East Side Of The House (almost) Done

This is after replacing the side door ($85 from Habitat Restore) and adding the mid-century awning

($60 from an antique store.)

This is the east side of the house and to the right of the door before Stephen got ahold of it.

Stephen added the landscaping stone (which we already had on hand)

to give me an even planting surface ....

for some brown eyed susans.  Free because they are transplanted from my own yard.

They will add color against the concrete wall.

And should do great in hot weather and drought.

Furnishing & Decorating The Primary Bedroom

The theme in this bedroom is geometric patterns and pops of gold.  A queen-sized mattress and steel bed frame were hand-me-downs from one of our children (so that sounds free, but we actually paid about $600 for them a little over a year ago.)  Chrome and black headboard was purchased from Habitat Restore for $35.  Sealy mattress protector was about $25 from Kohl's. Pillow covers were free from Amazon because we had Discover cashback. Four pillows were $37 from Sam's Club. 

Bedding.  We chose this very boring gray bedspread for two reasons: #1 We have it at our other AirBNB and it wears GREAT.  Easy to wash.  Reversible.  #2 It is a great neutral backdrop to those color pops I mentioned earlier.  I bought two of these from Home Depot for $100.  We purchased two sets of sheets at a weird discount grocery supply store for only $45.  So if they don't hold up well, I won't be too sad.

Update: total waste of $45.

The two cone-shaped reading lamps on the wall were from Walmart, $18 each.

Bedside tables.  BIG SIGH.  OK, I paid $127 for a pair of orange nightstands from Walmart.  And realized they were too short.  Drop back and punt.  I paid $24 for the nice sized wooden pair from my favorite thrift store and $10 for paint.  I guess you could say that $160 for a pair of bedside tables isn't bad....or you could beat yourself up for spending $127 for basically nothing.

That still left room for a credenza. Credenzas are SUCH a cool mid-century item.  I knew I wanted one somewhere in this house.  Just before completing the final details in this bedroom, I found one on Facebook Marketplace that I really liked -- $350. Yes, that is a lot of money.  But lower than most that I really liked. (And then of course I repainted it.) We paid $20 at our thrift store for the large mirror on top of it.

Wall art.  The MCM adhesive wall design was around $50 for 6 strips -- but we only used 5 because I wanted a center. They weren't what I would call easy to hang, but it wasn't too bad.  Round metal collage was $7 from Goodwill.

Checkerboard Pavers Installed By The Front Entry

 

Kevin got a vision for the confusing area between the front door and the driveway.

A checkerboard of square concrete pavers with grass growing between them.

(What? you can't see the grass seed in the photo?)

Update: ditched the grass idea, went with gravel between pavers.

And latticestone in front of the step. 

I need to do a blueprint for my concrete planter now.

It will be installed in the center of the checkerboard area.

Painting Furniture For The Primary Bedroom

 

We are so close to the proverbial finish line. And then I buy pieces of furniture that need paint. After selling antique furniture for 30 years, I am no stranger to painting furniture.  It doesn't intimidate me, but it stresses me because we are so short on time and it's just another thing to do. So many final details.

I bought both of these bedside tables for $24 from the thrift store.  Solid wood, but with a little water damage on top. Another $10 on paint from Lowe's -- gold to match the curtains.  I have to say kudos to the paint department.  They went above and beyond to match the curtains.

First a little sanding.....then the gold paint.  I had turned it into "chalk paint" using plaster of paris. There are recipes online if you are interested.  Chalk paint sticks great to slick surfaces, with very little chance of peeling off.  It also extends the paint a bit. I still ended up doing three coats.

Next the credenza.  I bought this from Facebook Marketplace for $350. (More than I should have paid, but no time or energy to keep looking).  It already had been a fixer upper, so I didn't feel badly about painting over anything original. I painted black over all of the green.

It will be a great height for people to put their suitcases on.  And if anyway has a longer stay, they may want to actually use the drawers. 

Bathroom Ready For Guests

 

All the paint is touched up.  Towels waiting. Ready for guests.

Photos from left to right as you enter the door.

Plenty of bath towels, hand towels, wash cloths,

toilet paper, hand soap, bathmats, body wash, have been secured.

Ready for guests.

The entire bathroom has been cleaned, 

no easy feat after two months of construction.

Ready for the guests.

Added the shelving unit that I purchased at Habitat ReStore for $15.

So when do guests arrive?

In only 9 days!   Eek!

