Half Bath Before Photos and Inspiration

This time last year we were in the midst of a major kitchen renovation.  Half our downstairs and our most usable space was gutted.  The project went over budget and last well past my end all completion date. Looking back I am not sure how we survived as well as we did. I swore it would be a nice long time before we tackled another major project.  Apparently my memory starts to fade after a year because around May we started discussing our next major project. The plan was to due our big full bath upstairs. This is the one for our guest and the place where we bathe Miss O.  The are many reason for why we chose this to be our next project but that is a different post. The major difference here is that we were going to hire this project out.  However the estimates came in much higher than expected and way above our saved project funds. We decided we might do a few more minor updates around the house but for the most part we were going keep saving and wait to do the bathroom a bit later. 

Well as luck would have it, or not, our downstairs toilet started leaking.  Even though we could have just fixed the toilet, there was a high chance that the leak had damaged the sub-floor under the tile. This along with the fact that the bathroom was pretty dated and I absolutely hated the sink we decided to redo the whole thing.

As we are about to embark on this new renovation project I am horrified as to what I agreed too.  We have a plumber and there is no electrical work needed.  In the whole scheme of renovation work, what we need to do is fairly simple but there will be a lot of firsts and we have an active toddler to take care of too. The only consolation is that if we completely mess up and it takes much longer to put back together we are no worse off than we are now as the toilet does not function. 

So here we go again...I tried to plan out as best we could the design well ahead of our construction work. We have gathered all the main materials and components but despite my best efforts we are going on trip 3 to Home Depot and it probably won't be our last.

Some inspiration pictures....


*IKEA Hemmes vanity



Chris Love Julia half bath renovation



Black penny tile

Wish us luck!

Kitchen Updates

This post is a long time coming. It is almost a year to the day when we started demo on our kitchen. I thought optimistically that we were going to be without  a kitchen for about 6 weeks and then it would be all put together again. I also thought we were going to do the whole thing ourselves with the help of some family members.  Boy was I wrong.  We did do much of it ourselves and we owe a huge thank you to family and friends for helping out but in the end there were certainly pieces which we just didn't have the time to complete. Thank goodness for hired help. 

One of the biggest lessons we learned from this project is that although it is OK to do things DIY, it is always, always nice to leave for work and come home to a completed project. 

 The kitchen isn't really 100% done. You can see in the pictures there is still a few touch ups, mainly painting to finish up but for the most part you can get the picture. We actually have moved on to a few other things now so really that painting may need to get complete for a very long time. 

We kept the layout mainly the same from the old kitchen.  You can see before photos here.  We debated long and hard about keeping this L shaped outing of the counter top. During the demo process we did have some sort of function kitchen without the L shape and I came to really enjoy the openness. I still go back in forth between loving the extra counter and storage and missing the openness. 

We went with a few open shelves and I love the extra sunlight through the sink window.

We got white subway tile for the back splash and white cabinets. I love white. I also love how the white is offset with the dark grey Quartz counter tops. I will mention that Mr. J laid all new hardwood floors.  He did this, for the most part all on his own, with a bit of help from yours truly as his assistant and wood cutter. 

We lost a double oven and gained convection. I miss how fast the old oven used to heat up but I am glad we ended up getting the oven and microwave combo. 

My favorite part of the new kitchen is the gigantic farmhouse sink.  I love it.  It's 3 feet long and you can put so many dishes in it.  This was my splurge. I was wanted a farm house sink and this one became the object of my affection. I knew once I saw it we were destined to be together. It served as a wonderful bathtub to Miss O for many, many months. 

This is the view from the kitchen out. We always had this cabinet here in the old kitchen. We went a while without having anything there but in the end it is much more function to have a resting place and storage here.  As we finish the dining room more completely this may get moved. 

The biggest change came with the refrigerator. We moved it across the way to gain more cabinet and counter space.  Mr. J never liked this idea but I think it works out just fine.  The refrigerator is the one appliance we kept from the old kitchen. It's a bit small but works fine and meets our needs.  I am hoping it lasts a while because new ones sure are expensive. We added a pantry cabinet along the refrigerator and a mud bench for the top of the stairs, our main house entry.   

This was a long closet of wasted space. Now it is much more open and useful. We still have to figure out a shoe solution but I love this area. I cannot imagine not having it here. 

The old pantry was opened up and painted.  I keep some storage, small appliances, and it is our drop zone from going out. I am working on figuring out the best use for this space.  Our little storage cart is a favorite of Miss O to get into; she loves grabbing the potatoes.

The kitchen was pretty much in this shape back in January. It took a while to get those last cabinet pulls on.  I intend to put in all of the sources information but given how long it took me to just take the pictures and post it could be a while.  

Kitchen Renovation Updates

Howdy folks!! Next week I will be back to more regularly scheduled postings and some new recipes. Until then I thought I would share some renovation pictures of our kitchen. #disaster #houseinchaos

Here is a before picture. Trust me when I say the pictures do it far more justice than the space actually deserves. 

It was usable but extremely dated. The dishwasher didn't work. There was limited counter space. The cabinets were awkwardly sized. Furthermore, the floors in this space were actually about 3/4 inch higher than the rest of the house and the height of the cabinets. If you were in there for long periods of time you could feel it in your back. 

So here we are three years later. (Sorry for the horrible yellow glare.)

First we moved everything out of the cabinets. There new home was the dining room. We got a new hutch for this project #Craigslistfind We also got a new metal shelf for the basement for extra storage.  The rest found a spot on the floor.

We are living through this renovation, baby and all. My goal is to make it as seamless as possible. Despite my best efforts it hasn't really been seamless but we are doing OK. 

We call this portion the L-shape. We debated about keeping this part of the counter. Without it we would have one open space to the kitchen table and informal TV room. However, we would lose a lot of counter space without this section. 

In the end we decided to keep the counter, although it won't come out as far from the wall. Not having the overhead cabinets would make the space seem a lot more open and light. There are two big windows on either side for natural light. 

Our gigantic closet in the hallway is going to be where the refrigerator ends up, a pantry area, and a mud bench to put coats, shoes and bags when you first come in. 

My job was to move things out. Most of this stuff when to the basement. Mr. J took down the shelving and started tearing out the floors. 

Next up the rest of the cabinets came out. This was much simpler than original thought. My parents came down to help demo and watch the baby. Four adults are way better than two.  

The last step for now was knocking out the backslash. It was on the wall real good. Mr. J ended up taking a hammer to it and then yanking it out drywall and all. I am already dreaming of subway tile. 

We have ordered appliances. The electrician came to move some outlets, rewire, and get everything ready.  Cabinets are set to be installed this weekend. Mr. J is busy removing all of the floors and patching some of the walls and ceiling before then. More updates to come next week.