Resolution & Renovation Updates

Hello all!  I am writing to update about my resolutions and "debut" my kitchen pictures!  My kitchen is DONE!!

We'll start with the boring stuff first.  Feel free to scroll down if you only want to look at pictures.  Just keep in mind that I am cursing you in my head because looking at pictures and not the words IS CHEATING.  At least that's what I tell my students.  You are just cheating yourself out of becoming a better reader.  I assume y'all can read though!  So skip if you must.

Here's the resolution reminders...
1.  Run a half-marathon.---We've had some bizarre weather in Ohio.  I continue to run inside 3-7 miles at the Y depending on the day.  I was able to run 10.77 miles on a beautiful day on Saturday!  So I'm working it.  Not tellin' my time though...  
3.  Go one day a week with NO SWEETS.  I AM STRUGGLING HERE.  Today is my no sweets day and seriously all I want in the entire world is a cookie.  This will be week 3 and day 3 of it and I know it will benefit me later!  BUT STILL I WANT A DANG-GONE COOKIE.  
4.  Work on my abs and legs.  I have been doing the machines at the Y and my favorite pilates instructor added some inner thigh stuff at my request.  Also, each morning since January 1 I have spent about 5 minutes stretching, doing sit-ups, push-ups, and plank.  I look pretty cool doing it in m penguin PJs.  Be jealous.  
5.  Lose 5 pounds.  (Khloe)  We are walking more and I am trying to feed her less.  
6.  Pay off my Sears credit card.  I made a $50 payment this month and plan to make another next pay too.  I don't know I am going to make the May goal though.  :/

.....DRUM ROLL....KITCHEN UPDATE!!

Just a reminder as to what the kitchen looked like before.  Patriotic theme.  Red.  White.  Blue.  Go America.  Old Glory.  ICK.  

Before.

Progress.  My dad took all the cabinet doors off and labeled each one so he knew what was what.  

Taking Old Glory down.  But look, another border!  

You can see the soffet is painted and part of the cabinet base is painted.  

Notice, the cabinets are just builder's grade cabinets.  Totally flat on the front.  On Pintrest, I saw all these great ideas about adding molding to the front of the cabinet.  So after a lot of convincing, my dad agreed to do the labor!  Here were his steps.  

1.  Take cabinet off wall.
2.  Degloss cabinet with deglosser.  This eliminates the sanding step and helps the paint to really "stick."  
3.  Add molding with Elmer's wood glue.  Secure with clamps.  Let sit for at least 24 hours.  Fill in any gaps between wood with wood caulk.  
4.  Paint one side.  Dry Completely.  Do a second coat.  Then paint the other side with the same process.  We used Sherwin Williams ProClassic because all the blogs recommended that.  It supposedly can deal with the wear 'n tear cabinets naturally get.  
5.  Add door handles and pulls.  I purchased these from the Home Depot in the bargain bin.  The handles were $1.50 and the pulls were $1.99 each.  I think they were Martha Stewart brand.  

Dad's supplies.  

My dad added the molding.  They were $1.99 for 4 ft. of poplar board.

My dad likes to make sure things are secure!  He let them sit like this for 24 hours.  

FINISHED PRODUCT.....

Cabinets!
My mom made the Roman Shades with fabric from JoAnn's.  

Close up of the cabinets.  What do you think?
You can see the added flat molding on the door and the new pulls.
My dad added the mini-crown molding on the bottom too.  

Roman Shade by Mama!  What do you think of that light?
It came with the house.  It's not awful, but something might be better....

Close-up.  

I love the handles and pulls!

Other side of the kitchen!  You can see the aluminum sheet my dad added
to the left above the oven to prevent splashing.  

My favorite corner to stand and spill stuff at.  

The white tile was with the house.  You can barely see where we painted over the Old Glory
border.  One day I might add 2 rows of subway tile to really cover it up.  My dad hates tile work though,
so I'll need a new contractor!  :)  

My pull-out trash can.  Bargain find from dad.
Don't you love how I took out the trash for you?

Pull out kitchen-cleaning supplies under sink.
Dad installed!

My dad found this wooden drawer that didn't quite fit for $5.
He added  2X4s on the side to make it fit.  

Another drawer by dad!

So from this.....

To this....
I lived with the open-concept kitchen for a lot of weeks.
It was great.  I always knew I didn't have any food.  :)

FINAL PRODUCT!!
The walls/soffet are Sherwin Williams Gateway Gray.
The cabinets are SW Dovetail in ProClassic.  

