Room by room: an endless list of projects (part 1)

I saw a wonderful idea on Young House Love (I love their blog and am eagerly awaiting their book!) where they went through each room of their house and made a list of things they had done and what they had left to do. I thought this would be a great idea because when I'm out shopping or thrifting I would know what I still needed for the house. Here is the first installment of the main living spaces.

The Entryway

What we've done:

• Stripped the wallpaper and painted (Sherwin Williams Tidewater and Sherwin Williams Pure White for the trim)
• Added artwork
• Refinished the light fixture
  

What we have left to do:

• Perhaps add a rug?
• Fix the sticky door (it's so embarrassing at the chaos that ensues when anybody knocks-the dog goes crazy barking and jumping so we're trying to hold her back while simultaneously frantically tugging at the door that sticks ever since we painted it)

The Living Room

What we've done:

• Painted the trim and the walls (we used SW Pure White for the trim and SW Mindful Grey for the walls)
• Hung artwork
• Built bookshelves
• Changed out the vent covers
• Exchanged our couch (a wonderful hand-me-down from my in-laws! so nice not to have to refinish and reupholster our vintage sofa)
• Reupholstered our two side chairs (one was featured here)

What we have left to do:

• Pull up the carpet when we're ready to refinish the floors
• Paint the coffee table or find a different coffee table
• Paint the media cabinet
• Tweak the pillows-maybe change some out-they're not quite right yet 
• Add an overhead light and switch

The Dining Room

  
What we've done:

• Stripped wallpaper
• Painted (we used SW buttercream)
• Added picture frame molding
• Reupholstered the dining chairs
• Added a sliding door where the window used to be
• Added curtains and a rug
  

What we have left to do:

• Add artwork (seems to be a running theme throughout all our rooms)
• Add a leaf to the dining table
• Refinish the dining chairs (stain or paint?)
• Refinish the dining table
• Paint the chandelier
• Refinish the floors eventually
• Paint the sliding door frame

The Kitchen

What we've done:

• Practically nothing! 

What we have left to do:

• Everything...more specifically though:
• Demo everything
• Install hardwood floors
• Install cabinets from IKEA (waiting for their next 20% off sale)
• Install new appliances
• Add a backsplash
• Paint the ceiling, walls and trim
• Install quartz countertops
• Add new hardware
• Find a new light fixture

Den/Family Room

What we've done:

• Painted the paneling and trim
• Changed out the light fixtures

What we have left to do:

• Change out the floor to hardwood
• Figure out the fireplace situation- we need to change out the mantel or maybe just add molding and paint it and still debating about whether or not to paint the fireplace
• Paint the built-ins and maybe add a modern paper to the back of the cabinets
• Get rid of the furniture and add a table and chairs to extend the kitchen into an eat-in kitchen
• Add artwork to the very blank walls

From this list we don't have that much to actually buy (with the HUGE exception of the kitchen!), but we do have a fair amount that we need to refinish...sigh...it seems to take us forever to refinish things. Stay tuned for the rest of the house to include the bedrooms and bathrooms. What sort of projects do you need to get to in order to complete a room?

The Virginia Zoo

So I try to keep this blog mostly about house projects, but every once in awhile animals have a way of nosing their adorable faces in. This past Saturday my family attended Zoo Grooves at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. Zoo Grooves is a summer concert series held at the zoo. This last one featured a bluegrass band Town Mountain. I couldn't help but feature just a few of those aforementioned adorable faces we met. Here is a smattering of pictures of some of the animals...

Schnitz, the male Orangutan cuddling under his blanket. No wonder my mom needs her "Schnitz fix" weekly!

Pepper, the female Orangutan lounging and pondering the curiosities of life

Hitam, a female Siamang

New mama Hitam with her baby born only a few days before

This is the best picture we got of the Sun Bear, he wouldn't look up! He somehow reminded me of Millie, my dog though. Perhaps it was his shiny black coat and constant nose to the ground.

You're a long time in coming: thrift store chair

So a few years ago (yes, that's years) I found this little $5 beauty while thrifting...

Ok, so perhaps not a little beauty yet. But when you think of chairs like this...

...there is so much potential! This is an example from my favorite show The Dick van Dyke Show. The chair has a very similar design in the curve of the back. I think it's a barrel/tub chair?

