Feathers, Vinyl And A Whole Lotta Nerd

There have been a lot of little decorating projects that I have been wanting to do for a while.  We are finally at the point where we can start focusing on the little things, so I went out to my parents' house all day Saturday to get some vinyl cut.  I wanted something to spice up the laundry room and this does the trick, I think.  Now the laundry room is officially done.  We have thoroughly enjoyed doing laundry in this new room.  It is so much more functional.

 

We love how the folding table turned out.  It was the perfect place for that piece of soapstone.  Much better than sitting in the garage.

The second vinyl project was for the trash can we bought for cans and recycles only.  The kids have been putting whatever they want in this thing.  Maybe a reminder will help.

This next project I have been thinking about for a few years now.  I just haven't had the time.  I wanted a "Water Closet" sign for the upstairs bathroom since we put the old door with frosted glass on it.

 

The next project was some wall art for the TV room.  We are going for a geek chic look here, so we picked some icons from our favorite geeky things.

 

 We have the Star Trek command logo, the Jedi symbol, the Deathly Hallows...

 

...the Tree of Gondor and the Zelda Triforce and master sword.

 

You can see from the pictures above that I have also been busy with pillows.  I am proud to say that I made all but 4 of these babies.  Again, we're going for geek chic here so I spent a bit of time finding the right fabric.  There were some great finds on Society6.  I love it when I can find exactly what I want and don't have to put any effort into it besides typing in my credit card number.

The first was "The Chosen One".  Arian Novair has some amazing nerdy splatter art.  It was hard to decide among them, but this one had the color scheme I was looking for and....it's Vader.  We had to have it.

The next is "Star Wars Vehicle Mellenium Falcon".  Again, Nicholas Hyde has produced some really cool artwork here.  Had a hard time deciding between the AT-AT and this one in particular.

And last but not least of the Society6 loot is "the lord of the rings" which features a quote from a family favorite, Gandalf.

 

While these were great finds, I was looking for A LOT of pillows.  Three was just not going to cut it.  And I was looking for something specific.  Unique, nerdy, AND pretty.  Was it too much to ask for all three?  There's nothing nerdy about Pottery Barn, so that was out.  So I went on the hunt for fabric.  Joann's has plenty of nerdy fabric, but none of it is pretty.  So I turned to the internet.  I found Spoonflower and got excited.  I couldn't believe it when I found the first one.  A beautiful damask...but wait....

This damask is actually made up of our favorite Nintendo characters. You can see Princess Zelda, Link, Ganon, Mario, Bowser, Koopa, Navi, Bob-omb, Boo, Cheep-Cheep, the Ocarina of Time, and the Triforce.  Super cool.

The next is this french script-type pattern called "intergalactic scrapbook" .  Its part of a collection of fabrics (including the cheveron print behind it) that look like linen.  Brian and I have spent some time trying to figure out where everything in this pattern comes from, but I guess we're not geeky enough.  So far, we have recognized references to Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Dr. Who, and Firefly.  

And lastly, I found "tardis toile de jouy grey".  This print features a Dr. Who dalek and the Tardis in a pretty grey and white toile.  Too funny.

I love how the "nerd cave" is coming along.  There are only a few things left we are waiting on.  We'll keep you posted.

Finally, we hung a few other pieces to finish off the area at the bottom of the stairs.

 

And I couldn't have a blog post without including at least one rugrat.  Izzypop volunteered to wash the windows and I happily obliged.  Here she is, way too excited to be doing any sort of cleaning in my opinion, but I will not argue.  And yes, if you're paying attention, that is a signed picture of Adam West and William Shatner in the foreground :).

Bathroom -- Done

Our new bathroom is done.  It's been a long haul, but we got there.  The kids are loving another bathroom to shower in.  Maybe we can keep them out of ours now.

 

 

Toy Room -- Done -- Again

After some technical difficulties, the toy room is officially done.  We had to tear down the hexagons and rip open the wall after we found that our previous contractor sheetrocked the bathroom without hooking up the water.  Since the bathroom was done with wainscot and all, we thought it best to open up the other side of the wall in the toy room.  We had to paint again and put the hexes back up, but we are at least done.  Again.  I do love how this room turned out.

Its a Sweet Life

It is no minor miracle that we are FINALLY enjoying our basement as we have always intended to.  We've got the 65" hung on the wall and the kids are loving it.

 

There have been epic Rock Band battles.

 

Lots of movie treats.

    

And even a couple sleepovers after marathon movie nights (only on weekends, of course).

 

We also finally got the countertops in and I love them. We used quartz to avoid stains since this will be a heavily used area. 

We were able to use a remnant of the soapstone we put in the kitchen for the laundry room folding table.  Fits like a glove.

I cannot believe we are down to just a bit of decorating. 

A Better Bathroom

We are well on our way toward a new bathroom. Most of the tile has been completed and grouted. (We're just waiting on a few peices of bullnose.). The fan has been moved and some of the plumbing has been done. The wainscotting will hopefully go in tomorrow.  

Brian saw this grey ceramic tile that looks like weathered wood and had to have it. It was his one insistence. No argument from me, though.

I chose a light grey linen tile for the walls.

The shower floor is a ceramic brick mosaic. 

It is already so much brighter than what was here when we moved in. The light that is let in by removing the wall of the shower does wonders. Not to mention, no more blue wallpaper with tropical fish accents. No more blue and pink tile combinations. No more standing in the shower trying to figure out where they started tiling and where it all went wrong. No more inch gaps between tile filled with caulk. Even if it weren't actually brighter...it would still feel brighter. 

More bright days ahead. 

Wet Bar Beginnings

The cabinets for the wet bar were installed today. 

Also the table legs for the folding table. Now we need to find a countertop contractor. 

Taking The Back Porch Back

We have been cleaning and touching up most of this week so there's not a whole lot to show inside.  I did manage to finish the toy room wall project I have been scheming about. I got this idea from a blog post from My Sister's Suitcase and luckily, they sell the hexagons on Etsy so all I had to do was paint and stick. That's my kind of wall art. 

Since the fence went in (and since the weather has warmed up) we have been spending a lot more time outside trying to get the yard in shape. Brian was at Lowes at 6 AM this morning getting sprinkler supplies (the fence really jacked up the existing sprinkler plan. By 10 he had mowed the lawn, fixed up the sprinklers in the front yard and installed these nifty new handles on the gates. I do not understand how he does it all. 

So since everything was done so early, we thought, "What the heck, let's tackle the back porch."  We cleared it off and put together our new patio furniture.

We had it done in time for a mid-afternoon Memorial Day dinner outside.

Complete with entertainment from Izzypop. 

Now this may not seem like anything to brag about, but you have to understand that half of what you see here was on that back porch. Soooo glad the neighborhood cleanup starts this week!

I realized I didn't post a picture of how the backyard looks now that the side fence is gone. We still have some work to do moving the flowers and planting some sod, but the space really has opened up. Now that the porch has been reclaimed, and we finally have some privacy, it's like we've added a whole new room to the house. It's going to be a great summer. 

Look What I Can Do!

We can wash our hands in the laundry room now!

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The fence was completed today.

It makes our backyard look a million times better. 

And I don't mind the tree on the other side as much as I thought I would.   It will be nice once we get a few flowers and such there. 

Brian had a great idea to add an area where we can keep garbage cans and other unsightly backyard items. 

I hope we use the newly enclosed side yard as much as we think we will. It basically adds another 50% to our backyard. 

There is a ton of work to do outside still, but this is a big step. 

In other news, we put in all the surround sound speakers.

The fireplace is now in working order.

And we had FHE in the toy room.  Monumental.