Kitchen progress – the end is in sight

I have been side lined with pneumonia and wasn’t able to work on my kitchen for two weeks! It felt like an eternity because I had picked a paint colour (finally) and purchased all the new moulding, but my body had other plans for me. I’m still not good, but I am getting there.

Last night I had 3 hours of sleep in a row and felt positively rejuvenated :)  I got up bright and early and got to work.



I started by painting the ceiling and installing a new light fixture. The ceiling paint is a very light blue, barely noticeable.



Next, I cut the bamboo blind down to fit into the frame rather than outside the frame. I should have done this a long time ago, it’s made such a difference. Before it was too small for the window and I had it sort of centered, but it was weird. See what I mean?



After trying out a lot of different paint colours, I settled on French Silver by ICI paints. It is blue during the day and grey during the night, love it. I had some repairs to do to the walls, so it nearly took me all day just to get a coat of paint on.



I framed out the new pantry door and added a handle to match the cabinets.



This is the eat in area. My daughter pleaded with me not to remove the chalkboard wall and although I’m tired of it, she isn’t. I picked up some wrought iron and wicker chairs for $10 each. They work better in this space than my old chairs. 



I have a few teapots that I adore, so I decided to display them together.



The tiling is next and it’s going to look smashing! I hung a couple of pieces up on nails to see what it is going to look like.



It’s coming together.



Still to do. Install the tile. Paint all of the baseboards. Get a new panel made at the end of the dishwasher as the old one is now too small, after removing so many layers of flooring. Install the same flooring in the dining room.

Oh, and clean up this mess!!!!



I hope you are having a great weekend!

A fresh coat of paint and added moulding

It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and moulding can do! This is the eat in area of my kitchen.

I remembered to take a before picture, but not before I had taken the bamboo blinds down to wash them…gross!!!!!!

I added trim around the window and put a fresh coat of paint on everything. Wow, it’s so much brighter. Maybe that’s because I washed my windows.  Next up is the window above the sink.

Before (the sun wasn’t quite up yet)

After

I am experimenting with paint colours. I have some paint that I picked up at the recycle centre that I am going to mix together and see what I can come up with *fingers crossed*.

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The nerve! Someone stole my photo

Update: My photo has been removed, as requested. 

When I first started blogging I made a sign that someone else had made and posted on their blog. This person was quick to tell me that it was her intellectual property and that I had no right to copy it. I disagreed but I removed my version, that I made with my own two hands, and apologized. There is a fine line between stealing someones property and making a version of your own, but at the time I didn't know any better. Now there are even websites and blogs that show off knockoffs!  If the Etsy poster had of asked, I would have given her permission to use my photo any way she wanted to.

I know it happens all of the time, but someone has stolen my photo, of my work, and is selling the photo on Etsy!  Really?

I don’t know why anyone would want it, it’s not a particularly good photo, but they’ve taken my watermark off and added their own. Sheesh, she should have asked and I would have said yes, use it.

I’ve sent the offending party a message to remove it from their sale site, let’s see what happens.
Here is the photo they took, which clearly has my watermark on it.



Thank you to WolfSilverOak for letting me know.

Kitchen progress – when you don’t really know what you are doing

Here is where my kitchen stands today.

My walls are not straight and the Ikea Pragel counters cannot be scribed. I’m left with gaps that I have to find a solution for before I can tile. The wall behind the stove is an easy fix, thanks to clever thinking by my bff, I am going to put up 1/4” plywood the entire width and height, that eliminates that gap. The longer wall, where the gap is more gradual may involve removing the drywall, installing new drywall and shimming it to meet the counters. Not a pleasant task, but it may be the only way to go. 

I did pick out new tile though, and I love it.  A little bit of putting the cart before the horse, but like anyone that enjoys home decor, you are drawn to the pretty bits that make it sparkle.

 

I got the tile for a steal of a deal at $3.50 each.

I needed a new door for my pantry and only a bifold would work. A panelled door was not what I wanted, so I bought a plain Masonite door and added the same trim as I did on the cabinets.

not painted yet

This was the biggest door I could get that was not custom order (read, big bucks) so I had to add wood to the top of the frame

The frame is so out of whack that I had to add a shims on one side to bring it to level. The frame is also out of plumb, but trim moulding will hide the majority of the sins.

It will be painted the same white as the cabinets and a matching handle will be installed.

I am still way ahead of my August deadline, so having to take a couple of weeks off while my wrists felt better is a-ok.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Chalkboard art and a great GW find

My kitchen is at a standstill while I rest my wrists. I had no clue how painful carpal tunnel syndrome is until experiencing it for myself. Owww.

My daughter is grounded from her computer this week and apparently is a little bored, because she asked if she could draw something on the chalkboard wall in the kitchen.  Um, yeah!

I have a self imposed moratorium on junkin’ until my kitchen is done, but I had some time to kill after work before picking my daughter up from rugby practice, so I popped in to the Goodwill close to work. I was giddy when I found this, for $20!!!

