Home Decorating, DIY Tutorials, & Shenanigans
You’ve seen plenty of photos, but it was ’bout time we got all 21st century up in this mother. Here’s the minimally-anticipated world premiere of our first video house tour. Sherry plays Vanna while I take on the role of Spielberg…and keep an eye out for a cameo by Burger. Enjoy it HERE on YouTube.
We scored an inexpensive stainless steel undermount sink for our kitchen renovation and used a coupon code to save even more money. Wahoo!
We scored a discount faucet on ebay for our kitchen renovation. Here’s the rundown.
The weekend kicked off with what seemed to be our biggest plumbing project ever. Mainly because it required turning off water to the entire house (which involved me sticking my hand down a muddy, bug-filled hole in the front yard with a tiny wrench as my only weapon.) We were fixing a small leak the floor guys created when they re-installed our bathroom pedestal sink. It couldn’t be fixed by simply turning off the water under the sink because that shut-off valve was the very source of our problem. And the last thing we wanted was a leak onto our new floor. Luckily, we had been able to temporarily tame the leak by turning off
Here’s that washer & dryer update that you’ve all been asking for. Yesterday our fab front loading washer & dryer (which ended up being floor models due to Lowe’s SELLING THE ONES WE ALREADY PURCHASED!) arrived in near perfect condition. In fact, the dryer is flawless and the washer has only a tiny scratch on the top that you’d need a magnifying glass to locate. So all in all, we’re actually thrilled that Lowe’s messed up and sold our new models since the floor models are just as nice (and ended up saving us another 150 bucks, bringing our total discount on the washer and dryer to $500- amazing!). In fact, they told us we
We got gorgeous new mocha oak flooring from Lumber Liquidators- here’s the whole rundown for you.
Remember that old wallpaper we found after demoing the chair rail in our dining room turned third bedroom? Well, over the past couple of weeks we’ve uncovered some other “interesting” design choices made by the original owners. For instance, when the kitchen cabinets came down we found this toothpaste green paint under the sink: And when the floor guys took up the layers of linoleum on Monday, they revealed the original faux-brick flooring (to match the faux-brick backsplash, maybe?): I can’t even wrap my mind around how this floor and the paint looked with the knotty pine cabinets and “green monster” appliances. But the kitchen wasn’t the only room showcasing questionable patterns and colors. This
It is mind-boggling that Target has not even been mentioned thus far into our blogging experience. It is our home away from home (along with Lowe’s) and has provided us with many a piece of furniture that we adore. In fact, our Thomas O Brien media console, two leather storage ottomans, dining table, Magnavox flat panel TV and gorge Victoria Hagan end tables all hail from Tarjay (the French pronunciation is tres chic, non?). And last night we made out like bandits again. We returned home with a swank leather Parsons chair for my desk ($99), a stainless steel floor lamp ($29) for our light deprived den, and this ironstone serving platter ($9) along with
Put a fork in ’em, cause they’re done. Actually, on second thought, please don’t get anything sharp or scratchy near the new hardwood floors. It took two full days, but the floors are officially in and officially awesome. It’s mind-blowing how they (along with all the wider doorways) totally enhanced this part of the house. It looks completely and amazingly updated…well, except for the still-gutted kitchen. Here’s documentation of the transformation: Old linoleum covered in construction dust… is now glossy hardwood. 4 different foors in 4 different rooms… become only 2. There’s plenty more to share about the flooring adventure, but it’ll have to wait because right now we’re enjoying our “new wing” too much.
7:30pm, Monday- SHERRY: Floors are looking great so far, right? JOHN: Definitely. You agree, Burger? (Burger stands in silent agreement) SHERRY: Do you think it’s weird that there’s no baseboard here against the brick? JOHN: No, it’s fine. SHERRY: Yeah, you’re right. It’s fine. 11:00pm, Monday- SHERRY: I’ve been thinking, it is weird that there’s no baseboard there. JOHN: What? No, it looks fi- SHERRY: TOTALLY weird. JOHN: Okay. So what do you want to do? SHERRY: Get a baseboard and have the floor guys install it. JOHN: But the floor guys’ last day is tomorrow and we can’t buy any baseboards tonight because Lowe’s closed an hour ago. SHERRY: Can you get it tomorrow
The last couple weeks we’ve had paint on the brain. And this weekend we finally got paint on the walls…and our hands, clothes, hair, etc. We had 3 reasons for the painting extravaganza: Flow: All the widened doorways make the house feel more open and connected, but our old schizophenic paint scheme (which included celedon, turquoise, seafoam, butter yellow, and about three shades of brown) was fighting it. Trend: We’ve seen soothing neutral colors all over design magazines and model homes, so it felt like it was time to ditch the turquoise for a more sophisticated palette. Necessity: All this demo left a lot of things “putty” and “drywall” colored, so almost every room was
“Not funny.” That’s what I said when a tree branch across the street fell and took out our power yesterday, a mere two minutes before Richard-the-mason and his crew arrived. Luckily, widening a brick wall is mostly manual work – and chipping out bricks and cinder blocks isn’t contingent upon electricity. When the power hummed back on about an hour later, the crew hardly noticed (picture me jumping for joy in the background while they continued to chip and hammer away). By the end of the day, the brick doorway was finally widened to a glorious 5 foot opening…and the house didn’t fall down in the process! Check out the end result of a project
