Giddings Lane

About Time...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:21:00 +0000

I am happy to say that every square inch of my beautiful new cabinets are now happily painted and I can start the process of moving into all of this wonderful storage space!!

With over two years of planning going into the design of my kitchen, I had several ideas that I knew I wanted to incorporate. Pinterest was a HUGE help to me in gathering all of my ideas in one place and having easy to see pictures to explain what I really meant to my incredibly patient carpenter! (If you don't have a Pinterest account, email me for invitation. It will forever change the way you bookmark!)

With the current layout of my house, I knew that I didn't have enough space for a mudroom, either now or in the future, but I did want a drop zone to put things. When you enter my carport/garage door, the entrance I use 100% of the time, I now have a place for my purse, keys, sunglasses, schoolbag, and a charging station for my million electronic toys. (Eventually I will have undercabinet lighting in here along with a fancy charging station but for now it's a 4 outlet plug and ambient light!)

I must say, it works wonderfully, when I remember to use it! I am slowly getting better and better about it, but it's taking some time. For 2 years I've been dropping my things on whatever flat surface was open. I've got to get used to having a certain spot again.

Now that I have somewhere to store my stuff, what about my everyday food items? Enter my kitchen pantry cabinets, not to be confused with my full room pantry off the laundry.

A few things about my pantry.

-I love the pull-outs at the bottom. This keeps large things from getting lost in the back and makes each shelve completely accessible.

-Notice the cream box on the left in the middle? That's the backside of a covered electrical box that has my laundry, and kitchen light switches and an outlet on the outside pantry wall. (I'll try to shoot a pic so that my jumbled description becomes more clear.)

-The u-shaped shelves up top were my carpenter's idea and they work great. They allow me to store canned goods and other shorter things that I need to access, but still have space for basics like cereal boxes and oatmeal (my daily breakfast) where I can reach them.

Function is one thing, but my kitchen has to be aesthetically pleasing to me or I won't use it... I know, I'm petty thinking about surface beauty, but if being able to cook was all I needed I would have never done this remodel! I wanted my island to be symmetrical, and I needed to store pots and pans, and I wanted it to house my trash/recycle, and my nifty paper towel holder..

Not too much to ask right??

Ha!

Thanks to Pinterest, I had my problems solved...

I have two working drawers for cooking tools and silverware, left and right respectively. My paper towel holder is in the middle. The lower left drawer is my trash/recycle center. (more on that later). The middle drawer is one deep drawer for my large stockpots. (I'll be sure and let you know when I get one!) The bottom right is not one, but two drawers, hiding behind a single door. Confused?

Does this help? From the outside the look is clean and symmetrical, but on the inside is very, very functional. I love having the shorter drawers for storage.

I wanted a dedicated space for not only my trash, but paper recycling. I hate having piles of mail everywhere. Go paperless people!! (Yeah, I hear the irony now because my house is covered in mail piles. I need to sort them and put them away in the office, but the stuff that's in my way in there has to be put away in the kitchen first. Argh!) Anywho... Enter my cabinet trash drawer. The first bin is for trash and the second for paper recycle. The rest of my recycling is stored in the laundry room, out of the way.

When you're buying bins to fit a specific drawer, either give the bins to your builder before the cabinet is built, yeah would have been smart..., or purchase bins from multiple places and try them all. The ones from Lowe's were too big and would have had to be trimmed to fit. The exact same size bin, but different manufacturer, at Home Depot fit like a glove. Go figure.

Pull-outs have to be my new favorite thing. I also had them installed under my kitchen sink. The braces eat a small amount of space, but the functionality of the drawers more than makes up for it.

I can easily access everything and in case I need to get in the cabinet to work, the drawers lift out without a hitch.

The last super custom piece I put into the dining room side. I received many antique linens from both sides of the family. Hanging them is the best way to store them so that they stay ~~wrinkleless~~ neat and air can circulate. I requested a closet rod in the top of the cabinet for this purpose. The shelves pictured will be lowered for storage of large platters, but I need to drill a few more support holes. (I'll let you know when I get my platters too!)

All in all, I am thrilled with my new kitchen. Now if I can just recall where I put everything!!

No more handwashing!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:45:00 +0000

While I was literally waiting for paint to dry and the air to clear, I did some shopping. My kitchen is in sore need of a dishwasher. Since I haven't had kids yet and am still looking for Mr. Right, I am the resident dishwasher. With the only working sink near the kitchen being a utility sink built for people with no spine who don't mind touching their toes to wash dishes, you can imagine my distaste with the whole process.

I've been drooling over the Kitchenaid dishwasher with the new utensil rack. Basically it's a 3rd rack that goes above the top rack that holds silverware flat so that it can truly be cleaned. Add to that the energy star rating and the 40 dB sound rating and I was sold! Until I saw the $1300 price tag. WHOA! Nope, not gonna happen...

So, back to the waiting board I went. (No need for a drawing board, I knew what I wanted, I just needed to wait until I could afford it.)

Enter Factory Builder's Store annual scratch and dent sale! Score!! They had almost the exact same dishwasher I wanted for hundreds less. The upper back side has a small dent, but no hoses or cords were damaged and it runs without any issues. I did have to sacrifice my dream 3rd rack, but in exchange for not having to hand wash everything? I'll gladly take it!

Isn't she beautiful?

paint fumes...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:37:00 +0000

With the arrival of all of my new kitchen, I had a dilemma. How should I finish them??

