Monday, April 25, 2011

Home Project #4 (part 2)

Turning our house into a HOME 
Project #4: The Kitchen! (con'd)


Step 3: Framing
I never realized what it took to frame in that hole they just made. You cant just throw up some wood and go. You have to level everything out, down to the centimeter. 

It looks so nice with the framing up


And even better with varnish!

J admiring his work

Painting the temporary nook counter top. One day we want to get a thicker one. 

Step 4: Paint and new cabinets! 

After J varnished them. You can also see the paint. Same colors from the living/dinning room


Step 5: Granite Counter Tops!!!



New Fridge, new cabinets and mounted microwave. 
(You know you are an adult when you are excited about appliances!) 



Look the water/ice works :) 



We are DONE!!!!







Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Home Project #4

Turning our house into a HOME 
Project #4: The Kitchen!


Well lets just start with this picture. This is before.  

We use our side door for our main entrance and this is what you saw when you walked in. The placement of this kitchen is BAD. It is a small kitchen to begin with and with everything where it was it just made it smaller. We wanted more then just a face lift in here, we wanted to rip everything out and start fresh. We took it step by step, it took a few months of washing dishes in the bathtub eating off of paper plates with plastic silverware. We even had to buy a single burner to cook on. It was not fun. Let me repeat myself, IT WAS NOT FUN, but looking back on it we are so glad we did it. Not only for living in our house now, but for re-sell value.

This is what we wanted the finished look to look like: 


Step 1: Demo
J and Uncle Mike cut a nice hole in the kitchen/dinning room wall. 
It is amazing just how much it opened the whole area up! 

View from the dinning room


Step 2: floors
We had to get everything out of the kitchen to rip up the old nasty floor


proof that I helped! 

This floor was nasty and sucked getting up. It went something like this: 
laminate, glue, super old tile, glue, glue, tar, and then felt that was nailed down every square inch. 

some of the nasty "glue" that did not want to leave



 To our amazement there was amazing hardwood planks under all of that. This was such a wonderful find!!

After the sandless guys came back



To be Continued....




Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Home Project #3

Turning our house into a HOME 
Project #3: The Bathroom! 

Living in a home with one bathroom has its cons and only one pro that I can think of, only have to clean one bathroom! This bathroom was pretty much all original to the house. The sink had to go, the mirror had to be replaced, the light fixtures had to go, fresh paint...it really needed more then a face lift.

Our first task was the sink. It was too big for the room and it had separate cold/hot facets and well it was just nasty. 

Before              

Uncle Mike and J taking the stink down

Its gone!!! 

Thankfully Mike was there to help us with the pluming, 
two things you do not mess around with when remodeling, pluming and electricity. 

 new sink looks so much better

We went back and forth about the floor. I LOVED the floor, J on the other hand thought it did not go with the house feel. I am not sure how I won that argument but I did, and with winning I was the one to deep clean the tiles. After the deep clean it was so much better.  

We got a new shower curtain, replaced the light fixtures and will be replacing the blinds when we find the right ones. 

Final product!!