Hope you all enjoyed the holidays (or still are) with your favorite people!
My little sister is in town (the one who moved into our Florida guest room this past July) so our family is cherishing every moment together before she heads back to the east coast on Sunday…
Amidst all the holiday hustle, my dad and I found some time to address an important issue—our plain jane trimless windows. I’ll get to all of them eventually, but for now I wanted to focus on the rooms on my priority list—the kitchen and my studio:
This was high on my list because it makes such a huge impact for relatively low effort and cost. And now’s the time to do it before the wood planks and backsplash go in.
If you can remember back in March, I tried this for the first time with our new master bedroom redo, and absolutely loved the results:
I kept the existing stool and apron (the two bottom pieces) and just added two vertical pieces and one horizontal to the top. Since it was ridiculously easy, I thought I’d step it up this time and make my own stool and apron and knock out four windows in one day.
I enlisted my dad’s help (he’s a former furniture maker) and we agreed it would be a fun daddy-daughter project (the first of many, yay for being back home!).
The hardest part about this process was planning. All four windows were different dimensions and had different needs. We spent almost two hours at Lowe’s trying to figure out exactly what to get and ensuring we wouldn’t have to make a second trip.
For the design, I decided to keep it clean and simple. Straight cuts, no miters, no crown or fancy bevels. All of the door and window trim on the outside of our house is the same basis Craftsman style I used in our old bedroom:
So I thought consistency would be nice to tie everything together.
I chose cost-effective whitewood boards in various lengths and widths for each window, in 3/4″ thickness. The total came to somewhere in the ballpark of $120 just for the wood—a bargain for the impact.
After gathering our wood, we got to work.
Step 1: removing the old window sills. Only two windows had them.
Next it was time to measure for our new sills. Each end needed to form an L shape on the ends so it would extend past the window.
Once the lines were drawn, we used a jigsaw to cut it out. It doesn’t matter if the line isn’t perfect since it will be covered with caulk and painted.
Ta-da…
After cutting, I realized that I should have doubled the thickness of the little piece that sticks out past the window…
Because I forgot about the wood going above and below it—I wanted it to stick out 1″ past the other wood, not the window. Oops.
My dad suggested sliding it forward and cutting a small piece of wood to attach to it. Luckily he had a table saw to do just that.
We dabbed on some wood glue, sho
t a few nails through, and it was all fixed.
There was another obstacle—our wood wasn’t deep enough. The largest planks they had at Lowe’s were around 11.5″ wide, but our sill was 13″.
My dad fixed that by stripping down a piece of wood to the size of the gap and attaching it to the back.
To make it extra secure, he drilled pilot holes into the strip first…
Then screwed the two pieces together.
To make sure everything was seamless, he smoothed it down with a belt sander:
Perfect!
Onto installation. We installed the sills first, using plenty of liquid nails to level everything out (none of our existing sills were very straight).
This part goes really fast. Gotta love pneumatic nail guns.
After the sill came the side pieces (the order really doesn’t matter).
Notice my new sconce light boxes? That’s for another post…
Then the bottom piece goes in…
And finally, the top.
One down, three to go!< /div>
Next up is the garden window in the kitchen…
Same exact method. Sill, sides, bottom, top.
It’s really as easy as it looks.
The window over the future sink…
And finally, the dining area window. The bottom piece was a little bowed (common with this wood) so we clamped it down before nailing it to the wall.
All done!
The next day, I came back to fill all of the nail holes and deal with one more problem—the textured walls.
Some areas were worse than others, but I wanted a nice smooth look so it’s not obvious that the insides of the window are drywall and not wood.
Doug the handyman was there and let me borrow his drywall mud and go crazy. I figured I’d put a coat or two up and make the seams less obvious (most people would use caulk, but I wanted to skim coat the drywall to hide the texture so I killed two birds with one stone).
The kitchen drywall texture was the worst. The wall was also nowhere near straight, so I had to put a few coats on this one to try and even it all out.
This step is not necessary (especially if you have smoother walls) but I’m really trying to pay attention to detail with this house. I don’t want to have to go back and red
o anything later on.
I also added a few light coats over some of the more visible knots. Not sure how drywall mud will work out but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
And that’s where we’re at now! I plan to sand and caulk everything on Sunday so it’s ready for paint. I’m choosing my paint color carefully this time—after we make an Ikea trip (hopefully next weekend) and get our pantry and bench seating, I want to color match the whites so the room looks cohesive.
