while we were there, we wandered through small towns, looking at the listings posted on real estate office windows, wondering if we could be the type of couple who could move to mahone bay, buy a tiny clapboard cottage for $109,000, and…do what? at the time, i was just three years into my career in children’s publishing, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. as a geologist, pierre can live pretty much anywhere in the world, but only if he’s willing to accept field placements that keep us apart for months at a time (which suck, trust me!).

disclaimer: this place probably cost more than $109,000.

so we flew back to toronto, bought a tiny brick bungalow for significantly more than $109,000, and settled into a good life by the water, if not right on the beach. but i still pine a little bit for the salty sea air and a home where i could track sand in and hang a lobster trap on the wall. (though my grandmother assures me i would hightail it back to ontario after spending one winter on the island.)

this back story is to explain why, a few months ago when my friend erin told me she was running the bluenose marathon in halifax over the may long weekend, i totally invited myself along. it also explains why i decided to run the half-marathon instead of the much shorter 10k event — 21.1k of seaviews! lighthouses! it does not, unfortunately, explain why i completely did not train very much over the last few months. (that probably had something to do with the whole applying to grad school / getting a new job thing.)

we flew into halifax last wednesday after work — my last day at owlkids! — and one of us was totally prepared for the race and one of us was wondering if she even remembered to pack her running shoes (i did). even if i’d forgotten them (i didn’t!), i still would have had a great time though. after all, i was there to take pictures of ships more than anything:

colourful cargo ship crossing the path of the dartmouth ferry.

but, actually, the race went really well, despite my forgetting how hilly halifax is! i ran 1:56.56, which works out to 5min and 33sec kilometres for 21.1km. must have been the salty sea air! we also visited point pleasant park on two occasions — one day for a leisurely stroll and another day to climb its hills as quickly as possible on our way to the finish line.and checking out the halifax seaport market in its new location was a must, of course. pierre and i went in 2010, when it was still in the brewery. i bought pierre some nautically named coffee beans from this lunenburg roastery, which had a stall at the market. we did a little bit of shopping in between the otherwise all-consuming tasks of running, eating scallops, and complaining about the incline. i wanted to buy all of the things from biscuit general store, but restricted myself to a cardigan with a ship print, a black floppy hat, and tea towels with waves and whales all over them. we encountered this other strip of cute, used clothing stores after checking out the nscad graduate exhibit at the anna leonowens gallery. erin had a little more success than i here, but the silk scarf collection in elsie’s is worth noting here.

we also ventured up to the hydrostone market area for lunch one day, where i found a store called the rusty hinge selling my antique doorknob/rusty wire picture holders for $19 a pop.

big thanks to the balser family for letting me crash their family barbeque, driving me places, making pots of coffee all week, and giving me a title for this post. finally, as much fun as i had in my week “between jobs,” and even though a rob ford crack scandal broke while i was away, i’m really happy to be home in toronto. i always am, in fact — no matter what any other place i’ve ever visited has going for it, toronto is still my favourite city in the world.

i don’t read a ton of non-fiction, am known to skim or skip the “insight” section, but i love documentaries. luckily for my brain, toronto is home to one of the world’s only documentary cinemas (the bloor hot docs cinema) and one of the world’s best film festivals (and i’m not talking about tiff).

my brother bought pierre and i a totally awesome joint birthday gift last year: a 10-pack for hot docs. once the line-up was released in march, we looked through all the films alphabetically, noting which ones we might like to use a precious ticket on. when we came to “t” and tiny: a story about living small, i wrote the dates and times down for obvious reasons!

in fact, i used up four tickets on the film, inviting my brother and friends to join me. the screening we went to was on the final day of the festival at the revue on roncesvalles. i never hang out in that neighbourhood, but what a great spot! i know, i’m late to the party.

