Furn with Stain

Furn is fun with an r added...or furniture for short...or just my really awesome play on words because I'll be talking both about FUN with stain and FURNITURE with stain. Wow. I can tell I blow your mind.

One of the things keeping us busy this last month has been a couple of finishing/refinishing projects.  In our master bedroom, we have a wall that I knew, one day, would hold a big honkin' mirror.  I really liked this one from Ikea when they had it in brown/black.  I loved the chunky (faux) wood frame and how big it was.  But ... it was $100 and Mark thought we could DIY our own from REAL wood (a big thing for him) for a fraction of the cost. So, instead we put our DIY hats on and bought this plain boring mirror and two hemlock 1x6 boards from the local big blue or orange for under $20.  Mark worked his magic and created the frame by using a:

miter saw
table saw
nail gun (finishing nails)
wood glue
sand paper

Once he was done with the frame, it was time to prep the wood for the stain.  We used wood conditioner to make sure the stain would go on evenly. I definitely recommend using wood conditioner, especially if you are working with a softer wood that is more absorbent.

Then, it was time for furn with stain (I know, I'm a riot).

Bad picture quality, sorry.  But you get the idea. I applied 3 coats of stain and two coats of satin polyurethane.  I wanted it to be REALLY dark.  In my master bedroom, I have some white painted furniture, but I wanted all my wood-toned furniture to be a really dark walnut-mocha-y color. And I really liked how this turned out.

And for another bad-quality, finished product picture!
Ta-daa!

There it is in all it's glory! (No, I hadn't cleaned the glass yet. Yes, those are smudges.)

The mirror was a fun project for me to get my feet wet with because I planned to next refinish a dresser I bought from Craigslist which would also go in our master bedroom.  This was obviously a much bigger project.  I had to strip the paint, sand, sand, sand, pry off the laminate top and pray it didn't ruin the wood underneath, and sand some more before it was ready to be stained.

I managed to do most of the work myself, but came home one day to find that Mark had finished off the last of the sanding, applied the wood conditioner, and started the process of staining it for me!

He said he did it because he was bored.  I think it was because he loves me and was so proud of all the hard work I put into it and he felt bad that he didn't help me with it before.  Whatever the real reason, he took over the project and three coats of stain and two coats of satin polyurethane later, I had a pretty 90% done dresser (and some more poor quality pictures)!

But, as you can see, the dresser has no handles...which is why I say that it's only 90% done - we haven't refinished the handles yet.  (The dresser's handles are very simple and wood that's painted black.)  They won't take long to refinish, but it's something we haven't gotten to yet.  Regardless, isn't it pretty?  I think so.  

The third furniture project we are going to undertake is building a master bed.  Thankfully, I found an AMAZING blog - Knock-Off Wood - run by Ana who creates furniture plans based on amazing pieces of furniture in your favorite catalogs.  We plan to tackle this bed with just a few minor tweaks to the plans. I hope to have it built before summer is over.  I'll share every step of that journey with you and let you know how much we spend on it versus what you could buy it for (plus shipping). More furn is coming your way!  (And I promise that's the last time I use that word.)

Kitchen Adventures

I know the 5 of you who read this blog are chomping at the bit, ready for me to reveal my brand spankin' new kitchen! I hate to disappoint you, but it's not done yet.  We've been working hard on it, but we've run into a few...adventures.

Adventure #1 - We shattered a 3'x9' granite slab. Yep, 250 bucks down the drain. As I always say, "What doesn't kill us makes us more broke."  We bought another piece and moved on.

Adventure #2 - Remember the great deal on door/window trim (casing) that we got? Yeah. It wasn't the same stuff.  Unfortunately, Mark didn't notice until he had already installed it on some of our doorways.  The one we picked was very square...this one has soft edges. Needless to say, it's the one we're sticking with!

Adventure #3 - Mark thought it would be a good idea for ME to lay the tile in our kitchen (while he made all the necessary cuts).  I'm a perfectionist and our 62 year old floor is not. Mark had to intervene a few times, but we're all still alive.

So, as you can see, remodeling doesn't always go the way you want it to.  You learn that you have to be a little bit flexible and have a lot of patience (throw in some good spousal communication and you've got it made!).

To hold you over until the big reveal, here are a few sneak peaks.

I leave for Washington DC on Saturday and get back the following Friday night. I'm hoping to be able to use my kitchen when I get back!

Bedroom update

If you can remember way back when, we were going to have carpet installed in the part of our bedroom that did not have original wood flooring (the part that was back porch, dining nook, and old stairwell).  This is what it looked like:

And our closet looked like this:

It's amazing what a little carpet can do!

It's a very light color, but it is so pretty and comfy.  It was a pretty big splurge for us, but we went with the highest quality carpet we could and I'm so glad we did (I think Mark is, too...deep down).  Soon after the carpet was installed we moved in, but our closet still needed its built-ins and shelves, so that was our next project...after installing our doors!

