Before and After Bedroom Update!

Today I entered a contest on Design Sponge (my favorite blog). They asked for people to submit pictures of a space they have transformed using primarily paint. Well, as it turns out, the small bedroom in my apartment was recently transformed! I figured I would post it on here. Levi's always reminding me to take before pictures, I just tear around this place with project after project and never document anything :)

Early this spring Levi and I decided to move our bedroom from the larger room in our apartment to the smaller one. The larger one would have more room for our outdoor and crafts/sewing gear, and the smaller one would stay warmer for sleeping in this leaky place with original 1920s windows right on Lake Washington! We removed some shelves which appeared to have been in place for a LONG time! The paint was a gross yellowish white and room is very small. Somehow the white walls and ceiling made it feel even smaller. After living with  it for awhile I finally took the plunge and we dedicated a Sunday to painting the walls dark grey, valspar in hematite. My headboard was a craiglist find that I painted with Miss Mustard seed's milk paint. I wasn't sure how the paint would take on this feaux wood headboard but it ended up with the perfect crackle finish. I was eying wall lamps but couldn't find just the right thing in my price range, so I was excited to find these wall lamps in the clearance section at Crate and Barrel. They were different colors, one was a nickel finish and the other an aged bronze. I spray painted them with a primer and then Krylon gold spray paint. I was scared I would ruin them with spray paint but the finish turned out wonderfully! The side tables are a thrift store find, marble with wood legs. I just love how the room turned out, it feels like a fancy hotel. 

Before, the lamps without their shades.

Awesome 70s headboard from craigslist. I rode a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula for this baby. I was post-call. I looked down at my shirt mid-ferry ride and it was inside out and backwards. Ahh... residency.

Levi makes me tape everything, I am usually just too lazy and paint without it!

More before

AFTER

Cute matching marble bedside tables found at Value Village!

I made this corkboard from an old frame i got at a yardsale. There is a matching one in the other room. You can really see how much higher the paint makes the ceiling look in this picture!

My favorite thing is walking up the stairs and peeping into the room to see the small painting of Machu Picchu we got in Peru. A special trip where we got engaged in Lima.

More pics of the house

Welp.. we have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately Levi's in Alaska, I'm finishing residency, and we're still waiting on our building loan. So the house is just sitting there until we get to Paducah in August. Its currently very awkwardly divided up into two apartments. We plan on restoring it to a single family home. The front entrance will be where it was originally intended at those white panels. We plan on gutting everything! Down to studs and re-insulating everything. This will be Levi's fulltime job for a few months until we get settled.

 Looking up at this mess

 Downstairs sunroom

 Twin brick houses across the street. The one on the left is for sale. Anyone?????

 Down stairs fireplace. Not loving the mantle but the windows are amazing.

 Pocket doors.

 Dining room. I'm thinking some fancy plaster crown molding. Levi is thinking I am crazy.

 Downstairs BR. Future foyer. This closet is a hidden doorway to the living room. What were they thinking?

 stairwell

 Downstairs room, future library. Love the transoms.

 Downstairs kitchen with laundry. Gross. Everything getting ripped out.

 Upstairs guest BR leading to sunporch

 Upstairs sunporch. The light!

 Lovely ladies! Gan gan and aunt Kathy checking things out for me.

 Tall skinny doors from upstairs sunporch to guest BR

 Upstairs mantle

 Upstairs floors are in fantastic condition, you can see the square pattern that gets smaller and smaller until the middle.

 Upstairs kitchen

 Upstairs kitchen. The future site of the master bath.

 Stairwell. Look at that TALL window. To the right is an awkward addition taking up headspace so the upstairs BR could have a closet. That will be coming out.

 Attic. There is hardwood under that beautiful carpet. Thinking of replacing the white gross textured stuff with white planks, thoughts?

 One of my fave rooms. Upstairs living room. Big windows. Love.

 Backyard, HUGE by seattle standards.

 Back deck. Gross siding will be replaced. Thinking of tearing down this whole thing and starting over on the deck.

And a pic of my new ring since most haven't seen it. Love!

