the doma diaries: stripes galore.

I've always {ALWAYS} loved stripes...for as long as I can remember. I even have a pinterest board solely dedicated to stripes.  Maybe for another post, I'll document my love for stripes.  BUT, for now, let's get the show on the road with my bedroom at the new house.  

I know i have a before picture somewhere, but can't find it right now. So, this is the closest thing you'll get to a before:

The original walls were a khaki color

A few weeks ago, I started the process of painting them: striped!  I got the trim started around the ceiling and baseboards...and there were quite a few spots that needed some new texture on them too {the white spots on the walls in the pics above}.  

I knew I wanted 5 thick stripes of blue and white.  After I measured out the height of each stripe {18.5"}, I marked some loose lines for the two white stripes that would get painted first.  

window wall

closet/entry wall

Then, I got scared. And didn't touch the walls for a while.  There have been more than a few times that I wanted to throw the towel in on this project and just say forget it.  But, I wanted my stripes.  Badly.  My contractor came to the rescue and helped me get some of the real lines started for the edges of the blue.  

Since this house is over 40 years old, none of the walls are exactly square.  Because of this, it's been quite frustrating to get all of the lines exact.  I finally finished it yesterday though and get to start the fun part today :)

So. Much. Tape.

After I got all of the tape realllllly pushed down, the trick to making sure you have no leaks under the tape is to paint on top of the tape with another coat of white...because then if anything leaks, it will just be the white.  Get it?  It's kind of confusing, but I got all of my info from this blog on how to paint perfect stripes {here}.

Off to get more blue paint now :)  I'm almost out after painting trim and two closets with it.  Happy Thursday!

Mid-life update.

I kind of went on a blog hiatus for a month and a half.  Whoops.  I love the writing that comes with blogging, which is probably why my blog has lots of wordy posts.  And since I'm kind of playing catch-up right now, I think today's post needs to have bullets...too much going on in my head right now to write about each thing, so we'll go for an overview!

• At the end of August, my brother flew to Oklahoma.  He still had a lot of his childhood things at my parent's casa and since he has his own house in New Hampshire, it was time that his immense video game collection and Star Wars items find their way to that house :)  So, he and I rented a minivan {packed to the brim} and made the 1800 mile trek to New Hampshire.  

• While in New Hampshire, I got to see Jill before she moved from Boston to Austin.  We spent a day on the lake kayaking using my bro and SIL's kayaks!  Thanks J & T :)

• Also in New Hampshire, Tina and I got to play with decorating their house :)  I think of it as playing...Tina probably thinks of it as work.  The pic on the left {below} is the winter-y look. The pic on the right {below} is for spring!  Much more light and airy.  

• The new house is coming along...slowly but surely!  When I got back from New Hampshire, I found a GIANT surprise: Mom removed all of the popcorn ceilings throughout the entire house. I was completely and utterly shocked/ecstatic.  What this has ended up meaning is, other projects got added to the to-do list because of the popcorn being gone.  In layman's terms, we're pretty much gutting the whole house.  One of the bigger projects includes raising the floor in the sunken living room {which was one of the things dating the house the most}.  

before

during {bye bye columns}

after!

• Don't worry, there's still more work to show you, but that's just to give a few teaser pics of the house :)  more Doma Diaries posts to come in the near future!  
• My old iphone 3gs was on it's last leg a few weeks ago.  It served me well for 3+ years, but when the new iphone came out, I preordered mine immediately.  I never thought that I'd be able to keep an iphone working, but they make them pretty dang tough--I dropped mine in the OCEAN and it barely blinked an eye.  

one last picture from my old iphone :)

• After I got home from New Hampshire, my brother asked me if I wanted to start an app called Couch to 5k.  I had been meaning to start working out again, but never found the motivation. So, 6 weeks ago, we started the program together.  And today, I ran for 20 minutes {although the last 5 minutes of the run was barely a jog} for the first time since January and before getting sick in Ukraine. It wasn't pretty, but I did it!  A few weekends ago, it got realllllly chilly in Norman {in the 40's} but I still had to do my run.  So, I broke out the only leggings I had around. 

