Author Archives: laraonthesuedesofa

About laraonthesuedesofa

I'm a stay-at-home Mom and run my own business, LetterBlockShop.com. I am married to a wonderful and supportive man, who helps makes my dreams a reality. We live on a small farm and enjoy the simplicity of country life!
by | May 17, 2013 · 6:15 am

Kitchen Makeover: Backsplash, Shelving and More Painting!

Now for the pictures that you have been WaiTinG for!  As I worked on painting the cabinets, I also added open shelving.  Check it out!DSC_0399

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I bought the corbels at Home Depot and used MDF board for the shelves.  Next, I added a wainscoting backsplash, which I don’t have ANY pictures of that process (sorry!).  But, I do have pictures of the nearly finished kitchen at Christmas!

Just for dramatic effect, let’s see where’ we’ve come from the beginning…

BEFORE

BEFORE

Here is an “after” picture (as of December 2012)!

After 2

We added a new light fixture above the sink and painted the trim around the window.  The trim, shelves, corbels and backsplash are all the same color.  I used white trim paint from Sherwin-Williams.

After 1

Here is a “before” from the right side of the room.  Remember how I said I was going to build a cabinet to hide the range hood pipe?  (where the greenery is in the picture below)

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Well here it is!

After 3

I took a cabinet door from a “lazy susan” cabinet that I bought on Craigslist.  I cut the cabinet door down to size, and hung it.  It opens from the bottom (the hinges are on the inside top) but I LOvE that it gives us extra storage space!  The other big changes on this side of the room is a new fridge and range hood!  I also added wainscoting to the back of the open cabinets (the one with the microwave and the cabinet above it).  This really prettied them up :)  What do ya think?!

After 4

These pictures pretty much bring you up-to-date on how my kitchen looks today.  We recently replaced the light in the kitchen ceiling and put in recessed lighting.  We also finished taking off the popcorn ceiling and now have a “knockdown” texture on the ceiling.  It looks so much BeTTeR!  All I have left to do is paint the ceiling (white) and add crown moulding to the top of the cabinets.  We eventually need to switch out our kitchen sink and replace the countertops (since those are the ones I painted 5 years ago!) but I am so indecisive on what I want…so it could be a while :)

My kiddos are officially on sUmMer bReaK, so who knows when I will finish up the kitchen!  We are so close though, and I am thrilled with the results!  It has really opened up the space and feels like we doubled our cabinet space since we added the open shelving. Gotta love that!

Let me know what you thought of the kitchen makeover!

Cheers,

Lara

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by | May 14, 2013 · 6:18 am

Are You Prayin’ About It?

Last night I was lying in bed thinking about a couple of things.  This was sMaLL stuff–you know–like how I was going to get everything done this week, if I had enough activities planned for the kids this summer, and if I was going to get the stain out of those tan pants :-/

All of a sudden, “Are you praying about it?” popped in my head.  For a second I pushed the thought away because I thought it was silly to pray about such minor things.  But then I remembered how Jesus wants us to talk to Him, no matter how great or small the worry may be.

praying hands

Are you worried about something?  Fretting over, what to most people, may seem like a silly little thing?  If it is a worry in your heart, then Jesus isn’t laughing.  Talk to Him.  Share your concerns and allow Him to CaRRy your load.  I am sure even He wouldn’t mind carrying a small load every once in a while :)

May Peace Be With You,

Lara

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by | May 10, 2013 · 6:15 am

Kitchen Makeover: Painting!

Now for the fun stuff!!  I painted the lower cabinets “Mourning Dove” by Martha Stewart.  I had it mixed at Sherwin Williams, and since it is a discontinued color, just ask them and they can find the formula and mix it up for you!

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I decided to add some FuN to the room by adding chalkboard paint on the back wall.  I love it!  And so do the kids!!

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Remember this cabinet?  This is the first cabinet I removed when I started the kitchen makeover!

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And here it is painted!

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To this day, I am still debating if I like the distressed look (see the left cabinet door below) or if I want the cabinets to be solid white (see right cabinet door below).  What do you think?

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The upper cabinets were painted Alabaster by Sherwin Williams.  6

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I never shared with you the picture of the ceiling after I ripped out the soffit.  Here it is!  The ceiling also shows were I started taking off the popcorn ceiling.  Yep…I opened that can of worms and will share that process with you later.  I can assure you, all the mess and work was well worth it ;)

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So just to see where we’ve come, here is a “before” of the left side:

BEFORE

And here is a “during” of the left side:

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Here is a “before” picture of the right side of the kitchen:

DSC_0168And here is ”during” the painting process of the right side!

