Bedroom Progress Update!

Man, the past couple of weeks have been crazy!  Just the typical kind of random craziness life seems to throw at you all at once.  My dishwasher, which has been broken for a couple months, is still not fixed after 3 trips from the appliance repair company.  I took my car in for an oil change and alignment, and it ended up a $400 adventure after being told my front two tires needed replacing.  (Thankfully James was in town to help me with that one!)  And Sunday night, to top it all off, I thought my iPhone was broken! The speaker and mic wouldn't work on any phone calls.  Thankfully, when I updated to iOS 7, which I still hadn't done, the issue seems to have resolved itself at least temporarily.  (I'm knocking on wood right now -- I'm not due for an upgrade until the summer, so I need this to last me till then!) In between all the chaos, I've found a little bit of time to work on my room.  I actually have this afternoon off as well as tomorrow afternoon, due to winter weather, so hopefully I'll be able to spend some quality cleaning and decorating time!  Here's what I've done so far! *

*There appears to have been some dust or something on my phone camera lens, because these pictures all look kind of smudge-y and poor quality.  My apologies! 

Window Film 

Here's a great lesson that I learned from this project: Read the instructions three times.  Maybe four.  I ended up wasting probably half of the film in the kit because I thought you were supposed to put the application tape directly on the film -- this does not work.  It's like trying to apply double sided tape to Saran wrap.  Not a good plan.  Also, cut generously -- I had to discard one set that I cut because they were about half an inch too narrow once I tried putting them on the window.  But luckily, there was enough left to cover my bedroom windows.  Once I figured out the correct way to install it, actually, it's quite easy!

The supplies needed for this project:  pretty simple. 

The cardboard that was hiding behind my blackout curtains.  Hopefully I won't need this anymore!

Hemming the Curtains
Thanks to Stitch Witchery, this was a pretty easy job.  Measure, fold, get a damp rag, put the Stitch Witchery where you want it, and hold the iron on each section for 10 seconds.  It worked really well on the decorative curtains; not so well on the blackout curtains.  It stuck in some spots but didn't work at all in other spots on that thick blackout fabric, so I just threw 3 safety pins in each and called it a day.  They don't show behind these, anyway, so it's okay, right?


Why does anyone sew when they have this stuff???


Action shot.  Side note: don't you love these curtains?  I ordered them on clearance from Urban Outfitters about a year or so ago, and I think they are perfect for my room! 


Putting Up the Mirror! 
Okay, so this is probably what I'm most proud of so far. I picked up this mirror from HomeGoods a couple weeks ago while I was in Huntsville on vacation.  I love that store! It was only $30, which I thought was a pretty good deal for the size it is.   I was pretty nervous about hanging it, because I have plaster walls.  If you're unfamiliar with plaster walls, they're weird.  And finicky.  And can crumble into bits at any given moment if you hammer a nail into them.  I haven't had as many problems with mine as some people on the Internet seem to have, but they're still unpredictable, and you can't use things like normal drywall anchors to hang stuff.  Also, it's nearly impossible to find a stud because there are strips of wood called lath all throughout the walls; that's what holds the plaster together.  But it means you can't use the "tapping" method I used to do all the time in my previous apartments. You also can't use a fancy stud finder tool, because all that does is find wood (I think) and that doesn't work here.  The best products for hanging stuff on plaster walls I've found are made by a company called Ook.  The nails in these kits are SUPER DUPER sharp at the ends, so they are supposed to cause as little crumbling as possible so that they can maintain a firm hold in the wall.  I went to Home Depot and found an Ook Mirror Hanging Kit for about 8 bucks or so.  It claimed you could hang 9 mirrors with the supplies in the kit.  Well, that's technically true if your 9 mirrors are all different styles of mirror -- it actually has an assortment of different ways to hang different types of mirrors, including clips that you would use for a frameless mirror.  But it did come with two picture hanging hooks that claimed to hold 50lbs, so that's the route I decided to go with this one.  The mirror had two hooks on the back, one on either side of the frame.  I measured the distance between them, used Ook nails to fasten the two picture hangers on the wall, and hung the mirror!  It was super quick and it feels really strong.  Of course, I was still really nervous the first night, thinking surely I would be awakened with a crash, two giant holes in my wall, a broken mirror -- but it's been up for a week now and seems pretty sturdy!

