Welcome to Mantucket

I know that I promised Part 2 of the horror that is my front yard/plumbing issues, but I was so excited to do this project, I decided to finish and do a big reveal! Well that and yesterday was Mother's Day, and I promised my mom I'd finish and post pictures. So here you go Mom!

One of the most neglected rooms in our house (or any house we've ever lived in) has been the master bedroom. It's a lot of work to do to prettify the place where you sleep. Hubs and I have been so done, I'm talking D-O-N-E with renovation drama, that we really felt like we needed a calm, quiet place to relax. To me, that means white on white, with hydrangeas and white roses, flowy curtains and all that pretty girly stuff, to him, it means beige on beige with some more beige thrown in for good measure (he really dislikes color). Normally he pretty much goes along with whatever I want without too much complaining, so for our bedrooom, I really wanted to make it a masculine space that he felt comfortable in, while keeping it pretty. I think I succeeded.

Here's the before. Not bad.
Here's the after. Isn't it pretty?! It feels very Nantucket (Hubs calls it Mantucket) to me. This is the view from the doorway.
I started by painting the bed white. What an immense pain that was! Those little spindle thingies...ugh. It was terrible. Plus, I was trying to save time, so I decided not to use primer before I painted. Big mistake. It took 3 coats and didn't even cover everything! In the end, I decided that I liked that you could still see through the white a little bit. It gives it a little bit of a white washed/aged look in some spots. But if I had it do again, I'd use primer. I just got lucky that I like the white washed look.

The oar I had hanging in the living room. The bedding is the same, I just flipped the comforter over so it was all white showing.
These are the pictures that really inspired the room. We found the large one at TJ Maxx for $14.99, and the other two were taken at The Point (I talked about it here, if you need a refresher!). One of my favorite things about The Point was that you could see the tall beautiful trees and the ocean, all at the same time. I really wanted to convey that feeling I used to have, and I wanted to bring in the ocean AND the trees.

In order for the bed to be centered in the room, we had to do away with one of the bedside stands. We tried to make it work, but when you opened the closet door, you hit the nightstand. So while it may have been more symmetrical and "normal" to have the two matching nightstands, we opted for function. This little stand was in my living room, then in the kitchen, and I think now, it's found it's permanent home.

I asked the kids to find me "interesting sticks", and this is what they brought me. Works for me! I got the jar/vase thingy at TJ Maxx for $3.99. I put some river rocks in the bottom to hold the sticks in place, and voila!
The lamp is another TJ Maxx find ($24.99).
The view from the other side of the room
We cleared EVERYTHING off the dresser. I don't think I've ever seen it so empty! At first I planned to paint the dresser white too, but decided against it. I think it adds some rustic charm as it is.

We found the sailboat in the garden aisle at Lowes for $19.99. I can't really imagine this in a garden, but I like it on the dresser!
Really, the only I other things I did were paint the trim white (Valspar Ultra White) and put down an area rug (Lowes $98). Normally, I think area rugs over carpets are kind of silly, but it's a necessity for us. We really want to put down hardwood floors, but it's just not in the budget right now. This lightens up the room and hides a lot of the carpet, especially where our monster of a puppy had chewed chunks of the carpet out.So there you have it. Nantucket, Mantucket, I don't care what it's called. I love it!

In a handbasket, Part 1

It's tempting to call me a slacker because I haven't posted anything since the end of March, but I promise, I have a good reason (and pictures!) Let's start with the timeline of very unfortunate events.

April 1- My parents came to visit, and we had such a good time! We went to the aquarium and Coke World in Atlanta, we went to the zoo, we showed them around our own city, it was wonderful, we really needed the vacation, and I loved seeing my family.

(Taken at Coke World. See? We're very happy)
Then it went bad. Very, very bad.

April 9- Things were starting to get back to normal. I was making potato salad for dinner, and I noticed that the sink was draining slow. I ran the garbage disposal, figuring it was a little backed up, and it spit water up the opposite side. Uh oh. I call the plumber (who can't come for hours) and wait. As I'm sitting across the room, pouting at my inability to not be able to use the kitchen sink, the dishwasher (which wasn't even running) starts pouring water all over the floor.

