Counterproductive

Now, in the beginning of this whole process I was determined to have a white kitchen. I initially wanted marble countertops but was quickly talked out of that idea due to this comment “have you ever seen aged marble?!? It’s yellow and stained all over the place.” The salesman could have easily sold me granite (it is more expensive) but instead he saw that I was a practical person and knew I would be upset with the fact the marble stains easily. I actually have read this but don’t know if it is true since I have never had marble counters, but I saw tons of marble in Italy and it yellows overtime. I was suddenly sold on the idea of having granite countertops. There are so many other options out there in terms of countertops; granite, quartz, Corian, laminate, recycled glass and they all have their own unique properties and pros/cons but ultimately we wanted something durable and nice to look at in the space.

I was thinking that a darker granite would ground white cabinets and we were leaning toward New Venitian Gold.

Of course with my last minute decision to go with cherry cabinets I changed gears and decided I would like something lighter. After a little research online I found Kashmir White which is a white stone with garnet accents. We figured that these garnet accents would be perfect with cherry cabinets. We went back to the granite yard and they gave me a sample of Kashmir White – it is going to look amazing once its installed.

Of course the counters I had grown to love are no longer being imported from India...They told me that they might start importing them again but couldn't give me a solid time-frame and that I ought to select another stone. I finally come to a decision that I truly love and then I have to find something else I love just as much. I wanted to respond with - "don't you know how hard it is for me to decide and pull the trigger?"  We had the granite yard send over pictures of similar looking stones they had on site and also scoured the internet for similar looking options. They are all beautiful but I had a vision of what I was looking for.


We were running out of time so I had to choose from the other white stone samples. We both thought that White Galaxy was light enough and had the garnet accents that I thought went well with the cabinets. 

                                             

After seeing it in person I was not convinced I would like these counters better than the first one I selected, but knew that I really had done everything I could. The granite yard told me that we were getting a more expensive stone at the same price as the less expensive price - as if that was supposed to automatically make me fall in love with it. Just because it is more expensive I am supposed to like it more?!? I don't operate that way and came home with a sample to let it "grow on me."

They are measuring for counters this week and we will hopefully have a finished product soon! I just hope that I love the counters - I could be looking at them for years. 

Indisposed

Honestly that is how I felt after this project...at one point during this project I ended up on the floor in the fetal position. Pro tip: don't smell old pipes that were once connected to a garbage disposal. 

Upon our home inspection we learned that the garbage disposal under the sink was not working – we purchased the home as-is but included an inspection clause just to make sure that there were not any serious structural issues or other significant problems that we would consider “deal-breakers” to give us a chance to walk away from the sale. The broken garbage disposal was not deemed a deal breaker and after some research we determined it was something we could tackle on our own. After determining that the reset button did not fix the problem and after trying to use a hex wrench to get the blades moving we decided to replace it and do it on our own.

We first did some research on what kind of disposal to purchase and ultimately went with the Badger 5

 (find out more about the disposal and listen to their sounds here: Insinkerator)

It was determined to be an economical choice while also not being the loudest disposal on the market – honestly I don’t really care if it is loud or not. At Home Depot they have buttons you can press where it mimics the sounds of each make and model. They all sound the same to me except for the model that is the most expensive which is pretty quiet but really I could care less since it is a garbage disposal.  I can’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on a garbage disposal.

Also most garbage disposals, including the one we purchased, come ready for hardwiring into the house but the old one we removed had plugged right into an outlet in the cabinet so we purchased a kit to turn the disposal into a plug-in kind. I figure we will eventually hardwire it but in the interest of time and money it plugs in for now.

After getting our disposal delivered (we ended up buying it online to save a few bucks) I watched a guy install a garbage disposal step by step on youtube at least twelve times. 

Once I felt comfortable and somewhat confident I told RC it was time….