In other news, I’ve been keeping my eye out for home decor and seriously scored last week. Check out what I got for $24!
My treasures include two vintage glass window panes and small doors, an antique sled and paddle, pretty white dishes, antlers, two quilts, wood trays, a stool, 4 suitcases, a dremel kit, kitchen jars and canisters, and a large collection of glass insulators and more. Most of it was actually free from an abandoned garage my parents inherited from their tenants, and the rest was picked up at a local flea market. I can’t wait to start decorating!
But first we must get through the next few weeks of hard work. Brad has been at the house every day working on the home theater room and is anxious to share his progress, so that will be coming in the next post!
Our contractor and electrician have been working all day every day this past week on the house, and I’m happy to report that their job duties are nearing the home stretch.
Here’s how the kitchen looks as of an hour ago:
Yes, our house is a full on construction zone. It’s not just the kitchen, either. The hardwood guys came yesterday to rip out all of the old carpet/parkay in preparation of the wood installation.
Everywhere except downstairs is currently rocking the subfloor.
They actually have to redo the top steps because there is some wonkiness and wobbliness of the railing. A while back they did the same thing to the lower flight:
So while we’re on the topic of flooring and stairs, this is the floor we bought:
It’s Armstrong Shell White Walnut engineered hardwood, and I lo-o-ove them. I was looking for a lighter whitewashed warm gray wood this time around (after two houses with super dark floors) and these fit the bill.
Here’s a shot I instagrammed after we had received the wood (ignore the purple cast):
And you’ll never guess how much we paid. MSRP is $6.99 (most retailers stayed in this range) but after a ton of googling, I was able to find it for $1.99 here. It was part of their Timberland Collection which is a value grade, so the pieces are selected due to “natural character markings in the wood, which may include knots, mineral streaks, and natural grain variation.” Since this wood is meant to look a little more rustic, I was down with that.
When we checked the website again before Thanksgiving, we saw that the price had been marked down to $1.89 shipped during a Black Friday sale! They told us that once the wood was gone it was gone forever and they probably wouldn’t get anymore in stock, we jumped on that right away (this was before the house even closed—that’s how bad I wanted that wood).
The total cost for the entire upstairs (almost 1600 sf) came to $2,952 shipped. Total bargain.
But just when we thought we hit the jackpot… our installer told us we needed to buy stair nose to finish off the edges of our steps:
Holy crap—have you guys ever shopped for pre-finished stair nose?! It’s a 2″ wide by 6.5′ piece of wood. And it was SEVENTY DOLLARS FOR ONE PIECE (that’s $70, not $7) And I needed 13.
I tried every solution possible in my head and but none of them seemed to work. I consulted with our installer who said they were pretty much necessary to do the job right.
After procrastinating for a couple weeks, I finally, reluctantly made the purchase today.
I was able to find them slightly cheaper on efloors.com, but seeing that number at checkout still made me nauseous:
So these 2″ strips of wood cost almost 1/3 of what the whole house cost. Absurd.
Anyway, those should be here in two weeks at which point the installers can begin laying down the wood. They won’t be able to start on the kitchen until the cabinets are in (4-5 more weeks) so they’ll install everything except the kitchen for now.
And back to the kitchen progress. Here’s how we left off last week:
Doug had just started taking down the drywall so they could work on the plumbing and electrical.
Here’s the new wiring and piping in progress:
He also framed in a 14″ wall where the new built in pantry will sit:
And filled in the cutout to the living room as well:
While the ceiling was cut open, we thought it’d be the perfect time to start on the recessed lights. Brad and I spent a few hours Sunday planning and wiring. There’s 13 ceiling lights total which we split into three circuits. Excuse the rough sketch. I used what I had on hand.
Circles: Light locations Dashed lines: Wood beams
In the top left (above the sink/main cabinet work area) there will be four lights on one switch. In the top right in the dining room there will be another four lights on one. And for the bottom row, that actually changed a bit after we realized that the switch over the bar area was connected to what will become pendant lights over our dining table, so the light over the bar is now connected to the four linear lights at the bottom. We had to split the lights up because more than four could be too much for one circuit to handle. Make sense?
Brad picked up a chalk line at Lowe’s which we used to mark all of the studs (which will come in handy later on when we’re installing our wood planks and beams!) But it was also necessary so we knew where to drill the holes for the ceiling lights.