Dark cherry stain?

Orangey oak?

Glazed paint?

Plain paint?

The options are truly limitless...

My goal ~~was~~ is to do this remodel thing once and NEVER, EVER again. (okay, unless I'm just writing the check from an account with plenty of money in the bank and then I'll do it again...)

So, I wanted a look that was timeless and would age well. Orangey-oak was out of the question.

Stained cherry? I love the look, but with only one wall out of 4 with natural light, I was scared that the cherry would make the room feel small and cramped.

Glazed paint? Let's face it, I'm not the neatest person and adding a layer of glaze would only make the cabinets seem dirtier faster to me. (I love them in other people's homes, just not in mine because I would see them daily and notice when the glaze became more intense from all of the gunk that accumulates over time on kitchen cabinetry.)

I did like the idea of paint though. Clean, fresh, white cabinets. Okay, maybe not white-white, but white-ish. I picked the same trim color that is in the rest of the house to be the cabinet color. Once I had that part down, it was time to call in the painter.

Yup, this avid DIY'er said call in the painter. Since I spent, compared to other projects in my house, a TON of money on my cabinets, I wanted the finish to look flawless, ie no brush marks. (Disclaimer: my cabinets were a steal compared to off the shelf at the local big box stores, but I still was shell-shocked at spending so much money, even though I'd do it again in a heartbeat. They are worth every penny I paid!)

In order to get a flawless look, I knew that a professional sprayer would be involved. I had also researched paint enough to know that if I wanted a more durable finish that would last and last, important since I was going with white cabinets, I would want to go oil-based instead of DIY friendly latex.

So I looked around and ended up with a painter's helper who picks up jobs on the side. My kitchen was a true no man's land for a while when everything was taped up.

While I was pleased with the result in the end and happy with the price compared to a professional painter, his timing skills were way, way off. Because of the oil based fumes, I had to move home for more than six weeks while my place was ~~fumigated~~ painted.

Primed and ready...

Maybe I should have been tougher on him and fussed more about his schedule (he canceled multiple times for random reasons), but I'm happy to say that the whole darn process is finally over and in a mere 2 weeks (cure time) I can start to move into my new spaces...

Doors!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:23:00 +0000

No, this is not an ode to James Morrison...

Heck, I'm not even sure that I have the right name, but hey. (I'm hoping that I got the name of the lead singer of the doors, but if not, that's who I mean and yes, I could google it, but I'm tired and feeling extraordinarily lazy right now...)

My gorgeous, stunning beatiful kitchen is starting to come to life. In my last post, I showed the incredible transformation that happened in my dining room. In case you missed it, click over here, we'll wait...

Are you back??

How about now??

Back??

Okay, good. My awesome carpenter came back a week or so later and installed all of my cabinet doors.

Now my kitchen looks like this.

Sigh...

Dreamy isn't it?

Somehow, even with all of this cabinetry my kitchen looks bigger. How in the heck is that possible??

You'll notice in this post that there is something new installed as well. Yup, I bit the bullet and purchased my dream stove. I am thrilled to say that it is as incredible as I dreamed it would be. It feels professional and sturdy in my hands. The ball bearing oven racks glide in and out with a whisper.

I could go on and on and on, but I'll spare y'all the details. However, if anyone is dying to know about, please let me know and I'll wax poetic all about it for you!!

A winner!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:06:00 +0000

After much delay on my part, we have a winner for the My Memories giveaway! Congratulations Lindsey!! Email me when you get a chance and I'll send you the code for your software. This digital scrapbooking software going to be awesome for putting together incredible pages and accents for Baby Whimsy when she arrives!

If anyone else is interested in getting their own copy of My Memories, be sure to click through on the ad to get $10 off the retail price. Or use the code, STMMMS37706, to earn $10 off of the retail price!! Awesome!! The even better part?? That's not all!! When you purchase your software with $10 off, you will receive another $10 credit to the My Memories store!! Score!! Enjoy Lindsey!

Dining Room Glimmers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:40:00 +0000

When my kitchen design was finalized, it utilized the entire kitchen space. The original kitchen was tiny and closed off.

When I mentally redesigned the space, I only used half of the room, thinking that the other half would be great for a table and maybe a sideboard, but other than that, not much. Instead, my awesome kitchen designer drew up plans that encompassed the entire room.

Brilliant, right?? I know, it seems so simple, but if it's all one room, why not use the whole room? It was kind of a duh/ah ha moment for me.

When I decided to go ahead with the kitchen remodel, I was understandably worried about the costs. I hemmed and hawed about going ahead and doing the dining room, or waiting until I had more monies. Ha!! Since reality finally hit and I knew that I wasn't going to get more money (in the remodeling sense) anytime soon, I went ahead with the dining room build.

While I was prepared for the build, my sweet builder's shop wasn't quite ready. He had to build out the kitchen and install it and then build out the dining room. Apparently my kitchen cabinets filled the entire floorspace of the workshop and had to be moved out before he could build the dining room side.

A short two weeks later, my dining room looked like this-

Now, the wait was on for doors and paint!

Trying again!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Alrighty folks, What happened??

My first giveaway was a complete and utter failure. Whoops!! No one, nope, nobody, entered to win a copy of My Memories scrapbooking software. Seriously? Why should you enter??