The first thing we did was remove the old one which was actually the hardest part – finding that to be a common theme at this house. The pipes were totally stuck and would not loosen for us to remove it. After spraying copious amounts of WD-40 (the BEST invention EVER) on the pipe joints and borrowing a pipe wrench we were finally able to get the old disposal off.  That is after I was in the fetal position on the kitchen floor sobbing uncontrollably because I was upset it wasn’t coming off. I was having a bit of a rough week...

Once it was off and out from under the sink and I threw it in the garbage (literally I threw it which helped get rid of my pent up aggression against the project) we went step by step with the guy in the youtube video. I of course had the laptop in the kitchen on the floor- seriously though the guy makes it look super easy. We installed it and had it operable in about 30 minutes. It actually works – pretty well I might add – and we are still married so I guess we can count this project as a success.

It is amazing how much smoother these projects go when you have the right tools...guess who got a pipe wrench for Christmas?!? When it comes time to add a dishwasher I think we might need to remove it to connect the dishwasher to it so I am glad we now know how to do it and have the proper tools.
I wish I would have captured more pictures - this was a 2 man job so I didn;t have the ability to take any progress shots.

This is one of those posts where I like it put it out there that we are not professionals but most of the time we learn how to do things around the house by doing a little research and watching some youtubes to realize that we are capable...and so are you. Like I always say, if you can read directions you can probably do it!

Cabtastic!

We have our cabinets installed and we are thrilled with the way things are looking around here. There are so many options out there when it comes to kitchen cabinets but luckily I had already narrowed down the door style I wanted. This helped us decide what kind of cabinets we wanted.

I had decided on the “shaker” door style a long time ago when I would lustfully look at kitchen cabinets (we had not even moved into this house yet!). The part that really made me think was the color of the cabinets. I love white kitchens and they are so hot right now. Almost every kitchen they re-do on TV is white. Our last house had white cabinets that we had painted and so going into this process I was pretty sure that I wanted white cabinets. As we looked at many sample doors on showroom floors I began to quickly realize how the painted white doors showed cracks really badly in the joints and the fingerprints were just gross. RC and I are relatively clean people and I don’t mind cleaning smudges off the cabinets but cracks are whack. Also, I don’t consider myself “trendy” (you may be reading this and saying “yes you are” but I like to think I am not; agree to disagree – okay?). White kitchens are so hot right now and I am concerned that it is a trend meaning that in 5 years I will hate my white cabinets because I should have gone with wood cabinets since wood never goes out of style. Both RC and I love dark wood and much of our furniture is dark wood so I went with my second love of cherry cabinets.  I don’t have to worry about dirty smudges, or the cracks, or my white cabinets looking dated in 5 years. It was a very difficult process for me - I still lust after white kitchens I see.

We looked at a bunch of different manufacturers and ultimately decided on Wolf Cabinets. They are made with solid wood doors, plywood construction, dovetailed drawers, and soft closing hinges and drawers, and made in the USA.

I must say that the last part really made me decide that these were the cabinets for us. Those of you who know us personally know that we love products made in the USA and well, RC just loves the USA.

We worked with the kitchen designer and had a design that we were able to walk out with that day. This was possible because I had taken measurements and drawn out a map to bring with us so we could tell them how many linear feet of cabinets we needed. Since we had our map we were able to tell him what kind of cabinets we wanted in what space so we knew exactly what they would cost.

Below is my map compared to the map the designer gave us.

The kitchen designer worked out a layout for us and we were able to walk out that day with our new layout. It looks pretty close to what I had in mind.

So we ordered the cabinets that day and just had to wait for them to be delivered to the warehouse so we could pick them up.

Things we learned:

• Quotes are typically given in “linear feet”. This gives you an idea of what you will ultimately spend on cabinets – of course there are a bunch of different options that can increase your cost but this is a good baseline. You ultimately pay by the cabinet you choose (lazy susan, double door, single door, drawers, etc.)
• Going to the showroom with a “map” of your kitchen with measurements of walls, windows and appliances is key.
• Cabinets come in increments of 3” in width.
• Custom cabinets are very expensive – standard sized cabinets are just as nice.
• Standard cabinet dimensions: Height 36”, Depth 24 inches.
• Patience is a virtue.

