My New Guest Room Project

We are building an extra room in the back of our house for my mom who comes to visit every 6 months and other guests who come every year. We’ve been having people sleep inside the house but we’ve turned our guest room into our much needed office. This new office space has made working from home so much enjoyable but we no longer have a spot to host our guests! In addition to that, we wanted to have a new room for when we have pest control services spray the house. This room will be like our little “get-away” from the usual. We’re making it very modern and elegant, buying everything new. Since the bathroom space will be small, we will have a shower enclosure…something I’ve always wanted.

All the planning of the new room has gotten me reflecting on our current room. The new room will be so much nicer that I have been considering making this room ours instead. The downside is that the new room is not attached to the main house and if someone was to try to break in we wouldn’t hear them. I have talked to my husband and we are considering getting a security system installed for our home. Although nothing is a guaranteed, this security system will give us a peace of mind. We are also getting a dog, and even though I feel it is a big responsibility to take care of a dog, it could really help us keep the house safer.

A month into the construction of the new room the workers have finished the bathroom and added the pretty shower enclosure I had been longing for. I’m excited to see how the rest of the room will turn out but I have not told my mom about it yet because I am still deciding whether I should keep this room for ourselves or our guests. I hope I make the right decision!

My Fancy Massage Therapy Business

I have finally finished my Shiatsu massage therapy workshop and I am happy to announce that I am getting my own clinic! I found an ad on the newspaper classifieds about an old and poorly maintained building that they were selling for only $7,000! I thought, here’s my chance to be creative. So I took a loan out of my retirement account and bought the building. There are three halls, one which I will use as a lobby, the other one as the massage room, and the last one I am setting it up as a yoga studio with mirrors and hardwood floor. But the thing that makes me the most excited is my front herculite doors. They are so fancy!

I am actually getting all kinds of glass for my business. The lobby has a glass table top and glass shelves for holding small indoor plants (these are great at absorbing the negative energy that is released from our patients during their sessions and to keep the air clean). We are also getting decorative glass panels to divide the halls yet provide enough privacy. All the remodeling should be done within a month or so.

I never thought this opportunity would come to me this quickly. I always wanted to have my own fancy spa,
with relaxing music in the background, and provide a space for people to come and rejuvenate themselves. It is tough to live in the world nowadays; even kids now suffer from the stress-related problems only elderly would suffer from just 20 years ago. I am happy to be able to provide that space for others to come and get away from everything.

I’m hiring other therapists to come and work here as well so I can also get my own “me time”. I am holding on to the sticker sign that I will place on my new herculite doors until all the interior remodeling is done and the business is ready to open. Look at the picture on the right, doesn’t it look so welcoming?! The Fancy Massage Clinic ready to open in just 5 more weeks, be ready!

Stained Glass Partition

A few years ago, my brother’s adult daughter lost her job and had to move in with him for a while to make ends meet. My brother and his wife had plenty of space in their house, but they didn’t have a regular bedroom available for her.  My brother decided to convert the rarely-used formal dining room into a bedroom.  It was easy enough to build a temporary well with a door around the dining room.  There was just one problem: the kitchen had an access window cutout into the dining room.  Hanging curtains wouldn’t provide enough privacy and would clash with the kitchen design.  In order to solve the problem, my brother’s wife suggested stained glass.

At first I thought the idea was crazy.  To me, stained glass was old-fashioned and would make their house look like a church.  But then she started showing me some ideas she had found online and in magazines.  I was surprised to see that stained glass could build on a rustic, elegant or even modern aesthetic.   When my sister-in-law had settled on a design, they took it to a decorative glass professional.  He created the colored glass pane and they installed it as a window, so that when the daughter moved out, the kitchen could be connected to the dining room once more. 

My brother´s daughter was extremely happy and grateful for the privacy provided by the installation of the decorative window.  She ended up finding a new job and leaving the house after about six months, but the family still has the stained glass window, which they consider to be an outstanding home improvement.  They are always receiving compliments about how unique and colorful their kitchen looks.  And now, who knows?  I might even be inspired to add a touch of stained glass to my home.

The Crack on my Shower Door

How’s this for a rude wake-up call – your alarm goes off and you head to the bathroom to start your daily routine. You’re about to walk into the shower and see that your beautiful, glass shower door has a crack no bigger than your pinky, yet to you it seems bigger than your hand.

Now you find yourself with a big issue at hand – whether to risk and open the tempered glass or shower in another bathroom.  Now I know this decision might come easy to most, but what happens if you do decide to open the glass shower door and all of a sudden everything collapses? The only good thing about this type of situation is that you might get a little something called “shower inspiration” – upgrade what you had into something fancier, more reliable and longer lasting.

