Decisions, decisions!

Whew-the summer blew by faster than I could update! The dreadful hedges that were plaguing the front of the house are successfully GONE, and now well, the entire front of the house is a construction zone!

In the past four years we've had some major basement flooding due to the wood at the front of the house being rotted from poorly constructed steps... It just goes along with the shoddy updates the previous owner attempted through out the entire house, and while it is very frustrating, it's exciting to be able to start making major improvements OUR WAY (I say our way, I mean my father and Jay's way with my "artistic" guidance-ha)!

This past weekend Jay and my father jackhammered our terrible front steps away, and replaced several rotted panels of wood from the frame of the house. Here's what we were looking at on Saturday:

You can see the rotted wood here, which is now gone and replaced and covered over with black protector material (I have no idea what it's called). We still have the pile of rubble but I have been assured that as of tomorrow it will all be gone.

We are at a great spot now, as the entire front siding needs to be replaced (as well as that horrific '70s "olde tyme" light and the ugly red shutters and the door needs painting too). My first idea was to just do a color siding, but as I scour the internet, and at the recommendation of my father, I am thinking about faux stone siding... Sounds queer, I know, but actually its not bad (thanks Family Guy for that line). Here is what we'd like the house to look like-color and "stone" wise, I understand that this is not the same style house... Oh-and I want to first send a super THANK YOU to Pam at my favorite website Retro Renovation for hosting this photo and for countless hours of inspiration!

Jay and I love the yellow brick and brown roof combo, and since we can not afford to do any expansion on the back of the house at the moment, necessitating an entire exterior overhaul, it will look okay for now with the brick on the front-we think anyway, there's still some consideration to do.

The next major decision is what do to with the front steps. We are going with wood steps as opposed to stone or concrete, and again thanks to Retro Renovation we've decided on these fabulous Acurio Latticeworks - Custom Lattice Panels and Designs for the detail of the steps, but I have yet to find a step design that moves me... any ideas are greatly appreciated!

So all of this is to be done in the spring of 2011... I hope I don't change my mind too many times between now and then!!

Hedges Be Gone!

It's been a while (do all of my blog posts start this way??) and while I have not (yes, still) put up the wallpaper in the bathroom, progress has been made on the front of the house!

When we purchased La Casa Termini back in '06, the front of the house was shrouded in GIANT hedges. These bad boys were thick, scary and loaded with birds nests, snakes and the occasional skunk. Being novices at landscape art, shaping these behemoths was also out of the question-they don't make Lady Schicks for real bushes (ohhh... that was low)!!

So here's what the house looked like when we bought it:

Last summer Jay literally dug the hedge on the far left (if you're looking at this photograph) out of the ground. Fifty year old hedges don't like to be moved, as we found out. Here's what the root ball looked like:

After that nightmare ended, we (Jay) decided that there must be a better way to get these monsters out of the yard. Turns out there is, and I will spare you the details by giving the link to the site that we found the solution to our problem on: Organic Tree Stump Removal

Tomorrow Jay will be cutting the remaining hedges down to size and weather permitting, killing the roots slowly and safely with a little thing called... well, crap actually... As the work is completed I will update with photos and stories (our neighbor is beside himself that we took out the hedges)!

Here is what we're looking at today:

The falling apart steps and hard to see peeling paint red door are being replaced this summer too. Well, the steps are being replaced with wooden steps that will ideally be painted a minty-avocado green, and the door will just be scraped and painted the same green but with darker green accents in the circular details. Eventually the red shutters will also be painted that same avocado color, but that's a project for next year me thinks!

Another doable this year project though, is to replace the colonial style light fixtures on the house with something more atomic looking like this gem from rejuvenation.com: http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowW285/templates/selection.phtml?iqg=2188e3d58547dd11560715136b419768

Updates galore...

The Bathroom...Now

I plan to post after photos as soon as the wall paper is up and the bathroom is fabulous. Until then, here is the bathroom as it looks today (messy messy messy)! The shoe organizer is going, the fish are staying, and the black with sparkles wall is going. I did the black wall with a glossy finish black paint and while it was wet I tossed ceiling sparkle onto it. It's cute, but the new wall paper (featured in the picture that shows the toilet) is way cuter, and will be more original.The door is original to the house, as are the door handles. Acutally, all of our doors are like this, it's probably one of the features that made us really want the house. That shoe organizer is my "Holy crap, we're having twins, where are we going to put this stuff!" remedy for the too small medicine cabinet.

