The Great Kitchen Renovation

Yes, this is the third kitchen we've renovated.  Every house we've ever owned, we've made major changes to the kitchen. It helps when your dad is a cabinet-maker, of course.  ::grin::  But I think this is my FAVORITE kitchen so far.  I've always wanted white beadboard (even when it wasn't fashionable) and I love the mossy green color in contrast with the floors and the counters.  But the coolest thing is the rolling cabinet - the kitchen is tiny, so my dad built another cabinet on wheels so we can move it around to use, and tuck it up under the window when we don't need it.  It also added tons of storage, which was also a critical addition.

So without further ado, here's the "Before" - yeah, it looks all nice and pretty, but the philosopher pulled those off the walls with almost no tools.  Cheap, crappy fiberboard and they weren't even put together correctly.  We were afraid to put anything heavy on the top cabinets for fear they'd actually fall off the walls.  Bad, I'm telling you... BAD.

 

So we started the disassembly on Sunday evening.  We took everything out and stacked it in the living room and the dining room (making sure the toaster oven would be accessible, and moving the dish rack to the bathroom since we wouldn't have a kitchen sink for a few days!)  

Oh, yeah - and the coffeepot - that was the LAST thing to be moved!

The philosopher finished up the demolition on Monday, while I was at work.  Apparently he tossed the cabinets off the back deck, and they broke into lots of tiny pieces that he then had to go and clean up.  (But really, that was probably easier than one guy trying to haul sections down the stairs, right?  And it made large crashing sounds, which is always satisfying!)

What a mess.  What a BIG mess.  So this happened on Monday.  Tuesday morning my dad and one of his guys showed up with a trailer full of cabinets.  The philosopher actually worked for dad for a semester, so he was able to help do a lot too - dad's crew got the cabinets hung, leveled, and installed, then G and I hung the doors.  

 We also put on the knobs and pulls - which doesn't sound so hard until you realize that we also had to drill the screw holes in the right spot for each one.  (I won't as you to look for the ones that may not be *exactly* even....).  Then, finally, I added the new paint. Whew!

 VOILA!  And the first meal cooked in our spiffy new kitchen?  A vegetable pot pie with a cheddar biscuit crust.... YUM.

Q: When is a door not a door?

A: (All together now...) When it's AJAR!

::snort, chuckle, snort::

Well, let me tell you a story about adventures in doors.  When we bought Misty, we knew right away that the house needed a new door.  (Those rotten jams and the fact that a good solid kick even from a wimp like me would've knocked it out of the frame were dead giveaways.)

So, we did our measurements (yes, twice) and did our research and found a great door online at Home Depot, on sale and with free shipping to the house, even!  Woot!

Well, the door came in.  And we toted it up onto the front porch.  (Did I mention the door weighed about 150 pounds?  And neither of us are weightlifters?)  So "toted" might be too weak.... how about "lugged"?  Or "Strained every fiber of muscle in our bodies"?  Yeah, those are better.

Anyway, Greg got the old door out, and so we had a huge hole in the front of our house, perfectly sized for a new door.  (Some installation required.)  Except that when we got all the packing pulled off, the dadgum door was CRACKED.  Unusable.  Unsatisfactory.  Unhappy!

(It's a lovely door, though, isn't it?)

So we called customer service and they said they'd ship us a new one ASAP.  But we still had this Gaping Hole in our house.  So we got permission to dry fit the door in place with two screws (probably more sturdy than the old one!) until the new one arrived.  And guess what??

It didn't fit.

It was too tall.  Whoda thunk that standard doors are different heights???

So we called customer service and cancelled the reorder.  And hauled the &$%#* thing BACK down the stairs and into the back of the pickup so we could take it back to the store for a refund.

Now, about that hole.

We used plywood and lots of screws.  ::sigh::

Then we started planning our next step - finding a door with a sidelite that WOULD fit.  And guess what?  Yeah - we got nuthin.  So we went with plan B (or maybe this was plan F or V) and started looking for a door that was the right height, and who cares how wide it is!  We finally found one, and thus began the philosopher's first experience in framing.

