Legett Hall, Texas A&M - Everything you wanted to know about the dorm.

I, along with thousands of other parents, just sent their child off to college.  She will be in the Legett Residence Hall which is labeled as a corridor dorm.

Legett Hall is named after K.K. Legett and was constructed in 1911 and is the oldest on campus.  It is 4 stories and the strangest design I've ever seen.  The dorm was originally for men only since women were not allowed to attend the school in 1911.  In 1979, Legett Hall was renovated as an all women's dorm, however they decided to leave a urinal in the bathroom on the 2nd floor. I'm not sure if that is a recent decision they made to accommodate gender equality or if the urinal has been there through all the years.


http://reslife.tamu.edu/options/halls/legett/


When you approach the front of the Hall, you will climb stairs to what is considered the 1st floor.  Although the building looks like it has four floors, the basement was converted from offices to dorm rooms.

When you reach the top of the stairs, you now get to play a version of "The Price is Right". Three doors are in front of you.  Which do you chose?

The door on the left, only leads to the third floor.  The middle door only leads to the first floor and the door on the right only leads to the second floor.  Very strange, I know!  From my very short visit while moving her in to the dorm, you have to exit the building and come back in to change floors, so if you are wanting to visit the kitchen, you will running in and out of the building.  Let me mention that the stairs to the second and third floors are steep!

Bathrooms must be accessed each time with their room keys and you must use the sign up sheet to use the washer and dryers (2)?) on each floor.  

You can find a diagram of the regular rooms here:  http://reslife.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/SPECS_Legett_Room_and_Furniture_Dimensions.pdf

You won't find a diagram or photos of the corner rooms so I took some before she moved in.

Two loft beds that you can adjust to any height.  I brought a hammer with me on move in day in case we needed it to knock the beds out of the slots, which we did.  When you check in to get your room key, you can ask for a hammer or mallot so if you don't bring one, it is great to borrow theirs!

As you can see the closet has a nice shelf.  Nicole brought a lot of hang up clothes and she had plenty of room.  We bought a closet rod to add if needed but she didn't need it right now and will save it for later.

Oops! Got Nicole in the picture.  As you can see there is no cabinet for the sink.  The medicine cabinet does open and has shelves.

 As you can see, a shelf peg was missing and it is missing on another cabinet too.  These are easily purchased at Lowes and Walmart probably has them. These are two cabinets stacked.

 A view of the door from inside the room.

A closet to the left, and one of the beds.  Notice the small place to put your head or feet.  

The three drawer dresser is on the left, the middle cabinet goes with the desk and then you have the desk itself.  

A view of one of the halls.

Another hall. (nice to see a fire extinguisher!)

This is the bathroom/shower. 

 Yes, that is a urinal.  Showers (with benches) line this wall.  One the other side of the wall are the individual toilet stalls with doors and locks and a long wall of mirrors and sinks.

The view from one corner window.

 The view from the other corner window.  All corner rooms have two windows that are 72 inches wide. They provide blinds but they do not have curtain rods. You will need to bring a spring rod or use command strips to hang a rod.

 Two bookcases stacked.

Fridge, Kuerig and microwave.  Let it be known that the fridge and microwave have to be plugged into a dedicated plug. They can not be connected by an extension cord.  That becomes a problem when trying to arrange the room.

Ok, look now as you will never see this room clean again (most likely).  I think the girls did a great job decorating their room! Don't you just love Nicole's ruffle bedspread?

PVC DIY fireworks and American flag pallet with cross

Recent new housing construction left me with a few pieces of PVC pipe (already cut!) so i turned them in to firecrackers/rockets.  I covered them with adhesive vinyl and used my Zing Air cutter to cut out the stars. This particular vinyl was purchased from a sign shop, so the vinyl is great for outdoors.

The flag pallets are my own design.  I love having the pallet on my front porch or in my front yard.  The One Nation Under God is black adhesive vinyl.

Silver platter kitchen

I still have not completed decorating my kitchen.  I bought a valance that I like, but not love, and I can't seem to find what I really want.  I do love the antique silver platters that I added around the window and bench.  I'm certainly open to some suggestions.  I think one of my main problems is the ugly fence I see through the window.  Maybe shutters? I love being able to see outside though.  How about a trellis? The plants could be real or fake.  I'm at a loss.  For the moment though, the silver certainly adds personality to my kitchen and I LOVE it.

