Lady Evelyn's Room

Oh, the brown trim!  This was a shot of Evelyn's room before we moved in.  We were excited for her to just have her own room because we sold our old house when she was 3 weeks old and she'd been sharing a bedroom with us in our rental until we bought this house when she was 7 months old.  For our sake and her sake, she needed her own space!  Not a big room, but we have 4 bedrooms, so there are definitely no complaints here.  It has one window and I felt that it should stay a light color.  So I painted the trim (white of course), painted the walls light gray (Universal Gray by Glidden), added a valance.  

 

 

Before we bought it:

 

 

 

 

After we bought it: 

 

 

 

 

 

During:

Getting ready for painting trim and walls.  Had to do these stages quickly because the thought of Evelyn camping out in our room in a pack n play took me back to those rough nights in our apartment when we shared a room!

Making the valance.  Can't be too difficult, right?  I can't sew, but I can staple the heck out of anything!

 

 

After!

 

 Love it!

 



So Long Summer

Sofia just started back to school and Labor Day is approaching, so summer feels like it's in the rear view mirror.  Especially on a rainy and colder day like today.  Ok by me though- I'm ready for the routine that fall brings and I love the season of sweatshirt and jean weather, pumpkins, and football.

Sofia just started 1st grade at a new school, as we're now settled into our new school district.  She has a very sweet teacher and she seems to be enjoying it.  We have a meet the teacher night this week to hear more about her class and the curriculum.  I'm interested to find out what she'll be learning and doing this year.  Adelaide will begin 3 day per week preschool after Labor Day.  She really wishes she was starting Kindergarten and got to ride the bus with Sofia, but there is no rush.  She has 1 more year.  Sofia was gone for maybe an hour when Adelaide asked when she'd be home.  For as much as they fight, they sure do miss each other when they're aparat.  

Sofia had a her annual gastroenterology appointment in July.  Her gallstones are unchanged and she had an ultrasound and blood work to check on things.  She complains of stomach aches, but not really sure what is causing them.  We'll just keep watching.

She also had her annual neurology appointment.  She is doing well in all areas of her development.  She no longer will have to complete a phycial therapy assessment because she's not having any issues.  At this appointment, the doctor noticed that she may have minor scoliosis of her spine.  We will keep on top of that.  He wasn't sure if it was just the way she was standing or if it is a curve developing, but her medical chart indicates a new diagnosis.  Poor girl.  No more new diagnoses please.  Of course, scoliosis is more common in CHD patients and from what I've read, especially with cyanotic defects like Sofia's. 

We see her cardiologist in November.

Evelyn continues to keep us busy.  She is now 16 months and a little busy body.  She is becoming more verbal - saying uh-oh, up, da-da, hot, arf, and sings two words of twinkle twinkle little star (the "up above" the world so high part).  She is still a little peanut and has no baby chub on her.  She has very red hair (maybe even more so than Adelaide's at this age?) and has sweet Hazel eyes.  We'll go for her 15 month appt (late- oops. third child!) on Monday.  At this age she is still very much a mama's girl.  She is a good sleeper.  Some of her favorite foods - bananas, rice, peaches, waffles.  She really likes anything that is a tomato, rice, and meat combination, like Oliver's stuffed peppers.  She has a squeal like no other (read: screech), but she's so sweet and loving too.  She is just fun to watch at this age - very inquisitive.

We've gotten much done in and around the house. That has really been keeping me busy - the painting especially. We have now painted the kitchen, family room, entryway, master bedroom, Evelyn's room, Sofia & Adelaide's room, and all the trim in those rooms and the upstairs hall.  Plus now we've done the shutters and front door. We are getting it done and this makes me happy. In November it'll be a year since we've bough the house and although we haven't done real renovation work, mostly just cosmetic updates, we've definitely given things a face lift.  We've definitely settled in and we love it. 

We had a nice family reunion in August and got to catch up with lots of family.  We also celebrated our 12 year anniversary.  It was a nice summer.  Bring on fall.

 

Evie and me at the beach

cousins

from 6 months to 6 years!

"triple" sandwich - avocado, egg, and tomato

Shut the Front Door

We spent the last couple days updating some things on the exterior of the house.  It just looked tired and needed some better curb appeal.  Most of the houses on our street have nice landscaping and the homeowners are out in their yards a lot.  I don't have time to spend hours working on the landscaping, but I'll throw in a few hours to update paint and hope for the best! 

The house right after we bought it and the sold sign was up.  Last October-ish


And here is the before and after: 

 

 

The update included a little navy paint (actually Starless Sky by Behr) and some white exterior paint, and new front door hardware.  We needed new locks after our deadbolt broke and caused a locking out fiasco.

 

Our front door had seen better days.  It had some vinyl/plastic trim pieces that got warped over time from the sun. The door and shuters used to apparently be a green and the current blue was faded and I'm not a fan of the baby blue. 

 

 

 The sidelites needed attention too.  They were dirty, yellowed, and needed a paint makeover.  I put my little helpers to work.  Oliver had taken down the shutters and the girls helped clean.