After stripping, sanding, staining, sealing, and reupholstering, the chair was transformed. Never mind the process spanned about 2 1/2 years. After awhile it becomes easier and easier to ignore the half upholstered chair in the corner of the room. But anyway, here it is today...

  Are there projects you have procrastinated on?

Kitchen plans

Lately I've been dreaming how to redo the kitchen. Right now ours needs lots of updating. (Sorry about the pictures-I forgot my camera at my parents' house and had to use my Ipod.)

While our kitchen does meet all of our needs, it is very awkward. For example...

...the dishwasher opens up into the den (I wonder who thought of that?)

  ...there are odd little gaps in between some of the cabinets

...and narrow little pathways.

Needless to say, we've been wanting to do a renovation to expand the space and improve its function. There are two options. We can keep much of the current layout and just smooth out the awkward areas, or do a complete demo and start from scratch. While pondering what to do, I started playing around with Ikea's kitchen planner tool-very cool!
The first plan has the fewest changes.

Imagine the back wall to be the same as it is now (hard to see, but the empty place on the right by the doorway is where the oven would go, the empty spot on the left is for the microwave, and below that is the cook top). Notice the peninsula is gone, the dishwasher moves into the kitchen (yay!), and we get double our pantry space (behind the fridge).  These cabinets would reach the ceiling.

With this option, the only new cabinets would be the base cabinet in front of the dishwasher, the two upper wall cabinets above that base cabinet and the dw (or we could also use open shelves for a much simpler but cleaner look), and a pantry cabinet to match the one we already have. We would hope to build our own cabinets to match our existing ones (are we shooting for the stars???). I found some instructions on making your own cove raised panel kitchen cabinet doors online which look exactly like our current doors. So with this plan we need to:

• Build a few cabinets as mentioned above
• Put down oak hardwood floors to match the rest of the house (which we'd also extend into the den)
• Install new countertops such as this
• Put up a new backsplash (maybe a classic white subway?)
• Paint the walls
• Install a new light
• Buy a new refrigerator/freezer and dishwasher

I came up with another 2 plans that involve complete demos. Here is the first.

This one triples our pantry space and mitigates the fridge's awkward placement. This plan requires all new cabinets as well as appliances. We need to replace our fridge and dishwasher anyway, but this plan uses a range versus an oven and cooktop. That allows us a little more counterspace by the stove. Here are the other views.

And finally, if the fridge doesn't fit by the dishwasher, then this is the second option.

This plan also requires a complete renovation. It is more of a combination of the first two, but this option has the most counterspace (still not a lot though). Here is the back view.

This plan doubles our current pantry space like the first plan.

The Ikea tool also creates a shopping list and total cost of what you need to buy there! The costs weren't as bad as I thought for all new cabinets, counter, and appliances (the second plan was $4,736.70 and the third was $4,674.68-of course this does NOT take into account the floors, lighting, paint, tile, etc. It does however include cabinets, countertops, hardware, sink, and appliances).

So what do you think? Any preferences or ideas?

Mid-Century Nightstands

So I've been looking for 2 matching nightstands in thrift stores and Craigslist for a long time now with no success. But when I went antiquing with my sister I found a pair of mid-century nightstands!

They were in great condition and solid wood, just an ugly blonde color with even uglier hardware. They begged to be refinished. Here's what we've done so far...

• I removed all the hardware which just included the drawer pull and the little metal cap thingies on the tips of the legs.
• I sanded using an electric palm sander for the flat surfaces and by hand on the other areas. This was very important to get all that shiny finish off.
• I covered up the areas I didn't want sprayed using newspaper and painters tape. Really these areas would have been hidden, but now I know that underneath the drawer lies a clean untouched surface!

• Then it was time to prime!

I did two coats of primer. Now they are just sitting in the shed waiting for their final coats of paint and new hardware. Should we paint them a crisp clean white or a fun bright color? And what should the hardware look like? These unanswered questions are the main reasons they still sit, waiting eagerly for their final touches...stay tuned!

House Tour

Check out the new House Tour page I added (still a work in progress!).

Dining room chair plans

You know those desperately-in-need-of-a-makeover dining room chairs I bought a couple of weeks ago?

Well we have some plans in the works. Here's a sample of the Premier Prints fabric I'm eagerly waiting to arrive:

Fabric Guru.com

When it arrives I think we'll just reupholster for now; we'll make the decision about refinishing later. Stay tuned!