Rocks in the Dryer

Today Started with Dog Vomit

It's a been a crazy few weeks:  vacation ended, school started, there has been carnage, the emergency room has been visited more than once.  I have been chasing the ever elusive normal.  I thought today was going to be my day and then....

Our sweet new doggy Vince saw his chance at a popsicle yesterday and took it.  When he saw me coming to end his pleasure he did what any 70lb labrador would do, he swallowed it whole.  Stick and all, he swallowed the whole darn thing.  I nearly fainted.

I spent a good part of my evening reading links produced by the google search: "My labrador swallowed a popsicle stick whole".  There was a surprising amount of content, apparently large labradors all over this fine country respond the way Vince did to a popsicle slipping out of the hands of babes.  It came clear there were about 3 scenarios that were going to play out for me and my new companion: 

1.  We were going to do some major diet modifications that would eventually result in the production of a "poop-sicle".  I wasn't exited about this option, aside from the fact that I didn't see how in the world that was possible.   I was ready for the task, I didn't get the chance to ask Vince what he thought, but I went ahead and made a large pot of white rice in preparation.

2.  This is the option that kept me awake most of the night.  The stick would get stuck somewhere inside and need to be surgically removed.  Need I express the reasons why I was not interested in this option?

3.  Popsicle stick might reappear via vomit in the first 24 hours.

Voila!  I have never been so excited to see dog vomit in all of my days.  Dog vomit with a popsicle stick on top, was far better than the proverbial icing on the cake.  I nearly cried tears of joy.  The boys and I ran around the house dancing and singing in honor of our four legged friend.  It was true a celebration.

So that was it.  A little dog vomit and a couple loads of laundry.  When dogs vomit in my house they always do it in my children's beds - se la vie - better than ruining the carpets, and let's be honest, worse things have happened in their little set of twins.

If anything has happened to me in the last few weeks it is certainly that I am learning to not panic in times of unforeseen stress, emergency.....whatever you wanna call them.  A deep breath and little google search is (sometimes) all you need. 

 

Newton Staging Gig: Mud Room Reveal

This one is my favorite.  When I started working for these clients my first visit to their home was an overview, consultation.  My number one recommendation was to significantly alter the side entrance.  The previous owner [I now know to be named Guido . . . more later] had made some vicious assaults on this house.  Fixing what he did to the side entry was job #1.  Guido crammed a stack-able washer and dryer in the side entry.  Not only did this make for the most dis-functional laundry room possible, it also provided a seriously pathetic entry.  We moved the laundry to the basement, where it rightfully belongs, and I suspect, was originally located.  This left us the ability to create a functional, sunny and welcoming entry.

Below is the only "before " photo I have of the space.  I am grateful for it, and know why I didn't take others.  The little space was so small that I would have just been taking a full frontal of a stack-able washer and dryer, not so inspiring.  Doesn't the old kitchen color make you want to vomit?

 

As I have been swiftly going through this house "de-Guido-ing" I have come to a realization that this man clearly chose paint colors based upon what was returned to the mix mistake section at Home Depot.  There is simply no other excuse for the vicious injustice he inflicted upon this sweet old home.  Luckily we have yet to find anything he did that we can not fix.

I love this room because we found it, discovered it, uncovered it.  We fixed a problem that not only significantly alters the way the current homeowners can enjoy their home now, but also adds two big pluses for when it comes time to sell (making the Realtor on the job very happy).  This home now has a beautiful, mudroom entrance AND a large functioning laundry room (details on that to come . . .).  It is staging on steroids.

Newton Staging Gig: Master Bedroom Reveal

I blamed my blogging absence over the past three weeks on a self mandated mini-retirement.  That was partially true.  I did retire for a week and a half.  Halfway into the second week my staging client e-mailed that she is expecting some out of town guests and could we finish a couple more rooms.  One look at the calendar and I realized with school about to be out, I better take advantage of time.  Yes, was the obvious reply.  For two weeks Miss Anna and I have been implementing the plans that had been long stored in our brains.

