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{Crashing @ Christy’s} Kitchen Makeover – Stage 2

November 7, 2012 in Crashing at Christy's, Kitchen

Wow! It feels like I’ve been away from the blog FOR-EVER. It wasn’t intentional. I had a moment of frustrated, frugal anger and CANCELLED my internet service. Trust me… they were overcharging.

Fast-forward a few weeks and I’m BACK IN BUSINESS. Saving $40 a month, no contract and a FASTER speed. Booyah. Take that Centurylink. I hate how phone, cable and internet companies give new customers a great price…. and then jack up the fees over time. So much for rewarding loyal customers!

Anywhoooo, I’m back from my impromptu blogcation and ready to share some of my fun!

First and foremost – we’re long overdue for an update from my sister Christy on her kitchen makeover. She first spilled the beans on her culinary-overhaul on October 1st. Wait until you see the progress! Take it away, Christy…

Hey, fellow Crafted Niche followers! I’m back to talk about my kitchen makeover. I am so over this kitchen makeover. Over it. This is a never ending project and I’m sick of going out to eat. We’ve been without a kitchen for about 8 weeks now. Lame city. But, let me show you what we’ve accomplished since you last looked and maybe that will lift my spirits.

We painted the walls to prepare for the cabinets being installed. I am loving grey right now and we went with Valspar’s Urban Sunrise. It will also be the hallway color (that or another one from the swatch).

The unpainted parts in the kitchen are where tile is going to go. So excited to get to that part, but we have to wait for the countertops. Blah.

Next up…. CABINETS!!! This is where it starts to look like a kitchen again. The Lowes installers were here for about a day and a half. They did a great job and had to spend a lot of time leveling since my old house is so off-level.

See that cutout below the window? Impromptu electrician visit. We had to have a wire run through the walls so that all the backs wouldn’t need to be cut out of the cabinets. So, I patched those a few days later.

See that blue “body outline” on the floor? That was a tape reminder not to step there. I had to try to smooth out a crack before we could tile in there.

I am so glad I had them installed instead of doing that part DIY. There are some things that are better left to the pros. For me, this was one of those things.

What now? More tiling of course!

We had to do an appliance shuffle because my old water shutoff valve doesn’t quite shut the water off. Almost, but not quite. So, we just kept sliding the fridge around after the mortar was set (at 24 hours later).

Had to show off some of my mom’s skills at cutting tile. She does such a great job!

Loving this tile color with the white cabinets! And, it should be noted that you don’t see our Labs’ hair tumbleweeds as much now. Yes!!!

Grout, de-haze, and seal. Then, we could bring in the appliances! Starting tomorrow, we’ll be cooking in our house again. So excited. But, we’ll still be without a sink for a few more weeks. Boooooo. Oh well, the next milestone is in our sights!

I love how my over-the-range microwave and range look together. So pretty. And, that microwave makes a mean bag of popcorn. Perfect.

Here’s a couple before-and-after’s to show you how we’re doing…

It feels bigger somehow. But, we didn’t move any walls or add any floor space. Actually, we lost a couple feet of cabinets, but we’ve gained countertop space. Up next is trim, countertops, tile, open shelves, oh my! And, then one day (probably this Winter), we’ll get around to tiling the floor in the laundry room that is seen from the kitchen. One day.

Thanks for reading!

-Christy

Pretty amazing already, right?! I’m telling you… Christy should be the one blogging. That girl is a get ‘er dun type… Whether it’s brass fixtures, 1970′s paneling or outdated cabinets, she’s a take-no-prisoners DIY’er.

And speaking of impressive…. my sisters are BOTH running HALF-MARATHONS in a week. Ummm WOW. I’m so proud of both of them. I wish I was closer so I could cheer them on and be their #1 fan. Super proud of my sisters!

……aaaaand sorry for the long delay in posting on the blog! I promise… I won’t cancel my internet in anger without having a back-up plan next time!