The plumber finally comes, and she (yep, she. Our plumber is a lady) tells us that there's no blockage in the kitchen sink. She does all sorts of plumbery things, and asks if we have problems with other drains. Since we moved in, all of our drains have run kind of slow, but honestly, hubs put in the 2 toilets and the bathroom sinks, so I kind of thought it was just because he didn't do it right (sorry hubs!). She says it must be tree roots that have gotten into our drainage pipes. So what does this mean?

It means that my newly planted lawn is getting dug up. But that's not the worst of it. The County Water people came out and ran a camera through the sewer line and spray painted where the mysterious roots were. Then we had all of the other utilities come and mark where their lines were (it would be really, really bad to hit a gas line and blow up the neighborhood!).

The neon green paint is where the roots are, all of the orange lines are gas lines. So, we can't get the big yellow digger to dig this hole. It has to be done by hand.

April 15- We had the heavy machinery start the hole, and hubs and plumber started digging a trench toward the curb.

Doesn't look so happy now does he? Oh! I forgot to mention, they broke the water line when they dug the big hole AND the broke the sewer line. So he's standing in a muddle of mud and...well, there's no nice way to say this. Poop. He's standing in poop.

After about 8 hours of digging , it looked like this.

Lots of roots, but still haven't found the culprit.

That black wire running across the hole is a cable wire, also bad to hit with heavy machinery.


Another couple of hours, and we're at the curb. Hubs is really happy about it, as you can see. Actually, he wasn't bad, he just kept "suggesting" that I pick up a shovel and start digging. How can I take pictures if I'm digging? Geesh. Anyway. There are no tree roots anywhere near our sewer lines. None. Mind you, at this point, I have a 5 foot wide hole in my front lawn and the sewage pipe hasn't been repaired yet, so every time you flush the toilet it goes to the hole in the front yard. We called the County back and told them we dug to the curb and there was nothing. They assured us there were roots, but they'd come back out and run their camera again. Is it possible that the spot was mismarked? Perhaps it's on the street-side and not in our yard? Certainly not! It MUST be on our side, otherwise, all this digging would be for nothing, and the county would have to take over and fix the issue. Hmmm, interesting. They were going to send a crew first thing in the morning.

The sewage pipe was taped (yep, taped) back together so the county could take apart in the morning. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited.

April 23- After calling the office about 387 times, I was finally able to speak to someone who assured me that they would send a crew right over. After a lot of back and forth, calls to supervisors and raised voices, they agreed to fix it.

I don't know that they ever found this elusive root. I thought it would be in bad taste to take pictures of them working, they were really not happy with me after all this, so I don't know what exactly they did. I know they did hook all the pipes back up, and they did bring a bunch of dirt to cover up the hole. Hubs and I covered the hole, but there's still a big dirt pile left. We got sidetracked with other problems. Yes, there's more. And it gets worse.

Part 2 tomorrow!

Renovations by Luke (and a new coffee table)

A couple of days ago, after a great night out together, we walked into the house to a huge surprise. Our precious baby, Luke, barely 4 months old decided to renovate our living room.

We weren't gone for that long, and he's really not normally this destructive. He's doesn't even chew shoes, I never in a million years thought he's eat my furniture. So how could one tiny little puppy cause so much damage?

Luke is not tiny, he's a 60 pound beast. He apparently just really didn't like our ottoman. So he ate it. Hubs was so not impressed. But, I, trying desperately to smooth the waters, and make sure that we still had a puppy in the morning, had an idea. Why don't we just finish what Luke started and start over with the ottoman? I wanted a new coffee table anyway. Hubs was still not impressed, but he's a good sport, so he played along. He started by getting his frustrations out by ripping the crap out of the rest of the pleather with a knife removing the pleather exterior.

Then we took off the hinges. The ottoman was also my secret hiding spot for dvds and games I hadn't put away when I unpacked boxes. It also hides my secret love of the video game "God of War". I suck at video games, which is why I have a cheater's guide, but there is something about beating the hell out of things that is just so stress-relieving. FYI though, it's NOT a kid's game, when they say "M for Mature", they really mean it. I don't even play it when the kids are awake, it's really, really violent. Anyway, I'm digressing.

