Lilac Syrup Martinis FTW! April 14, 2012
We made our Lilac Syrup, and for Thirsty Thursday, we made martinis! 1 part syrup, 2 parts vodka, shake with ice, DONE! Our first attempt made a martini that tasted like delicious frosting. It was so good, but SO rich and very strong. Next up, experiments with something to cut the sweetness a little. Maybe lime juice? Or lemon? Post your ideas, or stop by for some vodka frosting sometime!
Dirty Girl April 9, 2012
Tanya, after tearing down a 100 year old kitchen ceiling
After working on the ceiling in my friend’s house, I was pretty dirty. So dirty, that my husband saw me walking home pre -shower, but got home after I was clean…the first thing he said: “Please tell me you took pictures before you cleaned up.” I did, but I assure you, it looked so much worse in person….the photo really doesn’t capture the magnitude of it.
Guest Working at a River Bend Neighborhood House – Ceiling Demo
Kitchen Ceiling Before
I had been pestering one of the contractors in the neighborhood to let me help in one of his houses in exchange for advising and helping me with the Hatton House. I figured that I may not really know what I’m doing in remodeling, but I am good at following directions, and if someone could tell me what to do, I’d be able to do it pretty easily. So I could just do some unskilled job somewhere else in exchange for some skilled advice here. After several pestering him several time, he said “Well, I have to tear down a kitchen ceiling, you want to do that?”
I realize this was a trick question. Apparently no one WANTS to tear down a ceiling. But for me, this was the best news ever! I can’t possibly screw up destroying something! No leveling, measuring, detailing….just tear it down! Can do! I wish I had a photo of how I showed up: open toed shoes, safety glasses (but not goggles), no gloves, short sleeves, no breathing mask, I was an accident waiting to happen. I got my hair covered and a white mask and went to town.
Let’s be clear: “plaster” in old homes is a lot closer to concrete than the plaster I’ve used in craft projects. It comes down in huge, unpredictable chunks, and you had better not be in the way when they fall. It took me a while to figure it out, but soon (after going home for work gloves) I was prying down strips of lath, grabbing it with one hand while the other hand tapped a hammer against it to knock out all the concrete-like chunks down that strip. Sometimes, whole chunks of ceiling would crash down, sometimes it was just dust. Sometimes there would be black dust in the ceiling, sometimes 1930s newspapers that were shredded with age. One particularly unfortunate strip pulled down heaps of sawdust.
The whole ceiling came down in an afternoon. As you can see, it was one of the dirtiest jobs I’ve ever done, but the satisfaction was pretty intense. I’m really glad that demolition work isn’t my full time job, but every once in a while, it’s nice to tear something apart! If you want to see what I looked like after this job, you’ll find a photo here.
Kitchen Ceiling After
Faux Finishes in Paint and the Paintastrophe March 22, 2012
Finished glazing technique in first floor bathroom.
We are finally done with our paint finish. I knew how I wanted the paint to look, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to make it happen. I researched paint techniques online, surfed Pinterest for a few hours, and made two trips to Lowes before I decided to just wing it. I bought a natural sponge roller, a hunk of natural sponge, a feathering brush, and some chocolate glaze.
I worked the glaze in two layers, the first one to get a mottled finish over most of the wall. Once it was dry, I came back over the top to bring up more depth. I mostly used the roller for the main wall, working the glaze into the corners with the feathering brush. One clear coat later, and it was exactly how I wanted it to look.
That’s when the paintastrophe happened. The low tack tape that we used pulled all the paint off down to the drywall!! Primer, paint, two layers of glaze, and clear coat…all torn off. It was terrible. Horrifying even. So, we started over: sanding down the edge, feathering in the orange base and brown glaze, then finally the clear coat. It added several days to the bathroom (mainly because I was a giant chicken about feathering in the glaze) but it’s finally done. It’s only a matter of time until we have a working toilet on the first floor now (right?)
Spring Break Trip: South Bend Indiana Historic March 19, 2012
Beautiful South Bend
Spring Break brought us to South Bend, Indiana to visit my high school buddy, Mike. Mike and I met in freshman AP English, when he was the punk boy in the back of class that I determined should be friends with me. His mom owned Cup and Chaucer Bookstore, where I got my start in retailing, and we’ve been friends ever since. The punk boy my mom never really approved of is now a PhD professor at Notre Dame (you really can’t judge a book by it’s cover) and he’s now like a brother to me and Uncle to my kids…and most importantly one of my few friends that’s a one day drive away.
Mike lives in one of South Bend’s lovely historic districts, and with all the drinking that took place, I decided I should take advantage of the nice weather and run off a few beers. I have yet to get over my annual delusion that I will run Dam to Dam or a Fall marathon, so running through the streets of South Bend fantasizing about paint colors and landscaping seemed the perfect way to burn off St. Patrick’s Day.
