Love this sink.

The laundry room is still a work in progress, but this sink! I couldn't love it more. I tried to paint the base brick red, hoping I could go bold, but it was too out of my comfort zone. So, blue it is.

Vintage Cast-Iron Sink From the Dump

You never know what treasures you'll find at the dump. In Maine, when we lived there, there was a dump store, a shed where people could display their trash that still had life left in it, where people could shop. Here in Henderson, NV, there is no store, but I still like to shop. A few months ago I found this awesome vintage, cast iron, utility sink. I spied it about 1/3 of the way up the huge trash pile. (I'll spare you the long story of how Dave tore his bicep "rescuing" it for me. Let's just say it is VERY heavy and tripping with it in your arms is not a good idea, and leave it at that.) It spent the past few months down in my garden where it would have made a fine potting sink, but I longed for it in the house. So, I decided to move forward and have it installed in our new laundry room, once I clean it up a bit and preserve its awesome vintage patina. It's the perfect combination of industrial meets farmhouse, and is just what my laundry room needs.

My restoration plan is to patch the chipped enamel, scour the bowl and polish it, and scrape down some of the rust on the base and seal it. Whether or not i'll re-paint the outside of the bowl has yet to be determined, but I like the idea of dark green. This vintage model looks very much like the American Standard reproduction utility sink that is sold today, but I love this one more because it has been well loved and withstood the test of time. Imagine all the projects that were cleaned up in this sink over the decades!

I ordered a mounting bracket today, and a porcelain knobbed industrial faucet. Once Carlos patches the walls in the laundry room, they'll be ready for tile, and then, I can install the sink. I plan to get working on it this week. I'll post updated pictures.

Let the Renovations Begin

I'm not sure what I was thinking the day we pulled up in front of the orange adobe. A pocket listing on Zillow led us there. Basically, that means the website said "for sale" and gave an address, but the listing wasn't actually active on the MLS, so it didn't show up on our realtor's searches. There was no sign outside, but there was no doubt it was the right house. You can't mistake a sprawling orange adobe for anything but what it is.

I remember saying to Dave, "What the hell is this place?" Then I followed with, "I'd live here, look at the land!"

We sat in his truck outside for a bit and combed through the pictures on the website. Without much hesitation, I opened the car door and started to get out.

Dave asked, "What are you going to do?"

I answered, "Well, if they want to sell their house they wont mind me knocking on the door and asking for details."

I heard him say, "You're crazy", as I walked toward the front door and rang the doorbell.

Carl, the homeowner, answered the door. Before he had time to worry about why I was there, I explained that I had found a listing online for his house and wondered if it was for sale. He seemed curious, and explained that a realtor friend was getting ready to list the house, but it wasn't active or on the MLS yet, because they weren't really ready to sell until after Christmas. I explained that we were ready to buy now, and wanted to see the inside, and right then would be good. He must have realized the opportunity, because he let us in. I ran back to the truck to get Dave.

"OK, Honey. The house is for sale, but it's not active yet. They said we can come in and take a look. Let's go." I think I remember hearing another, "You're crazy". But he followed me in.

Carl was a former construction engineer. We could tell by the attention to every detail of the house, that he was meticulous. I love houses in general, so I was excited for the tour. I had never witnessed adobe style, and although it was not my taste in the least, I found it interesting; the orange Saltillo tile floors, copper sink, exposed wood beams supporting what felt like ridiculously low ceilings. The house was dark, and small, but very cozy, not worthy of excitement, but felt very comfortable and loved nonetheless. The guest house was a mini version of the main house, one bedroom, living room and a kitchen. Underwhelming. The pool was pretty (but no spa). It would do, I guess. But then we
got to what I was most excited about, the outdoor space, which was what prompted our search for a new house in the first place. (Remember I said I was able to see past the house in the beginning?) Carl started explaining things. In addition to the three car garage on the main house, there was an additional two car on the guest house. (Perfect workshop space for painting furniture.) And then, there was the tack house and stables, the gardens, and the surrounding mountains, and the horses next door that peeked their cute heads over the fence.

This photo courtesy of Zillow listing.

We made our way to the back side of the property toward the tack house that had been converted into a tack-pub. There was even a hitching post outside. This little room was the perfect, tiny little man-cave. I already imagined it decorated with all of Dave's Navy memorabilia, and him and the boys bellying up to the bar for late night conversation, and maybe a little whisky.

Behind the tack house sat five fully outfitted horse stables. And in the last one, just before a goat pen, (yes, a goat pen!), was a cute little chicken coop. For years I had been whining to Dave about wanting to get chickens. In addition to the stalls, there was an open area for horses to run, (or in our case, our kids to run), fruit trees surrounding the perimeter with ripe oranges and lemons, and raised garden beds for growing vegetables. I had totally forgotten about the house by now, and was in love with the property. "I'd totally live here." I said.