Ugh, what a mess! So anyway, we'd removed the exterior, took off the hinges and cleaned out all the crap, we found some boards we'd had left over from the kitchen. Hubs measured and cut them to fit the top.
Then I had him cut them again, some in half, some in thirds, all staggered-like, sort of like a wood floor would look. Then he nailed them in with the air gun nailer thingy. I'm sure there's a technical name for it (which I clearly don't know), but it's really just a nail gun connected to a hose and a large air tank.

It was already looking better, but it wasn't quite right, so I used my Valspar Antiquing Glaze, and just rubbed it on the bare wood. THAT made it look cool. The color was different on every board, some lighter, some darker. We hammered some very large nails in, both for effect and make sure the thin boards didn't lift at all. We did the same thing to the bottom of the ottoman, but ran the boards vertically. Here's what it looks like now.

The metal corner pieces were hidden under the pleather, so we just reattached them. I also used a glue gun to attach some jute to the top edge.

The whole project cost me about $3.99 (for the jute), I had everything else on hand. It took probably 3 hours from start to finish. We're really happy with the finished product, it sort of reminds me of driftwood.

Can you believe something this cute caused all this?

I'm thinking he probably did us a favor.

Spring tablescape

I never do tablescapes. I usually slap some fake fruit in a bowl and call it a day. However, I moved our table into the living room (for lots of reasons which I'll explain later) and I've just had this want...no, need to live in all things pretty. Anyway, I was doing my daily blog reading and found a link for Between Naps on the Porch. It's not one that I normally read (it will be now!) and was so inspired by the tablescapes on "Tablescape Thursday" that I had to do one for myself.

Not bad for the first time! Nothing says springtime to me like green and white, and green is my favorite color.

I didn't buy anything new, I just shopped the house. The napkins and placemat are true vintage linen, they belonged to my Grandmother. The green vase is a really a bottle that I just took the top off, the other vases were all in my cupboards. The little green birdie ($1.99 at Marshall's) was supposed to be spray painted white, but I just didn't get around to it. So for now, he'll just stay green! The apples are just part of my fake fruit collection. The flower arrangement is fake...I know, I know. Fake is evil. But it's what I had, hydrangeas are my favorite flower, and real flowers just die anyway. The plates/cups/saucers are Fiestaware, which my mom gave me for a wedding present. I only set two places (even though we're a family of four) because I only have two sets of green. I got service for eight: two green, two blue, two red and two yellow. When I add to my set I'm going for the purple or orange I think. But I digress.

So there you have it. It's pretty enough for guests, and really makes our tiny table (which Hubs FINALLY said we could replace!!!!!) pop. I'm totally loving it.

Windows and oars

A couple of weeks ago, we were doing a walk-through of a rental house that my father-in-law had just finished renovating. When we got to the backyard, I spotted something I HAD to have.

An old nasty window! Isn't she fantastic in all of her chippy glory? You just can't recreate that, I don't care how skilled a faux painter you are. Hubs raised his eyebrows at me when I grabbed it off the garbage pile. I ignored him. I had a plan! He felt obligated to tell me that all the chipped paint was probably lead based paint. I assured him I wouldn't lick it or eat any paint chips that happened to fall off. Anyway, I wanted to hang her on the wall. The problem is, I couldn't find a nail or screw long enough to go through the window frame and still secure it to the wall.

I've used this metal wire in the past to secure flowers to wreaths, so it does work for that, although I don't really know what it's for. I bought it at JoAnn's Fabric. Today, it's going to help me hang up a window on a wall. I cut 5 lengths of wire about as long as the window, then I twisted them all together. Then I screwed a wood screw in the back of the window frame, about half way in, wrapped the wire around the screw threads, and screwed it in the rest of the way, repeated it for the other side and that's it. Just to make sure it would hold, I did hold it up with one finger (it did hold, but I think I sprained my finger. That thing is heavy!).

Then, I took this ugly painted boat oar that I got at Marshall's for $12.99 (because I'm too impatient to wait to find one in an antique store), flipped it over and distressed it with my handy dandy hand sander.

