Caught On Video
Chihuahuas Give Terrible House Tours
Since there’s still a whole lotta action going on with this morning’s Pinterest Challenge (we’re completely blown away by all the projects you guys are sharing), we thought we’d post a crazy little Burger video like the ones we used to work in a while back (Clara and Burger are clearly the stars of this show anyway).
We thought it was hilarious that this random footage of the burgmeister actually included a decent amount of our house (and some great get-oriented flow thanks to him running around like a maniac). So without further ado, here’s Burger’s poor man’s (poor dog’s?) version of a house tour video (you can even catch some peeks at new yellow flowers in the kitchen and a big Clara mess on the office floor). Oh but to those who get motion sick, you might not want to push play…
Although it kept Clara plenty entertained (she was in my non-video-taping arm the whole time, hence the giggling/squealing sounds throughout), here’s why we won’t be asking Burger to lead a tour of our home again anytime soon:
- He was a bit rushed. Okay, a lot rushed.
- His narration was less than descriptive. Care to tell us what we’re looking at buddy?
- Could use a little less kitchen, a little more dining room, living room, bedrooms, sunroom… and a little less floor.
- The camera work was crazy shaky. Technically that was my fault, but I blame him for making me run.
Okay, so clearly Burger wasn’t really giving a house tour. But we figured you guys would enjoy a peek into life with our little nutcase roaming scurrying the halls. Do you have any random videos of someone in your family (animal or human) that happens to catch a bunch of rooms in the background?
Anyway, since this impromptu video reminded me of Sherry’s messy house tour from back in April, I figured I’d toss that in too, just for the memories:
Come to think of it, we should probably do another official house tour video for you guys since so much has changed since then. Maybe we should do one before cleaning up and one after, just so you can compare everyday vs. trying a little harder so you can see how rooms look at their best.
The hardest part about the clean-house video tours? All rooms have to be clean at once (so you can’t shove kitchen junk into the office, since the office ends up in the tour too). Boo. But maybe that’s a good thing because it forces us to get rid of piles of junk that accumulate and start fresh.
In other news, with a little walker on our hands, it was time to baby-proof the walls. So we pulled a little gallery frame wall switcheroo with the bean in mind. First we swapped out the glass in those bottom frames for plexi glass (or whatever the proper term for frames with plastic-y fake glass “panes” are called). As for how we did that, we were actually given some cheap-o 5 x 7″ and 8 x 10″ frames with not-real-glass for various birthday and holiday occasions as gag gifts. You know, those inexpensive ones from places like Target or Walmart or the dollar store that don’t necessarily match all the frames you have and might be filled with photoshopped pics of you and a celebrity you’ve never met or a printed application to the Dexter Fan Club (or is that just our quirky family?).
For a while they sat in the yard sale/donate pile (which overlaps with the gag-regift pile) but then we realized we could repurpose the not-glass-panes. So we just removed the glass from our Ikea frames and slipped in the plexi from the cheaper frames. It’s the best of both worlds – no glass but frames that were more well made and didn’t look as cheap and plastic-y.
We also secured them to the wall and added some fun “teaching art” while we were at it. More on that here on BabyCenter.
Update: This week’s giveaway is actually available in all 50 United States and many countries outside of the US too. Check 20×200′s international shipping info page to see if you’re covered and then head back over to our giveaway to enter (if you haven’t already)!
Woot. It’s done.
About a week ago (after we painted our brick fireplace) our kitchen looked like this:
Then we removed the desk and upper cabinet (that will be in the way of our big future doorway to the dining room) and after one coat of not-covering-at-all primer it looked like this:
Then we finally got the primer thing right after dealing with maddening bleed-through issues thanks to two days of applying coat after coat and three different types of primer (more on that here):
And now it looks like this, although it reads a bit more yellow in these photos than in person (it’s a smidge greener in real life).
It’s definitely a warm golden green tone (aka: grellow). Sort of like the color of an artichoke heart.
There’s definitely a lot more to do in there, but we’re so glad to have the whole prime-and-paint-the-paneling thing checked off. Here’s a fun little video that encapsulates the entire process in three short minutes. Which is more than a little ironic because it took us just a wee bit longer in real life (you know, just a smidge). Just convert those minutes to days. See it below on YouTube or here on Vimeo.
As for the paint color, after a decent amount of debate (and some pretty thorough consideration of the adjoining rooms that will be seen along with the kitchen) we opted for our new favorite color, which turned out to be Sesame 381 by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Olympic No-VOC paint in semi-gloss).
