Current Look: Outside

Ahhhh, the outside.  There is so much work in store for us here.

Here is the front yard.  We are leaving this be for now. We did paint the house (ourselves), had the chimney crowns added and chimneys inspected by my father-in-law and planted some plants, which you can see haven't quite bloomed yet.  Summer is late, oh so late and its quite rude.

Future plans include a  new roof, elevated flower beds, new garage door, more exterior lights... the list goes on...  This will hopefully be in effect starting Summer 2012?

We also (with the help of my father-in-law), put pavers down the middle of the driveway (see here).  This is one of the best projects we did, it makes the front of the house look so much better!

Future plans here will include a larger front stoop, new railings, new roof above the front door that matches the roof line and extends further out for more coverage, nicely stained concrete front stoop and I'm sure a few other things...

I had to. They're too cute! :]

Here is the backyard.  It's bad. Real bad.

As you can see, we try to sit and enjoy the afternoon/evening sun we get back there but it's not a very nice place to hang out...

From the temporary steps, the unattached fence gate...

To the partially finished paint job, this space REALLY needs some TLC.  Lucky for you guys, you get to watch this ugly are get transformed into a fun inviting space for us and our guests to enjoy.

We are getting bids from all around on leveling and taking some dirt away. 

I had to. You can barely see their white little chests through the dirty glass. The dirty glass is their fault.

Stay tuned for the full details of our back yard plan!

Current Look: Upstairs

Welcome to phase 3 of the Dobson Home.  With the main floor complete and the backyard reno beginning soon, the upstairs will be gettin some love too!

I have already painted a couple of the spaces.  One of which is the stairway.  I used Valspar's "Vanilla Milkshake" and I love it! It really brightens up the hallway.

Plans for this space are spray painting the chain and top fixture of the light black, and adding another picture wall.  This picture wall will feature all old family photos from the 1960's prior. I can't wait to do this project! I'm going to re purpose the railings and put in new carpet to complete this area.

This is guest bedroom #2 / nursery when the time comes :] I painted it up in Valspar's "Wipeout" (blue walls) and Valspar's "Subtle Touch" (Grayish desk, trims and door).  I plan to paint wood knobs black to add to the desk drawers, a new light fixture, window treatments and bright/subtle furniture to off set the crazy blue! Throw down the same carpet as in the stairway and we are gooooood toooo gooooo.

Through the guest bedroom door, you can see the future master bedroom!

This will be the master bedroom! I am so excited to get out of that cramped room and into a space that is ours :]  We have to figure out how to fix the walls here.  The previous owner either taped of the drywall and didn't texture or painted over wallpaper.  An option I am thinking of is Grass Cloth wallpaper. It would add such a cool texture and get rid of those awful lines.  We could also get a drywall expert in to texture it for us.

We plan to do some DIY built-in storage and after the walls are completed we can finish off with carpet and add new window treatments, light fixture and fun furniture!  I can't wait!

Our master bathroom is a mess but should get going pretty quickly.  Once the last little bit of electrical is finished, we already have the supplies needed to finish framing out the space and all the green board that needs to go up onto the walls and ceiling. We can then mud and tape, put down some hardy backer and tile and texture and paint the walls, get new light fixtures and start putting in the fixtures. I am especially excited for our claw foot tub shown here :]

We are going to do our best at a built in clothes storage unit here - we'll see how it goes :]

Other than that, we will take our time with the bathroom.  We can get the rooms done and move our things upstairs but the bathroom will go as we have the time/funds to do it.

Current Look: Main Floor

Welcome to the only "livable" floor in our home.  This is what it looks like now and I am always changing/switching things around... Enjoy!

My picture wall :] I plan on adding more frames to the left of the thermostat and cool treasures to fill in the spaces.

Our living room, where we spend most of our time.  I love this room except for the television area.  I would like a smaller TV and red media console...

Love our vintage fireplace, just need to do spray the inside black and regrout the tile in front of it.

Our little sittin nook - though no one actually ever sits there...

 Here is our dining room, but now that we bought the built-in book I talked about yesterday, hubs wants to build a cool built in bench table thingy...

Our bedroom until we move upstairs... I hate it. Its sloppy, mismatched and ugly.  Eventually this will be a den but until then... 





I love our bathroom, so vinatge and clean looking.

Our guest room #1...

And the kitchen, we just need to fix the light above the sink and we are done!

There it is for ya! Can't wait to get going on the back yard and upstairs :]

4 Things.

There are 4 things that I am extremely excited about.

1. This cool vintage card holder I picked up for $3 at a garage sale this past weekend.

2. This Built-In's book we picked up at Lowes.  This will come in majorly handy when we tackle the upstairs. The hubs also wants to totally revamp our dining room with a cool built in bench table.