The Last of the Plastic Cabinets

Now that our wall has been demolished and build back up we can continue the transformation by adding cabinets. We had a lot of contractors who came in and said by taking down the wall we will lose cabinet space – I think we broke even maybe added a little – so there.  Not to mention will have more counter space, a dishwasher and a more modern feel.

Of course I had not yet decided what cabinets I wanted and there was the whole unexpected demo of an entire wall of cabinets so I thought I could take my time in choosing cabinets but, as in everything else, we sucked it up and went cabinet shopping and decided we should choose/buy cabinets as soon as we could. We literally had about 48 inches of counter space and one cabinet after the demo project was finished – time was of the essence.

Here is a sneak peak of the cabinets we chose and we are now just awaiting their installation!

The Fire

We live near a firehouse so it is not strange for us to hear the sirens at all times of the day. Yesterday while we were relaxing after working on some small projects around the house I felt like the sirens were unusually loud and I said to RC – “Are they on our street or something?!?” and then they stopped. That’s when I knew that Arlington's Finest were In. Front. Of. My. House. Before I knew it there were firefighters running into our next door neighbor’s home.

I have never been so close to a house on fire that I literally think I stopped breathing for a second. This was the view out my front door and even while typing this – it gives me the chills.

More fire trucks kept responding and in the end we had six engines, one ambulance and two police cars blocking entrance to our street. RC and I just stood on our front lawn watching all the action and I just could not believe what was happening. Watching a house that looks exactly like yours spewing smoke is not comforting at all. Then all of a sudden the firefighters busted out the window with the water from the fire hose. That’s when I knew how serious it was. I will never forget that sound.

While we didn’t see any flames protruding from the roof like you might see in pictures or on TV, but it was so surreal just standing there watching it. Once firefighters began taking their gear off I knew the fire was out and I was not worried about fire spreading to our home. The fire actually started on a mattress so interpret that however you want…

The whole ordeal unfolded in about an hour and the last truck left about 30 minutes after that. The fire actually started on a mattress so interpret that however you want… Nobody was injured in the fire and they were able to put the fire out quickly so the damage did not extend throughout the entire house but it will probably take a while to repair all the damage. Heartbreaking.

The whole neighborhood came out to see what all the commotion was– so we ended up meeting some of our neighbors that we had not yet met which was great. We live in a neighborhood of some really nice people, some which commented that they were happy it wasn’t our house on fire since they had noticed all the hard work we were putting into it – a nice compliment!

A house fire is probably one of my biggest fears. We have smoke/CO2 alarms on every floor and a fire extinguisher in the kitchen but of course the one thing I didn’t think about was a rescue ladder for the second story rooms. In fact, one of the firefighters mentioned that in our neighbor’s house he saw a rescue ladder still in the box – probably should take that out and have it ready to go. I honestly had never even thought to get one of these but I’m getting one today. I also found some good information on the ACFD website regarding Fire Safety and encourage you to do the same. They will even come out to your home and do a Free Fire Safety Check.

Thanks to the ACFD for their hard work and professionalism!

Substantial Completion

Here is where we stand with the kitchen. The wall has been taken down, re-supported with a beam, rebuilt and painted. If you think I am trying to trick you and this is in fact a different house I don’t blame you. It looks like a different house and looks nothing like the 1940s built home we started with when we bought it.

Here is what you see when you walk in the front door.

You really notice the windows now and there is so much more light than before. This picture obviously taken at night and it doesn't feel like a cave anymore.  I absolutely LOVE the color we chose for the walls which I was wavering on up until I went to the store to pick it up. I always find myself picking a color and then second guessing myself and trying to find a better color but I almost always go back to the first color I choose. RC helped me get over my fear when he assured me that Harvest Brown was the best one. I’m not going to lie… even when they were mixing it and I saw it for the first time in paint form I was a little freaked out. With the trim painted bright white the windows really pop against the walls and it feels much more modern than before.