i loved the film — easily the best one i saw at this year’s festival and actually one of my favourite docs of all-time, just based on how much i identified with the topic. tiny is a year-in-the-life of 29-year-old nomad chris smith, who plunks his life savings down on a parcel of land in the colorado mountains and then spends another $27,000 to build a 150-ish square foot home on wheels, in which, ironically will be the home he finally stays put.

interviews with other singles, couples, and families who embrace living small are scattered throughout the film and it was really neat to get a tour of their spaces — some pretty ingenious storage solutions at work!

if you’ve been reading this blog since the start, or have ever wandered over to the about page, you’ll know pierre and i didn’t start out with any intention of living small. in fact, our house hunt was spurred by the “need” for more space; our 618 square foot apartment just could not hold all our (wedding) stuff. that we’re where we are, living quite happily and comfortably in 710 square feet, is a happy accident/minor miracle.

if we hadn’t had a year’s worth of hold-ups with plans and permits, i doubt we’d have had time to rethink the amount of space we truly needed and wanted. we’d probably have our 2400 square foot “dream” home by now — along with a huge mortgage, lots more stuff, and less time to do the things we like to do. so even though 2011 was a difficult year of figuring that out, i really do think this is the way we were meant to live and am glad things worked out this way.

after all, if it hadn’t worked out this way, i wouldn’t be featured in apartment therapy’s annual small cool contest, now would i? go vote! it’s a good month to be living small.

but, as demonstrated by my choking on my coffee this morning, our little bungalow is in the running! in the running for nothing, i might add. as a canadian citizen (part of the “international division”) i’m not actually eligible for any of the cash prizes. i think pierre would eat his socks if this hobby of mine actually brought any money in, though, which would be fun.

so, what are you waiting for? go vote for me, friends!

when we started looking for a house, a nice yard was on our wish list. i mean, it’s on everyone’s wish list, right? there are a few things our bungalow doesn’t check off that list (workable bedrooms, a front hall closet), but it has the yard we wanted and then some. sunny and 1250 square feet, we couldn’t ask for much more in the city. okay, a fence would have been nice. and maybe a deck or mature perennial garden…but, whatever, for once in this house space isn’t an issue.

we are both very big on eating locally and seasonally so being able to grow some of our own food was high on our list of to-dos after moving in. our first spring, i put a few herbs in a bed and some berries in a pot.

i’d never grown anything for consumption before and you’re supposed to start out small… plus, we didn’t want to invest a lot of money into a garden that would only get destroyed as we proceeded with our renovation. this chive plant in the middle is a perennial, so it’s still going strong this spring.

well into our third year here, the time has come for a more serious vegetable and herb garden. and despite all that’s going on in our lives right now — pierre’s toughing out a programming course, i’m starting a new job and getting ready to go back to school part-time — we knew we needed to get food in the ground now.

the sunniest spot in our yard is directly behind our house, so pierre trenched out a 6′ x 4′ patch and set to work.

using the technique my dad taught him when they built the pad for our shed last summer, pierre notched and sawed the afternoon away and then used rebar and a baby sledge to secure the frame.

resulting in this: a vegetable and herb box that is both beautiful and ain’t going nowhere. it was my job to fill the box with dirt and the three little bags of compost and triple mix that pierre brought home was not going to cut it. luckily, our neighbours a few houses down had a giant pile of dirt on their front lawn with a “free” sign. three wheelbarrow loads got the dirt line up to a good level, then i mixed the high quality stuff pierre had bought in with our cultivator. i planted the tallest herbs on the eastern most side of the box so that they won’t block the shorter herbs’ sunlight when they reach their full height. rosemary can supposedly grow 3′ tall! (that’s the length of a fruit by the foot, people.) we had a lot of seed packets leftover from previous springs when we had good intentions to plant things, but didn’t. so in addition to what you can see, arugula, beets, parsnips, and ocra are in there, too.

oh, there is still so much work to be done in the yard — the lawn is balding it’s so stressed — but this was the most time-sensitive thing so we’re thrilled to check it off the list. providing these plants survive and thrive, progress photos will be posted over the next few months. and maybe even some recipes using foreign ingredients like…basil?

