This Boats got a Home

Two weekends ago Hubs and I decided to take a drive East to the Chesapeake Bay.  We woke up and headed to the North Beach / Rose Haven, MD area and stopped by Herrington Harbour - a friend had her amazing wedding there so I had it in the back of my mind.  We have been trying to decide where to keep the new boat and have been going back and forth between keeping it at my parents and our old marina in Woodbridge, VA. 

Well... all things changed when we landed in Herrington Harbour.  For the same price as our old marina we get a ton more amenities are Herrington Harbour - like a pool and fun activities and a beach and a restaurant and a bath house .. etc etc.  Plus, we can explore some places that we have never been before on the boat - like Annapolis and St. Michaels and Solomons, MD. 

We are definitely ready for some fun in the sun and adventures this summer! 

Check it out!
http://herringtonharbour.com/

Accessorizing my Windows

In the mist of all that pillow making, I also made drapes for the Living Room windows.  I bought 3 yards of fabric that is 56" wide.  Since the windows are so close together, we have a cabinet in between the windows, and I didn't want to spend a ton of money I decided to only install 2 drapes.  I sewed those babies up, installed 2 rods from World Market, and ta da!

It makes the ceilings feel so tall which I love!

Raise the Roof

Ok, not really a roof, but a bathroom ceiling!  If you remember, Hubs desperately wanted to raise the ceiling in the bathroom.  Doing so required raising the duct and water lines and fitting them in between the floor trusses above.  Step 1 - Remove the duct - started this past weekend.  Hubs cut out the old duct and installed a 'fitting' to the air handling unit at the bathroom wall.  The old duct run serviced 3 separate rooms - Bathroom, Hobby Room, and Living Room - so we needed to install the same amount of duct to service the same 3 rooms.

Duct gone!  See the register opening for the Living Room on the left side

Our new 'fitting'

We only made it through the demo and 'fitting' install phase this past weekend.  But, the plan is to route 3 new duct runs.  It will require 2 bulkheads - one over top of the tub to run and connect the new duct runs at the Living Room and Hobby Room side at the same elevation & another at the bathroom entrance to allow room to start the duct runs and install the Bathroom duct.   

At It Again - Paint Project 1 Million

I think I have a thing for painting and re-painting walls.  I don't necessarily 'love to paint'.  I think I love the idea of painting but I tend to get antsy and wish room walls had 2 coats of paint on them and looked perfect all in 1 day.  Lets be realistic, that is hard to do.  We still have only 1 coat of blue paint on the 2 bedroom walls. 

Anywho, I digress.  The red paint we had in the bathroom was pretty much used to cover the extremely bright blue paint in the bathroom when we bought the place.

Paint Color the day we bought it

Spicy Cayenne left over from Kitchen

It seemed logical to try and make use of the full can as much as possible.  It just worked.  But I couldn't let the walls go un-touched with the whole bathroom reno.  So to Home Depot and the web for inspiration.

I originally wanted to paint the top portion of the walls above the bead board the same Gentle Tide blue as the bedrooms.  Then I started thinking a nice green would look fabulous.  During our trip to pick up trim and the vanity I quickly glanced (again) through the paint colors and found 2 I wanted to try out.  So for a whopping $4 I came home with 2 paint samples - Sage Tint (and another Sage color I don't remember or have the name for, oops).  Hubs liked the darker color and thought it would contrast well against the white bead board and floor.  I agreed.  But, I had one other color I wanted to try - Palm Breeze.  So here it is with 1 coat of Sage Tint (left) and Palm Breeze (right).  I still think I like Sage Tint....

Now, the walls in the bathroom are plaster.  Plaster walls are rock solid, but when you start tearing stuff out around them it causes the top coat to peel leaving a very unpleasant finish.  Hubs has plans to install drywall all around when he installs the ceiling leaving me a nice finish to paint on.

Wedding Picture Purchase

I am way behind on purchasing some of my fave wedding pictures to showcase in our house.  Literally we have Zero photos from the wedding.  I have some picked out and even made a Photo Book of the festivities of the weekend but I need to press the 'buy' button and, as you know, we have undertaken some other more expensive projects this month which means my montly budget for 'home decor' items has gone to nill-zip-zero.  This is on the books for next month.

Here are my faves:

Trim it Nice

This weekend I completed coat number 3 of white paint on all the trim in the bathroom.  It seems as though that bead board just soaks it right up.

But, before I show you some white walls, I thought I should explain how we are filling that gap between the trip and wall due to that pesky first layer of tile.  Basically, Hubs said 'Bondo!' which is workable, cures rock solid, and can be sanded as smooth as a babies bottom.  Our supplies included some insulation board, Bondo spreaders, and Bondo.  

We stuffed the insulation in between the wall and trim to give some backing to the Bondo.  Then Hubs mixed some Bondo together and slapped it in the gap.  He used the spreaders to flatten and even it out.  Let it cure for a day.  Then sand and paint.  

Stuffed with insulation board

All smooth and painted

Another Angle

 And, while we are at it... a couple pics of completed trim painting... lovely white :)

Savory Saturday

Hubs and I ate ourselves out of our house.  Literally, we had ZERO food left in the house.  So, last Saturday we headed to the grocery store to stock up!  We came home with a ton of yummy food to include ingredients for a delicious dinner.

Here's what we made:
1)  Goat Cheese Salad - Mix greens, orange pepper, craisins, goat cheese, and topped with a sweet vidalia onion salad dressing
2)  Mushroom Risotto - Risotto cooked in dry wine and vegetable broth, sautee some mushrooms, add mushrooms and peas once risotto is al dente, then add parmesan
3)  Scallops - lightly salted and peppered then pan seared in some butter

Deliciousness!

And... our favorite helper...

Improvising with Spray Paint

I am back!  Sorry for that short disappearance.  Hubs and I took a week off from the bathroom reno and I got away from technology for awhile.

But alas, updates on the bathroom...

As you know, I was in love with a 36" vanity with drawers at an ah-mazing price.  But, it didn't fit.  So we came home with the original pick and one I loved (even with its lack of drawers) on Sunday.  It was time to brainstorm maintaining and/or increasing storage capacity.  Here's what we came up with:

1)   I lieu of buying an 'over the toilet' cabinet, why not use the one we already own and was free (it was left by the previous owners).  Solution - Spray paint that baby in a nice satin espresso color, cut those legs off (which Hubs hated), and mount it to the wall!  Cost of spray paint and screws = $10, Cost of new cabinet = approx $125.  Save over $100! Yay to save!

Over the toilet cabinet - before - getting all ready for some spray paint

Spray paint selected

Spray paint done and with Legs cut off

Cabinet hung on wall and toiletries back in - yay for not getting ready in 3 different rooms

Mason Jars from Gram and the Wedding put to good use!

Another angle (notice some new paint too... )

2)   I really wanted to move the towels from our linen closet into the vanity.  The 36" vanity we saw had a handy-dandy shelf at the bottom for towel storage.  Solution - Build a shelf inside our lovely vanity.  This is yet to be complete.... but hopefully soon so we can store the towels in the vanity and free up a shelf in the linen closet for other items.