Storage, storage, storage!

I know! You thought I had thrown in the proverbial blogging towel? Well ... no, just a little winter hiatus and I'm back with some things we've learned about smaller houses and storage.

I don't think I ever posted pictures of our new laundry room? This is what we made of a very tiny bedroom that is right at the end of the 2nd floor hall and next to the master bedroom. We took about two feet of the old bedroom to increase the size of the master bath (behind that back wall). And, the rest of the former tiny bedroom is our laundry room.

In addition to the storage in the cabinets over the washer and dryer, we gained this great space in the new linen closet. We dearly needed some more storage because as everybody knows, old houses aren't desired because of their large closets!

Along those lines, our winter DIY project has been to organize three existing closets: original master bedroom, guest room and family room. This was the only closet in this bedroom (which originally wasn't the master) when the house was built in 1922.

Kid you not, that was it! We added a fantastic new closet when we remodeled the master bathroom and while we couldn't get more space from this itty bitty closet, we could make it look nicer.

This is the updated closet, redone with easyclosets.com. We love this company and we used them in or previous house.

An important lesson that I've learned after moving to a smaller house is that staying organized is essential. Everything needs a specific place to be stored because there is no extra space in a big closet or attic or garage.

What I love about easyclosets is that you can design your closet storage to maximize the overall space and use components that best store your items (shelves, rods, drawers, metal baskets, hampers, cabinet doors, etc.).

The bonus is, they are about half the cost of the other custom closets.

And they are truly appropriately named ... we, mostly my husband, completed these three closets during a long weekend. And that included prepping the closets. They also come in several colors. I'm telling you, you should check them out!

This the the guest room closet and it has three sections. Our guest room was the original master bedroom as evidenced by this larger closet. Also, there used to be a fireplace in this room that we plan to restore. One day.

Another wonderful feature of these closets is that anywhere there is a section that is a standard width (18", 24", 30") you can later add drawers, bins, wine racks, etc.

Look, there is extra space in there! This will be your closet when you come to visit.

New Discoveries In the Neighborhood

In keeping with my theme of late, walking and biking, here are a couple new discoveries in West Ghent.

Last month we attended the musical Nine To Five at the Little Theatre of Norfolk. We had a great time with lots of laughs! Boy, did it bring back memories of the '80's.

This little gem is right here in our West Ghent neighborhood! It is about a four block walk from our house. And that is exactly what we did on a balmy September night. Amazing!

 

I've written about the great restaurants, many of which are nearby. We have now experienced 34 of the 53 restaurants currently on the list. Yum! A local favorite and one of ours, as well, is at this intersection - Redgate Avenue & Orapax Street. It is the Orapax Inn and it is two and a half blocks from our front door!

 

But there are other important businesses that share this corner. There is The New Leaf florist and ...

 



The Muse Writer's Center. This place is fantastic! There are workshops available for all things writing related: poetry, fiction, journaling, blogging, comedy ... you name it! So I am enrolled in a workshop that meets once a week called Personal Narratives An Introduction to Memoir. I am hoping to gain some writing skills to put toward writing all my family history stories and all my own stories.

Having lost both my parents I realize that my memories could be gone one day if I don't write them down. Some are important, some not-so-much but I still want to share them with my children and their (future) children.

I am so lucky. My classmates drive here from all over the area. I can attend the smorgasbord of workshops and I can walk to this great neighborhood place. Love it!

Learning To Be An Urbanite

Recently we spent a week in Charleston, South Carolina for a long awaited vacation. We flew rather than drove which precipitated a lot of walking.

King & Market, Charleston, SC
 

Walking was all part of the plan ... walk and get a better feel for the city ... walk and get exercise while vacating ... walk and don't worry about eating too much!

INSPIRATION. So, I came home inspired to walk and bike more. After all, that was one of the reasons we moved to West Ghent. It's better for the environment, better for roads already overloaded with cars, better for my health and physical condition.

So, I resolved to pretend I don't have a car when I need to do errands in town (grocery, pharmacy, library, produce market, restaurants and coffee shops and other shopping).

I do have a choice. I can walk or I can bike. That helps.

I realized that either option required planning. Where to start? Seriously, I've never done this before.

Hampton Boulevard - Yes, I have to cross this street.

IMPLEMENTATION. So, on day one I planned to ride my bike to the produce market, drop those things at home then, go back to the grocery store for the other items on the list. Simple enough:

• come up with a route (avoid traffic, avoid sketchy city blocks, cross at stop lights)
• figure out how to transport my purchases back home
• determine time needed
• Go!

NOT SO SIMPLE. I ended up taking a very circuitous route that avoided the scary traffic. It took me too far West and too far north. But I finally reached Westside Produce on Colley Avenue.

IT WAS MONDAY. IT WAS CLOSED.

Not a good start. Ugh. I continued ... back down Colley Avenue (at least I was headed toward home at this point) to the grocery store.

ENTER THE RAIN. RAIN WASN'T PART OF THE PLAN. Why?

To end this story, I pushed on, got a bag full of groceries (a small portion of my list) and I made it back home only a little soggy.

