Trim, trimney, trim trim, trim tra ree!

(Hint: sing the subject line like that crazy chimney sweep guy from Mary Poppins.. one of the best movies EVER).

Anywho. Let's talk about trim. Trim comes in various forms/names/styles - casing, baseboard, shoe molding, crown molding, etc. - but really, trim should be called "the ultimate band aid." It covers up all of the unfinished drywall that covers your walls and it is amazing what it can do for a room.

See Exhibit A - master bedroom closet doors with no trim. Pretty blah, huh?

Then, you attach the ultimate band aid and wa-la! A nice, finished look to your room!

Trim can make the wall paint "pop" too! We went with a modern casing for around the windows and doors. The baseboard was simple and shoe molding will be a must down the road because our floors are the opposite of level.

I can't take any credit for this trimming madness. Adam was the master casing man. Mitering like a pro.

Then Kaye followed behind filling holes like it was nobody's business. Seriously. If Kaye wanted to start up her own gig, I would hire her as painter (aka miracle worker) until the cows came home. She is a pefectionista! And it's amazing. I clearly did not inherit a domestic bone in my body - Kaye has it all!

This is the view from the guest (green) room in through the bathroom to our master (blue) room. You can see the chocolate brown vanity in the bath. It's 100% Amish. Can I get a hollar for the Amish? They don't mess around when it comes to woodworking.

Walk around your place. I'm sure you've never noticed the trim before (I never knew it was there). Maybe give it a hug? It's doing more than you think!

Good news, trim = done. Now just waiting on the granite....

Is it Spring yet???

Who's ready? I sure am! Between the snow, the rain and the high winds, I have just about had it with this crappy weather. Move away from Ohio you say... one day we may. But for now, we'll keep our families close and enjoy our labor of love.

During the carpet day and when it felt like the snow would never melt, we met some friends. These big fat arse robin's were chirping all day and it was glorious! Aren't these birds some sign of Spring?! How did they get so freaking fat you may ask? Who knows, but they sure brightened our day!

This guy, I'll name him Harold, was right outside our bedroom window. He looks coooollld.

This the view of the courtyard in the back from our window. Aidan likes to call it "the castle" with the wrought iron gate and brick wall. All of those black shapes are the big fat birds!

I love that you can see the ice on the trees.

Tis cold today still... but the snow has melted, wahoo! Enjoy your V-day everyone. Ours will be filled with finalizing our closet organizer and cleaning. We're almost there!

You may be from the 80s if...

YOU HAVE A SLOTTED STAIRCASE! Yes, we have slotted stairs. While our place is smack dab in the historical and beautiful Victorian Village; our 1980s home some how weaseled it's way into the mix. At first, we were quite skeptical of these slotted stairs. Will the nieces and nephews fall through the stairs? Should we try to close them up?

We decided no. They have some character and couldn't be too dangerous, right? So far, no injuries.

They had some nasty carpet on them at first, we stripped the grossness and had bare hardwood steps for awhile. We contemplated hardwood flooring, but realized it would be very hard to do AND would be a little costly. Ta-da! We decided on carpet. Arctic Snow (a California Berber...thank you DA and TA for your inspiration). The one. And THANK GOODNESS for Adam's wrestling buddy Nick. He's amazing at his craft!

He had never wrapped stairs like ours before, but did a fantastic job! Not easy to do, probably wasn't easy in the 80s either.

We let the Arctic Snow in our master bedroom as well. Good padding is the secret to comfy on your toesies type carpet.

I always wondered how they took care of the seam in the room.... an iron! I mean, carpet does not come in big, cut to size pieces for your room.... maybe I thought that one day.

Check out this super sweet ladder that you can place on steps and not fall down! Carpet was a must for the basement stairs as well. One other fabulous thing about Arctic Snow is that it does not show dirt or footprints either. Don't worry, I'll vacuum!!!

Thank you Nick! He knocked this out in like a day total!

The One - maple select hardwood (the solid stuff)

When searching for flooring, we knew that we wanted hardwood all throughout the first floor. It's gorgeous, it's sturdy and yes, it's pricey, but tooootally worth it. We have found throughout this process that when it comes down to making a large purchase, we seem to find ONE thing in the store that we like. One couch. One ceiling fan. One cabinet model. And yes, one hardwood floor. We chose maple (sturdier than oak, the second most sturdy of all) and we loved the natural maple. We spent many an hour in Lumber Liquidators (the best place to shop for hardwood), but feel that we made the right decision on THE ONE.

