We're back! I know, I know...it's been awhile. I'm not sure what happened, but this winter was busy, busy (along with long and COLD!). But, we managed to finish one of our inside projects. When we first moved into our house, one of the areas that bothered Kevin and I was the back entryway. We use this entryway to come into our house a lot...our front door leads straight into the house and there is no place to put shoes and coats. Which is why coming in and out of the back entryway makes the most sense. But, the back entry had some U-g-L-y linoleum flooring and some random hardwood area that did not match the hardwood in the kitchen. Check it out...
Looking into the entryway from the kitchen.
Look at that beautiful floor ;)
Close up of the floor and the rusty, old vent.
One other thing that drove us crazy about this space was the fact that the "flooring" did not stretch to the basement door. So....as you can imagine we have been doing the taking our shoes off and then putting them back on again to run down to the basement. Here is what I mean...
The hardwood that does not match...
The basement door is on the right...first doorknob
that you see.
Now you have an idea of what we were working with and why it so desperately needed some TLC. Next step-figure out what color and type of tile we wanted. We went back and forth and back and forth again, before settling on a ceramic tile that had dark and light shades of gray, blue and tan. Another big shout out to Homestead Interiors for providing us with our beautiful tile.
As I've told you before, Kevin is a research king. He does his homework before he starts any job. This was the first time he has ever tiled. Also, I am happy to report that I did help with some phases of this project! :) But, the first thing that needed to be done was the demo. This was a quick demo...rip out the old flooring and be done. Check it out!
Then, Kevin cut new plywood for the floors...looking better already!
Next, it was time for the Ditra. We chose to use the Ditra after much thought because it would provide a barrier between the plywood flooring and the tile. It provides protection from water and allows the tile more room to "give". The Ditra ended up creating a bit more work and extended the time it took for Kevin to actually lay the tile, but it was worth the heartache. We were able to purchase the Ditra from the good ole' Home Depot. Surprise, surprise :) Where else would we spend our paychecks?! It is also important to note that the Ditra requires a special "Ditra set" or mortar to adhere it to the surface of the floor. Unfortunately for us, the only store that had it was in Youngstown. Thankfully, Y-town is not that far from us. Here is Kevin putting the Ditra down.
Rambo had to make sure that Kevin was
doing everything correctly. :)
Next step: TILES! As a first time tiler (or I should say "tiler helper", if that's even a title!), I thought the actual laying of the tile would be quick, lickety split. Not so much. Because we decided to use the Ditra set, it meant that Kevin had to be very conscious of the levels of the tiles since the Ditra has the grooves in it. Lets just say, it took over a week for all of the tiles to be placed.
Almost there!
We decided before placing the tile to buy a small wet saw, from....can you guess?! Yep, Home Depot. Looking back, it probably would have been easier to buy a bigger wet saw...but we didn't want to spend the money on something we would probably only use once. The small one did just fine, but again required us to put in a little extra time when cutting the tiles.
Here it is, everything down! But, not finished yet.
Looking good!
Looking toward the kitchen, the basement
door is on the left. Hooray for being able to keep
our shoes on!
View looking from the kitchen
Oh yes, and before we get to grouting...our site supervisor checking in on our progress.
Rambo R. Ray, Site Supervisor
Finally! It was time to grout. We decided to go with a light gray grout, as opposed to a cream, white or charcoal gray. I was afraid that the first two colors would just show the dirt and that the other would be too dark against our already darker tiles. Now, this was where I came in! I fully participated in grouting the tile. We were a true team on this one. Kevin would place the grout in and I would wipe away the excess with my sponge :) Of course, there is no photographic evidence of my participation...so I guess you'll have to take me at my word.
Grout: looks darker than it is when dry
Kevin working hard
All grouted...enter Trisha to swipe and clean!
I also decided it was completely necessary to revive this back entry with a new bench with storage and an awesome coat rack. Kevin and I had found a coat rack online that we liked about a year ago. But, this coat rack cost $233?!?! For this.....---->
Yeah, our thoughts exactly. So, Kevin set to work making one for our new space. Here was his version, for all of $25....----->
Beautiful!
