Category Archives: At Home

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 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…

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…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 11, 2013 · 6:37 am

Easy Outdoor Game

The hour before dinner in our house is always difficult because the kids can’t help but get restless waiting to eat and waiting for my husband to get home from work.  In an attempt to avoid taking out every single backyard toy, I came up with this simple game that kept them busy and didn’t leave the yard a mess for me to clean up!

If you have a walkway similar to mine you can use each stone individually.  If you have concrete you can divide it up into squares and play.  I used sidewalk chalk to write down the sight words that my son is working on.  I also drew some pictures for my daughter to color in to keep her busy.  I had my son pick out a rock and instructed him to toss his rock onto the walkway filled with words.  Once it landed on a word he had to run to it, say the word, then bring the rock back to me.  It was such a simple game, but it kept him busy and helped him practice his words!

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You can modify this to any level:

*Write letters on the stones to practice upper and lowercase letter recognition.

*Write numbers on the stones and use 2 rocks.  Have your child add together the two numbers that the rocks land on.

*Draw pictures with your kids and have them tell you the first letter for each picture and the sound that it makes.

The possibilities are endless and the only thing you have to do is collect your sidewalk chalk when you are finished!

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~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

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by | January 10, 2013 · 8:05 am

Parenting Resolutions Worth Keeping

As we all begin our New Years Resolutions I PrOmIsE you WilL NoT find me walking around with a shiny new gym membership. Ooooooooh no!!! You all know I couldn’t even follow through with The Lazy Girls Workout!  Looking back on that post, maybe I was pushing myself with saying I was going to start out aiming to workout 3 to 4 times a week.  If I had started with 1 to 2 and gradually added on maybe I would have stuck with it!  Anyway…I’ll worry about toning in the spring and stick with these ReAlisTiC ReSoLuTiOnS that will benefit my entire family!

resolution

I found this while looking for cute winter crafts on Pinterest and realized these are all things that I need to do not only for my family, but for MySeLf!  I spend way too much time trying to get everything done and need to focus more on the important things in life.  They may seem simple, but they so often get overlooked and could be the difference in making your child’s day go from OK to OuTanDiNg!

Happy New Year!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

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by | October 22, 2012 · 6:30 am

{Just Decide}

Why do I let inconsequential choices zap so much of my mental energy?  For the last year I have been trying to come up with a filing system for my 1st grader and preschooler’s work they bring home from school.  I’ve been walking past piles and piles of their work for the last year not knowing what to do with it.  Do I keep all of it or only the best ones?  If I only keep some of it, which ones?

I found these cute file folders at Walmart for 50 cents! They will be perfect for helping me organize my girls’ homework.

Have you ever been stuck in the realm of indecisiveness?  You have so many choices that you can’t decide on that you don’t decide at all?  I know I find myself in this predicament in other areas besides my girls’ homework.  All I need to do to free myself from this decision hanging over my head is make a choice.  Yes, sometimes there are many possible choices that would work, but after you have considered all the options sometimes you just have to decide so you can finally move beyond it and get to more important things!

Do you have something that needs to be completed?  Are you experiencing paralysis by analysis?  What are you waiting for?  Just decide!

:) Robynn

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by | September 11, 2012 · 9:25 pm

Clean House!

So as I was tripping out my backdoor on Monday…and when I say tripping, I mean my foot got caught in the strap of a beach bag that had been sitting in the doorway for over a month…I decided that this was the day I was finally going to TaKe BaCk My HoUse! As you can clearly see from my before picture, possibly I have been spending a little too much time crafting, blogging, playing, facebooking, pinteresting, etc. and not quite enough time keeping things in order around here.  I’m not sure if my foot in the beach bag was what pushed me over the edge or if it was the fear of my coffee spilling over, but who really cares…a two second incident was all it took to make me realize something needed to give.  OK…looking at the before picture…LOTS of things needed to give!

