EVERYTHING MUST BE GOLD.

And silver. And bronze and copper. I guess everything must be just metallic :) 

This is the very first Christmas in the Haus!  I L O V E decorating for Christmas, and I love that I have a house that's suited for a big statement tree, and I have two hearths to decorate!
We splurged on a new tree [and of course it had to be gold - I still swoon when I turn it on every evening, so it was definitely a good investment], and when I was contemplating how to decorate for the season [back in August, when one normally starts thinking of Christmas..... or is that just me?] I wanted to incorporate all of the stuff I'd accumulated over the years so I don't have to buy everything new.  If I had my druthers I'm sure I could spend about $3k on just Christmas decorations :)

Pretty much everything I had was sparkly and silver - check out last year's decs at our last house here!

So I decided to add in a few more metals [bronze and gold] and include the multitude of white bird ornaments I had, and make a MidCentury Metallic Woodsy Wonderland!!! And it's so pretty!!!!!  WHY AREN'T YOU AS EXCITED AS I AM?!  

Little snippets were shared on instagram and caused a bit of a titter of people waiting for the whole shebang, and I'm happy to share it today!

Soooooo - here it is!!

In order to try to keep from spending $3k on decorations, I'm pretty cheap about stuff.  Case in point, I didn't want a big star, or a big bow, or any of the other toppers I was seeing, so I made one.  I just did a quick pinterest search for string balloon light, bought string, glue and a bouncy ball from the toy section, and made one!  Then I sprayed it gold, of course [because EVERYTHING MUST BE GOLD.] I think I spent $3.  And made a big mess.

I used all of my silver glass ball ornaments on the tree [because it's much larger than what I had before!  It ate up a lot of ornaments!] and magically found new ornaments at Hobby Lobby that fit the bill perfectly!  A few blown glass owl ornaments [left], a few mercury glass ones that have a woodgrain texture [middle] and some bronze pinecones [you can see those best in the middle].  The owl on the right was one that I already had, along with several other birds that you can't see, but are still there.  So sparkly and woodsy :)

[I found it quite funny that I put on the fireplace channel on the tv, which is about 2 feet above the actual fireplace.  It's just easier than having an *actual* fire.  Plus, it might melt my amazing, perfect, beautiful stockings!]

More of my old silver stuff!  The stockings are new, and a gift from my sister [because my Target was always out, but hers had them!  Which is good, because as soon as I figured out I couldn't have them I became slightly OBSESSED with them and knew that nothing else would ever work.]  The twigs in the vase were cut from our Bradford Pear tree in our Farmington front yard, and I've used them in my decs since about 2008 I think.  They've been white, champagne, and now this year they're - obviously - GOLD.  And to add some freshness to the mix I took some shears to one of our pine trees in the backyard and just laid it down.  Not only am I cheap, I'm also a teensy bit lazy - this time of year is insanely crazy with work, and I like when I can just take a Sunday afternoon and throw my stuff down and call it a day.  And it usually works!

I kept the dining room minimal, and also very cheap - tossed up some tinsel from Wal-Mart [a whole 98¢] and the 'falalala' sign is from Target's Oh Joy! collection for $4 [every time I go to Target I have to check that aisle - I'm a little obsessed with all of the pretty pretty colors!]  I did splurge a bit on the teensy LED lights, but only because they're amazing.  And they were only $14 on amazon, so I really couldn't afford not to.

[**don't mind the naked steps - those had to be custom ordered separate from the flooring, and they're actually being installed right as I type this!  Rocky's under my feet, all nervous from the nail gun they're using.  So a full 'we got a new floor' post will be soon!]

During a little Christmas party we recently had, the buffet became the bar, and it was the most sparkly beautiful bar everrrr.

On to fireplace number 2!

Again, kept it really simple.  My philosophy is to just add a little sparkle where there is none, and call it a day.  I didn't do a bunch of switching out of stuff - with the exception of my big teak starburst clock, everything got to stay put.  So I added - what else - tinsel and glass ball ornaments!  And a string of lights. Easy. [especially since I had laid out the lights with the intention of hanging them above the bookshelves, but decided they looked just fine on the hearth, and it took about 20x less time to just leave them there.]

