Kitchen Renovation

This kitchen in the house, that we finally bought, after looking at 25 houses!  I think, I may have been really tired of looking, because I didn't catch a couple of things.  But it would not have mattered really, because the house was in pretty good shape and the area of town that we wanted.

I just walked in and said, oh, I least this one has been updated....... We had looked at some with metal cabinets, or just old cabinets.  Someone had extended that tile backsplash down for the countertop.  But, down there in the corner where that microwave is, it was completely different tile!

And while we were sitting in the floor scrubbing grout, my daughter says, why is that door so dark.  The one under the sink.  I couldn't believe it.  Everything is raised panel doors and that one was a flat panel.

                                                    Who knew, that the grout was white.......

We had decided that we wanted to paint them white.  Off to Lowes to look at cabinets in stock to see if we could find a color that we liked. Then we went and picked out paint chips to find something close.  We used Valspar w/primer.  When you take your doors off, number them, so they can be put back in the right spot.  I did a light sanding before we painted.

 We had painted all the cabinets.  When you looked inside the cabinets, some of the sides seemed to be off.  My husband decided he just couldn't wait to get granite counter tops. When, we got an estimate for the granite, the guy mentioned that he hoped we could get the counter tops off without tearing up the cabinets.  We did, but then I could see why things looked weird.  I told hubs, we are not putting granite on this junk.  So, every bottom cabinet on that side came out.

 And it really was a good thing, because the wall had been patched back there and not very well.  We tore more sheet rock off and put in wall insulation around all those water lines.

             
                            At least we shut the door to the mice that had been coming in through there.

                               Back to Lowes for base cabinets and another gallon of the cabinet paint.

I guess this is the only picture that I took of new cabinets going back in.  This was not an easy task.  Shims, shims and shims to make everything level from the front to back and side to side.

Here is the finished product.  We went with the granite over the washer/dryer adding more countertop space.

There was some little crappy trim across the top of the cabinets that came down.  And I replaced it with chair rail.  I looked all over for something different, but nothing that would work was to be found.

                                                            It Turned out great!

Exterior Makeover

Our Daughter got accepted to Masters Program close to home.  We were so excited! My thought was, money saved, she could live at home and help with the horses. But, when reality sunk in, with morning and evening traffic, it was an hour commute in both directions. That was time that she would need to be studying.  So, we started looking for her a place to live.  After checking out apartment rentals and the HIGH cost, we decided to look for something to buy.  Another shocker!  Location, Location, Location really is a driving point for price.  We looked at 25 houses!  The first couple we looked at, we thought may work and wanted to think about it for a minute.  The next day, there were multiple offers!!  Then this one came on the market, it fit our budget, good location, two full bathrooms, and good floor plan. We wrote an offer on the spot!  But, It still needed some LOVE!

This is how it looked when we bought it.  TV cables running down the brick and all along the house trim. Someone had closed in the carport at some time and it was just straight up ugly!

We closed on the house at the end of May and my daughter and roommates would move in the first of August.  Even thou the house was in pretty good shape, it took me all summer working on the inside and doing some outside.  We had to make the home secure!  This front door was not going to work.

                        
No, NO, my daughter was not staying there with a door jam that looked like that! That door really dated the house.  We wanted to Update.  The market is good in this area, so we are hoping for a good return when we sell in three years.

                                                 We wanted to go with a Craftsman look.

What a difference a new door makes.  I am so thankful that it was not a DIY project that I took on.  It took carpenters banging, prying, cutting and banging some more to get that door casing out.  They also framed out the closed in garage, for a garage door.  When, both of the doors went in, all the neighbors were paying attention.

                                                Tearing out the front wall of the garage.

After a summer of painting and cleaning the inside, I really didn't want to take on the task of the outside. The guys we hired did an excellent job.  I am not sure those wood windows had ever been scraped or reglazed around the glass panels.  Except, the ones someone had replaced with plexiglass....WHAT??  Yes, that is what I said.  I had a glass company come out and replace 10 panels of plexi with real glass!  Back to the painters, they scraped and scraped, new glaze around all window panels and caulked.  They caulked places that I would have missed and power washed the brick.  The prep took several days.  It would have taken me weeks.  Then they painted.

                                              

 We were in love!  It looked like a new house.  Now, was time to make Cedar shutters.  We've made a few sets in the past.  Easy easy.

                                                     From This TO THIS!!!

Here is the final product.  It looks entirely different than when we purchased it.  I hope this inspires you to update your home.  Your home is your castle.  The smallest projects can make a big difference.  We could have stopped at the doors and the house looked great! But the Paint Job, OH MY, It really made it Fresh.  Below, I listed our expenses, to give you an idea what a project like this will run you.  Please don't be a lurker, leave a comment and let me know that you were here! 

Run down on expenses...
New front door $225
New garage door $900
Labor to install front door, and case out opening $500
Paint house (included all labor & supplies) $2700
Husband and friend installed the vinyl siding around the garage door
Cedar shutters - 8 cedar boards, Cedar stain - We made them and installed

Canvas Painting

My daughter, Brianna decided she wanted a Large abstract painting for her study......And she asked me paint one for her.  I do not consider myself an artist of this type, although I have painted a few pieces.  I thought it would be fun!

This was the inspiration piece!

Since, I really am not an artist, I am sorry, I can't give instructions on how I did it.  People get all torn up about messing something up.  It is just Paint!  It will dry and if you don't like it, paint over again.  I can say, DO paint your whole canvas in a base color first.  I didn't do this and I knew better!  You do want several shades of the colors that you plan to use, PLUS White.  The darker tones, lighter tones give contrast and depth to your painting. The white you can mix with your colors for lighter colors.

 You have to start somewhere, so I just started out putting colors here and there.

                         I didn't like the tan color.......So it got covered up.

  Some things changed along the way.  That is what is great about paint.  Do you see the gold hands?  My daughter called it a claw......!!  I ended up adding a lot of white of gold to the bottom of it.  You can see the change in the final picture.

I couldn't get the gold, the color of gold that I was looking for.  It was redone several times.  You see below is lighter. The red got more layers of red.

The gold paint pen in the picture above, I used to draw lines adding detail.

  Then, I just played, adding layers of color, lines of color, I had to fix a little bump that I popped off!  I added little lines of Red & Gold using a Gold paint pen.

Here is the finished product.  I hung it on my wall for a few days, so I could decide IF I was done with it.  I think I am happy with it! I know....Not really like the inspiration piece.  I needed flow and movement.  When you paint just go with what you are feeling. 

As, I worked on this painting, I thought about how the painting is kinda like life.  This painting has many layers, and life is made up of many layers, some we like and some we don't.  With the painting,  it was very simple to let it dry and paint over it.  I dabbled till I was happy.  In life, we all make mistakes!  Some worse than others.  Some are forgotten, and some are remembered forever.  All you can do, is DO better, Be Better and Don't make the same mistake again.  Mistakes is what makes us grow into the person we become.  We have to keep trying to get Us the way we want to be.  We are all God's children and he will keep working with us until he is happy, IF we want him to be our artist.

I do NOT know where all that came from, but felt the need to pass the message on.

Have FUN!  STEP out of the box or mold that you have put yourself in!