I'm Dreaming of A White Nursery

Hi There! I have a few quick updates on the house and then a slightly off-topic subject to explore with my 14 faithful followers - Sylvie's Nursery. As you can see in the above photo, Sylvie has been living out of cardboard boxes for much too long.

With the cosmetic surgery on the ground-floor unit nearing the end and final reveal, I've been attempting to remain patient and calm. That horrible phase, where we (the house and ourselves) were feeling swollen and bruised, is definitively over; however, the gauze and tape are still not off and I can hardly stand the anticipation! The past week was really productive with all the flooring cut and adhered into place with a lot of help from family friend, Andy Hagen, do-it-yourself extraordinaire, with 30 years of reno experience. We replaced all the electrical receptacles and switches, and installed new plates.

What remains to be done is concentrated to the kitchen and bathroom.

Kitchen: New cabinet doors have been cut, they are awaiting 2 more coats of white melamine paint, and then they will be hung. Appliances have not been purchased yet in hopes that we can get a deal somewhere out there. Anyone have any leads on a white fridge and electric stove? I'd love to be able to fit a dishwasher in there as well but it turns out the cabinet boxes are smaller than standard and we're having a hard time finding a unit that will fit the depth required.

Our Allure TrafficMaster flooring turned out wonderfully. It's a bit dusty in this photo but we're just the biggest fans of this vinyl product. We chose the Rustic color way and it is laid out throughout the entire unit except for the bathroom. The new sconces that we painted black are now installed and look great here.

Peter is shown here prepping the bedroom sub-floor by removing the old carpet nails. This job was well suited to his detail-oriented personality. Laying down flooring, on the other hand, was a bit like traveling backwards in time, going in reverse, or how do you say... counter productive? His son is over my shoulder right now dictating to me what to type, so that's okay, right Pete?

Our angel descending from a cloud of dust...Andy Hagen is here sanding the wood-filler off the sub-floor. This step ensured that there were no cracks or dents underneath the new flooring that could potentially damage its surface.

Bathroom: The vanity and medicine cabinet need to be installed and the walls painted.

Sister Sarah showing us how easy it is to install a toilet if you just follow the directions! Actually, it was a little tricky and another trip to the hardware store was required to find the right size wax ring for the toilet to rest upon. For whatever the reason the toilet kit came with a ring that was the wrong size.

These 12" x 24" ivory and linen-texture tiles were the result of the Ames tile store's carelessness. We originally chose a slate grey color to contrast nicely with the white subway tiles around the tub; however, these tiles were installed before the mistake was found. In the end, we're okay with it as we got the guy to give these to us for free and now the flooring kind of blends in with the rest of the bathroom.

Odds & Ends: Trim, lighting fixtures need to be hung, electric heaters reattached, door jams and hardware installed.

NURSERY IDEAS

To distract myself, I've been daydreaming about a nursery fitting for our sweet, sassy, little Sylvie. She was 7 months old when we moved out of our Philadelphia condo and since then she's been sleeping in a pack 'n play surrounded by cardboard boxes.

Here is our old home..sigh, I miss our 13' ceilings and arched factory windows.

There are a few pieces that we've made or collected over the years that will be cornerstones to the decor:

6-months old and practicing sitting up in her Jenny Lind Crib. Auntie Teresa helped me score this Dwell bedding super cheap at their annual sample sale in Nolita.

Daddy handmade the above birdy mobile from my mom's old scraps of fabric after admiring this below Design Sponge photograph.

I bought this Eames HangItAll at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum NY in 2001, way back before the baby, and I'm so happy to be able to share it with her. The colors of the wooden knobs will be the pops of color in her room.

Uncle Jason gifted this embroidered scene to Sylvie on my birthday, knowing that it was exactly what I've been coveting for her dream nursery. It will be the perfect touch of whimsy.

The overall concepts we'd like to incorporate into her nursery are Crafty, Sophisticated, Eclectic, Modern and Handmade. These are images gathered from my favorite design blogs Poppytalk, Design Sponge, Remodelista, Ohdeedoh and others. Send me your favorite renovation/design blogs and sources!

