What Ana Does

 One of the DIY merit badges I've been excited to earn was as a tiler. Every show and contractor/construction guy I've talked to has been insistent it's an "EASY" DIY. "You can totally do it," they say. But I never had the opportunity to give it a go. A nice easy low-risk project.  Until the powder room!  I gathered up my courage, watched all the how-to videos, picked up all the supplies needed (about $250 with the tile) and took a deep breath ... and just GOT WENT FOR IT.  Everything is figuroutable, right!?  It was easy, though there were definitely lessons learned. And quick solutions I had to come up with. But I would very confidently tile another small wall.  First, here's a photo of the IN REAL LIFE mess of a room mid-project. It's important to be OK with creating a mess. Tiling is messy.  Here's the room after the tile is up (took about four hours) and the clean up. Hauling clean water in and out of the room was the worst part. I'l...

The downstairs powder room is really coming together much faster than we thought. After an initial text with our contractor, once we had all our materials picked out and our vanity delivered, he was able to fit us in THE SAME WEEK due to a two-day hole in the schedule.  So BAM! In two days they removed the old vanity and floor tile and had to new floor down and vanity nearly installed. Ugh, there was a minor plumbing issue that got resolved on day 3, so on day 4 they officially installed the vanity and were done.  Here's where we started, to where we finished off with the contractors ...    Also! I was able to sell the old vanity on Facebook Marketplace for $350!! That was a solid piece of granite, people! And got it out of our garage in less than 24 hours. A new record!  Next up ... TILE!  

I've always thought this house deserves a lot of green. And dark blue. It's that center hall colonial vibe I love so much. So when it came time to paint the guest room, I wanted to use one of those colors. And after painting the back hallway blue, green just seemed to be the right direction.  The guest room gets a ton of light, since it faces east. So it can handle a moody color. I picked Peale Green from Benjamin Moore and got it from the TrueValue near the house -- it's the closest hardware store. The walls were painted in a blue/grey flat paint with lots of nicks and a few spots where the old paint was showing -- not in great shape. I knew an eggshell finish would pick up some sunlight and give the room a little shine. (I will never understand using flat on these walls. SO weird.)  Here's one of the walls before:   And after the coat of Peale Green later ...  Of all the lovely colors in this house, this might be a favorite! It's a great true-green with a lit...

 Just a few more updates from the back hallway. And here's where we currently stand.  (Will I be buying a third dark gray basket for the top shelf? Yes, yes I will.)  So last weekend I painted the pinky/terracotta floor tile a matte black. Other than not being able to step on it for a few days, it was one of the easiest DIYs and cheap -- about $70. Looks just like the black tile in the kitchen. Unless you stare at it, it's a total dup.  I always forget what a huge difference flooring can make.  Then I decided to paint the interior of the closet/drop zone to match the rest of the walls in this hallway. And I love how it turned out. That oversaturated blue on the beadboard ... it's so good.  I also finished that lower shelf and found bulbs for the ceiling fixture that is SUPER BRIGHT.  Here's a quick walk through the progress of this much-used space ...  I wish I could have taken down that wall, but Dave was not interested in a demo project. Maybe s...

This winter I'm all about updating our Powder Room -- the bathroom off the kitchen our guests use. It's ugly. Just plain ugly. I painted it last year and switched out the horrible light fixtures, just to improve it a little, but now I'm ready to tackle it. Before - The Powder Room when we moved in With a small budget, I was planning to work with the vanity and either paint or tile-over the floor. I think the floor is the main issue. Replace the faucet and tile the wall. Maybe some kind of window treatment. Oh, and replace the towel bar with hooks. I really don't like towel bars. They never look organized -- always messy.  But Dave offered $3k from the house budget ... and I was off to the races! I'll hire a handyman to replace the floor and install a NEW vanity. Yay! And I'll tile the wall and paint the remaining walls.  Now, I have to make a decision on the vanity. They're expensive and will direct the rest of the finish choices. Here's the three choice...

While touring museums in Copenhagen, I also had a lot of fun taking photos of collections and patterns, zooming in and cropping them just right. Here's what I captured ...   Card Catalog at the Library Signets at the National Museum Noses at the Glyptoteket Roman Coins at the Glyptoteket Royal Medals at the Rosenborg Castle Rings at the National Museum  

In Copenhagen I didn't want to buy clothes or hats or t-shirts or posters. Nope. All I wanted was kitchen supplies! I found a few really beautiful kitchen shops that blew me away. I love a beautiful shop, right?!  Here are a few shops that I snapped photos of while in Copenhagen:  I would have bought this entire table of pottery, just recreate this sight in my own dining room. Danish pottery is simple, pastel and lovely. I wanted it all.