Gray Kitchen's (I'm not the only one)

Colin Cowie one of Oprah's "Life Style Guru's" has gray kitchen cabinet's. Part of me thinks this video validate's my decision that I made to go outside of the box on stain color. The other part thinks this guy is out of his mind. Here is the video I could barely get through the whole thing. You only have to watch til the kitchen.

Here are other people who have good taste and used Gray stain.

Oh I'm taking the day off............

So today was my day off. I (like most people) like to have one day a week where I do things like vacuum and go to the grocery store and buy lots of different foods that don't go together and ultimately go bad. My Dad called me at 10 am today (not too late, but not too early).

"Hey Jules the guys are installing the tile in the bathrooms........you off today?" He knew........

So I drank 3 cups of coffee got dressed and headed to Sunset. Boy were we productive today!

Tasks completed in Order...

1.Distributed the bathroom tiles and went over with the guys how and where we wanted the tile hung.

Master (look at those stripes! This will run on the floor up the wall and in the shower.)

Nee's Bathroom (Pictured below is the dark floor, the white subway tile will go on the walls and in the shower with dark grey grout ( the remaining walls will be painted dark grey) That big weird black and white object is just one of the sconce lights that will go on either side of his plain mirror medicine cabinet) Awesome, I know.

Girls Bathroom ( not a great picture) the tile is a grayish green it will go half way up the sink wall in the shower and on the floor. It's kind of a slick tile how many times do you think my sister Jen will wipe out? I laugh just thinking about it!

2. Pit stop gas city to use a real bathroom get more coffee and power bars (aka human fuel)

3. More tile

At this point you can imagine we are now in one car and I can not escape home improvement shopping. Dad talked on the phone off and on while doing this so it made the experience even more pleasant.

We found the tile a sort of cement colored ceramic. This is for the mechanical rooms and for the laundry room. I didn't like the size i told D that I wanted it to me more narrow so I can run it in lines in the laundry room. So he came up with the idea of cutting the tiles in half. Nice. It's going to look way cool. NOTE MOM: Your children are going to Put Laundry Away Boot Camp.....It will be intense.

4. Kitchen Cabinet Meeting AKA Kitchen Planning Phase 1 Part 5 (the last part in phase 1)

Dad decided this was the day to meet David (the cabinet guy) and see what I picked out. Turns out he wasn't questioning my taste(too late for that) , he just wanted to put David through the wringer and see what we were getting.

Here are some pictures I took during David's song and dance for my dad.

This is the color of our stain and the door style we are using.

These look a little blue with the flash but the color is a much darker shade of grey with a touch of blue. It's super gorgeous and will really pop off my white sun soaked walls.

It's a done deal. Dad got the Ferrari Kitchen Cabinets and I got my dream kitchen! (I mean my Mom's dream kitchen, but its the next best thing) Wait Mom do you even like this kitchen? I guess I should have asked you huh?

Trust me Joan.

I am home now and even though I am taking the night off. I can't help but match the stain swatch up next to the most complimentary white paint swatches.

This is fun sometimes I guess.....and maybe every once in awhile it's worth giving up my day off.

Maybe....

What's in a number?

I have been waiting years for a project where I can use stainless address numbers. Lame I know.. But this Modern detail will really pop off the front of the house. The question is.... what font? These are not cheap.

Guess I'll just have to ask Santa.....

SO-CAL

I am leaning toward the SOCAL (above)

Not sure what this one is below? (I think it's the flat version of SOCAL)

Images From: Modern House Numbers

Window Day! Finally the house gets it's eyes.

Here we are it's freezing and the guys are installing the windows. Pike waited for me to give me a tour of the window progress.

Honestly I pulled up and I was shocked at how awesome this house is starting to look. Below is the before of the house (for maximum window unveiling impact)....

Before:

To Date:

New doors+Obviously new windows (paint still needs to be touched up on windows)

+New paint+Garage door removed and wood sliding continued+Ugly shutters removed+New gutters+Can Lighting+New walk way = New Modern Facelift

Before:

After:

Front windows from the inside:

Nee's Room window from the inside (old garage door):

Kara and Kaylee's room windows from the inside: ( know they all look the same, just look at them!)

Jen/Jordyns Room inside pictures: How bad is that paint color? (Front right of the house.)

love how high they are. They keep the neighbors from seeing in and the kids from sneaking out.

Calling in The Big Guns

I had to make a very quick decision on the paint color for the outside of the windows. The pressure was almost too much to take. Especially because my dad says things like "I don't care"

Hello this is important!

So with coffee in hand (I had to get it myself Jo was tied up) and my paint books. I got on the phone and call my artist friend Cathy for some paint support. She got her swatches and we hashed out the color over the phone.

This is good friend.

My Bracelets look good in this picture if you didn't notice.

Here is what we came up with.......

before:

After:

You can see the windows here I had the back door painted a couple shades lighter then the windows. They look amazing totally compliment the exterior house color but still not too harsh. Thanks Cathy!!!

Oh don't forget the globe lights that go on either side of this door (they are a dark copper color)

Lame Floor Plan

A friend asked me to show a birds eye floor plan of the house. So that you can understand how the house is laid out.

