Kitchen Before & After Part 2

OK - so I promised some after shots of the Kitchen and have been hesitating...and hesitating.  The thing is, it isn't truly finished yet!  If you missed  Part 1 of the Kitchen before and after click HERE to get up to speed.  This was a major undertaking of both the kitchen, family room, and the bathroom so I have yet to decorate properly and still have some kitchen things we would like to change out.  That being said, a promise is a promise so here is the kitchen/family room as it looks today:

Above shot taken from Family Room - on the To DO list for this area is to trim our the kitchen window and the doorway to the dining nook.  I would also like to add a shelf above the window...oh, and add more wine to my cook book/wine shelf seen next to the sink cabinet!  :)  FYI - The garbage can seen by the oven is actually our recycling bin.  The garbage can is a pull out built into one of the cabinet doors...I did a little post on that I have yet to share...

Here is a shot from the opposite angle.  I love my glass front cabinets and all those pull out drawers underneath!  Good thinking, E!  Also, see the toaster oven on the counter top?  We could not have made it through our remodel without it and now we almost always use it instead of our big oven!  I conveniently shot narrow so you would not see the 2 doors that need painting...they are uggg.

Now lets look at the view coming from our dining room...

I looked far and wide for an extra long runner that was not too wide so we could fit it in that space...that baby is 12 ft long by 30 in wide!  Thanks to Overstock I got this one for 80 bucks.  I was hoping for a dark chocolate brown trim like stated on the website but it actually is more of a light cocoa color.  I was a bit disappointed at first but it wasn't worth the return fees.

Moving on to the family room:

This room obviously needs the most work...as you can see from the look on Bubba's face - utter disgust.  Oh, and you got one shot with the ugg door in the kitchen and also a view of our 24 in cabinet over the peninsula that I wish was 36 in...to be continued on those.

Back to the Family Room - we didn't case the windows because we are putting in new ones...looks horrid.  We have little to no furniture which is why I have my outdoor patio bench in the room as well as that stinky old chair I just picked up (more on that here) which is not even able to be sat on.  I have my lovely mint green buffet, another Craigslist find and about the heaviest piece of furniture in the house, that has yet to be painted being used as our entertainment center.  No crown moulding, no mantle, a hideous back door, no decoration whatsoever, half the window has blinds, half has curtains to block the neighbors peeking in since we have no blinds, and the list goes on.  Actually, now that I think of it this is the perfect opportunity for me to throw down the gauntlet...to myself, of course.  I am challenging me to fix this space by the end of the year!!  Don't forget to hold me to it!  On the upside the fireplace is looking MUCH better due to a recent makeover which can be seen HERE.

The most unorganized part of it all...

The random wall just dying for a makeover.  I am actively searching for a nice narrow vintage buffet for the space but have yet to find it.  If I don't find it soon I will continue the kitchen cabinets and make a built in buffet...good old Ikea.  UPDATE...We DID extend the kitchen cabinets for a nice new buffet...you can read all about it HERE!!! For now, this bookcase is a catchall on the bottom rows and our wine glass cabinet on the top!  I think we also need another option for Bubbas food container seen to the left - needs some glamming up!

Part of why we haven't bought furniture is due to cost but the other part is that we are still figuring out the best arrangement hence the patio bench standing in as a mock not so cozy L shaped couch.  We like that idea but our problem is this:

Our space heater, which is the only heat in the room, sits smack against the wall we would want to butt the L shaped against.  The good news is the heater is on its last leg which is the only reason I can safely get the couch this close as there is absolutely no way the tiny amount of heat coming off of this thing is going to set anything on fire.  You cant tell from the picture but the couch is about 4 inches away floating in the room.  At any given time the room is around 66 degrees or lower.  We are currently working on installing another form of heat but we haven't come to an agreement on what will work best.  For now - this entire addition, Kitchen AND Family room AND 1/2 Bath, all get heated by the little built in gas space heater. Is it no wonder why we need portable space heaters in the bathroom and facing the door in the Family Room?  Our electric bill is sky high right now. :(

All that said, with all of her flaws, this part of Walnut has come leaps and bounds from how she started.  Here are a few pictures to boost your memory but you can read all about the transformation here or by looking at the Before shots page by clicking here.  I plan to follow up this post with our design process and how to live through a major kitchen rehab when you cook nearly every day multiple times a day...Not easy!!!  Until then, has anyone gone through the process and have any tips to share?  Leave them in the comments down below!