That smoothie cup is not a permanent fixture on the dresser.

For some reason it is hard to capture the true finish of the mirror with the camera, but it's less brown than it looks here.  I would call it pewter in color. 

The next step is to finish going through all my clothes.  Which seems like it is taking forever!  But I already have a decent sized box filled up with things to donate.  I also need to figure out a cute way to accessorize the dresser top.  From what I can find online and on blogs, it seems like I'm expected have a lamp on one side and fresh flowers on the other.  We'll see what I can come up with.  :)

xoxo,
allison

A Wood-Staining Success Story!

Here are the frames I made for James’s place last week!  I think they turned out pretty well.  I started out by using Rust-Oleum’s Driftwood wood stain, which I painted on with a brush and then rubbed off with paper towels.  I went through a lot of paper towels – sorry Mom, I probably owe you a roll.  It was a little lighter and greyer than I had pictured, so I ended up finding a partially-used can of a dark mahogany stain in the garage and mixing a little bit of that in with some Driftwood for the second coat.  I probably experimented too much, because if you’ll notice the frames are all slightly different in tone from each other, but I think it works pretty well! 

The finished product!

Close up of what the finish looks like

Our prototype of the gallery wall.  I have to say, this works way better than just randomly sticking nails in the wall and hoping the pictures  look okay. (Not that I've ever done that before or anything.)

The picture frames up in their new home!  They're all filled with photos, too, except for the 8x10s.  I'll get him to snap a pic once there are actually pictures in there to show you guys! 

*Note: Right before this step in the process, I suffered a devastating injury -- I sustained a second-degree burn to my pointer finger from a Pop-Tart.  So every bit of nailing and frame-hanging was done by the handsome guy who lives here, who deserves all the credit for this!

Close-up of the frames in their new home! 

I've made a little progress on my room this week! Keep an eye out tomorrow for a post on my new mirror and how the window film applying experiment turned out! 

xoxo,
allison

Procrastination, Pilot Lights, and Picture Frames

Last week was supposed to be my productive week.  Monday there was some football game on TV (I don't want to talk about it), Tuesday I worked on the kitchen and did some laundry, and Thursday I had a dinner to attend, so I had grand plans of Wednesday being my day to tackle a couple of the projects in my room.  I ended up getting done with my morning rounds in time to take an hour long lunch break before my afternoon clinic, so I came home, walked in my house around 11:45... and I smelled gas in the kitchen.  It was faint, but it was definitely gas.  If you recall, this was day 2 of the polar vortex (best weather name EVER, right?), so my gas heater had definitely been working on overdrive for the past couple days.  Luckily, I had already packed a PB&J sandwich that morning to eat since I didn't know if I'd have a chance to come home, so I brought my sandwich back outside to my deck and called the gas company.  They were oh so helpful and informed me they would have someone out within an hour and a half.  This phone call happened right around noon, and true to their word, at 1:20 pm my friendly Mobile Gas man showed up.  And luckily my new winter coat I'd ordered had arrived the night before, so I wasn't completely frozen to the bone after sitting outside for an hour and 20 minutes.  Anyways, the good news is that there wasn't a gas leak in my house.  I'll save you the long story, but a vent had popped off the top of my water heater and due to wind or cold or something, the pilot light was out.  The gas guy asked if I had someone who could fix this for me, and I told him my boyfriend definitely knew how to do this stuff, no worries.  I neglected to mention the fact that my boyfriend had recently moved six hours away, but I figured I could do it myself.  I mean, how hard could it be to light a pilot light.  Right?  

