Kitchen Makeover!

"Kitchens sell homes!" That's the motto anyways. But I think more than that, a kitchen is where we live, it's were come together at the end of a long day of work with a glass of wine or beer. Whit and I don't cook very often, yet we still find ourselves lounging and snacking in the kitchen (at least until the ice cream runs out). So we thought we would liven up the decor of the plain kitchen with glass tile back splash and some stainless steel appliances to make it more of an inviting space. Also, Pat contributed the wow factor for the kitchen with a custom bar, located perfectly for watching Whit cook ;)

The best story is when we thought we would go without a dishwasher. This lasted two days and one load of dishes before Whit set the cup down and we loaded into car bound for Fred's Appliances. It didn't takes us long to find one and we had it plumbed and installed the next day. You don't realize how much you miss something until it is gone.

As you will notice, the theme of the old kitchen is YELLOW! I think they had some left over from the exterior paint and decided "why not?" and then covered everything with it. The cabinets, floors, under cabinet lights and sink were included with the sale of the home...very excited about that.

So now that you saw the "before", here is the "after". We started by opening up the entrance to the kitchen to connect it to the other rooms and extend the open floorplan with hemlock trim around the opening. Then we continued by adding a glass tile/travertine back splash. Next we installed a dishwasher and added new appliances. Then we put in the two tiered bars with stools. Then we painted the yellow out of the kitchen with a smooth tan color. Lastly, we installed vinyl windows to finish off the space.

We weren't sure if it would be too much wood in the kitchen with the cabinets and the trim and the bar, but it works very well and it's functional. Luckily, we didn't have to gut the entire kitchen and start from the studs. So a few upgrades went a long ways.

If you are interested in the back splash, we were able to find it on sale at Home Depot and install it in less than a day with the "mud less" adhesive. It sticks to the walls and the tiles adhere to it. After it is applied, it is ready to grout. Another valuable lesson is to buy the grout sealant that evaporates from the tile so that you do not have to worry about it glazing the tile. (This tip can save you hours of work scrubbing tiles). The bar is made out of a glu-lam beam and for more details I will have to ask Pat. He is so talented. If you have any questions let me know. Hopefully I can give you some ideas and ultimately save you some time and money.

If you are interested in looking for a house this spring, let me know and I will start keeping an eye out for you.

Master Bedroom with a Custom Pallet Wall

When we first looked at this house, a major issue was that we could not fit our king size bed into any room. I know that is petty, but it is hard to go back to a full or queen size (those of you who have tried it know it is true). Solution: make two smaller rooms into one large master suite. This is easier said than done. Here is what the two smaller rooms looked like:

This is the opening between the two rooms with the yellow door leading to the kitchen.

This is the smaller room on the north side of the house with a small closet and door to the laundry room that we took out and replaced with a larger closet space.

This is the larger room with door on the left leading to the bathroom and the door on the right is my closet.

So it is kinda hard to tell where one room ends and the other begins, but this is two small rooms with many doors. There is a small closet in each with plenty of light. Normally I wouldn't advise taking a bedroom out of your house for resale value, but in our case we had to live in it at some point with our king size bed so there was no other option.

We ended up tearing down the wall in between the rooms to make it bigger. This was harder than it sounds because one room's floor was unlevel so we had to level the floor, reroute wiring, install a header to carry the weight, add recessed lights and tie the two rooms together. We all took out the closet in the smaller space and replaced it with an open custom closet that could accommodate more clothes (I don't think a single piece of my clothing is in that closet...).  We added a larger, new light fixture with dimmer controls to set the mood...I mean to provide better lighting for the larger space. Lastly, we added new carpet and new windows to tie the space together. Its not quite HGTV but it does fit a king bed. Simple pleasures.

So without further ado, here are the after pictures.

Now to discuss that odd wall with shelves. So everything was going great until we started painting and on one wall the paper started bubbling and pealing away leaving a rather distressed look. So devastated of course that we would have to do more work, Whitney suggested we use the opportunity to create an accent wall out of recycled pallets. Luckily, Pat has pallets at his store from the hot tubs varying in age from newer to aged so we used those to create a pallet wall/headboard with floating shelves. We randomly placed the pieces of pallet and used a finished nailer to attached the boards. It ended up tying the entire space together and was very inexpensive. You can get a custom look for less than $50. If you are interested, I have extra pallets and can let you know how I did it.