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Stay tuned!  Next week I am going to share pictures of the backsplash, open shelving, and the rest of the painted cabinets!!

Cheers!

Lara

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by | May 3, 2013 · 6:15 am

Kitchen Makeover: Tearing Out MORE Soffit

Last week I shared with you how I tore out the soffit and raised the cabinets on one side of the kitchen.  Was Doug surprised when he came home?!  To be honest, he wasn’t as ShOcKeD as I anticipated.  In his defense, it is a “norm” for me to take on projects, and for some reason I get itchin’ to do it when he is gone.  Serves as good motivation to surprise him I guess ;)  The AWESOME thing is that he is extremely supportive of my love for this type of work, but under one condition….that I don’t drag him into helping me all the time ;)

…But every now and then I give him that puppy dog face that he can’t resist, and he becomes my partner in crime!  Which is why I want to share with you how much easier and faster it was to raise the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen!

I obviously was so tickled when Doug agreed to help me that I didn’t take NEAR as many pictures of the pRoCeSs!  In fact, due to having a helper this time around we were able to demo the soffit, raise cabinets and finish the left side of the kitchen (below) in 2 hours!  That’s right…2 hours!  To get started, here is a before picture:

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Same process, just much faster with two people!  (for more details instructions, visit Kitchen Makeover: Raising Cabinets)

2 Score Sheetrock

3 Tear off Sheetrock

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As you can see below, we threw plastic over the stove and counters for easy cleanup.  I learned my lesson after doing the demo without it last time ;)

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We raised the cabinet on the end first (as the white rectangle BELOW shows where the cabinet use to be).  This made raising the cabinets a breeze because all we had to do is go straight up.  Didn’t have to worry about keeping them level because they stayed flush to the cabinet next to it!  We just worked our way across the kitchen, unscrewing and raising one cabinet at a time.  We also didn’t mess with taking the food out of all the cabinets at the same time.  With each cabinet we moved, we took out the food, raised it, and then put everything back.  Super easy!

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Notice the cabinet above the stove in the picture below.  We didn’t raise this cabinet to avoid messing with the range hood and exhaust vent.  I decided I would eventually make a new cabinet and door which would maximize our storage space and hide the pipe!  You’ll get to see how that turned out in a future post!

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To recap, here is a BEFORE picture of the left side of the kitchen (that I took a few years ago!)

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And here it is AFTER!  10

The cabinet above the stove is the only one that stayed where it was originally.  And in the meantime I tried to make the exhaust pipe “pretty” by throwing a plant up there Ü

One more thing, notice the 2 small cabinet doors above the microwave…

shoup house 3

…and then how I removed them in this “after” picture.  I think I am digging the idea of open shelving ;)  And speaking of shelving, see all that extra wall space we created by raising the cabinets?  Stay tuned for pictures on how it looked once we added open shelving under all of the raised cabinets!

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We did It! (**I couldn’t help but do the Dora song and dance**) What a great project for a Saturday morning.  Tackled it right after breakfast and we were done by lunch!  I wish all projects were that quick.

Next week I hope to share the different changes I made in the kitchen by PAINTING!  Here is a sneak peek…2Have a good weekend!

~Lara

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by | April 26, 2013 · 6:15 am

Kitchen Makeover: Raising Cabinets

For those of you that have patiently waited…the time has FiNaLLy come!  I am starting my Home Makeover Series today, beginning with my kitchen makeover!!  If you remember, last April we began preparing our house to have it MOVED 100+ miles.  It was during that time that I probably lost my mind for good Ü

The same month that we tore off our old mudroom in preparation for the move (which use to be where the door/clock/purses hang in the picture below) I decided if I already had a demo pile of trash outside, I might as well add to it by tearing out the soffit in my kitchen!  Here is what my kitchen looked like 12 month ago….Demo before

Kitchen Before

KITCHEN BEFORE

Believe it or not, one morning I decided I had lived with this soffit long enough…and I knew Doug would be gone for 24 hours so he couldn’t talk me out of it…so at 10:30 a.m. this is what I did:

Step #1: Cut Hole

Step #1: CUT SMALL HOLE in soffit to see what you are getting yourself into.  Luckily, our soffit was hollow!!