We were inspired by this kitchen (found here via Pinterest) since our cabinets will eventually go white, possibly along with our backsplash:
We chose this warm yellow-green color because we want the kitchen to be bright and happy (there aren’t any windows to the outside world – just one that looks into our sunroom) and it was suuuuuuper dark before we painted that paneling. We also knew the room could take a decent amount of color because:
- it won’t have any big long walls remaining when we add the extra-wide doorway to the dining room across from the fireplace (just slivers of wall here or there will remain, so the color won’t be overwhelming)
- we’ll be painting the cabinets glossy white later in this phase of our little kitchen makeover along with un-busying the backsplash (which will further temper the color on the walls)
- we’ll be adding an island in the place of our too-small table someday (with a different countertop and most likely a non-white base color to keep things interesting and layered)
- this room is surrounded by the dining room, the hallway, and the living room, which all have soft gray walls (so we wanted this space in the middle of them all to have some cheerful color going on)
When it came to our swatch-selecting technique we just hung up a ton of them and looked at them at all times of day to see which one we preferred. As for why we chose this swatch specifically, we decided:
- this golden-green tone will tie into the chartreuse curtain tones in the dining room and the cheerful green tone in our shaggy living room rug without being too matchy-matchy across the board (we didn’t want the exact same tone of green everywhere for fear that it would look a bit too “orchestrated”)
- a warm yellow kitchen is always a classic choice, but this color feels modern and crisp with the green undertones (and it’s not completely terrible with the oak cabinetry, which will stay for a little while)
- this tone is in Sue the Napkin – albeit a bit darker (a sure sign it’ll work with our whole house palette really well)
- unlike some of the other softer greens and greeny-gold tones that we considered, it really makes the white trim pop (lighter swatches didn’t have the same crisp effect next to the fireplace or the trim)
Here’s how it looked with the first coat going up around the fireplace (thanks to all that primer prep- we had really awesome coverage). Again, it’s looking more yellow and less green than it does in person in these photos, but you can really see how the white pops and how it turned a dark and brown-everywhere space into a sunny and bright room in the middle of the house.
We also decided that it was high time we switched out all of the “bisque” colored vents, outlets, and light switches.
So we grabbed a bunch of crisp white ones from Lowe’s, turned off the power, removed the old ones, connected the new wires the same way they were connected to the previous switches, added the outer switchplates, and turned the power back on. The whole switch swap took about twenty minutes. So much better:
Some people opt to paint their vent covers so they blend in more, but for now we’re happy to leave ours crisp and new since we’re so used to old drippy painted-over covers (clean paint-free ones kind of feel like a luxury). Who knows if we’ll decide to add a few thin and not-drippy coats of paint to blend those vents in later though. We’ll keep you posted.
Oh and it’s really fun to go back and look at our fireplace, which originally looked like this:
Then we removed the old unused wood stove and painted the brick, and it looked like this:
It’s amazing how much painted paneling can freshen things up even more:
And we love how things like the white frames and the round mirror above the fireplace layer right in with the glossy white trim and beams:
Burger likey (he knows how to work that runway):
Oh yeah and see those pink hydrangeas? I wish I could say that we grew those, but they’re from the store. We figured to celebrate all that priming and painting we could spring for something soft and sweet, so these little pink snowball-looking-guys had me at hello (that’s an old vase from Target btw):
As for the opening to the dining room, here’s where it’ll be (it will line up exactly with the dining room window on the other side for balance):
We learned that we’ll need a permit to knock out so much of that load bearing wall, so it sadly won’t be anything we can do very quickly (and we’ll definitely be leaning on some pros for help). But we can’t wait to tackle it as soon as we can get through all the permit business and hunt down the right expert for the job.
