Built in Dresser

While my master bedroom isn't small, it's on the 2nd floor and has slanted walls because of the roof.  This is problematic for furniture - if its too tall, it won't fit flush against the wall.  The slanted walls also create a lot of 'dead' space.  While some of the space was turned into attic storage, others were just left unused.

We saw this great idea to maximize the space and gain some much needed storage - A Built-in Dresser.

We started by cutting a hole into the wall - to see what was in there.

We quickly learned that there was No Insulation!  No wonder the 2nd floor was always so much hotter!  So we insulated the space and added plywood flooring. Then we framed the opening for support.  

Then my dad built the drawers.  He lined the outside of the box with cedar just in case there were any bugs lurking in the attic space.

Then we slid the drawer structure into the space, and it fit perfectly!

All that was left to do was 4 coats of paint! And here is the finished product.

The best part is now we have 3 more drawers of storage but it doesn't take away from the floor space!

Porch Update

Remember that porch we built back in October? Well, I slipped and fell down the stairs on Saturday so we decided it was a good time to clean and paint it.

We had primed the porch back in the Winter.

I had already picked out the colors, we just hadn't found the time to paint it. We decided to add some Rust-Oleum anti slip additive into the paint that would be on the floor and stairs.

So here is a side by side by side.  

No Porch, Primed Porch, Newly Painted Porch.

I think its a huge improvement. Though now it makes the rest of the house look even worse. Eventually, the house will be a light grey blue with navy blue as accent and the sliver grey as a highlight. I've been living here for nearly 2 years, but some how adding my address numbers makes it feel more official.

Guest Bath

A few weeks ago we discovered a leak in my downstairs bath ceiling.  After ripping out a large portion of the ceiling we learned the leak was coming from the upstairs bath shower. (The leak is all fixed now!)

Thanks to this little leak we had an impromptu mini bathroom renovation!

When I first bought the house, this bathroom was a pink nightmare.

We ended up gutting the entire bathroom and starting over.  Since there was a lot of wasted space we added 2 closets, one for the bathroom and another for the hallway.  (One can never have enough closet space.)

One odd thing about this bathroom was the shower/tub.  Originally there was only a bath tub so after we added the shower, I had to find an 'L' shaped shower curtain rod.

I had never decorated or done much to the downstairs bath so this gave me the opportunity to do so.  Since we had to repaint (after sheet rocking the ceiling there was texture and mud on the walls) I decided to pick a new color.  Originally I had painted this bathroom yellow.  Now it's a fun apple green!

Laundry Room Complete!

After about 8 weekends of work (with a few other projects in between) my laundry room expansion is complete!

So incase you've forgotten what this laundry space was before, I'll link you to my first blog entry - It all comes out in the wash - to refresh your memory.

I have plenty of space for storage in the craigslist cabinets I got. And lots of space for doing laundry, I even moved a dresser in there for folding and even more storage!

I'm so pleased with our work!  We took a completely underutilized space (and a broken bathroom) and created a nearly 10' x 10' room!  This room is probably better made and insulated than the rest of my home!

Stay tuned for our next great outdoors project - vinyl siding!

Every Southern Girl needs a front porch

When I bought my house last year, I knew from the outside it would be ugly for a while.  The inside was my first priority, so I could move in and work on the exterior over time.

Finally, last weekend we started on the first project of the exterior:  My Front Porch.  Originally, the house just had cement stairs leading to the front door.  I think this cheapened the look of the home, it needed a decent front porch to help balance the house.

There wasn't much room to build a proper southern porch, but we created a nice landing and stairs.  We added two columns for balance and some railings.  

I have to wait 30 days for the lumber to acclimate to the weather before I can paint.  But eventually it will be navy blue and white.  I will have my address numbers on the left column.

We are all decorated for Halloween, so hopefully I will get many Trick-or-treators to try out my new porch!

Here is a side by side comparison before and after.

 I know it doesn't look like much now, but after we vinyl side the house things will be looking good.

