Pottery Barn be Damned!

We worked on a small project today that ended up costing about 75$ in wood and stain, as opposed to the $500 we were considering spending at a store that will not be named (except for in the title of this posting). As you can see below, we had previously taken out one pair of sliding closet doors from our now office (pictures soon to come on that room, it is still a work in progress).



We took the lovely brass accents off of this mirror and framed it with 1x8 pieces of pine which we stained a dark espresso color. It turned out nicely I think, and even better is the sweet sweet vindication that comes from saving $400 and recycling hideous old closet doors.

I still love you Pottery Barn, even though you tried to trick me into thinking we had to have an"espresso loft mirror"......A&K: 1 Pottery barn: 0

A Bench and Running Water

OK people (mainly our MN peeps) so here in Southern California we don't have what you would call "land" in which to plant a multitude of fruit and vegetable plants along with beautiful foliage and trees. We are making due though with what we like to call "our yard"....not large by any means (literally a few yards wide to be exact) and with what I'm convinced is acidic death soil that sucks the life out of anything that comes into contact with it. Having said that, you may now view what it looked like prior to us having done anything to it except set our Adirondack chair out in the hopes that one day we might actually want to hang out.

very sad I realize, and you should have seen the looks of disgust on our faces as we went out there on our first day back in California after our trip out to MN.....while "brother and sister in law #1", and "brother and sister in law #2" talked about (aka. rubbed in our faces) how much food they harvest on a daily basis and how magical it is to see so many species of bird in their yards, we are happy to see that our plants have lived to see another day. We did see a crow on our roof this morning, we think it's building a nest in our fireplace, and some sort of rat or possum is burrowing a hole underneath our fence, magical! We did put in a really cool bench (below) that my grandpa built, we are really happy with how it turned out.

Since we live in a desert, and I'm told we're in the middle of a drought (a friend of mine got an $80 ticket for watering his lawn on the wrong day last week), I figured we would plant drought resistant plants like succulents and brush grasses. Also, these are "very hard to kill" I'm told, which may or may not have figured into my decision making. You also might notice the river rock that was placed underneath the bench and around some of the plants and water feature. These are really pretty and much nicer than the pinkish concrete blocks that were in those spots previously.

Our new water feature was the brainchild of the man of the house, who was super motivated one morning and decided that we were going to finish this project in one day. It was hard work but I think it turned out really well. I did my river rock thing around it which is cute but also holds down and covers the plastic sheet that he had to put underneath. I also planted some more drought resistant plants and stacked some slate pieces to make the little waterfalls on each level.

That's all on the "yard" for now, we hope to plant some more in the near future. I'm thinking of some ivy to creep up the side of the house and cover up some of the white walls which practically blind you when the sun is out and shining (which is pretty much everyday).

Guest Bathroom Bananza

It’s been too long since we updated our post and we apologize for keeping you all in the dark. I don’t remember the exact weekend this project took place, but I’m positive it was before our June wedding.

Here are some pictures of the fantastic gold features that not only whispered, “I’m flashy,” but screamed, “I’m cheap as hell!” When looking at the medicine cabinet, try not to stare at the man in the mirror. He was not the hired help, as hired help that attractive can only be found through an Escort Service. His physical labor was free.

This picture was simply a recommendation for an upgrade. My personal thanks to Red Green. I know Red wasn't allowed to say it on his show, but if you can’t duck it… well you know the rest.

Actually, the tape was put in place to prevent the mirror from shattering into a billion little pieces. And lucky me, the mirror was removed in a single piece. After removing the mirror and old medicine cabinet, an open shelf was made by yours truly, stained, and installed after the new paint dried. And with a new mirror, faucet, and lighting system, I think you’d agree the bathroom does look better than before.