Category:

stroup mansion

half bath renovation // part one

by Kaylah Stroup August 29, 2023

On a whim, I decided to gut my half bath.

The room I said I would wait until last to even start… I started.

Sometimes having a giant fixer upper house feels wildly overwhelming. There are a handful of big projects that just seem very out of my control. So, sometimes it’s nice to just start something you know you can knock out of the park without too too much of a hassle.

And that’s why on a random week day, midday, I decided to start demo!

This is what I started with.

Its a room Jeff and I barely ever use but our guests generally tend to choose the downstairs bathroom. Because of this the idea has always been that it’d be a massively bold room. I want guests to walk in and just be hit in the face with fun bold choices!

It feels like a fun room to experiment with. Perhaps do things I might not want to try out in a larger room for fear of how it looks. If I paint it a color I think might look rad but hate? No biggie, it’s a small room and not terrible to fix. Although, spoiler alert, I am obsessed with all my choices to far!

This was one of a couple rooms in our house that wasn’t insulated when we bought. The previous owner actually had this section of the home behind a wall and then tarped in. It was definitely a chilly room mid winter! That was why I decided to gut it completely. Otherwise, the drywall that was already hanging wasn’t in too terrible of shape. I could have removed the wallpaper and patched the walls.

BUT obviously I want to do things right! My dad and I installed insulation. It worked out that we had the perfect amount left from when we had to insulate the kitchen (another previously chilly room!)

Demo, insulation + drywall aside, let me give you a peek at the planned details!

I scored a ceiling medallion at Goodwill for a couple of bucks. I wasn’t sure where I’d end up putting it but knew that I couldn’t pass it up for the price!

I had been on the fence about the bathroom mirror that came with the house. It wasn’t love at first sight or anything but I also didn’t hate it. When I saw the roses on the medallion though? I knew I had to keep the mirror and put the medallion in the bathroom. They’re not a perfect match but they do compliment each other and I like that.

I’ve always had it in my mind that I wanted a chandelier for in here. I just love the idea of a bathroom chandelier. Its…silly? I don’t know! Just feels like a fun choice. Lucky for me, someone had removed one that was in the house previously and left it in the basement. It needed rewired but otherwise seemed to be in decent shape.

It cleaned up nicely and rewiring was a neat new skill to learn!

Here’s where I’m at now! Finished drywall, and beadboard paneling up along the bottom of the room. My dad and I made custom trim for both above the beadboard and along the bottom. The chandelier is hung and the ceiling is painted a nice moody shade! Flooring is ready to be installed and wallpaper is on it’s way here. The last thing left to choose is the color I’ll be painting the beadboard and trim.

I can’t believe it’s so far along!

Check out this reel I posted on instagram for another look at the room & everything I’ve done so far!

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a new brick walkway through my garden

by Kaylah Stroup June 19, 2023

We added a brick walkway through my garden. I AM OBSESSED.

drone garden view June 2021

Back in 2021, I added the first of many gardens to our yard. It all started with this handmade arbor that I wanted to grow clematis on and from there the idea of a massive circle shaped bed was born.

My plan had always been to put large flat rocks on the inside so that I wouldn’t have to mow it. I was in no rush though. I didn’t really feel like sourcing the rocks. Even though my dad will always let me steal rocks from him that still meant finding the perfect ones, hauling tons of them and then figuring out how to puzzle piece them together. It was a project that I just kept pushing to the side.

Then, early spring of this year, my husband and I randomly decided our fire pit needed a makeover. A weekend’s worth of work and it turned out BEAUTIFUL. I jokingly said “we should do my garden next!” thinking it was just too big of an area or that we’d never actually have enough bricks.

Well, turns out once the idea was in my brain I couldn’t get rid of it. I don’t recall if it was the next weekend we started or not but either way, we got right to work making it happen as soon as possible. The whole flat rock idea now seemed so silly.

About 85 to 90% of the bricks we used were sourced from our own yard.

