Costumes, Family, Cake Art

Selling the "Broadway" House

2011-06-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been on my blog. I've been a busy girl...

In Jan 2010 I quit my job and my life in San Francisco and moved back to my hometown of Seattle to care for my mom who has Alzheimer's. She has her own home she lived in with her late husband but still owned the house we all grew up in near Portage Bay in Seattle. Great old 1922 house, great neighborhood but it had been used as a rental property for almost 20 years and the wear and tear was definitely showing.

I moved into the house and eventually, when we knew we had to sell to continue to care for mom, the tenants all moved out. When I was a young girl living in this house and had trouble sleeping, I would daydream (or is it nightdream) about what I'd do to every room in the house. Well, in order to sell this place I knew I needed to put in some sweat equity and I eventually got to redo every room.

How? I bought and read repair and how-to books and watched a LOT of HGTV and DIY network shows. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work...and work....and WORK!

My parents bought this house in the 1960's and us eight Keeler kids all grew up here. It was a great house, lots of hiding places, secret pass-through in the upstairs bedroom closets and a big back yard. It's very, very hard to say goodbye but it's all for a good cause--taking care of our mom and making sure she's comfortable and safe.

I put the house on the market on a Tuesday night and by Wednesday evening we had two offers over our asking price. We officially closed the deal a few days later and I'm packing up my belongings and moving on. Continue reading to see the transition from fixer-upper to a turn-key property ready for moving right in.

You can click on the photos for a larger view--once they are open you can click on them again to expand to full size.

Curb Appeal: It's very important to make a good first impression so I needed to really spruce up the front. The rockery in front was covered with weeds and scraggly bushes. I hired a couple of guys from "Casa Latina" (the great alternative to picking up day workers at Home Depot) and had them pull everything up and then plant some lovely flowers. I painted the front of the house but found a great painter to climb up and do the top and sides of the house in a nice dark steel grey. I took off the screen door and painted the front door a Cherry Red. It really does make quite an impression when you drive up.

Here's another look at the front yard makeover. We had more dandelions than grass and the top of the garage was covered with dirt and mud. For a mere $3.84 each I got about 20 rolls of 10 sq foot sod and magically transformed a sad front yard into a showpiece. Sod rules!

The front porch needed a lot of cement patching. I painted it black, added new flowers and painted the trim all white.

Back Yard Transformation: For some strange reason three trees were planted willy-nilly in the back yard. My mom had once run a daycare center out of the home and the old play structure was still there now supporting clotheslines. A drab chain link fence went across the back yard with about 2 feet of space between it and the very nice fence that was put up when they built the condos behind the house. Let's move those trees somewhere else, cut down that chain link fence, dig up the blackberry bushes and take advantage of the much nicer looking condo fence. After lots of digging and cutting we ended up with a pretty nice looking backyard.

Living and Dining Room: Since this house had been used as a rental for many years there were lots of dogs and cats here and the carpets had definitely seen much better days. When I first moved in I shampooed the hell out of the carpets and they actually came out pretty good. A nice coat of paint color called "Artisan" went up on the walls and really warmed up the room. When it came time to sell my real estate agent strongly suggested that if there were hardwood floors under there to pull those carpets up. Once all the tenants were out I did just that. Ouch, water stains, pet stains and a thousand carpet staples stared back at me.

I can do this, I know I can! I'll refinish those floors. I rented a drum sander from Home Depot and with my son Michael's help, we grinded and sanded away years of wear and tear. Drum sanders are very tricky and hardcore but the floors needed it. I did the living room, dining room, hallway and one of the main floor bedrooms. I learned a couple of things from mistakes along the way. #1--drum sanders will only get you 1/2 way to a nice smooth floor. I ended up renting an oscillating sander and went over all the floors again to really smooth them out otherwise the stain shows every imperfection. #2--stir your stain as you work on a very large floors. When I did the dining room I didn't stir and noticed the color had suddenly changed from a rich brown to a weird red. After sanding it all off again I remembered to stir, stir, stir.

When it came time to finish them off with Polyurethane I found that doing it on my hands and knees with a brush gave me the look I wanted. I applied 4 coats in all the rooms this way. Backbreaking but the finish was perfect!