1630 Jefferson

   We were driving down Jefferson on one of my “hey I’m visiting Paducah for a few days lets visit everywhere and go downtown” trips when I lived in Seattle. It was September, I was in my last year of residency and pondering what came next. We parked to peek at the two twin brick houses across the street when it caught my eye.
   Grey brick, beautiful, with a large sunroom on both the first and second level, an old slate roof, all covered in ivy so thick it was like it was trying to hide. How had I never noticed this before?! Many broken windows and chipped paint gave away the fact that this house had not been well kept. This was about 2 1/2 years after I searched every fabric shop in Seattle, and ended up spending a fortune on  the perfect grey and white fabric to recover my 10$ craigslist wingback. Grey is my favorite, and it was before grey was everyone’s favorite. This house had to be mine. I had a feeling.
    Mom and I investigated and saw a sign about no trespassing, some real estate company or bank was in charge of maintenance, and to email for more info. A neighbor reported the house had been empty for several years after the owner had died, and she wished someone would fix it.
   Later we had dinner at my sister’s house, who along with her husband restored a house 3 blocks away. I mentioned the house, and we decided it was necessary to take a post-dinner family stroll. So of course a big huge caravan of us walk over to see it. And of course Kyle tries the door. And of course the door is unlocked. And of course we all go in.
   Did I mention this was after dinner? As in dusk?
What a beautiful house! The outside belies its interior. Hardwood floors, tall ceilings, ginormous windows, we wandered around in the fading light until we bumped into each other.  The upstairs was better kept and it had kitchens on each floor, having been divided into apartments. Kyle peeped into the attic and noticed pizza boxes, and we worried we were not alone. One final glance and we were out before it got too dark.
   It wasn’t until 6 months later, in Peru of all places, after deciding on taking a job in Kentucky, after Levi proposed, that the house popped back up in my thoughts. Wedding blogs were too overwhelming. So many decisions! The date, the place, the dress! Ahh. I decided to do a quick real estate search in Paducah. The colonial architecture in Peru had me inspired to consider a spanish style house in the Fountain Ave district, and I had been poring over the pictures, when I noticed my grey house! What? On the market? Foreclosed? Asking a ridiculously low amount?
   Within two days we had our offer in. It was crazy! Levi hadn’t even seen it! I had only seen it that once in the dark. The process wasn’t without its stressors, as there were other buyers interested and multiple offers were placed, but in the end it was ours!

1630 Jefferson in Sep 2012, when I first noticed it.

Well, this has been my week.


Working nights at harborview in the summer is always a fun time. Trauma trauma trauma!

But actually it has been a really great week. Turns out I was the only person in the OR on Wednesday who knew what the difference between a racewalk and a run is (toe and heel must be touching the ground at the same time.) Thank you third grade spring sports day. I actually placed in the city wide competition for racewalk!

And now that I'm in my last year of residency (omg. Like OMG!) the attendings give me a pretty long leash. Which is fun and, um, terrifying all at once. But mostly fun.

And best of all this week, the lovely Blue Angels have been practicing their jetting around the seattle skies. Daily. LOUDLY. While I am sleeping. Praise sweet baby Jesus for earplugs.

This weekend my friends mike and Eileen are coming to town for 9 days. And my friend pavan. I am so excited!














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I got a new iphone app that will make your pics look old fashioned. This is Alki Beach in seattle.

This is Pine St. in Capitol Hill. Its hard to tell in this picture, but that sign says P Town which is what my friends always call Paducah! Its actually Stumptown coffee but the way the words are wrapped around the sign, it says Ptown on this side.

A beautiful view of Mt. Ranier from Mt Si, which I hiked two days ago. See more details below.

The Jackson ladies in front of the Jackson grocery!


As part of my late birthday celebration my friend Sapna and I went out on the town all dressed up with mustaches on. The funniest part is that hardly anyone in Capitol Hill gave us a second look. I guess they are used to that sort of thing around here.

Sunday I hiked Mt Si, its one of the more popular hikes close to Seattle. It had a beautiful view of Mt Rainier, I wish it showed up better in this picture. However, the hike down was quite strange. Apparently it is very popular to hike up a trail and run down. I was almost run over several times by large groups that sounded as loud as a pack of horses stomping down the mountain.



Some people were feeding the birds and I was snapping pictures. I got this one pretty much by accident. Its quite possible my favorite picture that I've ever taken.