Mar 30, 2011

Monitor Madness

Just found out (or rather took the time to notice) the house diagonal from ours and one house down are my picks for perfect blue gray with white trim.  Irritating since the other surrounding homes are natural cedar and ivory.  The booger green has to go.  So I've been using Benjamin Moore's Virtual Color Viewer to preview exterior paint colors for about three hours tonight.  Madness.  All of my masked areas disappear when it says "You must be signed in to save your changes."  Duh, I'm already signed in.  Thanks.   After about six tries with the same message, I'm giving up.  Decided to just Google "exterior paint palettes" and got My Perfect Color's top picks.  Now for the exterior flavor of the day (I change my mind like I change my socks).

Mar 19, 2011

The Search is Over

Fact #1: Ninety-four percent of the homes in my neighborhood have this awesome six panel glass storm door.  Fact #2: The door is nowhere to be found.  Until today!  Dear husband and I took the weekly trek out to HD for some Turf Builder and some begonias.  On a whim, we stopped at the Habitat for Humanity store to check out their selection of entry doors.  As soon as we walked in, we saw it!!!  Even better, it was only $70!  We also got a Jeld-Wen fiberglass door for $85!  Best. Day. Ever.





To top off an extra awesome day, we settled on exterior paint colors [temporarily].
Base:  Benjamin Moore Solitude






Trim:  Sherwin Williams Antique White
Shutters and Storm Door:  Benjamin Moore Thunder

Mar 18, 2011

An Outsider's View

It's always nice to hear your friends and family tell you "I love it!" but let's be honest, they have to.  Today I put the kitchen on Rate My Space, and 177 people have already looked at it!  That is insanity. My only wariness comes from the fact that I signed over 100% of my rights to my kitchen photos--they have free reign to license, feature, publish, etc. without any obligation to inform me.  I thought that was a little over the top.

Mar 17, 2011

Gogh Away, Big Purple Monsters!

Regardless of my youthful appearance, my heredity and work habits have caught up to me early on in life.  With fair skin and a touch of vanity, I have been scrutinizing my legs since college.  It started small, with only a small, red spider creeping out on my right thigh.  Then it spread, and more and more tiny red spiders were crawling all over my legs.  As soon as my brother-in-laws local Groupon, The Super Deal, featured vein treatment for $99, I jumped at the chance to try it.

The technology called VeinGogh sends energy pulses directly to the vein and coagulates it immediately.  Forever. Check out the videos HERE.  I went in at 7:30 a.m., filled out forms until 7:50, and changed into some 2X hospital shorts.  The cardiovascular doctor came in, chatted with me about spider veins and how [even young] people get them.  The biggest factors are heredity, time spent standing up, and oral contraceptives.  After performing an ultrasound on both legs to check for "leaks," my treatment began.  He started on one leg, holding an ice pack over the area to numb it, then began poking my legs with the needle.  The pricks were spaced about 1 mm apart down the length of the spider vein.  The meatier parts of my legs we not as sensitive as my thin skinned ankle areas.  I went in hoping to have my thigh area treated, and the doctor treated all of my spider veins!  This was certainly worth $99 and an actual vascular doctor (not a medi-day spa aesthetician) performing the procedure for an hour.

The pain, on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being the worst, was about a 3.  The longer the ice pack was on the area beforehand, the better.  I recommend taking an Advil before going just as a precaution.  There is no bleeding, and the welts seen right after the procedure turn to small "ant bite" bumps about an hour later.  The first day the "bites" were very swollen, but the pictures below are from Day 2.  The doctor said the redness will subside, along with the bumps, within three weeks.  Yea! Just in time for shorts weather!  So no more big, purple monsters (only temporary red ones)!


Mar 16, 2011

The [almost] Finale

Funny how a renovation can jump from the beginning to the end in just three posts.  Not at all like real life, *ahhh* wouldn't that be nice.  We've been working/hiring contractors/painting/tinkering for the last two months, and we are settling in nicely.  The kitchen and baths were the biggest projects, by far, and will add the most value to the house. Drum roll please...
The Kitchen:
*Most Recent Photo!! (minus the awesome roman shade above the sink)


This bump-out into the third bedroom gave us a refrigerator nook with extra storage.

 The Hallway Addition:

Now there is a clear entrance to the third bedroom.
The extra closet is the perfect place for the desk. *Doors still to come*
The Hall/Master Bathroom:


 

The Laundry Room:


The Guest En Suite:


Pretty much everything came from Home Depot, aside from the farmhouse sink and the pedestal sink.  The flooring is red and white oak stained with dark walnut, the beadboard, cabinets, and trim is Sherwin Williams Antique White #6119.  Kitchen paint is Meditation by Benjamin Moore, and all other rooms are painted in BM's Putnam Ivory.  All that's left on the to-do list is finish painting the trim and move to the outside of the house!