From "oh..." to "oooh!"

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn." - Gore Vidal


As mentioned previously (in this post), we've recently been finishing our living room, which I have to say, has been a royal pain in the butt. However, it's done, which brings our total rooms completed up to three (main bathroom, dining room, and living room). Yay for that! So here we go...

In the beginning, there was a really depressing living room...

It had grungy, dented walls, matted carpet, and sad, sad plastic blinds. 

And of course you can't forget all of that dark wood (including the low-quality trim).

So we quickly decided to spakle (?), sand, and paint that sucker. 

This was during a time of great chaos in the house (don't forget to check out that low hallway entrance. Weird? I think yes. 

We...well, Stephen, ripped out the ceiling in the hallway, opening it up a lot. 

While I sanded and primed the living room. This picture just doesn't convey the excitement we had comparing the old paint to the primer. 

There were many late nights with generous friends helping us restore our sad, sad little house. 

We also got new windows, which made the house sturdier. I kid you not. It doesn't shake as much anymore.

James helped us pick out paint colors. And paint...and paint...and paint! (Imagine ballerinas painting)

It was exciting when we had the new wall color up and the ceilings painted a bright white. 

But this was when I started panicking because the house still looked dingy, and we were getting married and moving in in less than a week. A WEEK. 

Thank God the new carpet saved our butts. So I put up a Christmas tree (naturally) before we even had a working toilet. 

And our dining room table arrived...with no chairs. 

Nevermind the fact that we hadn't painted the trim around the windows, put up baseboards, trimmed out the large window, put in a closet door even...we had a table, a lamp, and a Christmas tree. Priorities, people.

After the wedding, we were excited to relax in our new home, complete with hand-me-down furniture. 

It was a happy time. 

We couldn't believe how great it was having our own house. Even one that the entire neighborhood could see into due to our lack of draperies. 

So we got on that...and our house stayed that way for a very long time. 

With the addition of a few things, like end tables, games... 

...and two awesome recliners (and homemade artwork - check that wall). 

So our living room was a cozy, mismatched, and crazy room for over a year. 

Until one day this summer, I looked down at a thrift store and saw THIS BABY: 

I'm obsessed with this console. 40 bucks to make our living room a
different, more grown up, room.

Then things got crazy. We added a ton of art in the form of picture frames and meaningful mementos to the entryway wall. (And awesome matching lamps - yay no more college ones! And ottomans)

And Stephen finally finished the hallway. That spot above the hallway may or may not have been primerless for over a year due to an oversight. Meh, no biggie. It's done now! 

And look at those pretty doors and that awesome trim. Stephen's a pro. 

Suddenly, one night while out on date night, we found the most perfect couches for a wonderful deal and BAM the living room suddenly went into overdrive. We moved the plaid couch (which was super uncomfortable) to the basement (which, as a side note, now looks like a used furniture store)...

All so Stephen could finish up the trim in the living room (yes, two years this room's had the original, paint-splattered trim. The reason it was paint-splattered is we thought we'd have time to do that before we even moved in...ha ha ha...good one). 

There was a lot of anticipation for the new couches. 

Except from poor Nonnie...she was very distraught and confused. 

Say one last goodbye to that sloppy trim. 

Okay, one more close up so you can see what we've been dealing with for two years. 

 Oh yeah, did I mention the windows STILL weren't trimmed out? They got covered up with the curtains and all of a sudden we just didn't care anymore. Typical, right?

 Oh, and Stephen painted the closet doors and the front door while waiting for the new couches to arrive. He's sort of the handyman superman.

And Ta Da!: 

Wanna see a before and after? Of course you do. 

BEFORE...

AFTER:

Now we can (as Stephen put it) sit in our beautiful living room looking at our beautiful dining room. It's sort of fantastic. Seriously. I must be old to be this excited about a couch and a loveseat...but I mean, come on....check out those before and afters. It's incredible what my husband can do. And yes, he's for hire. (Shameless plug, I know). So there you have it, a majority of our living room pictures and a quarter of our excitement about having this room done (it just can't be expressed through a blog - you'd need to have been there for me to see the couches in the room for the first time...there may or may not have been jumping and squealing).

So, who wants to come over for cocktails in our new living room? 

Love,

Vanessa, Stephen, and Anya

Om nom room

"No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation" - Fran Lebowitz


After "having" this house for two years, we've finally checked off a second room in it's entirety (phew! Only six to go! oh, wait...). We proudly present: Our Dining Room.


Here's the major BEFORE. Things of note: the weird ceiling fan. The awesome *cough cough* cheap red paint. The awkward full length, skinny window adjacent to the back door (which yes, is an old closet door - what a winner). The super classy, dust-encrusted light fixture.