If I were to make a list of every house style that existed, adobe would probably be at the bottom. So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that buying this particular house was not at all in the plans. Not only was the color a huge turn off to me, (orange inside and out), I had made a list one day when I was thinking clearly, of all of the things that our new house had to have if I was willing to move the family...again. The list included such things as:

• a house that required very little work
• completely open concept kitchen, dining, family room
• space for each kid to have their own room, and a dedicated guest room
• a huge laundry/utility room
• a pool/spa with a storage closet for chemicals and floats
• at least a four car garage
• a good sized lot
• no HOA

...and did I mention, we didn't want to do any work?

That day I was blind to all practicality. We left that tour thinking this might just be the house for us. After sleeping on it (which was more like me laying awake all night stressing about it), I came to the realization that the orange adobe house checked off very few of the the things on my list. As the days ticked away and our contingency time was almost up, I expressed my concerns with Dave.

• The house requires a lot of work
• It didn't have the open concept we wanted
• We'd have to add a three bedroom addition at the least
• The laundry room was only a small closet
• There was no spa and a plastic trunk for pool storage was not the closet I had in mind

However, my initial excitement was too convincing, and Dave was hooked. There was no looking back. We were soon to be the proud new owners of an orange adobe.

"When its all done, this is going to be the perfect compound for our family," he assured me. 

Let the renovations begin!

Welcome to the tack room.

Stables

Our next door neighbors.

Some days orange is actually pretty. (Like my positivity?)

Fresh oranges and lemons too.

We don't have these in New England, or Florida.

This photo courtesy of Zillow listing.

An Adobe House and a Vintage Glamper

So much has been happening that I just had to write, partly to share our news, and partly as my therapy. Dave and I recently became the proud owners of two new really big projects, an adobe style horse property here in Henderson, NV that we closed on a couple of weeks ago, and as of today, a vintage, all original, 22' camping trailer, (or future glamper) as I like to call it. Both were made in the 1970's and are in excellent structural condition. And both are in need of some serious updating...and paint. Especially paint! Take a look at the picture of the house, and you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. I plan to document every step of the way as we work our magic transforming these beauties into modern spaces that our family can love.

Davison is king of our humble, orange, adobe abode!

What color is your house?

We have spent our first few days back in Pensacola catching up with old friends, visiting the resturants that we missed and getting ready to move into our house. If all goes well we should finally be closing later today.

The kids were less than impressed with our new house. Rowan threw his arms up, looked around and declared, "This is disgusting". I assured him that the first thing on our to-do list was to paint the board and batten exterior an acceptable color-something different than dark aqua green which currently covers every inch of the house from the roof to the ground including trim, window frames, gutters and the foundation-and there would be no bugs in his room by the time he has to sleep in it. The rest of the day was spent formulating a plan for the whirlwind of renovations that needed to start immediately.

I have spent as much time in the past few weeks searching for the perfect exterior paint color as I have folding laundry-which is a lot of time. We finally decided on a craftsman theme of dark mocha with creme trim, a perfect compliment to the brown window frames on the existing house. (Imagine how that looks with the current aqua?!) We thought the decision had been made until we looked at rhe house next door, one that we hadn't paid too much attention to before, and saw tan and white siding. Of course the plans for our house would put it in another class from that one when we were done working our magic, however, I didn't want to be accused of being a copycat. It was back to the drawing board.
In a paniced call to my mother earlier that morning asking for ideas and inspiration for what all-of-a-sudden felt like the biggest decision of my life, she assured me that I couldn't go wrong with green-which has always been my favorite color. Thankfully we happened to stop at a nearby park to let the kids run off some steam and that's where we found the perfect exterior color. Across the street stood a beautiful two story federalist home with columns around the beautiful southern style porch. There were two cars in the driveway, a sign that someone was home.

"I'll be right back," I said to Dave.

Certainly someone with such a beautiful home would know her colors-or the number of the designer who chose them. (It was that kind of neighborhood.)

I walked confidently up the stairs to the door and knocked.

"I am so sorry to bother you but your house is beautiful and I just have to know the colors," I said.

I assured the woman at the door, who appeared to be in her late 60's, that our new house was in desperate need of a makeover. If she didn't mind I wanted to copy her paint colors. So much for not being a copycat huh. She asked me to wait a minute while she checked her file and came back with a neatly printed card that said Avacado Green, Dark Night and Nacre. She wished me luck with the move. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart. We loaded up the kids from their trip to the park and headed straight to Sherwin-Williams.

Buying Another Fixer Upper

Before our trip to Pensacola last week Austin said one thing, "Buy us a nice house not a junky one that you have to fix up." And I tried to do just that. I really did. But, fixer upper houses are just in my blood.
We spent four days looking at house after house, from the grand traditional home on the golf course with great space but a pool that was just a bit too small to the foreclosure that we expected to love but didn't. We saw a pre-approved short sale, a colonial with an in-law apartment, and there was that one that smelled so much like dog that we couldn't wait to finish the tour. By the end of day three (of our four day trip), we were no closer to making a decision than we were when we arrived. We knew one thing-the best house for us is one that we can customize-and afford to customize.
We ended up in Gulf Breeze in a neighborhood protected on one side by the Naval Live Oaks National Seashore and Pensacola Bay on the other. According to the listing agent "it is located in the most idealistic setting. Just add a pool and you will truly have found your paradise." The location is perfect. The house, well, not so perfect, yet...
We spent the last day of our house hunting trip meeting with a contractor for a new addition, a pool company for a bid on the pool that we hope to design, the vinyl company for new vinyl and windows and the flooring company-I can not even move in until the ugly purple carpet from 1984 is gone. We took pictures of the big yard, the driveway that is big enough for all of our cars and a basketball court for Cal. I picked oranges from the trees that line the left side of the property, as a peace offering to Austin and the other kids. Anything to soften the blow that we have yet again, bought a fixer upper. All I can do is assure them that when the work is done it will be perfect!