1st on the list, Master Bedroom.  I don't have photos of the full reveal, we are lacking a few bits which I will share as a learning experience, but first enjoy this little sneak peak:

 

I'll start with why this room isn't finished . . . .  [A] Someone had difficulty counting (store staff) and we were very short on drapery rings.  [B] There is an inset window & window seat, the window treatment was not ready in time.  [C] Skirted bedside table arrived with wrong size skirt. 

--For the record I am uttering curse words at the end of each of these line items - but sparing you my potty mouth --

Finally - there was a bit of an issue with the bed placement.  This is a new location for the bed.  Unfortunately we discovered there is an air vent directly over the new spot that was keeping the homeowners from sleeping.  They wanted to move the bed back to the old spot, can't really blame them.   I think bed placement in a room is the most important piece of the puzzle and so I had myself a problem.  A problem I was determined to fix.  I found these little contraptions that may have saved the bed placement crises, all for $5.95.   Nifty.  I do like to get my way.

To continue the list above, [D] Since there is a chance we may move the bed I chose to not hang any of the art.  The walls are looking un-photogenically bare.

That was a load of words to simply explain why you can't see the rest of the room . . . . yet.

Wanna see what it used to look like?

Master of what? 

I want to say this about my clients.  I have gained a growing respect for them.  Unlike the vast majority of Americans, these people are not "consumers".  They have not fallen prey to the consumer culture the rest of us have been busy building. They don't fit the average.  They save, not spend and I think there is volumes to be said for that.  In the end, they will "win".  I just think they realized they needed to stoop to the national average a bit.  This space was not a happy place to be living and they could feel it. Just couldn't fix it on their own. 

It has been nothing short of an honor to help and pretend that I am some sort of expert on living.  I am almost ashamed at how well I shop.  We all have our place in this world, might as well own it.  I will fluff their nest. They, both scientists in drug development, will stay focused curing the worlds diseases and hopefully sleep a little bit better at night under my watchful eye.  It takes a village.

Newton Staging Gig: Basement Reveal

I must keep this short and sweet and rather hate to post it yet because it is not perfectly perfectly done... but I guess it's done enough to show off. 

The basement, in my humble opinion was a grotesquely under utilized space in this home.  The owners were using it mostly as a guest room and workout room.  For staging purposes Miss Anna and I agreed we had to make it into a playroom or family room.  It's a full finished walkout basement and is a big bright space (with full bath) that needed to be of more use.

Here is where we landed:

Every blooming item in this room (aside from the rug & TV) is from IKEA.  It was a feat of human strength and cunning, but I actually only made one trip and fit it all in my car.  Amazing.  The owners actually do use their elliptical trainer so we had to keep it in the room, honestly it was the starting point for the design and color scheme. 

This is where we started:

eeeeeewwwwww! 

One of the grandest parts of this this job has been the oh so rewarding "before and after" opportunities.  So glad to see all of that foolishness gone, gone, gone!

There was  a recent comment on a previous post about this job: "Is this really a staging job?"  The answer is, it is and it isn't.  This family was considering moving and hired Metro Boston Realtor, Miss Anna, who determined at the time that the house would need some staging before they could put it on the market.  Together we met with the owners to discuss our recommendations of improvements and when the list presented they decided the "staging" would accomplish much of what they thought a new home would.

So we are staging, but for them to continue living there, all with re-sale in mind.  The family now plans to live in the house for two more years, enjoy their new "digs" (thanks Miss Anna for the lingo") and then move on to greener pastures.

A few more rooms to go and I will rest my weary head.

The In-Laws are Coming!

This is going to be some week. 

The owner of the home Miss Anna and I are staging is expecting her in-laws.   She wants a few more rooms done before they arrive... Friday.  Hold on to your credit cards everyone, there's much to do.  I am laying this out for a couple of reasons: 

1.  I expect to be missing in action for a few days.

2.  If I were a sassy big time blogger I would have archived posts ready and waiting to entertain you, but I don't.  It is nothing but "real time" here at rocks in the dryer, and I have to face the facts; there are just so many hours in the day.

I hope to have some fantabulous posts, maybe this week, maybe not.  Rest assured I am working my un-manicured fingers to the bone for a worthy cause.  I look forward to finishing ahead of schedule and having all sorts of master mind strokes of genius to share soon. 

I am missing you already.

