43. ReHabitat-ing the Yellow Bedroom, Part 2

January 17, 2013January 20, 2016 / Apple Hill Cottage / 9 Comments

Today was a double blessing day: our long awaited, too-expensive, gorgeous kitchen faucet arrived; and, in the mail was my reVive box from reHabitat, the fabulous design team who took on The Yellow Bedroom. (see post 37. ReHabitat-ing the Yellow Bedroom.)

I was good. I did all my chores first, and then I cleaned off the table, made a cup of tea, and sat down with my treasure — all the while admiring the cool packaging.
What caught my eye first was the beautiful fabric that was folded up inside — a gorgeous embroidered square of fall colored leaves. I love foliage!
The next goodie was a whole page of accessories and photos layered on swatches of colors — a design board for inspiration. Bedding, lamps, curtain suggestions, all individualized to our room and our tastes. WOW! The best idea was a DIY headboard made from an old door, with a shelf on top for pictures, books, and candles. Umm, we’ve got some old doors hanging around…

Underneath the design board was the shopping list, which included websites and prices of most everything pictured on the design board. (The ceiling light and the closet doors were included just for inspiration.) I could just click away to PotteryBarn.com and look close up at the beautiful quilt. (Michael nixed it; he said it was too flowery!) Next to the shopping list was a palette of paint colors to choose from, and underneath that was the floor plan that showed us what pieces to use where.
When my excitement settled down, I turned to read the pages of notes titled “We recommend…” (2 1/2 pages of recommendations!) Really, it just organized and clarified everything that had already been suggested, as well as gave us suggestions on how to prioritize, i.e., what would make the most difference (besides painting the yellow, of course!) The slide show below contains some of the suggestions — using what we have, interspersed with what we might want to purchase.

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I am so excited about this; it was just what I needed to reVive my spirits! I’m thinking that I don’t want to get off track from the kitchen, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a serene, finished room while we’re busy working on everything else? A place where we could just shut the door and look outside and pretend? All we need is some paint and some new curtains and…

Now if only someone would just come and do the work for us????

42. Tackling the mudroom

January 13, 2013January 16, 2015 / Apple Hill Cottage / 2 Comments

This wonderful warm weekend I discovered that it’s not just the sun I miss during winter; I also miss being outside without coat, hat, mittens, and boots!

Wait! What’s that yellow glow? It’s the Sun!

It was really warm this weekend. Like 65 degrees warm! The sun was out occasionally, peeking through the clouds, but mostly it was gray. I didn’t mind. We turned the heat off in the cottage, and opened the doors. Henry went in and out and was happy. I went in and out and was happy. We even had a bonfire on Saturday night (just a small one) and it was warm enough to stand outside next to it WITHOUT jackets! Mother Earth Farm –the garden center next to the cottage (How wonderful is that statement!) has the countdown on their sign — 10 weeks until spring!
Mr. H.C. was rebuilding the last window down in his workshop (and kind of grouchy about it) so I was on my own. But he actually gave me permission to start destroying the mudroom. Demo, as it is known in the trades, is a blast, and usually he gets to do it; but with the door open, and my crowbar in hand, I started taking off the cedar shakes that ~~are~~ were the “walls” of the mudroom. (Probably he was grouchy because he wasn’t wielding the crowbar!)

One of the mudroom walls covered in cedar shakes

I know you are going to ask why we would begin messing up ANOTHER room in the cottage before we are even half-finished with the kitchen… Well, you see, the mudroom is attached to the kitchen. In fact, it is the Entryway to the kitchen. And the doors that we are going to put between the two rooms have to go in NEXT. So the doorway/wall between the rooms had to be taken down, so we can rebuild it to fit our new beautiful French doors that we got for $70 last fall. (You can see them here in post 16. The Color of Apples .) They aren’t quite the same size as the old sliding glass doors, so building the frame for these doors is the next project.

Let me tell you — taking down and rebuilding is a S-L-O-W process! It took me all day and I didn’t quite get all the shakes off. I was trying to be careful because we might want to reuse them for something. Don’t you think a chicken coop sided in natural cedar shakes would be poulet heaven?

I found this rustic chicken coop sided in cedar shakes at www.theartofdoingstuff.com. I fell in love with it and even pinned it to one of my pinterest boards.

I found this rustic chicken coop sided in cedar shakes at www.theartofdoingstuff.com/chicken-coop-inspiration/
I fell in love with it and even pinned it to one of my pinterest boards.