Furnishing & Decorating The Front Bedroom

 The front bedroom is the first room to be completely furnished and decorated.  I am sure I will do some tweaking, but I would call it done.  The theme for it was soothing grays, but with a bit of fun. Left to right as you stand in the doorway:

Vintage folding Samsonite chair in the corner -- guests can easily fold it and get it out of the way if they aren't using it. I tried to leave plenty of floor space for suitcases and making the beds.

Let's start with the twin beds in the front bedroom. The Zinus Cool Touch mattresses were ordered from Walmart for $178 each. I did quite a bit of research before going with that company. They arrived on my front porch in big boxes.  Which I then had to haul to the Mid-Century AirBNB and release from their bindings.  

A funny note was inside each box, asking for you to give the note to "the responsible one".  

Well, what if there isn't a responsible person on the premises?  

I still don't know what the note said, I didn't read it. I didn't feel worthy.

Steel bedframes were also from Walmart, $131 for both. My son put them together for me as a Mother's Day gift -- it was a great MD gift. I feel myself aging by the second with this renovation. Bookshelf headboards (we looked everywhere for authentic mid-century ones and gave up) were $235 for both, also from Walmart. (They were beasts to assemble.) Mattress protectors and pillow covers were free from Amazon because we had Discover cashback. Four pillows were $37 from Sam's Club.

The gray cotton quilts were purchased from Kohl's, $112 for both. We have them in our bunk room of our other AirBNB and know that they wear well and are reversible.  Two sets of geometric gray sheets were purchased from Kohl's for $43.  Vintage Wooden nightstand between the two beds was purchased from Habitat Restore for $20. I left it wood instead of painting it, because I thought it went well with the beaded closet door. 

On the headboard is a sound machine that projects colored lights.  I would call that fun!

Wall Art -- just one large floral print in those soothing gray tones.  Assembled from thrift store parts -- $12.

Beaded closet door.  Purchased on Facebook Marketplace for $20.

I figure this will be the kid room, and they will love hiding in the closet.

Front Door Makeover Completed

 

"Front Door Makeover Completed" -- that sounds like we did it in five minutes instead of five weeks.  But today marks the milestone of not having the door on the "to-do list".  The screen door was removed, and yes -- given to the Habitat Restore.   The exterior side of the front door was painted not-really-true-black after being prepped with special adhesive spraypaint.

Bob took off the old handle and replaced it with this more "mid-century" looking handle.  And it is much easier to open than the last handle.  $133 from Lowe's.

Bob also replaced a very sad looking porch light with this round one.  When he took down the first one there was a cute little nest on it, but no eggs -- so I let him go ahead and take it down.  A single day later, a slightly improved version of the nest was re-made on the new porch light. Everybody is renovating. Update:  Only a few months later we replaced this light.  It was catching bugs inside, and took too much cleaning.

Mid-Century Blonde Coffee Cabinet

 

The blonde Mid-Century Cabinet fit perfectly in the space we had.

Purchased from Facebook Marketplace for $100.

I ordered peel & stick wallpaper from Amazon for $38 for the interior -- and I do love the look.

I don't want to clutter it up too much, because I want the wallpaper to show.

Cups from Goodwill for $2 each.

Lots Of Assembly Required -- And Bring A Buddy

 

Today this pile of scrap turned into  ....

TWO twin headboards!

Like magic, except it took two people all morning.

I like the outcome but didn't have the chutzpah to tackle the bed platforms too. 

Overview Of Window Treatments In The House

 

To hang curtains over patio doors or not?

If it were a house I was living in, then no.

The view is four acres of rolling fields and trees.  Very private.

But I figure not everyone feels secure without curtains. 

So I selected very light, filmy ones that wouldn't darken the room and could be pulled back easily.

The curtains were only $3 at the local junk store.  The bad news: the curtain rod was $76 at Lowe's.

Four plain black (reads dark gray) curtain panels for the living room picture window.  I wanted the focus to be on the view, not the curtains.  I got the curtain rod for $3 at a garage sale (spraypainted the finials to get them a silver that I liked).  The curtains were purchased from Walmart for $54.

The Front Bedroom has soothing gray tones, so I chose a faux tie-dye curtain wall.  I used FOUR twin bed sheets to pull that off -- Eddie Bauer from Target.  Approximately $25 per twin bed set -- yes that does add up.  (On the bright side -- I have four twin bed fitted sheets and four pillowcases for the two twin beds that will go in that room.) The "curtain rod" was a stair handrail that we bought at Habitat Restore for $9.  The "curtain rod holders" are coat hooks that were purchased from Lowe's for $6 each X 7.  Yep pricey, But if you consider that it is an entire wall...  And then there is a second smaller window.  The curtain rod for it was $20, and the curtains were purchased from Walmart for $27.

