Master Bath Demo

Our new house had a very odd master bath configuration:  a sunken tub with shower.  Uuuusually you have a sunken tub with a seperate walk-in shower because otherwise the water from showering will get all over the floor.  And that is what was happening in our master bath.  We let the kids bathe in there when we first moved in and water was dripping into the basement utility room.  Since it was all so exposed, we never showered in there but I'm assuming that would have caused water to leak as well.  We also don't like the dated wall/floor tile, vanity/counter, or lighting.  So pretty much is's a whole gut job.  Yippeee!
Before:

In process:

Tub ready to be hauled out!

Calendar Wall

Taking an idea from pinterest, I turned this bare wall by the garage into a chalkboard calendar.

1.  Getting ready to paint the wall color; Valspar Sweet Jasmine in Satin.

2.  The wall had about 3 days to cure, and then I taped up the calendar grid.  I wasn't sure how high or how far to the right I wanted to go with it, so the grid was made to accomodate either.

3.  After putting up the grid with blue tape, I painted the wall color on again.  This is a trick to make sure there is no seepage under the tape (any seepage will be the original wall color rather than the box color).  And then another couple of days to cure.

4.  I don't have a shot of the fresh chalkboard paint (before it's "treated"), but there are specific manufacturer directions to follow (I used Rust-oleum latex chalkboard paint).  You'll also notice that I painted the wainscoting the same color as the wall.  So happy dear husband gave me permission to do that!!  Now it looks like we just have a nice chair rail there instead of dated paneling.

5.  I opted to paint on the days of the week with black craft paint and add a spot at the bottom to chalk in the current month.  This is primariliy the kids' event calendar, and their activities are color-coded to each child.  And if you look close enough and wonder what Fri "Arrow castrate" could possibly mean, he's our goat and he's fine.

The New House

Front view of the house; lovely exterior that was hidden by major overgrowth of plants and bushes.  The hydrageneas (sp) my mother-in-law wants to transplant as we will expand the front patio.

View from the front patio.  We cut off quite a few lowhanging branches and completely took out many "scrub" trees and bushes.  The animals will be housed down by the shed, and I'd like a view of them and the children.

Many of these branches hung low over the driveway.

In the goat pen looking to the lean-to.  The pony will be to your left in a separate pen until they start getting along better.  :)

Up the driveway.  I'd still like to take down that big beautiful oak right.next.to.the.house but dear husband says no.

This little shed was immediately next the garage and we had it moved across from the big shed.  It will become the chicken coop.

Father and daughter have been very very diligent in getting the fencing set up.  Hoping to get the animals moved in this weekend.

And even MORE fun stuff happening inside!

A new adventure

With a new job offer, this particular house revamp is drawing to a close.  We're thankful for the fun place to call home these last couple of years, for the plunge into hobby farming, for the remodel lessons, and for all the great memories we have made.  And now, with an accepted offer on this house (!!), we're very excited for the next adventure.  Stay tuned, I'm sure there will more!

Not just a pinner

I enjoy clicking through Pinterest, finding inspiring ideas, repinning them, but then I kinda forget about them.  The "gutter bookshelf" was one such idea I repinned and then put off.

But, I wanted to prove that I am not just a pinner, I am a doer.

So, I found some older FREE gutters on craigslist, cleaned 'em up good, primed them, and then painted them to match the girls' rooms.  The big girls have bunkbeds, so the fact that the bookshelf is close to the wall is wonderful since it's above their pillows, and it can hold just the right amount of bedtime reading material.  The little girls got a longer piece of the gutter for their shelf.  I painted it the same brown to blend in with the bottom third of their wall.  And it's right at their level and loaded with books.

So my hope is to take this more-than-a-pinner attitude and try another fun idea!

Finished - Done - Complete - Love it!

Ok, the final piece of the kitchen puzzle was a pantry unit.  I refused to pay $200+ at homenardowes, so I patiently checked craigslist for months until I found this monster for $20.  Yes, just two digits!  :)  We like the staggered look of cabinets, and this was our chance to replicate that in our kitchen as our built-ins were staying put.  Buuut rather than keep this pantry super high, I had Jake chop off the top.  That way it wouldn't appear so overwhelming in our not-very-large kitchen, and more importantly, I would have a plant perch next to the patio door.  A good coat of oil-based primer, added lattice to mimic the shaker look on the rest of the cabinets and a bit of crown moulding at the top, a thick coat of paint, spray painted hinges, a new matching handled, and voila: a new pantry for about $30.  :) 

Now to the fun stuff: the before and after pictures.  Here's the before (except the floor, which we put in new when we did the rest of the house).

And the after!  Where to start...

-the peninsula was akward and not big enough for our family anyway, so we ripped it out

-that left a home for the dishwasher which I used to have to hook up manually to the sink with each use (and I never complained because I was so happy to have ANY dishwasher other than myself!)

