The Little Pink House

Quickie

2010-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday!

Quick post...I'm planning some fun projects this weekend. Nick has finished building me my fake "mudroom" bench and mirror. We took plans from this AMAZING blog. Ana is truly gifted at her craft! I am continually amazed at the plans she produces and all the beautiful furniture she builds! You must go visit her site, I guarantee you'll be amazed.

This is our first attempt at building our own furniture. So this weekend I plan to finish both pieces and I'll post pics on Monday!

Happy weekend everyone!

XO, Laura

Anyone Home?

2010-01-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

Does anyone even still check on this lil' blog? Just checkin.

We haven't checked out...just lost some steam. It's hard work remodeling and keeping up a blog! ;)

Santa hubby bought me a new camera for Christmas....the kitchen is so close to done....if you stick with me I'll work on getting some pics up.

XO, Laura

Latest on the Kitch

2009-09-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Oh I almost forgot....we picked up the countertops and the sink on Monday! Also picked up a kitchen island storage thingy (I know, very technical huh?). We've started taking off the bottom cabinets and hopefully we'll start tearing out the floor pronto. So, the kitchen once again looks like a disaster area, except for the upper cabs that look beautiful!

I'll take some pictures of the progress this weekend and post on Monday! Have a great week everyone!

XO, Laura

I'm On A Diet!

2009-09-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

You are all probably scratching your heads right now wonderful what the heck I'm doing on a diet! No...it's not that kind of diet. It's a clothing diet! A NO SHOPPING FOR 365 DAYS kind of diet!

Why am I doing this? Because it will be fun? NOOOOOO. It will be hard. And I am (oddly?) looking forward to the challenge. It's going to force me to get creative with the clothing I already own. So...when I'm not blogging here about the house projects...I'll be over at http://www.thegreatamericanappareldiet.com/ blogging about my clothing diet! Feelin' a little crazy too? JOIN ME!

Fantastic Friday!

2009-08-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all! This weekend is going to be action packed...we are going to be busy little bees! We're help a friend move today, Saturday we are finishing a project at Dad's and have a birthday party and wedding to attend, and Sunday we'll finally get some work done on the house. Hoping to get the counter tops and sink on Sunday...and I've got pictures of the upper cabinets...they are all finished and look great! I love them :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll get more pics uploaded ASAP.

XO, Laura

The longest cabinet redo in history!

2009-08-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

YAY!! I'm proud to announce to all you darling blog readers (all 5 of you...awesome!) that the upper cabinets are painted, distressed, and back on the walls. The doors are also completely finished but I have to add a coat of polyurethane to the cabinets before I hang the doors. So many steps....so little time! The first picture shows the corbels that I added to the bottom of the cabinets to dress them up a bit...they were lookin' kinda lonely.

The kitchen is still completely a mess...beside the few organizational goodies I found at Ikea, we haven't added any decor into the room yet. Oh and don't you love my pot rack? Seriously...if you have room in your kitchen for one...GET ONE! It's amazing how much cabinet space it frees up!

I'm totally in love with my kitchen so far...life is really really good! This weekend the plan is to finish touching up the crown molding and walls and put a coat of poly on the cabinets! More pictures coming soon!

Have a lovely weekend!

XO, Laura

Three Years!

2009-08-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

On this day 3 years ago I married my best friend and soul mate. The person who can always make me laugh...especially when I see this picture.

Yep...that's hubby posing with Tupac. Wait...that's only a wax figure of Tupac in Vegas. Hubby just had to pose with him...and notice the sideways hat? Yeah, hubby's such a gangsta! :)

I love you honey! Happy 3 year Anniversary!

Promises Kept

2009-07-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Everyone! Happy Friday!

As promised, I went home last night and took some pretty amazing pictures. (lol!) Okay, so the pictures aren't amazing, but I think you'll at least be able to see some progress.

So let's get started shall we?

First lets talk about my dreadful 1970's oak-y cabinets. They were pretty plain and sad looking (and filthy!) but they're solid and much like the rest of our house just needed a little TLC. Let me tell you the story about these cabinets. We decided to take them completely off the walls because when I was demolishing the tile backsplash I really did a number on the drywall. We thought it would be easier to drywall, texture, and paint the entire walls, rather than having to cut in around all the cabinets. Then...I saw some very inspiring photos of extremely beautiful kitchens with no soffit, and immediately fell in love! FYI...the "soffit" is the space between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling. You all know the spot where people usually put knick knacks! And yes people, when I first read about a soffit I had NO idea wth it was. I *heart* Google!

