This is the bathroom before. There was barely any space between the sink and toilet and you ended up touching the toilet when getting out of the shower (*shudder*). There was blue and pink tile on the floor and what looks like tile on the wall is actually some sort of fake tile board.

The chimney is between the bathroom and kitchen wall making for an awkwardly spaced bathroom. We bumped into the hall linen closet to create an actual space for the vanity and some much needed breathing room between the toilet and sink. I'm planning on painting all of the doors white and rehabbing the glass knobs, but haven't gotten around to that yet.
Here is the bathroom after:

My favorite part of the new bathroom is this fabulous sink from overstock.com. I wanted a vessel sink but nothing too modern and I think this works perfectly. Instead of buying a vanity we used unfinished stock cabinetry and stained them a nice dark ebony color. Since opening up the bathroom resulted in losing the linen closet we added a matching pantry cabinet. The countertop was created from smaller tiles that match the floor. And since I couldn't find an oil rubbed bronze light fixture that I liked I spraypainted a brushed nickel one.

Here is the new floor tile.

I used this idea from young house love to make the ceiling look higher and hopefully keep more steam in the shower (I hate a cold shower). The only problem is finding a reasonably priced, appropriately sized, non-boring shower curtain that is 96" long. I have only found a few and nothing to my liking. As a result, sometime in the future, you will see a shower curtain tutorial.

The House: Dining Room

This house was listed as a 4 bedroom, which just doesn't seem appropriate for the square footage. This house is only around 1100 SF with one bathroom. To say that it has 4 bedrooms just doesn't make proper use of the space. I guess you could put a table in the kitchen (the previous owner had a small round one) but it would be right in your path to get to the rest of the house. So the 4th bedroom has become the dining room.
This is how it looked before.

Here is the after. I'll have to take some better pictures but for now this is what I have. We replaced the ugly, non-working fan with a new chandelier and created wainscoting panels made from base cap molding.

In case you're wondering, I made the placemats.

The House: Living Room

Here is a picture of the living room before it was pretty much gutted. It's a beauty, right? Don't you just love the ugly green carpet, peeling wallpaper and gold ceiling fan?

Here is the living room after.

We opened up the wall between the living room and dining room to make everything more open. If/when we get around to redoing the staircase we want to open it up so that it looks more like this.

The House: Kitchen

Kitchen - Before

Kitchen - Before

Guess what we found behind the wood paneling? More wallpaper. What a surprise.

The kitchen was absolutely terrible and there is no way that we could have lived with it even for a little while. The solution was a complete gutjob. From the disgustingly dirty cabinets and awful wood paneling to the badly faded countertops and vinyl flooring; everything had to go.

The initial plan was to clean and repaint the cabinets, but we needed the kitchen done ASAP and it was just taking too long. Have you ever lived without a kitchen? Being someone who refuses to eat microwave dinners, it was not a fun experience. We ended up buying off the shelf cabinets from Lowes. In hindsight we should have at least priced out some other options but what did I know? I've only ever lived in apartments. We topped it off with summer sage granite and a black tile floor.

No room in this house is completely finished. As you can see there is still a bizarre pendant light remnant from the old kitchen that needs to be replaced. We still need crown molding and painted trim. There are a ton of things I would have done differently had we had more money and time. But it is definitely an improvement over what was here before!

The House: Demo

After closing on the house we had about a two week window until we had to be out of the condo, which turned out to be a godsend. The previous owners loved ugly wallpaper (or maybe that was just their way of disguising the problem) and upon removing some it turned out that the plaster walls were cracked everywhere. If it were me I probably would have just spackled the crap out of them but for whatever reason my boyfriend decided they all had to come down. This created a ton of dust and the need for two dumpsters in order to dispose of around 500 lbs of plaster. I guess in the end it turned out to be a good thing, a couple of walls had water damage and a dining room and kitchen window were about ready to fall out. This of course turned into replacing all of the windows, thank goodness for a boyfriend who knows how to do pretty much anything and the $8k tax credit.

The House

A little over a year ago we moved from a 3rd floor, 1 bedroom condo to a "4 bedroom" (more on that later) Cape. While there are certainly things I miss about the condo, like having a decent closet and non-angled walls in the bedroom. It's definitely nice not having to bring a dog down three flights of stairs multiple times a day and worry about noise and neighbors. It was and still is a fixer upper. We have accomplished a lot during our time here but it is still very much a work in progress. In the coming weeks I will share some of that progress with you and what still needs to be done.

My first craft show

This past Saturday I took part in my first ever craft show. I decided to sell key fobs, checkbook covers and chocolate covered oreos. I spent the whole week sewing and wondering if anyone would buy anything. To my surprise I did sell a decent amount, although after paying to rent the table, parking, and supplies I'm not sure I came out ahead. The checkbook covers weren't very popular, I guess no one writes checks anymore? But the key fobs and oreos were well received. I will be adding the leftover inventory to my shop so make sure to check it out.

