Stop Looking At Me Swan...

Using the guest bath used to be only for the bold and brave.  Because of this big beautiful old window RIGHT NEXT TO the hot seat, doing your dirty work meant a little over sharing with anyone in our backyard. :) 

But thanks to a roll of window frosting film, picked up at Lowes, we got it covered now! :) Guests can do their business incognito. Haha. As it should be! 

This stuff is pretty simple to use and does a really nice job.  It doesn't take an expert to get good results and there's practically nothing to it supplies-wise.  You don't need fancy squeegees or window spray to apply a film like this.  All the same goes for window tinting too.  All you need is: 

1.) A plastic/credit card

2.) A soft, thin rag - like an old t-shirt 

3.) A spray bottle

4.) A drop of mild liquid soap - like baby shampoo or dish soap

5.) VERY SHARP exacto knife - a dull one will rip your film

6.) Window Film

Here's the frosting film we used. It's from Lowes and probably cost somewhere around $20.00 and there's a TON. You can do a few windows with this, I'm guessing. 

To start, you clean your window really well. DON'T USE A RAG THAT LEAVES FIBERS ON THE WINDOW.  Towels are the worst for that.  The fibers, dirt, etc will create lifted pockets under your film so your window wont look like good quality.  

Step 2 is to mix your drop of soap in with warm water in a spray bottle.  Then, prepare your "squeegee" by wrapping your old t-shirt rag around a credit card.  The rag helps keep the cards sharper edges from tearing the film and the flexibility of the card means you can easily press it up onto the window tint and squeeze out your adhering liquid.  

Step 3: Next, there are two different methods for cutting your film to size.  It just depends on your personal preference.  One is to cut your film to be roughly the size of the window you will be covering, maybe slightly larger on each side and then use the "squeegee" (read - c.card wrapped in a t-shirt) to press the film up to the edge of the window and trim off the excess.  Method #2 is to measure your window and cut the film pretty much exactly to size before applying it to the window.  Trim as necessary.  

Step 4: Spray your window with your soap/water mixture. SPRAY LIBERALLY.  Remove the backing from your film and place your film onto the window.  As long as the liquid is on the window you will be able to slide the film around into place easily.

Step 5: Once with film is pretty much where you want it, begin squeegeeing the water out from the center of the film towards the edges.  This allows the film to adhere to the window.  

Step 6: Trim excess film as necessary by carefully using the exacto knife to get as close to the window frame as possible.  Here you can see that we have VERY OLD WINDOWS with lots of uneven paint edges.  We just worked patiently to cut as close to uneven paint as possible. 

 Our window had 6 panes of glass, which meant we cut six pieces of film, instead of one large one.  On one of our panes of glass we even had a crack. Like I said about fibers causing puffy pockets under your film, a crack will do the same. So we very carefully took our exacto and cut along the crack.  This meant both parts of the window film would lay flat up to the crack. 

 Here's our crack a little more up close and personal. :) haha. 

So, if that was a confusing explanation then allow me to introduce you to the amazing John & Sherry Petersik  of Young House Love.  In this post you see photos of how they filmed their window.  And here's a great how to video play by play for window frosting. :) Happy weekend! 

1/2 Bath Revival

One of the first renovation projects in our new house was the 1/2 bath because it was the smallest space in the house.  I knew every room was destined for repainting but I started here because I was so excited to revive this dead space and start making this house feel like our own! 

It's an adorable room.  Totally charming...and  I realize that's a strange thing to say about a bathroom.  But when you open the door, the first thing you notice is how insanely TALLLLLL the ceilings are. They're GORGEOUS.  Then there's the oversize old window = so old it's worn, worn, worn, but still, it's sweetly bright and cheerful ...like an adorable old man you just want to hug. Call me crazy. :)  

  Then there's the sink. We affectionately named Big Bertha.  She's all huge and clunky and probably just as old as Mr. Fenster (that's Mr. Window to you.)  You can tell she wanted to be equally as charming as the old window and tall ceilings but she's, um, how do I say it kindly? Well, not. :(  She was probably an original. I'm just guessing here.  For that reason I'd been torn about giving her the boot.  Except she reminded me of an old gym class drinking fountain with her crusty gams down below and rusted old slits in her porcelain finish.  You can see my dilemma.  I think the previous owners even tried to spify her up a bit by giving her new sparkly hardware, but it just didn't do the trick.  In all of her awkwardness, the prettier features of the room were hardly noticeable: the updated and much nicer light fixture, aged but still perky glass shelf, super tall ceilings, and huge window.  Sorry Big Bertha, you did well but it was your time old girl.  And I'd already found a younger girl to take your place.  She was only 60 beans at Lowes.   

