Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Master Bathroom: Frustrated by Fabric
Posted by Wendy

As we slowly start to tackle the less glamorous tasks in our master bathroom—like repairing cracked plaster or evicting Blanche Devereaux and the rest of the Golden Girls-inspired design choices—I find myself turning my attention to the eye candy that will some day reside in the space.

From sexy tub faucets and absurdly large rain shower heads to the perfectly glitzy vanity mirror, I've spent...ahem...years dreaming about, contemplating, researching, and in some cases purchasing the best option for our bathroom.

Sure, there have been many design hurdles along the way that have left me feeling stumped. But for the vast majority we've worked through our aesthetic angst and have pulled the trigger. After all, I've settled on the perfect claw foot faucet (not a drippy-looking nozzle in sight).

I've been hoarding a vintage claw foot tub as well as all of the faucets and hardware in our basement for years.


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Monday, September 2, 2013
Laboring Away on the Master Bathroom Closet
Posted by Wendy

Happy Labor Day to all our U.S. readers out there. We're definitely taking full advantage of the long weekend and are working to knock out a few projects in our master bathroom. Specifically, we've been devoting our time and attention this weekend to the closet in this space.

As is the case with many married couples, there's an ongoing negotiation in our home when it comes to drawer space. As Alex puts it, I take the dresser space in our bedroom and he (unwillingly) gives it. In our lone dresser, he's been relegated to just the two small drawers at the top and I've moved right into the remaining majority. 

The lack of drawer space means the floor of his closet is a generally a hot mess.

The only way I could get him to agree to this arrangement was by promising this was only a temporary solution, and when we tackled our master bathroom, we would devote a portion of the room to a large closet. 


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Whether you're a seasoned DIY veteran or someone attempting to get settled into your first apartment, I'd venture to guess we've all asked ourselves the same question: "Where do I start?" Moving into a new home and/or attempting a renovation can be a daunting process. You may not have any furniture, or maybe your furniture doesn't fit your new space, both literally and figuratively. Budgets may be tight, and let's face it, no one wants to invest a lot of money and time into a project or furnishings that they'll later regret. 

Old Town Home readers Nathan and Jenn reached out with a similar challenge, as they prepare to move into their first home: 

Hello Wendy & Alex, My fiancé, Jenn, and I have been following your blog for over a year now and we wanted to say 'Thank you' and tell you how much we love all of the renovation tips you’ve added over the years. We are huge fans of Old Town and we are currently in the process of buying our first home there! ... We were wondering if you have any advice for a couple just starting to fix an old home. Like which projects should you start first and which project you should wait on. I guess our question is: if you had to start work on your home all over again, what order would you do things in? Thanks again, Nathan & Jenn

Thinking back to the first months and even first years in our home, we dealt with this exact challenge. Here we were, in our early 20s, having invested nearly every penny into the "home of our dreams." The problem was...many of our friends and family thought it was more of a nightmare. Cracked plaster, dated bathrooms and kitchen, damaged hardwood floors, inefficient heating and cooling systems, and a general bachelor pad vibe didn't exactly scream "welcome to our beautiful home." Though we had little knowhow and even fewer funds, we possessed willingness to put in some sweat equity and we had a vision. 

The two things you really can't change about a house are its age and location. After a lengthy search, we ultimately chose our home because it's located in the historic district of Old Town Alexandria, just a stone's throw from the main shopping and dining district in town, and we also loved the elements of Victorian charm that had withstood both the test of time as well as the shoddy renovation attempts of homeowners past. 

That being said, we also lucked into a lot of our decisions. We may not have had the foresight to think through a lot of the choices we made, but in retrospect, many of these choices are ones that we'd do all over again:


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Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Finding the Will to DIY
Posted by Alex

There's nothing quite like waking up early on a Monday morning after a long weekend of nearly non-stop and labor intensive DIY work, back aching, hands sore, exhausted and trying to figure out if it's all some sort of a cruel dream and it's actually Saturday, or if the weekend is actually over, if it's actually Monday morning, actually time to go back to work, unfortunately the start of a new work week.

A quick mental check of the holidays occurs in a last ditch effort to avoid the day's responsibilities. My groggy inner dialog struggles to acquire a grasp on the fine line between real life cognition and the relaxed state of REM sleep it just departed. "President's Day? Nope, too warm out. Fourth of July? Nope, just had that. Labor Day? Wait, is it? Ahh crap, that's next week."

As I begrudgingly dragged my tired body from the bed I thought back on all I had accomplished over the weekend, which competed at the forefront of my mind with thoughts of feeble frailty as my stiff feet hit the ground feeling like brittle glass, an agonizing reminder that I'm not the 25 year old kid that bought this fixer upper more than a decade earlier. Coaxing my not-a-spring-chicken body into the vertical and upright position I gingerly waddled towards the shower, knocking the cobwebs from my brain as I started to plan out my day.

Shower, bus to work, work on a blog post on the way into the office. I usually write better in the morning after a restful night's sleep, but not this morning, too tired, too lazy, too old. When I get into the office I'm met with the usual, meeting, meeting, meeting, lunch at the food trucks...

...a vegan tofu based sloppy joe on this fine day...then a meeting, another meeting... and a meeting...grrrr. Once free from the shackles of my day job I hop the bus on the way back home and start thinking about all I'd like to accomplish in the evening. Mentally arranging my to do list I'm like a little kid who is planning the order in which he'll eat the bounty of candy after a successful trick or treating venture, ready to devour the entire bucket, but knowing full well his stomach is far too small for all of his plans.


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Monday, August 26, 2013
The Siding Project: My Low Point
Posted by Wendy

There I sat, in the middle of the kitchen floor, just one day after a whole host of friends had shown up to assist us on our siding project. We were physically exhausted from the day prior, and emotionally exhausted from the idea that we only completed the lower half of the large wall through all of our physically exhausting efforts. Alex had stayed on the scaffolding until the wee hours, trying his best to put us just an inch further in our project, but even he has limits on the effort he can safely exert.

So there I sat. One day later. No hopes of the coming calvary that had been our saviors the day before, no delusions that this project was going to get easier as the scaffolding got higher, and no desire whatsoever on my part to be the person that was going to climb up and down the scaffolding to help my less-afraid-of-heights-spouse install the remaining siding.

So there I sat. Dreading the day, dreading the work, dreading what was to come.

So there I sat, in the middle of our kitchen floor, as Alex prepared all of the tools and supplies to put in another day outside on the scaffolding.

So there I cried, as I sat, in the middle of the kitchen floor, overwhelmed and exhausted, not sure how I was going to get through the day.


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