the bedrooms

The Simon Cousins circa 1968?

We spend more time in our bedrooms then in any other room in the house.  Unfortunately my dad did not take a lot of pictures of these rooms.  Dad didn't like candids, he liked posed pictures and preferred to take those in a more formal room.  I did manage to find a picture of my niece Dena, jumping on her grandparents bed!  I also found this picture of the Chicago and St. Louis cousins taken in my bedroom, I know because I recognize the artwork on the wall!

This house has three bedrooms.  The first is the smallest, it belonged to my brother Josh as a kid.

It became a guest room/office as the years went by. Basically it was a cramped dark mess.  It actually had this weird printed wallpaper on the closet doors which my mom added in the 1970's.  And that was the most exciting thing about the room.

My older daughter Abby, who leaves to go to college next month was awarded this room.  She was agreeable as long as we could make the room brighter and happier.




                                                              





I added white wood blinds and a antique chandelier with lots of bulbs. 


Unfortunately most of her room has been taken over stuff for college!

Ugh! This is not what my bedroom looked like when I was growing up.  It is what it became the one time my mother had an interior designer come in to transform this room.  Pink ceiling, wallpaper edging, balloon shades, all I can say is that this room was clearly the ugliest room in the house.  

The room has good bones.  Its large and has lots of lights and good closets.

This room went to Tamara and she wanted purple walls.

Tamara traded up for a queen size bed.  Her furniture is a mix of rustic wood and metal and a bit of silver metal leaf. (I did it myself)

I think the Anthropologie quilt she picked ties it all together.

Ok, one more retro picture, this one from 1962.  That's my brother and I on my parents very old bed.  The room was always set up the same way.
Here is the before.

 

I changed the position of the bed in the room so I had a wall to put the TV.  Of course I got rid of the heavy drapery.  The furniture is what I already owned.  It's sort of a British Colonial vibe. There are a couple of copper leaf pieces in this room that I also created.

Here is my tiny master bathroom. It now has a marble shower, new vanity, mirrors, medicine chest and toilet.  Just big enough to fit everything perfectly.

I kept the old floor tile. Hail to the 1950's!

                                                                                                      

the big reveal kitchen

The kitchen is the room in the house most true to the original, and yet totally transformed.

Here is my mom in the kitchen circa mid 1970's. This is the way I most remember it growing up. The metal St. Charles cabinets were almond on the bottom and cream on the uppers. The counters were laminate with a boomerang pattern and trimmed in stainless steel. 

By the time I got a hold of the kitchen, things had changed a bit.

My parents had all the cabinets painted cream (late 70's), The cool formica was replaced with beige formica which matches the beige tile floor.  It was a symphony in beige.

I updated the back splash is a modern, but retro look. I put in a new gas range instead of the electric that was there before. I was able to keep the cool hubcap style exhaust fan.

The counter tops are Silestone quartz in expo grey.

All the appliances are new, like this cool Bosch dishwasher which is so quiet that you can't tell it's even on unless the red light on the floor is glowing!   The floors are now a dark grey rectangular tile.   

More new appliances!  A large wall oven ( my mom's was super tiny) and a pantry door frig.

Finally a burst of color with the orange accent wall.  
The new light fixture is a sputnik type chandelier, and the eat in table and chairs are from Ikea.  Yes, they came in boxes and yes, I put them together!

Here is my daughter recreating her Grandma in the kitchen!

The big reveal-bathroom

My brother Josh and mom in the pink bathroom circa 1959

I am settling in and have decided to reveal the completed renovations room by room.  I'll start with the pink hall bathroom.  It was very pink.  I am all about saving original things but I just could not deal with all that pink.  I was never a big fan of it, the bathroom was gutted except for the tub, which was sprayed white, and toilet, which was recently replaced. 

Here is what it looked like when I got the house.......still pink!

I replaced the pink with white subway tile with a dark gray grout. The floating vanity has a carerra marble top.  Everything from Home Depot.I saved the lighting and medicine cabinets, both of which were probably from the 80's.

A lot of people comment on the tile floor.  It is a matte black tile that looks really modern. The tile gets darker when it gets wet but dries one color. I also found this funky loopy bath rug at Tuesday Morning.

Finally I found this striped shower curtain and some funky artwork.