I gave the dining room a coat of paint called "Kenya" and also used it in the entryway. I didn't get any good pictures of just how bad the floors looked before I refinished them but believe me, I wasn't sure they could be saved.

Hallway and Bedroom: the picture to the right shows how bad the hallway floors were when I took the carpets up. The wood in the hallway and bedroom is Fir as opposed to Oak in the living and dining rooms. It's a lot softer wood and really needed to be smooth in order for the stain to look good.

The bedroom had two marks against it--someone had painted the floor over with yellow paint and it originally had brown wood paneling on the walls. One of the roommates had it painted a Tiffany blue with white trim but I found this great "eco-friendly" light green paint on sale for $5 a gallon. It looks very Martha Stewart.

To the right are photos of what the room originally looked like and the finished product that helped sell the house.

This is the second bedroom on the main floor. It only needed a good cleaning and paint job. It also had the sliding glass door that went directly into the TV room which was taken out and a wall put up. The really nice feature in this room is the remaining sliding glass door that goes out into the back yard. I put a small brick patio just outside the door.

Main Bathroom: The main floor bathroom had never really been finished. An addition had been put on the back of the house 20 some years ago and there was a window in the bathroom that used to open to the backyard. It now opened to the family/tv room. My brother David came up from Oregon and helped me take out the window and put up drywall. He left it up to me to tape and mud. To me it was a lot like decorating a cake with frosting so it went fairly smoothly.

The floor had mismatched linoleum tiles as well as a rotted subfloor around the toilet from old leaks. I pulled up the rotten wood and put down plywood pieces. When I tried to drill them down with long screws I found out that the original porcelain floor was still under all the sublayers and I had to get an impact drill with special masonry bits to drill pilot holes through all the layers. Gawd that was awful! After I finally got them in I put cheap self-stick tiles over the wood and then laid a luxury vinyl tile that looks like slate. My brother came up from San Francisco and helped me put in new light fixtures.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I painted the existing vanity a dark brown as well as an old cupboard that one of the tenants left. I put in a backsplash with some inexpensive glass tile I found for $4.95 a sheet. My brother Mark had built a cover over the pipes next to the toilet so I used the same tile there as well.

I went to Tile for Less and got some nice, inexpensive ceramic tiles for the shower. I also used the same backsplash tiles as a decorative border around the walls of the shower.

The ceiling is one of those old drop types with hideous plastic light panels. I wanted to use those cool tin panels as an alternative to the plastic but they are too expensive. I found some flocked wallpaper that looked like Victorian tin panels and glued them to the old plastic panels and then spray painted them silver. They look much better than the white plastic.

Here's the bathroom complete and ready to go.

Kitchen and Family Room: the two most used rooms in the house were also the most in need of a makeover. The TV room was an addition put onto the back of the house over 20 years ago.
It included three skylights and a wood planked ceiling. When my mom ran a daycare center there was a sliding glass door put in between the TV room and her bedroom where she kept the little babies when they napped. My friend Luis came over and helped me remove the sliding glass door and put up a new wall. I did the taping, mudding and finishing.

I put the same luxury vinyl tile in both the TV room and kitchen, repaired the holes in the walls and installed new floorboard trim. The kitchen ceiling was in such poor shape I rented a hopper from Home Depot (my home away from home) and sprayed on an orange peel texture to hide the flaws. I added new lighting and then refinished the kitchen cabinets with the same stain I used on the hardwood floors. I used the same paint color in both rooms to really tie them together. There are French Doors from the TV room out onto the deck and the backyard. It's a great room for entertaining.

I really wanted to put in Granite countertops but it was too expensive so I used 12x12 tiles. I had help putting on the plywood and Hardee board to prep for the tiling. Tiling on a flat surface was a breeze compared to tiling the bathroom shower!

Here's the final looks for the kitchen and the TV room.

The Second Floor Bedrooms and Half-Bath: the three upstairs bedrooms only needed a good cleaning, carpets shampooed and new paint. My real estate agent staged one of the bedrooms as a kids room. The 5th "bedroom" is attached to the bedroom.

It used to have two doors that went into each of the two bedrooms and was my bedroom when we first moved into the house. When my youngest son was living here he turned this bonus room into his art studio because of all the natural light that came in from the big picture window.

