What the **** Have We Been Up To?

Somebody seems to have fallen off the blogging wagon in the last two weeks.  So what have we been up to around here?  Or rather, first, what have we been up to not around here?

Right after our last series of posts we headed out for a weekend in southern Oregon in honor of our upcoming anniversary.  We headed down to Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  We had a Groupon Getaway for a half-priced stay at the Lithia Springs Inn, which features private mineral baths in every room.

We've been to Ashland before so we spent most of our time exploring the area outside of the city.  We visited a the Tashi Choling Center for Buddhist Studies in a secluded valley south of Ashland.   The monastery features a 35 foot tall statue of Vajrasattva, the Buddha of Primordial Purity, which is one of the largest Buddha statues outside of Tibet.  The Mandala Garden, where the statue is located, was undergoing some renovations but it was still a beautiful place to visit.

 

We also did some exploring of the area around the Monastery.  We took a dirt road up to the base of Pilot Rock and drove part-way up Mt. Ashland to find some amazing views.

We ended the day with a wine tasting at RoxyAnn Winery, and of course a play at the Shakespeare Festival.  We saw Love's Labor Lost in the Allen Pavilion, which is an outdoor Elizabethan Stage.

We drove back to Portland by way of Highway 101 which runs up the Oregon Coast.  We stopped at the Oregon Dunes, which are the largest sand dunes we've ever seen.  We also visited the worlds largest known sea cave which is a popular resting place for Steller Sea Lions.  The drive from Ashland to Portland along the coast took about twelve hours, so we were happy to be back home and that we had Monday off for Labor Day!

Watch for updates on what else we've been up to in and out of the house coming soon (we promise)!

Love List

We've been keeping track of things we love on Pinterest.  Click on each picture to be connected to our pinterest account where you can further connect to the original source.  Here's a new love list for your weekend!

Juliette Chair from Jayson Home

Branch Hooks from West Elm

Reclaimed Hangers from Paloma's Nest (unavailable)

Karlstad Sofa from Ikea

Outdoor Thermometer from windandweather.com

Don't forget to check us out on Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/twoseekhome

Bedroom Closet!

We are excited to share our bright new bedroom closets with you!  Before, they were dark, dingy and not very functional.  The closet rod was thick and wooden and you couldn't slide a hanger along it.  The shelves were made of dusty untreated particle board.  We're excited for our bright new colors, new closet rod, new shoe rack (!) and the ability to expand storage space later as we choose!

Here's the closet view BEFORE:

And AFTER!

The inside BEFORE:

And AFTER!

And guess what else?  In the last picture, right under the shoe rack, those are the wood floors that run under all this carpet.  They are painted there but they seem to be in pretty good shape!  What a happy find!

Our closet redo was really pretty simple but it made a huge difference.  First we took everything out and cleaned the whole thing.  We primed and painted all of the paneling but left the upper section of wall and the ceiling as it was (even though the two sides are different colors).  We used a good quality primer because the fake paneling was a glossy texture that paint wouldn't stick to well.  We painted and reused the custom-cut shelves but replaced the brackets and the closet rod.  We installed track for hanging shelves that we can add later but started ourselves off with a shoe rack.  That's all there was to it!


In case you missed this post, the colors we used are Martha Stewart Home's Whetstone Gray and Behr's Summer Breeze (color matched in Martha Stewart Home paint).

Here's the full cost breakdown:

1 gallon Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer:  $19
1 gallon Martha Stewart Home paint in Whetstone Gray:  $29

7 Shelf/Rod Brackets:  $23
2 Expandable closet rods:  $20
Shelves:  Free (reused)
Color Sample of Martha Stewart Home paint in Behr's Summer Breeze:  Free (donated by a friend who couldn't use it)

4 Closet Maid 5' Shelf Tracks:  $41 - after coupon*
Set of 2 Closet Maid Expandable Shoe Racks:  $22

Misc Hardware:  $15

Grand Total:  $169

*Did you know that Home Depot and Lowe's take each other's coupons?  We bought the shelf tracks at Home Depot on a transaction with a $25 off $250 Lowe's coupon that we received when we moved.  $41 is the return value for the tracks after the coupon.  $10 a piece isn't exactly bottom dollar for closet tracks but unfortunately the wide variety of accessories that Closet Maid makes aren't compatible with the budget shelf tracks that HD sells.  That figures.  But compared to some of those pricy closet systems out there, we think we did pretty well for a closet that we love.