Super easy tip - just fill bowls with ornaments.  It's sparkly, and hella easy. Just put big ornaments in the bottom so it fills up faster, and the smaller ones will fill around them anyway, so it looks like you have a ton in there, but it's all just a lie.

Then in the fire box I just added some ornaments around the special Ikea faux plants I have sitting in there, and that's it!

And of course the pine that I cut from the backyard, just laid out to look kinda like I had actually spent money on garland.  Thought about it, but decided 'meh.  I can just go out in my yard in my pajama pants and cut some'.  I also cut a larger branch to put in a big glass vase [with ornaments of course!  but these are plastic.  In case the branch got knocked I didn't want to have a bunch of glass to clean up.  At least not more than the usual that I have to clean up due to clumsiness.  Current count is 4 ornaments down :/]

So I have my own little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!  It's cute :)

The wreath [which my awesome sister made me a few years ago] looked a little lost, so I added the garland up top [which I already had in my stuff, so it was free!] to fill in the space and add more sparkle.  It's just up there with scotch tape.

The outside even got a touch of Christmas too!  I added two boxwood wreaths for a classy touch of green.  I want to do a lot more, but a) can't decide what to put up and how to put it up without ruining the new paint job and b) trying to rein in the extra spending since this house currently eats cash like it's chocolate.

But I love it!  It makes me look a lot classier than I am IRL. :)

Just for fun, here's a shot at night, right after I put up the tree [before the other stuff went up]:

And here's our annual Christmas card! 

So serious :)

RECAP.  Decorating for Christmas can be easy - just use the really cheap sparkly stuff and toss it around any surface that will take it!  Next year will probably look the same, but I have plans for stepping it up to the next level.  As in, I might actually buy garland and put that alllll around the fireplace, and get stuff for the outside, and just MOAR SPARKLE.  After seeing last year's decs I really miss having bowls and bowls and bowls full of ornaments, so after Christmas I'll hit up walmart and get a ton more on clearance, so I can put them on ALL THE THINGS.  

So stay tuned next year to see!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Paint it, black.

I see a wood door and I want to paint it black*

The front doors were one of the [many] things about this house that we fell in love with.  Certainly unique, and definitely well-built, not to mention they were meant to be with this house.  The architect and original home owners decided on these, so there was no question that they should stay here. That kind of purposeful design is what Brandon and I are drawn to buying, and saving.  What kind of MCM enthusiasts would we be if we just replaced them with plain metal doors? [which would honestly be all we could afford. intricately designed wood double doors would not be surprisingly cheap; they'd probably make my heart stop.]

They had definitely seen better days, but were structurally sound.  Before another wet, cold winter sets upon us, I staged a door intervention to make prevent further deterioration. 

This is how they looked the day we first saw the house:

Here they were a few months ago [already I feel like the hot summer has taken some more toll - the color looks a bit more faded than last December]

 And here they are now:

 I had been brainstorming about it all year, deciding what to do [doors on or off?  what color? how the heck do I sand all this?!]  But first thing was first - we had to make them stronger, and we had to make them work better.  Over the years, lots of use had split the astragal [I learned that word from The Adam Carolla podcast, but had to google it for the spelling ;)], making the latch mechanisms less effective [so pretty much, if someone kicked reeeeally hard a few months ago, they probably could have kicked in the doors, 80s action movie style].  And while I was at it, the upper latch needed to be cleaned, as it didn't want to move at. all.]  Here's what they looked like:

 The upper part of the astragal had been split and repaired, but the lower hadn't.  So my plan was to: a. pull out all of the screws
b. pull off the whole astragal, so I could get to the latches to properly clean them
c. clamp the bottom split part and glue it back together.

