Master Bath Tub Before and After

 

I think my favorite “cheat” on this before and after is the surround around the tub.  The original plan was to rip out the tile, but it was too difficult.  Solution: Black grout paint—cheap and easy.  I also love that we added the Sprayer.  Although it was a bit scary to drill a hole in the tub, it was a very simple process.

Kitchen Before and After

Click to see some of the details:

Kitchen Remodel

Demolition

Where to put the Cooktop

The Center Island

More about the Cooktop

The Pot Filler Faucet

Before and After…Powder Room

 

Front Door Redo on a Budget

 

Our front door:  not the most impressive. 

It’s a standard metal door, which the builder dressed up with wood trim.  (Don’t you like how this Arrow points at the rusty spots on the lantern? 0 We discussed replacing the door with something new, but kept hearing about problems with hanging a new door in the old door’s place, and the cost to rip it all out and replace the unit was not in the budget. Plus, this door works great!  I absolutely hate replacing anything that isn’t broken. 

So, we decided to give the existing door a makeover.

 

First, Ryan used a razor to cut through the paint between the trim and the door.

Next, he pried the trim off of the door.  It had been nailed and glued on, but came off quite easily.

He then patched all the holes with Bondo body filler.

And then sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded.

The end result was pretty cool – all those layers.

This is how it looked from the street after he finished sanding it.

Next, he took leftover beadboard from our Laundry Room makeover and cut to size.

Then glued that directly to the door.  Initially, we were going to center this piece, but luckily realized that the bottom of a door will typically have greater width between any decorative elements than the top of the door. The piece is centered horizontally, but has much more space on the bottom than the top.

He then added decorative trim around the beadboard, caulked, primed and painted.

The BEFORE.

The AFTER.

Now wait until you see what he did to the inside!!!!

And yes, I also painted the rusty lantern.  Door swag from Cameron’s in Downtown Lee’s Summit.

Cheap and Easy spruce up for Floor Registers.

 

When we redid the Laundry Room, the air register in the floor was scuffed up and rusty.  A new 4’x10’ one is about $8 and in oil-rubbed bronze, about $16.   Instead of buying new, we re-used.

We pulled it up, cleaned it really well and spray painted with Rustoleum Universal Metallic oil-rubbed bronze spray paint we already had. The whole project took about 15 minutes.

Easy-peasy and, my favorite, FREE.  It looks great in the new Laundry Room. 

Laundry Room Redo

 

We finished redoing the Laundry Room!

This is the before.  What you can’t see here is the blue countertop, the scratched up sink, the damaged walls or the stained, peeling, disgusting linoleum floors.  You also can’t see inside the cabinet where previous homeowners scrawled

BLOCKBUSTER 785-4652

and

BANK OF AMERICA 800-468-5000 #1850-68775499

in Black Sharpie marker. No kidding.

It was amazing to me what the simple addition of the molding on the cabinets made.

There was this wasted space between the door to the room and the washing machine—like a closet with no door.  There was a clothes rod that hung on the bottom portion of the white framing below.  (I failed to get a before picture)  We use the rod for drying clothes, and wanted to raise it up to allow for hanging clothes space after we added built in shelves.  We talked about ripping out the wood support, but then would have to contend with patching the walls.  Ryan had the great idea to just “beef” up the framing.  He added a 2x10 and then a 2x4 and attached decorative trim. 

It gives it a cabinetry feel and it also made a great place to display this 1916 Singer sewing machine that belonged to my grandmother.

the space below the rod was empty.  We kept a laundry hamper here.

Based on this inspiration, http://pinterest.com/pin/37999190575828656/, we built this.

Ryan says it’s working great!

We also replaced the countertop, sink and faucet and tiled the backsplash.  We tiled the floor, did wall repair and added bead board to each side of the room and added molding to the top of the cabinets.

The tile was a great find. Costco for $5.55 a square foot.  It has travertine, glass and emperador dark marble.  The SAME marble that we used as an accent in the kitchen backsplash and to tile the fireplace in the Hearth Room: the areas that adjoin the Laundry! 

And the countertop?  $40 at Sutherlands! It was the last piece they had.  We use the galvanized bucket on the counter to keep our dust rags in.

We are super pleased with the end result. 

Good Morning, Morning Kitchen

Hello, Sunshine!

This weekend we FINALLY finished the Master Bath Remodel, which began in 2009.
We ripped out and rebuilt just about everything, but one project we just couldn’t seem to finish: the Morning Kitchen.



We started seeing Morning Kitchens, sometimes called Morning Bars, in Model Homes around our area about 3-4 years ago and immediately loved the idea.  A small space in the Master Suite dedicated to a cup of coffee, some wine or champagne—and all without having to leave your own room.  Like being at a hotel on vacation.

