Kitchen Renovation Reveal

Let me help the BIG REVEAL by prepping you with a couple of "before" pictures so you get an idea of the kitchen we lived with for 2 or so years.



Patrick had taken off all the doors to the cabinets when a brief surge of DIY juice passed through him never to return.  And, by the way, the cool sink is still in our backyard if anyone is interested.



This served as extra cabinet space.  And as you can see, the floors were definitely tired.

We used Home Depot's Kitchen design services in Simpsonville to bring this kitchen into the 21st century.  Eli, God bless her and her patient soul, designed the kitchen. And with great gnashing of teeth walked through many design questions and changes that we had.



And our contractor, Kenny, along with two other fine Southern gentlemen, gnashed their teeth as well over the four months it took to bring it to where it is today. It is a relief to have a contractor that you can trust and know that he is committed to doing a job correctly.  I'm sure there were many curse words used when they were not in my presence but in front of me they were nothing but gentlemen.



The renovation happened in fits and starts. And there were fits thrown. But in the end we have a beautiful and functioning kitchen.



 Even the 1970's Jenn Air stove has gotten a new life.

 

And thanks to Eli's design we can easily get in and out the back door.
Oh, and we have a dishwasher for the first time in our adult life.


Love our open shelving.
And the wooden floors? Well, Kenny worked his fingers to the bone for these floors. Thank you, Kenny!!

And now for some details that make me happy.



The pendant light over the sink makes me happy...the blinding light bulb not so much.
Any suggestions?



Love the open shelving! There was much researching because we wanted something with some design appeal but also functional. This blogger showed off her Ikea shelving and I was sold.  I didn't show it to Patrick but just went right ahead and asked a friend who was passing through Charlotte to pick us up a couple.  He obliged AND gifted them to us...sweet guy, that Michael.  So if you want your own, head on over to Ikea.  Gotta love the Swedish sensibility.



Patrick and I are sparring over objects that get put on these shelves.  Some tchotchke have disappeared since these photographs.



But then...surprise...they show back up again...then disappear again.
The great tchotchke war on East Maple.



The inspiration that finally convinced me Patrick was right about the wall color.
 Yes...you read correctly. Patrick was right.
He was not only right about that but I have to concede one more thing.

The 1970's Jenn Air Stove that came with the house adds a retro cool vibe to the kitchen that I in absolutely NO WAY anticipated it would.


We did have some concern that the open cabinet that we originally desired was going to look odd and off balance in the kitchen. But I have to say I love it. Just wish I was taller to reach the shelves.



I knew I wanted something in the back of the cabinet to coordinate with the color in the kitchen. I was losing hope that I'd find something stylish and reasonably priced. But while trolling  Carolina Pottery in Columbia I came across this fabulous shelf liner. I snatched it up for half the price it is online (yeah for me!) and ran home to put it up...in a very ADD fashion.  Leave it to say if you look at it too long while visiting our home you'll notice where I got a little hurried in the process.

And then there is the functionality of the kitchen too.
For instance, the drawer below has a hidden compartment that stores more utensils.
Very useful in a small kitchen.



And a concealed trash bin is a good thing too.



Love this faucet and this deep single bowl sink... even though our dear contractor insists everyone wants a double bowl sink.


But have you noticed one thing missing? We have a backsplash dilemma. It is too late to add the small granite lip that traditionally goes with a counter top for reasons I won't bore you with. We had thought we'd do a white subway tile but then we just hit a wall and decided to wait. But in the mean time we worry about water hitting the walls around the sink and grease around the stove. Any design input would be gladly welcome...but may not be taken.  



Overall, we are very pleased with the end result of months of hard work from Kenny and his crew...therapy sessions with Eli...and many dishes washed in the bathroom sink.

Epic Bathroom Renovation

It is done.
The bathroom renovation that started in November of 2010 is done.
Collective heavy sigh.
Now, it is not the bathroom I had dreamed of.
It is not the bathroom I had hoped for.
Nor is it the bathroom I had planned on.
But...
it is the bathroom that is completed and much better than I had imagined it could be.

After firing the first contractor in July of 2011, we took a hiatus to recover from the "trauma" of a botched job. We didn't attempt to hire another contractor to finish it until December 2011. He (and I am quoting him) turned chicken shit into chicken salad. God bless him.

You might remember that we started demolition of this bathroom in the fall of 2010. We were sure then if the contractor was up to the job and so we asked him to hold off while we made some design decisions. He returned to begin the work in May of 2011. Have I told you we don't do change well?