Shortly after we moved in we discovered a hidden patio near the house. It had completely grown over with grass. I spent a huge chunk of time uncovering the patio before I finally decided that I didn’t want to keep it as is. It was a bit of a tripping hazard and not really in a spot that we’d use at this point in time. I painstakingly dug up all the bricks and stacked them on our woods line.

I was able to find a newspaper article about the folks who laid the aforementioned patio and it seems like they really truly loved this house. Everything I’ve read about their time here just makes it feel like they poured themselves into this place. I like knowing that I’m able to give these bricks a new life and one that is so near and dear to my heart. It sort of feels like paying tribute to them in some strange way, ya know?

The other 10 to 15% of bricks came from Facebook marketplace. I found a gal giving away bricks (FREEEE!) so I ended up grabbing two Jeep loads of bricks from her. She wasn’t home when I picked up the bricks but a neighbor wandered over, asked me a few questions and then proceeded to give me some history on the house and garden I was gathering the bricks from. Apparently the previous owner of the house was an older gentleman who had suffered a stroke and lost the ability to use one of his arms. That didn’t stop him from laying all these bricks by himself though. My goodness, let me tell you, there were a ton of bricks too. More than I could ever manage to bring home. The neighbor was sad to see his hardwork torn up like this.

I obviously love how rad this ended up looking but as you can guess, I also love how sentimental the materials are. I have no idea who the man with the brick garden was but I think it’s really cool that his materials could come to my home and make something so special for me.

It took a couple of weekends worth of work mostly because it was just too darn hot to work for very long. All the hard sweaty work was so worth it though! The whole project turned out even better than I could have ever imagined. It was one of those projects where when you finally step back and look at it you think “Oh, this is how it was always supposed to look!”

Adding six rows of bricks inside my garden bed opened up a few inches around the entire interior. Of course I also got a decently sized circle in the center to plant in as well! So, it looks way prettier and I got more room for flowers. A win/win, right!?

I’m still working on filling in the new interior bed but it’s coming along quite nicely. Honestly, a lot more quickly than I thought I would. I thought I was going to have self control when it came to plants this year but… nah.

I absolutely could not be happier with how this bed is turning out. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this being mine. Literally every single day I look at it and think ‘WOW!‘

left 2021 // right 2023

portrai.me review

by Kaylah Stroup April 18, 2023

Have you ever heard of Portrai Me?

Portrai Me is a visual art project that creates ‘portraits’ of people’s personalities through the various motifs in their lives.

Each piece is created in collaboration with the client who orders the Portrai Me. After ordering, you receive a form to customize the artwork. You can then provide a list of words and attach images you would like to be represented on the piece. After you submit your info, they create a custom drawings entirely based on the submitted lists and images.

They’re available in black and white or color, as well as a variety of different sizes.

I think if you know anything about me at this point, you know that I’m obsessed with my house… so, of course, my Portrai Me piece is all about the house.

My list included my office fireplace, a metal detector, daffodils, the wallpaper with the hidden writing underneath, a black snake (because of this incident!), the clawfoot tub, the art we found buried in the woods, tomatoes, a toad, black berries, the gorgeous hardware I restored & of course, the pets.

For full transparency, I provided photos and posted about it on my instagram in return for my own custom portrait. That was over a year ago at this point. I’m under no obligation to write this post or share anything else about it. I just wanted to post about it here too because I’M OBSESSED with it.

The first year and a half of living here was such a blur. It just felt like going from zero to a hundred in a millisecond. Everything was new and exciting. I love this portrait because it really sums up some of my favorite things that happened during that period. I feel like if I were to get another one now, the same items probably wouldn’t be included and that’s what makes this so special. It’s a snapshot into our first year as homeowners.

I also have to note that just a few weeks after originally getting this piece our dog Klaus passed away so I’m so happy to have him included in this. It makes it even more special. He may not be with us anymore but he was a huge piece of our lives here. One of my biggest goals in life was to buy that pup a yard of his own and by golly, we did it! Now I’m sobbing.