Here she is in all her rusty, ring-around-the-drain-hole glory. :) Ps. Take note of her legs. All 3 of 'em.

- WARNING - 

Toilet shot coming up next.  

Don't mind the off center canvas and strangely placed fake flowers in our spare TP canister.  Those were parts to a *Pinterest* project I had imagined would end up in here...but so far it's still a no go.  

On top of my BB problems were the brown and cream colors that just weren't doing anything for the space.   

See how they're not making each other look like much? Picture dead flowers. Dried, hung upside down, faded from the years and full of dust. No energy or spunk.  That mental image is what this bathroom's colors made me feel like.  Not to mention the incredibly interesting linoleum flooring that was made dingier by the too-yellowy cream wall color.  

 It took me all of .25 seconds to decide after seeing this bathroom that I wanted to paint it something HAPPY! 

  So armed with a 2 quarts of paint and an uber determined energy for transforming the space, I dove right  in.  I'd been to Home Depot and fallen in love with the earthy and cheerful colors of Martha Stewart line and since dusty teals are totally my fav, I grabbed a quart of a color called Rainwater for the upper half of the walls and Popcorn for the bottom half.  See how the color is a soft, Tiffany Box blue that really feels warm and lively but not to in-yo-face energized? :)  Let the ooo's and ahhh's commence!  I personally think it's a much better color for the space. It opens the room up, brightens it, raises the roof (woot, woot)! 

Prior to painting, I Spackled and sanded two spots on the ceiling that were cracked and uneven.  

It took me less than one hour to cut in and get the first coat up after which I stood back to admire my handiwork and was so pleased with the outcome that my giddy-meter went off the charts = ridiculousness.   Picture me thrusting my paintbrush towards the ceiling and shouting, "it's alive!!!!! Mwa-ha-ha!" And then dancing like King Julien :)  haha!

    

Because this is what painting can do! :)  

(Ok, no, the paintbrush didn't magically turn Big Bertha into a more sophisticated and sparkly version of a pedestal sink.  That was ah-la my husband on another long weekend. :)  

But can you see the magic in my wand?! Er...paint brush? 

Don't mind the art hung on the walls. It's hanging on old nails because I was too impatient to remove and spackle over those so I painted over them. :) Cheese :)  Yes, I made time to spackle the ceiling but not the art holes. :) haha. MUST HAVE NEW COLOR MORE!

Even the scary linoleum looks slightly perkier now that I painted the cream colored faux-tile surround. The original plan was to replace that faux-tile with board & batten but for the time being, other rooms needing painting takes priority over demoing cheesy wall applique. 

Home Sweet Home

I'm so charmed every time I pull up to my house.  Especially in the midst of a sunny day with birds chirping and all the delights of spring making me swoon. :)  

This is the start of month 5 living here but I still sometimes can't believe we own a house.  Friends told me that it was so much better than renting because it's yours but I didn't entirely get that until I started living here.  The freedom to renovate what we want is awesome! And there aren't any noisy neighbors that we can hear through the walls at 3am. :) 

I am super excited to see all the flowers and plants that grow in our yard this year.  We are brand new to lawn/yard maintenance so learning to care for it all will be a whole new adventure when things start popping up all over the place.  I'm sure we were supposed to cut those dead plants back that are in the bed lining the driveway but here's hoping it's still ok in spring!  

For now, I'm super happy to have those BOXWOODS (look how awesome I am-I know a plant name!!!!!) that never turned brown.  Some kind of greenery in winter is always nicer than the dead grayness most plants turn into.  Plus they were the perfect source of entertainment for the kittens since they housed tons of tiny birds that the cats could watch from the windows. :) It's been a happy home so far. Hooray!