What is up? Its been a long time since my last post. After we finished the kitchen we took a break from projects. I wanted to enjoy our house and what we had done to it, without picking it apart or planning the next project. The truth is, it will always need SOMETHING, so I'm not stressing about it. Its funny how buying a house causes you to go temporarily insane. Can you believe that I never aloud my family to throw us a housewarming party because I wanted the house to be "finished" before people came over.
This November we will have been living here six years. In those six years I have learned to slow down and get out of that crazy mind set of "everything has to be done asap" or "I cant let anyone see it until the house projects are done". It was exhausting to think like that and it killed my productivity.
We have been working on some projects that we wanted to have done for summer. Mostly outside projects, like having the house painted, concrete laid, rain gutters installed, a new patio cover, a/c and heater. Today I am sharing the concrete we had laid.
The left side of our driveway was dirt when we moved in. There is a giant Edison manhole and an ancient, green tv box sticking two feet out of the ground. It was really a useless area. Its a small area and the tv box makes parking there impossible unless you drive in at an angle. (excuse the bad google earth image)
This is the side of the house where we keep our trash cans. It was always a pain to drag them through the dirt especially on rainy days when the dirt would become mud and flow out all over our drive way. We considered planting fruit trees here and that idea lasted as long as the avocado tree I planted. (I have a black thumb) So concrete it was.
We built a new side gate to replace the old rotten one that wouldn't open. We also connected the new front slab to the existing side walkway that went to the back yard.
There was a planter area in our backyard that we cleaned up. We added plants, mulch and paver stones. It was wonderful until our dogs started digging it up. The more we tried to repair it, the more they destroyed it. So that received some concrete as well.
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| After our hard work |
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| After concrete |
It connects the side walk way and the patio. I miss having plants there but it is nice not to have the mess. I want to add some big potted plants, a bench and find a way to cover that A/C unit.
We have another planter on the opposite side of the patio. It sits next to the rock area that surrounds our Jacuzzi. We had some wooden boarders retaining the rocks and mulch but we decided to have the wood removed and curbs laid in their place.
So that's one of the improvements we have been working on. Ill try to post a few more in the next following weeks. Have a wonderful day!
Amber
The day has finally arrived. The last update I did on the kitchen progress was in March. Yikes! If you missed it, you can find it here. If you want a recap of our kitchen plans, they can be found here. The counter top installation here and our kitchen picks/sources here. Now that you are all caught up, lets get on with it.
The day we moved in:
After some bright red paint:
How it looks today:
It is my favorite room in the whole house! I don't like to cook but I have found myself making more of an effort just so I can spend time in here. I love how bright, clean and airy it feels. It's a small kitchen, but it feels so much larger. We ended up hiring out for the tile installation and I'm happy we did. He did a better job than we ever could. Eventually we want to upgrade our fridge and dishwasher to match the stove and microwave.
It feels incredible to see your plans transform your home. It makes the blood, sweat and tears all worth it. It has taken us five long years to turn this house into our sanctuary. Next up, we will be preparing our house for the crazy storms that are supposed to hit the West coast this winter. That means rain gutters and hopefully a new patio cover. Ill leave you with another before & after shot, so you don't have to scroll back up.
Have a wonderful day
Amber
We desperately needed a new media center. This little black one just wasn't cutting it. It was too small and having the wires exposed looked tacky to me. It was also in the way of our fireplace key valve. Every time we moved the TV, the cord concealer would rip away from the wall. It was time to hire someone to do a proper wire concealment behind the wall and get something that hid our game console, router and cable box.
I called a recommended Installation Company. 1.5 hours later the wires were in the wall and we were left with a few patches. I really wish I had done this sooner!
After looking online and failing to find a media center with the measurements needed, I decided to design and build my own. Here is what I came up with.
I was inspired by this media stand/sideboard from Target. So I purchased my lumber and got to work. I had Home Depot cut the wood to size and I took it home to stain.
I started with Miniwax Pre-Stain wood conditioner. After that dried I mixed Miniwax Early American 230 & Dark Walnut 2716 and applied it according to the directions. I let it dry 2 days and then assembled the outside.
Next, I added the hardware I needed to attach the legs.
Then came the shelves and doors which I failed to take a picture of. (Sorry) My awesome father came to my rescue with his router to get the holes cut out. Once it was complete I was left with this creation...
Shhh don't tell anyone but the door on the right was put on upside down. Haha
The black basket below stores what is left of our DVD collection. The basket on the lower shelf houses X-Box accessories.
Art books, a round basket full of small LP's, candles and a vintage pineapple live on the first shelf.
This map of Mexico is special to us because it's where we spent our honeymoon. The yellow box contains the coasters (that never get used). Our favorite photo booth picture and incense holder sit on more art books.
I found this electric meter lamp at a yard sale. I know what you're thinking "I should have left it at the yard sale!" but for whatever reason I gave it a new Edison bulb and fell in love with it.
Funny back story....Have you heard of Lindsey from the blog called Better After? She has a yearly "ugly lamp" contest that is pretty entertaining. Guess what lamp showed up in her contest? Yep, a similar one to mine. Check it out, its #4.
So there you have it. No more wires exposed and I got the perfect, customized media center with a little bit of "elbow grease" as my dad says.
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| BEFORE |
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| AFTER |
As you probably know, I share my house with two large dogs. They each had their own elevated metal food bowel stand, but Koda's stand was always coming apart while he was eating. The food and water would come crashing down making a huge mess. I got sick of cleaning it up and watching my dog eat in fear with anticipation that the thing would collapse.
So I decided to make one myself (which always means my dad gets dragged into it). Two stands take up more room and there was no reason to have two water bowels. I wanted one water bowel in the middle and two holes on each end for their food bowels.
I purchased four 12" wooded table leg from HD and used some MDF board I had laying around. My father used his router for the bowel openings and even added some finger holes to make getting the bowels in and out easier. I added some 1.5" molding around the sides and sprayed it with Rust-oleum Ultra Cover in Sun Yellow. The last step was applying Famowooda Glaze Coat to make the whole thing waterproof.
I love it and my dogs... could probably care less. All they care about is what is in those bowels. I plan on adding a new layer of epoxy every now and again to keep it in good condition.
Have a great day!
Amber
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