And, as our kids become teenagers, the idea of being able to shut and lock the doors to the Master and hide from them becomes more and more appealing.

Our Master bathroom has two sinks, separated by a bench on one wall.  Opposite those sinks is a linen closet, then the shower, and then a Vanity.  The Vanity is right next to the tub.  The PERFECT place for a Morning Kitchen.

We really liked the idea of reusing the existing cabinetry—being both eco and cost friendly. And it worked out great that the original space, which was designed for a small chair or stool, was very close to the size of a small refrigerator. 

First, we removed the icky, stained, formerly white, wood countertop, and replaced it with Baltic Brown granite.  It complements the Crema Marfil Marble countertops for the sinks, and I knew I didn’t want marble on a countertop where I might spill wine or coffee.

We pulled down the big mirror and replaced the light fixture.

Next, Ryan removed the drawer above the stool/chair opening to give it enough height for a refrigerator. 
We added some trim, painted the whole thing Black, ran an electrical outlet and there you have it.  Good morning, Morning Kitchen.

I think we’ll keep coffee, a bottle of wine, bottled water and, of course, a bottle of champagne there. (we don’t really drink champagne, but won’t it appear to be sexy-sexy by the tub? hah!)  I’m interested to see how much we will really use it.  But, we would never have used the vanity as it was.  AND, it would be easy to convert back to a vanity, if anyone in the future preferred it that way.  Plus, it’s just cool!

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER photos.  I had completely forgotten how bad it was.




I may be hiding out in here tonight…or for the rest of my life.  If I never comment on your blog or post again, well, you know where I will be.

Replacing and Centering a Light

When we moved in, the main light in the Dining Room and the niche for the buffet were each centered on different parts of the room.  And it drove me crazy.  You can kind of see in this photo how the table is centered on the buffet, but the light is not centered over the table. 



Turns out there is a bedroom immediately over this room, so we had no real access to the space in the ceiling.  But, when we replaced this light



with this light in the entry,



I knew that when Ryan centered the Dining Room light, I wanted him to swap it out with the old Entry Way light.

This weekend, he went to work.

We moved the furniture, threw down some old sheets, took down the original Dining Room light and started measuring.  After we decided where the new light would go, Ryan cut a new hole



When that was done, he used this from Home Depot.



It slips into the new hole and tightens (like a tension rod for a shower curtain) until it “bites” into the joists for support.  The electrical box is then attached to it, pulling the wires from the old hole through the new.



We’d taken the light apart, too, for easier hanging.  That sucker was heavy!



But not nearly as heavy as the replacement light in the Entry.  Wow!

And we also used a medallion from Lowe’s so that we could hide the old hole.  Much easier and cheaper than repairing the ceiling, and I really like the look.



And here she is all put back together. And centered at last!





My mom came by and was NOT blown away by the change, but I love it!

Linked to  Savvy Southern Style

I love my kitchen….Cook Top

When we redid the kitchen, we moved the cook top from the Center Island that was there to the perimeter.  We wanted it on the most visible wall when you entered the room, and we wanted it to be pretty.

The BEFORE


And the AFTER


The BEFORE



And the AFTER



I love the lighted glass cabinets above, the fantastic job the cabinet makers did on the curved cabinetry, which is hiding my Zephyr Twister Power Pack for ventilation and light (HIGHLY recommend), my Pot Filler Faucet, and the tile work back splash, with four different sizes of tile, which I designed myself. And I got to help the tile guy, too.  He may have not thought I was being helpful, but I had fun. 

We swapped out to a gas cook top, which I love. And then underneath that are these huge drawers to hold our pots and pans.



I love my kitchen cook top!

Linked to Remodelaholics Anonymous.

Where's the Fire?

I'm all about the outdoor posts lately!

Last weekend we had a fire in our backyard.  In a good way.

You know the leftover Pavestones from under the deck - HERE?  When we poured the patios and sidewalk, Ryan piled them up in the backyard. Can you say "White Trash Hillbilly"?  Ryan, of course, wanted to haul them to the dump. No, really, he did.

Then, the inspiration came.  He turned this

Into this!

And all in one afternoon.

But we needed a better way to get up and down the slope - especially after it got dark and after a few beers.

So, he built this.

And last Saturday, we did this!

It was a ton of fun. We laughed, talked, sang, did skits, told stories...a really great time.

And all FREE!  Or, as Ryan likes to say, Free, except for his Chiropractic Bill.

Linked to Remodelaholics were we were just featured - HERE! Thanks!