I came home from clinic that evening full of excitement, hope, and possibility.  Okay, not really.  I was slightly terrified.  Being a really conscientious homeowner, I'm not sure I had ever looked at my water heater before this week.  I mean, I know where it is, which is more than I can say for my sister. (Direct quote: "there's a water heater in my apartment?")  James had explained to me that some water heaters require you to actually use a lighter or an extra-long match to physically light the pilot light, so that's what I was preparing myself for.  Imagine my relief when I read the instructions on the side of the appliance which revealed to me that there was no need to supply my own flame for this endeavor.  According to the instructions, multiple discussions with James, and about 400 webpages I found after googling "how to light a pilot light without blowing my house up," all I had to do is turn a dial, turn another dial, hold down a red button, and rapidly press a black button, which would activate some sort of magic crystal, and the flame would light.  Piece of cake. 

Black dial, blue dial, red button, black button. No big deal. 

Guys, I literally tried this probably 20 times.  I would turn the dials to their proper settings, hold down the red button (which was sticking at first, but I got it working), then press the black button.  I tried pressing it once.  I tried pressing it 4-5 times in rapid succession.  I heard the "loud click" every single time.  But there remained no flame.  I would try several times until my hands got cold and stiff, then go inside and warm them under my now-lukewarm hot water, then go out and try again.  I took a brief break to watch Modern Family and tried again.  Finally, around 9:30 pm, I gave up. James, because he is awesome, called a handyman to come out the next day while I was at work, and he apparently lit it within 60 seconds.  So there's the story of my super-productive Wednesday, how I apparently am incapable at pressing buttons, and why I didn't get much work on my bedroom done last week.  

I'm on vacation from work this week, and I left Mobile on Friday to come up to Huntsville for the week.  I spent Saturday helping James move into his new apartment, which I love!  I'll put up some pictures of the apartment later this week.  He's driving back down to Mobile with me on Friday night, and I plan on roping him into helping me put up the window film and maybe tackle a few more of the bedroom projects.  So stay tuned for that!  

I know this blog is supposed to be about my house, but for my first documented DIY project, I'm going to stain some unfinished picture frames I got at Hobby Lobby to make a gallery wall for James's living room.  I love doing projects here at my mom's house because all the random stuff you need but don't think about is already here -- sandpaper, rags, brushes, etc.  These are the things that always make me have to run out to Michael's at 8pm on a Friday night or something when I'm at home.  

Frames, sandpaper, and stain laid out on Mom's kitchen table 

Driftwood colored stain -- how fun! 

I bought 2 8x10 frames, 2 5x7 frames, and 2 4x6 frames, as well as some Rust-Oleum Driftwood stain.  I also found this little tray for 5 bucks that I plan on staining to match; I think it'd look cute on a coffee table or end table to help tie the room together.   I'm excited to try this; I hope it turns out well!  My only wood-staining experience didn't work so well, but it involved re-staining an already finished coffee table that I didn't sand enough.  I think these unfinished wood frames will take up the stain well and hopefully have that greyish "reclaimed wood" look!  I love all this greyish-brown aged wood that I'm seeing everywhere lately. I'm afraid to try it in my house, though, because I have 1900 square feet of warm cherry-colored hardwood floors and I just feel like it wouldn't look right.  So what better place to try it than an apartment with carpet and beige walls?  I'm heading out right now to the garage to start sanding, where I've set up a folding chair and my iPad with a couple episodes of Pretty Little Liars to watch while I work.  I love vacation! 

January Goals: Master Bedroom

Hello, friends! During January, I'm tackling my master bedroom.  As promised, here are some "before" pictures, along with my list of goals for the month!

 View from the bedroom door. My friend Christen made me that painting when I moved in; isn't it awesome? She even sneakily found the exact shade of grey paint I used to paint the walls and used that to make it!

 Fireplace and my two (tiny) closets on the left wall.

 Dresser full of clutter and a window (used to be a door in a previous life) on the right wall.  Note the weird space above the door -- it used to be a transom, I think, but is now covered over with wood and looks awkward. 

