I'm Kind of a Big Deal

I feel like kind of a big deal today, as in I have many leather-bound books and my apartment townhouse smells of rich mahogany . . . ;)

I occasionally submit things to Apartment Therapy and occasionally something I submit is featured, but it was a total surprise to have something I didn't submit featured!!  Without any prompting from me, Apartment Therapy featured my laundry room curtains and painted floor:

Do you know what this means?  Someone from Apartment Therapy just found my project on their own!  I just had to pop in today (even though it's a Tuesday and I'm supposed to be working on my dissertation) to share my glee.  Okay, back to work for me.  My chapters (even the un-written ones) all have to be handed in to my supervisor tomorrow.  I got a little sweaty just typing that.  Don't worry about me, you keep chilling, maybe check out this sweet turquoise door and tell me if it's the right shade for the lakehouse kitchen cupboards, given my plan . . .

Paint a Basement Door Mint and Create a Handy Message Centre

After we spruced up the basement landing/stairwell . . .

. . . the door to the basement remained sadly un-spruced.

It had been painted white and given new brushed silver hinges and door knob like all of our other interior doors, but it had been painted quickly and there were spots where the old grey-ish paint could be seen on the inside (that's my Mom above, Vanna White-ing it to show you where).  We had also started using it as a place to store vital information, like the garbage day schedule, but we had been using painter's tape to stick stuff up there.  I didn't have any white paint left, but I had my trusty free gallon of mint paint.  I decided a little colour would be fun, especially because it's just the inside of the door (the outside and edges stayed white).

I taped off the edges and the door knob, removed the papers and unscrewed the white bag holder.  Two coats of paint later, I had a fresh new minty door.  I grabbed a set of cork trivets from Ikea and affixed them to the door with construction adhesive, holding them in place while the adhesive dried with painter's tape.  And voila - much tidier!  Plus the mint looks sweet with the framed brooches in the stairwell.



We re-hung the holder for random plastic bags (on the rare occasion we get them from a store, I hang on to them and re-use them).  The cork trivets tidied up our important info.  We purposefully installed them in a vertical row, with one at kid-height, so if future owners have kids they can pin up their school stuff.  I would have liked to have painted these a fun colour, or done a whole grid (like this) but I was short on both time and money.  The natural cork looks cute against the brick when the door is open, anyway, and three tiles means we only have so much room to clutter up!

I'm really enjoying painting things mint . . .

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My Embroidery, Now a Pillow!

Did you spot it when I showed you the bedroom switcheroo?  The embroidery that almost killed me and took a thousand years to complete has morphed from a scrap of fabric to a cute throw pillow no one is allowed to ever touch.  Marvel from a safe distance.  Over there. 

Farther.

If you remember, I finished this at midnight, with only one day to spare in my four month stay in Hungary.  Like the knitting clock I was smitten with, I love how this is a tangible account of just how much time I spent abroad.  It also makes me feel more connected to my family and heritage, because embroidery is a traditional craft in Hungary, and my grandmother's cousin (who made us this amazing piece I had framed) even did this professionally at one time.  My talented Mom is who whipped this into pillow-shape.  Now that I'm moving closer to her, expect more sewing tutorials.   

I haven't really talked about this before, but for months after I returned from Budapest I was really sad about being back home.  Deeply disappointed.  I would have dreams all night of ordinary days there.  I had certainly missed home (and Hubby!), but it took me a strangely long time to readjust.  Of course Hungary is beautiful and special, and surely anyone would miss it even after a short stay, but I really missed it.  I longed to be back.  I was angry I wasn't.  I don't know why, but I think it had something to do with having fewer responsibilities and interruptions there (it was blissful), feeling disconnected from my life in Canada after four months away, but also because I was made to feel special each day.  Speaking Hungarian, I could navigate like locals but my accent gave me away.  Not a day went by, though, that a Hungarian didn't tell me how amazing it is that I speak Hungarian and what a treasure I am.  I was embraced as a lost Hungarian, because my grandparents had emigrated.  I was welcomed "home".  It's so embarrassing . . . but a daily dose of being told how special I am felt so good (coupled with the sugar high we got from eating pastry literally every day).  I'm mostly over it now, which is good, because I can look at this and be happy!! 



I need to start another project so I can post an embroidery tutorial.

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How to Stage Bedrooms for Sale

As you've seen, we made some changes to get the townhouse ready for sale.  The laundry room was finally finished  with curtains and fun turquoise floors.  The main floor powder room was freshened up and a few cosmetic concerns were fixed.  The living room was decluttered.  There's a few more things to show you, but today let's talk about the bedrooms!  If you remember from the townhouse tour, we actually use the master bedroom as a guest room.  It's large enough for a chair so guests can escape from me under the pretense of catching up on some reading, and the attached powder room is convenient and private.  We, in turn, took a smaller bedroom that actually has bigger windows and a superior view of our lovely treed backyard (complete with lilacs).  But our king size bed dwarfed the room, so we swapped them back.