It wasn't pretty.

But after much cries of "drat", some sledgehammer usage, ripping the new framing out twice, and lots of blood and sweat, we have a NEW DOOR!

(Cue the applause)

We didn't want it to look like we had an off-center door, so we added wide trim to both sides, and I think it turned out fantabulously!

So kudos to the philosopher for *not* kicking the glass out in frustration, and for giving Misty a great new look.  (All I did was the paint!)

Play Misty for Me?

Well, I don't think there will be any stalkers in this version of "Misty" - it's the nickname we've given our NEW HOUSE!  ::insert cheers and clapping here::

 

We bought a bank-owned property, so we got an amazing deal.  Our payment will be less than a (cheap) car payment, and when we sell our house in 'Bama, we'll have enough money in the bank to pay off Misty.  And that, my friends, makes it all worth it, even though we'll carry two small mortgages for a while.

Misty continues our theme of buying Houses With Stone - we've decided that our liking of that particular architectural detail hearkens back to our Sewanee days, when we saw nothing but stonework buildings for blocks and blocks.  Still, I like the look and layout of Misty much much MUCH more than Brown.  There's a finished downstairs room with windows that will make a great study for the philosopher, a separate dining room, a deck, and a storage shed, all on just over a half-acre.  We're about 20 minutes from Marietta, and about 45 minutes from midtown Atlanta... and 15 minutes from my new job.  Gotta love that!

We never thought we'd buy a newer house, but this one makes sense.  The only hard work that needs to be done is replacing a bathroom floor and doing a little outdoor drainage repair, and the handyman philosopher is all over those projects. And of course, some decorating needs to happen. There is actually new carpet in the bedrooms and new paint on the walls, so all we need to do is replace the flooring in the living room and find someone (you know who you are!) who can make us some beautiful new curtains. ::grin::

So next time you want to go to Six Flags, a Braves game or the Fox Theatre, you know where you can stay!

Re - re - do!

Well, occasionally I don't win one.  You may remember, back in 2008, when the philosopher and I renovated the main bathroom?  It went from a horrid brown with pheasants to a slightly less horrid white with blue.


Hm.

Zana was never *really* happy with the white and blue combo, but she was loathe to admit she.... may have made a mistake on color.  OK, Ok, ok.... I CHOSE POORLY.  (Fortunately we're not talking about the grail here.)

So this past summer (yes, it's been a long time but what with this and that it was Labor Day and then Christmas and then February and then we remembered to take a picture) the philosopher went to a week-long conference.  And of course, what do I do when he goes out of town?  I paint something!  I decided to re-do the bathroom, with a little help from my dad the cabinetmaker.  We rebuilt the closet door and the vanity doors, giving them a beadboard look.  I painted the white walls brown, and the vanity and medicine cabinet white.  We already had dark blue towels and other accents, so - voila - bathroom 2.0!

What you can't see is the roman shade and valance, which is white with a dark blue and a mottled khaki stripe, and the lovely shower curtain from my mother-in-law, which is white with a dark blue stripe.  And the hallway is no longer dark brown, but white.  Bonus!

The Death of a Pool

Yes, it is gone. Done. An ex-pool, if you will!

(In honor of that, here is my favorite Monty Python skit - and I quote: "'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!")

::snort:: ::giggle:: ::wahahahahahahaha:: ::snort::

Sorry. Where was I?

Ah, yes, the demise of the pool. We called a local guy - so local, in fact, that he *drove* his backhoe to our house rather than haul it behind a truck. He arrived about 9am, and by 1pm, he was driving off into the sunset.

So here's the before:



And then we did a little work with a sump pump. (The pool vinyl was so crunchy it was disintergrating as we cut it out!)



And then Snake showed up. (Yes, we live in Alabama. Yes, the backhoe operator's name was "Snake". Stop laughing!)