All in all, this room really came together and we were able to make major impact without spending a ton of money. I am excited to finally be able to go in there and sleep without noticing something else that needs to be done.

First Time Homebuyers

This is just a quick post for any first-time home buyers out there. There are favorable grant programs and lending policies for people looking for their first home. So below are three reasons for purchasing your first home:

1. You can get great rates and put as little as 3% down on a property. In this up and down economy, it is still nice to know that you can pay less on a mortgage than on rent. Or is the larger down payment what is keeping you from owning your first home? Well I'm hear to tell you that there are programs out there to help you with this very issue. In fact, SNAP has a program to help with up to $17,000 for down payment assistance to get you into your first home. For specifics, call Randy at 456-7106.

2. You can realize tax benefits such as depreciation on your home and you are able to write off mortgage interest paid for the entire year. This could be several hundred dollars a year depending on your payments.

3. Home prices are at an all-time low. I have seen houses selling for less than they sold for in 2001. You can get anywhere from a 5-25% discount just by shopping around. It never hurts to look so just let me know if you want me to set up a search for you.

If you are interested in the programs or want to hear more about this please feel free to contact me.

Bathroom Remodel

So 5 weeks 6 days, 12 hours, and 2 mintues ago (give or take a minute), we began the long process of renovating this 1907 house in the north central Spokane area. It has taken every bit of blood, sweat, and tears that Whit and I have, but has turned out far better than we could have planned. I will start posting before and after pics to show the progress and maybe inspire a little home improvement project of your own. If you have any questions on any of the products, feel free to leave a comment and if you want to know how to do any of the jobs, consult the how-to videos on YouTube. ;)

So the bathroom looked much like many older homes with a tub surround, and yes, those are hooks for your towels in the bathtub (not quite sure they grasped the concept of a towel rack to dry towels?) It was very dated and needed to be updated for sure.

This is what the bathroom USED to look like...

So we thought we would liven up the room a little with a new paint color, new subway and glass tile for the tub surround, travertine tiles for the floor, brushed nickel fixtures, new window, new vanity, sconce lighting, and trim to give it more of a spa feel. It still needs some minor finish work, but is 100% operational to Whitney's satisfaction. We were able to save some money and get a larger impact by just putting the glass tiles as an accent strip that ties in the color in the walls. Also, by shopping at IKEA (my new favorite store) for the vanity, we were able to find a vanity that fits the small space perfectly.

Here is the NEW bathroom!

We were able to incorporate some of our style into the bathroom, and to be honest, the curved shower rod makes showers much more enjoyable than showers in our old clawfoot tub...just saying...clawfoot tubs look awesome but they are not practical for showering purposes!

I will continue to post more of the renovation and more regularly since I am slowly starting to regain control of my life.

If you are interested in a home like ours or an investment, let me know and I can keep an eye out for you!

A little sweat equity...

I have heard the term many times "sweat equity" and it always sounded like a good idea, but after 3 weeks of literally sweating and working nonstop on this house, I am not sure I am sold on the concept. I will give you a little update and then it is back to work again (we have to move into the new place by January 1). We tore down the lathe and plaster, ripped down some walls, revamped the electrical system, reenforced the upstairs room, installed new windows and doors (compliments of Tormino's Sash and Glasss), sheetrocked everything and cleaned a lot. Needless to say it has been a long couple weeks. It was awesome to have so many people step up and help as I know Whit and I could not have done it ourselves.

I am always fascinated by the process of renovating a home. I always underestimtate the time it takes to complete a project and the overall cost of a particular item. The biggest fear most of the time is the unknown. What is going to be behind that wall? In this project we found a 2x4 signed by the owner dated 9/30/1931 and some newspaper insulation with an aritcle talking about the Jim Braddock (Cinderella Man, Russell Crowe, boxing...you know the movie) vs Joe Louis. We had to go watch the movie again after seeing the article. It's one of Whit's favorites.

It has been a balancing of schedules but in the end this project is coming along as scheduled and with all of the grunt work out of the way, it is time to add our finishing touches. We have a few surprises with some modern touches that fit in this 1907 craftsman.

Below are some pictures from the renovation. I will have more to post when I collect all of the iphone photos from Whit, Josiah and Joseph.

I will keep you more updated as I coulndt really think straight the last two weeks. We definitely want to have people over when we are completed or if you happen to be a handy painter, let me know as we are recruiting all painters with a promised pay of food and drinks.

If you are interested in your own fixer or just want to upgrade to a completely finished home let me know and I can be searching for you.