Luckily, I only got to the first part when I realized it could be easier than that!  I pulled out all of the screws, then found that the upper latch worked absolutely fine.  I attributed the non-workingness of it to the bottom not being properly aligned with the slot in the floor, so the upper latch probably wasn't latching into the correct spot.  So I moved on to the clamping and gluing.

I used J.B. WoodWeld for this job, since my parents have raved about how quick, easy, and super strong it is.  And it is!  Squirt an equal bit from each tube, mix it together, apply to the spot that needs fixing, and it's done. 

 It says 'no clamping necessary' but they clearly hadn't seen my door. So I clamped it.

 Once it was dry and sturdy, I put the screws back in [I had to get Brandon to help me with this - they're 2" long screws and I, for the life of me, couldn't get them in straight.  And I have a tendency to strip screws, so I left that up to him]
BUT.  That's when my hunch about a couple of the screws proved me right.  There were these two holes at the top, on the inside [clue #1 - no other screws were visible from the inside of the house when the doors were shut, and clue #2 - they were super shiny - i.e. new]  So when those two screws were put back in, the latch didn't work again!  So at some point, the previous owner fixed a split astragal with screws.

 And when they did that, they essentially screwed the latch shut:

 So I kept out the screws, scraped out the bit of wood putty that was in the crack with a knife, and put that WoodWeld in there too.  Done!

Now I could get to the bigger job - the painting.  Which of course involves a ton of prepping, especially with these doors. These doors were covered in a veneer, which when outside, needs a lot of maintenance.  So over the years, day after day of the hot afternoon sun had shriveled up that veneer, and it had to all come off.  Here's an instagram pic of the day I started:

 It came up pretty easily, especially on the bottom 2/3 of the door.  I also used a utility knife around the trim pieces to try to get a really clean line. 

And after hours of scraping, here's what they looked like:

 While I was scraping [and cutting and scraping and cutting and scraping], once I got to the bottom of the door I came to the bottom trim piece.  It has always bothered me.  For one, it was kind of coming off of the right door [there was about a 1/2" gap] and two, the spacing seemed off.  It just didn't seem to belong:

 I was certain it wasn't original to the door, so I ripped that sucker off. [and quite easily, I might add]

The two-toned aged veneer underneath justified my decision:

 With a door as purposefully laid out as these, the spacing around the edge of the trim should have been the same all around the door.  And it was!  Originally, anyway.  I just figure the bottom of the door, which sees the most exposure to the elements, was the first to decay.  So the original trim piece came off, and a bigger one went on, to cover up the old veneer.  Most likely because someone knew the H U G E job it would become to take all of the veneer off.  But I was there to restore, renew and refresh, so I ripped off that old veneer too. [again, quite easily.  I just pulled it off with my hands - no scraper needed]

 So!  After all the old veneer came off, the whole thing got a good sanding, which I did with the Black & Decker Mouse, and its nifty pointed surface [for all of the tiny areas that make up this door].  So - that bottom trim that I had ripped off?  It turned out to be walnut, super sturdy, and aside from the weathered outside, very strong.  So I took the pieces over to my Dad to have him rip them down to the size they originally would have been. [bonus of moving back to your hometown: access to all of Dad's power tools, and Dad to use them for you ;)]

And after the good sanding, and some small holes filled, they looked like this, #nakedandafraid:

 I then primed the doors with my favorite primer, tinted gray:

 Which revealed that all of the tiny nail divots showed up a lot more than I thought they would, so I caulked them along with mitered corners, and of course where the trim meets the door [I should be able to power wash these doors, and no water will creep in to destroy them]

 Then - FINALLY - it was painting day!  [which I teased on instagram - seriously, why aren't you following me?  You're missing out on all sorts of food and dog pics, and occasionally a house pic :)]

 

I used Rustoleum Topside Marine Paint, because it's meant to withstand a lot of extreme weather.  I definitely don't want to have to sand and paint every couple of years - I want this to LAST.  

Why black?  I also debated on this a bit - a fun color would be nice!  But honestly, I can't think of a color I'd want for the doors that I'll love for years. And again - I don't want to have to do this again for a long time.  Plus I fell in love with the classic black lacquer doors in London, so I didn't have to waffle on colors for very long :)  On it went!

