Cabinets are in!

Mom and I finished up the kitchen cabinets this weekend. Obviously the doors are still not on. I figured why put them on before the countertops are installed. One less thing to get scratched by a stray piece of granite. I did put the doors and drawers on the pantry so you could see how the finished product will look.

My kitchen cabinet colors

We also finally moved the refrigerator back out into the kitchen. We were worried that it would stick out too much next to the entryway but it is perfect. Thank goodness! Counter-depth refrigerators are crazy expensive.

Still need one more cabinet next to the fridge

I’m so proud of mom and I for doing the base cabinets completely on our own. Hopefully the counter guys will like our work as much as we do .

Kitchen catch-up & Cabinets!

I’ve been quiet for awhile but that doesn’t mean working on the kitchen has stopped. In the last month the walls have all gone back up and the walls have been painted.

All of the walls are primed

As much as I loved my red wall in the dining room I wanted to make the room feel like one big space so it had to go. It only took 3 coats of primer!

Bye, Bye red walls!!

Now we’ve moved on to cabinets. Mom and I spent 2 days putting together all of the cabinets. I have to say Ikea makes it easy, at least once you learn to interpret their diagrams. After the first few cabients I think we had it down to 15-30 minutes per cabinet.

Hanging the uper cabinets was easy. Rick and dad did most of the work but the Ikea suspension rail system makes leveling hanging them so much easier than putting up a ledger board and trying to level the cabinet while attaching it to the wall.

Dad and Rick abandoned us the next week but instead of putting off working on the base cabinets mom and decided that we could do it ourselves…and we did!! It took us several hours but we managed to get one wall of cabinets completely installed.

Look at the new wall color

These are just the cabinet frames. This is NOT the color of my cabinets

There is still a lot to do but my kitchen is actually starting to look like a kitchen again. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Moving forward

So the electric is just about finished and we’re slowly putting the walls and ceiling back up.

This means I’ve got to start thinking about flooring. I know I’m going to use ceramic tile but I haven’t picked a color and since my walls and counters need to look good with whatever I pick I’ve got a lot of choices I need to hurry up and make. Today I bought a bunch of tiles that all look good in the store and I have to decide which one looks good in my house. Any thoughts?

The paint chip on top of the glass cabinet door is the color palate I’m using for the dining room/kitchen. Yes, we’re going to have to say goodbye to my red wall. I love it but I want the room to feel like it all belongs together and I don’t want the whole kitchen to be bright red. I’m looking at a gold that is a few shades lighter than my living room. I think on the dining room half I will put up a chair rail and paint the lower portion of the wall a dark purple.

But all of that is still a little ways off, tomorrow we put the ceiling back up!!

Kitchen Layout

For those of you who have been wondering this is the current (and hopefully final) kitchen layout. the electric has all be run and we are finishing the ceiling drywall tomorrow, then it’s just mud and tape, mud and sand, ….

Kitchen Remodels Begins…Demo!!!

It’s finally time to begin the kitchen renovation and tha means it’s demo time!! First let’s all take a moment to remember what the kitchen used to look like.

This was originally the eat in kitchen.

the pass-through that divided the kitchen in half.

Last time we'll get to see the red wall

Cabinets mounted in the pass-through over the sink

Peering through the pass-through.

Saturday morning mom and I were up early and ready to do some demo…well ok, we got a little side-tracked shopping, but AFTER we finished that and got back home we were all about the demo. We took down most of the cabinets before we called it a day. Sunday, she was back again bright and early and we managed to take down most of the drywall before Dad arrived. Then it was out the back door with the rest of the cabinets.

Bye bye kitchen!!

Looks better already

Amazing right? We did run into one little problem. Once we tore the wall with the plumbing down we realized the sewage pipe came up out of the floor in a different place than I expected, right in the middle of what would have been a walkway. This means no island without having someone move the line and that just doesn’t seem worth it. So, the plan has been revised to make it a pennisula rather than an island. I know it’s hard to visualize right now. I’ll try to put up the plans sometime soon.

Sewage drain you make me sad

Minor crisis aside everything went smoothly and with the help of my wonderful parents we got it all done. Now every time I look out in my backyard the Sanford and Sons song plays in my head…

Mom + Sledgehammer

Next weekend we’re taping it all out to get a feel for the set-up and getting ready for lighting!!

Who needs help?

So this weekend we were scheduled to lay the last of the living room floor but…my mom got an upgrade from “mom” to “grandma” when this little cutie arrived early.

Avery Paige King

Way to one-up me on the Mother’s Day gift Sarah . Needless to say mom headed down to see her new grandbaby and I was left with no floor laying partner. Instead of waiting for someone to be around and available I decided I could do it on my own. Who needs help anyway right? So Saturday morning I headed over to the house and started. Underlayment was laid, flooring was laid out and I was good to go.

