CABS are here!

Couldn't help myself on the title since this post is about how I truly transformed our 80's cabinets and brought them to 2011. I thought I would announce its transformation a la Jersey Shore. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about...google it.

You hear that kitchens sell homes – well that was not the case for us. Our kitchen was just not our style but thankfully we had an open mind and were able to see past its imperfections, including the washer/dryer that was right next to the refrigerator which we turned into a pantry. At first it looked like this:

Then we moved in all our junk and it looked like this...not much better and now missing an oven.

Then we removed the fruit tiles, upgraded the floors and replaced the countertops. Yet it all was still looking a little more outdated than I had dreamed of.

At first we thought we would just replace the cabinets but then I couldn’t decide on what I wanted and had a hard time justifying removal of the cabinets as they were still in good condition – they were just ugly to look at. I lived with them for as long as I could stand and then I was inspired by Young House Love to paint the cabinets, they painted the cabinets in their home and I knew that paint was the solution to my problem as well. Those people are amazing.

I would say this was the biggest project we've tackled. At first I thought I wanted to keep them dark to complement the floor, but I came across a number of kitchens that totally fell in love with white cabinets. I finally got the guts to go to the hardware store to pick up the materials after looking at 12 million kitchens with white cabinets to make sure that I liked the look. I figured if I hated it I could always change it – this has become my new motto.

After painting the cabinets I could not be happier. They really brighten up the kitchen and someone even thought we bought brand new cabinets! I am so glad I did this and it was a lot less expensive than a whole new set of cabinets and with those savings I think I will buy these shoes I have been lusting after.

Materials needed to paint cabinets (or any wood surface):

1. Screwdriver to remove existing cabinet doors
2. Sander and sandpaper (I used 60 grit to start and finished with 100 grit)
3. Oil based primer (I used and loved Kilz)
4. Semi Gloss Paint (I used Behr Paint and Primer in one)
5. Foam roller – I liked the look of the foam roller best after experimenting with brushes and other rollers. I also bought rollers in different sizes and liked the smaller one I think it’s a preference thing but I liked the control that came with the smaller roller (it was 4”)
6. New hardware (if you want to change out the existing). We had ugly brass looking hinges and we swapped them for brushed nickel hinges and handles.

Tutorial:

1. The first thing I did was removed all cabinet doors and numbered them so I would remember where they go when I was ready to put them back up.
2. I then removed all the hinges - I would also suggest removing all the hardware if you have handles as well.
3. Clean the doors to make sure to remove any grease or other substances that might be on the cabinets (TSP or soap and water works great for this)
4. Sand the door down to remove any finish they might have on them. Ours were Oak and had a slight finish on them so it was easy to get to the bare wood. When sanding be careful to keep your sanding even so that you don’t end up with waves in the wood.
5. Apply a coat of the primer on the doors and let dry. If using a foam roller like I did, be careful not to roll too fast or push hard as it will cause bubbles in the paint.
6. While the doors are drying you can start on the cabinet boxes following steps 4&5. You really only need one coat of primer. Note: even though I used paint and primer in one I am glad that I used the oil based primer as it gave the paint something to adhere.
7. After the primer has dried apply the first coat of paint to the doors and then the cabinet boxes. Let the paint dry between coats and they will need about 3-4 coats.
8. Add the new hardware and re-hang the cabinet doors. We let them dry for a week just to make sure they would not stick shut.

Lessons Learned:

·Oil based primer does not come off the roller, your skin, or anything else with just water. You can use mineral spirits to remove the oil based primer but it smells really bad. A coworker told me that vegetable oil will take oil based primer off your skin (that was after he commented on all the remaining primer that was ALL over my hands and legs). I ended up just throwing away the roller that had the oil based primer on it and started over with a new roller for the paint.
· Patience is a virtue…3-4 thin even coats work so much better than one heavy drippy coat. Trust me on this one – I ended up sanding and starting over on one door.
·We didn’t have any hardware/handles on the door front so we had to create holes for the handles we chose. I did a lot of measuring and created my own template for where the holes should be drilled into the door (I later found out that they sell templates like this at the hardware store). However, I liked that my template was based on our doors and I made it out of some cardboard so it was free. I would provide a picture of my template but my camera with pictures of this was lost.
· Re-hanging the cabinet doors is definitely a two person job; one person to hold the doors and the other to screw it into place. I tried to do this all by myself while HB was out and it ended up in a massive meltdown. I was very happy to have the extra two hands.
·Don’t skip the primer step even if you are using the paint and primer in one. Cabinets go through a lot (ie food spills, opening and closing many times a day). The primer will give the paint a good base to adhere to and will help with durability.