A. It's free!

B. It's actually a pretty easy, impressive software that can help you create all kinds of things for your home!

Just check out the cool things you can create with it-

Thank you notes! Snap a picture of the birthday boy, or girl for that matter, during the birthday party. Take a traditional 8 1/2" by 11" sheet, landscaped, and drop the picture into half of it. Add a cute phrase and fun background. Copy the phrase and pict to the other half of the paper. Print it out on cardstock and cut in half. Add an envelope and voila! Custom thank you notes!!

Love all of the Subway art that is so hot in blogland?? Check out the cute Easter art I created in minutes. (narrowing down my font list took a bit of time!)

I used a free background and then racked my brain thinking of phrases that hold an Easter meaning for me. Using my own fonts, I added those phrases in a simple white. All I have to do is print this off and find the perfect frame for it.

Now that I've shown you more things that My Memories digital scrapbook software can do, I'm going to again try and give away a free copy, valued at over $35!!

Giveaway Requirements (1 entry)-
- Become a follower of Giddings Lane
-Head to My Memories and cruise around. Check out all of the cool pages and accents. Leave me a comment telling me which is your favorite.

**Extra entries
1 entry - Post about this giveaway and link back to my blog.
1 entry - Tweet about this giveaway.
1 entry - Post about this giveaway on your Facebook account.

Leave one comment for each of the extra entries you do!

Thanks and Good Luck!!

1st Giveaway!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:51:00 +0000

(In my excitement to write this post, I inadvertently hit publish post without first changing the date. If you received this via email, so sorry!! You received the unedited version. (I usually write posts, set them to publish later and then go back and edit them before the post. This lets me follow a clearer train of thought.) Here's the more polished version!)

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Liz and asked if I would like to try My Memories digital scrapbooking software. My Memories is computer based digital scrapbooking software. You go to their site and purchase a copy of the software and it downloads the complete program onto your computer. This means you can create to your heart's content without having to be "attached" to your a wireless network. (Great for times when you travel and horrors of horrors aren't connected...)

Once you put it on your computer, a virtual workspace opens up and allows you to layer thousands of papers, backgrounds, journaling, and accents such as ribbons, buttons, screw heads, just about anything you can dream of with your digital pictures. Adding pictures couldn't be easier, either. Simply open My Memories software and iPhoto at the same time and drag and drop. Easy! Once you have your creation perfected, then you can print it to a pdf, jpg, or directly to your printer.

Now, I have a confession, I am a self proclaimed scrapbook nut who has an entire room full of scrapbooking bits and pieces. I love to cut the paper and stick the pieces down. I find it cathartic to take a pile of mess and make something beautiful. So, what exactly was I going to think of digital scrapbooking software???

I can honestly say I love it!! No more mess, sticky fingers, oops with the glue, glitter or scissors, no frustrations, nothing, just point and click! Everything you do traditionally with scrapbooking can be done just as easily with My Memories.

In a short, untrained afternoon, I created a nameplate for my niece's bedroom door and a cute LO for Zach-a-doo & his Tonka truck. The software is super user friendly and makes creating something precious a breeze.

For the nameplate, I started with the basic background and added a square of burlap, two colors of ric-rac trim and a couple of flowers. Then I chose the perfect font from all of those on my computer. My Memories lets me use all of my fonts, not just a few preselected ones. (Sorry, personal pet peeve when I have the perfect font in my head and I can't use it because it isn't supported on whichever platform I'm working in. Grrrrr.)

Tonka Boy went together just as simply with a couple of layered papers and those great screw head accents. The color matching feature made it super simple to get the perfect shade of brown for the picture border.

If your software package doesn't have the perfect background or accent piece, cruise their website for thousands, literally, of accents, papers and quick pages (already created pages that just require you to drop in the pics.) While most of these have a small fee attached, lots of items can be found for free! Both of my creations above where made using items purchased for free. My Memories cycles through over 140 different items, ranging from quick pages to background papers and accents. (For those looking for a deal, they often run sales as well!! Wahoo!!)

Is anyone else out there wanting to give it a try? I have a copy of My Memories software to give away to one lucky follower!! (I'd love it if you'd follow Giddings Lane, but it's not necessary to be a winner.)

Head over to their website My Memories and look over all of their items. Come back and leave a comment letting me know which incredible accent piece caught your eye!

I'll choose a winner randomly on March 5th! Good Luck!!

Even if you don't win, but are still interested, head to My Memories and use the promotional code, STMMMS37706, to earn $10 off of the retail price!! Awesome!! The even better part?? That's not all!! When you purchase your software with $10 off, you will receive another $10 credit to the My Memories store!! Score!!

More Glimmers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:19:00 +0000

So when I last left you, it was with a huge delivery of what was supposed to be kitchen cabinets. I know it was a bit of a mish-mash, but stick with me.

I also know that i get long winded, but I digress and thus make this post longer, sorry!!

I spent ~~hours~~ ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months researching cabinets. I knew I wanted wood and would prefer custom, but could never ever afford them. Ikea cabinets did catch my interest for a while, but was worried about how the cabinets would wear over the years.

If you recall, my motto was to do this kitchen once and NEVER EVER again!

I headed to my favorite go-to store for just about everything remodel, Home Depot. I spent hours wandering through the cabinet displays, opening, closing and dreaming. I had my basic floor plan for cabinets, but nothing beyond the cabinet doors. Have you seen all of the cool things that you can have behind those cabinet doors? But alas, those things cost money. Lots and lots of money. So, I put my dreams aside and sat down with a very patient lady to build the kitchen of my budget, if not my dreams.