 

She was such a good helper!  She loved to clean

 

 

 

 

He's not afraid of heights.  I couldn't do it!

It's still August, but I'm ready for my favorite season... I can see a few pumpkins right in front

It looks so much brighter to me and I love it!  A little paint can go a long way

Kitchen Makeover

Here is my LONG overdue kitchen remodel post.  The kitchen was the first thing we did to the house (November 2014).  I started the post months ago, but because there were finishing touches that weren't done yet, I didn't have all the after pictures done.  Well, here it is!!  It's great looking at the before and afters again! 

 

 

We (Ok, I) decided to delve into our first home project before we even moved in.  The old and outdate oak cabinets and kitchen were one thing I thought was a priority in updating.  I knew it didn't need to be done before we moved in, but when I have something in my head it's hard to sway me.  Plus, I didn't think I wanted to live through a kitchen remodel while we were living in the house.  So that gave me Thurs, Fri. and Sat. and Sunday was our move in day.  Not a lot of time.  But enough to get a jump start on things and at least tackle the cabinets.

 

I spent a lot of time researching and reading how to paint oak cabinets.  I have painted furniture before, but wanted to make sure the paint on the cabinets would hold up and not look poorly done.  I got some good tips that I will share.

 

The ktichen definitely has good bones, enough space and a good layout. The couple we bought the house from were the original owners who built it and took good care of it.  They just hardly did any updates along the way.  It just needed some cosmetic touches. We went from the top pic to the botom pic

 

 

 

 

 So, here is the kitchen before:  

 

This first photo is the actual one from the listing. 

 

 

Who doesn't love a ceiling fan above the kitchen table?  And a big flourescent light too/

 

Also, before we bought the house

 

 

 

EEK, pink backsplash!

 

 

Nothing says 80s like pink tile backsplash and vertical blinds. The house was build in 89/90, so it's a sign of the times I guess!

 

My plan included:

 

Pain the oak cabinets white (Sherwin Williams Alabaster)

Update cabinet hardware

New appliances & mounting the microwave above range

New lighting

Paint the trim, sliding door, and window white (Sherwin Williams bright white trim paint)

Doing something with the backsplash (we ended up just painting it)

Add window treatments

Update the recessed lighting (painted the insides of them from black to white)

Paint the walls

 

First order of business was removing those blinds! 

 

 

 

We removed all doors and drawers, removed the hardware, and cleaned them up.  In our case, almost every door was unique, so it wasn't that confusing to put the kitchen back in order, but I would recommend to anyone contemplating a project like this to number them somehow if they are all similar.  To clean them, on most of them I just used a combination of a water and vinegar solution, but for the ones around the stove I used a degreaser.  

Then I sanded all of them and the boxes.  It was nice that I already had this little cordless sander and got into all the hard to reach corners.  I had to swap out the batteries quite a few times (39 doors and drawers!).  My hands literally buzzed after all the sanding was done.  Although it was painstaking to sand everything, I found that the areas that were sanded the best in the beginning hid the wood grain the best.  I was going for a smooth as possible finish, and while I knew the wood grain would be impossible to totally hide with oak, I did my best to minimize it.  There are also products that can be used to minimize wood grain (sanding sealers or wood fillers), but in the interest of time and inexperience with those products, I decided I'd just sand them  (heavy grit - 80) really good and hope for the best!

 

After sanding, I wiped everything down.  Oliver had the good sense to bring out the vacuum cleaner and use the attachment that allowed us to easily vacuum the dust from the doors and drawers.  Such a time saver!  Then I applied one coat of primer.  I just used a good brush and a foam roller.  I used Sherwin Williams Wall and Wood primer, which is a more expensive primer, but I wanted them to look nice and be durable.  Two coats of primer on everything.  Then I sanded in between coats (very fine sand paper).  Really big pain, but it really does make them smoother and more professional looking.  The thing with that wood grain is that it either wants to show through or will bleed through.  You can see the bleeding through of the color (in the bottom left) in this picture. 

 



 

I researched the heck out of painting oak cabinets before doing it, and everything I read highly recommended two coats of primer.  Glad I did!  It was really a necessity with oak.

 

 

I also lightly sanded the trim and primed twice as well.  I don't think that I would necessarily do that in every room where I plan to paint the trim, but I figured that in a high traffic area like the kitchen it would be best for durability

 

 

I don't know what is on the trim, but it definitely looks leopard print.  It must have been something they stained it with and it's like this in most of the ground floor areas

 

 

These are the two doorways that lead to foyer and dining room and this picture is after the first coat of primer.

 

I was slowed down along the way because I had to caulk a lot of trim areas that looked sloppy.  This is a picture showing the right side, which is uncaulked, and the left side shows what it looked like after I caulked it.  Some people may not have bothered, but once I started I had to keep doing it, and it really does look much better

 

In between coats, I started playing around with wall color ideas.  I also decided to go ahead and prime the backsplash.  A brand new backsplash wasn't in the budget or time given for me to do all this, so I decided just to prime it and paint it and see how it turned out - a world of difference!  Yes, you can paint tile and I'm not giving instructions on that because I'm sure I should have looked into using the right products and I'm not sure how long it'll last. 

