Blog Tabs

I just wanted to bring attention to the tabs that can be found at the top of this blog.

About Us - Click to learn more about our little family

Our Home - Click for before and after pictures of Casa Dobson

Our Projects - Click for quick links to projects we have done

Our Wedding - Click for a run down of the best day of our lives! (Thus Far) :)

I will be adding another soon.  My experience in home remodel has made some of my friends recruit me for decorating help!  Here I will show before and after pics as well as what my contribution to the project was.

You won't be hearing from me until next week - I am off early tomorrow morning to Sunny CA!

Have a great end of March and beginning of April!!

Feelin Blue Part Two!

So I decided to get more bold in our paint choices and chose to paint our upstairs guest room blue.

The color is Behr's "Wipeout"

And here it is...

YOWZA!

My first thought was "Oh my gosh! Why did I do this, this is why I am a neutrals person! Darnit me!"

Then it started to grow on me.  Here are the things I considered.

1. It will look great once the black curtain rods, new light and black desk drawer knobs are on.

2. The bedding will be white and the curtains a sheer white which will neutralize it a little bit.

3.The room needs carpet.

4. The scallops still need to be cut straight.

5. It could be a little darker but I like it.

The apple green and other bright accent colors will make it a fun inviting room and I think guests will feel that they're at a tropical getaway without being surrounded by Palm Tree murals and lamp shades.

One thing I am going to change is the little cubby.  I am going to paint it blue instead of the grey which I think will look A LOT better!

The desk and trims are painted in a slight grey which is called "Subtle Touch" by Behr.  At first it just looked white, as it does in the pictures.  I think white would have been a little too much of a contrast but this hint of grey looks great next to the blue.

You may think I'm crazy now, but just you wait.  I can see the finished product in my head :)

Feelin Blue

When it comes to painting the upstairs, I know that I want to be more bold with my color choices.  I want the rooms to make more of a statement and have more visual interest.

You saw in this post the journey of ridding the home of its knotty wood by adding layer after layer of primer.  Now it's time to add some color to the space...

Blue.

I taped three Behr color swatches next to the window to see what the color might look like during the and the night. 

I decided to go with the bottom swatch. Pictured more closely below, you can see the colors a little better.  I really liked the very bottom color but felt that it was a tad too dark.  After a lot of thought I decided to go with the one right above it called "Wipeout".  I am extremely excited and a little nervous about this decision.  I hope that it ends up looking great!

To break up the bold color, I chose to paint the desk a light grey.  I think it will make the blue less shocking and would be better than keeping it a stark white.  The trims, closet door and bedroom door will remain white. 

On a side note, I think I will be repainting the living room and dining room as well.  I am in tan overload and need to break up the neutral main floor.  Still need to make decisions on that and will worry about it later.  Until then, I'm off to paint.  Wish me luck!!

Got a Spring in my step.

I love spring and I welcome it with arms wide open after a season of high energy bills, dark afternoons and windshield scraping in the AM.

I realized something lately and that is how much I LOVE fresh flowers.  I've always loved flowers but it is amazing how they brighten up a room.  I bought three bunches of tulips and put them on the coffee table.  I love them. A lot.

So I vow from now on to have fresh/seasonal flowers in the house all throughout the year. =]

Wood Be Gone!

You probably all remember the upstairs of our home...

The room I am talking about specifically is the "wood room".  The room full of dated knotty pine paneling that really has not place in our house.  In the mountains at a beautiful snowy ski resort? Yes. In downtown Sumner? No.

We have had mixed reviews when we show people the space. Some shudder in fear and others love the throwback to the 60's they experience when in the room.

What do we think?  Well you all know I can appreciate things from another era but this...  Not really. I could have sanded it and made it darker or done a white wash treatment on it, but ultimately, it just needed to go away.

There were weird, creepy markings in the wood from the past residents and the wood makes the room feel dated and dark.

SOoooo,  I painted it.  Yep, I primed right over that knotty wood. Luckily I didn't have to do any sanding and three coats of the Kwik Primer worked great!

I love the character this room has.  From the built-in desk to the in-wall ledge, these are things you just cant find in homes any more. 

Along with paint, other plans for the room are new carpet, new hardware for the desk drawers and to cut the scallops above the desk and opposite side of the room to a straight edge.  Not a real fan of the "frill" look, well, maybe, but not in this case.

Painting will come next.  More on that later! Happy Hump Day!

AH SNAP!

Guess where I will be in about a week???

I am super excited to have a fun girls vacation with my mom and sister!  Hopefully I will get some sort of a tan... YEAH!

The downside will be missing the hubs and pups majorly, but I know he will be fine.  Tis the season of March Madness and that is all that boy needs - and maybe a cold brewski.

Palm Springs photo found here

Disney photo found here

Ottoman Overhaul

You might remember this post... 

Well, I finally did something about them :)

Here is the before, luckily it kind of matched our couches but they definitely had that unfinished look to them.

I followed this tutorial and it worked perfectly!

So off to the fabric store with my friend Kristina and here is what I picked out.  The cream tones matched the couch and chair perfectly while the chocolate matched the curtains.  I chose the design to add a little texture to the room, when we first painted the main floor we chose a lot of neutrals and its starting to get a little boring.  I thought this fabric would add a little visual interest.

