Painted Cabinets

I have fallen in love with the clean lines of painted shaker style cabinets.  I think we are going to opt for a similar pale blue/green/grey with white marble tops as shown below.  The look is so peaceful and classic, and we think it will age well.  These pictures are stolen from the Urban Grace Interiors Blog.

 

We are planning to put an island in the middle that will be on casters so that it can be moved.  This island will also serve as the kitchen table since we have converted the dining space into living space.  Of course, our kitchen will be a lot less grand than these pictures.

 

 

 

I also like the chrome drawer pulls, and we are looking at chrome pendant lights as well as a chrome vent for over the cook top. 

 

 

Another great thing about this kitchen we may steal is the transom over the entry way and window.  (Remodeling term alert!  transom - a cross piece separating the door or entry from the fanlight above it)  Its a simple thing to add, but it adds a lot of character. It would run from wall to wall right as you enter the kitchen to help separate the kitchen from the living space since we took out the wall that used to divide the room. We will probably not put glass panes in and just leave it open. 

 

One last picture...Here is the style sink I would like.  It is called a farm house sink.  Beautiful. 

 

 

 

I can't wait until the pictures I am posting are of our actual kitchen and not just idea pictures!!

 

And since we've never really set up a proper kitchen with real dinnerware we might as well do that too, right???   I love these Pfaltzgraff Country Cupboard plates.  Wouldn't they just go right along with everything else?

 

 

 

 

 

Reuse and Recycle in the Backyard

We have a couple of outdoor sheds in the new backyard and have been talking about what to do with them.  Here they are...

 

They sit up against the side of the apartment at the end of the driveway. 

Why don't we recycle them!  We have some glass paned doors Andrew has stockpiled from past demolitions and we didn't want to throw them out if they still had some value to them.  Well, about 6 months ago we had looked at the Inspiration Green website and found a post with greenhouses made from recycled windows and doors.  Andrew recently remembered these and thinks he can use the old doors and modify the sheds.  Here are some pictures from that website that show the general idea.

 

 

 

 

 

I love all of them and they are all unique.  Most were designed around the windows they had collected from neighbors and such.  Recycled things are sometimes the most beautiful things. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggest Room in the House

Wanna know what we're using the biggest room in the house for???  My art studio.  This is where I say thank you to Andrew!  It is such a cool little space, and the sheet rock is up.    These pictures start with the north wall and go N to W to S to E to give you a 360 degree view of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've opted for canned lights throughout most of the downstairs, and I am looking in to to the best bulbs to have for painting.  Believe it or not, these three windows can let in too much sunlight to paint under, but I love them anyway.

Back To Blogging - Upstairs Bath

OK, I won't make any excuses about how busy we've been or all of the things that have happened that took priority over working on our new home,'cause we're back!  After a couple of months on hold, Andrew has started working his magic on the bungalow.  We are getting ready to start the two bathrooms, so hold on tight, Andrew works fast!  Here's what we have so far...

This will be the upstairs bathroom.  The shower will be in the back, up against the outside wall (it takes a brave woman to have a window in her shower, but I assure you that glass will not be see-through!)  The toilet will be on the right wall about midway, and the sink will be on the right wall, closest to the door.  The door will also be a sliding door to keep unity in the design of the upstairs where we will have two other large barn doors.  Isn't the shape of this little bathroom great?

We are going with white subway tile, and this is the style of sink I've picked.

 

Here is a picture from the apartment therapy website that is similar in feel to what we want for this bathroom. Although ours will have a tile floor, the shower in this pick is really close to what we have in mind.

 

 

 

Beautiful Idea

I think this is absolutely beautiful.  We are planning to use this idea in the downstairs bathroom so I'll need to be on the lookout for old door knobs.

My First Fig

Hey, figs are here!  I ate my first fig ever off of our tree.  Andrew declined.  They have been ripening for about 3 weeks now.

Pretty yummy!  A friend has given me instructions on propegating new trees from this one.  I can't wait to try this when we move in.

No Room for Junk

Our new house has one small closet!  One.  That's it.  Can you believe that?  Of course, we will be using the dead space in the upstairs walls for storage, but downstairs we have to get creative.  We plan on using ALL of our spaces wisely.  So, we will use the space under the stairs.  But we won't just pile stuff up under there like we do here.  More like these pictures...

 

 

 

 

The drawers will be accessible from the downstairs bedroom and not from the living area. 

