Day 305- Devil's in the Details

Many couples are not able to renovate together. My parents, for example, fought over how many electrical plus were needed in the kitchen. So growing up, we literally had a plug every 2 feet. They were all used, so I don't really see how that's a problem. The main thing was that plugs were what throw-downs were made of in my family.

Hubbs and I have had a relatively easy time picking out what would go into the kitchen. Granite? 1 day process to choose. Tile floor? 30 minutes and ohhh! Home depot clearance! Cabinets? We want white, what's the best price?

Back splash? Cabinet pulls? Faucet? We'd come to a screeching halt. Part of the problem is that we are too close to Christmas and all I want for Christmas is something glittery. <--- This isn't my normal MO. The other part of the problem is that we are pooped by making so many design decisions.

After several weeks of deliberations, here are the finishes that we have chosen to far:

Pulls--

We visited a local hardware store that has over 5000 pulls only to find ones we like from Restoration Hardware. And because I am cool, I spent 2 hours looking up coupon codes because I thought it would be really expensive to get hardware there.  In the future,  I highly recommend LOOKING AT THE WEBSITE FIRST. Yeah.... they were having a 20% off sale. Which was advertised right on the front page of the website. My bad.

Here are our pulls: Grafton by Restoration Hardware.

The best part is they come in 3 inch, 4 inch, 6 inch and 8 inch; so we could get all the same hardware and adjust sizes per cabinet. And Will schmoozed it up and got us free shipping on all hardware. 

Faucet-

Will went by himself with the following directive: silver, pull out sprayer and one hole. Wow.... this whole post is just begging for dirty jokes. Anyway, after wandering through the store for 2 hours, and looking online with me for close to four (not in that order) he came home with this beaut:

Note: We didn't install the soap dispenser or that large bottom plate. This was so it would fit in the huge sink that we bought. We are brave, but no brave enough to drill a hole in a 134 pound sink that could crack. No siree!  The faucet is Lindsey by Moen.

And just to make me extra fancy, I found this faucet on Moen's site:

They look very similar, right? Well, I feel fancy and flush with cash, as they have a $300 difference!

So, there are some of the details. Now, I'm off to paint considering my roller is thawed out. 

PS- Still working on backsplash. But we are taking ideas!

Day 268 - To the window. To the WALL

Walls. I has them. Sort of.

When I last left you, we had just gotten the dryer to vent outside. Then I was taken over by the urge to wash the pile of clothes that had accumulated everywhere in the house. This project took a whole week. And there is another pile waiting to be washed and dried. Almost like the clean laundry is mocking me.  But I digress.

This weekend we had the big things happen:

1) We finished cement boarding the kitchen floor- Now it's ready for tile.
2) A paint color for the walls has been chosen. We think. I have several patches around the room that we are still trying on. But we are on day three and I still think it's the one!
3) We started to hang drywall.

But Carrie, you ask; why do you need to hang drywall?

This:

It's certainly a look

All of this lovely tin tile back splash was adhered with mastic. Which means we couldn't scrape it off and try again with tile and thin set. 

And this:

I don't need poop in my walls

 When we were working on the plumbing, I kept catching the delicate aroma of urine, and as it turns out, we found the other mouse nest. This is 4 inches from the ceiling, and they had tunnelled up through the insulation to the nest. So all the insulation and thin plywood came down so we could bleach and mitigate the problem. (As an FYI, I stuffed steel wool into all the available openings in the floor and near the pipes. Knock on wood, I haven't seen new droppings since. But it's getting to be winter time.)

Here I am, working on the house. The Hubbs thinks it's hysterical when I have all the gear on. Safety first!

Getting rid of the trim

don't forget the safety gear!

Down to studs. Again.