Filed under: outside Tagged: growing vegetables in toronto, herb box, how to make your own vegetable box, vegetable box ]]> http://littlebungalow.net/2013/05/05/overly-engineered-herbs/feed/ 3 IMG_1968 rungirl85 yearone_15 vegetable box making a vegetable box homemade vegetable box IMG_1960 IMG_1966 herb box IMG_1970 http://littlebungalow.net/2013/05/01/tax-free-teak/ http://littlebungalow.net/2013/05/01/tax-free-teak/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 00:45:38 +0000 kendalgerard http://littlebungalow.net/?p=2984 Continue reading →]]> a lot of my friends get really excited about april 30th. it’s tax time! and for us arts & culture, non-profit type 20-somethings that means a sizable tax return.

unfortunately (and really, this is the only unfortunate thing about it), i am married to a total non arts & culture, non-profit type who takes all of my eligible deductions for himself in order to minimize the taxes he pays (and, thus, “we” pay). boo. and, in a testament to my maturity, i have stopped making him write me a cheque for all the money i should have gotten back, but didn’t.

this year, i got a measly $125.15 — just enough to buy this teak coffee table designed by iconic midcentury design firm gustav bahus & eft via craigslist and off a woman i met in a canadian tire parking lot in pickering. pierre’s gift to me — remember, i said he didn’t owe me a cheque anymore — was that he let me buy it, which is a kind of victory. (he also said i could keep any money i made selling our old coffee table. to buy other tax-free things off craigslist? maybe.)

this is kind of a bold statement, but… i think this might be my favourite thing i’ve bought off craigslist ever. the top spot has long been shared by the giant gold mirror in our dining room and our orange slice chair, but this table might eke them out, at least for now.

this was such a lucky, perfect find. it’s exactly the right colour to match our modular shelving unit and the exact right height for the couch and chair, too. and the condition! this is the only piece of furniture that’s walked through my door in the last two and a half years where i’ve just put it down. done. it’s perfect — no sanding, staining, repairing, painting needed.

best of all, we’ve been able to move our orange slice chair into the living room rather than have it stick halfway out into the hallway. the flow from the foyer to the back half of the house is much improved. the table is in a really comfortable spot for both the couch and chair, something that wasn’t the case with our newly retired, long ikea coffee table.

i know there’s a lot of wood — and more of it in the dining room, which is open to the living room, but i’m completely unapologetic about it; i really love me some teak.

Filed under: latest finds, living room Tagged: coffee table, craigslist, gustav bahus & eft, mid-century modern, norway, tax return, teak ]]> http://littlebungalow.net/2013/05/01/tax-free-teak/feed/ 0 IMG_1954 rungirl85 teak coffee table 3L73J83Hd5Ec5K45Fbd4c08d6ca772bdc18e7 bungalow living room IMG_1950 tulips http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/28/vanilla-bean-deck-chairs/ http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/28/vanilla-bean-deck-chairs/#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:12:13 +0000 kendalgerard http://littlebungalow.net/?p=2981 Continue reading →]]>

last may, as in a whole year ago, pierre and i took a trip to the county to race the terroir run. we stayed at a perfect, no-nonsense cottage in an apple orchard, tried to buy food at a less-than-perfect farmers’ market, visited some side of the road antique places, and had a lovely time. we can’t wait to go again this may, this time with friends.

the deck chairs pictured above, in all their paint chipped, rotten teak slat glory, were the “finds” of the weekend. i paid way too much for them ($30 each) though i did get that little wooden flower box for free. i thought they’d look really cute on our front porch and i promised to fix them up.

here they are last fall, not fixed up but on our front porch, alongside two glass and fake brass end tables i found on cosburn avenue while walking a book back to the library and a pie pumpkin that was later annihilated by a squirrel.

