laundry.craft room

My laundry room started out as nothing special.

 6' x 10' ... Enough room for a future washer and dryer, and random storage sitting on top of builder-standard linoleum.

 Don't forget the lovely MDF shelf. That's a standard feature, too.

 We started the sprucing up by painting it Behr Spa. Ahhh.

Brent installed the washer and dryer, we used the built-in shelf for detergent and other keep-out-of-reach cleaners ...

  and I stored some craft boxes on a tiered shelf and spare cabinet (picture taken pre-paint). Nice.

For a few months we just let the room sit. But we knew the room had way more potential, despite its small size. We tossed around the idea of cabinets and a countertop to utilize wall space and high ceilings. We priced out configurations through cabinet companies but weren't sold on their products or prices. Brent was a stud and researched cabinet options for me at local stores and online. After much consideration and planning, I chose my cabinets and he ordered them online -- saving us lots of cash!

 The cabinets shipped a few weeks later and Brent went straight to work. The uppers went up in a jiffy since they were delivered pre-assembled. Brent is pretty handy with a ledger board and drill. 

 Oh yeah, we also said goodbye to the ugly linoleum. By shopping around we bought this 10x20 gray linen tile for $2.89 sq ft, which was a dollar cheaper per sq ft compared to other stores -- which adds up! Since Brent was juggling several other projects, we had a guy install it for us in the bathrooms and laundry room.

 Once the uppers were in, the base cabinets came next.

 Lookin good, eh? These are Cardell Classic II Flat Panel Maple cabinets in white with pewter glaze. I absolutely love how they have the look of antiqued white cabinets, yet with a modern twist using flat panels and pewter glaze accenting. It fits right in with our modern style.

Then the countertops arrived! This is Silestone (quartz) Stellar Snow. It literally sparkles. Because the amount of quartz we needed was less than an entire slab, we ordered it through Home Depot, who charges by sq ft instead of making you buy an entire slab -- saving more cash!

The guys who installed our baseboards downstairs (a few months back) returned to outfit the upstairs, too. 

So we turned this ...

into ...

 The finished product! Three drawers on the left base cabinets, three big base cabinets on the right. Nine upper cabinets. Space for me to sit and do crafts. And still enough room for the washer and dryer. All within 6' x 10'.

I am beyond thrilled to have my own little mom cave.

Maybe I'll even add a chandelier.

kitchen comes to an end

chapter 1

chapter 2  

chapter 3 

We finally tiled the backsplash. The kitchen is finished.

Before the move we scored this glass/marble tile for $6 a sheet at Bedrosians. We found it in the "seconds" section (normally goes for $15-20 a sheet), but despite some areas of inconsistency or discoloration, it looked pretty good.

We knew we wanted it in our kitchen so we bought five boxes. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

11.04.11

Prep work. Brent and I taped paper over our countertops and filled in wall holes (from the old backsplash tear out) to make  it easier for the thin set and tile to adhere to the wall.

11.05.11
After watching lots of how-to videos online, we figured we could accomplish most of the project in one day. Hah. Snag after snag kept pushing back our start time. Wrong tile blade, electrical wiring in the way of the vent hood, no studs for the hood to be secured to, wrong grout, wrong size of screws, not enough wire, not enough caulk, needed more tools ...

I made two or three trips to home improvement stores. Brent cut a 1x2 ft hole in the wall, moved the electrical unit and wiring, and installed studs to support the range hood.

And we found the only store in Vegas open later than 5pm on a Saturday that carried a glass tile blade for a wet saw. Miracle.

We finally got started at 8:30pm that night.

Through trial and error, we learned the proper consistency for thin set, how to spread it on the wall, how to apply the tile and help it bond with the thin set, how to space sheets evenly with spacers ...

We finished this section at 11:15pm and went to bed.

We spent the next several days installing more tile.

11.10.11
We got to the other end of the wall and realized we needed to buy more tile (to finish where the hood would go).

Bought another box, installed it ...

