Kitty Genius

State of the Room(ion)

Double post from Ashley's List.

I’m an idiot (the title of the post). But we know this. SO, I promised photos of my $69.99 GIANT, brand-new rug from Goodwill and here they are — but first I wanted to reminisce on what the room looked like the first time we saw the house.

Not offensive at all in its lavender-and-carpetedness. I think a lot of people would have been happy just vacuuming it and calling it a day, but it wasn’t quite us, and in person it was a bit dingier.

Which brings us to today… the room is ever so slowly getting there, but I am in no rush. I'd rather find the right things at the right price, and this is what we have accumulated so far.

Here is the bad boy that Amazon still sells for $600 with a “list price” of like $1200. WTF!?! A staging company left it and new home owners hated it? I have no idea how it ended up there but I am delighted it did.

This is where the gold trunks ended up. I am not even going to pretend that my closet has a door or isn’t a disaster zone. The mirror is the one I spray painted with chalkboard paint and the dresser is the one that was my grandparents' that then became mine growing up, and has lived in every place I have.

Plycraft chair purchased from a friend and a Jonathan Adler pillow that was a gift a few years ago from Danni.

what that area looked like before.

So, there you have it. I love the new rug. Isadora has christened it by throwing up on it twice (but there were three each time, so I am calling it six) and we now know the rug handles stains well (as all things that enter our house must).

Wow. Today has been a WORK day. We moved a ton of stuff from our current basement to our new basement. But first, we had to take care of the basement floor and parts of the basement walls. After we tore up the gross carpet there was still (of course) that musty basement smell. The guy at the painting store called it "houseitosis" heehee. We were going to paint it with Kilz but on the recommendation from two painters we went with a white shellac primer instead. They both insisted that shellac is the ONLY thing that will really contain odors. And it looks prettier.

the floors before

and after:

They said one coat would do the job, and it did. I was not striving for perfection here.

The MUCH harder and far more tedious project has been in the main level bedroom. A previous owner used a decorative stencil all over the room and, to make it three-dimensional, put joint compound over it to look like this:

Geez, there are literally about two hundred. And to prep for the painters we have to remove all of them (or pay the painters a great deal of money to do it). We can't use a sander because the walls are textured and the sander would make the area too flat, drywalling is also out of the question so we are removing them one by one with a putty knife. This has mostly been my job and I just have one more wall to go back to. 

This is what they look like post putty knifing.

 

working on the nook

a bit farther away

So, that was today! I hope everyone who celebrates July 4th has a great holiday weekend. And working on projects at my house is exactly where I want to be : ) I can't wait to actually have pretty things to share : )

Houses, oh my!

Well, hello!! oy vey, this last week in our house has been very, erm, unusual. I was taking a shower on Wednesday and right before my eyes a HUGE crack appeared on the other side of the tub basin. It went all the way across the tub. I hopped out and sure enough water was pouring into the basement. When our landlord had his son-in-law (a contractor) and a plumber come out the next day they realized everything in the bathroom had basically been done incorrectly and they were going to do it right. Which is awesome, but we are on day four of no shower, tub or sink (the sink is gone, walls are ripped out, etc) and during the days when they are working, no toilet!! Yes, I have run to the grocery store to use the bathroom in case you are wondering. : ) I have no idea when this will end. Hopefully midweek. For now we are showering at our friends'. But it makes the workday when you work from home just a bit challenging.

Then on Saturday morning we woke up and our electricity was out (we think our house is trying to kill itself) and Drew's finicky computer monitor died as a result once and for all. In the scheme of things that go wrong it life this is of course no big deal, but it has disrupted the flow of the week to make it such a strange long one.

On top of that Drew and I have actually been house hunting for quite some time! There, I said it out loud. :) That's truly a big reason for my long blog absence over the last few months. We are committed to calling Portland home for the foreseeable future and we are excited! It's been a challenge on what amounts to a shoe string budget in west coast terms. We often look at houses in St. Louis and see what we could get for the same amount of money and I would be lying to say it is not a bit depressing. I love Portland but St. louis architecture is some of the most beautiful, in my opinion.

We had an offer on one house that we LOVED but it was a major fixer. Unfortunately the inspection proved that it was a much more daunting project than we could have handled. Foundation, roof, plumbing, you name it. So, sadly, we walked away. But we have been avidly hunting since and we have our fingers crossed on one right now. I have stalked the internet for houses for over a year. It's my favorite hobby, I think.

Some people dream about weddings and children the way I have dreamt about a home. A place to design and curate. Dream, scheme, and plan for the future in. It's a big deal to me. My mom, sisters, and I lived in my grandparents' house from the time I was one until the time I moved out at 18. I want an anchor, and a home feels like that. Could I be happy renting forever? Absolutely. But my world is so visual and to be in complete control of a space is amazing to me.

This house hunt may continue to be a VERY long journey but it is one I am so excited for and couldn't be doing it with a better partner.

Weekending Thanksgiving style

First, a BIG thank you for all your support during my buy one get one free sale! I have a LOT of shipping to do, which is a very good thing.

This weekend, in addition to the usual of filling orders and working on portraits, Drew and I had a Saturday of making chili and playing Rock Band, and later I went thrifting with my sister.

What did I find at the thrift store? Only the most amazing hand-carved, artist signed trees. Each tree is from a different type of wood (Cedar, Douglas Fir) and labeled as such. And only 99 cents each!

