before and after: our master bath

we finished this renovation in august 2010. as for sharing pictures, better late than never, right?

this bathroom used to be a bedroom. and the old bathroom is now our connected master closet. did you follow that? ;) here's a picture of the bedroom that became our master bath.

 we ripped up the carpet on the second night we owned the house, back in the winter of 2009.

during:

and after!

we designed the layout of the bathroom ourselves with help from ben's dad. at first we were going to try to squeeze in a tub, but we realized we aren't really tub people and decided on a nice big shower instead. (staying on top of cleaning the grout can be tough, but i've had great success with basic h from shaklee—which i use all over our house—and mr. clean magic erasers for tile and grout!)
 

here are our sources in case any of you locals are curious.

cabinetry: designed cabinets

countertops: corian in glacier white from nu shapes construction

tile: marble mosiac and white ceramic penny and wall tiles from kate-lo tile and stone

glass shower enclosure: designed glass

fixtures: delta, kohler, and moen (menards and home depot)

mirrors: ikea
paint color: benjamin moore palladian blue

more on the diy artwork here. 

 

 

dresser refurb

good morning, lads and lasses!

this is an old project that i finished last year, but if you've been here a while, you know how i roll. i still owe you pictures of our master bath, which we finished in august of 2010, but that's for another day.

ben and i inherited this old dresser from his family's cabin. it's a really fun dresser with a great shape, but unfortunately, the dresser itself wasn't in such great shape. it was plenty sturdy, it just had some finish issues. but i could see past the braces, glasses, and frumpy wardrobe. i knew we could turn her into student council president. vote for summer! i think i will.

i thought about painting her (yes, it's a she) a fun color. yellow? aqua? no, no. i thought it best to stick to neutral since we planned on putting her in our bedroom with the bright red headboard. so i rummaged through our substantial paint stash and came up with a way to do this for free using leftover paint from other projects.

first, i gave her a good vacuum and scrub inside and out. then i left her out to dry and it rained. oops. then like a month went by with her back in the garage so i washed her again.

sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint, varnish. or something like that. i reused the old hardware making this (i think?) a free project. the best kind. voila!

she cleans up nice, don't you think? i like her little scalloped skirt. and the paint treatment goes with our bedside tables even though the furniture is different.

we have a very substantial closet attached to our master bath, so we didn't need to use this dresser for clothes. since i cleaned out and organized the linen closet, i can move the bed linens in here and have them that much closer to the bed. i've got jewelry and a temporary mirror up top, but as always, a work in progress.

adios!

before and after: the kitchen

oh my have i ever been holding out on you guys. our kitchen has been "done" for a long, long time—this is old news for many of you who have been over to our home.

but for those of you who haven't seen it in person, here it is!

an "after" is much more satisfying when the "before" is a hot mess. here's the kitchen when we bought the home.

now that i take a look at these pictures again, that kitchen doesn't look that bad. i think it was the feeling of grossness that was so overwhelming—especially with that water damage. i never cooked in that kitchen. not once. we ripped it apart before we even moved in (although we kept the "newer" half of the cabinets for storage in the basement). if you are interested in pictures of the process, check out the archives from 2009. oh yes. two years ago.

okay. this is the part of the tv show where the host says "uncover your eyes and take a look at your new kitchen!!!"

"unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." Psalm 127:1

we are incredibly grateful to have this kitchen.

before and after: the half bath

hello, friends!

well, the completion of the art for the half bath means that it is time for a full-on before and after post. here it is!

this tiny space is hard to photograph! the bathroom is literally three feet wide—pretty close to the smallest code will allow.

this room wasn't always a bathroom. no no. it used to be a dining room connected to the kitchen. it also had a big french door to the nasty screen porch that we demolished.

those are HEARTS carved into that bench. oh yes.

our home has an attached garage. score! BUT . . . at the time of purchase, there was no door from the garage to the house. seriously. so we converted this dining room into a mudroom and cut a door to the garage. we added a closet and an attached half bath. confused? these will help:

when we bought the house:

the house as of last winter (ignore the entire left side of this—no longer current!):

see that door to the garage? and see that tiny half bath? yes! let's sprint through the "during" photos. on your mark!

 framing. note the pocket door! very handy for small spaces.

 drywall installed by ben + friends!

 custom art from my favorite artist, beth!

 

we learned to tile. 'twas messy and fun!

and here we are now:

[maybe it is just me who notices this in the top picture—no, we did not install a curved ceiling! the mirror is a bit wavy.]

not much "decorating" going on here, because it is just so small. but it is exactly what we need and we are really glad we added it! we considered putting the washer and dryer in the mudroom but opted for the bathroom instead. this is proving to be a very good decision.

and to those of you who have used this tiny half bath, great news! ben oiled the squeaky pocket door, so now your use of the bathroom will no longer be announced to the entire neighborhood.

the state of our [home], part 2

i'm back to show pictures of the kitchen as it stands today. of course, a room is never really "done," and this is no exception—we need to cover the putty holes on the trim, do some paint touch-ups, etc. but the kitchen functions so that's fine with me. :)

when we bought the house, the kitchen looked like this:




it was positively lovely. :) today, it looks like this:

i know it's a lot of white, but don't fear! the other side looks like this:

we love our kitchen. we spend tons of time in it and it just functions so well—tons of counter space, wonderful light. we added a bump-out window over the sink (klaas's idea) and replaced the small door at the back with a slider. we'll get some stools and a proper table and chairs eventually.

ben took an action shot before dinner the other night. here's to good cooking in 2010!