What do you think?  I am totally in love with it.  Like I said I would love to add some accent tiling eventually and maybe a new light.  But that can wait for now.  I got really lucky with the counter tops matching being really neutral and matching perfectly.  I don't totally love the floor.  It seems cheap to me.  But for now, it works.  

Now, we are working on painting the trim and doors in the hallway.  And finishing up the living room totally.  It's 95% done.  My reupholster-er (i.e., Mom) is still working on a chair.  

I'll keep you updated, but I'd love to know what you think of my kitchen!

Purple Progress

Hey there.  I was sick today and couldn't go into work so I pretty much feel like a unproductive shlup.  (I guess shlup isn't a really word, who knew?  Oh well, I am keeping it.  It's my blog.)  I hate being sick and hate missing school.  I just knew I couldn't give my kids my best if my head and body were aching.  Still though, I worried all day and imagined what they were doing every hour.  And worse, I couldn't go running which means 0 miles in 2013 since this head cold started on New Years Eve.  I think I am getting to be a little obsessive about this running thing.

I thought my productive thing for today could be an update on that dreaded purple wall.  I had already taken pictures so I can type from my horizontal position on the couch.  Here we go!

Remember that horrible purple accent wall mistake?  Remember how I cried and sobbed over $30 of wasted paint?  Remember how my sweet dad tried to comfort me but to no avail?

Dad starting to paint the wall.  

He stopped at this point because I was SOBBING.

I don't think these pictures even do the purple justice.  Seriously it was like MAGENTA.  We have all heard of hot pink right?  This was like hot magenta!  But it really just looked like a hot mess.

So it was back to the drawing board.  I considered just painting everything grey to match the rest of the walls in the living room.  But that made me sad.  I love grey but I really wanted an accent wall/hallway that was bright and different.  Grey is not different.  Grey was the color of the rest of the room!  

I looked into like 400 different paint samples and a very nice lady at the local Ace Hardware tried to help me.  Eventually I settled on another purple that was actually the purple I originally wanted to go with.  I thought it would be too dark originally.  So I took the risk.  It's Expressive Plum from Sherwin Williams but its Behr Eggshell finish from Home Depot.  (You should know that when I got to the store, I STILL looked at colors for like 35 minutes just to make sure I was totally sure.  THEN I talked to the paint ladies for another 25 minutes about what I wanted to do.  THEN my dad talked to the paint ladies for another 5.  THEN they started to mix the paint.)  

Home Depot can match any color.  It's also a little cheaper than Sherwin Williams.  (Not that I don't love Sherwin Williams, but I had a gift card to Home Depot from my cousin Nina---thanks Nina! so that's what I used it for!)  So I brought in the Expressive Plum sample from Sherwin (my dad keeps calling them Shermin, so funny!).  

Here is Home Depot's first attempt.

The first time the Home Depot lady tried it, she and I were in agreement that it wasn't quite right.  At first she had just used the computer to match it.  On the second try, she scanned my color card from Shermin :) in her color match system.  This worked better.  

Second attempt.  You can see the difference already.
Less of that BRIGHT red.  

I wasn't totally sure it was right.  But then the paint lady stuck her finger in the paint and painted it on my paint sample.  She then dried it with a hair dryer and it looked exactly like it was supposed.  (Paint ladies are SUCH risk takers.  I never would have stuck my finger in a gallon of paint!)

So then my dad painted the purple on the wall.  (He doesn't let me paint....)  At first I wasn't too sure about it.  (I know again....)  But I googled purple paint and it said it deepens over a whole week.  It's been like a month now and I LOVE it.  It did deepen slightly.  Or maybe I just got used to it.  Whatever.  

Purple wall!!  And some artwork by me.  

Looking down the hall.  At first I was worried that the purple would be too dark.
But I took this picture at night, and I don't think it's too dark!  

Here's a sneak peek to what we are working on now.  My dad is still working on painting the rest of the living room grey.  Since he's been sick it's kind of on hold, which is okay since I just want him better.  He is also working on painting the trim and the doors white.  They are all a medium wood tone right now and very '60s-ish.  

I'll give you a glance at the before so you can remember what the living room looked like......

Before.  It was a tan color.

In progress.....but looking good!  (Note, this is not the same wall but it is the same room.)

The white trim makes a huge difference.  I can't wait until the rest of the house has it too!  But I think I'll be waiting a while!  