• This past weekend was one of the best weekends of the year: OU/Saxet.  Pretty sure that it was my favorite OU/Texas game to date.  Words can't explain how excited the crowd was after every touchdown we scored on them.  

Pops, Mom, and Lydia at the game. 

• I recently chopped off my bangs.  Again.  It usually happens at a very random time {this time it was 11:30 pm last Wednesday night}--like this time, when I had been painting all day.  

That's all for now.  I'll leave you with two different Oklahoma sunsets that made my heart happy.  

Boomer. Sooner.

the doma diaries: the kitchen hutch comes to life!

The kitchen is slowly but surely coming together.  Every time I walk in it, I feel so excited to think of what's next.  This past week, our contractor built the new hutch that replaced an old desk area.  To refresh your memory: 

Bye bye green countertops...

The best pic I have of the desk gone {far left}.

After many discussions with my madre of things she liked/didn't like as far as a hutch went, I came up with a game plan.  We've pretty much stuck to this design from the get go with only a few minor changes along the way.  

my very rough, original drawing

There were some design points that couldn't be changed or sacrificed in my opinion.  And, there were parts of the design that were dictated by the original kitchen cabinetry.

• I wanted the hutch to have a different height countertop from the rest of the kitchen.  This kitchen has a lot of counter-space at the normal 36", so I made the hutch's countertop height 42" tall.
• I didn't want the top cabinet to be in line with the crown molding on the rest of the kitchen's upper cabinetry.  
• My vision for the hutch was to make it look more like a piece of furniture and less like a kitchen cabinet.  
• The height of shelves in the upper cabinetry directly corresponds to the plates and pieces of serving ware that will be displayed in it.
• The depth of the base cabinetry allowed for the existing air vent {on the floor} to remain in place, yet still hide the original desk's depth.

Let the framing begin!

I sent this pic to my mom and brother when I walked into the house and squealed with excitement.  There's nothing like seeing your designs come to real life!

lovely iPhone pic...

The brown outlines on the wall were a rough sketch of how the upper glass cabinetry would look.

From the other side

Close-up view :)

Upper framing begins!

Still squealed when I saw this...

Maple wood...smooth as buttah.

Rick, working his magic!

Two drawers in...six to go!

The lower drawers were made specifically for all of my mom's small appliances.  I literally measured every item to know how tall to make the drawers {including popcorn machine, waffle maker, blender, crockpot, deep fryer, etc.}.

8 drawers--ready and waiting!

Ta-DAAAAA :)

Obviously she still needs doors and drawer fronts, but she is coming along!  And just for funnies, here's  where we started...

and here's where we are:

I could stand and look at her all day!

the doma diaries: Lena's new island!

The kitchen in the new casa is pretty massive {I forget how big at the moment and my drawings are at the other house right now}. This meant that my mom got to have a pretty massive island...think 3' x 7'. It's got a bookcase on one side and a nook for her bar stool and BIG drawers on the other side.  I'm in love, and I think she is too.

the base of the cabinet {with electricity!}

During every part of the process, I squealed as soon as I saw what our contractor had done.

Before Rick could keep going though, we realized the floor slopes in the kitchen...by like 1/2" to 3/4".  He had to shave off a few parts of the cabinetry to make it plumb.  The pic above shows how far off it  was!

The bottom left hole will house the mixer with a shelf above for other things.  The right hole is for drawers!

Mom's little nook

Super excited.

She was pretty stoked once she saw just how much space she has on this thing...

I was pretty stoked to see the bookcases for cookbooks! The electrical outlet is in the top left bookshelf.

Pretty trim work, Rick!

The drawer/cabinet side of the island in progress...

With a few more drawers in...

Voila!

So. Many. Tools.

Isn't she pretty?? :)