Oh My Aching Head

Thankfully Landon is a go to kind of guy. I have a raging head cold that hit from out of nowhere. I conveniently left a crowbar on the bathroom floor, and today as I was running kids all over creation with a throbbing head ache, Landon tore up two of the four layers of nasty vinyl flooring in the bathroom. He even cleaned up the mess! Ladies get in line. He is only 12 now but someday he is going to make a great husband.
Tomorrow's job is to tear out the remaining flooring; adhesive, staples and all and framing a small built-in magazine holder in the wall, to keep the magazines organized. This tiny bathroom has no extra space so I am going into the walls to find some. Then the fun begins with choosing floor tile, wall color, fixtures and putting the bathroom back together.

Another Day of Sports and Bathroom Remodeling

The first thing on my mind when I woke up this morning was my throbbing foot, which reminded me of the bathroom project waiting downstairs. I stepped right on a nail while trying to remove the baseboard trim-long story. I guess that's what I get for wearing flip flops and redoing bathrooms. Here is a picture of the project just as we started stripping the wall paper.

In case you are wondering, yes, that is paint over the paper. When we moved in I couldn't tolerate the circa 1983 country printed wall paper so I painted over it. It was a temporary fix and worried about how difficult it would be to strip off later, but I did it anyway.

Stripping wall paper is simple if you know how to do it. I used a spray bottle of water on this bathroom and in the past have used a 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water mixture on other projects. The key, getting the paper wet enough that it scrapes off easily. I peeled off the top layer but the bottom layer was more stubborn. I sprayed it until it was fairly soaked. Waited about two minutes, and then scraped it off with a handy little paper scraper from Lowes. (It comes with a scorer too. Very useful if the water just can't penetrate the layers of paper. Scoring little holes allows water to penetrate behind the paper.)

Removing the toilet and sink with vanity was not as hard as I thought it would be. Luckily Landon helped by reading tutorials online and following the steps. He has issues with textures so there was no way he was touching anything gross. I got to do those parts. Removing the toilet exposed the grossest stuff by far. The wax ring was horrifying and I was appalled by the gross stuff around the toilet and what had absorbed into the floor and sub-floor over the years.
The floor is all cleaned up now and I stuffed an old hand towel down the hole temporarily.

I would like to get the layers of floor (two layers of vinyl over two different layers of sub-floor) but Cal and Landon have a football game today and Evi and Lily have swim team, so I have to get moving. I have to admit that I am a little stressed about getting the floor out easily. I better find the big crowbar for the job.

Oh yeah, I have to call a plumber too. It looks like I kind of broke the plastic drain pipe while ripping the sink and vanity from the wall at 4:00am. Don't tell Dave.

Renovate the Bathroom in Time for the Party

Whenever Dave travels with the military I redo a room. Sometimes I just clean and organize from top to bottom, maybe rearrange furniture. I don't plan the projects. I just seem to get inspired when he goes away. Maybe it's something to pass the time.
Today Dave left for Turkey. It's a rainy day so I was looking forward to a day at home, getting ready for the busy week ahead of managing things on my own. I started cleaning the foyer and then my nice room. I like those two places to be neat and, well, perfect.
My self diagnosed ADD kicked in next. I cleaned the craft room and pulled out the supplies I bought to make Austin's 16th birthday party invitations. The party is just around the corner. I started thinking about my house and how much I hate that it is old and ugly. I decided that I better get cleaning and decorating for fall in time for the party to make the house look a little better. I don't know what came over me next but I started pulling the old, dingy, smelly wallpaper off the walls in the half bathroom. Just like that. Within minutes I decided I was going to do a remodel. That was about 12 hours ago and I didn't stop once until now. I even put the little kids to work with water bottles and scrapers and let them enjoy themselves stripping wallpaper for me. They were great at it!
In just 12 short hours I stripped all the paper, removed the toilet, sink and vanity and put them at the curb. (I'll post them on Freecycle in the morning.) I removed all trim, crown molding, and chair rail. Chair rail is at the curb too. I filled all the holes in the walls from the kids getting a little overzealous with their scrapers and sanded the spackle once it was dry. I started an attempt at pulling up the old vinyl floor to reveal another older layer of sub-floor and vinyl underneath. That's when I threw in the towel.
I didn't get the invitations started but I did get lots of cleaning done and a remodel started. Now I am one step closer to being prepared for the party. Of course the invitations might have been a better project to get started with. I guess I'll get to that once the bathroom is presentable. I took pictures to share. I'll post them tomorrow.