The lifeblood of our household revolves around the kitchen, especially the coffee/tea counter. In the mornings, this portion of the kitchen is crowded, with each family member making their favorite beverage. For my daughter, it is tea in all its forms-loose leaf, tea bags, compressed blocks that require specific water temperatures and steeping times. For the rest of us, life begins around the Nespresso machine and the numerous flavors of coffee pods.

This is a rather hectic and cluttered part of the kitchen.  The good news is that everything you need to make coffee drinks and tea is here~~mugs, teacups, flavorings, toppings, timer, etc. But it’s rather messy nearly all the time.

Large glass containers hold tea bags and Nespresso pods, which take up too much space but I haven’t come up with a better alternative.

The counter is angled between the Dacor gas range on the left and the SubZero refrigerator and freezer on the right.  Though the picture doesn’t capture the color accurately, the granite countertop is a dark green with sage marbling and flecks of cranberry.  The hand made tile backsplash is from Waterworks.

I’ve been pondering how to make this area more efficient.  So I cleared everything off the counter and started from scratch. I’m not a big fan of having lots of appliances on the counters, but in this area, the three machines (Nespresso machine, electric teapot, and milk frother) are used multiple times every day.

I found this tiered tray at my favorite garden destination, Whitfill Nursery.  They converted a small adobe home on the property as a store and offer unique garden and home items.  Painted Fox also has a very nice selection of tiered trays online.  Initially I thought it may be too wide, but it seems to be able to handle our favorite coffee cups, flavorings, tea supplies and toppings.

I have a few favorite cups, which I refer to as my “happy” cups.  For some reason they make me smile (a great way to start the day) and all of them are from Anthropologie.

We will test drive this new coffee/tea station design and see how it works.  I am pleased I have one less cluttered counter!

Last week, I spent 3 days deep cleaning our little vacation rental cabin in the mountains. In January, my property manager/cleaning couple quit.  For years, I had so heavily relied on them to manage the cabin’s maintenance issues as the geographical distance (a 3 1/2 hour drive) precluded me from doing it myself. And now they were gone.  Sigh.

Our cabin was purchased by my husband long before he and I met. He co-owned it with a life-long friend and several years ago, we bought out his interest (as he invested in a bigger cabin for his family).  We have had it as a vacation rental from Memorial Day to November for the last few years.

When the children were little, we used the cabin more frequently.  At that time there was no television, no internet, just board games and forest explorations.  It was quintessential family time which lasted until the children got older. Enter sports, other interests, friends, etc. and we seemed to use this cabin less and less.

We have kicked around the idea of selling it, but since the recession second homes sales have stagnated over the last few years.  So instead of it just sitting there, it is now a sweet vacation rental.

So back to my current dilemma~~getting the cabin ready for our summer visitors without the help of my dynamic duo.

So with slumped shoulders and a downtrodden spirit, I made the long, albeit beautiful drive up to the White Mountains of Arizona. Who among us looks forward to deep cleaning?  Not I! But, I am not one to wallow in self pity for long so I carved out 3 days to tackle the opening and cleaning of the cabin.

It was FREEZING in the mountains….well, freezing for me.  A low of 39 degrees and a high of 60 with strong winds the entire time.  The cabin doesn’t have central heat, but it does have a few wall heaters and numerous space heaters.  But after being closed up for 5 months, it would take some doing to get the inside warm.  On the plus side, I did get to wear scarves and jackets again~~such a treat with the hot Phoenix summer just around the corner.

The deep cleaning included taking down all the curtains~~washing, drying and ironing….Scrubbing the oven (doesn’t self clean) and the outdoor gas grill~~gross and greasy; pulling out the refrigerator and washing the floor~~disinfecting all bathrooms, wiping out all cabinets, drawers and reorganizing the kitchen.  Cleaning out all closets, ironing duvet covers, window washing, carpet and upholstery cleaning (by a professional thank goodness) and general polishing.  And finally we replaced the old water heater.

By the end of the 3 days, I was physically exhausted but spiritually elated.  Losing my management couple almost felt like a blessing in disguise.  Touching every square inch of this cabin reminded me why we have kept this property in our family for all these years.  The cabin and I reconnected.

The cabin is on .8 of an acre of Ponderosa pine forest.  The view from the kitchen overlooks the large back deck and into the woods.  It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and sleeps 8 and is charming and cozy.

The master bedroom is the largest with a queen bed and a set of bunk beds and two seating areas.

The upstairs bedroom, which we refer to as the “loft”, has two twin beds and a “secret” room filled with stuffed animals, toys and Legos.

Two years ago we broke down and put in cable and internet, as our vacation guests wanted to remain technologically connected. But the best part of this cabin is its location. Being part of the White Mountain Summer Homes, it is gated and safe, yet private.  There is great biking, hiking, fishing and golfing….and of course, forest exploration.  It is not uncommon to see wild horses, elk, deer and bear in this area.

So in spite of my original internal whining, the cleaning trip to the mountains was a personal success.  Now our cabin is sparkling clean and ready to create vacation memories for our guests. And I’ve fallen in love with it all over again.

