The low down on the lowers

And we are on to the lowers.

First we took everything out and added to the giant mess of our kitchen. I also wood filled any seams or major dents so we had a nice even surface to paint over.

Hot mess express of a kitchen. Also sorry for half day time photos and half night time. We put the wrong light bulbs in the new kitchen lighting fixture so everything is super yellow looking as well.

Then we had to paint the insides white and it is crazy how much cleaner and brighter they looked. We decided to keep the insides light so we could see what was in there better. Painting them blue might have made it look like a cave in there. So fresh and so clean.

After the wood fill and sanding smooth process was over, we got to painting.

The drawers were also met their date with a paint brush. 

Everything got 3 coats of shiny blue, and then I got overly excited and put the hardware on too early. A little sneak peak for ya'll, but a major boo boo for me. 4 of the drawers survived, but 2 had to be wood filled,  sanded and repanited. Major bummer. However, I learned my lesson and will not be adding hardware to anything for at least a week. 

And then my Dad brought over some power tools. 

My whole idea to update the flat boring lower cabinet doors came from a tutorial over at Little Green Notebook. DIY shaker style cabinets? Done and done. I also figured they would nicely mimic the squared off glass uppers.

So over came the power tools, and my Papa Bear to help me wrap my head around how to do them and to get a lesson in nail guns and table saws 101. 

                                   

We went to Lowes and found 4" wide poplar planks which my dad cut down to 2" wide. Then with a few more lessons, I was on my own. 

And then I had to do some math. {whoa scary} I know it is only measuring, but math is math. 

After cutting all the pieces to size and measuring them this is what the garage was looking like.

 Then I busted out old faithful Kilz, to prime all the new wood peices. Some of them had knots that I wood filled over and sanded before painting just to make sure they wouldn't bleed through.

Next step was to apply wood glue to the backs, clamp in place and nail gun in. I ended up having to tap most of the nails in to make sure they were flush with the wood.

It was super rewarding to see the shaker style coming together. 

Then I moved on to wood filling. Several DIY bloggers had mentioned loving the wood filler max in a tub, but I've got to admit, I'm not a fan. It did not like sticking to my pieces and does not sand nearly as smooth as the normal wood filler. 

I also filled in any dents and the old hardware holes in the doors.

Then the real fun began. Each door had to be filled on all 4 sides where the old doors had a slight bevel on them. This left about a 1/8 in gap on the edge all the way around.

  The joints in between the new wood pieces had to be filled as well.

 And then I sanded. Forever. I also caulked the inside gap so everything looks like one solid piece.

Next step, more sanding, priming and painting. Oh what a process this will be!

-Betsy

Favorite Things

This week has been a doozy. Its Charleston Fashion Week, so I've been filling in at White, while Jodi does her thing at the runways. I love working at White and all the pretty couture dresses, {check out the finale dress below, SHABAM!} but it did mean I didn't have a day off or much time to DIY.

I'm still plugging away at the cabinets and will hopefully have an update for ya'll next Monday. But, for now I thought I would share the top 5 items in the house that make me crazy happy.

1. Paint Colors.
I had our rental, Hindman House, pretty much filled up and styled to the brim. Except for one thing, the blah paint color on the walls. Everyday I would look around and dream of soft teals, dusty blues, and grayed greens. I love, love, love every single paint color we have used in this house. Choosing your own paint color is one of the best parts of home ownership to me.

2. Garden Stool
Its just so cool. And you can sit on it. Or put your drink on it. Or marvel on how it finishes a space with just the right scale.

3. Candles
My absolute favorite is French Cade Lavender from Anthropologie, but Target's Pink Magnolia is a close second and a much more wallet friendly option. A clean house, a glass of wine and a pretty smelling candle take me to my happy place.

4. Wingback Chairs
$25 each on craigslist, and refinished in fancy fabric and they are my favorites ever. They don't match, but they work together and I love them. They are also very comfortable to read a good book in. Especially if I'm burning a candle and using my garden stool to hold a glass of wine. {see how that works}

5. MLW and the corgs
I mean, duh!

I pinky promise to have a kitchen update next week,
Betsy

Kitchen Uppers Row 1

So the other night I came home to this...

MLW was was done with the ugly cabinets and ready to move forward. We had been thinking about starting in here for a few weeks, but every time I would get ready to start I would get seriously overwhelmed and have to take a nap. I'm not kidding, it was stressing me out!

Just diving right in, ended up being the best way to get started and set in motion a whole bunch of exciting tasks in the kitchen...

Like patching ceiling drywall. I'm not super thrilled with how it turned out. I needed to sand it down a bit more than I did, but it looked better than what we started with.

Caulking the splits between the molding and the ceiling. A surprisingly easy and satisfying task.

And generally making the most epically large mess in our kitchen. 

We are focusing on just one side at a time, to keep me from needing an overwhelmed nap. So the first set of glass doors went to the garage for an ice cream paint job. Yeah buddy.