RESULTS:

• Trip took almost an hour - need to lengthen time allotment
• The store was closed - need to check days and hours of operation before I go
• It rained - duh!
• I was only able to get one bag of stuff - need additional carry options
• Water bottle spilled and nearly ruined my grocery list - another duh!
• I failed on part two of the day's plan.

I later drove to the grocery store. Well, it continued to rain and we were desperate for groceries after being on vacation. I know ... excuses, excuses!

By-the-way, the rain began on Monday and it rained for seven days in a row.

What do people do when it rains??? I have definitely lived in the suburbs too long!

Plaster Disaster Rescue

Professionals make it look so easy.

It's no wonder that lots of us end up with DIY's we can't complete!

In two days, Edwin with Baker Home Improvement, took us from this

  

To this

 

To this

 

 

Big surprise ... the paint is blue! This is the third light blue that we have used in our house and honestly, I doubt anyone but me can tell the difference between them.  This one has a touch of green in it. It is Sherwin Williams Tradewind.

 

And, I know, the bathroom was already blue. What was wrong with that? Well, generally, we are lightening the wall color in all the rooms and also choosing purer colors. This house had, what I would call craftsman colors (sages & beiges) when we moved in. NOTHING wrong with that. But the house is small and we are blessed with lots of windows. The lighter, purer colors reflect the light better and visually expand the space.

 

Add the things I had already bought for this "simple little spruce up" ...

 

 

 

This is not great photography but this is from the day we moved in, in March.

 



 

These fixes are purely cosmetic and somewhere down the road we need to replace the plumbing fixtures, replace or repair, again, the bath tub (there are many chips in the finish/refinish), and install a new floor (there are large cracks in the grout - not good for a wet space).

 

 

I would like to replace the vanity and wall tile too ... one day.

 

 

But for today, it functions and it looks pretty good. 

 







Baker Home Improvements, 1319 Redgate Ave., Norfolk, VA, 23507, (757) 717-7258, fax (757) 333-4566

Back-up budget? Ya think?

Welcome to my little bathroom spruce-up turn DIY disaster! Ugh!

 

Let me explain ...

 

 

So, it's a basic bathroom: the white wall tile has been refinished, white floor tile, inexpensive vanity and I think the original tub (nothing great but probably cast iron), and contractor grade mirror.

 

My plan: quick fixes ... new framed mirror, new shower curtain, new rug, some pictures on the walls, maybe a new light fixture, new paint. Simple!

 

First I cleaned the floor tile grout - for the record, I realize this should have been the LAST step and not the first step! Regardless, this step went really well! I used a lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda recipe that I saw on Facebook or maybe I saw it on Pinterest? http://www.pinterest.com/pin/18647785929614040/. Obvious where I had cleaned, right?

 

 

Step two. Remove the mirror and mirror clips to prepare for painting.

 

 

So far, so good! You can see, above, I have removed the bottom two clips. But when I brushed the flaking pieces of paint from behind the clips, here is what happened:

 

 

The paint literally peeled off in sheets! Seriously, I started to look for seams because the paint came off like wallpaper!, But, no, just paint!

 

 



So I visited the neighborhood Sherwin Williams and got some great advice on how to proceed.

 

First get all the paint off. But, as you can see, some of the paint adhered. It seems that the bathroom walls got some plaster repair and a skim coat. The paint expert's theory is that the new plaster did not get a coat of primer and so the paint and plaster didn't bond. But ... where the skim coat is thin or non-existent the paint did adhere. Like I said, ugh!

 

 

Second, spray the plaster walls with a solution of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water. This will make the plaster surface harden.

 

Third, repair and sand the surface. Then, prime with a really good primer and Wes at Sherwin Williams recommended a masonry primer (a mere $51 per gallon!).

 

So, I proceeded by peeling off all the paint that I could. But, I quickly realized that the repairing step is way outside my ability - at least I don't think I could do it to satisfy my picky self.

 

So ... call in the professionals ... and that is where the back-up-contingency-emergency budget would be a really good thing.

 

 

So this is where it stands. Tim, with the painting company that did all of the painting required during the remodeling, is coming today to take a look and give me an estimate.

 

Hmmm. I know professional painting is expensive? Can only imagine what it costs to have plaster work done?















Don't Underestimate Stuff

Just a couple updates to our living room for Mission: Foursquare this week, it's coming along! But, back up ... this is where we were last time.

 

Didn't realize until I went back and looked at these photos, just how far we've come since June.

 

Here is the to-do list from that June 12th blog post with the completions highlighted:

• Add a rug
• Add a coffee table
• Paint or wallpaper the backs of the shelves
• Get a better chair to replace the gray one (maybe the chair in the family room?)
• Get a great painting for over the fireplace
• Tile over the red brick on the fireplace???
• Do something with the tile hearth???
• Replace some of the accessories on the shelves with better ones
• Hang art on the large walls on either side of the opening to the foyer
• Get a new, brass floor lamp

Now, here we are.

 

 

I know, right? Some "stuff" makes all the difference. So, I'll start with the painting over the fireplace. We actually found that painting before we selected the wall color for the dining room, and I think they look pretty good together.

