Kitchen

Below are the before pictures of the kitchen renovation for the house. The house was a total gut job so I am posting room by room. Please let me know if you have any questions or you would like to hire me for any renovations. :)  I just do interior design not any manual labor. lol. Anyways I can help you with anything from picking out materials, flooring, cabinets, paint colors, trim etc I also can design kitchen or bathroom layouts which you will see more of in the bathroom renovations. I have about two years of experience in designing kitchen and bathroom layouts not including the ones I have done at my own houses. :)  Feel free to contact me I am always down for work :) elizabethwyatt@yahoo.com

Getting rid of the popcorn ceiling was a big mess!

                                                  

When we first looked at the house, we had originally planned to refinish the cabinets, install new counter tops and replace the appliances. Of course nothing goes as planned and we decided the cabinets were in much worse shape that we thought. They were the original cabinets from the early 70's and not looking good. You can imagine how this killed our budget but the old cabinets were not going to work out as we had originally planned. What's new?? ha ha 

Demo-time!

She took out that wall all by herself!

Am I really working or just pretending? You guess!

This was the beauty that was above the cook top.

And behind the cabinets was wood paneling?

Removing wall to open space. View from the front door.

Since this was a load bearing wall, my main workers, Charlie & his cousin Eric, added a beam in the attic. They did this all by themselves, they are so smart and handy. ;)  I will not go into detail about the major accident that happened at the house the first day of work, but after that I was the biggest worry wart in the world. Especially when anyone went to do anything major like this. This time I thought the house would collapse or they would fall out of the attic onto something and kill themselves. Ahh I have problems I know.

Inspirations

I really wanted my dining area to look like this, I mean who would not? 

I loved everything about the light neutral colors and the dark table with the simple but kind of fancy chandelier. I am more of casual person. I like plain, simple and CLEAN! Mostly because I have kind of learned my lesson with all the trendy stuff. It seems to go out of style very quickly so I try to stick to things that can hang around for a while.

I loved this kitchen. I really loved the glass pendant lights but I couldn't find any in my price range, and you can't have it all right? The back splash is amazing,I think it really adds something to it to make it stand out. Mine is not that shiny but it is pretty similar. Once again I love the white cabinets and neutral counter top. All white kitchen are my favorite. 

 

Of course the kitchen was one of the last thing to go in so after the drywall, electrical, plumbing, and the floors were sanded down, we then got the cabinets installed. My cabinets are popular wood and custom made. Half of them were taken out of another house that had minor water damage while the other half were new. I chose a white matte finish instead of really glossy finish as well.  Good thing we used real wood cabinets instead of the mdf board ones because about 3 months after we moved in the new fridge got a leak and leaked all under the cabinets. Since they were real wood, they did not swell up and bust like the manufactured ones would have. I also used a dark bronze handle and have a stainless kitchen faucet. Yes you can mix and match those two finishes.

I chose a very light wall color as well.

Here they are being installed

Tah Dah!

I kept basically the same layout as before just got rid of the wall oven and got a range.

Love my peninsula/bar. 

 We redid the lighting and just added lots of can lights. I believe there is about 10 of them. I was worried there were too many, but all the old ladies told me you can never have enough lights in your kitchen. ha ha

Counter tops I went with a light grayish color called cashmere white. Sounds fancy huh? ha ha. My back splash is just a marble subway tile from Good Ol' Home Depot. My grandmother actually bought it for me bc at this point I was going to wait on one, but she insisted she wanted to buy something for me for the house. So sweet of her. :)

Good deals

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a big cheapo! I like to bargain hunt and find good deals on everything.  :) Just wanted to share some of my good deals on my kitchen project with you all. If you are looking for new faucets, I recommend Kohler or Delta bc they both have a lifetime warranty and they last! Find the model number you like and check all local stores and online for the best price. I got all of my faucets for the house on Amazon.

Amazon $99. Lowes $148

Bargain Hunt $19.99 

Bargain Hunt has lots of great lighting. Now you do have to dig through boxes, but hints the name Bargain Hunt. ha ha. Just make sure you check it for damage or missing parts before you purchase. :) Love that place!

69$ from Lamps Plus Open Box. Originally $150

We found this beauty in the garage. After a new staining and a little clean up it looks great. Love look of the white trim with the stained door.  There was just an opening here leading to the sun room, but we closed it off because it was not heating/cooler properly. Ignore that mess in there. The interior of the sun room is not finished yet. :)

Before/After

Before view from entry door.

After view from entry door

Before view from foyer

 After view from foyer

Before view of kitchen

After of kitchen

Before kitchen side view

After kitchen side view

Before view from dining area

After view from dining area

We also extended the hardwood flooring throughout the whole upstairs. It was previously just in the kitchen and dining area.  We are really pleased with how everything turned out even though it was not a planned renovation when we purchased the house. Whoopsie again :)

Pool Rehab

July 2013

We purchased this house in July 2013. It needed a whole renovation, which I will later post pictures of all the before and afters. Here was the pool the day the day we closed.

Green=Not Good!!

  We had no idea how hard it was to take care of a pool. This was July 2013. We finally got it cleared up after months of shocking it. By that time it was time to close it. Just our luck. :) 

 After doing lots of research online I finally talked Charlie and Dad into refinishing the pool. Of course we thought it would be a couple of weeks project turned into almost 3 months. Whoopsie! This pool was built in the late 70's so we believe. It has a concrete bottom and fiberglass sides which is very unusual. It is also a massive one at that, about 50' x 25'. Most pools in this area are fiberglass, gunite, or liner pools and half this size. I came across a blog from someone out west that had this same kind of pool. He basically broke it down step by step what he did. 