I’m not sure what I will do with it yet. Some thoughts are just hang it up as is, or use it as a headboard which would fit a double bed perfectly. Or change the colour and hang it outside, screw in some hooks, hang some small buckets and put candles in them, hmmm, maybe I could do that inside too.  Anyway, the possibilities are endless. What would you do?

Thumbprint tree guestbook for a birthday

In between working on my kitchen, going to work and all the others tasks I juggle, I am working on planning my mum’s 75th birthday party next weekend.

I’ve long adored the thumbprint wedding guest books and decided to adapt it for a birthday. There is a free template online at One Fab Day that I used as inspiration.There are also instructions on how to modify the names/dates and print it out. Rather than printing it, I wanted it on a canvas. The organic shape lends itself well to those of us with no natural artistic talent :) I added  few ready-to-go thumbprints because some people just don’t feel comfortable leaving theirs.



We are expecting 60-75 people, so it will be a nice full tree once everyone signs. The canvas is 16”x20” and was $5, two green ink pads and a sharpie for a few bucks and this frugal craft was only about $10.  I used my cricut and black vinyl to cut out the lettering; there was no way I was going to free hand it with my shaky paws.

I am cutting the last piece of the counter tops today. There have been a few hiccups in the install on the sink side of the kitchen because the new counter tops are a lot thicker than the old ones. The drain pipes are lower now and the faucet downpipe just barely fits the thickness of the new counter, yikes. Of course I didn’t even consider this when I bought these counters. There’s always something :)

I hope you are having a great weekend.

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Kitchen progress – flooring is installed

Yipee!  I hope you aren’t all bored with my kitchen project just yet because it’s starting to come together. I have installed the flooring, the new cabinets and counter top on one side. The counters on the opposite side are a little more involved with having to cut out the sink opening, so I’m leaving that for another day next week.

The past week has been hellish because I had to remove not one, not two, but three more layers of flooring until I got down to the floorboards. In total I have removed five layers of flooring: porcelain tile, cement backer board, vinyl tile, linoleum and sub floor.

New sub floor was installed and then the Allure vinyl strip flooring in hickory. The process was time consuming and my knees are raw, but it wasn’t difficult. I used a utility knife to score the tile and it snapped easily. I had read from others that installed it how difficult it was to cut the pieces, but I found it easy and didn’t have to change my blade once.

There was about 10% waste that has to be factored in and I over quessed on how many boo boos I would make. I’m left with an entire box and 3/4 of left over. The test of time will determine if I will continue the flooring in to my dining room. I’ve heard that some people have an issue with the tiles lifting, I sure hope I did it right and that doesn’t happen to me.

I used my circular saw to cut through the Ikea Pragel countertops and didn’t have any issues at all. Now that I have the one side of counter tops in, I’m not so sure I want to go with the white subway tile.  The truth is that I’m not a fan of tiled backsplashes at all, but a kitchen looks unfinished without them. I’m not sure which direction I will go in just yet.

I can’t decide on a paint colour for the walls. I’m leaning towards a greige so that there is some continuity between the rooms. I want to be sure that there are no pink undertones and I don’t want it too grey either. Here are some colours I am considering.

BM (that’s Benjamin Moore, not bowel movement) Clay Beige

BM Natural Linen

Or maybe I will go with a blue grey. I’m not sure why I’m obsessing over this, I’m a long way off of actually painting. 

I hope you are having a great weekend.  Spring is almost here, yay!

Kitchen progress–new cabinets

Things have to get ugly before they get pretty, so I’ve got some “in the middle of reno’s” ugly for you :)



In order to make my very small kitchen more functional, I decided to move my fridge next to the pantry. I don’t feel bad about losing this space, as no one ever sat at the desk that was there. I still have a work triangle, it’s just a much bigger triangle now.   The greatest benefit to moving the fridge is that I am going to have an entire 8 foot expanse of uninterrupted counter space. Visually it opens up the narrow area. It’s a construction zone, don’t judge LOL



One thing of course leads to another and I had this big gaping hold above the cabinet. I made a shelf that I attached to the existing cabinet using L brackets. I moved my diy herb crates off of the wall and put them in this cupboard to store my herbs, spices and frequently used items.  The shelf still needs to be painted.



I bought my counter tops and decided on the ika pragel counters in stone effect. Cost was the most obvious reason for choosing these, but also because I like that there is not a return at the back, nothing reads 1970’s kitchen like my old counters.

My microwave has been installed!  I am having the electric outlet that was for the fridge moved up so that it is at counter height. Until then I can’t screw in the new cabinets or install the counters.

The new cabinet doesn’t match my old cabinets, but it’s not too horrible of a difference, I think? :0) The two bottom doors will be getting a little bling with some crystal knobs, once I am able to install the doors evenly.



And what’s been occupying most of my time this week? Tearing out the ceramic floor and cement backer board.  What a mess!  There is a coat of dust throughout my entire house! This is my coffee table in the living room.



