The San Gabriel House :: the exterior

I have just about gone cukoo crazy with all these before and afters this week.  But I'm not done yet.  Here's another one for you.  

You see, while we were busy renovating the interior and backyard at the San Gabriel house, this happened.  And sadly, yes, those are our overgrown bushes and yes, that is a piece of plywood we were using as a garage door.

Remember I mentioned that we finally hired some help to do the weeding in the backyard?  Well, when they were done back there, they got busy on our pint-sized front yard.  Here's the house in its' still ghetto fabulous state, but it looks way better without all those weeds.

I can't even imagine what our neighbors thought was going on over at our place.  Here we are trying out some paint colors.  And yes; we painted the entire exterior.  BY OURSELVES.

You're probably not going to believe this, but we never did replace that plywood with a proper garage door.  Instead, we decided to let the new homeowners deal with that expense and in the meantime, we got a little crafty. My creative, superstar husband (who was still my boyfriend back then) had the brilliant idea that we should add some decorative molding to the plywood.  Again, our friend Google helped us out.  Do a search for "mid-century garages" and you'll find a ton of cool images.  This one stuck out to us and served as our inspiration.

So one afternoon, Biff did THIS.  Bam!  In my book, that man is seriously brilliant.

We painted the exterior of the house and as I mentioned in an earlier post, we also painted the aluminum window casings.  Scroll up and look at the before photo.  The black on the windows makes a huge difference.  Even though it was an enormous pain in the ass, it was cost effective and looked great.  

The San Gabriel reno taught me so much about myself.  I'm physically stronger than I ever believed and can handle more stress that I thought was humanly possible.  AND I love gardening!  Who knew?  

May I have a drum roll please?  Ta daaaaah!!  Here she is all cleaned up pretty.  I love the way the black mulch tied in with the window casings, house trim and garage molding.

I remember the day I took this photo.  The sun was just starting to go down and Biff and I had been working on the house all day.  We were so exhausted yet so excited.  Within a month, we had placed the house on the market.  It sold 6 days later.

A sweet family moved in...a husband and wife with two children and one on the way.  We've only driven by once since we moved.  We were over on that side of town and just couldn't help ourselves.  It was nice to see that they've been taking care of our little front yard.  And of course, they replaced that plywood garage door.  I imagine they've made some other upgrades inside the house too; hopefully they put in a sprinkler system in the backyard.  Watering back there was a total nightmare.  
Selling the San Gabriel house was a necessity and in a time when people were sitting on real estate for months, we know how fortunate we were to have made such a quick sale.  Moving from there broke my heart though.  Biff and I fell in love while fixing up that lil' disaster of a home; we created something amazing there and I like to say it's all that spackle and paint that is going to hold us together forever.  

Are you in love with where you live?  And if so, what is it about your home that you love so much? 

The San Gabriel House :: the backyard

Gardening is still on the brain today but instead of focusing on my new garden wall project like I should be, I'm wandering down memory lane again; this time, I'm obsessing over the dramatic before and afters of the San Gabriel house backyard.  See for yourself.  Oh...and try not to judge.

When I met Biff, the backyard looked like this.

Good Lord... Thank God we met and were friends first, because in a dating scenario, I'm not sure this type of yard is something I could've gotten past.  It's just sooooo bad, right?

Biff was digging up the back yard all by HIMSELF like a crazy person.  You can see in the second photo above, that he was making a raised 'bed'. When he wasn't working, he was digging.  Pure madness.  I finally convinced him that he needed some help and we hired a couple of young guys to weed the back yard and help with the planter.  So it went from what you see up top there...

To this.

Still awful, but much better.

All that digging worked; we had a huge planter bed that was sectioned off using railroad ties.  The idea was to have colorful greenery and plants in most of the raised bed with a small section saved for a garden.  We wanted sod for the grassy area, a clean and BLUE pool and knew that eventually we needed some sort of cover for the pool's pump and other components too.

In this photo we've just begun planting.  And you can see here that we've also painted a mossy green color on the cinder blocks surrounding the house.  We couldn't afford to replace the wall itself so this was the next best thing.  We couldn't believe how much of a difference it ultimately made.

The pool went from this scary monstrosity...


To this creepy crawly slime bucket.


Here I began to have hope though...


And when this happened, well, I almost died from happiness.  That pool was blue for miles and my heart was so full of joy I'm surprised it didn't explode right then and there.


The day the sod arrived was a good day too.

