Half a Kitchen

This update is a little late. I was trying to wait until we had all of our cabinets painted and hung. Nope dot com.

We have 1 set of cabinet doors hung. Let me show some before photos.

Some cross-eyed painting action from me:


After!

Don't look at the mess!!



What we did was remove the cabinet doors and basically soak them in TSP. This whole kitchen was super gross. I don't know what those old ladies were cooking in here but EW man. Okay, cabinet doors off and cleaned. We gave them to my dad who cut out the middles at his factory. He gave them back to me and I painted them! Jordan then took them to a local glass store and had tempered glass custom cut just for these doors! He then used silicone to attached the glass to the doors and let them dry. They kind of sat around for a little while but recently he hung them up with the new hinges! And voila - amazing!

We haven't attached the knobs, or even put our dishes away. We kind of have a new set of dishes that we received for our wedding. Updated, prettier version of the above picture coming after next month! I've also been searching Craigslist high and low for a buffet/sideboard/cabinet thingy for super cheap that I can makeover and store a bunch of our stuff so that we don't have to keep it in the garage! Gross!! And by super cheap, I mean $50 or under. And shorter than 30 inches. I'll find my mini "china cabinet" someday!

That's the only update I have at the moment. It makes a huge difference AND Jordan installed new hinges so that when you shut the cabinet door it's slow and doesn't slam. I hate slamming. He knows me well. We should get married. Oh...

More updates soon!!

Summer's Finished - Our House is Not

Somehow September showed up and is almost halfway gone. I'm sorry, where did summer go? That went by too fast. Anyway, because it was 100+ degrees here most of the weekends during our summer, I didn't get much painting done. Last weekend I decided to get over it and paint.

Two more cabinets down, the rest of that orangey pile to go. And then Jordo has to hang them. And we have to put the pulls/knobs on them. More on that 5 years from now when we actually get to that!

I forgot to post pictures of our kitchen sink make-over. Jordan did some plumbing work while I was on a work trip in June. Now the water pressure is awesome AND we have a sprayer-thingy. Check out his handiwork!

It makes doing the dishes less crappy. So pretty and it was installed with love... ?

The rest of our house has a bunch of boxes/bags, wedding magazines and cards, and a pile of sweaters that I take off and put in the corner of the couch when I get home from work. I leave you with this last image of a table runner I got last month:

Bye.

Not Forgotten

It's been months. I've been slacking. Between a full-time job, full-time planning for our upcoming marriage, a trip to the Grand Canyon, and 2 sinus infections, house updates don't fit in so well.

Since April we have cut down the tree in the front yard. It was full of termite damage. Check out this before photo and then check out the crazy termite tree being cut down!

Thank god we had it removed! So now there is a giant circle filled with some leftover wood shavings. Good news though - an awesome neighbor was able to get the DWP to plant free trees! Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we'll be getting our very own Chinese Pistache! It won't go in the same spot as the tree from termite hell - and maybe this one will fare better! Pictures to come when it's planted!

I was reorganizing part of our kitchen this weekend and decided to spray paint some stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't take before photos. The box was a pale wood and the tray was white. So exciting .. .. ..

I really wanted to make one of those no-sew blinds I keep seeing plastered on all those DIY home blogs. Specifically, one like this! Well, seeing as though I don't have a lot of time these days and our kitchen was boiling by 4pm each day, Jordan and I made a trip to Ikea to check out a quick fix. We ended up with this shade.
Before & After!

I wasn't able to paint the trim before Jordan erected the blind. I'm also painfully aware of the cabinets with NO DOORS! I still have to finish painting them and Jordan has to hang them. Need. Time. My dad is helping us cut shelves for the other kitchen cabinet. It's halfway there. By the time we finish all this it will be time to actually renovate the stupid room. Argh!

Other things that have happened include us moving our big ass coffee table (on loan from the family storage bin) into our junk room and replacing it with Jordan's Bubbee's smaller coffee table. It fits right in! I think I'd like to refinish it - it's got some scratches and things from a lifetime of love. We also got bedside tables from Ikea. And lamps. Maybe I'll put some stuff on my table, make the bed, and take a photo for the next post! It makes the bedroom look more like a bedroom. We still haven't hung any photos or art yet. It's been almost a year. Holy cow.

What else, what else? We planted patio tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and bell pepper. In pots. In the back we moved a couple of trees around and are watching dwarf apples grow. They are awesome!

Other than some small rearranging we haven't been able to accomplish a whole lot right now. With time at a low and funds at a zero we're kind of on hold for bigger and better things. Hopefully, we can draw our wish for what we'd like our house to be in the future - we'll see if actually happens in the next couple of years!

'Til next time.

Just a Door Mat

We finally got door mats. It's been about 10 months or so but we finally got them. Hooray for Target.

Front entry:




Back entry:




Does it look more welcoming? Welcome, but not too welcome. Like, hey welcome, but you have to have a key to get in? No? Anyway... I also picked up a soap dispenser. Exciting for me. Jordan thinks I'm crazy.


I also found a set of pillow cases, place mats, a basket to hold place mats and other junk, and a decorative pillow for our room. Too bad it's only the size of my face and we have a king-sized bed. It looks stupid so it will be returned.



It's like doll-sized. Why?!

