The finished kitchen...

I bet you never thought you would see those words...especially as long as it has taken for me to blog about our finished kitchen.

We actually finished the kitchen right before Taryne's birthday weekend. Yes, I realize that was almost a month ago, but we have been busy and I just haven't really had the time to get everything perfect for "final" pictures.

Just a quick reminder of what the cabinets, counters and floor looked like before we started...

I honestly cannot believe it is the same kitchen! Everything looks amazing and the best part is we did EVERYTHING ourselves. Yes, it took a lot of time and sweat, but we saved so much which allowed us to spend a little more on the materials than we might have otherwise. I am very proud of our work and even though at times it seemed like it was never going to end or we were frustrated with something, we stuck through it, finished it and now we have a wonderful kitchen to cook and spend family time in.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Kitchen Makeover Part "I don't know anymore"! Part B, I guess

This past weekend we worked very hard to get as much done in our kitchen as we could manage. We are almost finished with the counters. Well, technically the counters and back splash are done...we just need to add the stone trim to the front of the counters to finish it out.

We also still have new lights, floors and touch ups to finish in the kitchen, but luckily those are all small projects...except the floors. But those shouldn't be too bad.

Taryne has enjoyed playing and "exploring" the cabinets in the kitchen. During the day (that led to weeks) of no doors on several of the bottom cabinets, she learned what was in each one and now she knows which cabinets to go to and open and start pulling things out. She loves the pantry and the cabinet with all my baking pans. And of course, Taryne's drawer has become popular with all her cups and bottles and other baby stuff.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Kitchen Makeover Part "I don't know anymore"!

Last week Kyle took off work so we could try to finish up the kitchen. Well, we are not finished and we have a lot to go, but we did get a lot done.

All the doors but 6 are painted and hung with new knobs. The old stove and microwave are out and today we are getting a new stove and microwave installed. We have the new flooring installed where the new stove goes and we will finish the rest of the flooring once we are done with everything else. We have the tile installed on the countertops on the stove side of the kitchen as well as the backsplash on that side. It is looking pretty good...I am glad we decided to go with tile. We have an unusually large amount of countertop space and it was going to cost us a fortune just to replace the laminate with laminate...so we are tiling it ourselves. We saved money on labor and we have already tiled the floors in both our bathrooms so we know how to do it.

Countertops and backsplash after the removal of the laminate and before we started the tile.

The tile countertops are in...

We started the backsplash...we dry-stacked the tumbled tiles

Here is the "finished" stove side of the kitchen. We need to wait for the microwave to be installed to finish the back splash.

The floors...

This side is finished...well the cabinets.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover Day 2...

Okay, today we painted and painted and painted!! We got up early and went to Lowe's to get paint. We decided on white. I have to say I never dreamed this kitchen could look this big! We thought we could get by with two coats of paint, but it really needed a third.

All the cabinets on the sink side of the kitchen are finished!! Whoohoo!! All the cabinets on the stove side of the kitchen need one more coat. Not bad for a days work. The drawers also only need one more coat of paint. We haven't touched the doors yet. That is a project for tomorrow.

Kyle also neatly laid out all the brass colored hinges from the doors and spray painted them a nickel color to match the new knobs we still need to buy. We could have easily spent over $250 on just hinges alone if we bought them new.

My goal tomorrow is to get all the painting finished...even the trim in the breakfast area!

Let me leave you with a few pics of the cabinets from today...I know, it is hard to tell what we did since the Kilz and the paint are both white.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover Day 1...

Today we started the crazy task of painting our kitchen cabinets. We have great custom built cabinets in our kitchen, they just look like they are still in the early '90's when this house was built. Our original plan was to sand and stain the cabinets. However, when we started looking into it, we decided that was just way too much work. So we decided to paint.

We started the day by "washing" the cabinets and trim in the breakfast area with this product called Krud Kutter. We got the bottle of it from our neighbors...they used it when they painted their cabinets and they said it worked great. This product cleans and "sands" the area so it is ready to paint. This process took longer than we thought...it was just very time consuming.

Kyle spend the morning and early afternoon numbering and removing all the doors to the cabinets. We have SO MANY doors! He also removed the knobs and hinges so they are ready to paint. When we get to it...sometime this week.

Once everything was clean and ready to go, we started painting the Kilz primer on the trim and cabinets. It took all afternoon and part of the evening. I know we have a big kitchen, but I guess I didn't realize just how big the kitchen really is in this house.

