The Kids' Bathroom

Ewwww...

The Kitchen

So I said I'd taken off 3 days between painting the bookcases and putting up the planked ceiling in the hearth room, but one of them was actually spent doing this...

This is how it looked before:

Once you get over the disgusting floor, notice the cabinets on the right that block any light or view into the breakfast area.


So, after the floor was torn out, next to go were these lovely knobs.  Not just because seeing them made me cringe, but they were in the very center of the cabinet doors.  Why?!

I actually sold them on ebay for $80.

I wish I could zoom in on this picture so you could see the porcelain farm animals on the chandelier.  They came off immediately after the railing came out.  Which was right before the gross peel and stick floor tiles were torn out.  There were so many horrible things about this area of the house I lose track of the order they went in.

Which reminds me that we also replaced the fluorescent light.  Ewwww.

By "we" I mean Uncle Scott.  He also replaced the faucet and disposal.  Thanks Uncle Scott!

Much better.  So I could actually see what I was cooking, but the kitchen was still dark and gloomy.

So one day while Margaret was napping, it went from this:

To this:

And this is how it currently looks.  I don't like drywall so I'm waiting to take out the soffit until Kyle can patch the hole.  Which may be never.  Just kidding, I have 6 weeks until my due date and I'm pretty sure my crazy nesting powers will find a way to make it happen!  We're having the kids' bathroom redone this week (by a real contractor!) so I'm taking some time off until that's done.

Here's a sneak peak of the bathroom:
Kids' Bathroom

The Vaulted Ceiling

I took off 3 days after finishing painting the built-ins before I decided I couldn't stand the dark PAINTED brown wood beams and yellowed popcorn ceiling.  Nothing is more awful than wood that's painted brown.  Why would you paint wood brown?  It's already brown.  

This picture makes me shudder.

The beams are rough so they took tons of paint.  I had to do two coats of primer and two or three coats of paint.  And my ladder was barely tall enough to reach the high point.  With a big pregnant belly almost knocking off the paint bucket every time I moved.  And two little kids climbing up the ladder behind me with chisels and hammers.  Waaaah...waaah.

Two sections done.  

Me looking awesome, as usual, with my new brad nailer.  This is how I "nest".  

The kids eventually got used to the compressor running in the living room and the blasts from the nailer.  

Anyway, it's all done now!  It only took a couple weeks.  

It's hard to photograph a ceiling.

Now I just need to find some new shades for the fan lights.  And maybe matching bulbs.

House Updates

Well it's been a long time since I've posted because I've moved from little projects to a big one - our "new" house!   

It was built in 1971 when wood paneling was apparently awesome.  An entire room of wood?  Great idea!   Popcorn ceilings and dim lighting?  Perfect.

I actually love wood, but this room felt like a cave.  

First thing to go was the railing and beam dividing this room from the eating area.  (Kyle loves it when I call him with questions like "Where's the sledge hammer and the Sawzall?")

I couldn't stand having a gloomy Christmas so I at least primed most of the room.

Having a 3 year old and 1 1/12 year old helper made it really exciting.

But it actually made me feel happier every time I walked into the room.

Then there were the built-ins.

Wood, obviously.  

They're actually really pretty and I knew the details would show up better in white.  The room needed some color though.  I'm sure in 30 years I'll look back at the 2010s and wonder why in the world I wanted everything white and grey.

I tried a few different options on the back of the bookcases.  

I ended up mixing some Disney Wish Upon a Star Blue that was left at our last house with the Disney Bother Free Blue from Margaret's crib and adding some grey exterior house paint to tone it down.  And hoping I didn't run out.

This was a long project.  But...it was worth it.  Now, how to decorate a huge wall of shelves. I'll probably just fill it up with junk.

And if I ever need to remember what it's like to be surrounded by wood, there's still this room, that's entirely wood paneling with another wall of wood built ins.

Play Kitchen / Bread Box / Potato & Onion Bin

My husband got this from a client and snuck it in to the living room after I'd gone to bed.  I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a nice surprise or he was afraid I'd make him give it back.  It was dirty.  And not exactly my style.  But, lucky for him, I was in serious need of a project.  And I have a thing for wood cookstoves.

I know one day I'll probably love the yellowy tones and knotty patterns of this style, but right now, I don't.  Actually, after I scrubbed 40 years of smoke and grime off, it was kind of pretty.  

I was going to leave the lettering, stovetop, and drawer pulls natural and paint everything else white, but the font on the lettering was bothering me.  It didn't seem to match the era of cookstoves.  I decided it would look better in chrome, with matching hardware and handles, and a vintage aqua color paint. 

I left the cooktop and legs natural.  

It was very well built and I love the little chains on the cabinets.  

It turned out really cute!

The funny thing is we already have a potato/onion bin (that's the same ugly wood, except uglier) and a bread box.  Maybe now we can get rid of them...

Linking to:

Miss Mustard Seed

Primitive and Proper

Gary's Toddler Bed

Gary has been out of his crib for a few months now, but rolls around so much he couldn't stay on a bed.  So he's been on foam pad on the floor.  Kyle really wanted him to have a bed so we built him one with rails all the way around. 

We started the bed a while ago, but had some table saw trouble halfway through so it was delayed for a few weeks, but finally all came together last weekend.

The side boards and rails are from a tree from the ranch. A beaver had cut the bottom of the tree so Kyle brought it to Hutchinson when we were living there.  We had the wood milled by a neighbor in who had a portable mill and it's been moving with us since then. Finally we had a use for it!  We had to sand it down a lot to get it smooth. It still looks a little rough in spots and has a few saw tooth marks but I kind of like that it shows the history of the wood.  It's beautiful wood so we didn't want to paint it. The posts are leftovers from Camy and Cliff's deck and they didn't look good with the ash boards so we painted them white.

We told Gary it was going to be his bed.  It was just boards and posts for so long I guess he thought this was what he would be sleeping on! 

The finished product with all his animals.

He likes it.

Finally a headboard!

I've been searching forever for the perfect headboard for our guest bedroom.  I wanted a curved wood frame that I could add padding and fabric to.  My dream headboard would look like this one from Cre8tive Designs.  Unfortunately no one was selling anything like that for almost nothing.

Instead, I found this one for $11 on Craigslist.

I had to take all the pieces apart because the top piece of the backing was attached on top of the bottom piece so it wasn't an even surface for my foam and fabric.  

I thought it would go back together more easily, but I ended up having to add bunch of little support pieces to the back to get it all flush in the front.

I painted the wood white and added 1/2 inch foam.  I stapled on batting and brown duck fabric, and made double welting to cover the staples around the edge.

Here is a close up of the fabric and double welting.

Ahh...finally a headboard.