 One of my overstuffed closets.

 Left nightstand

 Right nightstand. 

Closet door that doesn't close (isn't that fun!) and my awkward shoe rack.

GOALS FOR THE MASTER BEDROOM:

1. Hem the curtains on the windows behind my bed.  I have two sets of curtains on these windows -- one set of "blackout" panels and the decorative ones on top, both hung by tension rods.  They are both about 4-5 inches too long for the windows, and right now I just have them kind of bunched up on the window sill. Which means they never hang right.  I have a sewing machine, so I should be able to knock this project out in an hour or so. 

2. Put energy-saving window film on the windows behind my bed.  Apparently in 1928 glass was a lot thinner than it is today or something, because all of my windows are sealed shut and I swear the cold wind just blows straight through these onto my face while I'm sleeping.  I found some insulating window film at Home Depot that would have cost $50-60 with the "installation kit" you had to buy with it, but then I looked on Amazon and found a different kind for $10 that actually got pretty good reviews.  You are supposed to somehow use a hair dryer to seal it to the windows.  I figure for $10 it's worth a shot, right? I ordered it with Prime, so it should be here by Tuesday.

3. Find something to put in the weird little space above the awkward door/window. Framed picture? Something? I don't know. 

Hello, empty white plywood.  

Also, the blinds are a little too short.  That's a story for another day.

4. Do something with the fireplace. I know I want to rearrange the mantel because the stuff on there right now is kind of blah.  The actual fireplace, which is non-working, is too shallow to put much in, but I would like at least something to distract from the crumbly stones. 

5. Get rid of some clothes.  Okay, a LOT of clothes.  This one's pretty self-explanatory. 

6. Figure out something to do with my shoes.  They currently take up the floor in one closet, a door rack on a closet door, and a random shoe rack in the middle of my floor.  I have a shoe problem.  Obviously I plan to go through and get rid of some (hopefully while I'm also working on #5), but I'm brainstorming ways to store the remaining pairs that are slightly prettier than what I've got going on now. 

Fun fact: this closet door does not close because the latch doesn't work. Yay!

7. Give the nightstands and their drawers some organization and purpose. Right now the shelves are just random piles of books, and the drawers have things in them but are not organized well or used to their full potential. 

8. Get matching lampshades for my two white lamps.  I just bought the second lamp base the other day.  I think the two bases coordinate well but I hate the plain white cone-shaped lampshade on the old lamp, so I want to get two drum shades that are the same as each other to put on each base.  Maybe something with a gray and white pattern, or even a solid color.

9. Put up the 3-4 picture frames I have laying around.  And actually put pictures in them. 

10. Move full-length mirror from hallway into bedroom.  In addition, find a mirror to go above the dresser.  I may possibly do a smaller-sized mirror clustered with a few photo frames around it instead of a traditional dresser mirror.   Since I will have the full-length mirror in here I don't necessarily need a huge mirror to be functional, but I want the wall above the dresser to look interesting. 

11. Put a bed skirt on my bed. I had/have one of these somewhere; I washed it a few months ago, it ripped a hole, and I never put it back on.  I need to either repair it or find a new one. 

I'm sure I will think of some more things to do as I go along, but I feel like this is a pretty good start!  Stay tuned for more updates and some pictures. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

xoxo,
allison

welcome!

Hello! I'm Allison, and I started this blog in order to document progress on my 2014 New Year's resolution -- to make my home a more organized and beautiful place.  I've been thinking a lot over the past few weeks of ways to do this, and here's the plan I came up with: I'm going to focus on one room each month.  During that month, I will make a list of all the small projects I've been meaning to tackle in that particular room, and hopefully by the end of the month that room will be a lot more organized and beautiful!

