For the second day of our busy, busy week, I decided to tackle our kitchen. Lately it has been bothering me. The lack of storage space, plus too many things that we don't need, plus unfinished counter tops makes the kitchen one nonfunctional place. I like to feel inspired by the world around me and when in the kitchen, I always felt inhibited. Who wants to whip up a culinary masterpiece when you have no space to do so? 

Enter stage left our cleaning challenge and I was all over that space like fleas on a dirty dog. It was time to make some changes, clean out the old things that we never use, and bring out my cookbooks that have been packed away in a box. I also wanted to be more intentional about where I put things. This space needed to be really functional and organized in a way that allowed for easy access to things and plenty of prep space. 

Why don't we start by looking at some of the before pictures?

As you can see, the counter space was limited. Due to lack of cabinetry that fits tall small appliances, my mixer and coffee maker were out on the counter as well as all of my cooking utensils, paper towel holder, and a small basket where we put odds and ends produce.  All of this limited the space I used as prep area. 

So, I decided that my main goal would be to clean off some of the counter space and organize the open cabinetry--it was looking a bit cluttered. In the end, I ended up bringing down the white bookcase, that I was using beside my bed, to use as storage for some of those taller small appliances. This also enabled me to move my cooking utensils, have a place for my cookbooks and recipe box, and, bonus, it filled up the empty space nicely! Jonathan came home and wondered allowed why it has taken us so long to utilize the space. My thoughts exactly. Now for a bit of before and after side-by-side action for you. 

The kitchen feels so much more....open...if you ask me. I know it is hard to tell, but I also organized our pantry. Instead of having things all over the place, I have organized all the items into various categories. It will make finding something a breeze. Plus, I was able to get rid of old items and do a mental inventory of what I have. 

Here are the after pictures by themselves so you can get a closer look. Doesn't she (she? he?) look wonderful?! 

Now I'm ready to whip up a fantastic meal! Plus, with it being a rainy kind of day around here, I may just have to bake something yummy. I will keep you posted.

Oh and please come back tomorrow! Wait till you see the transformation I have for you. You might just pee a bit. I know I will...once its done that is ;) 

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Well, now that the long weekend is over, I guess we better get back to it. Shall we?

This week I'm going to write a post about each room, giving you a break down of our expenses and the process we went through. I have already done a big blanket before and after progress post here, but why don't we dig a bit deeper? Let's talk dollars and cents people. Let's talk a bit more about how we did it and why we did it. Mmmmk?

Mmmmk.

We are going to start with the kitchen. This is the first room you see as you enter the house (from the back). Plus, I feel we got the most bang-for-our-buck from this room. When you enter the house, you actually enter onto a small landing with two stairwells. You can go up to the kitchen,

or down to the basement.

When we moved into the house, the kitchen was a yellow and orange mess.

The paneling was very overwhelming and the orange floors combined with the peel-n-stick counter tops, were just horribly gross. I wanted everything out asap. But, we decided that it would be better to do some small things and eventually gut the beast in a few years. Ew. That sounds a bit gross.

How's that visual image for you?

Fast forward four months and our kitchen was starting to come together. We haven't touched the entry yet, but the kitchen has had an appropriate facelift.

EVERYTHING got a coat of primer and then paint. We used Aqua Lock primer--its free of VOCs and does a pretty good job--and Kilz in some of the really bad spots. Then, we took Benjamin Moore's low VOC semi gloss white to the kitchen cabinets and BM's low VOC Marina Gray to the walls.

She was starting to look a bit better and not so run down and bedraggled.

Yet, we still needed to deal with those horrible floors. We addressed them by putting down the least expensive peel-n-stick tiles we could find. I wanted something that would work better with the wall color, but didn't want to spend an arm and a leg. Sixty beans later, our floors weren't looking too shabby.

They blended in more and were no longer the focal point of the room. We also installed a new vent hood and Jonathan put in new shelving in my soon-to-be pantry. You can see both in the above picture.

Finally, the cabinet doors went back on and we moved in. The "finished" product was this:

Obviously we still have some work to do. We want to put in new counter tops, replace the sink, install two new light fixtures, and do a bit of decorative tweaking. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit all of our stuff and not have every cupboard be chock full. We are getting there.

Now, I'm sure you are wondering how much this cost us. Well, here is the ol' cost breakdown for you.