We bought MDF to make the shelves in the linen closet and the clothes closet.  The linen closet was pretty easy:

The clothes closet took a little more thought.  We wanted enough drawers for our folded clothes (since we didn't want to have a dresser taking up space in our room), but also space for some shoes and Mark's heavy work jeans and sweatshirts.  We ended up with this layout: 6 big drawers (we left room to add one more on each side, which I think we will eventually do) and one big shelf for Mark's big, bulky work clothes (this shelf isn't in this picture).

(see the pretty carpet!)

The drawers are Ikea's Komplement baskets (roughly 30 x 23 x 6). They are pretty inexpensive and are decent quality...and they hold a LOT of stuff because they are big. I don't think it would be a good idea to put tons of Carhartt jeans in them, which is why I decided on a shelf.

After Mark built the basic structure, caulked it, and made sure it fit in the closet, we took it out and painted it white (same paint as the window seat) with a paint sprayer. We also installed and painted in the same way the big shelf above the clothes pole.  (Our closet is 6 1/2' wide (inside dimension).)

Once it was painted, we installed it, then Mark began putting together the hardware to install the baskets. 

Soon after, we starting filling it up! (Cliff is wondering why all this "stuff" is taking up his play space.)

(A shoes basket will be under Mark's heavy work clothes shelf.)

I plan to get nice plastic bins and put our shorts, swimming suits, sweaters, etc. up on that shelf way up there - the things you don't need out all year long.  Mark is excited about our new closet - for the first time in our marriage, he gets to hang his clothes up!  

Don't think that just because we've moved into our bedroom and our clothes are in our closet that all is done. Far from it, actually!  We have to finish the base trim, paint the bedroom door and closet doors, add transition pieces to where the carpet and wood floor come together, decide on what style of molding to do around the windows and door, touch up paint from installing the shelves in our closets...the list really never ends!  But, like I always say, we're one step closer - in this case three (carpet, doors, closet)!

Kitchen: Show & Tell

For those of you who read this blog (I know there are at least two of you out there), I am sorry I haven't posted anything in over a week! I've been really busy - we went to California over the weekend, celebrated my birthday (28!?!), and I've been helping to plan a big dinner at my church on Saturday. Despite all of this, I do have a lot of updates to show you all.

Let's start with ... the kitchen.

As you know, we ordered our kitchen cabinets last week. We are getting them through JC Group Inc. We were very pleased with their price and selection - and the fact that you can special order cabinets from them in the exact style, color, dimension, basically everything you can think of customizing, for just a little more than the in-stock cabinets. You do have to be patient and wait 6-8 weeks for them, but we were happy to wait! I'm getting the style and color I want so I'm very happy! Plus, they give you a computerized layout of what everything will look like.

Let the tour begin! (All images were created by JC Group Inc, besides my really awesome drawing - that's all me - and the last picture.)

Here is the birds eye view of what it will look like...pretty much. You can see the layout anyway.  There is going to be an archway on the left side where the peninsula is.  The arch will connect the window wall  to the wall that is above (in this picture anyway) the doorway into the kitchen. Too hard to explain. You'll just have to wait and see!

The doorway to the left is the pantry doorway. The raised island thing above the cook top will not be there; it will be more of a "pony wall" and above it will be the archway. The back side of the peninsula is going to be sheetrocked, so that if you are standing in our dining room and looking toward the kitchen, it will look like this (the gray is wall/sheetrock, the white is open!...don't laugh at my drawing):

I wanted our kitchen to feel like a separate room, but still feel open, and the Mr. wanted a more open feel, so I think this is a really good compromise.  (The peninsula wall - sheetrock - is going to be higher than the countertop of the peninsula so I can have some backsplash behind the cooktop.)

Here's a view looking at our pretty double wall oven and microwave.  I was just going to put the microwave on the counter...but, after some thinking, decided that it would sure be nice not to have it take up precious counter space, so we decided on a base microwave cabinet.

Here we are looking at the side of the kitchen that will have the archway wall. I wish our view out our kitchen window was a nice pasture rather than other house, but oh well!!

I can't wait to have my kitchen look similar to the pictures above instead of this:

Okay. It's not quite that bad anymore now that our bedroom is walled off, but close!  It will be so nice.  We still are undecided still on flooring, countertops and backsplash, and we need to get appliances (we're going with stainless steel), so we've got a lot of work to do before a finished kitchen becomes a reality. But we're getting closer!

Window seat/bench - Part 1

When I got home from work, this is how far Mark got on the window seat project...

This thing is sturdy and massive! It's 7'2" long x 28" deep x 24" tall!  I can't wait till I get a cool cushion and about 20 pillows on there.  It could double as a twin bed it's so big. 

The bulk of it is made of 3/4" or 1" (I don't remember) MDF. There are 2x3" for support under the lid and acting as the interior frame.  The "box" detail on the front was crated from the same molding we are using as the base molding (proud to say that was my idea).  It gives it just enough detail. I didn't want something super intricate and fancy.  Anyway, I'm happy he got so far on it today!

Today's Project

Today, Mark is going to be building the master bedroom window seat/storage bench!  I drew out for him what I wanted it to look like so I'm excited to see how far he gets on it today.

