Laundry Room

I'm so excited about this post it's embarassing!

You may recall our bare bones laundry room from a past post about Layla's fascination with it:


Or from when we first moved in (Pic from day 2 in our house, right after appliance delivery):

There wasn't much to it, which really is fine-it's a laundry room afterall. But it definitely had its share of pains in the behind.

• The washing machine was always 'walking' so I had to keep pushing it back against the wall over and over again.
• Because of the amount of shaking from the washer, things were always falling off-detergent, clothes, etc. So I'd have to contort myself between everything to pick stuff up. Not to mention getting the bejeezus scared out of you when a bottle of detergent came crashing down and you were downstairs or in bed.
• There was very little surface area for putting clothes when they came out of the dryer, folding them and stacking them until you were done folding. Everything was always falling between and behind the machines.
• Zero storage
• Litter box was in the right side corner (not shown) and took up a good amount of space, and was very obvious when you walked in there.
• It was just down right boring being in there. I don't need a tv or anything, just a bit of visual interest to break up the monotony of loading, unloading, folding, hanging, ironing, etc would be nice.

So...last week while washing all of our camping clothes 2-3 times each (campfire does NOT smell good when it's embedded in your clothes!) I was getting increasingly frustrated and talked with hubs about how our weekend project (or at least one of them) needed to be figuring out some solution for this room.

And I love it! SO much surface area to put, fold, and keep stuff, plus shelves for storage, and even a little nook for the litter box!

I even printed out a couple laundry-esque pictures and tips for around the room:

Even Max likes it now, as he spent a good 20 minutes sniffing around and seeing what was up with his business room.

We were going to use this as a temporary solution until we could foot the bill for an actual countertop and some cupboards, but I think this will do us just fine.

And all with about an hour and a bit of work and a few bucks. How many bucks, you ask?

Melamine White top $27.47
(just a couple bucks more than a plain MDF version of the same thing and already painted and no splinters to catch clothes on)

2 Melamine White shelves $19.22 ($9.61 each)

2x2 for bracing counter (not seen) $5.17

2x4 for counter leg $4.67

White Melamine 2x4 for bracing shelves $5.96 ($2.98 each)

Plank of MDF for the brackets $7.57

3 8x10 frames for pics $6.00 ($2.00 each)

2 4x6 frames for other pics $2.50 ($1.25 each)

Metal hooks for belts and hangers $1.00 for 4-pack

Plastic blue bowl for coins, etc hubs forgets in his clothes $1.00

Everything else we had on hand

So for a total of $80.56 and about 2 hours combined work, we have a totally functional laundry room that's kinda cute to boot!

Thanks hun!

White Hot....I can't take it anymore

I'm not a particularly impulsive person. However, Wednesday night, almost as soon as I finished dinner, I decided to grab some paint and a brush and go to town on this pretty young thang:
For whatever reason, when my husband and I were deciding at our design appointment what finish to use on all the wood, we didn't consider to change the fireplace mantle from the standard oak finish. It wouldn't have cost us a dime to have it stained in the darker finish we used on the banister:

It was pretty dumb on our part not to think of it, or not to realize that even if we were going to change it eventually, in the interim it would be nice to have matching wood tones. But...what can we do about it now?

Well, we could do this:

And after a coat of primer, 2.5 coats of latex paint and 2 coats of poly, turn it into this:

Hubs and I both love it, and love how it makes the room that much more cohesive. It matches the trim really well, lightens the room and reduces the smorgasbord of wood tones in that room by 1 lone glaring colour. We do acknowledge the 2 big black holes that are that much more emphasized now though, but hope it's not too distracting, or that we can somehow balance it out.

My Opa's probably rolling in his grave at the fact that I painted over wood though. Sorry Op's---all's fair in home decor.

What do you think? Was it sacrilegious to paint over it, or was it worth it for the after effect?

More pot lights

Friday I came home to another of my husbands' "Surprises":

Kitchen pot lights.

Here's our kitchen pre-Friday:And you can't see it, but behind that hanging light is a former-boob light, which exploded a few weeks ago and has since been 2 bare bulbs. I'm sure you can imagine how stunning it was.