We spent a couple of hours using stock cabinets to "build" my kitchen on her computer. Using their pre-chosen sizes, I chose basic cabinet boxes to make up my kitchen. From there came the sticker shock. And a shock it was. Over twenty thousand dollars!!

Are you kidding me?

Basic cabinets, no bells and whistles??

I came very, very close to tearing up in the middle of home depot. Not a new thing for me to do, granted, but I was trying to save face. I've worked hard to make my friends at HD and didn't want them to get embarassed again. Yeah, issues, I'll add them to my list! :)

So, back I went to my hot plate and continued to mourn the loss of my kitchen.

Since I was already spending thousands and thousands beyond my budget, I figured I might as well look into custom cabinets, had nothing to lose right? Back in the day, the local ag teacher did custom cabinetry on the side. When he retired, he went to making cabinets full-time. On a whim I gave him a call.

On a side note, I love small towns. Mike, the cabinet guru, doesn't advertise, so you have to know someone who knows someone who has his number. Love it!!

I called Mike and over a series of very patient meetings, we hammered out a list of cabinets complete with my bells and whistles. Then came the really fun part, the bill. Would you believe thousands and thousands less than HD's price for stock??

After working with Mike, we made a special visit to his workshop to see the progress.

Aren't they gorgeous!?!? Is anyone else as excited as me?? Yeah, I'm guessing no, but that's okay.

The best part of my cabinet install? Yet another kitchen arrangement?

The odd thing? That pot of mac and cheese was probably the best tasting pot I'd ever made! Somehow knowing a real kitchen was coming soon made it all the better.

A short time later - magic!!

So, the upshot was/is I now have custom cabinets in my kitchen!! Real wood with all the bells and whistles I dreamed of!

more about those later!

Glimmers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:24:00 +0000

Once upon a time, I dreamed of getting a kitchen. What seemed like a dream, so far away and completely unreachable, has now become something that is very, very attainable. If you recall, one of the first things I did lo those many days ago was let my friends and family go at the original kitchen with sledges. The pictures shown here were actually shot before I owned the home. (Yeah, I know, I was CRAZY to purchase it in the condition I did, but being sane has never been something I've been accused of!

Nothing, nadda, zip, zilch worked in the kitchen so I didn't feel bad about tearing it down. The cabinets were also built in place, so they couldn't be taken down and donated. They were also so soaked with grease, animal urine, and nicotine, no one would want them. So, for 2 years and 4 months, my kitchen has stayed that way and I have faithfully cooked on a double hot plate, when not mooching food from family.

You have seen my preparations for a "real" kitchen, plans being drawn up, watching the walls go up, and the lights installed. In order to even plan for cabinets, I had to know approximately which appliances I wanted to that we could make allowances for them. I decided that I should follow my words and go with my dream range & hood set. Add to that the changes in the plans for the kitchen and that translated into wanted to hang a 100 pound vent hood over a pocket door to the laundry room. (Yeah, so happy I'm working with family as opposed to a true contractor who would have long ago given up on ~~whims~~ convictions.) Thankfully, the hood is well secured to the wall and if/when you have more time, I'll tell you about it, but not today!

So, after searching what seemed to be most of Texas for the best deal on my combination, I found it at the local appliance store. Huge shout-out to them! Yay Buddy's!

Once the hood was here, installation was a breeze! Ha! Actually it wasn't bad, and not only because I didn't have to help lift it!

It had a cleat for hanging and allowed you to get the hood up and in place before securing it to the wall. So, while it was heavy, the weight didn't have to be supported too long before a break.

Shortly after the hood was hung, the crown attached and the rest of the walls painted, I received a delivery!

The first day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:10:00 +0000

Lighting.

In a word, lighting can make or break a room, a picture or even a dream! Changing the lights in a room can make one thing look like another. That being said, my lights needed some work...

Yeah, not the best, I know. All 3, yup, only 3 lights in the entire kitchen, were put in specifically for light. Nothing AT ALL about aesthetics was even considered. I'v ehad my eyes on these for a while, all with the intention of getting rid of them. However, in order to kick out the old lights, I needed to know where the new lights should go. That meant that I needed a more definitive kitchen cabinet plan. (Nothing in this house is EVER simple. It's do 3 other steps to get the one step you wanted to do in the first place done!)

You might recall my original kitchen plans from long ago. I loved 96% of everything I saw in them. The other 4% I wanted to change and that involved changing some functional cabinetry and redesigning other pieces. Not fun, but once it was done, it meant that we could install the recessed lights that I wanted to function as the general lighting for my room. I won't bore you with the hours spent running wires, eating drywall dust and trying to make can connections work. Instead, here's the new look!

The cans are the basic 6" cans exactly like the ones in the pantry. They come with the part for the ceiling and nothing else. From there you can customize to your heart's content, using different baffles and bulbs. Instead of dropping $15-$20 on a baffle plus the cost of a bulb, I elected to spend a bit more and go with the all inclusive LED light. The cost over the long term should be better and I love the soft warm light it provides.

At just over $30 each, I'm going with the one a month version purchase plan! Come see me in a year and they should all be in! And yes, that means that I went from 3 light fixtures to almost 12, if not more! (That doesn't include accent lighting and more specific task lighting. And no, you don't need sunglasses when you're in the room. Instead it looks perfect!)

Ivories have been tickled

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Remember this gem from a while ago? Once upon a time it was a piano headed towards the dump. As any good DIY'er we took it down the basics and saved the wood. There it sat for almost a year until recently.

