It's All Starting to Come Together!

Well it's been a couple weeks since my last update, but for a few of those days, things seemed to be moving slowly. I experienced a couple days that made it seem like we were not going to make our mid-November anticipated move-in. There wasn't a lot of change... just little things or time consuming things...

 For example: tiling our kitchen floor. What started quickly and was exciting to see, turned into a 2 day tile scrubbing project after we grouted. And by "tile scrubbing project" I mean that after we grouted the floor, the remaining grout on the tile did not want to come off, which resulted in me spending about 10 hours sitting on our kitchen floor scrubbing each tile by hand. However, we finally resorted to sanding the tile to get the stubborn grout off and sealed it to be done. (Thank Goodness!!)

Once the kitchen floor was finished things finally started to get moving, and I was seeing everything come together...

We were able to start painting once we got the floor down. (Check out the photo,,,doesn't the floor look great??) As we painted over the Mauve paint and primer, it made the kitchen look so good. I did have to take one last commemorative photo of the Mauve, but then quickly said good bye to the last bit of Mauve in the house. I was also able to get the kitchen cabinets painted bright white so they look nice and clean now. 

One of my husband's projects for the kitchen was a built in wine rack for the additional cabinets. I found a design idea that I loved and after some measuring, cutting, remeasuring, and re-cutting (only a few times) this is how it turned out! (Ignore the paint cans, they are just holding them in place while the wood glue dries).

 We made the unit out of 2 store bought wall cabinets and some oak sheets. The husband built a base for the cabinets and left a space for the wine rack. He then secured the cabinets to the base and measured out the pieces for the middle section. I absolutely love how it turned out, and I'm excited that I will gain counter space with it too!

In addition to the wine rack project, we tackled cutting the countertops for the kitchen. They turned out great, especially since it was a new endeavor. So here is the semi-completed kitchen. There is still work on the countertops (obviously, since there is still no sink...) but the idea of it all looks wonderful!! And look at my green island! The green is the same color as the dining room, which means that this $6 can of mistinted paint has definitely been worth the money. 

Now, the kitchen was not the only room in the house we worked on this weekend (but it is one the must-haves for moving in officially). We also got see our bathroom transformation. Remember the awful single sink vanity and linoleum floor?

Well here is the almost finished product!! And thank goodness for the fact that the toilet is finally out of the bathtub!

The vanity was a combination of 2 craigslist purchases from 2 completely different sellers. And luckily, everything matched up perfectly! We still need to have our mirror cut down to the right size, but I love how it turned out.

Well as your can see the last couple weeks have been full of transformations, but I'm glad I'm finally beginning to see everything coming together. 

Countdown to move-in: 2 weeks

Challenge accepted.

More to come soon! 

XO, J&K

I'm Glad I Didn't Plan on Cooking Anytime Soon

Over the weekend, we were able to get a lot done on the house, and because I didn't have to work, I actually got to see all of it! 

On Saturday, my husband and father-in-law got all the tile laid in the master bathroom, which meant that today we got to grout it. And guess who helped?? Me! I can officially say that I know how to grout tile. Here's how it all turned out...

Doesn't it look so much better than the icky linoleum flooring that was previously there?? Now, it just needs to be sealed then the toilet (which is obviously still in the bathtub) can go back in it's proper place along with our new double vanity! Oh, and we can paint it the correct color (You can't tell in this picture, but the walls look pink next to the tile)

Today, we also starting tearing up the kitchen floor (hence, the title of this post). The linoleum tile came up pretty easily. However, the adhesive under it didn't want to budge. My husband, dad, and father-in-law tried just about everything, ranging from water to mineral spirits to actually torching the concrete slab floor (Yes, they took a hand torch to the floor adhesive in an attempt to burn off the adhesive. It didn't work) So after a few somewhat unsuccessful tries and almost resorting to hand scraping the entire 300 square foot kitchen, we decided to scrape up any debris and lay the tile right over it. Only half of the kitchen is started, but it's a great start!

The tile isn't actually laid down to the floor, but it is spaced out so we could get an idea as to how it was going to lay out across the floor. We also "placed" the island into the kitchen approximately where we wanted it to get an idea about how it would look.

 I absolutely love how it is looking and I can't wait to see the rest of the progress!! More to come soon...

XO, J&K

Changing the Sea of Mint Green

When we first looked at our house, the first impression when you walked in the door wasn't the greatest. It was just a sea of this (not very attractive) Mint Green color. Everywhere. It was in the entryway, down the hallway, and up the stairs. Remember?

Well now, after 5 hours and a team of 6 professional painters, the sea of Mint Green is now a Butter-y Croissant color. (I added the "butter-y" but the color truly is called Croissant). Isn't it beautiful??

The entryway, the downstairs hallway, the stairs, and the upstairs hallways all look absolutely fabulous now!! It has definitely been one of the more drastic changes (because it was sooo mint green/blue). Everything is now beginning to come together and it actually looks like our home!

Next is tiling and painting the master bathroom, along with putting in the vanities and taking the toilet out of the bathtub. Then, we're moving onto the kitchen, which will be a big task to tackle, but it will definitely be worth it!

More to come later. 

XO, J&K

Prime, Trim, Paint, Repeat.

Well as you could probably guess by the title of this post, we've been doing a lot of painting. Even though the last week at work has taken up the majority of my time, we're still working on our to-do list for the house. Over the past few days, we've been able to get the laundry room, the office, the master bedroom, and the master bathroom painted. AND, we're primed the family and painted the ceilings in both the family room and the dining room. (Goodness gracious that is a lot of painting!) But the end results are great!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Remember the before picture of the laundry room,
with the half painted walls and the seashell linoleum
floor? Well that is all gone! We painted the walls a very crisp light  blue to make the room nice and bright (especially with the new light we put in there) AND we also started laying the new tile floor. It's not completely finished because it needs to be grouted and sealed, but it looks so much better!

    

Here is the dining room. We haven't done much to it yet except paint the ceiling because it was already primed. But as you can see, there is tape along the center of the room which is going to be chair rail with two-tone walls.
 

AFTER

BEFORE

 More progress in the family room. It was one of the many Mint Green rooms, but even the primer makes it look better!

AFTER

BEFORE

So I'm excited to say that at least one of the Mauve rooms is gone! The previously Mauve living room is now a bright and sunny yellow. I love how it turned out, and this room gets a lot of natural light so the yellow is perfect. I actually painted a yellow table to put in this room, but more on that later once we start to get furniture in the house!

BEFORE

Here's the "after we primed" and "after we painted" pictures for the office/ my sewing room. I chose a paint that's actually called Ivory Brown, and that is the best description of it. The color is great (especially since it was a $6 mistint from Lowe's) and I've decided to put blue and green accents in the room. 

AFTER

BEFORE

Our beautiful Hot Chocolate bedroom. The Blue/Gray color is now gone and it's a beautiful warm brown. It looks wonderful, and I can't wait to see all of our furniture in it!

AFTER

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

The previously plain white and completely boring master bathroom has gotten a fresh coat of paint, which is actually one shade lighter than the master bedroom since both rooms are red, brown, and champagne. And if you didn't notice, the toilet is sitting in our bathtub. Not because of a problem, but because my husband and father-in-law started putting down the cement board for the tile. Next, tiling the bathroom!

Well as you can see, we seem to move pretty quickly so check back to see what's going on next as we continue to make it what we want in a home! 

XO, J&K