Our bedroom looked like this . . .

. . . but now it has the guest bed (a queen) and armoire in it.

A smaller teak side table and the thrifted lamp (with a simple drum shade from HomeSense) do their best to balance out my giant armoire.  Frankly, I hate it.  I never loved the layout of the guest room and I could never make that maple armoire work.  As much as I love the piece, it definitely won't fit in the lake house, so it is finally going to be sold (I swear).  This room is plainer now, but that's not a bad thing for selling, especially because I took some liberties with turquoise floors and walls elsewhere.  It shows that a queen bed, mammoth storage unit and table fit in here with plenty of room to spare.  If this was for us, I'd hang paintings over the bed again or make a fun headboard but the realtor says it shows well because it's bright, spacious and fresh (and not too nutty that it would turn off Plain Janes).  Plus, my DIY triptych is still opposite the bed, adding a little colour and interest.

The former guest room looked like this . . .

. . . but now our king size bed tucks in nicely with our side tables.  Our bed and tables are huge but look proportionate in here.  It's evident that if someone has a queen, there's oodles more room.  Under the windows we kept the minty chair and table but removed the lamp and clutter for a more stream-lined look.  The next owner can see that a dresser would fit easily there too. 

We had an open house on the weekend and have two very interested potential folks, but they both need to sort things out with the sale of their homes first, so we'll see how that unfolds!  Everyone think "bidding war!" ;)

My tips for staging a bedroom for sale?

• De-clutter personal items, but leave a little bit of colour
• Make sure bedrooms showcase the space - avoid furniture that is the wrong scale
• Adding lighting if you don't have it, so every room has overhead and softer accent lighting
• White bedding looks crisp, clean and hotel-like, plus it makes a space seem larger!
• Open windows, wash linens and floors for a fresh, clean feeling and smell

P.S. Here are the photos taken by our realtor's photographer for the listing - I seriously want a wide-angle camera for blog photos!!

I've removed this armoire since the photographer took these photos - it just looked odd.

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Zooey Deschanel in Person + Other Goodness

I've been a little stressed out about selling the townhouse and finishing up my dissertation but luckily, what seems like ages ago, Hubs and I bought wristbands for an outdoor music festival happening in Ottawa right now.  With the prospect of carrying two mortgages looming, we're in serious penny pinching mode so I'm so happy we had this little treat all paid for, just waiting for us.  Around here we often joke about Past-us looking out for Future-us, like the time we went away for a trip and I hid the key to the filing cabinet inside the spare toilet paper roll in the bathroom.  Past-me knew Future-me would forget where I put it, but knew that Future-me would eventually reach for the spare roll and, voila, the key!  Past-me somehow knew I'd need a little fun right now.  We've been going almost every night and it's been such a sweet way to cap off a day. 

The teenager that dwells within me is super excited I got to see Weezer (of course, I've only been a fan since I was 10).  We also saw The Black Keys, Dixie Chicks, and Mother Mother, in addition to Hub's favorites - what Jessica Day refers to as "computer music".  Speaking of New Girl, last Friday saw us ankle deep in mud to hear She & Him and they were fabulous.  I was wowed by how much energy Zooey has, plus her voice is so much more powerful live than in their music videos.  And she wore a pretty dress.

Photo from the Ottawa Sun

Photo from the Ottawa Sun

Photo from Ottawa Citizen Bluesfest Digital Lounge

Photo from Ottawa Citizen Bluesfest Digital Lounge

I actually bought a pretty dress of my own with the She & Him concert in mind.  When we last went to the States I bought a few dresses (I live in summer dresses), and when I bought this one I said to Hubby, "I'm totally wearing this for Zooey!"

Embroidered Dress

But then it rained and it was a muck-party by the time She & Him hit the stage.  I ended up wearing my weirdo-attracting orange dress (this one), not caring if I ruined it.  Of course it survived.  And it hasn't lost its mojo, Hubby is my witness.  The flats I wore serve as proof of my fandom.  I waded to the muckiest area to get super close, at which point my shoes ensured as much mud as possible gushed in.  Totally worth it.

Oh yeah, and on our way to Weezer, I spotted this lovely vintage chair curbside.  With a move looming, Hubby has been even more reluctant to facilitate my garbage-picking but I convinced him to help me shove this in the car and we made it to the concert only slightly dusty.  It's a project, for sure . . . 

Such a swell week.  I needed this.  Check here to see if you're having a swell week and are the winner of my giveaway with Olive Leaf Stencils.  Happy weekend!!