So I drew one (click on picture below) . It's pretty weak. It's not to scale and I did it from memory. But I think that it serves the purpose. Once we figure out whats coming into the house I will make a scaled floor plan with furniture plans etc.

Oh and attention ladies who will be inhabiting this house. A warning......I will be paying you all a visit for the holiday and I intend on doing a walk thru in each of your bedrooms and asking questions like "do you really need 5 AYSO soccer trophies?"

Now that u ladies will be bunking up we need some make room.... this does not exclude you Jo.

You have been warned.

Kitchen Planning Phase 1 Part 4

How many phases & parts will there be? I can't answer that. But last night I had a dream that my dad did the kitchen without me and he turned the kitchen into two rooms and used all different materials and built a Frankenstein kitchen ........and he loved it. So either that was a premonition or a sign that I need to keep my eye in the ball.

I kinda beat the cabinet guy up last week and he sent me some new plans. With flat doors and we killed some of my Ferrari uppers. My brother brought up a good point about where the computer was going to go. So we turned half the wet bar into a desk area. Way to contribute to the process D.

I have to say I like the wall much better without the uppers. I will cover that wall with a really cool back splash tile on the whole wall.

I also like the flat door better. The Shaker style shown before were maybe too craftsmen for this house. I'm thinking a dark gray stain instead of the traditional brown. See that little door on the right jo? Thats for PANS. The drawers on the left are not junk drawers!

Here is the wet bar/desk area. I think we are going to switch the location of the desk and the bar (desk would be on the right) and kill the sink. Then add two uppers here for file storage/wine bottle/glass storage for D and J we all know how they like to hit the bottle!

I have a meeting with him next week..................... Lets see who wins the price smack down.

Vintage Wall Prints

I have been researching vintage prints lately. Mostly late 1950's early 1960's style. I have an extremely talented friend named Cathy who paints prints that look like wallpaper. Any print you can dream up. She can turn into wall paper. Nothing makes a house look fancier then wallpaper but the drawbacks are it's costly and hard to find a good print. With Cathy you can pick the print from your favorite dress and put it on your walls and no one knows. When your sick of it just paint over it.

(Below is an example of a project we did a few years back, the print is the company's logo)

Our most recent project we collaborated on a loft in the city with a vintage Moroccan print. So you can imagine my surprise when I found this original tile in the entry of the house.

So I decided for Jo's birthday that my gift to her would be to take this original print that was used in the house and have Cathy paint it in the entry room. Below is a sample of what the entry print will look like.

I will only use it on the top half of the room because its so busy and will use gray tones in stead of brown

Here is the room where the print will go. The wall on the right is going to be a bookcase so that will also eat into the print and keep it from looking busy. the bookcase will also be painted a shade of grey to tie the print into the bookcase.

I know I'm good your welcome Jo.

Stay tuned more prints to come!!

Beauty Shots..............

Here are the guys working on the front concrete. Two steps up and a few inches were left on each side for over sized urns next to the doorway.

Look at those lights! oohhh ahhhh look at that paint color!

The windows came in this morning. Keep your eyes peeled for big changes on the front.

Sealed Entry

The house had four points of entry, which was kinda weired for the size of the home. So we sealed up one of them on the side so that we can add a bathroom and closet to Nee's room.

I was wondering how the outside would look after two major elements were removed (window and d00r) If you look below its perfect you can't even tell they were there.

Before

After

Chim-Chimney

Remember Fisher Price little people toy play houses? They were awesome fake little door bells and even made an A-Frame shaped house model how retro! Why is this relevant you ask? Well sometimes in vintage homes there a a few little gems here and there that are original to the home that can be saved and give it some character................

This Chimney is not one of those things. It looks and I'm sure feels exactly like the cardboard exterior of a little peoples playhouse. What were these people thinking? I'm sure it was an after thought just a little designer detail.

For now we are going to paint it. But wouldn't it be cool if when we pulled the siding of this house and under it was an actual reproduction of a little people playhouse? Maybe not.............

Get your head out of the gutter.........

My dad doesn't care about light fixtures, he doesn't care about sinks or even the tile for the bathrooms. So what does he care about you ask?

Gutters. He cares about gutters. I had no hand in the gutter selection and I must say they are important to the house. He picked a steal finish and in the end I really think they will add quite a bit to the face. Way to go Pike. I salute you.

Perfect Pick (I picked it)

Before....................

So Far...............

So it's been warm out! 60 degrees and that means it is an opening to paint the outside of the house (even thought the windows aren't in yet). Joanne sent me a picture from her phone while I was at work and I freaked out!!! the color looked blue! So I prepared myself that I was going to tell my dad that not only were we going to have to buy more paint but repaint the whole house again. So I showed up at the house in the am and as I pulled up the drive there it was the perfect paint color not blue at all but gray with a touch of green.

So dad your off the hook. The color is right.........Now for the color on the back door and windows...... I haven't forgotten about the closet argument from yesterday.....I just need a picture of it to illustrate the story.....stay tuned.

The front door is in and looks amazing!! I know it's hard to tell without windows, handles and casing but trust me it's perfect.

Dad giving you some credit for finding these (don't say I never give you guys credit)