Kitchen update/Playroom update/Shopping trip

So today I didn't even lay a finger on a paint brush, which somehow makes me feel like I didn't get anything accomplished, although I'm tired enough to feel that maybe I did.

Today instead of painting, the boys and I went shopping to Home Depot, Target, and Lowes.  At Home Depot we bought this spiffy new mat for the laundry room...

I think the cream color goes great with the Pale Wheat on the walls, and the black goes great with the doors.  PLUS, it is anti-fatigue.. so if for some reason I just REALLY want to spend 5+ hours in this little room standing on this mat, I should be good to go.  :)

At Home Depot we also bought a new welcome mat for the front stoop, and 2 planters.  I'll show those in a bit.

Our mission at Target was to find a pair of these...

Curtains

to match the pair we'd bought almost a year ago for our apartment after we sold our house in Austin.   My plan was to put these in the playroom since they do an awesome job at blocking out the heat, and that room isn't shaded like the rest of the upstairs.

We were in luck.. they still carried them, and at still the GREAT price.  Thermal panels for under $10... wow!

We ended up picking up 3 panels.  Two for the boys' bedroom, which isn't yet painted.. and one for the front window in the playroom.  We also bought rods, metal tie backs (I'm assuming that is what they're called, haha) , and sheet sets for the boys' beds that should be arriving in the next week.

The playroom with furniture:   This isn't exactly what I'd envisioned for our storage needs.   Everything in here, we previously owned.  I was REALLY wanting a new 6ftx6ft Bookshelf from Ikea to replace to little shelves we currently have... but, at almost $300 for the solid wood version, it just wasn't in our budget. 

Ignore the patches of white near the ceiling.   My FIL did some sheetrock repair for us, and I haven't repaired the stripes yet.

Here it is:

Anyway, the bookshelf isn't entirely organized, and the suitcase on top is still full of teaching supplies, but I'll get there.

Kitchen

First coat of paint on the cabinets.. using this nifty sucker.  (Done yesterday!)

I bought this at Lowes,.. it is a roller with a dense nap, specifically made for cabinets and doors.  It worked great!

First coat:

and, our flower project (the boys picked out the flowers)

and... more kitchen.

So after we sprayed new texture in the kitchen to match the rest of the house and the attached family room, it was time to paint.   The texture dried overnight and the next morning I put on 2 thick coats of Behr's Pale Wheat.

The above photo was of the uncompleted paint job, but I did intentionally only paint so far down above the cabinets, and around the bay window.   Why?.... 

Because the bottom does not show!

haha, no.  We're not leaving the colors like that.   Around the window, we added beadboard 60 inches tall.  The trim above the cabinets is 4 inches of beadboard, 9 inches of beadboard flipped over (to show the smooth, unbeaded side), and 4 more inches of beadboard.   I then added various widths of trim to cover the seams, and crown molding to the top.  We then centered this decorative wooden cutout from Lowes above the stove.

To add the beadboard to the window area, my husband actually removed the window sill..

The then nailed the board back, replaced the sill, and topped off the top with this:

excuse the horrible almond colored lightswitch...  they will go eventually.. just not yet. 

I'll post a photo of the completely primed kitchen in a few, but just in case you're wondering how we manage to keep our kids occupied while we're doing all of this home improvement....

We just give them our premeasured trim and a roll of really expensive painter's tape.   :x

haha, well we actually didn't GIVE him those items... we just walked outside to find him like this...   haha.

Another of the kids just for fun..

And here is the kitchen as it stands now:

No, I did not put that horrible ivy on the light fixture, haha.

More beadboard will be going in the backs of those cabinets, hence why they're not primed.

and a close up of the trimwork, which I hope is giving the cabinets a taller, more high end look..

More to come....  :)

I dream of KITCHENS..

I love kitchens.   I'm not that great of a cook, and I'd rather do pretty much anything than wash a sink of dishes, but I love the look of them.  LOL.  So in trying to figure out WHAT in the world we were going to do with this mess of a kitchen we inherited, I looked at a LOT of kitchens.  I looked at new kitchens, old kitchens, small kitchens, and large kitchens.  One of my favorites that I found, is the kitchen over at The Lettered Cottage.  In fact, when our reno is complete, you'll probably see a lot of familiar things between her kitchen and mine.   What I love about it, is that fact that she took plain builder stock cabinets and made them unique..  as seen here. Completely awesome when you're on a budget and cannot afford new cabinets..  which, is so us.

The only problem here, is that she was able to add trim to the top of her cabinets, because they were hung from the wall and there was a large space above them.

Since our cabinets are hung from the wall AND this ugly THING above them, there was no way to create that gap without really getting DIRTY.

Since I haven't given a tour of what our kitchen DID look like... here is the complete before.  It is not done yet, but thankfully it doesn't look like this anymore.  haha.

Excuse my husband, who usually ends up in my photos whether intentional or not. 