All of that to say, this piece is very sentimental.

shown above : the original wallpaper from our home that inspired the piece in the art.

A custom piece from Portrai Me is an absolutely killer idea for a new homeowner or anyone just going through a new phase in life! It’s also the sweetest thing you could get a loved one (think little pictures of shared memories or inside jokes!) I love my picture and highly highly recommend snagging one for yourself! xo

my ‘new’ very old curiosity cabinet

by Kaylah Stroup April 17, 2023

I scored my dream curiosity cabinet.

I do not use Facebook marketplace regularly. I mean, I browse it A LOT but I’m not huge on meeting up with strangers. Buuuut when I find a dream piece I make exceptions. By “exceptions” I mean that I nicely ask my husband to pretty please call them and come with me to pick it up.

This piece that looked great on it’s listing was ten times better in person. When I walked into the room full of boxes this dude had and spotted the cabinet in the center of the room, I couldn’t shove my money in his hand fast enough. No, dude, you don’t have to hype it to me. I know that I neeeeed it.

I spent the ride back from picking it up sweating bullets. The piece weighs next to nothing which means that glass is thiiiin. I was convinced we’d hit a pot hole and it’d just explode into a thousand tiny pieces. It just felt too good to be true.

She made it home in one piece though! Stunning curved glass, nice and wide, just around one hundred years old! I literally can’t imagine a piece more perfect for my oddities in this house.

If you recall, when we bought the house the previous owner left behind an Ikea cabinet that I really liked. I immediately knew it’d hold my oddities. You can get a peek of that here. The more time I spent in this house though, the more I felt like Ikea furniture was not a great fit. When I re-did our living room, the Ikea cabinet full of oddities got moved into Jeff’s office ‘temporarily’ (meaning it would stay there nearly a year while I tried to figure out what my plan was.)

Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Ikea but I do feel like my one hundred and fifty year old house needs at least some time appropriate furniture. I will never be a restoration purist. My house will most likely always have a mix of new and old furniture. I think you should do whatever floats your boat. I will tell you one thing though, this cabinet? MADE FOR THIS HOUSE. Made for my weird crap! The age, the condition, the piece in general? PERFECTION.

oil portrait painting collection + antique curiosity cabinet

oddities, jar full of dentures, anatomical models

I am just tickled pink over this. I rearranged the paintings on the wall and went through all my boxes still left in the attic to find the perfect pieces to display inside the cabinet.

You know what else is rad? It still has the key to lock the cabinet. To be honest, I didn’t realize it was a key. I excitedly showed my dad my excellent new score and he said “Ah, you’re lucky it still has the key!” Confused I responded “Nah, that’s just the knob.” He pulled it out of the lock, I screamed!

Like many folks, I have always thought old keys were neat-o. I’ve owned quite a few but none that actually went to something! That was just the icing on the cake to this purchase.

Maybe I should be giving FB marketplace more of try! xo

fire pit makeover

by Kaylah Stroup April 16, 2023

I wish I could start this post with a really great before photo but what’s above is as good as it’s going to get. Our fire pit area has never been cute. Believe me, it’s a lot cuter than when we bought. Even though we improved on it, by making the pit smaller, building benches, and adding a cool curved woodpile, it’s still not an area I’d have ever gone out of my way to photograph. It was ugly and muddy.

Even though I’ve enjoyed having fires out here, it always gave off more camping vibes than cozy home vibes. Does that make sense?

Well, as luck would have it, the materials needed to give the fire pit a whole new look were already all over our property. There are piles of bricks here, piles of bricks there. Oh yeah, and we discovered a whole brick patio under the grass back in 2021.

It took us two Saturday afternoons get this done. One to dig it out and the second to haul and lay bricks. It came together so quickly. An immediately gratifying project, the kind where after the first few bricks you had a really good idea of how rad it’d end up.

It’s still settling so we’re sweeping sand and small rocks into the cracks every couple of days. I can’t wait to get grass planted around the outside and see how it looks fully cleaned up. Even like this, a little dirty, it’s still a million times better than what we had before. I’ve already found myself spending more time out here than normal.