One more picture....because I am just a little obsessed.  

The red buffet stand was an auction find ($45), as are most of the accessories.
The stained glass window was from my parents' basement.  They bought it years ago and never used it.

The kitchen is almost finished too!  But I'll make you wait on those pics!  

Goodnight!  It's 8:46 and I am off to bed!

Revamp the Lamps

Okay, I am not that clever of a person, but HELLO was that not a clever title?!  I thought of it while running my 9.86 miles the other day.  (Oh yeah, I increased my mileage again!!!!!!!)

Anyway....upon moving into my house I immediately realized how DARK it was without lights!  It didn't matter how cute my sofa was if no one could see it.  So I started looking at table lamps and floor lamps at stores.  IMMEDIATELY I realized how EXPENSIVE lights were.  For goodness sake, did you know a base to a lamp can be like $30?  Then the shade is like $20!  And if we are talking  a floor lamp plan on like $60.  Not cool.  Didn't God say, "Let there be light"?  So why does lighting have to be so expensive?!  And of course I have expensive taste and couldn't even bare to look at the ugly cheap ones.  Forget it.

So for a few weeks I sat in the dark (with no TV) and pretended to be Amish.  That got old fast.  Then my mom came up with the idea of secondhand stores.  GENIUS MAMA!  It takes a bit of creativity and paint but you CAN find a lamp with a shade for under $25.  And it can be cute!

Before:  Look at this "beautiful" lamp!  It had a shiny wood finish to it.
Goodwill $3



I used this sanding deglosser which is like my favorite thing.
It gets the shiny finish off of anything without sanding.  Just rub it on with a towel.
You can see the change in the color of wood as I deglossed.

After!!  I spray painted the base with Rustoleum Hammered Spray Paint
in a steely gray color (Conveniently found in my parents' garage).
The shade was in the bargain room at IKEA for $3.
New lamp for around $7.



Before:  This metal lamp had a reddish brown color with black
specks on it.  Purchased for $8 at a local secondhand store.



After:  I used the same color spray paint for the base.
Had to do a couple layers on this one because I had to hold it
upside for the very bottom.  The shade was 50% off at Shopko for $10.
Total:  $18 lamp

I am really liking my new lamps!  I honestly like them better than anything I found in stores for mega bucks!  I like getting what I want for cheap!  So go to Goodwill or another secondhand store and use your creativity.  A bottle of spray paint can be your best friend!  

I also bought a floor lamp base for $10 at Goodwill and a shade for $20 at Shopko (again, 50% off).  It's not my total favorite base but for $10 I can't beat it.  I am debating on spray painting it because right now it is a tan and so is the lampshade.  What do you think?  I can't decide.  Don't worry, I don't think it is actually going to go in that place either.  Opinions are welcome!!  

Only 7 days until Christmas break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This teacher is excited!  

Weekend 2

This was the second weekend we were in the house!  Dad has been working away at the house all week.  Isn't he great?!  I will upload more pictures soon, but it's not letting me again.  I am wondering if it's slow on Sunday nights because everyone else wants to upload pictures too.  Anyway....I'll let you know the progress!

Team members:  Dad, me, and Uncle Bill
*Uncle Bill is JUST wonderful!  Not only does he bring tasty treats, but he is super helpful and great!!  We got so much done because of him.

Projects completed this weekend :
-Colorful, children's fan taken down in the exercise room and sold!
-Brown fan above dining area taken down and moved to guest bedroom
-White fan from guest bedroom taken down and moved to exercise room
-Gold light fixtures taken down from hallway and bedroom and replaced with new silver/glass dome fixtures
-Chandelier hung over dining area

Dad & Uncle Bill hanging the dining light.  Dad was practicing sitting up and standing from the table as Uncle Bill held and adjusted the light.  It was rather comedic. 

-Almost all the trim is painted white in the bedroom.  The windows (yes they painted the windows the mauve color too!) might have to wait until warmer weather, because my dad doesn't want to paint them shut.
-Baseboard/kickboard in kitchen painted black
-Walls in kitchen are painted
-Cabinet "base" is painted (Not the doors though, does that make sense?  Doors are in process.  I am taking pictures of each step and am going to post all of those at once.)
-Refrigerator handle switched from the left hand side to the right hand side.  (DID YOU KNOW THAT CAN HAPPEN!?  It's just a freezer on top and fridge on the bottom kind and you can switch the handle and hinges so that it opens the other way.  Definitely an option for those that don't like the way your fridge opens!  Now people won't be able to see inside my fridge from the dining area/living room.  Which is good, I don't want people to steal my food!)
-New locks installed on front door and back door from garage to kitchen.  Still have one more to do on the very back garage door, but that entire door needs replaced.