The floor was done by my father and Jay. I picked out the big Armstrong tiles and they put them in. It was a fix for a fabulous atomic asbestos floor that had been covered over with 1970's yellow indoor/outdoor glued down carpeting. Do I love it now? Some days I do, a lot of days I'm indifferent however!The too small medicine cabinet I was speaking of:
As I said in past blogs, the shower had fabulous chrome and semi-frosted glass shower doors, but while I was pregnant, I decided that a) I was getting too big to fit through and b)How the hell can I bathe two babies with these doors in the way?!? So we have a shower curtain. This one is from Target. I am currently searching for a vintage one on ebay. I found one that has matching window curtains, and is black with pink flowers. I don't know yet though. I am also planning on replacing that awful green bathmat sometime soon-it's just cheap and ugly!

I never promised you a rose garden...

So I may not have promised anyone a rose garden-but I found one!!  After 5 hours of cutting back and digging out over grown lilacs and rhodos, I found 3 thriving rose bushes!!!  I am no gardener, but I am determined to take care of these lovelies!!!  I also found BUNDLES of vintage gardening stakes in the shed--I'm talking vintage plastic rods, some of which have been topped with little rubber stoppers (to lessen the chance of small eyes being poked out!)!!!

Here are some crude photos!:

Onto other things...   This is my living room light fixture--It got painted on, so I need to find a new one, well more like a bunch of replacements actually.  

This is my kitchen light switch--the reason I need multiple switchplate covers for this crazy configuration!   If you have any, I'd love to take them off of your hands!!

Whew! It's been a while!

It has been almost 2 years since I've updated this blog, and I am ashamed!  I have the excuse of having twin boys this past August however!!   We are still plugging away at making the house fabulous however.

I am forever man-handling the closet that we call a bathroom.  I had to have the fabulous glass doors removed from the bathtub last spring, because whilst preggers, I could not fit through! It was a blessing really, because I would not be able to bathe the bambinos with those cumbersome doors.   I'm painted the horrible particle board vanity (we have the original wall mounted sink in the basement, but serious floor work needs to be done before it can be put back up) pink and added some green bubbles to it.  Here's how it looks now:

The door is askew, I have asked for it to be tightened to no avail, so I need to do that-today in fact!  I am just so-so with this vanity, it's a terrible cheap fix.  The pink doesn't match at all... I may cover it with the left over wall paper.  It's an eyesore indeed.

Also, despite saying that I would *NEVER* wallpaper any room (after I had to scrape terrible GOLD 1970s wallpaper off of just about every wall in this place), just last night I purchased this from Vintage Walls on ebay:

It is pink with gold shiny starbursts, and its just fabulous.  I want to find a great shower curtain to match.  I have a huge vintage pink metal hamper, but unfortunately it's 1/4 of the size of the bathroom, so that's out.  I guess this means more shopping... darn...

2 Posts in 1 Month!!

I've finally organized "The Office"... The entire computie set up is done, which was a project in itself because for some reason we keep wires and crap from things that we don't own anymore!
The office theme was originally going to be used for the TV room, but since our couch doesn't fit through the door to what was to be the tv room (now our bedroom), I moved that theme to the office and created a tv/living room (much to my disappointment-- I feel like I've really got something when the tv is not in the living room).

The office theme is just movie theater lobby posters and movie stills/publicity shots. The anchor of it all is the double sided movie poster for Ed Wood-- it just is fabulous and my day is made just by looking at how awesome it is on the wall-haha.

I also uploaded ALL of the pre and mid remodel photos of the house. I still have to find my battery charger so that I take photos of the almost finished work though.

Happy Friday!!

Updates!!!

Jeepers, it's been months... We successfully moved in, and have 3/4 successfully finished the bulk of the remodeling. I am still searching through boxes for my usb adapter so I can upload the pictures of "progress", so hopefully soon I can do that and take down the Christmas and Pre-Termini house pictures!!

