New Old Chair

Monday, you got a peak at the reveal of my newly reupholstered antique chair, so I though today I'd show you the full transformation. We inherited our awesome chair from a friend.  It had been in his family for longer than he'd been alive, but he had no place for it.  After an unfortunate incident with the Queen (Daisy), the non-colorfast seat needed washing.  For 4 years, we've had the chair in our apartment, and then various rooms of our house in it's not-so-fresh red/pink state.

I was so excited when the waitlist I had been on allowed me to get into an awesome reupholstery class last minute at the Eliot School in Boston (not a paid endorsement, they were just awesome and if you live in the area, check them out and the classes they offer!  Do it!)

The first class was painful, where I started ripping my beloved chair apart, but the rebuilding was so gratifying!

I am not even going to pretend to be any kind of expert at reupholstering, but I will tell you that the key is to pay attention as you're disassembling and take note of how everything is attached.  Then do that with your new materials and fabrics.  Simple, right? ha!

Once the fabric was all attached and trimmed, the final steps were to glue on the double-welt (to hide the staples) and sew a cushion.

LOVE!

Sometimes it works to bribe furry models with treats.  Sometimes.

If you're anything like me, you love a side by side before and after.

How's that for a transformation??

I'm so pleased to be able to give the chair a new life!

Berkshires Treasure Hunting

I love and hate weekend trips at the same time.  Hate only because I come home to everything I wasn't able to do at my house over the weekend and then play catch-up, but weekend trips are pretty awesome otherwise.  This weekend was a girl's weekend (check off #3 on 30 before 30) with one of my best friends.  Antiquing in the Berkshires (Western Mass.) sounds like no fun to me.  None at all.  I hate antiques and treasure hunting and .....  yeah... needless to say, a good time was had by all.  AND we got to come home with a few fun treasures. I was a girl on a mission: end tables for my living room update.

Day 1 left me pretty high and dry mission-wise.  My only score was an adorable tea set (in less than perfect condition) for a whopping $5.  The set included only a teapot and a sugar bowl and I had plans for them the moment I laid eyes on them.

As you can see, the teapot-turned-planter is hanging out in the living room, while the sugar dish has found a temporary home on the kitchen window sill.

B made out like a bandit on day 1, scoring 4 awesome mid century upholstered folding chairs with brass hardware that I neglected to get a picture of.  I was too distracted by my dream lamps.

Since I didn't want to sell my kidney to buy them, I walked away and wiped off the drool.

Day 2 was kinder to me and and my mission and I ended up coming home with 2 very reasonably priced side tables.  One being EXACTLY what I was looking for, and the other was just too good of a deal to pass up.

This find was the best way to start out the 2nd morning.

Although not in pristine condition, thankfully this little table is only in need of some minor sprucing up.  Much to my pleasant surprise, even Hubby really likes it!  At $55 it was cheaper and in better condition than ones I had seen on Craigslist!

The other table is a small, oval flip top table.  It's most certainly not antique, but it was only $20 and I think I can Tim Gunn it (make it work!).

And here it is with my sexy reupholstered chair that I'm SUPER excited about.

Now I can't wait until the entire living room is at 100%!!

Grover: Week 3

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  Check out  more about this flip, Grover, or check out posts about our last flip HERE. This week I made a mess.  A big mess.

I'm waiting until the contractor gets started to bring in a dumpster due to the limited parking situation at the house, so until then, the dining room and garage will be less than spotless.  You might also notice, Mr. Sledge Hammer, and Miss Built-in had a bit of a fling.  Looking better already, I think!

The partial kitchen demolition was driven by necessity.  See that little black box where the sink will be?  It's actually a heater that will replace the one that's on the wall that's coming down.  (I cannot WAIT for the wall to come down!)

Even though the kitchen's starting to come apart, I spent about 80% of my week in the smallest room of the house.

Remember how there used to be a VERY blue bathroom?  The lone blue toilet is all that's left.  I'm kind of in love with this picture.

All of the tile is gone with the exception of a few behind the toilet.  The driving factor for this surprisingly speedy bathroom gut is peaking out there on the right.  Do you see it?

That's right..... a NEW TUB!  In the last house, I painted the painfully pink tub and I decided to try something different here.  Although it cost about double, in this smaller bathroom, the dated style tub was pretty in-your-face.  The new tub in combination with the more open layout I'm planning will make this bathroom feel probably double the size as when I bought it.

No, I haven't forgotten about the lone blue toilet.  He'll be ousted as well, but, being the only toilet in the house, he is still has an important role.

If you own a house, or ever plan to, please take note.  This is NOT how to wire ANYTHING.  Hiding things like this and open junction boxes behind cabinets is not even close to the right way to do it.  Just don't.  Your house will thank you.

While my plumbers were doing their thing with the tub and heater, I started roaming the house looking for smaller tasks to tackle.  You already saw the scallop-less built-in, but I also spent quite a bit of time in the bedrooms.  Let the paint prep begin!!

The walls now totally remind me of having chicken pox as a kid and being spotted with calamine lotion.  Don't worry, Walls, you'll be feeling/looking better in no time!

And now that I've started off my Friday by anthropomorphizing walls, a built in, a sledge hammer, and a toilet, I think it's time for me to go smash a kitchen.

Have a great weekend!!