Let’s Get Cookin’!

It’s finally here folks! I’m finally redoing the kitchen! The hideous kitchen!! Say goodbye to the off-white walls painted to match the “bisque” colored appliances! The bright white cupboard doors that clash horrendously! The bland kitchen that is miserable to cook in will be beautiful! 

It’s going to be a total overhaul on the cheap. I’m repainting just about everything: hinges, curtain rods, walls, cabinets, cabinet doors, and the ceramic tile backsplash! YES! The ceramic tile backsplash!! Well, hopefully. More on that later. 

My uncle, the house’s former owner, was here semi-recently and laid down a new laminate tile kitchen floor. Unfortunately, I find the tile pattern unattractive, but it’s shiny and new and we’re going with it!

Also unfortunate, the curtains and countertops are both a country blue that I find limiting. But the curtains are relatively new, and they’re thermal lined so they weren’t cheap… So the curtains stay! And since the curtains have to stay, I didn’t see the point in redoing the countertops. 

In addition to a load of paint, I’m buying a working dishwasher!! I’m also buying a hood for above the range, since oddly… There isn’t one. My dad is coming up this weekend, and he’s going to help me get everything installed. 

Also odd, the kitchen doesn’t have any base molding… Weird, right? So I have to buy that as well. Since I have to buy a dishwasher, hood, and base molding, I’m keeping everything else low cost. All that really means is that I have to work two or three times harder… Darn elbow grease is cheap, but time consuming. 

So far I’ve removed all the cabinet doors and drawers… removed all 37 hinges… taken off all the hardware… sanded the cabinet facing… sanded the walls… puttied the holes… and moved everything away from the walls. The last paint job is a bit sad… There are a lot of paint drips and clumps that needed to be sanded down. The walls obviously weren’t prepped well. Speaking of that, always prep your walls, people! Walls must be washed before you paint or the paint won’t adhere correctly!

Updates as we go, folks! I’m pumped!

BATHROOM: AFTER

**click pics for captions + details

BATHROOM: BEFORE

**click pics for captions + details!

How to patch a large hole in drywall

I removed a medicine cabinet from behind my bathroom door. This of course left a large rectangular hole in the drywall. I thought patching it would be difficult, but it was surprisingly simple! 

You will need: 2x4s, cardboard (larger than the hole), drywall, box cutter, drywall screws, drill, drywall tape, putty, putty knife, sandpaper block

1.  **If the hole you’re patching already has exposed studs, you may skip this step. In order to attach the cut piece of drywall, you will need wood studs to drill your screws into. Because the hole I was patching did not have any exposed studs, I had a long 2x4 cut into two pieces, 2’ long each. I then inserted the studs into the hole, resting on the wood at the bottom of the hole and extending them upwards inside the wall towards the ceiling. Of course, because the space inside the wall is exactly the same width as the studs, I had to hammer the studs into the space, wedging them gradually, being careful not to put too much pressure on the existing wall. 
2. Once your studs are successfully installed, take your cardboard and hold it up to the hole. Use your box cutter to cut out a piece of cardboard the exact size of the hole. 
3. Line up your cardboard with the edge of your drywall piece. Use a pen or pencil to trace the cardboard. You want to cut the drywall slightly smaller than the cardboard piece. To cut the drywall, score the surface with your box cutter. Then snap the drywall apart at the cut. The middle of the drywall will separate easily. Next, use your box cutter to cut the other side of the drywall from the front. Repeat for each side of your patch. 
4. Insert the drywall patch into the hole. 
5. Tap drywall screws into the patch with a hammer, only slightly, at each corner and in the middle of each side.
6. Drill the screws through the drywall patch, into the 2x4s.
7. Cut your drywall tape to size, and tape over each seam. You want half the tape to cover the patch and half to cover the existing wall. You also want the tape to extend about 1” beyond each corner.
8. Use your putty knife to putty over the patch, concentrating on the seams between the wall and the patch. The putty should be thick enough to cover the tape, but no thicker. Fan out the putty at the edges to make sanding easier. 
9. When the putty has dried (my putty is pink when wet, white when dry), use your sanding block to smooth the patch and make the wall look seamless. 
10. Prime and paint! Success! :) 

DIY headboard :)

DIY headboard is finally up! 

I bought these old windows at an antique fair years and years ago, and they’ve been sitting in my basement waiting for the perfect use. I got the idea to use them as a headboard, and got to work! I sanded off all the old paint and finish, chipped out the old caulking, and removed the window panes. Then, I ordered new panes from a glass company: 5 in clear glass, 4 in tinted glass, and 3 in mirrored glass. I repainted the windows white and attached the two, making them one unit. I then installed the new panes in a random arrangement and used simple white caulk to keep them in place. 

The headboard is slightly narrower than my bed’s width, so I mounted it centered about the bed. I may add onto it later, but for now, I’m happy. :) 

***AFTER of Leesha’s Room! See before pics here: http://operationoverhaul.tumblr.com/post/9334997959/before-of-lous-room-soon-to-look-fabulous

Lou’s room is looking fantastic after our one-week makeover. :) And there are still more improvements to come! Leesha and her friend did all the prep work and painting; I did the styling after listening to what Lou wanted for her space. 