So he came and he brought his undisciplined ADHD mind with him. Thank god for our plumber/electrician who was able to ask the right questions to us to help us process what the heck our contractor was doing AND not doing. The final straw came when I came home from work to find he had laid the shower tile in the wrong pattern. Who doesn't know what a subway tile pattern is in the age of subway tile?

It was a xanax kind of moment, my friends. If only I had had one. But I called him and told him he was done and to pick up his tools the next day. I hated doing it but had to do it. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. Just don't have him do detail work if you hire him. Having paid him a good chunk of money we wondered if this was going to be the world's most expensive cheap looking bathroom ever. So for several months we had a bathroom with no working anything while we decided what to do next.

In comes the plumber/electrician who asked all the right questions. Now he's someone I can trust. And he measures twice (maybe even three or four times) and cuts once. He kindly came in and cleaned up someone else's mess.

So without further ado, I give you befores and afters...







Oh and this scary thing...


has been replaced by this...


Some details I like...


Shampoo cubby in the shower



I love the style of this vanity. Where did I get such a gorgeous thing? Costco



Added glass knobs to the vanity. Did you know Hobby Lobby has a ton of unique handles and knobs?


Enamored with my spa hotel light fixture


And the last detail I want to share with you is the shower curtain. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I came home with the perfect shower curtain only to find it was about 14 inches too short. We needed an 84 inch long curtain. They are generally sold in length of 72 inches. Grrrrrr.

All the extra long shower curtains were tacky, plastic and expensive. So the simplest solution was to add length to a regular shower curtain. I had considered buying regular drapes to use as a shower curtain but I would have had to learn how to do button holes or punch grommets. I wasn't up for that learning curve. But, as luck would have it, I found a table runner at Target on clearance and it was the perfect dimensions for what I needed. Thank you Target for once again coming to my rescue. I sewed that baby on there and, voila, an extra long, one of a kind shower curtain.

And....scene.

Let the Demolition Begin...

Bathroom of your nightmares be gone!
Coming soon: "After" pictures.

The House on Maple

Well, hold onto your pants.
As I mentioned in the last post, we are homeowners once again...finally...and in the deep South. And I have to say if we have learned anything in this whole process it is patience.

Most people go about buying a house the traditional way. They find themselves a great Realtor like Sherry Soforic and go house hunting. It's a very different animal here in small town Clinton, population 8,000 give or take a few. Here if a house is actually listed, it's usually overpriced and on the market for...well let's just say we've been here almost two years and many of them are still for sale.

The start of this transaction began in November last year with an e-mail and ends with the most unusual closing I've been party to on June 28, 2010. No joke, we signed our names on one piece of paper in an attorney's office in Clinton and then he shooed us out of there saying the office was too hot and we could just pick up a copy tomorrow. We then went directly over to the Presbyterian Home where the owners live. You see, the attorney's office isn't handicap accessible and Mrs. Skinner is in a wheel chair. Instead of having two elderly people wait out in the car in the attorney's parking lot on the hottest day of the year (record breaker I might add) as was suggested by the attorney's secretary, we all trekked over to Presbyterian Home's assisted living. After signing their name in the comfort of air conditioning, we were handed a whole bunch of keys by both Dr. Skinner and Mrs. Skinner. We were handed hope. Hope that one of those keys might actually work because right now we only had one key to one door.

Oh, did I fail to mention we had a key? Why yes, doesn't everyone get a key to the house they are buying several months before they are actually the owner? No? Uh, well this is awkward. Yep, the house on Maple was fair game for several months prior to signing that one signature on the dotted line. So much time for dreaming and lamenting and dreaming and lamenting. Did I mention dreaming and lamenting?

So we're the third owners of this Southern brick bungalow built in 1937. The Little's of Clinton built it. I tried to convince Anna that Stuart Little and his family lived here. But she wasn't having any of it. Then in 1965 the Skinner family bought it. They were a young couple with a new baby. Dr. Skinner taught English at Presbyterian College and Ramona dabbled in art and raised little Jimmy. They wanted to see that the house was passed onto another professor thus here we are...dreaming and lamenting.


We'll keep you posted.

The House on Maple: The Beginning

house2, originally uploaded by missmonkeymae.

We are officially home owners in our little town. The house on Maple is a 1937 painted white brick bungalow that needs a lot of love and attention. And we are just the family to give it to her.

More to come....