 

 

The painting is a beach scene with dunes in the foreground. We found it at the Stockley Gardens Art Festival where we met the artist, Steven Ward.  I love the bold colors in his art. He is from St. Augustine, Florida, just down the road from where we grew up in Jacksonville so his beach art, in particular, feels like home. This art festival is held twice a year in the Stockley Gardens park in Ghent and it benefits Hope House. The next one is Oct 19th & 20th.

 

Designwise the painting gave us a color palette for the living room. I love that there is orange in the dunes which really reflects the color of our pine floors.  One problem ... the red brick fireplace looks even worse than before. So, it is still on my to-do list!

 

 

Rug and Table. I had found this table months and months ago at Bassett. I thought I would like a glass top table to keep the room feeling airy and this particular metal is sort of a blend of colors - perfect!

 

But, wait! I got an email from Bassett about the Labor Day sale. I went online to order the table for 30% off but the shipping was soooo expensive. Negative. So I called the store in Newport News (just a little over 30 miles away) and asked about having it shipped to the store and I would pick it up to avoid shipping costs.

 

"Sure," they said, "but would you like us to see if we have a floor model because we're selling those too?" Huh? Of course! So I ended up buying a floor model for half of the 30% off sale price - yes, that made it below cost! Yay me!

 

And, the rug? I looked at so many white rugs that they all started to look the same. So, I figured, maybe they really do look the same? So, buy an inexpensive one! I ordered this one from Wayfair. 

 

 



I did move this chair into the living room from the family room. I guess it looks like it doesn't go but I like it for a few reasons. A. It's the right size. B. It is similar in color to the floors. C. It adds warmth in a very chilly blue-gray room. D. It's free.

 

But, I despise the pillow - note: add pillow to the to-do list.

 

Also added the cute white garden stool that I found at Home Goods in Virginia Beach. Learned a lesson there. Don't buy something that is not flat on top and expect to use it as a table! Looks good, though.

 

 

Lastly, I had those two posters from Italy reframed in simple white metal frames. Those posters hung in my office when we lived in Vicenza, Italy and I worked in the Civilian Personnel Office. That makes them almost 30 years old and I still like them and use them. The one on the left is Venice (Venezia) and the one on the right is a very rare snow scene in Florence (Firenze).

 

I think we're ready, enough, for company????

 



The West Side = The Wet Side

After living in our new neighborhood for four months I have so many questions. Among the questions, where's the water? I know that we are near the water, namely the Elizabeth River, but you can't see the water from the residential part of West Ghent. So, naturally, I'm curious.

Since we are not boat people (Go Army, Beat Navy!) we took to the water via Norfolk's harbor tour on the American Rover.



I have often felt disappointed that Norfolk doesn't have a beautiful, touristy coastline but after touring the harbor I have a new appreciation of Norfolk's working coastline. As someone said recently, it has a unique beauty. Everywhere you look, other than the Waterside area in downtown, there are ship yards, ship repairs, shipping containers, docks, naval vessels, work boats, naval facilities ...

 







At the southern tip of West Ghent and just west of the Midtown Tunnel is an industrial area. Located in this area and a short walk from our house are a couple of our favorite restaurants, Tortilla West and Orapax.

 

In addition there is the Smartmouth Brewing Company one of two Norfolk breweries and The Birch Bar, rated one of the world's top 50 beer bars (according to ratebeer.com). Yes, I said WORLD.

 

 

But back to the water ...

 

 

We can walk past the Orapax Inn and past Tortilla West and at the southern end of Orapax Avenue (the northern end of Orapax Ave. ends at the intersection with our street) is a ship repair facility and there are two ships under repair right now (above).

 

Moving northwest along the coastline is a landmark you see when headed north across the Midtown Tunnel - cranes at the Lambert's Point Docks. The Lambert's Point Docks property encompasses 117 acres and is a part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation. Ships bring cargo here especially lumber and rubber.

 

 

Continuing northwest is a huge area where the rail yard for the Norfolk and Southern Railroad lies. This is the headquarters, right here in our neighborhood, of this mammoth company. NS operates over 20,000 miles of rail in 22 US States and in Canada. Their most commonly transported product is coal.

 

 

In the photo above see the two black structures? Those are the culmination of the rail lines where the cars filled with coal reach the ships that deliver the coal, to wherever. That is a ship (blue and red) behind the structure on the right.

 

 

The railroad tracks that enter this ginormous rail yard create the northern border of our neighborhood. You can see them on the map at the top, just above Blue Bird Park (really Jeff Robertson Park). And here, in this photo from the park, you can see the train cars in the background.

 

 



Love that caution sign.

 

 

So, that completes our tour. Our very abbreviated and highly summarized tour.

 

But, I still have questions. The most pressing is what did this area look like in say, 1910? Before the houses and apartments were built? I know that this was once a rural area with a farm, Cromwell Farm. But, how did it become a neighborhood? And why?

 

And I know that the US Navy didn't have a foothold here until 1917 right after we entered WWI. So, without the Navy how was the harbor different? Hmmmm. Hopefully, I will get some of those answers.

 

Stay tuned ...