Weekend Clearing and a Teaser

Before we get too far into the week we want to share one of the projects we worked on over the weekend.  While the weather is still nice (it might not be much longer around here) we wanted to get some more work done in the garden.  So we cleared out one of our favorite little corners that was pretty overgrown.  This corner of the garden is shady and quiet and is the view right outside the room we've been sleeping in (we've been sleeping on the futon so we're hesitant to call it the bedroom just yet).

The photo above was actually taken a little bit into the process.  All the stuff at the bottom of the picture was pulled out of that area.  Apparently this corner had been a bit of a dumping ground.  On top of all the stuff, and the weeds, this tree was spreading and sprouting all over the place.

The sprouts were coming out of the roots of the tree, so they couldn't just be dug up but each one had to be cut down below ground level.  With all that digging we found all kinds of little critters like this little roly poly friend:

We also managed to uncover part of the concrete path that runs through some of the back yard.  Thanks to our handy sweeper nozzle we were able to get it pretty clean.  We also took the opportunity to give the house a little cleaning, too.

Eventually we'll plant some grass in this area, but for now it at least looks a little bit neater.

Here's the next garden project we plan to tackle:

Okay, here's a little preview of what's happening around here over the next couple of days.  Can you guess what's happening?

And check back tomorrow for the other project we finished over the weekend:  the closet!

Bathroom Shelves + A Tiny Tour

Another bathroom post!  Over the next few years our bathroom will be looking forward to a complete overhaul to open up a little more space and return it to something resembling it's original state.  In the meantime, we'll have to live with what we have.  But we can make a change or two while we wait, so here's one that actually made a big difference in the feel of the bathroom. 

When we moved in the bathroom featured this monstrosity of a home-made medicine cabinet right over the toilet:

It was big and bulky and taking up too much physical and visual space, so it had to go.  In some time off during the first weeks we lived here I went ahead and took the mirror down and exposed the open shelving behind it:

That opened the space up a little, but obviously it was not going to cut in for the long run.  Fortunately we just so happened to have a little bit of green paint that matches the ugly green tile almost perfectly.

The paint is Behr's Coriander Seed.  We had some left over from an accent wall in our first apartment in Portland. 

I never really thought of it as being an ugly color, so either it has gotten uglier with age or it's just something about the bathroom.  Anywho, the final product is a vast improvement (I still kind of like the color).

While we're in the bathroom, you might as well have a look around at the rest of it.  There is literally not much to it.

I don't know if you can tell, but the sink is not centered under the medicine cabinet (which is original to the house).  The sink must have been moved at some point.  It's just a bit inconvenient and not so pleasant aesthetically.

And then there's the shower.  It's a built-in tub and surround with a wall on the end and sliding glass doors.  Visually, it takes up a ton of space.  I think the bathroom will seem so much bigger when we can replace it with an free-standing tub and curtain.  And then there's this:

And this:

Aaand this:

Yes, that is indeed wallpaper OVER tile.  But I got curious one day and started pulling:

 And pulling:

The paper just started coming off without any trouble at all.  So now our bathroom looks like this:

I'm kinda digging the faded fish wallpaper for the time being.  Matt says the tile makes him happy when he's in the shower.  It's also kind of fun to see what the bathroom might have looked like at some time.  I guess we're stuck with it regardless; until we dig into the bathroom renovations, at least.

This post has gotten very long for such a small bathroom, but there will be bathroom inspiration photos to come!  If you can't wait you can keep up with our inspiration photos as we come across them on Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/twoseekhome/our-bathroom 

- Caroline