Well, just go ahead and throw away whatever I said yesterday about leaving the master as it is. I had the plumber come in today and take a look at the pipe in my kitchen wall (which, btw, is great news as he says it will take him all of one hour to get it done), and since he was there, I had him meander upstairs and take a look at the master bath. The first thing he said was "Wow," which was followed by "This would make a great closet." Sold. This man knows exactly what I was originally thinking. Let me just get this off my chest. By updating the master bath, I am going to spend a lot more money than I would like. There. I said it. And if you know anything about me, you know I hate spending money. But at the end of the day, I want to be able to sell this place, and I'm afraid with the layout of the master bedroom (which has a closet protruding out where the bed should face the fireplace), and with the giant tub, buyers would be scared away. By demoing the bath, yes - I will be making the master bath much smaller (roughly half its current size), however I will be giving the master bedroom a more functional layout while giving the bathroom a much needed update. Which all leads me to today. So, like I said previously, the plumber pointed out exactly what I had originally thought all along. He also said exactly what I already knew - making changes to the master bath now will be cheaper than eventually making those changes later. With no ceiling in the kitchen, he can manipulate the pipes as much as he wants without anything in his way (i.e. money saved). This was pretty much all I needed to hear in order for me to reverse the decision I made yesterday and go to town on the tile in the master bath today. And boy did I (and maybe the tile went to town on me too). Our lovely and beautiful valedictorian Marianne came over today and helped me tear down the tile as well. She and I beasted through the tile in no time, and then ventured on to that master closet I hate so much. Not only is it small, it is in the way of my beautiful vision of a master bedroom. First, we took down the molding, and then Marianne busted through the drywall (and maybe threw in a Karate chop/kick) until the closet was down to the studs. Whew! I can see a better version already!
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While I always wanted to have an entire house to design and make my own, I have quickly realized that it is in fact more overwhelming than it looks. Who knew that there are SO MANY SHADES OF GREEN to choose from (or any other color for that matter). Woof. Well, while I am trying to tackle the whole house at once, keeping it basic has helped calm my nerves. So.... I have some (small) design updates I would like to share! First, the master bath. I was originally going to demo the entire master bath. My porn tub has got-to-go. And I still believe that way, however with everything else going on, I have scaled back my design and am going to keep the porn tub (at least for now). Since I still have future plans to gut the bathroom, my updates are going to be simple and cost-effective. The blue-grey tile surround is going to get a nice coat of white paint, and instead of spending a lot of money on tile which would then have to be ripped up in a few years, I am going to install the most beautiful grey hexagon sheet vinyl I could find (via pinterest). Unfortunately, I have spent weeks trying to track this sheet vinyl down, and they apparently only sell it in Canada (of course). For all of my North Carolina followers out there... this is great news for me. Since I am heading back to The Mitten in a week or so, I can make a pitstop at the Lowe's in Windsor, Ontario and pick it up! Yay! Top that off with "Sea Salt" paint and a new vanity (still need to pick one out), and I'd say we are good to go! Next, my Craigslist kitchen cabinets. My Aunt Laurie made a comment a few posts ago about how she was confused because I said I was buying new cabinets, so why would I have to paint them? The reason is simple - Laurie, you know me all too well. I found a frugal find on Craigslist but the *NEW* all-wood cabinets do not come in white. The cost savings are too great for me to pass this one up, so I am going to paint them myself. The total cost for my kitchen cabinets are well under $2,000. (For those of you who are familiar with kitchen remodels, I know you just choked on your morning coffee - please breathe). I may in fact splurge again and have these professionally painted, but even still - the cost savings are great! I also threw out the open-shelving pipe idea (even though I still dream of those nightly), mostly because we would have to reconfigure the studs in the kitchen to actually attach the pipes. This process just sounds like a giant headache, so basic cabinet uppers it is. I'm still undecided on countertops and flooring for the kitchen, but those are low priority right now (in the meantime, I hear plywood makes a great counter). Flooring Update.