about me
I'm Allison, I'm 25, and I live in Mobile, Alabama.  I'm a medical resident, so I sometimes work crazy hours!   (If you see a blog post at 3 am, it's a good possibility I'm just having a slow night at work.)   Whenever someone asks me what my "hobbies" are I can never think of what to tell them, but here are some things I like: coffee, french fries, reading (although I don't often get time to read much), Parks and Recreation.  I sometimes like running and I sometimes hate it, but I ran my first 5k last year and I'd like to do another one this year. My favorite way to work out, though, is Pure Barre -- even though it's crazy expensive!  My job is another thing with which I have a love/hate relationship.  My work schedule changes every month when I switch rotations, so some months I have the hours of a normal person and some months I work 80 hours every week!  I have a wonderful boyfriend who unfortunately is moving this weekend to Huntsville, AL to start an amazing new engineering job -- I'm excited for him, but I'm not looking forward to the fact that he'll be 5 1/2 hours away!

about my house
I bought and moved into my gorgeous house in May of 2012; the closing was two days before my medical school graduation.  It's a 1900-square foot Victorian style house in a historic neighborhood and was built in 1928.  I love having a house this old because of its beautiful features like 12 foot ceilings, picture rails, and a huge wraparound front porch, but it definitely comes with a unique set of challenges.  (Like ZERO closet space. It's a problem.)  I did get lucky though in a lot of ways.  The previous owners bought this house as a foreclosure and spent about a year fixing it up -- they renovated the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. I've been here over a year and a half now, and there are so many things I told myself I'd do that I just haven't had the energy/time/focus/discipline to tackle yet.  I'm kind of a perfectionist, so it's sometimes hard for me to start a project because I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it EXACTLY the way I want it in my dreams.  Unfortunately, I don't have unlimited time and I definitely don't have unlimited funds at this point in my life, so one of my major goals in tackling this yearlong project is to be better at compromising.  Just typing that gave me a little bit of anxiety -- I may have a ways to go!

about the project
I chose to do this project because I decided I really need to get serious about making my house a better place to live.  I get frustrated constantly with my lack of organization in several areas of the house, and it's always a huge scramble to clean things up and hide the mess if someone is coming over.  I also lose things a lot.  (I swear, every single time I need a postage stamp I find them in a different place.)  I also will most likely be selling the house in 2 1/2 years when I finish residency, and while it's a gorgeous house on its own I know that anything I improve will help me to get my money back!  One room will be assigned to each month and I will use that month to clean, organize, de-clutter, and beautify. I'm starting with my bedroom in January. I may make some exceptions as the year gets going, since I only have 8 rooms.   The yard will get one month assigned to it, and I'm anticipating the guest room may take a little longer since I have quite a few boxes in there and it's become my de facto "junk room."  (I may or may not have mild hoarding tendencies.)  I'm not going to come up with a definitive yearly schedule right now.  February is a rough month for me work-wise, so I'll probably do something a little easier next month like one of the bathrooms and I'll just play it by ear from there.  I don't want to lock myself into a 12-month schedule right now, because if I find an amazing dining room table on craigslist or something, I'll want to use the next month to work on the dining room -- you get the idea.  I plan on making a list at the beginning of each month of all the small projects I want to do.  In the next couple days I'll post my January plan, as well as some "before" pictures of my bedroom.  Then as the month goes along, I'll take pictures of my progress as well as any projects I tackle.  Whenever I attempt to be crafty, I usually end up with some flops as well as some amusing stories, so this should be entertaining!

about the blog
I chose to document my adventures in a blog for a few reasons.  First of all, I figured if I knew that at least a few people were reading along with me I'd feel more accountable and be more likely to keep it up.  I also thought that maybe I'd get a few helpful suggestions this way!  Feel free to comment with any advice or encouragement you may have, because I really don't know what I'm doing and I will likely get frustrated quite frequently.  The only thing I ask of my readers is that you try your hardest not to judge me for my messiness -- my goal is to be candid and honest, and you will likely see some "before" photos with embarrassing amounts of disorganization.

I know that was long-winded.  If you stuck it out this far, thanks for reading and I hope you'll choose to follow along with my adventures!  Stay tuned for my January plan, which should be posted in the next couple days!

xoxo,
allison