I love the pops of cheerful colors against the white walls and mid-century furniture. It gives off a vintage school charm.

The old-fashioned crocheted blanket and granny cushion seem modern and graphic within these simple settings. Sister Sarah is giving me a lesson on how to replicate these iconic patterns for Sylvie's room.

Sylvie-scaled furniture would be adorable in her new room.

Covering cheap brown clipboards with fun textiles or printed papers could be such a cute way to display Sylvie's mementos.

This nursery strikes the right balance between print, pattern, and solids. The neutral carpeting and solid walls leave room for the fabric window treatments and cushions to shine. I'm envisioning accent fabric like the quirky prints found at Spool - the most amazing sewing store in Philadelphia - for her room. Do any Vancouverites know of a local resource? We have this same crib and this photo inspires me to consider painting it a bold color.

I find these printed textiles totally contemporary, playful, and charming.

I think black is an underused color when it comes to kids rooms and clothing. Here it is sophisticated and imaginative in a New York City bedroom.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice and be able to feature your own DIY projects, work, or other renovation ideas here. I'm leaving for a 2-week trip to visit family in LA and upon returning Matt assures me that the unit will be complete and we will then have a new post up to show the fruits of our labor.

Sneak Peek

The 4 weeks of blog silence has been weighing on me. It's partly due to stress, Olympic mania, and a tremendous amount of hard work that has kept us busy beyond expectation.

It's now March 1, a full month after we burst into the house wielding tools, paint, construction books on loan from the library, and welling with optimism. The optimism is still there, but its now tempered with the realities of our project. We are about 75% there! Before we get into the pictures, let's review a couple of our major revelations first.

Reality Check #1: We are giving ourselves an extension on our original timeline and now aim to be finished in another week.

Reality Check #2: STRESS, stress, StReSs. How does one prepare emotionally, mentally, and physically for the amount of stress that accompanies a renovation? Neither of us was prepared for this uninvited but inevitable element to the project. It sounds trite but it's so true, everything takes longer to do than you think it's going to take. All the finicky details of taking apart a house, cleaning it (with gallons of TSP) and putting it back together again add up to a slow-going but steady process.

Reality Check #3: Until the house has plumbing and heating, living in it for 4 days feels more like winter camping. Luckily Matt and his 2 best buds had lumber scraps to burn to keep warm. The ladies took off for a holiday in Victoria.

Borrowing from our recent Canadian Olympic mantra - BELIEVE - I'm breathing slow, deliberate breaths and chanting BELIEVE. The renovation will soon be complete! Looking at the below photos, the end is actually closer than it feels. We're so proud of what we've accomplished and so thankful for the help of family and friends who have supported us along the way.

Here are images detailing our progress thus far...

KITCHEN

30 Years of grease doesn't fade Jean's smile. It just earned the stove a trip to the dump.

All the cabinets were de-greased with TSP and then primed and painted.

The yellow countertop was trashed and a new dark-grain Ikea special was installed over the existing cabinetry.

New drywall for the back splash created a smooth surface for the new tiles. The doors will be re-hung this week.

Metro white subway tiles laid out in a running bond will receive a light-grey grout this week. Matt scored a decent faucet with a spray gun AND built-in soap dispenser from Canadian Tire at a 65% discount. The tile makes a HUGE difference to the space and it really looks spiffy now.

DINING ROOM & CHANDELIER

The previous tenant thought it was a good idea to paint a chalkboard on the dining room wall. It took 3 coats of primer to white it out.

Here is the chandelier after Jean scrubbed it with TSP.

Now with a coat of white spray paint, the chandelier sparkles like a fabulous flea-market find.

Peter is painting into the wee hours of the morning with 3 lonely lamps as his company.

HALLWAY & DOORS

The original Mediterranean-inspired linoleum was scraped off and yours truly had the joy of pulling out a zillion carpet nails with her bare hands (and pliers).