Now for some before & after bid-ness. Just because that’s my favorite part. Here’s the kitchen as it looked on moving day about six months ago:
And here it is now (still can’t wait to add that island, paint those cabinets, and upgrade the floor & appliances someday though):
Moving day again (yes, one of those lights was out):
And now:
The crazy thing is that these photos were taken around the same time of day so it definitely demonstrates how much lighter and more cheerful the space feels now that the dark paneling is a thing of the past. Oh and here’s the budget breakdown:
- Olympic Premium No-VOC primer from Lowe’s: $12
- Behr 2-in-1 Primer + Paint (in semi-gloss white): already owned
- Kilz Clean Start No-VOC Primer from Home Depot: $20
- Olympic No-VOC paint (in Sesame by Benjamin Moore) from Lowe’s: $22
- New vent and outlet covers from Lowe’s: $43
- Brushes/rollers/tape/paint tray: already owned
- Total: $97
So there you have it. The kitchen madness has officially begun. As we mentioned here, we’re definitely going to do this in phases (gotta save our pennies and just take things on as we can afford them). But it should be a whole lot of fun. As in, more fun than a barrel of monkeys. And definitely more fun than priming that paneling five hundred times. Do any of you guys have long term kitchen plans like painting the cabinets or adding an island or upgrading the flooring or making some overhead lighting switches (we’re definitely in need of some of that too)? Oh the possibilities…
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
My 1st Mother’s Day & Proof I’m Crazy
Part One of This Post: My First Mother’s Day-
Oh man Sunday was fun. In that nontraditional I’m-sure-some-other-moms-might-not-get-it way. The whole weekend was sort of an extended Mother’s Day extravaganza since we made time for visits to the farmer’s market and a Bon Air parade/festival with Clara and John on Saturday (Burger’s afraid of firetrucks and loud noises, so he skipped the parade). Then on Sunday, I was awakened by the bean who was holding a handmade card (she scribbled all over it with crayons- so cute) along with an equally sweet card from John and Burger. I was also given a printout that was entitled “The Tale Of Sherry’s First Mother’s Day” which explained that John tried to hunt down the gold Calypso for Target dangly earrings that he knew I had been drooling over, but they were sold out in two stores that he drove to as well as online. So he snuck onto my Pinterest boards and saw that I was also obsessed with these lovelies (found here on Etsy)…
… so he ordered them for me instead. Yes there was excited arm flapping. I love them so much. They kind of remind me of lemons which take me back to our wedding day. And I love that John thought to check Pinterest to find something I was obsessing over. Smart man.
Alas, my new lovely lemon earrings didn’t arrive in time to be handed over in the flesh, so a picture of them was sweetly included in my little First Mother’s Day printout along with news that John was also getting me a Mother’s Day massage to continue the tradition that he started last year when I was hugely pregnant and desperate for some prenatal massage relief. Wahoooooo. He intentionally didn’t book the massage for Mother’s Day (he told me to pick a later date because he knew I wanted to spend the whole day with Clara). Sweet, huh? Thanks hubs. For the Mother’s day rubs and the beautiful baubles.
Anyway, after my little wake-up slash card & gift fest, Clara and John and I went to Einstein Bagels (one of my favorite breakfast spots) where I got an asparagus and mushroom flatbread sammy (for two bucks with a coupon- haha). It was so delicious I can’t even say. John and Clara shared a muffin and a coffee cake in case you’re wondering (suddenly this play by play got very specific). Then we headed home for Clara to catch a nap and John parked me on Karl The Sectional to watch some delicious reality TV (Pregnant in Heels) while he went outside and got back to work on the patio. The plan was for him to work for two hours while Clara napped and then come in and shower and play with us for the rest of Mother’s Day.
Here’s where Mother’s Day veers of into the nontraditional realm. By about two hours into Project Patio it was apparent that John needed waaaaaaay more time to make progress, so I decided the best possible way to spend the day would be to play with Clara while daddy kept working on the pavers (what mom doesn’t want a finished patio for Mother’s Day?). So Clara and I played with blocks and puzzles and crayons and had some lunch and brought daddy some granola bars and even practiced walking a little bit (don’t worry, it was all assisted so John didn’t miss any true first steps). We even got outside for some fresh air and had fun on the patio while John worked away in the background.
Burger was especially excited to have some fun out there too, and it was cute to see both of “the kids” enjoying our new space- even before it was completely finished.
And about eight hours of hard hubby handiwork later, I had my Mother’s Day patio! John had completely cut all the edge pavers – he just needed to add sand between the cracks, which he planned to do on Monday (final “after” pics should be up tomorrow morning for ya, btw). And we had just enough time to enjoy a nice family dinner (burgers from Five Guys – mmmm) and then it was time to put the bean to bed and enjoy some sofa chillaxing (John wrote Monday morning’s post while we watched a criminally long episode of The Apprentice – seriously three hours is about two hours too many). But it was the best Mother’s Day ever.
