stand is from IKEA- so we had to put it together ourselves.  We picked it because it met our solid wood requirement, was just the right height for the wall and width for the TV, and was a good price.

I like that it has two drawers for storage of movies and games.  I moved the navy blue storage boxes here from the kids' bedroom closets... they are perfect for holding the remotes & gaming accessories.

The couch was ordered and arrived right around Christmas- so I'm glad to finally have all the boxes out of the downstairs living room!

We purchased it through Wayfair.  I was a little nervous since I had never ordered from them before, but I was really pleased with everything.  We chose a sectional covered in a microfiber material because it's soft, but has good wearability (a big must since it's going to mostly be used by the two boys!)

You can tell our cat is loving it! 

The lighting was a bit more of a pain...
We first picked out these globes for the pendant lights:

But the openings at the top were too large.

So, we returned them and ended up with these:

Light off

Light on

But our lighting issues didn't end there... the electrician hung the fan, but the light's globe cracked as he was fastening it.  So... he's coming back with the replacement for that.

Here's a shot of the lighting while I was standing on a ladder.  

There is a pendant on each side of the fan.

I love the exposed brick you can see from this view!

We don't have doors for the undereave storage yet (Mike is hoping to build them this spring).  For a temporary fix, I fastened curtain rods (that I already had) on the insides of the doorways, and hung black curtains that I found on clearance at Walmart.  Not bad for a short-term solution.

You can see we also installed the outlet covers (and the light switch plate)

Here are the items that we need to finish up...
-finish painting the base moldings (one more coat to go!)
-the globe for the fan light mentioned above.
-door saddle
-door- needs to be shaved down a touch so it won't scratch the hardwood floors.  Then it needs a second coat of paint.  I'm working on cleaning up the hardware now.
-hang wall art. We have a few items that we know we want up here, but I want to get the rest of the furniture items listed below settled before putting holes in the walls!

Things we are considering...
-put mini fridge & microwave up here?  I'm finding it's a huge pain to go down all those steps to the kitchen on the first floor!
-put the mini combo foosball/hockey/pool table up here, and/or maybe a desk for doing homework?
-add a bookshelf or armoire?  I'd like to put some of the board games up here (the linen closet may also work well for this since it's right outside the door of this room).
-bring leather coffee table from downstairs living room up here?
-Pull the couch out into the room a couple of feet (it would still be a good viewing distance from the TV), and put a console table and two bar stools behind the couch.  I think it would be perfect for the kids to sit back there while eating, or whatever.  We're debating this one!

Media Room Curtains

Since we were just talking windows... you may have noticed that we added curtains!

Just a simple gray that we picked up at Bed Bath & Beyond.















The curtain rod is a basic black that curves to the wall, allowing for great black out (for movie watching).


I still need to hem them... and will get around to that sooner or later!

Ooo- you can also see in this bottom photo that Mike has almost finished the base moldings!
Last weekend we were at a stand-still on the projects while I frantically got the house ready for a certain 9 year old's StarWars sleepover party!  That's why there hasn't been any before/after shot of the room yet- it's all decked out with Jedi-related decorations!

Media Room- Window Safety

The media room is on the third floor, and the windows are quite low to the floor...

I've been having nightmares that the boys will begin wrestling and fall into (and through) the windows.

We quickly decided that for piece of mind we should install window guards on both windows.

Here are the ones we picked:

We selected them for their size (wanted it to be large enough to secure the entire bottom of the window) and also for their emergency open feature.  (Another one of my fears is a house fire).

Mike installed them last weekend, and although they aren't pretty- I feel much better having them!

Window Guard Closed

We showed the boys how to open them by removing the black "key", then pulling the guard up & toward them... stressing this is only to be done in an emergency.

Window Guard swings open for emergencies

I also put one of those emergency window ladders in the storage area right next to the window, and made sure the kids knew how to operate that as well.

Now that our big safety concerns have been addressed, we can rest a little easier when the boys are playing up there.

Behind the Scenes... er... Eaves

We're wrapping up the media room project, and I hope to have a Before/After post ready soon, but in the meantime, here's a peek behind the knee walls.

We had the electrician install lights back there, so we could easily see the labels on the storage tubs.

The light switches for these are right inside the doors on each side.  

I've also typed up a quick reference list to which tubs are on each side.  This will hang under the light switch.

The lights were ones we picked up at Home Depot.  We didn't need anything fancy.

You can also see the outlet that we installed back here- that's for the TV & it's components/accessories.

Here's the front where the cables enter the wall...

Don't mind the debris on the floor- this was right after
Mike cut the opening.

We picked up the little cover/access port at Home Depot or Lowes (after so many trips to each, I forget where we ended up finding this!)

Here it is again from the back, this time with the surge protector all hooked up:

We also re-routed the cable from the DirecTV dish through the eaves- the guy was so happy it was already run when he came to install the new receiver.  

Certainly made for a faster install!

I like that everything is hidden back behind the wall- no more bunches of wires collecting dust under the TV console!

Media Room Flooring

We ordered the hardwood flooring from Lumber Liquidators- it's 3/4" hardwood, pre-stained.  This will allow it to be sanded and refinished, if ever needed.  We decided to do the installation ourselves.

The first step was mixing up the boxes of planks, so that any slight differences in the stains from different batches of flooring won't be noticeable. 

Then we made sure to leave a little space at the edge, and got to work laying everything out- being careful not to have the seams lining up.

We used pieces of the base molding to be sure that the space left for expansion of the wood would be covered.

The first row of flooring had to be nailed with the nail gun (which we borrowed from Mike's brother).  We made sure that the nails will be covered by the base molding too.

For the rest of the floor, we used the flooring nailer that we rented from Home Depot.

It took the whole day  and it all went pretty smoothly with the execption of the last row- those boards needed to be cut lengthwise about half an inch, so that took a little longer.

The trickiest part was getting the boards under the radiator.  We basically put those three boards together as a unit and as Mike lifted the radiator, I slid them under.  They aren't all nailed individually, but between the weight of the radiator, and the nails in the last row of boards (which will fall under the molding) it should hold in place.  We still have a random scrap board under there (on top of the flooring), which will be replaced with a piece of marble.  

So, now the flooring is complete!

From the doorway

Reverse from corner of room

Reverse from opposite corner

We're working on the base molding, and now the doorway molding can be completed.  Getting closer!

Media Room- Painting Done!

Lots of work done up here over the weekend... but first I need to get you caught up with the progress we made last week painting!

Mike took care of painting the ceiling and white walls, and I finished the second coat on the blue walls and two coats of white semi-gloss paint on all the moldings.

Here's a quick look at the walls fully painted, plus the window & closet moldings in place!

From the doorway

We still have to do the door frame molding, but need to wait until the floor is in...

Reverse from the corner

Reverse from the other corner

Next on the agenda is painting the door (the back of it is currently lovely shade of green that we're calling "rotten grape"!  I tend to have the door open in photographs, so you don't really see it in the shots above, but you can catch a glimpse here)

The electrician is also scheduled to be back to install the fixtures- getting closer!!!