3. Les Miserables is coming to Seattle this August! Nuff said.  Hubs and I aren't super theatre people but we do enjoy a good musical every once and while, ESPECIALLY this one, its our fave.  You can call us dorks, nerds, bring it on but until you have heard these people sing, you don't know what you're talkin about.  They. Are. Uhmazing.

4. Saving the best for last on this one.  We are finally starting in our back yard! We're getting estimates for some excavating work and cant wait to get our hands dirty!  Plans include leveling the ground, adding a sprinkler system, building a small deck and prepping a patio space for FREE pavers (more on that later).  Big progress is finally starting back up and we couldn't be more excited!

I'm channeling my inner Real Housewife for a sec........ YAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOO!

~ Vickie Gunvalson

Peace out.

Summer Switchup

I get bored easily and one of my favorite things to occupy my time is to change things up around the home.

This is how our guest room has looked for since the room has been completed.

Here is how it looks now.  Not a huge difference. I just swithched up the sheets to a new pair of mint green bamboo sheets (that are AMAZING) and changed to picture to something a little brighter :]

The two black framed photos make much more of a statement on the wall but its fun to switch things up every now and then!

Happy Summer!

Current Look: Basement

I thought we would give you a tour of the current state of Casa de Dobson.

With a house of three levels and a large back yard, our complete home overhaul will never leave us bored or wealthy :]  It is a labor of love that it totally worth every emotion and penny.

With that said,

Here is the basement.  It's really gross.  Beware.

The basement will be the final phase in a multiple phase project we call "Our Home".

It is big, a blank slate and is amazingly refreshing and cool on hot Summer days.

As you walk down the stairs you are greeted with a picture of a duck and a hand written quote by moi that says "Duck or you'll quack your head!"  :]  I unfortunately can't take credit, I ran across it online somewhere.

At the bottom of the stairs, turn left and you will see Puppy Palace.

After the remodel, the furnace (behind the plywood to the left) will be nicely closeted in and this will serve as a mudroom.  I want to try my hands at refinishing the concrete which when stained correctly, can make a beautiful floor!

If you walk through the door you see in the above picture, you will enter the laundry room. Future plans will have this large room remain a bathroom, but it will be much nicer AND include a full bathroom :]

The Laundry Room came with these lovely built ins which we MAY try and salvage, but I think they're a waste of space and they're pretty gross... I'm thinking buh-bye.

Back out the door and enter the other door, you will come into our storage space/home gym.

Once our upstairs is finished, much of this space will be cleared out, but until then we put all our "stuff" here.  This also where the hubs pumps iron.  He's so strong and handsome :]

Down the road, we would LOOOOVE a media room.  I picture a nice flat screen TV and comfy sectional all with a mid-century, feel. 

This side of the media room is still under consideration. 

We could A. open this wall up to the next room (pictured below).  If we did that, this would house a very nice bar and table area.  Option B would be to leave it a room but widen the opening and attached some cool sliding screens or vintage doors to create privacy or hiding of gym equipment when needed.  We would also push the opening further back to make the room a bit smaller, giving our media room more space to add a wet bar.



So there you have it. The Dobson basement.  When we get here we will keep you posted on every little detail! Until then, more current house tour coming up!

Mama Likey!

This. Is. It. This is the missing puzzle piece to our living room. I want it and I need it. It is exactly what I am looking for and I think you get the point.

Allow me to introduce to you Pottery Barn's Leena Media Console. It is red, antiqued and perfect.

There is only one problem. 

$599.99

Holy Buckets. That's not going to work for the Dobson household. Sad face.

Soooooo............... I came across another option.

Ana White is a Wood Working Diva, she can build any and everything and she even has a tutorial (here) to built a close replica to my Sweet Leena.

The only problem with this option is that it looks pretty tricky. There is a lot of detail going into this project....but who knows, maybe we'll give it a go?

Another thing I thought might work is finding an old dresser, cutting it down, adding legs and molding where it's needed and painting it red...

Hmmmm.... choices, choices...

Along with a new Media Cabinet comes a new TV. I want something smaller and flat that will blend nicely into the space instead of yelling "LOOK AT ME"...

This is something that will most likely happen a little later in the year but I am excited that I have found a visual for my design vision.

TBD.

Mellow Yellow

The Upstairs is slowly coming along.  We've painted the "wood room" and I recently finished painting the stairway. 

Before, the stairway was painted a weird tannish, pinkish color that when paired with the groovy shag carpet and poo brown railings made the space feel really dark.

We ripped out the carpet, took down the railings and painted the stairway "Vanilla Milkshake" by Valspar. 

It brightens up the space so much! Other plans for this space include attempting to reuse the old railings while jazzing them up a little bit, spay painting  the chain and upper portion of the light fixture black to make it really pop and on the wall above the ledge adding another frame collage!

Next step will be getting the Master bedroom painted and purty followed by carpet and finishing touches so we can move all our stuff upstairs. The bathroom will be a go as we can afford type project but at least we will be able to move into our Master Bedroom!

Progress makes me happy :]