We had to replace the electrical system, which consisted of the original 1954 fuse panel, so that was one of our major renovations to the house-- however for the piece of mind it gave, the dent in the wallet was worth it!

Our other projects have been the following:
Repainting the kitchen (which was all yellow with a black tile separator) in a varying shades of green design, while maintaing the fabulous black tiles. We stole the color scheme from the latest Big Sandy and the Fly Rite Boys album (Thank you fellas for having such fab taste!). It was a fairly easy project, but in the midst of it, we decided that the little person sized counter area that completely took up the space in the kitchen needed to go. So we got rid of that with the help of a trusted friend, and now we're waiting for the moulding for around the kitchen windows that went with the stupid counter top to be replaced... No big deal since we have no kitchen table yet-- our old one was too gone to bring in, so we just pretend the living room is also the eating area. We also removed all of the outdoor carpeting from the kitchen and hall area, and replaced it with black and "little green apple" vinyl tiles from Armstrong. It's the most amazing kitchen and hallway now. I can't believe we did it-- actually Jay and my father did the floors-- it's great!

Our bathroom, is a salmon-y pink with the navy accent wall (see previous blog entry) but we did the floor with matching pink and black vinyl tiles-- so the accent wall is slated to be painted a shiny deep black (slated for a later date as we're up to our ears in touch ups right now).

The living room, bedroom and office all had hideous 1970s wallpaper-- removing it and getting the rooms painted didn't take a heck of a long time, we had a lot of help... unfortunately once those rooms got painted, I found a full time job and the work I was doing in the day had come to an end. So we ripped up carpeting and washed the wood floors underneath, which brings us up to today...

The bedroom has been a holder for all of the boxes we've been too lazy to unpack. We were hoping to be able to have that floor refinished as the carpet padding was so old that it turned to a cement like substance, and had to be heat-gunned off of the floor... so the floor is stained in some spots-- so anyways we decided last week that we can't keep sleeping in the office- it's just too small and foolish-- so we bought a fabulous area rug at IKEA for like $45, and today we're movin' in!!! I am psyched!!

Anyway, pictures to follow, hopefully this week!!!

The Countdown...

We are cleared to close!! The date is set for December 29th!!! Jason and I are ecstatic. We usually want Christmas to last forever, but this year we just want to be 'done gone!

After closing on the 29th we're going to have pizza and beer/sodies at the new place to celebrate, and the next day starts the work...

The Work:
Removing the carpeting from the BATHROOM and Kitchen... I pray that there is something salvagable at least for a little while under the mold-trap carpeting, but my hopes aren't too high! From what I saw during the home inspection it appears that the bathroom flooring is hardwood (or possibly soggy wood)... either way it's a lot of work that I am **really really really** looking forward to doing!
My bathroom inspiration is the following:

The wall tiles in the bathroom are a semi-sparkly beige and the tub toilet and basins are plain white for now, but I will be painting the walls with same color shown here as well as the accent wall with the anchor. We plan to do the flooring asap so that will also have the same effect. I am quite pleased that Jason agreed to this scheme because I've picked out colors and schemes for almost every room and I always lean towards the real salmony pinks... he's a good sport!!

Our 2nd project is the kitchen, which at this point is a 1970s disaster. It's got lovely yellow walls with (fabulous) black plastic 50s tiles for a "chair rail" and white cabs with yellow doors... the black tiles are wonderful and go from the kitchen down the hall to the bedroom doors- that's staying. The kitchen colors are based on this photograph:

I plan to do the walls and cabinet fronts in the green color, with the red color only for the cabinet bases. I don't want to appear to have a Christmas Kitchen, so I may shoot for a more orange red than the one pictured-- also all of my kitchen stuff is the Lusterware red and white and my curtains are red and white gingham so that should add to the more Kitchen-y than christmasy theme!! Ohhh.. .and my chalkware fruit with faces... the little jerks, are will be lovely too... I absolutely can't wait to get them up!!

Packing, Waiting and the Worst Yankee Swap Ever...

Packing and Waiting...