He did all that work in three hours. And we did not have to have any fill dirt brought in - he regraded the existing hill and smoothed it out and all that went into the hole. And I gotta say, he was a master of that machine. He was able to use the claw and pluck the fenceposts out of the ground without breaking them - and without breaking the holly bushes they were right up against. He broke the concrete skirt away from the patio slab perfectly, not even cracking the concrete we wanted to keep. And he did amazing grading work with the front scoop - you'd think we used one of those big grading 'dozers! I suppose there's something to be said for learning a trade early and keeping at it for three decades, huh?

(And in case you were worried, the bottom of the pool is not concrete, but a sand slurry mix that will disintegrate - and did actually start breaking up as soon as the concrete bits started getting tossed in. So we should have no drainage problems at all.)

Now, you are probably asking, how much did that cost? Well, one estimate we got from a professional landscaping company was upwards of three thousand dollars. ::shudder:: We wrote Snake a check for one-sixth of that. And for another couple hundred he's going to bring in a few tons of topsoil and his bobcat to spread it around. But that will be a couple of weeks, because we need to let the ground settle first.

So now that we saved all that money, I'm dreaming of landscaping and hardscaping and trees and shrubs and flower beds and arbors and pergolas. But the philosopher has us on a budget, so we'll see how far we can get in our Master Plan. I'm hoping at least for a crape myrtle and a camilla or two!

Nothing a grenade can't fix??

We have a problem. It's not a terribly important problem in the grand scheme of things. (You know, those BIG problems like "Will the philosopher find a permanent teaching position next year?" and "What kind of ice cream should I have for dessert?") But it's something we'd rather not deal with right now regardless.

When we moved to the southeast, we bought a house that has an in-ground pool. (Nota bene: we didn't buy the house because it had a pool - we bought the house despite the fact that it had a pool.) This pool is about 30 years old, and has now degenerated to the point where we must either replace the liner and repair the liner track, or remove the whole dadgum thing completely. The repair job will cost upwards of $6000 according to the bids we've received. ::shudder::

We're still waiting on estimates from a few landscapers to find out how much it will cost to remove it altogether - busting up the concrete skirt, ripping out the vinyl, filling in the hole, and regrading the back yard. (Now, before you start making suggestions - a grenade would actually be too small, and a small nuclear device might just be overkill. And the philosopher driving a bobcat with a jackhammer attachment scares the living daylights out of me!) So that leaves us with finding a contractor who does reliable bobcat work. We've called a couple of "official" landscapers, one of which came out to our place last week and one who's coming out tomorrow. I figure they're going to be on the high end of the bids because they're landscapers - they'll do the pool work, of course, and THEN they'll want to make some shrub beds and plant some trees and lay a fancy cobblestone patio (called an "outdoor living space" these days) and screen in the porch because that's really how they make their money. I don't mind someone doing the hardscape work - pouring and leveling a bunch of concrete is Not Fun. But I think I'd like to do the beds and pick the shrubs and choose the perennials and dig in the dirt.

Anyway, we're also making some calls to excavation and grading contractors. My dad knows a guy named "Snake" who does bobcat work, and someone at work recommended a company nearby called "Dirt Cheap". (You do recall that we live in Alabama, right?) I'm thinking if I can get an estimate from either Snake or the Dirt Cheap folks, they'll be the best in terms of cost. I'm just not sure I want someone named Snake working in my back yard! ::heh::

So if you couldn't tell, my vote is for removal even if it costs nearly the same as repair. (I don't think it will cost as much, but that might be just wishful thinking!) Why, you ask? I don't like the pool. Well, it's pretty to look at, but I don't swim in it, and I don't think it's worth the upkeep. And really, I don't think it adds that much value to the house as a selling point, either. I think a really nice area with a path and trees and shrubs and such would add just as much value, and cost a lot less for a homeowner to maintain.

Now if I can just convince the philosopher!

