Motivational Mondays

Remember when....

Remember when I showed you guys the "master suite" in all its former glory (this used to be the living room of the inlaws' quarters upstairs) and you all gasped in horror? No? Let me remind you what we were up against...

Faux limed wood panelling, check. Dry rotted camel colored, shag carpeting, check. Plastered, cracked ceiling that felt like the world was closing in on you, check. Oh and not to mention, added set of stairs aka escape route.

Well, here's where we are at now. It's not completely finished, but atleast we've made it to the accessorizing stage with some semblance of sanity left. We gutted the entire second floor, this room obviously included. By "we" I mean my husband and his dad as my mother-in-law and I "supervised." My husband and his dad also made our headboard! Excuse the picture quality, I haven't had a chance to figure out my new Canon yet!

I still need to hang some art on the wall, change out the knobs on the furniture (I'm not crazy about the ones the set came with), and get a graphite colored duvet, but we are getting there. :)

So someone stole my iphone4...

My iphone4 was stolen.

First thing I did was go to the google. Apparently, there's a whole website dedicated to Mac Rumors ergo forums.macrumors.com, where cases like these have been discussed at length. I studied said threads for hours....to no avail. The Mac gods are against me.

I think I might cry.

I had the iphone from the stone ages (the original) for 3 years. It was falling apart on me, but the guilt of having paid the full price back then kept me from upgrading.
This last December I finally bit the bullet and upgraded.

On Monday, I went to a local children's museum called Wonderworks. I was checking email just as we were packing up to leave. That's the last time I saw it. Yesterday, I checked our online account, and there were calls made from my phone to several phone numbers I don't recognize. I suspended my account.

Unfortunately for me, I never added the "find my phone" app. I live in another universe apparently because I didn't even know what that was until a couple of days ago.

Woe is me. :(

So I am writing this post to tell you! If you have an iphone, you MUST download that app. Also, please add a passcode. My husband has this. I suffer from severe mommy brain, and I really have no excuse as to why I never added this.

My heart is broken. I may have to go back to my stone age iphone that barely works since I am not eligible for an upgrade given that I JUST bought an iphone. I would have to pay $500 for a new iphone. Crumby, greedy corporate America. :(

I am so upset at the poor excuse for a person that took my iphone4, but I am even more upset at the absolutely horrid customer service AT&T provides.

The CS rep told me that I MAY be eligible for an "exceptional upgrade" in June. Apparently, these are early upgrades that are completely up to the store manager. AYFKM? My eligibility for a new iphone is completely dependent on whether the store manager's eggs were over easy or fried THAT morning? Whether there were coffee grinds in his cup of joe? You get the point.

I guess I am going to patiently wait till June, unless my phone completely dies before then. At which point I will march my heiny into AT&T and threaten (like everyone else will soon be doing) to leave to Verizon! Take that "evil empire." hmmmph.

To make matters worse, I gave my old iphone to our 4 y/o. How the heck am I going to get it back? Dealing with him may be more difficult than dealing with AT&T. I may have lots of splaining to do.

>:[

Motivational Mondays

Dream House series

Every now and again I come across a featured home that rocks my socks. I have always been drawn to homes with neutral, white backdrops sprinkled with "green", rustic elements. The Brooklyn home below is a perfect mix of a fresh, white palette and modern furnishings/accessories with cognac, worn leather and rough hewn wood furniture. The worn textures really stand out against the modern, super white walls and flooring. This home is the brainchild of uber talented design duo/couple Lindsay Caleo and Fitzhugh Karol, who are part of the Brooklyn Home Company team. They were recently feature on Apartment Therapy's Re-Nest as well as The Nate Show.

Dear John,

Rita Konig- image via urban grace

I know this bathroom has travelled through the blogosphere at the speed of light many times over since it was first unveiled about 2-3 years ago in the now defunct Domino. I am pretty sure for many it may be old news at this point, but I can't get over it. It still makes my heart pitter patter. Especially since our latest project is a bathroom renovation, I have beautiful bathrooms on the brain. This one in particular makes time stand still for me.

I think about this hunk a lot. I want two of everything on that page. Maybe three of that toilet, which according to Erica at Urban Grace it's a TOTO Lloyd. She's an authority on plumbing fixtures. If you haven't checked out her portfolio and blog, you must. Her taste is impeccable.

Back to this bathroom. That wallpaper is perfection. I love how she warmed up the starkness of black and white with stained wood and industrial elements like the magazine rack, the light fixtures, the mirror, the moroccan table, the chicken wire basket. It's brilliant.

Below is a sneak peak of our own little bathroom reno. It's *almost* finished.

Try not to look away

Circa 2008. Casa Lobo....

The "sunroom," which is off the living room and entryway


This was the living room. They tore out the fireplace and decided to just cover up that darn hole with a slab of marble. We had already started tearing up the floors at this point. Oh also, there were two sheets of drywall, one on top of the other, for no apparent reason, on that wall you are looking at. That is why the windows look really recessed. My guess is that they drywalled over the windows, later changed their minds, and just cut the windows out. ;)

This was our oldest's bedroom when we were only living on the

first floor of the house. (More on that later)

They took out the closet in this room in order to construct a

second set of stairs to the second floor... (again, more on that later)

This bedroom is right off the dining room.

This is the second bedroom on the first floor.

This was the "master" bedroom for a while.

No description necessary. You've seen this beauty before.

You see that shelving unit thingamajigger over the sink?

With the random shadow boxes and spindles? I used to call that "the monster."

This was the dining room. The floors were destroyed throughout the house, so first thing we did was put in new hardwood floors throughout the first floor.