11.15.11
Grouted the tile. What a mess.

We spent a few days caulking and sealing, Brent installed the vent hood, I painted most of what was left of the kitchen, Brent finished edging the paint, and now ...

the end.

epilogue: I may have been without a stove for two weeks with the rest of the kitchen as a construction zone, but it was worth it.

lighten up

10.29.11

Started off the day by driving 3.7 hours to the closest IKEA to Las Vegas, which happens to be in Covina. Spent the entire day there, J missed his nap, bought what we needed (so much cheaper than it would've been at BBB or Target), and drove home -- J still didn't sleep.

10.30.11

On the eve of Halloween, after J was down for bed, we got this ambitious idea to install the new IKEA Kryssbo pendant lights. After all, how hard could it be if it's from IKEA?

 Well, it was harder and took longer than it should've, but once we figured out the wiring in the ceiling actually did work, found a once-lost piece that was crucial for the light to stay suspended, cleaned up shattered glass from a cheaply-made light housing attachment, and determined the height for the lights and made them level, we were rewarded with this:

I am still in awe at how fantastic they look up there. And that it took til 2:30am Halloween morning to install them. More pics to come with the backsplash and range hood added!

the move: during and after

10.16.2011

Sunday morning, the day before our move:
Took carloads of decorations, pictures, mirrors, and other breakables to the new house.

Got a call from Budget truck rentals, said another customer's truck broke down in Arizona and they had to give our big truck away, so we no longer had a truck reserved. And they left it at that.

Brent called them back, put them in their place and told them to find us another big truck.

 Got another call that the baseboards that were to be installed on moving day had been discontinued so the guys wouldn't be coming. Which meant our second choice for baseboards would be installed after we moved in.

That night I had a church activity, so Brent went to the new house with J to meet a very not-punctual Direct TV guy to hook up our house. Because of the tech's tardiness, Brent talked him into hooking up more rooms in our house for no extra charge.

Talk about a day of frustrations. We went to bed hoping moving day would actually happen.

10.17.2011

Monday, moving day.
Took J to co-op (a babysitting group), moved more stuff to the new house and prepared for our move that night.

Brent figured things out with our moving truck and we ended up with a smaller truck but it had a ramp.  Phew.

After lunch and J's nap we grabbed pizza and dropped him off at friend Brandi's house -- she had arranged for a babysitter to watch our kids so she and her husband could help us move. Now that's a true friend.

Moving time. Didn't have time to take pictures, sorry. Imagine several carloads, three truckloads, three pizzas, 20 powerades, and a dozen very-appreciated guys/girls/teens helping us load/unload, we were in our new house in four hours.

Brent and I set up J's room so he had a place to sleep that night, then I picked him up from Brandi's house and brought him home -- at our new home. Brent and I set up our bed and finally got to sleep.

10.18.2011

I woke up to this the next morning:

A beautiful blue sky and gorgeous view of the mountains. You can't see the construction trucks passing behind our wall, but even still I was thrilled to be in my new house.

I took J to co-op again and the baseboard guys came and installed our second choice but still beautiful baseboard on our main floor:

A thick, simple baseboard with just a bullnose edge. We wanted to go with a more contemporary style instead of a traditional moulding. Plus, this will be easy to dust. 

When J woke up from his nap, I put him straight to work :)

 He loves playing with the vacuum. Maybe I should embrace it while I can.

The next several days were spend unpacking. Then Brent and our friends ran the Ragnar Race and I stayed at home with our kids. After Brent and our friends survived and returned from the race, I took the night off and partied with some gal friends. No kids allowed. :)

10.23.11

Sunday. I convinced Brent to help me set up our living room so we at least had one toy-free, box-free room to greet us when we walked in the house (since we're still going in the front door). Plus our Bishop from our church was coming to visit that evening, so that gave us motivation. Here's what we ended up with:

But let me assure you, the rest of my house doesn't look so clean. I'm constantly unpacking boxes and putting things away, but I have a long way to go. In fact, today (11.08.11) I took these pictures just to show you how ugly and lingering moving can be.

Dining room (the space behind the square Ikea bookcase above)

 Guest room

 Spare bedroom

Loft

The work has only just begun.