A sunshine-filled hall bath

Hi All--Thought I'd post some pics of our hall bath- a light, bright, and happy room...such an improvement over where we started, we really love the combination of historic hex tiles on the floor, our victrola cabinet for the vanity, and our FREE enameled cast iron sink!  Enjoy!

Found some vintage glass knobs to add to the cabinet.

Our sink top was free!

A place to hang your robe or towel, this guy makes me smile  =)

An Autumn Lunch

Nothing says fall more that a tasty bowl of homemade soup, I enjoyed a bowl of this homemade butternut squash soup that I made on a whim the other day.  While pursuing the isles of Whole Foods, I saw that the Farmer's Market canned Organic Butternut Squash was one sale, and one the back of the can, a recipe for the soup, come to find out, Farmer's Market Foods has tons of great recipes.  I topped my with some homemade croutons and Parmesan for a little bit of a twist, yum!   What's your favorite cozy up, autumn meal? 

The kitchen is done!

Time to get cookin' !!

We used standard Ikea 12" cabinets (which had the specialized "guts" we needed) combined with simple wooden shelves to build this pantry area for the back of our kitchen.  My mom came into town and helped me to get it primed, painted, and finished off...thank goodness, it was a huge job!

I found these handles at a junk shop months ago, I had no idea what I would use them for, but loved them!

Movin' Along....

Had a great and productive weekend, and even managed to get in some fun time with Adam (Super 8 and Sushi, delightful!)  Here are a couple pics of the weekend projects.

We needed some privacy in our master bath (something a little more refined than the sheet of packing paper taped to the window), so I bought some window etching from Home Depot--it's completely removable and goes on with just water, I really like how this turned out!  I left the edges open a little bit in the top panes to let in more light. 

I had some leftover etching scraps, so I started playing around with adding some details to these little windows on a back door in our hallway, it's tedious, but a lot of fun!  I've only finished the middle one, but I think that I'll play around with circles in the other pane, and triangles in the other! 

Starting to finally get some stuff hung up on the walls, although I'll have to take it down to paint eventually, it gets to be a pain to try and find places to store it until you get around to the painting!

Starting playing around with a free form collage of frames and other objects in the dining room, still looking for the right photos for some of the frames, and it may grow and change over time....

Adam picked up these great copperplate etchings of Hopi Birds from artist Marjorie Rogers at an art show that we stopped at on our way cross country.  I happened upon a new selection of fab float frames at Target the other day, and this happened to be the perfect size for this piece...score on the bargain!

Lots of progress!

Lots of progress at the house equals lots of work for Nicole, and a very tired Nicole....has it really been over a month since my last post?  Oh my, how embarrassing  :{  ...in any case, here's a couple of pics of the progress. 

Pendants over the sink, and hardware on the cabinets, this is starting to look like a real kitchen!

Love our new hood, and the tile blends nicely with the craftsman style of the home! 

We had to do something with these "windows" that looked into the laundry room, we kept the same footprint and added a wine rack and shelving...now for a little stain and paint!

As if the work inside the house has not been enough, I've torn out all the grass in the front and am working on putting in a native and drought tolerant garden....yesterday, our crown jewel was delivered..."Blue" our giant Blue Agave is the newest addition to our garden family, he welcomed me with a stab to the shin the drew blood, yipes!  Will be a good burglar deterrent!

De & Re Construction Continues...

Now that the hall bath is mostly finished up (still dressing it out though, so you'll have to wait for the grand finale pics) it's time to move on to the Master Bath.  I like to think of this room as one of many of the nice little surprises in this house.  In a bungalow this size, it's somewhat rare to find a second bathroom, but it was definitely on the top of our wish list while house hunting.  It's small, but functional, and makes it nice when you have to take a late night potty break! 

To keep things within the budget, we're keeping the same footprint, but gutting most everything and updating. My very favorite thing that sold me on this bathroom were the original 20's floors, and how I was so relieved to find out that they continued to run under the long cabinet that was originally in the space!  Horray! 

The joy in the bathroom continued when Steve, my contractor took out the walls in the shower and discovered another seven inches of space!  He had to rebuild the wall there anyway, so he was able to move everything back to give us a little extra space in the shower...and since we were doing that, we just decided to keep on going with the changes (while keeping the same footprint of course).  My goal in this space is to give it some drama, make it special, even though it is small.  So we decided to open up the entire front of the shower and put in an arch.  This will make it easier to get into the shower (no more squeezing through a tiny doorway) and give the room a focal point...

The shower wall pushed back another seven inches...precious space in a small bathroom!

Still working on getting the arch, well, more arch-like...I'm obsessed with it not being too circular looking....

Oh Happy Yellow!

It seems that wherever I live, I have to have a least one yellow room....I don't intentionally set out to this way, it just seems to happen.  Perhaps it is the way it makes me just smile when I walk into the room, or the way the sunlight gleams against the perfect shade of yellow walls...I am just energized when I walk into a yellow room, it makes you want to get moving, to take on the tasks of the day!  So what better room to paint a lovely yellow than our hall bath...this perfect yellow with just a very hint of orange makes me so happy, and warms up all of the white tile and beadboard, plus, yellow is always fabulous with black and white, so I couldn't resist.  What better way to wake up and take on your day?

The traditional octagon tile with black boarder is ready for grout!

Even in the evening hour this yellow just says " 'aint I pretty"