Beach Bound

The Mister and I are off to enjoy the remainder of our stay-cation. We're embracing this downtime and hitting the beach right after breakfast today. Plans for the day include a whole lot of nothing.

I had no idea just how much I needed a whole lot of nothing.

Hope you are able to squeeze in a little downtime yourself this weekend.

See you back here next week!

xx

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[Project Reveal} Striped Bathroom Walls

Sometimes I wish somebody would grab me by the shoulders, look me square in the eye and say, "no Erin, you are not going to do that."

That's what I texted to my friend Elissa yesterday in the middle of what had already begun to feel like a complete disaster of a project just a couple of paint strokes in. I've always considered myself extremely fortunate to have a husband that shakes his head and looks the other way with the constant turnover in our home decor. But yesterday, well I was quickly wishing he had reminded me that I was on vacation and then stood his ground and forbid me to paint stripes across our middle bathroom wall.

I blame it on my recent stay at The Avalon hotel and Kelly Wearstler. I've always admired it from afar, but two mornings of cappuccinos under a canopy of stripes in the hotel restaurant and I came home resolved to replicate a similar design in my own home. I had the perfect place in mind for a little deco inspired pattern too. I'd been searching high and low for the right pattern at the right cost, as a temporary (3-4 years) solution for our guest bathroom. At some point, the renovations at Holtwood House will turn to this well traveled room with a complete redux incorporating new tile, countertops, shower doors and flooring. But for now, it was desperately in need of a little zhushing to hold us over.

So yesterday I found myself two hours and two rolls deep in painter's tape and already wishing I had thrown down the small fortune it would have cost to paper the bathroom in one of the many rolls I had contemplated over the last couple of months. Perhaps it just would have been worth it. The measuring and re-measuring and checking with the level was starting to put me over the edge. Our walls are slightly textured as well, so despite pressing and re-pressing down those edges, I was sure I'd get feathered lines.

When the first rolls of paint hit the wall, I was in sheer, irrational, panic mode. Should I grab my rag and try to wipe it all off and abandon the project now? At some point as I kept on rolling away, I talked myself off the ledge and reasoned that it was just paint and I could roll right on over all it if it was a complete disaster.

Thank God it wasn't.

It's probably one of the happiest little spots at Holtwood House at this point. I can't stop flipping on the lights to get another peek.

For this project, I used Silver Drop by Behr as the background color and painted over it with stripes of Almost Aqua by Glidden. For scale, the stripes are 6" each and offset only once down the middle of the sink. I'm halfway through a matching chevron pattern on the back of the door as well, though I'm waiting to install new door hardware in order to finish up the painting.

{Not So} Minor Setback

With progress there often comes a setback or two and we were unlucky enough to encounter one this month here at Holtwood House. When we were in escrow, the inspection had revealed an inoperable pool heater, which was a bummer, but by no means a deal breaker. We went a year and a half without one and realized that if we wanted to use the pool year round, we were gonna have to make the investment in some type of heating system for the pool. After a lot of research and weighing out all the costs, we decided to put one before we headed into our second summer here. 

Within a week of installation, we realized we probably had ourselves a gas leak, which was promptly confirmed by our local Gas Company. So here we were, already knee deep in investment and looking at the added cost of installing a new line... but not just installing the line, trenching and all the mess and added expense that went with it. Another bummer was that the line would have to be installed right under one of my favorite garden beds in the yard. 

I shared a bit about the side yard progress in this previous post.  The kangaroo paw and feather grass border had taken off even further since March (rule of thumb: you won't reap the benefits of most planting until the next season), so much so that I had to thin it out in a few spots.  It was absolutely overflowing with tall golden rods and the thought of digging up the plants was a little heartbreaking. 

We arrived at a compromise- we would end up losing the unwieldy stems, but the guys at Sherwood Construction saved the day and all the plants in the bed. Nonetheless, it was a little scary when we saw this:

Choosing not to hunt for and bandaid any holes, we abandoned the old line, which frankly wasn't deep enough in the first place. The guys trenched 75 feet from meter to heater for a solid day and laid in a brand new line at the right depth. That is the sidewalk they are walking on to the right, butting up against our freshly painted house. 

Here's what it looked like just a mere 24 hours later. All's well that ends well when you find a good crew of guys that know how to leave a clean work site. 

And trust me, the 85 degree pool water is worth every penny.

{Weekend Recap}: Escape to LA

I so needed this:

...and this...

...and the best part is, I'm enjoying a stay-cation for the remainder of the week. That means, five weekday mornings of putting about with my coffee cup and enjoying the warm, sweet smell of summer mornings on the patio. 'Course, I'll also have plenty of time in the afternoons to enjoy a sip or two here. 

Can you tell I'm digging it?