So, it is hard to tell here, but we're actually pretty lucky that our cabinets are really nice quality.  They're not the normal knock off wood cabinets that most homes come with today.  They are really heavy hardwood that I've been able to sand down and play with.   These suckers will last a lifetime.  Another reason, besides money, not to get rid of them.   I wish I had a better before image to show you, but I guess I was so excited to get started, I forgot to take more adequate before photos.

Our first step with this kitchen was removing the horrible wallpaper.  I've actually never removed wallpaper, so I turned to an article over at HGTV.com to guide me through it.  Armed with DIF and a scraper, it started coming off pretty well... until we got to about the fourth layer.  This layer, it seemed, was stuck directly to the sheetrock.  YIKES.   Unfortunately what I wanted to be a smooth surface to work with, ended up looking like half sheetrock, half cardboard.   Luckily, my FIL is pretty handy, and fixed our big mess.

haha, you have to love that photo of my FIL and his texture sprayer!

This was right before the spraying began.  My husband first put on a thin skim coat, which was allowed to dry for a few days, followed by a skim coat by my FIL.  The next day it was ready to spray.  Trying to match the original orange peel texture on the other walls was interesting, but I think they did a GREAT job!

More to come!

This should be interesting...

So we realized that the month of March is really ticking away.   Our lease on our apartment expires on the 31st, and as of today we have....  exactly 10 days to get moved.   Not bad right?  Well, my husband works Tues-Friday every week.   That cuts us down to 4 days.  Except.. that we just remembered that he has a date with the Army next weekend.  So now we're down to 2 days.. .if we were to exclude today.  

Well, crap.   So .. my cheap, err... thrifty husband has decided that instead of renting a u-haul or other moving truck, he would rather make a million and one trips with my Sequoia loaded down.   Those trips started yesterday while I stayed at the new house with the boys and primed our kitchen cabinets.   The trips yesterday moved small things, such as boxes that were still packed from our move from Austin.  He also moved all of our wall art/mirrors, and a few side tables.   Today, I think the big plan is to move our BED.  Yes, thats right.   Our king size bed will somehow be moved in my SUV.   Wish us luck, shall you?   If you're in the ClearLake area and see a black SUV with a king size mattress strapped to the roof, I shamefully admit that is probably us.

Have a great day!

Kitchen remodel, part 1

So our kitchen remodel began with addressing the lighting.   Our kitchen ceiling was home to two large fluorescent panels, typical of late 80s/early 90s construction.   Since they provide great light, and we're on a tight budget, we left them in place.   I did remove the plastic covers and gave the box housing the light a good coat of ultra bright white paint.  Boy did that help to clean things up.   Above our sink was a lonely recessed light, and I thought adding two more would be a great way to make the one existing light less odd.   My husband climbed in attic and my FIL worked at ceiling level to get the lights installed.  They ended up installing three new lights (one to replace the old, and 2 new) so that the lights would match.


Before:

and after:

What I love about these lights and their placement is that if later on we want to switch them out for hanging pendant lights, it should be easy as pie.   :)

And then there was Home.

Yes, we did in fact close on our house March 5th!  We have been so busy with painting and remodeling, that I haven't had time to even get a good night's rest.. much less post an update!

Here it is:

Right now we are in the process of updating the kitchen on an extreme budget.   We're lucky that the house already came with an updated stainless gas stove, and an updated stainless mircrowave/vent.

Most of the updating is coming in the form of paint and trim work.  We've had the house exactly 2 weeks, and SO much has changed. 

The first before and after I'd like to show is Brodie and Rylan's playroom.  As soon as we move in and get it furnished, I'll post another updated pic.

Here is the before.   Notice the left over wallpaper.  YUCK!

and after....

Tune in later for more updates!

Trip to the Beach

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit pent up and felt the need to be outdoors, in a place other than our usual parks and playgrounds.   So, we packed up a lunch and our sandcastle building supplies, and drove the 30 or so miles to Galveston Island. 

The boys had so much fun playing in the sand and wading in the cold water.  I sat and let the sound of seagulls and waves relax my soul, which has been incredibly stressed over our house purchase - which may or may not happen this very afternoon.   I will be sure to update when we know more.. or when the keys are in these very hands.  :)   ..but back to yesterday.

We spent about 2 hours playing on the beach...

 ...and then we rinsed off, changed clothes, and headed to the ferry.  I probably enjoy the ferry more than my little boys.  

-You have to love those looks of sheer boredom.

The freight carriers, which cross the ferry's path, and may seem overly industrial to some..

 are majestic and beautiful to myself.  

Plus, the ferries themselves are pretty awesome, too.   :)

After docking at the Bolivar Peninsula, we found a great little seaside park.

All in all, it was a great day enjoying the sunshine, on Galveston Island.  ..And I think we've found our new favorite day trip.

-Brodie talking to a dog in the truck next to us, on the ferry ride back-

Happy Coastal Living!