For example, I was able to get a new shower door and at the moment, I can’t complain and I truly believe that I made a better decision this time around.  Yet for the other 2 bathrooms I've decided to go with frameless shower doors, just to give a bit of a more stylish look.  After all, wouldn't you want to impress your family and guests and receive compliments?

At the end of the day, all of you want is to jump into your beautiful shower and have a quiet moment – and you really can’t have that with cracked glass doors!

How to Make a Faux Window

If you want to make a room look bigger, there are a few things you can do. I chose to make a faux window using a wooden frame I got a local store. Then I went to a glass company to add mirror panes to fit the frame. While I had already seen this idea on the internet a couple of times I was afraid it wouldn’t work out as nicely as it did for other people but I decided to put all fears aside and went through with it!   

           

When my frame was ready and the mirrors had been added to it, I hung it on the wall. My living room did look a little bigger and it also helped with the lighting. Before I hung the faux window the room was very dark because it did not have enough windows and even though this was not an actual window it did brighten up the room. Don’t ask me how, but it did.

After a few days I decided I wanted to do something extra. I thought it would be great if I could paint on my faux window and make it even more decorative. I am not an expert at painting so I went for something simple: just a small tree and some flowers. I accept it doesn’t really look professional or anything but I like it. In addition, it’s something unique that nobody else has so I can say that I am truly happy with the results! 

The Best Shape for Your Glass Door Bathrooms

You probably may have noticed that some of the most elegant homes that are featured on TV or the movies have glass door bathrooms and some not only glass doors but are made of glass altogether. Whenever I watched one of those movies, I got the same feeling: ‘’I totally want one!’’ my feeling however, was accompanied by lingering doubt about the shape that I should adopt for my bathroom. I think the conventional square-shaped shower is just too common and hexagonal or cylindrical designs are just too architecturally complicated. In the interests of staying budget-friendly and trying to reach a middle ground between my imagination and unavoidable realism, I opted for a quadrangular shape which certainly gave me a lot more mobility inside the shower and looked very esthetically appealing.

People often say this and it may sound like cliché but whenever you like what you see you just want to be around it a little more. Now, I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t shower as much before I went with a glass door bathroom but I definitely enjoy my showers more now! I enjoy looking at it while I brush my teeth and I do stare at it with a proud look on my face about my choice because of how good and elegant it looks.

I have often come across misperceptions about these doors or panels being too fragile which is not at all the case. Glass doors are more durable and thicker than regular glass which makes them stronger and more resistant. I have conservatively speaking fell at least twice while in the shower sometimes leaning towards the crystal by inertia and I have yet to see a dent on it. Elegance, functionality and durability are the trifecta of a good design concept, if you can manage to have it affordable, then you have hit the jackpot!

Custom Mirrors

A couple of months ago, Americans were remembering the 50^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. At the time, I was in California and I remember the weather being pretty chilly, not cold, just chilly. I remember the networks must have run what seemed like endless strings of documentaries and movies of the late President and all I could think of besides the great tragedy was… man, what great hair this guy had!

I have read on fashion and style magazines that hairstyles are very cyclical and we are somehow regressing to retro trends so I figured, hey! I’ll cut my hair just like President Kennedy! I managed to do so, hardly coming close to the great thickness and unmatched aura of glamour there was to it. I still needed it perfectly kempt without overdoing it with hair products, so I went to the attic and brought this custom mirror my mom had. It somehow zoomed in on one side and made you slimmer with the other side (talk about your ultimate style tool)!

I realized that mirror helped me see a lot of things that were wrong with me such as plaque on my teeth, oily skin, abnormally thick eyebrows etc. It helped me notice a lot of flaws and when the optical illusion of the ‘’slim side’’ went away, I noticed I was on the edge of becoming overweight. I don’t like to talk about my appearance or discuss these things with my friends but I will anonymously post it here because well, I can help you with your personal appearance. I had a big size custom mirror installed on my closet door a couple of weeks ago so I could see myself in a kind of 360 degree angle, therefore helping me notice any issues with my attire; let’s say I missed a button or my shirt had a spot or wrinkle, just simple things that are not so simple once you have a big event coming up.

Appearances matter, people always say that you are judged by what’s on the inside but I have learned the hard way that’s hardly ever the case, so I do appreciate my custom mirrors for helping me improve my image by just fixing myself up every morning and leaving the house just a little better dressed, better combed and with my shoes a little shinier. It really doesn’t hurt and they are quite affordable!