since it’s about the time of year when i start drinking coffee and reading on the front porch i thought i’d better make good on my promise to whip (or sand, reinforce, and paint) these chairs into shape.

first, i looked at the chairs for 20 minutes. turned them over. examined their working and non-working parts. brainstormed how to make bad wood good again. i’m still scratching my head over how to fix the chair with the rotting wood that’s compromised its stability, so i decided to do the “bad” chair first and leave the “worse” chair for another afternoon.

because i had nearly two gallons of exterior behr paint in mineral left over from my fiasco buying shed paint, mineral was the obvious colour choice. the end result was a vanilla bean ice cream colour, achieved by loose dirt, soil, and sand blowing into my tray of white paint while working on the chair. while i had the paint out, i was tempted to give our porch railing a clean, fresh coat, but just looking at all the sides of all those slats made me decide to put it off for another summer, or two, or forever.

can you spot the difference?!

besides the obvious, if you look closely at the chair on the right, you’ll see a dark spot along the horizontal slat across the back. that’s where the wood is rotten, so you can’t lean your back against the chair without dislodging the back slats from the frame. it’s also missing the final slat across the front, which would touch the back of your knees when sitting down.

but the “bad” chair turned out so nicely that i’m committed to fixing up its partner in the next few weeks. though, if there were ever a good candidate for spray paint, it was this project — with all the nooks and crannies this was a two hour paint job and i was really glad i had pre-decided to tackle only one chair at a time.

and our porch is still rocking one of the side-of-the-road side tables; i sold its twin on craigslist for $20 over the winter. we have a beautiful teak bench now occupying the real estate under our front window, where the deck chairs and this table took up residence last summer, so that’s why the chairs are now filling the “short end” of the porch.

but the bench, like everything else in my life, needs sanding, cleaning, and oiling before a blog reveal. and maybe a pillow or two? it’s part of our backyard dining set, which was on a one-way trip to the curb before my parents saved it and gave it to pierre for his birthday. it was too big to fit under our winter tarp so we stored it on our porch all winter, where it looks really nice, the vertical slats echoing the porch railing.

okay, so advice on what to do with the worse chair? and firewood is not an acceptable answer, (dad).

Filed under: before & after, latest finds, outside Tagged: behr mineral, deck chairs, front porch, prince edward county, teak, the carriage house ]]> http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/28/vanilla-bean-deck-chairs/feed/ 2 IMG_1941 rungirl85 Carriage_01 porch_1 white deck chairs pair of white deck chairs http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/19/bungalow-versus-backyard-year-iii-grand-ambitions/ http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/19/bungalow-versus-backyard-year-iii-grand-ambitions/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:28:45 +0000 kendalgerard http://littlebungalow.net/?p=2958 Continue reading →]]> it’s hard to believe — especially if you use our backyard as a guide — that this is our third spring in the bungalow. granted, the first spring (2011) we were still operating under the idea that we were going to add a second storey that coming fall, so there was no point planting anything, or doing much more than simply observing the yard, going for walks around its perimeter, marveling that it was ours, and sidestepping dog crap while doing so.

spring 2011

last spring, armed with the knowledge that we were going to nix the second storey addition in favour of a more affordable basement renovation in the near future, we got to work on the yard.

spring 2012

right away, too. mid-april we were back there, plotting, planning, and digging (must’ve been warmer last year). we did a lot of work without it looking like anything was getting done. there were trees to take down, shrubs to transplant, a shed to dismantle, and bricks to dig up. the chainlink fence along the back of our lot was replaced with a wood one. hours and weekends of sweat and labour, and nothing all that encouraging to show for it.

but, close to the end of the summer, things started to come together. my dad helped install a gas line for the barbeque my parents’ bought us for christmas 2011 and then my dad installed a central air conditioner a few weeks later (an “early christmas” 2012 gift). in august, my dad and pierre built a cement pad in the spot our shed used to be. two guys from duroshed came and built us a carriage house to replace our aluminum shanty. we put rocks and mulch down around our maple tree and at the back of our property. i planted a sand cherry tree! and painted our new shed. then, the piece de resistance: a lattice fence dividing our property from our neighbours’, which has kept their beagle at bay for the past five months. we’re so excited to properly enjoy a crap-free yard this summer.