HOORAY! WE DID IT! There were some points during this project when I thought it may never be finished. But, all in all it turned out fantastic. As always, we learned a lot from our project. First, something will always go wrong...no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Leveling your tile is key, even if it takes forever. Last but, not least always be patient. We are fixing up this good ole' log cabin one project at a time. Slowly, but surely. :)
Stay tuned soon for the beginning of a project that has taken us over a year (and counting!) to complete.
Happy fall! It's my favorite season of the year. Isn't it wonderful to walk outside in the evenings and smell the crisp, fall scent of leaves? :) Mmmmmm....I just love it. Here's a little look at how fall is showing its colors in our backyard.
Now, I know. It's been awhile. And for that, I sincerely apologize. But, I have to say that it has made me feel pretty excited that some of you have asked me when my next post is coming! That means people are actually reading! Woo hoo! Although this is my favorite time of year, it is always a busy time of year too. As most of you know, I am a Speech-Language Pathologist that works at a school for children with autism. Since the school year just began, my days have been chalk full of IEPs, making new materials, meetings and all of that fun stuff. I am currently in the midst of writing 5 IEPS (3 down as of today and 2 to go!), so life has felt crazy. On top of my regular work, Kevin and I have been busy visiting friends and celebrating birthdays (Happy 30th Birthday to Dan Buckley!). Oh! And I forgot the most exciting thing that has happened in the past month. My mom and I took a trip to California to visit my dear sister Angela, my brother-in-law Chris and our niece and nephews (the always spunky Des, Wes and Penny).
Wes, Penny and Des
Kevin, me, Ang and Chris at a wedding
We saw the Hollywood sign!
And even had a celebrity sighting! Mario Lopez
and Maria Menunos shooting Extra!
But, back to the house! Are you ready to see what we did with the first floor bath? Although this bathroom is small, it took quite a bit of intricate work (all by Kevin, of course). Personally, I was not involved with this project other than a few decorating details at the end. This was a full on Kevin episode and he deserves ALL the credit.
Lets start by explaining what needed to be fixed. The walls in our house are tongue and groove, there is no drywall. So, when the previous owners built our home it was apparent that they decided to finish a lot of the inside structure themselves. Also, we have beautiful log beams that run across the ceiling of our first floor. With that being said, tongue and groove walls and the log ceiling beams can create a tricky puzzle. When we moved in, the walls of the bathroom did not completely run up to the ceiling. In fact, there was another piece of tongue and groove tacked on that went to the bottom of the log ceiling beams. Basically, the bathroom was not very private. Which in the case of a bathroom is a problem.
Kevin set out to make the bathroom usable. He put his carpentry skills to the test and it turned out great. Take a look below and see the beautiful work that Kevin did.
Before from the inside of the bathroom. Look
up!
Before from the inside again.
After! Isn't it great? Ok, this may be one of those
things that only Kevin and I appreciate :) But, Kevin did an
amazing job. Check out the beautiful rope detail!
All Kevin's idea!
Before
After
Before: Notice, no light, paneling missing
on the right and a whole lot of nothing
at the top!
Before: Now, this is where I come in!!!! I had been
searching high and low for something to store linens.
This space is small, so it was a difficult task. But, thanks
to my wonderful Aunt Nancy I found it! Amazingly, she
gave us this piece of furniture. And to make it even better,
it actually belonged to my grandmother before. :)
After! Kevin moved the light to the center of the wall, we bought a light (obviously!), Kevin added some beautiful trim and rope accents on the left and we decided to add a little hook on the right to hang your robe or towel.
Before
After: Kevin added trim and the rope accents on the far corner by the sink and I added blinds and curtains (thanks to my mom for the help! I am admittedly, terrible with curtains.) :)
Last, but not least, the shower curtain and the door. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the original door, but it was an ugly "barn" like door with a latch. We ordered this door from Mentor Lumber and Kevin stained it and hung it.
