Guest Bathroom Remodel

My amazing husband finished work on our bathroom this weekend.  Sometimes I feel like I won the lottery landing such a handy guy for a husband.  He remodeled our master bathroom when we first moved into the house, but this one is larger and a lot more work so we had to save up the funds for a few years.  This is our guest bathroom and the one our kids will use as they get older.  It was a source of embarrassment for me whenever people came over to our house for the first time.  Some features of the original room included old stained linoleum, chipped paint, and a water damaged door.  Here are some before photos:

The vanity cabinets were custom built at a local place because the size of the large one is not standard.  Jeremy stained them himself.  The porcelain tile, backsplash, and counter tops all came from Home Depot.

We went with mostly grayscale items.  Our shower curtain features a photo of Mt. Hood which is a mountain that can be easily seen from most parts of Portland.  We decided that a pop of color would be a nice accent to include in the hand towels and bathroom rug.  We went with yellow and found most of those accents at Target.

I made the Daniel Tiger print to put above the toilet and I also created the line artwork to mimic the shape of Mt. Hood from the shower curtain.  We also have a large framed photo of Multnomah Falls that was given to us as a wedding gift by a family friend.

I love that it's a room that we can easily change by updating our accents over time and I'm excited for all of our guests to use the restroom now.

-Kira

Bookshelf Remodel

Our living room had a major eyesore for a number of years.  We had a whole wall of built-in bookshelves that were just not pretty.  The shelves were useful since we have a ton of books, but there was nothing that could be done to that set-up to make it look nice.  The bottom 1/3 of our shelves were unusable because toddlers love pulling books off of shelves.  The ledge of the bookshelf extended out so much that it became a dumping ground for mail, keys, and any item that I didn't want the kids to reach.  Our living room always looked cluttered, messy, and not very well thought out because of those shelves.  It didn't matter how clean the room was.

BEFORE:

Thankfully, due to a recent freelance job, we had the funds to update them.  Jeremy had a vision and explained it to a carpenter friend of ours who executed the bookshelves perfectly.  We can fit all of our books on there in a more organized and decorative manner.  We also now have tons of storage at the bottom of the wall that the kids will not be able to access.  I'm incredibly excited about our shelves.  Jeremy clearly is too because he has been on a book buying frenzy recently.

AFTER:

-Kira

Multipurpose Room Remodel

This multipurpose room remodel was mostly finished a few months ago.  It has been such an amazing space for us.  A very long time ago, this was actually the garage.  By the time we moved in, it had been converted into a dark and cold windowless space.  At some point, a previous owner had walled off a corner of it to create an extra bedroom.  Both "rooms" had no heat source.  For us, it was only used as storage up until the remodel was complete.

Jeremy had ambitious plans.  It was to be an office for the both of us.  It was also meant to replace my sewing room and was somehow going to be a playroom for the kids.  No matter how many times he explained how it was going to work, I didn't understand how everything could fit.  I was also worried that the various uses wouldn't co-exist well.  By this point I have learned to trust him though because he is ridiculously good at this stuff.  He always made sure I had my input, but the vision was all his.

Besides having no heat source, it also wasn't insulated well.  Jeremy tore the ceiling and Sheetrock off so he could insulate it.  He stripped everything.  He tore out the room that had been added to create a large open space.  The closet was torn out and a new, more efficient one, was built in a different location.  He added windows which not only gave us natural light, but also greatly improved the look of our house from the exterior.

The space was finished a week before I started a freelance job.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  I was immediately able to appreciate what my husband had built for us.  When I needed to get work done while it was just me and the kids at home, it was actually possible.  They could occupy themselves in the play area while I worked on my laptop.  Previously, I would sit on the couch to work and the kids would climb all over me.  For the first time, I was able to do efficient work and not feel like I was upsetting the kids.

My tall work table is perfect for screen printing, cutting out sewing projects, and for ironing.  All of the things I don't want the kids to touch while I am in the middle of a project are high enough that they can't reach them.  I also love that it's easier for me to stand to work because the table is at a comfortable height.

Everyone in the house loves the space.  I also can't believe how much easier it is to keep the rest of the house clean because all of the toys are in this one room now.  It is amazing.

There are still a few small things to finish.  We are going to add a large game cabinet by the piano (as you can see above, we have a lot of board games).  Jeremy also has plans to eventually put in a wet bar on the same wall.

-Kira

Living Room Project

This weekend we took on a spur of the moment project.  I have been bugging Jeremy about getting new furniture for a while.  Our couches were pretty old and had a few holes in them.  Whenever we have people over I feel a need to clean the entire house so we can take people on tours and show them that the rooms we have remodeled actually look great.  I just felt like our living room space wasn't a very welcoming space for guests and to be honest, I was pretty embarrassed by it.

The living room "before"

There wasn't a huge budget for furniture so it was hard finding something we were both happy with that we could actually afford.  On a trip to World Market to get a bottle of wine for my dad's birthday we came across the furniture for us.  We literally paid half the amount at World Market compared to the Ikea set we were originally looking at.  After painting one wall and buying a couple of house plants, all we did was place the new furniture and move around some of the old furniture and artwork.  I'm so excited by the results.  Check it out...

I'm so excited to have guests come to visit now!
-Kira

Master Bathroom Remodel

Jeremy has had the master bathroom basically done for the last few weeks, but I have been lazy and never got around to taking photos to share.  I decided I would rather do that now than do my pregnancy Pilates.  It's pretty sad when my only inspiration to do something is so I have an excuse not to do something else.

Anyway, as a reminder...this is what the bathroom looked like before.

We still need to put some sort of cabinet on the wall above the toilet, but we haven't figured out what we want yet.  A new window will also be installed soon.

 The shower is awesome.  It's hard for me to get ready on time in the morning because I just don't want to leave it.

 My husband did a great job.
-Kira