Mystery Room

Have you ever wondered where this door led to?



Come a little closer and let me show you.
It leads to THIS door, which is the one we come in and out of everyday...



And this door is located in...




OUR LAUNDRY/MUDROOM!
Congratulations STAHL FAMILY and ANNELIES DEASE!
You both guessed the correct room. :-)
Email me your mailing addresses at LaylaPalmer@aol.com and I'll send you a surprise!

The floor was a really ugly ceramic tile, and hadn't been properly sealed, so the grout was badly stained. Kevin installed the same flooring in here, that he put in the rest of the cottage...it looks SO much better now, don't ya think?





I painted half the room "Natural Choice"
(the same color that's in our Living Room).



I still have to paint this side of the room...



...and figure out what to put in those frames.
(IF I decide to keep them there)

I may have kept the green color, but whoever painted it did a horrible job. It looked like some spots had two coats, while others had one.
So I just decided to go with something I already had to save a little dough.

I have BIG plans for this little space too, and I'll post more photos of my progress tomorrow!

:-)
Layla

Room Reveal and a Contest!

Hey there!

Tomorrow I am going to reveal a room in our cottage that you have never seen before.
Kevin and I have just started to remodel it, and I'm excited to post some Before and During photos of it here on my blog.
Can you guess which room it will be?
Only ONE guess per comment...the first five people to guess correctly win surprises in their mailboxes!

:-)
Layla

PS...Oh, and if you guess bathroom, you must state WHICH bathroom...Master, or Guest.

Living Room - During the Painting Stage

One of the most time consuming, yet gratifying, things I've ever done was paint the Living Room in this little cottage we call home.

I started with walls like this in my Living Room...





I was WILD about the texture. I see walls like these in almost every issue of Pottery Barn magazine, but knew I was in for a LOT of painting to achieve the look I wanted.

SO, I ran out and purchased some oil-based KILZ (because otherwise the knots in the pine would have bled through a yellowish color), and began painting on TWO coats. UGH.








Then I started to experiment with paint choices. (Check out what the Kitchen used to look like!)



And once I decided, after days of intense scrutinization, I began to paint the room "Natural Choice". Ah, the magic of paint...

Seven Things Tag

Seven Things I Plan To Do Before I Die:
1. Visit the open-air flea markets in Europe
2. Design & build my own home
3. Visit Catalina Island again
4. Have one of my designs published in a magazine
5. Create a line wallcoverings, lighting, rugs & home decor through letteredolive.com
6. Get LASIK eye surgery
7. Meet some of the friends I've made through blogging. (I picture us all planning to meet somewhere, someday....can you imagine?) :-)

Seven Things I Can Do:
1. Talk, talk, talk
2. Design, design, design
3. Paint
4. Use power tools
5. Make people laugh
6. Figure things out
7. Sell ice to an eskimo

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. Take pills or medicine
2. Stop having anxiety/panic attacks
3. Drive more than 2 hours in any direction by myself
4. Eat slowly
5. Be fake
6. Fly in airplanes
7. Be around cigarette smoke

Seven Things that Attract Me to My Mister:
1. He has been my best friend for the past 5 years
2. He is caring
3. He is talented
4. He is trustworthy
5. He sees people for who they really are, he's very intuitive
6. He is shy
7. His ability to put things into perspective

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
1. I love you
2. Ya know what I mean?
3. Totally
4. Ya know what I'm sayin?
5. Hey there!
6. Max! (calling my dog)
7. Ya know?

Seven Celebrity Admirations:
(in no particular order)
1. Jim Carrey
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Candice Olson
4. Conan O'Brien
5. David Bromstad
6. Martha Stewart
7. Henry David Thoreau

Seven Favorite Foods:
1. Sushi
2. Philly Cheesesteak (only in Philly)
3. Lobster
4. Crab
5. Heath Bars
6. Taco Bells 7-layer burrito, and crunchy taco supreme
7. More Sushi

Seven People I Think Should Do This:
The first seven people to comment on this post! :-)

Layla

Kitchen Layout

If you're wondering what the other side of my Kitchen looks like, well, it looks like this:



Yes, that monstrous white refrigerator needs to be replaced with a COUNTER-DEPTH stainless steel one. Yes, I need a rug. Yes, I need a tall, industrial looking garbage can to the right of the fridge. Yes, I need two more vintage locker baskets to put on top of my china hutch. Yes, I need a tongue-n-groove ceiling painted white or pale blue or pale green. Yes, I need all of the appliances to be stainless steel. Yes, I need new light fixtures. Yes, I need a beadboard backsplash to cover the army green colored paint that's on the wall there now. And, YES, I would LOVE to have white marble counter tops with grayish-black veining....EVEN THOUGH they're not practical.



The door on the right side of the picture leads in to our Master Bedroom.
No, I haven't shown you that room yet, as there is NOTHING to show.
It is literally a room with a mattress on the floor and an antique dresser pushed up against one wall. No joke.
We sleep in the much, much prettier Guest Bedroom,



and will continue to do so until we can afford to fix up the Master.
I know, it's weird, but that's how I roll. :-)

The doorway to the Living Room (on the right) is the one we opened up to give the house a more open floor plan feel. Before, you wouldn't have been able to see the piano in this shot:



Switching gears, a lot of you have posted pictures of your Halloween decor on your blogs. I have seen a lot of spider-related decor this year.
But you haven't seen spider-related decor until you check out we found in the Kitchen sink at our house last night.



I know.
I'm freaking out too.
I could BARELY sleep last night.
Kevin killed it with Raid and we scooped it up into this five gallon bucket.
I'm kidding.
It's a tupperware bowl that previously housed Guacamole, but HONESTLY this suckers body is about two inches in length!!!! When it's legs were outstretched it was like four inches from tip to tip. {{shudder}}
We did a search online and the only thing we could figure out was that it was a Black House Spider. And, YES, they are venomous. Not lethal, but definitely venomous enough to warrant a trip to the E.R.
WHY!? WHY did this thing have to wander into the house!?
I am so jumpy now. I feel like everything that touches me is surely a Black House Spider.
If anyone knows anything about this wretched creature and would care to share, I welcome all info.

Okay, enough creepy stuff...let me end this post by showing you a sneak peek of something my Mom is creating for letteredolive.com:



We'll be launching soon...just anxiously awaiting some custom labels and getting everything photographed and added to the website. Won't be long now, I promise!

Layla :-)

PS...Did I mention that last month a COCKROACH crawled across MY FACE in the middle of the night? Oh yeah, I said it. About fifteen minutes after that I found it hanging out on my ARM. I'm dyin' over here people... :-(