Our GC was awesome to work with. This is the first time we have done a serious construction project and hired someone to complete it; I don’t regret it. We obviously are not structural engineers and could not even tell you what is required to support a load bearing wall so we needed to hire someone for this. They worked quickly too which was great - substantially complete after six days.

We are at the substantial completion phase which means that we are not 100% complete as there are a few very minor things left to complete. We are able to live in the space now and start using it as much as we can; we have moved all the furniture back into place and RC even cooked lunch on Sunday using the stove. He cooked chicken noodle soup for me since I was under the weather (Husband of the Year).

Now that the wall is up we begin the next phase of adding new cabinets. The old ones were just hideous. Until the cabinets arrive and we find a day to install them (we are installing them ourselves) we are just going to have to work with the limited counterspace we have. I can’t wait to have a fully functional kitchen again.

Wall Demo: Day Three

Here is a shot RC took of the kitchen end of day 3/beginning of day 4. Not a whole lot different than the prior day but again came home to a clean house.

Today when we got home we found out that they have in fact evened out the drywall in the ceiling. Apparently the previous project had drywall installed over the original plaster which left uneven surfaces all throughout the kitchen. Very happy that they have now evened out the ceiling.

We also determined that the ceiling will look seamless once finished. The beam is not hanging down below the ceiling line. They added the drywall tape and finished mudding (a true art form) and now we wait for it to dry before the painting begins. RC and I headed to HD to pick up the paint and some light fixtures we have picked out for the space.

We chose Behr's Harvest Brown for the wall color and will have the trim bright white. The rest of the trim in the house is beige – this only motivates me more to paint the rest of the trim. I HATE beige trim.

This is actually the first time we have ever let someone else paint. We usually do it ourselves but it is included in the cost of the wall construction so I am fine with having someone else do it. Just this once though – I really hate paying people to do something I know I can do myself.

We also grabbed a couple of light fixtures to replace the fluorescent light and the cigar bar light that we currently have in the kitchen. I think these light fixtures will be just the right amount of botox needed for our kitchen. The crew said they would even install them since they have to take the old ones off to paint the ceiling – so again I’m letting them do it.

          

We did make a last minute decision to take out the remaining cabinets today and repair the drywall – minor meltdown from scrambling to find a place for the things that were in the cabinets but it only lasted about 3 hours so I would say today wasn’t too terrible.

Living through a construction site is not for the faint of heart – or people who cook meals at home every night of the week…

Here’s to Day 3.

Wall Demo: Day Two

We got a photo of the beam during the day and everything appears to be according to plan. There was discussion at the beginning of the project regarding the beam and if there would be a dropdown from the ceiling from the beam. At this point we still don’t know but will know once they put up the drywall and close up all the holes.

I don’t mind if there is a slight bump-out in the ceiling due to the beam. It might help trick the eye into separating the two spaces.  I'm 50/50 at this point.

The beam has gone in per the instructions of the structural engineer. I love getting the photo of the day from the crew.

Coming home on day two I wasn't sure what I would see when I walked in the door. When I walked in and saw this:

I seriously almost passed out. It looks just as I imagined.

At the end of day two we have a wall built up and a new floorplan for our house. RC is measuring the wall where the refrigerator will go (spoiler alert: it fits). This is the new view from the front door. As you can see, we were able to keep outlets on either side of the wall and the air vents as well.

The next phase is moving the back door over to allow for more counterspace. There is room to move the current doorway to the left a little to allow space for the coveted dishwasher.

So many tools and work being done! I'm so used to coming in here and seeing only our small little tool bucket.  

Can't wait to see what it looks like when we get home tonight! 

Wall Demo: Day One

We have moved everything out of the kitchen and it is now ready for the guys to come in and take out the cabinets and walls.

