Home Office – Part 1

September 24, 2016February 24, 2017Leave a comment

As we anticipated the arrival of baby 2 and the work-from-home opportunity given to me we had to get creative with space we have at home. We have a three bedroom house which currently uses one bedroom as an office (aka a catch-all for things that don’t have a place). We knew that we would need a quiet place to escape and get work done once two kids were running around and we also wanted the boys to have separate bedrooms for the sake of full night sleeps, so we decided to build an office in our garage. This decision was hard to make because it replaced the idea of creating a studio apartment back there that we could possibly rent… it also ate up a bunch of work space for Kevin!

We still wanted to be able to park in the garage, and keep a space on the side for Kevin’s work bench and tools so we didn’t end up with much room… only 48 sq. ft! Adding a window is a MUST!

This garage project includes: fixing up the existing bathroom, creating an office (framing, electrical, drywall, built-in cabinets and desk, flooring) and reorganizing the tool/storage area.

This stud (pun intended ;)) put up the framing in just one, extremely hot, afternoon!

Cutting a hole for the window!

There she is!

Weekend 2: Insulation √, drywall √, electrical ran √, can lights installed √

AC unit installed!

Drywall Complete. Kevin painting the interior.

The beginning of the custom cabinet.

Josh approves!

Cabinet getting fitted into the space. Next up… trim work, doors (for the bottom half which will cover the filing cabinets), and paint!

Cutting down the butcher block that will be used for the desktop.

Desktop installed and trim work around the window finished!

We use to take pride in the speed of completing projects… well those days have changed. Free time is a thing of the past and late night work sessions have been replaced with late night feedings. So stay tuned to see the grand reveal…

Save

Back to the Future… Halloween 2015

November 1, 2015October 26, 2016Leave a comment

Did you know that when Marty, from Back to the Future, was sent to the future it was October 2015? Well it just seems appropriate to celebrate that this year with a family Halloween costume.

Kevin began building the Delorean around Parker’s red wagon.

Spray painted to perfection.

Doc checking out the flux capacitor.

Doc getting prepped for the big night!

The Delorean in all its glory!

Taking it for a spin around the neighborhood…

#outatime

Circa 1985 in 2015

Read about how you can create your very own Delorean and send your costume back to the future HERE!

Painting the Awnings

February 7, 2015February 19, 20151 Comment

After much debate about what color to paint the awnings I fell back on my trusty gray. I wanted it darker than my walls to contrast nicely with the white cabinetry yet light enough to still see some of the wood grain. That is when I stumbled across milk paint. The perfect solution to my problem. With milk paint all you have to do is add water and dilute it to the right color you like. It acts more like a stain. To read more about it CLICK HERE.

Just add water!

Still drying… but I love how the color is soaking in differently in different places.

Up close of the milk paint in action.

Decided later on to add a second coat.

Wood Awnings

January 26, 2015February 2, 20152 Comments

As I was perusing Instagram I came across a beautiful kitchen designed by HGTV’s Joanna Gaines (which looked very similar to our kitchen!).

Love the wood awning!

I loved the wood awning that she incorporated above the window. I asked Kevin if he would build me something like that for our kitchen, because our windows look naked! He agreed and built me them in 1 day! I’m always impressed with his can-do attitude and his ability to get it things done so quickly.

Before he began, I wanted to do a little tweaking to the original inspiration. Instead of having the raw wood look, I wanted it to have more detailed moldings, like the rest of our house. Kind of like this range hood here:

Nevermind that it is over the range… this will make the perfect wood window awning for my kitchen!

Our turn…

A wise man once said… measure twice, cut once.

Notice our naked windows… Kevin first created a mock up with cardboard.

Perfect fit!

Wood Awning Frame 1

Wood Awning 1 with detail pieces added. Goodbye naked window!

Wood Awning 1 Close Up

Both wood awnings completed!

Now I need to decide what color to paint them. I’m thinking of a rubbed dark gray so that the wood grain is still visible. What do you think? I also want to install a pull down shade underneath for privacy. Pictures of that project to come!

Fireplace Renovation

July 5, 2014November 12, 2016Leave a comment

Today we decided to tackle the fireplace renovation. We found out that the fireplace was not original to the house it was added much later… but not very well. First off, it’s not centered on the wall, making it very difficult to figure out furniture layout in that room. Second, the brick that they placed around the face was not installed correctly, it wasn’t event attached to the wall, they were just stacked on top of each other. So needless to say, the bricks were falling off and needed to be replaced.

I have seen a lot of cool fireplace flips on Pinterest where people build mantels around their existing brick. I was hoping we could just do that but in this case of poor construction we needed to just remove them completely and start over. So that is exactly what we did…

EXAMPLE. Found this picture on Pinterest and used it as inspiration for our mantel construction.

Faulty brick fireplace with no hearth at 10:00 AM

The boys built a hearth (tall enough to sit on) and created a box for the mantel.

Adding the detail moldings to give it its’ character.

Detail Moldings

Finished Details Pieces

Finished Detail Pieces with Paint

Adding a white Moroccan tile back splash.

Finished back splash! Adding gray, wood-grain tile for the hearth.

Complete at 10:00 PM! Looks even better with natural light streaming through the windows.

Save

Parker’s Room

June 26, 2014February 19, 2015Leave a comment

For some reason Parker’s room has been the hardest room in the house to start. I think it’s because I have so many ideas and such high expectations that it’s almost like I don’t know where to begin… so it just sits there. This week we finally began chipping away at some of the projects. Check them out below:

Attempt #1 – wanted to add an accent color above the plate rail. This ended up being too baby blue. Up next… navy!

Bought this crib for $75 at a garage sale! Score! Just need to sand and paint it.

Found this changing table/dresser on craigslist! It was a light birch colored wood when we bought it. Kevin painted it black to match the other furniture in the room.