I also busted out the ceiling paint after taking down the ugggggllly florescent light fixture. We totally lucked out and the light box was in the middle of the ceiling!

After several coats of white paint, MLW started painting the backs "Vermont Slate" Our winner in the grey/blue lower color. I was a little afraid of how this would look in the end, but after seeing the doors on and realizing most of me "decorative" pieces are white, I think brining a little color up there will look nice.

My clean and white ceiling looking the other way. So much fresher.

And then there is this little guy. Oh light above the sink, how you have stumped me. Luckily we are having a dude come do some other finishing work for us, so I'm going to see what he says about this. Cutting drywall and installing a light box are above my skill level. 

But look how much nicer the molding looks where it hits the ceiling. Looks like one solid piece!

So after all of these steps, we inched closer to putting a few of the dried doors back up. Everything is getting switched to brass hardware and we are following the nail holes in hopes of putting everything back up level.  (new light sneak peak, more on that later)

So far we are about 60% successful with the doors. One is sticking really bad so I might end up pulling it down and sanding the heck out of it, repainting and then trying again.

OHMGEE! Its so pretty. MLW thinks I'm nuts becuase I keep walking in there an giggling. Can you see where we are going? Its a little nautical looking, but I live near the water so I'm just going to roll with it. 

This is going to be a loooooong process so stay with me here. 6 doors haven taken me 6 days.... Get ready!

Love,
Betsy

Craigslist Adventures

Or how I obsessively comb through furniture on Craigslist...and sometimes get inspired for how to finish a room.
So here is the deal, I scour Craigslist constantly. If you have been reading along, you know how many of my pieces started out as Craigslist finds. Its pretty amazing to find a high end inspiration and then source a chair or table for way less locally and totally revamp it. Craigslist is awesome for this, especially when people don't know what an amazing piece they have and are selling it for dirt cheap. $20 for a chair? Done.
I've created a Pinterest board to help me {and you guys} track my Craigslist finds and "wish I had space for that" items.

The other day I found this beauty listed for $200 bucks! It was an old ad so I had my reservations, but contacted the seller to discover they still had it. SCORE! But then, my bubble was sadly popped when I received a message from the seller saying someone had beat me to it. I put it on on Pinterest, so maybe that worked against me this time. If one of you readers bought it, you got a deal and I'm 100% jealous. I mean maybe I pouted the rest of the day and was a little grouchy.

However, this one piece of furniture ended up inspiring the 2nd half the of Den. I had been trying to come up with a way for storage to hide some of our exercise equipment that didn't just include rows of baskets along the wall. Then I saw that beautiful mid-century credenza and everything came to light. It was slightly masculine and the wood tone matched the trunk we found in the attic. Plus the drawers added extra storage to easily tuck a lot of the mess away.

I also want to get another green rug to place in that space. Warm it up a bit. I originally purchased on One King's Lane, but Joss and Main has sold it for about $20 less so I'm waiting for it to pop up in another sale.

This is called a puff chair. I thought it was a butterfly chair and had been searching endlessly for a new cover for it when I made the discovery that it is its own special kinda of chair. This thing is ridiculously comfortable and MLW's only furniture request.  I've found a place that sells slipcover's for it and want to get it in the navy, since brown really doesn't work in the space.

And finally, the Moroccan pouf. I have a feeling this might become my new seemingly worthless piece of furniture, that we love and use all the time. Just like the garden stool in the living room. I love that thing.

But back to the mid-century credneza. You thought I had lost it right? Well I did. But it gave me a mission. I poured through Craigslist looking for something similar and only came up with some painted options int the $500-$600 range. Way too expensive and I wanted to keep the mid toned wood look going. I also searched the internet, looking for a copy, with no luck.

Then I stumbled across this picture on Craigslist. This is proof of how nuts I am. Do you see those beautiful white wire back chairs? Dying. I had driven past this place a few times, but this photo made me decide to check them out. So I went on my next day off. The chairs were still there, but at $225 I sadly couldn't commit.

However, right next to them was a mid-century credenza! I kid you not, a light shone down from above and angels sang. The price was right, it had super cool mid-century legs, and all the drawers worked like a charm. SC Vintage Store, if you are in the area, go! They had all kinds of cool mid-century furniture and nick nacks. So I loaded her up and home we went. {this picture is after she came home, my phone had died while I was on my shopping adventure}

I still need to purchase the other room aspects, but I will be stalking them to get the best price. For now the den is cleaned up and things are at least stored properly. We are making progress!

Ya'll are cute!
Betsy

P.S. I love that I own a "credenza." Did you notice how many times I worked that word into this post? Makes me feel fancy.

Outside Tour Feb 2014

At long last, I'm taking ya'll outside. Prepare yourselves, its a little rough. The only thing we have really done outside is put a new roof on the house, and then dig up the front yard to fix our plumbing problems. The roof was a huge improvement and a necessary evil after water started dripping in over our window this past fall. We knew it was coming, just not as soon as it did. Luckily that is all past us. However, making the outside pretty has just barely begun. So here 5054 is, basically in the same shape as the day we bought her...