They warned us of dust so we decided to move as much out of the dust area as we could. They put up some plastic that is supposed to help us keep the dust at bay but I’m not holding my breath – things are going to get dusty in here and I am going to need to invest in a good Swiffer or something.

The crew showed up in the morning and within an hour everything was taped up furniture and all objects moved out the way and the cabinets just started coming out. I thought I would just stay upstairs and out of everyone’s way but the noises had me really concerned so of course I decided to be in the middle of it all asking questions.

I apparently made friends because they asked me if I wanted to take the first swing at the wall they were taking down. I was SO excited that they let me take the first swing. Like a dream come true. It has been difficult for me to accept this house with all its flaws and taking a swing at the wall was quite therapeutic for me.

I took down a good portion of the wall and then decided that it was a good time to leave and let them get to work.

Upon our return at the end of the day they had made quite some progress! They had the temporary wall up and were ready to install the beam that would be going in soon.

Over the next 2 hours they made room for the beam so we headed out again to stay out of everyone’s way – plus they told us it would be pretty loud.

When we returned home that evening I was beyond shocked when I walked in the door. They had cleaned up all the dust that I had seen all day and had even pulled out our microwave so we could heat up dinner. Attention contractors out there: cleaning up after your projects goes a LONG way with your clients. I didn’t feel like I was totally in a construction zone even though we didn’t have a wall up and plastic everywhere.

The only surprise of the day was lighting. Our lighting is dated and we decided we were okay with living with our fixtures until we decided what we wanted. The crew highly suggested that we have them install recessed lighting in while they had the walls and ceilings open. The hefty price tag and surprise didn’t sit well with me so we decided not to add on the lighting at this time. I hope we made the right decision.

Tear Down This Wall!

I honestly hear Ronald Regan everytime I think about this project and how I want to tear the wall down with my own two hands. I make it sound all dramatic in my head as if I could will the wall to come down by itself - it never does. So we hired a contractor and he will tear down the wall instead.

Every television show about Real Estate tells you that Kitchens sell homes. I laugh every time I think about that because our kitchen sucks. I can’t even come up with a more lady-like way to describe why it doesn’t work for us – it just sucks.

For one, we don’t even have a dishwasher. I take that back. We got a great deal on a dishwasher on Black Friday and it has been sitting in the box in the sunroom since it was delivered. So yes we have a dishwasher but it is still in the box. In trying to figure out how to fit it into our kitchen layout (without moving plumbing and gas) we came up with some other mind blowing ideas for our cavernous kitchen. Our cabinets are awful – particle board construction with plastic laminate. Our countertops are white with fake gold veining running through them…also plastic laminate.

We don’t have the patience to do a full out addition off the back which would easily solve all these problems and I actually think that the kitchen layout is quite efficient as it is, albeit claustrophobic. Open living is all the rage now, so we are seeing this as our chance to take a 1940’s kitchen give it some Botox and let people think it is not the original kitchen and that it is much younger than its 73 yr old bod.

We had this brilliant idea of knocking down the wall between our living room and kitchen in an effort to bring open living concepts to our 1940 cape cod and move a doorway to create a spot for the dishwasher yielding more counterspace.  We really didn’t know what we were doing or what we wanted  but after interviewing a bunch on contractors and gathering ideas from each of them we decided we were sold on taking the wall down. All I knew is that we wanted to fit the dishwasher into the kitchen and didn’t want to move around the plumbing or gas. The sink is right at the window where it is supposed to be and I can’t even bring myself to move around gas lines.

As we were interviewing contractors we taped up our “vision”, using painter’s tape showing how we wanted the space to look. I highly recommend this approach since it can be difficult to explain to someone what you envision in your head; at least it is for me.

 

RC is most excited about being able to see the TV while cooking. I am most excited to have a dishwasher.

Follow us as we live blog every day of the Demo and re-build of our kitchen.

