Renovation Complete

The work is finally complete on our renovation across the street.
I promise to put up the "before" pictures in the next few days.

It always seems that the real "OO la la" comes from seeing the before and after.

The granite turned out really beautiful.

The floors are Pre-finished Brazilian Cherry Hardwood.

New Hall Bath. We converted one giant out-of-date bathroom into a new hall bath, and en-suite bath for the master bedroom.

Master bedroom. The color in the photo is "off". The carpet in person actually looks much nicer with the paint than this photo shows. (And it doesn't look pink.)

Looking into the new master bath. Again, the color in the photo is "off".

Cute new custom built-in storage in the master bath.

Looking the other direction from the master bath.

I love how the European style glass enclosure turned out in here.

The basement bath. The turquoise shower is about the only thing in the entire house that wasn't replaced. I simply couldn't bring myself to remove that tile in the perfect shade of turquiose.

Thanks so much to everyone who worked on the project. Once again Duane, Todd, and Bryan were brilliant craftsmen!!!

Salt Lake City Style

So what does a million dollars buy you these days? Well if you live in Salt Lake City it can buy you a mini mansion with lots of iron, dark cabinets, and granite counter tops everywhere, or it can buy you about 3700 square feet of high style renovation in a family neighborhood. A million bucks can even buy you a luxury high rise condo just steps from downtown, and all that it has to offer. If you have a million dollars here, you can get almost anything you want. I know which one I would pick. Do you?

First up: Mini Mansion:

This home is listed for $980,000, and has about 5600 square feet.

Trademark iron and dark wood features.

I think the white island is a nice touch.

Cool fireplace "over mantel".

Den.

Theater (a must have for your mini-mansion).

Master Bath.

A more detailed listing for this home can be found here:

Second Choice: Renovated period home:

Totally charming exterior (in my mind the outside of my house looks just like this) :)

Super cute entrance. I love the bench built into the nook. I think I have seen this designers work before. I wish I knew her name.

Kitchen featuring Calcutta Marble, Viking and Bosch appliances. The hot pink and red accents are a fun touch. Calcutta is a nice marble choice, with a little more gold running through than Carrerra.

Cool island. I'm not sure this is exactly how I would do it, but still cool.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this banquette. This is the picture that attracted me to this house. Well this and about a MILLION other things! This is exactly what I have in mind for my small kitchen nook.

Dining room. Great wallpaper. Not much room to manuever around.

Living room. Very soothing. Love the gold framed art. Note to self: find out the name of this real estate photographer.




Master Bedroom. Ehh.

Boys bedroom. Cute.

Girls bedroom. Also cute (Lucy did not love it.... but she can be very picky).

I'm sure you can tell this is the house I like best. The rest of this listing can be found here, along with bigger pictures (I wish I could figure out how to adjust those realtor website photos).

Option #3: High Rise Condo:

I have to say, I love the idea of being able to go to a Jazz game, or concert, and then walk a few steps back home. This doesn't really feel like home to me though....I think you would always feel like you were on vacation.


This listing is actually a bargain at only $879,000, but it does only have 2200 Square Feet.

Kitchen and eating area.

Bedroom. Not much in the way of privacy.

Bath. I like the small tiles.

The reason you would buy this condo.

Another angle.

If you are interested in learning more about this property, please click here.

Thanks for joining me on this tour! Have a great week, and start buying houses! Let's get this economy going again.

Mud Room Update

Is mud room one word or two?

Image from Better Homes and Gardens, and the inspiration for my bench.

Anyway, I finally got around to removing the tools and supplies from my mudroom.....

aka junk.....

and it was such an improvement to have that crap out of there I was tempted to just leave it empty.

When designing the layout of the kitchen/great room addition, I wanted a little corner that could work as a multi-purpose spot for dog care, a spot to stash coats and backpacks, a place to confine the clutter, and a pit-stop for dirty kids coming in from the backyard (a mom can dream).

The space is just under 5 feet wide, and about 10 feet deep.

Image Pottery Barn

I started looking around for the perfect bench, but couldn't find one (in my price range)......

Image Target.com

or that had the right dimensions.....

so I opted to make one myself, using instructions from this seriously awesome website. I was tempted not to give the address, just so that people would find me clever, but it is such an awesome site, that if you haven't found it already, you must look it up!!! Ana White has created free plans for literally every piece of cool wood furniture you have always wanted to buy, but couldn't afford. And it's easy!

Anyway, I customized Ana's West Elm rolling bench (mine does not have wheels, since I didn't want my kids rolling all over the house on a storage go-kart).

I also tweaked the measurements to fit into my spot, and accommodate the baskets I found at Target. The pillows are not exactly what I had in mind, but they were in the garage, so they are fine for now until I sew the ones I want.

The coat rack is from Pottery Barn. The frames are just frames I already had, freshly painted.

I made a sign from a piece of wood scrap, some squishy stickers, and a coat of paint. It says "Willkommen zu Hause", which is "Welcome Home" in German, since only Germans are welcome in our house.

Just kidding. The German is a nod to Bryan's Austrian heritage. His Great-Grandfather immigrated in the early 20th century. He was the only sibling to come the U.S., so much of my husband's family is still in Austria......we need to go visit.

So here it is. Not quite finished, but a big improvement from water coolers, mops, and dog food.

Items still needed:

1. finished cork board for bare wall (in the works)
2. cushion for bench
3. antique Austrian flag to hang under the clock

I've been working on my pantry and bakers rack as well. I'll post an update as soon as I am done. And since I seem to be unable to work on a project and keep my kitchen clean at the same time, I'll have to do that first too.

Have a Good Night!