The little half-bath needed a major redo. The original cast iron corner wall sink had to go. I found a cut little vanity sink an stand to replace the old sink and painted it with some "Oops" paint from Home Depot. "Oops" paint is returned paint that customer's didn't want and it sells for $5 a gallon. Sure, most of it is some horrible bright pink or Barney purple but every once in a while there are some nice colors. I had to replace the old toilet, and had new flooring put down.

Well, that's it. I think I found a new calling in life. It was very hard work but I really enjoyed learning and certainly enjoyed the final result. So, if you think you can't "Do It Yourself" I hope this gives you at least a little confidence to tackle a project or two around your own homes.

A big thanks to my brothers Tim, David and Mark for their help--they don't live in Seattle but came out to help when they could. My friend Ymelda who loves to clean and helped me for hours cleaning and recleaning the rooms and getting the basement in some kind of organized chaos. Thank you to Luis, Ymelda's husband, for showing me how to take out a sliding glass door, put up a wall and all his expert suggestions. Pedro and Juan from Casa Latina who braved rain and hot sun to tear up the front and back yards and put my design plans into reality. Justin--thanks for your help getting the kitchen countertops out and the plywood down! Daniel, my attorney, who has been my friend and mentor. David and Nick who saved my bacon more than once with their help with plumbing and electrical work. And Natalie, my real estate agent from Windemere--you stuck with me through the rennovations and staged the house to perfection! I don't know how many times you've sold a house in one day, but to me it was awesome, especially in this economy.

I couldn't have done all this without all of you!

New Gingerbread Patterns Available

2009-12-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

I've added a couple new gingerbread house patterns from my collection of old magazines, especially those from old Good Housekeeping issues when they used to do their annual Gingerbread contest. You can view these new patterns, as well as many other---all for FREE---by clicking here.

Gingerbread---The Swan King

2008-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to making the Swan again. I'd lost the pattern from the woman's magazine from about 30+ years ago so I recreated it. You can download the instructions and patterns at my website by clicking here.

My New Icing Church for Christmas

2008-12-07T17:53:00.000-08:00

Finally remade the Icing Church--I found this pattern 25+ years ago in a woman's magazine--can't remember which one. Finished it tonight--I'd forgotten how easy it was to make. I've got the pattern and more photos on my website if anyone is interested, click here to go to my pattern page and scroll down a tad and you'll see the Icing Church picture. Let me know if you make it and post a picture somewhere to share.

Another New Gingerbread Pattern

2008-11-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

Just added these beautiful gingerbread Angel cookies I'd cut out of Good Housekeeping in 1985. They were inspired by the Neopolitan Angels used in decorating the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Christmas tree in New York City. The angel pictured is just of three patterns. I've typed in the directions and included the patterns. You can view it on my website page.

Gingerbread Patterns from Old Magazines

2008-11-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

I've collected gingerbread patterns from old magazines for over 30 years. In my, ah hem, spare time, I've been scanning them to include on my website. So far I've got: Gingerbread Dollhouse, Santa's Tugboat, Gingerbread Train, Icing Church, and a Swiss Chalet. They're all free to download (PDFs). Enjoy and if you make it post a picture somewhere and let me know by leaving a comment here on where we can all go see it. Visit my gingerbread page here.

Elizabethan Headdress

2008-07-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

I made an Elizabethan headdress for my Queen Elizabeth costume to wear to this year's costume convention. Visit my website to see the pattern and instructions on how you can create your own version.

Cakes for Hire

2008-06-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

I brought in some goodies at our last TGIF work gathering--some Peanut Butter Bites and a cute little cake and cupcakes for a Baby Shower. One of my co-workers asked if I'd do her daughter's 1st birthday cake the next weekend. Not having done this for a while I thought it would be good practice if I decided to try and do this on the side. She likes chocolate so I make a chocolate fudge 10", 3-layer cake with a Nutella mouse filling. I tried to do a buttercream rolled icing to cover the entire cake but it didn't quite look right so I ended up covering it in chocolate fudge buttercream. I made a cute little marshmellow fondant bear sitting on a pink fondant blanket and then make little presents in white and pink fondant for the sides. Hopefully it tasted as cute as I think it looks.

Cake Bites that Rock!

2008-05-31T01:48:00.000-07:00

I am such a big fan of Bakerella -- she is an amazing talented "sweet" artist! Her cake bites are a world-wide hit, especially after her recent appearance on Martha Stewart's show. Here's my attempt at creating her delectable creation.