I gave him these pictures for inspiration:

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Instead of having two "boxes" on the face of it, I only want one.  EEE!  I'm excited.  Unfortunately, I won't have pictures of the process.  But I will take pictures and show you how far he gets today.  

That's not all he's doing... he will also be doing a major basement clean today. It's a little on the out of control side. What a guy!!!

I'm back!

Finally!

A moment to sit and breathe and blog.  It's been a long time!  Last you heard I was getting ready for my work trip to Cincinnati.  I went, it was fun, and I got stuck in Atlanta.  Got home 3 days late - a long story for another time - and here I am now!

Update time...

Mark didn't have a lot of time to work on the house while I was away because he was really busy with work.  He did manage to texture before I got home.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we primed the walls and ceiling, and yesterday we bought paint and painted the bedroom. Yesterday, we also found the place we will be buying our cabinets (more on that later), picked out our interior doors, and picked out the carpet we're going to buy for part of our bedroom.  Today, Mark put most of the outlet and switch covers on.  So we've been busy!!

Here's a couple priming pictures:

Here's a "tease" of our bedroom wall paint:

You want to know someone else who has been busy lately?  The builders next door.  Check this out:

Our house actually has more square feet than this house, but it's so tall!!  A nice thing is that the new house's driveway is between our house and the new house, so it's about 25 feet away from our house, instead of 10. They put up a retaining wall on our property line and will probably put a 6' fence on top of that.  That will give us - and them - some privacy.  I haven't taken a picture from the front, but it will look like an early century Portland foursquare house.  Very cool.

This week, we hope to:

- finish painting the bedroom (touch ups and cutting in)

- order our interior doors

- order our kitchen cabinets (maybe)

- order carpet

- clean our wood floors in bedroom/bathroom REALLY well

- install floor molding in our bedroom

- clean our chimney (Mark finally bought a chimney sweeper! we can have cozy fires in our upstairs fireplace now!)

- start to clean up/cut up wood in basement

I think that's probably enough for now.  :o)

Taping and mudding progress

We're back with another update.  Mark made quite a bit of progress this week, finishing up all the taping and mudding of the hallway and master bedroom suite.  All he has left to do is the last sanding (blah - I hate sanding - dust gets everywhere!).  Pretty, eh?

Do you see rooms taking shape? I do!  I will be in Cincinnati all next week and by the time I get home, I think that Mark will have textured and leveled the floors (he has some spots to fill because we moved walls).  

On that same note, I think by the end of next week the house next door will probably be done!  I'm exaggerating just a bit, but they are building it so quickly!  I'll show pictures of the progress soon (maybe later today), but they've moved the driveway, poured the foundation, poured a retaining wall separating our property, and today are putting up the walls on the first floor.  It's going to be a very nice looking house when complete - a cool, old PDX style (see the Palazzo Custom Homes website).

Back to our project...what is really exciting is that once we get the texturing done and the floors leveled out, we can start patching up the wood floor (with wood we've recycled from spots in the house)...and then...once that is done...we can start putting in things like the bathtub, toilet, and vanity. We can also build the window seat, paint, install carpet, add the cove base (base trim), hang closet and bedroom doors...and be done!!!  I have a feeling that our master suite will be livable very soon which is pretty exciting!  The bedroom next to us is going to house all our constructions supplies, so we're not finishing that one completely yet.  

After the master bedroom is done, we tackle the big kahuna - the kitchen. We haven't picked out cabinets yet :o(  but if we have time today, we are going to look at a few more cabinet places in Portland in hopes to find the perfect style in the perfect color.  

I'm a little scared to tear out our kitchen...it's already been hard to use it with the bit of construction that has affected it.  But, we hope to get everything ready to be put back together before we even do the demo on it (have the cabinets assembled downstairs, granite ordered, flooring ordered, sink, refrigerator, and dishwasher bought, etc.) to make this very disruptive part of our remodel go as smoothly and as quickly as possible.  

For now, my life is filled with dust, dirt, flannel sheet window and door coverings, and plastic doors.  It's sooo attractive...

I probably won't post again until I get back from my trip (unless I show you a peek of what's going on next door).  I'd appreciate prayer for safe travels - the weather back East isn't too great right now!!

Our Saturday

This is what we spent most of yesterday doing: sheetrocking (me), corners and some taping/mudding (Mark). Doesn't that sound like a fun Saturday?

Well, here are the pictures I took of our progress.  I added some descriptions to help you put it all together.  Enjoy!

The one thing that freaks me out is under all that white powder and dust, sheetrock and tools are my wood floors!  We plan on refinishing them once all the other remodeling is done, but yikes! They were bad before, I hope we don't ruin them to a point that is beyond repair!

Ok, freak out over.

We made a Home Depot stop (we probably go there 4 times a week) today after church and Mark got what he needs to begin and finish all the mudding and taping. His goal is to get that done this week as his work is a bit slow. I love when remodeling moves quickly! Let's hope it keeps up!