Newton Staging Gig: Boys Bedroom #2 Reveal

We just finished up the older brother's bedroom from the Newton staging job today. Ever get the feeling it looks too good?  Did we go too far?  This room is a prime example of every little thing just falling nicely into place.  Don't know about anyone else, but I LOVE IT!

I have to start with the "after" photo, for the sake of making my post look all pretty (so selfish) the before will follow.

The boy who lives in this bedroom is 9 years old and the only design direction he gave was was that he loves airplanes.   A solid starting point.  We took that wish and, I think, made it come true.

Let's start with the basics:  This, again as far as materials go, was not an overly expensive room.  

• Wall paint is Texas Sage by Benjamin Moore

• All of the bedding is from Target or IKEA respectively  (quilt & sham, toss pillow, comforter and shams)

• The new desk, also from Target

• Lamps and other accessories again, Target and IKEA  (couldn't find on site)

• Rug from Ikea

• Bamboo roman shades and simple black curtain rods from Home Depot

• Wool pinstripe curtains from Sierra Trading (we hemmed them and got rid of big grommets)

• Camo accent fabric (bed skirt, message board and desk chair seat)  Denver Fabrics

• Vintage Airplane Ads Betty and June  (if you don't see the subject matter you need in their shop - convo them - they have loads that are not listed)

• Frames from Frame USA  (I bought in quantity for another job as well - $50 order and you get wholesale price.)

• Wall Decals from Etsy 

• Shelves and bedside table belonged to the owner (we stole from other rooms of the house and spray painted)

• Model Airplane from Home Goods

• Headboard and desk chair from Craig's list and estate sale:  painted

Total for Materials was right about $1300, but let's face it we were starting from scratch.

Here how it went down.  The room looked like this:

The "brass" bed from Craig's list looked like this:

 

The estate sale chair looked like this:  (actually it looked worse, I painted it red for another project and then didn't use it.  It went to black for this job.)

Little bit of sewing, stapling, painting, primping, fluffing, folding, installing and it all looked like this in the end:

 

Sweet and high flying dreams for this little boy, I should think.  I love the word "done".

Newton Staging Gig: Boys Bedroom Reveal

It's done.  Went by yesterday to deliver the final pieces of bedding and take a quick snap shot.  All involved parties are pleased with the results.

The important distinction between staging and decorating is that when staging the #1 goal is to make the home and its rooms palatable to many tastes, clean, fresh and translatable. Getting the home ready to sell quickly and for a great price while keeping the spending low is the objective. 

This room was fun and easy in that we really got to start from scratch.  We stole the bed from the older brother's room (next on the list to stage) and spray painted it with Krylon Regal Blue.  The rug too was borrowed from said brother's room.  Our plan was to get a new rug from FLOR, but we ran through our budget rather swiftly so we were pleased to re-purpose a rug in the house.

The Alphabet cards and existing window coverings were the starting point.  We used one set each of the ABC's and 123's to span two walls.  The parents are both scientists so with all of the millions of flashcard options out there - these were a no brain-er (sorry, bad yet unavoidable pun).

Needed bureau and storage.  Straight to IKEA to score a LACK bookshelf in red and MALM bureau in white.

My favorite part is the bedding (and it was the biggest splurge, there needs to be 1 right?):

I am exercising all of my restraint to not get it for my own boys.  City Stripe jersey sheets from Garnet Hill, Red duvet from Company Store and cozy lime green blanket and matching toss pillow from Target.  Perfect.  Finally a few accessories:  (lamp also from Ikea, Bean Bag Chair from Target, and some framed art)

The print is from Barefoot Books (they used make frame-able artist prints from their book artwork, though currently out of stock) the frame is from Frame USA.

Wall color is Benjamin Moore, Bleaker Beige.

So if this were a staging TV show, as my kids thought it was, the total for staging this room would be $773.   On TV they never take into account the time and labor of the worker people, it's the cost of materials and supplies.   Not bad for what I think is a super duper cute and easy to implement room.

What would a re-do be with out a before photo?  I am ashamed of the quality of this photo and promise to do a better job at my before photography in the future - that is surely what makes for some good fun.  This one is all blurry, taken on a phone. . . . .

you get the drift, job well done and I'm off to submit my resume to "Designed to Sell".