Preparation

Well we are moving along in our kitchen renovation! The guy that is painting our cabinets is starting this weekend so we have been kicking it into high gear getting everything prepped and ready. First step in the process was to fill all the holes in the walls and sand those down.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the cabinets but I didn’t want to have to sand the walls down after our cabinets were freshly painted.

Next was taking off all the base board and shoe molding. This is where we encountered a problem. Sort of.

We saw that under the linoleum and sub floor there was another layer of sub floor and linoleum. Which is an issue because of the new floors we ordered. We ordered about 500 sq feet of cork flooring that we got on sale at Lumber Liquidators last weekend. With the flooring and the underlayment it will be about another half inch to an inch on top of the current floor. This means that the dining area in the kitchen that leads to the sunroom will have a big height difference. We are fine with a small difference that a transition piece can cover but this would be a pretty big height difference. We also have to take into consideration the height of the hallway floors that are also getting the new cork flooring. So, were not sure if we should try to rip up the first layer of linoleum and sub floor or if that will be a big mistake…as in not an easy quick project.  

We also had to patch up the spot where we took the cabinet down with a small piece of drywall. We still have to add the outside corner pieces and mud and sand that down.

Then we have this strange situation. It’s the cabinet that houses the microwave. It has always bugged me because it’s the only cabinet that is not the same height as all the others. I feel like it breaks up the counters since it comes down all the way. So our plan here is to take this cabinet out and basically build a new one that will house a new microwave that just sits higher up and will be the same as all the other cabinets.

Plus not to mention I have to empty out all our cabinets and we will essentially be without a kitchen for a week. I am seeing lots of take out in our near future.

Have I seen you before?

With pinterest, and blogs, and the internet I feel like I see a lot of the same stuff all over. And by that I mean I’ll see a light fixture I like then in the next few weeks I start noticing it everywhere online. And then it starts losing its coolness to me, maybe because I want unique things in my home that feel one-of-a-kind, even if they aren’t. So last night while perusing pinterest I saw a light fixture that I had never seen before. It is from a better homes and gardens kitchen makeover. To check out the full makeover go here. I love this for 3 reasons.

1.) I have never seen anything like it before

2.) It’s cheap

3.) It could involve spray paint which is always a good thing

They used a $40 IKEA chandelier and took those wood craft balls in three different sizes and made swags by inserting eye hooks into each one. How awesome is this? Since this chandelier only comes in black, I’m thinking a coat of glossy navy spray paint is just what this would need and spraying all those wood craft balls a fun green and white…….

I’m thinking I just found my new kitchen chandelier to go above our dining table!

Kitchen Plans

Geeze, I have been MIA on this blog for a while! I do have an excuse though…we have been busy working on the house! I will post pictures of everything we have done soon!  But on to the important stuff…the kitchen. A major selling point for us in buying the house was the huge kitchen that it had. Even though it had blue wallpaper, cabinets, and appliances we knew it was a great space we could make our own. After removing all the wallpaper and taking down some cabinets we were left with a semi blank slate...

Which meant up next was the daunting task of sanding, priming, and painting the inside and outside of the cabinets. I was preparing myself that this would probably take me a good month or two to accomplish…but after talking about it with Cody and some friends we decided it was probably best for someone that actually knew what they were doing to paint them. It pains me a great deal to shell out $$ to someone to do a job that I know I can on my own….but in reality the job they would do would last a lot longer and get done a lot quicker! This means we wouldn’t have to live in utter chaos for over a month. Which is a real saving grace for our marriageJ  And it also means we could move a lot quicker onto all the fun stuff! So,  here is my plan for the kitchen….which will inevitably change I’m sure.

White cabinets. I have always loved them. Were also planning on doing a bead board ceiling.

Subway tile, classic and this we will install ourselves....Cody and my Dad did our master bath tile floor so this should be easy peasy:) I also want to add some brackets under some of the cabinets and under the island counter top.

 Like what that little purple arrow is pointing too...I love that look and I think it adds so much for not so much money!

This is the hardware I am planning on, I ordered one of each to see what we think before I ordered enough for the whole kitchen.