The primary bedroom curtain were ones I had purchased at a garage sale a year ago for $10.

Three panels on one window and two on the other, 84".

Two curtain rods were cheapies from Walmart for $30.

Last, but not least are the den vintage barkcloth curtain.  I have had the fabric forever, and they are a little worse for the wear but I couldn't pass on them for a mid-century look.  Curtain patches were $8.  Curtain rod for one window was a piece of wood purchased for $6 from TrueValue (I already had the curtain rod hooks from somewhere else).

Work On The Den Is Done

 

The walls in the den are two-tone, with inspiration coming from the mid-century bark cloth curtains.  The curtains matched the existing wall color which was meh-cream.  I painted a slightly darker tan on the bottom half to give the room a little heft.  With a black chair rail separating the colors.  It really gave the room some personality.

This room is funkier than the rest of the house.  More relaxed.  So the light fixture is funkier.  Purchased from ebay for $42. We bought a different back door from Habitat Restore for $85.  (I know, you will miss the taped-over doggy door.)  Of course I painted it.  We reused the hardware from the original door.

We tore out the woodburning stove, which gained us a bunch of floor space.  In the opposite corner was a funky bump-out where the walls did not even pretend to go down to the floor -- Bob extended that to the floor and made it look like a real wall.

The authentic mid-century curtain turned out to be a ton of work (most everything is!)  But they do give a sense of privacy to the space.  The 1970s license plates were leftover from my junking days, and add interest and color.  Some of these pics were taken before the license plates went up. As hard as it was to get the room in this condition, it is going to be fun to decorate.

Just Another Day At The Office

 

Today was Monday.  Not after having a weekend away from the Mid-Century AirBNB, just another day.  First thing to tackle -- painting black on outside of both exterior doors.  I had them already prepped with all sorts of fancy spraypaint that is supposed to help with adhesion. The paint is a good quality exterior that is supposed to be good for doors, but "True Black" it isn't.  More like charcoal gray. (Why would they call it "True Black" when it clearly isn't?)  The doors turned out pretty good, just a little detail work left. After my husband gets home tonight we will drag the front door from the "spraypaint shed" and re-install it.  We haven't had a front door for a week, and a sheet behind the screen door doesn't offer much security.

Then "surprise".  Lowe's brought the new refrigerator at 9:15 am.  The delivery window was between 10 am - 2 pm, so I am glad I was there.  Why do I feel like I can check this off my list when I didn't do anything?

Second job -- finish putting together the second nightstand for the primary bedroom.  Also, take apart the one I did yesterday and do it right this time.  Now the drawer opens.  Also .... someone was not paying attention when the description said how tall these nightstands were. We will have to figure out a way to raise them up to bed level. Update: ended up just donating these two, buying two used bedstands and painting them.

Third job -- unbox one of the bookshelf headboards that is going in the front bedroom.  MUCH assembly required.  Bedsides unboxing (which they didn't even count in their 15-step assembly list) I accomplished step 1.  And yes, there are two headboards.  I am 1/30 of the way done.  With that thought, it is time to call it a day. If you could read between the lines, I am about at a mental, emotional and physical breakdown here.  The family reunion was just a couple weeks away, and I needed the house to be functional by then.

Finished In The Bathroom

 

"Mama said there'd be days like this ...."  that is what Bob said before his THIRD trip to the hardware store / while he was working on a Saturday / after finding rotted boards around the toilet area / after he ran out of hexagon tile in the shower (which I had him buy, because I didn't trust myself to purchase the right amount.)

I purchased the gray tile for the rest of the bathroom floor at Habitat Restore weeks ago.  I didn't trust myself to purchase the right amount then either.  So I bought all of it -- slight overkill.  But still only paid $26. Well, it all turned out splendidly.  

And it gave me incentive to finish the walls.  That stenciling on the upper half? It about did me in. I have to say -- I wouldn't recommend it.  I definitely would do something different if I had a do-over. Yes, it looks good and was cheap -- but it was just stinking hard work. Not for the faint of heart.  The mirror came from an antique store for $14.  The light above that is the original brown fixture, just spraypainted.  Same vanity and sink, but we used silver fixtures that were left in the house.

Specialty glass guys came and measured for the shower door and later installed it.  They did an awesome job and it was not as expensive as getting a glass door from Lowe's and having it installed.

The stylish bathroom light / exhaust fan.  Quiet and looks great.

The bathroom is by far the smallest room in the house.  And by far the most expensive.  AND the most time consuming for both Bob and I. The most blood and sweat.  But also the most important.  Someday I may be able to look at it without remembering how exhausted it made me. And caused me to have plantar fasciitis for the next 6 months.