I've never been happier to wake up at 5am and work my butt off.

We worked SO hard... And it looked SO great.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

The kids were happy about it too.  Here we are jumping for joy! :)
And here's how the backyard looked when we sold the house.  Success!

Holy ground cover over-growth!  It looks like a certain "someone" was a little impatient and wanted instant gratification so that certain someone "may" have planted the ground cover a wee too close together.  Oopsy.

And before I forget, you've got to see the patio that leads out to this backyard space.  I wish I had a photo of how it looked in its' original state of disgust.  The photo below though, is how it looked shortly after I met Biff and I am telling you, a TON of progress had already been made (you can see another angle of all the yard overgrowth here too).  When he bought the house this was an enclosed patio.  Yep.  An enclosed patio with a fire pit. Say whaaaaat???


This is another great before and after. In addition to removing the roof and walls, we painted the beams black and the brick walls white.  We also continued the moss green color we used in the back yard on the cinder block walls. A pressure cleaner helped too, as did a lot of scrubbing on our hands and knees.  This porch was just off of the kitchen and den areas of the house and quickly became one of our favorite spots; we roasted s'mores with the kids and had countless dinners under the stars with friends.  And here's how the patio looked when we moved.

Divine!!  This backyard and patio makeover goes to show that absolutely anything is possible. Wait till you see what we did to the front of the house... :)

The San Gabriel House :: the living room

Yes.  I'm still obsessing over the past.  Today I'm thinking about the day my interest in decorating became my true obsession; I think of that day as the day my passion in life was realized.  It was the same day I fell head over heels in love with blogs.

It all started with a google search: "how to paint a brick fireplace".  Up to that day I hadn't really ever paid attention to blogs; I'm not even sure I knew what one was.  But on that very day,  google led me to this post from the blog Young House Love.  Here was this fun couple documenting the trials and tribulations of renovation.  Sherry & John.  We go way back.  We're buds.  Well, they don't actually know we are, but we are.  Mrs. Cham+Thom...aka...blog stalker.  I'm pretty sure that I went back to Day 1 of their blog and read every single post.  I soaked it all up; it was like I was reading a ridiculous teenage vampire novel...I couldn't stop.  I just loved reading about their journey.  It was not nearly as ridiculous as the aforementioned teenage vampire novel btw.  It was all so relatable.  So inspiring.  I was hooked.

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here.  A little backstory... Before Biff & I dated, we were friends.  He had come by my apartment a couple of times and knew I was into decorating; he said he liked the style of my place and asked if I might give him some decor pointers.  We were new friends then and with no romance in sight, my design ego was pumped.  I was happy to share my creative pearls of wisdom.

I remember the day I drove out to (what seemed like) the boonies to see the house he was renovating.  He showed me the before pictures, talked about his plans. Yep.  The living room before pictures looked just as horrifying as the rest of the place. For your reference, please see Exhibit A.

And Exhibit B.

I think he initially wanted advice on exterior paint colors...but that's a story for another day.  :)  He had done so much work already on the interior but the finishes (and the furnishings) really just didn't seem like him.  He was newly single and blossoming into this new person.  My advice?  Get rid of everything and start fresh.

Much to my surprise, he agreed and wanted my help.

I'm not sure how much time passed before our friendship actually turned into romance.  (Of course that's a total lie; in a pinch, I could probably tell you how many days, hours & seconds it was.)  When we finally did let our walls down, I knew my single days were long gone.  He was definitely the one for me.  No doubt about it. Put a fork in her; I was done, people. Who else would let me go hog wild with a paint brush?  I should tell you, he wasn't even home the day I started painting.  I texted him a photo and said, "I hope you weren't joking when you said I could paint the fireplace."  Seriously.


When he asked my thoughts about the living room, I mentioned that I thought in its' current state, that it was just too dark.  Step 1: remove those dark green velvet curtains.  Let the sun shine in!!! The walls...the furniture?  None of it seemed right to me.  Of course, we had talked about painting the fireplace.  Biff was a little on the fence about it though and I was all talk but truly, scared to death.  After all, I was only pretending to know what I was doing.  That's what led me to that fateful google search and brought me to the YHL blog.  I think it was their before & after pics and their tutorial that finally gave me the confidence to go for it.  If you ever read this Sherry & John, thank you...thank you...thank you! I'm hoping the work we did would make you proud. :)
Doesn't everyone begin major painting projects without covering their furniture or moving said furniture out of the room?  I've got to tell you, this brick soaked up a ton of primer; and at this point in the process I really had no confidence (at all) that this was going to look good.  I was terrified. There was no turning back though, so forward we marched.