See this picture?

This pictures was taken right after I got my lovely stainless steel appliances. In the top of the picture can you see the fluorescent light and the drop tile ceiling? Barely! I was trying to hide them because they were so ugly! But, you'll notice that our cabinets look like they go directly to the (fake) ceiling...aka no soffit. Well...we actually had about another 2 feet of ceiling up there!

Here's how it looks now...The cabinets will go to the top of the ceiling and have some pretty new crown molding.

Amazing...No? Wow, to see these before and after pics is seriously satisfying for me! I tend to forget how far we've come in this kitchen remodel. We still have SO much to do...it's overwhelming!

I wish I had some "after" pics of the cabinets. Truth is...I've only painted about half of the upper cabinets. They're not distressed yet...nor have they been coated with poly. But here they are sitting in the living room in all of their bright white glory!

I've decided to do the upper cabinets a distressed white (vintage-y looking!) and the lower cabinets are going to be black. Why not all black you ask? Well for one thing...I just finally gave this little kitchen some breathing room and didn't want to lose that openness with too much black. Plus, black is a very intimidating color to paint in your home! I'll admit it...I'm afraid! :)

If I've learned one thing during this whole remodel project, it's that I am a very indecisive person. Drives Nick crazy! For this reason alone, I've decided to stick to a very basic and neutral base throughout the house...think black, white, beige, taupe...boring, boring, boring! Don't get me wrong...I LOVE COLOR! But, I love to mix it up...often. At least once a month! I'm constantly moving things around. So...I thought the smartest thing to do would be to bring in fun colors and patterns on things that can easily be swapped. Pillows, artwork, decor, rugs etc. I know, I know...I'm brilliant.

I'm thinking this post is getting kinda wordy...Won't you agree? Let's take a look at some more pics...

This is what the other side of the kitchen looked like before....Lots of storage, but it gave the kitchen a really confined feeling. So we tore out those cabinets, recessed the fridge back under the staircase, and built a pantry. Genius!

Here's the new pantry! (Sorry...no homemade screen door yet!) See the hole near the ceiling? That's the extra EXTRA pantry storage for all my gadgets. I'm telling you...Nick seriously maximized every ounce of space he could find!

Close up of the pantry storage

Happy fridge living in her new fridge home!

I'm blogged out for now :0)

We've got a fantastic weekend planned...Hope y'all have a great one too!

XO Laura

I.O.U.

2009-07-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Where has the time gone? I just saw that my last blog was from July 5th :) Man I'm on the ball!

I owe you lovely readers some serious updates! Readers? Hello? You are still out there, right?

If you've decided to stick around (bless your hearts!) I promise, promise, promise that I will go home, take pictures, and upload first thing tomorrow morning. I know, I know...I've said that before. But now I'm really feeling like a slacker, and you all have silently guilted me into getting my blog on!

Good things to come so stick around!
XO Laura

I hate computers?

2009-07-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

I'm tired. I just wrote a post and tried to publish...and I had some sort of computer error. Argh! I'm too tired to re-write everything and upload pics, so I'll do it tomorrow. Hope you all had a great weekend filled with family, friends, fireworks and food! We worked our booties off....tell you all about it tomorrow :)

XO Laura

Lost Blog...Found!

2009-07-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

HA! I found my lost blog! Here's the condensed version....

What did we do you ask? Well my lovely blog readers, I am so pleased to announce that we are officially done with drywall. No more cutting, sanding, mudding, more sanding, or texturing. We are D-O-N-E!! We worked our little booties off these last four days and our backs and shoulders are not thanking us :) Next up...Primer and paint! Below are some pics of what the kitch looks like with real walls...I'll post again this week when I've got paint on them!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I'm off of catch some much needed rest.

Xo Laura

Bonk sends sugars! This is what I got to look at all day on July 4th. She is terrified of fireworks...and literally would not leave my side. Good nite!

And the winner is.....

2009-06-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Just wanted to give major kudos to Amber for being my first and ONLY comment on the blog. Amber you are awesome and I'm giving you and your adorable baby girl hugs right now :)

To fill in all of my imaginary readers...a quick update on what's been happening. I. AM. STILL. PAINTING. CABINETS. Boo.

What I have finally decided to do is paint the upper cabinets white and the lower cabinets black. Both will be lightly distressed and have new hardware. I think this will keep the kitchen feeling open and spacious while still giving me the black cabinets that I dream about! So...the uppers are in the shop being painted and the lower cabinets will have to wait their turn. Did I mention that we still have to cook/store things in the kitchen? So I have taken every extra piece of kitchen gadgetry out of the cabinets that I don't use daily...and all of our pans/dishes/food/utensils are shoved (literally!) into the lower cabinets! Yikes...what a mess!