I don't have much else to give an update on. We had our trees trimmed the other weekend and the guys did some rearranging of our apple tree, cherry tree, and a fig tree that we think a squirrel must have planted. We have a plan to get rid of most of the rose bushes in our backyard. Unfortunately (well fortunately for us, because yuck), the bushes are so old that when we take them out they cannot be replanted. There are a few that are newer that can be moved to a different location. They just are little too "old" for us. We want something fresh. In the meantime say hello to one of our elderly roses:



I have a plan to get started on priming our kitchen cabinet doors tomorrow. This has been a long drawn out project. It's going to make the kitchen look great!! Jordan promised to take me out for dessert. I'm out of here!

Reginald the Key-ng

Well, hi. I suck at updating this. I'm going to blame it on my arms being sore from painting. We are halfway there with the kitchen cabinets! I'm the genius who was lazy and didn't paint the insides of the bottom cabinets but then decided to paint the insides of the top. It sucked.

On inspection day:

A few weeks ago:

Today:

Oh hey, girl!

I still have to clean, prime and paint the doors. Jordan will attach them. We have to pick out hardware. We want cup pulls for the drawers and we thought knobs for the doors, but now I'm leaning toward handles. You can see some of my ideas here: http://pinterest.com/ashleykaye/kitchen-inspiration/ We are also having a set of our doors cut so we can install glass. Fancy.

Behold, Reginald! Our key holder:

He's lonely. I think he wants a neighbor. Picture frame? Mirror? I don't know yet.

We are also in the market for a fire place screen since we are still housing the one that the previous owners left behind.

We also need to lay something over the brick hearth. YUCK! I want some sort of stone or tile? Something easy. Suggestions, anyone?

Remember the list I made in this post? Here's an update:
Our list of things to get done:

• Paint inside of front door
• Frost the front door windows
• Unpack boxes
• Decorate/fill shelf next to fire place, bookcases
• Hide cables from TV above fire place
• Replace light bulbs over dining table (how they are already burnt out from July, I will never know)
• Hang art
• Paint kitchen cabinets
• Paint laundry room cabinets
• Install cabinet hardware
• Find a new fire place screen and other tools
• Find couch/chairs that fit our living room space
• Create custom closet
• Paint bathroom cabinets
• Install new hardware in bathrooms
• Our back room - it's a list in itself

That's all I got.

Update Coming!

I swear that we've been working our butts off to get more stuff done in our house. I don't have all of the photos that I'd like to share and chat about yet. Once I do there will be posts aplenty!

We had a house warming party in the middle of December aka crazy holiday month! We are still trying to find places for all of our things, new additions (from Hanukkah Harry & Santa) as well as where to put our furniture. Both with newish jobs, we are both working hard and are back to getting projects done on the weekend.

The things that I want to share with you are:

1. Reginald our octopus key holder
2. Our completed front door/windows
3. The completed bookcases
4. Our kitchen cabinets
5. Jordan replacing drywall, with a face mask a la "Breaking Bad"
6. Our lemon tree that pretended it was a lime tree for the summer

In the meantime, I've updated our House page! More to come.

The "How's the House Coming Along" Progress Post

I've been lazy. I haven't kept up with this blog because we have projects that are half completed. Yes, the door is still only painted from the outside. We still have the old-lady lace hung up next to it. Our desk has been camping in our living room for a few weeks. The kitchen cabinets are half done. The list goes on...

I left off last time with our front door. I was actually going to do that this weekend but it's been raining for a week straight. Probably not a good time to take the door off or even have it propped open for painting. Here's a reminder:

I also tried to time-warp our linen closet. This is what it looks like inside:

I love a lot of things about the 90s but this shelf liner needs to go. Anyway, I purchased some clear adhesive liner, measured and cut it to fit. I peeled back the bottom liner and it lifted off the paint. I decided I would get back to it later when we take care of more important things. If anyone would like to take a trip back in time, I'm sure I can say that I have a Linen Closet Time Machine.

The next thing we took care of was moving our dresser (one of my grandparent's pieces from the 60s or 70s that they kept in their old Palm Springs home) out of our "closet" and back into our room. We propped it up, primed it, and painted it light grey. Jordan then painted a design on it - I'll show you later.

Now, instead of a hulking, dark and giant lug, the dresser sort of melts into the wall. A picture of that will have to wait...

Remember our crazy bookcases that used be decked out with mirrors until we bought the house and then after work, one day, I came in here and smashed them all with a hammer? Oh good, me too. That side of the room is no longer ghetto. Here's some before and after shots:

Clearly, we still need to put things ON the shelves but at least the hard part is done. Jordan sawed the boards, glued on the fabric, and placed them inside the bookcases. He did a great job!

On to the kitchen! I was able to paint our bottom cabinets. That may sounds awesome but it was only 5. I still have to paint the top - ugh. We went with a charcoal color on the bottom and are probably going with a white-cream color up top. I also had hardware delivered but it turned out NOT looking like it did online. So, project is only a quarter done.

One side - BEFORE looking into the kitchen:

Other side - AFTER looking out from kitchen:

Our list of things to get done:

• Paint inside of front door
• Frost the front door windows
• Unpack boxes
• Decorate/fill shelf next to fire place, bookcases
• Hide cables from TV above fire place
• Replace light bulbs over dining table (how they are already burnt out from July, I will never know)
• Hang art
• Paint kitchen cabinets
• Paint laundry room cabinets
• Install cabinet hardware
• Find a new fire place screen and other tools
• Find couch/chairs that fit our living room space
• Create custom closet
• Paint bathroom cabinets
• Install new hardware in bathrooms
• Our back room - it's a list in itself

Here's a photo from work a couple of days ago. The clouds were creeping down the mountains during our "storm."

Happy December!!