And the pink bathroom is history!

so much to do, so little time

In exactly three weeks the move to the new/old home will be completed.  The work at Sleepy Hollow is done!  I am waiting to post pictures when I really move in so you can see exactly how the rooms turned out.

I am very happy that my present house sold in one day. Now I am in the process of packing up everything and trying to get as much stuff over to the other house so I don't have to pay for the movers to do it.  It is an enormous job, I can't believe home much ridiculous stuff I have acquired in the last 9 years.  So, I decided to have a Garage Sale on May 31st.  Hopefully this will not be a crazy amount of work, I have friends helping me.  So, I am selling my house, moving into another, packing one kid for camp and another for Israel and all this in the next three week.  This is crazy!

before

after

I did complete one project for the new house. It was surprisingly easy.  This mid century student desk has been in my brother Josh's room as long as I can remember.  It served well as a school desk for him and a place to pay bills for my dad.  The blond wood finish was not looking great, so I decided to give it a makeover.  I repaired the chips, deglossed the finished and them applied two coats of semi gloss in a bright green color, which is the accent color in the den.
The desk will not be tucked into the corner of this room making it a perfect place to put a laptop, check emails and write my blog.

6 weeks and we are almost done!

The work has been going on for about 6 weeks and we are heading towards the finish line.

The Living room/Dining room is painted.

There is a new patio door, as well as a new wider level step heading out to the patio.

The pink bathroom is getting less pink.  The bathtub will soon magically turn white, I hope.

The orange accent wall in the kitchen

The mailbox, before and after.

more progress

 It has been five weeks and the bathrooms are starting to take shape. 

In the formerly pink hall bathroom the white subway tile is a big change.  I can't wait to see it with the dark grout.

 In the master bathroom, the shower has been transformed with Cararra  marble tiles.  I want to give this very tiny bathroom a luxury hotel feel.

 The girls got to choose their own lighting for their bedrooms.  Tamara went for an iron orb chandelier, which has an industrial vibe.

Abby needs more light to brighten up the formerly dark room with only one window.  I found this multi-candle bronze antique chandelier at an antique store.

The basement is being transformed into a semi-finished space that will have a studio area, office area, chill area and laundry space.

Plus, the unfinished section for storage has been partitioned off with a wall and proper door.

There is a lot more lighting now, I'm going to leave the ceiling unfinished but I have decided to spring for carpeting to make the space warmer.  More pictures to follow.

kitchen is coming along

 

Well the renovations are really coming along. Last week, I am starting to see some of the "sexy" stuff happening in the house.  The Silestone quartz countertops were installed.  This was a big ticket item for me but I really love the look and they are great quality.  I finally won't have to worry about where to put a hot pot right out of the oven.  The tile back splash looks so cool! I think it's a little retro looking and pays homage to the mid century look in the house.  My sink is smaller then I am used to, but that is all that will fit.  The new gas cooktop is plenty big and looks great with the original "hup cap" wall exhaust fan.

permits and paint colors

Well this past week has not been the most exciting one.  There is a lot of work getting done, I'm not complaining.  But it is not the kind of things that make a great impact on pictures.  

The plumbing and electrical systems have all been updated and inspected and though that is not exciting, it is important.  Also the overhang on the outside roof line has all been redone which again looks great and is important.  The glass in the downstairs windows has been repaired and replace....you get the picture.

I have been obsessing over wall colors which sucks because I don't have my proper lighting, my window covering or any furniture for frame of reference and I still have to make decisions of what colors to paint the walls. I have found out that whites and grays are the hardest colors to choose because they look total different in different lighting.  Also I had hoped to save the wood paneling in the den but it is not staining evenly and there are still some shadows of the pictures my dad hung there in the same place for 54 years.

My biggest decision this week is that I have decided to carpet the basement.  I'm doing office type low pile commercial stuff.  I think I'll go with Edwards Carpet here in St. Louis, locally owned and highly recommended.  I will wait to install it until the work is done.

I'm still considering the fireplace.  Now I've decided to move it to the living room.  It would be a modern ethanol burning model.  I've blocked it out in painters tape to get an idea of the size to order.  But I'll wait till the place has furniture in it to make a final decision.  I'm not sure where it should go.  My contractor promised to come back and hang it for me,

This week the kitchen counter tops go in the the bathrooms are being worked on.