Choosing the right grout color

I want to stress the importance of choosing the right grout color for your tile.  Don't rush in choosing grout, make sure you lay it out with the tiles in the room it will be in before you decide!

There are a few options when looking at grout colors.  You can:

1. Blend the grout with the tiles, meaning you choose a grout that is nearly the same color as the tiles (such as white on white). This will create the appearance that the floor is one seamless color.
2. Contrast the grout and tiles, meaning if the tiles are light than you choose a dark grout (or vice versa).  This creates a checkerboard appearance. 
3. Accent the tile with grout, meaning if you have multiple colors in your tile you can choose one of those colors to accent in the grout.

When I first started my home renovations, I thought I preferred to blend my grout and tiles.  I thought this would make the rooms look larger.  

My downstairs bath has a beige tile with Oyster Gray Polyblend grout. I picked this tile because it was inexpensive and a neutral color for the bathroom.  The grout dried darker than I expected and it looks kinda dingy with the beige tiles. 

 

I had purchased too much of these tiles, so instead of returning them I kept them to use in my laundry room.  Since I didn't have much of the Oyster Gray grout left, I decided to use the Alabaster Polyblend Grout  that I had left over from my Master Bath. I didn't want to spend extra money on grout so I was hoping the colors would be tolerable together.  

It turns out that Alabaster Grout looks amazing with this tile!  It completely transformed the look and color of these boring beige tiles. I know it's hard to tell but these two images are the same tile just in two different rooms with different grout colors.  

Maybe down the road I will regrout the downstairs bath to help brighten up that dingy floor.  

Flying Solo

This weekend Michael and I will tackle our first big home renovation project alone!  Usually, we have my parents running the show, but he and I will be tiling the laundry room floor all by ourselves.

We had a quick lesson last night on how to lay tiles

• Start in the center of the room
• only use as much adhesive that you need for a few tiles
• use the tile spacers
• proper use of the tile cutter

Pretty much everything that DIY covers here.

Now that we are tile experts hopefully we can complete the tile and grout this weekend.  I don't think anything can go terribly wrong. 

But the real question is will this Home Renovation make or break our relationship?  I should video the process and submit it to Renovation Realities, I'm sure we will be quite entertaining!

I also scored a great deal on 6 wall cabinets for the laundry room.  I found them on Craigs List.  This was my first time using Craigs List and it was great!  The price I paid for these 6 cabinets (only 4 pictured below) is less than what one would cost at the store!

Here are the cabinets before we sand and paint them. I think we will just paint them white.  But maybe I'll get gutsy and try a dark bold color.

Laundry Room Update

It was a rainy weekend, thanks to TS Lee. But we were able to get a good bit of work done on the Laundry Room.

Here is what we completed -

• Insulate the walls and ceiling.  DONE
• Move hot water heater out of room and rerun pipes etc. for it.  DONE

This was a challenging process, but after like 7 times we had no leaks!

• Run electricity for Dryer, Fridge and outlets. DONE
• Hang sheet rock - float, sand repeat. - Almost all hung, I will be working on floating in the evenings after work this week.
• Change out window. - Not Done - We will hopefully get to that one night this week.  

And we ran the A/C duct and vent so once the room is closed in we can connect it to the A/C system.  

Here is what the room looks like after the 3 day weekend.

I am very pleased with our progress, I can't wait to see the finished product!

Labor Day Laundry List

I thought I'd post pictures of where we are with the Laundry Room prior to the 3 day weekend, then we can track our progress. To see the before pictures of the space, please check out my previous blog It All Comes Out in the Wash.

This is a view from the kitchen into the new laundry room.  You can see that once we close in the room, you will now exit the kitchen into the laundry room, then exit through the side door to get into the garage.

The space is about 9ft x 9ft.  Which is at least double the size of the original garage bathroom.