Tearing up the floor was back breaking work. I came home from work on Tuesday and decided that today was the day. I got about half way through that night and had the day off of work on Wednesday to tear up the rest. There is nothing like hard labour to remind me that I’m fifty and out of shape; I could barely move afterwards. After I got the flooring and cement board up, I had to remove what felt like a bajillion 3” screws, the reality is that it was probably closer to 200!  The heads were filled with cement so I had to clean each one out with a small screwdriver before I could use my drill to remove the screws.



I’m going to be installing 1/4 plywood over top of the existing floor before I can start the new flooring. What I have there now is two very compressed layers of vinyl and lino, fortunately it’s been screwed, nailed and hammered in and is not going anywhere.

There is still lots more to do and slowly I am getting it done.
Have a great week.

Wine glass lanterns

Needing a break from everything “project kitchen update”, I decided on doing a craft.

I met with three friends for dinner on Saturday and wanted to bring a small gift for each girl. I have previously made these paper lanterns but this time I modified them to include a scalloped edge.



I kept them pretty simple using black and white card stock. The flowers are the same shape as the scallop. I cut the tags and wrote each girls name on. You can insert a battery operated tea light if you are not comfortable with a real tea light, but they are fine with real. They looked so pretty on the dinging table. I have the svg if you want it for yourself.



Back to the kitchen now :)

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Kitchen progress–retrofit a cabinet for a microwave

I have made some progress, albeit nothing earth shattering :)

I have finished adding moulding to the doors and painting almost all of the upper cabinets except for the cupboard above the stove, where the microwave will be installed.



The cupboard above the stove gave me so much grief.  I couldn't get it off the wall even after removing the screws. I figured it was glued to the wall.  I get scared to do things when I don’t know what I’m doing, afraid that I will cause irrecoverable damage. I’m such a chicken.

I borrowed a plunge saw from a friend and was going to try to cut the cupboard down in place. I started by removing the trim on the bottom. Well, low and behold, there were two more screws holding the cupboard in place hiding behind the trim, attached to the other cabinets. Doh!

I was able to get the entire cupboard down and went to town with my jig saw. In no time flat I had it cut down to size and back up on the wall.





The doors were cut down to size, moulding added and rehung to fit the smaller cabinet.

Next up is installing an electric box and outlet in the top of the cabinet. I will then paint the cabinet and get the microwave installed. Until then I will be painting the bottom cabinets this weekend.

I picked out some fabric to make roman blinds for the windows, one above the sink and a small bay window in the eating area.
I ordered it online from Tonic Living on Wednesday and on Friday it was at my door!



Have a wonderful weekend.

Kitchen progress – day 1 of painting

Not a whole lot of progress but I started, which is usually the hardest part for me.

If you recall, I was going to go with a smaller trim, but it just seemed a little too wimpy, so I changed it to a larger trim.

I found the trim at HD and it’s door casing. Still well within my budget.

The drawer unit is looking a lot better with a few coats of paint and some new handles

 

Still lots more to go, but it’s progress. On Monday I am going to Ikea to pick up an over the range microwave and make a final decision on which countertops to go with. As much as I like the butcher block counters, it doesn’t suit the overall look that I want for the kitchen; it will be one of their laminates but I can’t decide which one.

I apologize for the crappy night photos.  Have you noticed that Picasa now has Creative Kit to edit your photos?  Looks similar to Picnik but less features.

Choosing a backsplash for my kitchen

One never knows where they will find inspiration, I found it in the ladies washroom!  I kid you not, I was at our new office on Wednesday and in the washroom was this beautiful white, glossy, large subway tile.  I wondered, where would one find subway tile that big?

On Thursday I was at HD and there it was, on sale!  They measure 4” x 16”.  Each box covers 10 square feet and was only $20. I need 40 square feet but bought an extra box to allow for cuts and breakage. Total cost, $100! I am considering adding in some decorative tile depending on the layout once I have new counters installed. I am trying to avoid cutting the length of the tile.



I will be using 1/8” spacing with a light grey grout.  The large size will give a lovely linear look and won’t be too busy, after all, I have a small kitchen.

In other kitchen news, I had to replace the drawer cabinet as it was falling apart. The cheapest one I could find was at HD. On sale for $99, it was right in my price range. excuse the mess.



I am a little overwhelmed by all of the choices and pricing things out at a cost that my budget can afford is a lot of work.

Next step is getting an over the range microwave installed. That involves cutting my cabinet down and a friend has offered to do that for me.  Rather than putting doors back up over the microwave, I am going to leave them off and put baskets above the microwave, so that I can easily take them out to access my spices. Once that happens, I will start my door rehab with added moulding and painting.

These are the handles I have chosen for the doors. They are local to me, so I can pick them up. I am going for the 8” handles to be proportionate to the size of my doors. They are solid, not hollow and the price is amazing at only $2.39 each. They are in the Toronto area, if you are interested here is the link to the posting on Kijiji  A lot cheaper than the ones at Ikea for the same thing.



So that’s my update. There is still lots more stuff to consider and be done, but it’s a starting point.