The Holiday Project

Over the 4th of July weekend, the philosopher and I endeavored to improve a festering eyesore on the back quarter of our property. We have a workshop - a goodly sized one - that we use for all sorts of nefarious undertakings (like weed whacker maintenance, and woodworking projects, and dining room table refinishing, and lots of sundry storage).

The shop, though quite useful and watertight, looked pretty rough. Actually, that's an understatement. It looked like a heap. The small door was an interior door, slowly decaying from being exposed to the elements. The big double doors (the ones we drive the tractor through - yes, close your mouth - we have a tractor) are OSB. Waferboard. Pleh. We don't think it had been painted in at least 20 years, and some of the siding had actually turned to dust. We had a goodly amount of paint left over from when we painted the house exterior, so we undertook a Herculean labor. Replace the damaged siding slats. Kill as many of the mud daubers, spiders, paper wasps, daddy longlegs, and other creatures who un-naturally thought the shop walls were their homes. Sand the mildew off the trim, and then prime and paint the whole mess.

Here's the "Before" (but after we replaced the small door with a steel exterior door):


Then, after three days of hard labor and less than $150 outlaid, here's the after!


Now when you pull into our driveway, you don't see this looming hulk in the field and wonder whether or not it is part of this property. You see a nice workshop that, given the opportunity, would be fun to spend some time in routing a picture frame for a favored work of art. And the completed project also appeases my sense of orderliness and tidiness - it matches the house!

Laborious Labor Day

(Unfortunately, without pictures)

The Philosopher and I had a very successful Labor Day weekend, replete with many labors! He re-wired our front porch light and added a second light on the front edge of the house. Now if you visit us after dark you can see the porch from the driveway! It was a 2-Lowes effort, so not too bad at all. He's getting very good at figuring out knotty electrical wiring solutions without either electrocuting himself or setting something on fire. Yay!

I had a different project: a new flower bed. Rather, an herb bed. Inside the pool fence. About 18 inches wide and spanning about half the length of the fence. I plan to fill it with rosemary and lavender (and maybe some chocolate mint) which will make that area smell fantabulous! Our pool area is covered with about three inches of pea gravel, so first I had to rake all that aside and redistribute it to low-lying areas. (Pea gravel is heavy, even with a wheelbarrow!) Then I had to peel the weed barrier back (slimy!) Finally I had to bring all the large stones from the front so I could line the edge of the bed with them. (And if you didn't know, large stones are even heavier than pea gravel!)

It took me about 6 hours, but the work is done. Well, we still have to get 1/2 a cubic yard of soil/leaf grow to fill the bed. (Drat this Alabama red clay!) And some mulch. But...I've got the rosemary cuttings in pots, so they'll establish a good root system in a month or so. And the lavender is layered in the front bed, so theoretically the shoots will set their roots before it gets too cold to transplant. But I have some guilt here... what on earth do you do with the extra plants you propagate? I only need about 4 of each, but you want to root more in case any don't take. I hate to just toss them in the compost...hmmm. If you need some lavender or rosemary, I may have some extras. ::grin::

Anyway, by early summer next year, we should have a fragrant bed filling the evenings with sweet and savory smells. Ahhhhhhh.

Now I remember...

...why I like living in the southeast!

The weekend was absolutely beautiful, near 70 degrees on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Saturday was spent with my mom, helping her clear out a storage room so it can become a bedroom for my grandma (who's moving in with mom on Monday). Friday and Sunday we spent outdoors: clearing and burning brush, repairing the back deck, and sinking a new post for our bird feeders. I also transplanted some lavender and rosemary from pots to the new herb garden bed by the front walk. Mmmmm - the lovely smells you get now just coming to our front door! I plan to add other herb-y perennials like thyme, Greek oregano, tarragon, chives, and mint as the days warm up a little more. I expect we'll have some more cold weather before too long (our local meterologist calls long-range forecasting "voodoo-land," and apparently voodoo-land shows another arctic blast coming in before the end of the month), but right now I'll take all these 70 degree days I can get!