Part Two of This Post: Proof I’m Crazy-
I always tell you that I’m neurotic and loud and crazy but for some reason you guys don’t buy it (instead I get pinned as perfect and prissy, which are both hilariously untrue). But behold, this video pretty much proves my insanity. We were asked to chat about radon by our local news station (it was recorded a few weeks back but aired last night at 11pm on NBC12). And while John’s quotes make total sense, I shout things like “We’re gonna die tonight!” and “It sounds like aliens. Invasion!” while waving my arms around wildly. Here’s our Flip video of the TV screen (yeah, we’re high tech):
Now do you believe me? I’m nuts. We cracked up the entire time it aired (and then rewound the DVR to watch it again while cry-laughing). And for those of you at work, you can read a breakdown of the segment here (complete with some nutso Sherry quotes worked in of course). Oh and there’s some cute footage of the bean in the video too, so it might be worth a watch on “mute” if you’re trying to keep your video-viewing on the down low at work.
Possibly the funniest thing that happened during the interview was that Clara started clapping for the first time. On camera. And we sort of lost it. They even sent us this “outtake” of the big moment:
If the clip above doesn’t work, here’s a direct link for ya. And yes. I’m flapping my arms and generally acting insane again. I guess that’s to be expected at this point.
Making New Wood Look Old
As promised, here’s the more detailed scoop on how we got our pristine store-bought whitewood from Home Depot to look worn and aged on our completed console. This was our first time really going for a weathered look, so it was a kind of an exercise in “we’ve seen this done before, so let’s hope it works out for us.” The good news: it worked.
The better news: it was pretty easy to do. It was sort of a one-two punch of distressing + staining that really did the trick. So let’s start with the first punch – courtesy of my fists. Well, at least my agression. The starting point, as you probably recall, was a pristine pile of freshly bought 1 x 4″s that I cut into 2 foot lengths.
Knowing that I had some extras, I tried a bunch of things on a spare plank before really landing on a process (well, “process” is too strong of a word in this case, since it was pretty much a random exercise in let’s-see-what-happens). Basically, I winged it by trying a handful-ish of techniques that looked cool and then used them sporadically throughout my pile. That way I’d end up with a mix of weathered looks, almost as if the boards had been scavenged from a few different sources after lots of character-creating trials and tribulations.
Oh and if you’re someone who likes all the details, I managed to capture a lot of my weathering “process” on video (so watch this if you want the “bonus stuff” that’s not all outlined below):
For those who can’t watch the vid (perhaps you’re at work and trying to keep things on the down low), here’s a quick rundown of the various tricks that I used. For starters, I picked out as many pieces of wood from Home Depot that already had flaws or interesting details to them – knots, chips, dark stripes, whatever.
But before I got to beat any of them up, my first step was sanding the four edges on the top of each board using my palm sander. This wore down the crisp edge into a rounder and smoother one, so they looked older right off the bat.
Then I smacked it with a bag of screws. I actually did this to each piece (besides sanding, it’s the only thing I did on all of them). It gave each board some very subtle dings that I thought wouldn’t hurt across the board (literally, har har). I must admit that throwing a bag of screws against the wood was kinda cathartic. Oh and I’ve heard that some people do this with chains, which sounds equally fun.
Because I know it’s a bit tough to see the damage being done, I thought I’d show you what these distressing techniques looked like once the boards were stained (aka: punch #2) so you can see them more clearly. Since stain catches and collects in all of these dents and dings, it tends to accentuate them (which is a good thing, in this case). So here’s a board that I hit with the ol’ bag of screws a bunch of times so you can see the final effect:
On some boards, I also hit them with my hammer. Whitewood is relatively soft, so it’s easy to leave some dents with just a few light bangs. I liked to concentrate my hits in one spot because it looked more organic than having a few evenly spaced out hammerhead impressions. I was all about the cluster.
Once stained, they looked a little something like this:
In the shot above you can also see some of the fake nail holes that I made using an improvised nail punch (check out the video for more clarification on that method, which I couldn’t photograph since it took two hands). I also used the same tool to make some line impressions across the boards. I just laid it down and hammered on top of it to create a nice long ridge. I though it created the effect that some hard edge had bumped into it over the years.
I especially loved this effect once it was stained because it was so distinct. Why hello character, nice to meet you.
Using a big screw that I found in the basement, I dragged the thread across the board which roughed up the grain. After sanding it down again it really started to look like the wood was slightly rotted, just like some of the spots on the pallets that we couldn’t use (more on that here).