fall 2012

fall 2012

toronto ice storm warnings and crazy fluctuating temperatures or not, spring 2013 is here and, with the main floor of our house recently finished-ish, i can’t wait to continue our assault on the backyard. in no particular order, here is our super ambitious outdoor to-do list:

• plant shade-loving perennials in the shadows of the shrub and tree to hide the chicken wire and lattice concoction (known as “the beagle barrier”)
• get some fruits, vegetables, and herbs into pots that can be moved around to follow the sun — i’ve had good luck with strawberries, basil, oregano, and parsley in the past, and our thyme and chives have come back robustly
• sweep out the shed, plant annuals in the shed’s window boxes, and touch up any spots that need it with paint
• plant tall grasses and climbing vines along the side of our property that is still fenced with chainlink
• create a stone pathway in the laneway next to our house using 8″ x 8″ pavers
• level and put pavers down under our kissing gate
• clean up the narrow strip of land between our house and our eastern neighbours’ garage, put down landscaping fabric, and fill the space with river rock
• define a garden bed along the chainlink and plant native flowers — the garden market at the evergreen brick works is a great, albeit expensive, place to buy plants native to the don valley
• carve out, level, and tamp the land for a gravel pathway leading from our barbeque pad to the back of our lot
• create a level, tamped, gravel seating area at the back of our yard for a dining area
• sand, clean, and stain a teak bench, dining table, and set of 5 chairs that my dad bought off a friend for $300 and gave to pierre for his birthday
• deal with a possible grub situation and aerate, fertilize, and seed our lawn and laneway
• install a holder for our garden hose at the side of our house

…but before i can do any of that stuff, i need to spend a solid amount of time back there with some gloves, a rake, and a leaf bag (or ten). after filling a dozen bags in november, i raked the rest of the leaves from our big-ass maple tree into our beds, thinking they’d insulate and nourish the soil and the few plants we have put in over the winter. well, that’s what i told myself so that i wouldn’t have to bag any more leaves. now, those plants, an ambitious daylily in particular, are trying to poke through the inch-thick layer of leaves i tucked them in under last fall, and i’m hoping to get my hands dirty this weekend.

here’s some more evidence of last year’s hard work. i want to continue the beach rock along the side of the house — good for drainage and it’s a jungle back there come july. more importantly, is this not the biggest tree trunk you’ve ever seen in a city yard? now, imagine the leaves.

Filed under: outside Tagged: backyard to-do list, bungalow backyard, east york backyard ]]> http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/19/bungalow-versus-backyard-year-iii-grand-ambitions/feed/ 3 yard_5 rungirl85 spring 2011 yard_5 fall 2012 fall 2012 bbq_1 http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/16/bathroom-budget-breakdown/ http://littlebungalow.net/2013/04/16/bathroom-budget-breakdown/#comments Wed, 17 Apr 2013 01:39:00 +0000 kendalgerard http://littlebungalow.net/?p=2564 Continue reading →]]>

earlier this year, i outlined our $1,250 bathroom budget and what we hoped to accomplish with it. from the start, we planned to keep many of the big ticket items in the bathroom as-is (tiles, layout, tub, and toilet), which really kept our costs down. our big splurges were a new sink and taps, plus the lighting to show them off…oh, hell, everything added up. all told, the bathroom revamp totalled $1,289 — but that’s excluding the twins’ labour because that cost was generously covered by my dad. and i would have been right on target except for a sneaky $40 c.o.d. charge i had to pay upon delivery of our light fixture! boo.

for the simply curious or budget-conscious, below is a breakdown of the costs associated with our 1940s bungalow bathroom facelift.