 

 

The walls were yellow, which I was NOT a fan of.  I had envisioned a blue green (Rainwashed - Sherwin Williams), but after putting it up decided it looked too pastel.  I painted it on up by the cabinet to check out. And the gray sample (shown around the outlet) is Essential Gray - Sherwin Williams looked purple.  Ack.  The dark color is what we ended up going with (Perfect Taupe - Behr).  It is the perfect "greige."  In some light it looks beige and in some light, definitely gray.  I LOVE the way it turned out.  I will never paint a room again without getting samples.  It's crazy how different colors can look in different places and different lighting.

 

I also worked on the hinges.  We had decided to replace the knobs and pulls.  We chose weather nickel.  They were slightly darker than I imagined weathered nickel to look, but I think they look great. 

 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Stone-Mill-Hardware-Saybrook-Weathered-Nickel-Cabinet-Knobs-Pack-of-10/6428116/product.html

 

 

 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Stone-Mill-Weathered-Nickel-Nantucket-Cabinet-Cup-Pulls-Pack-of-5/4587370/product.html?searchidx=3

 

I really didn't want to spend more money on hinges though.  They run $2+ per hinge and with so many doors, I thought I should at least try to do something with the existing ones first.  So glad I did because they turned out great. 

 

I used just 2 products for about $9 total.  The Rustoleum spray paint in Metallic and a Polycrilic protective finish to help keep them looking good. 

 

 

 

 

 

some were just gross. I just used steel wool and a vinegar/water solution to clean them up

                  Two coats of each turned turned the old hinges into new looking ones

 

 

And because I'm crazy, I also sprayed all the screws going back into the hinges to match. 

 

 

 that's a lot of hinges and that's not even all of them

 

 

This is a progress picture after the first coat of paint.  The paint I used was Sherwin Williams Alabaster.  Again, I just used a good brush and a small roller.  Rolling gives everything a nice smooth look.  One tip that I read and liked was to always paint the inside of the cabinet doors first.  The reason is that when you flip them and over and paint any drip marks will be on the inside and not the visible outside.

 

 

 Such chaos!
 

After the second coat, it was ready to seal.  I tried to give as much drying time between primer and paint.  usually 12 hours or so.  Ideally, I think you want as much as you can give.  The paint had a recoat time of 6 hours, but I think leaving it longer is better.  And I would have given more time before I sealed them, but again, I didn't have 2 weeks for this project. 

I use water-based polyurethane for the protective finish.  I've used this before when painting furniture.  It gives a durable protective finish that you doesn't easily chip away.  The key to this stuff is applying it VERY LIGHTLY.  Almost dry brushing it on.  I used a good brush that is made for applying polys and is a bristle brush.  Apply super lightly, almost like you're not putting anything on.  If it's too heavy or drips, it dries peach colored.  If you apply correctly it is clear.  You could also use Minwax polycrilic, but the warning label about cancer and neurological damage scared me off.   

 

 

 

 

I used two coats of the water-based polyurethane, but I would have liked to have done 3 or even 4.  At this point, it was Sunday/Moving Day and I was behind.  I can still go back and apply this stuff later, so I figured in the interest of time, two coats would suffice and I could reassemble the cabinets.

 

I painted two coats of paint on the trim and then was ready to paint the walls.  One of the best tips I read was to paint the trim before painting the walls - MUCH easier to cut the wall paint into the trim than the other way around.

  

And after finishing the trim it was time to tackle the ugly yellow walls with the new greige colored paint.  I bought paint with primer for the Perfect Taupe walls, and it pretty much only needed one coat.  There were a couple spots that needed touch ups, but I was pleased with how it covered.  This was exiting to see it all coming together!

 

 

 

Somehow I managed to paint the entire kitchen solo with 3 kids underfoot.   Supermom skills that day for sure. Oliver was running errands and had to go to work, but I was driven!  I could see the finish line...

 

 

 

and after!  sneak a peek into the family room, with the madeover fireplace and white painted trim too!

 

 

 

 

So. Much. Better.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out and we didn't spend tons fixing it up. as most of it was cosmetic.  It has now been about 9 months since we painted the cabinets, and they've held up pretty well.  In hindsight I probably could have used chalk paint and it wouldn't have taken nearly the prep time.  White is harder to keep clean, but I do love the look of white and overall it still looks pretty good.  A lot of protective finishes will yellow over time, so I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to try out chalk paint down the road.   I love the new appliances.  The refrigerator is the best!  And it is amazing what some paint can do.  I think the white trim and the fresh walls go a long way in making this room look better.  The new lighting has made a huge difference too.  A ceiling fan over the kitchen table and flourescent light were pretty bad.  I scored the new kitchen table and chairs for $60 and they're perfect for the space.  Now, on to the next room, right?....