I have this obsession with big white farmhouse sinks. I'm pretty sure I need one in my kitchen. And here is a faucet option that I like...I want something this style.

We have this spot where we tore out the cabinets where we plan to hang a few pendant lights....Remember what it looks like?

Well I am thinking 2 or 3 of these babies in pendant form...

And here are the cork floors we are thinking about...

As for counters....If I had my choice I would obviously choose marble or granite, but since we don't have a money tree in our back yard we are thinking of something more like Corian. Any suggestions on counter top options??

So, can you see it?

all images via pinterest

Mark One Of The List...

Remember the list we made of everything we want to accomplish this month?

The downstairs bathroom is officially done. This is what it looked like when we moved in...

Not bad just in need of a little revamp. We started by priming and painting the paneling. We painted it the same color as the walls in the basement. We had a half gallon of paint left over so that’s pretty much why we decided on this color! We bought a new light fixture and mirror from Lowes. The shower curtain is from Bed Bath and Beyond. I pretty much got that to cover up the ugly shower down there.

And I am also supposed to note that Cody decorated it all on his ownJ He picked out the towel holder and towels, and hung the pictures. It’s funny that the basement is pretty much done and that is the space where we spend the least amount of time in. And we have been busy upstairs too!! Can't wait to show you what we've done up there!

New Year, New List

I’m not going to make a list of things I want to accomplish this year because who knows how big that list would be. I do better with short term goals that I know I can get done as opposed to a HUGE list of 50 things that I would “someday” like to accomplish. It normally ends up being that someday=never. We want to get started on the cabinet sanding/priming/painting step in our kitchen process. Since we know this will take us a good month or more to do (we have a ton of cabinets) we are giving ourselves a month to finish up a bunch of small unfinished projects. So here is the list…we’ve already got some accomplished too! I will share each project when it’s done!

• Touch up paint downstairs
• Prime and paint basement bathroom
• Hang new light fixture and mirror in down stairs bathroom
• Hang curtain rods and curtains in sunroom
• Finish sanding and stain new end tables for sunroom
• Finish table lamps for sunroom
• Hang crown moulding in sunroom
• Hang bead board in hallway on ceiling
• Hang crown moulding in hallway
• Hang 3 light fixtures in hallway
• Re paint front entry table
• Make cushions for window seat in sunroom
• Make upholstered ottoman/coffee table for sunroom

Think it's doable in a month? Here's hoping it is!

Wish Me Luck...

So, I have spent a few months trying to find the perfect side/end tables for our back room. I have wanted something more rustic looking to balance out some other stuff we have going on in that room.  After months of looking online and checking out a few stores I couldn’t find anything I liked. Well I take that back, I found plenty I liked but I didn’t quite think Cody would think it would be a good idea to spend almost $800 on 2 end tables. But I also didn’t want to buy something that I didn’t really like and something that I would get sick of. So I decided I would make them myself. These are the two end tables that I liked the best, but were wayyyy out of my price range.

The first one is from Crate and Barrel and it is $399 per end table! WHAAAATT? I’ll be honest, for that price they should throw in a coffee table and lamp!

The second one is from a really great shopping site called One King’s Lane. I really liked the stain on this one and that it had sides.

So I am hoping I can come up with something in between these in style and color. That’s my big plan for this weekend. You may be wondering what other pieces of furniture I have made? None. But there’s a first for everything. My goal is for someone not to say “Wow, I’m guessing you made those.” But “Wow, where did you get those?” We’ll see. I have already gone to Lowes and priced out the wood I would need. If I never blog about them again, you will know it was an epic fail. Wish me Luck…

Fast like a snail

 We’re moving at lightning speed over here in the kitchen. Not really, but we are making some progress. The first order of business was to take the cabinet and soffit down in the middle. It started like this…



Then it was like this after the cabinet came down...

And now it's like this after we took the soffit out...

It made such a huge difference taking it out. It feels like our ceilings are now 20 feet tall! Did I tell you that were going to put up bead board ceilings? Well we are. And we are going to hang 2 pendants lights where the soffit was.  Next step is to finish getting all the wallpaper off, get the walls primed and on to the painting!