Kitchen: Backsplash & Pulls

Hello all! Sorry for our absence.. the holidays got away from us! We had a great time hosting friends and family and we luckily managed to get the kitchen pretty much done (someday we will be able to say totally done - right?). Anyway, back to the kitchen.. after much termoil, staring, texting photos to friends for opinions, we picked a tile. Then.. we put it up! Woooo! 

This was our first tiling experience using individual tiles and not sheets. We thought we were going to hate it, but it actually ended up being a lot easier than expected. Having the right spacers, and enough of them is essential - but we'll get to that later!

Besides our indecision on the which tile to go for, we had complications with the plugs in the backsplash, as well as the switch for the garbage disposal, having no where to go now that we had added the countertop 1.5in backsplash (not to mention we also now had level cabinets and counter tops, our original kitchen had a significant slope to the right). After much debate we decided to have our amazing countertop team come out and drill a hole just above the sink where our awesome new disposal button would be! Once the electrician wired it in, and closed off the other plug we didn't need we were ready to rock and roll (two weeks behind schedule, and one week before Thanksgiving).

Oh and the sink went in - SO PRETYY!! We chose the same faucet, and a similar sink to our last renovation.

We started in the far corner by the fridge, and worked our way across in sections. (Side note, our tiles were ones we found at Lowe's, we love them now but the process of finding enough boxes of them for this project required trips to a few stores.)

These spacers were our BEST FRIENDS for this project.  We actually ended up using two sizes, one went along the bottom of the countertop backsplash, and the other was between the intersections of all the tiles.

  As we started to work our way across, the other awesome new tool we picked up, seriously came in handy - we bought a wet saw! It turned out to be a life saver, and a very good purchase design. The saw came with a diamond blade, which ended up being great for our master bathroom project, for this project we had to pick up a diamond blade for glass.

We kept working our way from one end of the kitchen to the next, being careful to only use the amount of mortar we needed so that the tiles would dry and not be too heavy.

We used our tile sponge to clean up the tiles, and remove the spacers - once the mortar had dried.

Since we had chosen a glass tile, we wanted to invest in new tile floats, to make sure we didn't scratch the tiles. We also picked up a grout additive, it's meant to keep the grout from staining, and in a kitchen that's essential!

Grouting this project required a good bit of patience. There is a lot of tile surface area so just spreading the grout with the float isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. We had to get a little creative and try to just apply it to the actual lines. Never the less, we figured it out, but these tiles did require lots of cleaning, we got a serious arm work out.

You can see in these pictures, it's still a little hazy - time to clean the sponge and go again!

In the midst of putting up the backsplash tile our pulls arrived and we started installing those as well! We went with two sizes, one size for the doors/drawers and a larger size for the pantry (oooo aahhh).

It's beginning to look a lot like a real kitchen! More to come!

Amanda & Joe

Kitchen Continued: Countertop Installation Day!

The day we have been waiting for arrived, counter top installation day! We chose a great, budget friendly quartz product that was called 'Brown Fantasy'. Personally, we think the name is a little miss leading, it does have some brown and tan tones but it's mostly gray and white, oh well! 

Below is our corner piece before they seamed it together with the longer run portion. Shout out to Gothic Marble & Granite who are amazing, prompt, professional AND the seams they did literally disappear. They cut our two end portions from the second slab at either end of the sink run, since the slabs were mirror images, it looks like one continuous counter top pattern.

We couldn't be more excited!

 

They also cut this piece so the veining would continue over from the island, they really had a great attention to detail for the entire layout. 

We also chose to have a 2" backsplash installed. In most kitchens we've seen there is either a backsplash tile, or the counter top backsplash, but we thought that having a small quartz backsplash beneath the tile would look cleaner. Not tiling down to the countertop also eliminates that pesky grout line that seems to always get dirty. (The cat approves).

Now it's time to get to tiling!!

All Of The Lights: The Deck

We are huge fans of outdoor string lights. There is something really nice about the atmosphere that comes from their glow. We also wanted to make our deck somewhere we'd want to hang out, and bright flood lights don't exactly say "relax, stay a while". So we picked out some great lights, picked up some supplies and got to work.

