The Dobson Dream Team!!!

THANK YOU!

Excuse the crappy cell phone pic but these men are four of my Home Remodel Heros! They have been there for us since closing day and our house would be NOTHING without them!

I felt I needed to give a little shout out to them because without them, our house would still be ugly and gross.  They are hardworking, efficient, have great ideas AND they let me pay them in beer.  Pretty sweet deal if ya ask me! Now, allow me to introduce them. :]

Far left is my father-in-law. Give this man a hammer and he will build you a house in an hour or tear one down in 0.5 seconds.  Either way, EVERY remodel site needs a Roger, he is a machine and when he is around - Stuff. Gets. Done.

See what I mean...

Oh! Did I mention he's is a Mason :]

My daddio is next and he is the master of detail work. When dealing with major remodels, a lot of times the smaller jobs get forgotten when all the focus is on the large major stuff.  Dad helped us refinish our hardwood floors as well as the original moldings and window trimmings.  When it comes to finish work - this is your man. I LOVE YOU FAJA!

I have never in my whole 24 years of existence seen a taped off room quite like this!

Here he is helping refinish the awesome baseboards! (Yes, the room is pink - No, I did not choose the color)

My brother, David is our sparky.  He has made it possible for me to microwave a hot pocket, blow dry my hair and dry my clothes ALL AT THE SAME TIME! :]  When we purchased our house, all the elecrical was knob and tube wiring.  Now, thanks to the bro, we have a COMPLETELY updated electrical system and panel.  You. Rock.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of him in action! He spends most the time in the crawspaces and I ain't goin there.  Noooo Way!

Far right is my wonderful hub a lub.  I loooove him! He's is always doing stuff around the house, stuff that I would NEVER want to do. (see ode here) :]  He is what keeps me sane through it all and he is super talented at hanging pictures straight and level (I SUCK).  He is the best of the best and I am soooo blessed!

He does everything! From pulling up the beautiful poo colored shag carpet...

To prepping the house for its new paint job (what a chore!).

The Dobson Dream Team wouldn't be complete without a few more men. 

Dennis, Plumber extroridanairre! This guy is one of the most awesome people I know!  He redid the plumbing throughout our ENTIRE house! Not to mention, as our wedding gift!  He is the greatest of the great and we CAN'T wait for him to come back into town for round dos!

Emptying waste stuck in pipes.....that's not ours.... (gag)

Snaking our sewer drain (thats in our basement?) to make sure all is good in the hood..... (gag)...

We also have to thanks Davey D who came to the rescue when our furnace went kapoot.  We were cold and he made us warm :]  Thanks DUUUDE!



And last, but never the least. Dupdowdup (Scott).  If it weren't for him we wouldn't have our initials carved into our new chimney crowns.   Thanks Deet!

We feel so blessed to have all of you along with us for the ride and want to give a HUGE, GIGANTIC THANKS!!

WE LOVE YOU!

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

I AM ON PINS AND NEEDLES!  I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!

Our upstairs has been patiently waiting for us to go up there and whip it into shape for some time now. The first thing on the list is the Master bedroom and bath.

Right now, it looks a little something like this.

 YOWZA.

It. Is. Bad. The previous tenant LOVED green.  EVERYTHING is was green.  Oh my word.

Anyway, we are going to start in the master bath. It is going to take the most amount of work and we're going to have to be trudging through the rest of the upper floor to get everything done so we might as well just do it first.

This is what the bathroom started as. As you can see there are some GREAT built-ins (I shed a tear as we ripped them to shreds) and a toilet and a sink.  Two problems.  1. There is no shower, therefore it is NOT a full bath.  2.  The area where the toilet and sink are is about 6 inches shorter than hubs...  nuff said.

Again, here is the room in its current state. 

There are so many different options we can do as far as placement for all the bathroom necessities that has yet to be determined.  However, I can give you guys a glimpse of what I would love my bathroom to look like.

I want to go for a vintage/retro/new look (like the rest of the house).

 I want to bathroom to be all white.  It is a small room and there are no windows so I want it to be as bright as possible. 

The bathroom has angled ceilings and on the lower half of the wall, I would like to use subway tiles. Depending on the cost and time factor, we could also do the bead boarding like we did in the downstairs full bathroom remodel. The floor tiles seen on this floor in the picture is EXACTLY what I would like to do.  Its intricate, beautiful, unique and gives testament to the birth year of our home

A Claw foot tub is another thing I WANT!  I have found a few at Second Use, a salvage store in Seattle that has great prices on claw foot tubs that are in decent shape.  The great price will allow us to get the tub resurfaced and still pay less than we would with a brand new tub.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the weight, how we would get it up stairs and would it be practical for our use.  The other option is a nice subway tiled shower - that would look great as well, although, I would have to get creative getting it to go with my vintage/retro/new theme.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this vanity.  It doesn't do much for storage but it has an old feel and takes up less space making a small room look larger and more open.

This picture I love. I love the mismatched mirrors, the country feel of the vanity and of course, the subway tiled wall.

I cant wait to get going on this room! I'm almost positive it wont turn out exactly like this but I can guarantee you that it will be a great space with an old feel.

Stay tuned!

Pretty View in The Loo

Our bathroom walls needed something besides a silly towel rack and hook.  I didnt want to spend ANY money, so I got creative!

I had three white Ribba frames from IKEA that weren't in use and would look UH-MAZING in the bathroom.  So I swiped those from storage and sat down at my computer to think of what might be good art for a place you do your business and get clean.  Hmmmmmm...

