Anatomy of a Linen Closet

This is house is so old (1892) that linen closets per se sis not yet exist which was driving me nuts! I was forced to use bedroom drawers and cubby holes to store towels and sheets. We used the oak cabinets from Home Depot and stained them ourselves which brought the cost to a minimum. We had just enough space in the upstairs hallway to create a linen closet.

First we had to literally pry off the old base board, the only one in the house that was actually attached well.

We used the 36" wide cabinets and created a different look by starting with a 12 " tall on the bottom followed by a 30" tall and topped with another 12". Hubby then built me a matching finished top.

We stained them in a golden oak. We also had to build new baseboard pieces, but they will eventually get painted the same color as the walls.

The pictures are a little sideways, but the cabinet is level and flush! Here we are all finished, stained, loaded and now have lots of empty drawers in the bedrooms ~ YAY!

Kitchen Update & Counter Substitutions

Did I mention we've been working like dogs around here?

We installed the last cabinet in the kitchen and I got the first coat of stain on it. All of the cabinets from home depot are now ready for the second coat and then the sealer. It also looks like they're going to match the ones we bought from the dealer going out of business. As a temporary means we installed sheets of MDX as counter tops. I had painted them white and we have been doing pretty well with them, but what I really want is soapstone counters and those are going to cost, so we have to save up! In the meantime I made a trip to Family Dollar and purchased 2 packs of self stick tiles. We cut them to fit and voila instant counter top. I took the pictures from 2 different angles to show how versatile this color is going to be. I mixed paint to paint the edges of the plywood brown to match, but just ran out of steam to get it done.

History of a barn and the hope of a greenhouse

Many have asked so I'm now doing pictures and a bit of the history as I know it that surrounds our barn. We are 'in town' technically, but we have one of the last standing barns, It's in great shape as it doesn't leak and the floor and inside walls were made of half logs. It was built in 1850 according to the real estate information. The only thing the previous owner left behind of any value was an abstract Title that spelled out the history of the property, a story for another time.

The last owner had used it for storage and had it packed so full you couldn't see all 4 walls at the same time. When they moved they took most of their things, but did leave behind a 60 yard dumpster full of junk (you know things like 60 year old vacuums, broken high chairs, plastic one gallon jugs, broken coat racks, etc... I could go on for pages.

We were not told that it is 'sliding' off its foundation by the previous owners, but the previous previous owner has told us it is. He said he shored up in the early 90's before selling. Now we're told the next guy put skirting (we were told it was for drainage) around the shoring to disguise it. This summer we'll take off the skirting and see where we stand. Hubby is thinking about turning it into a workshop. Once we cleared away the debris we found a pretty neat barn. The building itself is about 28 x 30 and has a large attic area. There is a wood burning stove and old brick chimney. The sliding carriage doors (I couldn't get a picture of these today - too many mud puddles) no longer slide open as that side is braced from the ground up, but look neat anyway. The graffiti is leftover from the local high school students. In the 80's our barn was used to construct the homecoming float in each year and became a hangout for the kids. Someone replaced one of the windows with a vinyl slider that looks really out of place. Right now hubby uses it for mainly storage.

And this picture is especially for Barbara. This is the south west corner where you can begin to imagine the greenhouse made from our old sash windows. This spring we will be planting lilacs of various colors along the outside of the chain link fence to create a hedge to hide it and add a touch of privacy. You also have to imagine the yard is green. If you look close, there are still a few small patches of snow here and there. In that corner will be the greenhouse. The door will open towards the yard. I may even set it on an angle for a touch of charm. Now imagine on either side a 3 tiered flower bed made from railroad ties and full of LOTS of color.

Tin Ceiling

Doesn't this tin ceiling piece look great?
Won't it look great in my kitchen?
It will so fit with the character of this house.
Doesn't it look like tin?

Well it's not tin.
It's really fiberboard.
Yep, really, it's fiberboard, tongue and groove, lightweight and easy to install.
I tried an experiment and I think it's going to work.

I'm using Rustoleum Silver Hammer Spray Paint
and 8 feet off the ground, they look just like tin
instead of this chalk white fiberboard.

Oh and did I mention there's a $20 a square foot difference in price? Using real tin for a kitchen my size would have been in excess of $4000, the plastic substitute would have been around $2000. The fiberboard is now under $400. Real tin, as well as the plastic substitute would have required a grid system be installed first also. The fiberboard can be installed with just the use of a tube or two of liquid nails and a few cans of Rustoleum Silver Hammer spray paint.

The long awaited kitchen update

Just to recap, this all started in October 2006 due to non-disclosed mold by the previous owners (which we're still fighting) that we found as it bled through their camouflage or rather 'fresh' paint. The entire downstairs bathroom, kitchen (cabinets & all), part of the upstairs bathroom and master bedroom closet had to be torn completely out before it was all over. There were also undisclosed leaks in the sun porch wall and floor and roof. So we had to do all new joist and ceiling.

We still need to do 2nd coats and sealing on many of the cabinets, but they will all match soon. So this entire kitchen is 90% new. Counter tops to replace the plywood are next. We still also need to install the decorative ceiling, flooring and new windows, but feel so good to be at this point. The plywood floor is actually growing on me. At least we were able to bring it all to code also as long as it was all torn out, we really didn't have any choice.

What a relief Kitchen Update

My new linen closet.

It's so nice to be able to empty all those plastic totes after all these months.

These all have just the first coat of stain, but oh what a relief.

