Kitchen Update And This Old Church House Does A Wedding Reception!!

The reason this blog entry is only a "kitchen update" is because we had some issues with getting an island counter top. The following pictures do not include our island or the backsplash behind the stove. But here it is anyway.....

(And feel free to click on pictures in order to enlarge them)

The floors!

Remember the old, ugly vinyl tiles I took up one by one?

We replaced them with old 2" oak flooring reclaimed from a 1940's home in downtown Boise. Where did we find? Craigslist of course.

After laying the floor (I laid about half of it all by myself as Dustin was out of town) we stained the whole floor the lighter color. Then, one evening Dustin and I taped and stained the darker diamond shapes on the kitchen part of floor only. Wow, what a fun 6 hour grueling job that was!

To get Dustin's cooperation, I simply asked him if he wanted to "spend an evening" on the kitchen floor with me...not really what he had in mind, but he contributed nonetheless. :-)

Here's the kitchen without the island or backsplash behind the stove.........

Next up, pictures of our niece's wedding reception! We were so honored when we were asked if we would consider having it our place. This was the fire under our tushes to finish what we started!!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful event. Like I've said before, and maybe it's the ignorance with my camera, but these pictures just don't do it justice.

Here is the sign they put on the front porch......

Getting the food ready on our island (with a temporary countertop). Notice the punched tin backsplash now. We might end up painting that too....

Cute doilies hung from the ceiling.....(Pay no attention to the tired, glazed over man who couldn't move for the picture. ha ha)

People start to arrive.....

Pictures hung in our entrance.....

The darling bride and groom......

Setting up the reception line on the stage.....

Lots of people coming and going but never felt too crowded.....

A table close-up. Burlap, lace, and Baby's Breath....my favorites too......

Yep, Happily Ever After.....

Kitchen Progress....

Well, we started this kitchen remodel back in October last year and I chuckle now thinking of when we were asked to host a church Christmas party at our house. After agreeing, I expressed concern to Dustin that we'd be in the middle of a kitchen remodel and his reply was something like, "Oh, we'll totally be done by then."

Well, here it is February, and I'd say we are probably about 3/4 the way through. That's what happens when we do things all by ourselves!

Here's an update on our progress:

This is Dustin building the hood above our stove. It's going to be quite the focal point as you walk into the kitchen.......

In this next picture, the walls and hood are painted, and the lights are installed. The two center lights were here originally but they were in the living room. The previous owners found them in the crawl space under the pantry so we think they are pretty old........

This one we bought to go right above the sink.......

We have been carrying around these old windows from some yard sale in California. We thought they would be great for........something. Maybe picture frames or some art piece?........

We ended up sanding, staining, and using them as transom windows above the pantry........

And hallway........

On to countertops. Here's how we lived for 2 months......plywood!.......

At first, we got very excited about doing concrete for our countertops but soon realized after our friend (and specialist) told us concrete countertops needed to be 2" thick so that was NOT going to fit under our windows!

Later, we decided on butcher block countertops from Ikea. We had to wait patiently for weeks but I think they were worth the wait.

Here I am sanding them.......yes, indoors.....again! This is where we miss the absolute luxury of having a garage. It rained 4 or 5 days straight when the counters were delivered, so there was no way I was going to wait to do this outside!.....


After cutting, sanding, staining, and putting 5 coats of Waterlox sealant on them. Here's a peek....

And by the stove.....

On to the cabinets. We found and bought our cabinets on craigslist....a great deal! They came out of a high-end home in Sun Valley, are very well made with a lot of cool features, and fit into our kitchen plan. The only problem was they didn't fit into our color scheme......

So we painted them my all-time favorite kitchen cabinet color.....white. I'll just never grow old of white kitchen cabinets......

Besides backsplash decisions and kitchen island counter decisions, we have one more decision......the floors! I spent a few hours taking up all these old vinyl tiles last week with an iron. They needed to be heated a bit to warm the glue holding them down so I could pry them up. The plywood underneath remains so sticky we play hopscotch around the kitchen on big cardboard squares.....

So, this is it so far. We are also working on the mudroom and 1/2 bath which is also contributing to the slow pace. I'll update that next!

Dilemma Decided

One of the things I love about our kitchen is the large, rectangular windows. They have been great....even in the Summer when the hot afternoon sun comes streaming in. It has been easy enough to shut the blinds to keep it cool on very hot days. But even then, we've rarely ever had to turn the AC on!