I'm off to cook that tasty squash sitting on the counter into a creamy Butternut Squash soup!  I can almost taste it now!!

Ta Ta,
Bianca

Linking up with all the crafty bloggers at Keeping it Simple's Motivate me Monday and Between Naps on The Porch to show off our handy work - check it out here!

Weekend of White - Fireplace Remix Part 2!

Hey all!  

This weekend was full of fun as I conquered my To Do list (seen here) from Friday and got the lead white out.  I managed to finish both doors for the hallway, update the hardware on said doors, as well as the fireplace priming.  Since I did the priming last night I needed to wait and make sure it was fully cured before moving on to paint.  Brick, even veneer brick, has a habit of soaking up paint due to its porous nature so I wanted to make sure it was nice and dry before proceeding.  Even with just primer it looks WAY better than what it was before...lets review!

Before Tuck Pointing

After Tuck Pointing

Things were looking up!  Then yesterday they were looking upper...more up...uppity?  Whateve...

POW!

Granted this is just the primer but she is lookin' MUCH better already.  I used an oil based primer and super nappy 6 inch roller.  I don't like to use large rollers on smaller areas so I have more control.  I also took this chance to prime the last bit of paneling that for some reason was missed during Operation Tear Out the Paneling NOW!  In all our haste to get it out ASAP nobody saw the strip of paneling left under the fireplace until the molding was going in.  Attention to detail during demo is not always the first priority!!  Anywho - it is primed now and you can barely tell the difference.  Now it is time to start thinking about a mantle to tie this baby all together...let the planning begin!!

In the living room - the weekend began like this:

And Ended like this:

SWEET!  I have 2 more doors done and 6 to go!  Not exactly putting a dent in it but success is in my future - I can feel it...then again, that may be the paint fumes?  How 'bout a before and after side by side?  I don't have a pic of the closet door before with the tacky brass hardware but I have a horrible one of the during process..check it out:

Obviously we need to work on organizing the closets...

Pretty in Pink White!

And thus ends my Weekend of White.  For more how to on painting the doors and updating your hardware check out the posts here and here.  If you missed how to Tuck Point your fireplace in preps for painting check out the post here. 

I am so happy to have half of the fireplace done!  Did anyone else get a project accomplished this weekend?  Feel free to share down below.  If anyone has mantle suggestions please pass them on.  This fireplace is looking pretty week without one!

See you tomorrow!  :)

Bianca

PS - this post is on a DIY parade hosted by a couple of other blogs. If you have some projects you need to get done or are just looking for some decorating/design inspiration join the party here and here and here! 

Kitchen Before & After Part 1

For an update on this post check out Kitchen Before & After Part 2 seen here!!

It is Friday afternoon and I am painting, again.  I had to stop waiting for miracle 60 degree weather to sand the doors and decided to bite the bullet and do it inside again...don't tell E!  This time I am doing 2 doors at once to cut down on clean up time and wasting brushes - oil primer is very hard to remove when you have no mineral spirits around!  I am now waiting for the primer on one side to finish drying so I can flip them and do the other side...I hate to wait!

I figured while I am waiting I would share some Kitchen Before/After pics I have been waiting to write about.  This is the post I have been dreading writing (not wanting to relive the construction experience!) but its time has come.  If you have seen the Before Shots page then you know how desperately in need of a gut rehab this kitchen was...

Mystery Man, E, through the sliding glass doors...

I mean, where is the cabinet space?  Where are the cabinets? What about counter space?   What is going on with the whole fridge side of the kitchen??  Why is there a set of patio doors in my house??  It was a horrible excuse for a cookin' girls kitchen.  Oh - and you can't even see the old fridge here as we switched that out as soon as we moved in.  It was a honkin beast, I tell ya!  We could not wait to start construction!  Demo was the fastest and easiest part of the process...

First step was to remove the doorway that encroached into our kitchen space and take down the patio doors.  It felt so open already!  I'm not sure if you notice the paneling on the walls but that was the next to go...Hasta la Vista, Baby!  Old stinky cabinets...smell ya later!  We were left with a little something like this:

Did anyone notice my original design flaw in the second set of pics?  I was so concerned about losing the side entrance to the house that in the first demo round I had them put in a door between the kitchen and family room.  The very moment it was in I knew I had made a mistake.  Putting a door in the middle of the room proved too awkward and made the room look really chopped up.  Thankfully the guys were SUPER nice and agreed to take it out and only have me pay the cost of 2x4's to cover it back up...you can tell they may have been through this a few times with their own wives!  The above pics show it all patched up again.  Sweet!

