#105 — Kitchen/Dining: Before/After (and some during!)

Where to even begin with this project? Let's see .... let's start with the general before/after of our dining room. It looks the most different.

First, this is an item I can check off of my bucket list (#105)! We didn't have the floors redone as we initially intended, but the cold, ugly tile is gone. Mission ACCOMPLISHED! :)

 But before I begin - anyone else HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER??? This new dashboard/compose/etc is a HUGE inconvenience. Seriosuly. I want the old one back. This new version is awful. It's taken me 15x as long to make this post as it 'normally' would. :( :( :( Makes me want to go check out Wordpress.


You'll notice the carpet has been removed from the dining room and now the flooring is the same from the kitchen into the dining room.

It started with this ... a hole in the wall and a hole in the floor. (see post HERE).

It took me a long time to do ANYTHING with the hole in the wall because I didn't want to sand it down after we mudded it. See how much of a mess it made?

Of course, the mess was awful, but we kept saying to ourselves "it's going to look amazing when it's finished" ... and we think it does.

In addition to making a giant mess of the floor (and every other surface in the area), we took the baseboards off. Those guys were old and we figured if we were getting new floors, might as well put new baseboards in, too.

We next attacked the carpet. We knew there were hardwood floors under it. Our buddy, Mike, came with this magic tool for pulling up carpet tack strips, which made the job SO much easier! Getting all of the flooring up and the baseboards up, too, took about an hour (which shocked us; we thought it'd take longer)

Once again, I HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER ... it's so annoying an inconvenient to use!!! I've been working on this post for 45+ minutes now. Seriously - NOT photo friendly. :(

We knew there were nice hardwood floors underneath, and when the carpet came up, they weren't in terrible shape. It's just that we wanted the floors to be the same, and the tile in the kitchen would not have come up easily ... so we had to cover them up!

Erik knows how to work the vacuum. :)

The progress of our dining room floor.

The fellas with the skills that made it happen. Yes, everyone says 'you can do it yourself' but I know better. Our marriage could probably survive many home projects, but I'm not sure that it could survive installing laminate floors when neither of us knew what we were doing.

For example, the pros knew how to wiggle the laminate under the door frames ... something I'd have been clueless about.

Bailey had to go stay at the kennel while the project was going on; she couldn't have handled the excitement and would have been UNDER FOOT. But she likes the before/after. :)

LOVING it!

The trim looks snazzy! Another example of something I don't have the skills to do!

We had to move the dog's food/water b/c she makes a bit of a splashy mess when she drinks. It was starting to warp the boards a bit. But it's near a wall and not *too* noticeable ... besides, now there is some 'damage' to the floor so if/when something happens to it, no need to freak out; it's already been hurt a little bit.


*sigh* this post has taken me SO MUCH longer than usual to write b/c of Google's new format on the back end. It's awful and unless I fan find a way to go back, I'll have to switch to another blog provider. I don't have this kind of time to dedicate to each and every post. What a PITA. Seriously!

If you missed it, there is a bit of a progression for this project.

Post 1: Karen goes insane and tears down a portion of the kitchen wall
Post 2: Uh-oh. What have I done?

Post 3: Finally, some forward progress

Post 4: Vents have been moved!!!

Post 5: Painting complete! :)

Post 5: Carpet is gone

Kitchen nest

Remember the hole in our kitchen floor?

We put a rug over it to keep stuff from falling down there, and our kitty has decided it's a prime little nesting spot to take a nap. She never liked it before the vent was removed, so we were a bit puzzled.


Of course, it's gone now. Our floors are 100% complete, and I just need to get myself organized enough (and the counters presentable enough for photos!) to take some photos and share them! :)

Painting secret

Erik and I have unanimously decided that painting trim is the worst.thing.ever. EVER.

I did, however, learn a little tip/trick last summer while being an adult volunteer for Prayer & Action.


Yes, that's a plastic tupperware-like container. And yes, that's a Ziploc bag.

Pour your paint in the container with a lid. Paint from there. If you're doing 2 coats or just don't want to do it all at once, then you can put the lid on and walk away from the project.

But what about the brush? Enter, Ziploc bag.

Put your wet (yes, brush w/ paint on it) into the bag. Squeeze the air out. Seal. You can come back hours or even DAYS later and the brush should be moist and you should be able to continue to paint (this means you don't have to wash it out after every single use if you're doing lots of window frames over several days!).

Best.Thing.Ever.