My husband was skeptical at first as he always is when I go on my organizing crazes, but I think part of him was also just happy that I was finally going through the gigantic pile of shoes, coats, and bags that had accumulated by the back door that he just humored me.  With a little help from Target I am thrilled with the results and so are my kids.  They love having their own cubbies to put their shoes in when they come home and it helps teach them to be responsible.  A lot of the other stuff I used to spruce up the area I had lying around the house not being used.  Even my husband was shocked at the transformation!

Is there an area in your home that wouldn’t take much to spruce up but keeps getting ignored?  Take a look around at things you already have that you aren’t using.  Maybe they will work to revamp another room in your home.  You’ll be surprised what you find once you start looking around!  Happy hunting!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

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by | August 3, 2012 · 6:45 am

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am finally able to wrap up our “moving” jOurNey!   We’ve been living at our new location (north of Lyndon) for 5 weeks now and are feeling settled!

It has been a productive and fun last few weeks.  First off, Robynn and her family stopped by to see the house before it was placed on the foundation.  They were our first official viSiToRs!!

The house was placed on the foundation the day after it got here and then we were busy getting the utilities hooked up.

We built the wall for our walkout basement.

Doug and his Dad bUiLt our deck on the back of the house.  Remember, this use to be the FRONT of our house before we moved it!

In the upcoming weeks a construction crew will come and put our new addition on the front of the house (see where the footings are in front of the red door).  We will be excited to have that space back again!

We are still far from having the place LoOk the way we want , but at least it is functional.  The most important thing is that are H O M E with a happy family to fill the rooms.  The rest will come!

Thanks for following this journey with us!  What an eventful couple of months it has been!  I will be sharing some more before and after pictures of our projects throughout the fall, so stay tuned!

If you missed my other posts leading up to this point read Why Move A House? , Demo Work , Moving Day, Moving Our House and The Official Moving Day

~Lara

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by | July 27, 2012 · 6:45 am

The Official MOVING Day: There Goes the House!

The day FinAlly came!  The movers left with the house around 9:15 am.  They weren’t sure how long the move would take, as this was their LONGEST move they’d ever done.  Yep–over 100 miles!  They couldn’t take the highway the entire way, which means they had to detour by taking side roads and gravel.  We didn’t know if they’d have to stop and leave it for the night or what would happen.  Check below to find out :)

Headed down Hwy 75

Entering Yates Center

Going through stoplight at Yates Center!  It was fUnnY, someone called Doug right then and said, “Hey, I swore I just saw your house go through Yates Center?!”

Northbound on Hwy 75.  This would be the longest stretch they could take on the Hwy, which was about 25 miles.

Even got to pass our HOUSE on the highway!  wEiRd!

Doug headed to the new place and the kids and I stopped at my parent’s for lunch.  Afterward, we were on the HuNt to see if we could find it.  Not knowing where the house would be, we decided to start in Melvern and backtrack.  Much to our surprise, this is what we saw when we popped the hill!  Let’s just say…they are making great time!

Went right in front of the school I went to as a kid!

Headed north out of Melvern.

Big ThaNks to all the farmers and people on the road that day who had to pull over to let the house by!

Garrett and Leanne as we followed the house.  As you can see, it can be eXhaUstiNg..and ExCitiNg!  :)

Police escort driving through downtown Lyndon!  This is where the kids will attend school.

Headed East on 268 toward Pomona.

A dUsTy trip on the gravel roads…so glad we sealed up all the doors and vents!  YiKeS!

WE MADE IT!  Victory Hug!

Pulling in the new driveway at 5:35 pm.  They made it in 8 1/2 hours!  Woot Woot!

Parking it next to the foundation!

Remember how I said God coNsTanTLy assured us that moving our house was the right thing to do?!  This is what we saw as soon as the house pulled in the yard.  Coincidence?  I think not!

We are on the home stretch! Next Friday I will share a few pictures of the house on the new location and let you in on some of our pRojEcTs we’ve already done in the last 4 weeks to make our place more like HOME!

 If you have missed my other posts leading up to this point read Why Move A House? , Demo Work , Moving Day and Moving Our House!

Again, we give all the credit to Unruh House Movers!  What an awesome crew!

Cheers!

Lara

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