Our original plan (once we decided to paint) was to paint a dark chocolate brown on the cabinets that would sort of mimic the stain color we wanted. After seeing the kitchen cabinets all nice and white today, we are seriously rethinking the color. Since we might be selling our house soon, we decided to go with white because we feel it is more appealing to a larger number of people versus the dark brown.

Here are some pics of the day...

Tomorrow we will start painting. Our goal is to get this cabinet makeover completed this weekend if possible. Thank goodness we have Monday off to work on it, but I think it will spill over into the week a little...hopefully not too much. I need my kitchen back to bake about 100 cookies for a shower next weekend.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Bathroom tile project...

As you know, we have been remodeling all areas of our house. Our latest and greatest project was the floor in our hall bathroom. All I can say is thank goodness that bathroom was small! I forgot how much of a pain it is to tile a floor! And I am very glad we did our bathroom/closets first since that area was so large.

We had originally planned to lay the tile over the existing linoleum, but once we removed the toilet, we noticed the linoleum was not adhered to the concrete. So...we pulled up all the linoleum, which wasn't too bad, but an extra step in the process. Once it was removed, we had to scrape up all the old glue because the floor was fairly uneven.

Before we went through the process of actually laying the tile, we did a "trial run" first. We popped our chalk line and then laid all the tiles in the bathroom without thinset. Then Kyle so diligently measured and cut all the tiles to the appropriate size and shape. Once we were happy with this, I created a chart so we knew exactly where each piece went once we picked them all up to apply the thinset to the concrete.

The area around the toilet base was very unlevel and I had to apply a coat of thinset before we started to level the area out. Once that set up, we laid the tile and it took no time at all. We waited 24 hours and then applied the grout and cleaned the excess. As of today the grout is almost dry, but we are going to wait a few more days before we seal the grout. And since we will be at my sister's wedding this weekend, I am sure that won't happen until next week!

Here are some pictures of the journey it took to get the tile in the hall bathroom...

Removing the linoleum.

Dry-fitting the tile

The area around the toilet that I had to level out

Laying the tile

All the tile in

The finished product

Until next time...Gig'em!

A well dressed dining room...

As you know, we have been busy remodeling and updating our house. We recently said goodbye to the last bit of wallpaper in our house which was in the dining room. With our renovation of that room, we removed the blinds that covered the 2 windows in the front corner of the dining room. Kyle refused to put them back up or any blinds for that matter.  I wanted blinds, but not the ones we had. I did not win this battle. It helped that we found curtains I actually liked. I take that back, LOVE. I really do not like curtains and I often see them as a hassle because they collect dust and you can never find curtains that go with the room like you want...or at least I struggle with this. Also, my allergist has said that I should not have curtains anywhere in my house. But I should also not have carpet, upholstered furniture and any other thing that dust mites can collect in. Getting rid of the carpet is one of the next big things on my "to do" list...right up there with an overhaul of the kitchen.

Anyway, back to the curtains...we were in Lowe's of all places and we walked down the curtain aisle and BOOM right out of no where, we saw these curtains that we both loved. And to top it off, they were an item that has recently had a "price drop" so we saved $10 per panel. We ended up buying 3 panels. One for each end and then one for the middle. In the pics below, the curtains are just hanging, but I plan to tie them up so accent our windows. The one bad thing about these windows is the fact that the evening sun comes in and makes the room SO HOT. Since we hung the curtains, our living and dining room has been SO MUCH cooler and our A/C has actually had to run less. How about that for an energy saver!

When you see the pics, please note that we are planning to lower the curtains so they actually touch the floor instead of looking like our windows are wearing high waters...We just used the brackets that were already there and we need to lower it a little.

All that is left to accomplish in this room is the lighting. I really like the shape and size of the fixture, however, it is a nice shiny gold. I think with a little brushed nickel spray paint and a few shades for the lights, the fixture will take on a whole new life!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Dining Room Remodel...

When we bought this house in 2008, we bought a house with 5 rooms of wallpaper. None of which looked good or decent. I am proud to say that as of about a week ago, we are wallpaper free. The wallpaper is still technically there, but thanks to two coats of Kilz, texture and two coats of regular paint, you would never know that wallpaper still lives on our walls.