Finally, I *think* I have decided on a flooring. I have been back and forth and back and forth (first with laminate, then bamboo, then back to laminate, then to pine planks, then to bamboo.... the cycle continues), but I think realistically, if Brian and I are going to install the floor ourselves, laminate is the only viable option. I have taken home about a million floor samples from the Depot, but I recently traveled up the street to a flooring store near my apartment. Here, I found a very beautiful wide plank laminate floor (12mm thick) that I WANT WANT WANT! Thoughts? This week was the first week where I have questioned my sanity and the reasons why I bought this house (and if I am really up to the challenge). Crap is everywhere... literally EVERYWHERE throughout the house and it feels like nothing is being accomplished. Yes, I know deep down that things are getting done (which is why there is crap everywhere), but it is cluttered and messy and driving me batty. It seems that as soon as we clean one thing up, we knock something else down and the space is again filled with... crap. I really think my biggest stressor is the fact that my landlord found someone to take over my lease and I have to be moved out of my apartment in... T-minus 9 days. NINE. DAYS. Ugh. And there is crap everywhere. Anyways... This weekend, Brian and I took down another layer of cabinets (and ceiling drywall, and the grossdisgustingmakesmewanttovomit stove) in preparation for the electrician to come and do his thing. So exciting! It took Matthew-the-Awesome all of three hours to "demo" the kitchen and tie up all the wires, remove the wall sconces, and dismantle all of the light switches and sockets that used to be on the wall that I am removing. I now have no electrical in the main room (living/dining/kitchen) at all, so the faster we can start rebuilding the space the better. While I have been stressing, having Matthew-the-Awesome come in was a huge relief. It is nice to see some progress throughout the mess, however I am still worried about leaving for Michigan (oh, for those of you who didn't know - I'm coming home for 10 days!). That is ten whole days where I can accomplish nothing in the space. I still have to pick out flooring, paint colors, tile the bathrooms, get carpet installed upstairs, install the flooring I have yet to pick out.... etc. However, Brian did offer some advice that I am going to take him up on. While in the mitten, I am going to have Terry-the-Painter come in and paint. I wasn't originally going to pay anyone to paint (hello students!), but I cannot justify leaving for ten days without anything getting accomplished. I'm bitting the bullet on this one and paying up. I know Terry-the-Painter won't be able to get everything done, but even just having the majority of the space painted will give me the feeling that SOMETHING has at least been completed. Again, huge relief. As soon as Matthew-the-Awesome was ready to leave, he instead asked me "so you're taking down these posts?" in which I replied, "Yes." He then grabbed one, twisted it, and then ripped it out - just liked that. Hence, the "awesome." I tried to do the same thing but failed epically. Needless to say, Matthew-the-Awesome removed the other three posts that did not have plumbing in them in two minutes. Now that's what I call excellent customer service.
First off, I have never used a sawzall before, but I quickly discovered that this tool has become my new favorite toy. IT GOES THROUGH EVERYTHING, AND IS AWESOME. Brian always told me how much he loved this little gadget, and now I'm a believer. I started my project by tackling the soffit. I grabbed my handy sawzall and started drilling through the soffit supports one section at a time (sorry - no pictures. I was having too much fun). I would then take my hammer and pull apart each section until it dropped onto the kitchen counter. The process was relatively simple and quick - I think the entire soffit removal took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. BTW, the kitchen feels so much bigger and taller now that the soffit is gone. Yay! I'd like to officially name yesterday "Terrific Tuesday!" I scheduled my electrician to come by today (Yippie!), I took a quick nap, babysat my favorite dog Briggs, and of course demolished the kitchen some more. I should note that Brian was recovering from a 24 hour bug (101.7 temp), so he was MIA during demo. The plumber that came by the other day gave me all good news, tips on doing some of the bathroom plumbing myself (without having to move the pipes for my new, taller, and off-center sink/vanity), how easy it would be for him to move the washer and dryer, but then was a little stumped about the pipe in the kitchen. He's 90% sure it's just a vent pipe, however he asked me to remove more of the drywall and the soffit so he could have a better view of where the pipe goes. Ask, and you shall receive. To top off the night, I ripped down the rest of the drywall in the kitchen (tile was attached to it) and brought it down to countertop level. I took my handy razor blade and scored the drywall on the living room side as well, and pulled it off in small sections (trying not to go too far so I could reuse the drywall below). The room is really starting to look big, which I never thought could happen in this tiny space! Woot Woot! Next, since I had more time on my hands, I decided to remove the crown molding around the soffit in the living room and in the kitchen. Easy enough, but I did end up splitting one end of an 11 foot piece of molding. Oh well. Such is life. By this point, since I was feeling so good about myself, I continued by removing the molding around the kitchen door, which then exposed to door frame. No one wants to see an ugly door frame by itself - so that went away too. Okay, so now I really need some input and advice on the kitchen design. All of the cabinets are being replaced with new, shaker style cabinets. Currently, the cabinets are a brown color, but I'm going to paint them white for a more open feel. The uppers, however, are not going to exist. The current plan is to have open shelving using pipes and wood (see below). This is not me trying to be cheap (as I think this will actually cost me more than buying uppers), this is me trying to add some sort of rustic design to the kitchen. The issue that I am running into is what to do about storage. Right now, I have a pantry in the kitchen - which I could reinstall with the new cabinets, I'm just not sure how it will look with the open shelving. The other idea is to move the pantry "outside" the kitchen, by placing it on the other side of the wall where it is now (to the right of the current kitchen doorway). Would it be weird to have the pantry here? Thoughts please!