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Christy’s House – Kitchen Makeover

November 14, 2011 in Crashing at Christy's, Kitchen, Uncategorized

We’re headed back to Christy’s house again today for a look at her kitchen and just how incredibly farrrrrr it’s come since she first moved in. Seriously… every time I walk in her house there is a new project she’s completed and each and every one is fantastic. This girl is talented and I’m so excited she’s agreed to share her projects with us! We’re going to continue taking a tour one room at a time and she’ll have some tutorials for us along the way. LUV! …..and now….. take it away Christy!

Hi Everyone! Thanks, Dana, for having me back again. Having a blogging sister does have its benefits. ☺ Last time I showed you the exterior of my house. I would do a whole house tour, but there is rarely a day when all rooms in the house are photo ready. I guess I could move some of the piles from room to room for pictures, but that feels like cheating. So, I’ll just show you one room at a time when they’re ready for their photo ops.

Let’s start with the kitchen, shall we? Since the first day walking through the house, I knew that the kitchen was going to be remodeled from the slab up. But, it wasn’t (and still isn’t) in the budget cards yet. So, I was ready to live with what I had. Here’s what it started with the first day walk-through…

Lovely, right? You can tell by the layout of the fridge, stove, and oven that it wasn’t ideal. If you are standing at the stove trying to cook and someone opens the fridge, you’re going to have some choice words for that person when the door hits you. So, the layout needed (and still needs) a change. Hopefully I’ll get to blog about that in the next 2 years if budgeting allows. ☺

Within a month of being in the house, my parents and I decided that the cabinets that hung from the ceiling over the peninsula had to go. I’m only 5’4” and even I had to bend over to talk to others in the dining room. I didn’t mind losing the store because somehow this small kitchen has TONS of storage. So, to the curb the pieces went along with this weird counter (at table height) thing that was attached to the backside of the peninsula. So strange.

I lived with it this way for about 4 months until my mom decided that what I really should do was paint the cabinets. I am pretty sure I looked at her like she had that morning’s breakfast all over her face. “Um, WHAT?? Don’t you know how much work that is?? I’m going to tear these cabinets down later this year!!!” She reassured me that it wouldn’t take more than the weekend and that she’d help me with it (famous last words). Did it take longer than a weekend? Oh my, yes. Did I tear the cabinets down that year? No, three years later they’re still there. Did it make a huge difference and allow me to be patient while I wait for the money to be saved? Hate to admit it, but yes.

Dizzy yet? Bored? Well, I won’t take it personally if you skim the words and get to the pictures.

Then one weekend, I decided to paint the backsplash. I had different paint colors leftover from various rooms and thought why not?? I just cleaned the backsplash well (well, good enough), primed it, used yellow as my base color, and then used my laser level to tape vertical stripes and paint the other colors. Some of the paints were eggshell, others were semi-gloss. “Who cares?? I’m getting rid of this kitchen later this year!” (that was in 2009). Oh yeah! And, I also stenciled on the cabinet doors with a very basic pattern that happened to come from a brownie decorating kit that I found at JoAnn’s. I really didn’t like that and felt like it made the kitchen seem busy. So, my mom lovingly painted over those for me one weekend. I think she felt bad about the previous year when she left me to finish painting the cabinets. ☺ Love you, MOM!!!

Do I love it? Not necessarily. But, it sure looked better than the counter-meets-backsplash in all one hideous color! Now, it’s just the countertop that hasn’t been touched and I don’t hate it as much.

Enter 2010… Still no new kitchen. But, I’m okay with that. But, all you lovely bloggers and followers were so into doorless cabinets that I was starting to feel envious. Why not take the cabinet doors off some of mine??? Well, that opened up a can of worms. The tops of my cabinets are a fake soffit. But, the inside of the cabinets actually go all the way to the ceiling. What wasted space!!! This transformation is my favorite of the entire kitchen.