Kitchen/Dining room in progress

Oh how close we're coming! Well, most of our part of the kitchen/dining project is over. The big part. We've painted the walls!


The trim you see in the background is the original color everything was ... but once I'm done w/ it, the trim will be white.

Yet seeing the dining room now, with no photos on the walls ... it feels so empty/naked! (see our dining room wall w/ photos on it HERE).

Part of me really wanted to choose a more bold color for the dining room/kitchen room. Yet because we have a variety of photos/art that we hang on our walls with a variety of colors, going with a tan/khaki color seemed to be the smartest/most versatile option.

Yes, there is no baseboard (we tore it out), and yes, there is dust ALL OVER the table. It's been a bit of a disaster zone around here lately. Yet we now are (almost) ready for the laminate floors to be installed.

No, we will not be installing the floors. I am convinced it is a home project that our marriage could not survive. After interviewing a few people, we've settled on one I feel very confident in working with.


This is how our sample looks in the dining room. A friend will come over Saturday to help me tear the carpet out. Yes, I realize the walls aren't perfect, but it's something I have decided I am willing to live with. Seriously. Sanding and mudding and sanding is a disaster (see above dust-covered dining room table). I decided "good enough" and moved on. Besides, I consulted this super-handy guide to selecting a paint finish and selected a flat/matte finish. Seriously, even though there are imperfections in the walls, it's not overly visible.


Here's how it will look in our kitchen, with our cabinets. The tile will stay in place. The installer will just 'float' it in over the tile. Then he'll put baseboards in everywhere. So the strip of unpainted wall at the bottom won't be visible.

Speaking of painting ... I finally got hip and realized there is the option to buy combined paint/primer. I was a little skeptical, but we decided to give it a try. So far, so good. We have 2 coats of paint on the walls and it seems to do the trick. The one 'down' side is I couldn't purchase this in a 5-gallon bucket. I really wanted to because we intend to paint the living room the same color. Yet you can't get the combo paint/primer in the 5-gallon buckets. I would guess it has to do with not being able to use this effectively on NEW drywall. And I'd guess mostly contractors are buying paint by the 5-gallons. So it makes sense.

Ok, so that's what's up around here. Just trim painting for me .... and carpet removing. But then I am DONE with my part of the project. Then it will be in our installer's hand! :)

Vents = CHECK!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Yes, there's still a hole, but the metal component is completely gone!!!! The hole is probably 12-14 inches worth of hole, but in a few weeks, it'll be covered w/ a new floor and so it won't matter anyway!!!!!


I circled the area where it was before ... it's hard to imagine, but it was there. I was completely impressed the guys could get it out of there. I had a bit of a runaround getting their quote formally/in writing and getting them nailed down for a time to do the work, but they did a fantastic job ... I'm seriously and insanely pleased!


This is now in our laundry room. Seriously, I had NO IDEA how huge this would be .... but it carries our air over to under the sink. There's a vent that comes out in the 'toe-kick' area under the sink. I forgot to take a photo of it, sorry. We've both noticed the air blowing, though, and think it was a great call!

There is a slight 'T' off to the right ... eventually we'll finish off about 100 more square feet of the basement into a more 'formal' office for me to work in. It doesn't have a vent, and we had them put it in while they were doing the other vent work anyway. Even though that project is 12-18 months off, it should be easier when it's time!

Now to sand and prep the walls, then prime + paint.

In other home projects, the hinges for the orange room have arrived. They aren't a 100% perfect fit, but they're close enough. I've put a few on and have about 4 more doors to go. I can hardly wait for this room to be finished!!!!

The starting line!

OOOOh, today is the day! This afternoon is THE afternoon. After getting quotes and gathering information, we have someone coming in to move the vent from the space where a wall once stood. YES!


There will likely still be a hole tomorrow, but the vent will be more 'formally' closed off. And we'll have a new one under the sink! Sweetness.

The floor installer has also been scheduled. VICTORY. I am extremely excited about a very mundane detail of this.

Let me back up. I will confess that even though I started a chore chart to help break down housecleaning tasks into small, manageable bites, I just couldn't bring myself to wash the kitchen floor. I've been meaning to do it since BEFORE Christmas. I know. Judge all you want. Here's the thing, though. To make that floor look presentable, you have to really scrub on your hands and knees, then use a magic eraser to scrub the grout in between even more. If you're lucky, it might look good for 5 seconds after it's washed. Then back to looking dingy/dirty. UGH.