 And that, my friends, took a loooong time.  I'm using a 2" brush in that pic, but ultimately ended up using a 1" brush.  The smallest little rectangles are about 1.5" wide, and the small brush allowed me to be super anal about brush stroke direction, which ultimately makes for a smoother, prettier paint job.  I thought about a sprayer, but some of the trim pieces [like in the left half of the pic above] are 90 degree angles, so I felt that would also take a while, and cause for more drippage possibility. 

 So I painted my double front doors with a one inch brush.  Three times.  And in the spring [once I have a bit of separation from the project and my eye doesn't twitch when I think about it] I'm gonna put an other coat on, just so it's suuuuper glossy and smooth.  

Just for fun, I made a gif of the different stages!

While I was on the black door kick, I turned my sights to a back door of off the kitchen.  It, too, was a solid wood door with an aging veneer:

 Nothing was wrong with it structurally, so it got a good sanding and a coat of paint:

 [but this time I got to use a big roller for the job, so each coat - one of primer, and one of paint - only took about 5 minutes]

Much better, and cleaner :)

Google images shows album covers that say "Paint it, black" and "Paint it black"  Those Rolling Stones are never going to get anywhere in their careers if they can't get their shit together over something like how to spell a song title....

Confessions of a color snob.

So when we bought the house, we both agreed that the outside has amazing lines, and we loved everything about it - the L-shaped layout, aaaalllllll the windows, the double doors, and the eaves with a 3' overhang.  It was all gorgeous, except for the color.  It was some sort of a pinkish beige, with a yellowy cream trim.  I understand the decision behind the color - picking something that sort of matches the limestone that covers most of the front - but dudes, it was bad.  It looked like this:

 So this summer we hired a house painter to paint everything, and it made a WORLD of difference:

 But I have a confession to make.  As soon as the gray went up, I sort of hated it.  As in, when my husband texted me a photo of the front as soon as he got home to see it [I was in Colorado shooting an amazing wedding] I immediately thought "that looks preeeetty blue..."  But I had picked the color, and I tried to pick one that was more neutral with a greenish tinge, so maybe since it was dusk when he took the pic, that made it look more blue.  But I got home from my trip and it still looked blue.  I tried to convince myself that it was fine - no one else seemed to be bothered by it.  But every time I looked at it, I couldn't make myself like it.  I didn't want a blue house.  This pic above doesn't look blue, because I photoshopped it to be less blue [probably because I'm vain and didn't want anyone to think I could pick a wrong color]  The real color looked more like this:

 B L U E.

And the thing is, it's not cheap to get your house painted.  And he did a great job - everything looks amazing.  It's all my fault, because I picked the wrong gray [It was called London Road, so that may have swayed me.  I'm a tiny bit of an Anglophile, so I thought it was fate.  ...it wasn't.]

So I went to Lowe's and picked up a few of their little 8 oz. samples in 4 colors, and painted large swatches on the house, and studied it at all times of day, in different light.  You'll notice there are only 3 swatches, because #4 would. not. open.  As in, I have a huge blister scar on the palm of my hand because it never opened.  Even Brandon couldn't get it open, and even the plastic of the container was bending, but the friggin lid never came off [so if you get little samples mixed, have the person at the paint counter open it and then close it again, but less tightly - the other three were crazy hard to get open too]

[you may notice that the doors look a bit different.  sometimes I have to work on little bits of everything at the same time, so it's a little bit of a spoiler for you :)]

 [the foyer was a mess because we were also getting NEW FLOORS in the dining room and living room - another spoiler!  post coming soooon!]

 And the day before Halloween the weather was forecast to be sunny, 60 degrees, and slightly breezy.  Lucky for my mom [or, maybe unlucky] it was also her day off!  So we repainted the gray part.  #2 ultimately won [it's Porcelain Shale in the Valspar Signature line], so we covered up that blue paint and made quick work of it. [less than 5 hours and only one gallon of paint!  crazytown.]