This is the bathroom off the dining room. The "main" bathroom, if you will. The previous owners encased the original clawfoot tub, in marble. They put in more terrazzo flooring. The vanity top was marble, a different marble than that enclosing the tub.

This is the hallway that's basically in the middle of the house, between the bathroom, dining room, steps to the upstairs and our old "master" bedroom

These are the original, main steps to the upstairs.

The previous owners also put that little window in the bathroom upstairs overlooking the stairs. I guess they wanted natural light from the window in the stairs?

See bathroom below. It's shagadelic. It has hot pink carpeting.

I am not sure what that hole over the tub is for.

Meet GITMO. This was one of the bedrooms upstairs that we lovingly nicknamed "Gitmo." This was also our temporary guest room.

Sorry mom and dad.

Today, this is our oldest's bedroom. Don't worry. We renovated all of this already. Pics to come. :)

This was our "Packers" kitchen. Stay with me. We are still on the second floor. They made the second floor into inlaws' quarters, and because they put a kitchen on the second floor, they had to create a second set of stairs, which is why they removed the closet in our oldest's old bedroom on the first floor-to make room for a second exit in case of a fire.

Here's what I find funny though. I am sure that was in keeping with "code." For safety. But I am pretty sure that nothing else in this house was done according to "code." Pretty certain.

Oh, the kitchen is gone now. It's now the nursery for Lobo 2.0

**Please take note of the faux brick carpeting.

Below is the "living room" in the inlaws' quarters, which is our master bedroom today.

Below are the second set of steps the previous owners put in so that in case of a fire in the second floor kitchen, there would be two ways to exit the second floor.

And that's all folks! Well, there's more, but I think that's enough for now.

Head over heels in love....

With these chairs. Is that possible? To be haunted by their beauty? I stayed up last night just thinking about these....

I was browsing at a local store this past weekend, and all of a sudden, "Wam! Bam! "Well, hello there gorgeous..."

Need I say more?? The perfect shades of green, with a dash of houndstooth!??! Beautiful stained wood, and nailheads?! These might be just what the doctor ordered to cure me from my winter blues. They would go perfect in my sunroom. :)

Motivational Mondays

I have always loved quotes. Any time I am feeling a little worn down, and I read a motivational quote, it really helps me to regroup and kick back into high gear to get things done. Well, it is Monday, and that's typically the day of the week most of us need a little push, so I have decided to start a series called Motivational Mondays. Be sure to check back on Monday mornings if you need an extra push along with your coffee.

Etsy Art Love

Floating, sewn print by tastesorangey-This one is going over my bed.

A book about moss and lichen, vol 1, by rogerjporter



Les Cuilleres by evajuliet-She has beautiful kitchen art.


Grace's Parasol by janethillstudio- one of my favorite etsy shops.

She has beautiful, feminine, and vibrat giclees of her original oil paintings.

Memories of Fall, Hopes of Spring by ElizabethOcean

Lop-eared Rabbit, from the I am not who you think I am series by ElizabethOcean.

This one is perfect of a nursery.

ElizabethOcean's watercolor prints are absolutely beautiful.

They have a wonderfully vintage feel and a great sense of humor.

Deets on our DIY kitchen...

I received a couple of emails yesterday asking for some details about the kitchen, so here goes...

This is a closeup of the wood windows and wood casing, trim, etc. The windows are JeldWens. We were on a tight budget, but really wanted wood windows. Pella and Anderson has some gorg stuff, but after a lot of footwork, we found the specs on these to be better than a lot of the Pella and Anderson windows out there (esp the ones they sell at the big box stores), and I think these are just as attractive! I love that you can take the glass part out to clean the outside! That means no more having to go all around the exterior of your house with a ladder washing windows. Please ignore that even with this "make-it-easy-to-wash-your-windows" mechanism, I have yet to do so. My windows are filthy, but in my defense we've had bigger fish to fry in this house!

The light fixture, I believe, is Hudson Valley Lighting.

The breakfast area used to be a back porch that was enclosed by the previous owners. If you look at the befores, you will see that the ceiling in the whole kitchen was a dropped ceiling. It was even lower in that breakfast area. My husband and my father-in-law, who did this kitchen remodel, took out the ceiling and voila! Look what we found! A pitched ceiling! I had them put beadboarding on it, and I think it makes the kitchen look so much bigger.

The light fixture in the breakfast area is from Rejuvenation.

I love plumbing fixtures. I really, really do. I was dead set on a bridge faucet. This one is Kohler, not sure the model. I froogled the glass knobs. I think they are from D Lawless Hardware? The stainless steel apron front sink is also Kohler. The backspash is carrara marble 2x8 subway tile from the Tile Shop with Absolute Black granite for a countertop. My husband made all the tile cuts, but I tiled the backsplash! Grout and all!

Do you see that little chrome button? That little thing is one of my favorite things in this kitchen. That's called an air switch. That's where I turn my garbage disposal on and off.

This box hides all our mail, bills, etc. I had been looking for something to hide the clutter, and saw the boxes below in the Serena & Lily catalog. They are the Kuta tin boxes and are $58 for 5 boxes, which is not too bad, I think. However, I didn't need FIVE, just one. Lo and behold, I am cruising through Home Goods a couple of days later, and I saw the one above for $10, and ka-ching! No more clutter. Serena & Lily, Kuta tin boxes, set of 5, $58

Right now I am trying to come up with window treatments. I have been looking at fabric for months, if not years. Any suggestions? I was thinking something with an ikat pattern in white and pale blues.