-the snazzy new pantry (see above) anchors that end

-all the cabinet and drawer faces were removed, sanded, primed, bordered with lattice board to create the shaker look, painted, and rehung with spray painted hinges and new knobs/handles

-some faces were taken off completely to get the "open storage" look for the microwave and on the other side of the stove (not visible in this shot) for cookbooks

-brand new countertops installed by dear husband and myself (previous post)

-new-to-us sink (ie craigslist) and faucet, though a new faucet is on my wish-list

-new light above the sink to replace the old can light, and new track lighting to replace the old flourescent beast

-brick faced backsplash ripped out as well as old drywall behind it, new hardibacker installed and the "frosting" of the whole project; our sparkling glass mosaic backsplash installed by yours truly.

If I had to estimate a total cost for this kitchen renovation, I would say between $600 and $700.

New Counters are IN!

The old counters came out without too much of a fight. The sink, however, was old cast iron and HEAVY. So so so happy to be rid of that thing; if I so much as set a glass cup down too hard in the old sink, it would shatter.

Helping dad tighten up the mitered corner. The counter top would eventually be cut in this area to hold the sink. And yes, we did cut it in place.

Voila!

It was a learning experience for us, but thankfully, we learned quick.

We measured and remeasured and measured once more before placing our order. And we ordered the counters withOUT the sink hole cut so we could do that ourselves. Since we installed a used sink (off craigslist, better than what we had but a "for now" arrangement), we had to come up with our own template. Just to be sure we didn't end up with too big a cut-out, we (ie Jake) really took our time getting the cut-out larger and larger and larger until the sink fit snug. He hooked up the water and we're good to go! Hopefully this weekend he'll have some free time to hook up the still-portable dishwasher in its handy spot next to the sink.

AND these photos show the newly installed backerboard. We'll look at that for the time being until I decide what I want for a backsplash/we save up some more money.

Still chipping away...

literally....
We chipped off all the brick-front backsplash.
And it was real brick front; each piece mortared into place.
Not fun to remove.
We were hoping to salvage the drywall behind, but decided it wouldn't be worth it after some got beat up in the demo.

So we ended up removing the old drywall as well, which is nice because we were able to add a vapor barrier (shown) and will top it off with backer board before applying a brand-spankin new backsplash (as yet to be decided, but I'm pretty sure glass tiles will be included!).

You can also see in the pics that we chipped off the "backsplash" attached to the countertops. We did this to make it easier to remove the drywall while keeping the counters in place. Until later this week anyway, when the NEW countertops arrive. Excited! Nothing fancy, formica design called madura pearl. A new (well, new to us as we got it off craigslist) sink is also in the works for this week. The tile backsplash, as well as the new faucet fixture will come at a later date. Remember, we're doing this project as we can afford it. So far, we've spent about $500 on refacing and painting the cabinets, new pulls and knobs, new countertop, and new/used sink.

Starter projects

First steps to painting the cabinets!


Ok! First thing was to take off all the doors, drawers, and remove the hardware, hinges and magnetic catches.
Then I gave the frames a light sand and primed with an oil based (aka stinky) primer.

Here are the doors in the garage. They got a more aggressive sanding followed by a coat of oil based primer and then a thick coat of the most expensive paint I've ever bought (I'm a least-expensive-paint kind of gal for my walls since my tastes and preferences change so often!). This color is by Glidden and it's called Polished Limestone. Ooooooh. Sounds fancy. I got it in semi-gloss. Notice the boring flat panels? Check out what's to come. I added 2" lattice boards all the way around to create a shaker style.

The old hardware was antiqued bronze. Blah. While I budgeted for new knobs and handles, I didn't want to buy allllll new hinges too. Sooooo....

I lightly sanded them and then spray painted a crsip flat black to go with my new hardware.

Here are 4 of the finished drawers! Oh la la! Quick check here to be reminded of how dark and dreary it was. And then be WOWED at how amazing it's going to look when it's all done!!!

Feeling the itch

As in kITCHen.

Yup.

The kitchen remodel is starting this weekend.

It may take a few months of "as funds become available" projects.

But it will happen.

And it will be exciting on a half-shoestring budget.

What was my big plan?

Remember two posts down (Project in the Works) when I showed pics of the rolled up snowfence??? Just in case, here's another shot of the snowfence...

So what did I do?

What crazy inspiration drove me to unwind the wire to free piece by piece by piece?

What was my vision that nobody else really "got" and my husband hesitantly trusted?

Drum roll...

A reclaimed snowfence ceiling! I LOVE IT!

It's the crowning jewel of our driftwood/fly fishing themed master bath/laundry room.

Training up Children

In the school room aka my son's room. :)

Project in the works

What do you see? Miles of adandoned snow fence?



I see something else, but it'll take some unwinding first.




Check back later to see where they end up!

Must have elephants!

Saw these little cuties in the latest Pottery Barn catalog and we HAD to have them in our princess room. Just two though; it is a princess room after all.

Sketched a template on cardboard and cut it out.
Taped it to the wall and carefully "traced" the outside of the template with my paintbrush.

It's ok if it's a little rough!

Fill it in (making sure to leave unpainted spots for the eye and ear) and smooth it out. Flip the template (after the paint has dried) and repeat.

Touch up and add tails!

Now YOU can have these little cuties too. :)