The dark brown doors were painted out with the help of this home-made accordion painting rack.

Here is the hallway freshly painted.

Paul Koopman to the rescue. Here he is just off the plane from Saskatoon rehanging all the doors. What he lacks in skill he makes up for in style. The coffee shop gals thought he was a hipster dressed up as a carpenter.

(The Dreaded) BATHROOM

The 6-layers (yes, that's right - 6) of spongy sub-floor revealed a sea of mold beneath. Rather than remove and repair, the previous owners thought a cover-up job was sufficient.

Mr. Safety here protecting his respiratory system with a heavy duty face mask.

Dave Croft arrived just in time to help notch the steel bathtub with a grinder.

Aren't they cute? Their smiles bely their true anguish over the trials and tribulations of tiling.

Tiling took SO much more time than originally expected. The plastic spacers help keep the tiles lined up and straight until the mortar dries.

Mixing the mortar is a slow, dirty, and noisy process. Essentially, you transform a giant drill into an industrial-size cake mixer to mix the powder and water into a paste.

Sylvie arrives to inspect the work.

Taking a Well-Deserved Break to Watch the Gold-Medal Hockey Game

The Calm Before the Storm...

We're poised to storm into the renovation of the first-floor unit early Monday morning. It will be our first foray into the inner depths of the Special. Working on the fence was a practical first step for us: it was a small, controlled, and isolated project that we built from scratch. Getting into the actual residence leaves me feeling a bit nervous as it has many more unknown variables and a timeline/budget with real financial consequences.

The budget for the unit is $7000 and we are giving ourselves 3 weeks to complete the cosmetic upgrades. Wow, suddenly it feels quite real now. So you're probably wondering what exactly we're going to do? Well, check out these pictures and the directives are more than clear!

Yikes! The yellow countertops and back splash along with these dark faux-wood plastic cabinets make me cringe.

What's with the color yellow? Here it is again in the flooring. All the nasty brown doors will be painted out white and 4" trims added.

Bye, bye "harvest gold" toilet and tub!

This chandelier is actually salvageable. Imagine it painted out white... from totally grimy to totally shabby chic!

Here's the plan of attack:

1. Paint & Drywall Repairs- We will essentially be whiting out the entire apartment from top to bottom to give a crisp, clean impression. Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White CC-20 will play the staring role in this production. Apparently, the secret to this ultimate white of all white paints is the 1 drop of black and 2 drops of yellow in the recipe.

2. Kitchen - Revamping the kitchen will consist of painting the existing cabinetry, installing new appliances, and applying a new tile back splash.

3. Flooring - The choice was clear here, TrafficMaster vinyl plank flooring in "Rustic" looks and feels like a million bucks. Amazingly, all you need to install it is a pair of scissors! We were sold on this product even before we saw it in all the Chapters bookstores here in Vancouver, so we're confident it will hold up for a long time.

4. Bathroom - We're installing a new tub, toilet, mirror, and the biggy - tiling.

5. Lighting - We will replace most of the lighting fixtures and salvage what we can with a black paint makeover. We began to paint over some sconces earlier this week and here's how we went about it:

This is the layout from House & Home that gave us the idea.

Matt found these sconces at Rona in North Vancouver that were on sale for $21.

Here I am spraying 3 pairs of the lights with a Tremclad primer.

The finished product after 2 coats of flat black spray paint. What do you think?

Since the fence project, we have purchased most of the materials and researched installation methods for these proposed changes and (my favorite activity) collected additional inspiration for the upcoming makeover. Here are some photos illustrating the all-white look:

Here is that type of sconce again. Using outdoor lighting on the inside may be a new trend?

I love the white cabinets and subway tiles in the running bond. Modern and timeless.

The all white interior with black accent lighting looks clean and fresh.

Matt will begin work at 6am on Monday and I hope he leaves the house quietly. We will end this post on a positive note...we ran into the listing agent of our Special who praised the fence and estimated that we added $25 - $30k to the value of the house! Sounds outrageous to us, but nice to hear in any case.