moved!

deco dollop's content has moved to its sister site; beacon bits. Please visit us there for new posts... or stay here and reminisce over older posts... either way, thanks for stopping by!

moving...

Ladies and gentlemen,  I have an announcement... (no, no second baby on the way, you know after you have one you kind of feel like people are constantly questioning whether you're pregnant again, watching to see if you drink alcohol etc so let me pause for a big gulp of champagne as I prepare for this big annoucement...) so here it goes, the big announcement... deco dollop is moving.

I originally started this blog as a stay at home mom who wanted to keep in touch with her creative side... and it really did that for me.  But now that I'm working 4 days a week two blogs is just a little much for this mother of a one year old to keep up with.  So I've decided to merge deco dollop's content back into my original blog beacon bits.  There was always plenty of overlap between them anyhow.

So there you have it folks.  I encourage you to follow my bigger, fatter blog over at http://www.beaconbits.blogspot.com/.  As we are about to move into our lucky number 77 house this weekend and continue to work on it over the next year I intend to show lots of "before" and "after" pics along with endless trials and tribulations I'm sure.  I hope you'll continue on this journey with me and I thank you for reading deco dollop.

Oh, and one last thing - when in doubt, paint it silver sage

rock stars

Wow.  Morgan and I are blessed to have some pretty amazing friends and family.  We were in need of getting some major painting done this weekend, far more than we could do ourselves, and our friends and family came through for us once again.  We were simply blown away by what was done and how long people stayed to work.  This wasn’t even the fun kind of painting, you know, the kind with instant gratification, throw a color up on the wall and let see how dramatically it changes a room…. nope, this was the kind of painting that nobody likes to do – even me. 

This was priming drywall, ceilings, the stair walls, trim and anything else being painted white.  We managed to rock out ALL the priming and get ALL the ceilings painted.  It was imperative that we had this done last weekend because the floors are being refinished this week and then we move.  Time’s up and nobody wants to paint ceilings with furniture in the room and newly refinished hardwood floors.  Another thing we had to get done was the baseboard trim.  Typically this is best to complete prior to refinishing the floors because any paint that gets on the floor just gets sanded away during the refinishing process.   Baseboard trim – done.

So needless to say we are extremely grateful to all those who helped us get to this point.  To our rock star painting crew Sara, Dylcia, Bob & Debbie, to Morgan’s parents who came down from Maine nearly every weekend for the last month, to my parents who drove all the way from Wisconsin, to our new neighborly neighbor Don, to those who watched over Oliver during all this craziness,  and anybody else I might have missed, thank you, thank you.

Sara primes trim like a pro!

lighten up

Okay, so demo pics are pretty dull for blog fodder so let’s talk about something a little shinier!  So remember that cool space saucer pendant we had hanging in the dining room?  We had plans to take it down and give it a quick makeover with some silver spray paint.  Unfortunately as the light fixtures were laying on the floor waiting for the electricians to return and install them, they were accidentally thrown out.  Yep, that sweet little mod space saucer and its counterpart in the foyer were trashed :(

This meant we needed to do a little more fixture shopping than originally planned.  As of late  I’ve really been digging simple fabric shade pendants reminiscent of Scandinavia and really fell in love with this one from Hubbardton Forge, but with a price tag nearing $1000, it just wasn’t an option.  

Eventually I turned my sights to Overstock.com.  Many, many years ago I bought a duvet cover from Overstock and thought it was a good site for linens and those sorts of things.  I never thought about looking there for home improvement items much less hard-wired light fixtures, but to my amazement they’ve been doing this for years.  The folks over at Young House Love even bought their bathroom sink from Overstock a couple years ago and constantly get rave reviews for it on their blog. 

The selection is limited for some things, pretty good for others, so I guess you just never know.  After looking at numerous stores and other sites for a good week or so Morgan and I finally selected this one from Overstock.  

For a cool $99 and free shipping (I’m truly a sucker for this) we took the plunge.  The fixture arrived and looks pretty good in the box.  Of course the true effects won’t be known for a couple weeks when it gets installed, but along with those new recessed lights in the living room I think we’re heading in the right direction.  Now what to do about that foyer… 

progress!

two weeks and counting until move-in day and we seem to be making some progress!

the wall is gone!

recessed lights have been added

the kitchen wainscoting's been primed and painted!

(the trim's been painted since this pic)

the mudroom is primed

and semi-painted

the den is painted

paint the trim?

bathroom walls are painted

(the trim was painted after this pic) 

ugh, still need to get rid of that toilet and vanity!

To-do list:

finish drywall everywhere

finish electrical upgrades

paint, paint, paint everything else

refinish floors

move, move, move!

to paint or not to paint?

Okay, so October is turning into a renovation marathon.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we plan to move at the end of this month... okay, we MUST move at the end of this month or we'll be homeless.  We still have lots of big tasks left to do... drywall 30% of the walls and all the ceilings, refinish the hardwood floors throughout, and paint, paint, paint!  Oh and on top of all that, we have to actually MOVE!  Did I also mention we'll be out of town for 3 days next weekend?  Yep, so that one doesn't even count.  Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but you know what?  I say (write) it all with a smile cuz every night I go to bed getting excited about the next steps.

The biggest thing I'm pondering right now is the trim.  I know, I know, this always seems to be a real hot button issue with homeowners and designers... to paint the trim or not.  Once it's painted it's tough to go back.  I do like the open airy feel of crisp, shiny, white trim, but I also don't want to do something that I'll later regret.  However it's not like this is real nice wood or anything, in fact the only trim that's original (I think) are the base boards.  I'm guessing that the window and door trim were replaced when the house was remodeled in the 50s/60s... a bit of a shame.  I will say though, the good thing about buying an old house with unpainted trim is that we didn't have to worry about the lead paint issue, but I digress.

To paint or not to paint... that is the question... HELP!

Oliver doesn't want to paint... he wants to play!

progress?

demolition is a slippery slope... we planned to take out this non-bearing wall and during the process some how it was decided that the ceiling would be taken down as well... hmmmm... did I mention we'll be moving in at the end of this month?  hah, hah, hah...

living/dining one week ago

two days later

entry hall one week ago

two days later