People think I'm crazy.

I bought this table on Craigslist. It has a rusted zinc top.


The paint finish is...rustic. My mom went with me to look at it and she sat in the truck praying that I wouldn't buy it.

But, as with our currently "rustic" house, I can see the end product in my imagination.

Here's the plan:


These two bathrooms, I think from Cottage Living? have been my inspiration, especially the first one. I have this sink:


That will go on top of the table. I'm taking the zinc top off, cool as it probably once was. I'll touch up the paint & leave the top unpainted. It will go here:


White subway tile, white mosaic floor tiles, pale grey walls, white painted medicine cabinet, clean toilet & no boxing glove in the corner. It will be fabulous. I've said that before, haven't I? One of these days I'll show you all the fabulousness for real instead of just talking about it.

Oh, and Vino doesn't think I'm crazy. He likes the table. That's two of us!

Family...Food...Football...Caramel Corn

We are at my sister & brother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving this year. It's not as exotic as spending Thanksgiving in Tunisia where we were at this time last year, but we're thankful to be with family! This is the first time we've been to their house (they moved here a few months ago). I really like it! I'll include some photos of my favorite decorating ideas that my sister has done.


My mom & my sister making stuffing.


Brother-in-law, Brad, cutting the bird.


Niece Julia.


Nephew Evan.


Nephew Isaac.


Niece Emma.

My sister Shelley and I have similar but not identical design taste. We both like rustic, but I like more of it than she does. She goes for more new furniture & house while I like old & worn in. We are both currently into the same color scheme, though. Neutrals with beachy muted aquas & greens. We're also both into cheap or free.

She has cottage style in a distinctly non-cottage house. I really like the way that she has combined vintage & beachy pieces with her newer stuff & home.


In the living room she has hung another one of the windows like I used in my parent's basement. I think it looks great on the big expanse of wall over her sofa.


She rescued this "O-So Orange" pop-bottle crate from my parent's garage & filled some of the cubbies with shells she collected on beaches in North Carolina. Perfect. And absolutely free.


I made that bowl in college. It's very thick & heavy. I was painfully unsuccessful in my pottery class but I really enjoyed it. I think I gave all my pieces away!


Shelley said that she wants to replace the chandelier with a large outdoor looking lantern, like the ones currently being sold at Restoration Hardware, but not like the prices. Oh, I got that birdcage for her years ago at a thrift store.


Love the ladder. She picked it up at a little antique store in the town where we bought our little house. She dry-brushed it with a little aqua paint (which doesn't show up in this photo) before she hung it.


I want a sea fan. Shelley brought this one back in her carry-on from a trip to North Carolina. I tried to take the photo without getting a glare. I was not successful.

It's now the day after Thanksgiving. The house is full of friends & family watching the Nebraska/Colorado game. The Huskers are currently ahead 13-0. Yessss. Vino is making caramel corn. We're all looking forward to that. It's the best ever. I'm not biased. You can watch his tutorial video here.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We'll be back working on the house next week and will hopefully be able to move in before the first blizzard of the year!

Tiling the Bathroom

We've been putting some work into the bathroom lately. Remember this?


You can't see very well on the photo, but the floors are in pretty rough shape. You can't smell the photo, either. After we hauled all the trash out of the house, most of the stink leftover was in the bathroom. Specifically, IN the floors. I am a hardwood floor lover, but these HAD to go (along with the wallpaper, border, green paint & cheap-o vanity.


As Vino ripped up the floor boards the stink stank worse.


The hardwood flooring AND the diagonal sub-floor boards had steeped in liquid for a long time. And not just water. Some of it was rotten.


The toilet had been in peril and we didn't even know it. The sub-floor boards in this area were short & one even fell out into the basement.

Voila! New sub-floor over the old to stabilize the surface for tile. Backer board on the wall for the new subway tile. I know, white subway tile is like Starbucks. Everyone does it and thinks it's cool. It's on every shelter magazine street corner. Figuratively. Now it's old hat. But I don't care. I've wanted a bathroom with white subway tile for a long time. AND, it goes well with the age of our home. What does old hat really mean, anyways??


My dad was a huge help to us putting in the tile, since neither one of us had ever done it before.


We sure learned a lot. Tiling doesn't scare us anymore. Maybe the time & sore muscles do, though...

Vino did a great job laying the floor tile in a house where hardly anything is square. We discovered that white grout with white tile camouflages a lot of imperfections!

There's a pretty big height difference between the bathroom floor and the hallway floor. We'll have to get a substantial transition piece. It would have been higher if Vino hadn't torn out the old floor boards. By the way, he drilled holes in the sub-floor from the bathroom and from the basement ceiling. Whenever he did that it smelled like burnt pee, the sub-floor had been so saturated. Don't ask me how I know what burnt pee smells like. We will be Kilz-ing the basement ceiling.


Oh, look. I actually did some work in the bathroom, too. I cleaned off all the grout from the tile surface, painted the upper walls & trim and sealed the grout. I'm ready to take a bath in here. Problem is, though, the tub isn't ready for me.


Neither is the toilet.


We're getting close, but it's taking longer than I want. I'm SO ready to settle in. Have I said that before?