The veiw from the curb.  Just your average little ranch. The brick color is pretty unique and can be found in a few houses around the neighborhood. The jury is still out on wether or not I'm a fan of the color. I would also  really like to get our cars in the garage at some point, but that means I would have to clean it up, and get garage door openers installed.

The hole at the edge of our driveway, I have no idea why it is there. Basically looks like a bucket just took a scoop out of our driveway for now obvious reason. We are going to have that filled in about  the same time we do something about the grass from where the plumbing got fixed.

The garage wing with random tree/shrub 1.

Side corner, with random tree/shrub 2.  Also the giant gates for boat parking. We will never have a boat, but its good to have in the area for resale since so many people do.

Garage corner again. Aren't those two tree/shrubs random. There are two bigger trees farther away from the house that make more sense, but these to are just odd. I'm thinking they are going to get transplanted somewhere else that makes a little more sense. Maybe closer to the boat gate?

Corner looking around at the garage. 

Looking directly at the gargage. I would like to get a pretty potted plant to place in between the doors. Or maybe a vertical succulent garden. Oooo.  Also do they make a prettier motion detecter light? I should look into that. And paint the garage doors one day? Add pretty hardware?  Life questions.

And moving to the front porch. Sadly this little bit is hidden by our cars right now. I eventually want this nook to be super cute and visible from the street.  I'm not really a huge fan of the prickly bushes right here though. I like them edging around the exterior of the house, but I think I want something with more color and less prickly right by the door.

 A closer shot, I love the church pew and pillows, but that is about it. I want to switch out light fixtures, repaint the front door, add a glass panel with our house numbers and perhaps start an ivy over the metal guard rails. Put here is the tricky part. I have no idea what color to paint the door. Like I mentioned a few houses around the neighbor hood have this super dark brick, but most play it safe with either black or white doors and shutters. So our house is already the most colorful with tan shutters and a blue door, but I'm still not sold. That being said, I have NO idea what would look best. I would love love love to paint the house white, or a pale yellow,  but alas money does not grow on trees. So I'm doing my best to think up a good color pallet that will make me appreciate this brick.

Our threshold needs to be sanded and repainted real bad. If I can ever figure out colors, I'll get on that.

So on to the side of the house off of the den. This is the little landing right outside the door. Also known as the corgi island.

Looking down one side towards the street. Hot mess.

And looking into the back yard.

Oh Hi! This side yard rarely gets used by anyone but the corgs. However, that is the problem. It is mostly a dirt run so any moisture and it is mud city, which turns into muddy paws that come tracking in all through my house. MLW and I have the idea of doing a stone pathway with a really sturdy moss to fill in. The side stays dark and moist longer than any other spot so I'm afraid not much else would grow there. However, the moss would help cut down on the mud and dirt that gets tracked in and hopefully those cute little fluffers would be smart enough to mostly stick to the stone path.

Looking back towards Corgi Island. Lots of dirt.

Rounding the corner on our screen porch.

Just following the corgi, wherever he may go. 

And the back deck and screened in poorch. Notice anything a little wonky?

Our screen porch is leaning pretty bad. Eventually I want to get someone in there to jack up that corner and redo the concrete footings so everything is right sided again.

We also want to scrub and then reseal the deck and porch wooden floors, so it lasts a long long while and we don't have to worry about splinters.  I have big dreams of an outdoor dining area with string cafe lights over it for this little spot.

The view peeking in our back window, just to give you a sense of where everything is located. We have good tree coverage in the backyard, so it is not this easy for the neighbors to see in.

In the screen porch. I thought the hammock would go nicely in there, but after dragging it in quickly realized it is much to massive for the space. It just feels silly. So eventually I will pull it back out and find a nice spot in the yard for it. Also do they make pretty pull porch lights? Maybe I'll paint the celling blue one day too!

The screen door needs major help. In fact all of the screening needs help. And to not be red. One day.

The extremely messed up dog door. It works to let them in, but then they can't get back out. And yes, Ernie fits through it just fine!

The side "flower" bed. Or dead leaf bed. I need to get my Mom down here to help me plan it out, she is wonderful at plant placement and whatnot. There also used to be a small pond that we need to fill in. 

I'm really hoping this hydrangea bush comes back to life. I'm so excited to have free blooms right in my backyard!

 The large side yard, with recycling leftover from before we moved on. I should probably put that out now to have it picked up on recycling day. We really haven't gotten out in the yard much.

The view looking back towards the porch. It is a good sized back yard! I have bif dreams of a patio, hammock nook, and fire pit.

And finally I found this most baby, tiny, little clay pot just chilling in the backyard. I brought him inside and can't wait to get a little cactus or succulent to fill him up.

So there it is, 5054 in all of her outside glory. It also makes me realize that MLW and I will probably never run out of projects for this home. She is going to keep us on our toes for years to come. I hope ya'll stick around with me as well, to see what all we have in store.

Ya'll are the best!
Betsy