I tried both her techniques--one where you create a chocolate cup for them to sit in and one where you mold them with a small cookie cutter to resemble a miniature cupcake.

I took them to work today for our monthly Friday get-together and they were a big sensation. Check out Bakerella's site for step-by-step instructions.

Valentine Baby Chocolate Lollipops

2008-02-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

I got the inspiration for this from one of the members of Cake Central (you gotta join this site if you bake cakes, cookies, etc., it's awesome!) and wanted to give it a try. A lot of people in my group have had or are having babies so I'm going to bring these for our group for Valentine's Day as a surprise.

Doing an internet search I found the chocolate molds at a place called Sugarcraft in their 'molds' section. Yes, they are cabbage patch baby faces. I used Wilton Candy Melts in white--man they were easy use! I poured them into the molds and refrigerated for about 2 hours and they popped right out. I bought Wilton food coloring pens to paint on the hair and mouth but they did not work very well for me. The oil in the chocolate made the color smear and separate--augh! Maybe another brand of pen will work. I ended up going over the mouths with red Royal Icing. I used red tissue paper cut with a scalloped scissor and bought wired Valentine ribbon for the bows.

Okay, it's now a few hours later and I decided to finish all twelve:

Gingerbread Townhouse

2008-02-03T03:38:00.000-08:00

I just found some old pictures of another Gingerbread house I did a while ago. This one has three stories with three different rooms.

Here's a closeup of the inside.

Creating a How To -- Gingerbread House

2008-02-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

Quite a few years ago when my oldest son was a wee babe I needed a little diversion for my creative passions. I found out about a Gingerbread House class at a local little cake decorating store in Seattle (wonder if it's still there??). The lovely woman wanted to raise some money to buy her husband an expensive flannel shirt for Christmas. Well, sign me up! Her little house was somewhat of a departure from the classic gingerbread houses decorated with lots of candy. She called it an version of a Swiss Skiing Chalet. I thought it charming and made a few over the years as gifts. I even appeared on a local morning TV program here in San Francisco (again, many years ago) and showed how to make this little house and created a how-to book.

Recently I've wanted to get back into cake decorating so for Christmas this year I pulled out the old patterns and whipped up a couple. I redid my instruction booklet since 'way back in the day I used an old word processor to type it up and glued drawings with paste, then copied it. I had a lot of fun taking my old instruction drawings and fixing them up in Photoshop--even coloring them.

If you'd like a copy of the instructions and patterns you can click here. Let me know what you think.

To Blog or Not to Blog

2008-01-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should say, will I be able to keep up with this blog?

I enjoy reading some other people's blogs but always wonder just how much should you say, how much to disclose. Are blogs just for idle musing; saying something important; or just jabbering on about your life and observations.

I've always been artistically inclined since I can remember. I used to create a small little newspaper for my 7th grade teacher called the "Daily Tiny", complete with little drawings to punctuate my stories. My teacher was a nun at Sacred Heart school in Seattle. I was always sketching and doodling. I remember taking the long leaves from the daffodils in our backyard, drying them and then weaving them into mats.

My mom Eva was an incredible seamstress and she taught me everything she knew. Sewing clothes was okay but I found it boring. One day I saw an ad in the back of Vogue Sewing magazine offering an "authentic Victorian Corset" pattern. Ooo, that was for me. Once I got the pattern I had to figure out where to find such things as spring steel bones and busks (huh?). That research led me to find groups of people in the San Francisco Bay Area that were involved in not only wearing costumes but going to events/dances where you could wear your creations. It was like Alice falling down the bunny hole. It's a long story but eventually I co-founded a group of like-minded costumers that is still going strong today after 17 years. It's called The Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild. I've stepped away from it, in part because I have a mother who is in early Alzheimer's and a husband who is about to be deployed to Iraq in February. The ladies who are running the Guild now are so incredible and dedicated that I feel I can step away and it will continue on under their very competent guidance. While I'm keep my toes in it by going to costume events and teaching workshops, it's time for me to move on and explore new things.

One of my other passions I'm rediscovering is cake decorating. Well, cake decorating is a somewhat limited terms. I also love doing gingerbread and cookies. More on that in future posts.

That's it for now.