A primed fireplace led to primed walls.  I knew then that it was going to be gorgeous.

Once we got the glossy white paint on the fireplace and the swiss coffee on the walls, we were golden.  The crown moulding was the icing on the cake though & spray painting the metal casing on the windows (we did this to all the windows in the house...a great trick if you can't afford to buy new windows!) was the cherry on top.  Can you believe that is the same Pottery Barn sofa that is in the before pic above?  All we did was remove the faded rust colored slip cover and this heavenly moment happened.

And here's the room as it looked when we sold the house.  A mix of vintage & modern, it was clean, bright & all-together a happy space.  The location of the house was fairly private, and this front room was somewhat separate from the rest of the living spaces.  I absolutely loved the light in there so we opted to go without window coverings.  Maybe we would've gotten some eventually, but I'm not so sure.  Don't be alarmed though; the private rooms, the ones we used daily, had window treatments. I promise.

These photos have me missing our little house in the boonies and now I am kicking myself for selling that metal desk & chair.  What was I thinking?   

The San Gabriel House :: the bathroom

Hiya, people.  I've been in creative overdrive lately and have quite a few projects I'd like to share. Before I can move forward with my newfound gung-ho diy/decor blog enthusiasm, though, I feel like I need to tie up a few things.  I know I've been a little all over the place with this here blog.  One foot in...one foot out... I've wanted to write but haven't really been sure about what I've wanted to share.

I'm still not entirely sure but, at the moment, I'm feeling inspired.  I was looking through tons of pictures last night and reminiscing about some of our old home projects.  Such good memories... We were covered in dust and dirt for months.  We had sore muscles and were operating on no sleep but we were happy as clams.  I really just don't want to forget any of it.  So bear with me as I finish documenting some of the past so I can get to the present.

I've told you a little about the San Gabriel house already.  If you're here for the first time, you can read about our den and the kitchen remodel here and here.  We didn't stop there though.  Take a look at what we did in the main bathroom.

Now I wish I had been better at documenting things back then (and now).   If only I had thought to get better "before" photos.

I really DO love wallpaper.  Even crazy funky fabulous orange flower wallpaper.  But this wallpaper was peeling all over the place and had a flocked/velvety texture.  Can you imagine all the germ-y grossness that was stuck in there???  I die at the thought of it.

So one day, this happened...

Good times...  As usual, we were on a super tight budget for this project.  We had plans to tweak and re-use the vanity but I sourced new lighting, tiles, the tub & toilet, sinks and faucets; I found almost everything on Amazon and Overstock.com.  The mirrors we ended up going with are ones I found at Home Depot for about $59 a pop.  The shower curtain is actually made of curtain panels I purchased from Cost Plus. Truly, we got amazing deals on everything.  We did spend a fair amount of money on the floor tile but it was such a small space that it didn't break the bank.

Here is my original inspiration image for the bathroom vanity.

And here is what I had to work with. Actually this is a "mid" reno photo. At this point we'd taken all the doors off and (believe it or not) cleaned it up a bit. Eventually, we built a towel shelf in that middle section, applied primer, a ton of glossy black paint and new knobs. Oh, and we purchased a piece of granite for the top; I don't think it was more than $200 though and that's on the high end.


Once the vanity was handled, things really started happening...

And when it was all said and done, we ended up with this pretty lil' number!  So bright.  So relaxing.  For under $2000 we had ourselves an almost completely brand new bathroom.

Sorry about my photo skills...  The wall color and granite were closer to what you see on the left there.  And here's a closer look at the vanity.  It really did turn out great.


And there you have it, folks.  B + B's new & improved old bathroom.  There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the process but in the end we could take a nice warm bath and it was all worth it. :)

The San Gabriel House :: the kitchen

It's no secret that I truly do love the little treehouse we currently live in.  There are days though, that I find myself pining for our old San Gabriel House. We created such a sweet home there and today I am feeling like a trip down memory lane.  Now, you've already seen the den, which was one of my favorite rooms in the house.  Let's take a look at another favorite...the kitchen!

And actually, with Halloween right around the corner, this is the perfect room to share with you.  Who needs to see monsters when you can see a scary before picture like this.  Consider yourselves warned, my lovelies...  