Hope everyone is having a happy day!

Hey...One more thing

2009-06-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Humor me people. I've been feeling like I'm writing this blog to my imaginary friends....because NO ONE posts any comments! What's up with that?!

It's really easy to post a comment...actually easier than becoming a "follower." All you have to do is click on the "0 Comments" at the bottom of post...and voila! Type me a comment (please be nice!) and hit submit. Hopefully though, the button at the bottom of the post won't always say "0 comments!" Haha!
By the way...THANK YOU Trina and Heather for becoming followers :) Loves to you both!

I need comments stat! :)

Permanent Drywall Nose

2009-06-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Drywall dust. Hate. It.

We have been living in filth for weeks (months?) now and I honestly can't say when the last time I mopped the floor. What's the point right? It feels like I would just be wasting my very precious time...and we know that every waking moment (that we're not at our "jobs") we spend working on the kitchen. Who's bright idea was this remodel project anyways?! Oops. I'm guilty. :)

Here's the breakdown of what we've been doing:

Drywall is ALMOST done...we are so close!

Old tile backsplash is all gone.

Cabinets doors and hardware are off.

Upper cabinets are sitting in the shop waiting to be sanded and painted :) Yay!

All the lighting is up and working! (except pantry)

What are the next steps you ask?

Finish drywall. I am so ready for this part to be done.

Texture. About as fun as drywall! But after that is painting the walls, which I oddly love to do!

Finish garbage drawers/pantry/refrig built in.

Sand, paint, rehang, add hardware to cabs. (I'm really nervous about this project.)

After that my brain is hurting and I really can't believe that we've undertaken this huge project ourselves. WTF!

Now for the dirty....look at the messy mess I live in! But...on a positive note, I think this project is curing me of my cleaning OCD. Which I'd imagine makes me a much more enjoyable person to live with. You guys will have to ask Nick :)

This is the crap that has been in my nose for weeks!!And some pretties...my monster rhodies are in full bloom!

Good nite everyone...Roo sends kisses!

Technical Difficulties

2009-05-15T08:18:00.001-07:00

Where have we been you might have wondered? What have we been up to? No....we haven't taken the week off, we've just been sidelined by computer difficulties. Actually, we used up ALL the memory on our laptop! Guess we've stuffed it too full of music and photos :)

So...we'll be making our way to Best Buy this weekend to get more memory. Then it's back to work! And I promise more pictures!

To tide everyone over...I'll just say that we're STILL putting up drywall. Nick keeps putting it up, and I keep tearing more down. Yes, believe it or not he really does love me! I'm almost finished tearing down the old white/blue tile backsplash, which means that we're pretty close to having the demolition d-o-n-e!

We went to Parr Lumber last night to look at cabinets (and I snuck in some countertop browsing!). As I've mentioned before, I'll be refinishing the cabinets myself....but we're adding some cabinets for garbage can/recycling storage. You know...the cabinets that slide out and the garbage/recycle cans sit in there all pretty? Yup, that's what I want....keep the pooches out of the trash! Roo is notorious for getting her nose in the garbage...but I secretly think that Bonk talks her into it since she's too little! Anyway it's just one more way we're trying to utilize every available space.

This weekend we'll be working on more drywall and since the weather should be nice, we'll probably be doing some much needed yard work. It's easy to neglect our yard when the house is in shambles! Plus...it's time to start planting our garden. I've had 8 heirloom tomato plants for two weeks now that are begging to be put in the ground. Also, we're headed to the Mariners vs. Red Sox game on Sunday....ahhh....day of rest!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

I'm happy to report that we took the night off of remodeling...well sort of. We did put up some drywall in the kitchen, but still have a loooooong way to go! Instead, we decide to celebrate the 5th of May with some yummy mexican food and cervezas/margaritas!

Also...happy to say that Nick is almost done wiring up the new kitchen lighting. Here is a snippet of a convo we had last night:

N: "Okay hun, it's time for the reveal..."

L: (as I'm baking scones) "Great! So the lights are FINALLY done?"

Then...as I have my back to him....what do I hear?

N: "YES! I AM THE FREAKIN' MASTER!!!" :) Hubby is happy the lights all work on the first try! He then proceeds to walk back and forth between the two light switches, turning them off & on while saying "Camera One," "Camera Two." I think he's deliriously happy the wiring is done. I'll just say the wiring in this house was a mess...so he had a big job to fix.

