kitchen reveal

not quite finished, but we're oh so close. subway tile backsplash and cabinet toe kicks need to get done, but for now, we're quite pleased with the outcome. it feels warm and even a bit more spacious. and, i think the new space has inspired us to keep it clean and pleasant looking. b has also been taking a more prominent role in meal-making, which has been an excellent outcome.

here's a general look at the newest parts.

we also widened the pass through. hard to tell from this photo,

but brian did a great job reworking the trim.

the pantry corner, and new lights.

the pantry innards got renovated as well.

if you've been over and saw its previous incarnation,

you'd notice that the art collage and inappropriate poem

have been masked with a sheet of cork board.

view from above.

the sink is generously sized

and we love the farmhouse look of it.

cat's eye view.

renovated built in.

so happy we were able to adapt and reuse this space.

plenty o' room for liquor and glasses.

the kitchen process

you may recall that we made some intermediary cosmetic changes to the kitchen a few months back. in the meantime, we talked about what we'd like to ultimately do. should we gut it and totally rearrange it? should we retain the original built-ins? what kind of cabinets and countertops? yeah, lots of questions.

brian had a couple weeks off as he transitioned into a new job. by the way, if he didn't have this time off, things would have taken much longer. we also had the help of our friend clint (who did our bathroom, as well).

here's what started with and what we ended up doing in january. and by we, i mean primarily brian and clint. somebody had to go to work, right?

first up, general demo. we removed the existing base cabinets and sink, and carved into the pass-through built in. you'll see why later.

next, the floors. brian pulled up the vinyl tiles (as well as a layer of linoleum in some places) and unscrewed a layer of plywood and black paper to reveal the original fir floor. then we put on our matching carhartts, rolled up our sleeves, and got to refinishing it. took us nearly a full of sanding, then two days to seal - a relatively quick turnaround and a crazy good outcome.

see that square near the middle. yeah, that's the wood.

brian with the infamous all-american stripper. paint stripper.

wood putty overload.

final product.

then came some drywall/plaster demo to get a look at the plumbing sitch.

um, and then we could start putting in the new stuff.

we went with ikea cabinets (akurum stat) and sink (domsjo), quartz countertops, and were able to squeeze in an 18-inch dishwasher. we also had an electrician install new recessed lighting and two new pendants (from barnlight electric), which makes an incredible difference.

so we did paint it

if you're playing along, yes it has been a while since we've updated the blog. but good news, we've been busy doing stuff to the house. at least a little busy.

we painted the house. did we finish it? not quite, but we're pretty darn close. let me take you through the (painful) journey. we'll tie up loose ends when the weather picks up.

step one: sand and scrape (and replace some boards altogether). this involved some safety measures - i was really nervous about the potential for lead-based paint. we also draped tarps underneath us, to limit the amount of paint chips that hit the dirt.

step two: give the house a sponge bath.

step three: prime the bad boy. after determining that the pink paint was oil-based, we did some digging around to find out that we should use oil-based primer. p.s. oil-based paint stinks. bad. don't ask us why, but we thought it would be a good idea to prime it by hand, with a brush. we did two sides of the house this way, then caved and used a borrowed paint-sprayer. for some reason, we were afraid that a sprayer wasn't going to do a good job. not only did it do a good job, it saved us tons of time. the only pain was cleaning the oil-based paint out of the sprayer.

the white paint made a huge difference. yeah, it stayed this way for a little while. we kind of enjoyed the clean crisp look of the white.

step four: paint! we sprayed on three coats of a matched version of yolo colorhouse's desert 6. we got it matched at home depot with some low VOC paint. yeah, we couldn't quite splurge for the yolo, but went with them on the interior paint. high quality stuff, it just got too pricey at the 15-gallon range.

step five: ugh, the trim. after we painted the body of the house with the actual color, the window casings looked terrible - almost like they'd been graffitied. painting the white trim was relatively easy. the inner accent that we decided on was another story - it took a little getting used to, but we really like it - it's a reddish-orange (martha stewart's saffron, via home depot). you can faintly see it in the photo below.

we hosted a block party - our lovely neighbors have given

our house and yard work so many fantastic compliments.

what's left? the pink triangle above the bay windows. yeah, we couldn't quite reach it and never finalized our plan of attack. we're thinking new cedar shingles, but not sure if we should leave 'em natural or paint them.