Apparently I didn't do such an awesome job of photographing the progress in the "kids" bathroom. In here, we finished drywall, painted walls and cabinets, replaced the sink & counter (adding much needed storage), installed new flooring & matching backsplash, installed new trim, replaced the mirror. This pic is of me refinishing the counter. Originally, my intent was to do a concrete counter in here. Maybe someday. In the meantime, we used counter transformations paint and painted it a concrete color. Good enough for now.
Found this shower curtain at Burlington for $7. In person it looks great - very farmhouse chic. In this pic it kind of looks like prison stripes. lol. Sorry about that. I also RIT dyed our lilac rugs to be navy/denim colored to match. The walls you can't see (above the shower surround and the wall the door is on) are a dark navy. When we bought the house, because it is the kids bathroom, I was going to go with a fun lime green. I didn't need much paint so when it was time to paint, I opted to use something I already had. The navy was an accent color I used on a plaid wall at 11 N Clover. The little quart of it that remained what just enough to do the job.
Anyway, I really like how this space turned out. It is not only more stylish, it is also much more functional for my herd. I added a chalkboard in here so I can change out the "decor" quote periodically. There are so many great quotes - why limit ourselves to one?! Cell phone addiction is a real and destructive thing that HUGELY impacts our family so currently it says "Life is what happens when your cell phone is on the charger." Put the phone down folks. You only live once! (off my soapbox)
Once the bathroom was done, we moved on to the laundry room. The gutters on the house have joint leaks that I have tried to caulk and cannot seem to solve. Because of that, the entry door floor in the laundry had rotted out. Our pup, Grace, went to town one day unchaperoned and that motivated us to tackle this space next. Thanks Grace! lol.
Before repairing the floor and installing new flooring, we finished the drywall and repainted everything. I went with fire truck red in here as the accent wall. It took 5 coats to get the depth I wanted - yeesh! This was coat 2 I think. Deep red seems a bit bold for a small space like this but with the appliances and shelves in place, I knew it would be just the pop of color I desired.
We installed the new tile over the existing laminate. Unfortunately, due to the damage to the existing flooring, we had the joy of using self leveling compound to level the existing floor so we can install the new flooring. Not a joy at all! That stuff is really unforgiving but we made it work. Mark tiled and I grouted.
Mark trimmed everything out and then we put the appliances, shelves, and counters back in place. Couple of notes here - 1) These are the containers we splurged on for our trash and recycle in lieu of the custom built cabinet I'd wanted in the kitchen. Kinda nice, right? 2) After antiquing all of the kitchen cabinets, the intent was to use a sealer to protect them. I tried it in the laundry room first and HATE it. Way too glossy despite being the satin that I always buy for paint and poly! Glad I didn't test that in the kitchen.
One bummer for me is that now that the space is properly trimmed out, there isn't adequate space for my little cabinet between the appliances. I love the trim though.
Have I mentioned that I LOVE gel stain? I gel stained the door and I love it. It just finishes the space.
Apparently it was laundry day when I took this photo because Merida's basket is missing. Too funny. Anyway, Merida and I made the Wash Dry Fold decor and I added some mason jar storage on the shelf. The little photo decor covers the mechanicals of the space. I have loved this quote for eons and decided to tackle a project (incorporating it) I saw on one of my favorite youtube crafters. It says "Today I will be thankful for all the little socks and the grass stained jeans and the endless piles of laundry. For there will come a day when the laundry basket is empty and these days will be profoundly missed." As true as it is, I try not to think too much about my babies growing up. Ugh!
I haven't photographed it yet but the roaster is no longer hanging out in the gap. I've since stacked 3 small wooden crates in there and added some storage for rags and rarely used cleaners. When I stain them to match everything else, I'll take a pic and add it to a post at some point. None of these pics show the cute tiny egg basket light fixture either so a future post will remedy that as well.
Our main entry deck into the house was built poorly - rotting some areas and sloppy in others. It was getting to the point that it wasn't safe. Mark deconstructed the poorly built areas and he and my dad rebuilt it. There are still a few boards that will ultimately need to be replaced but for now, this works. Due to the virus, deck boards were hard to come by midway into the project when we figured out we were going to run short. (Note the painted shutters. They used to be faded black.)
We picked up our new family member, Faith, April 1 - 1 day after she turned 5 weeks. Because she left her mommy so young, little bit was mom's girl for quite some time. (she is now 95% dad's dog) I stained the deck the Saturday of Memorial weekend. Poor pup had plenty of stain dribbles on her because she kept me company nearly the entire day of staining. Wasn't she just the cutest thing!
This is the finished deck. I still need to touch up the black on the faux brick and I keep going back and forth on gel staining the front door. Ultimately, I want to replace this door with one with windows to allow light into our lightless entry. It seems a waste of money and energy to stain this door when I'll have to do it again when we replace it. So far frugality is winning.
We made several repairs on the back deck as well but again, no lumber limited what we could do. After we completed the decks, we had a bit of a bonfire burning all the boxes we'd emptied, the rotted deck boards, the old trim, etc. It was a fun and safe Caronavirus quarantine approved family activity. lol
Remember this chaos? Another one of the projects we tackled this year was curing it. While Mark was on a trip, I built a bench and put wooden crates under it. I was quite proud of myself! I cut and stained them but I didn't attach the feet because I wanted Mark's opinion on the best way to do it without marring the surface of the bench. He came home and reconfigured it a bit and marred the surface of the bench. I liked it better my way (bench extending wall to wall and the feet placement at the front of the bench rather than the rear) but what's done is done. It's definitely an improvement over what it was!
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