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 Waiting Game
So, it looks like our new hardwood floors are actually a two day job. I guess “After” photos will have to wait another day. But Burger reports everything’s looking good so far from where he’s standing.
Our New Whole House Color Scheme
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
Getting A Brick Doorway Widened By A Mason
“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
Girl in a Bubble – Part 2
“Im in a bubble again. This time of the mason’s making.” That’s the text message I got from Sherry yesterday, announcing the surprise arrival of Richard-the-mason. We weren’t expecting him until today, but were psyched to see him and his crew show up early to start the brick doorway job. And man is it a messy job. They’ve hung plastic membranes everywhere and coated a couple floors with brown paper, but it still feels like there’s not only dust, but brick and cinder block crumbs everywhere. Not to mention the crew’s half-empty water bottles and used dust masks. They’ve promised to clean up more thoroughly today when they’re done (cross your fingers…that they finish and
Downgrade
The verdict is in: our house is a mess. And we have to admit that we sometimes yearn for the old days when shelves housed decorative items like photos and vases instead of cereal boxes and light bulbs. In clearing out our entire kitchen for the renovation we’ve been forced to find creative places for all the stuff that we used to have crammed into cabinets. I don’t know if you have paused to think about how many things you have in your kitchen cabinets and drawers, but IT’S A HECK OF A LOT OF STUFF. So when John suggested we clear off our pretty decorative Ikea shelves and use them as a makeshift pantry,
Finding An Affordable Stainless Steel Range Hood
HOODWINKED! As in, we did the hoodwinking. After months of having our eye on a stainless steel chimney hood for above the stove in our new kitchen, the $1579 price tag was still hard to swallow. And then something that can only be described as a miracle happened. We found one for $350. It turns out that a high-end European brand wanted to break into the US market, so they offered their swank chimney hood exclusively to Home Depot at a staggering $350 price. Home Depot gladly accepted and within weeks it had sold out. But not before we snagged one! And get this- according to the salesman, the company is so known for its
Updating Our Exterior Porch Lights With Something New
We added instant curb appeal with two new porch lights to crisp things up. These affordable fixtures from Lowe’s really made all the difference, check it out!
Operation Widen Doorways: Days 3 & 4
I’m home from work today, and I get to witness Day 4 first hand. Unfortunately, all the exciting stuff is over and it’s basically just one of the Parker guys – Conrad – taking care of some finishing touches (sanding, skim coating, etc). Just like Day 3 all over again (apparently walls need a lot of finessing to look seamless). Conrad’s awesome. He’s even helping smooth out some other walls – like where the chair rail came down in the new third bedroom and where we demo’d the laundry nook. Once the joint compound is all dry, it just needs to be lightly sanded and the walls will be ready for a coat of that
Oooh, Ancient Treasure!
When the cabinets came out on Wednesday, we uncovered some buried treasure. Well, if you consider things stuck under 50-year old cabinets to be “buried” and tattered old papers to be “treasure.” Here’s what we found: Coupon for 5¢ off 2 bars of Princess Dial soap (“the soap with moisturizing cream right in it”) Coupon for 12¢ off two cans of Campbell’s Soup for One (expires 4/30/81 – I was less than 7 months from birth!) Coupon for 15¢ off 2 packages of Soft-weve toilet paper A dentist appointment reminder card for Mrs. Floyd Pollay for April 28, 1971 at 2pm A Beginner Bible Story dated Nov 1958 A Storytime pamphlet called “God’s Helpers” dated
Operation Widen Doorways – Day 2
Day 2 with the crew was a rocky one, but still had its share of successes. The good news is: The electrician installed a new switch so we can finally turn off the kitchen light. The Parker boys finished closing off the dining room door with new dry wall. They also successfully widened the doorway that leads to the sunroom from the den. Now we have a nice, airy back entrance (the picture doesn’t do it justice) that will look great with our new washer and dryer in the newly opened nook to the right of the door. Now, the rocky parts: The electrician showed up so early (7:45am) that he caught me in my
Light My Fire (A Pendant Light We LOVE)
Ok, so we’ve been passive aggressively looking for the perfect light fixture to hang over the dining room table in our big dining/living room to better delineate the dining area. After repeatedly searching ebay, patrolling google, and leafing through a few dozen catalogs, I finally struck gold when I thought to hit up the CB2 website. Not only did they have a clean, classic light fixture, it was as easy on my wallet as it was on my eyes. After checking out options in the $200 to $400 range all morning, the $49 price tag almost knocked me off my chair. Needless to say, I wasted no time ordering it from the comfort of my