By Mandi | 12/27/2017 | 9 Comments
Guys, we are in the throws right now. I thought things were stressful when the renovation started, I thought they were stressful when we started DIYing stuff, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT STRESS WAS.
We’re about a month out from move in and stuff is finally coming together. I have been waiting for our new backdoor so that I could install our new Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt™ and its finally in!! So here we are, the first mini reveal of the Merc!!
By Mandi | 12/14/2017 | 10 Comments
Let’s get painting now, everyone is learning how, come on and get painting with meeeeeeeee! (I literally don’t know why everytime I sat down to write this post that song pops into my head, maybe because the Beach Boys were on Full House this week? But you know, painting instead of surfing because I’m not on a beach-also no coordination.
Are you guys ready to dive into the world of painting at the Merc?!! Let me begin by saying that once the paint was on the walls it finally started to feel like our house. It’s crazy to look back and see how much it changed from when we started. This huge open room with no walls and oh so much potential! Painting is where our lives started to get really crazy. Most of the work from the subs is over, its now up to us to bring this puppy over the finish line!
When it comes to picking out paint, I could do it in my sleep, in fact I bet if you called my local Sherwin-Williams store and asked for Mandi’s usual they’d know exactly what colors and type to get. If you’ve followed VR for any length of time you know that I have my go to tried and true that I’ve used on every room I’ve gotten my hands on since 2013 (THAT IS CRAZY!!!!) So if you’re looking for the perfect white, have a seat my friend and let’s chat.
To me the perfect white is just white. Not yellowish, not bluish, not grayish, just white. Its not too bright or too dingy, its JUST WHITE. At my local store its called Mandi White (if you’re in St. George you can go into any of the stores and they’ll mix it up for you!) The formula is extra white base with 3 oz of white pigment added. After 4 years of calling it Mandi White I asked Sherwin Sensei Sam (the manager that answers all of my weird questions) if this was a real Sherwin color and they we’re just humoring me and calling it Mandi White (you know, like when someone calls you by the wrong name for so long that you can’t correct them and will eternally be Mindy when you’re around them?) This is what he said. There is in fact NOT a color with the same formula (YAY!! Who wants to start a petition to have Mandi White added to their official list of colors!?!) But the closest “real color” is Pure White SW 7005. With Pure White they add a little bit of black to the extra white base to grey it out a teeny bit. With Mandi White the white pigment does sort of the same thing, its just a touch brighter.
So back to the Merc, like I said before, Mandi White was a complete no brainer for all of the walls and baseboard. Same with using Tricorn Black for the accents. I’ve used it so many times that there are no surprises here. BUT I did venture out to a new color that I’d never used before and i’m pretty thrilled about it -dun dun dun dun dun duuuuuuun- Jasper.
Here’s a side by side with Jasper and Tricorn Black
Before we go deeper into that let me tell you why I was so drawn to it. When we were touring the Merc for the first time I noticed these green boards stacked in a back room as well as spots of green hanging out other places (like the pass through window in the kitchen). When I asked about it, the previous owner told me the cutest historical story about Southern Utah. When the pioneers had finished building the temple they ordered paint to cover the red sandstone that it was built out of. White for the walls and green for the roof. When the paint arrived there was wayyyyy more green and not enough white, so the church passed it out to whomever wanted it to paint their gates/houses and ordered more white. I’m not sure if the green paint at the Merc is temple paint but isn’t that the most endearing story?! From that moment forward I knew if I was going to use color, it needed to be green, so it was constantly in the back of my mind.
Enter Jasper. When I saw this almost black inky green I knew it was meant for the Merc. We’re using it on our front doors and kitchen cabinets, and if we’re being totally honest I wanted to use it on all of the interior doors as well but decided against it because I didn’t want to overuse it. It feels like the cabs and front doors will be the perfect amount of green. And so far that’s it! Mandi White, Tricorn Black, and Jasper. I’m sure I’ll end up with other colors once we’re moved in and the decorating begins but for now I’m really digging the historic vibe this palette is throwing off.
Tomorrow we’re talking practical application. See you then!!
By Mandi | 12/07/2017 | 8 Comments
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, one of our biggest frustrations with the Merc is the road it’s on, more specifically the road noise. Couple that with the fact that the original windows are only single paned glass, and that neither of them were going anywhere, it seemed like a bleak situation. Not keeping the original windows wasn’t even an option for a few reasons, replacing them would have taken a huge chunk of character out of the Merc and helloooo expensive. Remedying this window dilemma was one of the first things that I looked into when I found the Merc last year and I’m happy to report that I found a solution! I LOVE it when google delivers!
Friends meet Indow. They are a cool company based out of Portland that makes window inserts for all types of properties, but I’d venture to guess that historic properties are their favorite. For the last year I waited until the Merc was ours, and waited for the reno to be in a place where it made sense to install them. AND THAT TIME IS NOWWWWW!!!!
By Mandi | 12/04/2017 | 7 Comments
Let’s talk Nativities. When I was growing up my mom had 2, one that was paper and one that was tole painted. We loved playing with them, and as I’ve grown older I too want my house filled with them, but for years I’ve struggled to find ones that I love. Honestly this makes me sound so horrible, but I want them to match the style of my house…and not be a million dollars. Is that too much to ask? This year I was on the hunt for modern nativity sets and I thought just in case you were too that I’d share them with you!
Modern Lucite Nativity from SonoraHandmade
By Mandi | 12/01/2017 | 1 Comment
Oh man alive this post has been a long time coming, and the craziest part is that we’re still not done with the doors. But lets get the ball rolling anyways yes?
If you remember, we’ve talked about doors before (here we talked about the inspiration and here we talked about opening up the original space getting everything ready for them)
By Mandi | 11/29/2017 | 8 Comments
Hey ladies! If you want a tool or 2 for Christmas, all you need to do is send your husband over to this post! I’ll take it from there!
Dear Husband of (insert your wife’s name),
Sit down man, we’re going to have a chat.
By Mandi | 11/27/2017 | 3 Comments
When we took the stucco off of the brick section we didn’t know what we’d find underneath, and we CERTAINLY didn’t know that we’d find the original sign. There was plaster that was stuck to the front of it that needed to be gently cleaned off (it’s the gray stuff all over the front of the sign).