 

This will help keep us organized and hopefully things will be easily located.

 

By the way, the sheet rock is up in the room I will be using as a studio.  Pictures will be posted soon!

New remodeling term alert!!!   Andrew sistered the joists in the ceiling.  Sistering is basically placing new wood along side of the existing wood.  He did this for more support and also because the ceiling was sagging just a little bit.  So, once he sistered the wood, he cut the sag off of the old wood.  Now the Sheetrock could be put in without a bow, nice and flat.  The Sheetrock is now up in the ceiling for both the living area and kitchen! Here are some pics.

You can see we completely removed the wall in between the kitchen and living areas.  It makes the space feel a lot larger.  We also opened up the stairs by removing part of that wall as well.

We were there today discussing lighting and other things.  Next up is rewiring and plumbing.  And I think we have decided to put the washer and dryer upstairs.   Getting more and more excited!!

Squeezing In

One of the things we love about this move is the downsizing and simplifying that this will allow us to do.  Just enough is a phrase that we need to remember in this world where excess is the norm.  We are going from 2,650sq ft (way too much for two people without kids) to 1,950sq ft.  The new house is smaller, but really not tiny.  BUT, there are some challenges to overcome with the style and size of the bungalow.  The first challenge we come to is where to put the washer and dryer??  We have debated upstairs vs. downstairs and bathroom vs. kitchen.  Right now kitchen is probably winning.  We have been looking for ways to make the laundry unobtrusive.  We'll probably have to buy a new smaller washer and dryer and they'll probably have to be front loaders.  (UGH.  Hate the thought of the price!!)  And, we're thinking that we'll hide them away in cabinets.  We found some pictures of examples on atticmag.com.


Here is a washer/dryer area hidden in a kitchen. Pay no mind to the yellow cabinets. There will be no decorating with yellow in our new house if I can help it. Yellow is way too sunshine and happiness for me. (No offense to any yellow lovers. I am just not a bright colors kind of person)

Here is an example of stackable front loaders, and this could possibly fit in the downstairs bathroom.  Although that top one looks like a neck breaker.  Maybe a tad too awkward?

Here is a brave idea.  Having the laundry in an upstairs landing/hallway area.  See, you can do whatever you want.  No one would know unless you showed them.  The only problem I can think of with this is the plumbing aspect and how close this area is to the water.

Other things to consider:  A space for folding.  Storage for detergent.  Enough hiding space for dirty laundry while it waits to be washed.  How to keep the cats from thinking front loaders are tiny caves/beds.  How to trick someone else into doing all of the laundry. 

Slacker Apartment Update

Well, I've been a slacker, but Andrew sure hasn't.  I have been pretty busy and haven't taken time out to blog anything about the house.  But Andrew and his guys finished up the studio apartment, and we have a renter!!!   It turned out very nice....

  

The area in front of the door is pea gravel, and once the ghetto plywood was removed (it keeps dirt from getting tracked in and out while the work is being done) looked even better.  More landscaping will be added when we move into the main house.

VIEW FROM THE FRONT DOOR...

We put in a ceiling fan in the main living/bedroom area, and there is an AC unit mounted in the window which seems to easily keep the entire apartment cool.  The closet in the back left fits nicely in the space and is big enough for someone to put a lot of their stuff out of sight.  The floor is vinyl tile which is easily cleaned and individual tiles are easily replaced when damaged.

KITCHEN AREA

The under cabinet lights make the kitchen area inviting.  I would have never thought to add this in an apartment.  Great idea, Andrew!  You can see him standing in the bathroom doorway to the left.

BATHROOM...

Small but functional and attractive.

That's about it for the studio apartment.  More posts soon!

Underfoot in the Backyard

I can't wait to start on this project for the yard.  Pebble mosaic pavers.  If you Google them, you can see beautiful, complex ones that would take a lot of time and money, but here is a picture that I think would be reasonably obtainable for us.

jeffreygardens.blogspot.com

One that is beautiful, and simple enough to make...

inspirationgreen.com

Maybe we will make them all different animals...

maggyhowarth.co.uk



They seem to be really simple to make.  Build a mold (flat bottom with edges in whatever shape you need).  Pour in a layer of sand.  Place your pebbles in whatever design you want pushing them all the way down to the flat part of the mold.  Pour cement on top.  Then wait for it to dry, remove it from the mold, and dust off the sand. 