And voila! Aren't they fantastic? They make a great pair over my couch, which I've decided is in desperate need of more pillows. Also, you're getting a little sneak peak of my new (again) living room. Along with my "new" coffee table. I'm hoping that will be finished very soon. I spent all day today redecorating the living room, so hopefully I'll finish up tomorrow morning so I can post some more pictures.

So anyway, don't be afraid to pick up something, even if it's "trash". Even if you can't imagine how on earth it will hang on your wall, if there's a will, there's a way. I've had this window leaning against the living room wall since my birthday, trying to figure out how to use it. Same with the oar. I hated the painted side, but I loved the plain light blue side. You can only see one side anyway, right!

Ultimate mistreatments

I was feeling particularly wealthy a few weeks ago and bought some beautiful Pottery Barn curtains for the living room. They were cardinal red and went floor to ceiling. They were really, really beautiful...on someone else's windows. They looked terrible in my living room. The color was really bad, they blocked out too much light, they made the room look too fussy, it was just all wrong. Which I suppose serves me right for spending $50 a PANEL for curtains. With a heavy heart, I sent them back to Pottery Barn, completely distraught. I mean, if Pottery Barn can't solve my window problem, what can?

I looked into The Nester's window mistreatments, which looked easy enough, were budget friendly, and look great in her house. I hesitated though, I was really put off by the whole Pottery Barn curtain mishap, and I really just don't like curtains all that much. I just needed some time to think about my options, so I did what I do best and went shopping.

We were strolling through the antique mall and these 2 ugly decrepit boards caught my attention. The tag said that they were salvaged from a barn in Kentucky and they were $7 each! They even had caked on mud on them. Hubs thought I was a little nuts when I swooned over them, but I just didn't care. I loved the look, they were so authentic and rustic, I knew I had to have them. Here's where they live now.

I didn't even clean off the mud or try to make them the same size. I really loved the texture of the boards and just thought it was a pretty cool alternative to curtains. Now, I know that I'm breaking all the rules by not putting up curtains, but I don't care. As a general rule I don't really like curtains on my windows. I really like light, and these are the only two windows in this room (and it's a pretty big room). I plan on replacing the yucky little plastic blinds with white wooden blinds, but I just haven't yet. If I could, I'd leave the windows empty, but these face the street, so for privacy, we really need something. The only thing that I don't like about my little boards is that they don't bring the same kind of texture as curtains. I'm hoping to solve this by running tongue and groove boards over the whole wall. It comes in a sheet, kinda like beadboard, only the planks are bigger. Hubs says that's the strangest and most ridiculous thing he's ever heard, "Why would you cover up perfectly good walls?". I think I just haven't convinced him enough yet. Give me time, I will!

So what do you think? Too out there? Do I still need curtains?

Decorating Cents

The other night I was whining about how the living room wasn't "quite right" yet. My husband assured me that this is just nerves, anticipation and gut wrenching fear that I'm feeling. See, my parents (who still live in Maine) are visiting. For the first time. ON APRIL 1! FOR A WEEK. *faints* Ok, sorry. Mini-freak out there. I want desperately for parents to swoon over our little cottage, and to gush over how wonderful everything is. And while I'm sure that they'll be happy for us, the fact is, my mom wasn't really thrilled when we moved, so I'm trying extra hard to impress. They've only seen our house in pictures, so this is a really big deal. There is still a lot to do, and obviously we can't get it all done in a month, but I want as close to done as possible. So anyway, I was sitting on the living room floor whining and carrying on about how "if you'd just let me spend what I needed to, I could finish this right" and "what was I thinking? I can't do this on a nearly zero budget!". Of course the spring Pottery Barn catalog came the day before, so that didn't help with my feelings of inadequacy/feeling like I'll never have enough money to do what I really want. Then my husband suggested we play a game. He called it "Let's see how much you spend on this room to make it look like this". Not really in the mood for games, kind of in the middle of a nervous breakdown, but I figured I'd just play along. I was so glad I did!