There were beautiful homes that were largely complete. The beauty above was complete with paint, stained glass, landscaping….it was like my fantasy of what our home could be one day. I didn’t get to look inside, but it was so lovely to see a neighborhood restored. It gives me warm fuzziness to think of what River Bend Neighborhood could be one day.
Then there was one home that was like a cautionary tale. It had about 17 different colors on it, and it looked like there might be two or three additional projects going on in addition to the paint. It was lovely, and has so much potential, and the plaque outside said it was built in 1888, the year after our Hatton House was completed. I had to meet the owner! While on a walk with my son, we knocked on the door and a woman my age with children the same age as our kids opened the door. They had company, so we didn’t get to see the inside, but it made me re-double my commitment to starting one project and finish it, and not ending up with 17 paint colors in any one place at once. Let me know how long that idea lasts…
Drywall Crimes March 10, 2012
Cats and drywall do not mix. I cleaned up the cat crime scene footprints three times before I just gave up and waited to clean until after the drywall was finished.
Bathroom Paint Finishes (On the Fly) March 3, 2012
One step closer to finishing the bathroom comes in the form of nearly free paint from our neighborhood home improvement shop. I wanted a color that would pull out the spice colors in the glass tile, but I was getting a little lazy with all the decisions that needed to be made (paint color for three rooms, grout color, hinges, etc). I decided to stop by the Family Discount Store on 6th Avenue in Des Moines, where they have gallons of paint for $5, white $8, to see what there was already mixed. I liked the idea that we could reuse a paint that someone else had already mixed, and I’m never upset about saving a few bucks on our way through tens of thousands of dollars of renovations.
I bought this paint color, thinking that it would be nice in a faux finish, mixed with some creamy white, but then once it got on the wall, I liked it so much in it’s intensity. Now I’m thinking I might do a coffee color glaze over the top of this in some sort of antique plaster look. The best part of this phase of the project? My husband asking me about the application of the glaze. My husband of almost 17 years, thinking that I have this whole thing planned out. Charming. Stay tuned for the yet-to-be-determined glaze…or my decision that it looks fine as it is and leaving it!
First Floor Bath Progress! February 28, 2012
First floor bathroom tile wall...I'm in love!
When we told people about the Hatton House, the most common comment was something like “3250 SF and only one bathroom?” In the day to day running of the house, one bathroom isn’t that bad (so thankful we haven’t had any stomach flus!) but if we want to host more public events and transition to a B&B, we needed to add a few bathrooms. We started with a half bath on the first floor, with contracting covered as a housewarming gift from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) While I’m excited to have facilities on the first floor, I most excited that I finally got to bring my glass tile fantasies into reality! We did a glass tile accent in our previous house, but I really wanted to do a glass tile accent in a new bathroom. The accent turned into a whole wall, which I’m now in love with.
When I was a kid, we had a half bath the had a world map on the wall, and I used to love to study it. This tile wall is like that, but in abstract. The glass is iridescent 1/2″ squares of clear, green, blue, and copper colors. You can find shapes and patterns, and the color-play is just perfect. I’ll be blissed out on it until it keeps people in there too long and I have to add another bathroom to the house to compensate!
Let the Projects Begin! December 18, 2011
Step1: Paint the two-story hallway
We moved into the Hatton House prior to closing on it. Yes, in retrospect, this is both the craziest and smartest thing we’ve ever done. It nearly drove us insane, because we were in love with the place before we moved in, and once we moved, it became the only house that would ever do for us. Which was also why it was the smartest thing we could do. There was no way I was moving out of this house, and living here made it all the more definite in my mind that we would eventually find a way to own it. But first, there was the matter of some very dark paint.
Even when we moved in over Memorial Day weekend 2010, I knew the paint needed to go before Fall. The front hallway was dark red, even the ceiling. The front parlor was a deep, smokey purple on the walls, with a dark red ceiling. The whole place felt like a cave, even with it’s huge spaces in the middle of summer. By August, I was getting nervous that we would close in time to get anything done before winter.
We decided to take paint possession of the house, and without sampling bought several gallons of a buttery yellow color that we loved in our previous bedroom. You can see from our process photo that the difference from the dark (edges) to the yellow primer coat was literally like night and day).
I have a degree in Interior Design, and I’ve told I don’t know how many clients that you can’t just pull a color out of a magazine and expect it to look the same in your house as it does on the page. But I couldn’t see fit to take my own advice, and I got caught. What was a delicious, warm ray of sunshine at the old place turned pale and grey next to the dark walnut staircase and vibrant stained glass. I went back to the paint store and sampled colors like Bright Sunshine and Yellow Highlighter. As you can see in our About Us photo, it’s the perfect brightness and warmth to welcome you to our new home!
Hatton House Diaries 