I've been remiss in keeping the updates done on the house. For those of you just tuning in, we were FORCED into this remodel when the previous owner did not include a horrendous case of mold on their disclosure form. It's taken us 16 months to tear out and put back most of the downstairs bathroom, kitchen, upstairs bathroom and part of our bedroom. We have finally put back the insulation, walls and almost all the cabinets (yep, it was in the cabinets too) in the kitchen. We were able to get the majority of the cabinets from a cabinet guy going out of business and are able to do the remaining one with over the counter cabinets from home depot. The ones from home depot have to be stained, stained again and then sealed, but are great especially compared to the price of 'designer' cabinets.

~*~Formal Dining Room/Parlor/Office Update~*~

So moving the office/studio upstairs didn't quite work for me or us. Plus hubby was going to put a pool table in the former formal dining room, but it turned out to be 1 foot not wide enough. So, here we go again................

At least we're getting it all painted as we go. So, the cocoa color is out and in this new office the bottom will be the Oklahoma Wheat like the living room, but the top which is old embossed wall paper will be Innocence White. The wall paper is in excellent condition, but a little tired after many years. The paint is helping to seal it and brighten the color at the same time. You can really see the difference in the 3rd picture. These rooms were fortunately all mold free.

So the old spare bedroom is going back to being the new spare bedroom, but the sewing and crafts will stay there. The old office/studio will now be the pool room and the futon will actually make it a 3rd spare bedroom when necessary. The old formal dining room will become the new office. This will force me to keep it a lot cleaner since the formal dining room, oops, the office is the center of the house.

~*~KITCHEN UPDATE~*~

I finally finished painting the kitchen and it looked so nice, clean and organized that I had to take pictures. For those of you that are tuning in late, this remodel came about do to unscrupulous sellers who neglected to tell us the first floor bathroom and kitchen were mold infested and not sealed to the outside (water had been seeping under the sun porch and kitchen wall). They neglected to tell us a lot of things ~ so much for disclosure statements and older people being basically honest. We were forced to tear out the bathroom, kitchen and sun porch within a month of moving in. Considering all of that, we can live with the plywood counters and floors a bit longer. We combined the kitchen and sun porch into one room so now we don't have four corners, but 6 just to make it confusing.

We still have a few cabinets (the sink base unit, the 24" set of drawers to the right of it and the 36" to its left, the 36" base to the right of the stove and the 24" base to the left of it) to purchase, stain and mount, but we're getting there. We also still need counter tops, but can't do those until we have the rest of the base units in place. We still need to do the bottom & corner moldings, but first we have to get a floor which we can't do until the base units are done. We still need to do the ceiling panels, but can't do those until the rest of the top cabinets are hung. We still need to do all the top molding, but that hinges on the ceilings and the floors which hinge on the base units. I can't get rid of that rolling rack until we hang the cabinets. Darn we keep coming back to those pesky cabinets. And I didn't even get to needing 10 windows in there. They are single pane originals t the house as are the storm windows on the outside, so they're basically uninsulated and worthless! When I took the pictures, I was so happy with all the progress we'd made, but after writing this I'm exhausted with what is yet to be done.

Living Room is done.... well almost

the living room is done... well almost... the floors will be last throughout the entire house. They had told us the hardwood floors were in good shape, but once again they lied ~ wow big surprise. Since the hardwood floors have such bad patches in them, we think we're probably going to carpet this room as well as most of the house. These pictures make the room look yellow, but it's called Oklahoma wheat and is more of a golden wheat color. They also tell us it will darken for the next 2 weeks as it cures. I still need to do the windows, but that will wait till spring since it requires dealing with old lacquer. I also broke one of the antique globes on the ceiling fixture, but will start searching the restorations catalogs to find a replacement.

Living Room & Fireplace Update~*~

So we chose the colors. The walls will still be Oklahoma Wheat, but the fireplace was changed from the Burmese gold (way too yellow) to Caramel Latte which just sounds so yummy. It looks good too, really brings out the colors of the 115 year old tiles we are trying to preserve. It'll look even better after the next coat. I can't wait for the walls to get done and the living room back in one piece. With tonight's snow storm, maybe we'll just stay home tomorrow and paint the walls.

~*~Living Room & Dining Room Make Over~*~

It's barely above zero outside and hubby has been spending all his time inside driving me crazy! So I convinced him to start our easiest projects, painting the living room and dining room and 'parlor' better known as the new spare bedroom. Those rooms all need really minimal repairs before paint and the dining room is empty right now (at least until early March when he gets a pool table for his birthday) so it's perfect timing and relatively inexpensive to make this easy.

The dining room has an embossed wall paper on the top 1/2 of the room above the chair rail that I want to preserve, but it wasn't in the best of condition. Then again, it wasn't in the worst shape either. I decided to try and paint it (I'd heard that this doesn't always work well). This paper is fortunately one of those that works. It's turning out better than I thought.

As you can see, I have been 'trying' out some colors. What? We're going to paint anyway. I just wanted to live with it for a few days first.

We're using BEHR paint and are going with shades of a creamy, milky cocoa aka Oklahoma Wheat for the walls and an off white aka Innocence for the wall paper and oak wood tone Golden Burmese for the mantle. I'm not sure why the mantle was painted in the first place, (I'm not going to strip it), but it really fits with the character of this old house so we want to make it warmer (no pun intended). It's a 'double' mantle with a beveled mirror and dimpled support posts for the upper mantle shelf. The original tiles under the mantles and around the fireplace are a khaki gold variegated mix that we are trying to preserve and accentuate. The wood stains used on all the baseboards, doors and windows are ALL DIFFERENT, so we're trying to coordinate with all of them since they don't need doing. These are the colors we picked here on the computer, but we'll see if in the store tomorrow they look the way we imagine they will in our house. I just don't want to end up feeling like we live in a cave with the 9 foot ceilings.

These are obviously the before pictures. I'll post some more before and after pictures. Cross your fingers, if all goes well, we'll have a new living room by Super bowl!