Front Bedroom, small upgrades

We were home over the 4th of July and moved all the furniture back into this room and set it back up for guests. It feels 100x better and more complete with the finished floors! We're still trying to agree upon a bedframe and headboard... but we did bottom out on a rug and a light fixture. Check it out! What are your thoughts? Any bedframe suggestions?

View from Doorway



Light from West Elm

Circular Natural Jute Rug from Pottery Barn - so soft!

Oregon Updates, from AZ

This past weekend (May 18th - May 21st) we retreated back to Oregon from the 105 degree heat to head to Dufur, OR... and attend a wedding at the newly renovated Balch Hotel. We stayed at a great B&B (Seven Oaks) in Hood River. I didn't snap a picture of the house or room, but it was a renovated 1926 Bungalow, just our style!!

A few weeks prior to this visit, I was in Portland for work and spent the weekend emptying the upstairs bedrooms onto the sunporch... so we could refinish our hardwood floors in between trips. Thanks to some dear friends and a trusty floor guy, Ben... WA-LA!

FRONT BEDROOM:It definitely feels more complete with the floors. We'll move the furniture back next time we are home. I also ordered a round jute rug for this room. I head to NYC in a few weeks to visit friends and attempt to find light fixtures for this room and the Office at Brooklyn Flea. Keep your fingers crossed! And... I have a Craigslist search out for a Jenny Lind bedframe for this room as well...

Front Bedroom, all nice and shiny

Can't, Not, Take a pic of the feet.
The fir closets and maple bedroom color difference is minimal

OFFICE BEDROOM:
Swanky has been crawling around in the attic running new electrical to this room in his spare time and during the limited weekends we are able to visit this place. Once the electrical is done, we'll patch the plaster and then paint our little hearts out. Then we'll think about furniture and how to lay this space out. 


Office Bedroom, not very bright, but shiny
(Electrical is in process of rewiring...no electricity to this room for now)

the Front Bedroom (Before & After)

This bedroom had ONE working electrical outlet... some large holes in the walls from the previous owners, drafty aluminum windows and missing trim. Truly minor in the grand scheme of things - So we picked it as our master when we moved in.

An extension cord later, a carpet to cover up the rough maple flooring and some pictures to hide the walls - we were set!


Evidence of occupation, missing trim and new windows (hooray!)

It wasn't until we finished the Master Suite that we moved out of this room, and started on the electrical, trim and painting. The hubs gets full credit for the completion of this room. He slaved away in Spring 2011 while I was traveling, out of town, consistently for work.
The underlying theme of this room is nature/ organics. I envision a headboard (I sense a DIY project), our gray bedding in AZ will go well in here, and a nice large area rug. I'm also toying with paiting a darker green above the picture rail, leaving the ceiling white. I think it would help make the room pop, subtly.

We are lucky to have such large bedrooms. At some point soon we'll move all our furniture off the 2nd floor to refinish the maple in one fell swoop. You can't tell from the pictures, but the maple is rough, and when sanded/ refinished it lightens up to be more like beech in color.

Front Bedroom is "complete"

Or at least, as complete as it will be until we get the energy to move all our furniture off the 2nd floor and refinish the floors!

Some items on the wishlist?

1.) A better, more personalized overhead light

2.) A lamp or two for accent lighting

3.) A headboard/ beadframe to ditch our current simple frame

4.) A rug to soften up the flooring

5.) More artwork/ photos...

6.) Bedding and some fun pillows.

The budget for this room was basically a couple hundred dollars and we (Joe) did everything. It included new electrical wiring, outlets & plugs, painting and patching the plaster and new wood trim along the base as well as trim at the top of the window headers. We purchased paint, plaster, wood trim and curtains/ rods for the room. All other items we had...

weeked update - a quick one

our friends have a leaky roof, so we're jetting off to go help them! but quickly - bedroom ceiling and walls have been painted! now we're in the process of trim paint. curtains and rods ordered today online (target is having a great sale online!) and here are progress photos.

Rain, rain.... and more rain

Despite the "unusually wet" spring we've had (again) this year... work progresses. We had a fun meet-up this morning with another fellow Portland house fixer-upper, Jason from Portland FourSquare. He stopped by to check out our Marvin Tilt-Pacs. Which gives me ideas of other posts, including the various types of Marvin windows we have installed in the house. Hmm... In the meantime, here's more on what we've been up to here!

new entry fixture

MANY thanks to Chris at HardtoFindHouseParts

AND...

bedroom trim has been primed and paint color has been selected!

The Front Bedroom

As an attempt to provide updates more frequently, here goes!

The Front Bedroom was our master bedroom for the first two years we were in the house... as-is. It was selected as it was the most set-up to be a bedroom. Why? because it had a working power outlet. Yes, ONE outlet. So a power strip and extension cord later and we were rocking!

Since we finished the true Master Bedroom and moved into that, we've started to work on the front bedroom and bring it up to speed. So after this weekend we will be ready to paint! Which means the electrical has all be updated (hooray for multiple outlets, on multiple walls!), the aluminum windows were replaced with Marvin Tilt-Pacs, the trim is repaired and the cracking plaster has been patched.
Progress photos...

the sink plumbing is still in the closet, oh well.

the closet floors will get refinished someday, but not now

overall view of the space
a few test colors around the window frame

similar to the closet, these floors will eventually get refinished

but we need to muster up the energy to do the whole upstairs all at the same time.

this photo also grosses me out on how dingy and dirty the walls are. bleah!

secret family recipe for patching trim
(mix these two evenly, you'll love it)

2011 Catch-Up

How did it become the middle of March already??

February seemed to slip by as Swanky and I were both traveling 3/4 weeks for work. Separate cities, different states. What a life it has turned into lately! My travel was a little more glamourous than Swanky's... one trip included 2 weeks in Israel!

Needless to say... not much work on the house - but the hubby is a rockstar and has managed to finish the electrical work and trimwork in our old bedroom. which means, next step... prep and paint!

This was his first pass at doing trimwork on his own, and i would say it turned out grand! what would you say?



In case you are wondering... we took the baseboard off when we first moved into the house to run new electrical wiring behind. The baseboard was in bad shape to begin with, and the room had only one working outlet, so it was the best of both worlds to get more electrical outlets/ updated wiring and good looking trim. Sometime before us, the headers to all the doors and windows were also removed (I've heard that was the 'in' thing in the 70s)... so those have now been replaced as well.

Last thing to eventually do is refinish the hardwoods... but we'll do it for the whole 2nd floor when we do, so that won't be until next year at the earliest.