2020 Laundry, Bathroom, Entry, Deck Updates

 

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! 

2020 Hall & Kitchen Updates

Last year we volunteered our home as a place to host my grandma's 90th birthday.  We also found a farm that we fell in love with with more acreage, multiple barns, and a beautiful farmhouse with original character.  Finally, my end of year profit share bonus was more than anticipated.  All of these were motivators for us to get cruising on updating 3893.  Unfortunately, the farm sold after over a year on the market (guess we weren't as motivated as we thought).  Fortunately, with the help of ALL of my family; Mark, Merida, and I were able to get the house ready for the party.  Lucky for us, due to Covid, the party got moved twice, giving us more time on the house.  (Side note - grandma is doing great and almost ready to celebrate her 91st birthday.)

Because there is so much to update, I'm going to break up the updates into separate posts.  

I'll pick up where we left off last year's blog (showing us working on the drywall in this corner.)  
January found us painting and trimming it out.  I love that Mark seems to always be able to make my Pinterest inspiration pics a possibility in our home.  LOVE LOVE LOVE how the pallet wraps the wall.

Once the hall and dining room were done, we moved in to the kitchen.  Drywall finishing, new counters, new flooring plus grout, new backsplash plus grout, new sink, new faucet, new trim, new lighting, distressing on cabinets - I think that's it.  No joke it was quite the undertaking!!  

 

I don't know about you but when we do construction in one space, it introduces chaos to other areas.  I   DO NOT DO WELL IN CHAOS but here we were.  It was a bit of a nightmare for a hot second (or way too many!!)  I actually took pics because it was so overwhelming.

 

Removing the old counters and measuring for the new ones.  We were really fortunate to not have to cut corners on any of our counters.  We just had to worry about length.
 

  

The counter between the laundry and pantry was just a touch short so Mark came up with a solution that made the difference in length disappear. Have I mentioned how awesome my handy hot husband is??  I was not sad to see the cigarette burned laminate counters disappear.  Not sad at all!

Once the stained counters were able to be temporarily placed, we laid out a few floor tiles to figure out what pattern we wanted.  Ultimately, we went with simple. I love clean lines.  I figured simple would reduce the amount of cutting we had to do on the tile too.  I was right and Mark was appreciative.

 

When the counters were stained and dry, we double checked everything to make sure it was perfect and ready for poly.  My ONE regret about the kitchen is not using the pour on polycrylic rather than polyurethane.  We're 10 months post renovation and I am already seeing wear marks in the poly from where it's constantly being wiped down after cooking and meals, not to mention scuffs from actually using the counters.  When we refinish, we'll definitely be using the polycrylic.  Probably soon.  Boo.

Because we didn't have enough going on, while the counters were being finished, I tackled antiquing our cabinets.  Basically you "paint" on a special glaze and then wipe it off, leaving some of it in the cracks and crevices of the cabinets.  I started with 2 doors to see if I liked it.  I didn't.  Then I did 2 more doors, feeling indifferent when those were done.  After the 3rd set of doors, it was growing on me.  It was the look I'd wanted but it was different than what I'd been living with for 5 years so change was hard.  Once we'd done the entire row of cabinets, I was in love with how it was coming together.

We saved the sink / stove counter for very last.  My dad has been a builder for years so he came over and made sure we did it right.  I didn't relish the idea of buying another piece of countertop because we'd cut the sink hole wrong.  Mark didn't relish the idea of cutting sink holes multiple times.  Glad we agreed on that.  Unfortunately, my large kitchen wasn't large enough for all of our counter prep.

 

After the counters were in, we started working on the backsplash.  I wanted something that would hide well and be washable.  Ultimately, we decided to use the same tile we bought for the floor and cut it to a different size.  Our floor tiles are 12" square, our backsplash tiles are 12" x 2".  I voted for 3" but Mark cut and installed the first tiles.  When it all came together, it really didn't make much difference.

We have both trash and recycling containers.  I asked him to see if he could build me a custom cabinet for both in this unused corner in our kitchen.  He did a pretty great job of building a custom cabinet there but it only fit a single can so we scrapped it.  Poor Mark!  A few hours of his labor lost.  Sorry babe!

 

We have a friend that lays tile for a living.  He came over one Saturday and showed us how to lay tile.  Then he came over another day and showed us how to grout the tile.  This was how it looked when he was finished with both.  We still had the tile under the appliances to do and the small rooms but we were thoroughly trained when he was done.  Thank you Mike Ford!!

 

Before Mark left for several weeks of out of town work, I begged him to finish tiling under the appliances and in the pantry.  He did!  Then he left town and left me kitchen-less. lol.  I had to grout everything before it could be put back together.  So I did.  Then my dad came back over and helped me level all the counters and install the kitchen sink.  Discovered we couldn't install the new drain with our existing garbage disposal so we had to buy a new disposal and install that.  I didn't have the muscle necessary so we called in another friend.  Dad and David installed the garbage disposal properly and then dad rewired the dishwasher and put that back in place.  Poor guy offered to solve my lack of kitchen problem but didn't realize how much was involved.  He is the best dad EVER.  (Note the Valentines flowers in the window from my parents)

 

 

 I had to finish the backsplash and grout before I put the other appliances in.  Don't look too close; it's far from perfect but the backsplash is done and I did it myself!

 

Once the backsplash was done, I turned this unused counter in the kitchen into a cute little coffee bar.

When we bought the house, all the skylights leaked.  We replaced them but there was some damage to the drywall around the window so we had to do something once we removed it.  Mark came up with this on his own and I love it!  Well done, husband!

 

One thing I loved about 11 N Clover was the character of the home.  The trim, the windows, the little nooks, etc. When we bought this home, I REALLY struggled with the fact that there was nothing unique about it.  Mark assured me that he could add character to any home; I just had to tell him what I liked.  Wouldyalookatthat!!  He did it.  Hello farmhouse trim and antique egg basket light fixtures.  It doesn't matter what I dream up, he pulls it off every time. (note the lettuce growing in the window vase.  I bought this when the virus first hit and I was trying to save on trips to the grocery store. lol)

 

 

Other than me needing to fill trim nail holes with caulk and put a final coat of paint on the trim, These rooms are DONE!  Well, and someday I'd like to put different flooring in the dining room, entry, and hall.  I mean, who carpets all that?!