This was such a satisfying project Jeff and I have already decided to tackle another brick project. Next up? My garden! xo

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metal detecting finds pt1

by Kaylah Stroup April 5, 2023

I originally wrote this post in the fall of 2021 and it’s been sitting in my drafts since. I still think these are some really rad finds, and I’d love to actually start this series now that I’m blogging again. So, here’s we go!

Jeff and I have been back to metal detecting our yard like mad again! We were super into it when we first moved in but it’s easy to forget about when there are so many other house tasks to tackle. Last week, he randomly suggested we get back at it and wouldn’t you know it, we’re hooked all over again.

The past two or three times out we’ve found some neat things. I even made a cute little reel with some of the finds. There’s always lots of trash, mostly nails and pop cans. Even the trash is fun to find though. You’ll have to remind me I said that after five pop cans in a row. There’s just something very exciting about unearthing something that’s been hidden underground for who knows how long.

After our last evening spent metal detecting I realized I needed to start a blog series to highlight some of the cool stuff. So, what was so neat that it inspired me to start a series? This ring!

It’s just costume jewelry. We didn’t actually find a solid gold ring in our yard. At least not yet. Fingers crossed. But wow! The feeling of finding this? INCREDIBLE.

It was a great signal on the metal detector but I was already ready to be done. I think we both presumed it’d be a coin which is always great. When you’re hangry though? Meh, coin smoin. I was ready to head inside and get some food in my belly. The second Jeff flipped over the dirt plug I screamed, we met eyes and I yelped “Stop! I have to get my phone!” I was no longer weak with hunger. I darted into the house to grab my phone and camera. I recorded him removing it from the dirt and then took about nine billion photos of the ring.

Of course, it’d be way cooler if it were real gold. We certainly wouldn’t sell it but it’d be neat to know that it was worth something. At the risk of sounding super cheesy though, I think it might be worth just as much to us even though it is fake. We had metal detected a handful of times before moving to this house but it definitely became kind of like a date night activity here. I love wandering around the yard with Jeff looking for treasures. We find lots of trash but all of it feels like we’re discovering more about our home and its past.

another find from the day – an axe head.

Above – All the finds from the day. Mostly junk, as you can see but every piece of junk is one less signal which means if there is anything actually cool, it’ll just be easier to spot next time!

Our equipment – metal detector ▴ pinpointer

I highly recommend both! The metal detector is a great brand and this is a solid model. Easy enough for beginners to start with but good enough for enthusiasts as well! Personally, I think a pinpointer is a must. It and the metal detector go hand in hand. You’re going to have a much better time looking for treasures if you have the pinpointer’s help!

throughout the years // dining room

by Kaylah Stroup April 3, 2023

One of my favorite things to do with the very few old photos I have of my home is take updated photos of the same view. It’s something I plan to do for years and years to come so that I can watch as things change, and document how those views look throughout the years. I normally just share those over on instagram but we’re starting a new series here! This way they’ll be easier to find, I can write more about each photo and so that photos are larger.

First up – this view of my dining room!

2010

This is the dining room in 2010. The house was listed for sale but never sold. I’m not sure why it didn’t sell. Perhaps the listing price was too high? I don’t know! It seems bonkers that no one would snatch it up though. After being on the market for a year, it was taken down and the house was abandoned.

sometime between 2011-2016

Someone reached out on Youtube a while back and sent me photos of the house they took while it was abandoned! He sent me a ton of photos. Every few months I go through them and find some new detail I hadn’t noticed before. It’s really fun. Love being able to see the full view of this mural that you can only see a peek of in the previous photo. (Thanks again for the photos, Dave!)

2020

Ten years later. This was easily one of the nicest rooms in the house when we bought it. The whole house has potential, obviously, but this was the room where that potential reeeeally shined. I loved the wall color, the portière, the furniture! Ugh, it’s all just so good.