I told Andrew I could build the molds with some of his scrap wood, but he insists on making the molds himself.  I got the distinct feeling he didn't want me using his tools.  Hmph.

Time to look for local pebbles.

more to follow.....

This Apartment May Not Be For You.

This little studio apartment sits at the end of the driveway, along side the backyard, and we hope to rent it out soon. 

Here is what it looked like when we first bought the house...

It had some nasty carpet and that back window had no glass in it, so the wildlife could come in and out.  In the back corner was a makeshift closet.  The bathroom is on the left (not pictured).

This is the "in progress" photo.  We ripped out the carpet, removed that closet, patched the walls, and brought in some cabinets and counter tops to be installed.  We chose a more neutral color in a lighter shade for the walls.  Right now, the finishing touches to the bathroom are happening and the floors will hopefully be installed by next week, so we can move in a renter.  This leaves us with one small dilemma.....

Do you tell the new renter that someone has died in the apartment?  Yes, died.

Sooooo, Andrew met one of our new neighbors this week!  It wasn't too long before the "big news" came out. It wasn't anything really sensational like an axe murder or gunfight. (The post title options on that alone would have been great)   According to our new neighbor "Stump" (the name he gave us, not one we gave him) it was a sad, tragic ending of a young life by overdose (our words not his). 

The thing is, Andrew and I aren't the least bit superstitious, and I had honestly forgot about him telling me until tonight and, of course, I thought "Well I'll have to blog this!"   But, this could reduce the appeal of the place in some people's eyes. so lets just keep this between us. 

We'll post the "after" pictures soon!

 

Inspiration

The funnest part of a renovation is probably picking out the color palette for each room.  We've been scouring the web looking for inspiration.  The house we live in now has some bold, dark colors, but we're afraid the new house doesn't have the ceiling height to pull them off.  We'll need a lighter palette in most of the spaces.  Here are some inspiring pictures that I found. 

from KatyElliot.com

These doors are from somewhere in Italy and I am in love with this pale green blue.  I love how clean, light, and peaceful these colors are.  This palette could translate into a bedroom like this:

yournestdesign.blogspot.com

This will probably be the color scheme for the upstairs bedroom, although we will leave the walls white.  The headboard and foot board will either be grey or black and we can pull in the green blue with the bedspread and pillows.  The floors will be wood, and we think maybe a large pile shag rug in a pale off-white under the bed.  FUN FUN FUN!!

I'll leave you with another inspiring photo, although I'm not sure where in the house we can use this palette.  Maybe the enclosed porch?  I love this photo.

yournestdesign.blogspot.com

I'm already a terrarium fanatic, so I love these green glass bottles.  It's just beautiful.

Homemade Blueprints

Since we don't have any blueprints of the house, I decided to draw up a general floor plan of the upstairs and downstairs.   I didn't have any graph paper and it is not to scale, but here it is anyway...

There are three downstairs bedrooms, but we will use the front bedroom as Andrew's office, and the back bedroom will be my art studio.  ( I am grateful to have a husband who is so supportive and generous!!)    The dotted line between the Kitchen and the main Living area was a wall, but we decided to rip it out to make the house feel more open.   The entrance to the downstairs bathroom will probably be moved. We are still hashing out ideas over the overall bathroom design.

The upstairs has a lot of potential storage space between the walls and the pitch of the roof line.  This will come in handy since we don't have much closet space anywhere in the house.  The main upstairs area will probably have bookshelves and a sitting area.  We also have plans to install Murphy beds in this area for when we have guests since we will only be using two rooms as actual bedrooms.  Murphy beds were a feature in a lot of bungalows and are great space savers. 

Plant People, We Need Help!

Obviously someone once loved this house and planted lots of things all around the yard.  We have a lot of plants we cannot identify.  I already had Andrew rip out what I thought were weeds a few weeks ago.  Turns out they were hydrangeas.  Ugh, made me sick.  So, I am going to post some pictures below.  If you know what any of the plants are, please leave a comment.  Thank you!

Picture 1.  We are told this is a fig tree.  I believe this is correct because I've seen these leaves performing a very important task on classical sculptures.

Picture 2.  This vine runs along a fence that will probably need replaced on one side of the driveway.  What is it, and will it flower?  

Picture 3.  I love the shape of the leaves on whatever this is.

Picture 4.  Sorry I didn't get a close-up on these bushes!

Picture 5.  I do know what these are!!

Picture 6.  We were told that this tree hanging down from the top of the picture is a pecan tree.