So when I scheduled the floor installer, I told him I would be doing some sanding of walls/etc. and asked if I needed to wash/scrub the floor before they installed the floating floor over the top.

He said "Nah, we'll give it a good clean with the shop vac, but you don't have to wash or mop it."

I wanted to leap through the phone and give him a big kiss. Seriously. This tidbit of info has made my week. I have been putting off scrubbing that floor for MONTHS ... and now, I will not ever scrub that awful tile floor again. Praise heaven!

So, once the vents are arranged today, I'll work on sanding down my big, gaping opening between the living/dining rooms. Then I think I'll have to mud and sand one more time. THEN it will be time to prime + paint. Oh happy day! (not really, Erik won't let me do the painting above the cabinets b/c he's afraid I"ll fall, so he's going to have to do all of that ... and this boy has no love for wall painting).

The Domino Effect

You know how it goes. Yes, you. The homeowners. You know how home projects go. You do ONE TINY thing like tear out the wall between your kitchen and dining room and then other projects spiral from that one tiny action.

About 2.5 years ago, I tore out a wall. I was done looking at it. It gave me the stink eye most days. And I was tired of its attitude. Its sass. So I showed it who was boss.

This is what was left:


Yes, that's a hole, and yet is is in our kitchen/dining floor. We just step over it and pretend it's all finished and pretty. Seriously.

Over the years, Erik has said "I'd like to get rid of or cover the tile in the kitchen and get rid of the carpet in the dining room." For YEARS he's said this. Well, Erik is the thinker and I'm the DO-er in this marriage. I finally said ENOUGH! We are going to do this.

It started with us thinking we'd have the hardwood floors refinished. Under our entire kitchen/dining/living room area.

After some consulting with floor people who know more about this than I do, though, it seems the tile in our kitchen could be a problem. Even if we are able to get it up, the floors are probably hopelessly damaged. :( Which makes me sad, sad, sad.

One day, Erik said to me "Maybe we just re-do the floors in the kitchen/dining room and leave the carpet in the living room." I don't have any problem with that. In fact, it'll make the kitchen/dining project MUCH easier! We'll just move appliances into the living room and not have to take them out of the house, along with the couch. This seems like a genius idea!

So now, we're just having the floors in the kitchen/dining done. Project got smaller, right? Maybe.

Think back to the above photo. Notice the hole? It contains a vent. The only vent that went into the kitchen. We certainly don't HAVE to have a vent in the kitchen, but we probably should for the comfort factor.

For the past few weeks, we've had heating/air/duct people tromping in and out to look, see and give quotes for moving this vent. The dog thinks it's Christmas, with so many people coming in to bark at and to sniff.

I *think* we've nailed down who will be doing the duct work, and later this week we'll nail down details on the floors. Sigh. But this has been a process.

I will be so glad when it's all done.

Oh, but the domino effect. We can't forget. So, since we're having the floors done, it makes sense to paint the walls before we care if we drip anything on the floors. In both the kitchen and dining rooms. Did I mention I have not sanded down and re-mudded the big hole in the wall? Yes, I will have to do that BEFORE any priming or painting is done.

Seriously, some days I think I need to have my mental health checked.

So, dear blog readers, if you feel like I'm neglecting this blog in any manner, it's because I am drowning in the domino effect of taking out a wall and deciding to put in a new floor.

It all sounds so easy. Right?

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Repairing the kitchen wall

Remember this post about tearing apart the kitchen wall?

Well, our buddy Coop came and helped us to put a header in so it will look like the opening from the dining room to the kitchen.


Jeff started to saw open the wall to make room for the new header .... and there went the dust ... UGGGGGGH! I totally thought I was done with the dust of this. Grrrrrrrrrrr........



Check this action out!!!!!!!


Oh ... but look at where things were placed on our dining room table ....


Initially, I had hoped to have the dining room painted, but we'll just have to settle for having corners on the opening and it mudded.

So let's see the progress








I still need to do a few more coats of mudding and sanding, but it's SO much more livable now! :)

My life will never be the same again!

I was making applesaue yesterday .... and was trying out new kitchen gadgets. I was using a new peeler, then decided to give my new gadget a whirl.


This peeler slips over the middle finger ... and it makes peeling apples a DREAM!!!!!!!! I suspect this will change the way I feel about peeling potatoes.

These little jewels are available at target. Check it out by CLICKING HERE.