In the push to get my kitchen to a liveable state, new windows were installed across the back of the house. When the original paneling and cabinets were ripped out, the window sill was removed as well. It was part of the backsplash maybe?? I cannot recall at this point. The main point I'm trying to make in a thousand words or more is that the poor kitchen window was sill-less and sad looking.

So, off we went to the wood pile ~~taking over~~ in my carport. Out came one of the sides of the piano to undergo a transformation...

Once we had it cut down to size, we took the edge off by running it through the table saw. The saw still left a poor edge, so we hit it again and again with the sander. We had to take off the top layers of paint and then the red stain and get the wood back to square one.

Once the dust had settled, we had to dryfit the sill again to make sure we were on the right track. It took cutting out some extra drywall mud and removing actual drywall on one side to make it "seat" properly.

Once the headaches were solved, the finished result was incredible. I'm guessing I have the only maple window sill in the neighborhood!

(yes, I know that the caulking needs to be fixed. I'm on it! The window installer is GREAT at installing windows, but not so great at caulking. I have one more window seam to re-caulk and then the blinds are hung and the window is done!!)

Missing in Action

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:37:00 +0000

Several of you have noticed my blog hiatus and commented on it. Here's the thing, I don't multi-task so well and when I working on my house I find it very difficult to also blog about my house. Add to that the holidays and my real job and blogging falls to the wayside. It happens. But the good news is that I'm back and I have tons of material to share. 2 of the things I've accomplished were already mentioned in the Winters in Texas post and the Orange Explosion posts.

I jumped rather randomly to my front door redo because I couldn't really work anywhere else in the house. We'll get to why in a few posts, but I'm excited about it!

Way back when you and I had last spoken, I was telling you about the last pieces of the electrical work for the kitchen. Once the kitchen was finally finished, as far as electrical wiring, it was time for the next step. DRYWALL...

In case you've never attempted drywall, here's a little secret. It's no fun. none. It's dusty dirty work that kills a manicure in nothing flat. (I don't ever get manicures or paint my fingernails anyway, but it's the point, people, the point!!) First chore? ~~Scamming~~ Asking your brother to help you haul drywall across town!

Once that was done, I scooted out of work on time (!) and headed home to set a record drywalling an entire kitchen with my ever faithful help. Thanks a TON Dad & Sara.

In one evening, we were able to turn my kitchen from dark and studly (pun intended!) to this!!

This is a HUGE step in the right direction. It makes a kitchen, my kitchen, start to look like a real room. After living with a hot plate on a dryer for 2 years, the first signs of a room are a big deal.

Once all the drywall was up, the next little step was sanding, and sanding, and sanding the mud. This caused a rarely seen climatic event called Remodeler's Snow.

Unfortunately, this messy stuff is most likely the only snow I'll see this year... The good/bad news about this is that it NEVER GOES AWAY! No matter how many times I dust and clean, there is always another surface covered in drywall dust. Oh well.

After the dust was cleaned up or at least moved to another room, I put up a coat of paint on the walls and was left with this. love it!!

I'll explain the arrows next time.

No worries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:31:00 +0000

When we last spoke about my front door, several people commented that the color might be too dark to go with the overall color of my house. Don't worry, my house is NOT staying baby blue and ugly pink forever! (I love me some pink, but hate the pink of my house, as a side note!) Eventually, when I win the lottery, the vinyl siding will come down and be replaced by Hardi Plank. The entire house will then get a coat of taupe/grey paint and trimmed out in black and cream. My front door is painted to go with that one day color scheme, not the tackiness it's currently rocking. Just bear with me until I win the lottery, which is going to be quite difficult since I don't play the lottery, and it will be BEAUTIFUL!!

Winters in Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Winters down here can be bad, granted not nearly as bad as those in the upper part of the nation or in Antarctica, say, but bad nonetheless. We usually have one or two freezes a year and rarely snow, but we do get icy rains. This ice doesn't usually bother the power lines or even shut down school for long, (darn) but it can and does wreak havoc on tree limbs. This is why I took a slight detour this fall after the ground landscaping work. I have a tree that is basically a junk tree on the corner of my property. It has a rotten heart and a broken limb that taunts my roof every time the wind blows.

So, digging in, I called B&B landscaping back and asked them to come and take a look and give me a bid. Jeff came out and looked not only at that tree but also at the rotting 5 foot stump on the other corner of the property.

After giving me a bid i couldn't say no to, I gave the go ahead for the stumps to be removed. What's sad is that you can't even tell they were ever there. The yard looks great and the eyesores are gone!! I know its not a big difference to anyone else that passes by on the street, but its made a huge difference to me! What do you think?

(This post was originally typed on my iPad, so please forgive any text that looks more like it was texted than typed!!)

An orange explosion...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:33:00 +0000

I am addicted to Pinterest and discover lots of ideas i think I'll have time for (ha!) and want to try. One of those ideas was a faux wood door. I have a plain white Fiberglas front door with great potential. After seeing Rachel's post on Lovely Crafty Home, which I had pinned and thus reminded myself daily, I decided that I needed to bite the bullet and go for it.

I started with a freshly cleaned white door. While I was at it, I scrubbed the siding and windows as well. I figured that it had been at least five years more or less since it had been cleaned.

I took my freshly cleaned door and promptly painted it burnt orange. Home Depot assured me the color was really "glazed pecan," but I'm not buying it after seeing it on the door.