I think their perfect resting spot would be upon a giant white mantel. One day, one day…

I'll tell you, someone who had a lazy day was little Isadora. I kid you not this is how I found her midmorning (she did this to herself):

and this is how I found her at night:

Bookends of a cat and a day I suppose. REEEEdiculous.

And there was Thanksgiving shopping! Not all of it—I wanted to wait for the Sunday paper. I haven't gotten it in a long time but this weekend there should be toooooons of good coupons for things we need for the holidays so I picked up two.

If you want to see what Black Friday sales ads have leaked (remember to treat them as rumors though), you should check here.

Have a great weekend!

A little sprucing up goes a long way

The corner of my dining room has been majorly spruced up and decluttered. I painted the ugly closet door with chalkboard paint (for menus or to draw a christmas tree on, perhaps? or honestly, to leave blank). It's a really great color and texture all on its own.

I haven't color coordinated my books for some time. So, I was happy to tackle that beast at last. It takes me sooo long for some reason.

Now what to do with the mess that has been left behind… I have to find new homes around the house.

Improvementttttttttts!!!

Remember when I was beginning my ceiling tile project?

Well… it is now complete!!

Here are the befores:

And the afters:

I need to get a chandelier still, and after putting it up I think I need to put up some molding, but still—SUCH an improvement and I love it so much.

I finally got a rug for beneath the dining room table.

Is it my drrrrrrrrream rug? No, but it turns out the chevron stripe rug of my dreams is like, oh you know, $4000… so I will see how this one holds up. So far I really like it, especially with the colors of the chair cushions.

That's all I know for today. We have been in this house about 9 months and I feel like I am finally coming to grips with the style I want versus the style this house dictates (as we all know all spaces do).

Tuckered out

My two favorite things in this house were all tuckered out and I had to snap a picture. They spend a lot of quality time together and it cracks me up.

I am sipping a Starbucks and having a late night with some portrait sketching. No matter how I try to shape my day I always find myself working late into the night.

Caffeine aside, I really really have made a concerted effort to change my sleeping habits. In my ideal world I would would sleep 10–11 p.m. to 6–7 a.m. I have always been a night owl and I thought adulthood would magically change that (boop you turn 25 and now are tired early and rise early… there might even be a magic wand involved). Alas, that still hasn't happened and it makes it even harder living with an earlier bird.

The only one who seems to have struck a balance is the cat. She wakes up with Drew, eats, and then crawls back into bed with me.

So, if August was my blogging month (I will try to keep up the every-other-day blogging), September I am trying to get on a "back to school schedule". God, do you remember bracing yourself the week before school and trying to wake up early?

To all you starting back to school I am thinking of you. : ) And a bit envious.

Alternate version

It took a while to get the lettering right but here is an alternate version of "Trust Your Instincts".

Both versions will be available in the shop.

Thank you so so much for the sofa comments!! Really, sometimes I need a big ol’ helping hand in the decision-making process and this was perfect!

I will show you something else I am really crazy about.

Tufted, velvet, grey, and by faaaaaar the cheapest headboard that isn't icky looking I could find. Right now this is just one of the many things on my "maybe one day" list.

Have a great weekend!

Advice

SO, I have been on a sofa search since I was… umm 18 or 19. Granted, I had different taste back then and a much different budget. I ended up with a $75 tufted, crushed blue velvet couch. That was a good good couch. In fact, it is now reupholstered and living in a coffee shop in St. Louis. That couch saw me through six moves.

Then when we moved to Portland we got our current Ikea couch. I like it enough but from turning it into a bed often for guests and HOT nights it's sort of rickety (the back won't stay in the more reclined position) and I do almost all of my work sitting on the couch (I try so hard to use a desk but it doesn't last long). Not having arms on the sofa has turned out to be a HUGE detriment. There are pillows that act as arms but they are removable and not my thing. Again, great in theory.

I want a deep couch. To me that means a minimum of 42". Lately I have seen 48" sofas but they are exxxxxpensive. So, I think I found my dream sofa (44" thank you very much). I am 99.9% ordering it. And then say this is it for as far into the distance as I can see. I want to imagine not needing another couch for at least 10 years. But this is a really popular couch so I was curious if anyone had any experience with it or if you know of another awesome couch?

it looks much sleeker without the throw pillows. Microfiber velvet means easy to clean, so I am not afraid to go with such a light couch. Also, August 29 through the beginning of October, Crate and Barrel is having 15%–25% off custom upholstery!

Ok, so any couch advice will be much much appreciated. : )

pssst… if you want to purchase something from Crate and Barrel that is not on sale the best thing to do is to create a registry. They're not just for weddings anymore. You can select a very general "celebration". And really isn't every day a celebration? So, you create a registry and select a date that is in the near future (a week or two). After that date passes, as a thank you (even if no one purchased anything on your registry) Crate and Barrel will send you a 10% off coupon good once online and once in person off your total purchase! On a couch, that can be a few hundred dollars. If you were purchasing multiple items that is HUGE savings. Even 10% off a set of silverware is great.

All is quiet and gray...

…and drizzly. Drew has been reading and curing some technology ailments with our printer (uugghh) and I have been doing the usual.

There is a quiet tofu dinner on the horizon and TV-watching while I draw.

A certain someone always enjoys quiet evenings.