 We also painted the garage doors, because I finally had decided what to do [white? gray? black?  I'm a serious waffler, so that decision took a while].  After reading the post from [the sadly defunct] Young House Love, I was pretty confident I could do it.  And it was super easy!  I pried off the rubber weather stripping first, then we wiped down the doors with a deglosser to clean & prep, then primed them [I keep a gallon of Zinsser B-I-N for pretty much everything.  It's pricey, but man is it amazing!  I have it tinted to a medium gray and it's perfect for just about every job.]  Then painted that Porcelain Shale over the almond color. The next day I nailed the strips back on, and with the doors open, painted it all white, and now it's done.  And I can finally love the color of my house.

 I sure a lot of people thought I was crazy.  "I'm going to paint my house this week"  "Oh?  What color?"  "Gray"  "What color is it now?"  "Gray"

But the people who have known me for a long time aren't surprised.  I've been known to paint a room just a *slightly* different color.  Because if it's just a teensy bit too warm or too cool than what I'm picturing, I'll hate it.  Good thing I like to paint!

 This is the color the house is meant to be.  Finally unified, and dignified.

6 MONTH-IVERSARY!

It feels SO weird to say, but yesterday was the 6 month anniversary of moving into our house!  I may have been a HUGE slacker - as far as haus blogging goes - lately, but things have still been happening!  It's just that wedding season kicked in, and this blog has to take a back seat [in order to do stuff to the house I still have to make a little money, so that kinda has to come first].  But a big milestone is the perfect excuse to pop in to show you that things are still happening!  And some more detailed blog posts about some of the updates will come soon!

Some rooms have improved immensely, some rooms.....well.  Some rooms got worse.  Such is life.

Anyhoo - on to the photos!  When bought the house the kitchen looked like this:

 And one week after moving in, it looked like this:
Beautiful white quartz counters went in, glass tile backsplash went up [and a few awkwardly-placed outlets in the desk area were moved to the far right side [thanks, Dad!], and we got a new dishwasher.

 Yesterday it looked like this! [well, today too, only with a few more scattered randoms on the counter, and I'm pretty sure the beagle has moved since then.]  The kitchen is on its way to being finished - on the list of stuff to still do is: replace ugly hardware on cabinet doors, replace that teardrop light in front of the window [it was added in later, and definitely doesn't go.  And it doesn't work, so it's got to go.  I can't find an exact replacement, but I have an idea.... I'll keep you posted], get the burgundy chairs reupholstered, paint the ceiling white.... and I'm sure I'll come up with something else.

 This room got much better, as well!  A coat of paint and some new hardware goes a loooong way.  I also got the shelves arranged and pretti-fied [a post on staging shelves is coming soon! I just have to figure out how to make a gif first...]

In here, I plan on tweaking the couches' placement, and I have my eye on a coffee table to anchor the arrangement.... we'll see how that goes too!

__________________

The pass through in the kitchen that looks into the dining room & living room looked like this before [I described it as 'a view of the two ugliest lights ever']

 And now, it looks like this!  I swapped out the glass shade on the pendant [$12 upgrade that instantly made me feel less itchy when I looked at it], and as soon as I saw this baby go on sale - for $200! - I snatched it up and watched out the window until the UPS man brought it to my door [not really, but opening up that box when it did arrive made me jump up and down giddily].  My Dad came over to help me put it up [that thing is h e a v y!]  And I was finally rid of the bronze and amber monstrosity that loomed heavily over our 50s dining table.

 The living room one week in was a mess of boxes, packing material, and WIRES.

 It cleaned up nicely, and now looks like this!  New pillows, shapely furniture, and cord-wranglers did the trick. 

 One week in:

 In May the view looked like this:

 Yesterday it looked like this: [pretty much exactly the same as in May, only one of our prints above the credenza fell down a few weeks ago.  Glass shattered, frame bent.  Womp womp.  I was unable to find a replacement side that matches the rest, so I'm going to get a whole new frame today.  I'm getting a black one, which I think ultimately will look better anyway.  Silver lining?]