I doubled coated the door, letting it dry between coats. Rachel didn't mention this that I recall, but my one coat was super streaky and messy.

It was holding the quart can for the 2nd time that caused a slight mess. Apparently my hand was cramped more than I thought and all of the sudden it spasmed and let go of the almost completely full quart of paint.

My first thought was d@mn. My second thought was, can I reach the camera without moving? Score!! Believe it or not, this isn't the biggest mess I've ever made with paint. Ha!

(In honor of all my friends who support the Texas Longhorns, I left the orange door for a whole 24 hours. Let's not mention the fact that I had to because A.) the paint had to dry and B.) it was dark outside and I was working on an exterior door... Sic 'Em Bears!)

The next day, yeah, patience isn't really my thing, I taped off sections of the door. My door has panels but doesn't have any line where panels would have been joined to make it look like real door. So, I fauxed them in with blue tape. I then used a chip paint brush to brush on Walnut gel stain.

Wow! Even after one coat of stain, it gets two, it is amazing the difference in the look. I am in love!

After a week of good weather and another coat of stain, all my door needs now is 3, count them, 3 coats of poly and some custom door numbers. Does it ever end??? ;)

What do you think?

To be on a tropical island...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:45:00 +0000

If you recall, my new kitchen design has an island in it. The size of the island and the overall size/flow of the kitchen precludes having a sink in the island, but it doesn't mean I don't want electricity. That's where the sweat and mess come in. If you remember, my floor is made of concrete. Because I'm not fond of the wires running across the top of the floor look, some major work was going to be involved in getting power to the island. Yuck.

In order to know where to run the electricity, we had to know where the island was specifically going to go. Trust me, after all the work it was going to take, I didn't want the darn thing in the wrong spot. So, we cleared the decks in the kitchen and taped off the floor. Thankfully there was a large divot (?) (not sure which word to use, so throwing a golf one in because it seems to be the same thing to me) from the old cabinetry, so we decided that was as good of a starting point as any place. Any port in a storm. We used an angle grinder borrowed from a friend to cut the channels before using an air hammer chisel out the concrete.

In the picture it seems so simple and easy to do, kinda like on tv. No big deal, cut three simple pieces out, and run some wiring. H.A. H.A. In case you're missing the bigger picture, here's one that gives a better perspective...

So, with Marc running the air hammer and myself running the vacuum, we trudged on. I ran the vacuum as a close distance, sometimes too close, sorry dad, in an effort to keep down the dust. If you've never worked with concrete before, it rates right up there with grout & tile in terms of dusting mess and skin drying potential. (Note to self, maybe I shouldn't wear flip-flops while doing concrete.) I did tape off the doors and turn off the A/C to help with the effort, but I still need to scrub the whole house...

So, on and on we trudged, inch by inch, and what did we discover?

Rebar?

Are you kidding me? Rebar is only supposed to be every 2 feet, so I've been told, so what were the odds that the rebar would be running directly through the middle of where we were headed?????

Add to that another cattle panel, and the headaches were growing. Thankfully, God was on our side and the rebar sat just low enough for us to be able to run a piece of conduit for the wiring. All in all, I'm guessing it took just over 8 hours of angle grinding, vacuuming, air hammering and all the necessary safety gear, except steel toed boots to complete the job. Please note, that when I say complete the job, I don't mean finish the whole project, just chipping out the concrete.

It took another entire day to put in the wiring conduit.

Due to the unlevel nature of the chipping concrete, so not going there, and the levelness of the conduit, the pipe wouldn't sit below the grade of the concrete. Out came the heat gun, just enough to bend the conduit so that it stayed where it was supposed to. It takes a while to heat up the conduit to bend it and it takes just as much time to cool it down. Not to worry. I had the uber heavy drain pipe from kitchen sink that had been cut out. Boom! Conduit done! Finally.

While it may not be a tropical island, I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy this island much, much more in the long run!!

A Shocking Start

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:03:00 +0000

While work progresses on the outside of the house, we continue to plod along inside with various projects. The latest efforts have been toward finishing the electrical in the kitchen. As with so many things in life, in order to complete one thing you have have back waaaaaay up and do 3 other things first. The end goal is the of course have a kitchen, but a sooner goal is to have all 4/5 walls of my kitchen drywalled. (Remember, my room is an oddly shaped dining room/kitchen combination of 4 walls and in one place 5.)

The original kitchen in this place was a tiny, little hot mess with a wall oven, push button cooktop, pendant sink light, fridge and not much else. Think about all of the electrical needs in today's typical kitchen, dishwasher, under/above cabinet lighting, recessed ceiling lighting, fridge, island, wall oven, range, etc. Anyone else seeing an issue here? Yeah, not nearly enough power in the kitchen. It was at that point I realized that I had to pick which appliances I wanted. Wonderful, something else to do before doing the thing I wanted to do. You see, without knowing which appliances I want, it's almost impossible to know where to spec the electrical and once the drywall in is, it would be a HUGE pain, not to mention mess to change it.

While you might think that it would be a blast picking a kitchen full of appliances, it's hard when you've already made yourself a promise. From the very beginning of this house project, I've promised myself that I would never settle for less than what I wanted, really wanted, instead I would just do without. (hmm, so far I'm doing good. Hence the reason I've been living with studs for 2 years.) All in all, it's been easy to keep this promise to myself. I live alone and function okay without certain things, like a stove. Grits, my favorite work breakfast and chicken are easy to make on my hot plate. Just think about how much easier it will be to make them when I have this installed.

