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Young House Love » Archives for November 2011 » Page 2

Archives for November 2011

| By John Petersik | November 17, 2011 | 458 Comments

Filling Cabinet Gaps Around Our Stove

Some aspects of this kitchen remodel are certainly less exciting than others – especially when compared to having just opened the wall up. But alas, these things must be done. Including a few that we wanted to accomplish before the countertop guy came to template for our new counters (that’s something we want done accurately, after all). First on our list of little things was filling the gaps next to our stove. The base cabinet that we removed was 36″ wide, but the stove is only about 30″ leaving a little under 3″ of nothingness on either side. Since you can’t squeeze much function into two and 3/4ths inches (almost every pull-out drawer was 3″

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Second House

| By John Petersik | November 16, 2011 | 284 Comments

Removing Our Kitchen Sink & Our Old Granite Counters

In the words of Carla from Top Chef: hootie hoo! Our counters are ordered (more on what we chose and why we chose it here). They came in at exactly $38 a square foot from Home Depot (no hidden/added charges, which was nice) which added up to around $1700 (ouch, good thing we’ve been saving for this kitchen a while). We also priced them out at Lowe’s and a couple of local retailers and none of the local retailers could do better than $55 a square foot (huge difference, huh?) and while Lowe’s and Home Depot both had the same $38/square foot price, Lowe’s charged more for the sink cutout and a few other add

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Second House

| By John Petersik | November 15, 2011 | 477 Comments

Three Zero

Today I turned 30. Woot. My mom didn’t make me stand in front of an “I AM 30” banner (or fashion a crown for me) like she has in past years, but she and my dad did have us over for brunch on Sunday morning. It was actually a surprise that Sherry planned with them. I had known about the brunch (since my cousins, aunt, uncle, and little sister had traveled in from DC for the day), but was somehow oblivious to the fact that they might use the gathering to celebrate my thirtieth until a candle-filled plate of muffins was placed in front of me. Oh, but my mom did make me this: Never

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Filed Under: Love & Marriage

| By John Petersik | November 14, 2011 | 10,005 Comments

Fab Freebie: ‘Tis Z Season

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** After another entry-limit-reachin’ giveaway, we’ve closed things off at 10,000 comments and random.org has selected our winner as… Nicole is STL (who’s looking forward to holiday time off for relaxing with family and friends). Congrats! Since you guys seemed to like the $500 (holla!) prize last week, why not do it again today? This time the half-G of goodness is courtesy of Z Gallerie, whose penchant for sparkle and white ceramics is appreciated by us all year round… but even more so during the holidays. You can hit up their holiday section (or any section really) for loads of silver, gold, and ruby

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Filed Under: Giveaways

| By John Petersik | November 14, 2011 | 523 Comments

How To Trim Out A Cased Opening And A Half Wall

The wall is down (more here). Drywall is up (more here). Time for trim. I actually kinda enjoy doing trim. Despite it requiring lots of focus and attention to detail, it’s very satisfying to see all of those rough edges turn into crisp white borders. But before I could get to trim, I actually had to take care of the ledge on our half wall and the door jambs first. Our neighbors recently had a similar wall opening project done in their house (these guys), and we really liked how they treated their half-walls with a wood platform on top and trim beneath to dress it up a bit. It looks really finished and balanced

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Second House

| By Sherry Petersik | November 11, 2011 | 140 Comments

Octo-momma

Work continues on our big opening between the kitchen and the dining room which I still forget exists until I stumble into the room in the morning only to feel the sun shining in and break out in song and dance. No really, I do. It’s like a Disney movie around here. So while we deal with door jambs (and trim and a wooden ledge for the half-wall) we thought we’d introduce you to the latest member of our family. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve added to my brood of white ceramic animals, so imagine my delight when John surprised me with this fine tentacled specimen: Apparently I mentioned that I was