we reused the rectangular mirror over the sink because its slim profile fit the space perfectly. i already owned the classroom hook used to hold the hand towel and that little plastic garbage can was a dollar store purchase in university, but everything else in this photograph was purchased new (or old) for our bathroom remodel.

emory double light fixture in polished nickel from schoolhouse electric – $175 (+ $40 shipping and $40 c.o.d.)
handmade opal glass shades from from schoolhouse electric – $70
cheviot “kent” pedestal sink from vintagetub.com – $300
porcelain cross-handle teapot taps from vintagetub.com – $100
wood cabinet from craigslist – $15
metal locker basket from smash – $25
murphy oil soap from home depot (to clean the nightstand) – $4
baseboard filler piece from home depot – $6

i added an additional surface for storage to the right of our sink. it’s perfect for our toothbrushes and hand soap and for somewhere to put a heating-up curling iron or charging electric razor. we were formally housing all this stuff in our recessed window, but that space is so tight we were sometimes knocking (glass) jars of stuff off the sill and having it shatter on the tile. all our glass is now safe from wayward elbows.

bm “gray owl” (walls) paint and supplies from benjamin moore beaches – $65
floating frame from deserres – $22
broadview photograph taken by pierre, printed at pikto for – $15
shelf brackets from rideau antiques – $45
tremclad high-gloss black spray paint from home depot – $7
floor board / shelf from rideau antiques – $2
ceramic soap dish from value village – $1.50
ceramic toothbrush holder from rideau antiques – $6
silver tray from value village – $2

the white, fluffy towels were a wedding gift and, after three years of marriage, i was beginning to think we’d have to replace them soon (they were starting to feel all scratchy and worn). then, my mom told me about fabric softener! and now, they’re like new. with no real linen closet to speak of (and even less of one once our studio is converted to a nursery) our towels are out at all times, so it’s nice they look and feel soft again. the door was a project from over a year ago so i haven’t included the costs below, but the door was $30 and the hardware less than $10.

european petite collection towel bars by gatco from vintagetub.com – $60
enamel restroom sign from schoolhouse electric – $20
uddgrund shower curtain from ikea – $20
eggegrund shower curtain lining from ikea – $5

the bathtub was recaulked and we kept our bath trim, but replaced the shower head. i love our new shower head — and the shower hub and tub faucet that went with it — but the twins explained they’d have to demolish, replumb, and redrywall parts of our bathroom in order to switch the hub and faucet in the shower. sigh — so not in the budget or a logical thing to do. instead, i used some clr and a scour pad to shine up the shower curtain rod, shower curtain rings, hub, and faucet and called it a day.

i wasn’t planning to replace our shower curtain, but because of the light shades and overall colour scheme i ended up wanting to. i really liked this shower curtain, but the price was less than perfect so i went with a substitute from ikea, which worked out really well. i’d also planned on reusing our over-the-shower-arm shower caddy, but once the shower head was installed i changed my mind. i bought a corner caddy at iq living a few weeks ago and so far it hasn’t come crashing down in the middle of the night to scare the hell out of us.

pfister marielle raincan shower head, arm, and flange from home depot – $125
clr metal cleaner from home depot – $10
moen 2″ bathtub plug from home depot – $3
caulking and caulking tools from home depot – $10
suction! shower caddy from iq living – $20
vintage classroom hook from maccool’s reuse – already had

the medicine cabinet came with the house and i knew it was going to stay — hard to beat a cabinet so perfectly proportioned. i sanded and painted the wood front (with supplies we already had), used steel wool to clean the metal shelves and sides, and then did a big purge of what was inside. tiger balm that expired while i was in the eighth grade? pepto bismol more likely to give me a stomach ache than cure it? gone. i bought the clear storage containers from kitchen stuff plus shortly after we moved in and i don’t remember what they cost.