Uncle Bill installing some new locks! 

-I did LOTS of moving.  I moved 3 entire carloads of my things.  I have occupied my bedroom here at my parent's house for the last 19 years.  And apparently I am a pack rat.  I cannot believe the amount of things I stuffed into that room.  And no I can't part with it all.  I think I threw away a few things, but for the most part this is stuff I want.  If anyone wants to go through my scrapbooks with me dating to the 5th grade, let me know.  You can come on over and I'll provide the wine!  My clothes are still at my parent's house as am I. The kitchen has been unpacked a little bit.  You can see the progress since the cabinet doors aren't on!  :)

My baking supplies!  Mom was thrilled that it cleared an entire shelf out of her cabinet!

My "open-concept" kitchen...

-Added sheet of thin sheet of stainless-steel beside stove where there was originally wood.  The wood would have made it hard to clean.  My dad just cut it according to size and nailed this on!  (Picture below)

Before

After!

I met the neighbors!  Well one of the neighbors, I already knew because I graduated with their son!  I re-introduced myself when he came into my yard with his lawnmower and leaf collector.  Yep, that's right my neighbor took care of all of my leaves in the front yard!  THEN, he got on the roof and cleaned out the gutters!  I didn't ask him to; he just did it!  How lucky am I?  I owe someone some cookies!  I also met the other neighbors who welcomed me into their home and whom I had a nice chat with.

We did have a slight hiccup.  Everything went so well with the lighting and the lock switching, but then we decided to paint.  I had this great idea to paint one of the walls and the adjoining hallway a nice plum color...purple.  The rest of the living room would be a nice slate grey.  I imagined it to be quite lovely.  WELL, sometimes things don't look the way we imagined them to be.  I picked a color that was dark purple but not too dark because I didn't want the hallway to look too dark.  The color was WAY TOO vibrant and bright.  It looked like a color in a sorority house bedroom (I know, I lived in one that was hot pink!).  We went to Sherwin Williams to see if they could make it more neutral and they couldn't.  Of course this makes me forget all of the GOOD things that happened this weekend and I am in tears.  I know it's only $27 of wasted paint, but still TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS OF WASTED PAINT.  You know how they say don't cry over spilled milk?  Well I was crying over wasted paint.  My dad was trying to comfort me and offer solutions but I was just too upset to hear any of it.  I really don't like it when things don't turn out how I envision/imagine/dream of.  It's happened before and I am sure it will happen again but it is just a little crushing.

Dad painting the purple accent wall.  As soon as the paint went on he said, "Now THAT'S a color."  He continued for about 3 more minutes before I decided that this purple was no good. 

I know, Marjory, get over it.  Find a new color.  Paint it the same as the rest of the walls.  Just move on.  Get over it.  But.  I.  Can't.  I still want a plum/eggplant wall/hallway.  But I am still worried about it being too dark in the hallway.  I am thinking of going and getting those tiny little paint samples of plum and just painting in a few different places in the hallway to see how it looks.  Anyone else have any ideas or color thoughts?  How big of a deal is it if the hallway is dark?   

So right now we are at a standstill.  My least favorite thing. 

"Learning" how to paint

So apparently I have gone 25 years without properly learning to paint a wall.  Who knew?  So far my dad has been doing all of the painting and hasn't let me do anything!  (Whose house is this?)  Anyway, I've been assigned cleaning/organizing/prep work but today I ACTUALLY GOT TO PAINT.  Now I will tell you that the section I painted was behind the fridge and will never been seen by ANYONE, but still I painted!!!  Today [we were working on painting the kitchen walls.  (No the cabinets are not done, but the project manager {i.e., Dad] said we were painting the walls.  I just follow directions. 

Here were the tips I learned: 
-Push hard against the wall with the roller
-Move in the same direction (vertical or horizontal) for one coat and then switch to the other direction for the second coat
-If you get paint on the trim (who me?) it can be wiped off with paper towel if you are quick
-Look for drips and correct them ASAP
-Get a good amount of paint on the roller; don't be stingy
-Don't talk while you paint; it ruins your focus......  


Got in my run today AND I got a free pizza lunch because apparently it's some week honoring teachers!  Go teachers!