After Mr. H.C. primed the last window, he came up to help. His mood visibly improved once I shared my crowbars. I understand. Windows have gotten me in a funk before as well. (See post 29. Being Thankful for Failure Takes a Better Man than I.)

The downside of the warm weather and demo-ing a mudroom were ladybugs and stink bugs. They were everywhere. Behind the cedar, under the cedar, in groups, single, falling from the ceiling, crawling on the floor… We thought it was just because we were taking off old cedar that had been there for thirty years, but it turns out this warm weekend brought out the stinkbugs in Everyone’s houses, not just ours. We ended the satisfying weekend with only two splinters, several boxes of acceptable-to-reuse cedar shakes, and almost-bare mudroom walls.

Yep, the walls ain’t pretty!

On to Door #2!

37. ReHabitat-ing the Yellow Bedroom

November 30, 2012September 1, 2015 / Apple Hill Cottage / Leave a comment

In a previous post, I told you about [reHabitat], the online design/decorating company who is giving us ideas on what to do with our yellow bedroom, while we concentrate on the kitchen and the bathroom. In the interest of full disclosure :-) [reHabitat] is Diane and Emily, my sister and my niece.

I chose the reVive box for the bedroom. They have several others to choose from — less and more. This is what we’re getting with the reVive box:

{reVive}

Need a bit more direction as you settle into your home or want to give a room an upgrade? Let us give you a basic framework that still allows you full creative control. You’ll start by taking our TasteTest, measuring your room, and snapping a few before photos. We’ll draw up a floor plan (based on pieces you already have and things we think you should add), recommend paint colors, and show you some examples of pieces to look for as you shop on your own.

Includes: floor plan, paint colors, links to furniture inspiration, notes/suggestions to address any problem areas, phone conversation to clarify any questions you have after you’ve received your box.

*Shameless advertising plug: Visit reHabitat’s website to find out about other rehab box packages. They have a fun blog as well. The link is www.rehabitatdesign.com

With the taste test are some pictures of chairs, couches, tables, accessories and such. I checked off the ones I liked — this gives them an idea of my taste! Then there are two sections of questions. Although I can’t give away all their secrets, the questions mostly deal with what you like about the room, what you envision for the room, your favorite colors, your hated colors, that sort of thing. It was fun to do, but I’ve always liked filling out questionnaires… The hardest part was making up a floor plan of the room, but there are fairly specific directions on how to go about it.

And then you get to tell them the pieces you have for the room that you want to keep and send them pictures. I’ve done all that in the form of this post below. Our problem is that we are downsizing. and we have too much furniture. So what do we keep? And what can we get to tie all the mishmashed pieces together? I’m sure you all have ideas as well. Who knows, I might get lots of input from you all. Stay tuned to see what the professionals do…

Here is the bedroom from the four corners:

Queen sized bed

The TV does not have to go in the bedroom. It’s only here now because there’s nowhere else to put it. Don’t you love the card table?

Small door goes into bathroom and has to be sanded and painted on the bath side, so could be on this side as well. The other door goes into the living room, is always open, and has to be replaced.

Lovely corner, eh? Even the pictures of this yellow room give me a headache…

We have three dressers to pick from:

This one was rescued at a thrift shop for $40, sanded, and ivy stenciled to go in the ivy bedroom. It can be painted or resanded — it’s yellow pine. It is 32″ x 17″ and 47″ high.

This is Clara’s oak dresser. It has to stay as is if used. (New hardware is okay.) 34″ x 18″ and 50″ high.

This is Michael’s dresser from childhood. (Is it back in?) I’ve been going to change the pulls forever — to a simpler mission type look — but never got around to it. At one point I suggested painting it (it is just pine) and he was okay with that. Dimensions are 51″ x 18″ and 30″ high.

Here are lamp choices: (There are two of each; we don’t have to use either set, and/or new shades can be selected).

These are fairly tall–30″

This pair is shorter–20″.

Here are some other furniture pieces that have been in past bedrooms at various times…

We dont’ have matching nightstands. This is Michael’s from when he was a kid — antique oak

Here’s another:

This belonged to Michael’s grandmother; he thinks it is a Stickley.

Nanny’s cedar chest–it is long, 60″!–fits at the bottom of a queen-sized bed. 22″ wide.

There are also these two mirrors–one came from Dad and one came from Clara and they are almost identical.

This is the ceiling light fixture. I kind of like it, but Michael isn’t so sure. It does bathe the room in yellow light, which goodness knows it doesn’t need right now, but maybe when there is new paint color?