There is still plenty of garage space all around the new laundry room.  You could easily fit a car in there, if my driveway/garage was accessible by car.  The area to the right (behind the wall of the new room) is where my washer and dryer is currently.






Here is our Labor Day Weekend "Laundry List" for the Laundry Room Expansion:

• Insulate the walls and ceiling.
• Move hot water heater out of room and rerun pipes etc. for it.
• Run electricity for Dryer, Fridge and outlets.
• Hang sheet rock - float, sand repeat.
• Change out window.

I think this is a good starting point.  We'll see how much we actually get done because it's supposed to rain all weekend and that could put a kink in our plans.

It all comes out in the wash

We spent the last 2 weekends working on the last "major" renovation inside my house. The Laundry Room.  Up until now, my washer and dryer were set up in the garage.  Not the ideal place for cleaning clothes.

Originally, we were going to turn the bathroom (that was inside my garage) into the laundry room.  But my dad came up with an even better idea!  Expand the bathroom to make an even larger laundry/storage room!

So here is what the "Garage Bathroom" looked like before.This bathroom was gross. The shower leaked and was causing the wall in between the kitchen and garage to rot.  We did a lot of repair initially after we demoed the bathroom.

The second image is taken from inside the garage.  You can see how the hot water heater was also in the "bathroom".

Also before when you exited from the kitchen you went down 3 stairs into the garage.  You can see the garage door in this image. (Behind my Dad.)

We will be working on the laundry room during the 3 day Labor Day weekend.  I'll post pics to show you our progress then!

Living Room

This past weekend I moved furniture around in my living room... for at least the 4th time (in a year).  In my defense one of those times involved making space for my Christmas tree so it doesn't count.

Since I spruced up my living room by swapping around furniture and getting new curtains, I thought it would be a good time to see how far this space has come.

Here is what the living room looked like when I first saw the house.

 

The stairs were a HUGE selling point for me.  They were gorgeous!  And after we refinished them they make a dramatic feature in the room.

The living room had little renovation work that needed to be done.  It was dying for some fresh paint and a really good cleaning.  Once we refinished the hardwood floors, this room was instantly transformed.

The living room is probably one of the more frequented spaces in my house because we eat in here and watch TV in here.  This was a challenging space to lay my furniture out in because nearly every wall has a door, some opening or stairs or something that you could not put furniture against. 

 

Sadly, we can only sit about 3-4 people comfortably in here.  Eventually we'd like to get a larger couch and one of those oversized chairs to replace my lovely hand-me-down red love-seat/chaise.

 

I use to have a full sized bookcase where the short dvd shelf is.  So now I need some type of art to hang above it on that wall. It looks kind of empty now.

 

My beautiful stairs! This picture really doesn't do them justice (bad lighting and such).  They also double as a great place to hang our stockings at Christmas!

When you wish upon a star...

Are we ever "too old" for something? I don't think so.  I don't think we can ever grow out of the excitement that Disney World has to offer.  I've visited Disney World on 4 separate occasions.

The first in 1994 with my parents.

Twice while in High School.  In 2001, I had the privilege of performing as part of the Disney Magic Music Days on the Galaxy Palace Theater (which has since been closed) with my High School Band.  It was an amazing experience.

 

Then in 2003 we went to Disney for our senior class trip.

And most recently in 2007. 

 

My favorite Disney movies are 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp.  So I was very excited to eat at Tony's Town Square, the restaurant where Lady and Tramp shared that magical kiss.

 

And here is my best souvenir ever! I use it every day!

I can't wait to visit Disney again.  We are planning a trip for next year, and I'm so excited to take Michael to Disney for his FIRST VISIT!!

Since Disney is "The Happiest Place on Earth", I thought what a great theme for my guest room.  I have so many Disney collectibles that I would hate to pack away in boxes, so I decided to showcase them and make my guests feel like they are experiencing some of the Disney Magic in my home.

So here is my guest room pre-renovation.  

 

And here's my Disney inspired room!  

Hopefully soon you can Be Our Guest!