Here’s a shot of it after they patched up the drywall:
And a shot of the drywall going in:
Our new pantry wall!
The mud is still drying so they will begin sanding tomorrow.
Okay, now for the fun part… we bought our cabinets!
Here was the sketch we started with at Lowe’s:
There have been a few changes but the overall layout is still the same—an L wall with gray cabinets and a island with white cabinets.
Here’s a real shot of the gray cabinets, in a very similar style to ours (from Kraftmaid’s website):
The style is called Durham Maple Square and the color is Greyloft. I originally chose a lighter gray, but after holding it up next to our backsplash (90% sure we’re going with this one), I felt it needed more contrast and the darker gray won out:
Ignore the cabinet styles, we’re just using those colors. I brought in a sample of our floor to make sure everything meshed well together. The counter swatches are not final at all, we just pulled them out for ideas. But I think we will go with a white counter on the gray cabinets and a dark gray counter on the white island (probably quartz). I realize this is a whole lotta white and gray, but once all of the wood pieces and accessories are brought in I think it will be really nice.
And now for the price breakdown. We knew Kraftmaid was running a promo for $1000 off if you upgraded to all plywood cabinets, so we took advantage of it. The day before ordering in we also found out that for just that weekend they were offering a 10% gift card. AND they were offering $1200 off if you spent 10k or more.
And we’ll be getting a $912 Lowe’s gift card in the mail so essentially we got $11,322 worth of cabinets for $8,210.
Because we are using their installers, we also don’t have to pay any sales tax on the cabinets or installation. All in all I think we got a good deal and we feel confident about our decision—especially because we can just let the pros do the work and not have to worry about it (we really have enough on our plates!)
I have a couple more things I was going to cover in this post (like a major update downstairs) but it’s getting late and I have to meet the electrician at 8am to talk wall sconces in the new studio and living room (yay!). This weekend I plan to frame out the windows in the kitchen and studio, so there should be a lot to share next time.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break! I’ll be here next week with an update 🙂
I posted a teaser pic last week showing the state of our kitchen after a couple days of demo…
So let’s rewind to see where it all started.
Demo Day 1:
Here’s how it looked when we walked in…
Can’t forget the dining room bar…
We immediately got to work removing the cabinets.
A couple hours later and there goes the last piece…
Ta-da!
Brad pretty much did all the ripping out while I carried the pieces to the trailer outside. It went by so fast and flawlessly—it seriously took like 90 minutes. I was prepared to spend hours.
The next day we came back for the real work—removing the walls.
That day was definitely harder.
But little by little, we chipped away and were able to see the light on the other side…
Here’s the inside of the old pantry.
At first we thought that huge piece of wood was a beam and were quite nervous, but it turned out to just be a header (whew).
We didn’t completely dodge the bullet though—we discovered that the wall was bearing the weight of some of the trusses (after three professionals told us they were pretty certain the wall was not load bearing). We thought we were about to spend thousands on permits and adding beams and left the house super bummed that day.
But luckily, we called a contractor over who said everything could just be reinforced with a few new pieces of wood and some brackets.
So instead of a couple thousand, we were out only a couple hundred. That I can live with.
After our second day of demo, we got really busy with work and life in general and didn’t get a chance to make it back to the house to finish knocking the wall down. Oh, and also, a random snowstorm came through Friday night…
In the three years I lived here as a teenager it didn’t snow once, so this was pretty fun (except for losing power and not having firewood).
Since we were snowed in, we took a walk to the new place to check out the view. So pretty.
For a few days the roads were too icy for our 2wd cars to make it up the steep hill to the house, so we decided to it’d be worth it hire our contractor (Doug) to finish the job for us (this was Monday, two days ago).
It was a good call on our part—Monday evening we came back to the house and the demo was complete:
Doug came back yesterday and worked on the plumbing and electrical. He had to remove some drywall for access, so here’s how it looks as of last night:
Oh yeah, I told him to remove the bar. Brad’s not too happy about it but it gave us so much extra room. He’ll understand when it’s all said and done.
I also stopped by Lowe’s to get some final measurements for our cabinets. I laid it all out last night, here’s a visual:
It looks small but it’s a pretty decent sized area. The island alone is 111″ long which will provide plenty of storage and prep space.
The back wall will form an L shape, with the fridge next to the door, the sink under the window, and dishwasher next to it. There will only be upper cabinets on the wall by the fridge (we’ll have open shelving to the right of the window).
