THE OFFICE / GUESTROOM : THE PLAN

 
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Here we are at the homestretch of 2020 and we are preparing for Home Renovation No. 5: The Office / Guest Room!

I started working full time in here since the pandemic has required us to WFH. The windows in this room are the same as we replaced in our living room, but worse. It didn’t really bother me too much since weather was warming up and drying out but as soon as the rains came back with Fall it was clear: we need to replace these ASAP. The giant garden window not only let cold air in but also leaked creating a perfect storm for mold to grow. So, I am now working from the dining table, again.

Our only spare room in our tiny home was always meant to serve as a guest room. Danny and I used to love hosting our friends and family who would come up from LA quite frequently so having our extra queen bed set up in here was perfect for our parents and friends traveling in twos. But with travel and visitors being on hold and the need for a dedicated space for me to work until further notice, we started to re-evaluate the use of this room and having a giant bed in here just didn’t make sense anymore. So, we decided to lose the bed and invest in a nice sofa sleeper that will still be large and comfortable enough for our guests while also creating a more office-like feel.

Since Danny works out of the detached studio and uses our basement as his music space, this room is MINE. And though we typically always agree on how we decorate and curate our home, this is an opportunity to create a more fun and bold - colored space. With that - I am excited to announce that we have finally purchase the velvet-green sofa of my dreams!!! But since it’s still 2020 and everything is a dumpster fire, the delivery of it has been delayed until March. But, that’s okay - we have work to do….

This renovation stretches farther than this room… We have decided to replace ALL remaining windows in the house which include the two upstairs and the four in our kitchen. We will also be smoothing the ceilings, adding in crown moulding, and replacing the trim in both the office and hallway. And lastly: finishing our “new” closet under the staircase that we have put off for two year… but more on that in another post, soon.

Below is a photo of the room when we bought the house. Since then, we have and changed the lighting to a beautiful surface mount from Schoolhouse Electric. Little changes made a huge impact.

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I threw together a mood board for the room to get my vision in line. I will be using a lot of my existing furniture as can see above with adding in a few more accents to make the room both functional and styled. My color palette will be more rich than the rest of our house but still keeping in line with my heavy use of woods and neutrals (using the same paint colors as the living room) to keep my natural inside-outside vibe.

Work is due to kick off mid-to-late January (I hope) and will sharing updates as the project moves along!
Thanks for being here!

Inspiration Photos: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

 

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OUR LIVING ROOM : UPDATES

 
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So it’s been about six months since I have posted any updates on our house. And mostly because it has been that long since we have gotten around to making any changes. Here we go!

WINDOWS

OMFG THE WINDOWS. The most anticipated thing of 2019! For the past year I have felt like a broken record about these! After what seemed like it was never going to happen when with our devastating breakup with our previous contractor: They are in! And they are beautiful!

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Why was this such a big deal? The windows that came with the house were from the 70’s with aluminum framing that let cold air in and were so fogged in places from moisture getting between the panes that they were worthless. I got some mixed opinions about removing the garden windows but I honestly hated them (believe it or not) and am so happy they are gone!

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The third window on our main living room wall was the biggest change. It was different size than the other two so we decided to shorten it a bit so they are aligned. I struggled with this idea at first because being in Portland, you want as much a light as you could get. But turned out to be just fine - just as Danny reassured me. The fun part about this was that since we were going to re-frame this window we got to demo the wall for new dry wall. And it’s a good thing we did, too because once we got in there we discovered that there wasn’t an insulation! Again, and another reason why our house always seemed cold and drafty. AND we found the ORIGINAL deed for the house in the wall! It was pretty damaged but were able to make out the original sale price of $4900 in 1924. So cool! I hope we find more hidden things in the walls later and I don’t mean bones. Where’s my can of cash???

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We matched the new windows with little stair window from Marvin through Parr Lumber and they are a dream! Since we are working on having the house match its 1920’s origin while modernizing, we picked the divided lights to be real wood on the inside and the fiber glass on the outside for weathering. And in the original style, we have the two front to just be non-functional picture windows, then the two flanking the fireplace to be opposing casements and lastly the one near the kitchen to be an awning which I think is so fun. Now, I can’t wait till warmer weather and to have all the windows open! Plus the plants are going love it!

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CEILING

Say what you want about older homes but I cannot stand textured ceilings. Since we are not in Los Angeles anymore, I am not talking about the awful popcorn ceilings either but this kind of rough texture like cream cheese spread on a bagel. I get it: it hides imperfections. But it also absorbs depth and I find them to be dingy looking. So: we smoothed the ceilings! Which in the process discovered the the ceiling were not level (you seen see the blue chalk line across showing the difference) so we fixed that too.

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Earlier this year when we removed the divider we discovered the ceiling was two different heights from the “two rooms.” So instead of demoing and starting over we were able to add a carefully cut piece of dry wall and then skim coated the rest. I can’t put into words how much I love it. It’s so nice to stand in the dining room and see that now these two rooms are finally consistent with each other!