And here's the kitchen now (please keep in mind that my camera's still being a rebellious teenager, and that's why there's some strange shots-I'm not trying to be artistic):

I can't even explain what a difference they make to lighting up the counter. Where there were just shadows before in the corners where I'd be cutting veggies and what not, there's now actual light. It's fantastic.

Had we done this through the builder, it would have cost us $251 PER potlight, or $1,506 total!!! Isn't that crazy?!?!

So, for the $18 per that hubs paid for them through his boss, and an hour of his time, we have saved ourselves $1,398 and probably got better lights too. Sometimes I forget what a perk it is for hubs to be an electrician who loves what he does.

How did it only take him an hour you ask? Excellent question.
1-When the house was under construction, hubs went in with a drill, measuring tape and string while I stood guard in the driveway with pre-determined warning codes.

Having already determind the layout for the future potlights, he laid the groundwork and took some measurements so that he'd know exactly where to cut the drywall once the house was finished (i.e. Friday afternoon).

Because he'd drilled holes in the studs during operation pot light prep, he didn't have to fuss around and have to do extra drywall repair.

And because he'd run the thin string through the holes during the same operation, he just had to basically use that to run the wire and save himself the headache of making sure it went to the right places.

2-He does this for a living and he could probably have done it in his sleep.
He's done the same thing in the family room, so one of these days the lighting in there will become pot lights as well.

Of course, it bears repeating that he's a licensed, experienced electrician, so this was both safe and possible. I wouldn't even think of attempting it if he weren't, so please be careful.

Trim Mania!!!

In a fit of trim mania, hubs also had an idea for another detail he'd like to incorporate. After seeing it done in several of the expensive houses he works in, he picked up some more trim at his home away from home; Home Depot.

Here's the trial:

I thought it would be too much, but I kinda like it. In a cookie-cutter home such as ours I think it adds a little bit or architectural detail on an otherwise bland canvas, so to speak. Hubs wanted to do the top as well, but that was definitely too much.

What do you think?

Crown Royal

A surprise transformation is taking place at our house right now, and I love it.


Hubs was given free reign to some extra crown moulding from his constructon site and is taking FULL advantage of it. We've always have dreams of having crown moulding, but they were future dreams and weren't planned for a few years.



He started last week with the powder room. I don't really have a before shot because the room's too small to get far back enough to see the ceiling, but here it is after it's been installed, caulked and painted:


The powder room is the only spot that's actually finished, but he made some great progress last night on getting a whack of it up:

Wall above powder room before:


Wall of powder room glamified:

Here's a shot looking out of the dining room into the front entrance post-install:

And my handyman working on that very same section:


And finally, here's our post. It's kind of the trial area for all of hubs' trimming ways, so it was the first main area he installed the crown on:
Doesn't it make it look so lush? And for the price of the little ruler thingy that measures angles, in these parts, we call that a bargoon.

It makes going home so exciting--I never know what I'm going to find.

Flooring Progress

Hubs is making quick work of finishing the trim around the hardwood.

After we installed the hardwood, there were gaps around all the edges that looked like this or worse:

He picked up some trip last week or so and was just waiting on a pass lode gun or something like that (automatic nailer) to attach the quarter round. Once he did, it already looked better:


However, it still looked incredibly unfinished, so he taped the floor off, then caulked and painted it:

I think it makes such a huge difference. You wouldn't notice the change specifically, but it does look so much more finished and muuuch better. A few more walls to paint in the family room and then he has to start the whole process in the dining room.

Kitchen re-design

I'm a big fan of nepotism. When it benefits me especially.

It looks like a bit of that may be coming my way for our kitchen. Even if it's not, hubs and I will be paying for the service, so this post still has relevance.

We love our kitchen. It's large, lots of cupboard and counter space and really open. Unfortunately, there's no place to really grab a seat and have a quick bite unless you go sit in the family room. Normally, this is fine for us, but sometimes-you just want a place to sit and a counter to eat at. Because of the design of our house, the dining room isn't particularly close to the kitchen (I mean, relatively speaking; it's still only 10 feet away), so it's not super convenient to have your cereal there.

So, pretty much from day 1 of our purchase, hubs and I have been planning some sort of breakfast bar extension for the kitchen. How it would work, what it would look like and when it would happen were all questions we hadn't yet answered.

