Floor to Ceiling

You had to know by now that I couldn't just leave the cabinets alone  :)  on the laundry side of the clutter room the cabinets were 93" tall and on the pantry side they were only about 90" tall.  Because I love the look of "built in" cabinets, we decided to extend the tops of the cabinets so that we can run the crown moulding all the way around the room and across the top of the cabinets.  They should look completely built in by the time we're done.

We added a 5 1/2" piece of MDF to the top of the pantry side.  We built little brackets and installed them on the tops of the cabinets so that we'd have something sturdy to nail this piece into.

I caulked all of the ocrners and filled, sanded, primed and sanded again all of the nail holes.

It looks kind of funny right now, but I'll add some detail moulding that will hide the seam of the top of the cabinet and the 5 1/2" piece of trim.  

We didn't have nearly as much to fill on top of the laundry side.  Hopefully it won't be too obvious when it's all done.  Or maybe I can put a little saying in that blank area on top of the pantry side so it doesn't stand out so much.

Full shot of the pantry side.  This will all get caulked & primed after I put those detail pieces up....then I can paint again!  WHEW!  I think I should have stock in the paint company!!

Cabinet Doors

Here we go...I'm afraid it is going to take me FOREVER to get all of the cabinet doors painted for the clutter room.  There's something different about this time.  I've painted cabinets a few times, but for some reason I'm much more nervous about doing it this time.

I used my DIY door drying rack

and it worked really well.  I sanded all of the cabinets doors, just like I did with the cabinet boxes.  You don't really have to be too organized about this.  I used the B-I-N primer again which is sandable, so you just want to make sure you cover everything, and you should be fine.  Next step will be trying out that paint sprayer and putting the paint on!  As soon as this is done we'll be able to go pick up the washer/dryer and refrigerator!  YEAH!!

The Harmans 35th Anniversary with Dailey & Vincent

Tonight was another break night - when I'm typing this it seems like we have them a LOT more often then we actually do, lol.  Our friends, The Harmans celebrated 35 years tonight with their annual Bluegrass concert at Hatheway Hall at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL.  What an amazing night it was.  The crowd that goes to that show is absolutely in LOVE with The Harmans (if you ever see them you'll understand why) and Dailey & Vincent were just awesome!  I'd never seen them before and will say without a doubt that I would go see them again in a heartbeat!  Here are a few pictures that I took throughout the evening.

Mike, Jeff, Mark & John Harman

Mike & Stacy Harman - I love this one.

Everybody + Cecil Tinnon

A shot from the side stage.  For some reason I really like this one.

Playing to a full house!  SOLD OUT again.

The Harman Family - Mike, Stacy, Jeff, Mark & John Harman

Cecil & John

Daily & Vincent - They look so tiny from here. :)

Jamie Dailey

Darrin Vincent

Christian Davis - AMAZING BASS VOCALIST

I mean...AMAZING - LOVED IT!  They sang an old gospel song and I swear his voice was so low is sounded like thunder...the whole place rumbled!

Jessie Baker

B.J. Cherryholmes

Jeff Parker

The Harmans on stage with Dailey & Vincent singing "Down the Road"

John Harman & Jamie Dailey

What a great show.  I loved it!

Wish Dailey & Vincent could just come back next year too  :)

Back to reality tomorrow!!

I Did It!

There's no going back now!  Primer coat is ON!  It would be fabulous if at this point I could just snap my fingers and the cabinet boxes and cabinet doors would magically be painted :)

I vacuumed and wiped all of the dust up with a tack cloth.

Everything is taped off.  I must say I'm doing a stellar job at "prep"

 

With just the primer on it looks pretty sketchy at best right now, lol.

On a side note...the sky was gorgeous tonight.  This was my site when I pulled out of the driveway at our new house and headed home to our current house.

Honestly, I wish I would have taken the extra time to go in and get my "real" camera.  The iPhone just doesn't really do the sky any justice at all!

Note to self....take a break sometimes and enjoy the things you really love.