We also moved the bathroom door which was on the inside of the patio doors before to the other side so it would not be in our kitchen...that would be kind of weird...  Here is the shot mid move where we still had access from the original side!  I'm sure I don't have to point it out but the white door is the new one...

Once those things were finished I really had to get cracking on my kitchen design.  Thanks to Ikea's handy dandy planning tool I was able to do it pretty easily.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of the big remodel.  I have to get back to priming my doors!!  By Monday I am hoping to have my doors sanded/painted and back on the closets with freshly updated hardware...

Bianca

For an update on this post check out Kitchen Before & After Part 2 seen here!!

This post is linked to Dittle Dattles Amaze Me Monday parade of posts!  Check them out here!!

Funky Fireplace Keeping You in the Cold?

A fireplace in a room is usually the first place an eye will fall upon when grazing a room.  It is a focal point that stands out and is usually the pride of the room, the king of the thrown, the warmth to any house.  Unfortunately for us, our fireplace is ugly...really ugly.  Eyes wander the room and don't just fall upon it, they crash upon it.  It is a hideous site of  veneered brick and missing mortar...I mean, completely missing mortar.  As if the previous owners decided to glue brick veneer to the wall and forgot to finish the project.  A truly dreadful site...until this week!  This project is not complete (big surprise, I know) but it is in the stages of getting there so I now bring you Part 1 of the Fireplace Remix.

Here is what we started with:

My Uncle Greg (UG from here on out) came to do give me a tutorial on how to Tuck Point the joints.  As you can see from above it had never been done and it would look awful once I painted everything.  Our first job was to replace the missing brick veneer with one I had found in the garage - thank goodness the previous owners had left that behind.  With a nice blob of Liquid nails on the back UG held it in place for a few minutes to set up.

We had a few other loose bricks to fix up and then we were on to mixing the mortar.   Mix mortar as directed on the bag/bucket.  When it is mixed it should look a little something like this:

Mortar should be able to stick to the spatula thingy-not too dry not too runny

Once your mortar is mixed you move on to filling the gap between the bricks like so:

Go slow but not too slow - you don't want your mortar to dry up!  Also, because bricks are porous and like to soak in water you should keep a spray bottle of water handy and spray them down to keep them moist - not wet but moist.  That will keep the bricks from soaking up the water in the mortar which would leave the mortar dry and crumbly.  This is a slow process and will require some patience! 

As the mortar starts to dry - about 15 - 20 minutes after packing it into the joints - you can go back and strike it with like so:

Striking the mortar leaves those nice indented gaps in the mortar.  It makes it look more uniform but is really for water to have a path down a brick wall instead of soaking i through the bricks...remember bricks are porous!  Since the fireplace is inside the weather report calls for little chance of rain however we kept with the striking...it looks more polished this way. 

So thats it - fill the gaps, fill the gaps, fill the gaps, go back and strike the mortar.  Fill the gaps, fill the gaps, fill the gaps, go back and strike the mortar.  You'll get the hang of it!  UG did the majority of the work and then at the last minute I came to finish it up:

After the last line was struck UG told me to wait until the morning and then take a brush, like in the above pic, and run it over the fireplace in the morning to get all the crumbly extra bits of mortar off.  If you do it too soon chunks will fall out and you will have to re-mortar so don't bother skipping this step.  You can, however, improvise in the morning like I did:

That flimsy brush wasn't doing wonders for me so I set it aside in favor of my handy painting tool that I use for almost anything.  If I was MacGyver this would be my duct tape.  I just scrape scraped away.  What we have now resembles a little something like this:

How bout a little Before and After?

It truly makes a world of difference!  Though it is not complete it is much further along than 3 days ago!  Our next step is to prime and paint...I cant wait!!!  Anyone else beautifying their fireplace??  Drop me a line and let me know how it goes!

Bianca

Update - You can check out the Fireplace Remix Part 2 by clicking here.  Part 3 will have paint and hopefully a mantle to balance things out-I'll keep you posted!