When the previous owner offered to let us keep the dining room furniture I was just kind of like “yeah, that’d be cool, thanks” but now I can’t imagine a more perfect furniture set for the room. This feels like a bold statement but I don’t foresee this furniture set ever leaving this room. When I die and haunt this house, I will not allow the next owners to move these piece out.

2023

An actual dream! I still can’t believe this is my house. It’s so much more than I could ever have imagined.

We kept the blue the previous owner chose for the room, although it got a fresh coat and a nice tight cut in job! I’m not really a blue gal but there’s absolutely no color that could fit this room better. It’s so moody!

Can’t wait to continue this little throughout the years series and have a real excuse to take more replicate photos. xo

living room update!

by Kaylah Stroup July 31, 2022

This spring I was looking for some projects to keep my mind busy. I mean, the house is full of projects I still need to finish and tons I haven’t started yet but I needed something ‘easy’ to occupy my mind. I wanted a quick flip with great results to give me a boost! (This did not end up being a quick fix but it was definitely an excellent mental boost!)

Although the green on the walls in here was what inspired my whole ‘paint everything green!’ addiction, I realized that it was the wrong shade of green. (There are some shots of it at the bottom of this post.) It was more of a blue-based green. I didn’t realize that I was super picky about my undertones but I am definitely a yellowy green gal! So, that was the number one thing I wanted to change.

Then in true ‘if you give a mouse a cookie…’ fashion, I decided if I was going to do anything in this room, I ought to do everything else that was bothering me. I patched some decent sized cracks in the wall, re-finished the floor, and picked out new furniture!

The living room wasn’t terrible with what we had in it… but it wasn’t great. The blue couch I had been moving from apartment to apartment over the last decade no longer felt like me. Fast forward to this finished living room? It perfectly encapsulates my design style at the moment. I am OBSESSED with our living room.

PS. Peep the matching bandana Professor has to my leggings! Both are from Redbubble. You can use code ‘RBC-P22-thedaintysquid’ for 15% off your order.

sources + info!
couch is Sven in grass green
paint color is ‘Sweet Annie’ by Glidden
rug
snake lamp
hand chair
hand curtain tie backs

Of course, we can’t end an updated room post without a little peek back at some of the room’s previous looks! The first photo, with the red rug and curtains was the living room on inspection day. (I think all of this stuff, other than the tv and wall art, were all here when we took ownership of the house too.) The second photo is what it’s basically looked like the whole time we’ve lived here.

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stroup mansion – hallway 2022

by Kaylah Stroup February 27, 2022

shirt from Redbubble. PS. You can use code RBC-V22-thedaintysquid for 15% off your Redbubble order, good now til June 30th.

Just dropping in to share some current photos from my hallway from the last month. Every tiny project that happens around this house reminds me more and more how important it is to document the house at every stage. So, even though this space isn’t finished here it is!

snake lamp // bird leg table

giant mirror

Although the hallway got a fresh coat of paint when we moved in, the real renovations aren’t something even close to the top of the priority list. I kept thinking that I’d wait until I did the big stuff (namely the floor) before I worried about hanging anything on the wall or even decorating.

Jeff and I kind of had an ‘aha!’ moment recently though. We decided that we should add to our tiny collection of portraits of strangers and that all of those should fill our hallway. I bought a few more portraits from Etsy and couldn’t resist hanging them. I’m not one of those people that plans out a gallery wall before hanging it so I’ve just been adding pieces as they arrive. Each new piece has made my love for this space soar. Aaand that’s how this all started. After that I added some new plants, picked up a clearance rug and splurged on my dream mirror.

There are still renovations I want to do up here but I truly love this room exactly as it is today. Honestly, I’ve felt that way about this space since the first time I saw it. It just keeps getting better and better!

rainbows made with this.

Can’t end this post without a little flashback to what this space looked like in 2013 while it was abandoned! I can’t lie, that wallpaper is pretty rad. I’m almost glad it was gone before we moved in or else I’d have definitely been tempted to save it.

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