Bedroom Remodel Almost Complete

It has been a looong 5 months and all I can say is that the bedroom remodel is almost complete. I really like it. It came out better than I thought despite all the headaches. One of the major problems amongst many that occurred during the process was that my cabinet maker did not use the right stain on my doors and the bathroom vanity. The bedroom door sits very close to one of the kitchen cabinets. Since the cabinet was a couple of feet from the door, it was really obvious that the stain did not match. One of the reasons I went with this cabinet maker was because he had done my kitchen cabinets and he said he would use the same stain.

My husband said, well there's nothing we can do about it now so just get over it. I guess never assume anything is what it has taught me.

Here's a picture of my room after installing the French doors:



And the new room:





My furniture that I repainted looks like all new furniture. Saved a lot of money by keeping the old set.

Bathroom remodel will be next. Stay tuned.

Work is Never Done

It's been about 6 days since I had been to the doctor's and still have heard nothing back on the referral. Now I have to call them to find out what the hold up is. In the meantime, I have been keeping busy. I finished painting my closet doors, painted ivy over the French doors. Put up some pictures in the remodeled bedroom and I am prepping the family room for painting.

I will call the cabinet makers again this week to see where they are and if they will ever install my vanity. Had some frustrations at Lowes. I spent a considerable amount of time looking at blinds. Made another trip back to order them and they couldn't bring them up on the computer so I couldn't price them. They found all the other blinds just not the ones that I wanted. After I went back home, I did get a call back and it turns out that the people helping me did not know how to use the system. My blinds were found but now I have to go back in to order them. After the Lowe's paint and tile debacles, I am tired of making the 60 mile round trip to fix the errors. It is getting a little old.

Right now, I am eyeing my bookcase that will go back in the remodeled bedroom. I had painted all the bedroom furniture a thyme green and now I am thinking that the book case will not match. I am going to have to paint that too.

My husband thinks that I am making too much work for myself but at this point, I need the distraction so I welcome it.

Teeny Weeny Studio

Still doing remodeling although things should rev up here when my bathroom vanity is put in. I have been waiting for them to get this done before we put in the floors and tile. I just cleaned the French doors and grilles and will stain them as soon as they are dried. It will be tricky as I am using a stain for fiber glass and my test stain right now is too light. I am supposed to leave it on so many minutes and then brush it. The longer the period between brushing, the darker the stain. I can always wipe the stain off but at $50.00 a stain kit, I don't really want to waste too much.

There is a section of my bedroom that I am thinking of putting a tiny studio to store all my art supplies and sewing items. I still don't know how I am going to fit so much stuff into a little space. My husband is concerned that it will look messy so I am going to have to buy a lot of organizers to do the job right. Right now my drawing table is out in the kitchen taking up a lot of space. It will be nice to move everything back to the master bedroom.

I took some before pictures of the room and bathroom but I am waiting until I am totally finished so that I can show the before and after shots.


Anyway, that's it for now.

Is It All Overkill?

I spent the weekend on a home tour going through beautiful houses some worth up to a $1,000,000.00 to get some ideas on what to do with my rather modest master bedroom and bath. I have to say that even though the houses were impressive and very nicely decorated, it just didn't do a whole lot for me. Some of the houses had 5 to 6 bedrooms with their own private baths. It seemed a little excessive. The one 7000 square foot house had tons of storage, it was unbelievable! The storage room had so much shelf space, you probably could have put a couple years supply of food in there and still have room left over. I did see one master bedroom that had a library separated with french doors that I liked and that could perhaps work in the space that I have although on a much smaller scale.

I spent 16 hours cleaning out my spare bedroom and most of the closets in the house. I think I ended up with 30 garbage bags of items. Most of which will go to the Goodwill or some outfit like that. 50% of my clothing that was in my closet and in my drawers ended up in those bags. I am not one to spend a lot of money on clothes, yet I did have items that were not worn very much.

Which brings me to this PBS show that I saw on Wayne Dyer. He was promoting his new book, "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life."He talked about the excesses we have in our life and that we should really think about simplifying. According to him, we only use about 20% of everything we own. The 80% just sits there and takes up space. A couple of years ago he sold his townhouse complete with all his possessions including his awards, books and many other things that were of great value to him.




Anyway, it did get me thinking about whether or not I really needed all these things to make myself happy and also if it was necessary to remodel my bedroom. I'm not sure I will take it as far as Wayne Dyer did but I do want to declutter my life. I will be reading his book.