First thing we did was sell the slide on Craiglist.  I know I'm such a party pooper but it was not in good shape and we have had enough accidents at this place! And those handles by the stairs!! Was that handicap accessible? Who knows what that was. Gah! And that blue color. We will not even go there!

 April 2014

My Charlie working hard :)

My Dad sanding away.

Charlie sanding and sanding for hours and hours...

Dad sanding and sanding for hours and hours....

Charlie first started by pressure washing the whole thing. Charlie & Dad then began the dreadful sanding. We were definitely worried about the pool floating up out of the ground if a heavy rain came, but luckily nothing happened. This whole process took about a month to do. Since they were only able to work on it after work and on the weekends.

Here's the little smurf one day after sanding.

There was blue dust everywhere, it looked like a smurf massacre!  After all that was complete they had to re pour the stairs and caulk every seam in the pool. We also replaced the skimmer, jets and drain covers because they were painted the dreadful blue as well. I spent hours doing research on what color to paint it. Who knew different color bottoms would reflect such different colors? I chose a light gray and just hoped for the best. We ended up ordering a brand that Sherwin Williams ordered for us. It was an epoxy paint so it came with a color and a hardener that you mix right before you paint. The amount of research I spent trying to get the perfect color and the perfect price was insane. For 70$ a gallon you probably would do the same! We always have a tight budget so I always try to find the best deal. Online this paint was 160$ a gallon. How Sherwin Williams sold it to me for that price is beyond me!This paint says it will last about 7 years.

Finished painting!

Fill it up!

Painting it was the easiest part they said. It took about a full Saturday to do so. I was a bit worried when I saw it without water. It reminded me of a big battleship, but hey what could I do about it then? When we started to fill it up and I saw the water color I loved it! We enjoyed the pool and took a break for a couple of weeks before we started the decking.

The concrete had so many cracks in it and the drains did not drain because of the way the concrete was poured. Good thing I know someone who knows how to fix that. We decided to do the Kool-Deck finish on top of the old concrete. It makes the concrete not as hot and covered the cracks pretty good so far. Every picture I looked at online had some type of rock border around the pool. I am really glad we did this now because I think it really makes it stand out.

Border in progress

Border before it was washed

Kool-Deck in progress

Kool-Deck in progress

It looks kind of like a flagstone tile. He then shot the Kool Deck material on it. After it dries you then paint the surface. I chose an off white. We started with 10 gallons. And guess what? We were about 2 sq ft off. Ahh so the paint that was originally put on it came from the Kool Deck company and takes about 10 days to get here so we just went back to Sherwin Williams and bought some water based outdoor paint. Of course everything can't go smooth with every project. ha ha I laugh now, but at the time not so funny. After it was painted and sealed then it was pool party time for real!!!!!

Finished Product

Here is the finished project. I decided to not go with an hand rail on the stairs as well. I really love how it turned out. We are not really sure how much someone would have charged to do this job, but Charlie says he would have charged at least $10,000 in labor. ha ha. Even though we never knew how long and costly this project would be, it was so worth it in the long run. I always wanted a pool and little Wyatt is getting used to the water as well.  :)

 July 2013

July 2014

Thankful for Charlie and Dad!

3210

  I really wanted to post a few of the before and after pics of my house but I know not everyone wants to see every picture. Therefore I refer back to the ol blog that I have not posted in about 2 years. Babies really take up a lot of your time! The house is still a work in progress and we really do enjoy fixing it up, even if we have to wait in between projects to save up money. :) 

Deck

Since we have just about revamped every room on the inside of our house. We have been slacking in our back yard. So first it started with our tiny deck that was in horrible shape. It was a small size of 12X10. It was a very tight squeeze for a table and a grill. So one afternoon Charlie decided to knock it down. I was very surprised to come home to this....

Really scared me, bc he just decided to hook some chain up to his truck and punch the gas...I was like ummm..ok..whatever I guess that works. ha ha

So the next day, Charlie, John, & Eric worked all day to get the new deck up. Such great friends and family to help us! Thanks guys! We decided to do it two different levels because of the way the siding was on the back of the house. After running into just a few minor problems they got the hang of it. ha ha ...

Not bad for the first day. I even helped carry the wood from being cut up, to the new deck. Quite the helper, I know. Throughout the next two weeks, Charlie was only able to work on it for a couple hours when he got home from work, so it is still a work in progress.

 We decided to do the trex handrails on top, and instead of purchasing the black metal posts for the rails 30$ for 10, we used some kind o metal pipe. Charlie cut the pipe to size and I spraypainted them at work one day with the help of my dad. I will tell you about 150 poles to primer and paint, my arm was sore for at least 3 days. I also had Charlie build a bench into the side with a privacy wall because I like it private ya know? ha ha

Here is Charlie after he got done widdling the bench(before the rails were up)...TIRED..Nice socks man.

Here's those metal poles, really happy with how they turned out. :)

And that little table over there is actually a secret compartment to hide cool things (like maybe a watering can or candles) ha ha

We put lattice on the bottom because I cannot get anything to grow under there. So Charlie is going to hoard some crap under there. Almost finished, we are paying someone to come and seal it tommorrow because we are sick of working on it. Hoping we will be able to enjoy it this weekend. :) I'll post pictures to follow. :)