Kitchen Remodel Complete!

Our kitchen remodeling is finally complete. Although there are a few minor touch-ups that need to be done and we would still like to replace the countertops with new laminate (or whatever is on sale at the time) and tile back splash, at least the cabinets are done.

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant about going to an off white color for the cabinets, but our main objective wasn't to please me. It was to appeal to possible new buyers in the future. We were told by a neighbor real estate agent that lighter is better. And boy was she right.

Before, I remember thinking that the kitchen was so dark at night with only the track lighting on the ceiling. Now, you walk into the kitchen and it just explodes with light! I'm so happy we chose the linen white and the brushed nickel hardware. I just hope this gets us our asking price in the spring or at least a really good tenant.

Before:

After:

Back to the Swing of things

It's been awhile since my last post, mainly because we've had quite a few visitors lately to our house. First, my dear friend from Texas came to visit so we could attend the Chantilly American Scrapbooking Convention (what a blast!). Then, my parents to visit prior to them completing their move to California.

While my parents we here, they of course played lots with Little Man - who absolutely adores "Pop-pop" and "Gramma". My father, who had just finished home renovations on their own house in New York, was able to help hubby with the deck reno. Our deck was in desperate need of something, splintering and wearing away, but unfortunately was too worn away to clean and re-stain. So we knocked out the flooring and the railing and replaced it with new wood.



The end result: is absolutely beautiful! The deck even looks bigger, too!


While the men were working outdoors, my mother, LMA, and I were working indoors on our kitchen cabinets. With a fresh coat of new linen white paint and satin nickel hardware, it's going to look great.



Unfortunately, this project is still a work in progress, but already it looks lighter and brighter and more updated in our kitchen. Can't wait to show off the end results.

Bathroom reno #2 complete

Although the bathroom has been useable for the past month or so, there were little details that needed to be finished. Like the baseboard in front of the tub (which needed to be stripped of the paint the previous owner applied), filling in nail holes, and redoing the moulding around the door.

The bathroom itself was really out of commission for only 2 weeks. I think that is a great accomplishment for hubby considering what needed to be done!

And now, since it is finally complete, I thought I would share a few highlights of the new bathroom.


This was a support beam under the subflooring. Notice how it's not there. Yeah, that's what happens after 20 years of decay from water damage.


A nice fresh coat of paint to turn our dungeon of a bathroom into the perfect retreat. It took three coats of off white paint to cover up the awful color. We were debating about putting a pocket light over the tub, but since the new color is so bright we don't need one. Notice the beautiful wrap around tile on the edge of the corner?? Yeah, hubby had to replace the last row of tile so we decided to prevent further water damage by adding it .... and to make it look pretty. The other thing we changed, one because of the color, and two because of the amount of paint caked on, was the baseboards. Who paints their baseboards a darker shade of the same color as the walls?? A nice crisp, clean white is what it needed.


Because this bathroom is in the main hallway on our main floor, and right next to Little Man's room, there wasn't much we could do about hiding the mess. So we let him help Daddy whenever he could. Even if it was handing Daddy a nail or handing him a particular tool. I think it made him feel really useful. The other down side of the position of the bathroom was we couldn't make much noise at night for fear of waking Little Man up. We tried to make sure the majority of the noise was made during the day.

We had a medicine cabinet on the side of the wall. No big deal, right. Well not if it supplies the only mirror in the bathroom. Makes it kind of difficult for hubby to shave in the morning. We weren't sure if we wanted to cover it up with drywall or replace the medical cabinet with one without a mirror. Turns out, no one makes medicine cabinets without mirrors. So our other option was to make our own - with or without a door. We opted for the less expensive version: Open box with moulding around the edges and re-use the shelf from the old medicine cabinet. I think it's kind of nice. It's a place for us to store our toothbrushes to keep the counter top clear.

Like the first bathroom, I'm not exactly sure how much we spent on the project. I do know that we did so much more work than the first and hubby still managed to get it done in record time. And that we made record trips to and from Lowe's. It really could have been a lot worse than it turned out to be. Fixing the water damage in the walls and the floor was the biggest obstacle. And I found out something about my hubby in the process. He used to part of a program called BOSS (Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers) in the Army. Instead of soldiers waiting around for minor leaks, cracks, or broken parts in the barracks to be fixed, they learned how to do it themselves. Because of this program and the repairs and work we have done to this house, we'll be able to build our own dream home some day. Looks like I married a real "Handy Manny"!

So much for that...

Today, I came so close to making a life long dream of mine come true.... okay, maybe not life long but at least for the past two years. I almost had all the laundry done. In one day! That is including folding and putting away in the proper drawers.