Feces in the cupboards?  You betcha. And yes; that yellow scrap hanging from the ceiling... that is indeed wallpaper.  (Now you don't know this about me yet, but you will soon. I actually LOVE me some wallpaper.  Just not this ugly yellow wallpaper and not hanging from my kitchen ceiling.  Oof!)

Biff took this picture of the kitchen on Day 1.  Seriously.  Can you imagine?

Wow.  It's hard to believe our pretty kitchen once looked like that.  When I met Biff the kitchen actually looked like this:

He did such a great job, didn't he? I was so proud of him. The decorator in me knew that, with some minor adjustments, we could finish what he had already started.  Here was the plan along with some of my ghetto fabulous photoshop skills:

1. Take down the country shelves.
2. Change the wall paint color & style those shelves!
3. Finish the top of this cabinet and add crown molding.  In an unforeseen twist, we did something crazy and went for BLACK crown molding in this room.  I know it might sound crazy but it was the best decision ever!
4. Remove artwork.  And to balance out this side of the room, add more shelving.
5. This table is a family heirloom and we've given it to Biff's sister for safe-keeping.  Instead, we brought in my celery-colored barn table.  The shape and color worked perfectly in the space.
6. And lastly, we needed some rugs to make things feel cozy.

Aaaaaand drum roll, please....
Can you believe this is the same space?!  Here is the kitchen with her brand new look!




I completely forgot how dramatically different the after photos are.  When I met Biff, he had already done the major reno to this room; he had redone the floors, ripped out the old kitchen and installed the new cabinets...all by himself.  God, I love that man.
All I had to do was some quick cosmetic tweaking to pull the space together.  Didn't it come together nicely? Oh to have that much counter space again...  Some day...
So, have you redone any spaces in your home?  Send me a link!  I'd love to see. 

The San Gabriel House : the den

Posting about our reupholstered furniture pieces yesterday started me sorting through photos and reminiscing about the house we renovated in San Gabriel, California.  That was such a huge project for us.  I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life.  I've heard that renovations are often the cause of problems in relationships; in our case though, it was the exact opposite.  Biff and I were new friends back then and he asked for a little help with ideas for the house.  I think, ultimately, it was the sawdust and spackle that brought us together. That, and those blue eyes of his; they slay me every time.  But that's a whole other story... :)


Over time I'll share some of my favorite rooms in the house; we redid absolutely everything, inside and out.  Aside from the kitchen though, and by the time I came along, the changes we made were almost all cosmetic.  On a penny-string budget, mind you.  Take a look at these photos of our den;  maybe you'll be inspired to start a project of your own!

By the time I met Mr. Cham+Thom, he had made a ton of progress. Here you can see the floors he put in throughout the house, and a more clear picture of that "useless nook".  As for the mustard yellow paint on the walls?   I assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with that.

When Biff and I met and I started helping him with the renovation, this bizarre little room stopped me in my tracks.  I just had no idea what to do with it.  What it's actual "function" should be.  The room was right off the kitchen so at first I figured it was meant to be a formal dining room.  But the angles were so weird???  And that nook was just wasted space??? I just didn't get it. It took quite a bit of brainstorming before we came up with the idea to make that annoying nook the actual focus point of the room.  We decided to make this room our den/family room; we would make it super cozy and put the tv in there.  Slowly but surely a plan started to come together.

I started scouring the internet for inspiration and came across these 2 images:

I feel so awful because I don't have links to give proper photo credit.  If these are yours, please let me know!


I really liked the idea of cubbies for our books.  That top photo was kind of the jumping off point but as the idea evolved we decided that adding a desk top would be great too.  We were renovating the house to put it on the market so we really tried to think like potential buyers might.  We designed the built-in's so they would be multi-functional; they could be used in a dining room as a hutch, in a den as an entertainment center, or in an office as a work surface with storage.


We bought a wood counter top from Ikea (for less than $80); once it was painted and hung at desk-height, it was perfect.  The built-ins started out as a bunch of wooden cubes.  Biff made them out of inexpensive wood and then, once we had decided on placement, he secured them to the wall.  We painted everything, added trim and then, Voila!

Here she is in all her glory!  
This just goes to show what a little creativity and some hard work can do.  Just changing the paint color and adding the crown moulding did wonders for this room; the built-in's were the icing on the cake.

This photo was taken by a professional hired by the real estate agency when we were selling the house. 
Some day I will own a better camera and know how to use fancy lenses for photos like this!!!