This was my first sewing project ever, with that said, it took me about 3 hours just to cut the fabric. 

Once I got to the machine I was cruisin :)

Here is the final product! I was just short of fabric to finish the second cover but I think another yard will get the job done.

I Love it!

Bathroooooooooooooooooom.

The biggest and most exciting updates we have for you is the master bathroom.

After being laid off, the hubs and I realized that we would again have to put the home remodel on hold.  Bummer.  What we did do with some of our funds was prep the upstairs bathroom for its overhaul.  Our heroes Dennis and Joe came over from Spokane for the weekend and plumbed our future master bathroom. 

Here is what the space looked like before...

After the 1st round of gutting.

After the 2nd round of gutting.

And here are some photos of the pipes going in. :)

Here is the finished plumbing product all nicely hidden under a new layer of plywood.  You may also notice that back section that housed the toilet and sink originally.  We tried and tried with all our might but couldn't save the space.  We needed the height on that wall since the whole room is an odd shape so we framed it in and it will disappear...

The blue bucket is covering the plumbing to our new (actually very old) CLAWFOOT TUB, you know, the one I mentioned getting! We didn't want no trippin happenin hea.

Here she is!  We got her at Second Use in the industrial district of Seattle.  This lady was $400 bones but in comparison to her younger friends, this was a steal.  She is in GREAT shape and just needs a little scrubbin and a coat of super glossy white spray paint. 

I love how the plumbing holes resemble the head of an extremely famous mouse :)

She currently resides in the master bedroom and is eagerly waiting her placement in the bathroom, as am I. 

At least we have all the plumbing in place and can do the other work a little at a time.

Here is the plumbing for the two pedestal sinks that will sit on each side of the centered tub.

Here is the amazing "vintage" flooring that we are going to use

This will be an experiment but the plan for this space is a closet.  It will be interesting and the clothes will be low hanging, but I think it is a good way to use the space and will free up our room of having large, space hogging dressers.  We plan to do another of these that will be accessed through the bedroom. 

This is the view looking out into our bedroom.  The plumbing for the toity (toilet) is on the bottom right.  Plans call for a 1/2 to 3/4 privacy wall to the left of the toilet, right of the door. 

Here is another awesome illustration by yours truly.  I figured it would help you imagine how the space will look.

I know its hard to imagine that our bathroom will look better than these photos but I can assure you, they will.

Where in the World are the Dobsons?

We have actually been pretty lazy lately.  I also lost my job so that is the main reason we've had to cut back on the home remodel front - Major Bummer. :(

After about a month of not doing much around the casa and cabin fever, I woke up Monday morning feeling extremely motivated and ready to get. stuff. done. What helps is knowing were having an open house this Saturday, it's providing the hot fire under our arses to finish the first floor 100%, clean, organize and create a rather LARGE giveaway pile.

We have lots of leftover paint and lots of touching up to do around the house.  All these little things we have been putting off will now become complete - YAY!

Justin went around and spackeled a bunch of areas that have been screaming for TLC.  Now I will just go around, paint them and make the house look all shiny and new.

I finally got to those ottoman covers, purchased a new rug and brought life to an old, retro forgotten lamp. More on all that later :)

We went through all our clothes and shoes and got rid of lots and lots.

We added a range hood and we love it! It really completes the look of the kitchen!

The last thing to do this week is a doozy.  I will need reinforcements, I will need moral support and most of all, I will need a stiff drink upon completion.

This is all the crud that has accumulated in our basement.  We still have a lot of house to fill so we probably wont get rid of a ton but it definitely needs to be sorted and organized.  NOT looking forward to this.

Anywho.  That's what we've been doing.  More to come!

Dobson Den

Now that the Patio Doors are in place, it is time to fill this empty space.  

(Rhyming... ya like that?)

Anyways... this room is going be a multipurpose room and it has a lot of needs to live up to.

First, this room is going to be our home office.  It will need to house our computer and have storage for whatever we need to stash.  I would really like to get this desk.  I think it will provide enough workspace and storage and would fit our needs perfectly. My cousin has a few of the shelves in her home and they are awesome!

For all our storage needs, IKEA makes bins and baskets that fit perfectly into each cubby. A few of those will hide clutter nicely and will add contrast and texture to the room.

Along with being our "office" and having storage.  I would also like this room to be able to be turned into another guest room should we need it.

My parents are giving us a sleeper sofa they have that is in great condition! YAY FOR FREE! I will most likely purchase a couch cover to place over it. 

As far as the decor goes, I posted this "Inspiration Alert" a while back and it is still something that I want to do and will do in this room!

If you don't feel like clicking the link, I found these. They have the "old explorer" look I'm going for and are a cool tribute to one of my favorite places.

The room will have lots of bold colors and will be deemed the vacation room.  Hubs and I have visited Disneyland/World many times and will hang personal photos our times there.  I also just found old photos of my mom and grandparents there in the 60's. Totally framing those!

It sounds like a little much, but I think it will look really cool!  I have older accessories that I am going to put into the space that will add to the "old explorer" look and bolder color choices in the accessories, rug and dress pillows will bring everything together.  Can't wait!

Now we just need to get that darned up stairs finished!!