I love coming into the kitchen to see this now instead of those ugly fruit tiles.

A side by side view of the before and after - makes me love it even more. This is taken with the same camera too - what a difference!

A special shoutout to my main man RC for enduring my insanity and tears and everything else in between - couldn't have finished this without you.

We Have a Leaker...

It appears that we have jinxed ourselves…we were talking just the other day that we had finished all the “major” projects that we had planned since we moved into our home. We talked about how we were at a point where we could start saving up for cosmetic updates things that were not must haves but rather “nice-to-haves”…then came the rain. It has been raining here for about four days straight and heavier than I remember it raining for quite some time. We have been spending more time in our basement since we figured out a better configuration that worked for both of us and Monday we realized that the carpet was pretty wet and once we examined closer we discovered that we must have some kind of leak in our basement. The good news is that it is some kind of leak coming in from the sliding glass door - not foundation. The bad news is that the rain is not expected to let up until the end of the week and the carpet is totally soaked and we have no idea how long this has been an issue.

Sooo…tonight we decided to have a date night starting at my favorite store Home Depot followed by salads at Panera. We are so fancy…

We are in the market for a new door to our basement that walks out to the backyard. We are not sure if we want a sliding door or French doors. This is clearly the next project that we are going to tackle and I will follow up with a post once it is finished.

On another note, we just finished a really fun project and I am working on getting the post together – but here is a progress picture as a teaser. I say “fun” because it took longer than we thought it would and there were many attempts to get it just right.

Hit The Deck

Now that Irene has passed us we can finally get on with our lives after the 2 "disasters" on the East Coast. HB is guest posting for us about the deck we added to the back of our home - he is a pretty good writer, and yes our deck survived both the earthquake and 60 mph gusts of wind... so thankful for that.

One of the first things I remember about our home when we first moved in was our backyard. It wasn’t much, maybe 350 sq feet and surrounded by a nice high white vinyl fence. The day we moved in, it was clear that this was not normal grass. High grass and weeds infested the backyard. Since it was a small area behind our townhouse, I didn’t see the value of purchasing a full scale lawn mower so I purchased a weed wacker and used that to cut the grass every two weeks in about two weeks. Once I tired of that, I decided to kill the grass to avoid mowing “the jungle” as wifey liked to call it.

It was always our plan to add a deck to the back of our property to take the place of our backyard. There are two windows in our kitchen that we realized immediately would be perfect candidates for a door to have a 10-foot or so deck out from it.

I soon found out that the community that we bought into was never zoned to have decks. So time passed, and the wife and I began to think that our dream of having an extra living extension out from our kitchen was unlikely. Instead of waiting for one of our neighbors to take the initiative to move forward on working with the city to get decks zoned for our property, after about a year living in the property, I decided to handle the task myself. Always check to make sure you have the proper zoning and paperwork before building anything.

I had a few meetings with the very patient and helpful staff in the zoning commission of the City of Alexandria. I quickly learned that it was going to be a time consuming and frequently confusing process to get our properties zoned to have decks and thus increase our living – and property values in the process.

I was told that the City requires a set amount of open space on each property and that getting decks on our property would require an exception from the City. As I explained to the City, we both wanted the same thing. If I was able to add a deck to my property, I would be able to increase the value of our small home, while the City would be able to charge more in property taxes each year as the value of our home increased.

After receiving the exemption, it was time to begin working with the site plans – something I had no experience in whatsoever. Hell, I work in PR for a living. It took a few times, but I marked the plans of all seven homes in our townhouse community to be zoned for decks. As I mentioned earlier, all of our properties have the same white vinyl fence, and city code limits the distance the end of the deck can be from the property line by no less than five feet. Fortunately, each property extended more than five feet from the end of where our vinyl fences sat, thus making it possible for our deck to be about the size of our existing fenced area or in our properties case about 27 feet x 9 feet. Adding about 300 sq feet was going to be great.