It is done.

As promised, here are the before and after photos of the exterior of our house. It almost doesn't look like the same house, does it?

And here's the after, for comparison...

The Outhouse Conversion

We are nearing the end of the home renovations. We're still within our budget, as long as we don't encounter any other bizarre problems. If I were a betting woman I'd say that sometime this summer we'll need to replace/repair the heat pump, but I've just decided not to worry about that right now! Our most recent triumph was converting the guest bathroom (which we not-so-lovingly called "the Outhouse") into something resembling a small but inviting bathroom that guests may use without fear of things lurking in dark corners. As you can see, the Outhouse had raw redwood siding (the same that was in the guest bedroom - don't ask me, I just don't know why). We sledgehammered the orange sink and the almond toilet (which you can see peeking out from behind the shower) and replaced it with a small pedestal sink and a white toilet. We also raised the ceiling of the "toilet nook" and added a vent fan, removing the bare bulb which was there before. Instead of ripping out the siding and putting in drywall (which we did in the bedroom) we sanded the planks and caulked the seams, and then painted the entire mess. We also removed the foul parquet floors (I know, I know - some would say it's sacrilege to remove real parquet, but this was growing all kinds of ... goo ... between and underneath the pieces.) Since we want our guests to have a healthy and happy experience visiting us, removing the offending substances seemed the way to go. As a final touch, the oh-so-seventies vanity light was unceremoniously chunked and replaced with a light fixture that actually illuminates the room. So as you can see, the bathroom is fresh and clean! Hurray! And as a bonus, we were able to use the leftover vinyl from the kitchen, so we saved some money there too. The problem came when we
(I say "we", but I really mean "the philosopher") tried to install the new sink. The previous homeowner(the guy who built the house 35 years ago) owned a heating/cooling business. So he used pipes for heating and cooling purposes rather than buying true plumbing pipework. So ALL the pipe had to be ripped out and replaced. After some muttering and grumbling and climbing-under-the-house vituperative comments, we finally got a plumber-friend-of-my-dad's to help us with the last bit, because the only way it could be done (without tons of extra expense) was slightly off from what the code book says. Since we live in the country, city codes and inspections don't apply, and it's better code-wise than it was, so we don't feel too bad.

Anyway, our last project - painting the exterior - is almost done. When that is complete I'll post final before-and-after shots and we will rejoice and be glad!

What can (we) do for (Brown)?

We bought a house this summer, as many of my faithful readers know (both of you!). 8-) We called the place "BROWN: Jewel of the Seventies." I would like to share a couple of pictures to emphasize the point, or at least to prove the name.

This is our kitchen "before". Note the BROWN cabinets. Note the floor, which we designated as "psychadelic cabbage" green. (Did I mention this house was built in 1973?)

And next to it is "after." Did I mention that it's really nice to have relatives who are cabinetmakers? And a spouse who likes to do home repair along with his Aristotle musings?

Other interesting aspects of the house included a guest room and bathroom covered in (brown) exterior redwood siding. And the main bathroom has (yes, brown) paneling with pheasants on it along with an avacado green tub and toilet. Zoinkies! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. (Along with our effort at taming the seventies!)

And....dark brown paneling on the walls in all the hallways. Brownish-gold paint in the study. Brown exterior. Brown roof. Brown grass. (OK, that can't be helped. We're in a drought!) The halls are still brown - it is terribly difficult to prime and paint old rough paneling, and even harder (and more costly) to rip out and install drywall. The study is now a bright white. The roof has new shingles (reddish brown, maybe? The color was called "desert tan," I think) And this spring we are repainting the exterior a light tan with brick red shutters and doors. It will go well with the stonework that covers the lower third of the exterior.

Slowly but surely, we are persevering in eradicating all vestiges of seventies decor from the house, and - if I do say so myself - the house would thank us if it only could talk!