"Grow Your Blog Party" - 2014

First, I want to thank Vicki @ 2 Bags Full for putting together this amazing meet and greet "Grow Your Blog" party.  This is my first time participating in this party, so I am not sure what to expect.  I  always enjoy a chance to meet new bloggers with similar interests, I can't wait to go visiting.

If you are here for the first time, I am so glad your are here.  My name is Sherry and I started this blog in October of 2010 on a whim and to bring viewers to my Etsy store.   I love painting furniture, figuring out how to create whatever comes to my mind, working with shells and anything I can get my hands on.  Our family moved to the worst house on the best block back in 2008.  We had lots of fixing up to do in our new house and little by little we were tackling our list of projects to do.  Then came Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and wiped us out and all along the eastern coast.  We live 2 blocks away from the ocean and 2 blocks away from the bay, we are surrounded by water, ordinarily which we truly enjoy.  However, we didn't stand a chance when it came to a super storm Sandy, you can read about it here and throughout my previous posts.  Almost everything we owned was destroyed and thrown out to the curb.  Our home had to be rebuild, the structure was compromised by the water filling up 10 feet from basement to our first floor.  The wind and water knocked down our exterior wall and foundation, all but the bedrooms had to be rebuilt.  For us, this was almost a blessing in disguise.  Looking at the bright side, our house really needed this renovation and the upgrade. We are doing just that and making sure not to settle for anything less than what we want to see in our home.   Coincidently, we are finally moving back in our house this weekend after being out of our house for 15 months.  We are thrilled!

I'll be showing all the changes made throughout the house as I go along.  I hope you join me and follow along my journey of rebuilding after Sandy.

I want to thank everyone who stopped by and joined, I will be visiting as many as I can also.
If you are a new follower, please let me know and I will follow you back.

Completed Bathroom renovation

We are finally finished with our master bathroom and I love the way it turned out!  I still have odds and ends to do like the shower doors, mirror and towel bar, but everything else is completed.

Tiles inside the shower wall has a beautiful smooth wavy texture to it, looks like water dripping down.

 I love the idea of double sinks in a master bathroom.

 There is a seamless transition into the shower… The entire floor in the bathroom is waterproofed with a rubber membrane and cement.  

Here are some of my resources:

Tile is from: Italian Tile NYC - Ona Natural Porcelanosa tile
Vanity from: DecorPlanet
Toilet from: Homeclick -  Toto 

What do you think?  Do you like the way it looks?

Linking this post to:
Elizabeth & Co. - Be Inspired Features and Linky Party #102

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
The diy dreamer - From dream to reality
Chic on a shoestring decorating - Flaunt it Friday

Choosing the right wood flooring

We are coming down to the final stages of our home renovation before we move back.  Don't get me wrong, we are not nearly finished with the renovations, we still have another bathroom to do,  install moldings throughout the house , more painting, staining the stairs, change skylights, add radiant heating under the floors and lots more.  But,  we can't wait for everything to be completed before we move back in, my children are desperate to go back home after over a year of being away from their friends and home.  So, we decided that if we have to sacrifice living in our temporary housing with makeshift furniture and other temporary accommodations, we can sacrifice in our home with all of us using one bathroom and some renovations continuing while we are there.  With that said, we are almost finish with installing the new wood flooring.  I am so in love with this floor, I get so giddy when I see them… Is it possible to actually be in love with flooring?

We had bit of a tough decision to make when it came to choosing the right floor for us.  One thing we knew was that we needed very durable and forgiving floors.  We have a 140 pound black lab mix with great dane (possibly) four legged family member that loves to buck around the house thinking he's a "black stallion" when he gets excited.  We have kids in and out of our house all the time, which I love! The floor was going to run through the kitchen also, so it had to be able to handle spills.  Another issue was that we eliminated the radiators on the first floor and are adding radiant heating throughout, floors would have to be durable enough to withstand heat.  I will post about how we install the radiant heating when it is completed.  Along with durability, we wanted style too.  A few people suggested that we tile the floors, especially living by the beach we can control the sand easier and also the radiant heat will not effect the tile floor.  Although, it probably makes sense to tile and there are beautiful tile that looks like wood too out there, I just can't get past the cold feeling it gives a space.  I always loved wood floors and I feel the main living space should have the warm look of wood, if it is possible.  So we went in search of the perfect wood floors with all the requirements in hand.

What we learned that we needed or not needed was:
- We shouldn't have smooth shiny floors with our stallion.
- We wanted to have a hand scraped, wire brushed finish.
- Regular hardwood flooring should not be used over radiant heating.  The wood will expand and contract too much with the heat under the floor.
- Wood such as Quarter Sawn oak can be used over radiant heat. It is not prone to twisting, warping or cupping at the edges after time as much.  This is because of the way the wood is cut from the log to make the flooring.  The Quarter Sawn wood expands top to bottom instead of side to side like regular wood flooring.

 Even though, Quarter Sawn oak can be used over radiant heating they are not recommended as much as Engineered wood flooring.   I was opposed to engineered wood floors at first, I thought they were fake and if in the future I wanted to refinish the floors, I wouldn't be able to.  Until, I saw Alta Vista Hardwood from Hallmark Hardwoods.  Oh,  the grain, the color, the 7 1/2" wide plank, wire brush, hand scraped, uneven cuts of planks, it was love at first sight!  These floors were perfect, they met every criteria I had. They are made with real wood that can be refinished up to 4 times like  the regular wood flooring, (not that I would probably refinish once).  We ordered 1200 sq. ft. of this beauty.  Our supplier recommended that we use glue and nail method for our situation.  That is what we did to ensure we get the right results and we don't have trouble down the road.