Here we go.

Portico Loco

I remember the first time we viewed the home I remember seeing the front doorway and thinking “why?”. I mean, I understand that it makes sense to keep dry and warm while waiting to open the front door but it was made from plywood, it was starting to look dirty and cheap making the house feel somewhat closed off and it was dated. We also felt that if we kept the roof part it will still serve its purpose but look less dated. We debated taking the roof part off due to the beautiful molding that is above the door but you can still admire it while standing at the door if you look up. We discussed taking it off at some point and so when I got this pic from RC telling me he was at the house “working” I got a little nervous. I only got nervous because I am a complete control freak (hey-at least I own it) and like to be involved in every project around the house. Being away from the house and unable to get back to help out was like torture and I would text and ask hourly how it was going. He was able to get all 4 sides off including the glass “windows” all by himself without compromising the structure. We were worried about taking the walls off since we did not know how things were supported but it is pretty solid with the remaining posts. I am so proud!  I wish I had some action shots for you but it truly was a one man job.

It looked like this before:

This is what it looked like from the inside of the structure that housed our front door...that is all that it was. So nice to look at...

A few progress shots

            

By the end of the project and after painting the door red we have a new entry way! I am much happier seeing this when I come home than the old structure.

Safety First

When we finally moved in we were greeted by the chirping fire alarms. This was a good sign since I could not remember If I saw a smoke alarm the few times we were in the house. I mean that because nothing has been updated in this house since probably 1966. I read too much and watch too much of the news to know about all the dangers of not having working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms. This is especially important when you live in an older home that is heated with natural gas. They call it the silent killer for a reason people. 

Upon our first run to HD to gather supplies I made sure to get a carbon monoxide alarm for the first floor since we only had a smoke alarm on the first floor and a smoke/carbon monoxide combination alarm for the second floor. Our basement is not finished but if it was I would have picked up another one for that level as well. You should really have a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm on every floor of your home. This is an inexpensive and easy way to make sure that you are prepared; I think the alarm cost $10. 

Here is my PSA for the day: Go out there and get yourself a carbon/smoke alarm if you don’t have one. If you do have one make sure you test it often to make sure it still works. With Daylight Savings this weekend its a great time to test twice a year - every time you change your clocks, check your alarms!

72 Year-old Wood Never Looked So Good

The floors in this home are the original hardwoods and have never been refinished and quite surprisingly they were still in decent shape. However, knowing what we knew about hardwood refinishing from our first home we thought we should have them refinished before we moved in. Honestly, I could not imagine having to move all our furniture all over the place to have the floors refinished so doing it before we even moved in our belongings was the obvious choice. We were lucky enough to have a little bit of a buffer moving out of our old home and into this one so we were bringing car loads of items as we checked on the progress of the flooring crew.  

PRO TIP: buying a house that is vacant is awesome because there aren’t a million different schedules trying to coordinate. Honestly can you imagine you’re closing on the same day as the seller is moving out? Talk about stress... We literally closed at like 10am and the flooring crew was there ready to work by 11am – thankful that we actually closed in time for them to come. More on the disaster of closing later since I’m still not over it…

Our home has hardwood floors throughout which I love and I really do not miss having carpet. The kitchen was interesting when it came to flooring. It was initially covered with some really psychedelic linoleum tile. Our flooring guy said that he was 99% sure that there were hardwood floors underneath (Hallelujah!) and that he thought he would be able to save them. He was only half right since there was hardwood underneath but it was not salvageable and we paid a little extra to add new hardwoods to the kitchen area. It makes a huge difference and makes it feel bigger (TWSS?).

Take a look at that tile – makes you want to say "bow chicka bow wow". Oh don’t worry I saved some that is still under the sink – maybe I’ll display it somewhere so I can never forget it.