We also were suckers and laid the floor in the guest bedroom/office. "You can wheel your chair around" was Adam's argument. I gave in. Ain't it purdy?

We went with the solid natural maple select for multiple reasons 1) you can refinish the solid stuff - if and when (and I mean when) we get a dog, we'll most likely need to refinish from the scratches; 2) since we only have approximately 1400 sq feet in the entire place, the lighter wood opens up the room(s); 3) hardwood is "cleaner" in a sense, no nasty stuff seeping through the carpet needing a good vacuum; 4) the "select" indicates fewer imperfections and 5) it's freaking sweet.

If we would have tried to lay this ourselves, it may have taken a century...thank you Don, Tina and the flooring crew.

the one - the fan

The one. Our modern, brushed nickle fan (all of our fixtures are brushed nickle). Adam and I searched for hours (okay, Adam searched longer) for the perfect fan. We wanted one that didn't hang down to low either because our tall friends would run into it!

Fans are fantastic for many reasons.
1) the are energy efficient... you can hold off on turning on the ac
2) Adam likes to sleep with a fan blowing in his face, it drys out my eyes (boo!), so this ceiling fan is a much better alternative!
3) they can be an accessory of sorts... now that I think of it, it's kind of a manly, fat fan... but still pretty cool
4) this fan has a remote!

Gosh I can't wait to use these freaking things (which means warm weather!)

El bathroomo, it's coming along!

The master bathroom at one point in time only opened up into the smaller of the two bedrooms upstairs. We decided that we wanted the bigger room as our master bedroom - yet, no entrance into the bath. Hm. Dilemma. AND, are you supposed to have the master bedroom at the front of the house? Ours is at the back and overlooks the courtyard. If you know the answer to this one, let me know.

Back to the bath. We created an almost Jack and Jill style with doors into BOTH rooms. Guest and master, both have access to the bath. A one bowl sink turned into a double bowl vanity and we moved the tub and flipped it sideways. I'll post the before pics at some point.



We also created built in shelves into the shower! I am super excited to put all of my shampoos and good smelling things into these custom shelves! Good thing Adam is low maintenance and may only take up a half of a shelf. I LOVE the shelves.
You can also see our new FLOOR. Thank you Tile Shop for the floor tile. It's gray with hints of brown AND when you walk over the tile and catch it in a certain light - you can see SPARKLES! Wooooooo. I love the gray and the brown will be picked up by the vanity - dark chocolate. The Amish do good work when it comes to cabinets!

Adam decided to take a dip in the tub amidst the plastic protecting our tub. Lowe's tub. Adam/Uncle Paul/Jesse plumbing work - no leaks ma!

"When in doubt, rip it out!"

When we began this little project and after our huge demolition day, we slowly began to realize that demo day was only the beginning of many additional demolition escapades. That first day, we ripped out everything we did not like (e.g. nasty black floor tile on the first floor) and hesitated with other things (e.g. the double ceiling on the first floor..yes, there was a flat ceiling with weird recessed rectangles and underneath, another ceiling! With a stipple pattern! Blech!). If we were going to do it all again, we would have ripped out everything out from the beginning. NOTE: drywall is cheaper a square foot when there's more of it.

By the stairs leading up the bedrooms, there were pillars with electrical boxes for sconces. Cool you may say. Wait, not cool. They were messing up our drywall. Poorly placed and poorly designed. When in doubt, rip it out!
When in doubt, put Adam's head through the drywall....believe me, we wanted to throw our heads through drywall many a time.

From this lovely picture, you can see a bare bones downstairs. Yes, Adam is standing on two ladders with a saw! Pretty impressive, isn't it?Also note the sub floor. Plywood peeps, that's what's under your carpet, tile or hardwood; it's very ugly and ours was unfortunately riddled with dog urine! When it doubt, rip that stuff out!

If you've never been to your local city dump, it's quite an experience. We went there many times. At one point, Adam and my mom were gambling on how much our bill would be based upon the weight of our trash. They were often very close!

Mom and I even went one Saturday morning on our way to Ikea. Real women go to the city dump. And then Tim Hortons for coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

Lesson folks - when in doubt, rip it out. You can always put something back in!