The long awaited home inspection went quite well. I was happy to see that there were only 2 problems and they are easily fixable and will be paid for in part by the sellers... that was a relief as the home is being sold through a poa for a 90 year old woman (the original owner of the house). That was last Saturday. I've got most of our things packed with the remaining necessities still cluttering up the joint- easily boxed things so that is good. We hear from the financing on Friday and then from there we wait until the 29th to sign and grab hold of the keys!! It's the waiting not the packing and carrying heavy boxes that is killing me!!

The Worst Yankee Swap...

Saturday night is our 5th annual (as married folk-- it will actually be our 9th annual in terms of actual events) Christmas Party. This years theme is Christmas Island-- were we not moving I was going to do the place up Polynesian style with palm trees and hibiscuis flowers and water and sand... but we're moving so I'm just FORCING the guests to wear Hawaiian attire. I myself have a fabulous vintage Hawaiian strapless with matching bolero, so that was the basis of my theme.. haha

Every year we hold The Worst Yankee Swap usually around 9:30pm. Guests search far and wide for "the most horrible gift you could recieve at a yankee swap" and the fun ensues. Last years more notable items were castor oil, Undies from a florida tourist shop, a candy bar with razor blades in it (my contribution)... This year the swap gifts are sure to be sickening... I'm really looking forward to it!!!

I Know All There Is To Know About The Waiting Game...

I am usually good at keeping my impatience at bay (well sorta, lets not kid ourselves...), but this week long wait for our home inspection is killing me! At 9am on Saturday we're meeting the inspector, and I am wishing it were earlier-- for 2 reasons:

a) I want to get another good look around and I want to peel back a corner of the hideous beige carpeting to make sure that the hardwoods I thought I spied are really still there...

b)The Inspection itself-- duh!

I've posted (hopefully not too hastily) the realtors photos of La Casa Termini (pronouced like Ter-min-e not Ter-meeeney) because I just couldn't hold out any longer!! My lack of patience over this house is almost as bad as my usual lack of patience for Christmas coming-- and where the house is Christmas this year, it's a double whammy! Anyway, you, dear reader, get a glimpse at the 70s nightmare kitchen, stock with the plastic orange and yellow mushroom shelf over the stove (look hard and you'll see it!)... Luckily the 1970s damage is only done in easily removable/repaintable form, which is just great because even though I *think* I'm this wonderful handy-girl, I am merely playing one along with the folks on hgtv---speak of the devil, I've got a show to watch!!!

Homebuying and The Holidays...

Who in their right mind buys a home over "the Holidays"? Apparently Jason and I do...

My name is Marcella, and my husband is Jason. We're both 28 years old and are currently waiting to see if our first time every home purchase is going to be successful. We've done all the paperwork to buy a fabulous 1954 Yellow with red shutters Cape home in New Hampshire. Our home inspection is set for next Saturday and from there we'd be scheduled to close on the 29th... My fingers are crossed that everything is going to go as planned. My real estate agent (and close friend) is confident that things are great, but she's of German descent and I am of Italian descent and I think the worst until I am proven otherwise!!

By trade I am hairstylist. I specialize in 1930s thru 1970s formal styling (weddings, proms, photoshoots, etc...) and spend 99% of my time living and breathing vintage and retro. My husband works for the telephone company and plays acoustic rhythm guitar for a rockabilly combo. He too is a vintage everything fan. Our clothing, hair and home decor reflect this lo--errr... obsession!

It was important to us when seeking a house that it have elements of the past still intact or easily replaced/restored. Our initial preference was towards ranch homes, but unfortunately in New England, ranch homes in our price range were no bigger than summer cottages, so that led us to Capes (not New Englanders which somehow seem to slip into that category!) built in the early to mid 1950s. We've viewed houses in this style for about 3 weeks and came to find the one we're to be closing on by somewhat mistake... I sent my preference list of homes to view to my realtor and put the wrong house on the list... A sign maybe??? I don't know, but I am very glad to have been such an air head, because this home screams our names! Okay-- it screams 1972 at the current time, however minimal interior work will make it chant "Marcella and Jason!"

I am usually a myspace blogger, but as I've been snooping on the houseblogs.net site (literally, multiple times a day), I realized that I'm more interested in the like minded folks there than on teenagerspace. I hope to post photos of the house as soon as the dust and debris from the closing has settled! I will post photos of my current holiday set up (in our hideous brown carpeted living room) though!!!