We just have one more light to put up in the newly framed pantry. I bought this super cute outside light that I'm going to have Nick wire up in the panty...I think it will look awesome when I get my pantry screen door built. Like this one....

Too cute huh?!! Of course, my screen door will be a little different, as I'm planning to build it myself. But the idea is adorable!

Here's the light we bought at Lowe's...for $20...score!

Well, that's what has been happening at our house the past few days. I'm so excited the kitchen is starting to come together. It's time to start thinking about paint colors for the walls and cabinets :) I'm REALLY loving black cabinets...is this crazy? What do you guys think?

To say good night, I'll leave you all with this parting picture of Spring at our lovely LPH. The monster rhodies haven't bloomed yet...but when they do...you bet I'll take TONS of pictures! In the meantime, I'm lovin' my azaleas, tulips, & daffodils. Oh! Those two trellis' you see in the pic below is actually our wedding archway that Papa Bear built for us...and we just planted two clematis in them. Can't wait for them to get their vine on and bloom!

Happy Spring!

Cast of Characters...Part 2

2009-05-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! Since I've already introduced our lovely LPH...I would now like to introduce everyone to the man behind all the remodel work. Hubby meet everyone. Everyone...this is my super adorable hubby :)

And here are our kiddos.......Bianca and Bailey. Bianca (aka Bonk) is the pygmy yellow lab. No really....she's tiny for a Lab, and she wasn't even the runt. And Bailey (aka Roo) is an aussie shepard/akita mix. She really is nice...I promise. Not sure why she looks like she wants to pounce on something in this picture. She's sweet, and our little protector.

Ah...I love this picture. Yes, that's me with a knife...but no...I was not going to use it on hubby. Long story short...we had just mosied back into civilization after Jeeping for a week on the Rubicon Trail...and we were STARVING for real food! (notice the empty plates!) And yes...for all of you wondering (if you know us, you know the story)...that was the blissful evening that we were viciously attacked by our friend, Mr. Black Bear. See...I'm only smiling because I don't know what's coming later that nite...

So there you have it. That's my precious cargo, my family, my life. More to come!

Cast of Characters

2009-05-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well here she is! Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Little Pink House. LPH I'd like to introduce you to the world. Let's all be friends...

Welcome to our Blog!

2009-05-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

I know I've been promising some pics of our little house remodeling, but honestly I've been feeling that publishing them onto my FaceB page just wouldn't do our hardwork justice. So....In all of my free time (yeah right!) I've decided to let you all follow along...and I REALLY do promise to actually write and post pics :)

First, some background info on our lovely little pink house. And she really is pink...or a salmon/mauve color that I really don't like...but that's another project! She (she's absolutely too adorable to be a He) was built in 1927 and is roughly 1,700 sq. ft of pure coziness. As you can probably guess, I LOVE MY HOUSE. She's nothin' fancy...and definitely not one of these mega-mansions that you see on TV, but she's our first house and she has TONS of character. However, most of her character is hidden under layers and layers of drywall/linoleum/wallpaper. (yuck!) No joke...I've got mallard duck wallpaper in the guest bathroom!

When Hubs and I bought our lil' shack, we knew there'd be a lot of work. But we're young and ambitious...mixed in with a little crazy...and we figured "Hey, why pay someone else to do the work, when WE can DO IT OURSELVES?!" Crazy huh? Yeah, but we're still having fun with it...although some days are definitely better than others. Bad days = any day of drywalling. Good days = any day when a project gets 100% finished!

Now I've got to say my piece about my Hubby. To anyone who doesn't know him...he is absolutely AMAZING. And he is the greatest contractor/framer/electrician/plumber (w/out the dreadful crack!)/landscaper/and general Mr. Fix-It. He really can do everything. And in a good way...not like a bad way where it gives him a huge ego. Plus, we're two of a kind when it comes to doing something the right way, not the half-assed way. So really....I think since we've lived in our lil' pink house, she's been doing some serious smiling.

So...welcome to my blog! I just need to post this disclaimer: I am REALLY not good at taking pictures. You know some people can just capture beautiful pictures? I am not one of those people. Especially when trying to show before/after pics. So I apologize...for now you're going to see a lot of pictures that will probably not make much sense...and you may not even recognize what you're looking at. I'll try and let you know what's going on in each pic. Thanks for stickin' with us and following along. I'd love any comments/questions that anyone has....and suggestions! :)