I'm on vacation, and I had a stressful day. I didn't think that was possible, and more importantly, I don't think it's allowed. But something that made my day just a little bit brighter were these beautiful flowers that my mom brought over today. What a nice surprise: gladiolas and a sunflower! Especially since it was their anniversary today! Happy anniversary, mom and dad!

Curtain Call

Tackling the curtain construction for my living room has been my first project from my "ambitious" list. The word "tackling" may be better saved for the cupboard project, because that will be the one that will need the most will and grit. Nevertheless, tackle I will. I think I've figured out my sewing game plan enough to say I'm confident as I proceed. Honestly, I think the most difficult part will be figuring out my measurements for the curtains and cutting straight lines. And the grommets intimidate me a little bit. Just a little bit.

The fabric I picked out is a fun floral of yellow and grey. I would dare say that it has an "Amy Butler" feeling without the "Amy Butler" price tag, if you know what I mean. In the rare case that you are tempted to cringe, you first need to understand a few things. The floral is a simplified modern floral, and my living room is greige, so the yellow will be the "pop" of colour I'm looking for. The yellow is a more subtle than a neon yellow, rest assured. And they are curtains, for goodness sake. In my opinion, curtain material is not something you would usually also choose to drape yourself in. If it were, then it would no longer be curtain material. Curtain fabric has a certain quality that separates it from all other fabrics for that specific purpose.

This will be a work in progress that I do in my spare time, and as long as it is done before my class starts in a little over a month, I will be happy!

Final thoughts....

I have a few more thoughts I thought I'd share on the bathroom renovation. We did not end up changing the layout of the bathroom at all, because that would not have made sense in our situation. There definitely was not space to do that. Our goal then was to make the bathroom a place we wanted to be. We left only the tub and the toilet, and everything else was replaced. We were on a budget, and I'm pleased to say that there was minimal costs involved in the project: basically all of the materials. I mean it wasn't free, but I had heard what bathroom renovations can easily cost, and that worried me at first! Lucky for me, Tim is so talented that he was able to do the work himself. And mad props also go out to Jason, who gave us one full day of intense tub surround work. And also we scored a few really great deals with the vanities.

Because we did not have to spend exorbitant amounts of money to accomplish this renovation, I think that we will come out on top when comparing money spent to the value added to the house when we decide to eventually sell. More importantly, we will thoroughly enjoy the bathroom while we are living here.

Hopefully this inspires you too. Now on to my next project... because I am always dreaming of a new project.

Without Further Ado....

Finally! Here are the picture of our bathroom renovation, extraordinaire! At least I think so!

First, let's recall what we were working with: the "before", if you will.

And here are the "afters"! Immediately what you will notice is that the shower doors are gone, replaced with a curved rod and shower curtain, and beautiful new, rich, vanities.

You will also notice that we ("we" meaning Tim) replaced the tired linoleum with a new ceramic tile. It actually looks less brown in real life.

Tim retiled the tub surround with a white 8x12 tile, and re-plumbed the tub so that we could install this beautiful new rain showerhead and single control faucet.

New paint, lighting, mirror, and accessories round out our renovation. It feels like my own little spa! Although I would never turn down a day at the spa, no matter how nice our renovation is!

I am so happy with how the renovation turned out! One room down...

Grey Matter

When we moved into our little townhouse last October, the renovation list quickly grew longer and longer. Needless to say, the entire house needed a fresh coat of paint, once we quickly removed the tacky early 90s wallpaper borders that had infested the rooms. I knew that I wanted to paint the entire main floor a sort of "greige" (grey + beige), and I soon found it in Ralph Lauren's "Neutral Grey." It is a warmer grey that works nicely on the open main floor. We painted, and added our new cream leather couch and black and cream accents. I was soon concerned that there wasn't enough colour though: my plan was to add an accent colour (preferably a bold yellow), but I was afraid that my palette may be too neutral.

It was then that Domino magazine (now out of publication) came to my rescue with its feature of Jenna Lyons' brownstone. As you can see from the picture below, her design palette was exactly what I was picturing, and to see it complete fueled my original plans. While I am not quite ready to post pictures (a few more things to be done first, like the curtains!), I will eventually show you my humble version that I have created.

Ambitiously yours,

I have ambitious plans for the next few weeks, now that the bath reno is complete. Tim is very supportive, because he doesn't have to be involved in any of it! It's all me! I hope to accomplish the following tasks before much of September has passed me by:

1. Paint my kitchen cupboards
   
2. Make curtains for my main level sitting area (I would say "living room" but its really not that big!)
   
3. Set up my china cabinet (it currently is a china cabinet, and soon will be a cabinet / sideboard... more on that later)
   
4. Reupholster a chair. (This one is the most ambitious of all because I have a very narrow and clouded idea of what I am doing, so I'm not going to hold my breath.... although I hope to have some help from someone a lot more experienced than me!)

This does sound like a lot, but luckily I have vacation time coming up in two weeks, for two weeks. I think I can get it done, but I also thought that I could have bathroom pictures up for viewing weeks ago too. So we will see what happens! The good news is that I have started in on each project in some form or another. I have researched exactly how to paint the cupboards, and I have not only a game plan but a discount on paint coming my way. Figuring out how the heck to do it properly is half the battle, I think.

I have picked out and bought the fabric for the curtains, as well as the liner fabric. I have also scouted out a few tutorial websites on curtain making, and once I review them again, I should be okay to proceed. As the kind lady said in the fabric store, "If you can make those complicated flower girl dresses for your wedding, you should have no problem with the curtains." Easy to say, but I feel a little naked without a pattern to use! As for the cabinet, I bought that back in the spring (I believe that was my second blog) and we have found it a home in our house and just need to put it there! It will need a bit of work, and I may or may not paint it out. Still deciding.

I have until September 22 to complete these projects, because that is when my next dressmaking class begins. Good luck to me.

Pulling it all together...

I don't know what it is about renovations, but unless you are preparing for an HGTV episode, it always seems that the last few details can take the longest to accomplish. You can work so hard to get all the main things done, but when it comes to hanging the towel bar or finishing up the trim, all of a sudden time just flickers by. I think part of the reason for this is that the room is in a functional state as you near the end of the reno and the small details get pushed to a level of lesser priority. And sometimes you just are not sure how to finish it off, let's be honest! Design magazines always caution that the hardest part of a renovation or a new room design are the final details and the accessories. I don't doubt that one tiny bit. It's much easier to pick flooring and cabinetry than to sit there and figure out if you should hang mirrors or art work over the couch, what colour and pattern drapery, and if the cushions should match the drapes or pull in an entire new pattern or colour palette. I think the best designers are the ones that can pull those final pieces together with the least amount of stress. In fact, that's probably what makes them designers and everyone else just hopeful decorators.

All that to say, I hope that I will have pictures of the bathroom to post this week!