Added some curtains and shelves on the side of the cabinets for dog treats (our family sure loves dogs!!!) and this is how the kitchen looks today!

…and one more with the light off so you can get a look at that drum shade fixture. Swoon!

Pretty fantastic so far, right?! It’s amazing what a little (or a lot) of paint can do! …annnnd just today she purchased a counter-depth stainless steel fridge to kick-start her further kitchen renovations. That girl is a go-getter, I tell ya! Just wait until you guys get a closer look at some of the other rooms in her house!

Christy’s House – Exterior Before and After

November 5, 2011 in Crashing at Christy's, Outside

Great news guys! Seems my sister is catching the Blogger bug! That’s GREAT news for the rest of us because her house is UH-dorable! Tons of great ideas and that girl is NOT afraid to try a new technique or go out on a limb. She’s agreed to give us a tour of her house over the next few months and walk us through some of her favorite projects. What better way to start than a look at her house before and after from curb-side! Take it away Christy….

Hi, Crafted Niche followers!!! Thanks for letting me post again. I recently was looking back through some pictures of my house from my first walk-through before I purchased it. WOW. To say that this house needed a makeover was an understatement. I can’t believe I was able to see the potential now that I’m looking back! But, knowing your budget and what it can buy was probably a HUGE motivator in buying something that needed a little rouge and cover-up.

Welcome to my house!!! It’s my first home and I am so proud of it. The house was owned by the first owner and then ME. I think she did some updates in the house while she lived there and raised her family. She put a Tuscan mural in the dining room, carpeted over the linoleum in the bathroom, and added ceiling fans in the bedrooms beside the ceiling light that was already there. Yes, I said “beside” the lights. She didn’t combine them. But, the good part about me being the 2^nd owner of this house is that I didn’t have to deal with other previous owner’s cover-ups. I got to create the first ones!

This is how the exterior of the house looked in the listing before I bought it.

So charming. Actually, I probably could have left the house just like it was on the outside and it would have been sufficient. But, A. LOT. OF. WORK. Look at all those bushes that would need to be trimmed! No thanks. Plus, I felt like the house was hiding behind all that shrubbery. And, the holly bushes would attack you as you were stepping onto the front porch. Bye bye, holly bushes!!!

Well, this picture is a teensy bit unfair since the grass and tree are green. But, it’s my guest post so I get to make the rules. So there! My parents, my neighbor, and I tore out most of the original bushes. I then went in and tried to make the right side look more like the left and added some boxwoods. A friend installed the mailbox under the light, I painted the front door navy blue and my dad built the window boxes!!!

My dad is so incredibly handy. I had a crazy idea that I wanted to hang a 6’ window box under each of my downstairs windows and then 3’ boxes under the upstairs windows. Well, my dad got some cedar and made it happen. We hung them from the house using homemade “cleats” that my dad made by cutting a 1×2 in half at an angle. During the winter, I bring the upstairs window boxes into my garage so they don’t get as much wear and tear.

If the flowers had to rely on me to keep them alive during the Summer, they wouldn’t stand a chance. So, I installed a drip irrigation system on a timer that waters them each day for me. Yep, that’s the engineer in me coming out. So, all my flowers and bushes take care of themselves, thank you very much. If you look closely at the pic below, you can see the tube that leads up to one of the flower boxes. Another lovely friend of mine ran that tubing just under the edge of my shingles so I wouldn’t have to climb the ladder on a 100+ degree day.

I also tore out what I’m sure was a gorgeous Wisteria bush that was at the front of my driveway. It didn’t bloom for the first two years I was there and was constantly sprouting up all over the yard. So, it was history. I know some of you are cringing, but I have since become a fan of posting on Craigslist and offering “free bushes” to anyone who will come dig them up. At least they’re not going to waste now.

Thanks for taking a look at the exterior of my house. I’m really looking forward to showing you some of the inside next time!!! After looking at these pictures, I’m so ready for SPRING!

-Christy