Step 2: Score Your Sheetrock

Step 2: SCORE YOUR SHEETROCK from the ceiling so you have a clean cut when you pull out your soffit.  This will keep you from tearing up your ceiling!

Step 3: Rip Our Soffit!

Step 3: RIP OFF THE SHEETROCK!

Step 4: Keep Ripping!!

Step 4: KEEP GOING!! DON’T GIVE UP!

After I made it halfway across the kitchen, I removed the first cabinet (as you can see in the picture below, the white area is where the cabinet was).  Moving the cabinets would allow me to rip out the rest of the soffit AND keep the cabinets safe from demo!

Step 5: Remove Cabinet

How did I do it ALONE, you ask?  Well, since my kids were too little to recruit AND cabinets are HEAVY, I had to get creative Ü  I flipped one of our barstools on its side, wedged towels in-between the cabinet and stool, then held the cabinet in place as I unscrewed the screws with the electric screwdriver.  Once I got my balance, I carefully took them off the stool and placed them in a safe spot.

Support Your Cabinets if Lowering Them By Yourself

Step 5: SUPPORT YOUR CABINETS before removing

The idea was working, until I got a too CrAzY and wedged the stool so tight that I couldn’t get IT or the cabinet loose!  So…I ended up having to take the barstool apart. :(  But no worries!  I screwed it back together and it is just like new!!

Demo 1

Once the cabinets were out of the way, I started pulling out the studs.  Some of the studs were hard for me to remove due to really big nails securing the studs.  I used a sawzall and cut most of the studs, then used a crowbar to remove them.  Yes, I did make some pretty obvious gashes in the sheetrock.  We’ll worry about that later ;)

Step 6: Remove other Cabinets

Step 6: REMOVE remainder of cabinets and CONTINUE TO DEMO SOFFIT!

In the picture below, see how the soffit comes out to the middle of the room?  I removed this cabinet and took it out for good!  I knew doing so would really open up the space!  (And as far as giving up a cabinet and loosing the extra space, I have a solution for that in a future post!)

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Don’t you agree?  Look at how much it opened the room!

Step 7: Find Studs and Rehang Cabinets

Step 7: FIND STUDS and REHANG CABINETS

I thought I took pictures on how I hung the cabinets by myself, but apparently I was getting tired by that point!  The picture above shows the first cabinet I hung.  As you can see, I purposely left a gap between the cabinet and ceiling so I could add crown moulding in the future.

The idea of hanging the cabinets was pretty easy because all I was doing was moving them straight UP.  The screws could stay in the cabinet holes because I would still hit a stud.  The hardest part was doing this alone and having the strength to hold the cabinet exactly where it needed to be AND screw in the screws at the same time.  I used the barstool and towels again, and to make sure the cabinet was level, I taped it to the top of the cabinet so I could see if it was level or not!  My body is sore just thinking about this step of the process.  It was quite the workout, but I finished!!

10 hours later I had cleaned up the demo pile, tossed it outside, and got to enjoy the fruits of my labor.  Here is what the kitchen looked like at 10 A.M.:

Kitchen Before

KITCHEN BEFORE

And here it was at 8:00 p.m. (I took some of the cabinet doors off because I wanted to see if I liked open shelving):

Step 8: Done by Evening!

KITCHEN AFTER

Ya think Doug noticed when he came home the next morning??? :)

If you want me to continue “Lara’s Home Makeover Series” comment below by telling me what you think of this kitchen project!

Cheers~
Lara

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by | April 16, 2013 · 7:28 am

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Good gravy!  The last couple weeks have been bRuTaL as far as putting my foot in my mouth.  They were all pretty minor comments, but as I reflected on them later I couldn’t help but do this…

head on desk

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Do you ever have days like that?  The other person may not have thought anything of it, but you still WiSh you could take back the awkward, hurtful or unnecessary words that were spoken.

The truth of the matter is, if you are HuMaN and if you are going to be social, you are going to say things that you regret.  I guess you could avoid these situations by isolating yourself, never meeting new people or no longer interact with your peers, but that wouldn’t be LiViNg-It now would it?

Next time you catch yourself banging your head against your desk, remember that even though you made a human mistake, it is still better to reach out to others versus doing nothing at all.

*If you are really sick about something you said, you can always clear the air by making it right (click on the bolded words to read that post).

~Lara

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by | April 5, 2013 · 6:15 am

I Expect That from WHO?