glass shelves from home hardware – $50
ceramic bud flower vase from value village – $0.50
european petite collection toilet paper roll holder by gatco from vintagetub.com – $25
make-up bag by jenna rose (ships!) – already had

if i’ve left anything out or you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

i have a bit of a self-diagnosed pillow and bed linen problem. i just keep buying them — such an easy way to change the look and feel of a room. i think i’ve finally settled though. we have a set of white and a set of light blue sheets for the bedroom and i’ve donated the rest of our ill-fitting sheet sets (we have a very deep mattress) to the new puppies in our extended family. the only dogs with 600 thread count egyptian cotton in their crates? well, probably not.

and pillows, while i’ve been through more than a few, i generally recover them when i’m tired of their colours or patterns. that’s how this no-cost sapphire blue pillow came to be.

my mom and i followed a “5 minute pillow” tutorial from rambling renovators to make this simple envelope case. except it took us about an hour and a half. but there was set up time in there and time to figure out the directions. once we finished this pillow, i felt pretty confident we could’ve made another one in about 15 minutes. it certainly was an easier sewing project than the linen table runner, which took us several hours and several diagrams to pull off.

1. we measured the pillow from seam to seam. it was 21″ w x 16″ h. following rambling renovator’s instructions, we added 2″ to the height and multiplied the width by 2½ to get our fabric measurement of 52.5″ w x 18″ h. 
2. we added 1″ extra to the width for a wider hem, cut the fabric and folded the fabric at the short ends. we went with uneven hems of 1½” and 2½” on the side that would show as the “pocket.” we pinned and ironed the hems. for the blue velvet we used the silk setting.
   

   we’re at about 45 minutes here.

3. with the hems still folded, we lay the fabric out on a flat surface and wrapped my pillow, repositioning it so that the fabric wrapped around both sides of the pillow fully plus a little bit extra. once we were happy with the positioning, we pinned and ironed the fabric at the three folds.
4. then, we went back to our short ends. we stitched just the 1½” hem and folded the 2½” hem (it would be kept in place when we stitched up the long sides) since we thought a fold would look nicer than an exposed stitch. but you could stitch both hems if you have the ability to do a decorative stitch or you don’t mind your stitch showing on outside of the pillow case.
5. lastly, we turned the fabric over so the inside was facing up and found our three folds. with the fabric still inside out, we stitched a 1″ hem along both long sides of the case. we turned the finished pillow case right side out, stuffed a pillow in there, and that’s it! 

i say this every time i finish a room, but right now the bathroom is my “favourite” room in the house. i’m in love with the way it turned out, even more than i expected to be. i thought the paint, new fixtures, and reorganization would be an improvement, sure, but i didn’t expect a few days and $1,289 would create a dream bathroom. after all, we still have the same tiles, tub, toilet, shower hub, and layout — but i’m amazed by how different it feels and looks.

since posting photos from the day that the twins came, i’ve moved our toiletries back into the bathroom, cleaned the floors with something more than a lazy wet swiffer (for the first time), dabbed black spray paint over screw heads with a q-tip, and retrieved this brass owl from my office to preside over the room.

so, short of pierre not being totally happy with how his broadview ttc photograph turned out (i’ll admit it did look brighter on-screen) we are done in the bathroom! that means, with the exception of painting one last wall in the kitchen, we’re totally done the main floor (you can check out photos of the entire main floor here). just in time, too — the weather is getting nice and bungalow vs. backyard will be gearing up for round three pretty soon.

here are a slew (like 20+) of bathroom “after” photos. and if you need to be reminded of what it looked like “before,” that post is here.

in a few days i’ll post a budget breakdown for anyone who is thinking of giving their own little bathroom a facelift or just curious about the cost spread (hint: that light fixture is by far the most expensive thing in the room). i’ll admit we pulled our $1,250 budget out of thin air: that is, we decided on a figure we thought was reasonable before doing any research into costs (same way we budgeted our wedding!), but i was somehow, almost bang-on in this case.