Here is the living room from the listing on the house when we bought it:

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And NOW!

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More of the process…

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TRIM, BASEBOARDS, MOLDING, AND ALL THE PAINTING

Ahhh and of course a room is not complete without proper trim! Each window now has the beautiful but simple craftsman style trim, 9” baseboards across the room and classic crown molding from McCoy Millwork. Besides all the dust from the new drywall, the painting was the most painstaking part of it all. It takes so long and there were so many steps with all the trim and different paints. We painted the room to match the dining room in Benjamin Moore Cloud Cover in Eggshell, the trim is pure white in satin, and the ceiling in a flat white. The room looks so classic, light, & airy considering it’s such a small space (25’ x 11’). We cannot thank our beautiful friend, Nikole, for taking so much time out of her life so constantly help us with painting and am forever grateful for her and her steady hand.

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We finally moved all our furniture back in just in time for the long MLK weekend and my birthday. We haven’t hung our window coverings back up yet but I am okay with that. I love being able to sit back on the sofa with some coffee (or wine) and admire all the natural light. P.F. Candle Co. was also so kind to send us some goods including their new scent, Sunbloom, which smell like a dream and brings back memories our hometown in California! It makes our space feel even more welcoming and warm - eps on these dreary winter days (Thank you!).

I was hoping with this renovation I would be able to find new sconces but I had no luck finding ones I loved with a rotary switch without costing a ton. We don’t use them that often so I didn’t want us to go through the hassle of re-wiring them to the switch either. So I spray painted them using the same color I used for the hoop log holder a few years ago and I think they turned out awesome. And it literally costed us nothing.

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We will likely be taking 2020 off from any major renovations to save for the main bathroom remodel as well as fresh the hallway and guest-room/office with matching ceilings and windows and maybe actually take an actual vacation! And maybe this year we will get a new sectional sofa, coffee table, and lights but for now this is great. I am finally feeling like this little house of ours is becoming exactly what we envisioned. This house has definitely taught us (and mostly me) patience and how to manage realistic expectations.

 

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OUR STAIRCASE : THE REVEAL

 
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OUR STAIRS ARE DONE!!! Finally! From, start to finish it took approx. six months! But as my husband likes to say: the turtle always beats the hare. And yes, patience definitely paid off! They are beautiful and exactly what we wanted!


If you dare to look back at the before (and progress from week one and week five) these new stairs have completely transformed our home. It’s so airy, and natural light pours in - which is really important in Portland. It definitely makes for a great entrance into the house.

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Not only did the stairs turn out better than we thought, but our contractor gave our home a big upgrade with his awesome craftsmanship in the trim and moulding. We went with a base-trim to return the home back to it’s era after numerous previous owners did their own “upgrades.” In this he also added a very simple but very appropriate frame around our new window which I love so much! Eventually every window and door frame will have the same details. It ties in our mid-century style so well. The new window is also going to be our new standard for the house with the craftsman divided lights. We also replaced all of our floor registers from the dingy ones that were left behind that help tie in our vintage look with an antique brass finish.

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Picking the right paint and stain was probably one of the most difficult decisions we had to make in this project. Our treads are a gorgeous White Oak but we quickly found out do it’s absorbent nature we would need to use a gel stain that would give us the color we wanted while keeping the integrity of the grain while still being durable. We ended up going with a color called Candlelite that gives a rich tone without being too warm (and it matches our furniture!). Only downside is, gel stains take about five days to dry so prepared for that.
Then, I really struggled with the color, because I wanted all white walls, but Danny wanted a contrast between the walls and the trim so we compromised and went with Benjamin Moore’s “Cloud Cover”. It looks more like a Vintage White, and goes nicely with the all the wood. We had originally thought we would do all the painting and staining on our own to save money, but after we realized how tedious it was going to be, we decided to hire out the job - and it was worth every penny spent. The whole process took about a month.

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After the initial build was complete, Danny and I talked about what the functionality of this room would be besides just the stairs, since it was previously a bedroom. We never envisioned this room to be our dining room, but after placing our table in there while moving the rest of the furniture in from it’s hiatus in storage, it just made sense. The rest of our existing furniture then fit in perfectly, as if it was meant to be. But, the room really came together with the gorgeous light fixture from Schoolhouse Electric. Biggest plus side, now we have a great view of the fireplace while we have dinner or play games with family and friends.

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We are beyond pleased with how everything came out and could not be more grateful having met the people we did who made this all happen. Now to get some more plants and finish decorating!

Thank you so much David & Bryan, Nikole & Tom Peña, Bonnie Johnson, and Emily Moran. You dudes are the best. Xo.

Stair Newel - McCoy Millwork
Window - Milgard via Parr Lumbar
Paint - Benjamin Moore, Cloud Cover
Stain - General Finishes, Candlelite
Floor Registers - Home Depot
Lighting - Schoolhouse Electric
Rug - Vintage from PCC Flea Market
Chairs - Craigslist
Table - Goodwill
Bookshelves - Salvation Army
Flowers - Knot & Fern

 

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