Until of course, I looked over by hubby's dresser and noticed a pile of clothes.

Aaargh!!

That's okay. We're even. I think I threw away a crucial part of plumbing from the old sink for our newly remodeled bathroom. And it's something that Lowe's doesn't carry anymore. Ooops.

Better luck next time.... for both of us.

Bathroom reno complete!

Prior to fourth of July weekend, I posted that hubby and I were renovating our downstairs bathroom. We were hoping that it wasn't going to turn into one huge project just like every other small project in this god forsaken house. Now that it's over I can say, the worse thing that could have happened, both time and monetary wise, was if we needed to replace ALL of the drywall and the shower. Although hubby begs to differ because he says he could have gotten a even surface to work with. I say yes, but sanding the wall did just fine (except for the spots that he missed of course).

Actually, I say we, but it was mainly hubby. The bathroom was really way too small for both of us to work and of course he's the more handier of the two of us. About the only thing that I helped with was painting, and even that I seemed to be in the way. I'm sure it was also because I had that nasty fall last week and he really thought I was in too much pain to be helping at all.

So here is the before picture (gross, huh? And yes, everything is an ivory-dingy yellow color):



And here are the after shot (very pretty!):



The vanity and medicine cabinet are actually smaller than the original (I think the toilet is as well, but I only care that it's a water saver toilet) so it makes the bathroom seem much bigger. The nice coal miner's gray wall cover complements the gray slate color tile. That in itself also helps make the room seem bigger, not to mention cleaner! I don't dare show you the drywall mold accumulation at the base of the shower we had to replace.

I'm not sure how much it cost us exactly, mainly because we were also purchasing products for the upstairs bathroom reno as well. Plus not to mention the numerous times hubby had to make emergency last minute, crap the part didn't work runs to Lowe's. All in all, hopefully this will make the house sell for our asking price when and if we need to sell.

Let me know what you think. Next project: The main bathroom.

Aren't home improvements grand?

Yeah, right. Not when they happen Friday night and it's the garbage disposal that pops off the undercarriage of the sink!


Yes, Friday night while hubby was giving Little Man his bath and I was doing the dishes, the garbage disposal decided it no longer wanted to be attached to the sink. Oh, it was still working. As a matter of fact, it was spewing food particles all underneath the sink. And wouldn't you know, I just finished depositing dinner leftovers in it. And earlier that day, I had put in some old Parmesan ranch cheese spread. Oh what a lovely smell that made!

So, hubby finished up with the bath while I investigated garbage disposals and possibly sinks to replace. We decided instead of calling our home warranty company (which totally came in useful this past November when our A/C and Heating unit called it quits) and paying $100 for someone to come out on the weekend, that we would just replace it ourselves.

We prepared for the worse because every other "little" project around this house has turned into a 3 day project.

Hubby went to our neighborhood Lowe's where we have already spent Little Man's college fund and bought a new and deeper sink (our old one was only 5 inches deep and could barely hold a cup and a plate and a fork for that matter) with a new garbage disposal.

While I cleaned up all the cleaning products that were under the sink (ironic, huh), he worked like any amateur plumber would...


Then, we crossed our fingers and hoped that everything would run smoothly. While he worked feverishly, I supervised...


Yes, that's a delicious piece of strawberry shortcake. Yes, I offered him some, but he didn't want any.

Amazingly enough, we only had to return to Lowe's for one additional part - new plumbing PVC pipe that we couldn't/wouldn't dare reuse. Now, we have a lovely new sink to match our kick-ass faucet and a quiet garbage disposal (it helps that the new sink actually has noise reduction pads).

Sleep before you Buy

A new novel idea... sleep in the house before you buy it! According to California real estate agents, this is the new trend. Apparently, thanks to the new "soft" market, lots of people are asking for a "test-drive" sleepover. Some properties that are over the $1 million price range have allowed this practice for several years, it now appears to be spreading to less expensive housing market.

Let me tell you, this is definitely something I would have considered before buying our current house. When we were considering purchasing this house, my hubby also thought that he was going to be eligible for a retirement bonus through the Army. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough years of Active-Duty time for him to be considered for the bonus. So, now $10,000 later in debt due to the house, we're trying to get by. But, if we had asked about this option (not sure that the dealer/owner would have gone for the idea - I can only imagine the liability aspect of it. I mean what if we trashed the house? Not that we would have, of course.) but atleast we would have been more aware of all the work that actually needs to go into this house to make it's value increase.

Oh well. You live and learn. We will definitely know better next time we go to purchase another house.