One of the things I actually liked about the house initially was the first floor "death" bedroom (look at the floor and you'll understand the name). This bedroom was the only room in the house that had actual COLOR on the walls. Unfortunately, the color was a textured bamboo wallpaper that I'm pretty positive my cats would either a) try to eat and then throw up or b) attempt to climb. This (and the fact that I'm pretty sure there was blood spatter on the walls) made my decision relatively simple - the bamboo had to go. I spent the better part of Memorial Day weekend ripping down the wallpaper using Piranha Wallpaper Remover that I snagged at the Southside Bargain Center for $8 (usually around $15 at the depot). This stuff did the trick, however I really think in this particular room, just getting the walls wet would have worked as well. I initially started by scoring the wallpaper, but soon realized that it would rip off in sheets easily enough. When I took down the sheets of bamboo, the glue would be left behind (which is where I brought in the spray). My only real hiccup in this room was what to do with the wallpaper around the molding. Apparently when the house was built, the wallpaper went up first and the crown molding followed, creating an issue when I tried to remove said wallpaper. Superdad told me to just cut along the perimeter with a sharp razor (which ended up working perfectly), but not to press too hard that I cut into the drywall. I think I made it work. I also took down the chair rail that went around the entire room. I'm not really sure why I did this, as I actually liked the chair rail. Maybe I just wanted to destroy some stuff and the wallpaper wasn't doing it for me. Who knows. Regardless, the chair rail is destroyed and will not be returning. I guess this leaves me with more options for the walls!
The first floor bathroom is gross. Plain and simple. The subfloor is partially rotted, the vanity comes up to my mid-thigh (and is melamine), and the light above the mirror has charred the ceiling. My goal for this bathroom is to have it gutted and refinished within the next two weeks. So far, Brian has removed the toilet, fixed the subfloor, and knocked out the vanity (with the help of Stuart). We are on a roll! The toilet was pretty disgusting, and it needed to go away. Being the first time I have ever removed a toilet, it was a pretty leaky process. (See what I did there?) We drained the toilet and Brian unhooked the plumbing, but little did we know there was still a little bit of water in the top of the tank - which then ended up all over my floor. Whoops. Once the toilet was removed, we trashed it and filled the sewer line with an old towel. The vanity was much more fun to remove. Stuart came over for the first time to check out the place, and we handed him a hammer and told him to get to work. He and Brian tried very hard to take it apart in one piece, but decided quickly to just demo it. They first removed the top (which is being donated to ReStore), removed the mirror, and then went to town on the vanity. I am still unsure of exactly what I want this bathroom to look like, but at least have my vanity picked out. I found my vanity on Craig's List for $150 and bought the exact same one at the Home Depot on clearance for $300 (going in the guest bath upstairs). I am most hung up on the floor tile. I have brought home so many different types of tile and honestly have no idea what kind I should use. As for the wall color, I am thinking some sort of light green (I want it to feel light and beach-y). Thoughts?
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about meHi! I'm Lauren! I'm a twenty-something teacher and homeowner in North Carolina. I love math, decorating, and getting down and dirty learning new things about home renovation and repair. Categories
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