On a couple of boards I did this all the way up and down the length of the board, giving them a really cool and distinct look. Definitely far from the store-bought feel that they started with:
If you watched the video, you can also catch a couple of techniques that I forgot to photograph: namely dragging a paint can opener to make long smooth scrapes down the length of the board (another effect that I really liked after stain was applied) and making those nail punch holes that I mentioned earlier.
I’ll be the first to admit that I probably overdid it when it came to trying so many different tricks – not to the detriment of the final result, just my own time. But since this kind of thing is my idea of fun, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. And after I had taken out all of my aggression worked my new-to-old magic and had given everything one last light sanding (to ensure a smooth and not splintery finish), it was time for Sherry to take over for the staining portion of The Console Table Show.
Our materials included rubber gloves (because stain is messy), a cheap $1 paint brush (because stain is messy and tends to ruin good brushes) and spare rags to wipe up excess stain (because stain is… well, you know). And for more of that varied and timeworn feeling, Sherry tag-teamed the boards with two different stain colors – Ebony (which we picked up for $4 in a tiny can at Home Depot) and Dark Walnut (which we already owned and had used for staining the bottom of the console). After it all dried, we sealed it with with an eco water-based non-toxic poly alternative that we had on hand (Safecoat Acrylacq).
We made a video of this process too, in case you’d prefer to save yourself all of this pesky reading (and want all the deets instead of just the highlights). Plus Sherry’s gloves make a fart sound, which is always a crowd pleaser.
But if you can’t watch the video (or you prefer words to moving images), here’s a quick rundown. Keeping in mind that we wanted a fair amount of variation from board to board, Sherry did a few tests first to see what each of the stains looked like with a light coat of stain (wiped off quickly) and a heavy coat (which was allowed to penetrate for a bit longer). Here are the test boards with the light coats on the left and the heavy coats still soaking in on the right:
We actually ended up liking both stain colors. We thought the dark walnut would help it relate to the bottom of the console (as well as some of the other dark woods in the room) while the ebony would be a closer match the the gray pallet boards that originally inspired us. In reality, on a lot of the boards Sherry actually ended up using a layer of each color to achieve a tone somewhere in the middle so nothing looked too jarring.
The only thing we didn’t like was that we wanted to get some boards even lighter than the stain seen on the above left (which was applied thinly and then wiped away immediately). So Sherry pulled some weird technique out of her you-know-what and it ended up working perfectly. Basically she pre-washed the board with a light coat of plain water, let it soak in for a couple of seconds, and then went over the still-damp board with a light coat of stain (that way it soaked up less color thanks to the water that it absorbed first). For those who’d like more info, you can see this entire technique in action on the staining video.
It was by far the closest that we got to replicating the look of the pallets (you can see a random pallet board on the left in the picture above for reference). But we’re glad that it wasn’t a perfect match, because we realized that the pallets were too blue-gray for our living room (since it’s already dominated by a huge gray sectional with gray walls and gray beams we wanted to add some warmth and balance). So we were thrilled with the colors and the variations that we landed on, thanks to staining some and allowing the stain to penetrate a while, wiping it down right away on other boards, and using the water technique above to get some lighter variations. In the end, those brandspankin boards were all looking nice and old.
Do you guys have other staining and distressing techniques to share? We’ve heard of some pretty cool aging methods with household items like vinegar and baking soda. Anyone try those?
Psst- Sherry wants me to tell you that we’re going lamp hunting this weekend. So we’ll hopefully have pics of the fully styled console by early next week (and by styled I mean full of stuff that we actually use like coasters for Sherry’s tea and a box for remotes along with those aforementioned lamps – and maybe a ceramic animal because my wife is crazy for flair).
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Seven Minutes Of Your Life You’ll Never Get Back
I don’t know what possessed me to record nearly 10 minutes of mundane family time, but here’s Clara, Burger, John and my annoying behind-the-camera voice in all of their glory:
Don’t say I didn’t warn you about losing seven minutes of your life watching something so painfully uneventful that it even bores the people it stars. Haha. But for anyone wondering how we spend our evenings, sometimes this is it.
Psst- My girl Amy tipped me off that Michael’s has a “25% off your entire purchase” coupon that’s good thru Saturday the 2nd. We scored a few giant canvases that were already 50% off for an extra 25% off. Just wanted to toss that out there before the coupon and the canvas sale expires.