Through a few designs and ideas, I think we may have narrowed down the choice. My step father in law (who's in construction) has a bone to pick (to put it nicely) with our kitchen suppliers, so when he found out what we planned, he told us to get the details and let him know. He'd try to tie the service into some other requests he had. Sweet! That would be great and knowing him, it would happen quickly.

So this Tuesday, hubs and I had to get our shite together because FIL was coming over to measure, get style numbers and overall design. This is what we've come up with:

Here's our current floorplan:

And here's the idea board:

If you're like me, that doesn't really make sense. Despite having drawn it myself, I wouldn't get it at first either. Hubs and FIL though, they'd know exactly what I meant instantly. And they did.

Understanding my weakness and my visual mind though, hubs did this for me so I could have an idea of dimensions:

Isn't he sweet? (Pardon the mess-we're messy when we brainstorm)

Anyways, the curved end of it was instantly vetoed on account of being super 80's. In place will be a barely rounded square edge. For safety as much as aesthetic. (See above diagram for an idea).

Also-I hate our current garbage bin. I always have from the second day we had it. But it's a garbage bin and for all intents and purposes, it does what it needs to do. So I had the idea that at the end of the breakfast bar (on the right side in the 2nd picture above) as a support, we could have a garbage drawer built to store a (NEW!) garbage bin. Keeping it out of sight and supporting the counter at once-shazam.

As for the countertop, we'd remove that current piece and move it upstairs into the laundry room. In place we'll bring in a matching L-shaped countertop to cover both sections seamlessly.

It's my nature to be unsure of the whole thing and anxious about how it'll all work out, but I think we're on to something.

Now if only FIL would let us know if the project needs to be worked into our budget or if nepotism will reign again!

Thoughts? Yay or nay?

Flooring Done!

Originally Posted: February 17, 2009

Shize--what a weekend!

It's done. It was almost literally back-breaking work. And I loooove it!

Hubs managed to get the whole dining room done by himself on Friday:

It looks fantastic and was great to come home to Friday night, despite the lack of lighting in the room. It was a great room to start with because it's just a huge rectangle, so not much is required in the way of MacGyver-ing pieces to fit.

Side note: MacGyver was definitely the word of the weekend. It was used a lot.

Saturday morning we awoke to my MIL knocking on our door at 8 am. Perfect-but it was a much needed incentive to get our asses up and get moving on the main living space floors.

So we ripped carpet up, hauled it downstairs and I was on the receiving end of a couple of bruises caused by too-small doorways reacting with my lack of ability helping move 200 sq ft of carpet without being completely klutzy. Perfect timing for our sun vacation next week when said bruises will be on full display. Ah well.

Anyways, as proof I did help:

And I'm telling ya-I was a regular Bob Villa this weekend! I was a maniac with that nailer thing. The saws, I'm sad to say were a bit too intimidating other than a few pieces with NB supervising closely. He'd love to be able to say I did a whack of the cutting, etc, but in reality, I was a chicken shit. Everything else though, I was right in there. Tearing vinyl flooring, stapling, nailing, ripping subfloor.

The linoleum was a biatch to rip up and overall, for the family room and kitchen it took us 3 full days to finish. But it's awesome! I feel so old and adult-y caring so much about flooring, but it is what it is.

And contrary to my beliefs of last weekend, NB and I worked fantastic together. He had a few flip outs when his MacGyver-ing was producing more wasted pieces than results, but I let him teach them sailors a few things and eventually he was back singing and joking around. Between that, and the 2 concerts we went to, it was a great weekend.

I was too tired & hungover yesterday to remember to take an after shot, but here are a few more of us in action:

Hubs on Day 1:

Hubs working his magic with the saw:
Hubs working behind the fridge. That was a biatch of a job too...a waterline, a subfloor combined with a small space do not make for efficient work:

Next week's vacation will be very, very welcome! 4 more sleeps!!!

In store for one helluva romantic valentine's day

Originally Posted: February 12, 2009

Installing hard wood!

Yep-we did it. Spent a few paychecks on 42+ boxes of hardwood. I'm still pretty hesitant, but as soon as we unloaded them in the family room, we cracked open a box and unloaded it to give an idea of how it'll look all in place:

I have to admit, I think I really like it.