So now all the panelling is down and we are once again down to studs. But it's ok, because now we can air out the mouse nest and I sprayed bleach all over the walls to disinfect. It's much better now. This all happened before my Dad, the general contractor, came to visit. He took one look and told us to scrap all the old insulation. It wasn't R13 and wouldn't give us enough insulation in the winter, or summer for that matter. I don't recommend ripping down walls to add better insulation, but if they are down, why not? a 60 foot roll is $10 and will be worth it, so when in doubt... Pad it out. Sorry, that was lame. 

So while Will trimmed the last of the cement board, I started to instal our new, state of the art R13 insulation. Just me, my tape measure, razor and staple gun. Maybe I'm a total weirdo, but I had a lot of fun stapling away. Like this was MY wall to seal up. 

Once I was done with my insulating, I went back to the floor while Will trimmed the dry wall. We then scootched it up to the wall and drove it in place. And voila! One wall down, one more to go!

You may have noticed that we don't have seams taped yet, we are waiting on the other wall to go up and tape all at once. Plus, this will all be covered with cabinets and backsplash, so we aren't too worried!

Day 235- Post Move Blues

I left you last time, two weeks ago, with news that we bought a house and were moving. When The Hubbs and I left Texas to move to Maryland, while planning a wedding and dealing with several deaths; I figured that would have to be the hardest move ever, right? Wrong. So so wrong.

The real reason I've been away is because we started working on the house, and it turns out that we have A LOT more work to do.

 All these kitchen pictures? That's all gone. It turns out when a house sits empty for a year, it get mice. So instead of killing the mice in the walls, which would smell terrific, I'm sure, we gutted the kitchen. That table, the chairs and the bench are in the side room, supporting all the kitchen stuff. The floor, cabinets and counter top are gone, as is the sink.  This will be replaced at some point.

We are also working on the non-kitchen parts of the house:

All the carpet is off the hardwood and I just today finished hand scrubbing the floor. So now we can hang up sheets and get the kitchen sub floor up to work on the tile. 

Here's a look at what might lurk beneath your dryer..... If you have mice and three standard poodles. It smelled wonderful. I know you wish you had smell-o-internets

Remember when I mentioned that I though moving from Texas to Maryland would be hard? I was wrong. When The Hubbs and I moved in, it was raining, and then we got hit by a hurricane. So the first 5 days in our new home we had no power, no kitchen and mostly no furniture. It was so much harder; I still don't know where a lot of stuff went. But our new neighbor lost their kitchen and garage to several trees falling, so I guess I will be thankful.

I will be blogging about the move and how we are working on a plastic free renovation. I warn you now, this is about to become a reno blog with plastic thrown in. You were warned.


How did everyone else fair with the earthquake and storm? Any brilliant plastic free renovation tips?

Day 102- At least I think it's day 102

So, as I've mentioned before; once The Hubbs and I got through that first push, going plastic free is pretty easy. As a general rule, unless we are buying food, we don't have much of an issue. And I'm sure you all want to hear about my day to day comments.... Hey lookie! I cut my toe nails. Weeeee!

Things have been changing recently, though. Spring has definitely sprung here in the great white north. This means that I can FINALLY go to the farmers market. I love farmers markets, I would seriously go to one daily if I could. Unfortunately, I have illusions of grandeur with regard to markets. I want there to be thousands of vendors and I want there to be gorgeous fruit and veggies. In reality, it's a bunch of herbs (in plastic!) and jelly. Though, I do like jelly. It's delicious. Well, I don't need herbs, the Hubbs built me an awesome herb garden for our balcony. I will keep trying the market; it has to get good sometime, yes?

Speaking of herbs, we found that we wouldn't really be able to make bruschetta or caprese salad this summer without herbs like basil. And he can't make terrible things with cilantro (which tastes like soap) without, well, cilantro. We also couldn't buy a little container, because they were plastic. So, he made one! Now we have 8 little pots with herbs in them! The Hubbs got wood, and terra cotta pots, and we requisitioned some soil from the apartment complex. With a little tool action, we have a balcony herb garden, it's pretty exciting.

See our little basil?

So that's our exciting news for now.

Soon, I'll have a LUSH product review and the battle of clothes shopping.