The last wallpaper beautification project was our dining room. I have to say, it was the most tolerable of all the wallpaper patterns. It was stripes. Navy, tan and white stripes. Not bad, but it still could make me dizzy and sick to my stomach if I looked at it too long. Something that was interesting to us was the painters that painted the house before it was put up for sale painted over the wallpaper on the bottom part of the wall below the chair rail. Now I must ask...why did they paint/texture this small area and leave the rest of the hideous wallpaper up for all to see? Who knows. In the pictures of the house online, it just looked like a reddish color paint on the bottom part, but when we removed the outlet plates to paint we discovered it was the same maroon sponge paint looking paper that was in the entry. My next question....why would you put a maroon sponge paint looking paper with navy, tan and white stripes? To tie into the entry? So strange...

We struggled with our paint choices because I really wanted a colorful dining room. I have always loved yellow and I thought this would be a great place for yellow. I got a huge NO from Kyle. He does not like yellow and he believes it stems from the 70's yellow kitchen his mom had before the remodel. We have been wanting to paint all the walls in our house something other than the blah white they are now, so we decided a gray would be nice and neutral. So we chose a gray. And then we chose a chocolate brown for the area below the chair rail. In case you are thinking gray and brown is not necessarily the best combination, we chose a gray that had some "hints" of brown in it...you will see in the pictures.

Here is the dining room before:

(the before photos were taken a few months after we moved in...we still do not have a Christmas tree up...I have strict rules regarding the timing of putting up and taking down a Christmas tree!)

And after:

(Thanks Lauren for the beautiful picture...we finally have a home for it!)

Now we only need to work on the floors, kitchen counters, kitchen cabinets, bathroom floors, touch ups, and so on and so on....

Until next time...Gig'em!

Painting...

So as I mentioned in my earlier remodeling post, I have been working on eliminating the wallpaper in my house. Since that post, Kyle has applied the texture to the walls in both the hall bathroom and the entry. The Kilz went on in both rooms and the paint is on the walls in the entry.

We debated for days on the color of the entry. I wanted yellow and Kyle told me "no"...on several occasions...

So our first step was to decide what color we were going to paint the living room and other areas of the house. We wanted a fairly neutral color for most of the rooms and we plan to add color through art, pillows, bedding, etc. So we decided on a beautiful grey-ish color. And before you think, "that is so drab", it is more of a bright grey than a drab grey...

We took our grey paint chip to the local home improvement box store and searched through the colors for something we could agree on and that would look good with our grey color choice. Kyle suggested a beautiful orange...it is called "bitter orange" and I love it. I have always like orange, but I feel guilty in a way for putting orange in my house since I am an Aggie. However, please know that it is a tangerine type orange and is in no way a burnt orange or anything close.

Here are a few pictures of our painting endeavors...

The entry before: the wall paper was maroon and it looked like a sponge paint pattern.

The entry with the Kilz.

The finished entry...just needs the lighting to be updated now...

The hall bathroom before: Wallpaper...awful.

Bathroom with Kilz.

The bathroom will be painted a light chocolate milk colored brown...the same as the master bath. I found a new shower curtain with pink, orange, green, chocolate, aqua and white stripes. Once Taryne gets a little bigger and has preferences for certain things...the many colors in this shower curtain will allow me to "customize" the bathroom for her tastes.

Once we get the bathroom walls finished, we can start on the next project...not sure what it will be...so many to choose from...lay tile in the hall bathroom or texture and paint the dining room or paint the kitchen cabinets or start replacing the floors in the house or update the lighting and the list goes on and on and on...

Until next time...Gig'em!

Productive so far in the new year...

Ok, so a few months after we moved into this house we started on some home renovations...

Over Christmas break last year ('08-'09) we updated our bathroom by removing the wall paper, painting and texturing the walls, replacing the lights and toilet and removing the carpet (yes, there was carpet in the bathroom) and installing ceramic tile.

This past spring, we painted and textured the kitchen because the wall paper in that room was nauseating...and the renovations pretty much stopped there because I was pregnant and all focus shifted to getting Taryne's room ready.

So, I finally decided I am sick of looking at the wall paper in the entry and hall bathroom, so today I painted the Kilz on the walls in preparation for texture and paint. The dining room still needs Kilz, but I just didn't have the energy (or courage to stand on a really tall ladder) to mess with that today.

