Dining Room/Kitchen

Dining Room 

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

It's hard to tell, but before the walls were yellow and the floors were yellow-ish with blue diamonds.  Now the walls are green and the floors are neutral-toned.

 



BEFORE

 

 AFTER

 Kept the ceiling fan but did get new blinds (the old blinds were rusty and corroded - rain was leaking in the sliding glass doorframe).

BEFORE

I'm not really sure what kind of cabinets we previously had, but they weren't pretty.  There was an intercom in the backsplash area, yellow countertops, very shallow yellow sink, yellow walls, and the microwave was too low (safety hazard being so close to the stovetop) and wasn't even centered above the stove.  We kept the appliances because they weren't old and were in good shape.  To the right of the stove used to be a built-in stove but at some point it was removed and the previous owners put in their own cabinet so it didn't even match.  There was a big awkward gap between the stove and the cabinetry.

AFTER

Walls are now the same green as the dining room, cabinets are rouge colored birch (so they look cherry without the cherry price), granite almond-colored deep sink, stainless steel faucet, cream subway tile backsplash, and faux granite countertops (formica - couldn't afford the real thing but it looks granite).  Removed the floor to ceiling makeshift cabinets and put additional countertop to the right of the stove giving me much needed additional space for cooking.  New trim around the window stained to match the cabinets.

BEFORE





The fridge had one pantry cabinet on the left, nothing on the right, and the cabinets above the refrigerator were not accessible.

AFTER

 

We now have utility cabinets encasing the refrigerator and the soffit was built out so we can access the cabinets above the fridge now. 

 

 BEFORE

Gotta love the brass double light fixtures and the scalloped overhang above the sink.  The counter/bar top was a bit too long and created a tight space when opening the fridge.

 

 

AFTER

 Not sure why the cabinets look black here, but they're not!  Eddie replaced the lighting with brushed nickel.  The counter/bar top was shortened just enough to comfortably get in and out of the fridge.

Basically we kept the same layout with a few minor changes because I liked it the way it was - I have always wanted a window above the sink and a bar area for additional seating.  But the cabinets are all more functional now than they used to be and I have enough space now that I could finally unload all my boxes!  We put some of the old cabinets in the garage so Eddie can have a place to store his stuff and the old pantry cabinet went downstairs in the laundry room for additional storage.  I plan to paint it white someday.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.

 

 

Living Room

It feels so good to look around the living room and not see a single box!  This room has been done solely in neutral earth tones and could probably use a splash of color, but the budget says this is it for now.  So here are several angles of before and after shots of our main living space.

BEFORE

This is the view of the living room when you walk in the front door.  Notice there is no overhead lighting and the big lovely intercom box above the TV.

 



AFTER

 My friend's husband is an electrician and put in the ceiling fan for us. What a blessing! 

 

BEFORE

I like the big picture window but wasn't a fan of the heavy blue curtains.  We still have them - does anyone have a need for blue curtains?

AFTER

 

BEFORE

 We didn't have enough furniture to fill the space!

 

AFTER

Our old house had built-in shelves so here we were in desperate need for somewhere to display our knick-knacks and pictures but also to store movies and books.  These cabinets did the trick.

 

BEFORE

 Notice the other intercom box - why was there TWO of these in this room?!

AFTER



 We did paint the space, but kept it neutral and just in a darker shade than what was previously there.

 

 

 



Playroom

Adalynn and Wesley were thrilled to finally have the playroom done so they could play downstairs.  The other perk was that it gave us some place to go while the guys were in and out of the house working on the kitchen without having to waste gas.  The downside is that it's freezing cold downstairs ...... so if you are coming over for a play-date, be sure to bring a sweatshirt and socks!

 

BEFORE

The basement is divided into two huge rooms.  This room had concrete floors that were partially covered by blue floral carpet duct-taped to half of the room.  The lighting was bad with just two random light bulbs hanging from the ceiling - one from a rectangular cut-out and the other from a circular cut-out.  Quite odd.

 

AFTER

 

We carpeted the full room to add warmth but went with apartment-grade carpet.  We figured we didn't want to spend a lot on carpet when (1) we weren't sure if we would get water and (2) the kids are just going to destroy it over the next few years with spilled drinks, trampled play-doh, and marker stains.  Eddie fixed the overhead lighting by getting rid of the hodgepodge light bulbs and replacing them with the long skinny kind (you can tell I know nothing about electrical).  And he also added an outlet to the room so we could have a floor light plugged in.  We did not drywall this room - that will be a project for much later on down the road.  We figured it was fine to leave the walls as is for now and perhaps we'll drywall when we get the carpet replaced.

 



BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

See that weird random strip of white on the wall in the far left of the pic?  We have two of those plastic strips as a result of getting a few cracks in the foundation repaired.  If and when we ever drywall, that will get covered up.  But in the meantime, it seemed like a good place to hang Adalynn's artwork.

 BEFORE

Here's the view of the same room facing the stairs.  There is this huge storage area underneath the stairwell, but it's an eyesore and we wanted the kids to stay out of the area.  Yet with the way it's shaped, we were at a loss as to how to hide the storage yet still get to it when we need to.

 

AFTER

I can credit my sister-in-law, Jenny, for her fabulous idea to hide the storage under the stairwell.  We got a king-sized sheet, put it in the backyard, gave Adalynn paint and told her to have at it.  I wanted Wesley to contribute as well, but he wasn't interested so I only got his handprints on the sheet.  I added some child-focused words like "explore", "fun", etc. and our one-of-a-kind masterpiece was complete.  It didn't turn out quite the way I hoped; the sheet is quite long and droops on the floor so some of Adalynn's paintings can't be seen.  But it still serves it's purpose.

So come on over and play!

 

 

 

A Work in Progress

So the kitchen is by far the biggest project we are undertaking in this house for the time being.  To say it's been stressful is an understatement.  We were told it would be a four week assignment.... come Monday we're looking at nine weeks and it's still not done.  The good news is that it did take four weeks for the kitchen to be functional - since then we've just been waiting for the back-splash and other small details to get addressed.  Here's a peek at our living arrangements during the kitchen remodel....

 The kitchen with nothing in it before they ripped out the old flooring.......

 

 Another view of the bare kitchen, this time looking out into the dining room.  The floor guy made some lame comment (in all seriousness) that they were impressed with how big and open our kitchen was.  I said "yeah cause there is nothing in it!"  The guy responded with, "oh I guess that's why".  Duh.

 

 Helper #1:  Adalynn liked to help paint.  Eddie would put an outline of a shape on the wall, and she would paint it in for us.  Here she is painting the dining room.

 

 Helper #2:  Wesley inspecting one of the new cabinets after installation.  He crawled right in.

Everyone wants a great room (living room, dining room, and kitchen together as one huge room).  Well, I had a great room for a while and I have to say it's not so great!  Check it out......

Anyone driving or walking by could see the refrigerator in our living room.  Our neighbors must think we're nutty.  Eddie likes to respond by saying this is a new trend we're starting -- why walk into the other room when you're thirsty and want a drink now?!