Laundry Room Update- shared by Heather

I am finally posting a house update!  We have had a busy summer with lots of gardening, canning, etc.  When we moved into our house in February of this year, much of the house was painted a flat tan/brown color that didn't work with the smaller rooms and low ceilings.

The laundry room felt like a narrow tan cave, and since I spend a lot of time doing laundry, I wanted the room to be a bit more pleasant!

A before picture of our laundry room

First, I painted the room white, the same Sherwin Williams Extra White that I've been using throughout our home.  We purchased extra cabinets when we ordered our kitchen cabinets, and we installed them in the laundry room for additional storage.  I painted the exterior door Valspar Frosty...I love splashes of color here and there!  

An after picture of the laundry room

I used shutters from the log cabin I grew up in to hide our not-so-attractive hot water heater.  I distressed them a bit with some white paint, and I really like how they turned out.

My distressed shutters

I found a cute sign at Hobby Lobby, and painted it with the same paint as the exterior door.  I made a curtain for the window to complete our update.  

A new sign and a homemade curtain

Our "to do" list still includes laying tile and adding an air vent in the laundry room ceiling when we redo our duct work.  There's a reason they call them "fixer uppers" for sure!  

Summer in Pictures-Posted by Erin

Summer is coming to an end and I am a little sad that my garden will soon be done, but I'm definitely looking forward to fall and the crisp weather it brings.  I took a few minutes to sum up my summer in pictures. I would love to look out my window and see a beautiful doe in my yard, but the last three pictures were taken up in the Northern Neck of Virginia where my sister lives.  Gwen and I had the best time driving around looking for deer and taking in the beautiful sunset.  Isn't that old shack by the water amazing? I love old buildings with a story and old charm.  Speaking of old buildings, hopefully the next post will be of my kitchen completely renovated. Josh and I have been working hard to complete it, but it seems the process is a slow one when you're only doing the big projects on the weekend. What a busy summer it has been!

Heather's Ikea Trip

I hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th!  We spent ours with family, and it was fantastic.  On our way home, we stopped at Ikea for the first time.  I was amazed at several things, but mainly at how reasonable and cute their products were.  I'll share a few of my finds!

These curtains.  I know colorful curtains are really popular right now, but I adore the airy look of white curtains.

This alarm clock.  It's vintage look is perfect for our guest bedroom.  

This little lantern.  It's the perfect accent piece for our new mantel shelf. 

These tea towels.  I plan to hem them and use them as cloth napkins.  

These cute little jars.  I didn't have a purpose in mind when I bought them, but I know I'll think of something!

I also found a few things for our bathroom updates.  I'll be sure to share when we get around to that project!

Summer Garden-Posted by Erin

We were gone for the weekend and it seems that our garden, herbs and flowers were very busy while we were gone. I was so happy to see baby tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and squash almost ready to be picked this morning when I checked on our plants. I can't wait to make yummy dishes and fresh salads from our garden. Fried green tomatoes and BLT's, anyone? There is something so satisfying about growing your own food! What about you, how is your garden growing if you planted one this year?

Sage and Thyme

Marigolds

Lettuces

Better Boy tomatoes

Evening Primrose

Heather's Entryway Update

I am happy to share a bit of progress on our home. 

A couple weeks ago, we started updating our entryway.  I don't have "before" pictures to share, but just picture a blank wall painted pale yellow.  I've since painted most of the house Sherwin Williams Extra White, and I can tell you that our living room is smaller than a bedroom in many homes!  

We'll eventually tear out the wall separating the living room and dining area for a more open floor plan.  I know eventually the "befores" will all be "afters" and I just need to be patient. *Smiles*

Now that we're in a much smaller home, I like the idea of maximizing every inch of space that we have.  The idea of a highly functional entryway with lots of storage is very appealing, so I found a tutorial for a mantel shelf with hooks. The tutorial we used can be found here. 

My best advice for making this shelf is to make sure your miter saw has a sharp blade. Also, leave room for error because cutting crown molding can be quite difficult if you haven't done it before.  

This is how our shelf looked after we attached a piece of base molding to our 2x8.

The shelf with attached molding 

Our finished shelf

I'm so pleased with the finished shelf! My husband was a huge help with all the cutting.  I'd still be attempting to get the angles right!  After the shelf was put together, I filled the holes with wood putty and caulked the crown molding.  I sanded and then I painted it with two coats of primer and then a top coat of Sherwin Williams Extra White.  We hung it on the wall, and then we added the hooks. I found them at Hobby Lobby for half price.  

To do:
Decorate my mantel shelf
Build a storage bench for shoes, bookbags, etc.

New Beginnings-Posted by Erin

I've been a little apprehensive about making a post of our kitchen progress...mostly because things have gotten pretty ugly around here. What started out as a small cabinet painting project turned into tearing the walls, pipes and studs out and starting new. My husband and I had no idea that there was so much damage lurking underneath the drywall and behind the cabinets in our kitchen. There are definitely disadvantages to tearing your kitchen out (i.e. what seemed like ten trillion trips to Home Depot and eating pizza every night because your kitchen is in shambles), but the biggest highlight so far has been the fun of putting it all back together. I get to choose exactly how my kitchen is going to look. When we bought our house I knew that there would be a few improvements made, but I didn't expect a full kitchen remodel almost immediately after we moved in. So far we have done all the work ourselves and thus the process is going a little slower than we would like, but we know these things take time (and money!). So I guess what I'm getting to with this blog post is that sometimes things have to get pretty ugly before they can get pretty. Stay tuned for the pretty if you like. 

The yucky mold was from a drain leak before we bought the house.

My husband tearing out the last 1980's knotty pine cabinet. What a relief...

Heather's Kitchen Remodel

Hey there! A few months ago, my sister, Erin, and I decided to start a blog to document our progress as we update our older homes.  

After a whirlwind of selling our previous home and purchasing and moving into our new place, we {my husband is not afraid to help me tackle any project, no matter how crazy!} immediately gutted our entire kitchen.  It was just that bad. 

The kitchen had dark paneling that someone decided to texture over and paint tan and the cabinets were awful.  Thirty years of gunk, water damage, and who knows what.

Before

We replaced the paneling with sheet rock, we installed new white cabinets {with the help of a fantastic friend!}, and we made faux soapstone counters.  I originally saw the faux soapstone idea in Country Living, and her blog is here.

I decided to go ahead with my dream sink- a deep single basin farmhouse sink with an oil rubbed bronze faucet from Moen- and I am SO happy with them.  I never knew what I was missing!  

My new sink! 

We tore out the vinyl flooring, and I painted the subfloor as a temporary solution. 

As for decor, I love the modern farmhouse look, and I attempted to keep it simple and rustic.  I painted our beadboard backsplash Sherwin Williams Extra White.

After

After

My painted floor

We still have a few things to accomplish in our updated kitchen. Our "to do" list includes:

*honed granite counters {eventually!}

*Hardwood flooring when we install it in the rest of the house

*Finishing the beadboard  

*New refrigerator {another eventually!}

*Change the overhead light