Let There Be COLOR

I'm so excited to share our painting progress in the basement! I really couldn't wait to get that first splash of color on the walls!! I started out in the family room with the cork color on the wall adjoining the bedroom. But the really exciting step was the morocco RED!  BAM!!

I actually convinced Eric to help out too!! (Told you he does all home renovation work in his scrubs...)
The cork color has just the right blend of being unique but still comfortable and warm.

I really like how the bright red wall makes the fireplace pop. The cork color is actually quite similar to the brick color, so I think it would have just blended in without the accent wall.

I actually really didn't like the brick color before the red paint. I always thought it looked pink/peach-ish (definitely not my thing), and now looks much more earthy in color.

We even got our friend Steve to paint the trim pieces for us. Just look at that intense concentration. Eeeekkkk.... don't hit the freshly painted walls !! 

Speaking of trim, I convinced Eric we decided to go with a chunky white baseboard (love love love)!! So much nicer than the small dark wood baseboards we have throughout the rest of the house. Eventually we plan to replace all of those with the big white ones (obviously a project for another day). 

The carpet is being installed in a little over a week. We picked one from Home Depot with a fairly long fiber and pretty dense weave, so it should be nice and soft (and warm)! Here is a sample, just to give you an idea of what it will look like when it is all installed. 

Oh, I almost forgot to show you the grass cloth color on the bedroom walls. I had to use a flash because this room doesn't get a lot of sunlight, so the color isn't exactly like in the photo, but I really like how it turned out.

It feels great to finally have color on the walls. We are soooooo close to having our basement back!

Basement Progress

I know it has been a while since I posted about the basement. But - we are getting really close to completion folks!

Last time I left you, we had just finished adding drywall to the ceiling and walls. You can see particularly on the ceiling that there were some serious seams between the drywall pieces.

Well, since then, a whole lot of mudding and taping occurred (thanks dad)! That involved a lot of time on my dad's part, much of it up on stilts, like this (he's actually putting up tape in the photo, not mud):

And you should know, ladies and gentlemen, that this is NOT easy. I gave it a try and ended up with taping compound all over the floor (and all over me too). Thankfully, my dad is basically a pro at this, so we ended up with smooth smooth walls!

The next step was adding the knock-down texture on the ceiling. The trickiest part was actually the prep. We taped off the ceiling with paper and painter's tape (you can see it in the above photo). We used a fun little gadget to apply the tape and paper at the same time:

Then we added thin plastic to cover the walls and thicker plastic to cover the floor. My mom helped out a lot with this part too.

Gizmo thought the plastic was great fun. He kept running around between the wall and the plastic!

Adding the texture was fairly simple. We used a texture sprayer with an air compressor and added in the taping compound. The spray was applied slowly and evenly, and after waiting for it to dry for about 20 minutes, we used a knockdown knife to flatten out the bumps (of course I forgot to take any photos of this part). Next we had to put 2-3 coats of primer on the ceiling and 1 coat on the walls. Here I'm adding primer to the wall and ceiling corner. The ceiling texture is there, but hard to see at this point (especially with all the drywall dust on the camera lens).

We thought (and argued) a LOT about what colors to paint the walls in the family room and bedroom. The final decision was to paint the family room the cork color from Behr and have a morocco red accent wall along the fire place. We wanted something coordinating, but not too matchy for the bedroom, and ended up going with grass cloth. We are thisclose to finishing the painting. I'll update again soon to show you how our color choices actually look on the walls. For now, this will give you an idea.

A Fully Functional Kitchen!

Whew! It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. Last week I was in Chicago prepping for an interview that I had earlier this week. The good news is that it went pretty well, but I won't hear back for a couple of months...

So, there has not been a ton of progress on house-related projects, but I do have a few updates to share. The basement renovation is also getting really close to completion. We're in the process of painting and just scheduled someone to come and measure for carpet. I'll share more deets on that soon in another post. What I am really excited to tell you about is how our kitchen is now fully functional for the first time!!!!

Mounting the microwave was actually the easiest install of all the appliances (but again we had help from dear ol' dad!). Using the template provided in the box, we attached the mounting plate to the wall and drilled holes in the upper cupboards:

Yup, that's me holding a flashlight. Remember how little light we have in our kitchen? Just one bulb above the sink. So the flashlight was necessary. Luckily the microwave also has a light, so we have now doubled the light in our kitchen!

If you ignore the horribly ugly back splash (or lack-there-of), it's looking pretty awesome! And wow is it nice how microwaves can re-heat leftovers!!! So much faster and more convenient than the stove top. Here is that side of the kitchen before:

During:

And after:

Much better (and more functional)! Hopefully we'll start to look into cabinet options in the next couple of months and maybe figure out some way to disguise that back splash in the mean time.

Gotta love a winter clearance!

I've just got to share my recent steals with you - FYI, if you are in the market for any Christmas decorations, now is the time to buy! XMas stuff at Pier 1 is 90% off right now!!!

