So Life Is Pretty Awesome

And so is Angela from Tulio Market.

She reached out to feature a short interview about this here ol’ blog on hers (willingly! I know, I don’t believe it either).

So please head over and visit Tulio Market and make sure to follow it! It’s full of creative ideas, Angela’s impeccable taste, and her (and now my) new favorite salad. I’m just going to hang back and keep freaking out about how awesome this is.

Something Super Cool is Happening

But I’m going to keep it a surprise. I want to keep you in suspense. If this isn’t enough suspense for you, go out and watch World War Z. That movie should really be called Anxiety because that’s what I felt throughout the whole thing. But I’m just being chatty.

 

Here’s a preview of something cool that’s going to be happening. Was this shot in a billionaire’s resort in Turks & Caicos?? No, it’s just my kitchen, silly. But you’re so sweet to think that! (Note: I’m only this arrogant for your amusement, but I am really proud of my itty bitty kitchen.) Also, I obviously really love cutting boards.

-Niki

The Crown Jewel

The problem: When we decided to remove the existing drop ceiling from our house, we were still young and naive. We believed that standard sized paneling would obviously go up to the existing ceiling and that we could just easily slap on some lovely, rich, crown molding and everything would be happily ever after.

Like everything else with home renovation…nope.

What actually happened was we seriously considered removing the paneling and starting from scratch. But after the nightmare of wallpaper removal and old horsehair plaster just crumbling below our fingertips, we realized that could be a little bit more trouble then we were willing to delve into. Instead, we decided to faux the hell out of that freaking molding.

For anyone who has never purchased crown molding, or who is (like I was) thinking that sheets of decorative wood couldn’t be that expensive, prepare yourselves for a rude awakening. Molding is hella expensive. Thank God I was too lazy to remove the floor molding because THAT THOUGHT CROSSED MY MIND OMG CAN YOU IMAGINE???

The Solution:

First we bought floor molding, which is a lot cheaper than crown molding, because we needed an area to hide where the paneling ends. My solution to making it less like “hey you got floor molding on your ceiling?”: I flipped it upside down. Keepin’ it real, folks.

Next we decided that we don’t know how to cut mitered corners so we bought the wood corner blocks to solve that problem. I also liked that they added a bit more detail to the otherwise cheap floor molding.

Then we had to break down and buy a beefy-enough-to-look-nice but not-so-beefy-it-costs-a-million-dollars crown molding. Wood molding was WAY out of the budget clocking in at over $2.50 per foot. That would bring the cost at hundreds of dollars for FINISHING WORK. So we found a discount place that sells composite molding. It isn’t as strong and it isn’t as nice to the touch, but guess what? When that bad boy is up and painted…who the heck knows? Amirite?

The Result:

Allelujah! Now isn’t that so much nicer?? Gosh, the effect helps give the room more of an architectural look while also camouflaging all that patchy grossness.

Now I know what you’re wondering…well, how did you do it?? I’ll tell you how!

Originally we were going to go with the same corner blocks we used on the bottom, but on the top, to avoid having to cut mitered corners. Well, the ones they sell for crown molding are ridiculously expensive. One block was around $20, times like 8 corners (inside and outside corners) for 1 room…you can see how that wasn’t going to happen for us. Instead we decided to bite the bullet and cut the damn mitered corners. With a Stanley miter box that costs like $15. Other supplies for the project included a finishing nail gun, a LOT of caulking…paint…and this youtube video:

Seriously, I would give you a step-by-step except we just did what this guy said. Dear guy, you helped us save hundreds of dollars by installing our own crown molding! You’re awesome!

What was life like before Google??

Niki

Around the House: WE’RE HOMEOWNERS!

Truth be told it hasn’t reaaaaaaaaaally sunk in. We’re working around the clock but I think once we move in furniture and actually spend the night it’ll be a huge moment. Right no we’re toiling away like “Oh this is OUR house?”…”Nah…”

We got the keys and ripped right into it. We’re DIY-ing these initial renovations (with the exception of electrical stuff and appliance installation and whatnot) but we haven’t gotten there yet. Right now it’s a lot of demo and plaster and scraping and drying to get it to a workable state.

Once we get to a point where we’re not covered in dust/paint/plaster, I’ll take some better photos. Until then, the power of Instagram!

P.S. A huge thanks to my parents who have been so awesome and supportive and right there with us scraping/spackling away. We are so appreciative that I don’t even know how to start repaying all your hard work and kind words! Since we really have no idea what we’re doing, your guidance has been a blessing and I don’t know where we’d be without it. (Actually I do know, about four days behind in progress! And since we’ve been homeowners for less than a week, that’s a pretty considerable chunk!)