Maybe it’s time to sell it if the right offer or family came by.  But in the meantime, we will continue to cherish it and all its memories. If you would like more information on this cabin, please visit this link at vrbo

Have a wonderful Saturday!

 

 

 

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At the Willetta restoration, we created a large closet off of the dining room by enclosing a portion of an old adjacent storage area.  The purpose of this room is to become the silver, crystal, linen and china closet.  I’ve always wanted a separate space to store my “stuff”- large trays, candlesticks, tablecloths, dishes, silverware and entertaining items.  This 6′ x 7′ closet will be PERFECT for the new homeowners to do just that.

The challenge is that the floor in the new closet is concrete and is flush with the dining room floor which is hardwood.  Adding new flooring on top of the concrete doesn’t make much sense as it would have create an awkward transition.

What could I do to make the floor feel more formal, like the dining room, without adding tile or more wood? After pondering this for a few days, I asked myself,  “How hard could it be to stencil/paint the concrete floor?”  So I googled “how to paint a concrete floor” and watched the YouTube video by Annie Sloan, entitled How to stencil a concrete floor in 10 easy steps. 

The video is set to catchy music and yes, in 10 easy steps, Annie Sloan creates a beautiful floor.  So easy peasy, right? To make it even more convenient, you can buy the entire stenciling kit from Royal Design Studio Stencils.

The stencil that is used in the video is the Anatolia Wall Stencil.  However, the packaging below shows the stencil using 2 colors only (which in retrospect would have been MUCH easier!).  In the video, there are five different colors. The stencil dimensions are rather large at 21″ x 21″.

Within minutes, I purchase the stencil kit online and figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?

The kit is complete with the stencil, the paint, the brushes and the top clear coat.

I’ve never stenciled anything elaborate before so I didn’t realize you needed special brushes, but thank goodness they came in the kit.  However, there wasn’t any information on what brush to use with what color.  I had 4 colors and 5 brushes.  No problem, as I thought I could wing it.

Starting the Stenciling Process

When the kit arrived a few days later,  I didn’t see any instructions in the box.  So I called Royal Design Studios and asked where I could get a copy of the instructions of the floor that was created in the video.  They told me that there weren’t any written instructions.  Yikes.  So, my smart painter, John, suggested I do screen shots of the video and print them out.

So armed with 20+ pages of instructions and my stencil kit, I began painting the floor over the weekend.

First, I taped off the baseboard (which hasn’t been painted) with painter’s tape and painted the floor Old Ochre Chalk Paint.  The paint is a very warm white and rolled on rather well–velvety in a way.  I used a foam roller as recommended in the video.  The paint dried very quickly, however, I waited until the next morning to do a second coat.

After finding and marking the center line of the room, I placed the first stencil at the doorway and put the right edge of the stencil on the center line.  You can see here that the concrete floor is flush with the dining room hardwood floor.  I used green Frog painter’s tape to secure the stencil and protect any paint from spilling onto the hardwood floor.

Since the paint brush sizes weren’t designated to a specific color, I would use the largest brush on the bigger parts of the stencil and then work my way down.  The first color was Olive~~I’m so glad I printed out the steps as it’s a bit confusing trying to determine what color goes where on the clean stencil.

Next came a color that required blending of a pink and yellow paint–I will refer to it as salmon. The stencil brushes have a blunt cut, so I gently dabbed paint onto the stencil.

At this point, I have completed the olive and salmon paint colors. Notice the paint and the paper towel in the photo below.  It is important to dab off any excess paint on the paper towel before applying to the stencil.

Yellow paint next, then followed by the blue.

The chalk paint dried very quickly so I didn’t need to wait to proceed with the next stencil.  It was relatively easy to line up markers on the edge, re-tape the stencil to the floor, and repeat.

The first few stencils seemed to take an eternity, because I was proceeding cautiously.  With the colors now on the stencil, I didn’t need to refer to the notes anymore so the process went a bit faster. By the end, I was able to complete a tile in 30 minutes. Mid-way through, I washed the stencil off with soap and water, as the dried paint began accumulating.

The center portions of the floor could accommodate the entire stencil, however, when I got close to the baseboards, only a partial stencil would fit.  It was a little tricky because it was hard to keep the stencil in place, even when secured with the tape. This step requires patience.

All in all, I painted this stencil 16 times to cover the 6′ x 7′ space.

With the stencils completed and the paint dry, I now paint the edges with a 2″ border of the olive paint to complete the look.

Finishing the Floor

In order to protect the floor I finished it with 2 coats of the clear floor lacquer provided in the kit.

I am so happy with the results! In retrospect, this was labor intensive and I was so sore from sitting or kneeling on the hard concrete floor for hours on end.  From start to finish, I would say I invested 10-12 hours of labor, not counting the drying time. However, this project was well worth it.

I always love to do something unique and personal to each of the homes I restore/remodel.  This historic Willetta home now has an original piece of art by me. To see more about the Willetta restoration, click here.

Here you can see the proximity of this storage area to the formal dining room. The floor is so pretty you can leave the door open!

I hope you have enjoyed watching the transformation of this special room. If you love Before and Afters or restorations of historical homes, I invite you to browse my website. If you like what you see, please sign up to get my weekly blog posts! You can also find me on Instagram @lifeatbellaterra.