It is amazing to see how different the spaces look with just the Kilz even though you can see the pattern still a little in the bathroom. I will post a few "in progress" pics later...haven't had time to take those yet.

I decided that the hall bathroom needs to look a little more little girl-ish since this is now Taryne's bathroom. I haven't decided on a new scheme yet, but I want to do something that will grow with her, but won't be to crazy since it is still the guest bathroom. So...no pink princess or Sponge Bob Squarepants or anything like that...probably brighter colors on the shower curtain and accessories...

I have also been busy working on crafting and sewing projects...there is nothing like new beginnings to make you want to get a new routine and stick to it...

Speaking of new routines...we are very serious about changing our eating and exercise habits in the new year. I guess having another person to be responsible for makes you want to be as healthy as you can...luckily I started walking/running once I was cleared by the doctor after I had Taryne....changing the eating habits will be a bit trickier since I love soda and sweets...I have to admit, I do feel better after my walk/run...I just need to get it all run and no walk!

This next week is also a sad time...it marks the end of college football season...I love bowl season because I get to watch ALOT of football games, but I hate it because I believe we should have a play off system in FBS like EVERY OTHER division of football....but I have no control over that...boo! I am looking forward to the the TCU-Boise State game...should be interesting, but I think it is a bunch of crud that the BCS placed these 2 undefeated teams against one anther...I guess they were scared of another major upset like a few years ago when Boise State kicked the crud out of Oklahoma...

And of course, I am ready to watch Alabama BTHO tu in the National Championship game next week...Roll tide roll!!! Until next time...Gig'em!

The Kitchen Transformation...or at least the walls...

Originally posted June 8, 2009

This past weekend we actually finished the wall tranformation project in the kitchen. As I mentioned before the wallpaper in the room was absolutely hideous. Here is a picture of the breakfast area, however, you cannot tell what the print actually looks like.

Here is a close up of the wallpaper print:

(even as a photo, it is making me sick to my stomach!)

So, we didn't remove the wall paper, we just textured and painted over it. I previously consulted with a friend knowledgeable in this area and was informed that the paper was attached to the wall really well and we could just apply kilz to the paper and we would be good to go.

So last week I applied dry wall mud to all the wall paper seams and Friday night, Kyle sanded it smooth and I vacuumed up the dust.

Then we taped off the room and Kyle painted the first coat of kilz over the paper.

Then Kyle textured the walls. Once that was dry, he applied one more coat of Kilz so we have a prepared surface for the paint.

Saturday evening, we went to Lowe's to buy the paint for the kitchen. Unfortunately, the paint color I had chosen was from Home Depot, but I wanted a certain brand of paint from Lowe's becuase it was rated No VOCs. We got to the paint counter and we stood there for about 10 minutes before someone finally noticed we were there. Needless to say, my patience is almost gone at this time. I handed the girl the paint chip I wanted and specifically told her what brand and type of paint I wanted. We also told her we had some other shopping so we would be back to get the paint in about 10-15 minutes.

When we got back to the paint counter, I noticed this other brand of paint with my paint chip sitting next to it. I told the girl this is not the brand of paint I wanted. I wanted the other because of the No VOC and low odor becuase I was pregnant. She informed me that the computer was not able to give her a color mixture for the brand I wanted. So...I am standing there thinking "Why didn't she just wait for me to come back and ask me if another brand was ok?" So I told her that I only wanted this specific brand and that I would choose another color. I ended up picking the color I originally wanted: Guacamole. And thank goodness it was a color from the brand of paint I wanted. She seemed a bit annoyed at me, but I was seriously considering complaining to customer service because the service provided was horrible. Kyle suggested we go back in a few days and get the other color off the clearance rack and use it for something else. We might do that...

So on Sunday, I applied two coats of my guacamole green paint to the kitchen. When we get home tonight, we will finally be able to pull off the tape and paper and see the new walls next to the cabinets.

Here is the first coat.....

Here is the breakfast area after the second coat:...

I am also ready to get our refrigerator back to the original spot. I miss my ice maker and I do not want to live like Grandma Milady....(those of you who don't get that, she is known to have multiple refrigerators in the kitchen or in the middle of the kitchen/breakfast area).

I will say that it is truly amazing how much brighter our kitchen has become with the new paint color. And I think I actually like my cabinet color....but the countertops still have to go!

We still have tons to do in our kitchen, but that is for another weekend....until next time, Gig'em!