A few do-overs and learning what size and type of paper the city required revised plans to be drawn (24”x 36”), I had finally received approval to construct a deck on our property – nearly 18 months after we first moved in. Next came the fun part – getting quotes.

I decided that I would get quotes from a variety of companies – both large and small. Since we knew that it was cheaper to build in the winter, I thought that we could get a good deal. The larger companies were very knowledgeable but it was clear that their prices were going to be steep. Instead of going with one of the big boys, we used the advice given by the larger companies to go get what we wanted at the right price, from a smaller company.

It was cheaper to select an all wood option, but we knew that in the long run, it made sense to go with a composite decking.

The larger builder suggested that we not use Trex and instead go with a composite called Fiberon. He claimed that Trex tends to get spots after a few years. The smaller deck company was able to get Fiberon and we selected a color that closely matched the siding of our home. Next, we decided to use a vinyl railing instead of regular wood for maintenance and look reasons. Our rational was we had spent this much already on the deck, that we might as well go “all-in”.

Once we selected the company, and the builder pulled the permits, it took six days for construction to wrap up. The City inspected in three phases, from the support holes, to the structure to the final inspection. All three times, our construction passed.


Before we had the door installed we climbed out the window on the night it finished - as you can see someone was quite excited.

My father and I decided to save $1,500 that the builder offered to charge to remove the window and install a door and do it ourselves. It took about six hours, but we saved a good chunk of change and we got the door on sale for just $99 from Home Depot. At the beginning of the door installation, we were concerned that electrical wires would be running below the window and create a headache when trying to install the door. Luckily, that was not the case. Removing the window, cutting the new hole and installing the new door took the bulk of the time and we finished up just in time for our annual Super Bowl Party!

The deck is truly an extension of our home and we know while the investment was high, it will pay us back in the long run and provide us a great area to hangout. There isn’t much better than sitting on the deck, enjoying a beer after a long day. I am even thinking of throwing a flatscreen outside during football season in the fall to watch Redskins and college football games!

Here Comes the Sun

I have always really liked sunburst mirrors but have never really liked their price tags and/or was too scared to buy one in case my house couldn’t pull it off – kind of like how I don’t think I could pull off a look like harem pants. I recently was turned on to Pinterest which is a plethora of ideas and things seen on the internet and you can keep track of all the things you like by creating a “virtual pin board.” I saw that someone had made a sunburst mirror – and I really liked the look of it and upon further review I saw that it was made from shims. If you would have asked me what shims were a year ago I probably would have corrected you and asked if you meant shins - the body part. However, since we have been giving our home the makeover of its life I have come across shims a couple times – they are thin pieces of wood that are used to stabilize door frames or dishwashers (which is what we used them for). I decided to tackle the project since I knew that shims were not expensive and that way if I hated the mirror or my house couldn’t pull it off then I wouldn't feel guilty for not hanging it up.
Supplies:
· Wreath forms made from MDF – you can get these at a craft store like Michaels and I got the 3 sizes they had in stock 6”, 12” and 18”
· Shims – buy these at a Hardware store, they are kept in the lumber area
· Round mirror – I used a 10 inch mirror but kind of wish I had a bigger one (this one was left over from when I was playing around with wedding centerpieces)
· Very strong glue – I used Gorilla Wood Glue since it was what we had on hand and was a really good choice. I am not sure if hot glue would have held up as well.

I was inspired by the mirror that I found at the blog 26 to Life

I actually ended up using the 2 smaller rings because with the largest ring it would have been a monstrosity. I began attaching the shims in a "clock pattern" so they would be even and filling in the gaps like this:

While I waited for it to dry I wanted to make sure that the mirror part was attaching to the shims so I searched the house for the heaviest book I could find and the winner was my tax textbook from graduate school. I remembered it being a lot heavier though when I was in school so I put a weight on it just in case.