I love the knots, the grain and the unevenness of the floor.

Livingroom is done… It's hard to see the floor when they are covered with saw dust.

Looking good!

I'll be showing the completed and cleaned floor very soon.

What do you think about these floors, minus the dirt? I would love to hear your opinion on these type of flooring.

Thank you for stopping by!

Tutorial - Coffee filter wreath

I love seeing a wreath on a front door, it give a little charm and shows a bit of personality before you enter the house.  My wreaths are usually made out of seashells like these…

But, this time I decided to make this very popular coffee filter wreath.  My friend had mentioned to me how much she like these wreaths, so I decided to make one for her as a Christmas gift.

Here is what I used:

- Styrofoam wreath
- 2 pks of coffee filters (I only ended up using one and a half)
- Glue gun

Excuse the shoddy pictures with the bad lighting… I am still learning how to use my camera.

I folded the filter in half and glued it to the styrofoam mold.

Just continue gluing all of the around the styrofoam and cover all the exposed areas with the filters.

 It is that simple!

 Of course I have to add some sealife somewhere… I wrapped a burlap ribbon loosely around the wreath to hang, and glued on some starfish to give it that beachy feel.

I just love the way it turned out!

Isn't that so pretty?  I think I am going to make one for myself too!

Linking this post to:

Jennifer Rizzo - Fabulously Creative Friday
Common ground - Be inspired
French Cottage - Feathered nest Friday
Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday
My romantic home - Show and tell Friday
No minimilist here - Open house blog party
Nancherrow.com -Fridays unfolded
By Stephanie lynn - Sunday show case party

Thanks for stopping by!

Espresso, Latte or Cappuccino?

When my husband was renovating our friends basement they would have a cup of cappuccino ready for him every morning.  They had just bought a Nespresso machine, so my husband got spoiled with cappuccinos in the morning and Latte in the afternoon.  Whether it is a cappuccino, latte or espresso, this machine can make it delicious!

Now that the basement is completed, we all go and sip a delicious hot beverage of our liking from this amazing nespresso machine.  I am not too fond of espresso, it's too strong for me, but the latte and cappuccino, yum!

Lattissima Plus Espresso Machine

My husband's birthday is coming up in March, I think I know what we're he's getting for his birthday.

Thanks for stopping by!

I am an affiliate for Nespresso Machines.  However, the opinion regarding this machine is based on my own experience.

BRRRR It's cold out there!

It is days like this I wish I lived in a warm tropical climate.  It is frigid here in New York, the temperature is going down below zero... its one of those days where you don't go out unless it is absolutely necessary.

I'm just going to curl up with a nice hot cup of coffee and daydream about some of these beautiful spaces.

Transitional Living Room by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Martha O'Hara Interiors

Traditional Living Room by Santa Ana Interior Designers & Decorators Darci Goodman Design

Modern Living Room by Miami Interior Designers & Decorators DKOR Interiors Inc.- Interior Designers Miami, FL

Beach Style Living Room by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Martha O'Hara Interiors

Traditional Dining Room by New York Interior Designers & Decorators EB Designs

Eclectic Living Room by Chicago Interior Designers & Decorators Summer Thornton Design, Inc

Traditional Living Room by East Islip General Contractors James Traynor Custom Homes

Traditional Dining Room by Costa Mesa Architects & Designers Brandon Architects, Inc.

Beach Style Living Room by Palm Beach Gardens Interior Designers & Decorators The Decorators Unlimited

Beach Style Kitchen by Winter Park Interior Designers & Decorators Masterpiece Design Group

There is something I love about each of these spaces, aren't they beautiful?

Good year ahead!

This past year has been a year of mayhem for us.  Rebuilding our house after hurricane Sandy has been a drawn out and exhausting undertake, you can see here and here.  It started off by having to replace the first floor flooring and four feet up the sheetrock from the water damage to almost rebuilding the entire house.  This was something we never had imagined doing, but here we are over a year later substantial amount of rebuilding was done.  On the brighter side, the house has gained a new facelift, updates and the house has been structurally secured.  Major projects that we were "one day" going to do was stepped up and now nearing the end.  We are still not back in the house, yet hope to move back in a few weeks.

Here is the update on the master bathroom, the tiling is complete and the walls have been painted.  Fixtures will be put into place hopefully today and the bathroom will soon be functional.  

No project ever goes smoothly for us, there is always some sort of drama.  My sister had somehow ended up with two vanities when she remodeled her bathroom, she didn't know what to do with the extra vanity so she stored it away and forgot about it.  When I started complaining to her that I couldn't find a vanity I like for the bathroom, she realized she had this beautiful vanity stored away.  It was perfect for my contemporary bathroom except for a slight glitch, it had double sinks and we had already put in the plumbing for a single sink and had tiled the walls.  

So, now we have to attach two drains which will filter into one and try to reconfigure the drawers without loosing much of storage space.  I'll show how this gets done soon.

Meanwhile, Inspector Ringo is very happy and approve of the new bathroom's progress.  Unfortunately, he is not going to be so happy when he finds out that he will be taking his showers in their, he hates getting washed!

Check list of things to do:
       
          - Finish installing the fixtures
          - Get towel bar
          - Buy mirror
          - Install sconces
          - Find and buy light fixtures

Well, off  to Homegoods to find a mirror, they have a great selection of mirrors.

I hope to show you the completed bathroom very soon, hope you come back and check it out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!  Wish all a very happy, healthy, productive and prosperous New Year!  

Here are a few sayings that I am inspired by for the year 2014…

Love these inspiring quotes.

Thank you all for stopping by!