The problem though was the evenings. This huge kitchen had one, small ceiling light in the middle of the room providing very little light when the sun went down. Not to mention the rest of the electrical issues in the kitchen...not enough outlets and outlets in weird places, protruding out of walls.

Between wanting to redo the electrical and wanting to move the plumbing for the sink to the wall of windows, we decided to start this harmless little project sometime last month. It turned out to be more than we bargained for.

Here's the wall of windows. The 2nd window from the right is where we are going to put the new sink......

Here's a close up of the gross windows that I have been so anxious to redo......

You can't tell in these pictures but we found out there are at least 3 layers of paint - lime green, yellow, and then white......

Once again, we think we might be able to work around the old lathe and plaster, cutting out where we want the new electrical and plumbing.......

But, again, it just ends up being better to just take it all down. Come to find out there were many sections that didn't even have the blown-in insulation! We have been able to fill in the gaps with new insulation and we've already noticed a big difference in the drafts and outside noise!.......

So, on to the ceiling and our 1-light wonder! Dustin and I talked a lot about what to do since the ceiling was sagging, cracking, and needed more lights. Is it easier to just tear down the ceiling and start from scratch?

The thought of tearing it down and creating yet more dust clouds was so daunting, especially after we had just done the wall!!

We talked about cutting out where we wanted the electrical and then patching it. Or maybe covering it with some cool looking material like bead board or wood. This is when I started breaking out some magazine pictures I've collected throughout the years.
Here's one with a wood ceiling that I've always loved.....

So we start researching on craigslist to try and find some cheap sources for wood. In the meantime, Dustin starts measuring and cutting out round holes for the recessed lighting we want to put in.

He starts to cut out a little strip for the electric wire and I start to look closer at what is underneath and discover it's Ellie's floor right above the kitchen!

This picture is a close up of what we were looking at and an important decision was being processed at this time. Should we do it?

Within minutes, the whole ceiling plaster was being torn off and the next major storm of dust clouds ensued....

All the windows are opened at this time and wood is being thrown out to me as I fuel a bonfire outside in the field. Ethan helps with the clean up........

We even find a bird's nest! Somehow a bird had pecked it's way in through a knot hole in the wood and made a home. This was before previous owners had recovered it with new siding......

This is what we ended up with for now......(it's not quite finished with molding, etc)

Rustic, yes. Unique, yes. Cool, we think so. The beam to the right had been covered up with plywood so we exposed, sanded, and finished that too.

We will run electrical wires along the joists and hang pendant lights and maybe some small low voltage lighting as needed. WAY more to come.....

Skip to My "Loo" (New Bathroom!)

Wow, I know, it's been SO long since our last blog posting that I even forgot my own password!

We HAVE been sort of busy doing little projects here and there but we took it easy this summer.

Our new bathroom has been "mostly" done since the Spring but it has taken MONTHS for our dumb vanity top to arrive. We kept calling the guy who was supposed to cut the marble but he managed to put us off the whole summer.

Here's a quick rundown of our new bathroom....

We got an old clawfoot tub on craigslist that was in good condition. Dustin was so anxious to paint it with a rust primer that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the "before" but......

......I got a picture of the foot and this is what the whole outside of the tub used to look like.

A few different colors.........

So from the very beginning.....between our bedroom and the kitchen, we took a wide open space and framed in a small but much needed bathroom. This is looking into the future doorway......

Here's looking into that same doorway.....our new bathroom......

Below is the vanity that Dustin built. We thought we would be saving $$$ by building it but nope....Home Depot probably would have been cheaper. But, I love it and am so

proud of Dustin for making it!

I'm sure I wouldn't have found something this cute at a big home center, right?

Note: Missing the back splash! Can you believe after waiting all summer for the vanity top,

the guy forgets to bring the back splash? Maybe we'll get it next Spring.

I hoped by having an open vanity it would make the space appear larger. I think I was right.....

More storage in this built-in cabinet (lots of shelves for bathroom supplies). By the way, Dustin did all the trim work too. The only thing we had help with was the

marble cutting and the plumbing.......

Here's the clawfoot tub....we painted the outside of it a soft yellow like the vanity. Hopefully soon, we will be getting one of those new (but old fashioned looking) telephone faucets that has a shower head.....most helpful for rinsing the hair.......

Pretty glass chandelier from craigslist too (a $35 score).

I bought a glass bead garland to dress it up a bit.......

Fun TP holder......

So, the bathroom is small and compact (I prefer the word "cozy') but I think it's beautiful and functional. And speaking of cozy, I love our new bathtub....it's one of my favorite places to be in the whole house.