Once I figure out the curtains or shutters, I can add the foam window cushion and some throw pillows.

Copper penny bathroom at Tin Roof BBQ in Atascocita, Texas

We love visiting Tin Roof BBQ in Atascosita, Texas. Their ribs and brisket are the best around and have awesome sides like broccoli and rice casserole or jalapeno poppers.  One of the most unique decorations in the building is their bathrooms!  I simply love the penny counters with the buckets and hand pumps.  I took this picture a couple of years ago and it is all over pinterest now!

DIY magnetic tins for dorm room

As I discussed on a previous post, my daughter is headed off to college in a few weeks.  While we have purchased all the large items we think she will need, it is the small touches that will pull everything together.

I recently purchased magnetic tins and I didn't have a plan to do anything with them when I bought them.  As I sat and pondered how I could best use them, I realized these would be great for Nicole's dorm.  She will be able to attach these to her mini refrigerator!

What the original tin looked like:

Front with the clear top:      

Back with the large magnet:

                                   

I first covered the plastic lid with painters tape so I didn't get paint on it.  I then spray painted the tin with glossy gold.  The glittery gold is adhesive vinyl.  The circle is a little bit larger than 3 inches so that it slides in under the plastic and will stay there without extra tape. 

 A little vinyl around the bottom and I'm all done!

Now all I need to do is get the little packets of salt, pepper and sugar!

Legett Hall at Texas A&M University (TAMU)

I can't believe the time for moving to college is here.  My daughter is headed to Texas A&M in the fall and we are making (shopping!) plans for her dorm.  

My daughter's new dorm will be Legett, named after Judge K.K. Legett, from Abilene, Texas and the dorm was constructed in 1911.  It was originally a men's dorm but now is an all female dorm with 160 girls in attendance during the fall and spring school year.

Legett Hall

Legett Hall 2016

The TAMU housing website gives a little information but not all the rooms are the same and we had some additional questions the website did not list.  We were able to get additional information about the dorm directly from an email received from the Associate Director of Housing.

Do you have pictures of room 220?  Pictures of the hall can be found here: http://campustours.tamu.edu/locations/0419

What are the sizes of the two windows?  there are 2 windows each 72’ x 72” each

Do they need mini blinds or curtains?  Mini-blinds are standard for each window

Will they need curtain rods and if so, what length? Yes, but a spring rod that is at least  72”

What is the length and width size of the room?  14’x16’  This is a corner room….so a little bit larger than the non-corner rooms

What is the closet size? 2 closets each:  54.5” x 12” x 21”

What does the sink/vanity look like? (free standing sink or is there a cabinet?).  I need to double check but these were standing sink (no cabinets)

What is the width size of the desk?  Desk Size and all other furniture size can be found here:  http://reslife.tamu.edu/sites/reslife.tamu.edu/files/download/reshalls/specs/legett.pdf

What if they want do not want to keep certain furniture in the room? Does someone remove it and store it or is that our responsibility? No, all furniture must stay in the room

Will there be someone available to raise/lower the tall loft beds on move in day? Hall staff is available to assist, but the residents can do tis fairly easily

What is in the kitchen? (toaster/microwave/fridge/freezer, etc.)  Basic community kitchen with microwave, fridge/freezer, and stove.  No toaster or toaster ovens

Ice maker?  Yes

Can they store food in the fridge?  Not really as this kitchen is fairly small and not designed for 160 students to store their food in it

Do they need to contribute anything (towels, utensils, pots, etc?)  We would suggest bringing your own

There no pictures that I found, or have been sent to me, regarding the corner rooms. I will try to take pictures so future students will have an idea what the room is like before the girls start moving in.  I guess the housing department doesn't understand that girls want to "arrange" the room before getting there and to buy necessary items like curtains and rugs.  Not having these dimensions makes it hard to shop!  