What we used:

4 2X2s 

1 Box Wood Screws

8 Hooks

2 50ft Outdoor Commercial String Lights

Balance 

We went to home depot and got four 2x2 boards.

We had the corner boards go all the way down so we could secure them in more spots and make the post more stable.

                       

                      The two middle posts we attached with three screws, and pre-drilled holes for a hook.

We pre-drilled the holes for the hooks, on the two corner posts. We put two hooks on the corner posts, so the strand could go out wider.(See below)

Once the posts were secured, and the hooks were in place, we worked our way from one end of the deck to the other with the lights. We went back and forth between the posts and the roof line. (*Do not do this one your own - having a spot on the ladder is crucial - and having a good eye to help decide where the roof hooks should go, from the ground, is really helpful)

OOOOhhh AAAAHhhhh

It has a very cool way of making the deck feel like a room, and gives the whole backyard a nice glow.

It's the perfect spot to make lots of memories!

Master Bathroom Update: Lighting

The master bathroom has come such a long way since we moved in, and so much has changed. I think we can all agree lighting is crucial in any room, especially the bathroom, so we wanted to create different lighting options and not just one fixed on/off setting. 

Just a little throw back to what our bathroom used to be.

Once we opened up the soffit we saw an opportunity to use part of what was there. To create a little less destruction, we moved the lights from the bottom and secured them to the board that was previously the top of the soffit. We also patched the wall where the 'Hollywood' light had been but kept the wires and put them into a new junction box. 

Then we took a board and traced out the three lights that we had moved upward. 

Once we were sure that would fit, we took the board out to stain it. We stained the bottom board the same color as a piece of reclaimed barn wood we had in the garage (because doesn't everyone have a stash of reclaimed barn wood?). 

Once all the boards were dry, we secured the underneath panel over the lights, with a nail gun. Then secured the reclaimed barn wood to the front, with wood screws and the impact driver, to act as a panel. It's covering the wires up top, and giving the appearance of a wood beam.

It actually came out a lot better than we imagined, it's up high enough now the room feels much taller, and the reclaimed wood warms up an otherwise gray, cool feeling space. 

Much better!

The lights in the soffit really help to brighten the space as well, great for beauty time.

We do need to replace the light in the shower, but for the time being, it works!

After our first shipment arrived damaged and had to be returned, we waited THREE MONTHS for this awesome mirror - totally worth the wait. Its a touch LED mirror with a blue setting (we found out it actually acts as a black light) and a white setting that you can see set into the mirror. The lights can be on individually or together. It looks very over budget - but surprisingly wasn't!

<

>

Shut The Front Door

We loved our house because it was unique for our area and had so much light and so many windows, it was great. But it definitely lacked curb appeal, and what does one change when you want to up the curb appeal? Besides landscaping, a huge change you can make to any home is the front door, it's actually one of the highest ROI you can make during a renovation or just as an update. We initially ordered a gorgeous front door, that sadly didn't fit, so we were stuck with our oddly sized clunky door.  

(Before we moved in)

In a rush to get ready for our Christmas party, we made a very rash decision and painted the door a royal/navy colors that just wasn't right. Once the weather got a little warmer and we would be okay with just a front storm door, we got to work on fixing the door up!

Time to break out the belt sander! Always use safety glasses and if you can something to protect your ears (you'll miss your hearing when you're older).

Ready to rock & roll!

One side was pretty easy, only a coat of white paint.

The exterior side of the door, proved much more challenging. This project turned into a major event, with 8 or 9 layers and 40 years of paint to peel off. 

Just keep sanding.. Just keep sanding. 

Once it felt smooth it was time to prime!

After letting it dry for a few hours we got to work on the paint. It was two coats each side, and letting it dry over night in between.  

We picked Benjamin Moore's Beach Glass, and we really love the color, it gives a little more life to the exterior, and goes a lot better than the royal blue. 

It goes well nicely on the inside too, the walls are Moonshine (one of our go to colors).