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How to Cover Pipes in a Bathroom

You might have noticed the half bath change involved a tiny bit more than just wall paint.  We fixed a few issues as well.  Our heating system was converted from electric baseboard to radiant hot water by a former homeowner (thanks!!) and the system is fabulous.  No dust, like forced air, and super inexpensive to run - I'm sad to leave it!  The only sign of the transformation is in the main floor powder room, where pipes run up the corner wall.  The pipes were originally hidden with a wall-papered metal cover, which I painstakingly stripped, primed and painted (not so thankful for that, former owners).  You can see the wallpaper in the half bath transformations. 

I thought it looked fine, but the gap between the cover and the wall, plus the small hole at the ceiling, irked our realtor and my Dad, so I figured it would bother potential buyers too.  Seeing as my Dad was always vocal about this flaw, I handed the task to him to fix!  It's dangerous to critique something around the townhouse.  At the same time we addressed the pipe cover, we figured we might as well fix the eyesore of a cover hiding the converted heating system along the baseboards too, because the one in here was the worst of all of the ones we have in the townhouse.

The fixes turned out to be really simple and make me wonder why we lived with things like this so long!  To make a smoother transition between wall and pipe cover, I found some wood coving at Lowe's, which my Dad glued in place with extra strong construction adhesive before we gave it a coat of primer and paint.  Then he used a small drywall patching kit to fix up the ceiling, which was also primed and painted over.  Boom.  Done!  Because I'd already primed it with metal primer, Dad just painted over the metal cover and now it all looks seamless.  Painting the ceiling the same colour helps everything blend in.

The baseboard heater cover just needed a light sand, some metal primer and then an application of the same latex paint we used for the walls (which we applied with a tiny foam roller). 

WOW does it ever look better (and newer!).

Our little house is solidly built and has been lovingly updated and renovated, but I think any little flaw like these, even though they are just cosmetic, might have made home buyers nervous so I feel good that they were addressed.  In case you missed it, see the other updates made to this powder room here.

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How to Stage a Living Room and Dining Room for Sale

Finally the fireplace is a focal point!   Remember how I struggled with it?  Once the DIY antiqued mirror with the Hungarian stenciled poem was hung, I thought I'd found the right piece.  The fireplace has a weird little brick bump out that I thought prevented anything larger from being hung there.  But when we listed the house, I asked our realtor (who is also a home stager) if she had anything more neutral for the fireplace.  I didn't want people distracted by the poem, trying to figure out what language it is and what the heck it means (it draws dinner guests to it like a moth to a flame, it's kind of comical).  She brought over this behemoth of a mirror that I am madly in love with:

The bump out still poses a bit of a problem, but this mirror is so beefy it really disguises it.  I think I should have gone bigger with the poem mirror . . .

Along with removing any Hungarianness, I also de-cluttered the living room a little.  The realtor never asked me to do this (although she did have a hate-on for the puffin candle holders), but I think it just looks cleaner now.

I think the key to staging a living room is to de-personalize, without removing too many of the accessories that make the space feel homey and comfortable.

Here's a list of what was edited:

1. DIY felted wool billy buttons (end table)
2. Pottery dish (end table)
3. Hand-sewn crow pillow (from tweed chair)
4. Houndstooth throw (from tweed chair)
5. Puffin candle holders (realtor made me)
6. Wood box for kindling
7. Vintage side table/stool
8. Hungarian poem mirror
9. Ottoman (swapped for mint coffee table)

Long before we decided to list the house, I gave my Mom the vintage cat print I had carefully chosen a frame for (that replaced the chair watercolour in the first photo), because it just wasn't jiving with the rest of the space.  Sometimes things I love just won't work!  Because the empty wall looked weird, I hung my displaced tree painting there because I was too lazy to take it all the way down to the basement.  I wish I was kidding.  It's too low, but was never supposed to stay there.  I had a really cool art project planned that would take up the whole wall, but I just never had time to finish it.  Or start it.

Here's a peek at the photos the photographer took for the listing:

The dining room looks identical, but for the listing photos my beautiful Shane Norrie pottery bowls were swapped out for flowers and the realtor added a plant stand my Papa welded.  It's so weird to see the townhouse through the photographer's lens!  Turning every light on and using a wide angle lens really changes things.  I think maybe he uses a flash, too? 

The dining room as it normally is:

The dining room in the listing:

It seems like a small change, but swapping out some pottery with fresh flowers make the space seem more lively.

I plan on doing a full post on the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of selling the townhouse but I know some of you are itching to know what's been going on.  It was listed for sale on a Friday and the next Monday we had a showing which resulted in a strong offer two hours later!!!  Unfortunately, we couldn't settle on a closing date or price but I think the quick offer means the townhouse shows really well, because the potential buyer wanted it immediately.  I'm hopeful the right offer is around the corner, but we're lucky enough to be in a position that we're not desperate to sell, even though we take possession of the lake house soon.  We can wait for the right price.

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