Primer and paint for ceiling, cabinets, and walls (I used a half gallon for the ceiling paint and the wall color, and a whole gallon of semi gloss white and Aqua Lock primer): $100.00
Floor tiles: $60.00
Wood for pantry shelving: Free--Jonathan used scrap wood he had from another job
Curtains under sink: Free--I had left over fabric that I used
Blind for window: $ 28.99
New hood for stove: $20.00
Total: $208.99 


For about $210 total, I think that our kitchen looks worlds better! Now I feel like I can live with it, for a couple of years, while we save up for our big gut and add-on job. While Jonathan and I were talking about what needed to be done, I asked if we could put a little money into the kitchen. I honestly wasn't worried about the size, I just wanted to be able to enjoy myself while I was cooking and baking. We definitely met that goal and then some. Plus, after another $150 for the counter tops and sink, this room is going to be looking pretty spiffy. I have to say, I cannot wait!

What do you think? Have you ever done some quick tweaking to a room just to get it to look better for a few years so you can save up for a complete overhaul?

An Alternative to Cabinet Doors

If you think this post is about the lack of cabinet doors in our kitchen, you would be partially right. Remember how we made the decision to 'bare all' when it came to our upper cabinets? Well, if you are good little blogstalkers, you may also remember that I told you about the special treatment that the under-the-sink-cabinet would be getting.  Just in case your memory is lacking, I had decided that I wanted to put up curtains.

Can you see the radiator in the above picture? Well, because of his presence, there was an ugly cabinet door that covered that side of the cabinet. It looked something like the picture below, except it was only on the one side and the slatted area was smaller and in the center of the door.

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It was a serious eyesore and something that would just collect dust and get really gross overtime. So, I decided that some pretty cabinet curtains were in order. For awhile, when people would walk into our kitchen, they would see the nice wall color, the pretty floors, and then they would look to their right and see this.

Cleaning products anyone? Not very attractive to say the least. Yet, I knew that it was something that  I could easily remedy. That is why I set out to make some curtains.  I knew that I had some leftover fabric that would work perfectly! I had planned to make curtains for the windows in our apartment but I never got around to it. I knew the patterned fabric and the colors in our kitchen would compliment each other nicely.

As fate would have it, I had made one panel before I nixed the curtians in the dining room. The gray fabric was darker than the gray on the walls, but I thought it would be a nice accent.

I also really liked that the green in the floral print and how it complimented the green color of our dining room walls. And since the dining room and kitchen are open to each other, I thought that the fabric would bring it all together nicely.

The curtain panel that I had already made measured about nine feet long, due to the really big windows in our apartment. I also knew that I needed to have at least two, maybe three, curtains for the cabinet. I wanted one to hang on both sides and possibly have one in the middle for filler. (Since this curtain panel was already a specific width, I knew that I might have an issue covering the openings and may need a little filler.)

Now that the fabric aspect was taken careof, I needed to figure out how to hang the darn thing. Thankfully, when we purchased the house, the previous owners left all of their curtains and hardware. So, I hunted around the house and found a rod and two hangers that would work perfectly. Only problem was, the hangers were still attached to the window. So, I just unscrewed the nails and pulled them off. Now I  need to sand down the area and repaint it. Add that to the list of 234236 little things that need to be done around here.

After devising a plan, I got to work. I took the panel that I had and measured the area of patterned fabric. I then divided that number in half and cut it. I was left with a scrap for the new panel I needed to make and then an extra long panel that was already put together. I then measured the opening of the cabinet, taking into consideration where my curtain hardware would be placed, and cut off the gray area. My curtain ended up measuring 32". Here is a picture if all of that mumble-jumble is a bit confusing. 

After that, it was a bit of hemming on one side, creating a curtain hole on the other side, and then creating a new panel with the two fabric scraps. With my two panels created, I decided to try them on for size. 

I got out my hardware and installed it. Ha! If only it were that easy in real life.Picture me contorted in all sorts of weird positions trying to screw in the hardware. It made for a fantastic ab workout though. I want to see you install hardware on the inside of a cabinet where you can barely see. Anyways, the hardware was put up and then I threaded the curtains onto the rod and put her up as well. I was left with this:

Well, a less blurry version of this :) Sorry...Anywho, notice how it is puckering out at the bottom? I wasn't a fan. Basically the curtains were a bit too long. So while they were hanging there, I measured and realized that they needed to be another inch and a half shorter. Back to the sewing machine they went and I threw in another quick hem. At this point, I also decided to add in a bit of the extra fabric just to see what it would look like. The possible third panel. 

