The art of camouflage

My youngest son has officially moved out, but he left behind this fabulous mural of his name in Japanese.
 I just couldn't paint over it, but it does not go with my decorating style.
 So what to do???? Instead of paint I decided to Camouflage.

 I simply covered it with vintage survey maps. It took 3 maps to cover his artistry.
 Then I moved a sleeper sofa (also camoflaged with a slip cover) into the room and a few other misc pieces I had here and there, including a recliner from the attic, and voila!
 It's now a guest room/sitting area without much fuss, and zero dollars.
 I actually really like this space, because It's not over decorated, and has a sense of calm and quiet to it.
I don't know how I will eventually use this space, and I didn't want to put a lot of money or effort into it right now. 

On the other side of the room is a table and chair for a computer and his old mini fridge.  It's almost like a mini hotel suite. I'm slowly getting the closets cleared out etc. 

 I'm sure at some point I'll paint this room but for now this solution works just fine. And in case you are interested, I have lots of these maps available in my etsy store here.

I've also used the full color, pull down maps, in similar ways in other rooms of my house.

This one is my favorite. So colorful and still on it's roller.

                                 Fun Solution for a large space that you don't know what to do with.

Remodel Stories-Master Bath conclusion

Continuing from yesterday, We've demo-ed the old toilet closet and now we have a clean slate. First we had to build out some walls and frame in the new shower.

We had cultured marble installed as a shower surround


New glass door on the shower and on to the next part.
The Tub

Mr Robot-o framed in a new tub

Picture frame paneling, a carefully placed access panel was built in.

Granite tiles, Bull-nose molding just like in the kitchen






The cabinets were ordered and installed unpainted. I painted those,

We installed the new sinks, and mirrors



I did the tile floor on a diagonal and installed a granite tile countertop.

We designed this little vanity area for makeup and hair rituals. It works great

There is a slight level change to the floor in the "old bath" area and the new area. So we put in a piece of threshold and I laid those tiles strait, so the eye knows there is a change. Sometimes you just have to work with what you are given.

I love this bathroom, It's perfect and has everything you'd want. And again we saved a bundle doing the work ourselves. We did hire out the plumbing, shower surround, and had the cabinets built and installed. Mr Robot-o knows about electrical so he was able to do that as well as the rough construction. I joke that he builds it and I make it pretty. Once the drywall is up, it's all me. Paint, tile, finishing touches.

That's the end of that remodel. I am so glad all these projects are done, and we can enjoy the house. For a long time it was just a place to "work". Something always needed doing, but for the last several years we've been able to relax and enjoy. We now only tackle 1 big project per year. Last year it was a wood floor in our Living room, and this year it was a side courtyard outside.

There are lots more things we did during this remodel and you can view the whole thing here.

Remodel Stories Continued-Master Bath

One of the problems with this house was how it was laid out. There was no real master suite. So we decided to turn the biggest room upstairs into the master bedroom and make the adjoining room a master bathroom. There was already a small closet sized bathroom there, but we set out to enlarge it, add a decent sized tub and shower and all the amenities.

When I say the existing bathroom was small I'm not exaggerating.

Can you believe there is actually a toilet in this room, as well as a small shower. It was like a camper sized bathroom.

Above I'm standing in the adjacent room, I can't really call it a bedroom as it had no closet. Like I said, the layout was strange.

Demolition, Opening it up.

We tore walls down and built new ones.

scraped floors, re-routed electrical and plumbing (we hired a plumber)

Can you believe I lived with this next to my bedroom for months.
It was worth it, as you'll see tomorrow.

Kitchen Remodel on a Budget

I realized that I have never shown any of you the Major Home Remodel that we took on about 6 years ago.

In 2003 We found the house of our dreams in Tyler Texas. We took a year doing our work on the weekends and moved into an unfinished home in 2004. Now that we can officially call it finished I reflect on all that we did. When I say "we did it" I mean that Mr Roboto and I got down and dirty in all the muck and did much of the work ourselves. I'm particularly proud of the budget kitchen re-do.


There was nothing wrong with the house per-se. The previous owners did some major remodels that we consider "Phase 1" of the remodel. I did not care for the plaid wallpaper in the kitchen, or the faux butcher-block formica counter top. The sink and oven/stove needed replacing and the cabinets needed new doors.
The layout was fine so it was mostly a "facelift" remodel.


Above I made good use of a steam Wallpaper remover tool, as I removed a lot of wallpaper in this place.


Alex (he looks so small) even got in on the fun.




I had already done several tile projects in our old home, so I knew what I was doing. The back splash is 6" ceramic tiles, and the counter top is a speckled Granite. We later added a bullnose edge to the counter. I set all the tiles myself, Yep and I even cut them. I'm the tile guru in my house. You can see some of the new cabinet doors installed in the pic above. And notice the vent a hood cover that Mr Roboto built.

The color on the walls is a great Burnt Orange called Decorous Amber from Sherwin Williams. It was a bold choice, and I still love it.

Large Scale remodels are usually filled with stories. A few months into this adventure, Mr Roboto broke his foot in a remodel related accident. This was taken the weekend it actually happened. But we continued working doing what we could. See his foot brace?


And here is the finished product. I've changed the countertop decor a bit since this pic was taken but you can see the bones of the project. See the bullnose edge on the counter tops.
And Mr Roboto build the island. Also notice the details we added above the sink and around the bottom of the cabinets and crown at the top. It's similar to what he did above the stove. I call it the "Poof Out"

One other thing we did in here was to add lighting. We added the 2 pendant lights you see below as well as under cabinet lighting. I don't know how the previous homeowner could see anything before. I have really enjoyed this extra lighting.

There is a lot you can do with a much smaller budget, and have it look good. Like only changing the doors and leaving the cabinet boxes in place. Using Granite tile instead of Granite Slabs. Painting yourself, Learning to Tile yourself etc. Doing the work yourself will save approx half of the cost.

I'm proud of our home remodel, and all the projects we did taught me a lot of things that I use in my junking work as well.

This was only 1 room of a whole house remodel. When I look back at what we did, I can't believe it. But it feels like such an accomplishment.

Thanks for reading.
Margo