Kitchen Reveal! The Before & After

The kitchen is practically, almost done! I’m not sure that it will ever be “done” but at this point it’s close enough to call the project complete. This has been a giant project for us. We did everything ourselves, except outside brick work, wall texture, and countertop installation. So, now it’s reveal time! I can’t wait to share it!

Before 3

Yes, if you opened the dishwasher, fridge, or oven while someone was at the cooktop they would be trapped!

First lets take a look at the kitchen before and what we were working with. I’m pretty sure this layout is the definition of the “one person kitchen”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now here’s a picture from taken as it looks now… Continue reading

The Kitchen Remodel – Part 4 Walls & Floors

Cabinet We’re finally starting to see the end of the tunnel on our kitchen remodel. Well, really at this point it’s more like a half-house remodel! At the last update, we had just finished framing walls and installing utilities. Next we installed insulation, sheetrock, mud & taped, textured, and prepped the floor. All of that was a little bit of an adventure, but then we get to the stuff that really starts to bring it together – floors, paint & lower cabinets! Below are pictures, with a more detailed explanation each step of the way.

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The Kitchen Remodel – Part 3 Rough Construction

The kitchen is slowly humming along and we’re now starting to build it back up. Rough construction includes framing, utility installation and other things that will get covered up by the “finished construction” phase. To get all this done on the weekend, we’ve been spending every Friday night at Home Depot.
Home Depot
As we get into this phase, the trade knowledge necessary to keep things moving is increasing. This means sometimes its easier for The Boyfriend to do things either by himself or with a friend who is also skilled. I’m a quick learner but we’ve realized where I can be most helpful is to be the “Logistics Officer” (we’ve definilty taken too many incident command classes). I’ve been picking up and dropping off rentals, making phone calls, running errands and making sure everyone gets fed and takes breaks. I’ve also been the lead sweeper/cleaner-uper, and hander-of things (especially into the attic or crawlspace). Of course i’m still assisting with the physical work a lot too, but dividing the work this way seems to be working out pretty well. Continue reading

The Kitchen Remodel – Part 2 Demolition

I hear from a lot of people that demo is fun. And The Boyfriend was the only one I knew that hated demo, and I mean HATES it. I thought it was just because he did construction for a living and was just tired of it. I mean, who doesn’t love breaking things? However, after our own demo I have come to agree with The Boyfriend. I think people that love demo either, 1. really just love the IDEA of demo (and maybe have never done it), or 2. have done smash demo and haven’t had to clean it up. Our kitchen demolition took four full days of work and resulted in sore muscles, a few minor injuries, and frustration. But at least it’s done!

Demo 2

Easy Wall Art – Framing Paper

IMG_2895 copy I’ve always loved to make my own wall art. The easiest, least skill-necessary, wall art project I’ve done is framing paper. Pretty paper, some scissors.. and BAM instant wall art (I usually hear a BAM because at some point I drop either the frame or the scissors on my foot!). But injuries aside, it is crazy easy. My most recent project stemmed from a visit to The Paper Source, the most wonderful and evil store. Wonderful because it has tons of really fabulous paper and other crafting supplies, plus the employees are super crafty and always have great ideas. Evil because I want to buy ALL THE PAPER! Luckily this time I escaped with only a few sheets.

One sheet of paper, frames & mats from Ikea and instant wall art! Total project cost = $25. Continue reading

Organized Hall Closet

IMG_2829 The hall closet can very easily become a mess. Sheets, towels, toiletries… they can into one giant messy avalanche. Our system has been to contain all the little stuff in plastic totes, allowing us to easily carry things into another room should we need to use them. Plus putting things away is a breeze. Here’s how I’ve organized our hall closet…

Installing Garage Cabinets

IMG_2630 After combining households, our garage was a packed. While I had some nice cubbies the previous owner had installed, they were practically falling apart. Then the Boyfriend came home with a kitchen’s worth of free cabinets (my reaction: what! can’t you see what our garage already looks like!)

After my initial shock of coming home to this… Continue reading

Merging Two Households of Stuff

IMG_2302 This post title sounds like I know what I’m doing, when I clearly am learning along the way. The boyfriend and I are in the process of merging our households. We’ve both been living on our own so we each have an entire household full of stuff. Living in the same house has been awesome so far, but we’re still figuring out how to combine all our stuff into one functioning space. This is further complicated by the fact that we are living in my house, not a new space. So how did we merge two households of stuff? Here’s what we’ve learned so far… Continue reading

Craft Supply Organization

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I have the wonderful luxury of having a entire room dedicated to craftiness. This room is a new concept for me. Up until I moved into my house 1.5 years ago I always lived in small apartments, which definitely did not come with a craft room. The way I store and organize my craft supplies now is how I did it back then. Now I can just leave things a mess and close it behind a door! For the record, my craft room is never as tidy as it is in these pictures!
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