Here’s another perspective, from where the new pantry will be:
And here’s the location of the new pantry:
It’s going to be a 14″ deep Pax wardrobe from Ikea that will fill the whole space, floor to ceiling. Doug is framing out the wall on the left so it’s built in (and patching the hole to the living room).
Another angle:
And another, from the dining room:
Is it all starting to make sense yet?
We’re removing all of the existing light fixtures and adding recessed lighting throughout, along with two pendant lights over the dining table. There will be three circuits—one for the kitchen, one for the dining, and one for the dining pendant lights.
Doug and the electrician are currently working on it as I type, so I’m excited to get back there tonight and see what they’ve done.
We still have so much left. Here’s our current to-do list, in no particular order (which is probably missing a few things):
-Buy new appliances -Remove cabinets and appliances -Knock down wall and pantry -Run electricity to island -Re-route old light switches/fix open wiring -Plan out recessed lighting locations -Order recessed lighting & parts -Buy wood planks for ceiling -Buy wood for faux ceiling beams -Buy pendant lighting -Patch walls/ceiling -Add 14″ wall for pantry -Seal the old hood vent -Cap and re-run ice maker line -Remove old floors -Order cabinets, counters, and sink -Buy pantry cabinet and bench seating -Figure out/buy/make cushions for bench seating -Decide on & order window treatments -Decide on & order backsplash -Figure out open shelving -Install new hardwood floors -Buy new dining chairs -Build dining table -Buy buffet/dresser for old bar area -Build giant chalkboard for bar area -Frame/hang art -Paint and accessorize
A few more of those should be crossed off after we stop by tonight—I’m just so glad we decided to hire outside help for this one. It’s the busiest time of year for me so this would take us months if we tried to tackle it on our own.
We’re ordering the cabinets on Saturday which takes 4-5 weeks to deliver, so if I had to estimate, I’d guess another 6-7 weeks until the big stuff is in place, and probably a couple more weeks to add all the finishing touches. And simultaneously we’ll be getting my new studio ready (so much to do there), getting our new floors installed, working on fixing our AC/heating system (yep, it’s broken) and trying to move in all at once. Craziness!
Happy December! Can you believe there’s only three weeks until Christmas? The days have just been flying by here with so much going on with work and our new house. I posted this on instagram Thanksgiving day, when we finally got the keys…
It was a happy day for sure.
We didn’t waste any time getting started—the next day we headed to Lowe’s and bought all of our appliances, including this french door fridge that Brad’s always wanted:
And yesterday we began demo on the kitchen. I’ll come back soon with all the details on that adventure, but here’s how it looks now:
We’re making progress!
Before we get too much further, I want to take a step back to look at the big picture, and give you all an idea of my vision for this house (and why).
I learned a lot in the three years we spent remodeling our last home, and my style has definitely changed. There are certainly some things I plan on doing differently and reasons behind them.
Let’s break it down, shall we?
1. Style
When I said goodbye to life on the Florida coast, I also left behind the desire to live in a beach cottage style home. Now living in the mountains, I’m craving a cozy cabin environment with more architectural elements and rustic touches.
My overall design principles remain intact, but the vibe has shifted. I’ll be phasing out the turquoise and replacing it with more natural and rich tones—grays, whites, navy blue, brown, all shades of wood tones, maybe even some deep reds!
Here are some of my top inspiration pics to give you a sense of where I envision this home…
I could go on forever… (see my home inspiration board on Pinterest for more) but you get where I’m headed, right? The key word for this house is cozy. Especially with the holidays and winter right around the corner, I’m obsessing over cozy. And it never goes out of style.
Prepare yourself for lots of wood, stone, cozy rugs, and planked walls. Lots of it. This house has textured walls which I have a strong natural aversion to for some reason, so I’ll be covering as much of it as humanly possible with wood planks.
Turquoise decor, your days are numbered.
2. Take more risks
I’ll admit, I played it pretty safe in the last house. Everything was neutral for the most part, and the colors were soft and calming. White is still my favorite color to decorate with and there will be plenty of it, but it’s time for some contrast. It’s time to mix things up a bit and have some fun.