They gave us some sample stain colors and anyone who knows me can attest that I cannot make up my mind because I am scared that I will hate the choice I made. Usually I am okay with this type of thing because nothing is permanent and can be re-done. This is usually true except when you spend a lot of money on refinishing floors; you don’t really want to say I don’t like my choice and change the stain color. I am sure that we chose the right color now after seeing them completed and looking at the choices below.

Thankfully (or not since it was the busiest weekend of my life) I was busy volunteering at the Junior League holiday shops or else I probably would have been all over the place “supervising” the flooring crew. RC would send me pictures of progress throughout the day which was just enough for me.  Then he sent me this pic 

and I started to get nervous…

Resolutions

It is that time of year where everyone keeps talking about what they want to do in the new year and most  people make resolutions for themselves. I don’t believe in this – one year I said I was going to give up meat for a whole year and that lasted about 3 months… I just don’t like making resolutions because honestly why would I set up myself for failure like that. However, I have made a promise to blog more and it should be easier now that I have about 8 million projects that need to be done. Yes, 8 million.

That might sound like a lot or an exaggeration but I am not kidding…the reason why we have so many projects is because we have moved. It was a difficult and easy decision all at the same time – we did not even tell anyone except my aunt who was AMAZING and answered all my paranoid questions regarding this massive project we were about to undertake; she is a Realtor in Kansas City and has seen many old homes and knows what types of problems are "deal-breakers". Throughout this process we also learned which of our friends and family can keep secrets – only some of you passed. We are proud/scared to  introduce our little house of horrors.

It is a 1940 Cape Cod and I am pretty sure everything in it is original right down to “push button” light switches. Yes – you push a button to turn on the lights in the bedrooms and until now I had never seen these in person. I found the delivery notice for the kitchen appliances and they were delivered in 1966 – they still work (for now). Of course we would never even think about buying a home that was already renovated because you know every now and then we think you like to hear something from us nice and easy, but there’s just one thing, you see we never do anything nice and easy, we always do it nice and rough… (Proud Mary anyone?).

Seriously though, we went through some great older homes that were finished and we just don’t believe that there is any value in new homes. We bought our home at a great price and we will be able to sell it later on for more than we paid for it – can’t really say that for new/renovated homes since it is already built into the purchase price. Just my little real estate tip for you all.

Anyway, I hope that this year you will step back in time with us as we bring this house into the 21st century, updating every inch of it. Well maybe not every inch since we plan on keeping the original solid wood(!) doors from 1940 – they just don’t make them like that anymore. I have a feeling I will be saying that a lot.

If you are in the DC area and looking for a Realtor we highly recommend Brian who helped us envision taking down walls in some homes, innovative uses for space and showed patience both for us and the quirky sellers we encountered along the way. Of course if you are in the Kansas City area we highly recommend Doretta who really truly is the best in KC!

Who's Back?!

Hey everyone! It has been too long since we have posted on the blog. We have many projects that were completed over the very busy summer and can't wait to share them with you.

Here's what we have been up to over the summer:

• Saw our Jayhawks play in the Final Four and Championship basketball games
• Went to cousin Tim and Lyndsi's wedding in Nashville
• Celebrated our second wedding anniversary a midst the worst power outage we have ever seen (5 days without power and 90 degrees!)
• Spent a few weekends at the beach with family
• Went to Canada to visit relatives
• Went to Emily & David's wedding in West Virginia
• Attended many baseball games
• Went to Eric & Hillary's wedding 
• Saw The Boss in concert 
• Ran in the Army Ten Miler race
• enjoyed sunny afternoons on our deck :)

It has been a busy but awesome summer and now that the leaves are changing it's time again for more projects. I personally enjoy working on projects while RC cheers for the Redskins. 

Tea Anyone?!

The night before our wedding my Nana gave me some tea cups that belonged to my grandmother - they mean a lot to me since I never met my grandmother. Since receiving them I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to display them or where they could go since we don’t have a lot of space. Remember when I was lusting after this china cabinet? For my birthday RC gave me this awesome cabinet and we figured I could display all the china from our wedding and my grandmother’s tea cups and my other fragile treasures - this one is more our style.
 