Leesha started by removing all the OLD glow in the dark stars from the walls and ceiling, and sanding down the nasty smears of glow paint on her walls. Next, she gave the walls a thorough washing — an absolute must before painting, especially if you’ve done sanding — using a TSP solution. Then her friend Steve helped her prime everything with Kilz2 primer to properly prep the walls. The walls were pretty porous as they had only really had one thin coat of paint previously, and they were stained with nicotine. The Kilz brightened the walls significantly and completely squashed the old smokey smell. She paid special attention to the faux wood nailed periodically to her walls, as we were going from dark brown to bright white. Finally, Lou and Steve painted all the previously white sections light blue, and the faux wood (including the cabinet facing) bright white. 

After the paint dried, I first put in a new light panel for the florescent light above her bed, and added all new white wall covers. Then I rotated the bed and sat it atop bed risers to lift the bed five inches. This way, we could place Leesha’s TV on top of her cabinets directly in front of her bed without the TV being awkwardly high when sitting on the bed. I then painted her cabinet doors to match the cabinet facing and updated the hardware with brushed nickel knobs. The cabinet directly under the TV will serve as an entertainment unit, but it isn’t complete yet. I still need to tame the cords in that area as well as hang the door. So the TV sits atop the cabinets at one end and I transformed the other end into a vanity for Leesha. I simply bought a small plastic drawer unit for her makeup, and a mirror at IKEA. I also got her a barstool since the cabinets are so high, and soon I’ll get her a nice light as well. The widened closet door is not finished, but I hung a chocolate brown curtain on a tension rod covering the opening. Inside we plan to install a real closet rod in addition to putting in a horizontal dresser for Leesha’s folded clothes. For now, I just put in a roll rack and she has her clothes in laundry baskets out of sight. Her bed obviously got an additional makeover with new, age appropriate bedding. I got a duvet cover set from IKEA in the colors Leesha wanted, and bought her new jersey knit sheets as well. And don’t forget the bed skirt — a very important, often overlooked part of nice bedding — it covers all the junk under the bed! For now, she’s using a plastic drawer unit as a night stand, and I got her a floor lamp from IKEA. 

Like I said, the room isn’t “done,” but the improvements are SIGNIFICANT! :) 

**See BEFORE pics here: http://operationoverhaul.tumblr.com/post/9334997959/before-of-lous-room-soon-to-look-fabulous

This is the deconstruction of Leesha’s closet wall. We widened the doorway by a little more than 100%, and the closet is MUCH more usable now. I knocked out all the useless little rickety shelves blocking half the closet space as well, and we were left with a HUGE walk-in-like closet. 

We started by knocking in all the drywall with crowbars, one of which was massive and called “The Gorilla Bar!” Once the drywall was demolished, we could see what we were dealing with as far as the studs and nails were concerned. We used an electrical reciprocal saw to cut through the studs quickly, and simply kicked down the frame once the 2x4s were separated from the header. Finally, after moving all the wall remnants out, I pried the shelves off the back wall and knocked them out with the crowbar. SO MUCH FUN, and not as hard as you’d think! :) 

Big projects to tell you all about:

1.) Tore down Leesha’s closet wall last night — it was awesome.

2.) Patched a big 14.5” x 18.5” hole in the bathroom wall last night.

**Lou’s room is all primed and ready to be painted beautifully, and the bathroom will be finished by tomorrow afternoon if I have my way! :))

Pictures & how-to tips to follow regarding last nights triumphant projects!

MID-WAY

This is the new shower curtain I bought, but unfortunately that’s the only change you can really see in this picture.

BEFORE

This is the bathroom before I moved in…

You can see the carpet, the old toilet seat, and the hole in the wall juuuust above the mirror… 

Bathroom mini-makeover

Yesterday I woke up and decided it was time to finish making over my bathroom. When I first moved in, the shower head was coated in rust, the toilet seat was padded, dingy, and embroidered with a giant pastel butterfly, and the shower curtain was ripped off half the hooks, hanging on a rod that was rusted and practically broken in half. I replaced the shower head and the toilet seat before I even moved in, and bought a new shower rod, curtain, liner, and hooks the first night I lived there. I also ripped out the carpet that was covering old-school pink tile (which is unfortunately spotted with paint) and bought a couple of rugs. 

The “hardware” is still in desperate need of updating, the walls need washing, and a coat of paint never hurts anything — right? ;) So as of yesterday, I took off all the old rods and hooks, which were wooden with paint chipped and worn off. I also dismantled the vanity and the cabinet that hung above the toilet. There was also this medicine cabinet that was bizarrely hung behind the bathroom door, opposite the sink, so I took that out. Even odder, the mirror that hangs over the sink is covering a giant cut out in the drywall where it appears a medicine cabinet used to hang… So I intend to put the medicine cabinet back above the sink and patch the hole behind the door. I’m going to but all new metal towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc., and get new matching hardware for the two cabinets. I’m also painting the top half of the walls, as the bottom halves are covered in a tile textured wallpaper that will remain white. As for the cabinets, in addition to getting new hardware, I’m going to add splashes of the wall color in the detail work and refresh the white paint that has grown dingy. 

Before pics to follow!