Now presenting, my first attempt at a video!!!! Even though I just walked you through all the pictures, there is something fun about watching a video. It's like really being on HGTV, but Log Blog style. Pardon my voice, I'm just getting over a cold.
I think that's it! We hope you like the bathroom transformation. Stay tuned for our next installment! :)
Are you still there? We are! It's been a busy few weeks and I apologize for the delay. We've been busy staining the house (don't worry, we'll show you ALL of that!) and throwing my Dad a surprise 60th birthday party! Happy Birthday Dad!!! We all need a little break sometimes and what better way to spend it than with family. So, I promised you the kitchen. Let me preface the post with this: the kitchen is still a work in progress. You will see what I mean. :) But, when we started working away in August this is what we were working with:
Notice, no appliances, ugly, red paint on the walls and some really, interesting hardware on the cabinets. First things first...Kevin had the idea to take out the cabinets that go across the island/bar counter area. I am the first to admit that my visual spatial skills are terrible. When Kevin voiced this thought I said, "Hell no!". All I could think of was losing my precious cabinet space (right ladies?!). Kevin kept bringing it up and told me, "If you don't like it, we can put them back up." I didn't realize at the time that this was Kevin's way of getting me to DO IT! Faster than I could say, "yes" Kevin pulled out those cabinets. Now, we DID NOT do the typical HGTV smash the cabinets with a sledgehammer...we both agree that that is one of the most frustrating and ridiculous aspects of those shows. Why ruin something that you could recycle or use for another project?! And that we did. A few of the cabinets had some doors that were damaged and we were lucky enough to use the doors from the cabinets that we took down to replace the damaged ones. Back to the cabinets...once they were gone, I saw the light! Boy, did I ever see it! Kevin was right. Removing those cabinets really opened up the space and connected the kitchen to the dining room, as well as the rest of the house. Props to my husband! He is definitely the one in this marriage who is always able to look past the surface and create innovative ideas. You'll notice that with the removal of those cabinets, we also had to remove the corner cabinet that was against the drywall. We are currently in the process of having an Amish cabinet maker make us an open cabinet for that space (thanks to Nancy for the suggestion!). Unfortunately, although the cabinets are beautiful, Kraftmaid cabinets they were too old for us to order something else to put there. But, all the better. The custom one will be something different and special. Don't worry, I'll be sure to show you when it's finished!
During that first month, Kevin had a bachelor party to attend (shout out to Erin and Jared...these two met at our wedding and got married last September!). We were trying to utilize every second we had that month. So, Kevin bequeathed me with the task of painting the drywall sections. I chose a taupe which turned out perfectly. What a pretty good job I did for my first time painting, if I don't say so myself! ;) Unfortunately, I did not remember to take pictures of it when I was finished...so you'll just have to imagine it! ;) Next, it was time to move in the appliances! Shopping for appliances was fun! Of course, we first started our search locally. But, Kevin ended up finding a GREAT online provider that shipped for FREE and did not charge sales tax!! The only catch was that the items were shipping from a distributor in California and living in Cleveland it would take about a week to get here. But, that was okay with us. We decided to purchase all Samsung appliances that we had previously viewed in local stores. So, we knew exactly what we were getting but for much less money. God bless the internet and Warehouse Discount Center! I scheduled for the truck to arrive at out house one afternoon with our stove, refrigerator and dishwasher. And arrive it did. But, not without a hitch of course. I knew that it was important for me to visually inspect everything before the driver left, just in case. So I did. I cut open those boxes and did my job. Dishwasher...check, looking good. Stove...check! Refrigerator...s**t. Yep, you guessed it. A nice dent or two on the side of the brand new refrigerator. Ugh! I have to admit that it was very difficult for me to refuse the refrigerator. It was really a beautiful refrigerator (that's how you know you're not in college anymore...an appliance is beautiful, ha!), but I knew deep down that the dent was too big. Plus, we just purchased NEW appliances, not used. If there was going to be a dent in my new appliances, I wanted to be the one to put it there. Here are the oh, so sad dents.