For under $15, I got the following (okay, I agree it doesn't look that impressive all spread out on the table, but it sure felt that way when everything was bulging out of shopping bags):

My favorite by far is the tree on the left. It has a metal structure and is filled with pine cones, green moss, and twigs. I found it at Pier 1 and since it was 90% off the normal $40 price, I got it for $4. LOVE it!! Is it Christmas yet? So sad to pack it away  :(

I also stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond, where they have a pretty good clearance section as well. One of the first things I saw when I walked in was the clearance blinds. Since I am crazy, I keep a list of all our window sizes on a notepad in my purse (just in case, you know...). Anyway, they turned out to be the right sizes, and are very pretty (wood/bamboo natural colors, which is exactly what I have been envisioning). I ended up getting 6 natural woven blinds for under $60. (At the regular price, they would have set me back $320). WOW!

 
We're planning to use 3 in the master bedroom and the remaining 3 for the windows in the other two main floor bedrooms. Can't wait to tear down those vertical blinds. I'll definitely post details and before and after pics when we tackle that project.

Speaking of projects, Eric has mandated that we finish some project before buying more materials for new projects. Oops, just added another project. I guess it is time to get busy!

Kitchen Appliance Update: Frustrations Abound

I know it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but we have been busy struggling to install the new kitchen appliances. Prepare yourself for a marathon post.

The first priority was the dishwasher. If you remember, the old one was completely non-functional and looked like this:

I put the dishwasher in the free section of craigslist, and soon enough, a scrapper guy came to pick it up. We were so happy we didn't have to haul it somewhere! ...which left us with a hole that looked like this:

It is a little hard to tell in the photo, but the floor was disgusting until used a bit of elbow grease:

Finally the new one arrived - here I am with my family just after we carried in the dishwasher. So exciting!!

It seemed so simple... hook up the cords and push it in...

...but then we had a leak, which lead to lots of this...

and this...

and this...

After an epic struggle (and 2 trips to the hardware store), we have a functioning dishwasher. Oh how living w/out one for 2 months make you appreciate just how much time & effort dishwashers save!!! (and doesn't it look sleek?!)

 

Since we had sold our old range on craigslist (got $175 for it - hooray), the next priority was installing the new range. Again we ran into a couple of challenges. First, the toe board on the cabinet next to the range was too long. So we got out the hacksaw and performed some precision carpentry:

But that wasn't all. We realized that the non-flexible electrical conduit and extremely large outlet box prevented us from pushing the range back to the wall. So, yet again we made some precision cuts big holes in the wall so that everything would fit.

A bunch of duct tape later, the wall behind our range looked pretty bad.

But it worked! Hooray! Did I mention this range is super HUGE inside and that the bottom drawer functions as a warming drawer?

You may have guessed, but our troubles were not over yet. Next came the refrigerator, which we quickly found our did not FIT in the space we had.... Which meant we needed to move over the bottom and top cabinets about an inch and a half. After removing all the nails and winning a wrestling match, we were left with this:

Eek! Luckily, my family was over yet again to help (gotta love 'em!). Even my little sis Rozi helped out by removing some nails!

While we were at it, we ripped down the yucky brown-painted formica backsplash. Unfortunately, that left us with damaged drywall and glue stuck all over the wall. :(
But most importantly, the refrigerator, range, and dishwasher are now installed! Now we just have the microwave left, and then that backsplash will need some attention.

Appliances

Our new appliances are coming today!!!!! (Fridge, range, dishwasher, microwave.)
We'll finally have a working dishwasher. Maybe I'll be able to do the install tonight.  :)

Dining Table and Chairs Refinishing: Before & After

In our Chicago apartment, Eric and I had one tiny little dining table and two chairs (you really can't fit anything larger than that in a 650 sq ft apartment). When we bought our house, my parents were nice enough to gift us their old dining set. The chairs and table are very nice and sturdy, they just weren't my style initially. I decided to paint the chairs black and put new fabric on the seats. To coordinate, I wanted to paint the table legs black while leaving the tabletop with a wood finish. Here's the before shot:

The first step was removing the padding and sanding down the wooden parts so that paint would stick to them.

Next came the spray painting, which was WAY easier than using a paint brush. The trick is to spray in a smooth even motion without getting so thick that you get drips. (Thanks Mom and Dad for helping with the spray painting!!)

We sprayed on 2-3 coats of black followed by a clear sealant layer so that the black paint wouldn't flake off on an occupant. Here's what they looked like after painting:

Then came the hardest part - choosing a fabric for the seat. I either wanted to do something fun and bright or do something neutral and paint the walls in the dining room a bright color. I brought home a couple of samples from Jo-Ann, and totally fell in love with the green one!

Unfortunately, by the time I got back to Jo-Ann, they no longer carried the fabric. Luckily I was able to fine the same stuff for cheaper through fabric.com. It finally came in the mail just this week - oh happy day!!

This part of the project was actually easier than I anticipated. All I needed was a scissors, staple gun with staples (I used 3/8"), and a hammer. I didn't take off the old material since I didn't want to disrupt the cushion. I made sure the fabric was lined up so that the pattern was centered on the front. Then I just pulled the fabric taut and began stapling.

The corners were a bit tricky. I had to maniuplate the fabric around a bit until I got a fairly pucker-free edge.

Voila!

Now I just have 6 more chairs to do...
(You can see the table in the background here with the black legs and wooden tabletop).

And since everyone likes a good before and after comparison:

Before

After

Now the question is what color to paint the walls in the dining room. Any ideas?