 The living room still has a few things I'm planning on doing - I may expand the group of art above the credenza with a few more things, and I'm going to get the avocado chair reupholstered [I just keep procrastinating and I don't know why, other than the cost ;)]  AND - I can hardly wait for this one - we're ripping up that carpet and putting down a gorgeous graphite-gray hardwood floor in the living and dining rooms!!!  It's been ordered and we're on the waiting list for the floor guy.  It's going to make SUCH a difference and I can't wait to see how gorgeous it's going to look!

 The dining room one week in:

And today:

 Once the floors are put in, I'm going to switch out the painting [I've had it since college and I have no idea where to put it.  I just know it's not going to stay here...] and I'm planning on switching out the seats of the chair with black leather.  It's gonna be pretty swanky up in here...

 I could stare at that light all. damn. day.

The hall bathroom one week in:

 And now [not much changed - just painted it white and added some weirdness/awesomeness]

 My office one week in looked like this:

 And now, well.  This was one of the rooms that got worse.  Way worse.  So I didn't even take a photo to show you.  When we sold our old house, we still had lots of little random stuff to get out, and most of it made its way into here, so there's a loooot more to figure out, and that probably won't happen until December.  Oy. 

But let's forget about that right now, and move onto the master bedroom!  One week in it looked like this:

 And now it's shaping up a bit!  We got an *actual* bed, and a few vintage lamps were thrown in for good measure:

 The bathroom was beige when we moved in [just like every other room]:

 And the bathroom is still beige now.  I have a few ideas brewing though!  I'll spruce it up this winter.

 One room I don't think I ever showed is another spare bedroom [it's a 4 bedroom house].  It pretty much looked like it does now, only with boxes and stuff in it.  Now it's working its way to be a nicely-appointed spare room, albeit with leftover bits of furniture we don't know where to put:

 I got this awesome oriental rug from my parents, who've had it for probably 35 years.  They had it above their bed when I was a kid, and now it fits perfectly on the walnut wall!  I've decided to embrace the 70s and go full on boho in this room.  A crocheted afghan atop a crocheted duvet [an heirloom on Brandon's side], and even a sweet avocado armchair in the corner [not pictured].  Funky artwork will go on these walls too [the super big Yorkie print is going up near where it's propped - I just have to find some nails and get after it]

 The foyer looked like this a few months ago:

 And now looks like this!  I added some peacocks I've had, and got a new planter for the palm tree:

 This view I said I loved before, in another blog post:

 But maaaan is it better now, with my amazing new chandelier :)

 The laundry room one week in looked like this:

 Aaaand now it's like this.  This is the other room that got way worse when we got the random bits out of the old house.  Just like the office, it'll sit like this until winter, when I can devote a whole day to organizing and putting away of the crap.

 Jenna von Oy.

__________________

The dog bathroom one week in, and now!

 Now we go outside!  Because here is where another HUGE change took place.  We had the house painted!!

 It's not pink anymore!! 

 ugh those cables.  we have a plan to disguise them [it's that or pay someone to crawl around under the house to rerun everything.  whyyyyyy did they have to go over the top in the first place?!  Oh well.  Make do.]

 The patio when we moved in:

 After I planted the flowers in late April [I think]:

 And now!  So white and pretty and clean!! I miss that hanging macrame planter, but in the weeks [and weeks and weeks and weeks] it took to get the house power washed and painted, the purple queen plant at the bottom EXPLODED and it won't fit back into it!  So it's on a stand and looks glorious.

 We were going to go dark gray in back, but both Brandon and I just had a feeling white would be better.  In a sort of a California modern way.  And it was definitely the right decision!  You see the white through the dining room windows, and everything just seems so bright and amazing!

 so much brighter and prettier!

 And the exterior in front before:

 And now!

I hope you've enjoyed this little recap, and if you're still reading, THANK YOU for waiting patiently for another post!  I don't know when I'll post again, but it won't be another three months of radio silence.  I promise!