Oh a girl can dream!! Top it off with a super ventilation system and this girl would be in heaven.

Not to worry you, I haven't left reality. Here is a more current kitchen pic.

Notice the hours of work?

Each little caption is equivalent to hours of work in a relatively clean attic, several feet of expensive wire (ouch,) new switches and only a couple of drops of blood. What's the most depressing part of it all? Once the drywall is up, no one will ever know the hours of work involved. Instead, a switch will flip and a light will come on or something will move and no one will think twice, so I'm calling a moment for you to appreciate all this hardwork.

Even though there are hours of hardwork behind us, and now a well appreciated electrical plan has been laid into place, a large piece is still missing. Remember my sentence from above? (It's okay, I know there were a tons of sentences from above, so I'll help you out.) Think about all of the electrical needs in today's typical kitchen, dishwasher, under/above cabinet lighting, recessed ceiling lighting, fridge, island, wall oven, range, etc. Do you see it? No?

that little word,

such a simple word,

island...

Remember my floor??

No?

I'll remind you next time...

Taxes...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:15:00 +0000

Several people have commented via email on the absurdity of the fact that our local county taxes on concrete. While I agree it's nuts, the county looks on my basketball court/holder of branches as an unimproved patio, hence the taxes. Now, I'll be the first to say that the added value of my "unimproved patio" is little, but I'm in the world that every single penny counts!! So that sucker is gone and my world is looking greener.

Thanks to two very precious rains, new grass is already starting to poke it's head through the dirt. I am also pleased to say that after the two heavy rains, my carport was much, much drier than before the re-grading. It did collect some rain, but nothing compared to the pre-grading mess.

My latest addition is this huge pile of concrete remains. Because the original pourers of the basketball slab used a cattle panel to reinforce the concrete, my debris cannot be dumped at the local dump. So, my poor landscaper is scrambling trying to find a place to dump it. Anyone need any fill dirt???

Clearing the decks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:57:00 +0000

As I mentioned recently, I have hired B&B Landscaping to do some pre-pre-work on my lawn in preparation for an irrigation system. We have been suffering from a HORRIBLE drought since early last spring. It is to the point that I am very worried about my slab. Knowing myself well enough to know that I need a sprinkler system because I won't remember to turn off the water or water regularly, I turned to B&B. They worked miracles in less than 2 days. (Please note that they worked much, much faster than I type and post...)

In short order, less than one day, I was down one too-narrow front sidewalk. I was also down half of a side sidewalk.

If anyone, anyone knows why in the world this sidewalk was here, I'd love to know!

The next day I had a new tractor (aka bulldozer if you're my 4 and 1 year old niece and nephew!) from B&B that worked wonders removing the huge front yard bump and the basketball court. (Big yay for that, around here they tax on concrete, so that sucker being gone saves me money!!)

I have current pictures taken, but they're on my camera awaiting downloading, watermarking and titling. I will say that the change is huge. In a very blessed downpour this weekend of over 1 inch, my formerly heavily flooding carport was dry within 24 hours without me vacuuming out or removing any water. Wahoo!!

Changing Outlook

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Giddings Lane is getting a new outlook, literally! After two years, my house, all in all, hasn't changed nearly as much on the outside as it has on the inside. The changes on the outside have been very minor. A new roof, trimmed trees and removal of TONS (literally) brush, all big things, but if you look, nothing that says WOW. See??

All of that is about to change. Thanks to an awesome local company, B&B Landscaping, Giddings Lane is about to start getting a whole new look. Now, keep in mind that I'm saying that we're "about to start." This is going to a LONG time process, which is fine. Everything that's good is worth waiting for, right??

First up on the agenda is removing the excess brick and concrete that the original owners were so fond of.

So long old basketball court!! Hopefully it will soon be a thing of the past.

Next on the to-do list is to remove the bricks from the walk to no-where. If you recall, after HOURS of work, my dad uncovered this brick path in the backyard.

If and when, I mow, this random brick layout is a pain and is half buried. The brick is going to be pulled up and moved to the corner of the yard for future use. I'll let you know what kind of future use later, in the future.

When I first moved into the house I knew there was a front flowerbed because they had the straggling remains of bushes of some sort. (It made a great play place for mud pies.)

After more hours of work, we found this, more brick, this time bordering the bed.

While it looks pretty in the picture, reality was more brutal and it looks pretty pitiful now. The brick is also broken and jacked up too, so out it comes. It will join the pile in the back for future use. As will the very, very narrow, cracked and and uneven walkway to the street.

The biggest thing that's scheduled to happen, will most likely be the least noticeable to everyone else, I'm guessing. In digging out the front flower bed, the dirt was tossed to the side for simplicity's sake. Due to a poorly timed nose break, (but then again, is any nose break ever nicely timed????) the dirt was never moved to its permanent home, so there it sat. Over the past year or so, it has become a mountain of dirt. B&B is going to remove the dirt, leveling it for proper drainage and fill in the holes left by the concrete/brick removals. I CANNOT wait!! Instead of a huge mound, I might possibly have the beginnings of a real front yard!

My Other House

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:00:00 +0000

In my other life, I'm a teacher, there I said it, so far I'm still alive, so I guess it's okay that everyone knows what I do. Privacy is such an iffy thing on the internet that I've tried not to come right out and say exactly what I do because of the nature of my job. But, that's obviously in the past now, so, here are a couple of snaps, poorly taken by my phone, but I thought you might like to glimpse my other "house."