These cute little crates, also seen on The Lettered Cottage, were for sale in a set of 4 in Whitewash Sundries' Etsy shop for $45ish. They're not available anymore, so I don't know for sure the price. They're perfect to fill in the dead space between the t.v. and the fireplace. I'd been eyeing them in the Etsy shop, but when I said I was going to buy 4 wooden crates for almost $50, Hubs was less than impressed. I think they were totally worth it, but alas, he was right that we just didn't have the money for them. Mine didn't come in a set of 4, in fact these were the only 3 I could find. I got them at TJ Maxx, $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99, smallest to largest. The mason jars I already had, and I filled one with antique wooden thread spools (10 cents each. I bought way too many, but I have extras for some other project). The tall ones are antique spools also, they were $2 each.

Does this look familiar? It should.

(image courtesy Pottery Barn)

My crate was $10 at a flea market. Same color even. Pottery Barn's version sells for $24. I don't know what to put in yet, I'm looking for the perfect basket, or tray, or something. I don't know, I'll know it when I see it.

I got the keys on the wall are from a flea market, $3 for the set! I was ready to buy Pottery Barn's set of vintage keys for $19. But theirs aren't really vintage, mine are. They're all rusty and awesome. The boxes came from an antique store. They're real handcrafted Shaker boxes, but the guy didn't know that, I didn't feel obligated to tell him when he said I could have all 3 for $10. I've wanted Shaker boxes my whole life, but couldn't afford them because they were so expensive. I felt a tinge of guilt not telling him that he should be charging way more than that, but I got over it.

The lamp was $19 from TJ Maxx, very similar to a Pottery Barn lamp that sells for $179. The sign on the wall is actually a cabinet door from an old apothecary. We got it for $8 at an antique store. The black and white picture is an old picture that I enlarged and framed in a $7 Wal-Mart frame. It's a picture of "Wedding Rock", where my parent's got married. It's in South Bristol, Maine, where my grandparent's owned what we called "The Point", because the property literally goes to a point on a cliff over the ocean. I spent every weekend there all summer long for my whole childhood. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world, and are some of my favorite childhood memories.

This is the mantle. It used to be an ugly brown color that really just blended into the stone. It had no personality at all. I used Valspar Antiquing Glaze on the shelf, which made it a really pretty walnuty color. The bottom was just painted black and roughed up with sandpaper. It gave an otherwise blah mantle a brand new life, and it was free. I already had all the materials. The mirror used to be gold, which was really not pretty, so I painted it black and sanded it a little to make it look old. The clock used to be my mom's alarm clock when she was a girl, the jug was my grandmother's, the picture is an old picture of "The Cottage", which is also at The Point. I already had the faux apples (I got them from Wal-mart about 3 years ago). The bowling pin was $3.50 at an antique store. I do have to confess though, the wreath is from Pottery Barn. It was $49. I know, I know. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it.

The lanterns are both from a flea market. The red one was $10, the silver one was $15. The wooden thing was $5 at a flea market. I have no idea what it is, but I liked it. The clock was $5 at an antique store. The checkerboard rug is actually a checkerboard that I adopted. Ok, it belongs to the kids, and I stole it. It looks better here than in the closet! The lamp was $5 at Wal-Mart. The picture is of my babies' first day home, and my favorite picture in the whole world. If my house was burning--God forbid--it would be the one material thing I would save. The frame was $2.50 at a liquidation center. I painted it white, antique glazed it and sanded it.

The couch I bought from a friend, for a ridiculously low price ($60!), the chairs by the window and the leather recliner (Hubs' chair!) are all from a consignment store. We paid $500 for all three, which in my opinion is a crazy good deal. The blue dresser was my mom's, that she bought at an auction in 1978 for $35. It used to black, but I revived it in blue (more on that later).

So, all in all, not too bad. I still have some things I want to do, and there are definitely some coveted items that I can't do without from Pottery Barn, but I guess I can feel pretty good about where I'm at. I'm still feeling some anxiety, but I do feel better knowing that I can do it, with or without thousands and thousands of dollars. *EDITED (to include dollar amount)* I spent less than $800 on the whole living room, including furniture.

I know I'm a flea market and antique store junkie, but how about you? How have you saved money in decorating?