I love being able to walk by it and seeing it all rather than having it stored away and only used for special occasions. I think tonight I will have a glass of wine in a Waterford glass and a cup of tea in my beloved tea cups.

MV Big Flea

Remember when I scored these AMAZING deals at the community sale?! Well I just heard that they have set the date for 2012. Mark your calendars for May 5, 2012! If you want more information or would like to donate items to the sale you can find details here.

Power Towel

Our bathroom gets pretty steamy - no not like that – like actual steam from the hot water (get your mind out of the gutter). We don’t have a window in the bathroom itself to let the steam escape so it can take all day for our towels to dry out but if it’s a humid day the towels can have a real hard time drying out. This is a problem for the towels especially if you have the sense of smell like I do. I can smell things long before anyone else does which is both a blessing and a curse. You can imagine how disgusted I was to discover that since our towels were not completely drying out they were smelling like mildew. Not exactly what you want to smell first thing in the morning after a shower.

The towels are really nice ones we received as a wedding gift and were washed every week so I wasn’t okay with just buying new towels. I figured that someone else out there had to have this same problem and hopefully a solution. After consulting the interwebs I found some information on how to get rid of the mildew smell:

• Put your towels in the washing machine, using the hottest water available. Add one or two cups of white vinegar. Do not add detergent, fabric softener, or any other products at this time. Run the washer.
• Leave the towels in the washer and wash the same load again just as you would normally with laundry soap. Again, use the hottest water available. Don't use fabric softener or any other products.
• Dry the load in the dryer using a high heat setting. Towels should be thoroughly dry when you pull them out. If they're not dry, put them back in, or move them immediately outside and hang them in the sunlight.

Courtesy of LifeHacker

And for more power towels check out this awesomely hilarious video explaining what a power towel is. Courtesy of the Kansas State Wildcats (enough fodder for us Jayhawks to mock our in-state rivals for years).

Folding Laundry

When we first moved into our home the basement was an apartment of sorts – we think this is the case because the closet had been converted into a quasi-kitchen with a fully functioning garbage disposal. I’m not sure why but it totally grosses me out that it used to function that way. One of the first things RC and his dad did was pulled out the counters that were down there and got rid of the garbage disposal – it was not something that anyone could or should reuse. It was gross – mainly because it wasn’t hooked up properly. They then moved the washer and dryer that was in the bathroom into the closet that was always meant to be a laundry closet except all the doors had been pulled out so it was just totally exposed.

It would have been fine to leave it exposed with some trim and storage solutions inside the closet but it was just noisy. I took this project as my own since I had huge problems with the noise that our washer and dryer make. Back in September (yes it has taken me this long to complete the project and blog about it) I bought bi-fold doors to replace some of the broken ones and to install where there wasn’t one.

Getting them to fit in the car was quite comical; it is a good thing that I was the only one in the car because another person would not have fit. After I got them down to the basement I wondered what I got myself into because I had no idea how to install these things and was hoping there were some really good directions included with the doors. I figured I can read and follow directions (much like I did when I replaced the fill valve) and in no time I would have fully functioning bi-fold doors concealing my laundry area. Once I got the door in place I couldn’t figure out why it kept struggling to open against the carpet. A good hour later I realized that the pivot joint that keeps it in place can be adjusted to raise the door up or down to avoid carpet resistance. Once I figured that out my door moved like butter.

For a few weeks I left them unpainted just to make sure they were working properly. The doors themselves come primed not painted so I finally painted them - just gave them a few coats of Behr pure white. The final step was adding some decorative hardware – the door kits come with these ugly wooden knobs and I liked the look of the brushed nickel ones we had already put on a similar closet upstairs.

Finally the basement looks less like an unfinished cold place and more like a little room where I can happily fold laundry. I actually don’t mind folding the laundry – the worst part is definitely putting the folded clothes away.