Yeah, it's kinda rushed and we made the decision under a bit of pressure, but really? We knew we wanted dark, I think this stuff is really nice, and well we're just excited about it. (hubs a lot more excited though-he was practically giggling).

So I had to cancel Saturday's plans and instead we'll probably argue and get frustrated with each other as we try to figure all this out. Ahh-love will certainly be in the air.

On an up though, while at HD last night, we got a call asking if we wanted to watch Brad Paisley Saturday night in a box. Yes please! My husband knew I'd wanted to see that concert since hearing about it, but we'd be busy and we were going to SYTYCD the next night. This is one of the few concerts I'd like to go to though and they're always sooo much better in a box, so sign us up!

Should be an interesting weekend to say the least. I'm excited to see it all come together, and mostly excited to have it done so we can actually place everything and feel more "moved in".

Wish us luck!

Hard Wood Debate

Originally Posted: February 11, 2009

If only anyone read my blog, I could solicit opinions and photographic evidence. That would be wonderful right about now.

My husband and I are currently struggling with a somewhat time-sensitive decision relating to hardwood. Originally when we thought we were superheros and would have the house totally moved in by now, this coming weekend was going to be our "hardwood installation weekend". Unfortunately, it turns out (surprise, surprise) we've bitten off more than we can chew.

We really really don't want to rush into such a big decision as hardwood, but at the same time, we're both very impatient, want the house done done and hubs has a 4-day weekend this weekend. Perfect! Except that we don't have a decision made as to what hardwood we want. Gul-ul-ul. So you see our dilemma.

So yesterday, I created this idea sheet-thingy to help narrow down our decision:

It has pseudo samples of our fixed elements (cabinets, countertop, entrance tile, etc) and a whack of different types of hardwood. They're mostly for the colour to see what we like. We've both always loved dark hardwood, but I'm worried that with our kitchen cabinets it's going to be too dark. (Yes-we're putting hardwood in the kitchen; it's not that weird, a lot of people do it).

So last night we hit up trusty Home Depot armed with a teeny sample of our cabinets for some more samples. We narrowed down our decision to a dark-ish wood that, when in our house, matches very nicely with our banisters (unintentionally) and a kind of caramel-y, peanut butter-y colour (it looks nicer than it sounds). We narrowed it down to 2 brands of each.

Sidetrack: Why are so many hardwood choices and colours named after foods? Some of our favourites included: fudge, toffee, chocolate, brownie, etc etc. It's enough to make this girl run home and eat 2 slices of leftover cake. Seriously.

Back on track: So the nice lady in the flooring section gave us some in-stock samples to take home and these annoying "sample boards" of the special order stuff. They give 1 tiny 6" sample among 3 other samples and we're supposed to make a $5,000 decision from that. Gah! Super annoying. So we almost immediately vetoed those ones solely for the fact that we couldn't make an informed decision about them (have I mentioned I'm very controlling).

We got home and moved the boards around to different places (in the kitchen, under the couches, against the tile, etc etc) to check it out. I loove the darker one. It's just so pretty! I love the look of it so much and hte only thing holding me back is my fear that it's going to look all dungeon-y with the kitchen cabinets.

I even tried googling, rate my space-ing, kitchen manufacturers searching, etc for examples of darker cabinets with darker hardwood, but the examples are few and far between (should that be telling me something? It's not). That's why I wish people actually read this so I could beg for help. Maybe I'll try a reverse tactic instead and harass some of my favourite home bloggers for opinions. Mwahahaha-excellent.

In the meantime, a decision may be made tonight!!!!! Exciting!

The TV Nook-completed

Originally Posted: February 9, 2009

Alas, the TV nook is no longer a constructiony, drywall-dusty section of our house. It's finally completed. And I have to give much credit to my husband...it looks damn good.

If you recall our lovely, standard never-did-anything-to-anybody fireplace from day 1:


Well, it didn't stand a chance against hubs' drywall saw, and 2.5 days after moving in, it looked like this:


Poor thing. But...now it's been upgraded and looks like this:

With the perfect amount of room for our Rogers box, DVD player and Wii console (Well planned hubs, well planned).


I have to admit, it really is fantastic for rockin' the guitar hero.

Well done hubster---you're proving yourself far handier than I thought.