In trying to keep with the "old, vintage, retro" theme going on in our home here are a few ideas that came to mind before deciding what to do.

1. Vintage vacation postcards.  These are a lot of fun and I love the feel they bring to a room. However, for the style of our bathroom which is feminine and light, the bold colors from the cards clashed and were to bold for the space.  Plus, I'm planning in similar artwork for the den. No.

2. Vintage Pin-up pictures.  Going more with the feminine vibe, I thought Pin-up girls would be really cute.  Then I realized that the bathroom didnt need to get any more "girly" and Justin squashed the idea almost instantly. No.

3. Vintage Wallpaper.  I glanced over to my shower curtain and realized how much I like the soft, daintyness of the pattern.  I decided to search the internet for other vintage patterns that would specifically bring out the navy and gold and brown tones of the space.  SUCCESS!

Here is the shower curtain...

And here is the finished Product!

I printed the three patterns I like most on regular 8x10 paper, shoved them in the frame, hung them on the wall and called it good! Instant, free, art. You can't beat that! Eventually I would like to do something a little more creative but for the time being, this will work just fine!

D-World Card & Pin-Up Chick

I've Been FRAMED!

After taking down our Christmas decorations, I thought our living room looked a little bare.  I have been holding off with the wall art because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do and I didn't want to make a bunch of holes in the wall!

I decided that I wanted to do collages of framed photos on either side of the wall of the dining room walk through. So that is what I did. 

I took a trip to IKEA on my lunch break and headed straight to the accessories section (with side blinders on) and found their RIBBA frames which I have purchased many times before.  The exciting thing is that RIBBA frames now come in brown!!  I only remember seeing the frames in black and white so when I saw the newly added color, I screamed at the top of my lungs and did a victory dance.  Well, not really but I was thrilled!

I purchased a bunch of different sizes and headed home to start hanging some frames :]

My next step was to lay the frames on the floor in a pattern that I would recreate when hanging them.  I had a few pictures that I knew I wanted to hang so I filled a few frames and helped the hubby hang.



 Here they are hanging in all their glory

The next day I chose a bunch of pictures of friends and family to fill in the rest of the frames.  I tried to pick a lot of group photos so that we could include as many people possible on our picture wall.

After filling the frames, this is the final product.

Hubs and I were thinking that we actually might like all b&w photos in this area but haven't switched them yet - we're still thinking on it.

I have a few frames left over that will spill into the hallway and have many more ideas for picture walls in other places of our home. Very Excite!

Hand Cramps.

After sending out 80+ Christmas cards, my poor right hand needed an umbrella drink and a massage.  Not only did it cause me great pain but as each envelope passed through, the writing got uglier and sloppier and messier...  No Bueno.

Now that we are at a permanent residence I REALLY want to get one of these puppies!

A return address stamp. <3  I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW!

Well at least before next December :]

This thing would seriously make Christmas cards SO much easier.  The thing I love most about them are all the different styles they have to choose from.  I came across this site, http://www.sweetpapery.com/ and they have some super cute self inking stamps.  Here are a few that caught my eye:

 This one I really like.  It's cute and modern but I think my name might be too long and would make it look wierd.

 This one I love because it's all over the place! I like how they use different fonts for each line. Very cool.



This one I like because its classic. The only thing is that it might be hard for people to read.

Yep. Definitely need one of these :]

The Finishing "TO DO" List:

One thing Justin and I agree on is to finish the main floor 100% before moving on to the next set of renovations.  We know that whatever we leave behind will most likely NOT get finished and that is NOT okay.

With just a few things left on the list, this post will serve as a reminder as well as a flame under my buttocks to get these things done.  Oh! and I love lists. :]

1.  Paint and cover hall light switch plate.

2.  Purchase and install oven hood

3.  Finish Garage door trimmings

4.  Apply backsplash over above sink light drywall

5.  Nail in the board on the kitchen side of the kitchen/dining doorway

6.  Fix wall damage next to fridge

7.  Paint chip on mantle

8.  Regrout fireplace tile and paint the insideof the fire place black

9.  Stain closet door and reattach door handle

10. Purchase and install undercabinet lighting

With these things complete, we I will be ready for the big upstairs renovation.  :]

HEEERRREEE WEEEE GOOOOOOO!!!

I heart lists image found here

2011.

Hope you all had a great New Year!  We sure did! We had the privilege of hosting some of my most favorite people in the world, my wonderful EWU friends, Mat and Lindsey Woody!  We had a blast doing a whole lot a nuthin and eating and drinking a whole lot!  :]  They are very special to me and hubbo and I am so happy I got to ring in the new year with them!

Its exciting to start another year but also sad for me.  2010 went by in a flash and I'm left trying to remember what happened!  After taking down all our Christmas decor I had a brief moment of depression that was uplifted with my hubby reminding me of all the fun things in store for us the next twelve months!

Justin and I are super duper excited for the projects in store for casa Dobson.  We are putting all the finishing touches on the main floor then we will hike up our britches and get ready to move on up to the top floor!

The upstairs brings two more bedrooms and a master bath and it looks a little something like this.  

 Stairway

 Master Bed & Bath

Guest Room #3

Scary.  I know. 

Buuuuuutttt! With a complete kitchen and bathroom remodel behind us, I think we will have no problemo transforming the upstairs to be just as wonderful as we think our first floor is. 

2011.  Bring. It. On.