The shorter curtains were worlds better, but I wasn't sure about the extra panel. It just seemed to be a 'dead' zone in the midst of the other two. I liked the fact that it made the other two panels have some movement to them, but I wasn't satisfied. 

Off came the filler panel and on went the two panels on their own. I was really happy until I noticed that they weren't covering the outer edges as well. A couple small nails later and they were looking a lot better. I'm really happy with the final result and I think they look a heck of a lot better then the open cabinets or the old cabinet doors.

So, once again, here is the before.

And the seriously better after. 

Ahh...so much better. :)

A Quick Post.

I have to be honest. I don't really have time for a post, but I feel bad leaving y'all hanging. So, here are a few pictures of the progress we made last week.

We focused on the kitchen (putting down the floor), the dining room (touching up the baseboard) and the bathroom (painting trim and putting up the shower converter). Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the kitchen for you.

Please be patient with us this week. We are spending the entire week moving and finishing up all of the last minute things. I hope to be able to post every-once-in-awhile, but I can't make any promises. Once we move, I plan on getting back to regular blogging with tons of progress pictures and some in depth posts on what we are doing and why.

I love you all! Thanks for sticking with us! :)

The kitchen is done!! Well as done as its going to get, before we move in. We plan on putting in new counter tops, eventually.

And I will also put the rest of the cabinet doors on, at some point.

Jonathan and I both breath a sigh of relief when we walk in the back door. It is definitely starting to feel like our home.

Covering a Multitude of Sins

Every time I walk into our house, I swoon over the wonders a coat of paint can do. In the four months that we have owned this house, a lot has changed and honestly, most of the changes involved paint in some form. 

In our house, paint has covered floors, wallpaper, cigarette-smoke damage, a tub, and a sink. It has hidden sooo much ugliness in a cost effective way. Thank goodness paint exists. I honestly think it has saved my sanity. 

I have a few paint-related things to show you today. Jonathan and I worked hard this past week.  Isn't that the best feeling? Seeing that checklist get smaller and smaller? As we inch closer and closer to our move-in date, we get more and more anxious to get things done. Heck, last week we even worked at the house until 9:30 one night, trying to finish up a bunch of things. I know that doesn't seem very late, but when you don't eat dinner until after you get home, your tummy insists that's waaay late. 

This past week we finished up the paint in the kitchen and started putting the doors back on the lower cabinets. 

We also finished painting the dining room ceiling, the trim, and we put one coat of color on the walls. I was so excited to get this color up. We chose Pistachio by Benjamin Moore. It was the perfect grellow color. 

Now, the color isn't reading that great in the pictures because of the poor lighting (we have very little overhead lighting and it has been overcast lately), but in reality it reads the perfect shade of yellow-green. When I walk into the house and see this color, I'm instantly happy. It's such a cheery color and reads really well with the gray from the kitchen.  

The last thing we accomplished this weekend was "painting" the tub and sink. Last week, we moved the tub into its place in our bathroom, but before we could finish plumbing it, and the sink for that matter, we had to re-coat the inside. 

Remember their sad, rust-covered state?

They needed a little TLC to say the least. So, Jonathan grabbed a DIY kit from Home Depot and went to work. Following the box's instructions, first, he had to wipe down the tub/sink with a solution that consisted of water with an additive meant to wipe off all the dirt and grime. Then he had to steel wool the whole surface that he was going to be spraying. This process had to be done three times. 

Then, after drying down the tub and sink, he began to spray. The directions specifically told him to do two thin coats. No more, no less. Once he was done with the two coats, I asked if he had enough left for three--thinking that the more layers, the more durable it would be. But, Jonathan had already read the box and it had specifically warned against doing three coats!!! So, two it was. After the coats were finished, you were instructed to leave the sprayed area alone for at least 72 hours. Here is what the tub looked like all freshly painted.

Such an improvement. 

Now, this method isn't fool proof and if you look closely there are a few places where the paint has "sagged," but overall, it is a huge improvement. No more rust stains, thank goodness. Plus, the kit only cost $50. If you wanted to have your tub professionally done the prices usually start around $300 and go up from there. So we are pretty happy with the savings.

As for how long this treatment is supposed to last? We aren't sure. Jonathan said that he will be happy if it lasts for two or more years. We will have to let you know how it goes. I'm betting it will hold up pretty well considering we don't have any kids and our dogs will now be getting hosed down outside. Plus, I can honestly say that I'm not looking for perfect. I think the eventual dings and scratches will add character. It was just the rust that I wasn't a fan of. 

Have any of you ever refinished a tub/sink? Any tips? How long did your new surface last?