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Filed Under: Decorating, Our Second House

| By John Petersik | November 10, 2011 | 252 Comments

DIY Drywalling Tips

As exciting as it is to have both that section of wall and the contractor gone, there’s still a lot of work ahead of us before our opening is finished. Unless this is your idea of beautiful dining room: Oh and speaking of the contractor, locals have been asking for Steve’s info – and now that we’ve worked with him and were extremely happy with his result, we’ll share (we only like passing along people’s info after we work with them, to be sure they’re someone we’d recommend). He’s a licensed Class A contractor as opposed to a handyman (so he doesn’t hang doors or build furniture or do odd little jobs), but if you

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Second House

| By John Petersik | November 10, 2011 | 104 Comments

A Yellow And White Checkered Kitchen Floor

Still working on the drywall situation for our new opening! While we get that together and snap some pics for this afternoon, let’s look at an awesome kitchen makeover – you know to keep the momentum up. Of course we perked up when we spotted the words “1948 ranch style house” and “kitchen renovation” in our inbox. Then we saw the awesome before & after pictures attached and, well, see for yourself. This is one of those makeovers that reminds us that whatever the budget, making one or two daring or unexpected choices can make the room (and make it feel like yours). We’re loving the playful choices like the yellow floor and the chalkboard

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Filed Under: Reader Redesigns

| By Sherry Petersik | November 9, 2011 | 440 Comments

Knocking Out A Wall To Make A Large Cased Opening

After 330 days of living in darkness, we can fiiiinally see daylight in our kitchen. And it’s nothing short of ahhhhhmazing. This whole process took Licensed Contractor Steve and Right Hand Woman Tara almost seven hours of work (more on why we needed them, how we found them, and permit stuff here). Meanwhile John, Clara, and Burger hunkered down at his sister’s house to avoid the chaos and I stayed home to answer questions, offer up snacks/drinks, spy, drool, and live vicariously through them. They were amazing and we couldn’t be happier with the admittedly-still-very-raw but super-exciting-in-that-we-might-not-sleep-tonight result! Here’s how it all went down. Literally. Of course this is completely over-simplified (and obviously isn’t a

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Second House

| By Sherry Petersik | November 9, 2011 | 169 Comments

Opening The Kitchen Wall To Make A Doorway

Other potential titles for this post: Holy Schnikies I (Almost) See The Light The Sweetest Sound = A Power Saw Best Day Ever!!!! This post could be called a tease but I like to consider it a keeping-you-posted thing. So many folks are wondering what’s going on around here, so a picture’s worth a thousand words, right? More pics and deets later! Psst- To anyone wondering about the vents, there’s more info on how we’ve dealt with those here. As for the electrical wire, ours guy’s coming out to get on that.

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Filed Under: Our Second House

| By John Petersik | November 8, 2011 | 182 Comments

Hanging Protective Plastic For A Kitchen Renovation

Things are getting pretty Dexter around here in preparation for our wall opening. Because when walls come down, dust comes out, and therefore protective plastic must go up! So to set the mood I’ve intentionally left these photos kinda dark and eerie. I’m nothing if not theme-y.   Oh and since I affectionately call myself Captain Safety (much like Sherry wishes $herdog would catch on), it bears mentioning that old homes can have lead paint, and therefore call for extra precautions (especially if you have little ones and pets around), so you can find more info on that here. We followed those directions and had our walls checked for lead (it’s the thing to do

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Filed Under: Our Second House, Project Planning

| By John Petersik | November 8, 2011 | 177 Comments

A Vintage Sign For Wall Art

Remember how we stopped at this place in Maryland on our way to our Labor Day beach weekend? And remember how we spotted these cool sign letters there that were made even cooler when we learned that they were meant for a Dollar Tree store and were selling for $20 each? I was obsessed with them and almost took home an E, R, or A, just because (sadly there’s no P, J, S, C or B in Dollar Tree). Well, I finally got me one. Let’s give a lukewarm welcome to letter L. Why L? Well… give that L a little 180 degree spin and whaddya get? Our favorite number AND a happy John (our

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Filed Under: Crafting & Art

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John and Sherry Sitting On Woven ChairHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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