I don't know what's the best part, those great plastic blinds or the cheap fake-wood trim. Maybe it's the double light fixture thing that's going on? Either way, it was heinous.

 So we painted that sucker up (with oil-based primer, which we're not a fan of, but we really felt like we needed to "seal in" all the ick-ness.) Oh yeah, and you can't miss that awesome mega-cheapo parquet (we were disappointed it wasn't nice, alas, it had to go).

That mega-awkward window had to go, too. The end result made us very happy. 

This was November, maybe (probably) December the year we got married. As you can see, the dining room quickly became Paint Central.

But before that even, we had a really hard time choosing paint colors, then we just got "artsy":

Of course we settled on what we like to call "cardboard brown" for most of the house...

And a horrible, horrible green for the dining room. Here's the thing, we thought it looked good on the wall with the sample, got a gallon, I painted about a quarter of the wall, decided it was horrible, and we were faced with the decision of just finishing it, or picking something new. Since we were getting married in about two weeks, I just painted that sucker green. And then it stayed green for almost two years. 

Dining room right after we got married.
Pretty base boards, huh? And oh yeah, that rug is covering
a million paint stains. 

Unfortunately, after the wedding we hit a major lull in home projects (having entirely nothing to do with the fact that the two months prior to the wedding, Stephen spent 18 hours a day working on it...) so the dining room stayed as such (even with that horrible shelf - sorry Mom, it really is ugly):

Stephen's excited for cake - not for the dining room.

It was a big deal (to me - the decorator) when Stephen put up the floating shelves we inherited from my sister's old room, even if I wasn't quite sure how to decorate them.

Top left: Beautiful wedding gift from Sue (Stephen's mom).
Top right: Our wedding cake topper and a piece of our china.
Bottom-ish left: more wedding china and shot glasses from our travels
Bottom right: Unity candle, wedding picture, toasting glasses,
Stephen's boutonnière and my hair piece. 

It was also a big deal when Stephen hung the four pictures on the short wall to the right and put up the base boards and put in the pendant lights. We thought we were living the high life. (Even if we were still missing chair rail, had ugly curtains, pendant lights that cast the most obnoxious orange-glow over everything, and a green color that got more annoying with each day)

Then, this past summer I decided to take action upon the dining room. I wanted something light and airy, so I got white drapes. Total fail. They weren't all the same length (even though they came in the same packages...) and the stark white looked horrible with our house: 

Even Anya thought it looked silly. 

 Then we got serious. We were both sick of the green - it was the opposite of light and airy and the opposite of pretty. So we cleared the dining room out...

Picked a creamy color: 

Said one happy farewell to the beams on the walls and the awkward one up top (and an extra enthusiastic so-long to the ugly orange pendant lights):

 And changed it. Finally.

Tell me my husband is not just the most talented person ever. He mudded over the paneling on the top beam, shot up trim, primed, and painted those beauties. HELLO normal walkway! And don't forget to ogle the perfectly-straight chair rail and that gorgeous coat of creamy-awesomeness.

I'm obsessed with our new pendant lights. They're light, airy, and very 60's/minimalism which is what we're all about here at casa Waters. 

Stephen painted the trim around the weird midget-wall, too, even though we're not sure if we're going to leave it, tear it down, build it up, etc. Turns out that was a good choice because it makes the room feel so much more polished. I also like how the black frames pop now without that distracting green. 

And because Esteban worked so hard, let's marvel at this doorway again, because seriously, it's a work of wonder to behold: 

 It's so normal and not pre-fab-looking...it makes us giddy just sitting in the living room staring at it. (I'm not even kidding - we do this often now)

And Mama Rao was kind enough to help (and by help I mean measure, cut, and sew) us new curtains! They look so much better in a long, natural linen color, as opposed to the stark white (and too-short) ones. We put up new curtain rods and hung those babies as quick as we could.

I'm obsessed with our "new" dining room. I think it could use a plush rug underfoot, but the general populous seems to think otherwise. Guess we'll see - it all depends on if I can find the rug I'm looking for at the price I want. (I did see one rug at Crate and Barrel that I loved...but it was a tad pricey - and by a tad I mean SUPER)

I also did some re-decorating of the floating shelves. I found a cute little silvery-grey "vase" at Kmart for four dollars - it was actually a toothbrush holder, but you can't tell. I also added a framed wedding card with a "love" definition to add some height to the shot-glass travel shelf. We think it turned out nicely. 

Before and After shots? I think yes. 

BEFORE (excuse the poor lighting - we were new at this house-photo-taking-thing)

 AFTER:

All in all, we're in love with our bright-and-shiney dining room and love to eat in it, walk through it, and generally stare at it from our living room...which will be getting its final touches shortly, and I'm sure we'll share that whole process with you sometime soon. 

Love,

Vanessa and Stephen