A little Vanity never hurt anybody...

In the midst of the stripping nightmare that would not end, I had Dave take down two things that have been driving me cray since day one.
The first was the vanity light.

Now some people have argued with me over this thing. I've heard it's cute, fun, shabby chic, antique-ie, and lovely. But this thing.... this thing... was SO GROSS in person. Not only was it a dust collector, it was so freakin bright in the morning - I cringed every time we had to throw the switch. So I would agree, yes, it was shabby - but NO where near chic. Thankfully, it's now gone. And I get to shop for a new light. (yea!)


The other thing that drove me bonkers was the vanity cabinet. Not only was it very "country" looking, what with it's scrolly piece up top - it also opened the wrong way. That's right. It opened towards the mirror. So every morning you have to be careful not to smack yourself in the face when you are half asleep and trying to open it.

So that is gone too. I might shop for a new one eventually, but in the meantime Dave sawed off the scroll and will flip it when he installs it after we paint, so it will open the right way. It will at least buy us some time (and save us some money) in case I don't find anything I like. One thing we were curious about when we took out that vanity was the possibility of finding razor blades.

If you live in an old house you know what I am talking about!! If you don't, and you live in an old house - check this out and let me know what you find. **If you look in your bathroom vanity cabinet, there should be a little slit in the back. This is where they encouraged men to "dispose" of their razor blades after they went dull. Of course they don't actually go anywhere - they usually just pile up on a beam inside the wall. I know one of our neighbors found literally hundreds in their wall when they renovated their bathroom. Dave and I were really excited to find the same thing in ours... but alas... we had 1 lonely blade. Not too crusty either. Which makes me think that either the previous homeowner was smart enough to realize the ridiculous marketing schemes of the 40's... or maybe he just wore a really big beard.

Blank canvas.

So here are some before and after pics of the bathroom (as promised!) after all the stripping, spackeling, and sanding. When I was taking these I realized - we pretty much have a blank canvas to work with, especially considering all the white tile too. It got me thinking... maybe I should rethink the gray color scheme? Maybe we should do a really crazy color on the walls??? Or a wild patterned shower curtain and towels??? Any suggestions? This could be fun...

Here it is de-country-fied. There's a yellow hue over everything because we took that hideous make-up light fixture out and now have to use the heat lamp bulbs as a light! (Not that I am complaining... it's been pretty chilly here lately!)

I'd forgotten about those shower doors... and those matching cutains!!! I can't even imagine where you'd find curtains that were the same pattern as the wallpaper.

So sue me.

Well I forgot to bring in the camera to work so you'll just have to wait a little longer for the before and after pics.

But Dave spackled his little heart out this weekend so the walls are ready for a nice thick coat of primer. We are getting soooo close to picking a color!! (My favorite part!)

Even though I forgot the camera... I can show you the inspiration for the bathroom. Here's a picture from the Pottery Barn website...

Ok so right now my bathroom vanity looks NOTHING like this. But! Hear me out... The top of our vanity is a fake marble looking plastic (comparable to the real marble pictured here) and all of our tile is white - like the grogeous looking tile in this picture. Soooo.... I was thinking that if I paint the bottom of the vanity brown, and paint the walls a gray similar to this... I can achieve the same sort of spa-like effect. What do you think?

Dying a slow painful death...

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate wallpaper?


(OK! ok! Stop shouting. I guess I have mentioned it once or twice....... Geez!)


Well then it should come as a shock to no one that I spent 4 (...or 5... or was it 6?) agonizing days stripping the wallpaper off of the master bathroom walls and (yes) the ceiling. If you'll be so kind as to let me lament for a minute.... I tell you it was the WORST stripping job I have ever done. In both senses of the word. As in, 1.) It was the hardest wallpaper in the entire house to get off and 2.) the walls are in the worst shape in all of the house. It was so freakin stuck on there I did gouge the walls in... umm.... several places. Dave will have quite the patch job. Much like in other places in the house, the walls are not plaster nor are they drywall - they are that weird shiny white board which we found in other wallpapered rooms. Odd. And when they get really wet they start to fall apart - making stripping wallpaper nearly impossible.


Mind you I said"nearly."




Of course I did prevail and the paper is officially OFF the walls and in the garbage can!! I then did a quick wash of all the walls and am awaiting Dave's plaster phase to be over before I can start the priming and painting. (Love you honey!! ;)
Here are some pictures from the process...


The walls came done easy enough... but when it came to the ceiling it was a different story. I have a hunch that it started to peel at one point in time and they decided to squirt some super glue in there to keep it adhered to the ceiling...


Which of course created lots of fun for me, future homeowner, 30 years later. I got to strip off teeny tiny pieces of paper, one at a time. See how fun?

Long time, No post!

Ahhh..... How I've missed you, internets!

Yes it's been a long time. No I am not going to apologize.
(What can I say? We've been busy with LIFE. It happens.)

So what's been going on at the House of Wax? Oh a little of this.... a little of that. We had a great Christmas break. Dave had to work for most of it (unlike me who had almost 2 weeks off!!! Yeah that was nice) so we didn't travel this year. It was good and bad... we missed seeing all the fam, but honestly it was NICE to not have to pack anything and be able to sleep in our own bed on Christmas Eve! Santa was good to us... he left us a brand new Refrigerator for the kitchen and a fire pit for the deck. (Amazing he was able to fit all that in his sleigh ;)

I was FINALLY able to start the master bathroom project. I spent most of my vacation stripping wallpaper... and stripping wallpaper... and stripping wallpaper. (More on the exciting details of this project later.)

And last week Dave and I hopped a plane to Vegas to celebrate my downward spiral into old age. AKA my 30th birthday. It was exactly as I imagined, totally chaotic, exciting, fun, exhausting and slightly nauseating. Which I am guessing, is also how it was 30 years ago when my mom went into labor. Although there was probably less cigarette smoke in the hospital and no slot machines...

So expect some more blogs to follow... We've got a lot of ground to cover!
Happy New Year everyone!