With that, I refused the refrigerator and sent it back to California. Luckily, the people at Warehouse Discount Center were extremely helpful and had another refrigerator shipped and on it's way in no time. The refrigerator made its second appearance about a week later and was in pristine condition. Woo hoo!
Off we went, installing our new appliances. No major issues with the stove. The fridge was a piece of cake...plug it in and go! It was the dishwasher's turn. Now come on, nothing is ever easy. Kevin worked extremely hard installing the dishwasher and spent a couple hours doing so. Kevin finished and we went to turn on the dishwasher just to make sure everything was kosher. Not so much...there was a PIN sized hole in the water line that came with the dishwasher. Looking at the hose, you could not even see it. Trust me, a lot of expletives were used that day. We eventually ended up solving this issue by finding the hose online and ordering it. It would have taken longer to have the Samsung contracted "repairman" order the part then for us to order it. Plus, this long month was coming to a close. Eventually, the dishwasher was installed, looking beautiful and more importantly NOT LEAKING!
Mid clean up...I was getting anxious to take pictures!
But, wait! What about a microwave?! Well, do you remember the picture of the open space once all the cabinets were gone? Did you notice the *ahem* "beautiful" range hood?
Oh yes, you better believe that thing was on its way OUT! Remember above how I said that Kraftmaid does not manufacture our specific cabinet anymore? Well, I should have been more specific. They still manufacture a "hickory" cabinet, but they do not produce the specific door (with the pretty ornate corners) that we have on our cabinets. So, we were able to order a small cabinet for that space from Carter Lumber in Chardon. The only difference was the door shape...can you tell?
Before
After!
I think that Kevin and I notice because we know (and I guess now that the secret is out all of you will notice too!). But, most people don't notice. Either way, that wonderful Amish cabinet maker is also crafting some doors to coincide with our current cabinets. Hooray! All in all, it was a pretty great transformation. I was really impressed and proud of Kevin (and me too! I did hold the cabinet and microwave for a long, damn time!). :) I know, this is never ending, huh? Three quick and easy things we did were to replace the overhead light, change out the faucet and Kevin made new, clean shelving for the ENORMOUS pantry. Ta-duh!
Not my best picture, but notice the ugly, GlOwInG fluorescent light
We went with some track lighting here.
Now you can see it in its full glory!
Faucet before...barely working (with no sprayer!)
After! I really love this faucet. It's an American Standard faucet that we found at of course, Home Depot! The sprayer nozzle is the actual faucet head itself.
Look at those poor sagging shelves! :(
Nice new shelves!
Last, but not least, the hardware. It really is amazing what a difference some hardware can make. We decided that we wanted something with clean lines, similar to the handles on the appliances. Off to Home Depot we went (I really would like to know exactly how much Home Depot has made off of us in the past year! Ha!). We searched and searched and just did not see anything that was appealing to us. I checked Lowes too, with no success. I knew my search was destined to be another online search. By the way, I knew hardware was pricey, but did not expect knobs to be the price that they were! Luckily, I stumbled across a site, Knobs4Less, that had exactly what we were looking for and at a decent price. We did end up splurging a little on the hardware, but that's okay. We chose an Amerock stainless steel hardware. What do you think?
Before
Pulls after
Knobs after
Phew! I think that's it for the kitchen. At least for now, anyway! What did we learn from this adventure? Here's my list:
Painting is not so bad! You can do it!
Shop appliances online for better deals...but, make sure to check them out when they arrive!
Always keep extra paper towels handy...you never know when a leak might spring!
Hardware is damn expensive, period.
Another day, another lesson. :) Thanks for joining us in the kitchen! I promise some scrumptious cupcakes when you visit our kitchen next.
Gluten free, dairy free peanut butter cup
P.S. Rambo likes the kitchen a lot...can you tell?
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