The Day Has Come

That's right...say goodbye to the hickory stained cabinets and hello to the WHITE clutter room.  I know for some of you this is like a major sin...but my vision was always to have a crisp clean clutter room.  I finally broke out the sandpaper today and got to work.

I didn't do a heavy sanding down to the bare wood

just enough so that my primer will stick. 

Notice how the finish isn't shiny anymore.

I'm pretty sure that I pick THE MOST labor intensive projects EVER!

What do you think?

I was even a good girl and taped paper over the tile floor so that I didn't make a super mess!

When Kade got here tonight we figured out the spacing for the kitchen faucet.

Hole cutting bits are fabulous things!

Now we just need to get the trim done around the windows so that we can get the backsplash up and then actually INSTALL the faucet.

Next on the agenda....prime the clutter room cabinets.  Lets get this show on the road!

Trying Again!

Check out that fabulous under cabinet lighting!!  AWESOME!!  Unfortunately I threw away the first transformer that we bought (oops, thought it was an old power cable that was dead!) and then we realized that we bought the wrong color of lighting strips!

So FINALLY, we got the new transformer, got the correct color of lights, and they are in action!

It's amazing to me how bright they are.

Here's a close up...LED strips.  It'll be interesting to see how well they stay attached to the undersides of the cabinets.  It looks like one may be bubbling off already.

Here's another try on the door casing....

More of a craftsman/farmhouse type casing.  This one would take quite a bit longer to build.

We stuck it up on the closet door just to get a looksie...and

we both immediately said...YES....THAT IS IT!!

and then DANG IT!!  These are going to take forever to build!

:)

No different than anything else that we're doing though....so why should we be surprised!

Add these to the "to-do" list.  We may be done with this house in 2020!

OMG!! THIS IS HUGE!!!

No seriously, this is the FIRST toilet that we've got installed and functioning!!  It's only been 12 months since we started working on the house  :)  Thank goodness we currently live SO close!

Look at it!  It's got water and everything!  A site to behold!!

I'm definitely not use to the low flow toilets...to me that just doesn't look right, lol.

What's next?  Install the sink.  Figure out how my grandma's sewing machine base is going to work as a vanity??  There's so much we just can't decide!

This may seem like a small accomplishment...but to us it's pretty monumental, lol!

Mudroom - Done! (almost)

SO CLOSE, lol!  It still needs casing around the doors (the pocket doors to be installed) and I've also got to decide what's going in the back - above the seat.  I was originally going to do some horizontal tongue & groove painted the same color as the cabinets...but you know...that would be too predictable!

So now I'm thinking maybe some of the leftover hardwood floor?  With a "rack" painted the cabinet color with big wrought iron hooks.  I also thought about maybe using galvanized tin...but then thought that may snag a coat or sweater that's hanging there...and that would be BAD!  I'm wondering if the flooring might be too dark in there....I guess I'll have to try it out and see!

ANYWAY - we got the fancy crown moulding on the top and the furniture moulding on the bottom.  I LOVE the way it turned out.  I can't wait to fill up all of these cabinets and have everything ORGANIZED!

Day of the Doors

THEY'RE IN, THEY'RE IN!!!  Daryl Gene came by with the rest of his family today and helped Kade install the french doors.  WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!  Although I almost think it makes the room look smaller?!?!

It looks so dark in there, lol.  I think we may have to get a bigger light for the sitting area.

This morning we built a rack for me to dry all of my cabinet doors on.  I'm going to have a bunch of them to do VERY soon!

I used an old scrapbook supply rack and used 2x4's, silver conduit and conduit clamps.

I think it's going to work PERFECTLY!  (although I'm dreading that painting already, lol)

Daryl helped Kade put the closet doors into place in the front bedroom too.  How nice to not have ANY folding closet doors!!  Those things drive me crazy!

We've got just about all of the doors in on the first floor now.

We're waiting for the extra ones that I had to order, they should be here pretty soon.

Wouldn't you know that I forgot to order the one for the 1/2 bath....which will be our first working bathroom, lol.  That's the way it always works though.