Edie’s blog, Life in Grace, is really what moved me to commit to this. She experiments with color and scale and styles in a way I never imagined, and it looks so fun yet put together. Even BHG thought so:
This is going to take some effort on my part because I’m not used to stepping out of my neutrals only comfort zone, but I’m really going to challenge myself this time and try to make things special and less predictable. Which brings me to my next point…
3. Be less generic
I can’t deny my love for all things Ikea and Target, and there will definitely be a major Ikea influence in this house—but those pieces will be basics like wardrobes and cabinets where price and function are most important.
Sadly (or luckily?) there is no Target, or even stores like Hobby Lobby and Home Goods anywhere near here so I’ll be forced to shop at thrift/antique stores, Craigslist, and DIY my own solutions.
This also means there will be less impulse buys—I’ll be pickier about what I choose and they will have more value to me in the end. I’ll still have my basic staples but I definitely want to incorporate some one of a kind, stand out items in every room. I believe your home should be filled with meaningful pieces and memories that are unique to you and your family. I hope for my home to reflect that.
4. Spend less (frivolously)
This ties into my last point about limiting mass market purchases. There have been so many times where I’ve searched high and low for the “perfect” item—only to settle for something that was just good enough. And inevitably, down the road I no longer liked or wanted it.
Or I’ve absolutely needed something to finish a project ASAP and just bought the next best thing instead of really planning it out and coming up with a better solution. These impulse buys don’t often pay off.
This time around, I hope to be smarter with my purchases and really evaluate whether it’s something I need, or can DIY myself, or find an alternative for. I’ll spend more time planning and consider what will work best in the future.
Now that I’m living near my dad (who is a former furniture maker and has all the tools/resources I need) and have help from family, we’re going to step up our DIY game a bit and try things we were too afraid to do on our own before.
5. Spend more (on what matters)
For the most part, Brad and I were really frugal (ahem, cheap) when it came to renovating our last home. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—we saved a ton of money and really transformed the house with a limited budget.
We also paid the price with some back-breaking labor, stress, and arguments that lead to some not-so-happy feelings.
By purchasing a much cheaper house than we originally planned, we’re able to increase our renovation budget and hire out where it makes sense. Just because we can DIY something, doesn’t always mean we should. If our time and efforts can be better spent somewhere else, or if it’s going to save us from a lot of stress and headaches—by all means, we’re glad to pay more.
In the end—it’s your marriage, your health, and your happiness that needs to come first.
I’m also making an effort to spend more on quality pieces and things that will make our life simpler. This is why were hiring Lowe’s to install our kitchen, and splurging for better appliances, and replacing the handles with real oil rubbed bronze instead of spray painting them, and so on…
We had fun with the challenge of spending as little as possible and getting our biggest bang for the buck in Florida, but I’m ready to splurge a bit where I need to this time—I’m not talking high end store shopping here, but spending more on materials and projects.
6. Embrace imperfections
My mother will tell you that I’ve been a perfectionist since Day 1. This is something I struggle with in everything I do, and decorating our home is no exception. It’s easy to go overboard when you’re blogging for the world (or a handful of people) to see, and trying to keep up with the perfectly styled homes on Pinterest.
But Pinterest isn’t the real world and we have to remember that we’re decorating our homes for ourselves, not anyone else.
Sometimes I wonder if my life would be easier if I reverted back to the days before I owned a house and had never even heard of HGTV. I’d decorate my home (or maybe I wouldn’t) how I wanted without any sense of design rules or knowing what’s in style, and wouldn’t think twice about it. No spending gobs of money on renovations and decor, no struggling with miter saws and crown molding, no stress.
But then I remember how happy transforming my home makes me and how excited I get dreaming up new ideas for rooms. This is my hobby and a huge part of my life, and I can’t see that going away anytime soon.
So instead of worrying about perfect everything needs to be all the time, I’m trying to learn to let go and just enjoy the ride, wherever it leads. If my plan isn’t executed exactly how I had in mind—so what? It turned out how it was meant to and I should appreciate it for what it is—unique to my home. How lucky I am to even have a place to call my home. Embrace the imperfections and love it for what it is—a place to grow, love, and make memories in.
And on that sappy note, it’s time for me to call it a night. Just writing this post made me feel more optimistic about what th
e future holds for our new home, and as always, I’m honored that there’s people out there who are invested enough to leave sweet comments every week and follow us on our journey.
I’ve got some big plans in store for this one, and as always, I hope you find some new inspiration along the way as my style evolves!
PS—My buddy Jen from IHeart Organizing is hosting an epic holiday giveaway right now, where you can win $50 to anything in my shop! There’s also a coupon code in there… enter here.