Now I have an awesome mirror for our guest room that I really love and looks so much more expensive than it was. Even HB loves it – says it looks awesome and that it reminds him of a sunflower which I love since they remind me of Kansas.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is a milestone - we have been in our home for 2 whole years. Happy Birthday House, you look younger than the day we met you and much more modern after all those makeovers we have given you over the last 24 months. I will say that the first year we were scared to death to try anything ourselves but as time has progressed we have become more "handy" and are able to look at things more creatively.

In an effort to hold ourselves accountable I thought we should put our to-do list out there. Hopefully this way you can see our progress and we can get some more things completed.

1. Hang new mirror in basement bathroom


2. New light fixtures in bathroom and house


3. build a deck


4. install door for access to #4


5. paint the trim (whole house)


6. install crown moulding


7. flip the basement configuration


8. removal of cabinets in basement


9. install new doors in basement closets


10. paint the cabinets in kitchen


11. install new hardware on kitchen cabinets


12. make a storage area in basement bathroom


13. figure out solution for banister


14. overhaul of master bathroom (the whole deal, tiling, vanity, shower, everything must go)


15. install over-the-range microwave in kitchen


16. fix wood rot on front porch


17. gravel the backyard


18. replace wood on front porch

Just Call Me Joe the Plumber

We have had quite some issues with plumbing the last few months… including a cracked shattered tank that required the replacement of the entire toilet twice - not pleased. I couldn’t bring myself to call another plumber to come out and fix our loud toilet (different than the one that was replaced). Every few minutes it would fill the bowl with more water even though it had enough – it was very confused. It was just annoying to me that I would hear water running every few minutes so I took matters into my own hands. After doing some research online I decided the best course of action was to replace the fill valve which is the thing in your tank that rises as water comes into the tank. I’m not a plumber …but I’m not afraid of fixing toilets either. So I picked up this Korky’s replacement fill valve at the local hardware store for $10 and kept it in case HB’s dad (the master of DIY) stopped by.



When I couldn’t take it anymore I asked HB’s dad if he thought I could fix it myself – his exact words “you have a master’s degree in accounting – if you can read the instructions and look at the pictures I think you will be fine.” That was just the encouragement I needed. It took me about 30 minutes to disassemble the old valve and install the new one and a week later it is still working fine; the best part is that there are no more random bouts of running water. Talk about empowerment – I’m still doing the happy dance!

I am putting this out there for anyone who is afraid of repairing toilets – the simple stuff of course. If you can read and understand the pictures then you can tackle projects like this. I promise the scariest part is putting your hands in the water for the first time – well at least it was for me and when I realized that my hands didn’t fall off I kept going (N.B. I definitely got a manicure after). I do however recommend the Korky's brand of plumbing supplies not because I work for them or anything but because their supplies are made in the USA - gotta love that.
See ya old fill valve....

We're Back!

It’s been too long since my last post. We’ve been busy with family visits, weddings, and work is getting in the way of my projects. Our foreign subsidiaries merged and it has kept me quite busy making sure there were no accounting emergencies - yes they exist. As mentioned in our very first post we mentioned the awful blue carpet. I just knew I had taken “before” pictures before we moved in and could not find them anywhere – the pictures you see in our first post are after we removed the blue carpet and painted some of the walls. Luckily for me I was whining telling my mom that I could not find those pictures anywhere and she mentioned that they were still in fact on her camera (cue the angels and hallelujah chorus). I took the pictures using her camera when we brought my parents by the house before we moved in. These are true before pictures – it does not even reflect how heinous that carpet really was.

I haven’t seen these pictures in a while…some of my favorite things:
1. Obvi the ugly blue carpet - I was so satisfied when we threw it out.
2. I kind of forgot that there used to be a fully functioning sink with garbage disposal (gross) in the basement - that is where we have our washer and dryer now.
3. The kitchen looks totally different now and I love being able to look back and see its entire transformation. We were able to get rid of the appliances that came with the house and get them to people who really needed them.
4. A reminder for HB who has lost 40lbs since this pic was taken - he is going to be super embarrassed that I mentioned this but I am proud of him.
5. This is before we painted every wall in the house.