Laying the Underlayment

Everything went pretty smoothly. Despite all of the floor leveling there was still a low spot but I decided to use 1/8″ thick pieces of board as shims. Where ever there was a gap I just slipped it underneath and made sure the flooring seemed firm. I wouldn’t recommend it for a lot of flooring but this was just a few small spots and it seemed to work well. After I worked past the low spot the floor evened out again and I was good to go.

My first cut!

End of day 1

I’m so happy with how it turned out. The room looks so much bigger and it will be so nice to come down the stairs in the morning and not step on concrete!!

The stairs

Finished!!

No more concrete!!

Almost exactly one year after I moved into the house I finally have a finished (almost) living room

Paint is on…next up floors

This weekend mom and I got the walls in the living room primed and painted and…WE ORDERED THE KITCHEN CABINETS!! No turning back now. The cabinets will be delivered in a week or two.

Rick was sweet enough to come over and cut the curved pieces of flooring (and he did an excellent job!!) so next weekend I think mom and I are going to try to tackle it on our own. Please pray for us!

It’s been awhile

Renovations took a back burner over the winter but now that all the big holidays are over, a baby shower has been thrown (not for me!!), and all the snow has melted, things are revving back up. So, let’s see, where were we when I last posted? Oh yeah, leaky living room and ugly guest bathroom. Progress has been made on both fronts.

Let’s start with the living room. When last we talked it was under water every time it rained. Guess what? No more leak!! Thanks to help from friends we figured out the problem and found someone we know to help fix it. It’s hard to explain but the rain water was building up under my neighbor’s foundation, which is higher than mine, and because of the way the retaining wall was built it wasn’t able to drain and instead had found a way through the wall and into my house. Boo!! A friend offered her husband’s services and he was able to dig a trench between the wall and my neighbor’s flower bed and fill it with gravel so that water was able to drain properly. Then he put the wall back up and voila! No leak. It’s been about 5 months now. Yay!!

No leak means I can start reclaiming my living room. I’ve leveled the floors using the self-leveling compound. It was much easier than I expected but it took a lot more than I thought it would (the pictures are only bag 1 it took 3.5).

Next came the walls. They are all up but the sanding and mudding continues. Have I mentioned how much I dislike sanding and mudding? A lot. Dad was also kind enough to put in an overhead light for that side of the room. Much better!!

The walls are up!!

Next comes the floor but May is turning out to be a very busy month and I’m not sure when we’re going to get to it. I need the help of my favorite floor-layer, Rick, but he’s jetting off to the Netherlands and leaving me behind . Sympathy is appreciated. I would tackle it myself but I’m just not sure how we’re going to go around the base of the stairs, which is rounded. It’s going to take some skill with the jigsaw and patience…I don’t really have either.

That’s ok because I can work on the other project we’ve got going on upstairs. The guest bathroom. That’s right folks, it’s still only half finished. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though and mom and I pulled the old vanity out last weekend so I am free to finish the floor now. I see a long weekend with me, some mortar and a little grout. I did manage to pull out the toilet, tile under it and put it back in all by myself.

Gross...just gross.

Pictures of the finished project will follow shortly, at least the floor and vanity, but for now here are the BEFORE pictures…

Guest Bathroom Before

This weekend:
• Paint Living Room Walls
• Lay Bathroom Floor

Guest Bathroom continued…

The guest bath is almost done and I’ve had so many requests for pictures that I thought I’d put a few up. The walls still need grout, which I’ll be doing tonight, but otherwise the shower surround is finished. I chose a decorative glass mosaic tile from Modwalls.com. The color blend is called Marakesh and it’s a mix of browns and olive glass tiles with a gold sheen. It’s really hard to capture in picutres but I absolutely love it.

A close-up of the decorative tile.

I'm so happy with how it turned out

When I did the bullnosing along the outer edges it just didn’t look right at the end of the decorative row so I came up with my own solution. I guess I could have just caulked the decorative edge but I don’t think I would have liked the look of that. This works for me.

This was my solution for creating a finished edge for the decorative tile strip.

I am now an expert at cutting tile. Check out the hole I made for the pipe. Beautiful, I know, you don’t have to tell me . You can also see the grout color here. I grouted so the plumber could come out and get everything in place but the timing didn’t work out. Hopefully he’ll be out soon.

My awesome tile cutting

I really dislike the traditional soap dishes that go in the middle of the wall. The soap always gets soaked and then just melts away. I decided to go with two corner trays.

Soap and Shampoo dishes

I’m really, REALLY happy with the finished look. Tonight I’ll grout and after it’s cured I’ll caulk and then we’re good to go. Once my guests are gone I’ll pull out the toilet and the sink and tile the floor. The walls are going to be an olive green color. I’m considering tiling the vanity countertop with the glass tile. Opinions are welcome!

The finished product

My Weekend

Got a little more work done on the bathroom this weekend.

The strip that is bare will have the decorative glass tile in it. That should be here Friday. Hopefully I’ll have everything done next weekend and I’ll have a guest bathroom shower again .