Renegade Craft Fair

So I went to the Renegade Craft Fair today with my mom and my sister. First time to Brooklyn and first time navigating the subways. Didn't get lost. Big pat on the back to me. I have always wanted to go to one of these non-Grandmaesque craft shows but CT never has anything fun like this. Lots of cool stuff to look at albeit perhaps a little repetitive and overpriced.

I bought a cute little owl tee from HeroDesignStudio for $10.
Love the paisley.

Here are some of my favorites:

MeanCards was by far the highlight of the show for me. I don't know if I would ever have the guts to send out one of her cards, but they are great!


This card from BlueBarnHouse. Hilarious.

I really liked these earrings by Nina Dinoff.

And these earrings from Tomgirl.

This necklace from nervoussystem is unique.
I don't know how it would look on, but it's orange which is a plus.


Last but not least Seattle Show Posters had this in their booth minus all the type. It would have gone well with my orange walls but I have no more wall space.

*Sigh* If only I had an endless supply of money.

Not only that but the day included multiple dachshund sightings. Perhaps it's a sign.

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And lets not forget my fabulous slice of Devil's Food cheesecake from Junior's.

My weekend

Admitting you have a problem is the first step right? I'm a little bit of a compulsive returner. I will go to the store and buy something, then freak out about spending so much money, or decide I don't really like it that much after all, and will take it back and return it. Then I end up complaining that I don't have anything to wear. So, this weekend I went to the mall and bought two pairs of shoes. Still deciding on weather I'm keeping both pairs.

Clark's Craft

I'll keep these but need a half size up. How can I resist the orange?

Chinese Laundry Starlet
These would go perfectly with the dress I want from Nordstrom's. But that would involve buying an expensive dress. Might have to return these.

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I also mentioned in a previous post how much I want a little dog of my own. I saw the cutest little dapple dachshund at the mall pet store. (And you don't have to lecture me about how bad it is to buy a dog from a pet store, I know all about puppy mills.) I have plenty of time to train a puppy since I'm unemployed but it's probably not such a great time financially. I didn't buy him but have been thinking about how cute he is for days. I'm going to try not to go into pet stores anymore because all the dogs are just so cute and I feel so bad for them and want to rescue them all.


Which got me thinking about all the stuff I could buy for my puppy. Which got me thinking of one of my favorite etsy shops: Annie's Sweatshop. She makes all kinds of great dog products and uses her dachshunds to model them.

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I went to the flea market on Sunday which was a complete bust. Where was my vintage Saarinen table for $50? I'll probably have to venture to an NYC flea market for that kind of find. No vintage Pyrex or Catherine Holm either. :(

Day trip

I took a day trip to NYC yesterday with my sister. Not really for any particular purpose, simply because I was bored and had nothing better to do. I was in the background on the Today show for about 2 seconds. Went to the 24-hour Apple store. (If you are ever in the area and need to go to the bathroom, you can go there.) My goal was also to go to West Elm since I get their catalogs but have never been in an actual store. Mission achieved, although I have been underwhelmed by their selections lately. There are always lots of places I want to check out but never get to most of them. I've decided the best way to navigate NYC is probably a Vespa and GPS unit. We walked around in a circle way too many times. I always wonder about people that move to Manhattan from suburbia and how long it takes to get acclimated and be able to find your way around without getting lost. Probably a long time.

Aaaaack

I HATE the job application process! Why must I submit a resume and then fill out a job application stating much of the same information over again? Are they playing mind games? Is it just to show you that if they hire you, they own you and you must do whatever they say regardless of how pointless/redundant it is? Writing cover letters and resumes and the whole job application process ranks right up there with cleaning the bathroom on my list of things I would rather not do. But unfortunately it must be done.

Three strikes and I'm out

I got laid off today. I tried hard not to, but I cried when my boss told me. How embarrassing. It's not so much losing the job as it is the fact that I just went through this a couple years ago after being at a job for three months. It took me a year to find this job and now it's happening all over again. The economy is terrible so who knows how long it will take me to find another job...definitely not good for my resume or my mental health. Perhaps things would have been different if I had had the guts to pack up and move to Chicago or NYC after graduating. Design opportunities aren't exactly abundant in CT. So after one bad job and two layoffs I think me and graphic design are parting ways. I need to start looking into new, better paying, more stable career options.

A big thank you

Woohoo! I won. I couldn't believe it when I saw that I was one of AT's February Jumpstart contest winners. I have never won anything in my life. So if anyone is actually reading this, a big thank you to those of you who voted for me.

Vote for me!

Don't forget to vote for my February jumpstart project entry on apartment therapy.

A little about me

Hi, I'm Charissa, a 20-something girl obsessed with all things design. My name is actually pronounced Sharissa but rarely does anyone get it right. I'm not sure why it's so challenging but that's a completely different post. I have a ton of topics rolling around in my head on a daily basis and decided to start a blog as an outlet to discuss them. I have a degree in graphic design and a wide variety of interests, and hope to post about all of them here.

If I stick with this blogging thing, hopefully someone besides me will actually read it and maybe they will even be inspired by what they find here. Stay tuned.