Here is the link to the dimensions of the regular rooms.  Some of the information crosses over to the corner rooms. https://reslife.tamu.edu/sites/reslife.tamu.edu/files/download/reshalls/specs/legett.pdf

And here is the link to a regular room diagram. https://reslife.tamu.edu/sites/reslife.tamu.edu/files/download/reshalls/floorplans/corridorTallLoftLegett.pdf

The tall loft beds cannot be removed height wise.  If you lower your bed, you will still have a high headboard and footboard.  This really changes how your room will look.

I hope this answers some of your questions about Legett.  Go Aggies!

4th of July pallet and pvc pipe firecrackers

Easter Eggs - Foil and Rhinestone decorations

Lately I have fallen in love with everything silver whether it be Christmas ornaments or antique silver platters.  With a little free time on my hands I covered regular plastic eggs with regular kitchen foil and hot glued rhinestones and trimming to make these beautiful eggs.  

I thought they turned out quite beautiful.

It's been a few days since I made my eggs and while spending a beautiful day in Tomball, Texas eating wonderful German food and shopping the antique stores, I came across this little mercury glass rabbit which was exactly what I was hoping to find to go with my eggs.

Chalkboard Easter Eggs

It is time to get the Easter decorations out.  Yes, I am skipping St. Patricks Day again this year.  At Walmart this morning I found the cutest eggs to use in my decorations.  Chalkboard eggs for just $1.98!

Kitchen decorating - wood floor, pewter plates and valance

I've been in my home for about 7 years and I've enjoyed decorating the majority of the house, but the kitchen has been hard for me to decorate.  First I couldn't decide whether to paint the cabinets or not. Then I started looking for curtains for the two large windows above the bench.  So, 7 years later, I am finally tackling the job. These are my move in pictures.

Beige tiled floors, bland, flat beige walls. In fact, the whole house was painted in the flat (hard to clean!) beige walls.  

Next came the appliances.  The counter top is black with green specks. It's not too overpowering I think.  The appliances are black with chrome/silver. 

From another post on my blog, I posted pictures that showed the change to the backsplash and the area above the windows.  The letters were vinyl that were cut using my Cricut machine with the exception of the Bon Appetit.  Since we decided we needed to repaint the living room, we decided to also paint the kitchen since it is a somewhat open floor plan.  All one color so it ~flows~.  In other words, I didn't know what color I wanted for the kitchen.  

We ripped out the carpeting (thank you dogs for using my living room as your personal toilet!) and installed laminate wood.  Let me stop here and say I LOVE my floor.  The only exception being that the dark wood shows every speck of grass, paper, etc.  Easy to clean and maintain!.  

We went from this...

to this!

Ok, I hate the pillows and that will be my next project. The walls are not the green like it shows in the picture.  The are painted a warm beige with a satin finish.  The paint has a tint of pink in it which changes around sunset each day. One of those things you don't know about until you have the entire room painted. 

Here is the kitchen with the wood floor.  What a beautiful change from the tile!

I still do not like the light wood cabinets but I am putting up with them until I can figure out whether to install veneer or paint.

Back to my dilemma about the valance.  I've searched the web and I do mean, I searched the web for curtains.  I've also shopped Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshalls, JC Penneys, Macy's, Dillards, Target, Walmart, etc.  I could not find a valance I wanted. One, it had to go with the silver appliances and two, it couldn't be frilly or lacy.  I wanted something tailored.  

So, after 7 years and an endless search, I found a valance on ebay.  I ordered three valances for $30 (not a bad deal).  Two for the window and one to make pillows for the bench. 

I'm not really liking the fringe so that may have to be cut off.  I taped the valances to the window frame to see if I liked them. (why tape?  because I haven't bought rods yet).

I'm not sure if the pewter plates are staying there or if I am going to move them to above the cabinets and put my silver platters in their place. I'm also not sure whether I want a floating shelf or just hang the platters. 

$30-$50 for a curtain rod? Nope, not for me.  Besides, from the way I wanted to hang the valance, no one would see the rod anyway. So I purchased a conduit rod at Lowes for $6.  They even cut it for me for free.  92 inches of strong metal which was really stronger than what I actually needed.  I purchased a shower curtain rod hanger (does that sound right?) to hang the rod.  One screw for each end and I was done.  

To be continued.