The hallway where I teach is having a theme of movies this year. We used plastic tablecloths taped together in the middle and run through book rings to make our "red curtains." The STAAR isn't misspelled, it's the name for our state test. Each teacher picked a different movie theme for the "board" outside of their room. Our bulletin boards are actually 4x8 sheets of insulation board from Lowe's. It's light weight and ease to staple into made it a breeze for hanging and better yet, taking down to change it! In case you are confused, my movie theme is Disney's Cars. Yup, I copped out and picked a movie where I could get a Cricut cartridge to make it much, much easier on me.

As students advance in AR, their movie "star" will travel down the boards, hence the numbers at the bottom.

Next to the board, I have a small Christmas tree that I decorate differently each month. (Yeah, I know, I need to get a life, but I did this before I owned my own house.) Since they're all made now, I put them up anyway...

Inside my room, I have three main walls to "decorate." (The 4th wall is filled with a marker board.) I have another insulation board with an inspiration quote, custom vinyl quotes with equivalent measures and thought provoking math pictures. In case you can't find the math, don't worry, just google Fibonacci series and Fibonacci Spiral. I'm just warning you though, you're going to start to see math everywhere!!

Finishing Up the Pantry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:42:00 +0000

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I'd love to say I've been making huge strides with my house, but that would be a fib. Life has happened though and I've been trying to take it all in stride. I did finish my pantry though. If you don't recall, my pantry originally looked like this.

Fabulous huh?? Yup, the cinder blocks really added a little somethin-somethin to my food storage. Jealous, aren't you?? I know, it's okay.

In all seriousness though, the shelves were cut-down from my old closet and repurposed into "pantry" shelves. The cinder blocks had been hauled out of my parents' yard and leftover from a brother's wedding. While I appreciated the storage they offered, I wasn't happy with their mismatched look. Ugh. So, out came even more white paint, excuse me, "Heavy Cream."

And, as is typical for me, I got paint EVERYWHERE!! I do not understand how people manage to paint neatly and keep everything contained and clean. I can show you every single color I've ever used based on my painting clothes. Ridiculous I know, but I get the job done, eventually.

After the boards and blocks dried, mostly, I neatly stacked them in the new cute pantry. NEVER EVER doubt the power of paint, people!

Instead of mismatched boards and dirty cinder blocks, I had sculpture pieces that made a custom pantry with twice the space. (Sculptural? Are you kidding? (Hey, let me have my delusions, here. It keeps me happy!!))

When all was said and done, I had an awesome pantry! It's not the one of my dreams, yet, but it is so much better than before.

Finishing Touches

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:54:00 +0000

My pantry is getting closer and closer to working as it is supposed to, as a pantry. Imagine!! The walls were finally done to my satisfaction but the trim wasn't finished and everyone was out of town and/or busy. That meant it was me, the miter saw, the coping saw and a whole lot of prayers! (see, when I bought the trim, i thought that there would be people around to help me, so i bought exactly as much as i needed.) I started with this .

(sorry for the bad photo, it's all i could find. in my next life, I'll get better at "before" pics.) Thankfully, my lil' brother let me borrow his fancy saw while he was out of town. Let's hear it for his bravery! I love this saw and would LOVE to have one of my own eventually. It makes cutting the mdf boards easy and leaves a smooth pretty cut. After many prayers, a couple of extra cuts and plenty of caulking and touch up I ended up with this.

The straight sides are the simple pieces in trim. The hard part is getting the corners to look good. I think, for my first solo trip, I did pretty good. Thoughts?

Fine is never enough...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:05:00 +0000

Once again, I finished something, my pantry in this case, and it wasn't good enough. I had this: pretty but not what I wanted.

What I wanted was this...

See the pretty pattern in the background? I love it! It makes a utilitarian room special. After cruising the post on how it was done (click the pic to see) I realized what looked painted was instead vinyl. I didn't have the funds to do vinyl, nor the patience, but man did I want the look!! So, I cruised the internet for alternatives. That's where I landed on this.

So pretty! Just a little feminine with a twist. Not too fussy. It was perfect in every way except one, the price. At $40 it was out of my range. So, I went to work. Hobby Lobby had wall stencils and furthermore I had a 40% off coupon which brought the $17 cost down to my price range, especially if I hated the look after it was all said and done... So, I purchased a stencil that I thought looked like me and experimented.

A few notes here:

-everyone always talks about using stencil adhesive or spray adhesive or painter's tape. I'm telling you to use ALL of it!! They are not really interchangeable (okay, maybe you could use spray adhesive or stencil adhesive interchangeably.)

-Do not FORGET the blue tape. Do as I say, not as I photograph or you'll be sorry. Trust me, having the stencil stick to the roller, come off the wall, fall back on the wall, and then hit the floor causes "dirty word" to spring from your mouth. (yes, I usually use "dirty word" instead of actual dirty words because of my job. it helps when I get mad or drop something at work. that way i don't let a true bomb drop.)

-Another tip is to use a foam roller and roll the roller in one direction only instead of back and forth. It helps with the bleeding thing.

Anywho, after the learning curves, I ended up with this.

I'm in love! (although, i am slightly worried about it. the pattern is only on two of the four walls in the pantry and seems a little overwhelming. maybe with the addition of shelves, it will calm down the overall look.)

Here is a look at the walls when you walk in. I still love it despite my fears!!