Recently, we have been working with my daughter on trying to get her to stop sucking her thumb.  She is using a thumb guard that is really helping, but like any bad habit, it has been hard for her.

The other day I told Robynn that my worst habit is eating late at night.  It is like clockwork; as soon as I put the kids to bed I’m off to the kitchen searching for a sweet treat.  Whether it was college or even my childhood, eating a dessert to end the day was very much the norm!

Then it dawned on me.  Why do I expect Leanne to break a habit that she has had her entire life, yet I make an excuse for not breaking mine?  Is it because hers is only 5 years of a bad habit and mine is 30?  I guess the number of years shouldn’t matter, since for each of us it equates to be our ENTIRE lives!

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I talked to Leanne and told her I was going to work on breaking my bad habit too.  It has been challenging for both of us, but I know that we will benefit from it.  Putting myself in her shoes also makes me more sympathetic towards what she is going through.  Before, I would always get frustrated and lose patience when she wasn’t making progress.  It wasn’t until I tried to stop my habit that I did a better job working with her.  Not to mention, seeing her work hard helps me work even harder when I have moments of weakness!

Is there something you expect of others yet you don’t expect of yourself? Nothing probably comes to mind right away but some time and self-reflection may shed some light on bad habits we can improve in our own lives.  Oh….it can be so humbling…but a good reminder to have the same expectations for yourself as you do for others!!

~LaRa

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by | March 22, 2013 · 7:32 am

Just A Little Heart Attack

I wanted to drop you a quick line pointing you toward an excellent video to watch this weekend. Cardiovascular disease impacts 1 in 3 Americans, and is the leading cause of death in the United States – killing more people than the next 5 most common causes combined.

Women’s symptoms of a heart attack are *VERY* different than those of men, and because they often can mimic fatigue or the common cold, many women don’t realize they are having a heart attack.

Now, for some of you, you may think this video is an exact replica of your LiFe each morning (that’s how I felt!) which is even more of a reason that you should watch this!!

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by | March 15, 2013 · 7:53 am

Start Over

Good morning Friends!

I am sure eNjoYinG the nice weather we are having in Kansas. We are looking forward to spring break!

Today I wanted to pass along something that has been helpful to our family. The other morning I was fixing Leanne’s hair.  She didn’t like it and combed the braid out.  It upset me because I had worked hard on it and we were running out of time before the bus came.  I told her she would have to figure out how to fix her hair on her own and walked into the other room, upset (probably not the best of parenting!).  To my surprise she walked after me and asked,

“Mom, can we sTarT oVeR?”

I replied, “Sure!”  She stuck out her hand and we shook on it.

She smiled.

In a cheery voice I asked her how I could help her get ready for school, and off we went.  It was as if the short moment of frustration never happened.

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Don’t get me wrong, when my kids or husband ask me to “start over” it takes a big swallow of pride to put my anger aside and agree to start fresh.  The human side of us just wants to stew over the problem, which only makes things worse and wastes a lot of time.

But just like ripping it like a band-aid, it only stings for a second!  Do yourself (and your loved ones) a favor by asking if you can START OVER the next time things head in the wrong direction.

Lara

Now that nicer weather is around the corner, do you need help getting motivated to do some spring cleaning? If so, read my “Rip It Like A Band-Aid” post!

 

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by | March 8, 2013 · 6:55 am

Make a Pact

Every once in a while Doug and I will catch ourselves wAsTiNg a lot of time rehashing an upsetting incident, discussing something negative, or spending way too much time on something that we shouldn’t.  Do you ever do that? Recently, we have done something helpful to avoid these ongoing situations.  We “make a pact” with one another to no longer waste another minute on that specific topic.  When we catch ourselves in a conversation that makes us feel sour, one of us may say, “Okay…for the rest of the month we need to work on not bringing up_______.”  From then on we hold each other accountable by giving “the look” or a quick reminder when conversations head the wrong direction.pinky-swear1

Is there something that you are doing, saying or thinking about that you need to nip in the bud?  By regurgitating the same negative conversations you are adding unnecessary depression to your day AND to those around you.  Doug and I always have to remember…the kids are aLwAys watching and listening!!  Whatever we talk a lot about, they will believe!

What conversations can you remove from your life by mAkiNg a pAcT to stop?  Don’t forget, with the help of someone else, you can achieve this goal much easier and catch old habits before they creep back in your life!

Lara

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